Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, preacher and political orator;

LIFE

JOSEPH RAYNER STEPHENS

ballantynt:, hanson and co., edinbukgh

CHANDOS STREET, LONDON

LIFE OF

JOSEPH RAYNER STEPHENS

preacber anb political ©ratot

GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

JOHN STEPHENS STORR

"I, however, aim not so much to prescribe a law for others as to set forth the law
of my own mind ; which, let the man who shall have approved of it, abide by ; and
let him, to whom it shall appear not reasonable, reject it. It is my earnest wish,
I confess, to employ my understanding and acquirements in that mode and direction,
in which I may be enabled to benefit the largest number possible of my fellow
creatures." — Petrarch.

Wn^LIAMS AND NORGATE,

14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON ;
AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK PLACE, EDINBURGH.

\_All rights reserved.'^

:DA53)

. 5

TO ALL THE

HONEST TOILERS IN THIS LAND OF INDUSTRY,

THIS RECORD OF

A MAN OF WORTH,

IS INSCRIBED.

7U7011

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Introduction by John S. Storr 9

Chap. I. Difficulties of the Story ... 13

„ II. Parentage and Birth of Joseph

Rayner Stephens 19

,, III. His Ministerial Career — Swedish

and English ... ... 27

„ IV. Becomes a Political Advocate . . 59

„ V. His Colleagues and Correspon-
dents 75

„ VI. StoriMy Days of Advocacy ... 94

„ VII. Passages from his Speeches and

Sermons T12

„ VIII. His Trial and Imprisonment . . 141

,, IX. The Two Kinds of Conservatism . 1S4

,, X. Later Career, Character, AND Death 199

The Stephens's Memorial Fund Committee . 237-

Index 238

^\^^

INTRODUCTORY.

My valued friend, Mr. Holyoake, has asked me
to write a brief Introduction to this his book.

The working-men and working-women of
Lancashire and Yorkshire, among whom my
uncle, Joseph Rayner Stephens, lived for over
forty years, will welcome this record of their
guide, teacher and champion : he still lives in the
hearts and homes of thousands of our factory
hands : many of the bravest and wisest of
them looked up to him with loving confidence,
and with admiration for his persistent advocacy
of all that he believed would tend to make them

JO Introductory,

better, happier, as servants of God and of man.
His influence was not unfelt by the master-class,
not a few of whom became his fast friends when
they comprehended the wide-spread influence
for good which his Hfe gave to the milHon Hves
around him. This was his reward.

A strong individuality — not without the con-
sciousness of power and the love of power over
men — an intense sympathy with suffering, a
chivalrous sense of honour, a passionate hatred
of oppression and avarice, a contempt for all
that was mean, vulgar, sordid — these were
regulated by a deep religious spirit of love for
God and for Humanity. Thus, he was a political
priest, a soldier-servant of Christ, fighting under
the banner of the Cross.

A disregard, so far as he himself was con-
cerned, of what goes by the name of '' success
in life,'' otherwise ''money,'' or ''social position,"
led him to say what he had to say, and to do
what he had to do, with earnestness and fear-
lessness : he had moral courage. The part he

Introdicctory. 1 1

played on the world s stage he played to satisfy
his conscience and his God.

In politics, his leanings were Conservative.
He believed in raising the standard of duty
and sense of responsibility in the more educated
and high-placed. Perhaps the late Lord Derby
and the late John Arthur Roebuck were the
public men with whom his heart beat most in
unison.

From the pulpit and the platform, in the
columns of the press, edited by himself and
by others, as well as in his daily familiar
intercourse with honest working-folk, he taught
them to be '' noble, helpful and good." The
men to be true men; the women to be true^
women : he longed that they should have
cleanlier, healthier bodies, and stout hearts
within ; then they could respect them-
selves, and trust in the people's cause. He
was no flatterer of the idle, the thriftless, the
unwashed.

Few men of this generation spent more

1 2 Introductory,

time in reading and in meditation : his gift of
conversation was such that he seemed to think
aloud ; but he knew how and when to be silent.
All who ever heard him, bear witness that
his powers as an orator and a preacher were
of a very high order ; there was music in his
voice, and his lips uttered the convictions of
his warm heart and well-cultured mind.

Though life ends, example lives : noble, lofty
thoughts and works endure and fructify.

John Stephens Storr.

26, King Street, Covent Garden, London,
September ^ 1881.

LIFE

OF

JOSEPH RAYNER STEPHENS.

CHAPTER I,

DIFFICULTIES OF THE STORY.

The motto on the title-page of this record expresses
in the words of Petrarch exactly the character of
Mr. Stephens's mind. The passage describes him as
he permanently was. His inspiration in his early
days, his independence in mature life, and the fine
charity of his later years, are all depicted there. He
was essentially a setter-forth of " the law in his own
mind." His merit was that he had a law there ;
and he had the generous passion, not at all common
even now, of setting forth, for the instruction and
guidance of others, what he felt to be good for
himself Joseph Rayner Stephens was a man
who united to this rare quality original capacity, a
splendid eloquence, and fearless public service. He
should not pass entirely from the grateful memory of
Englishmen.

14 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens,

The idea of this Biography did not originate with
Mr. Stephens's family : whatever conviction they
cherished of his personal worth and public usefulness,
they had no intention of recording it, until neigh-
bours, disciples, and followers of Mr. Stephens, out
of gratitude for his public services, began to take
steps to erect a statue to his memory : this they
wished to see placed in the park at Staleybridge,
the town where so many years of his life had been
spent, and for the welfare of whose people he had
laboured so assiduously, and among whom he died.

As the present writer had known Mr. Stephens in
his earlier and later career, and withal had great per-
sonal regard for him, it was thought well that he
should give some short account, which might inform
those of this generation who might be curious to
learn the facts of Mr. Stephens's life, what manner
of man he was, what kind of services he rendered,
and what difficulties he confronted in the discharge
of duties which his sense of humanity imposed upon
him in evil days, when only a brave and generous
man in his position would have cast in his lot v/ith
the poor and friendless.

As public gratitude has accorded a statue to Richard
Oastler at Bradford, at the instigation and with
the concurrence and aid of many who never shared
his particular opinions, either political or social, but
who greatly honoured his remarkable devotion to
the welfare of factory children ; it seems likely that

Diffimlties of the Story, 1 5

many would be willing to promote a similar tribute
to Joseph Rayner Stephens, who was the mightiest
colleague of Oastler ; who stood by him when
living, who shared his labours, who was his coun-
sellor in his work, and who incurred imprisonment
for the cause (a penalty which Oastler escaped), who
vindicated his memory when dead ; and, what is
more, carried on the defence of the same great
question when Richard Oastler had passed away.

The teachings of Joseph Rayner Stephens exist
mainly in the memories of men of the older political
generation. Personal records of his career are"
scant indeed. He was always careless of him-*
self, and was bent rather on the work he strove to
do than on thoughts of his own reputation. He
collected no materials from which others could
glean the story of his days. He therefore seems
more deserving than many others of some record,
from having been through life so generously negli-
gent of himself. An orator, like a great singer, or
a great actor, often leaves behind him nothing save
the memory oT his mighty voice, which dies with tl]e
generation which heard it : that reputation is so
ample and so satisfactory while the orator lives, that
he is apt to forget that it will cease when he dies,
and makes no provision for perpetuating it. The
greater the popularity he acquires, the more it im-
poses upon him the belief that his repute will take
care of itself, and inspires him with a proud abandon-

1 6 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

ment of all the conditions of lasting fame. Some
great sermons by Mr. Stephens, which those who
were present always regarded as the distinction of
their lives to have heard, were probably printed, with
more or less fulness, but no copy of the most famous
can now be obtained. His great speeches against
the Poor Law, which, as I know, moved workmen in
Midland England as they did the men of Yorkshire
and Lancashire, are now mostly lost, even such as
were reported. Reporting then was not the great
art it now is. Besides, there was no cheap press in
those days. Newspapers were mainly in the hands
of the middle, and what then passed for the **upper/'
classes ; and the insurgent eloquence of Joseph
Rayner Stephens in defence of the poor found small
favour in their sight, and scant reports in their
columns. How little publicity he was likely to
obtain in these quarters is shown in the fact that in
1838 "the leading mill-owners of Staleybridge, with
one or two exceptions, avowed openly their intention
to discharge from their employment, and prevent
their obtaining employment elsewhere, all who were
known to be hearers or supporters of Mr. Stephens."^
The memorable agitation for the " Ten Hours
Bill " — a measure for limiting labour in factories to
that duration — occupied thirty-three years. It ended
in 1848 by the passing of what was known as "John
Fielden's Bill.^'

* Hand-bill, signed *' Geo. Nield " and ** John Durham.'

Difficitlties of the Story, 1 7

In 1837, ^he representation of working-class
questions in the Press was so partial and precarious,
that Feargus O'Connor, a friend of Mr. Stephens,
commenced in the November of that year the
Northern Star newspaper, published at Leeds. Yet
this paper could do but little, as its efforts were
limited by law. There were taxes on knowledge in
those days. It was the common complaint of the
governing class that the people were dangerous
because they were ignorant, yet a tax was imposed
on all who sought to give them information. The
first words of Mr. O'Connor on the first page of the
first number of the Northern Star were these : —

" Reader, behold that little red spot in the corner
of my newspaper. That is the stamp ; the Whig
beanty spot ; your plague spot. Look at it : I am
entitled to it upon the performance of certain condi-
tions. I was ready to comply, and yet, will you
believe, that the little spot you see has cost me
nearly eighty pounds in money, together with much
anxiety, and nearly one thousand miles of night and
day travelling ; of this they shall hear more, but for
the present suffice it to say — there it is : it is my
license to teach." ^

It was of the nature of a new tax on working
men when the Northern Star did appear, seeing that
they alone would buy it, and its price was thus made
fourpence-halfpenny ; the penny stamp cost the pur-

* Northern Star, No. I, Nov. i8, 1837.

i8 Life of yoseph Rayjter Step kens.

chaser twopence, as the issuer of the paper had to
pay for all stamps, whether the papers bearing them
were sold or not. Though every copy of the Star
was taxed, it increased the amount of public light,
and is the best record of Mr. Stephens's speeches
now extant.

In those days there were no " Men of the Time,"
like the now indispensable volume edited by Thomp-
son Cooper ; no " Biograph," like that issued by
Joshua Hutton ; no record of '* Men of Mark" was
then attempted ; and if the " men of mark" were
men of the people, there were few who were curious
for information concerning them. The story of the
life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, so far as it can be
known now, is told here for the first time.

19

CHAPTER II.

PARENTAGE AND BIRTH OF JOSEPH RAYNER
STEPHENS.

John Stephens, the father of the subject of
these pages, was born in Cornwall in 1772. Early
in life he acquired deep religious convictions
when connected with the Episcopal Church, of
which he always remained a member and a lover.
But in his youth the Episcopal Church was sleeping,
and he joined the Methodist Society, and " gave
himself," as he expressed it, "to the service of God.'*
In 1792, when little more than twenty years of age,
he was admitted, at a Conference of that body, as a
candidate for the ministry, and commenced itinerant
duties at Penzance. He became a distinguished
preacher, and in due course filled some of the most
important stations in England and North Britain.
His wide reading, exceptional talents, power over the
deeper feelings of his congregations, and spotless
public and private character, carried him onwards to

B 2

20 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens,

positions of honour and trust. His pastoral adminis-
trations were based on the Gospel of Christ, not on the
Law of Moses. He exercised wide influence over all
classes, and wrote both in prose and verse works that
were useful at the time. He had a clear and com-
prehensive understanding ; in argument he was lucid
— his illustrations of Scripture were strikingly apt ;
his manner in the pulpit serious and dignified ; and
his language had the completeness and impressive-
ness only possible to men of capacity and sincerity.
In 1 827, when Connexional principles were considered
to be in jeopardy, he was elected President of the
Conference, in which office he manifested such
soundness of judgment, moral courage, and command
of temper, that the Conference of 1828 passed and
published a vote of '' cordial and unreserved thanks"
to him. Though of a kind and obliging disposition,
he could never be induced to sacrifice principle
either to expediency or popular favour, and adhered
to what he thought right with undeviating firmness.
On his first entrance upon the ministry he was
regarded as a man of superior intellect, and he
had the good sense, unusual in those days for
one in his position, to devote much of his time
to the pursuit of useful learning and general know-
ledge, and thus he acquired what never forsook
him, a Catholic charity towards all denominations
of Christians. He died at Brixton Hill, London, in

^ Parentage and Birth. 2 1

January, 1841, in the 69th year of his age, and
48th of his ministry.

The last hours of Mr. Stephens^s life were character-
ized by his accustomed calmness and good sense. His
solicitor^ relates, that on the 28th of January he was
asked to prepare and bring him his will. On receiv-
ing it Mr. Stephens requested two of his neighbours to
be called in, and sitting up, told them, in his usual
strong and sonorous voice, that having some property
to dispose of, he felt it his duty to make his will, and
wished them to attest his signature. This act per-
formed, he said ^^ farewell" to those around him, asked
to be left alone for a few minutes, rose from his bed,
and without help bathed himself, so that (in his own
words) " he might die clean." He died the next
midnight. A brief but well-written obituary notice
of him appears in the " Minutes of the Methodist
Conferences," volume ix., 1843, which records that
when a great emergency arose, the reserved force of
his nature became apparent, and he would speak with
^' overpowering eloquence." This capacity of rising
to the demands of emergency is a natural sign of
power. Emergency, which is the end of the weak
man, is the opportunity of the strong. A Tablet on
■a wall of the Burial Ground, Wesleyan Chapel, City
Road, London, bears this inscription : —

* Mr. Greaves Walker.

22 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens.

BENEATH THIS STONE LIE THE MORTAL REMAINS OF
THE REV. JOHN STEPHENS,

Who, for 48 years

Laboured in the Ministry of the Word of Life,

Devoting to his labours

A mind and spirit of sterhng but unobtrusive worth.

He was born on the Wi of February, 1772,

and died, exchanging Mortahty for Life, on the

29th day of January, 1841,

in his 69th year.

His wife, Rebecca Eliza Rayner, to whom he was
married at Weathersfield, in Essex, by the Rev. Dr.
Jowets, on the 2nd of July, 1796, came of an Essex
yeoman family of the old school — upright, honest, and
hardworking. Her youngest son says of her: **Miss
Rebecca inherited the good qualities of her house,
was wonderfully active, thought of others first, and
herself last, and was ' the lady bountiful' of the
neighbourhood wherever she came. She was always,
considered not less remarkable than her husband,
in her way. She had great animation, courage,
and determination of character." When funds were
needed for the enlargement of Lambeth Chapel,^
she collected so considerable an amount, that a
silver tea-service was presented to her, in acknow-
ledgment of her remarkable exertions. At a time
when Methodism was regarded with small favour in.
what is called " Society," she made visits to house-
holds of good family outside the Wesleyan body,
and such was her bright persuasiveness, that she

Parentage and Birth, 23

obtained gifts from many of them. It is related of
her, that often when cases of sudden distress overtook
persons known to her, which her immediate resources
did not enable her to relieve, she would pledge the
silver tea-service for ten pounds, and give or lend
the proceeds. When the service came into her pos-
session again, and needs of others arose which she
was unable to supply, she would repeat the process
of parting with her tea-service, which many times
underwent this singular and generous exile from her
table. Such were the parents of Joseph Rayner
Stephens, who was the sixth of tw^elve children.

Of this family of twelve^ eight were sons and four
were daughters.

His sister, Rebecca Eliza, who became Mrs. Storr, by
marriage with Mr. William Brumfitt Storr, of London,
showed that vigour of character and singular capacity
of speech was not confined to sons of the family.
She had a fine voice and an eye that arrested attention
when she spoke. Fond of sacred literature — and
she seldom spoke long without some reference to
religion — her language was moulded upon that of the
Old Testament. It is not enough to say she knew
the Bible by heart — it seemed her natural tongue.
Her aptness in using it was so original, fit and ex-
pressive, and she spoke withal in so commanding a
way ; so direct and authoritative — that she reminded
the hearer of Deborah, a prophetess in Israel. What
she said was intermingled with remarks of singular

24 Life of Jo Sep h Ray iter Stephens,

worldly shrewdness. Her conversation, perfectly and
obviously earnest, was entirely free from the insipidity
of ordinary serious people ; it had a spontaneity and
a sort of poetic fire in it. Had she been a preacher
she would have excelled both her father and her
brother Joseph, in the power of arresting attention.
Yet her manner and her imagination were entirely
and always womanly. She died. May i, 1877, in
her seventy-seventh year.

John Stephens, the seventh child, was born at
North Shields, September 30, 1 806, and became editor
of the Christian Advocate, a Wesleyan periodical of
great note and influence while in his hands. In later
years he founded The Adelaide Observer newspaper,
in Adelaide, South Australia.

Edward Stephens, the tenth child, was born at
London, October 19, 181 1, and baptized at St.
George's Chapel in the East, March i, 181 2, by the
Rev. John Barber. He held in early life several
offices with great credit in the Hull Banking Com-
pany, and when twenty-five years of age, he went out
to Adelaide and founded the Bank of South Australia
(that was in July, 1836), in which country he achieved
fortune and great public repute. He continued
with the bank until 1855, and died in England,
March 12, 1861 : his colonial career was one of
considerable distinction.

The Ba7iker's Magazine used precisely the same
phrase in describing him which the Wesleyan Con-

Parentage and Birth. 25

ference had many years before used as to his father —
namely^ that "he was equal to any emergency."
The Directors of the Company to which he belonged
were the fathers of Australian banking. In his early
connection with the Company, Edward Stephens
experienced the vicissitudes of the young colony.
He conducted his business under a tent, having a
sand-hill for his first desk. Speculations of the time,
disturbances among the colonists, financial errors of
the Government, often produced great loss to his
bank. His closing report, when he retired from the
management in 1855, was long remembered by those
who received it. He resigned his post with " the bank
in a state of almost perfect efficiency, enjoying the
confidence of the people, doing a very large amount
of steady and profitable business with competent
men, competent means, and a building and appliances
well combined and substantial." These points had
been with him a strong ambition ; they express
what he had toiled for, and were his reward. There
was a tone of pathos in his last words. He remarked
that " what we do for the last time is always done
with sorrow and sadness, and recalls other days —
days not to return."

George Stephens, the eleventh child, was born in
New Street, Liverpool, December 13, 18 13, became
the most eminent of the family, and in point of learn-
ing excelled them all ; he has long held the Chair of
English literature at the University of Copenhagen.

26 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens.

Professor Dr. George Stephens, F.S.A., is regarded
as the first Runic scholar in Europe. He has
published several learned works, notably "The
old Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and Eng-
land,^^ three large folio volumes of which have
already been printed. The last is entitled, " Tord-
neren Thor,''^ or " Thunor the Thunderer, carved on
a Scandinavian Font, of about the year looo. The
first-found God-Figure of our Scando-Gothic fore-
fathers.'^^ As an Author his style excels in terse,
vigorous and picturesque sentences. Besides the
antiquarian volumes, Professor Stephens has exer-
cised considerable influence on the politics of the
North of Europe in a sense favourable to the union
of the Scandinavian kingdoms with Great Britain.

* Published by Williams & Norgate, London. It has many fine
illustrations.

27

CHAPTER III.

HIS MINISTERIAL CAREER— SWEDISH AND ENGLISH.

Joseph Rayner Stephens — born in Edinburgh^
March 8, 1805 — had, to use the language of his
distinguished brother, Prof. George Stephens, *'the
family gifts," and naturally followed the family
traditions. But he lived in a very different period,
was educated in all the wisdom of the nineteenth
century, became a linguist, a politician, a student
of Social Economy, was versed in all the subtleties
of logic and metaphysics, spent many years abroad,
and drifted away from the narrow moorings of the
Wesleyan sect. He worked for his country, and
especially for the moral and social uplifting of the
people. With his great heart and will he joined
in the crusade against the abuses of capital, and the
cruelties of the Lancashire Factory System. Joseph
Rayner Stephens chose the profession of his father,,
and became a Wesleyan preacher. He was received
on trial at the Bristol Conference, in July, 1825,*^
when he was in his twentieth year, the precise age

* See *' Minutes of Conference," vol. vi. pp. 4, 26.

2 8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

at which his father commenced his ministerial career.
His station was Beverley, in the Hull district, and
he had for a colleague Richard Treffry, known as
the author of '' The Eternal Soulship."

The Rev. John Stephens being then resident in
Manchester, his son Joseph entered the Grammar
School in 1819, and formed a friendship with
Harrison Ainsworth and Samuel Warren, also a
fellow-student there then, and Joseph took part in
the private theatricals which were got up by the
future novelists. They had many literary tastes in
common, and wTote a good deal together in imitation
of the earlier dramatists. Mr. Stephens's dramatic
tastes became of great advantage to him as
a preacher, as the like has proved to other
preachers. Mr. Stephens was also a student at
Woodhouse Grove, near Leeds. At eighteen years
of age, instead of going to college, as his father
wished, and strongly advised him to do^ he joined
Mr. Green of Cottingham, near Hull, where for some
time he was one of the masters, and Mrs. Earle,
his daughter, relates, " I have often heard him say
that he had to sit up and study hard two or three
nights a week, to keep himself ahead of the young
men he had to teach. Grandpapa sent him the
money for the expenses of his first term at college,
but my father returned it to him with the answer
that his many younger brothers and sisters (there
were then seven of them), should never have it to

His Ministerial Career. 29

say that he had more money spent on his education
than they had on theirs/^

In 1826 he was appointed to the mission station
at Stockholm, Sweden, where he ministered until
1830.*

At Stockholm he had opportunities for the pro-
secution of those linguistic and literary studies in
which he always delighted. He learned many
languages^ — Danish, Finnish, besides Swedish, in
which he preached. When visiting a new country his
plan was first to write out essential phrases of conver-
sation in the tongue of the people, find out some intelli-
gent person to read them to him ; and watch carefully
the manner in which the lips moved, or the mouth
changed in pronouncing the words ; in the same way
in which the deaf and dumb have since been taught
to speak. By these means Mr. Stephens acquired
a fluent conversational knowledge of a new language
in a short time. One result of his acquaintance with
northern literature was to communicate his love for
it to his younger brother. Professor George Stephens
now of Copenhagen, whose early work, the transla-
tion of Frithiof's " Saga," was deemed the best by
Tegner.

Mr. Stephens^s career in Stockholm deserves the
attention of the reader — not merely because it had
great influence over his future life, not merely

* Vide ' * Minutes of Conference," vol. vi. pp. 137, 246, 366 and 477.

30 Life of Joseph Ray^ter Stephens.

because it is remarkable in itself as respects the
distinguished connections he formed, and the repute
he acquired when still a young man ; but because
his Swedish career was not much known to his coun-
trymen at home, who regarded him only as a preacher
and political orator, with, as they believed, but the
ordinary attainments and experience of an English
Wesleyan minister of the period.

When Mr. Stephens first went to Stockholm in
1826, the Wesleyan society there appears to have
consisted of but a few persons, mostly English, who
met in a small room which they hired. As at home,
the Wesleyans in Sweden were not favoured much
by the authorities. It was thought their prospects
would be improved if one sermon on Sunday was
preached in the Swedish language, which would
enable the people of Stockholm^ who might choose
to become hearers, to form an opinion themselves of
the character of Wesleyanism. Mr. Stephens,
therefore, preached once a week in Swedish, and was
probably the first who did so. Lord Bloomfield,
who was then our Minister at the Court, assisted Mr.
Stephens in his efforts, and to strengthen his statuSy
and in a manner lend official authority to his pro-
ceedings, connected him with the Embassy, as his
chaplain, and Mr. Stephens read prayers daily in his
house. When illness overtook Lord Bloomfield^ Mr.
Stephens was present, and held his hand as he died.

The great interest Lord Bloomfield, and the

His Ministerial Career. 31

affectionate regard he had for the young preacher,
will be sufficiently attested by quoting two letters
addressed to him by his lordship : —

" Stockholm, June 5, 1829.

*' Dear Mr. Stephens,

^'In offering for, your acceptance the enclosed,
I claim your indulgence and forgiveness. It is but
a faint acknowledgment for the services you have
rendered me, and for the peace which, under God,
you have administered to my wounded heart.

" I shall look with no little solicitude for your
return after, I hope, an agreeable and interesting
journey.

" I remain, yours very truly and obliged,

" Bloomfield.'*

"Stockholm, Nov. 13, 1829.

**Dear Mr. Stephens,

" I have anxiously followed you in your journey and
voyage, and if you should have had the winds that
have blown here, you are now far advanced on
England's coast. I shall be very glad to know of
your safety^ and that everything has turned out to
your satisfaction on your arrival.

" By the last mail I sent eight volumes of Mants'
Bible to your address, and now send the remaining

'32 LifeoJ Joseph Rayner Stephens,

nine^ both parcels to remain with John Bidwell, Esq.»
at the F^oreign Office, tmtil called for, I shall not
complain of an early execution of the bindings as I
long to have the work in my constant keeping. I
finished the Revelations^ the beginning of which I
should never have understood but for the notes and
their construction on the text. The latter chapters
are of deep interest and easy of comprehension. I
need not add how sincerely I desire that your return
here may suit your own wishes,, or that any project
may be realized. I shall always look back to our
intercourse as the most important of my life, and I
trust whatever of profit I may have gathered is per-
manently established in my heart

^^ Believe me^ very truly yours^

^' Bloomfield."

"Mr. Douglas is on his road hither — he is very
well. The Captains desire their remembrances to
you.

" B."

Nor are proofs wanting of the esteem in which he
was held as a minister by some hearers, who though
of venerable years had not less conceived admiration
for the ministerial ability and personal integrity of
the young preacher. The following letter was written
in a hand of singular neatness and exactitude of pen-
manship : —

His Ministerial Career, 33

"Arbogu and Nasby, Sept. i8, 1827.

Revd. and Dear Sir,

" I am very sorry that my advanced age, and some
circumstances, especially originated from a greater
repair of my dwelling-house, have not permitted me
to accomplish my design of going to Stockholm this
summer, to see and hear you and imbibe your reli-
gious and edifying principles. You find therefore truth
of what is usually spoken : hovto proposit, Deics disponit,

** The bearer of these few lines is my youngest son
James Joseph Swederus, who will look after some
employment by any of the wholesale merchants in
Stockholm : he will present my best compliments to
you, and beg your leave to wait on you now and
then, and to be one of your hearers in your chapel,
if he comes to stay in Stockholm.

" I should be exceedingly glad if your time and func-
tionary performances would permit you to spend some
days with me in the country, I should look on it as
the greatest favour bestowed on me.

*'The steam-ship JosepJiinc or Yngzuc Frey would
carry you safe and sound to Arbogu, and from thence
I'll take care of your carrying thither, when I'm adver-
tised of the day of your embarking from Stockholm
and of the steam-ship with which you are going.

" Two of my other sons will go from Stockholm
with JosepJiine next Tuesday, the 25 th of this month.
How happy should they be of your company on that
very steam-ship in their returning home !

I

34 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

" Do come, dear sir, in my house, and you shall
be received with the warmest friendship.
" With the greatest esteem, I am,
'' Dear and revd. sir,

" Your most humble servant,

" Ric. Jam. Swederus."

One further testimony of Mr. Stephens's distinction
and usefulness is the following, of which any preacher
of the greatest repute might be proud.

Extract of a Letter from the Right Hon. the
Countess von Schwerin to the Rev. J. P. Waklin,
Chaplain in Ordinary to the King of Sweden, and to
his Embassy in London, dated Stockholm the 12th
of January, 1827.

'' Mr. Stephens, who now twice every Lord's Day,
preaches and performs divine service here (the Church
of England prayers are also read), gains more and
more upon the affection of the folks here, and increases
the number of his friends. I owe you, my good Mr.
Waklin, the sincerest thanks for having introduced
this estimable and most excellent man to my
acquaintance. I have scarcely missed hearing a single
one of his sermons ; and, to tell you the truth, if any-
thing can be said to engage m.y interest in it beyond
this, it is to find that my dear son-in-law hears Mr.
Stephens with so much pleasure, that he very seldom
loses any opportunity of attending divine service.

His Ministerial Career, 35

Mr. Stephens has made so extraordinary quick pro-
gress in the acquirement of the Swedish language,
that he can without difficulty converse upon any
subject, and pronounces the language with a propriety
and correctness truly astonishing for the short time
he has been here. The saloon which Count Caol de
Geer-Grant has lent, free of expense to the Methodist
congregation, is a tolerably good shift for a chapel. It
is of sufficient height and moderately large, and most
delightfully situate in a large garden also belonging
to Count de Geer-Grant. Many Swedes of whom
till now I and others had no idea of their under-
standing English, are amongst his diligent hearers.
I own I long for the time when, on account of still
more extensive usefulness, he shall feel himself at
liberty also to preach to us in Swedish. I wait
almost impatiently for your letters and the books you
have promised to send me about the great and mighty
doings going on in England for the Redeemer's glory.
Are they so sensible as they ought to be of their
Christian privileges T^

One further letter may complete the story of Mr.
Stephens's years in Sweden — a letter which has
historic interest, as throwing light upon the youthful
mind of a Catholic peer. Count de Montalembert.
The letter is written partly in French and partly in
English : —

* Translated from the Swedish.

36 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

" Eolskulle, near Stockholm, July 26, 1829.

" My dear Stephens,

" I have been long waiting for a letter from
you. It would have been a comfort and a pleasure
to see the promise of a friend fulfilled, and to receive
some words of affection and sympathy in the midst
of my too real misfortunes. I might with justice be
very angry with you ; I am not, however (not at all,
out of friendship or Christian meekness), because
I am too low spirited, too miserable to entertain any
bitter feeling against anyone but myself and my
destiny.

" On the 9th of June, the very night of your
departure, my poor sister was seized with an inflam-
matory attack, more violent than any we had yet
witnessed. Since that day she has been in a state
of positive danger and unremitting sufferings ; we
have tried the country air, but nature has not made
the least effort to conquer the malady, and art has
been totally at a loss not only to remedy, but even
to account for, the extraordinary symptoms we have
seen.

^^Lord Bloomfield will give you as complete a
description as you can desire. He has seen us in
our most painful moments. He has really been tJie
good Samaritan, the true Christian's friend and
adviser ; guilty, indeed, should we be before God
and man if we were ever, or any of us, to forget his
perpetual and unchangeable kindness.

His Ministerial Career. 37

" Allow me, therefore^ my dear friend, to quit this
subject. It would not, however, be fulfilling my
duty to you as a friend, if I were to cast a veil of
constrained gaiety over the deep and smarting
wounds of my soul. Even when I am able to forget
for a moment my misfortunes, of a sudden I am
seized by the consciousness of my afflictions, and I
feel a sort of remorse for the temporary pleasure I
have been enjoying.

*^ I am sure you will accuse me of exaggeration,
foolish forebodings, and God knows what. Would
to Heaven that your accusation were true ; but
unfortunately I am too well paid not to believe in
the sincerity of my complaints. If you did but know
what a load of bitterness, resentment, and passion lies
hid in my heart under the veil of affected gaiety ; if
you knew how the purest affections of life have been
for me blasted to the root ; and how, instead of the
hberty, and the joy, and the confidence of youth, I
have been nurtured up in the midst of humiliations,
of hypocrisy, of misery. Oh ! then you would
understand the extent of my afflictions ; you would
feel why the ruins of my most cherished plans have
reduced me almost to despair ; and, above all, you
would feel why my heart is so ardent for new friends
and new affections — is always so ready to seize on
sympathy, on confidence, on consolation.

" I have missed you very much, my dear Stephens.
I think that if you had been here I should have been

38 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens.

less unhappy ; I should at least have had some one
with whom I could have spoken, and who would
have freshened up my mind and given me new
thoughts and useful encouragement. You would
have revived my broken-down spirits ; you would
have impressed on my weak soul the will and the
providence of Him in whom I can easily believe and
hope, but whom I neither love nor confide in enough.

" In short, I should have had a friend, and I have
none. None ! I do not know whether I am really
telling the truth in uttering this word. I have long
thought, and must still think, that the Countess is
my friend ; at least, I know that I am very fond of
her. To you even I may say that I love her from
the bottom of my heart. Though there is between us
so little similitude of age, of position, of temper, dis-
position, and future views, yet have I felt myself
borne towards her by an invisible penchant.

" My attachment has grown stronger for her every
day. I look forward with fear and regret to the
moment when I shall part from her, perhaps for life.

" However, I must not be ungrateful ' through an
excess of friendship ;' and v/hatever may be the
Countess's sentiments towards me, I shall always
feel towards her as towards the only person who has
thrown some charm over my dreary exile.

" One would really think that you were a Catholic
priest, to see the way in which I am going on con-
fessing to you. But I know not two ways of being

His Ministerial Career, 39

a friend ; ' I am very exacting indeed, because I
willingly use the exigency of my friends.' We
hope to start for France, and then to Berlin, Dresden,
and Frankfort, at the end of next week.

" I have not seen Sheduct for these last six weeks.
I have positively done nothing at all. All I have
read has been Madame de Stael's Allemagne, with
which I am delighted, and some numbers of the
Svea, where I have found some excellent articles of
Atterborn.

*' Good-bye, my dear Stephens, write to me at
Paris often and confidentially.

" ' Remember that I rely upon you.^ Our union,
our friendship is a debt we owe to the noble cause
of faithy religious, moral, and political, which we
have both embraced, which you proclaim from the
altar of the Most High, and which I may perhaps
also defend in my country's presence. Let there be
between us a tie of sacred sympathy — a tie formed
by faith in the same truths, and love for the same
virtues — a tie which may yield us some comfort in
this world, and not be quite useless to our fate in
the next.

" Yours most affectionately,

" C. F. DE MONTALEMBERT."

A year later, namely in 1830, Count Charles
Forbes Montalembert united himself with Lamennais
in Paris, and was one of the founders of L'Avenir

40 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephe^is.

which sought to ally Catholicism to democracy.
One of the doctrines of this new school was the
liberation of the Galilean church from State control,
and when this claim failed, it was sought to free public
instruction from government interference. In all
these unauthorized agitations, Montalembert never
withdrew his allegiance to the Church. By the
expression of his sympathies for Ireland and Poland,
both of them Roman Catholic countries, he preserved
a connection with the democratic party, and on all
social questions he advocated the cause of the people."^
Montalembert being born in 1810, in London,
would be nineteen years old at the date of the re-
markable letter to Mr. Stephens. His early years
having been spent in London, it was natural that
he should be interested in the young English
preacher whom he would meet or hear spoken of, as
we have seen, in the highest circles of Stockholm.
Mr. Stephens being five years the elder, of decided
views, full of theories of religious progress, and withal
having the com.manding inspiration of enthusiasm,
eloquence, and a fiery will, he is not unlikely to have
influenced the mind of the young Count. It is
curious to note in how many respects they both acted
on a common policy in after life. Both took part
in advocating social progress without relinquishing
religion. On returning to his country, each com-
menced to agitate for the separation of the Church

* '' Imperial Dictionary of Biography."

His Ministerial Career. 41

from the State ; Mr. Stephens in England, Mon-
talembert in France. Mr. Stephens took sides with
Chartists and Factory Agitators, as Montalembert
did with the Polish and Irish leaders, and both with
the same object, that of proving that faith was the
protector and friend of the social interests of the
democracy, and that religion cared for the material
welfare of the people.

In the year 1829, Joseph Rayner Stephens was
received into full connexion at the Sheffield Con-
ference, and duly ordained a Wesleyan minister.*
In 1830 he was stationed at Cheltenham. f

In these years of his early absence from his father's
house, he wrote letters home which manifested a fine
spirit of dutifulncss and affection. The following
letter, written in the year 1830, was addressed to
his father, then residing at Belmont Row, Birmingham.
It had no post-mark upon the envelope, and was
probably enclosed with others in a cover franked by
a member of Parliament. It was, as most readers
know, common in those days, when postal rates were
high, for letters to bear the name of a member of
Parliament written by himself in one corner, as they
then went free.

'' My dear Father and Mother,

"After spending Tuesday in Cheltenham, and
visiting the principal friends there, I proceeded to

* *' Minutes of Conference," p. 446. f Idem, p. 565.

42 Life of Joseph Ray^ier Stephe7is.

Bristol, where I enjoyed myself the remainder of the
week in the society of a few, I think, well-chosen, and
I am sure, most affectionate friends. On Saturday
night I arrived at Winchcomb, after ascending and
descending one of the most formidable hills a pedes-
trian would ever wish to encounter. I went in a
sort of shandry-dan or country omnibus, the only
accommodation conveyance between that place and
Cheltenham 'till within a month or two ago, when
the Leamington and Birmingham coach took it in
their route. It is one of the rudest, homeliest places
I ever saw; at least a century behind even a third-
rate town that makes the least pretensions to modern
improvements. By-the-by, my predecessor might
well save a few pounds a year of his circuit allow-
ance ; he was comparatively little at home — not by
invitation, but by what is called d7'opping in at a
friend's house about their meal-time, and kindly
consenting to join them. Now this is talked about,
not as a thing the people liked, but disliked — and
such visiting from house to house I am determined
not to acquaint myself with. I know our people
like to see their preacher sit down with them to a
family meal now and then without any ceremony, but
anything beyond this all sensible persons must and
will detest.

" Beyond the duties of my office, discharged with
proper dignity and conscientiousness, there is nothing
to interest me in this place. There is not a soul

His Ministerial Career, 43

with whom I have to do that moves in any sphere
of mind higher than the every-day business of life.
This I am far from despising, and I shall make
myself tolerably comfortable among them, and hope
to be, as well as to appear, agreeable to all.

" I only got into my lodgings last night, having
been out this week in the Gloucester circuit, attend-
ing some country meetings. I would not write 'till
I could send yOu word not merely how I was, but
how I was likely to be.

" The situation is very good : I have a most
beautiful view of the hills, with the ruined castle,
out of my study window. I have no doubt that, when
settled and entered upon some course of study and
employment, I shall love my solitude. For, alone I
must be as long as I stay here ; no danger of a friend,
much less one to be loved.

" I preached in Cheltenham last Sunday — there is a
very kind circle of friends, uniting the rare excellences
of northern frankness and hospitality with southern
politeness and refinement. But I intend to keep
myself as much as possible at home, since I cannot
avail myself of their society without grievous sacrifice
of time.

" Osborne, my superintendent, seems a very free and
brotherly colleague, and as we cannot clash, even if so
disposed, there is every prospect of harmony and
peace betwixt us.

44 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

" 1 hope this will find my dear father and mother
both well.

" Yours affectionately,

"Joseph R. Stephens."

The good sense and self-respect expressed in this
letter are quite noteworthy in a young man of twenty-
five. His judgment is as ripe as though he had had
the experience of mature years. He '' does not
despise the every-day business of life," which has
to be done by everyone, and in which each person
should help ; and if it be mean and poor, raise it by
higher example and relieve it from insipidity by bright
participation in it. At the same time, it is the
mark of a mind wishful for improvement, and capable
of it, that a young man should desire to associate in
due season with those wiser than himself.

A year or two after^ another letter is received by
his father ; this time franked by Mr. Hindley. He
had become acquainted with that Member of Parlia-
ment, who later on took so conspicuous a part in the
Factory agitation, with which Mr. Stephens was
destined to become so largely connected. All through
his life his heart was in fireside things as well as
public affairs. The second letter, still dateless within
and without, is as follows : —

'' Dear Father,

" I take advantage of one of Mr. Hindley's last
franks to write a few lines from my oivn home to my

His Ministerial Career. 45

old home, to let you know of our welfare, for which
you have always prayed, and which it will rejoice
you to hear of.

My own health is good. I am able to go through
my regular work with ease and pleasure, and I
have the consolation to find that I do not labour in
vain. The societies with which I am connected
are peaceful and prosperous. There is mutual con-
fidence and esteem betwixt us. I have never yet
had reason to regret having settled here — but rather
to be thankful. We often wish you were with us
for a few months. It would be Elizabeth's"^^ pride
to minister to your little wants and make you
comfortable. Are you afraid to encounter the
journey } A few hours wuU bring you to our door,
and see you home again, when you were wearied of
your visit. Do try sometime in the summer, or at
the next Leeds Conference.

The weather has set in with great severity. A
heavy fall of snow yesterday has given a very
wintry appearance to the zuorld without, but zuiihin
it is snug and cosy, and comfortable. You shall be

* Elizabeth is Mrs. Stephens. Mr. Stephens was twice married ; first
in 1835 to Miss Elizabeth Henwood, niece of James Henwood, Esq., by
whom he had four daughters. Mrs. Stephen died at Hutton in Essex,
January, 1852, leaving but one surviving daughter, Henrietta, who
married Alfred Earle, Esq., in 1870. Mr. Stephens married a second
time, in May, 1857, Susannah, daughter of Samuel Shaw, Esq., of the
Rookhills, Derby, by whom he had three sons and three daughters of
•whom, two sons, Arthur Cornwall Stephens, born 1 861, and George
Alfred, born 1863, survive him.

4-6 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

well waited on, for, after all, philosopher as I know
you to be, there is a difference which must be felt^
though it may not be acknowledged.

" Aunt French's death must have affected mother
much. I read it in the paper with surprise and with
sorrow. She was mother's last sister. The breaking
of these links must loosen our own hold on life, for
to be left alone, after being one of a numerous bmidy
cannot but forcibly admonish us that we too are but
strangers and wanderers as all our fathers were.
I shall be glad to hear from mother, to be assured
of her prosperity, as I am assured of her peace.

" I have no news, indeed I never draft much in such
matters. I saw many of your old friends in New-
castle. The factory system is at present enjoying a
good deal of the time and attention of

Your affectionate son,

"Joseph R. Stephens."

By this time the '' son " had begun to take
interest in public affairs. His attention had been
drawn to the condition of factory operatives.
Ministers of the Established Church were not friendly
to the agitation on their behalf, which Mr. Stephens
conceived was owing to the connection of that
Church with the State. He regarded that union as
the source of power to those whom he then con-
sidered practical enemies of the people — and he

His Ministerial Career. 47

shortly became the subject of a/' case " at the hands
of his Methodist brethren.

In 1834 he retired from formal connection
with the Wesleyan Ministry. There was a well
prepared report, drawn up by the authority of a
district meeting, upon his " case "^ — and of his having
been temporarily suspended. Mr. Stephens appealed
to the Conference, which in due course heard his
defence, and appointed a Committee of Ministers to
confer with him. The cause of this " suspension '*
was that he had openly agitated for the separation
of the Church from the State : the condition the
Conference thought it necessary to impose upon him
was that he should desist from this. As he refused
to pledge himself to abstain in the future from any
such course, his resignation was finally accepted.

Before things came to this pass, many circum-
stances occurred in which not only the Wesleyan
connection but the outside public took interest. His
brother John, the Editor of the Christian Advocate,
was a man of resolute religious convictions, and had
published some strictures upon a well-known Wesleyan
minister of that day, which came finally to be
adjudicated upon in the law courts. The militant
editor of the Christian Advocate could not be an
unconcerned spectator of the proceedings about to be
instituted against his brother, and he accordingly
addressed to his brother Joseph the following joint
* "Minutes of Conference," vol. vii. p.'4i7.

48 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens,

letter, signed by himself and his friend (and probably
editorial colleague) Mr. J. H. Hare : —

" Dear Friend,

" As we expected, so it has turned out ; and
you are to undergo the censures of your brethren
for the prominent part which you have taken
in the question of the separation of Church and
State. We do not know what are the specific
charges which are to be brought against you, and
perhaps you yourself are not better informed. We
presume, however, that, unless you have taken care
to provide against objections on such a score, the
accusation will be that you have neglected your
appointments. Whatever may be alleged as the
ostensible crime, we are quite sure that the real
ground of this movement against you is your recent
advocacy of the cause of religious liberty.

" In your present circumstances we do not presume
to advise you how to act, having no doubt that you
will adopt a course worthy of yourself, and of the
just cause in which, it seems, you are to be the first
martyr. .

" Our principal reason for writing is to show you
that we observe you with no common degree of
interest ; as a proof of which we give you to under-
stand that our best services, and the columns of the
Christian Advocate, are at your command. We do

His Ministerial Career. 49

not know whether you may deem it advisable, or
not, to say anything about your case before the
district meeting. If you do, we will lend you our
editorial " we " for the purpose. At all events we
hope you will not fail to furnish us with ample details
of the proceedings when they shall have been taken.
"You will have noticed that every opportunity is
seized by Jabez^ and his minions for making de-
monstrations in favour of the Church. Tommy
Jackson has not let slip the opportunities afforded
him in writing Watson's life, whom he has repre-
sented as more of a Churchman than he really was.
Those who are sometimes admitted into the secrets
of this party talk confidentially about Methodism
being made an appendage to the Church.

"Accept the assurances of our sympathy and ex-
pressions of our deep sense of the obligation under
which you have laid the friends of religious liberty by
your able defence of that cause.
" Believe us to remain,

" With sincere affection and esteem,
"J. M. Hare,
"John Stephens.

** 4, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street.
*^^>77i6th, 1834."

This is not an uninteresting letter, even at this
lapse of time. After nearly half a century, a similar

* The Rev. Jabez Bunting.

D

50 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

** party talk confidentially about Methodism being
made an appendage to the Church." Old Metho-
dists will well understand the reference to " Jabez
and his minions," who often gave trouble to
their liberal colleagues in those days. From his
brother and his father, who both had means of know-
ing the inner administrative mind and ways of Wes-
leyanism, Joseph Rayner had good knowledge of
what was in store for him if he continued contu-
macious upon the question of Church and State.

It is from the pages of the Christian Advocate
that the reader alone can learn the nature of the
proceedings which were officially taken against the
wilful young preacher. The article of indictment
against Brother J. R. Stephens, and the resolutions
come to thereon, are set forth as follows : —

*^ I. — That Brother J. R.Stephens has attended four
public meetings held at Ashton-under-Lyne, Hyde,
Oldham, and Staleybridge, one of the avowed objects
of which meetings was to obtain the total separation
of the Church and the State, and that at these
meetings he delivered speeches expressive of his
approbation of that object.

" 2. — That at the Ashton meeting the terms * Wes-
leyan Methodists of Ashton-under-Lyne* were, on
his motion, introduced into the preamble of a memo-
rial complaining of certain practical grievances of
Dissenters.

His Ministerial Career. 5 1

" 3. — That he announced from the pulpit that a
town's petition, praying for the separation of the
Church and the State, lay for signature in the vestry
of the chapel.

'' 4. — That he has accepted an appointment to the
office of * Corresponding Secretary' to a society
called ' The Church Separation Society for Ashton-
under-Lyne and the neighbouring district.*

" ResohUions,

''I. — That, in these proceedings, Brother Stephens
has flagrantly violated the peaceable and anti-
Sectarian spirit of Wesleyan Methodism, so strongly
enjoined in the writings of our founder, enforced by
repeated acts of the Conference since his decease,
and required as a necessary qualification of every
Methodist preacher, particularly in that epitome of his
pastoral duties, contained in the minutes of 1820, and
directed, by a standing order of the Conference, to
be read in every annual district meeting, as solemnly
binding on every minister of our connection.

"2. — That the above-mentioned speeches of Brother
Stephens are directly at variance with the general
sentiments of Mr. Wesley and the Conference, and
are distinguished by a spirit highly unbecoming a
Wesleyan minister, and inconsistent with those
sentiments of respect and affection towards the
Church of England which our connection has, from

D 2

52 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens.

the beginning, openly processed, and honourably
maintained.

"3. — That, as far as his influence extends. Brother
Stephens has committed the character of the Con-
nection upon a question involving its public credit,
as well as its internal tranquillity; and he has mani-
fested a great want of deference to the recorded
opinions of his fathers and brethren in the ministry^
and a recklessness of consequence as to himself and
others, by the very active and prominent part which
he has taken in the aggressive proceedings adopted
by the meetings before referred to.

"4. — That he has endangered the peace, and acted
prejudicially to the spirituality of the connection, by
giving occasion to the introduction amongst our
people, of unprofitable disputations on ecclesiastical
politics ; thus violating the directions of the last
Conference in its * Pastoral Address^ to the societies^
which Brother Stephens, as well as every other
Methodist preacher, was bound, by his example at
least, to enforce. (See Minutes for 1833, p. 113.)

"5. — That Brother Stephens, in accepting the office
of Corresponding Secretary to the Ashton Church
Separation Society, has acted contrary to his
peculiar calling and solemn engagements as a
Methodist preacher.

''6. — That the culpability of these proceedings is
aggravated by the fact that they were pursued by
Brother Stephens without consultation with his

His Ministerial Career. 53

superintendent, and contrary to his example and
expressed opinion.

''7. — That Brother Stephens be authoritatively re-
quired to resign his office as Secretary to the Church
Separation Society, and to abstain, until next session
of Conference, from taking any part in the proceed-
ings of the society, or of any other society or meeting
having a kindred object ; and that, in the event of a
violation of this injunction, he be forthwith sus-
pended until the Conference, and that his superin-
tendent give immediate notice to the chairman of
the district, that the President may supply his place
in the Ashton circuit.

" The above resolutions having been read to Brother
Stephens, he declared that on the finding of the 2nd
and 3rd he could not acknowledge the authority of
the meeting, and that he would not resign his office
of Corresponding Secretary to the Church Separation
Society of Ashton-under-Lyne.

"8. — He is, therefore, now suspended from the
exercise of his ministry until the next Conference.

"9. — That Brother Stephens be required forthwith
to remove from the Ashton-under-Lyne circuit, and
that the chairman be requested to wTite to the
President for a supply."

The apprehension of his relative and friend, the
editor of the Christian Advocate, that the charge
against him would be disguised under an allegation

54 Life of yoseph Ray7ier Stephens.

that he had "neglected his appointments," was not
fulfilled. He had not neglected his duties. One sa
zealous as he, and so capable of work, might make
self-imposed additions to his duties, but he would be
sure to discharge every ministerial office. Thus his
accusers were compelled to deal with the real question,,
his " advocacy of the cause of religious liberty" out-
side the Connection, and in the Dissenting world
generally. Against this there was no Wesleyan law :
only a constructive " general sentiment of Mr. Wesley
and the Conference." Mr. Stephens' action was held
to be contrary to the " public credit" of Wesleyanism.
It is entirely to the honour of the "suspended"
preacher that no imputation, direct or constructive,
could be brought against him of failure in the proper
discharge of his prescribed duties, or of non-adherence
to any Christian doctrine he had undertaken to
maintain.

The document we have quoted is, however, a
very curious one, from the light it throws upon the
Wesleyan mind and Connectional policy of that day..
Every form of contempt the Church could express,
was poured upon the Wesleyans for their " sectarian"
doctrine, vulgarity in piety, and personal ignorance.
Yet these Wesleyan ministers make proclamation of
their " anti-sectarian spirit," and their " sentiments
of respect and affection towards the Church of
England," which Church had ridiculed and despised
them in every parish in which they gave out a hymn..

His Ministe^nai Career. 55

Wesleyanism, as these pages testify, produces men of
generous impulse and high courage ; but the whole
history of religious sects presents no example of such
abjectness of spirit as official Wesleyanism displayed
at that date towards the Church of England. How-
ever, since those days, the nobler sort of Wesleyans —
like Mr. Stephens and his colleagues — have increased,
and by their lives and teaching have shown that piety
can be combined with self-respect.

Mr. Stephens, however, was not without the sup-
port and sympathy of many of his brethren in the
ministry, though the more responsible or eminent
preachers, would not, for reasons of denominational
policy, accord him their approval. The adverse de-
cision of the Conference was a subject of contention
in many parts of the country, and in some districts
the Wesleyans openly took Mr. Stephens' part. A
meeting of trustees, local preachers, and private
members of the Wesleyan Society, held in Birming-
ham, May 8, 1834, expressed their opinion, by
unanimous resolution, that Mr. Stephens was sus-
pended from his office, not from any neglect of duty
or for any violation of law, but solely because on a
matter totally unconnected with Methodist doctrine
he claimed the right of every British subject to hold
and express his unbiassed opinion ; whilst local
preachers and leaders in the Methodist Society of
Whitehaven, declared his suspension '' partial, unjust,
and oppressive." A public meeting of Dissenters at

II

56 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

Nottingham sent him resolutions of thanks for the
noble stand he had made for religious liberty. From
Sheffield and other places, invitations were sent to
him to settle in the district of the writers, and offers
of appointment and support were cordially made to
him. Mr. Stephens never repined at his excommu-
nication from the Wesleyan ministry, and never
resented it ; neither did he desert his personal faith
in religion, but went forth into the world casting
his lot with the unfriended poor, whom he believed
it to be the duty of a minister to succour and to
guide.

Within a short time of his separation from the
Wesleyan Connection he was publicly known as the
trusted and honoured colleague of Oastler, Hindley,
Saddler, and Fielden, in the agitation for " The Ten
Hours' Bill." He still continued to preach and
teach, but the interest he took in the physical im-
provement of the people was not looked upon with
favour by the religious world. The following entry
in his father's Diary at this time shows what was
going on : —

''Sept. 15, 1836. — Aletter from Joseph: lost five out
of seven preaching-houses by the part he has taken
in the Factory Question. Had he served the God
of Israel instead of the calves of Jeroboam, he would
not have been so soon forsaken. Hek:indly offers to
contribute anything I please to assist his dear sister

His Ministerial Career. 57

Sharon. He is an honourable and a generous young
man."

A year later Mr. Stephens sought to give more
effect to his advocacy of the factory operatives by
going into Parliament. He offered himself as a candi-
date to represent the borough of Ashton-under-Lyne.

His father's Diary at this time contains the follow-
ing entry : —

"July 6, 1837. — My son Joseph going to put up
for a Member of Parliament. I think he must be
daft."

"July 27. — This day my son J. is a candidate for
Ashton-under-Lyne. I can hardly wish him success."

Other evidence will occur of the consistent candour
of his father. Whether he wrote in his diary in
private, or in a letter to ethers, on any question in
which his own convictions were concerned, he never
withheld the truth, however strong was the induce-
ment from the great love he bore his son.

It ought to be mentioned before concluding this
chapter, that among the letters which Joseph Stephens
received at the time when his case was under the
consideration of the Wesleyan Conference were two
from the Rev. Robert Newton, written with boldness
of hand, and that manly and kindly frankness always
characteristic of this great preacher. The letters
betray his regard for Mr. Stephens' father, who had
lately held the high position of President among

5 8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

them, and his anxiety as to the career of his son^
whose ability and promise he discerned. The pur-
port of the letters was to inform Mr. Stephens that
his brethren would have no choice but to take
measures against him, unless he found himself able,
and was willing, to observe the discipline the Con-
ference felt itself obliged to exact from its ministers.

59

CHAPTER IV.

BECOMES A POLITICAL ADVOCATE.

What Wesleyanism prided itself in, and alone cared
for in the days of which we write, was, as the reader
has seen, *^ Spirituality" — not Humanity, not Liberty.
What our suspended preacher cared for very
strongly was Humanity, and only for freedom such as
was necessary to prevent inhumanity, to put down
injustice, and to keep it down. The two things which
moved Mr. Stephens to sympathy and indignation
were the treatment of the poor under the then new
Poor Law, and the condition of children in our
factories. For them he became Agitator, Advocate^
Orator, — on what inspiration and for what reasons,
shall appear in his own words, as our brief story
proceeds.

People now are prone to look upon the stormy and
infuriate opposition to the Poor Law — regarded as the
baleful fruit of the Reform Bill — as based on mere
ignorance. Those who think so are too ignorant to
understand the terrors of those times. It was not
ignorance — it was justifiable indignation with which
the Poor Law scheme was regarded. Now that Free
Trade has brought steadier employment and higher

6o Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

wages to the working class ; now that the Repeal of
the Corn Laws has made food abundant among the
common people ; now that the working class are
more powerful, politically, than they were forty years
ago, the workhouse has not the same terror, being
more associated with the accidentally unfortunate,
the infirm, and the idle. The mass of the people
do not expect to go there, and do not intend to
go there. But through the first forty years of this
century, almost every workman and every labourer
expected to go there sooner or later. Thus the
hatred of the Poor Law was well founded. Its dreary
punishment would fall, it was believed, not upon the
idle merely, but upon the working people, who by no
thrift could save, nor by any industry provide for
the future, when disease and age should overtake
them. He has no heart who does not sympathize
with the hatred of the Poor Law, as the poor then
understood it. He has no generous discrimination
who is wanting in respect for the memory of Joseph
Rayner Stephens, who — having no reason to fear
the Poor Law himself — bravely took the part of the
humble, honest, but helpless poor, who had.

The Poor Law of Queen Elizabeth's time was a wild,
incoherent sort of communism. When the property
of the Church was seized by the Crown, the pen-
sioners of the Church became paupers. The land-
owners, not intending to maintain the poor, hanged
them very freely. When the landowners had reduced

Becomes a Political Advocate, 6 1

the number of paupers by the gallows, they transferred
their support to the citizens, who, being unable to
keep the poor, and unwilling to kill them, and no one
coming forward to give them the necessary know-
ledge whereby the poor could keep themselves — the
workhouse was turned into a penal settlement of indi-
gent industry. It is not possible to render the poor-
house easy of access and pleasant in its arrangements,
without its becoming crowded by entire families
willing to live at other people's expense. If only
the helpless and the honest poor were found there,
it would not be made a place of punishment ; but
since the idle and dishonest are ready to impose
themselves upon public charity, the poorhouse
has to be made disagreeable on principle. While
rulers think it necessary for their own security
to refuse vote or knowledge, or other condition of
industrial welfare, by means of which the honest poor
can really live by toil, they have no right to drive
the industrious into the workhouse, and then subject
them to criminal treatment when they are there.
It was the hopelessness of honest workmen escaping
this lot that awoke savage and relentless hatred of the
penal inflictions introduced into the workhouse by the
new Poor Law Act. They made the name of Political
Economy — a science of sense and mercy — detestable
in the minds of the people, and everybody who aided
and expounded it was alike condemned. Selfish
guardians, brutal masters, negligent doctors, all who

62 Life of Joseph Rayner Stepheiis.

killed the paupers speedily by insolence, privation, or
indignity, and buried them cheaply, the new Poor Law
elevated into economists in the ratepayers' interest.

Mr. Shiel understood this, and put it very clearly
when advising his Irish constituents to resist the
introduction of the Poor Law among them. He
said to the shopkeepers and farmers, " There are
myriads of paupers whose wretchedness will be
cast upon you, and for whom, when you cannot
supply work, you will be compelled to furnish food."''"^
Thus the poor had a bad time of it. To all house-
holders they were objects of dread and dislike.
Public pestilence, so long as it was discriminating
and confined its ravages to the poor, was viewed as
no great evil. The activity of the undertaker assisted
in the reduction of the poor rates.

It was not from anger or mere sentiment that the
people regarded the poorhouse as a prison. His-
torians, not at all of the revolutionary school, take a
similar view of the facts. This is what one of them,
Mr. Spencer Walpole, has recorded : —

" During the first few years which succeeded
Waterloo, Englishmen enjoyed less real liberty than
at any time since the Revolution of 1688. The
pauper was treated as a criminal, and the adminis-
tration of the Poor Law made almost every labourer
a pauper."t

* Mr. Lalor Shiel at Tipperary, Sept. 1837.
t Spencer Walpole, "History of England.'*

Becomes a Political Advocate. 6'^

To avoid these accursed asylums of poverty,
commonly called poorhouses — honest working-men
in those days lived with fewer comforts out of the
house than v/ould have been accorded them in it,
and sent their children into the factories to augment
the insufficient income of the home. This generation
knows nothing of what were really the horrors of
factory life to little children then. A minister of
religion who took their part was indeed a minister
of mercy.

So far back as the reign of King Alfred — the first
authenticated period when Englishmen were supposed
to do any regular work — that excellent monarch is
said to have divided the day into eight hours for
sleep, eight hours for work, and eight hours for
recreation — an arrangement which has been thought
satisfactory ever since, but very rarely acted upon.
King Alfred was always popular in the days of the
factory agitation, when it was thought a great thing
to get back working-hours to the limit of ten hours'
labour. Mr. Fielden said the King Alfred arrange-
ment was always very popular with his father, and
he should like to see it prevail. After King Alfred,
nothing appears to have been meditated for the
benefit of the working people — except hanging them,
if they were found to be in a mendicant state — until
the Board of Trade, in William III.'s time, was
directed to inquire into the condition of children.
Lord Hales and John Locke (he who wrote on the

64 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens.

" Human Understanding ") were the commissioners
to whom the matter was entrusted. Locke, being a
philosopher, took a rational view of the subject and
advised the formation of schools for the education of
children, but they were much wiser schools than Mr.
Forster was able to recommend two hundred years
later. Locke and Lord Hales advised that industrial
schools should be provided in every parish — there
were to be parochial workshops for children on a better
plan than the State workshops proposed afterwards by
Louis Blanc. The children were to be taught and
instructed in the art of maintaining themselves.
They were to be protected from idleness, ignorance,
and excessive work. It was a merciful scheme for
preserving the health, both of mind and body, of
little people. If this scheme had been carried out,
the working classes of England would have been the
happiest, the wisest, the most self-supporting, and
the healthiest population in the world.

Such was the state of things at the end of the
last century and the beginning of this, that irons
were riveted upon hungry, ignorant apprentices, to
keep them in subjection. The case was mentioned,
in the Factory agitation, of one Robert Blincoe, a
Scottish apprentice, who observed that the pigs of
his master were fed with warm meal puddings, whilst
he, worse fed, used to go into the stye and steal
them — so hungry was he. The clever pigs, finding
their food decrease, squealed and attacked the poor

Beco7nes a Political Advocate. 65

apprentice, who was discovered one day fighting
with the pigs for their puddings. He was punished
for his larceny in the stye, and the pigs alone had a
full meal. In those days children were often de-
stroyed in the mills by privation, punishment, and
excessive hours of working ; and some committed
suicide.

Many millowners in the agitation days boasted
that they made large sums annually by fines. Some
of them kept two clocks, by which they proved that
little children were late, who were hurrying through
the dark lanes in pattens, at half-past five in the
morning — often without breakfast. Their miserable
parents were publicly admonished to give them food
if they had it, before sending them out, half asleep,
into the cold streets. Mr. Sadler produced in the
House of Commons black, heavy, leathern thongs,
employed by mill overseers to beat children with, to
keep them from falling down asleep. Girls were so
beaten over the arms, face and bosom.^ The generous
eloquence of men like Stephens, Oastler, Sadler,
Fielden and others, ultimately enlisted the sympathy
of men in the highest ranks of society ; but it was
a long time before the cry of the poor children
reached them. To his honour. His Royal Highness
the Duke of Sussex himself convened a meeting at
the London Tavern, February 23, 1833, of the
friends of our little factory workers.

* **Life of Michael Thomas Sadler," pp. 374-5.

E

66 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens.

Mr. Oastler, at the Duke's meeting, said, " He had
seen children with back and breast black; and on a
child living within a mile of his house, he had counted
thirty- three cuts on its back — (sensation). His lip
was cut and his eyelid was cut — (sensation). What
crime had this child committed ? He had w^orked
so long that he had fallen asleep over his work.
The Rev. G. R. Bull once sent me a lock of hair
with a part of the scalp attached to it. He said it
had been torn from the head of a poor factory girl
in his neighbourhood. She was asleep, as many of
them used to be, and the angry overlooker had
seized her by the hair and had swung the child
round in the air, and dashed her on the floor, and in
doing so had torn the hair and part of the scalp
from off her head — (great sensation)." Facts were
related at the public meetings then held which seem
incredible now, but were not, and could not be, con-
tradicted then. Little half-fed, ungrown things were
kept at work twelve, fourteen, and eighteen hours
without meal-times; they ate what they had to eat as
they worked. Children slept as they stood. Overseers
kept tanks of cold water at hand in which they dipped
the lads to awaken them, who had to work afterwards
all day in their wet clothes. Sometimes, when the
poor children went to work they had their fingers
taken off by the machine through drowsy inatten-
tion. Some, when they were careless, were put to
torture by being made to stand upon a tub, holding

Becomes a Political Advocate. 67

a weight, with one leg up, and were flogged if
the weight descended. The legs of girls were com-
monly swollen with long-standing, and as often as
any of them perished by this treatment others took
the place of the dead. Every Wesleyan preacher in
the North of England knew of these things in every
district in which he was stationed. What a field to
cultivate "spirituaHty" in ! Mr. Oastler said, " He
remembered a poor widow who used to worship at
the same church as himself, whose children should
have gone to the Sunday School, but they could
not; they were too weary from their excessive work.
Many a time had he seen this poor woman dressing
her children's ancles when they came from work,
and then setting them on the bed to feed them.
She would give to each child in turn a mouthful
of bread and milk, but when she came with a second
spoonful to the eldest, she would find it asleep, with
the food unmasticated in its mouth.'"'

Sadler had a taste for poetry as well as for the
drier study of political economy and the statistics of
Malthus. In early life he wrote verses. The
following lines are from his pen. They were written
to illustrate the great cause he was then advocating
in Parliament. The verses were founded on
evidence given before a Parliamentary Committee of
which Mr. Sadler was Chairman. They have oft
been reprinted without being ascribed to their real
author. They are published in Mr. Sadler's Memoirs.

E 2

68 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens:

As completely as any speech which could be quoted,
they show the indignant feelings which then moved
the hearts of men :—

THE FACTORY GIRL'S LAST DAY.
^Twas on a winter's morning,

The weather wet and wild,
Three hours before the dawning

The father roused his child ;
Her daily morsel bringing,

The darksome room he paced,
And cried, " The bell is ringing,

My hapless darling, haste !"

" Father, Fm up, but weary,

I scarce can reach the door.
And long the way and dreary-—

Oh, carry me once more !
To help us we've no mother ;

And you have no employ ;
They killed my little brother —

Like him Fll work and die !"

Her wasted form seemed nothing —

The load was at his heart ;
The sufferer he kept soothing

Till at the mill they part.
The overlooker met her,

As to her frame she crept,
And with his thong he beat her.

And cursed her as she wept.

Alas ! what hours of horror

Made up her latest day ;
In toil, and pain, and sorrow

They slowly passed away :
It seemed, as she grew weaker,

The threads the oftener broke ;
The rapid wheels ran quicker,

And heavier fell the stroke.

Becomes a Political Advocate. 69

The sun had long descended,

But night brought no repose ;
Her day began and ended

As cruel tyrants chose.
At length a little neighbour

Her halfpenny she paid,
To take her last hour's labour,

While by her frame she laid.

At last, the engine ceasing,

The captives homeward rushed ;
She thought her strength increasing —

'Twas hope her spirits flushed.
She left, but oft she tarried ;

She fell and rose no more.
Till, by her comrades carried.

She reached her father^s door.

All night, with tortured feeling,

He watched his speechless child ;
While, close beside her kneeling.

She knew him not, nor smiled.
Again the factory's ringing

Her last perceptions tried ;
When, from her strawbed springing,

" Tis time ! '' she shrieked, and died !

That night a chariot passed her,

While on the ground she lay ;
The daughters of her master

An evening visit pay ;
Their tender hearts were sighing

As negro wrongs were told,
While the white slaves lay dying

Who gained their father's gold !

The witness who gave the facts upon which these
verses were written was one Gillett Sharpe, who
told the dramatic story in a simple natural way.

7Q Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens,

It appeared to be quite unexpectedly elicited from

him ; he had no idea what impression it was destined

to make, and how long it would live in the literature

of labour. Though Mr. Sadler had small command

of the language of real life, he has preserved the

pathos of the facts.

Mr. Billington, of Blackburn, in a speech at Padi-

ham, March 2, 1872, recalls the social and industrial

facts which poets then and at earlier periods had

noted. " The over-straining of the physical energies

in the mill crushed-out men's mentality," and he

quoted the words of Alexander Smith as indicative

of that condition : —

In the street, the tide of being
How it surges, how it rolls !
God, what base, ignoble faces !
God, what bodies wanting souls !

The words of Henry Kirke White were no picture

of the imagination but a veritable reality : —

The pale mechanic leaves the labouring loom,
The air-pent hole, the pestilential room ;
And rushes out, impatient to begin
His stated course of customary sin.

Mr. Billington continued : " They wanted more
rest and more tranquillity, and then they would have
the foundation for a higher intellectuality, a better
morality, and a greater humanity" — (cheers).

Our hope is in our effort.

Luck lies our will within ;
Perchance and choice are brothers,

And faith and fate akin.

Becomes a Political Advocate, 7 1

Then courage up, and colours up,

Whatever may assail ;
God helpeth those who help themselves —

Press forward and prevail.

Mr. Sadler was the first man who introduced into
Parliament a Factory Bill in the interest of the
workers. In none of the histories of the Factory-
Movement is any chronological table given setting
forth the men and material epochs of the agitation :
who commenced it in an effectual w^ay, who became
its prominent champions, who aided them ; what
public meetings, what events influenced its career,
what was the original demand, what modifications
were made in that, what accretion it acquired ; what
were the compromises which diverted the movement,
and who proposed them; what were the final terms
of the demand conceded, and what have been the
subsequent securities obtained } No history would be
more interesting to modern politicians than one, in the
compass of a small book, that related, on these lines,
the political vicissitudes of this movement which took
thirty-three years to accomplish its merciful object.
The arguments which political economy could
advance against it were stronger than those which
mere humanity had to advance in its favours. Of the
eminent men opposed to the movement, there were
Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden, who were not less men
of humanity, and were making splendid sacrifices in
another way in the interests of the common people.

72 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

All the accounts of the Factory Movement extant
are either statistical or passionate and partizan, and
political facts that would be instructive for all
time appear never to have attracted even the
passing attention of the writers.

None have distinguished and estimated the actual
measure of merit due to each leader in the Factory-
Agitation. To Mr. Sadler succeeded Lord Ashley
(now Earl of Shaftesbury); then cameCharles Hindley ;
to him succeeded John Fielden. It was Mr. Wood
who induced Mr. Oastler to enter the movement,
who made so great a name in it that Sadler sought
Oastler to aid him, because he found him to be a
man of eloquence, with a good voice, a good presence,
a capacity for correct speaking, beside being wholly
in earnest. Stephens, who joined Oastler, excelled
all of them in various knowledge, without which no
oratory can be of permanent value. He had a finer
imagination, a persistency which nothing could turn
aside, and what, was not less important, more enduring
physical strength than any of his co-adjutors, who all
either died early, or were enfeebled prematurely by
their work. Lord John Russell, when he had to
give political attention to the subject, spoke in favour
of an Eleven Hours Bill. To evade Sadler's Ten
Hours Bill, the Halifax masters offered eleven hours
and reduced wages. Mr. Edward Baines started a
compromise when the inevitable day of legislation
came ; but Sadler, who had started the Ten Hours

Becomes a Political Advocate. 73

claim, imitated Brougham's " Unconditional Emanci-
pation" with respect to slavery, and he and Oastler
and Stephens sent round the country the cry of
" Ten Hours and No Surrender." When the Bill was
finally carried, Mr. Bright did not vote in the last
division against it ; Dr. Bowring did. Sir Wm.
Molesworth, Lord Brougham, Miss Martineau, Sir
John Trelawny, Mr. Wakley, Mr. Milner Gibson, J. A.
Roebuck, Mr. Cobden, and Mr. Hume were, on
grounds of political economy, opposed to the Bill.
It was a singular misfortune of political opinion
which placed the greatest living advocates for free-
dom and progress, on what was considered the side
of inhumanity. The great Whigs and philosophical
Radicals, some of whose names are cited here, believed
that it was better for the working people that their
labours should run in the channel of freedom, instead
of being regulated by Act of Parliament. It is an
incredible humiliation and confession of incapacity,
that parents in England should be without the self-
respect, or courage, or means to withdraw their
children from any factory labour which they find to
be injurious to them. The aim of the Liberals was
to compel the people to acquire habits of self-help,
and the management of their own affairs : therefore
they opposed the Ten Hours Bill, which taught them
dependence on Acts of Parliament for the regulation
of their labour, and practically the limitation of their
income. The advocates of the Factory Act were

74 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens.

mostly of another school in politics, which preferred
the dependence of the people, and whose principle
and object were to control them — control them, be
it in justice said, by kindness and social concession.
Most of these friends of the Factory Act, like Mr.
Stephens and Mr. Oastler, honestly meant to control
the people for their own good. Others had baser
views, and sought to control them for ends of interest,
ambition, and power. But the noble and the base
alike fortunately united to abate industrial misery
which demanded to be abated at once, and which
could not wait for the dilatory redress of general
progress inspired by political economy. When the
agitation was over, it was seen who were the enduring
friends of the political and industrial liberty of the
people. Lord Russell, Harriet Martineau, Mr. Bright,
Mr. Cobden, Sir John Trelawny, and other eminent
members of the party known as Philosophical Radicals,
continued the advocates of every measure likely to
place freedom and competence in the independent
hands of the people. In this field, the leading Con-
servative advocates of Factory and Poor Law
humanity were seen no more.

His Colleagues and Correspondents. 75

CHAPTER V.

HIS COLLEAGUES AND CORRESPONDENTS.

In another chapter, which treats of the fury of the
conflict for the abatement of the factory horrors,
which so moved the sympathy of many pubHc men,
the reader will see the strange combatants among
whom Mr. Stephens was thrown. This chapter
relates personal particulars of those famous leaders
of the movement who were Mr. Stephens' immediate
colleagues.

The following account of Mr. Oastler and Mr.
Stephens is from the pen of Francis Place. It
occurs in the remarkable records of his, preserved in
the British Museum. Place was the daily companion
of Jeremy Bentham ; he was the political adviser of
all the insurgent leaders of the working class in his
time, and was confidentially consulted by eminent
members of the Government. Francis Place had
the power of seeing men exactly as they were ; and
he could estimate accurately their capacity and the
nature and quality of their influence. Many times,
he described to the present writer exactly the
characters of the leading men of the movements of

Life of Joseph Ray^ier Stephens.

his time, which after experience of them confirmed.
The following passage concerning Mr. Oastler and
Mr. Stephens brings before our minds the transactions
of that day as vividly as though we were living in
the midst of them : —

" The Factory question^ as it was called, was at its
height. At the head of it was a man of great
animal powers, active, persevering, a ready writer
and fluent speaker, of undoubted courage, and enter-
taining the very best intentions to serve the factory
workers, and especially the unfortunate and helpless
children employed in the mills. Withal, he was some-
what wary, and greatly deficient in judgment. Never
still, writing and speaking incessantly, making abun-
dance of friends amongst the poor, and a like abun-
dance of enemies among those who employed them,
he thus put formidable impediments in his own way.
More discretion than he possessed would have caused
many influential men to assist him in his laudable
endeavours to ameliorate the condition of a large mass
of young persons whose condition was deplorable, and
needed the good services of others. The vehemence
of Richard Oastler, his imputations of bad intentions
to almost every one who did not concur in his notions,
his attacks on persons who attended public meetings
respecting the condition of the ^factory children^
•drove those persons away, and induced them to pro-
mote whatever had a tendency to counteract his
proceedings. Mr. Oastler had the care of a con-

His Colleagues and Correspondents, "jj

siderable estate ; his business was such as to give him
much leisure, which he employed with indefatigable
industry and considerable expense in the various
ways which he, from time to time, thought likely to
promote the accomplishment of the purposes to which
his life was devoted.

" Mr. Oastler called himself a Tory, but was re-
ceived by the wildest of the Democrats as a friend in
common, and his influence over the working people
was very considerable.

" There was another not less extraordinary man —
a fanatic, possessing great command of language and
great power of declamation — the Reverend J. R.
Stephens, and he made common cause with O'Connor
and Oastler.

" He was utterly careless of other men's opinions,
and paid little or no regard to the feelings of any
but those he wished to command ; and these were
the working people. Over these he domineered,
carrying everything he wished with a high hand ;
he was obeyed, almost adored, by multitudes.

" He also professed himself a Tory, but acted the
part of a Democrat ; denounced both Whigs and
Tories, and everything, indeed, which appeared to
him to stand in his way. Of personal consequences
he was wholly reckless.

" The three, O'Connor, Oastler, and Stephens,
played into each other's hands, and had an almost
inconceivable command over the people."^

* F. Place/* Working Men's Asociations," vol. ii., p. 150, 27-820.

78 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

" By rendering combination illegal, complaints
are stifled ; but the object of good government is
not to stifle complaints, but to redress grievances.
By redressing grievances, combinations become
unnecessary.'"'''

This was the principle on which Mr. Ste-
phens proceeded. He was in favour of order, and
in favour of justice, and he believed only in the order
which justice would produce. To his just and
generous mind grievances of the poor were intoler-
able, and he was for redressing them ; and if not
redressed by the humanity of those in authority, then
he was for redressing them by combination, by public
agitation, and by whatever agencies he believed to be
justifiable in the sight of God.

It is pleasant to record the generous influence
which Methodism exercised over the fortunes of this
great movement for the humane improvement of the
condition of the common people. There was more
heart in Wesleyanism than in the Church. It was
more generous even in its tenets of salvation — it
regarded all who loved God as of the elect. This
generosity in divinity extended itself into their daily
life, and endowed eminent Wesleyans with practical
sympathy for the unfortunate. The most distinguished
of the friends of the factory workers were Wesleyans.
After these Methodists had made the movement
into a great cause, some of the nobler sort of Church-
* Charles Wing, *' Evils of the Factory System."

His Colleagices and Correspondents. 79

men came into it — as the Rev. G. S. Bull and the
Earl of Shaftesbury, both members of the Established
Church ; but they would never have originated the
movement themselves.

Mr. Stephens, as we have seen, came of an emi-
nent Wesleyan family ; Sadler, who rendered such
splendid service to the cause, was a Wesleyan ; so
was Richard Oastler.

Richard Oastler's father's house was always the
home of John Wesley whenever he came to Thirsk.
Richard Oastler^s father's name was Robert, and he was
considered to be the person who originated the practice
of interring the Wesleyan dead in Methodist ground.
He had a son who was killed in Marshairs factory,
Leeds, and he wished him to be buried in the
ground attached to the old chapel in Leeds. At
that period no burial-places were attached to
Methodist chapels or preaching-houses. How-
ever, no Methodist preacher would perform the
service, it being an innovation on their established
forms. Though the innovation was one which
added to their dignity and equality as a body, they
had the usual prejudice of ignorant Englishmen in
favour of their own inferiority. Robert Oastler was
a man of a different spirit. He persisted in his
determination, and a Baptist minister officiated at
his son's grave. Thus began the practice, which in
due course became general, of the Methodists per-
forming burial as well as other Church rites.

8o Life of yosepk Rayner Stephens,

Richard Oastler was reared amid the manliest
members of his sect ; and mother, father, home,
school, his brethren, and his God were the chief,
as they remained the holiest, influences of his life.

Michael Thomas Sadler was born at Snelson,
Derbyshire, in 1780. His mother was the daughter
of a beneficed clergyman. Some years after her
marriage, the Wesleyans made propagandist incur-
sions into Doveridge, the adjoining parish to Snel-
son. Though strongly attached to the Established
Church, she was soon interested in the earnestness
and spiritual fervour of the Wesleyan preachers, and
had the courage to become a frequent hearer of
them, although the treatment of the Methodists in
Doveridge resembled that which they met with in
most other places. The vicious disliked them for
their faithful condemnation of sin; the formalists
resented their rigid requirement of a heart-service,
and the clergyman of the parish joined the profli-
gates in denouncing the Methodists from the pulpit
as intruders in the parish — not that the clergyman
was a partisan of profligacy, but he was unwilling
that any one save himself should undertake its cor-
rection, or offer assistance in curing it. One day
as young Sadler was going to school — his road lay
over a bridge which spanned the Dove — he was met
by a drunkard and loose-liver in the village, who never-
theless thinking himself qualified to assist the clergy-
man in reproving the Wesleyans, took up young Sadler

His Cotleagties and Correspondejits. 8 1

and holding him over the deep part of the water,
threatened to throw him in unless he " cursed the
Methodists/^ The profligate brute was aware that
the boy^s mother favoured them. "I never will curse
them/' said the brave lad ; " you may kill me if you
choose, but I never will/^ Mr. Sadler's first publica-
tion was written in his eighteenth year, and it w^as a
defence of the Methodists against a public attack by
the vicar from the pulpit; so that he was not only of
them — he was their defender. He was a man of high
integrity. He contested Huddersfield, and greatly
desired to represent it. It is recorded that by saying
privately in the afternoon the contrary of what he had
said publicly in the morning, he could have secured
his seat for the borough,^ but he would not do it.

Brief quotations from a few letters yet extant
addressed to Mr. Stephens will serve to show the
regard in which he was held, and the influential
position he occupied. He must have had a remark-
able correspondence with men in high quarters. Mr.
Oastler was personally intimate with the Duke of
Wellington, and was constantly corresponding with
him. He, and her Majesty also, were informed of
Mr. Stephens' proceedings and sayings, as they
took great interest in the cause of our factory
children.

A passage occurs in Mr. Stephens's handwriting
which indicates personal knowledge of proceedings
* *' Hist. Fact. Movement," by Alfred, p. 131.

F

82 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

at Court ; he wrote : — " When the Factory Act was
passed, the Queen, having signed it, said, ' she was a
woman, a wife, a mother, and therefore both knew
and felt for the sufferings of children/ Her heart
was touched by recitals made to her. The workers
struck a medal in commemoration of the Act being
passed. And yet this measure took nearly half a
century to steer across the stormy sea of ignorance,
indifference and selfishness.

"Why thus refer to it? Because the Queen's
heart is still stirred by the same emotions. She has
invoked the attention of Parliament to the condition
of the women and children who are employed in
other trades. The Factory Acts are to serve as a
rule for more general application."

Mr. Stephens's correspondence, were it in any
sense complete, would be of great interest now
to read ; but it seemed not to have occurred to
him that people would care about him after he was
dead, or that another generation might feel curious
concerning his friends, and grateful for his own
services. Neither did it occur to the present writer
or to the family of the deceased, that there would be
the public desire to erect a monument to his memory,
which has been manifested by working men and
women who are grateful for what Mr. Stephens did
for their children. What their parents^ feeling upon
this subject once was, is described by Mr. Oastler in a
speech at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester.

His Colleagues and Correspondents, 83

*' There has been," he said, " the yearning of
mothers and the enthusiasm of youth. One woman,
with a baby in her arms, walked seventy-five miles
to attend the great county meeting at York on the
Ten Hours Bill^ in order that her child, if it grew up,
might have the honour of saying that he had been
present at that meeting ; and a boy walked forty-
three miles to hold up his hand for a weakly brother
who was prevented from going to that meeting.""^

It is now too late to inquire what became of all
the correspondence with Mr. Stephens, between
1835 and 1850. It is clear that he had powerful
friends : when his imprisonment came, he was not
sent to the place to which he was sentenced, but to
Chester Castle, where he had attentions and con-
veniences valuable at that time.

Mr. Oastler was an emphatic man, and wrote,
spoke, and thought in capitals. His ideas, like his
letters, were all underlined. His letters to Mr.
Stephens are very numerous, and full of confidence
and regard.

In 1830, Mr. Oastler wrote from Rhyl, near St.
Asaph, North Wales, earnestly entreating Mr.
Stephens' counsel and advice, saying : — " I want
your opinion as to whether I ought to retire.
Remember, I am not weary — I am not disgusted,
I am as fond as ever of striving to work for the poor,
but now / have no meansr

* " Report," July 12, 1849.

F 2

84 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

In May of the same year he wrote again to Mr^
Stephens, Avho was then at Duckenfield, telHng him
of his health, and asking Mr. Stephens' correction
of his Memoir, and counsel as to his public writings.

'' Fixby Hall, May 4th, 1838.

" My dear Stephens,

"I have been ill these ten days — quite laid by —
bed — bed — bed — till I am sick of it. I have not yet
got out of doors. A bad cough is my worst com-
plaint But still I fancy I shall rally.

''And in the midst of all I am so busy. How often
I think of you — I cannot say how much. Will you
correct my ' Memoir,' punctuation and all, and the
bit of poetry at the end } I know you will. One
word should be said somewhere — 'such is the man
whom the Whigs abuse, defame, and actually hired
assassins to destroy at the Morpeth riot, Wakefield,
July 31, 1836.' There should be a word about that,
and then I think it will be complete. A clergyman,
a high Tory — a dear old friend of mine, J. D. Schom-
berg — writes : ' I cannot tell you how delighted I
have been with the "Memoir." Who could have written
it } It is clear — it is true to the life. I should think
it an honour to know that person.' Huddersfield has
its Factory meeting to-morrow night — I cannot be
there. Do write me, my dear fellow, and tell me if
this Conservative speech of mine will do. Spring is
now coming: I shall rejoice to see you and yours. But

His Colleagues and Correspondents. 85

let me get a bit better ; this a few days will do, I
hope. My head is all in a swim, so I must stop.

"Kindly, Stephens, with love, and Mary's love
to all,

" Believe me, Stephens,

" Right lovingly yours,

"Richard Oastler.

" I have a long letter for the Northern Star this
week. Tell me, will it do .?— R.O."

The next letter contains some personal and
political facts of interest: —

'' My dearest Fellow,

" Thank you for the Times : very good indeed ;
much better than I expected. Have you seen the
Sim ? Oh, it is a glorious Stin ! Well ! they
must lock me up noWy else they never wilL

" The Fixby demonstration has struck cold terror
to the hearts of my foes — I never saw anything like
it. The boys are in ecstasies, as to the Stocks and
the ;^400. It will not do. If the banker refuses,
never mind. Let him do his worst. My difficulty
zvas, at that peculiar morneiit, to run the risk of being
refused,

" Don't you see } Yes ; I am sure you do.

" O'Connor promised me that, until the Star was
clear and independent, he would not meddle with a
daily paper.

86 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

" I know nothing about the * delegates/ &c. Who-
and what is Lord Teynham ?

" Ta, ta, Stephens,

" Richard Oastler.

" Huddersfield, Aug. 30th, 1838.

"About the meeting in Palace Yard — can any good
be done ? Remember me kindly to papa and
mamma. Tell O'Brien to put the Poor Man's
Gttm'dian s soul into the Star, — R. O.

" To the Rev. J. R. Stephens,

"Old Dog Tavern, Holywell Street, London.''

Another letter is one of sympathy for Mr. Stephens
on the loss of his father. The enemies of the " Old
King'" had trepanned him into the Fleet Prison.

"The Fleet, Feb. 9th, 1841.

" My dear Stephens,

" My heart grieves over your father's death ! I
had not heard one word ! Peace, everlasting peace,.
to his soul ! !

" Saving your doubts, you will be heartily welcome.
" I breakfast at half-past nine, and shall lay out a
cup for you.

" Yours truly,

"Richard Oastler."

The following letter was sent by Mr. Stephens to
Squire Anty, and it shows Mr. Oastler's state of

His Colleagues and Correspondents. 87

mind and fine spirit when he believed death was
approaching him. Mr. Oastler was called " the King
of the Factory Children," and at last he was com-
monly spoken of as " the Old King" by his affectionate
friends. He had kingly ways with him, and the
friendship known to be entertained for him at Court
helped to commend the fitness of the term : —

" Fulham, Middlesex, June 27th, 1848.

" My dear Anty,

" Thank you for your kind attention, and for the
intelligence.

'* Don't be angry because I am poor — I counted the
cost before I entered the lists — I saw the workhouse
before me. And now that we have gotten the Ten
Hours Bill I must leave others to obtain the repeal
of the accursed new Poor Law, preparing myself for
its benumbing retreat !

" So it ever has been with those who resolve to
maintain truth. But don't be angry — don't repine.
" I do not know that I was ever more happy.
" My health is broken, but my peace is confirmed.
" Kind remembrance to your wife and family, and
" Believe me to be, my dear Anty,
" Yours most truly,

" Richard Oastler.

"Don't fancy that steel and lead can cure the
internal disease ! — R. O."

88 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephe7is.

A letter dated November 26, 1849, f^'^m Richard
Oastler to the Rev. Joseph Rayner Stephens, contains
the following story of: —

T/ie Idiot of Edenbridge.

"Methinks that wise men will weep and blush

ere I have finished. Richard P , that is the

hero's name — possessed a treasure that absorbed much
of his care — that treasure was a bird — a jay : it died.
Richard wept over it — and then buried it. He was
a regular visitor at its grave : he ceased not to grieve
with time. A friend, to comfort him, removed the
body of the dead jay and placed in the same basket
a living bird of the same species, covering it very
lightly so as to leave air-room. He advised the
idiot to open the grave and see if his favourite was
not alive again. Poor Richard did so, and, to his
inexpressible delight, found, as he thought, his old
friend ' come back.' He took the stranger home —
never discovered the harmless, the friendly trick, and
was satisfied.

" At length, more than a year ago, his father
died ! Did that idiot love his father 1 His deeds
shall answer.

" From the day that his father's corpse was buried
until now, Richard has been a daily visitor at his
father's grave. He selects the time of the funeral —
and, I am assured, spends every day an hour there.

" Where his feet press, where he rests his staff.

His Colleagues and Correspondents. 89

where he places his father's snuff-box, bear token
of his constancy there ; the grave itself has no other
token of its occupier, save that which Nature gives —
a grassy mound.

" I visited Edenbridge churchyard last Friday, about
the hour I was told he would be there — three o'clock.

" It was a lovely afternoon. A few sheep were
pasturing on the sacred ground. Its mounds and
gravestones imparted a solemn mood, as such sights
always do. Two village boys were sauntering among
the tombs of their ancestors, unconscious that a
stranger's eye beheld them. I did not see the
object that I sought for.

*' ' Is there not a grave here that is visited by an
idiot T I asked the lads. * Yes, sir ; he's there now/
replied one of the youths, pointing northerly. I
followed his direction, and found the idiot at the
grave of his father.

'' At first, I feared to advance lest I should disturb
the mourner. In a field adjoining oxen were graz-
ing, and, though in November, spring seemed to
smile. It was winter only in the soid of the idiot,

"That real mourner stood at the head of the
grave where his father's body lay, leaning with his
right shoulder upon his staff, his shovelled hat and
handkerchief covering his face, moving his body
from side to side as in agony. I knew that he was
speaking : I also heard his sobs and sighs ! I did
not then hear him articulate one word.

90 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

" At length he stood erect, and, grasping his staff
with his right hand, looked at me. He did not look
in anger — it was an idiot's expressive gaze of
sorrow.

" Observing that my presence did not annoy him,
I drew nearer : he looked again, but took no further
note of me. Proceeding with his daily ritual, with
his left hand he lifted up his smock, produced a snuff-
box (his father was a snuff-taker, and Richard
believes he still takes a pinch or two from his own
box). Taking scrupulous care not to disturb a single
blade of grass, the idiot placed the box upon the
grave. He then resumed his former attitude^ utter-
ing in an agony of grief, sometimes choked with
sobs, the hot tears dropping on his father's grave : —

" ' Let him come back !' ' To the God Almighty/

" These were his only oft-repeated words, uttered
not as in prayer, but as though he were dictating a
message to be sent to him who kept his father there.

" Again he was weary with his repeated ejacula-
tions, and stood erect, clenching his staff, in silence^
gazing on his father^s grave.

"With the same care as before observed, he
removed the snuff-box, placing it, with evident satis-
faction, in his pocket. He adjusted his smock and
his staff, and for awhile looked intently on the green
mound before him. He then slowly and solemnly
waddled from the grave ! I followed him. Before
he reached the churchyard gates I passed him. In

His Colleagtces aizd Correspondents, 9 1

passing, I said, * You had a good father.' * Ye-e-e-s,^
in an idiotic, but grateful tone, he answered, the
tears still trickling down his face. ' You loved your
father.^' He answered as before. * And now you
love his memory } ' There was no change in his
manner — no response. * And soon you hope to meet
your father.' The same word was uttered, but in a
tone so full of hope ! * God bless you, my poor
man,' I said audibly. The idiot was evidently
sensible that I was not his foe.

" They tell me there are boys who delight in
tormenting that idiot ; that there are men who
sometimes induce Jiim to drink intoxicating liquors,
for the gratification of seeing that idiot drunk.

*' Other fathers are buried in Edenbridge church-
yard. No grave, save that of the idiot's father, bears
token of such filial affection."

Another letter shows the continuance of the strong
friendship between Mr. Oastler and Mr. Stephens,
and the tenderness and piety which was always part
of Mr. Oastler's mind. Mr. Stephens had just lost
one of his daughters by fever, suddenly : —

"Norwood, Surrey, Nov. 26th, 1851.

" The Rev. J. R. Stephens.
** My dear old Friend,

" You know that I could not receive such tidings
as you sent, without feeling more keenly than I could
utter ! But remember, thatflozver was not plucked

92 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

by a careless hand. With what care, and with how
much pleasure, you had tended it in summer and
in winter ; and when, at last, it was found too fra-
grant— too rich — too beautiful for yoitr garden^ what
agony you felt when it was transplanted ! You
could not then shake off that agony ! Do not forget,
that plant still lives — that flower still blooms — and
the fruit will ripen better in that garden than in yours !

'^ Stephens ! God is never nearer to his people than
when they are in trouble ! There is alway a why
and a wherefore : it is not for us to inquire.

" Since I received yours, I have been ill. Maria
writes this for me.

" Tell me immediately how my kind friend, your
dear wife is } I hope better. Tell her to remember
that our God is the God of comfort and consolation.
Give our love to her, and the remaining one ! and
remember me affectionately to your dear mother.

'' I do not know that you did right about Percival's
gift — I obeyed your orders ; I do not know if I did
right — I have my doubts.

" Never mind about Popery, now ; let it alone.

'' God comfort, and strengthen, and bless you !
Amen ! !

" Believe me always to be,

" Yours most faithfully and lovingly,

" Richard Oastler."

The remaining letter to be quoted here is from
Lord Stanhope : — ■

His Colleagues and Corresp07tdents. 93

'' No. 14, Great Stanhope Street,
"May nth, 1837.

" Sir, — I am favoured this morning with your
letter of the 8th inst, and had already sent to the
press my letter to Mr. Oastler, as I thought that if
he wished to receive it in a printed form, it ought to
reach him in due time before the meeting on Whit-
Tuesday. I enclose a proof, by which you will find
that it is too long to be published as part of the
proceedings of the meeting, and indeed in that case
it would not be expected that it would be given cor-
rectly. If, however, he should wish to read it to the
meeting, it may first be transcribed and read in MS.,
and the printed copies, of which 1,000 will be sent
him, may, if he should prefer, be distributed after the
meeting has been held. I intend afterwards to
forward copies to the Morning Herald, the Champion,
and to different parts of the country. I shall be
very glad to learn from you that Mr. Oastler
approves of its contents, and I beg that you will
present to him my best regards. I wish to call his
attention to the last paragraph but one, as I am not
without anxiety as to the danger that some persons
may attempt to introduce matter into the Petition
which would deprive it of its weight.
" I am, Sir,
" Your obedient, hupible Servant,

"Stanhope.

"To the Rev. J. R. Stephens.^'

94 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

CHAPTER VI.

STORMY DAYS OF ADVOCACY.

Political agitations in England were managed
better in the days of the Corresponding Society than
in the time of the Reform Bill of 1832, or in that
of Chartism in 1839. More persons of education,
good position, and conspicuous ability, were leaders
in the earlier agitation. The great French Revolu-
tion which first inspired them, afterwards destroyed,
or discouraged and dispersed them ; the wild ex-
cesses in France, which could never have occurred in
England, were imagined to be the natural fruits of
liberty. There were, however, examples in the days
of which we Avrite of meetings conducted with intel-
ligent prudence, and yet not lacking fire and purpose.

On the 25th of Sept., 1838, there was a mass
meeting held in the market-place at Roscoe Field,
Sheffield. Mr. Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn Law
Rhymer, presided. Of the 20,000 persons present,
eleven-twelfths were said to be unrepresented in
Parliament."^

Mr. Elliott said : — " Fellow-townsmen and

* F. Place, *' W. M. A.," p. 230 to 232, vol. ii., 27, 820.

Stormy Days of Advocacy. 95

Neighbours, your character in London stands high.
Don't do anything to forfeit that high character. Not
only keep the peace yourselves, but prevent others
from breaking it ; and inasmuch as it is your wish to
obtain your rights by legal and peaceful means, you
will, I trust, discharge your duty strictly, and dis-
courage every speaker who may advise violent
measures, for any such speaker brings only one
person to your aid, — the one man in a thousand —
and keeps away nine hundred and ninety-nine from
joining you.

"jIt is proposed that our^^meeting shall commence
with a hymn, which I will recite stanza by stanza,
and you will sing it, accompanied by the band, to
the tune of the Old Hundredth Psalm.''

Mr. Elliott then gave out the hymn, and the mul-
titude sang it. From the solemnity of the tune, and
the spirit-stirring nature of the words, a striking
effect was produced. The words were : —

God of the Poor ! shall labour eat ?
Or drones alone find labour sweet ?
Lo, they who call Thy earth their own,
Take all we have — and give a stone !

Yet bring not Thou on them the doom
That scourged the proud of wretched Rome,
Who stole, for few^, the lands of all,
To make all life a funeral.

Lord ! not for vengeance rave the wronged,
The hopes deferred, the woes prolonged ;
Our cause is just, our judge divine ?
But judgment, God of all, is Thine !

96 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens,

Yet not in vain thy children call
On Thee, if Thou art Lord of all ;
And by Thy work, and by Thy word,
Hark ! millions cry for justice, Lord !

For leave to toil, and not in vain —
For honest labour's needful gain :
A little rest, a little corn,
For weary man, to trouble born !

For labour, food ; for all their own :
Our right to trade from zone to zone,
To make all laws for us and ours,
And curb the will of evil powers.

Mr. Elliott continued : — " Fellow-townsmen and
Neighbours ! Having been deputed by you to attend
a meeting held in London on the 1 7th of September,
and that meeting having been misrepresented by
aspersions of the Press, you will perhaps wish to hear
from me the truth, and justice to your fellow-men
in London requires that the truth should be told."

He then said that the Times newspaper had
described the Westminster meeting as not exceeding
5,000 in number, and he (Mr. Elliott) went on to
show from calculation that there could not have been
fewer than 20,000, besides the vast numbers who
were coming and going away again in consequence
of their not being able to approach within hearing
distance of the speaker.

All this, and much more spoken by him, was
admirably done in spirit and in judgment. The
verses read by Elliott were written by him-
self; he had a fine voice, and the manner of a

Storiny Days of Advocacy, 97

prophet in his public speech. The agitation for the
Repeal of the Corn Laws was conducted throughout
by a class of instructed politicians, who saw the
benefits which increased trade would bring to the
working people, long before they could comprehend
all that was involved in the question. In the case of
the Poor Law and Factory agitations, outrage and
cruelty were more palpable than famine, and stung
men of generous nature into indignation and violence;
and the people themselves were excited and enraged.
These agitations were marked by fierce invective and
wild menace. A variety of political parties were
mixed up in them. Mr. Stephens himself joined the
Chartists when he had reason to believe that without
popular power the poor could not obtain redress. He
became a colleague of Feargus O'Connor, who had in
him a " floating recklessness '"^ which dashed hither
and thither with every wind of passion. As O'Connor
did not understand Democratic principle, and as
Mr. Stephens who did understand it, did not care for
it, they troubled not to conduct their advocacy in
that way which should give it character and win regard
for it from those outside the Democratic movement.
To them was joined James Bronterre O'Brien, another
Irish orator and copious writer, who added to his
national sense of dissatisfaction the furious theories
of the French Revolutionists. He had more educa-

* A happy phrase applied to him by Alfred, the author of the best
written history of the Factory Movement (p. 131).

G

98 Life of yoseph Rayner Stepheits.

tion than O'Connor, but like him his genius lay in
denunciation, which in those days passed for fervid
patriotism. The result was that Daniel O'Connell,
who had a consistent sense of Democratic principle,
and knew that legality was essential to its force, de-
nounced Stephens, Oastler, and Feargus O'Connor^ as
enemies of the people. At the same time there was
a body of London and Birmingham Radicals, working-
class leaders of good political knowledge and high
character, who proposed to attain popular liberty by
means of argument and the education of the people.
These men O'Connor ridiculed as " Moral Force Re-
formers." They, in their turn, denounced O'Connor
and his colleagues as " Physical Force Chartists," the
^' Moral Force " party consisted of James Watson,
Richard Moore, William Lovett, and John Collins of
Birmingham. The little thought that O'Connor
bestowed upon the character of the Noi'thcrn Star
was shown by the circumstance that the first number
of the new tribune of all patriots, contained a
" Public Notice to the Unhappy," stating in good
capitals that " The Itch could be cured in an
Hour :" as though that was information of immediate
importance to his readers.

Adversity is said to make a man acquainted with
strange companions. Philanthropy sometimes brings
around him unexpected associates, and at a Factory
Operative Meeting, on May 27, 1850, in the Corn

* ** Place on Stephens," vol. 27,820, MS. Room, Brit. Museum.

Stormy Days of Advocacy. 99

Exchange, Hanging Ditch, Manchester, to take into
consideration the steps to be adopted to counteract
the effects of " Lord Ashley's Treachery," the meeting
was called in the names of the following persons : —
Thomas Fielden ; Lord John Manners, M.P.; George
Bankes, M.P. ; the Earl of March, M.P. ; P.
H. Muntz, M.P. ; W. S. Crawford, M.P. ; Thomas
Wakley, M.P. ; Thomas Buncombe, M.P.
Feargus O'Connor, M.P. ; Henry Edwards, M.P.
Richard Oastler ; Samuel Fielden ; W. B. Ferrand
the Rev. J. R. Stephens. No one of them
probably agreed with any other, but all agreed
on the question of defending the Factory Act,
which had then been passed, and was believed
to be in danger of substantial and dangerous
alteration in the supposed interests of capitalists
or employers.

Lord Ashley, notwithstanding his great ser-
vices to the Factory Cause, was denounced as a
traitor by his Tory colleagues for assenting to
a compromise upon the Ten Hours Bill. It was a
dangerous mistake, but not " treachery ": his
honest labour for the Bill should have rendered
such an imputation impossible. No wonder working
men had the ailment of imputation when their
Tory leaders had this disease of speech in such an
aggravated form.

No public question is ever fought or debated out
solely on the lines of essential difference of principle.

G 2

lOO Life of Joseph Rayner Stephe^is.

Many people take sides only because they hate the
party opposed to it — not because they know or care
much about the question contested. Tories helped
in the Factory Question because they thought the
Liberals were opposed to it. Radical and anti-Poor
Law meetings were held. Anti-Poor Law and Ten
Hour meetings were held simultaneously, until the
public scarcely knew which was which. The So-
cialists of that day, though not political partizans as
a body, joined from motives of humanity both in the
anti-Poor Law and in the Ten Hours movements.

Many of the old co-operators and friends of that
*^ cause " were among those holding official positions
in the Ten Hours movement. At the great delegate
meeting held in the Queen's Hotel, Todmorden, in
1822, William Mallalieu was in the chair ; his name
often occurs in that capacity. Mr. Mallalieu was
remembered as the first man who subscribed one pound
towards the little fund for establishing the Rochdale
Co-operative Store. Of the Council of the Association
for the Protection and Enforcement of Col. Fielden's
Ten Hours Act, Mr. Mallalieu was vice-president;
Mr. Thos. Livsey, of Rochdale, a school-fellow and
valued friend of John Bright's, was the general
treasurer ; Charles Howarth, of Rochdale, was secre-
tary— the same Mr. Howarth who discovered the
plan of dividing profits in co-operative stores accord-
ing to purchases. Familiar co-operative names occur
in the reports of the meetings and councils held

Stormy Day^- of AdvoKctey: i o i

in various towns in the north. Joseph Crabtree
(father of James Crabtree of Heckmondwike), who
was the first man to invite Feargus O^Connor from
Ireland, was a political prisoner for two years in
York Castle. Mr. John Avison was the chief secretary
of the movement, the committee rooms being at 2jy
Bloom Street, Portland Street, Manchester.

But the co-operators w^ere never led away
by proposed remedies of violence. One of their
leaders, Robert Buchanan, father of the present poet
of that name, who also had a faculty of verse, wrote
in the fiercest days of the agitation these " Anticipa-
tions":—

Creatures of error ! beings whose minds are but

A chaos of contending passions ! say :

When will you drown your petty feuds, and put

Trust in each other 1 When will wisdom sway

Your actions, and bright Reason's glorious ray

Shed her clear beams on your benighted world,

As the returning sun from heaven's highway

Rolls back the night of darkness, and the herald

Of Truth proclaims her dawn ; — her banner be unfurled ?

Even now the shadow of a mighty change
Is coming o'er the nations ; Reason's power,
Is felt by all around, and doth unhinge
The rooted ills of time. Each passing hour
Brings nearer virtue's goal ; when peace shall shower
Her blessings on the world. The people's might
Is gathering fast. Though tyranny may lour,
The human mind eschews foul superstition's night,
And promises, ere long, a great and glorions light.*

* The Northern Star, Dec. 9, 1837. ]

I02 Life of ymeph Rayner Stephe^ts,

When politicians spoke plain, homely sense in those
days, nobody noticed it or gave them any credit for it.
What could be more useful, just, and dispassionate,
than these words of John Collins, at a great meeting
on Hunslet Moor, Leeds ? —

" If you mistrust a man, and let him know that
you mistrust him, and that you continually are
trying to degrade him in the estimation of his
neighbours by continuing this conduct, I say you
soon give the man humiliating thoughts, or, what is
worse, you make him reckless. He says, * They cannot
think worse of me than they do,' and he conse-
quently becomes careless of his conduct and immoral
in his practice. But if you take a man by the hand,
show him you wish to raise him in the scale of
society and make him respected, you will give him
a motive for action ; he becomes guarded in his
conduct lest he should forfeit your esteem.""*

To do O'Connor justice, he had his lucid intervals.
when good sense charmed him. No sooner had
Collins ceased speaking, than he rushed to the plat-
form, " on purpose," as he said, " to compliment
Collins on his instructive, eloquent, and masterly

speech."t

The object for which these and some following
citations are made, is to show that Mr. Stephens
himself was one of the least denunciatory and vehe-

* Northern Star, June 9, 1838. , t Ibid., June 9, 1838.

Stormy Days of Advocacy, 103

ment of the public men of distinction with whom he
laboured.

O'Connor, to justify his own violence of speech,
described in the following terms Lord Brougham's
journey to York on a memorable occasion, and cited
what he said on the way : —

" To Elland next Don Quixote journeyed, and,
after a fair share of steam-eloquence, he journeyed
on his way to Newmill, where he first heard the glad
tidings of the ' three glorioles days^ and thus did Sir
Knight express himself : * He (Harry) zvas glad, de^
lighted to hear the joyful news, and hoped the day zvas
not far distant zvJien all royal heads zvotdd he made
foot-balls for the boys to kick in the mire! * If, ' said
he, * the Duke of Wellington sJioidd attempt to force
a Bonrbon upon the French throne, in opposition to the
will of the FrencJi people, it woidd justify a revolt iLpon
the part of the English nation! "*

It was remembered that Thomas Attwood, though
a discreet agitator on the whole, had on occasions
used language which had an ominous suggestiveness
in it ; as when he said in the very year of the
Chartist outbreak at Newport : " Two millions of
men, acting under cautious and prudent leaders, with
one heart and one mind, and if dire necessity should
make it imperative, with one hand."t

Augustus Hardinge Beaumont, editor of the

* Northern Star, March 31, 1838.
t Thomas Attwood : Speech, Town Hall, Birmingham, Jan. I, 1839.

104 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens.

London Dispatch^ proprietor and editor of the Northern
Liberator, appeared in the North. The following
speech shows what a wild vein he had in him, and
what ability he had for ruining a cause, gratis : —

" Think not, my friends, that these acts shall go
unavenged. Lord Gosford and Sir John Colborne
shall yet be put upon their trial at Westminster
Hall, and, being condemned, be hanged for their
crimes, under the same statute under which suffered
Governor Wall, albeit he too was protected in his
atrocious act by the ministers of the day. As was
Wall hanged, so shall be Gosford and Colborne. —
(Cheers.) — And justice will not be done them unless
Russell, and Melbourne, and Peel, are hanged along
with them. — (Great cheers.) — According to law, on
these detestable violators of the laws of God and
man — (cheers) — never shall we have peace in England
till the precedent set in the reign of Henry the Eighth,
when Empsey and Dudley, two ministers, not half
so bad, not half so criminal, were hanged by the
neck ; oh, it was a glorious precedent. — (Vehemont
cheers.)" After showing how the Canadian civil war
must affect our commerce and so bring down the
wages of working men, and eulogizing the Canadians
for their manly assertion of their rights, he concluded
by expressing his detestation of all war as being
only an accumulation of murder, but in struggling
for liberty it was glorious to spill the life of the
enemy of freedom, or to yield up one's own.

Stormy Days of Advocacy, 105

" How, say you — are John Russell, commonly

called Lord John Russell^ and Lord Melbourne,

guilty of treason, robbery, arson, and murder, or are

they not guilty ? — (Cries of "Guilty, guilty.") — Such of

you as give your verdict of guilty, then, hold up your

hands. — (Here the whole meeting held up their

hands.) — Hearken to your verdict — you say the

Ministers are guilty of treason, murder, robbery, and

arson, and so you say all.^ — (Cries of "Yes, yes, we do.")

— Oh ! my friends, how I do wish that I could give

effect to your most righteous verdict by pronouncing

judgment of death and execution.

" Blood like this

For liberty shed so holy is,

It would not stain the purest rill

Which sparkles amidst the bowers of bliss.

Oh ! if there be on this earthly sphere,

A boon, an offering, heaven holds dear,

'Tis the last libation liberty draws

From the heart which bleeds and breaks in her

cause.

^'*

Sadler was accused of using violent language to
his adversaries. It was stated in the Leeds Mercury
that he said to a manufacturer, " Sir, if I met you on
a dark night and had a pistol in my hand, I would
shoot you." It was admitted by Mr. Edward Baines
that Sadler did not say this. But his biographer
allows that he oft had hurled anathemas at manufac-
turers as -^ enemies of the poor."f

Mr. Stephens spoke of John Fielden as the

^ Northern Star, Jan. 13, 1838. f **Life of Sadler," p. 408.

io6 Life of yoseph Rayner Stepke7is,

Ulysses of the Ten Hours Movement. In 1831 he
was induced to take the chair at a public dinner given
to William Cobbett in Oldham, which led to Mr.
Cobbett being invited to stand for the then expected
new borough. Mr. Fielden consented to stand with
him, and it was thus that he was drawn into public
life. His own words in 1838 were, *^ I am so far a
Conservative that I do not wish to see the old
English institutions destroyed ; I am so far a Con-
servative that I will exert myself to the utmost of
my power, and I will call upon the people to back
me, to prevent the destruction of those institutions
which the Radicals never asked to be destroyed, but
which it is now proved the Whigs wish to destroy.""^
These words were spoken at a dinner given to him
in Manchester.

In 1834, Mr. Oastler was incessantly engaged on
deputations to ministers and others ; in correspond-
ence ; on the platform, and in writing letters to the
press. A second edition of one of his more im-
portant letters — an octavo pamphlet of 34 pp., bore
these words on the title-page : — "A letter to those
sleek, pious, holy, and devout Dissenters, Messrs.
Get-all, Keep-all, Grasp-all, Scrape- all. Whip-all,
Gull-all, Cheat-all, Cant-all, Work-all, Sneak-all,
Lie-well, Swear-well, Scratch-em and Company."

At a Huddersfield evening meeting, which lasted
until a quarter to one o'clock the next morning, Mr.

* Northern Star^ June 9, 1838.

Stormy Days of Advocacy, 107

Oastler said he would " explain his meaning as to what
soldiers should do when called upon to act against
the people, by an anecdote." It was that '' he once
knew an officer who was hated by his men ; he one
day went whole skinned into action, and he was
carried out of the field with forty bullets in his car-
case." Mr. Oastler named the officer '' Power " to
whom this anecdote was to apply, and who was
apostrophized thus, " Power ! hear and tremble."*

At a great public meeting held in December, 1837,
at Bywater's Room, Manchester, on behalf of the
Glasgow Cotton Spinners, w^ho had a Trades^ Union
trouble on hand — some of their number being im-
prisoned— Mr. Oastler spoke thus : " Mr. Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen, once more I appear before
my friends, my neighbours, and my deadly enemies,
for when I see bloody Whigs here, I know that I am
in presence of my foes ; once more, after a long season
of repose, I enter the field of Factory agitation. This
night, in presence of a Russell spy, I, without one
feeling of disloyalty towards my beloved Queen
(whom God long preserve !), as ' King,' unfurl the
royal standard of innocence — the standard of the Ten
Hours Bill. Yes, Mr. Spy, you will, I hope, inform
your bloody masters that I am a ' King,' nominated
by Baines, and cheerfully acknowledged as ' King ' by
hundreds of thousands of honest Englishmen."!

When known Tories like Mr. Oastler, who had a

* Northern Star, Dec. 2, 1837. t Ibid.^ Dec. 23, 1837.

io8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

character as a gentleman to sustain, used inciting
language of this nature, working-class politicians who
fell in with " physical force " ideas should be con-
demned with discrimination.

The transported Dorchester labourers were always
spoken of as the " victims of Whiggery." The
Tories would have shot them, or transported them
for double the time to which they were sentenced.
But the orators of these violent times were not at
all discriminating as to what they said of the
" Whigs."

The animosity and jealousy with which working
people, who were despairing and without any poli-
tical power to improve their position, regarded the
employing and governing classes, are now subsiding.
The people have their *^ interests " now. The interest
of labour has become as distinct as the interest of
property ; and each interest now can take a more
dispassionate view of its relation to other interests
than formerly.

Mr. Pitkeithley, of Huddersfield,said at theAshton-
undcr-Lyne meeting, that while the people were
starving, and Dorchester labourers were transported
for combining to raise their wages, the House of
Commons readily voted an increase of ^8,000 a-year
to the Duchess of Kent's allowance.* As late as
1850 the following speech was placarded about the
northern towns : —

* No7'tJiern Siar^ Jan. 6, 1838.

Stormy Days of Advocacy, 109

'^ A Model Speech for Members for Parliament.

** (From the Times of March 9th, 1850.)

*' Colonel Sibthorpe would not vote on either
side, as he had no confidence in either party. He
was curious to know how far the right hon. gentle-
man, the member for Tamworth (Sir Robert Peel),
would go now in supporting the man of * unadorned
eloquence' (Mr. Cobden). — (A laugh.) — He would
try the sincerity of the Government when the Esti-
mates came regularly before the House. He looked
upon the entire system as one of corruption, and
rather than vote for either of the parties now before
them, he would take his hat and leave the House.
— (Laughter.)

" [The hon. and gallant Colonel then took up his
hat and left the House.]"

Colonel Sibthorpe was but the spokesman of a
large party who were never so happy as when they
could find reasons for doing nothing. To proclaim
distrust of " both parties" was, and is, still a popular
way of preventing anything being done.

It was observed that " the Queen's Speech in
1837 consisted of sixty- three lines only, while the
indictment against the Glasgow cotton spinners
occupied nearly thirty quarto pages of print. In
the Queen's Speech there was not one word of
Universal Suffrage ; no sound save that of the

lio Life of Joseph Rayne7^ Stephens,

musket in reference to the New Poor Law Amend-
ment Act."*

It is related that when Count D'Orsayt was
asked his opinion touching Mr. Spring Rice's
qualifications for office, he answered, " All I have
to say is, that when I saw the cut of his last
coat I drew my money out of the Funds, having no
confidence in his judgment." When Lord Morpeth
was nominated for the Chief Secretaryship of Ire-
land, the Count was appealed to at a party at which
he was present for his opinion. His intelligent reply
was, " I never did see him but one day in the park,
and he may do, if he will only change his tailor.**
These sort of speeches were thought wittier and
wiser than the most earnest speeches in favour of
restrictions on the tyranny of manufacturers. The
poor, being without hope, turned a willing ear to
violence, which might produce change, and could not
possibly make things worse for them.

When the poor workman is without bread, and
sees that Death is his only friend, he, as a man, may
be partly excused if he lends a favourable ear to
projects of physical-force relief. It enables him to
perform the only act of independence remaining to
him — that of choosing his own time and way of
leaving a world w^here he is not wanted.

An American editor, with the vivid humour which

* Northern Star, Nov. 25, 1837.
t A great leader of fashion and companion in the revelries of George IV,

Stormy Days of Advocacy. 1 1 1

is the characteristic of his profession, said of a de-
ceased lounger, that he had sat so long in his office
that when he died his shadow was found fixed upon
the wall. There is no doubt that great wrongs and
long-continued sufferings, ending in despair, leave
their shadows imprinted upon the minds of the
generation which has known them — shadows which
are oft transmitted to generations which have been
themselves free from the evils reflected.

112 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

CHAPTER VII.

PASSAGES FROM HIS SPEECHES AND SERMONS.

Though Dr. Johnson did think it strange of Hierocles,
who, when he wanted to sell his house, carried a
brick round in his pocket as a specimen, there are
circumstances under which that plan may be useful.
There are people who buy houses who would derive
advantage from seeing first the quality of the bricks
of which they are built. The following passages
from Mr. Stephens' orations and sermons, come
under the objection of being but fragments of an
edifice from which the reader can gather but little idea
of its design, proportion, and character. They will
nevertheless serve to suggest the quality of the struc-
ture from which they are taken.

These passages are derived from ordinary news-
paper reports, from papers which were never rich in
literary resource, and seldom able to command the
services of competent reporters. In every case
Mr. Stephens spoke much better than the report
represents him. At all times he must have spoken
with great deliberation, distinctness, and accuracy, or

Passages from His Speeches and Sermons, 1 13

the reports remaining could not be what they are. It
was the Poor Law which first caused him to take up
the defence of the people against it. After forty-three
years, it is impossible, on reading what he said, not to
catch the feeling of his splendid invective. The
opening of his oration at Saddleworth are the words
of a born orator, who finds every season and circum-
stance by which he is surrounded, minister to his
speech. His defence of himself as a political preacher
was intended for other ears than those of his audience.
His citation of Bishop Latimer's speech to the Lord
Protector was addressed to the Bishop of Manchester.
Mr. Stephens used the resources of his human
knowledge, as did Edward Irving, to enforce what
he considered religious justice. His speech on the
Glasgow Cotton Spinners' Case, proves that the
poor fellows got sympathy and advocacy from
Ministers of religion in England which they did not
meet with in their own country. The passages
from Mr. Stephens's speech at Manchester,* show
that his eloquence was not all invective —
its illustrations, ecclesiastical and classical — all
indicate that the inspiration of this orator was that
of the old prophets, who were the fearless speakers
for the people. The charge of murder was with-
drawn against the Cotton Spinners : it was intended
to hang them, judging from the spirit and the terms
in which the indictment was drawn. His speech on

* Northern Star^ Dec. 30^ 1837.

H

114 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

the Poor Law, " the Law of Devils," and a further
speech in which he uttered his defiance of Lord
John Russell, all show the fire, vehemence, and spirit
which characterized his orations. The passages from
his various sermons might be greatly extended, but
the one, the " Rising Tide of Time," shows what a fine
vein of meditative feeling was also in him. " What
a Foreign Bishop did," ^^ Salvation to those who serve
— the Queen at a Wild Beast Show/' and " Naming
a Minister,^'' are examples of his power and readiness.
His repugnance to a *' Democratic Chapel," the dis-
cernm.entwith which he speaks of the "Social Morality
of Co-operation," his descriptions of " Song-smiths
and Word-smiths," — made towards the close of his life
— show no abatement of his fertility, his wisdom,
earnest thought, and happiness of expression. In
some of his speeches the reader will find retained
signs of the feelings with which they were received
when spoken. They show the quick discernment as
well as the passions of the times.

The passage quoted from his sermon upon the
death of Henry Hindle shows the interest he took in
his neighbours and hearers. The Hindles were a
rematkable family of three brothers — John, a bookseller
of Stockport, is known for his great interest in social
and political affairs. James, a keeper of a Turkish
bath, was inspired by Mr. Urquhart, and displayed
the most intelligence and enthusiasm of any who
followed that business. He was also the writer of

Passages from His Speeches a7td Sermojts. 115

the best verses concerning Mr. Stephens, of which
many appeared from local poets. Henry, who was
blind, and of whom the funeral sermon was spoken,
had a singularly clear, penetrating voice, and an
oracular confidence in the opinions he expressed,
and excelled all blind men whom I ever knew in
ingenuity. His mechanical inventions were numerous,
quite original contrivances, and most of them con-
structed byhis own hands, he working amid dangerous
machinery without wounding himself.

The Poor Law in the Court and tJie Cottage,

" No, sir ! It is beyond bearing — it is beyond all
British endurance, that while the dowager queen of
these realms is to be still maintained in all but regal
splendour." — (Mr. Stephens was here very much
interrupted by the employers on the bench, and their
overlookers below the bench. Cries of " Question,
question !" were continually uttered, followed by
counter cries of " It is the question !" and great
cheering.) Mr. Stephens, turning to the interrupters,
said, " I was not saying it is wrong that the dowager
queen should have this maintenance ; I was not
saying that she ought not to have it ; but I do say,
that if it be right that site should have secured to
her ;^ 1 00,000 a year because she is the widow of a
man who served the country as a king ; if it be right
that the wives of the Poor Law Commissioners

H 2

1 1 6 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

should enter the presence and bask in the smiles of
royalty itself, and have ;^ 2,000 a year to live upon,
even while their husbands are living ; if it be right
that Lord Brougham should enjoy a retiring pension
of ;^5,ooo a year, then, I say, it is not to be endured
that the widows of Englishmen, whose husbands have
died off their mules and their looms, their spades and
their ploughs, should be thrust into a ^bastile' to
starve, and their fatherless offspring sent, at eight
years of age, to be murdered by the death-dealing
labour of a factory."^

Exordiinn of the Oration at Saddleworth.

" Are these the bleak hills — are these the brave
men of Saddleworth ? Do I at length stand before
the hardy sons of a sturdy soil, the chosen children
of liberty, who have been nurtured in the principles
of the purest patriotism, renowned for the sternness
of their virtue, and the steady determination with
which they oppose the enemies of their country ? If
truth, and freedom, and love, have a dwelling-place
on earth, it must surely be among such valleys,
beneath the shield and shelter of such mountains as
rise up around us here — well, then, men of Saddle-
worth, you who have heard Strickland, and Morpeth,
and Brougham prate of liberty, until you almost
dreamed yourselves the freest of the free — you^
who have been paraded as the brave and ha7'dy
* Speech reported in the Northern Star^ Nov. 8 1837.

Passages from His Speeches and Sermons, 117

mountaineers who, at every call of your .chieftains,
were to muster in valorous and proud array until
ye deemed yourselves as invincible in fight, as wise
in council, and incorruptible in virtue — men of Saddle-
worthy tell me what have your boasted principles
produced — what have been, what are now^ the
fruits ?"^

Defence of himself as a Political Advocate,

The report in the Northern Star says, the Rev.
J. R. Stephens, on rising to support the resolution,
was received with several volleys of applause. He
said, " I am proud, Mr. Chairman, to follow the two
men who have last spoken : the first was a bricklayer,
the second was a joiner ; men of two crafts that are
needed in building up the * earthly house below.'
(Hear, hear.) I belong to a craft, the first and last
lesson of which is that there is only one foundation
on which we all can build, that foundation being
this : ' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.^
(Cheers.) That foundation being the basis of the
whole superstructure, whose top stone and whose
banner is ' Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace and goodwill towards men.* (Loud cheers.)
Unless, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, the two worlds
can be brought together, unless the laws of Heaven
be those of earth, unless the blessing of the Supreme

* Public Meeting of Weavers of District of Saddleworth. Northern
Star Report, Dec. 9, 1837.

1 1 8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

be the enjoyment of the created, unless the legisla-
tion of the Eternal be the spirit of the legislation
of us creatures of a day — then, either there is no
God, and we are in the shadowy sea of doubt and
uncertainty, or we have the knowledge of God in our
legislation, but deny the power. (Loud cheers.) It
is my and your province, — of you as working men, and
me as a minister of the Gospel, — to show to the
country and the world that we have so learned the
* law of love' in the good old book, as to be deter-
mined, either that that law shall be established and
enforced, and carried into zealous and perfect
execution, or that you will plant the leverage of your
mighty power and resistless energies under the foun-
dation of all bad law, heave it at its centre, hurl it
into the sea, and begin afresh, as God would have
you begin. God will strengthen you throughout that
work, and cause his blessing to shine upon you when-
ever you shall have finally accomplished it. (Cheers.)
My hopes are to-night fulfilled. (Hear, hear.) The
cup of my joy runs over to-night. Manchester is up !
Manchester is out ! Manchester is awake ! Man-
chester is alive ! Manchester is at her post ! Man-
chester has sworn this night to do her duty ! (Immense
cheers.) This is a night never to be forgotten here,
never to be forgotten in the country."

" I will speak here as a lawyer and as a minister
of the Gospel, and I will say that from the law of

Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 119

the land, and from the law of God, there is such a
point, to which Government has arrived, that I
believe now the question is, not whether O'Connor,
Oastler, and myself shall talk about shedding the last
drop of our blood, and exhorting the people to follow
our example, but that the only question is whether this
be just the nick of time when this ought to be done !
** Sir, I know there are those in Manchester who
would say this is very violent language — (Hear, hear)
— very violent in Mr. O'Connor, who is a barrister,
but more so in me as a Christian minister. (Hear,
hear.) The men who say so do not understand what
the Christian ministry is, or what it was appointed
for ; they know nothing at all of the practical and
goodly purposes of Him who is our head, who made
us His ministers and your servants for Christ's sake.
(Cheers.) You know of good old Bishop Latimer.
You shall hear what he was in the habit of saying on
the Glasgow cases of his day. If he had been now
Bishop of Manchester, he would have been here
to-night — (Hear, hear,) — and if the ministers of Man-
chester had courage enough to do their duty, they
would be standing here in my place, and I should be
looking after my flock in Duckinfield. (Cheers.)
Bishop Latimer went as Nathan went to David, and
said, 'Thou art the man.' 'I hear of many matters,*
says he, * before my Lord Protector and my Lord Chan-
cellor, that cannot be heard. I must desire my
Lord Protector's grace to hear me in this matter, and

120 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens.

that your Grace would likewise hear poor men's suits
yourself. Put them to none other to be heard ; let
them not be delayed. The saying is now that money
IS heard everywhere ; if a man be rich, he shall soon
have an end of the matter. Others are fain to go
home with tears, for any help they can obtain at any
judge's hand. Hear men's suits yourself, I require
you, in God's behalf, and put them not to the hearing
of these velvet-coats and upskips. Now, a man can
scarcely know them from ancient knights of the
country. A gentlewoman came to me, and told me
that a certain great man keepeth some lands of hers
from her, and that in a whole year she could but get
one day for the hearing of her matter ; and on that
day the great man brought on his side a sight of
lawyers for his counsel, and that she had but one man
of the law ; and the great man so shakes him that
he cannot tell what to do ; so that when the matter
came to the point, the judge was so mean to the
gentlewoman that she should let the great man have a
quietness in her land. I beseech your Grace, that
you will look to these matters ; hear them yourself ;
view your judges, and hear poor men's causes."
Turning to the judges, Latimer said, ' And
you, proud judges, hearken what God saith in His
holy book : Hear the poor, saith He, as well as the
rich. Mark that saying, thou proud judge. The
devil will bring this sentence at the day of doom.
Hell will be full of such judges, if they repent not and

Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 121

amend. They are worse than the wicked judge
Christ speaketh of ; for they will neither hear men for
God's sake, nor fear of the world, nor importunity, nor
anything else ; yea, some of them will command
them to ward, if they be importunate. I heard say,
that when a suitor came to one of them, he said,
" What fellow is that that giveth these folks counsel
to be so importunate 1 He should be committed to
ward." Marry, sir, commit me then ; it is even I
that gave them this counsel ; and if you amend not,
I will cause them to cry out upon you still, even as
long as I live.'

" Now-a-days' (says Latimer), * the judges are afraid
to hear a poor man against the rich ; they will either
pronounce against him, or drive off the suit that he
shall not be able to go through with it. But the
greatest man in the realm cannot so hurt a judge as
a poor widow, — such a shrewd turn can she do him.
The cries of the poor ascend to Heaven, and call down
vengeance from God. Cambyses was a great Em-
peror, such another as our master is ; he had many
lord presidents, lord deputies and lieutenants under
him. It chanced he had under him, in one of his
dominions, a briber, a gift-taker, a gratifier of rich
men. The cry of a poor widow came to the Empe-
ror's ears ; upon which he flayed the judge quick, and
laid his skin in the chair of judgment, that all
judges that should give judgment afterwards would
sit in the same skin. Surely it was a goodly sign of

122 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens,

the judge's skin,"^ Mr. Stephens added, "I pray God we
may once see the sign of the judge's skin in England.'^

TJie Poor Law ; tJie Laiv of Devils,

" If Lord John Russell wanted to know what he (Mr.
Stephens) thought of the new Poor Law, he would tell
him plainlyhethoughtitwasthe lav/ of devils, and that it
ought to be resisted to thedeath,even if thefirstman that
might be slaughtered in opposing it should be Lord
John Russell himself. They had, at Ashton, come to
the determination that when next March should come
they would vote no more for guardians. Let the
man who would dare to accept the office of guardian
take the consequences upon his own head. He told
them this, because he thought they ought to know.
If it was to come, let it come ; it should be an eye
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, limb for limb, wife for
wife, child for child, and blood for blood — (Loud cheers)
so help their God and their country. (Continued
cheers.) Should the best feelings of human nature
thus be torn asunder, he knew a law that w^ould be
stronger and more powerful than the law of the
land — it was the law of Nature. He knew a force,
mightier and more resistless than armed policemen,
horses' feet, artillery, or troops and dragoons. It was
the force of the tear trickling from a daughter's eye ;
the sigh of a wife of a working man's bosom. The
force was the magic power that beamed in a woman's

* Northern Star, Dec. 30, 1837.

Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 123

eye, imploring, begging, looking through her tears
and darting the pointed shafts of Nature's eloquence
to the heart and arm of her husband, and exclaiming,
* Husband, husband, will you suffer this ? will you
allow the wife that came to you a blooming and
innocent maiden, that came to share the joys and
sorrows of your cottage — the woman that has borne
you these children — that has buried others — that has
wiped the tear of sorrow from your eye and the sweat
of anguish from your brow — the woman that has been
true when all things else were false — kind when all
others have been unfeeling and relentless — that has
sympathized with your sorrows, forgiven your wan-
derings— whose arms have always been opened
to take you home, and whose innocent breast has
always been your resting place?' Can Govern-
ment, can policemen, can armies — all the armies of
fiends — can they stand against a nation's arm and a
nation's grasp, when woman — when our own wives and
daughters lie imploring protection and vengeance at
our feet ? (Tremendous cheers.) Once more then, I
register before Heaven, and record before you, my
determination never in any way, in any shape, or at
any time, to obey that law. The moment that law
is declared to be in operation at Ashton, that moment
my office, as the people's leader and guide, is at an
end." (Repeated and long continued cheering.)*

* Anti-Poor Law Meeting, Carpenters' Hall, Manchester, Feb. lo,
1838.

124 Life of Joseph Ray7ter Stephens.

On his Consistency in Ptdpit and on Platform —
Defiance of Lord John RnsselL

" He wondered much that Lord John Russell
should take the trouble, and put the country to the
expense of sending down men to look after him.
He knew where he lived, and he knew he was a
loyal subject of the Queen. He knew that he was
no flincher ; that he never called back a word he ever
said on any subject ; that he never said one thing to
* the masses,' as they chose to call the people, and
another to the myrmidons of power — (Cheers ) — that
he had never said one thing at his fireside and
another at the hustings, or one thing in the committee-
room and another in the pulpit ; but whether he
stood as a messenger of mercy from God to man, in
his own proper vocation, or, as a preacher to thousands,
as on the present occasion, he had done only as he
ever would continue to do, in the self-same words
and in the self-same way. If, therefore. Lord John
Russell wanted to know what he thought, he told
him at once that he was determined to preach to the
people so long as he had lips to utter a sound.

" In conclusion, he would say, as he had said
before, that he would never rest till the Poor Law was
erased from the statute book, and the rights of the
poor established in righteousness and peace. But if
poverty was to be called a crime, and starved, and we
were to suffer the separation of parent from child, and

Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 125

husband from wife, then the era of the curse had
arrived ; the time to be up and doing was fully come ;
and he would not only tell it, and teach it, and argue
it, and press it with all his power upon the people,
but he would be found either in the rear, or in the
flank, or in the midst, or in the van. (Tremendous
cheers.) May God prevent that last and most awful
and dire necessity, by teaching our senators
wisdom, and our governors justice, by putting it into
their hearts to protect their own property by pro-
tecting the property of the poor ; by putting it into
their hearts to reverence God by behaving kindly to
their fellow-men, and then we shall be one people,
belonging to one Commonwealth ; then we shall be
sheep of one fold^ and the days of happiness and
peace will dawn upon us. ( Loud and continued
cheering, which lasted for some time).'""

TJic Rising Tide of Time.

" I never see the sands of the old year ebbing,
or hear the fearful sound of the rising tide of the new
year welling up from the unfathomed depths of an
eternity, that has been in part unfolded to us — the
children of a day — I never feel the swell of this hidden
time coming onward with its waves to meet me, but
I think how much more needful than ever it is to
leave the old, and take up the new — to end the old
and begin the new, by making for myself sure work
* Anti-Poor Law Meeting, Bradford, June 9, 1838.

126 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

for that eternity, upon whose unknown shores my
frail bark of life will soon be driven by the swiftly
flowing stream of time, that hurries all alike along to
meet the righteous judge of men.'"^

Salvation is to those zvho Serve,
The Qiteen at the Wild-beast Show.
"When Christ, in the 25th chapter of Matthew,
is unfolding the Divine things of that very eternal
world, of which we have so much said to us, and is
declaring who is to enter into everlasting life, and
who are to depart into everlasting death. He tells
us that those who have fed the hungry, clothed the
naked, and visited the sick, these are they who are
to go into everlasting life ; because, inasmuch as
they have done it unto one of the least of His
followers, they have done it unto Him. On the
other hand, those who are to go to hell — and there
is a hell, there is an hereafter — those who are to go
to hell hereafter are, not the Antinomians, not the
Unitarians, not the Mahometans, the Pagans, the
Catholics, or the Protestant Churchmen — there is
not a word of all this — that is all left to stand or
fall, to be judged and weighed after another standard ;
there is not a word about creeds, or articles of
belief ; there is not a word about any particular pro-
fessions ; there is not a word about any rites, or
ceremonies, or institutions ; there is not a word of

* Sermon at Ashton-under-Lyne, Jan. 6, 1839.

Passages fro7n His Speeches and Sermons. 127

synods, of convocations, of conferences, or churches ;
there is not a word about collections, and love-feasts,
and class meetings, and sacraments, and missionary-
meetings ; there is not a word of anything of this
kind ; but those who go away into everlasting death,
they are men of all lands, tongues, trades, and
politics, that kept bread from the hungry, that have
refused to clothe the naked, and that have not
visited and sympathized with the sick (Great astonish-
ment). Christ says so. But until this Book be
burned ; until it be found out Christ was an im-
postor ; so long as Christ is God over all ; so long
as He is the one Law-giver who is able to save and
to destroy ; so long it is so decreed that we may not
go into judgment under a mistake ; that we may not
find our way to the left hand in error, thinking that
Christ has, as it were, withdrawn the curtain that
hides the world of spirits from the world of flesh.
Christ has sent forth the proclamation of high
Heaven, and He has said that it is for all those who
love their brother man by feeding, by clothing, by
sheltering, or by letting him feed, and clothe, and
shelter himself ; and that hell — hot hell, the fire
that cannot be slaked, the worm that gnaws and
cannot be killed — is for all those that have oppressed
the hireling in his wages, the widow and the father-
less. Then God help and have mercy upon an
infidel Government, an infidel legislature, an infidel
cabinet, an infidel council, an infidel magistrate.

128 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

infidel capitalists, men of wealthy of all religions,
and of all politics, and all creeds — the Lord have
mercy upon them (* Amen,' from several voices) ;
their day of judgment, though it slumber, does not
sleep — though it tarry, is on its way though it be
not yet fully in upon them. How my heart did
bleed when I read it — whilst they go, court, and
cabinet, and councillors of state, and the attendants
of royalty — whilst they flutter, butterfly-like, around
Her who ought to be a pillar of strength to the poor,
as well as a pillar of glory to the great and the
rich — how my heart bled when I read that these
courtly attendants were conducting the Queen
through the streets of London to the royal theatre
— and for what purpose ? To see the wild beasts
of the forest eating Her children's food ! (Very great
emotion.) Good God ! and art Thou merciful, and
art Thou just — merciful to those poor whose bodies
are lined and pitched with resin, that the ' skilly ^
may not scour them into the cholera morbus 1 Art
Thou merciful to those, and art Thou righteous and
just towards their oppressors t Dost Thou look
down from Heaven, and behold the Queen of
England, the nursing mother of this people,
dragged to yonder dens to see the wild beasts
brought' from Africa — because we have so much
spare food here — from the deepest forests
of the woods ; the lions, the panthers, the leopards,
from all the regions of the world, having rounds of

Passages fro7n His Speeches and Sermons, 129

beef, and legs of mutton, and live rabbits, and
pheasants, and partridges — having all these — the
choicest and the richest food in the land — whilst a
few yards off, in the Strand Union Workhouse, more
murders have been done upon the subjects of the
Queen, more bloodshed, more awful crime com-
mitted than ever those lions, and tigers, and panthers,
and bears shed when allowed by God to roam wild
in the forest ? I never was so struck with the awful
contrast of condition in my life. The Queen is never
told that Her people starve, that they pine, that they
perish. She is never brought out to see the people
fed. The future is too dark ; what is about to come, if
this be not changed, is too awful for my tongue to
be trusted wuth the attempt to picture.'^*

Naming a Minister,

"If all ministers would only preach an equal truth
to the rich and the poor ; if the Gospel were thus
faithfully, impartially. Divinely preached in England
for seven days, the end of the seventh day would
behold the end of social tyranny as it afflicts the
people. But ministers only read one side of the
leaf of God's word ; the other is either pinned down,
or scored out, or explained away until it means
nothing, or worse than nothing. To show this I
may state that not long ago I was arguing with one

* '' Political Pulpit, ' ' Sermon iii. Delivered at Staleybridge, February
24, 1839.

I

1 30 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

of the most learned and liberal of the Wesleyan
Conference, on the infidel and cruel provisions of
the New Poor Law Bill. In speaking of its damn-
able enactments, I was showing that no legislative
act ought, according to God's law, to separate man
and wife, parents and children. I cited the passage,
'What God hath joined together let not man put
asunder.' And what do you think this learned Con-
ference expounder said of this, the Word and the
will of God his Master t ' Oh,' said he, ' that has
nothing to do with it — it refers only to ecclesiastical
and legal divorce, and goes only to prove that
divorce should not be granted unless on good and
sufficient grounds.' He went on to say, that, ' as
to the poor man and his wife, or the poor man and
his child, he had a right to separate them if they
came to him for relief ; because he was not obliged
to give them anything; but if they did come^ and he
did give them anything, he had a right to annex to
his gift what condition he pleased.' — (Name, name.)
The minister who said this was the Reverend
Thomas Galland, M.A., of Queen's College, Cam-
bridge. I do not know that I should have named
him only you Londoners are so curious. I do not
know, however, that it is wrong, for if all my freaks
and phrensies, as they are called, are given to the
world, I know not why his discoveries in practical
divinity should not also be made known, particularly
as they are, I think, far more extraordinary than

Passages from His Speeches and Sermons, 131

mine, or any that have been attributed to me,
although upon my shoulders have been heaped the
sins of the people, whilst, like the scapegoat, I am
hurried into the wilderness of persecution, there to
meet imprisonment, or, for aught I know or care, to
endure death itself""^

Dislike of a ^^ Democratic' Chapel.

" Until I was within a few yards of this room I did
not know we were to meet in the Democratic Chapel
of Hebden Bridge. What a strange, what a significant,
what an ominous name ! I thought I was acquainted
with all the various sects and parties into which,
unhappily, the Church of God has been divided. But
there was one I knew nothing of — the Democratic
Church ! (Laughter.) What can be the origin and
meaning of this singular, this most unnatural ap-
pellation } I will tell you what I judge it to be. If
wrong in the view I have taken of it, set me right,
that I may not convey a false impression respecting
this very remarkable form of religion, or attempt to
supply the defect in already existing forms of religion
hereabouts. It struck me when I read the placard
on the walls announcing the place of meeting, that
the labouring people of this district had looked upon
themselves as a despised, forsaken, outcast race of
beings, and had wandered away from the fold, where

* Sermon, *' Shepherd and Shepherdess Fields." London, May 12,
1839.

I 2

132 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

they were, indeed, fleeced, but not fed — (Loud cheers)
— and had gone into the wilderness, lost sheep without
a shepherd — (Hear, hear, and a voice, ' That was it';) —
and so they did the best they could for themselves^
and blundered into democracy, having been told by
somebody or other that democracy meant all that
was true, and right, and good, applied to promote the
well-being and happiness of the people at large.
(Hear, hear.) Alas, that the Church, in any part of
England, can thus drive her children from her path !
I am certain there never would have been di Democratic
Chapel in Hebden Bridge if the Theocratic Church had
done her duty." (Loud cheers.)^

What a Foreign Bishop did.

"If the relation between master and men were_
what it ought to be, men would have no need to
strike, nor would the masters be driven to lock
people out. (Applause.) Of all organizations in
this country, that which was least understood, least
studied, and least of all brought into usage, was
the organization of factory labour. (Hear^ hear.)
They had organizations in almost everything else ;
but in important and vital matters affecting the very
existence of labour on the one hand, and of capital
on the other, they seemed to have arrived at no
fundamental law ; they seemed to be unable to bring
any principle to bear on it, and the consequence was

* Sermon at Hebden Bridge, Aug. 18, 1849.

Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 133

that throughout the whole of these islands, where
capital has established so many manufactures, and
where the labour of tens of thousands is gathered
together, they had nothing but strife, disunion, and
division.

" He hoped they would see the necessity there was
for union before the sun of their opportunity went
down. They saw how needful it was to have their
committees connected, centralized, and organized, so
as to do something which would raise factory labour
to the same standard as other trades.

" Hundreds of years ago — so far from this being an
innovation or intrusion into business, with which w^e
have no right to intermeddle, — Eustace, a foreign
bishop, came into this country, and into this very
county, to proclaim the duty of Christian England,
beginning its Sabbath at three o'clock on Saturday
afternoon and to last till sunrise on Monday morning.
And what said the old chronicle of England } That
the shrewd people of Yorkshire would not hearken
to him, and called him a fanatic. There was one
fellow, a corn miller, of Wakefield, who said he
would run his wheel round in spite of the bishop ;
but the old chronicle goes on to say that the wheel
would not turn round, and the waters of the Calder
would not make it go round, and he was obliged to
knock off at three o'clock on Saturday afternoon.

" I was at church this morning, and heard the
Vicar offer up this prayer — * We humbly beseech

1 34 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

Thee so to dispose and govern the heart of Victoria^
Thy servant, our queen and governor, that in all her
thoughts, words and works, she may ever seek Thy
honour and glory, and study to preserve Thy people
committed to her charge, in wealth, peace, and God-
liness." In wealth first, in peace next, and in
Godliness last ; as much as to say, that if the people
are not kept in wealth they cannot be kept long in
peace ; and if they cannot be kept in wealth and
peace, it is hardly likely they will much longer go on
in Godliness." ''*

Social Morality of Co-operation.

" My sympathies are always with efforts of this
description, because I know that those who make
them are amongst the most meritorious of their class.
They are men who would either do away with selfish-
ness, or make selfishness an instrument of good to.
others. Your right to co-operate in trade rests on
the same ground as that of any single individual to
begin to trade on his own private account. And it
the peculiar character of your co-partnery gives you
an opportunity of fostering habits of thoughtfulness
and frugality in those who aforetime were improvident
and wasteful, you have so far conferred a great
benefit upon society. It is also of advantage to
persons of a certain order of mind, to be brought
into connection with others of similar temperaments.

* Speech on Strikes and Lock-outs, Dewsbury, 1865.

Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 135

and habits with themselves. Social intercourse in
such cases strengthens and cheers ; friendships are
formed which conduce to the mutual good of those
who thus become acquainted with one another. It
is one of the serious drawbacks of our crowded towns
that the individual is lost in the mass. Associations
therefore of every kind, which have a praiseworthy-
object in view, ought by all means to be encouraged.
There are some hundreds here to-night, and each
one of you seems to know many of those around
him, and you are evidently happy in each other's
company. Good fellowship, leading to the inter-
change of kind acts one toward another, is of more
value than the mere profit you derive as shareholders
in the concern.'"^'

Songsmiths and Wordsmiths,

" Kingship, the office of king, is a trade ; it is a
business. In our old speech we read of every kind
of craft. You who spin and weave were called
handicraftsmen, and the clergy were said to be
learners, workers, and members of the priestcraft,
not in the sense of cunning, not in our sense of
subtlety and selfish aggrandizement, playing and
toying and trading on the superstitions of men, on
the credulity of men, on the ignorance of men — but
the priestcraft was the highest of all callings in the
world, and the same old English tongue that gave
* Co-operative Tea Party, Staleybridge.

136 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

us the word priestcraft also gave us the word
kingscraft. I wish not by that word to convey to
your mind any notion of trading on the abject
servility of the nation ; on the blind, passive resis-
tance of the people ; nothing at all of the kind.
Kingcraft in those days was a holy calling, and the
kings were bound to know how to govern, and
governed by the laws accordingly. Now, that is
what we expect by-and-by of the Prince of Wales.
(Hear, hear.) In that day of which I am speaking —
the day of simplicities, the day of realities, the day
of individual freedom and mutual right ; in that day
there was only one word as the basis of all trades
whatever. That word still lives amongst us in two
or three trades ; it still lives amongst us as con-
stituting the name of thousands and tens of thousands
of families. I mean the word * smith.' You under-
stand what is meant by blacksmith, and whitesmith,
and silversmith. But you would not understand
if I were to say that Milton and Shakespeare were

* songsmiths ;' but your forefathers would have called
them that, and did call the like of them ' songsmiths/
You would not understand what I meant if I said
that better men than I am, who stand on boards like
these, were ' wordsmiths.' (Laughter.) But that
was our title in years gone by. A poet was called a

* songsmith ;' and a speaker was called a ' wordsmith/
— the man who could take his words in the same way
as the blacksmith takes his iron, or the silversmith his

Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 137

silver, and who could weld his words, working them
together ; bringing them out of the storehouse of his
mind, having first found them in the deep unfathom-
able mine of his own emotions, his own consciousness.
(Cheers). Every man in that day was proud of
understanding the business of his life, and he
followed it under the highest sense of obligation and
responsibility."*

Funeral Sermon on Henry Hindle,

" His mechanical genius, his mechanical application,
his mechanical discoveries, were wonderful — some of
them might be known to the world, and some of
those he had left behind he trusted were in a state
to be taken up by other mechanicians and given to
the world hereafter." ' After speaking of him as a
clever metaphysician, and a psychologist, he spoke of
the agitation which was taking place in Lancashire
and the surrounding counties in the year 1842.
*' Henry Hindle took a deep interest in that agitation :
in the heat of it Henry Hindle's little brother, James,
the youngest, aged seven years, whom he never heard
of until a long period from the day he first saw him
leading his blind brother — he had offered up many a
prayer, if they were worth anything, for that little
boy — well, he was leading his brother down Stamford
Street, and a man knowing that Henry Hindle took
a deep interest in political matters at that time, with a

* Padiham, March 2, 1872.

138 Lifeof Joseph Rayner Stephe^is,

loud voice began to talk very hardly, and he dropped
some ugly words about going at it and burning the
town of Ashton down. Henry at once, very calmly
with great firmness — and there was immense pressure
in that quiet firmness of his — it seemed to come
down like a screw, slow, but sure — he said * let the
word be peace, law, and order/ These words were
afterwards repeated at all the meetings, and that
little boy has since said that was the first opening of
his mind. He never knew before that there was a
world, or that it was out of gear. When the man
was talking about burning down Ashton, he heard his
brother with a quiet, dignified, and composed voice
saying, * Let the word be peace, law, and order.'
That young intellect awoke ; it was the first awakening
of the mind of that boy, and he had been a seer ever
since, and a thinker ever since." After a very affec-
tionate reference to the aged mother who was still
alive, the preacher proceeded to read extracts from a
number of letters which he had received concerning
the life of Mr. Hindle. One person wrote, " I shall
never see my loved and honoured friend Henry Hindle
again in this life — he whom I admired at first sight —
he whose voice pronounced words with such exactness
that I was as one spell-bound. He whose face was
as beautiful as Epicurus, and as classical. He
whose hair was like Milton's, long and smooth. He
whose cleanliness was admirable — whose dress was
neat, and whose shoes were polished to rivet attention.

Passages from His Speeches and Ser7nons, 139

as they did when I first saw him. He was a marvel
of neatness and completeness, when his clear bright
eyes fixed themselves on mine with kindliness and
love, we were friends. He was a gentleman — I was
a boy. He was learned — I was not. He was a
model which compelled me to study him and his
praiseworthy ways. He could lecture upon almost
any subject, compose essays of the greatest import-
ance, and write lyrics of beauty and sweetness for the
improvement of mankind, which made me nobler, and
purer, and truer, when I read them and talked with
him about them. Everybody that heard them liked
them, and honoured him the more, as I did : his
influence was so good, his manners so attractive, that
he made young men to think and act their parts well
in daily life. Aged men honoured him for his wisdom
and understanding, and courted his company that
they might spend their time in the wisest and happiest
way, and kept him as long as they could for that
laudable purpose. I did the same, and I cannot but
regret that his end has come at last. We shall never
eat bread and figs together with joy again, nor study
how to live on vegetable diet on 6d. per day in the
heart of the great metropolis of England, as we did
when I went more than two miles every night to see
him for the sake of himself in his days of blindness^
and for the sake of his learning and instruction.'^ He
could sing and fiddle to his own songs ; this was
one : —

140 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

If you seek for useful knowledge
Think for yourself;

Let the wide world be your college,
Think for yourself ;

In a college so extensive,

Knowledge may be comprehensive.

Without being made expensive,
Think for yourself.

His Trial and Imprisonment, 141

CHAPTER VIII.

HIS TRIAL AND IMPRISONMENT.

The passages quoted in the previous chapter from
Mr. Stephens's speeches and sermons give a fair idea of
his readiness and vehemence of speech, but his defence
on his trial would satisfy any reader in how large a
degree he was capable of sustained eloquence. The
effect of what he said was at anytime increased by
a knowledge of his character. Francis Place,
who had a good knowledge of Mr. Stephens,
described him as " regardless of personal conse-
quences"— this meant that he intended to accept
the consequences, whatever they were, of the advice
he gave to others. During the long time which
elapsed between Mr. Stephens's arrest and his trial,
he spoke and preached oftener and as vehemently
as before.^ Francis Place, who was one of the most
dispassionate observers, and careful in the use of

* The Rev. W. N. Molesworth, in his History of England, remarks
that ** Stephens is said not to have displayed the resolution on his trial
before the magistrates at Manchester, which his previous conduct seemed
to promise." But he also records *'when O'Connor hung back
Stephens was undaunted," and that the Chartists collected £2fioo for
his defence at Chester.

142 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

descriptive words, is unable to convey the effect
produced by his rhetoric at this time. His statement
is as follows : —

*' Mr. Stephens preached two sermons, one in the
morning and the other in the evening, at Staleybridge.
Here the chapel was by no means large enough to
hold the congregation, it was crammed to such excess
that the people could not bear the pressure, whilst
hundreds could not gain admission, and an adjourn-
ment therefore was made to the market-place, and
there from a waggon Mr. Stephens preached.* His
speech is described as animated beyond description :
he condemned the Poor Law with fervour beyond
imagination ; he condemned the Poor Law Commis-
sioners with vehemence unparalleled, as the authors
of the pamphlet signed ' Marcus.' He put the
matter into every form his imagination could conceive,
and excited the horror of his audience to a pitch of
fury which excited wonder in some who went as
observers."t

For a long time public meetings and associated
bodies had passed resolutions of confidence in Mr.
Stephens, and expressed obligations for his advocacy.
O'Connor justified Stephens, and " pledged himself

* One writer in the newspapers of the time states that he listened to
Mr. Stephens for a while, then went to Manchester, and when he
returned Mr. Stephens was still speaking.

t Meeting, Chesney's Great Room, Foley Street, Marylebone ;
O'Connor in the chair.— F. Place, " W. M. A.," 27-82i,vol. iii. pp. 8, 13.

His Trial and Imprisonment. 143

to the meeting to hold firmly to him and never to
forsake him."

At the Staleybridge dinner to Sharman Crawford,
Esq., M.P., in January, 1837, Mr. Feargus O'Connor
proposed the toast of " The Rev. J. R. Stephens and
the Ten Hours Bill." * When the Rev. J. R. Stephens
was introduced to the General Convention in London
in April, 1839, he was received with enthusiastic
cheering, which lasted for several minutes.f These
instances show the national popularity Mr. Stephens
had attained.

At a delegate meeting previously held in the West
Riding of Yorkshire, at the Black Bull, Liver-
sedge, in December, 1838, a resolution was passed
declaring that the delegates assembled placed implicit
confidence in Feargus O'Connor and the Rev. J. R.
Stephens.

It was on the 27th of December, 1838, that
Mr. Stephens was arrested. The names of the officers
employed on this duty have been preserved — Goddard
and Shacken. Mr. Stephens was leaving Ashton at
the time, and Worsley being the nearest Petty Session
to Leigh, Mr. Stephens was taken there in order to
be produced before Lord Francis Littleton, who it
was discovered could not act as magistrate, he not
having qualified under her Majesty Victoria. Goddard
and the magistrate's clerk went at half-past five o'clock
in search of some one in the Commission of the Peace ;

* Northern Star^ Jan. 13, 1837. f Place's MSB., vol. iii, p. 98.

144 ^if^ of yoseph Rayner Stephens.

but they were not like Miss Bronte's curates, " thick
upon the hills," for the messengers returned, after six
hours' search, without -having found one. At midnight
it was determined to send Mr. Stephens to the New
Bailey, Manchester. Although many people were not
likely to be about in the night, two troops of dragoons
were summoned from Manchester, and arrived on the
spot before Mr. Stephens's post-chaise set out. Pickets
were stationed at convenient distances all the way
to Manchester ; along which route, guarded by a troop
of dragoons, Mr. Stephens was conveyed. Another
chaise, containing three reporters, went at the same
time in the same company, guarded by half-a-dozen
troopers. The Manchester Guardian reported that
Mr. Stephens was in exceeding good spirits, and
seemed to make very light of his situation.

A long examination took place on Saturday the
29th of December, at three o'clock in the afternoon,
when it was agreed to liberate Mr. Stephens till the
next sitting of the magistrates, upon bail, himself in
;^5oo, and two sureties in ;^2 5o each. Bail was
tendered, but not accepted. An officer was directed
to inquire respecting the sufficiency of the bail ; this
was done, and on Saturday the 29th it was accepted,
and Mr. Stephens was liberated.

On the 3rd of January, 1839, ^ further exami-
nation was held, when Mr. Stephens was committed
to the ensuing assizes at Liverpool, bail being required
for himself in the sum of ;^ 1,000, and two sureties

His Trial and Imprisonment. 145

in ;^SOo each. Bail was accepted the same even-
ing, and Mr. Stephens was discharged from cus-
tody.

"The agitation caused by his apprehension was
very remarkable. The whole body of Radicals
felt it, and in Manchester and its environs great
apprehensions were entertained of riotings and
extensive mischief. All the associations called
meetings, and vast numbers of people came to Man-
chester ready for mischief; but still no apprehension
of any evil need have been entertained, as there
was a sufficient military force to put down any body
of rioters. This was well known to the mob, and
nothing was to be feared from the assemblies of the
Radicals, as it might have been reasonably expected
that the leading men in these associations would
prevent any of the members from attempting any
improper interference with the due course of law.""^

Mr. Stephens's defence was thought highly of for
its eloquence and dignity. As soon as arrests set
in, O'Connor disclaimed having advocated physical
force, and at the same time disparaged those who
opposed it. In the sermons which Mr. Stephens
delivered in the provinces and in London, he retracted
nothing. Against hunger and personal oppression,
and for the rights of domestic life, he was ready to
fight, and believed God sanctioned such resistance.

* From Place's MS. '* History of Working Men's Associations,*
British Museum.

K

146 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

He better knew his mind than any other agitator
among whom he was thrown. He had little sympathy
with political remedies ; Chartism and the '' rights of
man " were not to his mind. All his politics were
summed up in two principles — the justice of God and
the comfort of the common people.

Mr. Stephens's trial took place at the Chester
Assizes, on Monday, August 15,1839. What follows
is quoted from a verbatim report of the proceedings
taken in shorthand by P. B. Templeton. It is not
likely that Mr. Stephens had any opportunity of re-
vising it — he being a prisoner. Indeed, the Templeton
report was first published in the Northern Star, and
therefore must have been transcribed at once from
the original notes, so that the passages we quote from
the defence show the accuracy, completeness, and
force of Mr. Stephens's habitual expression.^ He
conducted his defence entirely himself, he cross-
examined the witnesses, he discussed questions with
the Judge and the Attorney-General, and was at all
times clear, relevant, and self-possessed. The entire
report would occupy nearly as many pages as this
book — the passages given, therefore, are only such
as will enable the reader to understand the course of
the trial, and the more characteristic passages of the
defence : —

Long before nine o'clock — the hour appointed

* Indeed, the only Report extant in a separate form is made up from
the columns of the Star,

His Trial and Imprisonment, 147

for the opening of the Court — a considerable crowd
surrounded it, waiting to hear the case. About a
quarter-past nine, Mr. Justice Pattison took his seat
upon the Bench. The Court, a small building,
not capable of holding more than 300 persons, was
crammed in a few minutes ; several ladies were present,
and most of the magistrates for the county.

Mr. Welsby read the indictment charging the
Rev. Joseph Rayner Stephens with *^ attending an
unlawful meeting at Hyde on the 14th November,
1838, seditiously and tumultuously met together by
torch-light, and with fire-arms, disturbing the public
peace." The indictment, in two other counts,
charged Mr. Stephens with speaking at that meeting.

The rev. defendant appeared in person, and sat
at the bar next to the Attorney-General. He was
attended by his solicitor, Mr. J. Law, of Manchester.

The Attorney-General — Sir John Campbell —
rose and said : — -My Lord, Gentlemen of the
Jury — I have the honour to attend you as counsel
to conduct this prosecution against the defendant,
Joseph Rayner Stephens. A bill of indictment
has been found against him by a Grand Jury of
the County of Chester. You are now to deter-
mine whether he is guilty, or not guilty, of the
offence laid to his charge. Gentlemen, it humbly
seems to me that it is indispensably necessary, under
circumstances such as will be detailed to you in
•evidence, that the law should be vindicated, and that

K 2

148 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

such offences should be repressed and punished.
The indictment, as you heard it opened by my learned
friend, Mr. Welsby, charges Mr. Stephens with a
misdemeanour, in attending an unlawful assemblage,
and in inciting those who were present to dis-
obedience of the law. This prosecution in no degree
trenches upon fair inquiry, which I hope will ever
remain unrestrained in this land of liberty. It in no
degree interferes with the right of the subjects of
this free country to meet in a quiet and peaceable
manner to consider any grievance that they may
think they labour under, and to apply by constitu-
tional means to have these grievances redressed.
Gentlemen, there may be the freest inquiry, there
may be the most ample means of obtaining redress
of grievances, without any violation of the law.
Neither in this nor in any civilized country can it be
endured that meetings should be held where the
law is set at defiance, and where language is used
that necessarily and inevitably leads to a disturbance
of the public peace. Mr. Stephens, the defendant,
took an active part in the assemblage at Hyde, and the
■question is whether he did not upon that occasion use
language to the multitude which amounts of itself to
misdemeanour, and one of a very aggravated nature.
This meeting took place on Wednesday, the
14th day of November last. It took place after
dark. There was a vast assemblage of people from
different parts of that portion of the county of

His Trial and Imprisonment. 149

Cheshire, and the adjoining county of Lancashire,
Ashton, Staleybridge, Dukinfield, and other quarters.
They assembled in great numbers after dark — I
think seven or eight o'clock — at a place called the
Cotton Tree, about a mile and a half from Hyde,
which is a great manufacturing village in this
county. There were assembled, I believe, about
5,000 persons, almost all strangers to the town 01
Hyde. The leader upon that occasion was
Mr. Stephens, the defendant. I abstain most
scrupulously from any allusion to the conduct of that
gentleman, except upon this particular occasion, for
which he is now called upon to answer in a court of
justice : but it is my duty to detail to you his conduct
and his language at that time. He mounted the
hustings, and addressed the assembled multitude.
Amongst other things he told them that he had news
for them ; that he had been in the barracks, and that
the soldiers would not act against them. He said
that there were several clubs that had bought arms
with their burying funds, and that the funds set apart
by these clubs for the purpose of the decent interment
of their members were diverted from that purpose
and appropriated to the buying of arms. He asked
them if they were armed. By way of an answer to
that question there was a discharge of firearms. He
then said, *' I see you are ready," and he wished them
*' good night." The assembly, such as I have
•described it to you, continued till nearly midnight.

150 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens,

They then took their departure. There were several
bands of music ; there were a number of torches, and
at midnight the torches were seen blazing through
the streets of Hyde and on the roads leading into the
country, and at last the distant music died away
upon the ear. I understand that Mr. Stephens
is to defend himself, an undoubted right that he
enjoys. I understand that he possesses very con-
siderable talents, and I have no doubt they will be
exerted in trying to vindicate himself against the
charges now brought against him.

Mr. Stephens then rose, and applied that the
witnesses might be ordered out of court. The appli-
cation was complied with, and the examination
of the witnesses for the prosecution was proceeded
with. At its conclusion the defence began, and at a
quarter past twelve the defendant rose to address
the Jury.

Mr. Stephens said : — May it please your Lord-
ship and Gentlemen of the Jury — This day has
not overtaken me unawares, nor has it found
me unprepared. I have long since foreseen its
coming ; I welcome it now that it has come. I
have often told the poor, my lord, on whose behalf
rather than my own I am here to plead, and in
whose stead I am willing to suffer, though I have
done nothing worthy of bonds — that the faithful and
fearless advocacy of their righteous cause would
eventually lead to scenes like this. My lord, it could

His Trial and Imprisonment. 151

not be otherwise ; for that new species of tyranny
which, in the name and under the forms of law, has
of late years endeavoured to overturn the liberties of
this country, could only hope for establishment and
permanency by crushing and overthrowing all those,
however humble, who had the heart and the hardi-
hood to oppose it. This, my lord, is of the very
nature of tyranny. It begins by first of all taking
the weaker and the more defenceless. It draws off
the eye, and lulls to sleep the suspicions of those who
would oppose it in the first instance, either by the
promise of some immediate advantage, or by holding
out hopes of greater security and benefit to them-
selves. But stealthily and insidiously as it begins,
it must, my lord, go on, taking us one by one, until
one by one we have become enclosed within its net,
and lie prostrate at its mercy. You, gentlemen of
the jury, as well as myself, are an example in
proof of this. You may well ask yourselves — you
may well inquire of one another why and for what
purpose it is that you have been placed in that box t
I need only remind gentlemen of your station and
intelligence, of the origin and professed reason for
the establishment of the special jury system. It is
but of yesterday that special juries were known at
all in this country — not longer since than the reign ot
George the Second. The cause assigned for this
innovation upon our ancient institution was, that
there might arise, in the complicated and intricate

152 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

nature of commercial transactions, questions which
men moving in the ordinary spheres of life would
not be capable thoroughly to understand, and rightly
to adjudicate upon. Here, my lord, I may be
allowed to say — such is my veneration for all the
institutions of my native land — that it would have
been much better, in that case, instead of laying
aside the old usages and practices which have been
the palladium of our liberties, to have required that
gentlemen engaged in commerce should so have
simplified their transactions as to bring them
within the range of the understandings of the
commonalty of this country, rather than have in-
troduced any change in the forms of our civil and
criminal jurisprudence, as we find now has been
the case. But, gentlemen, allowing, that these
innovations, which I am bold enough to call cor-
ruptions in the institutions of our country, were just
and reasonable for the purpose professed at the
time, you would agree with me that this is not a
case which calls for such an extraordinary departure
from the ordinary usages in our courts of justice.
If this were a simple case, as the Attorney-General
wishes you to believe it to be, of attending that
meeting, a meeting so clearly unlawful that he
needed not to say five words on the subject ; if this
were a case so simple, and the mere fact of the
meeting having been so convened and held, the mere
fact of my having attended that meeting and said

His Trial and Imprisonment. 153

certain words was all that was requisite to be
proved, then, I ask you what reasonable pretext
there is for your being present in that box
upon this occasion ? There must be something
behind the scenes — there must be something that
remains untold, something which the learned and
honourable Attorney- General has designedly left un
disclosed. It will be my duty to withdraw the curtain
from that which at present is legally hidden from
your eyes. I know not in what manner special juries
are got together ; you do not know in what manner
special juries are got together — the Attorney-General
may know. Suffice it for me to say that I have not
objected to you. When the list of forty-eight was
sent down to me, who was struck off I cannot telL
I made no objection against that list ; I have not
struck off a single individual of that number of forty-
eight, nor do I object to any gentleman now present,
notwithstanding all the reports, all the rumours, all
the more than credible reports I have heard on this
subject. My lord, I have been advised, I have been
urged to apply to your lordship for a postponement
of this trial, in consequence of the most excited state,
not only of the public mind in general, but of the
public mind of the inhabitants of Chester at this
moment. It is a matter of notoriety, it is upon
your walls, it is within every man's knowledge,
that a letter has been written by the attorneys con-
ducting this prosecution, instructing the mayor and

154 ^if^ of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

authorities of this ancient and really peaceable city^
that a rescue is to be attempted ; that mobs, multi-
tudes, armed assemblages of men^ are upon their
march to the city of Chester, for the purpose of
rescuing voluntary defendants, or involuntary prisoners,
out of the hands of justice, even in the presence of
an English judge. My lord, I ask whether this is fair;
I ask whether in any other place than in an English
court of justice, whether under any other presidency
than that of a constitutional judge, and before any
other array than that of an honest English jury, it
would be possible for a defendant, situated as I am,
to have a fair and impartial trial ? Why, my lord,
when I came into the town, I came unbound, and I
came without any legal fetters, pains, penalties, or
disabilities upon me ! — I have three indictments
hanging over my head, to one of which I am called
this day to speak : each of these indictments, if its
allegation be substantiated, renders me liable to a
sentence of imprisonment for life, and I may be
otherwise imprisoned, and otherwise sentenced to
pay a fine, which would render the extent of that
imprisonment to the term of my natural life ; and
yet with three indictments over my head, I am held
to bail upon all of them ; I have been since the
month of March a free man. It is evident from this
that the Crown cannot consider me the dangerous
person the Attorney-General has endeavoured to
represent me to-day. If, my lord, I had committed

His Trial and Imprisomnent, 1 5 5

the criminal acts, if I were the man whose prin-
ciples and intentions were such as have been
represented to the jury, in the speech of the hon.
and learned Attorney-General, I say it would have
been impossible for the Government to have allowed
me to remain at large in the way it was done.
What inference can I draw from this, except it is
an inference, as the learned Attorney-General says,
which necessarily and inevitably arises from the
premises, that the Government wished me quietly
and peaceably to walk away and to escape meeting
this charge ? But, though I have reason to believe
that to be the wish of the Government, though
I have reasonable ground to believe that the
Crown had no wish and no intention to prosecute
this inquiry, which has been forced upon it to-day,
yet so conscious am I of my own innocence, and
so fully am I persuaded that I shall be able to
convince the jury of my innocence, that, without
bail, without bond, without liability to appear,
I throw myself not upon the mercy or indulgence,
but upon the sense of justice which pervades this
court.

#J/. J«, JA, JA.

TT TV* "TV" "A*

In the latter end of December, shortly after
the burning of the factory which has been alluded
to, I was arrested under extraordinary circumstances.
Two Bow Street officers, one of whom had in his
pocket an authority to call up the whole military

156 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

force of the district, hurried me away upon
a warrant charging me with making a speech of a
tendency to destroy Hfe and property, from Ashton-
under-Lyne to Worsley,in the neighbourhood of Leigh,
the place where the speech was said to have been
delivered. When we reached there, no magistrate
could be found, nor witnesses to meet me face to
face. I was then taken to Manchester, in the
dead of night, escorted by a troop of dragoons, and
consigned to the New Bailey prison. When I did
come before the court, one of the magistrates who
endorsed the warrant could with difficulty be found,
or induced to appear, On the second examination,
he would not come at all. In the examination — one
of the most extraordinary that ever took place in an
English court of justice — the forms of the Court
were so far departed from, that no part of the
cross-examination of the witnesses on my part should
appear. All that those witnesses had stated against
me was there ; all that they stated in my favour was
omitted. The proceedings were altogether so singular,
so irregular, and I will say, rather of a persecuting
than of a prosecuting nature, that before I was com-
mitted, the learned counsel who conducted the case
stated in court that it was his intention to prose-
cute me for conspiracy, along with others, for ob-
structing the laws, but more particularly those relating
to the Poor Law Amendment Act. I went down to
Liverpool, bound in the sum of ;£" 2,000, a most

His Trial and Imprzson7ne7tt, 157

unconstitutional bail in any case of that kind —
especially in the case of a person circumstanced as
I was. I went to Liverpool to appear to answer all
charges that should be brought against me. A
true bill was found — a second bill was found,
of which likewise I had no previous intimation.
The circumstances said to have transpired in
that second bill occurred in the month of December
last ; and yet, as in the case of the present indict-
ment^ there have been no depositions — no informa-
tions— no examinations before the magistrates, no
opportunity afforded me of meeting my accusers

face to face.

# « # # ^

My lord, I will ask further, why am I to be tried
at all ? A man who, the Attorney-General has told
you, sustaining the character and fulfilling the office
of a minister of religion ; a man known to advocate
no political theory whatever ; to belong to no politi-
cal party ; a man who has no connection with any
political party in this country ; who has sedulously,
from Christian principles, stood aloof from all the
questions that agitate the public mind of a political
nature ? If, my lord, my life and those humble
talents which the Attorney-General has been pleased
to compliment, had been employed in speaking
against the constitution of this kingdom — against
the monarchy, the House of Lords, the House of
Commons ; if I were a man whose public conduct had

1 5 8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephe^is.

been of this description, then I might well have
been marked out as a fit subject for a criminal
prosecution. But, it is notorious to the whole coun-
try, so far as my proceedings have attracted the notice
of the public, that so far from advocating any scheme
for the purpose of effecting political changes for over-
throwing the constitution, one of my principal en-
deavours has been, by reason and Scripture, by
authorities taken out of our old law books, and from
the Word of God, to disabuse the public mind of all
those prejudices of the party to which the Attorney-
General belongs, a party which has been mainly instru-
mental in consigning the people of this country to
its present unsettled and disturbed state. It is
notorious that I have lived in a part of the country
which for years has been the scene of infidelity
— overrun with principles, religious and political,
similar to those of Thomas Paine, Richard Carlile, and
men of that school — a district, the people of which
have been saturated with the false and dangerous
notion of " the greatest happiness to the greatest
number," as though, my lord, it was not equally imjicst
and criminal to seek the happiness of the greatest
member at the expense of a fezv^ as to compass the
happiness of the few at the expense of the
many. For years I have lifted up my voice
against the folly of these Liberal notions. I have
embraced every opportunity of showing to the
people that the principles of what is now called

His Trial and Imprisonment. 159

liberalism and reform are the most dangerous prin-
ciples that can be entertained by any. I have shown
the people that instead of removing institutions they
ought to amend them — that instead of asking for
anything new they ought rather to go back and look
to what the wisdom of their forefathers so carefully,
and I will add, my lord, religiously, laid down as the
foundation of civil and political liberty. I have taken
every opportunity of showing that, so far from the
people — as the party to which the Attorney-General
belongs asserts — being the source of all political
power, I have maintained, out of the Word of
God, that all power is of God — that the powers
that be are ordained of God — that there are
certain immutable principles of truth which no
times can change, and which no circumstances ought
to modify, excepting such cases as do apply them-
selves to the emergencies of the occasion, without at
all altering their nature and character. I have main-
tained that these immutable and everlasting principles
of truth — of righteousness — of brotherly kindness,
and of charity, contained in the Scriptures, if they
are to be found anywhere on earth out of the Word of
God, are to be found in this country ; if they are to
be found in any constitution on the face of the globe,
they are to be found in the constitution of England ;
if they are to be found inspiring and animating any
institutions, breathing life into any customs, and
producing happiness in any usages, they are to be

i6o Life of yosepk Rayner Stephens.

found in the institutions, customs and usages of our
forefathers.

* 71? ^ Iff ^^

In truth, my lord, in the case of the Whigs, at
the time of the Reform Bill, we find that meetings
precisely of the character of those I am charged with
attending, were held in every part of the country ;
we find ensigns, flags and banners, inscribed with
" Liberty or death," " Reform or vengeance," " Down
with the tyrants," caps of Liberty, and banner staves
headed with pikes, and everything of that description.
We find the people of the country recommended to
stop the supplies, to pay no more taxes, to compel
" Old Billy," as those learned and loyal gentlemen
undertook to denominate William IV., the Sovereign
of these realms, to pass the Reform Bill. You find
" three groans " proposed for the Queen, the first
female in the land. You find banners and ensigns
depicting the King^ and bloody axe and block, inti-
mating that unless the King would pass " the Bill,
the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill," he was to
remember the fate of some of his predecessors in this
and other countries. Now, gentlemen, I put it to
you, whether you can believe the hon. and learned
counsel when he tells you that the only reason why
he comes here is to "vindicate the law." For what
purpose do I trouble your lordship, and tax that
patience and condescension which is always by a
British judge awarded to a defendant situated as I

His Trial and ImprisoJtment. 1 6 1

am ? It is, to put it clearly before your lordship and
before the jury, that there are a certain class of per-
sons, and of writings, which are tolerated, and suffered
to go unreproved, without prosecution, and without
punishment. Yes, my lord^ when it suits the pur-
pose, or when it conduces to the stability of an
administration — we can have disturbers of the
public peace, incendiaries — men who speak so as to
lead to a subversion of the law — who propose
not a repeal of the Poor Law Amendment Act,
but a repeal of the Union which connects this
kingdom with the adjoining kingdom of Ireland —
we can have O^Connell moving through the
country, forming and organizing societies in every
direction, marshalling their members, counting their
numbers, receiving their money — we can have this
man publicly declaring that if they wanted a Repeal
of the Union, some 50,000 or 500,000, or in some
cases, two millions of fighting men were to go and
petition the Crown. Yes, my lord, the Attorney-
General does not consider that illegal. He does not
come forward to "vindicate the laws" then. This Union
may be threatened to be dissolved ; two millions of
fighting men maybe paraded to compel Government to
give to that gentleman as much power as he requires;
but no sooner does a poor undefended minister
of the Gospel of peace to man, without talent,
save the talent of telling the truth fearlessly, and as
far as he knows it — a man without name and

L

1 62 Life of y oseph Rayiier Stephens,

character, save the name and character of ''fire-
brand, and incendiary, and assassin, and madman, and
demon;" a man without influence, save the influence
of the widow's prayer and the power of truth, which
is great, and will prevail; no sooner does a man,
situate and charactered as I am, step forward to
plead the poor man's right — to speak on behalf of
the widow and fatherless, to express constitu-
tionally his opinions and his views of the Poor Law
Amendment Act, and the factory system, upon the
case of the hand-loom weavers, and similar prac
tical grievances for which he proposes constitutional
remedy — than the Attorney-General comes down
to this assize at Chester and prosecutes that indi-
vidual, as he tells you, simply for the purpose of

" vindicating the law."

^ ^ * -)^ *

My opinions are known — there need be no three
indictments, no calling of witnesses, for your lordship
will have perceived that, except the policemen, the
witnesses were all cotton-spinners, or the children, or
cousins, or other relations of cotton manufacturers, and
the . attorneys conducting this prosecution. The
honourable gentleman reminds me that I have for-
gotten Tinker, who is a surgeon, a man appointed
under the Factories' Regulation Act, a man whose
conduct I have frequently had occasion to bring
before the notice of the country. I repeat, there
would have been no occasion for this calling of

His Trial and Imprisonment, 163

witnesses, this bringing together into that box a
family party, for you have nothing else — the families
of the Howards, the Ashtons, the Tinkers, and
others directly or indirectly connected with this large
family compact.

If the intention of the Attorney-General had been to
defend the law, I submit that he should have proceeded
against me for some speech, of which there could be
no manner of doubt whatever. I have not done
these things in a corner. Why is it, then, that
no speech of mine, ever taken down by a short-
hand wTiter, has been made the basis of a criminal
prosecution? Why is it, my lord, that while even
Her Majesty's Secretary of State has given out
in the House of Commons on Friday last, that Ste-
phens inculcates murder and the destruction of pro-
perty; that Stephens declares in his printed sermons
that under the Poor Law Amendment Act the divine
command, " Thou shalt not steal," is of no force or
obligation? I either have said those things, or not;
I have either written and published them, or not. The
Secretary of State has reported that I have said
those things ; and if I have published them, how is
it, I ask with boldness and confidence, that the
Secretary of State has not instructed the learned
Attorney-General to proceed against me for such
speeches and sermons? Why, my lord, clearly for
this reason, that when read and examined, and
weighed over — when brought to the touchstone of

L 2

164 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens,

truth, and applied to the standard of your books — •
my lord, when brought to the standard of tliat Book
which is part and parcel of the common law of
the land, it would be found I have inculcated no
doctrines, and advanced no opinions, but such as
are strictly constitutional and Christian.

•55- ^ -5^ ^ rr

On the Monday cited, I left the neighbour-
hood where I reside ; no neighbourhood could be
more peaceable ; having lived in it seven years^
and constantly officiating amongst the poorest
classes of the people from time to time, there never
has been since I came into that neighbourhood,,
and up to the commencement of this prosecution
against me — there never has been, at any one
meeting that ever I Avas at, or on any one occasion,
in which I had the shadow of a share — there
never has been a single instance of a violation of
public property — there never has been a single
instance of a breach of the peace. The morals of
the people have been amended rather than deterio-
rated ; their habits have become more domestic — and
I am glad to see their political principles becoming
more constitutional, and their religious principles
more fixed and devout. This has been my aim, and
this being known and read of all men in the district
from which I came, I am dragged here, my lord,,
under this legal mask, for i ■ is not the true face of
the prosecution — this the Attorney-General has not

His Trial and Imprisonvicnt. 165

,dared to exhibit in this Court — but under this mask
.alone, as though I were a party to the Convention,
and to the disturbances of Birmingham, to the Charter,
to annual Parliaments, vote by ballot, universal suf-
frage, and all the rest of that rigmarole, in which I
never had a share. I only came forward to the men
of Leigh, and there declared my detestation of the
doctrines of Chartism, declared that if Radicals were in
power, my views were such that my head would be
brought first to the block, and my blood would be the
first blood that would have to flow for the olden
liberties of the country. Gentlemen, this is the
individual who is now brought before you as a Chartist,
and his proceedings made to appear as though he was
identified with all that has lately taken place in the
country : the learned Attorney-General told you that
he did not intend to make any statements as to the
recent occurrences in this county. The allusion was
sufficient ; the innuendo was thought by him to be
enough to connect and identify me with them. As I
:said before, if I am to be tried, let me be tried in my
own person, and not in the person of Chartism, of
Radicalism, torch-light meetings, or things of that
kind. If I am to be tried, let me be tried upon my
own opinions — upon my own principles — upon my
£>wn authorized and published documents.

# -5^ ^ * *

I stand before you giiilty of no other crime than
that of endeavouring to reconcile the differences that

1 66 Life of Joseph Rayne^^ Stepheiis.

unhappily have existed between the masters and the
men ; and never since Ashton, and Staleybridge, and
Dukinfield, places that have been mentioned so often
in this charge, never since the first stone of these towns
was laid has there been so much peace, tranquillity^
good-will, and good understanding between the masters
and the men as there has been during the seven
years of my residence among these people.

Five years ago, I was unconnected with an/
political party, unassociated with any individual,.
when simply in my closet I had forced upon my con-
sideration, under the friendship of Mr. Howard and
Mr. Ashton,^' both of whom I have had the honour to-
call friends, and whom I should still have had the
honour to call friends, had I not conscientiously gone
against my own interest, reducing myself to poverty
thereby, instead of living, as I did then, in comparative
affluence. Gentlemen, it is because five years ago I
took up the question of the circumstances and con-
dition of the Factory labourers thus forced upon my
attention, and the condition of the poor as affected by
the Poor Law Amendment Act, that I stand before
you to-day, and it is only in connection with those
two questions that I have had anything to do in public.
I am guiltless of everything else, and whatever your
verdict may be, I have used no talent, no elo-
quence — I have not attempted to excite your

* Two millowners mentioned by the prosecution.

His Trial and Ij:iprisonment. 167

passions, to arouse your feelings, or to awaken
your sympathies on my behalf. If I had had any
favour to ask, I should have asked the postpone-
ment of this trial. If I had not been guiltless,
I should have gone away until the time of next
assizes — until there was something like calmness and
tranquillity in the country. Put all these things
together — look at them singly — and let the concen-
trated impression have weight upon your unprejudiced
judgments, upon your loyal principles, upon your
Christian emotions, as Englishmen and Christians ;
as men who, with myself, fear God and honour
the Queen and all that are in authority under her,
and over us. In your own consciences before God,
in the face of this country and of this Court, say
whether I am guilty of this charge.

This speech occupied five hours in delivery and
was listened to — reports of the day said — " with
breathless attention by a Court crowded to excess."

The Attorney-General. — I hope, gentlemen,
that, after this trial has terminated, the defendant
himself will have no cause, in this instance, to com-
plain of the laws of his country.

'^ -K- -Jf 5(; 5f:

Some are of opinion, and amongst those I may
mention the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel,
and Sir James Graham, as well as Lord John Russeli
and Lord Spencer, that the Poor Law was highly
beneficial — that it had a direct tendency to raise the

1 68 Life of Joseph Rayne^^ Stephens.

price of labour, to prevent industrious persons from

receiving elemosynary relief — to make the poor and

industrious classes of this country independent

of the overseer, and to give them a greater share

in the enjoyments of life than they would otherwise

have. Others, I believe honestly, are of a different

opinion ; but it is wholly immaterial to this question

which side is right and which wrong ; we are not

now discussing the propriety of the Poor Law

Amendment Act.

# # # # #

Mr. Stephens says that he is a devoted friend
to the ancient institutions of his country, insomuch
that he regrets exceedingly that a form of expres-
sion which he says prevailed formerly in indict-
ments is laid aside ; and is very much offended
because in this bill of indictment it is not alleged
that he was " seduced by the instigation of the devil.'*
But was this a meeting for the preservation of the
ancient institutions of the country } He says, you
see, how very much he disapproves of the reforms
that have taken place in our institutions. Now, was
this an anti-Reform meeting } Why, what is there
in the banners that stared Mr. Stephens in the face,
when he was addressing the multitude from the
hustings, and of which he expressed no disapproba-
tion, which animated his eloquence upon that memor-
able occasion } Mr. Stephens says he thinks that
the suffrage is now too much extended, and that it

His Trial and Imprisonment. 169

Avas wrong to depart from the system of our ancestors,
in which we had close boroughs, with ten or half a
dozen electors, and according to which system a vast
proportion of the people did not enjoy the elective
franchise at all. Mr. Stephens says he approves of
the old system.

•5^ * ^ ^ -r?

The more Mr. Stephens inquired into the matter
in his cross-examination, the worse he fared ; and
when he asked Mr. Hibbert, " Did I not say some-
thing more T the answer was, " Yes, you said you
would lead them on, and lose every drop of blood in
your body in their cause, if there were a rising ?"
What was a rising } What did he contemplate ?
These industrious classes rising in a mass, and that
there should be a sort of Jaqiierie in this country ;
that persons of small, or no property, sliould rise
against those who had property, and that there

should be universal pillage and plunder

Find your verdict, gentlemen, upon the evidence
that is laid before you, upon oath of the witnesses,
since this trial began. If upon that evidence you
can entertain no reasonable doubt of the guilt of the
defendant upon this charge, you will not shrink from
pronouncing a verdict of guilty — if he has so debased
the holy character that he fills — if he has so forgotten
his duty to his God and to his sovereign, I think that
little sympathy can be entertained for him.

Mr. Justice Pattison then summed up : The

i7o Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

observations which the defendant had made were

adduced in very powerful language, with great

talent and ability, and with a fluency and power of

language which I have very seldom seen equalled, and

which would undoubtedly make, as they ought to

make, a great impression on the minds of the jury,

provided that they really bore upon the points in

question.

# # # . # #

The defendant in the most deliberate part of his
address to the jury, that which was worked up with
most eloquence of all perhaps, showing that there
could be no crime at all unless there were a criminal
intention — said that it was for them to see what
his intentions were. The evidence of intention
was to be collected by the jury from the acts
which they found to have taken place, and
w^hatever those acts were naturally and inevitably
calculated to produce, that was to be taken as
evidence of the intention to produce such results.
We could not dive into the hearts of men, to see
their real intentions there ; and we could only
ascertain it by attributing to men such intentions as
their acts manifestly seemed to imply. The circum-
stance alone of this meeting being held at night and
by torch-light, would not of itself be sufficient tO'
justify them in saying that it was an illegal meeting,,
but it was one of the circumstances to be taken inta
consideration. The object of the meeting might be

His Trial and ImpiHsoninent. i 7 1

fairly collected from the banners that were carried,
and their inscriptions : " For children and wife we"
will war to the knife/' " Ashton demands universal
suffrage or universal vengeance/'' The defendant
said he was of no party in politics, Whig or Tory or
Radical, or any other description of persons ; that
he had nothing to do with Chartism, or universal
suffrage, or the ballot. If that were so, it was
certainly very extraordinary that he suffered himself
to be at the meeting where these banners were
carried.

When Mr. Justice Pattison had concluded his
charge to the jury, it was twenty minutes to eight
o'clock. The jury, after a short consultation, found
Mr. Stephens guilty ; whereupon —

The Judge (to Mr. Stephens). — Have you any-
thing to say against judgment being now passed }

Mr. Stephens. — No, my lord, the Crown has
had its own way throughout. I have nothing what-
ever to ask.

The Judge. — Joseph Rayner Stephens, the jury,
after hearing the address which the Attorney-General
made, the evidence on the part of the prosecution
and the address — the very powerful address — which
you have made to them, have found you guilty of
attending an unlawful assembly, addressing to them
seditious words, and inciting them to provide arms
to resist the execution of the law. I am very sorry
to have to pass sentence upon any person of your'

172

^yx^TjosepnK

talent and ability, and of your education. The
sentence upon you is, that you be imprisoned in the
House of Correction at Knutsford, for the term of
EIGHTEEN CALENDAR MONTHS, and that at the
end of that time you find sureties for your good
behaviour for the term of five years, for yourself
in ;£500, and two sureties in £2^0 each.

Mr. Stephens asked his lordship whether that
sentence precluded him from the use of pens, ink,
and paper }

The Learned JUDGE said he did not know the
regulations of the gaol.

The Attorney-General. — My lord, he may
have pens, ink, paper, and books, so far as I am
concerned. God forbid that he should be debarred^ as
far as my influence extends, from anything that can
alleviate the suffering which he must endure.

The Judge w^as understood to say, that the
prisoner might be allowed to have pens, ink, and
paper, always taking care, that it was forbidden to
the defendant to write for publication anything of
a similar character to that for which he had been
convicted.

Mr. Stephens was then removed in the custody of
an officer to the inside of the Castle, where he was
lodged for the night.

The trial terminated soon after eight o'clock, having
.occupied about ten hours and a half.

The Government accounted Mr. Stephens a for-

His Trial and Imprisonment.

7o^

midable speaker, seeing that in addition to " eighteen^
months' imprisonment," they exacted practical silence
from him for five years. Mr. Stephens spoke upwards
of five hours. There is quoted here altogether
scarcely a seventh part of the printed report of the trial.
The reader cannot fail to be struck with the sagacity
and good judgment which mark the commence-
ment of the address, and from which the orator
never deviated in all the stately and passionate
march of his speech. Very few of the persons
indicted in those stormy times defended themselves.
The other instance of distinction was that of Thomas
Cooper, who displayed marvellous courage of defence,
his trial extending over nearly three days. But Mr.
Stephens's defence is unrivalled for its complete and
sustained eloquence. The Attorney- General, Sir
John Campbell (afterwards Lord Chancellor) was
very much stung by what Mr. Stephens said of him*
and his political colleagues, and when he came to
reply he retorted with elaborate bitterness. But as
the Judge spoke of Mr. Stephens with great fairness
and respect, and paid a very high compliment to his
great ability, the Attorney-General made some tardy
atonement by making no opposition to Mr. Stephens's
request for some literary conveniences in prison.
Mr. Stephens maintained throughout the same tone
of independence and even defiance. When asked
"whether he had anything to say against sentence
being passed," he answered ^' I have nothing to ask.'^

r4 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

In the report in the TimeSy he is represented as
saying : ^' I have nothing to ask, and I leave them
(meaning the Crown prosecutors) to do as they like
with me,'* which is more likely what he did say.

While the jury were retiring, he wrote to his wife,
and later dispatched a letter from the " Court House,
Chester, Thursday evening,'* saying, "The trial is
.over. My next letter will be dated Knutsford.
It is a lovely, healthful village. My sentence is
eighteen months — not quite so long as we had made
up our minds to. The judge was as urbane and
courteous as he could be under the circumstances.''
In a subsequent letter to his wife, he informs her
that " in all likelihood I shall remain at Chester
Castle — that jail being much better than Knutsford.
The judge promised to make the alteration.'* Mr.
Stephens also said that " to my thinking my defence
was not a good speech. I was not myself — fatigued
with the previous business — and exhausted with
reading so many quotations."

During the first period of his incarceration in
Chester Castle his treatment was the same as that of
.other prisoners, of whom there were nine, detained
there for similar political offences. A condemned
cell being then happily vacant, the Governor allowed
it to be used as a place in which prisoners could see
their visitors. Not a very cheerful place of meeting !
When there were no visitors Mr. Stephens w^as
.allowed to take his meals in this exhilarating apart-

His Trial and Imp riso7imcnt. 175

ment. He was treated with civility by the authori-
ties, and said so, as he thought it due to them, and
because he wished that his friends should not be
under an impression that he was used with harshness
when he experienced respectful kindness. He desired
not to be an object of sympathy without cause, nor
would he make pretence of suffering, or allow it to
be suggested, when it was not so. One of his fellow-
prisoners testified that his dietary was precisely the
same as theirs. Being a gentleman, whose conversa-
tion was interesting and instructive, he became a
favourite with the Governor, and ultimately had some
indulgences, but whatever befell him he never com-
plained. Feargus O'Connor began sending forth
distressing complaints the first day of his imprison-
ment. Mr. Stephens murmured not ; what he had
done had been done deliberately, with his eyes open,
foreknowing the consequences as serious. He was
always fearless, and condemned O'Connor and other
leaders, whom the exigencies of advocacy caused him
to be associated with, because they were unequal to
the emergencies they had provoked.

A political prisoner liberated before he was, sent
him a versified letter of thanks for the benefits he and
others had experienced at Mr. Stephens's hands. He
had conversed with them, sung them German songs
to enliven their days, and made them many presents
of better fare, when he had means of doing it out of
that supplied to him.

176 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

Among the letters which he received while at
Chester Castle, there is one from his friend, R. B. W,
Cobbett. It is interesting in itself, and from the
account it gives of the Socialists, who appear not ta
have put their case into very suitable hands in*
putting them into his. He, as their attorney-general^
was simply impressed by the caricatures of their
doctrine which their adversaries had made. The
Socialist theory merely was, that the improvement
of the material condition of the poorer classes was
possible, and would give them a better chance of
happiness and virtue than they then possessed : —

"5, Marsden Street, Manchester.
"Aug. 29, 1840.

'* My dear Sir,

" Having been disappointed in an intention
which I had of seeing you during the Liverpool
Assizes (to which, contrary to expectation, I did not
go), I write this by way of consoling myself for my
disappointment. In the first place, I must explain
how it happened that I did not see Mrs. Stephens-
when last at Chester. I thought I would call on her
when my work was over, and I did not expect that
that would last long, when it had once begun. Alas!
how little did I know Xki^ physical force of my clients'
lungs ! They talked us all near dead, and the last
two nights I was kept in Court till near midnight,
and then I had to leave too early in the morning to
call on Mrs. Stephens.

His Trial and Imprisonment, 177

*' The little Doctor called on me a day or two ago :
our meeting was not very cordial, owing to a ridiculous
circumstance, which is as follows : — Some time since
I wrote to the Doctor to request him to urge his
Ashton constituents to pay my bill. To fill up my
letter and amuse him, I cracked sundry jokes on his
disconsolate state, advised him to write a book and
call it * Reflections on Stone Walls,' said something
about the poverty of patriots, and gave him a quota-
tion from Lord Rochester to the effect that it is part
of man's duty to God to get rich, as he cannot be
honest if he is poor. To my infinite consterna-
tion the Doctor took all this to himself! and back
comes a letter breathing pistols, pikes, bullets, and
all other kinds of destructive weapons in every line.
Now, had I been * an evil-disposed person,' here
was an excuse for kicking up a row, * contrary to the
peace of our Lady the Queen, her Crown and
dignity ;' but being a peaceably-disposed attorney, I
put the letter in my pocket, which, thank God, it did
not set on fire !

" I know very little how the world wags just now
as to affairs in general, finding myself sufficiently
occupied by attending to my own and my clients*
business. I rarely see a newspaper, and when I do I
see so little either amusing or instructive therein that I
soon lay it aside. As you see the Times, you have
seen how Mr. Oastler's affair with Thornhill ended.
It was, I can assure you, quite to my and my client's

M

lyS Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

•satisfaction ; and I think the libellous tongues of our
most Hbel-loving and respectable people will be now
tied on that subject. By-the-by, I have just been
reading in said Times a little of the stuff about the
Jews of Damascus and Rhodes. I can't think why
they should make such a fuss about Father Thomaso
and the child, when all the world knows that since
they crucified our Saviour they have amused them-
selves by crucifying his followers, not one at a time,
but in the lump ! Witness National Debt, paper-
money, &c. The document which they have addressed
to the various Powers is certainly curious, but it is
more curious to see the great ' Conservative ' Church
papers taking part with Jews. Oh ! Mammon, how
wondrous is thy power !

"You must know that I am Attorney- General to
the Manchester Socialists ! and, truly, it does not go
much against my conscience ; for, however powerful
some kinds of folly may be for mischief, I do believe
that this one particular sort is beneficial in the way
of burlesque. Of all the incomprehensible philosophy
that mad imagination ever invented, nothing, I believe,
ever equalled this ! What think you of mankind
having acted contrary to Nature from the begin-
ning of the world, and having done so because all
circumstances {i.e. everything) have been contrary to
Nature also, which unnatural circumstances have had
an absolute power over the destinies of men, and yet
Robert Owen can change all men and all things ; or,

His Trial and ImpiHsonniciit, lyg

111 other words, can make all things as God meant
them to be, but could not make them ! Now, do
you believe that any serious harm can come of this ?
For my part, I think it a very good satire on modern
-philosophy and folly.

" I am, my dear sir,

"Yours most sincerely,

'' R. B. B. COBBETT.
^' The Rev. J. R. Stephens."

Another letter was from Mr. O'Brien, of whom
^mention has been made : he being then a resident in
Lancaster Castle, had leisure to remember that he
was under personal obligations to Mr. Stephens, which
he had somewhat neglected, and his letter is one of
inquiry, as it seems intended to ascertain whether or
no estrangement had grown up between them : —

" Lancaster Castle,

"Sept. 4, 1840.

■'' My dear Stephens,

" When I last had the pleasure of seeing you, I
little thought that our next intercommunication should
take place between Lancaster and Chester Castles.
Though we have not corresponded, I was not, however,
1 assure you, indifferent to your situation, and much
less to the malicious efforts of certain parties to destroy
your usefulness, by undermining your popularity and
influence. And if I have been hitherto silent on the

isi 2

i8o Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

subject, I wish you to believe that such silence
proceeded not from any fallingoff in those sentiments
of esteem and friendship which I have entertained
towards you.

"Though since we last met (about June 2, 1839)'
no correspondence has passed between us, I have had
you constantly in my eye, and, since the commence-
ment of your imprisonment, have made many inquiries
and frequently heard about you. It gave me great
pleasure indeed to learn that confinement did not affect
your health or spirits, and still greater pleasure to
learn that there was no disposition on your part to
conciliate your persecutors by any unworthy con-
cessions.

" My object in writing to you now is simply to let
you see that I have not forgotten you, and to assure
you that with respect to a certain affair between you
and me, it would have been settled long ago, but for
reasons which you may easily guess, and shall be
settled the moment fortune takes a turn in vay
favour.

*' My dear Stephens,

" Yours most sincerely,

" James Bronterre O'Brien.'^

There is much more to the same effect. After-
ivards, another letter came from Mr. O'Brien, effusive
and explanatory. It appears that Mr. Stephens had
replied in the meantime in a general way, but mani-

His Trial and Imprisonment, i S r

festly without enthusiasm. The following is a copy
of a receipt which appears among papers still extant
of his : —

" NortJiern Star Newspaper,

"Mr. Stephens of Ashton has purchased twenty
shares in the Northern Star^ but is exempt from all
expenses connected with the paper.

"Leeds, Sept. 9, 1837.

";£"20 o o

" Feargus O'Connor.*'

This receipt shows that Mr. Stephens took a liberal
part, as far as his means permitted, in supporting
the undertakings intended to promote the public
.objects with which he was concerned. The letter
of Mr. Bronterre O'Brien shows that Mr. Stephens's
political colleagues were in the habit of applying
to him for loans.

Mr. Stephens's father had told his son in 1833,
^'' That he should die rejoicing that when the Gospel
trumpet was taken from his mouth it would be blown
much more effectively by him." This gratification
was not to occur to him in the way he wished ; but
that he never lost affection for his son, the following
letter sent to him at Chester Castle shows, and not
less the characteristic steadfastness with which the
writer walked in the " ancient ways," and carefully
.qualified his approval.

1 82 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens.

'' Brixton Hill, Oct. 27, 1840,

^' My very dear Joseph,

" It gives me pleasure to hear that anything I
ever said or did gave you pleasure. The communi-
cation you allude to was limited, firsts to those letters
in which you confine yourself to religion and morality ,^
and keep clear of politics ; and, secondly, to the ease,,
freedom, purity, and eloquence in which you write
the Anglo-Saxon language. Perhaps I may add^
the endless variety in which you succeed, without any
apparent effort, in placing the same topics before
your hearers and readers.

''With regard to your Magazine, I fear I can da
nothing for you ; your political views and mine are
wide as the poles asunder. That an obscure
individual, like you or me, is called, or can reasonably
expect, by agitation or otherwise, to revolutionize
the long- established institutions of this or any other
country, for good or evil, in the short period of our
age, appears to me as visionary as would be an
effort to construct a trumpet whose sound should
wake the dead 365,000 years before the appointed
time. One or one thousand souls may be converted
in a little time, by the blessing of God upon the
preaching of the Gospel, because the time of their
probation is short and uncertain ; but national
changes are slow in their progress — and the political
husbandman must sow the seed in one generation,,
succeeding generations must water, and fence, and

His Trial aiid Imprisonment, 183

weed, and watch it — and many ages enjoy the feast
of harvest home. I will think of your request, and
if anything should strike me you shall have it ; albeit,.
I am become like a bottle in the smoke, a shrivelled
memorandum of olden times.

" Your affectionate father,

"John Stephens."

184 Life of Joseph Ray iter Stephens.

CHAPTER IX.

THE TWO KINDS OF CONSERVATISM.

When the great questions of social injustice, which
had so generously moved Mr. Stephens, were abated
by time and legislation, his political sympathies
were found to be with the Conservatives. Only
persons were surprised at this who had never looked
discerningly at the mixed nature of the political forces
of which he was a leader. He was always a Tory-
Radical on principle. " Tory-Radical " was a name
first applied by O'Connell to the Chartist school set
up by Feargus O'Connor. Daniel O'Connell was a
discerning epithet-maker, and seeing that O'Connor-
Chartists did the work of the Tories, and were used
by the Tories, he, in party keenness, invented this
term. O'Connor, in the first words he wrote in the
Northern Star, which I have quoted, said, " Behold
that red spot on the corner of my newspaper ! That
is the stamp — the Whig beauty spot .... which
has cost me nearly ;^8o in money."

Thiswas the O'Connor way, and is the Tory Chartist
way even unto this day. O^Connor ascribed every
evil to the Whigs. Yet it was the more astute sort of

The Two Kmds of Conservatism. 185

Tories who invented the taxes upon knowledge —
who kept them in force and resisted their repeal. It
was the Whigs who eventually abolished them,
incited thereto by real Radicals — Cobden, Bright
and Milner-Gibson, who could never have obtained
their repeal from the class of old school Tories, so
numerous in both Houses of Parliament.

O'Connor retaliated upon O'Connell by inventing
the term " Whig-Radical," to designate those Liberals
who more consistently looked to the Whigs for
assistance, seeing that the Whigs were in favour of
the self-government of the people — with however the
drawback of being more than half afraid of trusting
them with the necessary political power.

A Radical, as George Eliot depicts him in *' Felix
Holt," is a man who has heroic unrest under injustice,
a strong sense of personal self-respect and social
independence — who generously takes the part of the
oppressed — who is content when the oppression ceases,
but is without any political policy for rendering it
impossible in the future.

Mr. Stephens never concealed his utter want of
sympathy with " Political Charters," " National Peti-
tions," " Sacred weeks," of cessation from work, and
other devices of his immediate colleagues.

At the Colchester meeting a resolution was adopted
reprobating the conduct of Stephens and Oastler for
endeavouring to draw the working people from the
duty which they owed to themselves and their

1 86 Life of yoseph Raynei^' Slephejis.

country.'^' This referred to the schism which had
been commenced by Stephens, O'Connor and Oastler.
It was denied that any schism was intended — but it
was made. Chartist crowds following their passions,,
were unobservant that their forces were being brokea
in two. The wiser politicians saw the danger, and
those who created it knew what they were about.
The Tory inspiration of the Chartist organs would
appear under amusing disguises. Here is an ex-
ample : " For nothing in the present age is more
remarkable than the number of its splendid dis-
coveries. . . . Not the least notable is the discovery
now made by persons of a certain description, relative
to that splendid humbug the Ballot."t The '' persons
of a certain description " are named as the " Mel-
bournes, O'Connells, and Humes — Whigs, Whig-
Radicals and sham Radicals."

" Stephens, Oastler, and Fielden " formed the
title of placards and poems current among factory
workers. Stephens's name stood first in popular
regard. The NortJicrn Star, which naturally had
great things to say of O'Connor, yet set forth with
respect to a great Manchester meeting on behalf of
the Glasgow cotton-spinners, that '' the building
resounded with cheers while Stephens, Oastler, and
O'Connor" spoke against the Whigs — " were hurling
defiance " is the phrase used. J

* F. Place, " Working Men's Assoc," vol. iii. 27, 82 r.

f Northern Liberator^ quoted in Northern Star, Dec. 9. 1 837.

X Northern Star, Dec. 23, 1837.

The Two Kinds of Consei^vatism. 187

Though sohcitous for the personal welfare rather
than for the political emancipation of the people,
Mr. Stephens was quite free from intending that
their condition should be one of abject docility. He
was for maintaining their self-respect and household
independence. Infringement herein, always excited
his indignation. He relates in the CJiavipion that
the daughter of a game-preserving rector and squire —
both in one — in a parochial visitation entered a cottage
from which the inmates seemed to be absent, and
when gratifying her curiosity received from an un-
noticed clown a most sonorous kiss, accompanied
with the apology, " Lawk, miss, I took you for
Mary — who would have thought of you looking into
mother's porridge-pot." The father of the outraged
damsel inflicted a fine of ten shillings, accompanied
by a lecture on the ingratitude of thus insulting a
maiden in the act of displaying such laudable anxiety
for his tenants' welfare. The whole village insists
that the young lady's " laudable anxiety " was ta
ascertain if any game had found its way from her
father's covers to his tenant's culinary utensils.
^' What business," asks the Cliampioii^ ** has any
stranger to intrude, unasked, into another's dwelling }'
Poverty would conceal its rags and its wants, and
resent the invasion of its privacy."

A saying of Mr. Stephens, which occurs in the
Champion, shows that he had an innate dislike of
tyranny in politics or in piety ; in employer or

1 88 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

.employed. '* It is an axiom with us, which God has
told us in His Word, and history has confirmed in a
thousand instances, that the man who becomes a
willing thrall to another would be himself a tyrant,
did time and opportunity admit of it. He who
swore by Calvin would have burnt Servetus."^

What is generally overlooked, alike by journalists
and other politicians, is the fact that there are
two distinct classes of Conservatives, political Conser-
vatives and social Conservatives. The political
Conservatives care only for power for themselves ;
the social Conservatives care for the welfare of the
people. Both care for authority, and when authority
is in question they are united, and this prevents
.ordinary observers from seeing the difference between
them. The social or generous school of Conserva-
tives, believe steadfastly in the rule of the wealthy
and the educated. They distrust altogether the
.capacity of the people to govern themselves. They
are fpr a wise despotism ; but it is a wise and just
rule that they intend. Their feeling is that the
happiness of the many can be best insured by patron-
age of the people, and they are favourable to such
liberty only as is conducive to this end — provided
also they can control it. They are friendly indeed to
.education, so far as it does not unfit the people for
their control. To do them justice, the misery and
wretchedness of the poor excite their strong com-

* The Chanition, p. 5, Feb. 1850.

The Tzvo Kinds of Conservatism, 1S9

passion, and under the dominion of this sympathy
they are practically Radicals. They show so much
real kindness to those they employ in their workshops,
or on their estates, that Radicals who are Radicals
from suffering, rather than from knowledge of
political principles, mistake them for Democratic
Radicals, and are won to them. Indeed, the generous
Tories are often better and kinder employers than
the Whig or Radical manufacturer or landlord ; that
is, than those who are Liberal without social
sympathy. So strong are generous Conservatives
in their compassion for the poor, that they will even
abandon their political principles which constitute
them Tories, rather than that the sufferings of the
people shall continue. At a great meeting Mr. Oastler
said, " Down with the Church and down with the
State, if they shall combine to oppress the labourers,
whom God says, are the first that shall be fed."
'' Again," says the Star, " did the room tremble
when the *Tory' thus expressed himself: — iThey
have endeavoured to rule us, and have failed. Now
let the people make laws for themselves, and see
what that will do ! ' "^

This was the generous Toryism of Richard-
Oastler ; and Joseph Rayner Stephens went as fan
Many of the insurgent Radicals were of the same
opinion. My valued friend, Thomas Allsop — who
gave O'Connor his property qualification oi £100 2l
* The Northern Star, Dec. 23, 1S37.

iQO Life of Joseph Ray iter Stephens.

year in land, to enable him to take his seat in the
House of Commons when elected member for
Nottingham — was a Tory of this school, as also
Robert Owen, the founder of English Socialism.
He contemned politics as diverting attention from
social arrangements, and as an impediment in their
way. He saw no objection to slavery, when
beneficently controlled. Sidmouth and Castlereagh
lent a favourable ear to his plans : and Socialist
schemes, so far as they promised to organize comfort
and contentment, apart from politics, have always
been approved by Tories in England ; and in Europe,
by Bismarck and Louis Napoleon, alike.

The following is the most singular example of a
paternal Tory petition extant : it was doubtless
forwarded to the Queen : the handwriting of the
original is that of Mr. Oastler. It is worth preserving
as a specimen of the art of educating grown men
and women in all the docility of political children : —

^' To Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen,

" We are your loyal and grateful subjects, anxious
at this as at all times to maintain the dignity of the
law and the honour of the Crown.

" We place our hope in the powerful and benign
shelter of royalty, convinced that your Majesty will
listen with a willing ear to our just complaint and
earnest prayer.

" After more than thirty years patient struggling —

The Tzuo Kinds of Conservatism, 1 9 1

after the endurance of many sacrifices — after the
most careful examination into the truth of our case
and claims, by Select Committees of the Houses of
Lords and Commons and by a Royal Commission,
all that we had affirmed was proved and admitted —
in 1847 the Ten Hours' Bill was passed.

"That Act was received with gratitude. Even
our enemies say that we have used it beneficially.
No complaints have been made against it. We
have felt its benefits. The ministers of religion have
joined with us in thanksgiving for its results ; our
reverend and beloved bishop has, with truly
Christian eloquence, in the House of Peers^ described
those results, and supported our claim, but our
tormentors grudge us the enjoyment of the benefits
which we were tauorht to believe the law had secured

to us.

"We were told, by one who was then our leader,
that your Majesty rejoiced to sign that Act ; that,
although our Queen, you did not despise our grati-
tude ; nay, that your Majesty was pleased most
graciously to accept a very trifling but significant
token of our loyalty in commemoration of that, to us,
most important and joyous event ; nay, that your
Majesty deigned, in terms we shall ever cherish and
remember, to assure Lord Ashley — * You knew that
we were grateful and loyal !"

"The Act of 1847 is perfect. Why should it be
repealed } That of 1844 is imperfect, and requires

192 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

amendment; but it is asserted no English words can
be found to secure us the benefit intended — release
from the oppressive ' shift ' system. We do not
believe there is such paucity of words in our native
tongue. By a quibble we have been deprived of the
intended protection of the Act of 1844 — by a tiHck
it is now intended to deprive us of the Ten Hours'
Act of 1847.

'' The two Houses being composed of many men
have no regard to individ2ial responsibility. They
have collectively done that which as individuals
they would have spurned. They have rewarded the
guilty at the expense of the innocent, whom they
have betrayed and punished.

" Your Majesty's humble and grateful

" Petitioners will ever pray."

Such language of child-like dependence upon the
Throne had never before proceeded from any body
of working people. Until the reign of Victoria, no
monarch was felt or imagined to be much concerned
about the condition of the poor. The Crown was only
known to the people through its ministers; and its
ministers were only known to the people as passing
oppressive laws against them ; taxing them, sus-
pecting and defaming them when they sought redress.
These poor petitioners state that they were loyal
and grateful. They never had anything to be grate-
ful for — or, if they had, they did not know it. They

The Tzvo Kinds of Conservatism, 193

are made to state that they are anxious at all times
to maintain the dignity of the law and the honour
of the Crown. What the common people knew of
the " law " they did not like, and for the " dignity "
of that, they would not be very solicitous, and they
were too far from the Crown to know much of its
'' honour ; " and were ignorant of the means of main-
taining it. The petition was the work of other
hands than those of the people. It is very gracefully
expressed. Its simple eloquence is striking ; but
the passion of the authors of it betrays them into bad
taste and indiscretion in one part, where they pour
into the ears of the Queen coarse charges of " tricks"
and ''quibbles'' — accusations, in fact, against some
of Her Majesty's nearest advisers. The Queen may
be solicited to bend her ear to the cry of humanity
and justice, but it is alien to the dignity of her
exalted position to recognize the heated imputations
of party controversialists. The last passage quoted
illustrates the instinct of personal government by an
out-spoken distrust of the sympathies of a legislative
assembly. The petition is a masterly specimen of
the best and worst qualities of paternal Toryism.

The latter part of the petition is directed against
Lord Ashley, and is intended to warn the Crown
against him. About 1852, when the Factory
Act was but a very few years old, an attempt was
made to destroy its value by new legislation. Lord
Ashley, who was entrusted with the defence of the

N

S94 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

Act, for which he had long and generously laboured,
accepted a compromise from the mill-owners, for
which the petitioners disowned him.

Sadler, himself, was of the school which regarded
politics as a scheme of compassionate patronage. His
own system was described by himself as "the Paternal,
its leading characteristics being to foster, protect,
cherish, encourage, promote ; its chief means of
operation, the presenting to human beings the motives
of benevolence and hoper He waged endless war
against the political economists, whose system he
•described as '' the Preventive, or repressive ; its object
being to repress, discourage, isolate, and limit; and
its favourite means the inculcation oi fear!'^

The majority of political Conservatives think
only of those legislative conditions w^hich main-
tain their ascendancy as the governing class.
The socialist Conservatives (using the term socialist
in its natural sense, that of organized social
life) are essentially generous-minded. They are
for good government, for which their demand is
.absolute. They believe with Plato, that "the evils
of the world will continue until philosophers become
kings, or kings become philosophers." Therefore, if
the King will not become a philosopher, these
Royalist reformers will change the King, if that is
necessary, in order that the people shall be well
governed. This is the doctrine of the Tory- Radicals,
* "Life of M. T. Sadler, M.P." pp. 33, 34-

The Two Kinds of Conservatism. 195

and was adopted by the Tory-Chartists who succeeded
them. -

The Radical democrat is quite a different speci-
men : he is clearly for good government, but has
-iio intention of allowing good government to depend
upon other people^s good nature. He is not content
to owe his prosperity to a happy accident, or his free-
dom to charity. He seeks security for his political
and social welfare by securing a substantial voice in
the choice of those who are to control it.

In 1838, Z'^^Z/'i" Jf"<^^<^;r/;^^, which had some Radical
repute, contained a song translated from Beranger. The
lines had not the finish of the French poet, but their
sentiment, that of the feudal poor in all countries, was
popular in that day. Their burden w^as, " Do kings or
iiobles care for us. ^" Two of the stanzas were as follow: —

When you behold a king enthroned

Or sitting at a foolish feast,
Or queens in luxury enzoned,

And treated like some heavenly guest,
Restrain yourselves, keep on your hat,

Make not the least degrading fuss,
For, when the truth is spoken.

What do kings or nobles care for us ?

The working man should have one thought —

To be for ever free to toil,
And keep the wealth so dearly bought

To make his own hearthstone smile :
Some toil in this and some in that.

But o'er the great make you no fuss :
Their toils may soon be told — and what

Does any great man care for us ?

N 2

196 Life of Joseph Rayiiei^ Stephens.

These lines exactly explain the nature of the
Tory-Radical mind, whose cry was for somebody " to
care for them/-^ A true Radical of the democratic
type seeks independence. He does not care whether
kings or nobles care for him or not : he does not
w^ant them to care for him : his business is to care
for himself. He will serve kings or nobles, in any
legitimate way, but he does not intend to impose
upon them the task of taking care of him. He
believes in government — as all men with common
sense must — but he believes with Goethe that, *' that
is the best government which teaches self-govern-
ment."

The Tory-Radical doctrine got itself expressed in"
what was called a people's paper, in these words : *^ It
is not the transfer or the extension of power to make
laws that we mainly w^ant, but the zvill only to make,
only to obey, such laws as are right. This is the first
and the great wantr^

Right laws cannot be made by " will," but by
knowledge only, and the greater the "extension of
the power to make laws" the greater the chance
that the laws made will be adapted to the needs of
the greater number. Working-class politicians do
not reason over-much in these days. They reasoned
less in Mr. Stephens's time. Poverty aind local op-
pression enraged the working-people. Mr. Stephens

* I,efter to a Chartist on Result of Three Years' Agitation^
Fcop. Ma^., July, 1841. Edited by J. R. Stephens.

The Two Kinds of Conservatism, 1 9 7

commanded them because he shared their rage with
a mightier and better-instructed passion than theirs.
He conquered them by his great sympathy : they
never conquered him by their poHtical principles —
such as they were. Nor did they understand that
he was an ahen in their camps. And persons better
educated, but equally unobserving, made the same
mistake. Many Tories regarded him, and to this
day ignorantly regard him, as a Chartist ; while
Chartists who understood their own principles regarded
him always as a Tory. Mr. Justice Pattison, who
tried him, displayed the same ignorance. He could
not understand, he said, " how it could be, if Mr.
Stephens was, as he said, a person disapproving
Chartism, that he should be found at their meetings."
Many Conservatives objected, without much reflec-
tion, to Mr. Stephens taking, as he did, the part of
the poor. This is as unstatesmanly as the conduct
x)f those who object to Radicals vehemently assailing
admitted wrong to procure its abolition. What and
where would the English Constitution be now but for
its amendments ? But for timely agitations, with con-
cessions following, the political tornadoes which swept
monarchy out of France, would ere this have swept
it out of England. They who were foolishly accused
of making revolution in this country, were alone they
who prevented revolution. What would have hap-
pened had there been no generous Tories, who, like
Stephens, Oastler and others, showed at their own

198 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

peril genuine compassion for the poor ? But for them.,
and others like them, the Tory nobility would have
been extinguished, as the nobility of France has been.
We continue a great nation because deep in the
English heart — whether Tory or Radical — lies the
love of truth, justice, and fair play. And near by
that passion for right, lie also in every true Briton'.s
heart, the sleeping dogs of agitation and sedition who
guard the right, and they spring up, sooner or later, in-
men of every party when the spur of real oppression
pricks them. This heroic turbulence is in the heart
of the Lords as well as of the Commons — in Tory
as- well as Radical — as political history records, in
every volume of it. The gentleman, lay or eccle-
siastic, the farmer as well as the labourer, are equally
revolutionary when stung by wrong or ruin, and no
other redress seems attainable. This is our English
way, and it is ignorance and silliness to censure that
manly energy of independence which is the charac-
teristic of the Englishman in every land in which he
is found. The maxim of Confucius is true to this
day : " Advance the upright, and set aside the
crooked, and the people will submit. Advance the
crooked, and set aside the upright, and the people
will not submit."

Later Career, Character, and Death. 199

CHAPTER X.

LATER CAREER, CHARACTER, AND DEATH.

When Joseph Rayner Stephens was yet a young^
man in the Wesleyan ministry, he was regarded by
his compeers, and by the older and discerning
preachers, as a person of great promise : then^
activity of thought, soundness of judgment, and
mastery in statement were manifest in him. Nor
were these judges wrong. His future justified the
expectations his early youth created. His later years
were less publicly known than those of his mid-life,,
but this was because quieter times had come. The
storm had subsided which had revealed him as one of
its most conspicuous and potent spirits. The social
tempest was allayed by concessions which his
eloquence had helped to win. He always remained
a sort of stormy petrel of industry, and whenever
injustice of any kind disturbed its w^aters he was out
on the waves.

A passage, written many years ago when Mn
Stephens's name was familiar to all politicians^
and when the facts alleged could and would

200 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens.

have been contradicted had they not been true,
will illustrate the purport of this story of his
days. The passage in question is from the
valuable " History of the Factory Movement," a
book in the library of John Fielden Cobbett, of
Edenbridge ; the volume was presented to him by
his father^ John Morgan Cobbett. who was long
Member of Parliament for Oldham. The author
of this history states that "Joseph Rayner Stephens
is a name familiar to the ears of all the working
men in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire
and Yorkshire. He is a man of small stature, but
of great power ; he is more than a man of talent
and acquirements ; he is a man of genius, and
possesses the art of reaching and quickening the

hearts of others Whoever can and will,

in his own active labours, unite the theologian and
politician, and become, as Mr. Stephens did, 'a
political preacher,' will, in times of political ex-
citement, increase his popularity and the means at
his command for good or for evil. The phrase
'political preacher' is now a term of opprobrium,
.... yet the greatest preachers the Church of
England has known have made continual reference
to the duties of the * rulers and the ruled.' At the
head of the list stand the names of Bishop Latimer
and John Wesley.

** The centre of Mr. Stephens's labours was Ashton-
under-Line and district. In 1838 and 1839, he

Later Career, Character, and Death. 201

travelled from the Tyne to the Thames as occasion
required, and preached in the open air, sometimes
thrice on a Sunday, to audiences numbering from
five to twenty thousand, speaking at each service
from one to three hours,"^ travelling during the week,
and attending public meetings, at which he was the
leading orator. It was calculated by Dr. PVanklin,
that Whitfield, the greatest out-of-doors travelling
preacher of his day, might be clearly understood in
the open air by 20,000 persons. Mr. Stephens has
been distinctly heard on several occasions by as
great a number. The sources of his influence as a
political preacher were various. He was an orator,
a logician, and knew how to appeal to the affections
of the poor. It was his habit to raise himself, step
by step, to an altitude of reasoning which all could
see ; he would then strike out in bold and homely
Saxon against his opponents, depict in thrilling
words the sufferings of the oppressed, and having
pointed to the victims, he w^ould appeal to the
affections of the heart. Mr. Stephens was never
more thoroughly * at home ' than when talking of

* It is recorded that Mr. Stephens would appear on Primrose Hill,
London, at 1 1 o clock, and speak uncovered in the rain for three hours,
the vast throng staying to hear him. He would then announce that he
would preach in Copenhagen Plelds at 3 o clock, where he would speak
for more than two hours, and end by inviting his congregation to meet
him at 7 o clock on Kennington Common, where he would preach for
two hours more. His discourses were always fresh, and special reports
^f them published in London at the time, stated that everybody could
hear him.

202 Life of yosepJi Rayner Stephens,

the gambols of children, the affections of mothers^
the duties of manhood ; by appealing to the inner-
most workings of the heart of each he commanded
the sympathies of all. He received power from, as
well as gave force to, the thousands of human beings,
to whose hearts his words were welcome messengers of
reproof and hope. This is the case with every really
popular speaker ; hence the failure of the best
possible reports of speeches to convey the electric
influence which bound audience and orator. Few
truer words have been penned than those of
Hooker : — ' He that goeth about to persuade
a multitude that they are not so well governed
as they ought to be, shall never want attentive
and favourable hearers, because they know the
manifold defects whereunto every kind of regimen
is subject ; but the secret lets and difficulties, which in
public proceedings are innumerable and inevitable,,
they have not ordinarily the judgment to consider.
And because such as openly reprove supposed
disorders of state are taken for principal friends to
the common benefit of all, and for men who carry
singular freedom of mind ; under this fair and
plausible colour, whatsoever they utter passeth for
good and current. That which wanteth in the weight
of their speech is supplied by the aptness of men's
minds to accept and believe it'

** Mr. Stephens possessed the faculties which in
action could net fail to give to the side he espoused

Later Career, Character, and Death. 203.

increased influence; but he was, for the reason stated
by Hooker, more popular than he would have been
had he been the supporter of Government ; yet,
surely, he advocated no measure for popularity's
sake, for no man has greater moral courage, or
knows better how to bear neglect or slander, or can
laugh more heartily at the venom of personal or
party sarcasm. It is due to truth to say that few
men can more boldly oppose a multitude when he
believes them to be in error. The religious and
political tenets of Mr. Stephens were thus sketched
by himself before his congregation in Ashton-under-
Lyne, in a New Year's Day address in 1839 ; they
are substantially a summary of his preaching and
teaching." ' The battle which we are now fighting
from one end of England to the other is not the
battle which most men take it to be. It goes much
further; it runs much deeper than most men have
yet supposed it to do. It is not a battle of party
against party for the time being; it is not a struggle
for power or for place among men who, for the
moment, are placed in antagonistic relation to each
other. Much less is it a war of words — a mere strife
between unthinking men about trifling points of faith :
the idle theories, the dry attractions, or the circum-
stantial secondary relations of acknowledged law
when applied to practice. No! It is the question
of law or no law, order or anarchy, religion or infi-
delity, heaven-sprung truth and peace and love, or

204 Life of Joseph Rayner Slcphens,

hell-born withering atheism It is the battle,

my brethren, of the book (the Bible) against the men
of the world and against hell. If the book stand,
they fall; if this book fall, great will be the tem-
porary fall of the house of God, and you will be
buried in its ruins. The lists are drawn — the battle
is set — the field is pitched — deadly will be the
struggle; and who is able — who feels himself willing
to enter into that warfare t Pray God that he will
teach your hands to war, and your fingers to fight.

' I am well aware, my brethren, that I have long
been charged — indeed, have always been charged —
with a positive departure from the line of duty
presented to the profession, of which I am a member.
It is said that I have dishonoured and desecrated
that holy office, by neglecting the purely religious
,and exclusively spiritual claims which the Church has
made upon the time, the talents, and the influence of
her ministers — and instead of this, or before this, or
,along with this, insisting on the obligation the whole
Christian world is under to carry into actual, visible,
immediate practice the plain precepts of that religion,
whose first and last, and only law on earth is, that
we should love our neighbour as oneself. It has been
my practice, and been charged upon me as a crime,
to apply the rules of God's Commandments to various
institutions of the social system in my own immediate
neighbourhood, and in the country at large, to bring
the principles and operations of the manufactures,

Later Career, Character^ aiid Death, 205

the commerce, and the legislation of this professedly
Christian land to the standard of God s Holy Word.
I have asked whether merchants, senators, and
statesmen are amenable to any authority higher than
themselves, or whether they are free to do what
their own thirst for gold, or lust of power, may lead
them to attempt to execute upon the poor, the
weak, the unfriended, and defenceless portions of the
community

* I have gone on to inquire whether the practices
of the Factory system, for instance, are in accordance
with the precepts of our most holy religion — whether
Christian mill-owners are justified in pursuing a
system of manufacture which has made such a
fearful waste of the natural, the social, and the moral
life of our industrious countrymen, that is, has become
a question not only whether the silken ties that
should bind society in love can any longer hold her
various members within its soft and peaceful
circle ; but whether the race itself — the human
breed — be not so far degenerate as to threaten
imbecility, idiotcy, or actual extinction to a most
extensive and alarming degree ' P""^

This extract from the '^History of the Factory
Movement " may be instructively supplemented by the
opinion lately expressed by a distinguished public
writer. Dr. J. H. Bridges, who says : — " In all that part
of Mr. Stephens's work and teaching which strove to set

* ** Hist, of the Factory Movement."

2o6 Life of yoseph Ray Iter Stephejis.

up a standard of simple, wholesome, family life, I most
cordially sympathize. His protests against the ex-
aggerated admiration of the mechanical and political
progress of our time were full of deep truth ; his
services in the great reform of factory labour were
invaluable. All this I believe heartily. I am glad
to remember that I stood by him during the Cotton
Famine, and echoed his protests against the ignorant
and purblind application to the hard-working mass of
Lancashire men and women, when stricken by unfor-
seen disaster of the machinery of the Poor Law. On
the other hand, I cannot go with him in the least in
his vehement denunciations of the Poor Law, which I
believe to be, when rightly administered (and it is
the responsibility of the rate-paying inhabitants
.of each parish to choose wise administrators), a
means of saving the mass of the people from degra-
dation. Further, I think his criticisms of many of
the philanthropic movements of our time, sanitary,
educational, and other, were far too unsparing and
•violent."

The writer here quoted being officially connected
with the administration of the Poor Law, naturally
speaks of it under the wiser and more considerate
treatment of the poor observed in these days, and
which did not exist in Mr. Stephens's time.

In addition to the sentence of eighteen months'
imprisonment passed on Mr. Stephens in 1839, he
had to give sureties of ;^500 on his own part, and

Later Career, Character, and Death. 207

two others of ;£2 50 each, for his good behaviour
during five years. At the expiration of this period a
very handsome present was made to him, bearing the
following interesting and honourable inscription : —

TO THE REVEREND JOSEPH RAYNER STEPHENS,

Who, for maintaining, in perilous times, the

Cause of the Poor,

Suffered eighteen months' imprisonment in Chester Castle ;

This Cup*

(With the accompanying Tea Service

to

MRS. STEPHENS)

Was presented by admiring and devoted friends
at Staleybridge.

GEORGE GARSIDE AND ABEL WILLIAMSON,

UnsoUcited, took upon themselves on behalf of this

Defender of the Poor,

The responsibility of an

Unconstitutionally Heavy Bail, which terminated

On the day of

This Presentation

Feby. loth, 1846.

In the later years of his life Mr. Stephens was
constantly busy with public questions which came
within the scope of his ministry, or related to matters
in which he had in former times taken part on a
more public stage. As a friend of temperance, he
would oppose the narrowness of total abstinence.
Again, he would oppose the Sunday closing of inns,
as a further restriction of the few social rights
* Now in the possession of his nephew, John JBtephens Storr.

2o8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

enjoyed by the people. He became himself an advo-
cate of the union of Church and State, so that the Wes-
leyan Conference, which had suspended him for not
holding this doctrine, had made themselves disagree-
able prematurely. They might have seen that a man
who was a Paternal Conservative would be sure to
come back to that Church and State doctrine again.

After the Ten Hours Bill had been some time in
operation, as has been already stated, the mill-
owners proposed that a Bill should be introduced
into Parliament changing its operations. It was this
which gave rise to the charge of treachery against
Lord Ashley, who aided this new Bill of 1852. The
official statement of the friends of the mill-hands, as
to the effect of the new measure, is the following
opinion, given at the request of Mr. Avison, by
R. B. B. Cobbett.

" 1st. The period of labour of women and young
persons is extended to ten hours and a half per day,
except Saturdays, and on that day the period of
labour is limited to seven hours and a half Instead,
therefore, of the labour being limited to ten hours per
day, and fifty-eight hours per week, it would be ten
and a half hours per day and sixty hours per w^eek.

"2nd. The effect of the proposition is to render
w^orking by shifts and relays legal, between six and
six, so that women and young persons may be kept
at work, or about the mill, for twelve hours per day^
and with one hour and a half off for' meals."

Later Career^ Character^ and Death, 209

The proposal of such changes brought Mr. Stephens
again to the front. He once more took the platform
in defence of the poor workers^ with unabated energy
and disinterestedness. Some of the passages quoted
from his speeches in a previous chapter, were made
in this new campaign.

It has been said that he took much interest in de-
fending the people against the grimness of political
enactments souring the pleasant face of temperance.
Regarding Dr. F. R. Lees as one of those agents
of Puritanic rigour, he challenges him to discussion.
Dr. Lees, who had many agreeable qualities and a
social liberalism which brought him into jeopardy
with narrow sectaries whom he officially represented,
had his own views of the conditions of debate.
Thinking Dr. Lees evasive, Mr. Stephens took
steps which indicated his characteristic decision and
courage on the platform. He issued the following
placard : —

" Staleybridge, Jan. 28, 1848.
" To Dr. Lees.

Sir,

This is my last — Ay or No }

I will meet you to-night, and in the Town Hall.

Will you meet me t Let the bearers bring me word.

Proposition to be discussed— -What you w^ill.

Mode of proof — What you like.

Court of appeal — The assembled people.

Final decision — Their solemn and deliberate verdict.

O

2IO Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

Admission free, with or without ticket. Expenses
of the Hall to be paid by me — -the meeting to choose
its own chairman, and to make its own regulations.
I am. Sir,
Your most obedient humble servant,

J. R. Stephens."

The placard continues : —

" I wrote a letter directly to himself, without any
committee between us to garble or suppress the cor-
respondence. I signed, and had a witness to, an
acceptance on my part, of his deceitful challenge. I
found out where he was — ordered a stand coach —
and sent a deputation of two persons, from Ashton,
in charge of my letter, with instructions to drive
after him to Compstall Bridge as fast as they could.
They found him there, delivered my letter, and
awaited his answer, ^ i\y or No.' "

The reader has seen that a noticeable feature in
Mr. Stephens was his strength of w^ill, and his belief
in its power. He held that a man could do any-
thing that he ought to do, if he had a resolute will.
The following account of his early life, by Mrs. Earle
(his daughter " Henrietta ^'), contains an interesting
example of it : —

"As a young man he used to write all his sermons
and speeches, and could not bear the slightest noise
or interruption, but this habit became inconvenient,
and caused him so much trouble that when he was

Later Career, Character, and Death. 2 1 1

in Bristol he resolved to give it up, and that he
might do so he used to go into the most busy and
noisy parts of the public market-place and there
'Compose his sermons ; and ever afterwards — as he has
-often told me — he had not as many notes of his
many sermons and speeches as could be written on
his thumb-nail.

*' His wonderful strength of will in this instance —
•and in many others I could mention — was very great.
How well I can remember one Sunday at Staley-
bridge — during the time of the Cotton Famine — -
when hundreds of people used to gather together to
hear him : he had preached a long sermon in the
morning, and at the close of the service said to mq
that I had better — as it was so late — go to the house
of a friend for a little refreshment, and that he would
also spend the interval with another friend who lived
near. So we parted ; and at half-past two. on going
to King Street again — where one might almost have
"walked on the people's heads — I was surprised and
alarmed to find that he had not arrived. I hurried to
the house he had told me he was going to, and there
found him slowly walking up and down the room,
looking very pale. I learnt that in moving his chair
he had caught his foot and fallen heavily on the
floor — so heavily indeed, that the marks of the
matting under the carpet were impressed on his
temple. I begged him to go home and at once see
a doctor, but he calmly said, ' No, my child ; I have

O 2

212 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

made np my viind to preach. Come with mc/
Our kind friend made a skull-cap to hide the scar,
and he proceeded to preach. The service had been
commenced when we arrived, and the place was
crowded to excess. My father at once began his
discourse, and for two hours continued it without a
falter, whilst I — standing all the time on the edge
of the pulpit steps, listening to every tone of his
voice, and from time to time giving him water to
drink — watched and listened in anxious wonder
to one of the finest sermons I ever heard him
preach."

In 1866, the "Odd Fellows," at a meetinq; in
Staleybridge, presented Mr. Stephens with an inkstand
and a walking-stick. Mr. Charles Hardwick, the
editor of the Oddfellows' Magazine, made the presen-
tation, in acknowledgment of Mr. Stephens's defence
of their Order. He had also preached them the
most eloquent sermon on their records, which had
added 200 members to their Lodges within a short
time after its delivery.

He never lacked proofs of the regard in which he
was held by the neighbours who knew him. On
one occasion he spoke of this ; it was at a public
meeting at Staleybridge. He said : " I believe that,
with perhaps one exception, I am the oldest
member of the sacred profession to which I have the
honour to belong, within the range of a district con-
taining something like 100,000 inhabitants. I have

Later Career, Characler, and Death. 2 1 3

lived amongst you now for nearly twenty years,
during which my attention has been directed, and my
feeble services most heartily and earnestly devoted,
to the amelioration of the social and moral condition
of the factory population. You know how often I
have spoken at such meetings as these, both here and
elsewhere ; how much I have written in periodicals
and other publications ; and how unmistakably I
have, for this long space of time, laid my opinions
on the factory question before you. And yet, it
would seem, my fellow-parishioners give even a
warmer welcome to one they have heard so many
times before than to more distinguished persons
from a distance. There must be a meaning in this ;
and though I am not in the habit of noticing these
marks of affectionate respect, I have a reason to-
night for more especially referring to them. The
much esteemed clergyman, who occupies the chair
on this occasion, would hardly be prepared, after
listening to the burst of applause with which my
name was received, to learn that, so lately as the
day before yesterday, a Manchester paper told its
readers that everybody who knew Mr. Stephens was
well aware how unworthy of credit was his testimony
in matters connected with the subject of the present
meeting ! Surely, in such an assembly as this, com-
posed of all classes of the community, in a town
v/here I have preached for about twenty years, my
neighbours would not thus warmly greet a man

2 14 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

whose word could not be believed I have

a right to be proud of those cheers.'"^^

Mr. Stephens delivered a lecture under the title^
"What is it you Want?" As everybody wanted!
something, an immense audience assembled. The
treatment of the subject occupied the speaker twa
hours and a half. At the end of an address so pro-
tracted, what most people would want would be to go
home; but it was not so in this case. In the report,
which was very long, the newspaper printing it omitted
the various anecdotes, illustrations, and quaint stories,
of humour common with Mr. Stephens ; and yet the
report was of great public interest.

At the time of the Factory agitation, in which he
w^as engaged, Mr. Stephens was also a frequent
writer. The Political Piclpit, which contained his
weekly sermons, was probably the production of the
reporter. The discourses were long, were freshly
conceived, and their issue had great popularity. In
1840 he published Stepheftss Monthly Magazine,
Later (1848—9), he edited the Ashton Chronicle. He
also published pamphlets on local questions of interest.
Another periodical, which extended to two volumes,,
was entitled The Champion^ " of what is true and
right, and for the good of all." It is dateless ; no

^ August 10, 1849.

+ There was a previous Champion and Weekly Herald, objects
undefined, issued in 1837 and 1838, published by Richard Cobbett, 137,
Strand, London. It was an important well-written Journal : attacked
O'Connell and the Whigs.

Later Career, Character, and Death. 2 1 5

editor's name is given. From an address contained in
the first number, being dated 1 850, it may be inferred
that that was the year of the issue of TJic CJiampion,
and from readers being requested to write to the
Editor, at Ashton-under-Lyne, it may be concluded
that Mr. Stephens was he, since no one else in Ashton
was either known or suspected to be able to write
as The Champion was written. Indeed, the title is
Stephensesque. Ke was no " Champion" o^ anything :
he defined what he defended; it was what ''was true
and right, and for the good of all." A letter from
Mr. J. P. Cobbett identifies Mr. Stephens as the
editor of The Champion of 1850.

"41, Bedford Street North, Liverpool,
Jan. 18, 1850.

" My dear Sir,

" Your letter of yesterday with ye CIiampio7i
came to me here (forwarded by my clerk) at 5 P.M.
to-day. So it is not possible to do anything with
it for ye Courier of to-morrow. I will do what I
can to get all, or a part, in next week.

" I see you have inserted a letter from poor Crab-
tree. We considered his case, when he was leaving
England, as one of a somewhat cruel transportation,
A long term, probably for life, considering ye crime,
that of poverty in his native land of * roast beef,'
and considering ye 'previous good character' which
he might urge before ye court of cant, that of having
sincerely aided towards accomplishing all ye good

2 1 6 Life of foseph Rayner Stephens.

which selfish hypocrites had been forced to take a .
part in. I hope he may be able to get back alive.
And, meanwhile, I hope you have some other letters
of his to publish, containing more details concerning
the ' emigration fields.'

'^ Your reverence has chosen a text which I once
adopted myself in a printed sermon : ^ Weep not
for ye dead.' It always struck me as being a
perfect sermon in itself; one which few divines (save
such as him of Ashton) can preach on without their
own candle being put in darkness by the spark that
they light it at.

" I am, my dear Sir, yours truly,

'' J. P. COBBETT.'*

Mr. Stephens wrote as well as spoke, but not so
well as he spoke. Instances are familiar to all men
of reading and observation, of great orators, whose
genius deserts them when they take up the pen ;
just as famous soldiers who are but as ordinary men
in daily life, or in the senate — as Garibaldi, for
instance, is, and who like him became suddenly wise
and self-possessed in the din of battle and in the
presence of real danger. So orators, whose literary
animation is low, are filled with fire and splendour
of words in front of expectant faces, and amid the
conflict of menacing crowds. Our preacher and
political orator also wrote verses ; but undoubted
vigour of poetic imagination, which illumined his

Later Career, Character, and Death. 217

speeches, did not attend him in his efforts at verse,
though some translations from the German had con-
siderable vigour. The following lines are a fair
example of his milder muse : —

^

SCATTER THE SEED.

Scatter the seed ! the seed of truth,

Beheving it will grow ;
Look on the wilderness of truth,

It was not always so.
A garden once, it may again

A lovely garden be ;
It wants the sun, it wants the rain,

Of godlike charity.

Scatter the seed ! the wholesome seed

Of knowledge manifold.
And time will deck the flowery mead

With blended white and gold.
No leaf so green as knowledge flings

Unfading o'er the mind ;
No fruit so sweet as wisdom brings —

Rich fruit of every kind.

Scatter the seed ! the teeming seed,

Wide as the world abroad ;
Soon it will show itself indeed

The garden of our God.
We work and v/ait — we toil and trust.

Sure that the end will come ;
This wilderness of evil must

Be clothed with heavenly bloom !

Another example is that of lines written by him in
an album, expressing that calm contemplation of death
which was characteristic of his life and teaching : —

2 1 8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

Oh, lost too soon — oh, loved too well !

Too dear for death, farewell, farewell !

One soothing solace yet is given,

Tho' lost on earth thou liv^st in Heaven :

Fond faith forbids us to deplore

The loved, not dead, but gone before.*

In a letter dated 4th December, 1838, from
Esaias Tegner, Bishop of Wexio, in Sweden, to
Professor George Stephens, the Bishop says :

" I am of opinion that not one of all the previous
translators whom I have had an opportunity of
meeting, has penetrated so deeply into the funda-
mental spirit of the original, and so much respected
its northern characteristics, as — yourself."

In the preface written by Professor George Stephens
to his translation o{ Frithiof s Saga, from the Swedish
of Tegner, published in 1839, to which the above
extract refers, appears the following passage :

"Lastly, if this work has any merit — let the
honour fall where it is due. It is to my dear and
distinguished brother, the Rev. J. R. Stephens, the
tidhitne of the poor, that I am indebted for having
my attention turned

* From sounds to things ;'

and he it was who recommended to my eager study
the literature of the North in general, and FritJiiofs
Saga in particular — which he unrolled before me by
an oral translation — at a time when far away from

* J. R. S., from Mrs. Earle's, his daughter's, Album.

Later Career, Character, a7id Death, 2 r 9

the shores of the North, and when the work was
altogether unknown in England."

Mr. Stephens had the happy taste of domesticity^
and many bright passages in his speeches and
sermons, inculcating domestic affection, were consis-
tently illustrated in his private life. His letters to
his family were full of wise advice, or tender solici-
tude. When absent from home, preaching or speak-
ing, he appears always to have taken time to advise
with them on questions of personal interest, and to
report to them whatever there was of public interest
in his proceedings. His letters showed great affec-
tion for his nephews, John Stephens Storr and
Rayner Storr. One of them is as follows : —

**The Hollins, Staleybridge,
*'June 26, 1877.

'' My dear Rayner,

'' Clarant's * Geometry' and your loving letter are
both to hand. The book I certainly never saw before,
and am now quite certain it never reached me till
to-day. Thank you for sending it. I have read the
preface, of which, and of the work itself, I will tell you
what I think at an early date, although anything I
may have to say on the subject will be given with
extreme diffidence, and must be received with many
charitable qualifications. I never gave my mind to
mathematical studies, in part perhaps for want of
a book like Clarant's, and a teacher like yourself.
Before I write, will you be good enough to say

2 20 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens,

whether ' the work which is absorbing the best years
of your Hfe' is that of education in general, or the
pursuit of the so-called positive or abstract sciences,
of which geometry is one ? Be assured that in the
first, especially, I always have taken, and still continue
to take, the liveliest interest.

" If you still feel it impossible to speak on the
bereavement, do not call it " the loss " [meaning of his
wife], you have lately suffered, you will understand
why it was that your uncle did not obtrude upon the
sanctity of your sorrow when he heard of it. I wrote
a few words, such as seemed to me at the time to be
seasonable, whilst your dear mother was hovering
between life and death. When God speaks to us as He
has spoken to you, the most expressive sympathy of
those who know and love us best is silence. We
must all of us, my dear Rayner, be willing as well
as ready to die when the days of our life are brought
to a close ; and we must also be equally ready and
equally willing to see those die with w^hose life our
own life has been bound up, not with resignation
merely, but with acquiesence, with radiant hope and
with a chastened joy. This is what we have been
taught, and if we have not as yet fully come to the
knowledge of it, we should earnestly strive to attain
its possession — this surely is, amongst other things,
what is meant by the exhortation ' to grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ.' Your elder brother John, and yourself, with

Later Career, Character, and Death, 221

your sister in the midst, are now in the front rank
of the family of Storr — your fathers and mothers
on both sides have passed away, and this, Rayner,
is God's order — generation cometh, and generation
goeth, but the earth — the abode of the whole family
of man — abideth ever.

** Do not think of me as of one afflicted with
'frequent indisposition.' I am in all things, so far as I
know, the same as you have always seen me, with
the exception of being tethered by the feet through
rheumatism, which now and then takes an excursion
and visits the hands. If one chose to take it so,
one might talk of this as a plague, as being wearisome
and depressing, and now and then more or less
painful and hard to bear. Thank God, this is not the
mood in which I regard it. I am as merry as a lark ;
read a good deal, talk a good deal to the numerous
visitors who come expressly to hear me talk, because
they tell me they never hear the thoughts I set
before them, either from books or from any of their
own circle. Hardly a day passes without my being
called upon — not by old friends only — but by persons
whom I had never seen or heard of before. I name
this to show you that I do what little good I can in
my own small way. I have written a little in my
time, and published it. I now and then think that
the two or three volumes on my shelves might be
revised and perhaps re-written to some advantage,
but hitherto, for various reasons, I have not done this,

2 22 Life of yoseph Ray iter Stephe^ts,

except mentally. Whether the books I have in my
head will ever find their way to the printer I do not
know ; I am rather inclined to think they will not.

'' If you will answer the question I have put to
you, I wall try to wTite upon the subject before very
long, though of all things in the world the use of the
pen is the most irksome to me. I much question
whether the scraps you are now reading would ever
have been penned but for the good-willingness of my
wife to write to my dictation.

"With our united love, I remain,
*' My dear Rayner,

" Your loving uncle,

"Joseph."

Later he writes again, saying, " Only a word,
dearest of boys, and best of brothers, to tell you to
think of me cheerfully, as well as lovingly. Call it
gout^ if you like ; in our olden speech it is written
gikt, the very sight of which, by you^ unpronounceable
letters, will help in a shadowy way to give a better idea
of the effect of the disorder. This is the seventeenth
day I have been laid helplessly by the heels, during
all which time I could only bear to have the bed
made once, to wit, last night. I have had as much
pain and weariness as I could very well bear, and
there is this comfort in it all, that one knows all the
time there is nothing the matter ; it is only throb, and
sting, and dig, and lutch, and shoot in unbroken

Later Career, Character y and Death, 223

succession. If, when you come to my age, you are to
ail anything at all — please pray to God to let you
have the gout. Here I lie, but nobody comes round
the bed pulling long faces, shedding tears, asking me
where I will be buried, and if I had better not send
for the priest: on the contrary, I have lots of fellows
who come to sit with me ; they say it does them
good to see me laugh, and listen to my conversation.'*
Mr. John S. Storr writes, August, 1881 : — ''My
dear uncle Joseph could not Jialf do anything — he
could fast and pray, or he could eat and work.
Sometimes he would rise early and 4:ake very long
walks : at other times he would sit up and read far
into the night ; take his breakfast in bed in the
morning, and perhaps not get up until the afternoon.
In company, too, he would oft-times keep the whole
table in a roar of laughter, or, when on a serious
subject, in rapt attention ; whilst at another time —
with different surroundings — he would be still, and
seem to be dull and listless. He smoked much, and
Turkish-bathed too much ; for years he took these
baths five or six times a week, often remaining in the
bath, with some friend, for six or eight hours at
a stretch. No man I ever knew had so keen a
sense of humour, such a fund of humour in himself ;
so much solid bearing with brilliant dauntlessness ;
such intuitive perception with a faculty of observa-
tion rapid as thought itself. In fine, he was a Seer,
with a delicate, sensitive, dramatic temperament, that

2 24 Life of Joseph Ray iter Stephens.

made him at a moment master of whatever situation
he minded to fill. He could influence one mind, or
carry away the feelings of thousands of his hearers
at his will.

" He suffered for five years from occasional attacks
of gout and bronchitis. During his last illness he
was so full of brightness, that even his own wife and
medical attendant failed to realize that his end was
so near. A little while before his death he repeated
slowly, but in a loud voice, the Lord's Prayer, and
met the ^ last enemy ' with a calm courage worthy of
him."

His decease took place on the morning of Tues-
day, February i8, 1879. He was interred on the
following Saturday, in Duckinfield Parish Church-
yard. Of the family there were present the widow
and her two sons, Arthur Cornwall Stephens, and
George Alfred Stephens ; Mrs. Neate, his niece ;
Mr. Rayner Storr, and Mr. William Helsby, nephews,
and Mr. Alfred Earle, son-in-law. A vast concourse
of people lined the streets, and crowded the church-
yard, to pay their last tribute of respectful admira-
tion and loving regard for the life-long labours of
their preacher, guide and friend. The christening
font, which used to be in Mr. Stephens's King Street
Chapel — a stone basin on a sculptured pedestal —
miarks the spot where he is laid. On the base is
inscribed —

Later Career, Character, and Death, 225

In loving Memory of

JOSEPH RAYNER STEPHENS,

Born March 8, 1805.

Died Febrtiary 18, 1879.

" He hath done what he could."

What he did is finely expressed in the words of
George Herbert —

" Be useful where thou livest ; that they may

Both want and wish thy pleasing presence still.
Kindness, good parts, great places, are the way
To compass this. Find out men's wants and will ;
And meet them there. All worldly joys go less,
To the one joy of doing kindnesses."*

These extracts serve to show the fine spirit of
cheerfulness and fortitude which he maintained
during his last illness. During the period which
preceded it, I was for a time his guest, and
witnessed the wise audiences he gave his visitors.
Often he would, of his own choice and pleasure,
continue conversing until past midnight. His
talk was the most remarkable to which I had
ever listened. Newness of idea, aptness of quaint
illustration, singular richness of language, a pic-
turesque eloquence devoid of all effort, gave the
impression of a new quality of speech. His
most frequent theme was natural education, and the
friendship of little children. He had all the love
of children which his friend Oastler displayed, but
with deeper knowledge. He had much of the

* George Herbert : born a.d. 1593.

P

2 26 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

tenderness and sympathy of his Master, who said,
" Suffer little children to come unto Me."

One of his public speeches, towards the end of his
life, is itself an impressive vindication of his career,
and shows the noble steadfastness of the convictions
which animated him in the stormiest days, and
sustained him in the modest dignity of life's close.

" I did not first become acquainted with the details
of this question, nor enter into its support with those
who at that time were its leading advocates, with any
motive, as a previous speaker has said of himself, of
popularity. I was then a retired, studious young
man, following the duties of my profession ; and while
I was endeavouring to discharge the duties of that
profession my attention was directed, by the study
of the Word of God, to the condition of the people
around me, and my mind was affected by that con-
dition. I began to see into, to examine, the Factory
system, and to try it according to the principles which
should regulate our morals. I considered that I was
bound to spread, through the length and breadth of
the land, and enforce the precepts of Jesus on people
of all classes and all conditions, even the lowest.
It was here, sir, and amid these scenes of thought
and meditation, that my young heart first — I trust
under the direction and blessing of the good God —
nursed and prepared itself for some little, I hope not
unv/orthy, service in the great campaign in which I
trust you all are fellow-soldiers. Since first I began

Later Career, Character, a^td Death, 227

to advocate the cause of the poor, oppressed, and

all but defenceless, factory child, if ever a shadow

of doubt or misgiving entered my breast, it was

dispelled and dispersed by the next wind or the next

5un.

^ -se -x- -x- -Jf

" I wish not to live in excitement ; I am not fond
of popularity. I am not a public man by nature or
by choice. I would rather be at home with my chil-
dren, my books, and my cattle, and discharging the
duties of my profession. But I know what it is to
surrender my natural tastes, my congenial pursuits
n my own loved spot of quiet domestic bliss ; for I
can and will endeavour to be where conscience calls
me to a duty."

In a poem which he wrote, a traveller questions
a stranger as to the source of rest, and receives
the answer which Mr. Stephens himself had sought
and found : —

Thou seekest peace ?
Peace dwelleth here.
Then here repose,
Where the yew trees wave
With the moan of the winds
O'er the peaceful grave —
Peace of the living,
Dwelleth thou here ? ''
Stranger, thou findest it
Deep in thy breast ;
There dwelleth rest.

It is chiefly by his orations that he will be

P 2

22 8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

remembered as one of the men of mark of his time.
How great was the influence he exercised by his
speech is proved by the fact that the Government
required to keep troops in the north, chiefly to allay
the fierce tumults of indignation evoked by his tongue.

There were other political leaders of great popu-
larity v/ith the men of Lancashire. But they came
and went — Mr. Stephens remained. He, too, might
have gone, During many years all England was
open to him. Personally he might have had a more
advantageous lot in many towns, but he elected to
minister among those given to him to guide. His
sincerity was never questioned by colleagues who had
a talent for distrust. When funds were needed for
his trial, this was said : " If Mr. Stephens's talents
could be purchased, they are worth thousands a
year to either Whigs or Tories ; and yet the Radicals
allow him to be the sport of a faction : whilst his only
crime is attachment to the poor! He that giveth to
the poor lendeth to the Lord. Therefore, lend God's
minister wherewith to save God's people."^

This was the appeal made on behalf of Mr. Stephens
in the days when he was threatened with the penal
consequences which befel him. After his liberation,
he separated himself from Feargus O'Connor, because
it was not in his nature to be a partizan of the
democratic views of which the Chartist party mostly

* From the Northern Star, F. Place, vol. ii., 27, 820. *'AV. ]M. A.,"
p. 18.

Later Career, Character, and Death. 229

believed themselves to be in favour. Now that no
support from that party could accrue to him, he sought
none from the party he aided. All the same, he was
faithful to the social welfare of the people, which he
always had at heart. With what fidelity he did this,
and how much he was trusted because the people
had reason to believe in his fidelity and unselfishness,
is attested by what took place at that time.

In 1864, the Leeds Ironworks posted notices at
Pottery Fields, Monkbridge, Bowling, Lowmoor,
Perseverance, Farnley and Clarence, that all workmen
must sign " the Declaration" on pain of dismissal —
^^ That they were not members of any society or club
for regulating in any way the hours or terms of labour,
where they themselves worked or elsewhere T This
insolence of capital to labour Mr. Stephens counselled
the men to resent, and the employers not to insist
upon. It would be owned even by his enemies that
at no time was he to be turned from his purpose by
considerations personal to himself. He never thought
anything of the maxim —

Success, that owns and justifies all quarrels,
And vindicates deserts of hemp with laurels ;
Or, but miscarrying in the bold attempt,
Turns wreaths of laurels back again to hemp.

He cared nothing for the " laurel," and he never
feared the " hemp." Space would not suffice to tell
in how many contests he engaged on behalf of the
people. We have seen what he did in regard to

230 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens.

tyrants in high quarters. He engaged, with no less
generosity and courage, with local tyrants in his own
neighbourhood, where success could bring him nothing
but the thanks of the poor who had nothing else to
give, and was sure to bring him discomfort and
dislike from his powerful neighbours, with whom he
would have preferred to have continued on good terms.
Very few men show the courage, disinterestedness,
and self-denial involved in this sort of service. Local
magistrates are not always wise, and are sometimes
prejudiced and unjust : Poor Law Guardians are often
selfish, ignorant and insolent, and do brutal things to
the poor : these people Mr. Stephens unhesitatingly
attacked.

Young women, insulted by employers or by chair-
men of Boards of Guardians (as sometimes occurred),
went to him,^ and never found him to fail them. He
was " their friend when other friend they had none.'*
Christianity has heroisms and noble inspirations.
Mr. Stephens never forgot that he was a minister of
God, and his duty was to stand by the weak against
the strong at any peril to himself — and he did it ;
and it was his gladness and reward to find that when
those who should have honoured him forsook him^
many such afterwards saw their error, and were grateful
to him all their days. Plutarch says, " Good fame is
like fire. When you have kindled it, you may easily
preserve it ; but if you extinguish it, you will not

* Northern Star, Dec. 23, 1837.

Later Career^ Character, and Death, 231

easily kindle it again." Mr. Stephens could always
kindle it again. He commanded his popularity by
his heart and not by ambition. In his mid-career he
had powerful friends in every part of the country — in
Parliament and in the Court — and had he cared for
himself, he might have commanded a place of honour
and opulence ; but he preferred " to dwell nong his
own people," and died rich only in the gratitude of
the poor and in the proud memories of the services
he had rendered to his country.

On one occasion, two gentlemen came down to
Staleybridge from the Carlton Club, and said they
wished Mr. Stephens to stand for a certain borough,
and that his election to Parliament should cost him
nothing. They added that they wanted to keep the
seat until a particular person was ready to take it.
Mr. Stephens opened his door, and desired these
gentlemen to leave his house at once.

At another time, a rich mill-owner called on Mr.
Stephens in the early part of the Factory agitation,
and said he would give him ;^ 1,000, and build him
a new chapel, if he would but hold his tongue on the
question. Mr. Stephens answered: "Yes, and yoic
would get ;{;* 1,000 a-year more out of the blood
of those poor factory children." He, too, left some-
what more hurriedly than he entered Mr. Stephens's
modest abode.

Mr. Stephens resembled Cromwell in this, that his
religious fervour was the source of his power. He

2 32 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

allured a class of men whom few other agitators
interested — working people of religious convictions,
men who will go very far when moved by passion and
faith. He was a political preacher : his generous
inspiration was religious and not political. His great
conviction was that it was the duty of a minister of
God to stand up like the Prophets of old in defence
and protection of the people against whoever might
be their oppressors, masters, judges or kings. He
went among politicians, but was never of them. He
spoke in defence of the People's Charter, but it was
because no other means seemed open whereby the
people could be helped, save by giving them the
power to choose better rulers than those they then
had — men whose hearts were steeled against the cry
of the poor.

A popular advocate may be moved mainly by
vanity; but such persons are known by this mark —
they do not put themselves forward where there is
real danger, and they bring their zeal well under
control when indictments are about, out of which it
is not possible to wriggle. Applause was very
welcome to Mr. Stephens, and gave him great
pleasure. He took pride in distinction, but he had
genuine passion as well as pride. His nature
was brave and defiant. His sense of duty, as a
preacher of religion^ was his strong and abiding con-
viction. It was plainly so, for it moved him when
the voice of applause had long ceased, and his

Later Career, Character, and Death. 233

splendid services no longer occupied the chief place
in the memories of men.

In the great agitations in which he took part, he
undoubtedly excelled all other public speakers. He
had the spring of a lion in his speech. When he
rose, it was as though a new power had appeared on
the platform. He had not only the faculty but the
consciousness of the orator. Speaking was his natural
element, and he had no misgiving that he should
acquit himself with clearness and force. In 1863
he was the chief speaker at a great meeting
at Staleybridge, called to memorialize Sir George
Grey on behalf of unemployed operatives. Mr.
Stephens said : " I am now an old man, and though
for forty years of my life I have had to speak on
almost every subject of religious, social, and political
interest, I never rose, either here or elsewhere, with a
heavier heart. Not that what I have to say does not
lie very clearly before me, nor that I have any fear
that words will not come to me at will in which to give
meaning to my thoughts. I both know what is on
my mind, and I am at no loss how to utter it." All
this was true, and spoken with as much confidence as
though the promise was made to him that, in the hour
in which he had to speak, it should be given to him
what he should say. Like a great orator, who ac-
quired fame after him — W. J. Fox, of the Anti-Corn-
Law League — Mr. Stephens could " think upon his
feet." Mr. Fox once told me that speaking was to

2 34 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

him an inspiration, and all the powers of his mind
came to him then. This was the case with Mr.
Stephens, who not only spoke better than he wrote,
but better than most men can write. To the last
days of his life his remarkable powers of expression
not only remained unimpaired, they seemed even
more perfect. His familiar conversation was like a
fruitful tree of which the produce never appeared
too much, it was so good ; vigorous and picturesque
speech was an endowment of his family : in him it
had become an art. He was not a man of mere
words — he had ideas ; but being a thinker who pursued
thoughts for their own sake, he often, in later years,
carried his hearers into regions where he alone could
see the way, and they lost interest. But on questions
of every-day life no one could listen to him without
admiration. His expression was so perfect, his
illustrations were so ready, so quaint, and so vivid,
that his words seemed alive. The meaning of some
men's speech wriggles its dubious way under a heap
of words, like a snake in brushwood : now it is out-
side, soon it is seen glistening among the branches,
next you hear it rustling among the leaves, and at
last it shoots through some hole, and you see it no
more. Mr. Stephens's meaning was always palpable
and always in sight. That was because his life had
been passed in contest with powerful adversaries —
only to be combatted with palpable and invincible
weapons. Love peace as he might, all the powers of his

Later Career, Character, and Death, 235

soul were aflame when right, as he conceived it, had to
be championed against what he beheved to be wrong.
It was as though the words of Thomas a Kempis
were always in his mind : " Be therefore prepared
for battle if thou desirest to obtain victory. The
crown of patience cannot be received where there
has been no suffering. If thou refusest to suffer,
thou refusest to be crowned ; but if thou wishest to
be crowned, thou must fight manfully and suffer
patiently. Without labour none can obtain rest ;
and without battle there can be no victory."

As respects theological and political principles, I
differed from Mr. Stephens very widely ; but him I
respected very much. In choosing principles, one
regards their tendency and their truth ; in judging
men, we estimate them by their motives and their
character. Conservative and Liberal principles are
but as glasses, through which men see public affairs.
Conservative glasses are to my mind short-sighted,
and do not enable the user to see more than his own
relation to the objects he inspects ; while Liberal
glasses I conceive to have a longer vision, and bring
the people and their interests into view, and reveal
things good for progress as well as party. That
Liberalism is of a very poor sort, which cannot
recognize nobility of conscience and integrity of aim
in those of entirely opposite schools of thought and
action. Infallibility is rarely met with among men,
but honour is an attribute of all parties.

236 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens,

A monument to Sadler was erected in Leeds in
1835, at a cost of £700. It stands at the entrance
of what was then spoken of as the " New Church."
Thirty years later a statue of Richard Oastler was
put up in Bradford, in honour of the champion of
factory children. It is surely meet that a monument
should stand in the park of Staleybridge, in com-
memoration of the great friend and advocate in the
same merciful movement. Mr. Stephens was faithful
to it during nearly half a century — his mighty
eloquence advanced it, and he incurred peril to
secure its triumph.

THE STEPHENS^S MEMORIAL FUND
COMMITTEE.

[^Prelminary.']

Thomas Birtwistle, Esq., Ac-

crington.
Dr. John H. Bridges, Whnble-

don.
Charles Buckley, Esq., Solici-
tor, Leigh.
W. H. Hatton, Esq., Bradford.
William G. Helsby, Esq.,

Pen-y-Bryn, St. Asaph.
John Hindle, Esq., Stockport.
Dr. Hollinworth, Lees, near

Oldham.
John Holmes, Esq., Leeds.
George Jacob Holyoake, Esq.,

22, Essex Street, Temple.
Sanriuel Kydd, Esq., 5, Mitre

Court Chambers, Temple.
William Radcliffe, Esq.,

Mossley.
John S. Storr, Esq., King St.,

Covent Garden, London.
Rayner Storr, Esq., Haslemere,

Surrey.
Wilham Whitworth, Esq.,

Manchester.
Mr. James Blanchflower,

Staly bridge.
Mr. George Buck, Stalybridge.
Mr. James Clegg, „

Mr. Edward Dain, „

Mr. James France „

Mr. Elijah Hall,
Mr. Alfred Hobson, „
Mr. John Kiddy, „

Mr. Hellion Lockwood,,,

Mr. George Mitchell, Staly-
bridge.

Mr. James Piatt, Stalybridge.

Mr. Samuel Piatt, „

Mr. Josiah Rigby, „

Mr. Benjamin Rigby, „

Mr. Jonathan Schofield, Staly-
bridge.

Mr. Samuel Sidebottom,
Stalybridge.

Mr. Thomas Stanfield, Staly-
bridge.

Mr. Henry Stevenson, Staly-
bridge.

Mr. Swann, Stalybridge.

Mr. David Taylor, Stalybridge.

Mr. Frank Taylor, „

Mr. Joseph Thomas, „

Mr. Samuel Warburton, Staly-
bridge.

Mr. Charles Warhurst, Staly-
bridge.

Mr. James Warhurst, Staly-
bridge.

Mr. Thomas Armfield, Moss-
ley.

Mr. John Avison, Saddlevvorth.

Mr. Miles Brearey, Batley.

Mr. James Hobson, Man-
chester.

Mr. Edward Holt, Hurst.

Mr. Alfred Loney, Dewsbury.

Mr. Joseph Newsome, Batley.

Mr. George Saxon, Dukinfield.

Mr. John Waring, Dewsbury,

INDEX.

Absentee Magistrates, 156
"Alfred," Historian of the Factory Movement, 97
Allsop, Thomas, a Social Conservative, 189
Ashley, Lord, his reputed Treachery, 99, 208

„ „ the Queen warned against him, 193

Avison, John, loi, 208

Baines, Edward, proposes a Compromise, 72

Ballot denounced, The, 186

Beaumont, A. H., wild Speech of, 104, 105

Benthamite Principle Restated, 158

Bhncoe, Robert, attacked by Pigs, 64

Bridges, Dr. J. H., on Characteristics of Mr. Stephens, 205, 206

Bright, Rt. Hon. John, his undoubted sympathy with factory

workers, 71, 74
Brougham, Lord, revolutionary speech at Newmill, "j^^ 103
Buchanan, Robert, ''Anticipations " by him, loi
Bull, Rev. G. S., 79
Bunting, Rev. Jabez, 49

Campbell, Sir John, speech against Mr. Stephens, 147-149
Case, the, against Brother J. R. Stephens, 50, 51
Children, incredible treatment of, 65
Cobbett, R» B. B., letter from, 176

„ „ legal Opinion upon the Bill oi 1852, 208

Cobbett, J. P., letter from, 215, 216

Cobden, Richard, influenced by Political Economy, 'j'}), 74
Colhns, John, speech at Hunslet Moor, 102

Index, 239

Conservative Advocates, their disappearance from the Reform

field, 74
Cooper, Thompson, 18
Crabtree, James, 10 1
Crabtree, Joseph, 10 1

Distrust, the pohcy of Evasionists, 109
D'Orsay, Count, his Tailor-view of Politics, no

Earle, Mrs., Character of her Father Mr. J. R. Stephens, 210
Elliott, Ebenezer, his speech at Sheffield, 94
„ „ his Song of Labour, 95, 96

Enthusiasm for the Factory Bill, Z^^

Factory Girl's Last Day, The, 68, 69
Factory Movement, unrecorded points, 71
Fehx Holt's Radicahsm defined, 185
Fielden, John, 65-72

„ „ how he entered Parliment, 106
French Revohition, its disastrous influence, 94

** General sentiment," a Wesleyan principle, 54
Generous Toryism, characteristics of, 189

Hales, Lord, his wise Recommendation, 64

Hardwicke, Charles, 212

Herbert, George, 225

Hierocles as house-seller, 112

Hooker's, Bishop, description of a Popular Orator, 202

Howarth, Charles, 100

Hutton, Joshua, 18

Idiot, The, of Edenbridge, 88
Indignation at Mr. Stephens's Suspension, 55
Injustice in Court, 156
Intimidation by Manufacturers, 229

Kempis, Thomas ^,235
King Alfred's Rule, 63

Lees, Dr. F. R., controversy with him, 209, 210
Liberal opponents of the Factory Bill, 73
Livsey, Thomas. 100

240 Index,

Locke, John, his proposal of Industrial Schools, 64
„ „ his Schools surpass Mr. Forster's, 64

Mallalieu, William, 100

Menace of Civil War, 103

Methodists, the Church party among them, 50

Methodism, its generous influence, 78

Methodist Fathers, their opinions a form of principle, 52

Millowners, their two clocks, 65

Molesworth, Rev. Wm. Nassau, 141

Montalembert, Count C. F. de, Letter from, 36

„ his youthful experience and principles, 38, 39

„ Parallel Careers of himself and J. R. Stephens, 40, 41

Newspaper Stamp, The, 17-184

Newton, Rev. Robert, his Letters to Mr. Stephens, 58

Northern Star, its strange advertisements, 98

Oastler, Richard, 72, 73

„ „ his character described by Francis Place,

is-n

„ „ his emphasis, %2)

„ „ consults Mr. Stephens, 83, 84

„ „ letters to Mr. Stephens, 84-86, 91

„ „ letter to Mr. Anty, 87

„ „ picturesque dedication by him, 106

„ „ his fierce Speeches, 107

Oastler, Robert, his Innovation in Methodist Burials, 79
O'Brien, James Bronterre, 97

„ „ „ Letters from, 179, 180

O'Connell, Daniel, Conversant with Democratic Principles, 98
O'Connor, Feargus, "j^, 141--145

„ „ his " floating recklessness," 97

Orators, the precariousness of their fame, 15

„ their [inspiration, 216
Origin of Special Juries, 151
Owen, Robert, a Tory Socialist, 190

Pattison, Mr. Justice, Estimate of Mr. Stephens's eloquence,
170, 171
„ „ his misconception, 197

Index, 241

Petition, a remarkable Paternal, 190-192

Petrarch, 13

Philosophical Radicals, their aim, "j^i

„ „ their persistence in Reform, 74

Pitkeithly, Lawrence, 108
Place, Francis, his observing Capacity, 141

„ „ on Mr. Stephens's vehemence, 142

Political Conservatives defined, 188
Poor Law, a species of Elizabethan Communism, 60

„ „ a Penal infliction in the eyes of industry, 61

Queen, The, her words on signing the Factory Act, 82

Radical Democrat defined, The, 196

Rayner, Rebecca Ehza, her remarkable Capacity, 22

„ „ „ Vicissitudes of her Tea Service, 23

Rector's Daughter, her adventure in the kitchen, 187
Resolutions concerning '* Brother Stephens," 51-53
Royahst Revolutionists, 194, 198
Russell, Lord John, his Eleven Hours Motion, 72

Sadler, Michael Thomas, Poem by, 68, 69
„ „ „ his early Life, 81

„ „ „ attempt to drown him, 81

„ „ „ his distinguished Integrity, 81

„ „ „ accusation against him, 105

„ „ „ his paternal Toryism, 194

Schwerin, von, Countess, letter from, 34

„ „ „ on Mr. Stephens's Swedish Career, 35

Sentence, The, 172

Shadows of Despair, 1 1 1

Sharpe, Gillet, his tragic evidence, 69

Shiel, Richard Lalor, his Warning to Irish Shopkeepers, 62

Sibthorp's, Col., Model Speech, 109

Smith, Alexander, 70

Socialists in the Factory Movement, 100

Socialists, the, their Attorney-General, 176

Social Conservatives defined, 188

Stanhope's, Lord, letter to Mr. Stephens, 93

Stephens, Mrs. EHzabeth, 45

242 Index^

Stephens, Joseph Rayner, the manner of man he was, 9-12
t» „ „ origin of this Biography, 14

•I „ „ manufacturers' hostility to him, 16

If „ „ described by Francis Place, 142

i> » », early days, 27

I* )} „ early friendships, 28

» » „ appointed Preacher at Stockholm, 29

19 i> „ Lord Bloomfield's friendship for him,

30-32
M n )) letter to his Father and Mother, 41-44

•I » „ instance of his Self-respect, 42

If )) J, his social discernment, 44,

If ,> „ his religious steadfastness, 56

II „ „ a Parliamentary Candidate, 57

If ff ,1 character of his Orations, 113, 114

%% If f, on the Poor Law in Court and

Cottage, 115
ff If „ his Exordium at Saddleworth, 116

II fi If his Defence of himself as a Political

Advocate, 117
II II ,f on the Poor Law, 122

II f» „ his Defiance of Lord John Russell, 124

II f» „ on the Rising Tide of Time, 125

If „ „ on Salvation to those who serve, 126

If I, „ the Queen at the Wild Beast Show,

126, 127
„ „ „ Naming a Minister, 129

„ „ 3, Dislike of a Democratic Chapel, 131

,» „ ., What a foreign Bishop did, 132

u „ „ The Social Morality of Co-operation,

134
„ „ „ Songsmiths and Wordsmiths, 135

,1 „ „ Henry Hindle's Funeral Sermon, 137-

140
„ ,, „ his wide popularity, 143

„ „ „ his Apprehension, 143

„ „ „ the Bail of ^2,000, 144

,, 5, „ his completeness of speech, 146

„ „ „ his Two Principles, 146

Index, 2\%

Stephens, Joseph Ray ner, his Defence, 150-167
„ „ J, refusal to escape, 155

„ „ „ defiance in Court, 174

ii i> „ manliness in Prison, 175

„ „ „ a Shareholder in the Northern Star,

181
5, 59 J, is censured at Colchester, 185

9, „ „ his character by Alfred, 200-205

$f i, „ his remarkable voice, 201

99 9> >i his London Orations, 201

„ „ „ defence of his Political Ministry,

124, 204
„ „ „ anecdote of his preaching, 211

99 >j j> his Publications, 214

„ „ „ Poems by, 217, 218, 227

„ „ „ letters to Rayner Storr, 219-222

„ „ „ originality of his conversation, 225

„ „ „ characteristics of his Oratory, 233-235

„ „ „ his rejection of great offers made to

him, 228, 231
„ „ „ Proposed Monument to him, 14-236

„ „ „ Inscription on the Presentation to

him, 207
„ „ „ his burial, 224

Stephens's Memorial Fund Committee, 237
Stephens, Edward, his Australian career, 24, 25
Stephens, Prof. George, 26, 29
Stephens, Mrs. Susannah, 45

Stephens, Rev. John, President of the Wesleyan Conference, 20
on result of his Son's Suspension, 56
example of his candour, 57
he decries political effort, 182
his Last Hours, 21
inscription on his Tomb, 22
Stephens Junr., John, Editor of Christian Advocate^ 24, 47

„ „ „ letter from, 48

Storr, John Stephens, 9-12, 207, 223
Storr, Rebecca Eliza, her singular qualities, 23, 24
Storr, WilUam Brumfitt, 23

244 Index,

Sussex, Duke of, his friendship for factory children, 65
Swederus, Ric. James, letter from, 2)Z

Terror of the Poor Law, 60

Thomas Attwood, 103

Tinker, Not forgotten, 162

Torture in Factories, 66

Tory Radicals, origin of the name, 184

Tory Radical doctrine, 196

Walpole, Mr. Spencer, on criminal treatment of paupers, 62
Wesleyanism, its distinguishing sentiments, 59

„ its abject affection for the Church, 54

Wesleyans, Opposed by the Bishops, the Formalists, and the

Clergy, 80
Whigs, their industrial principle, 73
Whig sedition, 160, 161
Whig Radicals, origin of the name, 185
Whiggery, reputed Victims of, 108
White, Henry Kirke, 70
Wing, Charles, his definition of good government, "]%

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