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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds A des taux de rMuction diff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est f ilm6 d partir de I'angle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^ !R-a:*;:T-- qi-o /,-T'«.- -•i»'.V"^:.-.;;:4-.«' •,ii*('5t(.m'S m LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK P.O., Q.C., M.P. WITH CHAPTERS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY. EDITED BT ROBERT EADON LEADER. EDWARD ARNOLD, LONDON: NEW YORK: 37, Bedford Stbbbt. 70, ^^^ ^^^^^ 1897. u^ r a T P C( b( PREFACE. It is nearly twenty years since Mr. Roebuck died, and sui'prise has often been expressed that so long a time has elapsed without any record being given t^ the world of the career of a man of unique personality, who played a prominent part in his country's affairs T^r half a ceu-ury. Into the reasons for the delay it is uaneces'^ar^y to enter. Circunstances have at length made possible t ae realization of the determination, ever tenaciously held by those most intimately connected with Mr. Roebuck, to place the story of his life before the public. Although the ranks of tiiose who knew him are sadly thinned, and a generation has arisen to whom he is little more than a name, the lapse of time brings with it this compensation — that the events which engrossed Mr. Roebuck's activities can be seen in larger perspective, and the persons with whom he came in contact can be referred to with less of the reticence that would have been necessary during their lifetime. My work has been that rather of an editor than of an author, because my chief aim has been to let Mr. Roebuck tell his own story, as far as possible, in his own words. There has, compulsorily, been some departure from this plan in dealing with his later years, but, as a rule, the connecting narrative and elucidatory explanations have been restricted v.'ithin the briefest compass. I have had VI PREFACE, the invaluftble co-operation of Miss Roebuck, who, besides undertaking much of the labour of transcribing, was good enough to entrust to me a large mass of letters and printed papers, including the fragment of autobiography which forms the opening chapters of the book. These, with Hansard's Debates and newspaper reports of speeches deli- vered out of Parliament, have formed the basis of the work. Mr. Roebuck wrote regularly to Mrs. Roebuck, but beyond that he was not a voluminous correspondent ; and the reason why an appeal for his letters has not met with larger response, is probably because there are not many in existence. My special thanks are due to Mr. Graham Wallas, and, through him, to the representatives of the late Mr. Francis Place, for giving me access to the systematically preserved papers of that " Radical tailor of Charing Cross," who, for many years, was the power behind the activities of the advanced Liberals. I am indebted to Messrs. A. and C. Black for placing at my disposal letters written by Mr. Roebuck to the late Mr. William Tait, of Edinburgh ; to the executors of the late Alderman William Fisher, of Sheffield ; to Mr. John Temple Leader, of Florence ; and to other friendly helpers. R. E. LEADER. May, 1897. C^ONTEKTS. 0H«„, ^UTOBIOGBAPHY. '• Early Lifk iv Pv^. Ill r '^'''* ^^«^«-^824) '^ "^ ^^«^AND (1824-1832) JV. John Stpabt Milt t ^ '" V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. WFE AND LETTEBS. / 1 II »6 «TioN TOR Bath (1832) RP „ PARLIAMENT (1833-1834) Bk-klkctk. .OB Bath (183o) ^ - B^WCAL Becriminations R^^noK AS A Democrat (*;837) '" " ' Defeated at Bath (1837) Canada-The Repbbsentation nJ*« ■■' ^. B.«_,,^ ^- '-" c^ ;;■«.« - - '" ^M Fall OF Pkel (1846-1847) •" *«« *'WAi, BmoTioN AT Bath (1847) '*' *" - ^^ 17fi 42 51 64 74 92 »8 108 v"> CONTENTS. CHAPTER VAOR XVII. The Dtino Data op Toeixing ... ... ... 189 XVIII. The West Riding (1848) 200 XIX. HiSTOBT OF THE WHIG MINISTRY — MeHBEB FOB SHEFFIELD (1849) ... ... ... ... 212 XX. Pabliamentabt Activities (1849-18!»0) ... ... 223 XXI. BB-EI.E0nON FOB SHEFFIELD (1850-1853) ... ... 24G XXII. The Crimean and China Wars (1854-1857) ... 258 XXIII. "Teab 'em': (1857-1859) 209 XXIV. Austrian Leanings — Diffbbenors with Constituents (1860-1861) 283 XXV. Fighting with Wild Beasts (1862-1865) ... ... 294 XXVI. Rejected by Sheffield (1865-1868) ... ... 309 XXVII. Out of Fabliament, and in again (1868-1874) ... 327 XXVIII. Mb. Roebuck's Last Pabliament (1874-1878) ... 345 XXIX. The Last Year— Death in Habnkss (1878-1879) ... 356 XXX. Estimates of Mb. Roebuck's Cabeeb and Obatobt 367 ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. J. A. Roebuck in 1838 (fbom the Painting by O. F. Watts, R.A.) ... ... ... ... Frontiepieee ?. The Right Homoubable J. A. Roebuck, Q.C, M.P., in 1868 (fBOM ▲ PhOTOOBAFH BY THE LONDOV StEBEOSCOPIC Co.) To face 310 AUTOBIOGRAPHY, CHAPTER I. EARLY LIFE IN ENGLAND. 1802-1815. I FANG'S that I have not long to live ; therefore, if I can leave anything behind me in the shape of a life history, it must be written in haste, and certainly without any great regard to accuracy as to dates. The space of time to be gone over is large (nearly seventy years), the scenes, many of them, important, and the individuals to be spoken of occupying a great position, and influencing greatly the welfare of this country. My purpose is to give a faithful, and perhaps an interesting, picture of a single life — of the life of a man bom in the middle rank of society in England in the early days of the nineteenth century, and living to the latter end of that century ; taking part in the most im- portant transactions as regarded his country, yet perhaps having little influence upon them, in spite of his great zeal and (I believe I may say it) his perfect honesty of purpose. Without further preface, I will I 'n the history of my life. A happy life ! I have, indeed, thank Providence for the many benefits with which I have been gifted. I have been happy as a son, as a husband, as a father; I B '■'«•»* 2 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. have been happy in my public career : have I not, then, much for which to be thankful ? I was born at Madras in the year 1802, December 28, My father was Ebenezer Eoebuck, a younger son of Dr. John Koebuck, the founder of the Carron Iron Works, in Scotland, and well known in the scientific world.* My mother was Zipporah Tickell, the daughter of Kichard Tickell,t also well known in the political and literary world of Fox and Sheridan. My father's brother Benjamin was paymaster-general of the forces of the East India Company at Madras % at the time of my parents' marriage, and my father took his young wife to India. She was then about twenty-one, having been married at sixteen. She left three children in England, all boys, in the care of her mother; bore three children in India, all boys ; came home in 1807, leaving her husband in India. He then had the almost certain prospect of making a great fortune ; but on the very day that his wife and children landed in England he died suddenly. Having unwarily made a journey through some deadly forests,§ travelling at night, he was found in the morning dead in his palanquin. My uncle Benjamin died shortly after. Thus my mother was left * Dr. John Koebuck, the second of the live sons of John Eoebuck, manu- facturer, of Sheffield, was born in that town in 1718. For an interesting account of the manner in which, laying the foundations of great enter- prises, he made the fortunes of other men, but lost his own, see Smiles's ■'Industrial Biography," p. 133. One of Dr. Roebuck's brothers was the first banker in Sheffield ; two others were, among Sheffield merchants, the earliest to open correspondence with mercantile houses of tlie Continent. One of them built Meersbrook House, adapted in recent years to the purposes of the Ruskin Museum. t A descendant of Addison's friend and under secretary, Thomas Tickell, poet and translator of the Iliad, 1G86-174(). % Chemistry was Benjamin Roebuck's hobby. The natives were inclined to look upon him as something of a wizard, through seeing him perform the simple experiment of making ice in front of a fire. § While engaged, for the East India Company, in endeavours to improve the navigation of the river Godavery. EARLY LIFE IN ENGLAND. cell, nud the ove with six children, and with veiy uncertain means. She had to educate them, put them forward in the world, without assistance from her late husband's family or her own. A truly difficult task, and a trying and dangerous position. She was very beautiful, very clever, fascinating, and young. It is not wonderful that she was sought for by many, that she married soon. The husband she chose (Mr. Simpson) was, like herself, young and handsome, but of no position. In choosing his wife he was guided more by passion than by prudence. Whatever may have been his defects, I have every reason to respect him, and to be grateful to him for his uniform kindness to us, his stepsons, and to our mother, whom he ever treated with the utmost gentleness and loving coux'tesy. They were indeed a happy couple, as far as themselves were concerned. Fortune, however, did not befriend him. He was a merchant, and not successful ; and after many schemes had been tried and failed, it was resolved that we should emigrate to Canada, which we did in the year 1815. The first years of my life, and the time I passed in America, so deeply affected my whole character, and went so far in forming the man, that I am induced to dwell somewhat longer on those years, and to describe more minutely the incidents of that time than I otherwise should do. My early life in England was, in its first years, the life of a child of polished society. My mother, in spite of her unwise marriage, retained her connection with her old friends, and much of my time was passed in the house of Mrs. Anne Boscawen, with whom my Aunt Eliza Tickell lived. Mrs. Boscawen's story was a romance. She, early in life, was engaged to my grandfather Tickell, and was by him jilted. But her love for him survived every disap- pointment ; and when he died she took the children that 4 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. others bore him, and loved them as her own. My mother was the first. She soon married. My Aunt Eliza suc- ceeded, and remained with Mrs. Boscawen until that lady's death. Mrs. Boscawen had been maid of honour to Queen Charlotte, but left that office on her expected marriage with my grandfather. When this was broken off she became, I think, laundress to the Queen, an office not thought unfit for a peer's daughter. I became a great favourite with my aunt, and saw, young as I was, much of the society that frequented Mrs. Boscawen's rooms in St. James's Palace. My memory chiefly dwells on the rejoicings of 1814, and the visit of the kings and emperor — all of whom I saw — and their suites. But of the men who visited at Mrs. Boscawen's, the only two I really recollect are Kean, and Charles Young, the actor. My aunt, Eliza Tickell, was a proprietor of Drury Lane, and was the first who brought Kean to the notice of the persons who then governed the theatre. She was on a visit in the south of Devon, and saw Kean act in a barn in the village. Her letter to the directors, or whatever they were called, induced them to send down a Doctor Somebody — I forget his name — to see and decide upon Kean. He saw Kean, and was so much struck with him that he recommended that he should be instantly brought to London. Kean came, and the town went mad. I only saw him once in private ; I often saw him act. The occasion of my seeing him in private was upon my aunt asking me if I should like to see him ; and upon my answering joyously, " Oh yes," she gave me a letter, which I took. I, to this day, recollect the impression made upon me by his eye. He was reading when I was ushered into the room. He spoke kindly to me. What he said I know not, but I was pleased, and the memory of him, as I then saw him, remains with me. The other person whose name I have mentioned, Charles Young, the actor, I saw only once, when he came on a EARLY LIFE IN ENGLAND. 5 my lich low Ihen tries morning visit to my aunt. I was a shrewd, precocious child, very much of the enfant terrible sfyle, and I saw, or fancied I saw, a sort of flirtation going on. The result of this notion of mine will be seen further on. The opinions of a child are worth nothing, but his feelings may be worth knowing. At this time, and during all the after years of my sojourn in England, I was wild about the theatre. Before I was ten years of age I knew Shakespeare by heart. I had seen John Kemble as " Coriolanus," "Brutus," " Hamlet." Young I saw as "Cassius" to Kemblc's "Brutus," Charles Kemble playing " Antony." Young also I saw as " Pierre " in Venice Preserved. Then, to my extreme delight, I sawKeanas "Richard III." "Hamlet," "Othello," "lago." To my child's judgment, by far the best actor was Kean ; his violence and rant seemed to me nature. The studied manner of Kemble did not please me, though, led by what I heard, I fancied that I admired him. Young's agreeable and regulated style went straight home to my heart, but Kean made me wild. We boys used to shout the verses, fight the battles we had seen and heard the night before. Most unfortunately for me, the year after we returned to England I sprained my right knee by slipping on an oilcloth. This sprain I aggravated by skating ; and in the severe winter of 1812 I was a well-known performer on the Serpentine. Being very small, and dressed in a scarlet jacket, I attracted attention. I was able to perform many feats. I was great in the spread eagle, and could make two figures of three on one leg; and the consequence was that a ring used to be made in which good skaters performed, one of whom I was. One day, alas ! I was attracted by something at a distance. Going straight to my mark, I found in my way a heap of snow, and jumped over it; but the point of my right skate caught in the bottom of the trouser of the left leg, and I came down on my right knee, which immediately swelled. This lamed »w«lP»W»-,J^I t " '^l^tf 6 L/F7-: OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. me for life, and my weak knee has influenced my fate in many ways. That winter (1812) the Thames was frozen over, and I skated from Westminster Bridge to Putney Bridge. I have also skated on the St. Lawrence from Augusta, on the Canadian side of the river, to Ogdensburgh, on the American shore, the distance being five miles, and the river there a mile broad. This fact is remarkable, as ordinarily, though the river is always frozen over in the winter, that usually happens by successive frosts during which snow generally falls, and there is no possibility of skating ; but on the occasion mentioned the frost was so severe as to make an ice bridge over the river in one night. The snow held off, and the river became passable, and skating possible. The wind was down the river, south-west, and I held my great-coat open. This served as a sail, and took me down rapidly; but I was unable to skate against the wind, and had to walk home by the road on the Canada side. As I went gliding over the ice I saw the weeds at the bottom of the river, and the fish swimming among them. This is, however, an anticipation of my American life. My feeble health, for the most part, kept me at home. Excepting twice, I was never sent to a boarding school, and upon each occasion the success of the experiment was so small that there was no attempt made to renew it. My education, therefore, was confined to English reading. I read with my mother and grandmother, and thus acquired that love of reading which has been my solace through life. I do not recollect the time when I could not read, neither do I know how or when I acquired that power. My aunt first taught me to read with propriety and effect — the manner being far more considered than the matter. I remember my aunt taking me one morning to my mother, to show how prettily I could read Little's poems — a strange book for a child being taught by a young girl. I have EARLY LIFE JN ENGLAND. ler, ige kve never read a line of Little since, but from what I have learnt concerninfj him, I am sure that I understood him not at all ; and such, I expect, was the case with my teacher.* My grandmother taught me to read Shakespeare, but this was some years after. She drilled me thoroughly, and was, I believe, the cause of my great admiration for that mar- vellous poet. Under my mother I learned to feel what I was reading. We read chiefly poetry, not dramatic ; but with her I went through most of the great English poets. Under my mother's care I began also to write — that is, to compose. For many years it was my habit to go into her room before she was up, and to lay upon her dressing- table a letter written upon any subject that suggested itself * Years afterwards, however, Sir. Eoebuck, without knowing it, met the writer of "Little's" poems. This was Thomas Moore, who, iu 1801, had issued a volume of original verse under the assumed name of Thomas Little — an allusion to his diminutive stature. " In these pieces," says " Chambers's Encyclopsedia of English Literature," " the warmth of tlie young poet's feelings and imagination led him to trespass on delicacy and decorum. He had the good sense to be ashamed of these amatory juvenilia, and genius enough to redeem the fault." Thomas Hood plays on Moore's pseudonym in •• The Wee Man : " '' Loud laugh'd tho gogmagog, a laugh As loud as giant's roar — ' When first I ciime, my proper name Was Little — now I'm Moore.' " Moore, in his diary (" Journals and Correspondence," vol. vii. p. 253), writes under date February 24, 1839: "Bessy and I started for (Sir William) Napier's on our long-promised visit. Found Eoebuck with him, whom I was very glad to meet, and even more surprised than glad, as nothing could be less like a firebrand than he is, his manner and look being particularly gentle. Boebuck stayed but a short time, having to return to Bath by the boat, which I was sorry for. " February 27. — Young Falconer, brother-in-law of Roebuck, came, and soon after Roebuck himself joined us. Conversation on various subjects — America, mesmerism, etc., all very agreeable. Some allusion having been made to my squibs, Roebuck said I had described him (which I had myself forgot) dancing a fandango with Recorder Shaw [? Law]. On the subject of mesmerism I found Roebuck to be much of the same opinion as myself — that the next folly of swallowing all its marvels, is tlmt of rejecting them all. Was sorry when Roebuck and his brother-in-law left us." 8 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. to my fancy. When she first proposed this to me, I objected, saying I had nothing to say. Her answer was, " Never mind that ; write anything, no matter what. Tell mo what you have done during the day, what you have seen, what you have read. You may always find something — never mind how trivial. You will find, as time goes on, the task more easy, and by-and-by it will become a pleasure." So it did. During one part of these early days I thought of becoming a poet, and among my letters to her were many specimens of my poetical attempts. But I was taught no Latin, no Greek, and, strange to say, no French, though my mother spoke French fluently and well. One strange scheme of Mr. Simpson's was to turn farmer, which he did in 1813, and went to Leicestershire, taking all of us and my mother with him. This plan naturally failed, but the time spent in the country showed me a new phase of life, though I was too young to understand all that I saw. I nevertheless perceived that we had come among what was to me a strange class of people, whom indeed I liked, for they were very kind to us children, and the fields were pleasanter than London. Whilst in Gumley, Leicestershire, we had a visitor — a friend of my mother's — who, in after years, was the cause of a mighty effect upon my whole life. This was Thomas Love Peacock,* who excited my curiosity by his conversation. He was at the time studying Greek, was reading some Greek dramatist and a commentator, and excited the wonder of the farmers who came into the house by reading, as they said, two books at once. He used to sit on a chair on one side of the fire, at a sort of shelf, which drew out of the wall, which shelf held his * Author of " Headlong Hall," " Crotchet Castle," etc. In succession to James Mill, he was Chief Examiner at the India Office, 1836-56. Died 1866. (< I EARLY LIFE IN ENGLAND. m books, and in the evening his light. Every day after breakfast he folded about a dozen paper boats, which he told me he was accustomed to sail or set afloat in any piece of water which he found in his walk — which walk he began as soon as his boats were made, and continued till our dinner, which was about five o'clock p.m. These long solitary walks, his paper boats, his books, and the fact that he was a poet, made him a sort of mj'sterious being to the country people, who certainly were somewhat afraid of him. While I was at Gumley, I went to my second school — I forget where ; but the master was a clergyman, and a coward. My brother Benjamin went with me. After we had been about a week at school, we were surprised by seeing Mr. Simpson enter the room in which we were. He told us he had come to take Benjamin home, as the master of the school had written to say that he could not undertake his tuition. To me he had no objection, so I was to be left where I was. Such a proceeding was necessarily calculated to have a most mischievous effect on Benjamin, who was taught thereby that he need obey no one, and that he might do as he liked. The boys at the school were accustomed to athletic exercises, leaping being a very favourite game. I must take my part, and by so doing soon sprained my weak knee, and was sent to bed until the swelling subsided, which generally took a week. I asked for books, and chose among those offered to me. Glover's "Leonidas."* When I had finished this, I asked again, and the master lis * The author of the article on Kichard Glover in the "Dictionary of National Biography" did not reckon on the literary craving of young Roebuck on his sick-bed when he wrote : " Glover's ponderous ' Athenaid ' ... is much longer, and so far worse than ' Leonidas ; ' but no one has been able to read either for a century." For Roebuck, an eiiic poem in blank verse, in nine books (afterwards enlarged to twelve), had no terrors. Glover sat in Parliament for "Weymouth, 1761-68. The "Athenaid" was a sequel to " Leonidas," which had been published in 1737. MM i ra i rt ii wi pi lo LIFE or JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK, books, of which I brought some grave religious books, ot which 1 could not read a page. I was sorely grieved and greatly disgusted ; and therefore wrote home, pressing to be taken away, as I learned nothing, and was very miserable. The letter had the effect I wished ; and thus ended the second attempt to teach me scholastically. 4 II CHAPTER II. I LIFE IN CANADA. 1815-1824. The next change in my life resulted from the determin- ation to emigrate. Shipboard and the sea gave me much knowledge of life. My mother's brother had been secretary to General Simc^e when he was Governor-General of Canada, and my • icle lost his life in an expedition to the great lakes. As he was crossing the Niagara River in a small boat, a short and severe flurry of snow came on. When this cleared away, the boat and its occupants had dis- appeared for ever. The English Government gave my mother five hundred acres of land in Upper Canada, near York (now Toronto), in requital of my uncle's services. This land led, I have no doubt, to the scheme of emigration. The year we left England was 1815. The passage was in a barque named the Dorothy, one of three vessels ordered to the Clyde to ship emigrants to Canada. As the war was now renewed, I suppose this plan was adopted in 1814, upon the defeat of Napoleon and his imprisonment in Elba. When the war ceased in that year, doubtless means were taken to relieve the overburdened Empire. The population was too large for peaceable times. But the war was suddenly renewed, and no one could say when it would end. I imagine the plans of 1814 were not put aside, but carried on as if 12 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK'. peace still continued. The news of the battle of Waterloo arrived while we were lying in the Clyde. The ships were dressed in flags, and there were great rejoicings. While still lying before Greenock, the whole of us made an excursion to a house, lately built by the Duke of Argyle, at Roseneath — a charming spot, which in the warm summer days seemed like fairyland. We went on board in the Clyde, the vessel being the Baltic Merchant, which, proving uncomfortable, we left her, and went on board the more roomy and convenient Dorothy. I am surprised that I remember the names of these ships and the incidents of those times, things of far greater importance which have happened later having passed away from my memory. The captain of the Dorothij was a bluff, good-humoured sailor, of no education, and of low breeding. The calibre of the first mate may be judged by the information he gave us inquisitive boys. He told us the voyage to America would necessarily be a slow one because, from the shape of the earth, we were what he called " dimming " uphill ; whereas, returning from America, vessels ran downhill, and came faster home. I was then, and have been all my life, a poor sailor. Sea-sickness never leaves me while I am aboard. After a voyage of eight weeks I have been as ill the last day as the first. I nevertheless employed myself during the voyage in reading and drawing, which have always been with me great means of solace and pleasure. Our passengers, the emigrants, were chiefly Highlanders. One of the chiefs — his name was MacNab — came on board, and had a lachrymose leavetaking with his clanspeople. •' They are all as good as mysel'," he said to us in tearful accents, and as an excuse for his tears, which were plentiful, and seemed sincere. The people, however, were a wild set, particularly the women. But many of their habits were to us most interesting. For hours I have seen four men seated on the deck, each one holding the corner of a LIFE IN CANADA. 13 shepherd's plaid, and swinging it to and fro, singing, in a low chanting tone, an interminable song in Gaelic, often during the time shedding tears. All the music seemed to me to be in a minor key ; but of this I am not sure, as I know little — I may say nothing — of music. They often danced, the women as well as the men, all dancing well. They grew by the exercise very excited, when there often appeared a feeling of anger and hate against the English. Once, there being some trilling dispute with the captain, upon a complaint made by the passengers, an oldish woman, somewhat tipsy, called upon the men to right themselves by their skencs, which we were told signified knives. Upon another occasion, a wild-looking Highlander rushed upon deck. Running to the capstan, he dashed his hand upon the top of it, and threw down a cockroach, saying in broken English, " Are these the things ye have on board, and do ye treat us in this way ?" The captain, as may be supposed, laughed loudly upon this, and dismissed him and his insect with some rude sailor's answer. We boys soon took an interest in the working of the ship, and che mizzen-mast was given up to us. We merely worked the yards — that is, on deck — never being allowed to go aloft. I think I made a mistake in calling the vessel a barque, as she had a mizzen top-sail, which a barque has not. I may mention here a matter which may be a warning to any future emigrant family. A woman-servant, who had li\'ed with us in England many years, and who pro- fessed to be warmly attached to my mother, joined us in 011V plan of emigration, and v.ent with us in the ship to Canada, being treated rather as one of the family than as a servant. When arrived at Quebec, she told my mother that she had promised to marry the captain of the ship, und was to return with him. She left us after eight or nine years of service, and we never heard of her afterwards. This led to engaging the two daughters of an emigrant named Fergusson, Maigaret and Katharine. H LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. The passage up the river St. Lawrence was trying to our patience, but agreeable, as the weather was fine, and the wind, though generally unfavourable, yet being south and west, the climate was pleasant. When we arrived at Quebec, the vessels were ordered up to Montreal, upon which we proceeded onwards, and the first day ran aground. The laden vessel could not be got off. Then a fine large steamer came and took us from the ship, baggage and all. When we got on board the steamer we found, among the passengers. Sir Sydney Beckwith. We boys were all clad in barragon,* dressed as we supposed was fitting for a wild country. My mother and Mr. Simpson were dressed as gentlefolks ought to be. Sir Sydney was attracted by my mother, and the large family of boys, and soon entered into conversation. Learning that our name was Roebuck, he made some inquiry which led to his being informed as to who we were. " Good God ! " he exclaimed. " What, nephews of Benjamin Roebuck of Madras ? " He then put his hand before his eyes and bent towards the table. When he raised his head, which he did directly, there was a glitter in his eyes very like tears. " When I knew their uncle," he said, " he was living in a state of princely magnificence." The contrast evidently shocked him, but he said nothing more. However, the result was, that we were kindly treated by the Government, and every facility aflbrded us to get up the country. Mr. Simpson, before leaving Montreal, bought an estate at Augusta, midway on the banks of the St. Lawrence, between Prescott and Brockville, about sixty miles below Kingston, and below the Thousand Islands, the river being, as I believe, nearly a mile broad. The estate had upon it a good stone house, about eighty yards from the river, with convenient outhouses, barns, and a capital orchard * A name in use in Hampshire and Cornwall for fustian. The Lancashire form is " barragan ; "' in commerce it is " barracan," a strong, thick kind of camlet.—" English Dialect Dictionary." LIFE IN CANADA. 15 and garden. I was too young to know anything about the purchase, but I now can see it was a rash act to buy it, and to launch into the expenses which followed. But Mr. Simpson was a daring, sanguine man, and indulged in schemes that would have terrified a sober-minded one. These schemes, and their ultimate failure, I need not describe ; the only visible effect of them being, as far as I was concerned, my return to England, and the change that followed in my whole plan of life. We started on our journey to Upper Canada from the village of Lachine, which is situated on the end of the island of Montreal highest up the river. The Government supplied us with two Canadian bateaux, with five men in each, four oarsmen and a pilot, or steersman. Our baggage and ourselves filled these boats. This, at that time, was the chief mode of conveyance of merchandise and passengers. The Americans navigated the river in a different manner. The American Durham boat was much larjjer than the Canadian bateau, and had one large fore and aft sail, and was propelled by poles, the men putting the pole to the shoulder and stooping and crawling along a narrow passage on the gunwale, with transverse pieces of wood across it, against which they placed their feet and hands. In this manner they forced the vessel up the rapids, and against a head wind. The Canadian bateau had a temporary mast and a square sail, which was used when the wind was fair ; when it was foul, oars were used where the river was without rapids. At the rapids the boat was forced by poles used in a different manner from that of the American. Sometimes the boat was tracked by a rope, two men remaining on board, one astern, one in the bow, both using poles. This mode of journeying was necessarily very slow, and we were therefore many days getting to our journey's end. At night we generally had to put up at some house on the bank of the river, being usually very hospitably received, i6 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. paying, however, for our accommodation. One night — fine, luckily — we were on Lake St. FranQois, and, finding no house, had to rest for the night under an awning in the boat. All this, which was our first experience of our new life, was to us boys a scene of perfect enchantment. The weather was fine ; the great river on which we floated, and what to us appeared its wild shores, gave us never-ending delight. Everything was new, and, as far as we could see, all was beautiful. Young as we were, the future did not much trouble us ; nor were we yet touched with longing for home, which inevitably wrings the heart of every emigrant. But with minds prepared for adventure, we seemed to ourselves enacting the life of Robinson Crusoe, and nothing prosaic in any way dimmed the brilliant scene before us. We found the house upon our farm comfortable and roomy, built of stone, and capable of being rendered an agreeable and pleasant residence. That season called the " Indian summer " quickly followed our arrival, and this is perhaps the most beautiful and pleasant part of the whole Canadian year ; and we were at first very favourably impressed by the climate. I remained for the next four years at Augusta, taking my share in all the farm labours. But what I have now to do is to explain the effect that this new life had upon my mind and character. I may here describe my family, and relate shortly the history of all of them. The eldest of the emigrant family was my mother's mother. She died at Augusta, and is buried in the grave- yard attached to the Church of Engla,nd church that is situate about two miles down the river from our house on the road to Prescott. It stands on a pine-barren of about a mile broad, the land being left untilled and the pine trees left standing. It is a wild spot which I have often passed. The perfume of the pines in that wood still lives freshly in LIFE IN CANADA. 17 my memory. This old lady was to the day of her death of wondrous beauty. I looked on her face a few hours after her death, and then saw the truth of those lines of Byron — He who hath bent him o'er the dead, Ere the first day of death is fled. To my startled gaze a flush was upon her cheek ; age, and all trace of age, seemed to have vanished, the beauty of youth to have returned, and she whom I had always known as an ancient woman, appeared almost a girl. I did not look again. It would have been a bitter pain to have that fair vision succeeded by the look of age and death — for I loved her dearly. Of my mother I have already spoken. She died at Coteau-du-Lac, February 9, 1842. The next is Mr. Simpson, who long survived my mother, and married an American lady. He died at Brookville. My eldest brother was Richard, who had been sent to sea in his Majesty's service under Sir George Cockburn, who was an old East Indian friend of my mother's. Richard left the navy at the peace of 1814. He was ten and a half years old when he left home ; he was, con- sequently, very illiterate. The care that is now taken of the youngsters in our service was then unknown. When he returned, however, he soon felt his own deficiencies, and became an indefatigable reader, thereby acquiring a good deal of knowledge; but he could never regain the lost time. William, the second brother, went to Woolwich to study, so as to become either an engineer or of the artillery. He left the Academy in 1818, and joined the emigrant party. He married an American lady, and died, leaving a family, one of whom, the second daughter, I have seen. She is married, and happily settled. George, the third brother, had not left school when the time for our departure came. He joined us, and, upon the i8 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. break-up at Augusta, vvent to the West Indies, to Antigua, where he shortly afterwards died. Benjamin came next — a bold, daring, harum-scarum boy, who could learn anything he chose, if only he applied his mind to the subject. He also left Canada at the same break-up; through the interest of our family obtained a commission in the East India Company's cavalry, returned to his birthplace, Madras, and died soon after at Seringa- patam. I was the next. Then came Henry, who remained in Canada, and married. He died, leaving a widow, two sons, and a daughter. What I desire to do as regards the history of my life in Canada, is to explain the influence upon my character and fortunes of that period of my career. That the state of things in that country had an extraordinary efl'ect upon me, I well know; but I feel it difficult to explain this. A knowledge of the country, of its state and condition, is requisite to the understanding of the sort of influence exercised upon a boy of my antecedents and nature, and even that will hardly give a clue to the effect upon my mind of the circumstances by which I was surrounded. When I went to Canada I was .very young, and very ignorant, necessarily, of the world and its ways. I was, besides, in my hidden nature, very romantic, and living most of my time in dreamland. Never was anything so opposed to this way of thought and feeling as the society made up of my family. The strong, healthy young men and lads, who held in scorn every manifestation of sentiment, who laughed at emotion, constituted but a chilling and depressing atmosphere to anything approaching high feeling and exalted thought. They were, though boys, a set of cynical philosophers. The tone of the conversation was more that of disabused men of the world than a set of boys fresh from school. LIFE IN CANADA. 19 From what I then saw, from that example, I am led to believe that English schoolboy life has this tendency— that the general tone of thought and feeling created by an English boy's school damps imagination, chills all ardent aspirations, makes of children cold-blooded beings, who ridicule and contemn all expressions of great and generous maxims. And yet I believe that this mode of conversation was not an expression of the actual state of mind of those employing it, but that a dread of ridicule was the cause of all this cynical bearing. I was in the habit of constantly writing verse and prose, and I recollect well the dread that I felt lest my brothers should find these effusions, and bring them forward to be laughed at, and myself held up to ridicule. Yet, in spite of the felt and acknowledged difference between myself and my brothers, as years went on, my influence over them and the affairs of the family daily grew, and I was allowed, without much interference, to pursue my own course as it pleased me. My devotion to study met with a tacit approval, the more especially as it never took me away from daily work, which I per- formed as faithfully as any one of the others, and of which I took my share without shrinking. All my brothers grew to powerful men. I, on the contrary, was from the beginning small, frail, and, before I went to Canada, an invalid. My health there grew assured, but I never became strong. My knee always interfered with any great exertion, and, though I was agile and strong for my size, I could not have held my own with these sons of Anak had not my intellect helped. That came effectually to my aid, and before I left Canada I ruled the family. [Writing, in 1870, to a friend who had lost a brother, Mr. Roebuck said — I, too, have lost, or am about to lose, my only remaining brother— the loved companion of my infancy and youth, and ■ llHi l ■! .J . 20 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. whose death takes away from me the !,i?t member of that once glad party which was made up of six brothers. I, the sickly one, the one never expected to reach manhood, am now left alone, the last and miserable survivor of this once happy band. Exhorting the working-men of Sheffield to self-culture, in an address given to the Mechanics' Institute of that town (February 1, 1860), Mr. Roebuck sketched, under a transparent veil of anonymity, the mode of life in his Canadian home. I recollect in my early life meeting a man who had become an emigrant. He was one of a family born to wealth, reared \\\ luxury, and in this country accustomed to all the appliances which luxury can give. He emigi-ated with his family to America. He was compelled to apply himself to the mere ordinary occu- pations of gaining a livelihood as a farmer. Now, what did that family do ? They were composed of ladies and gentlemen of England. The mother of that family was a woman of great acquirements and ability. I recollect her perfectly well. I had every reason to know her well. She instituted a code in that family that I would recommend to every working man of my country. It was that there should be as much courtesy, good breeding, and every means that could promote the happiness of that family, though now reduced to the position of mere working men, as existed in it when they were of the gentry of England. I recollect that young man telling me that his mother never came into the room but every one of the children rose to salute her. They took out their library from England to America. They passed their time in the day in the ordinary occupation of working-men ; the evening they dedicated to intellectual enjoy- ment. Now, I want to know why the working-men of England cannot do that ?] I now desire to give a description of the country and its society, so far as that state of things influenced my mind and our fortunes. This description will be the result of my subsequent experience, reflecting my state of mind when I finally quitted Canada. The wild country, its great rivers, the vast scale upon \ LIFE IN CANADA, 21 Ig id \y le )f l>n which everything was framed, made on me a profound impression. The freedom in which we lived, the thorough liberty of going where we liked, the new scenes, brought with them a sort of enchantment. All efforts would fail were I to endeavour to describe them. The great river St. Lawrence lay before us, and was a never-failing source of adventure and delight. We built boats, rigged and sailed them unchecked, save by the nature of things. The primeval forest lay behind us, and in this we hunted and shot, undisturbed by game laws, or even by the will of neighbouring proprietors. William and myself were given to drawing. William, having a genius for that art, became a very pretty artist. Thus our time was spent in downright hard labour on the farm, and at the same time we retained many of the habits and manners of civilized life. We had a large and well-selected library of the English classics, which I read completely through, and what I read at that time left an indelible impression upon my memory, and gave whatever of mental power I have possefjsed in life. Society, we had little or none. The neigiibours were chiefly farmers with some second calling, such t«s store- keepers of different kinds. What we ought to have done was to have made friends with all these good people, and to have lived on neighbourly terms with them, asserting no airs of superiority, and if we possessed any knowledge or power which might have been useful, to have freely imparted it, and received from them much good advice in return, which their experience enabled them to give. We did none of these things. The population of the district mostly consisted of the descendants of those Americans who adhered to the side of the mother-country in the War of Independence. These people emigrated to Canada as being still an English possession, and were known as U.E.'s (United Englishmen). 22 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK'. Tliey were in their habits and manners American, it being impossible to find any differeneo between them and the Americans on the other side of the river. On the Canadian side, however, there came constantly eraigi'ants, chiefly from Ireland, who, though nominally British subjects, hated England and everything English. The natives were not very favourable to the English dominion, and the consequence was, there were constant feuds springing up between us and the people about us. We were extremely English, and not at all backward in giving expression to our opinions. The life in that wild country had a marked effect upon my character. I never forgot England, and from the first, as a mere child, determined to return home and try my fortunes in the land of my fathers. The effect of the new life, the wild forests, the broad river., the roaming and almost wandering habits that were then contracted, — all worked upon my imagination, and made me bold and daring. No one without experience can appreciate the effect of a life in the forests and wild country of America upon the mind, the character, and the emotions. I,, now old (seventy- five years), still feel emotions that result from the days of my boyhood passed in the rapturous freedom of the primeval forest, and on the bosom of the broad rivers of America. Even now when spring comes I sigh in- voluntarily for the enchanting pleasures enjoyed when winter broke, and joyous spring came with a bound, and loosened all the chains with which frost had bound us. The rivers were again open, and I rushed with wild delight in my canoe over the broad waters of the St. Lawrence. Day and night we fished and followed the wild fowl in the bays of the river, and the many streams that flowed into that magnificent world of waters. The sudden change from the dreary cold days of the winter to the genial warmth of summer was almost miraculous. LIFE IN CANADA. as At once, and ?ompletely, the whole face of nature was changed; the flowers started up in the forest, the birds suddenly appeared, and all nature was alive. The trees in a few days were covered with leaves. The most startling incident, however, was the wonderful change in the great river. To-day and to-night tae broad surface was one white sheet, over which horses and sleighs passed as upon the ground. Suddenly the wind came from the south ; a deluge of warm rain poured down ; a sound as if great guns were being let off was heard ; and through the night, commotion, turmoil, and a fierce storm of wind and rain. The morning broke in bright sunshine, and there, where was a desolate white plain, was now sparkling water; the ice was gone, and navigation was free. The summer was come ; all the work of agriculture was suddenly resumed. The change was like a stage transformation. One of my great pleasures was to seat myself under a fence with a book, and dream away hour after hour ; and now here in England, fifty years and more having passed over my head, and busy and active life passed away, when the cold spring returns my heart craves for the pleasure of those young days and gay hopes, bright sunshine, and dreamy musing. These were years of continuous steady study. I read and pored over the English classics day and night. I taught myself French, also a good deal of Latin.* [Addressing the boys of the SheflQeld Collegiate School on June 22, 1861, Mr. Roebuck said — If I had followed steadily and carefully the business of my own education, instead of pursuing it with the sort of enthusiasm — the madness with which I did, I should not now be what I am, an old man and yet a young one. I recollect perfectly well that I had a window looking upon the expanse of the St Lawrence, and when night came — my studies were usually pursued in winter * Italian was added some years after. 84 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. — from my window I could sec the gront stars of heaven ; and I recollect to this lionr the pleasure I enjoyed in believing and knowing that every other soul was in bed. Tliore is a pleasure to the studious man in the small hours of the morning. He wants to do all that he possibly can to obtain the quiet that is then about him. My good mother used to come up into my room and say, " No, sir, yon must go to bed ; this will never do." If your mothers will do so to you, they will do you a benefit.] Ono thing never left my mind. In thought I constantly reverted to the memory of my ancestors. They had been distinguished in science and literature, and it always seemed to me possible that I might distinguish myself in England. I therefore formed the resolution of returning Itome, and determined to try my fortune at the Bar. How to do this was always in my thoughts, and at last, when I was about twenty or twenty-one, I started for London with £50 in my pocket. That I was allowed to do this seems to me now a wonder, and something worse. That I was not shipwrecked, and cast upon the world without hope, is now to me a marvel. I was indeed supported for some short time by uncertain remittances from Canada, but they failed utterly, and I was thrown upon my own unaided resources. \ V I ( 25 ) * CHAPTER III. RETURN TO ENGLAND. 1824-1832. In the year 1824 I cturne.1 to England from Canada. Among the friends of my mother's was the well-known scholar Thomas L. Peacock,* to whom I took a letter of introduction, and whom I found at the India House acting as what I believe is called a Political Examiner. After a short conversation, he said, " I think I can introduce you to a young friend of mine in this house who belongs to a (hsqiUsition set of young men"— I remember the word was new to me-«and you may find his acquaintance agreeable and useful." I at once expressed my willingness and he then took me to the room of John Mill, and after a few words of introduction left us together. Mill and I immediately entered into conversation, in which I laid myself entirely open, having, as I thought, nothing to conceal. Mill, I afterwards found, was cautious, and approached his own peculiar views with great precaution. Among other things, he told me that he was oi^e of a society called the Utilitarian Society, which met about once a week, at the house of Mr. Bentham, for the purpose of discussion. He told me that each member in turn read a paper, upon which a debate followed. Of the name of Bentham I was utterly ignorant. Of his tenets and philosophy I knew nothing. In fact I was perfectly ignorant of the political, social, and philosophic * See ante, p. 8. •-*»»--» 26 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. condition of Englanil and the world. I had read much, but without a guide, without a purpose; except the general on 3 of instructing myself, and I came into this, to me, new world, without knowing at all what I did by joining this body of young men. Mill put into my hands a small octavo manuscript, which was a description of the principles of the Utilitarian Societ}', and its rules. He offered to introduce me, and if, upon consideration, I acquiesced, he would propos.o me as a member.* I little knew what an important influence that con- versation would have upon my future life. My reading, as I have alread}- said, was, for my age, extensive. Besides the advantage of my access to the well-selected library of my mother's husband, I was also free of the public library of Quebec, which had been founded under the advice of Priestley. The conscciuencc was that I was familiar with the greater part of English literature, had read all our poets, and many of our philosophers. I remember well brinirino- home to Beaufort, where we then lived, from Quebec a volume of th-c i^uarto edition of Locke, and sitting up late into the night reading it, when I was disturbed by my mother, and desired to go to bed. She looked to see what I was reading, and found it to be the " Essay on the Human Understanding." She turned over the leaves, and asked what possible good there was in that sort of matter. I had then, as I should have now, much difficulty in finding an answev.f To return to my interview with Mill. After some * For J. S. Mill's ftccount of the Utilitariiin Society bco his " Auto- biograpliy,"' p, 79. t Note by J. A. R. — I put pretty nearly the same question to Grote the last time I ever conversed with him. We were dining with the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Disraeli) on the Qucen'a birthday. Wo were speaking of the work that Grote was tl\en about, viz. Aristotle, when I asked him if ho thought any real good roaulted from tliat sort of inquiry, and Jo, os I, was much puzzled for an answer. RETURN TO ENGLAND. vj I further talk, iic asked mo if I should like to sec the museum, and took me there. In going throUj^h it, I was struck with his knowledge— its variety, and, as far as I could judge, its extent. At that time I had not seen his father's "History of India," and thr"gh born in India, and connected with it through members of my family, I knew ver}^ little about its condition and history. Mill appeared familiar Avith every subject that the contents of the museum suggested, and explained everything that we came across. I left greatly struck with the remarkable person I had met. My first visit to the Utilitarian Society I shall never forget. It met in a low, half-furnished, desolate sort of room— I believe the dining-room of the house, not Mr. Bentham's dining-room. The place was lighted by a few tallow candles. A desk was drawn across the end of the room, at which desk sat the chairman, and some half-dozen young men sat in chairs round the room, and formed the society! The essay was a critique for some review of an edition of a Greek author. It was written and read by a young man named Harfield, and appeared to give general satis"^ faction. Mill told me it was a sort of trial piece, and was intended to test the capacity of Harfield to be the editor of some review. On that evening I met for the first time the friend of my life, George J. Graham. Ho walked with me towards my then homo, vdiich was in Islington. He lived in Gray's Tpu V7 ^ yere accompanied part of the way by a young luan. named Place.* We stopped at the door of * Fmncis Plr-e, the onec well-known Ratli,->1 - 'iticiau of Charing Cross. He w s i sort of right-hand man to Bent;...... a.id to James Milf, and the mcvirg power behind tlvo "Philosophical Radicals." Place, having becu bom in 1771, was Roebuck's senior by thirty-one years. For au account of him see the article in tlio " Dictionary of National Biography," by Mr. Graham Wdlas, who is also now writing his life. There are some interosting references to Place in Ilolyoake's •• .^Jxty Years of an Agitator's Life," vol, i. p. 215. 28 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. a house in Charing Cross, and I well remember the shock which my pride received when, looking up, I saw the name, "Place, Tailor," over the door! This was my first ex- perience in democracy. I eventually became a member of the society, and being greatly struck with the works of Bentham* and James Mill, I, in fact, became also a pupil of John Mill, who, although younger than myself, was far in advance of me in philosophy and politics. From this time our intimacy increased day by day, and was strengthened by the fact that Graham and myself became sworn friends — brothers, in fact — and with John Mill formed a triumvirate which we laughingly called the " Trijackia," all of us being named John. I found that Mill, although possessed of much learn- ing, and thoroughly acquainted with the state of th ' political world, was, as might have been expected, the mere exponent of other men's ideas, those men being his father and Bentham ; and that he was utterly ignorant of what is called society; that of the world, as it worked around him, he knew nothing ; and, above all, of woman, he was as a child. He had never played with boys; in his life he had never known any, and we, in fact, who were now his associates, were the first companions he had ever mixed with. His father took occasion to remark to myself especially, that he had no great liking for his son's new * It is to be regretted that Mr. Roebuck does r.ot tell us more of bis associatiou with Bentham. He became something of a favourite with the old philosopher, who foresaw the mark his young friend would one day make in the world. The short notes from Roebuck to Bentham, preserved among tho Bentham manuscripts at tho British Museum, relate only to such matters as invitations to dinner ; but they always contain assurances of the " very great respect " with which the young disciple signs his acceptances to dinner " at the usual hour." There is a playfully aftectionate reference to Roebuck in Browning's " Life of Bentham," vol. xi. p. 81 : "I have been catching fish," Bentham said one day. " I have caught a carp. I shall hang him up, feed him with bread and milk. He shall be my tame puss, and shall play about on tlie floor. But I have a new tamo puss. I will make Roebuck my puss for his article on Canada, and many a mouse t' all he catch." I i RETURN TO ENGLAND. 29 i friends. I, on the other hand, let him know that I had no fear of him who was looked upon as a sort of Jupiter Tonans. James Mill looked down on us because we were poor, and not greatly allied, for while in words he was a severe democrat, in fact and in conduct he bowed down to wealth and position. To the young men of wealth and position who came to sec him he was gracious and instructive, while to us he was rude and curt, gave us no advice, but seemed pleased to hurt and offend us. This led to remonstrance and complaint on the part of John Mill, but the result was that we soon ceased to see John Mill at his home. Our chief point of rewnion was the house of George Grote, Mrs. Grote being the means of bringing us together. She was kind and courteous, and was always ready by kind words and winning, pleasant manner, to render her house an agreeable and really instructive centre of meeting.* [At times interruption to work came in the shape of severe attacks of illness, brought on by a chill in 1825, the effects of which did not pass away for many years, as neuralgia settled in the knee already weakened by injury in childhood, and though Roebuck was active and a swift walker, the long expeditions into the country, taken at this period with J. S. Mill f and others, did not tend to mend matters. One day's walk, especially, of forty miles caused weoks, if not months, of suffering. On the outbreak of the French Revolution of 1830, after the news of the " three days of July," Roebuck, Mill, G. J. Graham, and others hastened to Paris, filled with enthusiasm and hope for France. Mr. Roebuck, years afterwards, * Mill's account is that the gatherings at Grote's were not meetings of the Utilitarian Society, tliough consisting largely of the same gi'oup (see his " Autobiography," p. 1 ID). t On these country excursions J. S. Mill would fill his pockets with sweet violet seed, and scatter it iu the hedges as he went along. iHWWrT 30 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. described how this company of young Englishmen, thinking only of great and wide measures of constitutional govern- ment, were taken aback, and not a little disappointed at the state of mind of the French Liberal leaders. One man they found completely occupied with the arrangement of the uniform of the National Guard, especially of what shape the new cockade should be ; others changing the names of the streets, and most of them intriguing for place. On the occasion of Louis Philippe's first visit to the opera, these young Englishmen happened to be present, and they presently began to shout for " La Marseillaise," in which th<^ house joined ; and then they shouted " Debout, debout ! " 1 til the whole audience, including the king himself, aco ,tood up during the playing of the revolutionary tu-r T Thus time went on, great events in the world occurred, and our reform opinions seemed about to be tested in earnest. The French Kevolution of July occurred. The English Reform Bill followed, and we all three* rushed into the torrent, and were as mad and ardent as youth, energy, and sincere belief in our opinions could make us. The Reform Bill having become law, and I, having been very active in the many proceedings which attended the passing of that measure, became known to many public men, and, among others, to Joseph Hume, who at that time was a man of great mark and power. Many of the new constituencies created by the Reform Bill had great confidence in him ; among others, the City of Bath showed that confidence by asking him to select for them a man whom they might send as their representative to Parlia- ment. He sent them down three names, of which mine was one, and, I know not for what reason, the choice of the Liberal majority fell upon me. Before this, * Iloebuek, Mill, and Graham. RETURN TO ENGLAND. 31 Hume went down to Bath and introduced me to the constituency. I had for many years been training myself for a politician, and especially did I study public speaking. I acquired great facility, and striking and incisive powers of speech. I also formed for myself a political scheme, so that I came before the public armed at all points, a trained politician. This procured for me success; and eight years after I had set foot in England, unknown in life's difficult journey, I became, by my own efforts, a Member of the British Parliament. fit will be observed that Mr. Koebuck says he does not know for what reason the choice of the Liberals of Bath fell upon him. Miss Roebuck shows how it came to pass that he enlisted the sympathies of at least one partisan. She writes — My mother used to te 1 how one morning, on entering the breakfast-room, her brother, Thomas Falconer, called out, " Here, Henrietta, look at these letters ; they are from candidates for Bath." She took up the letters, looked at each, then, holding out one, said, " This is the one to choose ; the letter is well written, and in the hand of a gentleman." It was signed, " J. A. Roebuck." The day after my father and Mr. Hume arrived in Bath. They were brought in procession, with band playing and flags flying, to my grandfather's [the Rev.Thomas Falconer's] house in the Circus.* On the way up the hill at the back of the Circus, my father saw a young lady standing with other persons, looking over the garden wall at the crowd. Some one at my father's elbow said, " That is Miss Falconer." By the time the procession reached No. 29, the lady was in the drawing-room, and there my father and mother first met. * " We arrived," Mr. Roebuck wrote, " on August 20, and went to the White Hart, where a crowd quickly collected under the windows, shouting. Hume, who was having a cup of tea, said, • I don't know what to say to these people, Roebuck; just put your head out of window and say something to them,' which I did ; and tliis was my first appearance before tlie people of Bath." 32 LIFE OF yOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. Thus Mr. Koebuck found at Bath not only a seat in Parliament, but also a wife, who was his loving helper and loyal champion through all the strain and stress of his long and combative life.* Mr. Mill t gives us a glimpse of the sedulous manner in which Mr. Roebuck cultivated striking and incisive powers of speech. He says — There was for some time in existence a society of Owenites, called the Co-operative Society, which met for weekly public discussions in Chancery Lane. In the early part of 1825, accident brought Roebuck in contact with several of its members, and led to his attending one or two of the meetings, and taking part in the debate in opposition to Owenism. Some one of us started the notion of going there in a body, and having a general battle ; and Charles Austin and some of his friends, who did not usually take part in our joint exorcises, entered into the project. It wa" ''.irried out, and many animated discussions with the Owenites followed. This led to Mill and his friends forming a debating society, which held its meetings at Freema ii's i-'av^ern. Roebuck was one of the most steadfast members. Mr. Roebuck was in the habit, at a later period, of referring to the care with which he trained himself for his parliamentary career. At Sheffield, in acknowledging the presentation of 1100 guineas, made to him on Sep- tember 3, 1856, "in recognition of his great national services, and in memorial of his work as a Liberal, patriotic, and distinguished statesman," he said — I ask myself what it is that has given me the present occasion of returning you my thanks. It is not talent, it is not name, it is not rank, it is not wealth. What is it, then ? It is stead- fastness in that course which I marked out for myself in the beginning. I am proud to say that in the year 1832 I published * He was married to Miss Falconer on January 14, 1834, at Walcot Church, Bath. t "Autobiography," p. 123. it liETURN TO ENGLAND. 33 a programme of the opinions I then held. I had prepared myself for a public life. I had then formed my opinions. I consigned them to paper. I printed them, and to them I now adhere. That which I said in 1832 I say now; and it is my thorough and steadfast adherence to the opinions which I then expressed that has won for me the approbation of my countrymen. . . . Oomg into Parliament, unknown, unsupported, only recom- mended by that tried friend of the people, Joseph Hume, I determined not to ally myself with either of the -roat parties that then divided the House of Commons and the kingdom. I was neither Whig nor Tory, and I went into the House of Commons determined to advocate that which I believed to be for the interests of the people, without regard to party considerations. To that rule I have adhered through life. The following letter is quoted to illustrate Mr. Roebuck's habit of seizing everj opportunity of studying political questions, not only in their theoretical, but in their practical bearing. It also throws an interesting light on what would now be called the "Gerrymandering" per- petrated under the Reform Act, as well as the sordid views taken in small southern constituencies of the en- largement of the franchise. '/. A. Rocluclc fo Fj-aack Place. Mudefonl, near ChnHMmrch, HaaU, Matf 2 183-> — My DEAR Father Place, Here I am, poor devil l' in the* most doleful banishment. I might almost as well be in New South Wales-at the New Colony that is to be-as here, as to every- thing respecting politics. I see no papers but the Examiner, and my people, poor wretches ! know nothing. However for my health's sake this am I condemned to, which said health IS but a very little, if any, better. The weather has been wretcliedly cold, and my pains as great as ever. So I deem myself in Castle Dolorous. I am living within a stone's throw of Sir George Rose's noimnation borough of Christchurch, and if the Bill works no better elsewhere than here, we are making a mighty pother about nothing. The sapient Sir John RomiUy was here as D WS^inijiiijmii 34 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. Commissioner (I understand) with Colonel Anncrsley, a high Tory, and from all that I can learn, the Whig Commissioner could not understand the interests of the various parties here. As might be expected, the inhabitants do not wish to be disfranchised, or even to lose one member, and, consequently. Liberals even strove hard to raise the numbers of the inhabitants. The Tory Com- missioner took advantage of this, and made the mayor amend his report of the numbers of the £10 householders, which he did to the satisfaction of the Tory ; that is, he preserved one of the members by increasing the number of inhabitants a hundred beyond his first report. This was done by much squeezing, including places that ought not to have been included. I vehe- mently suspect that if the householders of Christchurch alone were numbered, it would prove a very pitiful show. It was Romilly's duty to have made this out, as everything ought to have been done to prove the real disproportion existing between the town and country representation. It is not that I object to including these out places liermfkr, and increasing to the utmost the constituency ; but I do object to including them now, because every means ought to be taken to lessen the number of boroughs, and the only way to do this was to prove as many as possible utterly insignificant and contemptible as to numbers of in- habitants. Well, now, suppose the borough reformed : the in- habitants are all stout reformers. Why ? Because they hate Sir George Rose. He has tyrannized over them, and they would be freed from his yoke. But they by no means desire to be represented in the hopes of being well governed. What they desire is to be well paid by the candidates, and for this reason they dislike the ballot. Their short-sightedness is wonderful ; they hope to pass from the hands of Sir George Rose into those of Sir George Tapps, who is the greatest landholder here. And so they will. They have so managed the matter that the borough is noAV made to include his lands and his tenants. Sir George Tapps is a reformer too, after this fashion. He speaks to them fair, promises to lay out money on the harbour, to protect the inhabitants, to get laws passed for them, etc., and the fools believe him. They say he is a good man, not a harsh man like Sir George Rose. And then he will not have the power. No ; nor had Sir George Rose the power when first he came here. (If you see John Mill, ask him to show you my letter to him. RETURN TO ENGLAND. 35 I have there explained how Sir George Rose's power was acquired.) Now, for the chance of a bribe these foolish people are en- deavouring to play a game of balance. In doing so, they will trust Whig professions, and again be cheated. One thing I see works strongly with the bourf/m.sic here. They hate and fear the poor. They have hitherto played the tyrant over the poor iu their damned select vestry. They have dinners, etc., all after the old fashion of the select, and are just as great rascals in their way as the aristocracy in theirs. Looking at reform, then, hero in the niost favourable point of view, it appears a victory of the bourgeoisie over the aristocrats. In my opinion it will be, even to them, a temporary benefit— to the people none at all. I have not yet been able to move about, so that I am in ignorance of the condition of the poor here. The moment I get better I shall hunt them out.] t 36 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. CHAPTER IV. JOHN STUAKT MILL. I HAVE often bethought me whether it was possible to draw the character of Mill intellectually and morally. The difficulties of the task I fully appreciate, but my intimate knowledge and converse with him was just at the most important epoch of his life; and an account of my connection with him may possibly contribute to a true appreciation of the man. John Mill was the result of a most strict and extra- ordinary training. He was armed at all points. At that time the mere creation of his father's teaching, with nothing original, yet being endowed with great intel- lectual power, he was a wonderful product of factitious training. From his childhood to his manhood he received the ideas of other men, and gave them expression in language that was but an echo of those who taught him. Under this guidance, severe and harsh, he acquired a vast quantity of knowledge. He became early acquainted with classic literature, all which he received rather as a know- ledge-acquiring machine than as a human being in whom there were emotions. In his childhood and youth he had no playfellows. He walked and talked with his father as if he had been a man receiving all by his head, his heart not being concerned in the matter. When at length nature asserted her rights, he found himself upon a wild, wide turbulent ocean, without a chart, almost without a compass. JOHN STUART MILL. 37 But during all this time ho never doubted as to his own infallibility. Whatever he thought at the time was right ; but whatever might be the change in him, he was never wrong. A very comfortable condition of things, but not as satisfactory to others as himself. Practical life was to him wholly unknown. He could talk wisely about Man in the abstract ; but of Man, including therein Woman, he knew absolutely nothing. When Mill began to think for himself, he was anxious to show that his mind was no longer under the dominion of his father, or of Bentham. He therefore placed himself before the world as an independent critic, and took every occasion that offered to enter into disquisition upon the views of Bentham, and consequently of his father, who always agreed with Bentham, and was deemed his chief disciple and exponent. But John Mill took especial care to confine his criticism to Bentham, and always avoided calling in question the views of his father. This led him, in my mind, to much wavering and uncertainty ; and he wanted one main quality for an original thinker, and that was courage. Among other things, in order to show his severance from his old ideas and mode of thought, he now professed to be greatly swayed by the influence of Poetry. It is one of the common mistakes respecting the doctrine of Utility, and the ideas and feelings of so-called Utili- tarians, that they despise and neglect all that softens manners and charms the imagination, and thus they are supposed to contemn Poetry, to take no pleasure in the arts, and, in fact, to be the future of the Puritans of old. Now, to all this misconception I can give a complete answer in my own case. From childhood upwards I have been passionately fond of and influenced by Poe : \ I read the greater portion of our poets to my mother when a boy, and during my life have passed many hours in drawing from nature, and was, I may say, no mean amateur artist. 38 LIFE OF yO/fN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. Mill knew this common misconception, and he took to reading and criticising poetry. But in reality he never had poetic emotions, and the lessons of his early childhood and youth had chilled his heart and deadened his spirit to all the magnificent influences of poetry. In his late biography he has endeavoured to make it appear that our difi'erence arose from our different appreciation of the com- parative merits of Byron and Wordsworth. But this was an idle statement ; something far more potent was requi; to break up so old and warm a friendship. For, indeed, another new influence came suddenly upon Mill, viz. that of 'Wo'nian. Hitherto he had known only his mother and sisters, and had but a poor and contemptuous opinion of the sex. As we — that is. Mill, Graham, and I — were always together, and formed a united body, we were generally together in society. It happened that we all three were invited to dine in the City at the house of a gentleman named Taylor, who was what is called a drysalter, a very respectable and well- to-do man. I do not recollect what passed that evening but it turned out that ]Mrs. Taylor was much taken wi Mill. From that time I saw little of the Taylor family, but I learned that an intimate acquaintance had arisen between Mill and Mrs. Taylor. This intimacy went on, I seeing and knowing nothing of it, till on the occasion of an evening party at Mrs. Charles Buller's, I saw Mill enter the room with Mrs. Taylor hanging upon his arm. The manner of the lady, the evident devotion of the gentleman, soon attracted universal attention, and a suppressed titter went round the room. My affection for Mill was so warm and so sincere that I was hurt by anything which brought ridicule upon him. I saw, or thought I saw, how mischievous might be this affair, and as we had become in all things like brothers, I yoHx sru.iKT mil/.. 39 by iletoniuncwU--"i->--ii^" ' ^ ^ *>|>| mw < "^ r*- /7A'.9r ELECTION FOR BATH. 45 ^ I Mr. Roebuck stood at bay aj^ainst his hecklers, smiting them hip and thigh, were like bear-gardens. All these things are written at length in the history of Bath, and in their details do not concern us here. When Mr. Roebuck was not in the city, the strife hurtled around the heads of his supporters ; and of the social and domestic discomforts endured by them wo get a glimpse in the following letter addressed to Mr. Alexander Falconer, but evidently intended for his sister's eye. J. A. Rochvrh to Alcxdiider P. Falconer. 15, Gnnffi Inn Square, November 8, 1H;52. — By the regular and interesting despatches we receive through the kind exertions of yourself and Miss Falconer, I am put au fait of all that is pro- ceeding with you, and, being at a distance, am enabled to judge more coolly, and therefore more accurately, than those who are in the thick of the fight, of the complexion which matters have. One thing in all I hear gives me infinite pain, and that is, that your wann and unflinching support of me subjects you to a species of martyrdom. I well know what this is. The rage and bitter disappointment now raging time will diminish, and in the meanwhile lie snug ; let the wind blow and the rain fall till they are tired. The very strength of the tempest ensures a quick end to it. In a very few weeks all will be calm and sunshine. This to me appears tlie wisest course. You are committed now ; no one can doubt your leanings and wishes, and they will rave and rend at you so long as they are angry. That this will pain you I know ; that you will be subject to much annoyance is but too certain. That this should be on my account, while it makes me grateful, at the same time is exquisitely painful. That your quiet family should be disturbed by political strife ; your calm seclusion invaded and destroyed by raging partisans, is an evil not to be compensated, I fear, by any benefit tliat I can render to the good and great cause. In my own case, this strife is almost a part of my daily toil ; I am alone, and do not mind it. I have prepared myself for it — have become a species of political athlete, and deem it my business. The abuse, the anger of my opponents, are to me utterly insignificant ; but they cannot be BO to you, surrounded as you are. It is this consideration that 46 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. I ! M makes me unliappy ; and I bat vainly seek a refuge from the evil. Do we not pay a high price for the beuetits we obtain ? If we lie still in dread of all this violence and passion and ill-will, then are we trampled into the earth, bruised and crushed. If we seek to relieve ourselves from this condition, the pleasures of private life are destroyed, and, like troops of fierce horses, we worry our- selves to death. Which is the greater evil ? Mankind have generally accepted the first half of the alternative, and not till they have found that utterly untenable, have they dared to face the second. You are now facing the second, and seem to have a bitter dose. I pray yon, my good fellow, to take my advice, and keep out of the way of those who differ from you, and do not let them disturb your peace. A few weeks now, and the matter will be ended. On the 3rd of December the Parliament will be dissolved, and in a very few days after, the election will take place. The moment the disso- lution is declared, I shall be among you. In the mean time state that I am ready to go to you whenever the committee shall desire me to do so. I feel throughout my writing, as if my letter ought to have been addressed to your indefatigable sister ; 'tis from her letters * that the Bath history comes to me, and, like many other narra- tives of political deeds, the merits of the style are far beyond the subject matter on which it is employed. Would that she had a pleasanter or more worthy theme. I have a theory on this matter, that I suspect, from a passage in one of her letters, coincides with her views of the question. She says in substance that she believes that women are not fit for politics ; that men alone should take part in them. I do not agree with her here — that is, with the whole of this thus broadly stated. The best and most gentle of women have mingled in politics. Witness many in our own country during the wars against Charles I., and, above all, witness the incomparable IMadame Iloland. But what may have been in her mind when she said this, and what I suspect from the attending sentence to have been there, I do thoroughly agree in ; it is, that it would be well, if possible, to keep from the sight of women all the bad passions, the many degrading spectacles that political life but too often evinces, and for this reason : men in their commerce with the world become * Written to her brother, Thomas Falconer, in London. F^^ST ELECTION FOR BATH. necoasary tendency, it would be >v.M ■,"!', '' '" ™""te~t tWs not thus hardoned-u soe°e v wiH '"^ """'' "'"'' ■■> »°«i'=ty freshness and strength 1" f ! ' '^T"""^ '" ""='' P"''''''" perfect education, keep women ^f'nl ""I ' "' " '^™»'»'«'" '""i »Wfo. This is tl^e o^r 1 " °, r ',''f ' '""' »"'"'" P"""'"'" a "-sh, against givin^ o ltZT\ ,"'■' ^ ™"''' "■'■■• ""'I "orth 'iem into aeti™ e°ereL™?X •"!'"" ""'"»• ""'' '" «»«'■%' rooml essay, and not a lette, """"■"■■ ' ""■ ™""S a 'V"'mg has often p°„,ded „,'e X n ''"-■' "' ™'"™ '" '""or- i' man worth reading _ Byront trt,^ "™'™'' """^ """'•'" ^1 letters of many womeS I haw?,, ','" ™''<^Ptol - while the of good taste aad/t^le I ™ T f "'° ''°"" P»*^' 'P^^eai "connoisseur on this matter M,„ ?^ "'^■*"' »™ewhat of about my education :eChlrr'r ^'"^ °"° •="™™ """S bj women. However, I tv L.bM r,"'""'"' ' ™ '""St' ftay give my best and kind™ t re^Jl t^l" ',,°''' "' "^ •=""«• beheve me most sincerely youre, '^ "" ^°"'' f'"nily, '"id There used to be an r.\,\ ■ ^' ^' ^• people found that thoy Za 1 „Tl ''"^ f""'""'' """ ■»««' Roebuek was no except ion Z , .r"' *' ^^'■^' »"<1 «■-. the widow of hi uSrBi" ;''.'■''»"■»» M.«. Roebuck, -as in her house Zt^T^^i^ """" "'^"'- I' born, and .he became verTimte at „"'"> "'"''"'"^ ""^ upon her nephew in whni ° "'"'"« showered great interest ""^ '"■"S''^''*' »'>« "'""■■aUy took thou" u a";;; *f:ty*"t:" " '"'"r '" -^ ^"pp-'» -"o by persons who '^^I^ TZ\fT'\''^''^ ^' '^'^'^-^ in the eccentric Mr Henrv Dkl p"' /"'' ^'- ^''^'^^ Castle, who was not o^yTofet^ k"'™''' °*' *"'"'"''' all, the name having tlZ^lT' '"' "° '''"-'''"='^ "' Eoebuck, the founder of the ^7,^1, .f r"*"" "' '"■■ '"'"' "OILS at Carron, m .Scotland. 48 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. 1 \l I His eldest son was John,* a man well known in the scientific world. Benjamin, his second son, was Paymaster-General of the forces of Madras. The widow of this son is now living in Bath, and his third son, my father, Ebenezcr, died in India in 1H07, while carrying on contracts with the East India Company. His docks were well known to every person acquainted with British India ; and the name and family of Roebuck must be familiar to every one connected with India between the years 1799 and 1810. The result of the polling was the return of Major- General Palmer, with Mr. Roebuck as his colleague, Mr. Hobhouse being ninety-eight votes behind. In the address of thanks and gratulation which he issued to the electors of Bath, Mr. Roebuck explained the spirit in which he interpreted his duties and responsibilities, and he expressed the hope that all animosities would now cease. His opponents lost no time in showing their repudia- tion of any such desire. A few days after the election the new member had the first of the many physical encounters which marked his public career. This was with Mr. R. Blake Foster, who, after offering himself as a Conservative candidate prepared " not to act the part either of a Bully or a Revolutionist," had retired from the contest. Meeting Mr. Roebuck in the coffee-room of the Sydney Hotel, Mr. Foster was offensive and insulting. Mr. Roebuck demanded his card, and Mr. Foster demurring, the new member promised, failing its production, to knock him down. Mr. Roebuck tendered his own card, and when Mr. Foster contemptuously tore it up, the plucky little man struck * The eldest son of the aboTe-mentioned John was Captain Thomas Roe- buck, I'ublic Examiner at the Madras College, and a member of the Asiatic Society. He compiled and translated a collection of Persian and Hindoo proverbs, also one of Hindoo nautical terms; he translated the Persian dictionary, the " Burhan-kati," and several other works. He was associated with Dr. Gilchrist in the preparation of the " British Indian Monitor," and tiie " English and Hindostani Dictionary." He was born in Linlithgowshire in 1781, and died at Madras in 1819. FIRST ELECTION FOR BATH. 49 him in the face. There was no duel, and valorous threats of legal proceedings ended in empty talk. More serious was the attempt made to unseat Mr, Roebuck on petition. This was based on the allegation that he did not possess the property qualification then required of members of Parliament. On the hustings, at the nomination, the Mayor of Bath had, on the requisition of two electors, administered to the candidates the nomina- tion oath presented by the Act (9th Anne). Mr. Roebuck, in taking the oath, stated that his property was in ihe parish of Camberwell, Surrey. The petition, which was promoted by the united Whig and Tory parties in Bath, alleged that there is no parish of Camberwell, and the petitioners, one of whom was Mr. Hobhouse's chairman, said that they had been unable to discover that Mr. Roe- buck was seized either by law or equity of any property whatever in the village of Camberwell. The fact seems to be that, prior to the election, Mr. Roebuck had made arrangements for the purchase of a qualification, but the legal formalities were somewhat delayed, so that they were only completed an hour or two before he took the oath. Mr. Roebuck subsequently declared that he himself paid into the hands of Mr. Selby, the vendor, five thousand and odd pounds. The matter was investigated by a committee of the House of Commons, but although Mr. Roebuck was able to prove the truth of his statement made on the hustings, the petition was dismissed only on the casting vote of the chairman, and the committee decided that its presentation was not frivolous or vexatious. It was at that time a very common practice for friendly arrangements to be made for conferring on candidates artificial qualifications. Mr. Roebuck himself alleged that not one man in ten possessed before his candidature the sort of estate qualifying him to sit. The experience of 1832, with the narrow escape from losing his seat, was not lost on Mr. Roebuck, for when, at a later period, Mr. E so LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. John Temple Leader * conveyed to him a landed qualifi- cation, he was exceedingly punctilious in observing all the forms of purchase. John TfurpJe Lmhr to the Editor. FfomirP, mnuni, 1!>, iHOfi.-As Koebuck had no landed .inalifica ion, I gave l.im one charged on my estate of Burston, in J uckmghanislure. He was so particular in affairs of that kind, that he insisted on having all the legal forms observed, and he actually brought me bank-notes of the requisite value, which liad been lent to him by onr friend George Grotc, and whicli 1, ot course, immediately roturued to Grote. ^ Elected tncinber for Briclgowater in 18:i5, and resigned his seat in 1837 in order to eng.tge in the great Westminster fightagainst Sir Francis Burdett in May of thu year. Though unsuccessful then, ho was returned for West- minster atthe general election in the following August, and again in 1841. He retired from Parliament in 1847, and has for many years resided in 1' lorcnce. Hee yoit, chapter x. ( SI ) CHAPTER VI. THE KEFOnMED PAKUAMENT. 1833-1834. TnE old order of things had gone. With a widened suffia^e there had come now men. new methods, new asniratbns and a marked disruption of the form^ lineTof tr"y typified than in the presence, in the House of Commons of the member for Bath. He concretely personified J ke hopes entertained by enthusiastic reformers othptt .b,ht;es of the new er^ On him wa. concentrated lu he mistrust of those, whether Tories or Whigs who clave to the past, and who hated change and innovktion Mr ^d "„ itf " *r " J"*'''^"^ the fears of his fo^s and in gratifying the expectations of his admirers He h^c me?; /'"' "'" ""^ '='""=-'1 conditions th" had come a vivifying power into the debates of the House of Commons. On the fl«t night of the debate on the address, there presented itself to the House a thin sli!ht figure, with clean-cut, thoughtful face, uttering cur crl n sentences which from the first rang out incisively n Z telluig tones all the more impressive through the absent of gesticulation, and an avoidance of the factitious alof emotional oratoiy. In picturing the scene when Roetuck firs arrested an attention that never failed whenever from he roTr \*^' '"^ °f '■'^ '°"« Parliamentary career he rose to speak, we must avoid setting it in the chamber s: LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. so familiar to us all, in which our legislators now meet. For the Reformed Parliament assembled not in the buildinL^ of to-day, but in that humble historic house where the great drama of constitutional growth had been enacted, and where the mighty giants of Parliamentary debate had struggled for centuries. The Reformed Parliament was as new wine put into old bottles, for not until the following year were the ancient buildings destroyed by an act of reckless folly; not until 1847 were the Lords, not until 1852 were the Commons, able to take up their abode in Sir Charles Barry's new palace.* In the intervening years temporary accommodation was provided for the people's representatives in the old House of Lords, while the peers were provisionally housed in what is known to history as the Painted Chamber. The House of Commons of that time, both as to the building itself and the manners of its members, seems to have impressed Mr. Roebuck very unfavourably. In his " Extracts from the Diary of an M.P,," in TaiVfi Edinburgh Magazine (July, 1833), he describes it thus : — A small, ill-conditioned room, with a hijjjli-backed chair and green table on the floor, with benches rising on each side, is the House of Commons. The Speaker, witli his fnll-l)lown wig and flowing gown, occupies the chair ; three clerks in wiiiS sit at his feet, and around and about, overhead in the galleries, on the floor, lying at fnll length on the benches, talking, laughing, hoot- ing, coughing, sleeping, are to be seen the members — the iHfc of the great nation in the cliaracter of legislators ; and one unfor- tunate wight is, amidst this strange and uncouth assembly, endeavouring, in the slang phrase, to obtain the attention of the Honse — in other words, is making a speech. ... I often ask old members whether the Reformed ParUament is worse or better in point of behaviour than its predecessors. From all I c " iier it is evidently worse ; and the reason assigned is sati _ . It * Mr. Roebuck was accustomed jokingly to say that tli <^w houses were a standing argument against triennial Parliaments, ns ii look qtiite three years to learn their topography. THE REFORMED PARLIAMEXT, 53 ■8 to is not, as the Conservatives would assert, that the more cnlarj^od constituency has niiidu the representatives more vuljjfar ; for, on my knowled^'c, I can assert that the most nule and boisterous portion of the House arc the youui,' fry of Tory nominees. But in former times there were two distinct and ori^'anlzcd parties ; these parties had well-known leaders, ujjou whom devolved the liusiness of advocating and opposing the measures before the llouse. Everybody knew this ; and no one interfered with the l)art assigned to a given individual. The debate then went on (juietly, and the House generally listened with something like attention and patience, But now there is no organization. Every- l)ody is at sea ; no guides, no rulers, no leaders arc acknowledged. Every one sets up for himself, speaks for himself, thinks and acts for himself. The consequence is, that fifty speakers will rise at once, all imi)atient to be heard ; while two or three hundred are around them, impatient to be away — to parties, to the opera, etc. So confusion, riot, calls of " Question, question ! " " Bar, bar ! " — which is uniformly pronounced " ba, ba," with emphasis — groans and braying are the order of the day. One member possesses the faculty of hooting like an owl, to the great disturb- ance of the gravity of the assembly and evident annoyance of the Speaker. This rude and boisterous conduct precludes the possi- bility of deliberation. Nothing is permitted to be discussed. One or two broad assertions of opposition will be permitted ; but the moment any argument is attempted— any endeavour made to illustrate or prove — then come yells, and all the many means of silencing an opponent practised in Honourable House. [After instancing many men who have been actually scared into silence by this behaviour, and citing the attention paid to Mr. Grote's speech on the ballot as a solitary contrary case, Mr. Roe- buck goes on] : With that exception, I have never heard in that assembly one generous sentiment, or one logical and really effective argument. All has been passion, ignorance, prejudice. Bold- facedness, however, usually gets a hearing. ... In sober sadness I must say that the House is very little solicitous respecting the popular feelings ; that the members, as a body, have no sympathy with the people, and were it not that they believe that the people have a somewhat greater control than formerly over the electors, we should have them following a course exactly similar to that of the borough-mongers of heretofore. 54 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. It was, then, in the old arena, and amid these dis- couraging surroundings, that the young representative of Bath first obeyed the call of Mr. Speaker Sutton. The description just quoted of the difficulties against which members addressing the House had to contend, explains the justifiable pride with which Mr. Roebuck will be found hereafter referring to the manner in which he had succeeded in compelling the House to hear him — a pride that might seem exaggerated if we measured the assembly by present standards, and forgot the unruly impatience which marked the earlier years of the Reformed Parliament. When now, sixty-four years later, Ireland still holds dominant place in our National Councils, it is significant to remember that even then the most prominent subject which demanded the attention of the Reformed Parliament was the condition of that distressful country. The harsh- ness of Mr. Secretary Stanley's administration was keenly resented. It was disliked by many, even, of his own colleagues. It was the references to Ireland in the King's Speech that elicited from O'Connell the celebrated denuncia- tion of English rule as "bloody, brutal, and unconstitutional." The fray waged by those giants of vituperation, Mr. O'Connell and the Irish Secretary, Mr. Stanley (the future Lord Derby), was an encounter after Mr. Roebuck's own heart, and he plunged vigorously into the storm. Proclaim- ing that freedom from party trammels which remained his boast through life, he forthwith fell with great spirit upon Stanley and his policy of force and coercion. In 'vords which might have been appropriately used fifty years later, he said — The Irish Secretary would take away trial by jury and suspend the habeas corpus. He (Mr. Roebuck) would recommend a thinj; hitherto untried — Vonest government. England had never estabUshed good government in Ireland. There had been strong governments indeed ; but he did not at present mean sucli an one, which might be wielded by the lion, secretary at pleasure, THE REFORMED PARLIAMENT. 5: which would obey his dictation, and fill the prisons of Ireland. Fears were not the arguracnts of statesmen, and the only remedy for grievances was to redress them .... Government, it was said, must be feared before it was beloved. The proper eonrse for creating affection had nob yet been tried. Let the plain and obvious mode of real conciliation be adopted. So Mr. Roebuck struggled hard against the Irish Coercion Bill, which was subsequently forced through the House. When presenting petitions praying for the re- jection of the measure on the day after the third reading had been carried by a majority of 345 to 80, he said — The members for Ireland had fought their battle in that House manfully, patiently, and with great calmness and discretion ; but that battle, from the votes of last night, was clearly shown to be lost. He felt called upon to say to those honourable gentle- men, if they would take his advice, they would leave that House at once and for ever, as it was plain Ireland could not look for justice from au English House of Commons. If the opinion of the House of Commons were to be judged of by the opinions and votes of its members last night, justice never could be done to Ireland, and the sooner she was separated from England the better. The i>cople of America, having nuich less grounds than Ireland to complain, bad fought nobly for their independence, and had put down the, till then, indomitable pride of England. Unfortunately, Ireland bad not followed so glorious an example, and the consequence was that she had sulfered oppressions un- equalled by any other country in Europe, with the exception of Poland. . . . Irishmen bad become the slaves of the despotism of England, and if they wished to continue so, instead of lighting manfully and boldly by every means in their power for their independence, they would passively give way to the provisions of the most iniquitous measure that had ever been brought forward, and they would deserve the execration of every honourable man.* When charged '.v^ith preaching open rebellion, ]\Ir. Roe- buck referred his assailants to the speeches ..f Mr. Fox, who had used terms ecpially strong. * Miireh 30. Iltin.'saril. vol. xvi. ]>. STti. mm 55 L/FJ:: OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. I The session witnessed other great debates, in which Mr. Roebuck took a prominent part. He assailed the Govern- ment, and especially Sir James Graham, in a speech on Mr. Hume's motion for the abolition of sinecure offices and pensions. He flung himself into the indignation caused by the official breaking up of a peaceful political meeting in Coldbath Fields, and into the controversy over the loss of a policeman's life during the disturbance. He attacked ministerial and official interference in Parlia- mentary elections, and protested against the house and window taxes. Early in the session he had given notice of a motion for a Select Committee to devise a means for the universal and national education of the whole people. This fell through, but in the following July he moved a resolution, pledging the House, early in the next session, to seek a solution of the problem. The motion, being opposed by the Government, was withdrawn, but the speech in which it was commended to the House was praised by Mr. Grote as " able and luminous." In it Mr. Roebuck sketched the methods by which he held that a thoroughly comprehensive scheme of education should be can-ied out. On this subject, and also on his attitude towards the Established Church, he had left his constituents in no doubt, for he had told them — I nra a member of the Chiu'ch of Euj^land, but I want none but Chnrch of Eui:LE(Ti:n roii hath. 183"). "The queen has done it all," was the spiteful comment, inspired by Brougham, on the announcement, which startled the country on November 15, 1.S.34, that King William IV. had summarily dismissed Lord Melbourne. " Regularly kicked out," Mr. Greville called it ; and as- suredly no lackey was ever discharged with less ceremony than the king showed in this last dying Hicker of pre- rogative. His Majesty took the worst possible way of ending a crisis which had long been approaching. Every- thing had gone wrong with the ministry during the preceding session. Ireland — the Irish Church, Irish tithes, Irish coercion — had, as usual, played the part of wrecker. Ministerial divisions had resulted in what Lord John Russell called " the wretched, blundering, wavering course of policy." "Johnny," in historic phrase, had himself " upset the coach," by publicly dissociating himself from Stanley's views on the appropriation of the revenues of the Church, and thus driving from the Cabinet four of his most influential colleagues. Then " the pig was killed," in Althorp's bucolic simile. In the complications arising out of the mistaken confidence of the Irish Secre- tary (Littleton) of being able to manage O'Connell o^•er the Coercion Bill, Lord Grey threw up the premiership, and left Melbourne to struggle on until the removal of Lord Althorp to the House of Lords, through the death RE- ELECTED EOR BATH. 65 of Lord Spencer, tempted tlio kinjif to the last and feeblest coni^ '(in le of as of CnmmoTiM sinco the disastrous period of IT?^. TFIs speech on tliis occasion, in which the priviloi^o of self-j^ovormnent was deiiiand(Ml, is a clear and interestinij statement of the state of the colony and its i^riovances. This petitiini oliciteil rebiittiii;^ petitions, presented hy Mr. I'atiicic Stewart (Lancaster), and Mr. (J. V. Voun<]j ('rynemnuth). Durini; these cniitroversies Sir llohert I'eel made an unfounded chaii^e ai^ainst Uoebuck of having' divuli,'ed contidential communications. Mr. Uoeltuck, however, liad no ditliculty in showiiii^ that, so far from havini^ violated confidenco, ho had earnestly protested ai^ainst the use, hy Canadian delej^ates, of a conversation with Peel. Mr. Jloehuck's accc[)tanco of the position of aj^ont for the (Canadians exposed him to many snecrini^ attacks from opponents Avho conveniently forgot that Hthnund Burke had acted in a similar capacity for the colony of New York at the time of the American Revolution, receiving' £.')00 a year for his services. The vivid imaj^ination of Mr, Roebuck's assailants enabled them to represent hiiu as in receipt of £1 100 a year, whereas the Canadians not only failed to pay his salary at the time, but left him to defray tho expenses of the defence of Canada in Parliament out of his own pocket, and subsequently repudiated his claim for arrears. Sir John llanmcr, in 183(5, asked the House of Commona to atKrin that it was contrary to its indepen- dence, a breach of ii-s privile«^os, and deroj^atory to its character, for any of it.-j members to become tho paid advocate of any portion of his Majesty's subjects. Tho motion was rejected by 178 votes to G7. Mr. Roebuck acted as agent for only a year and a half. When the Canadians became what was termed rebels, ho ceased to act for them. Not until many years afterwards was he paid his first claims. The poor and the oppressed — whether illiterate Irish petitioners, or ill-used paupers, or tho London cab- drivers, or the cruelly transported Dorchester labourers, or ^^ 68 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. publishers who had been imprisoned, ar 1 printers whoso presses had been seized by the Stamp OfHce — found in Mr. Roebuck a courageous champion. His attacks upon the newspaper stamp were accompanied by his customary fuhninations against the newspapers themselves. He said — There never was a press so dccrradcd, so thoroughly itnmoral, as the press (»f this country. . . . From tlie hii,'liest to the lowest, the most paltry corruption, the basest cowardice, and the blackest immorality, were the governing principles of the newspaper press of this couutiy. He spoke in favour of the relief of Dissenters from the disabilities placed upon them by the marriage laws; against a budget which, while continuing corn laws and other taxes for the benefit of the landed interest, did not even name the taxes on knowledge. He pressed for the ballot. Furtiier attempts at enforcing Sunday observance by legislation drew forth his bitterest sarcasms. Not only was there a Bill against Sunday trading, but attempt was made to introduce into the Great Weatern Railway Bill a clause prohibiting the running of trains on Sunday. The promoters of the Bill had been sufficiently alarmed to express themselves willing to be bound not to run trains between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sundays; but th ur oppo- nents, with a confidence cruelly disillusioned when they found themselves in an impotent minority in the division lobby, loftily declared that the question was one admitting of no compromise. Mr. Roebuck met what he regarded as an attack upon the rights and liberties of the poor by a description of what he had seen of the privileges and proceedings of the rich. Ho said — I shall oppose this clause, because it is intended by it to interfere with the enjoyment of the working and poorer classes, wliile it leaves untouched the recreations of the higher classes. I went a short distance out of town a Sunday or two ago, and RE-ELECTED EOR BATH. 69 I will imn':ito to the Honso what \ suw. On that moniiii:,' I wont, first into IMocadilly. At twoivo o'clock, the tirst jK-rson I nut was the Dnkc of \Vcllini,'ton tm iiorsohack. I went into IFydc Park, and tiicrc were sonic men waterini; the drive for the comfort of the relined classes that afternoon. A little fnrther on, at Kni^'htsbridire, [ foinid the soldiers exircisinir, iind their ollicrrs in arms. I pnrsued my jonrney over Haii'iner- sinith IJridire, and there met with the liord Chief .Instice on horseback, takini,' a ride into the country. At three o'clock [ arrived at Hampton Court, and there foimd the riuht houonr- able baronet, the mend)or for Tamworth [Sir iiolu'rt Peel]. Do I blame any of these illustri»»ii- lersonaLCes for what they were doinu; ? I was doiiiLT the same ihinii: as themselves. They had as natch riuiit to travel on Sundays for their health and ainnse- mcuL as I have, and so have tin; [)oor. The ])lain fact is, we meddle too much with one another. If each individual would ttvke care of his own i^oodness, instead of beinj^ so anxious about, the irooduess of his neiLjhlionr, W(! should have more virtue in the world, though we miulit have a little less ontwanl show. led by md to |sos, ^cs. The IMimiclpjvl (.VtrporatiouUoforni IVill, cai-rioil throiii^h the Coniinons witlioiit material distigurenient by tho exercise of Sir llobort Peel's rostrainini; intlucnce on his more extreme followers, was sent up to the House of Lonls on July -I. Tho Tory lonls at once proceeded to work their wicked will upon it. They turned it inside out, and sent back to tlio Commons a wholly ditferent and re- actionary M\capun3. Mr. Roebuck, both in Parliament and inhisPamphi jtsforthe People, declaimed aujalnst the Lords. "UnmiivC'l, then," he wrote, "is the evil which the House of Lorui inflicts upon the nation, whether we view them as lcf]fislators, or judges, or simply as an aristocracy. Such is my answer to the (juestion, 'Of what use is the House of Lords?'" In "Tho Crisis: What ourjht Ministers to do ? " he contended that not only oujjht every chan<»o made to be rejected, and the IVdl restored to its ori'jjinal shape, but that the bri^ader strujjfgle of dei)rivin<]f tho Lords of power to work such mischiefs should bo entered upon. mm i: 70 L/FE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. And he spoke to the same effect in the House. When Lord John Russell preached concession, Mr. Roebuck urged defiance. " Let us," ho said, " re-enact every one of our original measures, saying that sucli was the pleasure of the people. Let those who dare resist it." The following letter to Mrs. Roebuck was written on August 81, during the debate in which Lord John Russell, fresh from a conference with his party in Downing Street, explained which of the Lords' Amendments the Government advised the Commons to reject and wliich to accept. In this debate, Peel, to the consternation of his followers, threw the Lords overboard on most of the i)oiuts insisted on by Lord John Russell. Ti> Mrs. Rorhuch. Lomfoti, Aiif/iis/ i\\. — I am writinij in the House in a hurry iuid aifninst time. I was yesterday at tlio Grotes', at Duhvicli. I fonml tliem iu liiuii excitement and wisliinj; for mc. We had a grrat talk ; and to-day I went to Lord Jolin Russell to have another talk. We shall not aecei)t the Lords' Ameiidincnts as a whole, but only some of them — too many to pkase nie. Still, if the Lords accept the Bill as we return it, it will still be a good one. Lt>rd John [Russell] is on his legs, talking empty nothings in a very pompous tone. Whether the Lords will accept what he proposes is more than I know. ]\Iolesworth I found at Duhvicli,* iu great glee because he hopes for a row. (Jrote is in a great rage, and is aji^ainst all concession. We had Parkesf at dinner, ])rL'acliing peace, but that was not po])ular. Strutt and (laskell were there. ]\Iany praises were bestowed on mv doiniis al)out the Lords, and also on my Canada article.^ ^ly health is so so. * Grotii's houso. t JoHi'iih Piu'kt'8, of tbo Iliriuiughnm Political Union, Socrotnry to the Municipnl CorpDratioiis CoiuniisBion, iiud in after years in largo practice at Westminster as a I'arliauientary solicitor. He was one of IJoutham's " young men." X " On the Affairs of Canada," in tlie Lomlon and Westminster lieview for f^optember, 1833 , RE-ELECTED FOR BATH. 71 ; lio all JUt new Loiuhni, Scplrmhcr, IS;',,"). — Tivm this moment from pf toDulwlcli with IMoloswortli. 1 iro bociiuso I wisli for fresh air. The business here will not he over tliis week, oinic! !My motion has excited atten- tion. The next " Pams " I mean to fill with tlie history of the week. Mr. Roebuck did, accord infjly, devote the next Pamphlet for the People, entitled, " The Conduct of Ministers respect- ini,' the Amendments of the House of Lords," to a full description of the proceedings at the Downing Street meeting, and of the debate in the House of Commons. If the Tories were dissatisfied with Peel's conduct in throwing overboard the Lords, Roebuck was furious at what he considered " the unwise, not to say degrading, submission of the Commons of England to a few ignorant, irresponsible, and interested peers." He poured scorn upon Lord John Russell, and he Avrithed under what he called Peel's " selfish cunning " in taking a line wdiich showed that, while he was the despot over his own party, the ministry was dependent upon him for such portions of the Bill as were saved. Dis- satisfied with the newspaper accounts, Roebuck gave in the Pamphlet a full report of his own speech. In this he denounced all compromise, as Grote had also done, both in the House and at the party meeting, and insisted that this latest insulting demonstration of the incompatibility of the existence of the House of Lords with the welfare of England, necessitated curing the evil at its source. The motion referred to in the foregoing letter as exciting attention was a notice put upon the books for the next session to ask for leave to bring in a Bill proposing that the Lords* veto should be taken away, substituting for it a suspensive power to be exercised only once on any measure in the same session. Mr. Grove Price (Sandwich) intimated that he should meet this with a moiion to erase Mr. Roebuck's motion from the paper "as subversive of the principles ot our balanced constitution, as derogatory to the character, and an abuse of the privileges of the House." Nothing ever came of either. 72 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. Tho Parliamentary session of 1835 having closed, the Radicals of Bath invited their members and various l)oliticians of the same school to a grand dinner, and welcomed them by a great demonstration of strength. The dinner took place on November 11, 1835. To JlfK. Rochmli. Ihith, Xorcmhcr 11, 1H:5.j. — Lord Jolm [Russell] does;?**/ come. A Privy Council to-day at eleven is the excuse. The dinner is to be a very splendid alYair, I understand. The cuthusiasni is extraordinary. Hume preaches mildness, and seems half afraid of my hitting somebody or other very hard. The day yesterday was bitterly cold, but I did notsull'er so much as I expected. The country was beautiful beyond descri[)tlon, and I made drawings in my head all the way. I should much like to make some sketches of Salisbury. Wc have letters from Canada. The Conunissioners have already no power, and Lord Codford tells Papiueau as much. They have been doing all sorts of foolish things ; among otLors, they had invited Pajiineau and Vigier to meet ultra opponents. They all got together by the cars at the governor's table, he being ohliged to propose a bumper all round to drown the row. I have just seen Mrs. lienjamin Roebuck, who says that your mother sin^s my praises. Mrs. R. was deliyhted to hear so much good of her " little Johnny" — my old cognomen. The Bath dinner attracted much attention throughout the country. Its unmixed Radicalism was accepted as an index even of national feeling. Mr. William Hunt was president, Colonel (afterwards General Sir William) Napier * * Before Mr. llnclmck was seloctcd as candidate for Bath in 1.S32, Coloiud William Napier, who had j,'(iiie to roHide at Fn shford, mar tiiat city, had beoii invited to stand, bnt liad refused. Auintiniato Iriendship hej^un when, in 1835, ho enlisted tho Parlianioutury aid of lloebuck in a light he was waging with characteristic heat, against tho inl uumiiily witii which the new Poor Law was ad'niuistcrod in Freshford. F :r ninny yours Napier was a prominent and striking figure on Bath platforms, and on one occasion he incontinently knocked down a man who persisted -n accusing him of false- hood. His vigorous Iladicaiism brought him many oifirs of Parliamentary seats. Seven great couBlituoucies, including Notiinghum, Glasgow, Uldham, RE-ELECTED FOR BATH. 73 boldly inrlicLud tho House of Lords. Mr. Roebuck arraigned their Lordships in equally forcible terms, and Mr. Hume though less extreme, joined heartily in the censures con- veyed. The general feeling of enthusiasm toward Air. Koebuck was remarkable. General Palmer offered the sincerest homage to his integrity and power, and tho ve eran Aapier wound up with these words: "General Palmer IS an old friend, but this (laying his hand on Air. Roebuck s shoulder)--this is the child of refonu ; and I hope that you may hve to witness its best results, and until both you and lie have Iiairs as grey as my own." S' n't?' r"r ^""^'T''''^ -'»l-to.l for tl.e l.o„„„r uf bavin. Inn. ns i ,,.,,..„ o hnntcl „.oanH. Many letters writtr, by lu.a t. Uoe „H .IrLl ; "tl. ^7'\irV "'-'"?' '" ^^'^" '^" «^^«» •'^"'•-"■'^•'. wuB strongly i .am m if 74 Z//-£ OF 7C>//A^ ARTHUR ROEBUCK. CHAPTER VIII. RADICAL RECRIMINATIONS. i ■ M J i] % All!. RoEiiUriv had heralded the session of 1836 by broaching a plan for the government of England by the Radicals. Considering that the staunch and reliable Radicals who were niembei"S of the House of Commons nunibeied not more than twenty, this was a bold pro- position. His measures for achieving this object were, howt'vei", very carefully taken. The great parties were so nearly balanced in the House of Commons, that a dozen votes would turn the scale ; and upon this fact Mr. Roebuck leased his scheme of aggression. In the Pamphlet published early in 1S8G, entitled, "Radical Support to a Whig ^[inistry," he exposed the selfish indifference with which the Radical pretensions had been treated by the Whigs, and advised that when the (piestion of the Irish Church came on, the Radicals • hould show their sense of in- dilierence to their demar is by their absence. On the very eve of he session, and in the penultimate Pami)hlet, " The Radicals and the Ministers," Roebuck further elaborated this plan of action. Supi)ort of the Whigs should, he urged, be continued on i)romise to repeal the Stamp Duties and to leave the Ballot an open question. If this was refused, the Radicals should abstain from voting on any no-confidence motion proposed by the Tories. Nothing practical camo of the scheme. Radicals like Sir William Molesworth joined with Roebuck in insisting >; RADICAL RECRIMIXA TIONS. 75 on a more detcnnined and straiglitforward action on the part of tho ministers as the only way to obtain hearty Radical support. Yet the session ran its course with tho usual accompaniments of bitter words, but no deeds. The attempt to <:falvanize the Radicals into combined revolt was tho tlyiny effort of the Pamphlets. Their early promise had not been fulfilled. Refused the support he was entitled to expect, tho strain upon Roebuck was too great. Publication was discontiimcd early in 1(S3G. The conclusion of the story is told in the letters whicli follow : — if. S. C/i(f/ii)i(iii Id Fittiiris J'ldcc, Jdiniririf II), 18;5<;. — Yon aro aware tliat the Pamphlet did not pay its ordhiary, still less its extraordinary, expenses, till towards the close of the session. Alter the elose of the session it ceased to pay, and the resnlt is that we are lull iil.'tO on the wrojif,' side. I, on my own responsibility, have carried it on in the face of loss, because I saw it was etVectiui;' an enormous amount of good in a public ])oint of view. I saw, too, that it was increasing Roebuck's power and adding to his usefulness ; and if you re(piire a more selHsh motive, I also saw tiiat it was making me advantageously known to the public. Thus T had every possible motive to make great sacriHces to maintiiiii it. To such sacrifice, however, there is a limit. I can allord to expend iiioo — Roebuck can i)erhaps afford to expend as much — but to go beyond this would not be possible. So much for pecuniary conditions. Now, then, for others not less pressing. Roebuck is ill. ( h.'casiou'dly he is in a state of nervous excitement which renders writing painful. Such was his state yesterday and to-day. On such occasions it is that he and I feel the manner in which the men who can and ought to have assisted us ill this undertaking have left us to our own resources in a matter which should not have been considered merely personal. You, Place, are the only man on whose sympathy ami assistance we could rely ; and you know enough of the world to pardon me for now laying a burthen on willini;' shoulders. This morning Roebuck was fur stop[)ing at once. He urged 76 LIFE OF JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK. \ ! ; ' '! 11 i! tliat the session was cominij on, and that he was unequal to the hvbonr that he would he called on to underu:o. Few, he said, would assist us, and John Jlill couUl find time to labour for Fox's Maj,'azine, but not to write a line for the Pamphlets. If four or five good men had been invited at the early part of the session to contribute articles to the Pamphlets, the labour would iiavc been li<,'lit, and the Pamphlets would have become the or<,'an of tlie Radical party. It was hard, lie concluded, to leave the wliole labour and responsibility on our shoulders. Sucli, as nearly as I can remember, were his words. Now, what is to be done ? Two things are wanted. First, some money; second, tlie assistance of some writers. At Hume's, on Friday, Perronct Thompson spoke in high terms of the Pamiihlets. He said he had purchased the whole volume, and it delighted him, and that he should lii Methucn ciuuo to the aid of the clminimn, cjaculatotl, "Paul, Paul, why persocutost thou mo i* " and attempted to leavo the Housi'. This was not permitted, howovor until, with j^ivat ditliculty, hu had been made U) apolo;;i/,o. Sir William iMolosworth wait)d upon him in an anto-room on Mr. Koobuck's bohalf, and was treated with such rude- ness that he retired perforce with his mission unaccom- plished. Mr. Uoebuck then related the circumstances t<» the House, and concluded by sayin<:f that he must " for