LIFE 
 
 JOSEPH RAYNER STEPHENS 
 
ballantynt:, hanson and co., edinbukgh 
 
 CHANDOS STREET, LONDON 
 

LIFE OF 
 
 JOSEPH RAYNER STEPHENS 
 
 preacber anb political ©ratot 
 
 GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 
 
 JOHN STEPHENS STORR 
 
 "I, however, aim not so much to prescribe a law for others as to set forth the law 
 of my own mind ; which, let the man who shall have approved of it, abide by ; and 
 let him, to whom it shall appear not reasonable, reject it. It is my earnest wish, 
 I confess, to employ my understanding and acquirements in that mode and direction, 
 in which I may be enabled to benefit the largest number possible of my fellow 
 creatures." — Petrarch. 
 
 Wn^LIAMS AND NORGATE, 
 
 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON ; 
 AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK PLACE, EDINBURGH. 
 
 \_All rights reserved.'^ 
 
:DA53) 
 
 . 5 
 
TO ALL THE 
 
 HONEST TOILERS IN THIS LAND OF INDUSTRY, 
 
 THIS RECORD OF 
 
 A MAN OF WORTH, 
 
 IS INSCRIBED. 
 
 7U7011 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction by John S. Storr 9 
 
 Chap. I. Difficulties of the Story ... 13 
 
 „ II. Parentage and Birth of Joseph 
 
 Rayner Stephens 19 
 
 ,, III. His Ministerial Career — Swedish 
 
 and English ... ... 27 
 
 „ IV. Becomes a Political Advocate . . 59 
 
 „ V. His Colleagues and Correspon- 
 dents 75 
 
 „ VI. StoriMy Days of Advocacy ... 94 
 
 „ VII. Passages from his Speeches and 
 
 Sermons T12 
 
 „ VIII. His Trial and Imprisonment . . 141 
 
 ,, IX. The Two Kinds of Conservatism . 1S4 
 
 ,, X. Later Career, Character, AND Death 199 
 
 The Stephens's Memorial Fund Committee . 237- 
 
 Index 238 
 
^\^^ 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 My valued friend, Mr. Holyoake, has asked me 
 to write a brief Introduction to this his book. 
 
 The working-men and working-women of 
 Lancashire and Yorkshire, among whom my 
 uncle, Joseph Rayner Stephens, lived for over 
 forty years, will welcome this record of their 
 guide, teacher and champion : he still lives in the 
 hearts and homes of thousands of our factory 
 hands : many of the bravest and wisest of 
 them looked up to him with loving confidence, 
 and with admiration for his persistent advocacy 
 of all that he believed would tend to make them 
 
JO Introductory, 
 
 better, happier, as servants of God and of man. 
 His influence was not unfelt by the master-class, 
 not a few of whom became his fast friends when 
 they comprehended the wide-spread influence 
 for good which his Hfe gave to the milHon Hves 
 around him. This was his reward. 
 
 A strong individuality — not without the con- 
 sciousness of power and the love of power over 
 men — an intense sympathy with suffering, a 
 chivalrous sense of honour, a passionate hatred 
 of oppression and avarice, a contempt for all 
 that was mean, vulgar, sordid — these were 
 regulated by a deep religious spirit of love for 
 God and for Humanity. Thus, he was a political 
 priest, a soldier-servant of Christ, fighting under 
 the banner of the Cross. 
 
 A disregard, so far as he himself was con- 
 cerned, of what goes by the name of '' success 
 in life,'' otherwise ''money,'' or ''social position," 
 led him to say what he had to say, and to do 
 what he had to do, with earnestness and fear- 
 lessness : he had moral courage. The part he 
 
Introdicctory. 1 1 
 
 played on the world s stage he played to satisfy 
 his conscience and his God. 
 
 In politics, his leanings were Conservative. 
 He believed in raising the standard of duty 
 and sense of responsibility in the more educated 
 and high-placed. Perhaps the late Lord Derby 
 and the late John Arthur Roebuck were the 
 public men with whom his heart beat most in 
 unison. 
 
 From the pulpit and the platform, in the 
 columns of the press, edited by himself and 
 by others, as well as in his daily familiar 
 intercourse with honest working-folk, he taught 
 them to be '' noble, helpful and good." The 
 men to be true men; the women to be true^ 
 women : he longed that they should have 
 cleanlier, healthier bodies, and stout hearts 
 within ; then they could respect them- 
 selves, and trust in the people's cause. He 
 was no flatterer of the idle, the thriftless, the 
 unwashed. 
 
 Few men of this generation spent more 
 
1 2 Introductory, 
 
 time in reading and in meditation : his gift of 
 conversation was such that he seemed to think 
 aloud ; but he knew how and when to be silent. 
 All who ever heard him, bear witness that 
 his powers as an orator and a preacher were 
 of a very high order ; there was music in his 
 voice, and his lips uttered the convictions of 
 his warm heart and well-cultured mind. 
 
 Though life ends, example lives : noble, lofty 
 thoughts and works endure and fructify. 
 
 John Stephens Storr. 
 
 26, King Street, Covent Garden, London, 
 September ^ 1881. 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 JOSEPH RAYNER STEPHENS. 
 
 CHAPTER I, 
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF THE STORY. 
 
 The motto on the title-page of this record expresses 
 in the words of Petrarch exactly the character of 
 Mr. Stephens's mind. The passage describes him as 
 he permanently was. His inspiration in his early 
 days, his independence in mature life, and the fine 
 charity of his later years, are all depicted there. He 
 was essentially a setter-forth of " the law in his own 
 mind." His merit was that he had a law there ; 
 and he had the generous passion, not at all common 
 even now, of setting forth, for the instruction and 
 guidance of others, what he felt to be good for 
 himself Joseph Rayner Stephens was a man 
 who united to this rare quality original capacity, a 
 splendid eloquence, and fearless public service. He 
 should not pass entirely from the grateful memory of 
 Englishmen. 
 
14 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 The idea of this Biography did not originate with 
 Mr. Stephens's family : whatever conviction they 
 cherished of his personal worth and public usefulness, 
 they had no intention of recording it, until neigh- 
 bours, disciples, and followers of Mr. Stephens, out 
 of gratitude for his public services, began to take 
 steps to erect a statue to his memory : this they 
 wished to see placed in the park at Staleybridge, 
 the town where so many years of his life had been 
 spent, and for the welfare of whose people he had 
 laboured so assiduously, and among whom he died. 
 
 As the present writer had known Mr. Stephens in 
 his earlier and later career, and withal had great per- 
 sonal regard for him, it was thought well that he 
 should give some short account, which might inform 
 those of this generation who might be curious to 
 learn the facts of Mr. Stephens's life, what manner 
 of man he was, what kind of services he rendered, 
 and what difficulties he confronted in the discharge 
 of duties which his sense of humanity imposed upon 
 him in evil days, when only a brave and generous 
 man in his position would have cast in his lot v/ith 
 the poor and friendless. 
 
 As public gratitude has accorded a statue to Richard 
 Oastler at Bradford, at the instigation and with 
 the concurrence and aid of many who never shared 
 his particular opinions, either political or social, but 
 who greatly honoured his remarkable devotion to 
 the welfare of factory children ; it seems likely that 
 
Diffimlties of the Story, 1 5 
 
 many would be willing to promote a similar tribute 
 to Joseph Rayner Stephens, who was the mightiest 
 colleague of Oastler ; who stood by him when 
 living, who shared his labours, who was his coun- 
 sellor in his work, and who incurred imprisonment 
 for the cause (a penalty which Oastler escaped), who 
 vindicated his memory when dead ; and, what is 
 more, carried on the defence of the same great 
 question when Richard Oastler had passed away. 
 
 The teachings of Joseph Rayner Stephens exist 
 mainly in the memories of men of the older political 
 generation. Personal records of his career are" 
 scant indeed. He was always careless of him-* 
 self, and was bent rather on the work he strove to 
 do than on thoughts of his own reputation. He 
 collected no materials from which others could 
 glean the story of his days. He therefore seems 
 more deserving than many others of some record, 
 from having been through life so generously negli- 
 gent of himself. An orator, like a great singer, or 
 a great actor, often leaves behind him nothing save 
 the memory oT his mighty voice, which dies with tl]e 
 generation which heard it : that reputation is so 
 ample and so satisfactory while the orator lives, that 
 he is apt to forget that it will cease when he dies, 
 and makes no provision for perpetuating it. The 
 greater the popularity he acquires, the more it im- 
 poses upon him the belief that his repute will take 
 care of itself, and inspires him with a proud abandon- 
 
1 6 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 ment of all the conditions of lasting fame. Some 
 great sermons by Mr. Stephens, which those who 
 were present always regarded as the distinction of 
 their lives to have heard, were probably printed, with 
 more or less fulness, but no copy of the most famous 
 can now be obtained. His great speeches against 
 the Poor Law, which, as I know, moved workmen in 
 Midland England as they did the men of Yorkshire 
 and Lancashire, are now mostly lost, even such as 
 were reported. Reporting then was not the great 
 art it now is. Besides, there was no cheap press in 
 those days. Newspapers were mainly in the hands 
 of the middle, and what then passed for the **upper/' 
 classes ; and the insurgent eloquence of Joseph 
 Rayner Stephens in defence of the poor found small 
 favour in their sight, and scant reports in their 
 columns. How little publicity he was likely to 
 obtain in these quarters is shown in the fact that in 
 1838 "the leading mill-owners of Staleybridge, with 
 one or two exceptions, avowed openly their intention 
 to discharge from their employment, and prevent 
 their obtaining employment elsewhere, all who were 
 known to be hearers or supporters of Mr. Stephens."^ 
 The memorable agitation for the " Ten Hours 
 Bill " — a measure for limiting labour in factories to 
 that duration — occupied thirty-three years. It ended 
 in 1848 by the passing of what was known as "John 
 Fielden's Bill.^' 
 
 * Hand-bill, signed *' Geo. Nield " and ** John Durham.' 
 
Difficitlties of the Story, 1 7 
 
 In 1837, ^he representation of working-class 
 questions in the Press was so partial and precarious, 
 that Feargus O'Connor, a friend of Mr. Stephens, 
 commenced in the November of that year the 
 Northern Star newspaper, published at Leeds. Yet 
 this paper could do but little, as its efforts were 
 limited by law. There were taxes on knowledge in 
 those days. It was the common complaint of the 
 governing class that the people were dangerous 
 because they were ignorant, yet a tax was imposed 
 on all who sought to give them information. The 
 first words of Mr. O'Connor on the first page of the 
 first number of the Northern Star were these : — 
 
 " Reader, behold that little red spot in the corner 
 of my newspaper. That is the stamp ; the Whig 
 beanty spot ; your plague spot. Look at it : I am 
 entitled to it upon the performance of certain condi- 
 tions. I was ready to comply, and yet, will you 
 believe, that the little spot you see has cost me 
 nearly eighty pounds in money, together with much 
 anxiety, and nearly one thousand miles of night and 
 day travelling ; of this they shall hear more, but for 
 the present suffice it to say — there it is : it is my 
 license to teach." ^ 
 
 It was of the nature of a new tax on working 
 men when the Northern Star did appear, seeing that 
 they alone would buy it, and its price was thus made 
 fourpence-halfpenny ; the penny stamp cost the pur- 
 
 * Northern Star, No. I, Nov. i8, 1837. 
 
i8 Life of yoseph Rayjter Step kens. 
 
 chaser twopence, as the issuer of the paper had to 
 pay for all stamps, whether the papers bearing them 
 were sold or not. Though every copy of the Star 
 was taxed, it increased the amount of public light, 
 and is the best record of Mr. Stephens's speeches 
 now extant. 
 
 In those days there were no " Men of the Time," 
 like the now indispensable volume edited by Thomp- 
 son Cooper ; no " Biograph," like that issued by 
 Joshua Hutton ; no record of '* Men of Mark" was 
 then attempted ; and if the " men of mark" were 
 men of the people, there were few who were curious 
 for information concerning them. The story of the 
 life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, so far as it can be 
 known now, is told here for the first time. 
 
19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PARENTAGE AND BIRTH OF JOSEPH RAYNER 
 STEPHENS. 
 
 John Stephens, the father of the subject of 
 these pages, was born in Cornwall in 1772. Early 
 in life he acquired deep religious convictions 
 when connected with the Episcopal Church, of 
 which he always remained a member and a lover. 
 But in his youth the Episcopal Church was sleeping, 
 and he joined the Methodist Society, and " gave 
 himself," as he expressed it, "to the service of God.'* 
 In 1792, when little more than twenty years of age, 
 he was admitted, at a Conference of that body, as a 
 candidate for the ministry, and commenced itinerant 
 duties at Penzance. He became a distinguished 
 preacher, and in due course filled some of the most 
 important stations in England and North Britain. 
 His wide reading, exceptional talents, power over the 
 deeper feelings of his congregations, and spotless 
 public and private character, carried him onwards to 
 
 B 2 
 
20 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 positions of honour and trust. His pastoral adminis- 
 trations were based on the Gospel of Christ, not on the 
 Law of Moses. He exercised wide influence over all 
 classes, and wrote both in prose and verse works that 
 were useful at the time. He had a clear and com- 
 prehensive understanding ; in argument he was lucid 
 — his illustrations of Scripture were strikingly apt ; 
 his manner in the pulpit serious and dignified ; and 
 his language had the completeness and impressive- 
 ness only possible to men of capacity and sincerity. 
 In 1 827, when Connexional principles were considered 
 to be in jeopardy, he was elected President of the 
 Conference, in which office he manifested such 
 soundness of judgment, moral courage, and command 
 of temper, that the Conference of 1828 passed and 
 published a vote of '' cordial and unreserved thanks" 
 to him. Though of a kind and obliging disposition, 
 he could never be induced to sacrifice principle 
 either to expediency or popular favour, and adhered 
 to what he thought right with undeviating firmness. 
 On his first entrance upon the ministry he was 
 regarded as a man of superior intellect, and he 
 had the good sense, unusual in those days for 
 one in his position, to devote much of his time 
 to the pursuit of useful learning and general know- 
 ledge, and thus he acquired what never forsook 
 him, a Catholic charity towards all denominations 
 of Christians. He died at Brixton Hill, London, in 
 
^ Parentage and Birth. 2 1 
 
 January, 1841, in the 69th year of his age, and 
 48th of his ministry. 
 
 The last hours of Mr. Stephens^s life were character- 
 ized by his accustomed calmness and good sense. His 
 solicitor^ relates, that on the 28th of January he was 
 asked to prepare and bring him his will. On receiv- 
 ing it Mr. Stephens requested two of his neighbours to 
 be called in, and sitting up, told them, in his usual 
 strong and sonorous voice, that having some property 
 to dispose of, he felt it his duty to make his will, and 
 wished them to attest his signature. This act per- 
 formed, he said ^^ farewell" to those around him, asked 
 to be left alone for a few minutes, rose from his bed, 
 and without help bathed himself, so that (in his own 
 words) " he might die clean." He died the next 
 midnight. A brief but well-written obituary notice 
 of him appears in the " Minutes of the Methodist 
 Conferences," volume ix., 1843, which records that 
 when a great emergency arose, the reserved force of 
 his nature became apparent, and he would speak with 
 ^' overpowering eloquence." This capacity of rising 
 to the demands of emergency is a natural sign of 
 power. Emergency, which is the end of the weak 
 man, is the opportunity of the strong. A Tablet on 
 ■a wall of the Burial Ground, Wesleyan Chapel, City 
 Road, London, bears this inscription : — 
 
 * Mr. Greaves Walker. 
 
22 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 BENEATH THIS STONE LIE THE MORTAL REMAINS OF 
 THE REV. JOHN STEPHENS, 
 
 Who, for 48 years 
 
 Laboured in the Ministry of the Word of Life, 
 
 Devoting to his labours 
 
 A mind and spirit of sterhng but unobtrusive worth. 
 
 He was born on the Wi of February, 1772, 
 
 and died, exchanging Mortahty for Life, on the 
 
 29th day of January, 1841, 
 
 in his 69th year. 
 
 His wife, Rebecca Eliza Rayner, to whom he was 
 married at Weathersfield, in Essex, by the Rev. Dr. 
 Jowets, on the 2nd of July, 1796, came of an Essex 
 yeoman family of the old school — upright, honest, and 
 hardworking. Her youngest son says of her: **Miss 
 Rebecca inherited the good qualities of her house, 
 was wonderfully active, thought of others first, and 
 herself last, and was ' the lady bountiful' of the 
 neighbourhood wherever she came. She was always, 
 considered not less remarkable than her husband, 
 in her way. She had great animation, courage, 
 and determination of character." When funds were 
 needed for the enlargement of Lambeth Chapel,^ 
 she collected so considerable an amount, that a 
 silver tea-service was presented to her, in acknow- 
 ledgment of her remarkable exertions. At a time 
 when Methodism was regarded with small favour in. 
 what is called " Society," she made visits to house- 
 holds of good family outside the Wesleyan body, 
 and such was her bright persuasiveness, that she 
 
Parentage and Birth, 23 
 
 obtained gifts from many of them. It is related of 
 her, that often when cases of sudden distress overtook 
 persons known to her, which her immediate resources 
 did not enable her to relieve, she would pledge the 
 silver tea-service for ten pounds, and give or lend 
 the proceeds. When the service came into her pos- 
 session again, and needs of others arose which she 
 was unable to supply, she would repeat the process 
 of parting with her tea-service, which many times 
 underwent this singular and generous exile from her 
 table. Such were the parents of Joseph Rayner 
 Stephens, who was the sixth of tw^elve children. 
 
 Of this family of twelve^ eight were sons and four 
 were daughters. 
 
 His sister, Rebecca Eliza, who became Mrs. Storr, by 
 marriage with Mr. William Brumfitt Storr, of London, 
 showed that vigour of character and singular capacity 
 of speech was not confined to sons of the family. 
 She had a fine voice and an eye that arrested attention 
 when she spoke. Fond of sacred literature — and 
 she seldom spoke long without some reference to 
 religion — her language was moulded upon that of the 
 Old Testament. It is not enough to say she knew 
 the Bible by heart — it seemed her natural tongue. 
 Her aptness in using it was so original, fit and ex- 
 pressive, and she spoke withal in so commanding a 
 way ; so direct and authoritative — that she reminded 
 the hearer of Deborah, a prophetess in Israel. What 
 she said was intermingled with remarks of singular 
 
24 Life of Jo Sep h Ray iter Stephens, 
 
 worldly shrewdness. Her conversation, perfectly and 
 obviously earnest, was entirely free from the insipidity 
 of ordinary serious people ; it had a spontaneity and 
 a sort of poetic fire in it. Had she been a preacher 
 she would have excelled both her father and her 
 brother Joseph, in the power of arresting attention. 
 Yet her manner and her imagination were entirely 
 and always womanly. She died. May i, 1877, in 
 her seventy-seventh year. 
 
 John Stephens, the seventh child, was born at 
 North Shields, September 30, 1 806, and became editor 
 of the Christian Advocate, a Wesleyan periodical of 
 great note and influence while in his hands. In later 
 years he founded The Adelaide Observer newspaper, 
 in Adelaide, South Australia. 
 
 Edward Stephens, the tenth child, was born at 
 London, October 19, 181 1, and baptized at St. 
 George's Chapel in the East, March i, 181 2, by the 
 Rev. John Barber. He held in early life several 
 offices with great credit in the Hull Banking Com- 
 pany, and when twenty-five years of age, he went out 
 to Adelaide and founded the Bank of South Australia 
 (that was in July, 1836), in which country he achieved 
 fortune and great public repute. He continued 
 with the bank until 1855, and died in England, 
 March 12, 1861 : his colonial career was one of 
 considerable distinction. 
 
 The Ba7iker's Magazine used precisely the same 
 phrase in describing him which the Wesleyan Con- 
 
Parentage and Birth. 25 
 
 ference had many years before used as to his father — 
 namely^ that "he was equal to any emergency." 
 The Directors of the Company to which he belonged 
 were the fathers of Australian banking. In his early 
 connection with the Company, Edward Stephens 
 experienced the vicissitudes of the young colony. 
 He conducted his business under a tent, having a 
 sand-hill for his first desk. Speculations of the time, 
 disturbances among the colonists, financial errors of 
 the Government, often produced great loss to his 
 bank. His closing report, when he retired from the 
 management in 1855, was long remembered by those 
 who received it. He resigned his post with " the bank 
 in a state of almost perfect efficiency, enjoying the 
 confidence of the people, doing a very large amount 
 of steady and profitable business with competent 
 men, competent means, and a building and appliances 
 well combined and substantial." These points had 
 been with him a strong ambition ; they express 
 what he had toiled for, and were his reward. There 
 was a tone of pathos in his last words. He remarked 
 that " what we do for the last time is always done 
 with sorrow and sadness, and recalls other days — 
 days not to return." 
 
 George Stephens, the eleventh child, was born in 
 New Street, Liverpool, December 13, 18 13, became 
 the most eminent of the family, and in point of learn- 
 ing excelled them all ; he has long held the Chair of 
 English literature at the University of Copenhagen. 
 
26 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 Professor Dr. George Stephens, F.S.A., is regarded 
 as the first Runic scholar in Europe. He has 
 published several learned works, notably "The 
 old Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and Eng- 
 land,^^ three large folio volumes of which have 
 already been printed. The last is entitled, " Tord- 
 neren Thor,''^ or " Thunor the Thunderer, carved on 
 a Scandinavian Font, of about the year looo. The 
 first-found God-Figure of our Scando-Gothic fore- 
 fathers.'^^ As an Author his style excels in terse, 
 vigorous and picturesque sentences. Besides the 
 antiquarian volumes, Professor Stephens has exer- 
 cised considerable influence on the politics of the 
 North of Europe in a sense favourable to the union 
 of the Scandinavian kingdoms with Great Britain. 
 
 * Published by Williams & Norgate, London. It has many fine 
 illustrations. 
 
27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HIS MINISTERIAL CAREER— SWEDISH AND ENGLISH. 
 
 Joseph Rayner Stephens — born in Edinburgh^ 
 March 8, 1805 — had, to use the language of his 
 distinguished brother, Prof. George Stephens, *'the 
 family gifts," and naturally followed the family 
 traditions. But he lived in a very different period, 
 was educated in all the wisdom of the nineteenth 
 century, became a linguist, a politician, a student 
 of Social Economy, was versed in all the subtleties 
 of logic and metaphysics, spent many years abroad, 
 and drifted away from the narrow moorings of the 
 Wesleyan sect. He worked for his country, and 
 especially for the moral and social uplifting of the 
 people. With his great heart and will he joined 
 in the crusade against the abuses of capital, and the 
 cruelties of the Lancashire Factory System. Joseph 
 Rayner Stephens chose the profession of his father,, 
 and became a Wesleyan preacher. He was received 
 on trial at the Bristol Conference, in July, 1825,*^ 
 when he was in his twentieth year, the precise age 
 
 * See *' Minutes of Conference," vol. vi. pp. 4, 26. 
 
2 8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 at which his father commenced his ministerial career. 
 His station was Beverley, in the Hull district, and 
 he had for a colleague Richard Treffry, known as 
 the author of '' The Eternal Soulship." 
 
 The Rev. John Stephens being then resident in 
 Manchester, his son Joseph entered the Grammar 
 School in 1819, and formed a friendship with 
 Harrison Ainsworth and Samuel Warren, also a 
 fellow-student there then, and Joseph took part in 
 the private theatricals which were got up by the 
 future novelists. They had many literary tastes in 
 common, and wTote a good deal together in imitation 
 of the earlier dramatists. Mr. Stephens's dramatic 
 tastes became of great advantage to him as 
 a preacher, as the like has proved to other 
 preachers. Mr. Stephens was also a student at 
 Woodhouse Grove, near Leeds. At eighteen years 
 of age, instead of going to college, as his father 
 wished, and strongly advised him to do^ he joined 
 Mr. Green of Cottingham, near Hull, where for some 
 time he was one of the masters, and Mrs. Earle, 
 his daughter, relates, " I have often heard him say 
 that he had to sit up and study hard two or three 
 nights a week, to keep himself ahead of the young 
 men he had to teach. Grandpapa sent him the 
 money for the expenses of his first term at college, 
 but my father returned it to him with the answer 
 that his many younger brothers and sisters (there 
 were then seven of them), should never have it to 
 
His Ministerial Career. 29 
 
 say that he had more money spent on his education 
 than they had on theirs/^ 
 
 In 1826 he was appointed to the mission station 
 at Stockholm, Sweden, where he ministered until 
 1830.* 
 
 At Stockholm he had opportunities for the pro- 
 secution of those linguistic and literary studies in 
 which he always delighted. He learned many 
 languages^ — Danish, Finnish, besides Swedish, in 
 which he preached. When visiting a new country his 
 plan was first to write out essential phrases of conver- 
 sation in the tongue of the people, find out some intelli- 
 gent person to read them to him ; and watch carefully 
 the manner in which the lips moved, or the mouth 
 changed in pronouncing the words ; in the same way 
 in which the deaf and dumb have since been taught 
 to speak. By these means Mr. Stephens acquired 
 a fluent conversational knowledge of a new language 
 in a short time. One result of his acquaintance with 
 northern literature was to communicate his love for 
 it to his younger brother. Professor George Stephens 
 now of Copenhagen, whose early work, the transla- 
 tion of Frithiof's " Saga," was deemed the best by 
 Tegner. 
 
 Mr. Stephens^s career in Stockholm deserves the 
 attention of the reader — not merely because it had 
 great influence over his future life, not merely 
 
 * Vide ' * Minutes of Conference," vol. vi. pp. 137, 246, 366 and 477. 
 
30 Life of Joseph Ray^ter Stephens. 
 
 because it is remarkable in itself as respects the 
 distinguished connections he formed, and the repute 
 he acquired when still a young man ; but because 
 his Swedish career was not much known to his coun- 
 trymen at home, who regarded him only as a preacher 
 and political orator, with, as they believed, but the 
 ordinary attainments and experience of an English 
 Wesleyan minister of the period. 
 
 When Mr. Stephens first went to Stockholm in 
 1826, the Wesleyan society there appears to have 
 consisted of but a few persons, mostly English, who 
 met in a small room which they hired. As at home, 
 the Wesleyans in Sweden were not favoured much 
 by the authorities. It was thought their prospects 
 would be improved if one sermon on Sunday was 
 preached in the Swedish language, which would 
 enable the people of Stockholm^ who might choose 
 to become hearers, to form an opinion themselves of 
 the character of Wesleyanism. Mr. Stephens, 
 therefore, preached once a week in Swedish, and was 
 probably the first who did so. Lord Bloomfield, 
 who was then our Minister at the Court, assisted Mr. 
 Stephens in his efforts, and to strengthen his statuSy 
 and in a manner lend official authority to his pro- 
 ceedings, connected him with the Embassy, as his 
 chaplain, and Mr. Stephens read prayers daily in his 
 house. When illness overtook Lord Bloomfield^ Mr. 
 Stephens was present, and held his hand as he died. 
 
 The great interest Lord Bloomfield, and the 
 
His Ministerial Career. 31 
 
 affectionate regard he had for the young preacher, 
 will be sufficiently attested by quoting two letters 
 addressed to him by his lordship : — 
 
 " Stockholm, June 5, 1829. 
 
 *' Dear Mr. Stephens, 
 
 ^'In offering for, your acceptance the enclosed, 
 I claim your indulgence and forgiveness. It is but 
 a faint acknowledgment for the services you have 
 rendered me, and for the peace which, under God, 
 you have administered to my wounded heart. 
 
 " I shall look with no little solicitude for your 
 return after, I hope, an agreeable and interesting 
 journey. 
 
 " I remain, yours very truly and obliged, 
 
 " Bloomfield.'* 
 
 "Stockholm, Nov. 13, 1829. 
 
 **Dear Mr. Stephens, 
 
 " I have anxiously followed you in your journey and 
 voyage, and if you should have had the winds that 
 have blown here, you are now far advanced on 
 England's coast. I shall be very glad to know of 
 your safety^ and that everything has turned out to 
 your satisfaction on your arrival. 
 
 " By the last mail I sent eight volumes of Mants' 
 Bible to your address, and now send the remaining 
 
'32 LifeoJ Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 nine^ both parcels to remain with John Bidwell, Esq.» 
 at the F^oreign Office, tmtil called for, I shall not 
 complain of an early execution of the bindings as I 
 long to have the work in my constant keeping. I 
 finished the Revelations^ the beginning of which I 
 should never have understood but for the notes and 
 their construction on the text. The latter chapters 
 are of deep interest and easy of comprehension. I 
 need not add how sincerely I desire that your return 
 here may suit your own wishes,, or that any project 
 may be realized. I shall always look back to our 
 intercourse as the most important of my life, and I 
 trust whatever of profit I may have gathered is per- 
 manently established in my heart 
 
 ^^ Believe me^ very truly yours^ 
 
 ^' Bloomfield." 
 
 "Mr. Douglas is on his road hither — he is very 
 well. The Captains desire their remembrances to 
 you. 
 
 " B." 
 
 Nor are proofs wanting of the esteem in which he 
 was held as a minister by some hearers, who though 
 of venerable years had not less conceived admiration 
 for the ministerial ability and personal integrity of 
 the young preacher. The following letter was written 
 in a hand of singular neatness and exactitude of pen- 
 manship : — 
 
His Ministerial Career, 33 
 
 "Arbogu and Nasby, Sept. i8, 1827. 
 
 Revd. and Dear Sir, 
 
 " I am very sorry that my advanced age, and some 
 circumstances, especially originated from a greater 
 repair of my dwelling-house, have not permitted me 
 to accomplish my design of going to Stockholm this 
 summer, to see and hear you and imbibe your reli- 
 gious and edifying principles. You find therefore truth 
 of what is usually spoken : hovto proposit, Deics disponit, 
 
 ** The bearer of these few lines is my youngest son 
 James Joseph Swederus, who will look after some 
 employment by any of the wholesale merchants in 
 Stockholm : he will present my best compliments to 
 you, and beg your leave to wait on you now and 
 then, and to be one of your hearers in your chapel, 
 if he comes to stay in Stockholm. 
 
 " I should be exceedingly glad if your time and func- 
 tionary performances would permit you to spend some 
 days with me in the country, I should look on it as 
 the greatest favour bestowed on me. 
 
 *'The steam-ship JosepJiinc or Yngzuc Frey would 
 carry you safe and sound to Arbogu, and from thence 
 I'll take care of your carrying thither, when I'm adver- 
 tised of the day of your embarking from Stockholm 
 and of the steam-ship with which you are going. 
 
 " Two of my other sons will go from Stockholm 
 with JosepJiine next Tuesday, the 25 th of this month. 
 How happy should they be of your company on that 
 very steam-ship in their returning home ! 
 
 I 
 
34 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 " Do come, dear sir, in my house, and you shall 
 be received with the warmest friendship. 
 " With the greatest esteem, I am, 
 '' Dear and revd. sir, 
 
 " Your most humble servant, 
 
 " Ric. Jam. Swederus." 
 
 One further testimony of Mr. Stephens's distinction 
 and usefulness is the following, of which any preacher 
 of the greatest repute might be proud. 
 
 Extract of a Letter from the Right Hon. the 
 Countess von Schwerin to the Rev. J. P. Waklin, 
 Chaplain in Ordinary to the King of Sweden, and to 
 his Embassy in London, dated Stockholm the 12th 
 of January, 1827. 
 
 '' Mr. Stephens, who now twice every Lord's Day, 
 preaches and performs divine service here (the Church 
 of England prayers are also read), gains more and 
 more upon the affection of the folks here, and increases 
 the number of his friends. I owe you, my good Mr. 
 Waklin, the sincerest thanks for having introduced 
 this estimable and most excellent man to my 
 acquaintance. I have scarcely missed hearing a single 
 one of his sermons ; and, to tell you the truth, if any- 
 thing can be said to engage m.y interest in it beyond 
 this, it is to find that my dear son-in-law hears Mr. 
 Stephens with so much pleasure, that he very seldom 
 loses any opportunity of attending divine service. 
 
His Ministerial Career, 35 
 
 Mr. Stephens has made so extraordinary quick pro- 
 gress in the acquirement of the Swedish language, 
 that he can without difficulty converse upon any 
 subject, and pronounces the language with a propriety 
 and correctness truly astonishing for the short time 
 he has been here. The saloon which Count Caol de 
 Geer-Grant has lent, free of expense to the Methodist 
 congregation, is a tolerably good shift for a chapel. It 
 is of sufficient height and moderately large, and most 
 delightfully situate in a large garden also belonging 
 to Count de Geer-Grant. Many Swedes of whom 
 till now I and others had no idea of their under- 
 standing English, are amongst his diligent hearers. 
 I own I long for the time when, on account of still 
 more extensive usefulness, he shall feel himself at 
 liberty also to preach to us in Swedish. I wait 
 almost impatiently for your letters and the books you 
 have promised to send me about the great and mighty 
 doings going on in England for the Redeemer's glory. 
 Are they so sensible as they ought to be of their 
 Christian privileges T^ 
 
 One further letter may complete the story of Mr. 
 Stephens's years in Sweden — a letter which has 
 historic interest, as throwing light upon the youthful 
 mind of a Catholic peer. Count de Montalembert. 
 The letter is written partly in French and partly in 
 English : — 
 
 * Translated from the Swedish. 
 
36 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 " Eolskulle, near Stockholm, July 26, 1829. 
 
 " My dear Stephens, 
 
 " I have been long waiting for a letter from 
 you. It would have been a comfort and a pleasure 
 to see the promise of a friend fulfilled, and to receive 
 some words of affection and sympathy in the midst 
 of my too real misfortunes. I might with justice be 
 very angry with you ; I am not, however (not at all, 
 out of friendship or Christian meekness), because 
 I am too low spirited, too miserable to entertain any 
 bitter feeling against anyone but myself and my 
 destiny. 
 
 " On the 9th of June, the very night of your 
 departure, my poor sister was seized with an inflam- 
 matory attack, more violent than any we had yet 
 witnessed. Since that day she has been in a state 
 of positive danger and unremitting sufferings ; we 
 have tried the country air, but nature has not made 
 the least effort to conquer the malady, and art has 
 been totally at a loss not only to remedy, but even 
 to account for, the extraordinary symptoms we have 
 seen. 
 
 ^^Lord Bloomfield will give you as complete a 
 description as you can desire. He has seen us in 
 our most painful moments. He has really been tJie 
 good Samaritan, the true Christian's friend and 
 adviser ; guilty, indeed, should we be before God 
 and man if we were ever, or any of us, to forget his 
 perpetual and unchangeable kindness. 
 
His Ministerial Career. 37 
 
 " Allow me, therefore^ my dear friend, to quit this 
 subject. It would not, however, be fulfilling my 
 duty to you as a friend, if I were to cast a veil of 
 constrained gaiety over the deep and smarting 
 wounds of my soul. Even when I am able to forget 
 for a moment my misfortunes, of a sudden I am 
 seized by the consciousness of my afflictions, and I 
 feel a sort of remorse for the temporary pleasure I 
 have been enjoying. 
 
 *^ I am sure you will accuse me of exaggeration, 
 foolish forebodings, and God knows what. Would 
 to Heaven that your accusation were true ; but 
 unfortunately I am too well paid not to believe in 
 the sincerity of my complaints. If you did but know 
 what a load of bitterness, resentment, and passion lies 
 hid in my heart under the veil of affected gaiety ; if 
 you knew how the purest affections of life have been 
 for me blasted to the root ; and how, instead of the 
 hberty, and the joy, and the confidence of youth, I 
 have been nurtured up in the midst of humiliations, 
 of hypocrisy, of misery. Oh ! then you would 
 understand the extent of my afflictions ; you would 
 feel why the ruins of my most cherished plans have 
 reduced me almost to despair ; and, above all, you 
 would feel why my heart is so ardent for new friends 
 and new affections — is always so ready to seize on 
 sympathy, on confidence, on consolation. 
 
 " I have missed you very much, my dear Stephens. 
 I think that if you had been here I should have been 
 
38 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 less unhappy ; I should at least have had some one 
 with whom I could have spoken, and who would 
 have freshened up my mind and given me new 
 thoughts and useful encouragement. You would 
 have revived my broken-down spirits ; you would 
 have impressed on my weak soul the will and the 
 providence of Him in whom I can easily believe and 
 hope, but whom I neither love nor confide in enough. 
 
 " In short, I should have had a friend, and I have 
 none. None ! I do not know whether I am really 
 telling the truth in uttering this word. I have long 
 thought, and must still think, that the Countess is 
 my friend ; at least, I know that I am very fond of 
 her. To you even I may say that I love her from 
 the bottom of my heart. Though there is between us 
 so little similitude of age, of position, of temper, dis- 
 position, and future views, yet have I felt myself 
 borne towards her by an invisible penchant. 
 
 " My attachment has grown stronger for her every 
 day. I look forward with fear and regret to the 
 moment when I shall part from her, perhaps for life. 
 
 " However, I must not be ungrateful ' through an 
 excess of friendship ;' and v/hatever may be the 
 Countess's sentiments towards me, I shall always 
 feel towards her as towards the only person who has 
 thrown some charm over my dreary exile. 
 
 " One would really think that you were a Catholic 
 priest, to see the way in which I am going on con- 
 fessing to you. But I know not two ways of being 
 
His Ministerial Career, 39 
 
 a friend ; ' I am very exacting indeed, because I 
 willingly use the exigency of my friends.' We 
 hope to start for France, and then to Berlin, Dresden, 
 and Frankfort, at the end of next week. 
 
 " I have not seen Sheduct for these last six weeks. 
 I have positively done nothing at all. All I have 
 read has been Madame de Stael's Allemagne, with 
 which I am delighted, and some numbers of the 
 Svea, where I have found some excellent articles of 
 Atterborn. 
 
 *' Good-bye, my dear Stephens, write to me at 
 Paris often and confidentially. 
 
 " ' Remember that I rely upon you.^ Our union, 
 our friendship is a debt we owe to the noble cause 
 of faithy religious, moral, and political, which we 
 have both embraced, which you proclaim from the 
 altar of the Most High, and which I may perhaps 
 also defend in my country's presence. Let there be 
 between us a tie of sacred sympathy — a tie formed 
 by faith in the same truths, and love for the same 
 virtues — a tie which may yield us some comfort in 
 this world, and not be quite useless to our fate in 
 the next. 
 
 " Yours most affectionately, 
 
 " C. F. DE MONTALEMBERT." 
 
 A year later, namely in 1830, Count Charles 
 Forbes Montalembert united himself with Lamennais 
 in Paris, and was one of the founders of L'Avenir 
 
40 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephe^is. 
 
 which sought to ally Catholicism to democracy. 
 One of the doctrines of this new school was the 
 liberation of the Galilean church from State control, 
 and when this claim failed, it was sought to free public 
 instruction from government interference. In all 
 these unauthorized agitations, Montalembert never 
 withdrew his allegiance to the Church. By the 
 expression of his sympathies for Ireland and Poland, 
 both of them Roman Catholic countries, he preserved 
 a connection with the democratic party, and on all 
 social questions he advocated the cause of the people."^ 
 Montalembert being born in 1810, in London, 
 would be nineteen years old at the date of the re- 
 markable letter to Mr. Stephens. His early years 
 having been spent in London, it was natural that 
 he should be interested in the young English 
 preacher whom he would meet or hear spoken of, as 
 we have seen, in the highest circles of Stockholm. 
 Mr. Stephens being five years the elder, of decided 
 views, full of theories of religious progress, and withal 
 having the com.manding inspiration of enthusiasm, 
 eloquence, and a fiery will, he is not unlikely to have 
 influenced the mind of the young Count. It is 
 curious to note in how many respects they both acted 
 on a common policy in after life. Both took part 
 in advocating social progress without relinquishing 
 religion. On returning to his country, each com- 
 menced to agitate for the separation of the Church 
 
 * '' Imperial Dictionary of Biography." 
 
His Ministerial Career. 41 
 
 from the State ; Mr. Stephens in England, Mon- 
 talembert in France. Mr. Stephens took sides with 
 Chartists and Factory Agitators, as Montalembert 
 did with the Polish and Irish leaders, and both with 
 the same object, that of proving that faith was the 
 protector and friend of the social interests of the 
 democracy, and that religion cared for the material 
 welfare of the people. 
 
 In the year 1829, Joseph Rayner Stephens was 
 received into full connexion at the Sheffield Con- 
 ference, and duly ordained a Wesleyan minister.* 
 In 1830 he was stationed at Cheltenham. f 
 
 In these years of his early absence from his father's 
 house, he wrote letters home which manifested a fine 
 spirit of dutifulncss and affection. The following 
 letter, written in the year 1830, was addressed to 
 his father, then residing at Belmont Row, Birmingham. 
 It had no post-mark upon the envelope, and was 
 probably enclosed with others in a cover franked by 
 a member of Parliament. It was, as most readers 
 know, common in those days, when postal rates were 
 high, for letters to bear the name of a member of 
 Parliament written by himself in one corner, as they 
 then went free. 
 
 '' My dear Father and Mother, 
 
 "After spending Tuesday in Cheltenham, and 
 visiting the principal friends there, I proceeded to 
 
 * *' Minutes of Conference," p. 446. f Idem, p. 565. 
 
42 Life of Joseph Ray^ier Stephe7is. 
 
 Bristol, where I enjoyed myself the remainder of the 
 week in the society of a few, I think, well-chosen, and 
 I am sure, most affectionate friends. On Saturday 
 night I arrived at Winchcomb, after ascending and 
 descending one of the most formidable hills a pedes- 
 trian would ever wish to encounter. I went in a 
 sort of shandry-dan or country omnibus, the only 
 accommodation conveyance between that place and 
 Cheltenham 'till within a month or two ago, when 
 the Leamington and Birmingham coach took it in 
 their route. It is one of the rudest, homeliest places 
 I ever saw; at least a century behind even a third- 
 rate town that makes the least pretensions to modern 
 improvements. By-the-by, my predecessor might 
 well save a few pounds a year of his circuit allow- 
 ance ; he was comparatively little at home — not by 
 invitation, but by what is called d7'opping in at a 
 friend's house about their meal-time, and kindly 
 consenting to join them. Now this is talked about, 
 not as a thing the people liked, but disliked — and 
 such visiting from house to house I am determined 
 not to acquaint myself with. I know our people 
 like to see their preacher sit down with them to a 
 family meal now and then without any ceremony, but 
 anything beyond this all sensible persons must and 
 will detest. 
 
 " Beyond the duties of my office, discharged with 
 proper dignity and conscientiousness, there is nothing 
 to interest me in this place. There is not a soul 
 
His Ministerial Career, 43 
 
 with whom I have to do that moves in any sphere 
 of mind higher than the every-day business of life. 
 This I am far from despising, and I shall make 
 myself tolerably comfortable among them, and hope 
 to be, as well as to appear, agreeable to all. 
 
 " I only got into my lodgings last night, having 
 been out this week in the Gloucester circuit, attend- 
 ing some country meetings. I would not write 'till 
 I could send yOu word not merely how I was, but 
 how I was likely to be. 
 
 " The situation is very good : I have a most 
 beautiful view of the hills, with the ruined castle, 
 out of my study window. I have no doubt that, when 
 settled and entered upon some course of study and 
 employment, I shall love my solitude. For, alone I 
 must be as long as I stay here ; no danger of a friend, 
 much less one to be loved. 
 
 " I preached in Cheltenham last Sunday — there is a 
 very kind circle of friends, uniting the rare excellences 
 of northern frankness and hospitality with southern 
 politeness and refinement. But I intend to keep 
 myself as much as possible at home, since I cannot 
 avail myself of their society without grievous sacrifice 
 of time. 
 
 " Osborne, my superintendent, seems a very free and 
 brotherly colleague, and as we cannot clash, even if so 
 disposed, there is every prospect of harmony and 
 peace betwixt us. 
 
44 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 " 1 hope this will find my dear father and mother 
 both well. 
 
 " Yours affectionately, 
 
 "Joseph R. Stephens." 
 
 The good sense and self-respect expressed in this 
 letter are quite noteworthy in a young man of twenty- 
 five. His judgment is as ripe as though he had had 
 the experience of mature years. He '' does not 
 despise the every-day business of life," which has 
 to be done by everyone, and in which each person 
 should help ; and if it be mean and poor, raise it by 
 higher example and relieve it from insipidity by bright 
 participation in it. At the same time, it is the 
 mark of a mind wishful for improvement, and capable 
 of it, that a young man should desire to associate in 
 due season with those wiser than himself. 
 
 A year or two after^ another letter is received by 
 his father ; this time franked by Mr. Hindley. He 
 had become acquainted with that Member of Parlia- 
 ment, who later on took so conspicuous a part in the 
 Factory agitation, with which Mr. Stephens was 
 destined to become so largely connected. All through 
 his life his heart was in fireside things as well as 
 public affairs. The second letter, still dateless within 
 and without, is as follows : — 
 
 '' Dear Father, 
 
 " I take advantage of one of Mr. Hindley's last 
 franks to write a few lines from my oivn home to my 
 
His Ministerial Career. 45 
 
 old home, to let you know of our welfare, for which 
 you have always prayed, and which it will rejoice 
 you to hear of. 
 
 My own health is good. I am able to go through 
 my regular work with ease and pleasure, and I 
 have the consolation to find that I do not labour in 
 vain. The societies with which I am connected 
 are peaceful and prosperous. There is mutual con- 
 fidence and esteem betwixt us. I have never yet 
 had reason to regret having settled here — but rather 
 to be thankful. We often wish you were with us 
 for a few months. It would be Elizabeth's"^^ pride 
 to minister to your little wants and make you 
 comfortable. Are you afraid to encounter the 
 journey } A few hours wuU bring you to our door, 
 and see you home again, when you were wearied of 
 your visit. Do try sometime in the summer, or at 
 the next Leeds Conference. 
 
 The weather has set in with great severity. A 
 heavy fall of snow yesterday has given a very 
 wintry appearance to the zuorld without, but zuiihin 
 it is snug and cosy, and comfortable. You shall be 
 
 * Elizabeth is Mrs. Stephens. Mr. Stephens was twice married ; first 
 in 1835 to Miss Elizabeth Henwood, niece of James Henwood, Esq., by 
 whom he had four daughters. Mrs. Stephen died at Hutton in Essex, 
 January, 1852, leaving but one surviving daughter, Henrietta, who 
 married Alfred Earle, Esq., in 1870. Mr. Stephens married a second 
 time, in May, 1857, Susannah, daughter of Samuel Shaw, Esq., of the 
 Rookhills, Derby, by whom he had three sons and three daughters of 
 •whom, two sons, Arthur Cornwall Stephens, born 1 861, and George 
 Alfred, born 1863, survive him. 
 
4-6 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 well waited on, for, after all, philosopher as I know 
 you to be, there is a difference which must be felt^ 
 though it may not be acknowledged. 
 
 " Aunt French's death must have affected mother 
 much. I read it in the paper with surprise and with 
 sorrow. She was mother's last sister. The breaking 
 of these links must loosen our own hold on life, for 
 to be left alone, after being one of a numerous bmidy 
 cannot but forcibly admonish us that we too are but 
 strangers and wanderers as all our fathers were. 
 I shall be glad to hear from mother, to be assured 
 of her prosperity, as I am assured of her peace. 
 
 " I have no news, indeed I never draft much in such 
 matters. I saw many of your old friends in New- 
 castle. The factory system is at present enjoying a 
 good deal of the time and attention of 
 
 Your affectionate son, 
 
 "Joseph R. Stephens." 
 
 By this time the '' son " had begun to take 
 interest in public affairs. His attention had been 
 drawn to the condition of factory operatives. 
 Ministers of the Established Church were not friendly 
 to the agitation on their behalf, which Mr. Stephens 
 conceived was owing to the connection of that 
 Church with the State. He regarded that union as 
 the source of power to those whom he then con- 
 sidered practical enemies of the people — and he 
 
His Ministerial Career. 47 
 
 shortly became the subject of a/' case " at the hands 
 of his Methodist brethren. 
 
 In 1834 he retired from formal connection 
 with the Wesleyan Ministry. There was a well 
 prepared report, drawn up by the authority of a 
 district meeting, upon his " case "^ — and of his having 
 been temporarily suspended. Mr. Stephens appealed 
 to the Conference, which in due course heard his 
 defence, and appointed a Committee of Ministers to 
 confer with him. The cause of this " suspension '* 
 was that he had openly agitated for the separation 
 of the Church from the State : the condition the 
 Conference thought it necessary to impose upon him 
 was that he should desist from this. As he refused 
 to pledge himself to abstain in the future from any 
 such course, his resignation was finally accepted. 
 
 Before things came to this pass, many circum- 
 stances occurred in which not only the Wesleyan 
 connection but the outside public took interest. His 
 brother John, the Editor of the Christian Advocate, 
 was a man of resolute religious convictions, and had 
 published some strictures upon a well-known Wesleyan 
 minister of that day, which came finally to be 
 adjudicated upon in the law courts. The militant 
 editor of the Christian Advocate could not be an 
 unconcerned spectator of the proceedings about to be 
 instituted against his brother, and he accordingly 
 addressed to his brother Joseph the following joint 
 * "Minutes of Conference," vol. vii. p.'4i7. 
 
48 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 letter, signed by himself and his friend (and probably 
 editorial colleague) Mr. J. H. Hare : — 
 
 " Dear Friend, 
 
 " As we expected, so it has turned out ; and 
 you are to undergo the censures of your brethren 
 for the prominent part which you have taken 
 in the question of the separation of Church and 
 State. We do not know what are the specific 
 charges which are to be brought against you, and 
 perhaps you yourself are not better informed. We 
 presume, however, that, unless you have taken care 
 to provide against objections on such a score, the 
 accusation will be that you have neglected your 
 appointments. Whatever may be alleged as the 
 ostensible crime, we are quite sure that the real 
 ground of this movement against you is your recent 
 advocacy of the cause of religious liberty. 
 
 " In your present circumstances we do not presume 
 to advise you how to act, having no doubt that you 
 will adopt a course worthy of yourself, and of the 
 just cause in which, it seems, you are to be the first 
 martyr. . 
 
 " Our principal reason for writing is to show you 
 that we observe you with no common degree of 
 interest ; as a proof of which we give you to under- 
 stand that our best services, and the columns of the 
 Christian Advocate, are at your command. We do 
 
His Ministerial Career. 49 
 
 not know whether you may deem it advisable, or 
 not, to say anything about your case before the 
 district meeting. If you do, we will lend you our 
 editorial " we " for the purpose. At all events we 
 hope you will not fail to furnish us with ample details 
 of the proceedings when they shall have been taken. 
 "You will have noticed that every opportunity is 
 seized by Jabez^ and his minions for making de- 
 monstrations in favour of the Church. Tommy 
 Jackson has not let slip the opportunities afforded 
 him in writing Watson's life, whom he has repre- 
 sented as more of a Churchman than he really was. 
 Those who are sometimes admitted into the secrets 
 of this party talk confidentially about Methodism 
 being made an appendage to the Church. 
 
 "Accept the assurances of our sympathy and ex- 
 pressions of our deep sense of the obligation under 
 which you have laid the friends of religious liberty by 
 your able defence of that cause. 
 " Believe us to remain, 
 
 " With sincere affection and esteem, 
 "J. M. Hare, 
 "John Stephens. 
 
 ** 4, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 
 *^^>77i6th, 1834." 
 
 This is not an uninteresting letter, even at this 
 lapse of time. After nearly half a century, a similar 
 
 * The Rev. Jabez Bunting. 
 
 D 
 
50 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 ** party talk confidentially about Methodism being 
 made an appendage to the Church." Old Metho- 
 dists will well understand the reference to " Jabez 
 and his minions," who often gave trouble to 
 their liberal colleagues in those days. From his 
 brother and his father, who both had means of know- 
 ing the inner administrative mind and ways of Wes- 
 leyanism, Joseph Rayner had good knowledge of 
 what was in store for him if he continued contu- 
 macious upon the question of Church and State. 
 
 It is from the pages of the Christian Advocate 
 that the reader alone can learn the nature of the 
 proceedings which were officially taken against the 
 wilful young preacher. The article of indictment 
 against Brother J. R. Stephens, and the resolutions 
 come to thereon, are set forth as follows : — 
 
 *^ I. — That Brother J. R.Stephens has attended four 
 public meetings held at Ashton-under-Lyne, Hyde, 
 Oldham, and Staleybridge, one of the avowed objects 
 of which meetings was to obtain the total separation 
 of the Church and the State, and that at these 
 meetings he delivered speeches expressive of his 
 approbation of that object. 
 
 " 2. — That at the Ashton meeting the terms * Wes- 
 leyan Methodists of Ashton-under-Lyne* were, on 
 his motion, introduced into the preamble of a memo- 
 rial complaining of certain practical grievances of 
 Dissenters. 
 
His Ministerial Career. 5 1 
 
 " 3. — That he announced from the pulpit that a 
 town's petition, praying for the separation of the 
 Church and the State, lay for signature in the vestry 
 of the chapel. 
 
 '' 4. — That he has accepted an appointment to the 
 office of * Corresponding Secretary' to a society 
 called ' The Church Separation Society for Ashton- 
 under-Lyne and the neighbouring district.* 
 
 " ResohUions, 
 
 ''I. — That, in these proceedings, Brother Stephens 
 has flagrantly violated the peaceable and anti- 
 Sectarian spirit of Wesleyan Methodism, so strongly 
 enjoined in the writings of our founder, enforced by 
 repeated acts of the Conference since his decease, 
 and required as a necessary qualification of every 
 Methodist preacher, particularly in that epitome of his 
 pastoral duties, contained in the minutes of 1820, and 
 directed, by a standing order of the Conference, to 
 be read in every annual district meeting, as solemnly 
 binding on every minister of our connection. 
 
 "2. — That the above-mentioned speeches of Brother 
 Stephens are directly at variance with the general 
 sentiments of Mr. Wesley and the Conference, and 
 are distinguished by a spirit highly unbecoming a 
 Wesleyan minister, and inconsistent with those 
 sentiments of respect and affection towards the 
 Church of England which our connection has, from 
 
 D 2 
 
52 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 the beginning, openly processed, and honourably 
 maintained. 
 
 "3. — That, as far as his influence extends. Brother 
 Stephens has committed the character of the Con- 
 nection upon a question involving its public credit, 
 as well as its internal tranquillity; and he has mani- 
 fested a great want of deference to the recorded 
 opinions of his fathers and brethren in the ministry^ 
 and a recklessness of consequence as to himself and 
 others, by the very active and prominent part which 
 he has taken in the aggressive proceedings adopted 
 by the meetings before referred to. 
 
 "4. — That he has endangered the peace, and acted 
 prejudicially to the spirituality of the connection, by 
 giving occasion to the introduction amongst our 
 people, of unprofitable disputations on ecclesiastical 
 politics ; thus violating the directions of the last 
 Conference in its * Pastoral Address^ to the societies^ 
 which Brother Stephens, as well as every other 
 Methodist preacher, was bound, by his example at 
 least, to enforce. (See Minutes for 1833, p. 113.) 
 
 "5. — That Brother Stephens, in accepting the office 
 of Corresponding Secretary to the Ashton Church 
 Separation Society, has acted contrary to his 
 peculiar calling and solemn engagements as a 
 Methodist preacher. 
 
 ''6. — That the culpability of these proceedings is 
 aggravated by the fact that they were pursued by 
 Brother Stephens without consultation with his 
 
His Ministerial Career. 53 
 
 superintendent, and contrary to his example and 
 expressed opinion. 
 
 ''7. — That Brother Stephens be authoritatively re- 
 quired to resign his office as Secretary to the Church 
 Separation Society, and to abstain, until next session 
 of Conference, from taking any part in the proceed- 
 ings of the society, or of any other society or meeting 
 having a kindred object ; and that, in the event of a 
 violation of this injunction, he be forthwith sus- 
 pended until the Conference, and that his superin- 
 tendent give immediate notice to the chairman of 
 the district, that the President may supply his place 
 in the Ashton circuit. 
 
 " The above resolutions having been read to Brother 
 Stephens, he declared that on the finding of the 2nd 
 and 3rd he could not acknowledge the authority of 
 the meeting, and that he would not resign his office 
 of Corresponding Secretary to the Church Separation 
 Society of Ashton-under-Lyne. 
 
 "8. — He is, therefore, now suspended from the 
 exercise of his ministry until the next Conference. 
 
 "9. — That Brother Stephens be required forthwith 
 to remove from the Ashton-under-Lyne circuit, and 
 that the chairman be requested to wTite to the 
 President for a supply." 
 
 The apprehension of his relative and friend, the 
 editor of the Christian Advocate, that the charge 
 against him would be disguised under an allegation 
 
54 Life of yoseph Ray7ier Stephens. 
 
 that he had "neglected his appointments," was not 
 fulfilled. He had not neglected his duties. One sa 
 zealous as he, and so capable of work, might make 
 self-imposed additions to his duties, but he would be 
 sure to discharge every ministerial office. Thus his 
 accusers were compelled to deal with the real question,, 
 his " advocacy of the cause of religious liberty" out- 
 side the Connection, and in the Dissenting world 
 generally. Against this there was no Wesleyan law : 
 only a constructive " general sentiment of Mr. Wesley 
 and the Conference." Mr. Stephens' action was held 
 to be contrary to the " public credit" of Wesleyanism. 
 It is entirely to the honour of the "suspended" 
 preacher that no imputation, direct or constructive, 
 could be brought against him of failure in the proper 
 discharge of his prescribed duties, or of non-adherence 
 to any Christian doctrine he had undertaken to 
 maintain. 
 
 The document we have quoted is, however, a 
 very curious one, from the light it throws upon the 
 Wesleyan mind and Connectional policy of that day.. 
 Every form of contempt the Church could express, 
 was poured upon the Wesleyans for their " sectarian" 
 doctrine, vulgarity in piety, and personal ignorance. 
 Yet these Wesleyan ministers make proclamation of 
 their " anti-sectarian spirit," and their " sentiments 
 of respect and affection towards the Church of 
 England," which Church had ridiculed and despised 
 them in every parish in which they gave out a hymn.. 
 
His Ministe^nai Career. 55 
 
 Wesleyanism, as these pages testify, produces men of 
 generous impulse and high courage ; but the whole 
 history of religious sects presents no example of such 
 abjectness of spirit as official Wesleyanism displayed 
 at that date towards the Church of England. How- 
 ever, since those days, the nobler sort of Wesleyans — 
 like Mr. Stephens and his colleagues — have increased, 
 and by their lives and teaching have shown that piety 
 can be combined with self-respect. 
 
 Mr. Stephens, however, was not without the sup- 
 port and sympathy of many of his brethren in the 
 ministry, though the more responsible or eminent 
 preachers, would not, for reasons of denominational 
 policy, accord him their approval. The adverse de- 
 cision of the Conference was a subject of contention 
 in many parts of the country, and in some districts 
 the Wesleyans openly took Mr. Stephens' part. A 
 meeting of trustees, local preachers, and private 
 members of the Wesleyan Society, held in Birming- 
 ham, May 8, 1834, expressed their opinion, by 
 unanimous resolution, that Mr. Stephens was sus- 
 pended from his office, not from any neglect of duty 
 or for any violation of law, but solely because on a 
 matter totally unconnected with Methodist doctrine 
 he claimed the right of every British subject to hold 
 and express his unbiassed opinion ; whilst local 
 preachers and leaders in the Methodist Society of 
 Whitehaven, declared his suspension '' partial, unjust, 
 and oppressive." A public meeting of Dissenters at 
 
 II 
 
56 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 Nottingham sent him resolutions of thanks for the 
 noble stand he had made for religious liberty. From 
 Sheffield and other places, invitations were sent to 
 him to settle in the district of the writers, and offers 
 of appointment and support were cordially made to 
 him. Mr. Stephens never repined at his excommu- 
 nication from the Wesleyan ministry, and never 
 resented it ; neither did he desert his personal faith 
 in religion, but went forth into the world casting 
 his lot with the unfriended poor, whom he believed 
 it to be the duty of a minister to succour and to 
 guide. 
 
 Within a short time of his separation from the 
 Wesleyan Connection he was publicly known as the 
 trusted and honoured colleague of Oastler, Hindley, 
 Saddler, and Fielden, in the agitation for " The Ten 
 Hours' Bill." He still continued to preach and 
 teach, but the interest he took in the physical im- 
 provement of the people was not looked upon with 
 favour by the religious world. The following entry 
 in his father's Diary at this time shows what was 
 going on : — 
 
 ''Sept. 15, 1836. — Aletter from Joseph: lost five out 
 of seven preaching-houses by the part he has taken 
 in the Factory Question. Had he served the God 
 of Israel instead of the calves of Jeroboam, he would 
 not have been so soon forsaken. Hek:indly offers to 
 contribute anything I please to assist his dear sister 
 
His Ministerial Career. 57 
 
 Sharon. He is an honourable and a generous young 
 man." 
 
 A year later Mr. Stephens sought to give more 
 effect to his advocacy of the factory operatives by 
 going into Parliament. He offered himself as a candi- 
 date to represent the borough of Ashton-under-Lyne. 
 
 His father's Diary at this time contains the follow- 
 ing entry : — 
 
 "July 6, 1837. — My son Joseph going to put up 
 for a Member of Parliament. I think he must be 
 daft." 
 
 "July 27. — This day my son J. is a candidate for 
 Ashton-under-Lyne. I can hardly wish him success." 
 
 Other evidence will occur of the consistent candour 
 of his father. Whether he wrote in his diary in 
 private, or in a letter to ethers, on any question in 
 which his own convictions were concerned, he never 
 withheld the truth, however strong was the induce- 
 ment from the great love he bore his son. 
 
 It ought to be mentioned before concluding this 
 chapter, that among the letters which Joseph Stephens 
 received at the time when his case was under the 
 consideration of the Wesleyan Conference were two 
 from the Rev. Robert Newton, written with boldness 
 of hand, and that manly and kindly frankness always 
 characteristic of this great preacher. The letters 
 betray his regard for Mr. Stephens' father, who had 
 lately held the high position of President among 
 
5 8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 them, and his anxiety as to the career of his son^ 
 whose ability and promise he discerned. The pur- 
 port of the letters was to inform Mr. Stephens that 
 his brethren would have no choice but to take 
 measures against him, unless he found himself able, 
 and was willing, to observe the discipline the Con- 
 ference felt itself obliged to exact from its ministers. 
 
59 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BECOMES A POLITICAL ADVOCATE. 
 
 What Wesleyanism prided itself in, and alone cared 
 for in the days of which we write, was, as the reader 
 has seen, *^ Spirituality" — not Humanity, not Liberty. 
 What our suspended preacher cared for very 
 strongly was Humanity, and only for freedom such as 
 was necessary to prevent inhumanity, to put down 
 injustice, and to keep it down. The two things which 
 moved Mr. Stephens to sympathy and indignation 
 were the treatment of the poor under the then new 
 Poor Law, and the condition of children in our 
 factories. For them he became Agitator, Advocate^ 
 Orator, — on what inspiration and for what reasons, 
 shall appear in his own words, as our brief story 
 proceeds. 
 
 People now are prone to look upon the stormy and 
 infuriate opposition to the Poor Law — regarded as the 
 baleful fruit of the Reform Bill — as based on mere 
 ignorance. Those who think so are too ignorant to 
 understand the terrors of those times. It was not 
 ignorance — it was justifiable indignation with which 
 the Poor Law scheme was regarded. Now that Free 
 Trade has brought steadier employment and higher 
 
6o Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 wages to the working class ; now that the Repeal of 
 the Corn Laws has made food abundant among the 
 common people ; now that the working class are 
 more powerful, politically, than they were forty years 
 ago, the workhouse has not the same terror, being 
 more associated with the accidentally unfortunate, 
 the infirm, and the idle. The mass of the people 
 do not expect to go there, and do not intend to 
 go there. But through the first forty years of this 
 century, almost every workman and every labourer 
 expected to go there sooner or later. Thus the 
 hatred of the Poor Law was well founded. Its dreary 
 punishment would fall, it was believed, not upon the 
 idle merely, but upon the working people, who by no 
 thrift could save, nor by any industry provide for 
 the future, when disease and age should overtake 
 them. He has no heart who does not sympathize 
 with the hatred of the Poor Law, as the poor then 
 understood it. He has no generous discrimination 
 who is wanting in respect for the memory of Joseph 
 Rayner Stephens, who — having no reason to fear 
 the Poor Law himself — bravely took the part of the 
 humble, honest, but helpless poor, who had. 
 
 The Poor Law of Queen Elizabeth's time was a wild, 
 incoherent sort of communism. When the property 
 of the Church was seized by the Crown, the pen- 
 sioners of the Church became paupers. The land- 
 owners, not intending to maintain the poor, hanged 
 them very freely. When the landowners had reduced 
 
Becomes a Political Advocate, 6 1 
 
 the number of paupers by the gallows, they transferred 
 their support to the citizens, who, being unable to 
 keep the poor, and unwilling to kill them, and no one 
 coming forward to give them the necessary know- 
 ledge whereby the poor could keep themselves — the 
 workhouse was turned into a penal settlement of indi- 
 gent industry. It is not possible to render the poor- 
 house easy of access and pleasant in its arrangements, 
 without its becoming crowded by entire families 
 willing to live at other people's expense. If only 
 the helpless and the honest poor were found there, 
 it would not be made a place of punishment ; but 
 since the idle and dishonest are ready to impose 
 themselves upon public charity, the poorhouse 
 has to be made disagreeable on principle. While 
 rulers think it necessary for their own security 
 to refuse vote or knowledge, or other condition of 
 industrial welfare, by means of which the honest poor 
 can really live by toil, they have no right to drive 
 the industrious into the workhouse, and then subject 
 them to criminal treatment when they are there. 
 It was the hopelessness of honest workmen escaping 
 this lot that awoke savage and relentless hatred of the 
 penal inflictions introduced into the workhouse by the 
 new Poor Law Act. They made the name of Political 
 Economy — a science of sense and mercy — detestable 
 in the minds of the people, and everybody who aided 
 and expounded it was alike condemned. Selfish 
 guardians, brutal masters, negligent doctors, all who 
 
62 Life of Joseph Rayner Stepheiis. 
 
 killed the paupers speedily by insolence, privation, or 
 indignity, and buried them cheaply, the new Poor Law 
 elevated into economists in the ratepayers' interest. 
 
 Mr. Shiel understood this, and put it very clearly 
 when advising his Irish constituents to resist the 
 introduction of the Poor Law among them. He 
 said to the shopkeepers and farmers, " There are 
 myriads of paupers whose wretchedness will be 
 cast upon you, and for whom, when you cannot 
 supply work, you will be compelled to furnish food."''"^ 
 Thus the poor had a bad time of it. To all house- 
 holders they were objects of dread and dislike. 
 Public pestilence, so long as it was discriminating 
 and confined its ravages to the poor, was viewed as 
 no great evil. The activity of the undertaker assisted 
 in the reduction of the poor rates. 
 
 It was not from anger or mere sentiment that the 
 people regarded the poorhouse as a prison. His- 
 torians, not at all of the revolutionary school, take a 
 similar view of the facts. This is what one of them, 
 Mr. Spencer Walpole, has recorded : — 
 
 " During the first few years which succeeded 
 Waterloo, Englishmen enjoyed less real liberty than 
 at any time since the Revolution of 1688. The 
 pauper was treated as a criminal, and the adminis- 
 tration of the Poor Law made almost every labourer 
 a pauper."t 
 
 * Mr. Lalor Shiel at Tipperary, Sept. 1837. 
 t Spencer Walpole, "History of England.'* 
 
Becomes a Political Advocate. 6'^ 
 
 To avoid these accursed asylums of poverty, 
 commonly called poorhouses — honest working-men 
 in those days lived with fewer comforts out of the 
 house than v/ould have been accorded them in it, 
 and sent their children into the factories to augment 
 the insufficient income of the home. This generation 
 knows nothing of what were really the horrors of 
 factory life to little children then. A minister of 
 religion who took their part was indeed a minister 
 of mercy. 
 
 So far back as the reign of King Alfred — the first 
 authenticated period when Englishmen were supposed 
 to do any regular work — that excellent monarch is 
 said to have divided the day into eight hours for 
 sleep, eight hours for work, and eight hours for 
 recreation — an arrangement which has been thought 
 satisfactory ever since, but very rarely acted upon. 
 King Alfred was always popular in the days of the 
 factory agitation, when it was thought a great thing 
 to get back working-hours to the limit of ten hours' 
 labour. Mr. Fielden said the King Alfred arrange- 
 ment was always very popular with his father, and 
 he should like to see it prevail. After King Alfred, 
 nothing appears to have been meditated for the 
 benefit of the working people — except hanging them, 
 if they were found to be in a mendicant state — until 
 the Board of Trade, in William III.'s time, was 
 directed to inquire into the condition of children. 
 Lord Hales and John Locke (he who wrote on the 
 
64 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 " Human Understanding ") were the commissioners 
 to whom the matter was entrusted. Locke, being a 
 philosopher, took a rational view of the subject and 
 advised the formation of schools for the education of 
 children, but they were much wiser schools than Mr. 
 Forster was able to recommend two hundred years 
 later. Locke and Lord Hales advised that industrial 
 schools should be provided in every parish — there 
 were to be parochial workshops for children on a better 
 plan than the State workshops proposed afterwards by 
 Louis Blanc. The children were to be taught and 
 instructed in the art of maintaining themselves. 
 They were to be protected from idleness, ignorance, 
 and excessive work. It was a merciful scheme for 
 preserving the health, both of mind and body, of 
 little people. If this scheme had been carried out, 
 the working classes of England would have been the 
 happiest, the wisest, the most self-supporting, and 
 the healthiest population in the world. 
 
 Such was the state of things at the end of the 
 last century and the beginning of this, that irons 
 were riveted upon hungry, ignorant apprentices, to 
 keep them in subjection. The case was mentioned, 
 in the Factory agitation, of one Robert Blincoe, a 
 Scottish apprentice, who observed that the pigs of 
 his master were fed with warm meal puddings, whilst 
 he, worse fed, used to go into the stye and steal 
 them — so hungry was he. The clever pigs, finding 
 their food decrease, squealed and attacked the poor 
 
Beco7nes a Political Advocate. 65 
 
 apprentice, who was discovered one day fighting 
 with the pigs for their puddings. He was punished 
 for his larceny in the stye, and the pigs alone had a 
 full meal. In those days children were often de- 
 stroyed in the mills by privation, punishment, and 
 excessive hours of working ; and some committed 
 suicide. 
 
 Many millowners in the agitation days boasted 
 that they made large sums annually by fines. Some 
 of them kept two clocks, by which they proved that 
 little children were late, who were hurrying through 
 the dark lanes in pattens, at half-past five in the 
 morning — often without breakfast. Their miserable 
 parents were publicly admonished to give them food 
 if they had it, before sending them out, half asleep, 
 into the cold streets. Mr. Sadler produced in the 
 House of Commons black, heavy, leathern thongs, 
 employed by mill overseers to beat children with, to 
 keep them from falling down asleep. Girls were so 
 beaten over the arms, face and bosom.^ The generous 
 eloquence of men like Stephens, Oastler, Sadler, 
 Fielden and others, ultimately enlisted the sympathy 
 of men in the highest ranks of society ; but it was 
 a long time before the cry of the poor children 
 reached them. To his honour. His Royal Highness 
 the Duke of Sussex himself convened a meeting at 
 the London Tavern, February 23, 1833, of the 
 friends of our little factory workers. 
 
 * **Life of Michael Thomas Sadler," pp. 374-5. 
 
 E 
 
66 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 Mr. Oastler, at the Duke's meeting, said, " He had 
 seen children with back and breast black; and on a 
 child living within a mile of his house, he had counted 
 thirty- three cuts on its back — (sensation). His lip 
 was cut and his eyelid was cut — (sensation). What 
 crime had this child committed ? He had w^orked 
 so long that he had fallen asleep over his work. 
 The Rev. G. R. Bull once sent me a lock of hair 
 with a part of the scalp attached to it. He said it 
 had been torn from the head of a poor factory girl 
 in his neighbourhood. She was asleep, as many of 
 them used to be, and the angry overlooker had 
 seized her by the hair and had swung the child 
 round in the air, and dashed her on the floor, and in 
 doing so had torn the hair and part of the scalp 
 from off her head — (great sensation)." Facts were 
 related at the public meetings then held which seem 
 incredible now, but were not, and could not be, con- 
 tradicted then. Little half-fed, ungrown things were 
 kept at work twelve, fourteen, and eighteen hours 
 without meal-times; they ate what they had to eat as 
 they worked. Children slept as they stood. Overseers 
 kept tanks of cold water at hand in which they dipped 
 the lads to awaken them, who had to work afterwards 
 all day in their wet clothes. Sometimes, when the 
 poor children went to work they had their fingers 
 taken off by the machine through drowsy inatten- 
 tion. Some, when they were careless, were put to 
 torture by being made to stand upon a tub, holding 
 
Becomes a Political Advocate. 67 
 
 a weight, with one leg up, and were flogged if 
 the weight descended. The legs of girls were com- 
 monly swollen with long-standing, and as often as 
 any of them perished by this treatment others took 
 the place of the dead. Every Wesleyan preacher in 
 the North of England knew of these things in every 
 district in which he was stationed. What a field to 
 cultivate "spirituaHty" in ! Mr. Oastler said, " He 
 remembered a poor widow who used to worship at 
 the same church as himself, whose children should 
 have gone to the Sunday School, but they could 
 not; they were too weary from their excessive work. 
 Many a time had he seen this poor woman dressing 
 her children's ancles when they came from work, 
 and then setting them on the bed to feed them. 
 She would give to each child in turn a mouthful 
 of bread and milk, but when she came with a second 
 spoonful to the eldest, she would find it asleep, with 
 the food unmasticated in its mouth.'"' 
 
 Sadler had a taste for poetry as well as for the 
 drier study of political economy and the statistics of 
 Malthus. In early life he wrote verses. The 
 following lines are from his pen. They were written 
 to illustrate the great cause he was then advocating 
 in Parliament. The verses were founded on 
 evidence given before a Parliamentary Committee of 
 which Mr. Sadler was Chairman. They have oft 
 been reprinted without being ascribed to their real 
 author. They are published in Mr. Sadler's Memoirs. 
 
 E 2 
 
68 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens: 
 
 As completely as any speech which could be quoted, 
 they show the indignant feelings which then moved 
 the hearts of men :— 
 
 THE FACTORY GIRL'S LAST DAY. 
 ^Twas on a winter's morning, 
 
 The weather wet and wild, 
 Three hours before the dawning 
 
 The father roused his child ; 
 Her daily morsel bringing, 
 
 The darksome room he paced, 
 And cried, " The bell is ringing, 
 
 My hapless darling, haste !" 
 
 " Father, Fm up, but weary, 
 
 I scarce can reach the door. 
 And long the way and dreary-— 
 
 Oh, carry me once more ! 
 To help us we've no mother ; 
 
 And you have no employ ; 
 They killed my little brother — 
 
 Like him Fll work and die !" 
 
 Her wasted form seemed nothing — 
 
 The load was at his heart ; 
 The sufferer he kept soothing 
 
 Till at the mill they part. 
 The overlooker met her, 
 
 As to her frame she crept, 
 And with his thong he beat her. 
 
 And cursed her as she wept. 
 
 Alas ! what hours of horror 
 
 Made up her latest day ; 
 In toil, and pain, and sorrow 
 
 They slowly passed away : 
 It seemed, as she grew weaker, 
 
 The threads the oftener broke ; 
 The rapid wheels ran quicker, 
 
 And heavier fell the stroke. 
 
Becomes a Political Advocate. 69 
 
 The sun had long descended, 
 
 But night brought no repose ; 
 Her day began and ended 
 
 As cruel tyrants chose. 
 At length a little neighbour 
 
 Her halfpenny she paid, 
 To take her last hour's labour, 
 
 While by her frame she laid. 
 
 At last, the engine ceasing, 
 
 The captives homeward rushed ; 
 She thought her strength increasing — 
 
 'Twas hope her spirits flushed. 
 She left, but oft she tarried ; 
 
 She fell and rose no more. 
 Till, by her comrades carried. 
 
 She reached her father^s door. 
 
 All night, with tortured feeling, 
 
 He watched his speechless child ; 
 While, close beside her kneeling. 
 
 She knew him not, nor smiled. 
 Again the factory's ringing 
 
 Her last perceptions tried ; 
 When, from her strawbed springing, 
 
 " Tis time ! '' she shrieked, and died ! 
 
 That night a chariot passed her, 
 
 While on the ground she lay ; 
 The daughters of her master 
 
 An evening visit pay ; 
 Their tender hearts were sighing 
 
 As negro wrongs were told, 
 While the white slaves lay dying 
 
 Who gained their father's gold ! 
 
 The witness who gave the facts upon which these 
 verses were written was one Gillett Sharpe, who 
 told the dramatic story in a simple natural way. 
 
7Q Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 It appeared to be quite unexpectedly elicited from 
 
 him ; he had no idea what impression it was destined 
 
 to make, and how long it would live in the literature 
 
 of labour. Though Mr. Sadler had small command 
 
 of the language of real life, he has preserved the 
 
 pathos of the facts. 
 
 Mr. Billington, of Blackburn, in a speech at Padi- 
 
 ham, March 2, 1872, recalls the social and industrial 
 
 facts which poets then and at earlier periods had 
 
 noted. " The over-straining of the physical energies 
 
 in the mill crushed-out men's mentality," and he 
 
 quoted the words of Alexander Smith as indicative 
 
 of that condition : — 
 
 In the street, the tide of being 
 How it surges, how it rolls ! 
 God, what base, ignoble faces ! 
 God, what bodies wanting souls ! 
 
 The words of Henry Kirke White were no picture 
 
 of the imagination but a veritable reality : — 
 
 The pale mechanic leaves the labouring loom, 
 The air-pent hole, the pestilential room ; 
 And rushes out, impatient to begin 
 His stated course of customary sin. 
 
 Mr. Billington continued : " They wanted more 
 rest and more tranquillity, and then they would have 
 the foundation for a higher intellectuality, a better 
 morality, and a greater humanity" — (cheers). 
 
 Our hope is in our effort. 
 
 Luck lies our will within ; 
 Perchance and choice are brothers, 
 
 And faith and fate akin. 
 
Becomes a Political Advocate, 7 1 
 
 Then courage up, and colours up, 
 
 Whatever may assail ; 
 God helpeth those who help themselves — 
 
 Press forward and prevail. 
 
 Mr. Sadler was the first man who introduced into 
 Parliament a Factory Bill in the interest of the 
 workers. In none of the histories of the Factory- 
 Movement is any chronological table given setting 
 forth the men and material epochs of the agitation : 
 who commenced it in an effectual w^ay, who became 
 its prominent champions, who aided them ; what 
 public meetings, what events influenced its career, 
 what was the original demand, what modifications 
 were made in that, what accretion it acquired ; what 
 were the compromises which diverted the movement, 
 and who proposed them; what were the final terms 
 of the demand conceded, and what have been the 
 subsequent securities obtained } No history would be 
 more interesting to modern politicians than one, in the 
 compass of a small book, that related, on these lines, 
 the political vicissitudes of this movement which took 
 thirty-three years to accomplish its merciful object. 
 The arguments which political economy could 
 advance against it were stronger than those which 
 mere humanity had to advance in its favours. Of the 
 eminent men opposed to the movement, there were 
 Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden, who were not less men 
 of humanity, and were making splendid sacrifices in 
 another way in the interests of the common people. 
 
72 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 All the accounts of the Factory Movement extant 
 are either statistical or passionate and partizan, and 
 political facts that would be instructive for all 
 time appear never to have attracted even the 
 passing attention of the writers. 
 
 None have distinguished and estimated the actual 
 measure of merit due to each leader in the Factory- 
 Agitation. To Mr. Sadler succeeded Lord Ashley 
 (now Earl of Shaftesbury); then cameCharles Hindley ; 
 to him succeeded John Fielden. It was Mr. Wood 
 who induced Mr. Oastler to enter the movement, 
 who made so great a name in it that Sadler sought 
 Oastler to aid him, because he found him to be a 
 man of eloquence, with a good voice, a good presence, 
 a capacity for correct speaking, beside being wholly 
 in earnest. Stephens, who joined Oastler, excelled 
 all of them in various knowledge, without which no 
 oratory can be of permanent value. He had a finer 
 imagination, a persistency which nothing could turn 
 aside, and what, was not less important, more enduring 
 physical strength than any of his co-adjutors, who all 
 either died early, or were enfeebled prematurely by 
 their work. Lord John Russell, when he had to 
 give political attention to the subject, spoke in favour 
 of an Eleven Hours Bill. To evade Sadler's Ten 
 Hours Bill, the Halifax masters offered eleven hours 
 and reduced wages. Mr. Edward Baines started a 
 compromise when the inevitable day of legislation 
 came ; but Sadler, who had started the Ten Hours 
 
Becomes a Political Advocate. 73 
 
 claim, imitated Brougham's " Unconditional Emanci- 
 pation" with respect to slavery, and he and Oastler 
 and Stephens sent round the country the cry of 
 " Ten Hours and No Surrender." When the Bill was 
 finally carried, Mr. Bright did not vote in the last 
 division against it ; Dr. Bowring did. Sir Wm. 
 Molesworth, Lord Brougham, Miss Martineau, Sir 
 John Trelawny, Mr. Wakley, Mr. Milner Gibson, J. A. 
 Roebuck, Mr. Cobden, and Mr. Hume were, on 
 grounds of political economy, opposed to the Bill. 
 It was a singular misfortune of political opinion 
 which placed the greatest living advocates for free- 
 dom and progress, on what was considered the side 
 of inhumanity. The great Whigs and philosophical 
 Radicals, some of whose names are cited here, believed 
 that it was better for the working people that their 
 labours should run in the channel of freedom, instead 
 of being regulated by Act of Parliament. It is an 
 incredible humiliation and confession of incapacity, 
 that parents in England should be without the self- 
 respect, or courage, or means to withdraw their 
 children from any factory labour which they find to 
 be injurious to them. The aim of the Liberals was 
 to compel the people to acquire habits of self-help, 
 and the management of their own affairs : therefore 
 they opposed the Ten Hours Bill, which taught them 
 dependence on Acts of Parliament for the regulation 
 of their labour, and practically the limitation of their 
 income. The advocates of the Factory Act were 
 
74 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 mostly of another school in politics, which preferred 
 the dependence of the people, and whose principle 
 and object were to control them — control them, be 
 it in justice said, by kindness and social concession. 
 Most of these friends of the Factory Act, like Mr. 
 Stephens and Mr. Oastler, honestly meant to control 
 the people for their own good. Others had baser 
 views, and sought to control them for ends of interest, 
 ambition, and power. But the noble and the base 
 alike fortunately united to abate industrial misery 
 which demanded to be abated at once, and which 
 could not wait for the dilatory redress of general 
 progress inspired by political economy. When the 
 agitation was over, it was seen who were the enduring 
 friends of the political and industrial liberty of the 
 people. Lord Russell, Harriet Martineau, Mr. Bright, 
 Mr. Cobden, Sir John Trelawny, and other eminent 
 members of the party known as Philosophical Radicals, 
 continued the advocates of every measure likely to 
 place freedom and competence in the independent 
 hands of the people. In this field, the leading Con- 
 servative advocates of Factory and Poor Law 
 humanity were seen no more. 
 
His Colleagues and Correspondents. 75 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HIS COLLEAGUES AND CORRESPONDENTS. 
 
 In another chapter, which treats of the fury of the 
 conflict for the abatement of the factory horrors, 
 which so moved the sympathy of many pubHc men, 
 the reader will see the strange combatants among 
 whom Mr. Stephens was thrown. This chapter 
 relates personal particulars of those famous leaders 
 of the movement who were Mr. Stephens' immediate 
 colleagues. 
 
 The following account of Mr. Oastler and Mr. 
 Stephens is from the pen of Francis Place. It 
 occurs in the remarkable records of his, preserved in 
 the British Museum. Place was the daily companion 
 of Jeremy Bentham ; he was the political adviser of 
 all the insurgent leaders of the working class in his 
 time, and was confidentially consulted by eminent 
 members of the Government. Francis Place had 
 the power of seeing men exactly as they were ; and 
 he could estimate accurately their capacity and the 
 nature and quality of their influence. Many times, 
 he described to the present writer exactly the 
 characters of the leading men of the movements of 
 
Life of Joseph Ray^ier Stephens. 
 
 his time, which after experience of them confirmed. 
 The following passage concerning Mr. Oastler and 
 Mr. Stephens brings before our minds the transactions 
 of that day as vividly as though we were living in 
 the midst of them : — 
 
 " The Factory question^ as it was called, was at its 
 height. At the head of it was a man of great 
 animal powers, active, persevering, a ready writer 
 and fluent speaker, of undoubted courage, and enter- 
 taining the very best intentions to serve the factory 
 workers, and especially the unfortunate and helpless 
 children employed in the mills. Withal, he was some- 
 what wary, and greatly deficient in judgment. Never 
 still, writing and speaking incessantly, making abun- 
 dance of friends amongst the poor, and a like abun- 
 dance of enemies among those who employed them, 
 he thus put formidable impediments in his own way. 
 More discretion than he possessed would have caused 
 many influential men to assist him in his laudable 
 endeavours to ameliorate the condition of a large mass 
 of young persons whose condition was deplorable, and 
 needed the good services of others. The vehemence 
 of Richard Oastler, his imputations of bad intentions 
 to almost every one who did not concur in his notions, 
 his attacks on persons who attended public meetings 
 respecting the condition of the ^factory children^ 
 •drove those persons away, and induced them to pro- 
 mote whatever had a tendency to counteract his 
 proceedings. Mr. Oastler had the care of a con- 
 
His Colleagues and Correspondents, "jj 
 
 siderable estate ; his business was such as to give him 
 much leisure, which he employed with indefatigable 
 industry and considerable expense in the various 
 ways which he, from time to time, thought likely to 
 promote the accomplishment of the purposes to which 
 his life was devoted. 
 
 " Mr. Oastler called himself a Tory, but was re- 
 ceived by the wildest of the Democrats as a friend in 
 common, and his influence over the working people 
 was very considerable. 
 
 " There was another not less extraordinary man — 
 a fanatic, possessing great command of language and 
 great power of declamation — the Reverend J. R. 
 Stephens, and he made common cause with O'Connor 
 and Oastler. 
 
 " He was utterly careless of other men's opinions, 
 and paid little or no regard to the feelings of any 
 but those he wished to command ; and these were 
 the working people. Over these he domineered, 
 carrying everything he wished with a high hand ; 
 he was obeyed, almost adored, by multitudes. 
 
 " He also professed himself a Tory, but acted the 
 part of a Democrat ; denounced both Whigs and 
 Tories, and everything, indeed, which appeared to 
 him to stand in his way. Of personal consequences 
 he was wholly reckless. 
 
 " The three, O'Connor, Oastler, and Stephens, 
 played into each other's hands, and had an almost 
 inconceivable command over the people."^ 
 
 * F. Place/* Working Men's Asociations," vol. ii., p. 150, 27-820. 
 
78 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 " By rendering combination illegal, complaints 
 are stifled ; but the object of good government is 
 not to stifle complaints, but to redress grievances. 
 By redressing grievances, combinations become 
 unnecessary.'"''' 
 
 This was the principle on which Mr. Ste- 
 phens proceeded. He was in favour of order, and 
 in favour of justice, and he believed only in the order 
 which justice would produce. To his just and 
 generous mind grievances of the poor were intoler- 
 able, and he was for redressing them ; and if not 
 redressed by the humanity of those in authority, then 
 he was for redressing them by combination, by public 
 agitation, and by whatever agencies he believed to be 
 justifiable in the sight of God. 
 
 It is pleasant to record the generous influence 
 which Methodism exercised over the fortunes of this 
 great movement for the humane improvement of the 
 condition of the common people. There was more 
 heart in Wesleyanism than in the Church. It was 
 more generous even in its tenets of salvation — it 
 regarded all who loved God as of the elect. This 
 generosity in divinity extended itself into their daily 
 life, and endowed eminent Wesleyans with practical 
 sympathy for the unfortunate. The most distinguished 
 of the friends of the factory workers were Wesleyans. 
 After these Methodists had made the movement 
 into a great cause, some of the nobler sort of Church- 
 * Charles Wing, *' Evils of the Factory System." 
 
His Colleagices and Correspondents. 79 
 
 men came into it — as the Rev. G. S. Bull and the 
 Earl of Shaftesbury, both members of the Established 
 Church ; but they would never have originated the 
 movement themselves. 
 
 Mr. Stephens, as we have seen, came of an emi- 
 nent Wesleyan family ; Sadler, who rendered such 
 splendid service to the cause, was a Wesleyan ; so 
 was Richard Oastler. 
 
 Richard Oastler's father's house was always the 
 home of John Wesley whenever he came to Thirsk. 
 Richard Oastler^s father's name was Robert, and he was 
 considered to be the person who originated the practice 
 of interring the Wesleyan dead in Methodist ground. 
 He had a son who was killed in Marshairs factory, 
 Leeds, and he wished him to be buried in the 
 ground attached to the old chapel in Leeds. At 
 that period no burial-places were attached to 
 Methodist chapels or preaching-houses. How- 
 ever, no Methodist preacher would perform the 
 service, it being an innovation on their established 
 forms. Though the innovation was one which 
 added to their dignity and equality as a body, they 
 had the usual prejudice of ignorant Englishmen in 
 favour of their own inferiority. Robert Oastler was 
 a man of a different spirit. He persisted in his 
 determination, and a Baptist minister officiated at 
 his son's grave. Thus began the practice, which in 
 due course became general, of the Methodists per- 
 forming burial as well as other Church rites. 
 
8o Life of yosepk Rayner Stephens, 
 
 Richard Oastler was reared amid the manliest 
 members of his sect ; and mother, father, home, 
 school, his brethren, and his God were the chief, 
 as they remained the holiest, influences of his life. 
 
 Michael Thomas Sadler was born at Snelson, 
 Derbyshire, in 1780. His mother was the daughter 
 of a beneficed clergyman. Some years after her 
 marriage, the Wesleyans made propagandist incur- 
 sions into Doveridge, the adjoining parish to Snel- 
 son. Though strongly attached to the Established 
 Church, she was soon interested in the earnestness 
 and spiritual fervour of the Wesleyan preachers, and 
 had the courage to become a frequent hearer of 
 them, although the treatment of the Methodists in 
 Doveridge resembled that which they met with in 
 most other places. The vicious disliked them for 
 their faithful condemnation of sin; the formalists 
 resented their rigid requirement of a heart-service, 
 and the clergyman of the parish joined the profli- 
 gates in denouncing the Methodists from the pulpit 
 as intruders in the parish — not that the clergyman 
 was a partisan of profligacy, but he was unwilling 
 that any one save himself should undertake its cor- 
 rection, or offer assistance in curing it. One day 
 as young Sadler was going to school — his road lay 
 over a bridge which spanned the Dove — he was met 
 by a drunkard and loose-liver in the village, who never- 
 theless thinking himself qualified to assist the clergy- 
 man in reproving the Wesleyans, took up young Sadler 
 
His Cotleagties and Correspondejits. 8 1 
 
 and holding him over the deep part of the water, 
 threatened to throw him in unless he " cursed the 
 Methodists/^ The profligate brute was aware that 
 the boy^s mother favoured them. "I never will curse 
 them/' said the brave lad ; " you may kill me if you 
 choose, but I never will/^ Mr. Sadler's first publica- 
 tion was written in his eighteenth year, and it w^as a 
 defence of the Methodists against a public attack by 
 the vicar from the pulpit; so that he was not only of 
 them — he was their defender. He was a man of high 
 integrity. He contested Huddersfield, and greatly 
 desired to represent it. It is recorded that by saying 
 privately in the afternoon the contrary of what he had 
 said publicly in the morning, he could have secured 
 his seat for the borough,^ but he would not do it. 
 
 Brief quotations from a few letters yet extant 
 addressed to Mr. Stephens will serve to show the 
 regard in which he was held, and the influential 
 position he occupied. He must have had a remark- 
 able correspondence with men in high quarters. Mr. 
 Oastler was personally intimate with the Duke of 
 Wellington, and was constantly corresponding with 
 him. He, and her Majesty also, were informed of 
 Mr. Stephens' proceedings and sayings, as they 
 took great interest in the cause of our factory 
 children. 
 
 A passage occurs in Mr. Stephens's handwriting 
 which indicates personal knowledge of proceedings 
 * *' Hist. Fact. Movement," by Alfred, p. 131. 
 
 F 
 
82 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 at Court ; he wrote : — " When the Factory Act was 
 passed, the Queen, having signed it, said, ' she was a 
 woman, a wife, a mother, and therefore both knew 
 and felt for the sufferings of children/ Her heart 
 was touched by recitals made to her. The workers 
 struck a medal in commemoration of the Act being 
 passed. And yet this measure took nearly half a 
 century to steer across the stormy sea of ignorance, 
 indifference and selfishness. 
 
 "Why thus refer to it? Because the Queen's 
 heart is still stirred by the same emotions. She has 
 invoked the attention of Parliament to the condition 
 of the women and children who are employed in 
 other trades. The Factory Acts are to serve as a 
 rule for more general application." 
 
 Mr. Stephens's correspondence, were it in any 
 sense complete, would be of great interest now 
 to read ; but it seemed not to have occurred to 
 him that people would care about him after he was 
 dead, or that another generation might feel curious 
 concerning his friends, and grateful for his own 
 services. Neither did it occur to the present writer 
 or to the family of the deceased, that there would be 
 the public desire to erect a monument to his memory, 
 which has been manifested by working men and 
 women who are grateful for what Mr. Stephens did 
 for their children. What their parents^ feeling upon 
 this subject once was, is described by Mr. Oastler in a 
 speech at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. 
 
His Colleagues and Correspondents, 83 
 
 *' There has been," he said, " the yearning of 
 mothers and the enthusiasm of youth. One woman, 
 with a baby in her arms, walked seventy-five miles 
 to attend the great county meeting at York on the 
 Ten Hours Bill^ in order that her child, if it grew up, 
 might have the honour of saying that he had been 
 present at that meeting ; and a boy walked forty- 
 three miles to hold up his hand for a weakly brother 
 who was prevented from going to that meeting.""^ 
 
 It is now too late to inquire what became of all 
 the correspondence with Mr. Stephens, between 
 1835 and 1850. It is clear that he had powerful 
 friends : when his imprisonment came, he was not 
 sent to the place to which he was sentenced, but to 
 Chester Castle, where he had attentions and con- 
 veniences valuable at that time. 
 
 Mr. Oastler was an emphatic man, and wrote, 
 spoke, and thought in capitals. His ideas, like his 
 letters, were all underlined. His letters to Mr. 
 Stephens are very numerous, and full of confidence 
 and regard. 
 
 In 1830, Mr. Oastler wrote from Rhyl, near St. 
 Asaph, North Wales, earnestly entreating Mr. 
 Stephens' counsel and advice, saying : — " I want 
 your opinion as to whether I ought to retire. 
 Remember, I am not weary — I am not disgusted, 
 I am as fond as ever of striving to work for the poor, 
 but now / have no meansr 
 
 * " Report," July 12, 1849. 
 
 F 2 
 
84 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 In May of the same year he wrote again to Mr^ 
 Stephens, Avho was then at Duckenfield, telHng him 
 of his health, and asking Mr. Stephens' correction 
 of his Memoir, and counsel as to his public writings. 
 
 '' Fixby Hall, May 4th, 1838. 
 
 " My dear Stephens, 
 
 "I have been ill these ten days — quite laid by — 
 bed — bed — bed — till I am sick of it. I have not yet 
 got out of doors. A bad cough is my worst com- 
 plaint But still I fancy I shall rally. 
 
 ''And in the midst of all I am so busy. How often 
 I think of you — I cannot say how much. Will you 
 correct my ' Memoir,' punctuation and all, and the 
 bit of poetry at the end } I know you will. One 
 word should be said somewhere — 'such is the man 
 whom the Whigs abuse, defame, and actually hired 
 assassins to destroy at the Morpeth riot, Wakefield, 
 July 31, 1836.' There should be a word about that, 
 and then I think it will be complete. A clergyman, 
 a high Tory — a dear old friend of mine, J. D. Schom- 
 berg — writes : ' I cannot tell you how delighted I 
 have been with the "Memoir." Who could have written 
 it } It is clear — it is true to the life. I should think 
 it an honour to know that person.' Huddersfield has 
 its Factory meeting to-morrow night — I cannot be 
 there. Do write me, my dear fellow, and tell me if 
 this Conservative speech of mine will do. Spring is 
 now coming: I shall rejoice to see you and yours. But 
 
His Colleagues and Correspondents. 85 
 
 let me get a bit better ; this a few days will do, I 
 hope. My head is all in a swim, so I must stop. 
 
 "Kindly, Stephens, with love, and Mary's love 
 to all, 
 
 " Believe me, Stephens, 
 
 " Right lovingly yours, 
 
 "Richard Oastler. 
 
 " I have a long letter for the Northern Star this 
 week. Tell me, will it do .?— R.O." 
 
 The next letter contains some personal and 
 political facts of interest: — 
 
 '' My dearest Fellow, 
 
 " Thank you for the Times : very good indeed ; 
 much better than I expected. Have you seen the 
 Sim ? Oh, it is a glorious Stin ! Well ! they 
 must lock me up noWy else they never wilL 
 
 " The Fixby demonstration has struck cold terror 
 to the hearts of my foes — I never saw anything like 
 it. The boys are in ecstasies, as to the Stocks and 
 the ;^400. It will not do. If the banker refuses, 
 never mind. Let him do his worst. My difficulty 
 zvas, at that peculiar morneiit, to run the risk of being 
 refused, 
 
 " Don't you see } Yes ; I am sure you do. 
 
 " O'Connor promised me that, until the Star was 
 clear and independent, he would not meddle with a 
 daily paper. 
 
86 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 " I know nothing about the * delegates/ &c. Who- 
 and what is Lord Teynham ? 
 
 " Ta, ta, Stephens, 
 
 " Richard Oastler. 
 
 " Huddersfield, Aug. 30th, 1838. 
 
 "About the meeting in Palace Yard — can any good 
 be done ? Remember me kindly to papa and 
 mamma. Tell O'Brien to put the Poor Man's 
 Gttm'dian s soul into the Star, — R. O. 
 
 " To the Rev. J. R. Stephens, 
 
 "Old Dog Tavern, Holywell Street, London.'' 
 
 Another letter is one of sympathy for Mr. Stephens 
 on the loss of his father. The enemies of the " Old 
 King'" had trepanned him into the Fleet Prison. 
 
 "The Fleet, Feb. 9th, 1841. 
 
 " My dear Stephens, 
 
 " My heart grieves over your father's death ! I 
 had not heard one word ! Peace, everlasting peace,. 
 to his soul ! ! 
 
 " Saving your doubts, you will be heartily welcome. 
 " I breakfast at half-past nine, and shall lay out a 
 cup for you. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 "Richard Oastler." 
 
 The following letter was sent by Mr. Stephens to 
 Squire Anty, and it shows Mr. Oastler's state of 
 
His Colleagues and Correspondents. 87 
 
 mind and fine spirit when he believed death was 
 approaching him. Mr. Oastler was called " the King 
 of the Factory Children," and at last he was com- 
 monly spoken of as " the Old King" by his affectionate 
 friends. He had kingly ways with him, and the 
 friendship known to be entertained for him at Court 
 helped to commend the fitness of the term : — 
 
 " Fulham, Middlesex, June 27th, 1848. 
 
 " My dear Anty, 
 
 " Thank you for your kind attention, and for the 
 intelligence. 
 
 '* Don't be angry because I am poor — I counted the 
 cost before I entered the lists — I saw the workhouse 
 before me. And now that we have gotten the Ten 
 Hours Bill I must leave others to obtain the repeal 
 of the accursed new Poor Law, preparing myself for 
 its benumbing retreat ! 
 
 " So it ever has been with those who resolve to 
 maintain truth. But don't be angry — don't repine. 
 " I do not know that I was ever more happy. 
 " My health is broken, but my peace is confirmed. 
 " Kind remembrance to your wife and family, and 
 " Believe me to be, my dear Anty, 
 " Yours most truly, 
 
 " Richard Oastler. 
 
 "Don't fancy that steel and lead can cure the 
 internal disease ! — R. O." 
 
88 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephe7is. 
 
 A letter dated November 26, 1849, f^'^m Richard 
 Oastler to the Rev. Joseph Rayner Stephens, contains 
 the following story of: — 
 
 T/ie Idiot of Edenbridge. 
 
 "Methinks that wise men will weep and blush 
 
 ere I have finished. Richard P , that is the 
 
 hero's name — possessed a treasure that absorbed much 
 of his care — that treasure was a bird — a jay : it died. 
 Richard wept over it — and then buried it. He was 
 a regular visitor at its grave : he ceased not to grieve 
 with time. A friend, to comfort him, removed the 
 body of the dead jay and placed in the same basket 
 a living bird of the same species, covering it very 
 lightly so as to leave air-room. He advised the 
 idiot to open the grave and see if his favourite was 
 not alive again. Poor Richard did so, and, to his 
 inexpressible delight, found, as he thought, his old 
 friend ' come back.' He took the stranger home — 
 never discovered the harmless, the friendly trick, and 
 was satisfied. 
 
 " At length, more than a year ago, his father 
 died ! Did that idiot love his father 1 His deeds 
 shall answer. 
 
 " From the day that his father's corpse was buried 
 until now, Richard has been a daily visitor at his 
 father's grave. He selects the time of the funeral — 
 and, I am assured, spends every day an hour there. 
 
 " Where his feet press, where he rests his staff. 
 
His Colleagues and Correspondents. 89 
 
 where he places his father's snuff-box, bear token 
 of his constancy there ; the grave itself has no other 
 token of its occupier, save that which Nature gives — 
 a grassy mound. 
 
 " I visited Edenbridge churchyard last Friday, about 
 the hour I was told he would be there — three o'clock. 
 
 " It was a lovely afternoon. A few sheep were 
 pasturing on the sacred ground. Its mounds and 
 gravestones imparted a solemn mood, as such sights 
 always do. Two village boys were sauntering among 
 the tombs of their ancestors, unconscious that a 
 stranger's eye beheld them. I did not see the 
 object that I sought for. 
 
 *' ' Is there not a grave here that is visited by an 
 idiot T I asked the lads. * Yes, sir ; he's there now/ 
 replied one of the youths, pointing northerly. I 
 followed his direction, and found the idiot at the 
 grave of his father. 
 
 '' At first, I feared to advance lest I should disturb 
 the mourner. In a field adjoining oxen were graz- 
 ing, and, though in November, spring seemed to 
 smile. It was winter only in the soid of the idiot, 
 
 "That real mourner stood at the head of the 
 grave where his father's body lay, leaning with his 
 right shoulder upon his staff, his shovelled hat and 
 handkerchief covering his face, moving his body 
 from side to side as in agony. I knew that he was 
 speaking : I also heard his sobs and sighs ! I did 
 not then hear him articulate one word. 
 
90 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 " At length he stood erect, and, grasping his staff 
 with his right hand, looked at me. He did not look 
 in anger — it was an idiot's expressive gaze of 
 sorrow. 
 
 " Observing that my presence did not annoy him, 
 I drew nearer : he looked again, but took no further 
 note of me. Proceeding with his daily ritual, with 
 his left hand he lifted up his smock, produced a snuff- 
 box (his father was a snuff-taker, and Richard 
 believes he still takes a pinch or two from his own 
 box). Taking scrupulous care not to disturb a single 
 blade of grass, the idiot placed the box upon the 
 grave. He then resumed his former attitude^ utter- 
 ing in an agony of grief, sometimes choked with 
 sobs, the hot tears dropping on his father's grave : — 
 
 " ' Let him come back !' ' To the God Almighty/ 
 
 " These were his only oft-repeated words, uttered 
 not as in prayer, but as though he were dictating a 
 message to be sent to him who kept his father there. 
 
 " Again he was weary with his repeated ejacula- 
 tions, and stood erect, clenching his staff, in silence^ 
 gazing on his father^s grave. 
 
 "With the same care as before observed, he 
 removed the snuff-box, placing it, with evident satis- 
 faction, in his pocket. He adjusted his smock and 
 his staff, and for awhile looked intently on the green 
 mound before him. He then slowly and solemnly 
 waddled from the grave ! I followed him. Before 
 he reached the churchyard gates I passed him. In 
 
His Colleagtces aizd Correspondents, 9 1 
 
 passing, I said, * You had a good father.' * Ye-e-e-s,^ 
 in an idiotic, but grateful tone, he answered, the 
 tears still trickling down his face. ' You loved your 
 father.^' He answered as before. * And now you 
 love his memory } ' There was no change in his 
 manner — no response. * And soon you hope to meet 
 your father.' The same word was uttered, but in a 
 tone so full of hope ! * God bless you, my poor 
 man,' I said audibly. The idiot was evidently 
 sensible that I was not his foe. 
 
 " They tell me there are boys who delight in 
 tormenting that idiot ; that there are men who 
 sometimes induce Jiim to drink intoxicating liquors, 
 for the gratification of seeing that idiot drunk. 
 
 *' Other fathers are buried in Edenbridge church- 
 yard. No grave, save that of the idiot's father, bears 
 token of such filial affection." 
 
 Another letter shows the continuance of the strong 
 friendship between Mr. Oastler and Mr. Stephens, 
 and the tenderness and piety which was always part 
 of Mr. Oastler's mind. Mr. Stephens had just lost 
 one of his daughters by fever, suddenly : — 
 
 "Norwood, Surrey, Nov. 26th, 1851. 
 
 " The Rev. J. R. Stephens. 
 ** My dear old Friend, 
 
 " You know that I could not receive such tidings 
 as you sent, without feeling more keenly than I could 
 utter ! But remember, thatflozver was not plucked 
 
92 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 by a careless hand. With what care, and with how 
 much pleasure, you had tended it in summer and 
 in winter ; and when, at last, it was found too fra- 
 grant — too rich — too beautiful for yoitr garden^ what 
 agony you felt when it was transplanted ! You 
 could not then shake off that agony ! Do not forget, 
 that plant still lives — that flower still blooms — and 
 the fruit will ripen better in that garden than in yours ! 
 
 '^ Stephens ! God is never nearer to his people than 
 when they are in trouble ! There is alway a why 
 and a wherefore : it is not for us to inquire. 
 
 " Since I received yours, I have been ill. Maria 
 writes this for me. 
 
 " Tell me immediately how my kind friend, your 
 dear wife is } I hope better. Tell her to remember 
 that our God is the God of comfort and consolation. 
 Give our love to her, and the remaining one ! and 
 remember me affectionately to your dear mother. 
 
 '' I do not know that you did right about Percival's 
 gift — I obeyed your orders ; I do not know if I did 
 right — I have my doubts. 
 
 " Never mind about Popery, now ; let it alone. 
 
 '' God comfort, and strengthen, and bless you ! 
 Amen ! ! 
 
 " Believe me always to be, 
 
 " Yours most faithfully and lovingly, 
 
 " Richard Oastler." 
 
 The remaining letter to be quoted here is from 
 Lord Stanhope : — ■ 
 
His Colleagues and Corresp07tdents. 93 
 
 '' No. 14, Great Stanhope Street, 
 "May nth, 1837. 
 
 " Sir, — I am favoured this morning with your 
 letter of the 8th inst, and had already sent to the 
 press my letter to Mr. Oastler, as I thought that if 
 he wished to receive it in a printed form, it ought to 
 reach him in due time before the meeting on Whit- 
 Tuesday. I enclose a proof, by which you will find 
 that it is too long to be published as part of the 
 proceedings of the meeting, and indeed in that case 
 it would not be expected that it would be given cor- 
 rectly. If, however, he should wish to read it to the 
 meeting, it may first be transcribed and read in MS., 
 and the printed copies, of which 1,000 will be sent 
 him, may, if he should prefer, be distributed after the 
 meeting has been held. I intend afterwards to 
 forward copies to the Morning Herald, the Champion, 
 and to different parts of the country. I shall be 
 very glad to learn from you that Mr. Oastler 
 approves of its contents, and I beg that you will 
 present to him my best regards. I wish to call his 
 attention to the last paragraph but one, as I am not 
 without anxiety as to the danger that some persons 
 may attempt to introduce matter into the Petition 
 which would deprive it of its weight. 
 " I am, Sir, 
 " Your obedient, hupible Servant, 
 
 "Stanhope. 
 
 "To the Rev. J. R. Stephens.^' 
 
94 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 STORMY DAYS OF ADVOCACY. 
 
 Political agitations in England were managed 
 better in the days of the Corresponding Society than 
 in the time of the Reform Bill of 1832, or in that 
 of Chartism in 1839. More persons of education, 
 good position, and conspicuous ability, were leaders 
 in the earlier agitation. The great French Revolu- 
 tion which first inspired them, afterwards destroyed, 
 or discouraged and dispersed them ; the wild ex- 
 cesses in France, which could never have occurred in 
 England, were imagined to be the natural fruits of 
 liberty. There were, however, examples in the days 
 of which we Avrite of meetings conducted with intel- 
 ligent prudence, and yet not lacking fire and purpose. 
 
 On the 25th of Sept., 1838, there was a mass 
 meeting held in the market-place at Roscoe Field, 
 Sheffield. Mr. Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn Law 
 Rhymer, presided. Of the 20,000 persons present, 
 eleven-twelfths were said to be unrepresented in 
 Parliament."^ 
 
 Mr. Elliott said : — " Fellow-townsmen and 
 
 * F. Place, *' W. M. A.," p. 230 to 232, vol. ii., 27, 820. 
 
Stormy Days of Advocacy. 95 
 
 Neighbours, your character in London stands high. 
 Don't do anything to forfeit that high character. Not 
 only keep the peace yourselves, but prevent others 
 from breaking it ; and inasmuch as it is your wish to 
 obtain your rights by legal and peaceful means, you 
 will, I trust, discharge your duty strictly, and dis- 
 courage every speaker who may advise violent 
 measures, for any such speaker brings only one 
 person to your aid, — the one man in a thousand — 
 and keeps away nine hundred and ninety-nine from 
 joining you. 
 
 "jIt is proposed that our^^meeting shall commence 
 with a hymn, which I will recite stanza by stanza, 
 and you will sing it, accompanied by the band, to 
 the tune of the Old Hundredth Psalm.'' 
 
 Mr. Elliott then gave out the hymn, and the mul- 
 titude sang it. From the solemnity of the tune, and 
 the spirit-stirring nature of the words, a striking 
 effect was produced. The words were : — 
 
 God of the Poor ! shall labour eat ? 
 Or drones alone find labour sweet ? 
 Lo, they who call Thy earth their own, 
 Take all we have — and give a stone ! 
 
 Yet bring not Thou on them the doom 
 That scourged the proud of wretched Rome, 
 Who stole, for few^, the lands of all, 
 To make all life a funeral. 
 
 Lord ! not for vengeance rave the wronged, 
 The hopes deferred, the woes prolonged ; 
 Our cause is just, our judge divine ? 
 But judgment, God of all, is Thine ! 
 
96 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 Yet not in vain thy children call 
 On Thee, if Thou art Lord of all ; 
 And by Thy work, and by Thy word, 
 Hark ! millions cry for justice, Lord ! 
 
 For leave to toil, and not in vain — 
 For honest labour's needful gain : 
 A little rest, a little corn, 
 For weary man, to trouble born ! 
 
 For labour, food ; for all their own : 
 Our right to trade from zone to zone, 
 To make all laws for us and ours, 
 And curb the will of evil powers. 
 
 Mr. Elliott continued : — " Fellow-townsmen and 
 Neighbours ! Having been deputed by you to attend 
 a meeting held in London on the 1 7th of September, 
 and that meeting having been misrepresented by 
 aspersions of the Press, you will perhaps wish to hear 
 from me the truth, and justice to your fellow-men 
 in London requires that the truth should be told." 
 
 He then said that the Times newspaper had 
 described the Westminster meeting as not exceeding 
 5,000 in number, and he (Mr. Elliott) went on to 
 show from calculation that there could not have been 
 fewer than 20,000, besides the vast numbers who 
 were coming and going away again in consequence 
 of their not being able to approach within hearing 
 distance of the speaker. 
 
 All this, and much more spoken by him, was 
 admirably done in spirit and in judgment. The 
 verses read by Elliott were written by him- 
 self; he had a fine voice, and the manner of a 
 
Storiny Days of Advocacy, 97 
 
 prophet in his public speech. The agitation for the 
 Repeal of the Corn Laws was conducted throughout 
 by a class of instructed politicians, who saw the 
 benefits which increased trade would bring to the 
 working people, long before they could comprehend 
 all that was involved in the question. In the case of 
 the Poor Law and Factory agitations, outrage and 
 cruelty were more palpable than famine, and stung 
 men of generous nature into indignation and violence; 
 and the people themselves were excited and enraged. 
 These agitations were marked by fierce invective and 
 wild menace. A variety of political parties were 
 mixed up in them. Mr. Stephens himself joined the 
 Chartists when he had reason to believe that without 
 popular power the poor could not obtain redress. He 
 became a colleague of Feargus O'Connor, who had in 
 him a " floating recklessness '"^ which dashed hither 
 and thither with every wind of passion. As O'Connor 
 did not understand Democratic principle, and as 
 Mr. Stephens who did understand it, did not care for 
 it, they troubled not to conduct their advocacy in 
 that way which should give it character and win regard 
 for it from those outside the Democratic movement. 
 To them was joined James Bronterre O'Brien, another 
 Irish orator and copious writer, who added to his 
 national sense of dissatisfaction the furious theories 
 of the French Revolutionists. He had more educa- 
 
 * A happy phrase applied to him by Alfred, the author of the best 
 written history of the Factory Movement (p. 131). 
 
 G 
 
98 Life of yoseph Rayner Stepheits. 
 
 tion than O'Connor, but like him his genius lay in 
 denunciation, which in those days passed for fervid 
 patriotism. The result was that Daniel O'Connell, 
 who had a consistent sense of Democratic principle, 
 and knew that legality was essential to its force, de- 
 nounced Stephens, Oastler, and Feargus O'Connor^ as 
 enemies of the people. At the same time there was 
 a body of London and Birmingham Radicals, working- 
 class leaders of good political knowledge and high 
 character, who proposed to attain popular liberty by 
 means of argument and the education of the people. 
 These men O'Connor ridiculed as " Moral Force Re- 
 formers." They, in their turn, denounced O'Connor 
 and his colleagues as " Physical Force Chartists," the 
 ^' Moral Force " party consisted of James Watson, 
 Richard Moore, William Lovett, and John Collins of 
 Birmingham. The little thought that O'Connor 
 bestowed upon the character of the Noi'thcrn Star 
 was shown by the circumstance that the first number 
 of the new tribune of all patriots, contained a 
 " Public Notice to the Unhappy," stating in good 
 capitals that " The Itch could be cured in an 
 Hour :" as though that was information of immediate 
 importance to his readers. 
 
 Adversity is said to make a man acquainted with 
 strange companions. Philanthropy sometimes brings 
 around him unexpected associates, and at a Factory 
 Operative Meeting, on May 27, 1850, in the Corn 
 
 * ** Place on Stephens," vol. 27,820, MS. Room, Brit. Museum. 
 
Stormy Days of Advocacy. 99 
 
 Exchange, Hanging Ditch, Manchester, to take into 
 consideration the steps to be adopted to counteract 
 the effects of " Lord Ashley's Treachery," the meeting 
 was called in the names of the following persons : — 
 Thomas Fielden ; Lord John Manners, M.P.; George 
 Bankes, M.P. ; the Earl of March, M.P. ; P. 
 H. Muntz, M.P. ; W. S. Crawford, M.P. ; Thomas 
 Wakley, M.P. ; Thomas Buncombe, M.P. 
 Feargus O'Connor, M.P. ; Henry Edwards, M.P. 
 Richard Oastler ; Samuel Fielden ; W. B. Ferrand 
 the Rev. J. R. Stephens. No one of them 
 probably agreed with any other, but all agreed 
 on the question of defending the Factory Act, 
 which had then been passed, and was believed 
 to be in danger of substantial and dangerous 
 alteration in the supposed interests of capitalists 
 or employers. 
 
 Lord Ashley, notwithstanding his great ser- 
 vices to the Factory Cause, was denounced as a 
 traitor by his Tory colleagues for assenting to 
 a compromise upon the Ten Hours Bill. It was a 
 dangerous mistake, but not " treachery ": his 
 honest labour for the Bill should have rendered 
 such an imputation impossible. No wonder working 
 men had the ailment of imputation when their 
 Tory leaders had this disease of speech in such an 
 aggravated form. 
 
 No public question is ever fought or debated out 
 solely on the lines of essential difference of principle. 
 
 G 2 
 
lOO Life of Joseph Rayner Stephe^is. 
 
 Many people take sides only because they hate the 
 party opposed to it — not because they know or care 
 much about the question contested. Tories helped 
 in the Factory Question because they thought the 
 Liberals were opposed to it. Radical and anti-Poor 
 Law meetings were held. Anti-Poor Law and Ten 
 Hour meetings were held simultaneously, until the 
 public scarcely knew which was which. The So- 
 cialists of that day, though not political partizans as 
 a body, joined from motives of humanity both in the 
 anti-Poor Law and in the Ten Hours movements. 
 
 Many of the old co-operators and friends of that 
 *^ cause " were among those holding official positions 
 in the Ten Hours movement. At the great delegate 
 meeting held in the Queen's Hotel, Todmorden, in 
 1822, William Mallalieu was in the chair ; his name 
 often occurs in that capacity. Mr. Mallalieu was 
 remembered as the first man who subscribed one pound 
 towards the little fund for establishing the Rochdale 
 Co-operative Store. Of the Council of the Association 
 for the Protection and Enforcement of Col. Fielden's 
 Ten Hours Act, Mr. Mallalieu was vice-president; 
 Mr. Thos. Livsey, of Rochdale, a school-fellow and 
 valued friend of John Bright's, was the general 
 treasurer ; Charles Howarth, of Rochdale, was secre- 
 tary — the same Mr. Howarth who discovered the 
 plan of dividing profits in co-operative stores accord- 
 ing to purchases. Familiar co-operative names occur 
 in the reports of the meetings and councils held 
 
Stormy Day^- of AdvoKctey: i o i 
 
 in various towns in the north. Joseph Crabtree 
 (father of James Crabtree of Heckmondwike), who 
 was the first man to invite Feargus O^Connor from 
 Ireland, was a political prisoner for two years in 
 York Castle. Mr. John Avison was the chief secretary 
 of the movement, the committee rooms being at 2jy 
 Bloom Street, Portland Street, Manchester. 
 
 But the co-operators w^ere never led away 
 by proposed remedies of violence. One of their 
 leaders, Robert Buchanan, father of the present poet 
 of that name, who also had a faculty of verse, wrote 
 in the fiercest days of the agitation these " Anticipa- 
 tions": — 
 
 Creatures of error ! beings whose minds are but 
 
 A chaos of contending passions ! say : 
 
 When will you drown your petty feuds, and put 
 
 Trust in each other 1 When will wisdom sway 
 
 Your actions, and bright Reason's glorious ray 
 
 Shed her clear beams on your benighted world, 
 
 As the returning sun from heaven's highway 
 
 Rolls back the night of darkness, and the herald 
 
 Of Truth proclaims her dawn ; — her banner be unfurled ? 
 
 Even now the shadow of a mighty change 
 Is coming o'er the nations ; Reason's power, 
 Is felt by all around, and doth unhinge 
 The rooted ills of time. Each passing hour 
 Brings nearer virtue's goal ; when peace shall shower 
 Her blessings on the world. The people's might 
 Is gathering fast. Though tyranny may lour, 
 The human mind eschews foul superstition's night, 
 And promises, ere long, a great and glorions light.* 
 
 * The Northern Star, Dec. 9, 1837. ] 
 
I02 Life of ymeph Rayner Stephe^ts, 
 
 When politicians spoke plain, homely sense in those 
 days, nobody noticed it or gave them any credit for it. 
 What could be more useful, just, and dispassionate, 
 than these words of John Collins, at a great meeting 
 on Hunslet Moor, Leeds ? — 
 
 " If you mistrust a man, and let him know that 
 you mistrust him, and that you continually are 
 trying to degrade him in the estimation of his 
 neighbours by continuing this conduct, I say you 
 soon give the man humiliating thoughts, or, what is 
 worse, you make him reckless. He says, * They cannot 
 think worse of me than they do,' and he conse- 
 quently becomes careless of his conduct and immoral 
 in his practice. But if you take a man by the hand, 
 show him you wish to raise him in the scale of 
 society and make him respected, you will give him 
 a motive for action ; he becomes guarded in his 
 conduct lest he should forfeit your esteem.""* 
 
 To do O'Connor justice, he had his lucid intervals. 
 when good sense charmed him. No sooner had 
 Collins ceased speaking, than he rushed to the plat- 
 form, " on purpose," as he said, " to compliment 
 Collins on his instructive, eloquent, and masterly 
 
 speech."t 
 
 The object for which these and some following 
 citations are made, is to show that Mr. Stephens 
 himself was one of the least denunciatory and vehe- 
 
 * Northern Star, June 9, 1838. , t Ibid., June 9, 1838. 
 
Stormy Days of Advocacy, 103 
 
 ment of the public men of distinction with whom he 
 laboured. 
 
 O'Connor, to justify his own violence of speech, 
 described in the following terms Lord Brougham's 
 journey to York on a memorable occasion, and cited 
 what he said on the way : — 
 
 " To Elland next Don Quixote journeyed, and, 
 after a fair share of steam-eloquence, he journeyed 
 on his way to Newmill, where he first heard the glad 
 tidings of the ' three glorioles days^ and thus did Sir 
 Knight express himself : * He (Harry) zvas glad, de^ 
 lighted to hear the joyful news, and hoped the day zvas 
 not far distant zvJien all royal heads zvotdd he made 
 foot-balls for the boys to kick in the mire! * If, ' said 
 he, * the Duke of Wellington sJioidd attempt to force 
 a Bonrbon upon the French throne, in opposition to the 
 will of the FrencJi people, it woidd justify a revolt iLpon 
 the part of the English nation! "* 
 
 It was remembered that Thomas Attwood, though 
 a discreet agitator on the whole, had on occasions 
 used language which had an ominous suggestiveness 
 in it ; as when he said in the very year of the 
 Chartist outbreak at Newport : " Two millions of 
 men, acting under cautious and prudent leaders, with 
 one heart and one mind, and if dire necessity should 
 make it imperative, with one hand."t 
 
 Augustus Hardinge Beaumont, editor of the 
 
 * Northern Star, March 31, 1838. 
 t Thomas Attwood : Speech, Town Hall, Birmingham, Jan. I, 1839. 
 
104 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 London Dispatch^ proprietor and editor of the Northern 
 Liberator, appeared in the North. The following 
 speech shows what a wild vein he had in him, and 
 what ability he had for ruining a cause, gratis : — 
 
 " Think not, my friends, that these acts shall go 
 unavenged. Lord Gosford and Sir John Colborne 
 shall yet be put upon their trial at Westminster 
 Hall, and, being condemned, be hanged for their 
 crimes, under the same statute under which suffered 
 Governor Wall, albeit he too was protected in his 
 atrocious act by the ministers of the day. As was 
 Wall hanged, so shall be Gosford and Colborne. — 
 (Cheers.) — And justice will not be done them unless 
 Russell, and Melbourne, and Peel, are hanged along 
 with them. — (Great cheers.) — According to law, on 
 these detestable violators of the laws of God and 
 man — (cheers) — never shall we have peace in England 
 till the precedent set in the reign of Henry the Eighth, 
 when Empsey and Dudley, two ministers, not half 
 so bad, not half so criminal, were hanged by the 
 neck ; oh, it was a glorious precedent. — (Vehemont 
 cheers.)" After showing how the Canadian civil war 
 must affect our commerce and so bring down the 
 wages of working men, and eulogizing the Canadians 
 for their manly assertion of their rights, he concluded 
 by expressing his detestation of all war as being 
 only an accumulation of murder, but in struggling 
 for liberty it was glorious to spill the life of the 
 enemy of freedom, or to yield up one's own. 
 
Stormy Days of Advocacy, 105 
 
 " How, say you — are John Russell, commonly 
 
 called Lord John Russell^ and Lord Melbourne, 
 
 guilty of treason, robbery, arson, and murder, or are 
 
 they not guilty ? — (Cries of "Guilty, guilty.") — Such of 
 
 you as give your verdict of guilty, then, hold up your 
 
 hands. — (Here the whole meeting held up their 
 
 hands.) — Hearken to your verdict — you say the 
 
 Ministers are guilty of treason, murder, robbery, and 
 
 arson, and so you say all.^ — (Cries of "Yes, yes, we do.") 
 
 — Oh ! my friends, how I do wish that I could give 
 
 effect to your most righteous verdict by pronouncing 
 
 judgment of death and execution. 
 
 " Blood like this 
 
 For liberty shed so holy is, 
 
 It would not stain the purest rill 
 
 Which sparkles amidst the bowers of bliss. 
 
 Oh ! if there be on this earthly sphere, 
 
 A boon, an offering, heaven holds dear, 
 
 'Tis the last libation liberty draws 
 
 From the heart which bleeds and breaks in her 
 
 cause. 
 
 ^'* 
 
 Sadler was accused of using violent language to 
 his adversaries. It was stated in the Leeds Mercury 
 that he said to a manufacturer, " Sir, if I met you on 
 a dark night and had a pistol in my hand, I would 
 shoot you." It was admitted by Mr. Edward Baines 
 that Sadler did not say this. But his biographer 
 allows that he oft had hurled anathemas at manufac- 
 turers as -^ enemies of the poor."f 
 
 Mr. Stephens spoke of John Fielden as the 
 
 ^ Northern Star, Jan. 13, 1838. f **Life of Sadler," p. 408. 
 
io6 Life of yoseph Rayner Stepke7is, 
 
 Ulysses of the Ten Hours Movement. In 1831 he 
 was induced to take the chair at a public dinner given 
 to William Cobbett in Oldham, which led to Mr. 
 Cobbett being invited to stand for the then expected 
 new borough. Mr. Fielden consented to stand with 
 him, and it was thus that he was drawn into public 
 life. His own words in 1838 were, *^ I am so far a 
 Conservative that I do not wish to see the old 
 English institutions destroyed ; I am so far a Con- 
 servative that I will exert myself to the utmost of 
 my power, and I will call upon the people to back 
 me, to prevent the destruction of those institutions 
 which the Radicals never asked to be destroyed, but 
 which it is now proved the Whigs wish to destroy.""^ 
 These words were spoken at a dinner given to him 
 in Manchester. 
 
 In 1834, Mr. Oastler was incessantly engaged on 
 deputations to ministers and others ; in correspond- 
 ence ; on the platform, and in writing letters to the 
 press. A second edition of one of his more im- 
 portant letters — an octavo pamphlet of 34 pp., bore 
 these words on the title-page : — "A letter to those 
 sleek, pious, holy, and devout Dissenters, Messrs. 
 Get-all, Keep-all, Grasp-all, Scrape- all. Whip-all, 
 Gull-all, Cheat-all, Cant-all, Work-all, Sneak-all, 
 Lie-well, Swear-well, Scratch-em and Company." 
 
 At a Huddersfield evening meeting, which lasted 
 until a quarter to one o'clock the next morning, Mr. 
 
 * Northern Star^ June 9, 1838. 
 
Stormy Days of Advocacy, 107 
 
 Oastler said he would " explain his meaning as to what 
 soldiers should do when called upon to act against 
 the people, by an anecdote." It was that '' he once 
 knew an officer who was hated by his men ; he one 
 day went whole skinned into action, and he was 
 carried out of the field with forty bullets in his car- 
 case." Mr. Oastler named the officer '' Power " to 
 whom this anecdote was to apply, and who was 
 apostrophized thus, " Power ! hear and tremble."* 
 
 At a great public meeting held in December, 1837, 
 at Bywater's Room, Manchester, on behalf of the 
 Glasgow Cotton Spinners, w^ho had a Trades^ Union 
 trouble on hand — some of their number being im- 
 prisoned — Mr. Oastler spoke thus : " Mr. Chairman, 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, once more I appear before 
 my friends, my neighbours, and my deadly enemies, 
 for when I see bloody Whigs here, I know that I am 
 in presence of my foes ; once more, after a long season 
 of repose, I enter the field of Factory agitation. This 
 night, in presence of a Russell spy, I, without one 
 feeling of disloyalty towards my beloved Queen 
 (whom God long preserve !), as ' King,' unfurl the 
 royal standard of innocence — the standard of the Ten 
 Hours Bill. Yes, Mr. Spy, you will, I hope, inform 
 your bloody masters that I am a ' King,' nominated 
 by Baines, and cheerfully acknowledged as ' King ' by 
 hundreds of thousands of honest Englishmen."! 
 
 When known Tories like Mr. Oastler, who had a 
 
 * Northern Star, Dec. 2, 1837. t Ibid.^ Dec. 23, 1837. 
 
io8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 character as a gentleman to sustain, used inciting 
 language of this nature, working-class politicians who 
 fell in with " physical force " ideas should be con- 
 demned with discrimination. 
 
 The transported Dorchester labourers were always 
 spoken of as the " victims of Whiggery." The 
 Tories would have shot them, or transported them 
 for double the time to which they were sentenced. 
 But the orators of these violent times were not at 
 all discriminating as to what they said of the 
 " Whigs." 
 
 The animosity and jealousy with which working 
 people, who were despairing and without any poli- 
 tical power to improve their position, regarded the 
 employing and governing classes, are now subsiding. 
 The people have their *^ interests " now. The interest 
 of labour has become as distinct as the interest of 
 property ; and each interest now can take a more 
 dispassionate view of its relation to other interests 
 than formerly. 
 
 Mr. Pitkeithley, of Huddersfield,said at theAshton- 
 undcr-Lyne meeting, that while the people were 
 starving, and Dorchester labourers were transported 
 for combining to raise their wages, the House of 
 Commons readily voted an increase of ^8,000 a-year 
 to the Duchess of Kent's allowance.* As late as 
 1850 the following speech was placarded about the 
 northern towns : — 
 
 * No7'tJiern Siar^ Jan. 6, 1838. 
 
Stormy Days of Advocacy, 109 
 
 '^ A Model Speech for Members for Parliament. 
 
 ** (From the Times of March 9th, 1850.) 
 
 *' Colonel Sibthorpe would not vote on either 
 side, as he had no confidence in either party. He 
 was curious to know how far the right hon. gentle- 
 man, the member for Tamworth (Sir Robert Peel), 
 would go now in supporting the man of * unadorned 
 eloquence' (Mr. Cobden). — (A laugh.) — He would 
 try the sincerity of the Government when the Esti- 
 mates came regularly before the House. He looked 
 upon the entire system as one of corruption, and 
 rather than vote for either of the parties now before 
 them, he would take his hat and leave the House. 
 — (Laughter.) 
 
 " [The hon. and gallant Colonel then took up his 
 hat and left the House.]" 
 
 Colonel Sibthorpe was but the spokesman of a 
 large party who were never so happy as when they 
 could find reasons for doing nothing. To proclaim 
 distrust of " both parties" was, and is, still a popular 
 way of preventing anything being done. 
 
 It was observed that " the Queen's Speech in 
 1837 consisted of sixty- three lines only, while the 
 indictment against the Glasgow cotton spinners 
 occupied nearly thirty quarto pages of print. In 
 the Queen's Speech there was not one word of 
 Universal Suffrage ; no sound save that of the 
 
lio Life of Joseph Rayne7^ Stephens, 
 
 musket in reference to the New Poor Law Amend- 
 ment Act."* 
 
 It is related that when Count D'Orsayt was 
 asked his opinion touching Mr. Spring Rice's 
 qualifications for office, he answered, " All I have 
 to say is, that when I saw the cut of his last 
 coat I drew my money out of the Funds, having no 
 confidence in his judgment." When Lord Morpeth 
 was nominated for the Chief Secretaryship of Ire- 
 land, the Count was appealed to at a party at which 
 he was present for his opinion. His intelligent reply 
 was, " I never did see him but one day in the park, 
 and he may do, if he will only change his tailor.** 
 These sort of speeches were thought wittier and 
 wiser than the most earnest speeches in favour of 
 restrictions on the tyranny of manufacturers. The 
 poor, being without hope, turned a willing ear to 
 violence, which might produce change, and could not 
 possibly make things worse for them. 
 
 When the poor workman is without bread, and 
 sees that Death is his only friend, he, as a man, may 
 be partly excused if he lends a favourable ear to 
 projects of physical-force relief. It enables him to 
 perform the only act of independence remaining to 
 him — that of choosing his own time and way of 
 leaving a world w^here he is not wanted. 
 
 An American editor, with the vivid humour which 
 
 * Northern Star, Nov. 25, 1837. 
 t A great leader of fashion and companion in the revelries of George IV, 
 
Stormy Days of Advocacy. 1 1 1 
 
 is the characteristic of his profession, said of a de- 
 ceased lounger, that he had sat so long in his office 
 that when he died his shadow was found fixed upon 
 the wall. There is no doubt that great wrongs and 
 long-continued sufferings, ending in despair, leave 
 their shadows imprinted upon the minds of the 
 generation which has known them — shadows which 
 are oft transmitted to generations which have been 
 themselves free from the evils reflected. 
 
112 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PASSAGES FROM HIS SPEECHES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Though Dr. Johnson did think it strange of Hierocles, 
 who, when he wanted to sell his house, carried a 
 brick round in his pocket as a specimen, there are 
 circumstances under which that plan may be useful. 
 There are people who buy houses who would derive 
 advantage from seeing first the quality of the bricks 
 of which they are built. The following passages 
 from Mr. Stephens' orations and sermons, come 
 under the objection of being but fragments of an 
 edifice from which the reader can gather but little idea 
 of its design, proportion, and character. They will 
 nevertheless serve to suggest the quality of the struc- 
 ture from which they are taken. 
 
 These passages are derived from ordinary news- 
 paper reports, from papers which were never rich in 
 literary resource, and seldom able to command the 
 services of competent reporters. In every case 
 Mr. Stephens spoke much better than the report 
 represents him. At all times he must have spoken 
 with great deliberation, distinctness, and accuracy, or 
 
Passages from His Speeches and Sermons, 1 13 
 
 the reports remaining could not be what they are. It 
 was the Poor Law which first caused him to take up 
 the defence of the people against it. After forty-three 
 years, it is impossible, on reading what he said, not to 
 catch the feeling of his splendid invective. The 
 opening of his oration at Saddleworth are the words 
 of a born orator, who finds every season and circum- 
 stance by which he is surrounded, minister to his 
 speech. His defence of himself as a political preacher 
 was intended for other ears than those of his audience. 
 His citation of Bishop Latimer's speech to the Lord 
 Protector was addressed to the Bishop of Manchester. 
 Mr. Stephens used the resources of his human 
 knowledge, as did Edward Irving, to enforce what 
 he considered religious justice. His speech on the 
 Glasgow Cotton Spinners' Case, proves that the 
 poor fellows got sympathy and advocacy from 
 Ministers of religion in England which they did not 
 meet with in their own country. The passages 
 from Mr. Stephens's speech at Manchester,* show 
 that his eloquence was not all invective — 
 its illustrations, ecclesiastical and classical — all 
 indicate that the inspiration of this orator was that 
 of the old prophets, who were the fearless speakers 
 for the people. The charge of murder was with- 
 drawn against the Cotton Spinners : it was intended 
 to hang them, judging from the spirit and the terms 
 in which the indictment was drawn. His speech on 
 
 * Northern Star^ Dec. 30^ 1837. 
 
 H 
 
114 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 the Poor Law, " the Law of Devils," and a further 
 speech in which he uttered his defiance of Lord 
 John Russell, all show the fire, vehemence, and spirit 
 which characterized his orations. The passages from 
 his various sermons might be greatly extended, but 
 the one, the " Rising Tide of Time," shows what a fine 
 vein of meditative feeling was also in him. " What 
 a Foreign Bishop did," ^^ Salvation to those who serve 
 — the Queen at a Wild Beast Show/' and " Naming 
 a Minister,^'' are examples of his power and readiness. 
 His repugnance to a *' Democratic Chapel," the dis- 
 cernm.entwith which he speaks of the "Social Morality 
 of Co-operation," his descriptions of " Song-smiths 
 and Word-smiths," — made towards the close of his life 
 — show no abatement of his fertility, his wisdom, 
 earnest thought, and happiness of expression. In 
 some of his speeches the reader will find retained 
 signs of the feelings with which they were received 
 when spoken. They show the quick discernment as 
 well as the passions of the times. 
 
 The passage quoted from his sermon upon the 
 death of Henry Hindle shows the interest he took in 
 his neighbours and hearers. The Hindles were a 
 rematkable family of three brothers — John, a bookseller 
 of Stockport, is known for his great interest in social 
 and political affairs. James, a keeper of a Turkish 
 bath, was inspired by Mr. Urquhart, and displayed 
 the most intelligence and enthusiasm of any who 
 followed that business. He was also the writer of 
 
Passages from His Speeches a7td Sermojts. 115 
 
 the best verses concerning Mr. Stephens, of which 
 many appeared from local poets. Henry, who was 
 blind, and of whom the funeral sermon was spoken, 
 had a singularly clear, penetrating voice, and an 
 oracular confidence in the opinions he expressed, 
 and excelled all blind men whom I ever knew in 
 ingenuity. His mechanical inventions were numerous, 
 quite original contrivances, and most of them con- 
 structed byhis own hands, he working amid dangerous 
 machinery without wounding himself. 
 
 The Poor Law in the Court and tJie Cottage, 
 
 " No, sir ! It is beyond bearing — it is beyond all 
 British endurance, that while the dowager queen of 
 these realms is to be still maintained in all but regal 
 splendour." — (Mr. Stephens was here very much 
 interrupted by the employers on the bench, and their 
 overlookers below the bench. Cries of " Question, 
 question !" were continually uttered, followed by 
 counter cries of " It is the question !" and great 
 cheering.) Mr. Stephens, turning to the interrupters, 
 said, " I was not saying it is wrong that the dowager 
 queen should have this maintenance ; I was not 
 saying that she ought not to have it ; but I do say, 
 that if it be right that site should have secured to 
 her ;^ 1 00,000 a year because she is the widow of a 
 man who served the country as a king ; if it be right 
 that the wives of the Poor Law Commissioners 
 
 H 2 
 
1 1 6 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 should enter the presence and bask in the smiles of 
 royalty itself, and have ;^ 2,000 a year to live upon, 
 even while their husbands are living ; if it be right 
 that Lord Brougham should enjoy a retiring pension 
 of ;^5,ooo a year, then, I say, it is not to be endured 
 that the widows of Englishmen, whose husbands have 
 died off their mules and their looms, their spades and 
 their ploughs, should be thrust into a ^bastile' to 
 starve, and their fatherless offspring sent, at eight 
 years of age, to be murdered by the death-dealing 
 labour of a factory."^ 
 
 Exordiinn of the Oration at Saddleworth. 
 
 " Are these the bleak hills — are these the brave 
 men of Saddleworth ? Do I at length stand before 
 the hardy sons of a sturdy soil, the chosen children 
 of liberty, who have been nurtured in the principles 
 of the purest patriotism, renowned for the sternness 
 of their virtue, and the steady determination with 
 which they oppose the enemies of their country ? If 
 truth, and freedom, and love, have a dwelling-place 
 on earth, it must surely be among such valleys, 
 beneath the shield and shelter of such mountains as 
 rise up around us here — well, then, men of Saddle- 
 worth, you who have heard Strickland, and Morpeth, 
 and Brougham prate of liberty, until you almost 
 dreamed yourselves the freest of the free — you^ 
 who have been paraded as the brave and ha7'dy 
 * Speech reported in the Northern Star^ Nov. 8 1837. 
 
Passages from His Speeches and Sermons, 117 
 
 mountaineers who, at every call of your .chieftains, 
 were to muster in valorous and proud array until 
 ye deemed yourselves as invincible in fight, as wise 
 in council, and incorruptible in virtue — men of Saddle- 
 worthy tell me what have your boasted principles 
 produced — what have been, what are now^ the 
 fruits ?"^ 
 
 Defence of himself as a Political Advocate, 
 
 The report in the Northern Star says, the Rev. 
 J. R. Stephens, on rising to support the resolution, 
 was received with several volleys of applause. He 
 said, " I am proud, Mr. Chairman, to follow the two 
 men who have last spoken : the first was a bricklayer, 
 the second was a joiner ; men of two crafts that are 
 needed in building up the * earthly house below.' 
 (Hear, hear.) I belong to a craft, the first and last 
 lesson of which is that there is only one foundation 
 on which we all can build, that foundation being 
 this : ' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.^ 
 (Cheers.) That foundation being the basis of the 
 whole superstructure, whose top stone and whose 
 banner is ' Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
 peace and goodwill towards men.* (Loud cheers.) 
 Unless, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, the two worlds 
 can be brought together, unless the laws of Heaven 
 be those of earth, unless the blessing of the Supreme 
 
 * Public Meeting of Weavers of District of Saddleworth. Northern 
 Star Report, Dec. 9, 1837. 
 
1 1 8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 be the enjoyment of the created, unless the legisla- 
 tion of the Eternal be the spirit of the legislation 
 of us creatures of a day — then, either there is no 
 God, and we are in the shadowy sea of doubt and 
 uncertainty, or we have the knowledge of God in our 
 legislation, but deny the power. (Loud cheers.) It 
 is my and your province, — of you as working men, and 
 me as a minister of the Gospel, — to show to the 
 country and the world that we have so learned the 
 * law of love' in the good old book, as to be deter- 
 mined, either that that law shall be established and 
 enforced, and carried into zealous and perfect 
 execution, or that you will plant the leverage of your 
 mighty power and resistless energies under the foun- 
 dation of all bad law, heave it at its centre, hurl it 
 into the sea, and begin afresh, as God would have 
 you begin. God will strengthen you throughout that 
 work, and cause his blessing to shine upon you when- 
 ever you shall have finally accomplished it. (Cheers.) 
 My hopes are to-night fulfilled. (Hear, hear.) The 
 cup of my joy runs over to-night. Manchester is up ! 
 Manchester is out ! Manchester is awake ! Man- 
 chester is alive ! Manchester is at her post ! Man- 
 chester has sworn this night to do her duty ! (Immense 
 cheers.) This is a night never to be forgotten here, 
 never to be forgotten in the country." 
 
 " I will speak here as a lawyer and as a minister 
 of the Gospel, and I will say that from the law of 
 
Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 119 
 
 the land, and from the law of God, there is such a 
 point, to which Government has arrived, that I 
 believe now the question is, not whether O'Connor, 
 Oastler, and myself shall talk about shedding the last 
 drop of our blood, and exhorting the people to follow 
 our example, but that the only question is whether this 
 be just the nick of time when this ought to be done ! 
 ** Sir, I know there are those in Manchester who 
 would say this is very violent language — (Hear, hear) 
 — very violent in Mr. O'Connor, who is a barrister, 
 but more so in me as a Christian minister. (Hear, 
 hear.) The men who say so do not understand what 
 the Christian ministry is, or what it was appointed 
 for ; they know nothing at all of the practical and 
 goodly purposes of Him who is our head, who made 
 us His ministers and your servants for Christ's sake. 
 (Cheers.) You know of good old Bishop Latimer. 
 You shall hear what he was in the habit of saying on 
 the Glasgow cases of his day. If he had been now 
 Bishop of Manchester, he would have been here 
 to-night — (Hear, hear,) — and if the ministers of Man- 
 chester had courage enough to do their duty, they 
 would be standing here in my place, and I should be 
 looking after my flock in Duckinfield. (Cheers.) 
 Bishop Latimer went as Nathan went to David, and 
 said, 'Thou art the man.' 'I hear of many matters,* 
 says he, * before my Lord Protector and my Lord Chan- 
 cellor, that cannot be heard. I must desire my 
 Lord Protector's grace to hear me in this matter, and 
 
120 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 that your Grace would likewise hear poor men's suits 
 yourself. Put them to none other to be heard ; let 
 them not be delayed. The saying is now that money 
 IS heard everywhere ; if a man be rich, he shall soon 
 have an end of the matter. Others are fain to go 
 home with tears, for any help they can obtain at any 
 judge's hand. Hear men's suits yourself, I require 
 you, in God's behalf, and put them not to the hearing 
 of these velvet-coats and upskips. Now, a man can 
 scarcely know them from ancient knights of the 
 country. A gentlewoman came to me, and told me 
 that a certain great man keepeth some lands of hers 
 from her, and that in a whole year she could but get 
 one day for the hearing of her matter ; and on that 
 day the great man brought on his side a sight of 
 lawyers for his counsel, and that she had but one man 
 of the law ; and the great man so shakes him that 
 he cannot tell what to do ; so that when the matter 
 came to the point, the judge was so mean to the 
 gentlewoman that she should let the great man have a 
 quietness in her land. I beseech your Grace, that 
 you will look to these matters ; hear them yourself ; 
 view your judges, and hear poor men's causes." 
 Turning to the judges, Latimer said, ' And 
 you, proud judges, hearken what God saith in His 
 holy book : Hear the poor, saith He, as well as the 
 rich. Mark that saying, thou proud judge. The 
 devil will bring this sentence at the day of doom. 
 Hell will be full of such judges, if they repent not and 
 
Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 121 
 
 amend. They are worse than the wicked judge 
 Christ speaketh of ; for they will neither hear men for 
 God's sake, nor fear of the world, nor importunity, nor 
 anything else ; yea, some of them will command 
 them to ward, if they be importunate. I heard say, 
 that when a suitor came to one of them, he said, 
 " What fellow is that that giveth these folks counsel 
 to be so importunate 1 He should be committed to 
 ward." Marry, sir, commit me then ; it is even I 
 that gave them this counsel ; and if you amend not, 
 I will cause them to cry out upon you still, even as 
 long as I live.' 
 
 " Now-a-days' (says Latimer), * the judges are afraid 
 to hear a poor man against the rich ; they will either 
 pronounce against him, or drive off the suit that he 
 shall not be able to go through with it. But the 
 greatest man in the realm cannot so hurt a judge as 
 a poor widow, — such a shrewd turn can she do him. 
 The cries of the poor ascend to Heaven, and call down 
 vengeance from God. Cambyses was a great Em- 
 peror, such another as our master is ; he had many 
 lord presidents, lord deputies and lieutenants under 
 him. It chanced he had under him, in one of his 
 dominions, a briber, a gift-taker, a gratifier of rich 
 men. The cry of a poor widow came to the Empe- 
 ror's ears ; upon which he flayed the judge quick, and 
 laid his skin in the chair of judgment, that all 
 judges that should give judgment afterwards would 
 sit in the same skin. Surely it was a goodly sign of 
 
122 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 the judge's skin,"^ Mr. Stephens added, "I pray God we 
 may once see the sign of the judge's skin in England.'^ 
 
 TJie Poor Law ; tJie Laiv of Devils, 
 
 " If Lord John Russell wanted to know what he (Mr. 
 Stephens) thought of the new Poor Law, he would tell 
 him plainlyhethoughtitwasthe lav/ of devils, and that it 
 ought to be resisted to thedeath,even if thefirstman that 
 might be slaughtered in opposing it should be Lord 
 John Russell himself. They had, at Ashton, come to 
 the determination that when next March should come 
 they would vote no more for guardians. Let the 
 man who would dare to accept the office of guardian 
 take the consequences upon his own head. He told 
 them this, because he thought they ought to know. 
 If it was to come, let it come ; it should be an eye 
 for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, limb for limb, wife for 
 wife, child for child, and blood for blood — (Loud cheers) 
 so help their God and their country. (Continued 
 cheers.) Should the best feelings of human nature 
 thus be torn asunder, he knew a law that w^ould be 
 stronger and more powerful than the law of the 
 land — it was the law of Nature. He knew a force, 
 mightier and more resistless than armed policemen, 
 horses' feet, artillery, or troops and dragoons. It was 
 the force of the tear trickling from a daughter's eye ; 
 the sigh of a wife of a working man's bosom. The 
 force was the magic power that beamed in a woman's 
 
 * Northern Star, Dec. 30, 1837. 
 
Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 123 
 
 eye, imploring, begging, looking through her tears 
 and darting the pointed shafts of Nature's eloquence 
 to the heart and arm of her husband, and exclaiming, 
 * Husband, husband, will you suffer this ? will you 
 allow the wife that came to you a blooming and 
 innocent maiden, that came to share the joys and 
 sorrows of your cottage — the woman that has borne 
 you these children — that has buried others — that has 
 wiped the tear of sorrow from your eye and the sweat 
 of anguish from your brow — the woman that has been 
 true when all things else were false — kind when all 
 others have been unfeeling and relentless — that has 
 sympathized with your sorrows, forgiven your wan- 
 derings — whose arms have always been opened 
 to take you home, and whose innocent breast has 
 always been your resting place?' Can Govern- 
 ment, can policemen, can armies — all the armies of 
 fiends — can they stand against a nation's arm and a 
 nation's grasp, when woman — when our own wives and 
 daughters lie imploring protection and vengeance at 
 our feet ? (Tremendous cheers.) Once more then, I 
 register before Heaven, and record before you, my 
 determination never in any way, in any shape, or at 
 any time, to obey that law. The moment that law 
 is declared to be in operation at Ashton, that moment 
 my office, as the people's leader and guide, is at an 
 end." (Repeated and long continued cheering.)* 
 
 * Anti-Poor Law Meeting, Carpenters' Hall, Manchester, Feb. lo, 
 1838. 
 
124 Life of Joseph Ray7ter Stephens. 
 
 On his Consistency in Ptdpit and on Platform — 
 Defiance of Lord John RnsselL 
 
 " He wondered much that Lord John Russell 
 should take the trouble, and put the country to the 
 expense of sending down men to look after him. 
 He knew where he lived, and he knew he was a 
 loyal subject of the Queen. He knew that he was 
 no flincher ; that he never called back a word he ever 
 said on any subject ; that he never said one thing to 
 * the masses,' as they chose to call the people, and 
 another to the myrmidons of power — (Cheers ) — that 
 he had never said one thing at his fireside and 
 another at the hustings, or one thing in the committee- 
 room and another in the pulpit ; but whether he 
 stood as a messenger of mercy from God to man, in 
 his own proper vocation, or, as a preacher to thousands, 
 as on the present occasion, he had done only as he 
 ever would continue to do, in the self-same words 
 and in the self-same way. If, therefore. Lord John 
 Russell wanted to know what he thought, he told 
 him at once that he was determined to preach to the 
 people so long as he had lips to utter a sound. 
 
 " In conclusion, he would say, as he had said 
 before, that he would never rest till the Poor Law was 
 erased from the statute book, and the rights of the 
 poor established in righteousness and peace. But if 
 poverty was to be called a crime, and starved, and we 
 were to suffer the separation of parent from child, and 
 
Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 125 
 
 husband from wife, then the era of the curse had 
 arrived ; the time to be up and doing was fully come ; 
 and he would not only tell it, and teach it, and argue 
 it, and press it with all his power upon the people, 
 but he would be found either in the rear, or in the 
 flank, or in the midst, or in the van. (Tremendous 
 cheers.) May God prevent that last and most awful 
 and dire necessity, by teaching our senators 
 wisdom, and our governors justice, by putting it into 
 their hearts to protect their own property by pro- 
 tecting the property of the poor ; by putting it into 
 their hearts to reverence God by behaving kindly to 
 their fellow-men, and then we shall be one people, 
 belonging to one Commonwealth ; then we shall be 
 sheep of one fold^ and the days of happiness and 
 peace will dawn upon us. ( Loud and continued 
 cheering, which lasted for some time).'"" 
 
 TJic Rising Tide of Time. 
 
 " I never see the sands of the old year ebbing, 
 or hear the fearful sound of the rising tide of the new 
 year welling up from the unfathomed depths of an 
 eternity, that has been in part unfolded to us — the 
 children of a day — I never feel the swell of this hidden 
 time coming onward with its waves to meet me, but 
 I think how much more needful than ever it is to 
 leave the old, and take up the new — to end the old 
 and begin the new, by making for myself sure work 
 * Anti-Poor Law Meeting, Bradford, June 9, 1838. 
 
126 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 for that eternity, upon whose unknown shores my 
 frail bark of life will soon be driven by the swiftly 
 flowing stream of time, that hurries all alike along to 
 meet the righteous judge of men.'"^ 
 
 Salvation is to those zvho Serve, 
 The Qiteen at the Wild-beast Show. 
 "When Christ, in the 25th chapter of Matthew, 
 is unfolding the Divine things of that very eternal 
 world, of which we have so much said to us, and is 
 declaring who is to enter into everlasting life, and 
 who are to depart into everlasting death. He tells 
 us that those who have fed the hungry, clothed the 
 naked, and visited the sick, these are they who are 
 to go into everlasting life ; because, inasmuch as 
 they have done it unto one of the least of His 
 followers, they have done it unto Him. On the 
 other hand, those who are to go to hell — and there 
 is a hell, there is an hereafter — those who are to go 
 to hell hereafter are, not the Antinomians, not the 
 Unitarians, not the Mahometans, the Pagans, the 
 Catholics, or the Protestant Churchmen — there is 
 not a word of all this — that is all left to stand or 
 fall, to be judged and weighed after another standard ; 
 there is not a word about creeds, or articles of 
 belief ; there is not a word about any particular pro- 
 fessions ; there is not a word about any rites, or 
 ceremonies, or institutions ; there is not a word of 
 
 * Sermon at Ashton-under-Lyne, Jan. 6, 1839. 
 
Passages fro7n His Speeches and Sermons. 127 
 
 synods, of convocations, of conferences, or churches ; 
 there is not a word about collections, and love-feasts, 
 and class meetings, and sacraments, and missionary- 
 meetings ; there is not a word of anything of this 
 kind ; but those who go away into everlasting death, 
 they are men of all lands, tongues, trades, and 
 politics, that kept bread from the hungry, that have 
 refused to clothe the naked, and that have not 
 visited and sympathized with the sick (Great astonish- 
 ment). Christ says so. But until this Book be 
 burned ; until it be found out Christ was an im- 
 postor ; so long as Christ is God over all ; so long 
 as He is the one Law-giver who is able to save and 
 to destroy ; so long it is so decreed that we may not 
 go into judgment under a mistake ; that we may not 
 find our way to the left hand in error, thinking that 
 Christ has, as it were, withdrawn the curtain that 
 hides the world of spirits from the world of flesh. 
 Christ has sent forth the proclamation of high 
 Heaven, and He has said that it is for all those who 
 love their brother man by feeding, by clothing, by 
 sheltering, or by letting him feed, and clothe, and 
 shelter himself ; and that hell — hot hell, the fire 
 that cannot be slaked, the worm that gnaws and 
 cannot be killed — is for all those that have oppressed 
 the hireling in his wages, the widow and the father- 
 less. Then God help and have mercy upon an 
 infidel Government, an infidel legislature, an infidel 
 cabinet, an infidel council, an infidel magistrate. 
 
128 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 infidel capitalists, men of wealthy of all religions, 
 and of all politics, and all creeds — the Lord have 
 mercy upon them (* Amen,' from several voices) ; 
 their day of judgment, though it slumber, does not 
 sleep — though it tarry, is on its way though it be 
 not yet fully in upon them. How my heart did 
 bleed when I read it — whilst they go, court, and 
 cabinet, and councillors of state, and the attendants 
 of royalty — whilst they flutter, butterfly-like, around 
 Her who ought to be a pillar of strength to the poor, 
 as well as a pillar of glory to the great and the 
 rich — how my heart bled when I read that these 
 courtly attendants were conducting the Queen 
 through the streets of London to the royal theatre 
 — and for what purpose ? To see the wild beasts 
 of the forest eating Her children's food ! (Very great 
 emotion.) Good God ! and art Thou merciful, and 
 art Thou just — merciful to those poor whose bodies 
 are lined and pitched with resin, that the ' skilly ^ 
 may not scour them into the cholera morbus 1 Art 
 Thou merciful to those, and art Thou righteous and 
 just towards their oppressors t Dost Thou look 
 down from Heaven, and behold the Queen of 
 England, the nursing mother of this people, 
 dragged to yonder dens to see the wild beasts 
 brought' from Africa — because we have so much 
 spare food here — from the deepest forests 
 of the woods ; the lions, the panthers, the leopards, 
 from all the regions of the world, having rounds of 
 
Passages fro7n His Speeches and Sermons, 129 
 
 beef, and legs of mutton, and live rabbits, and 
 pheasants, and partridges — having all these — the 
 choicest and the richest food in the land — whilst a 
 few yards off, in the Strand Union Workhouse, more 
 murders have been done upon the subjects of the 
 Queen, more bloodshed, more awful crime com- 
 mitted than ever those lions, and tigers, and panthers, 
 and bears shed when allowed by God to roam wild 
 in the forest ? I never was so struck with the awful 
 contrast of condition in my life. The Queen is never 
 told that Her people starve, that they pine, that they 
 perish. She is never brought out to see the people 
 fed. The future is too dark ; what is about to come, if 
 this be not changed, is too awful for my tongue to 
 be trusted wuth the attempt to picture.'^* 
 
 Naming a Minister, 
 
 "If all ministers would only preach an equal truth 
 to the rich and the poor ; if the Gospel were thus 
 faithfully, impartially. Divinely preached in England 
 for seven days, the end of the seventh day would 
 behold the end of social tyranny as it afflicts the 
 people. But ministers only read one side of the 
 leaf of God's word ; the other is either pinned down, 
 or scored out, or explained away until it means 
 nothing, or worse than nothing. To show this I 
 may state that not long ago I was arguing with one 
 
 * '' Political Pulpit, ' ' Sermon iii. Delivered at Staleybridge, February 
 24, 1839. 
 
 I 
 
1 30 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 of the most learned and liberal of the Wesleyan 
 Conference, on the infidel and cruel provisions of 
 the New Poor Law Bill. In speaking of its damn- 
 able enactments, I was showing that no legislative 
 act ought, according to God's law, to separate man 
 and wife, parents and children. I cited the passage, 
 'What God hath joined together let not man put 
 asunder.' And what do you think this learned Con- 
 ference expounder said of this, the Word and the 
 will of God his Master t ' Oh,' said he, ' that has 
 nothing to do with it — it refers only to ecclesiastical 
 and legal divorce, and goes only to prove that 
 divorce should not be granted unless on good and 
 sufficient grounds.' He went on to say, that, ' as 
 to the poor man and his wife, or the poor man and 
 his child, he had a right to separate them if they 
 came to him for relief ; because he was not obliged 
 to give them anything; but if they did come^ and he 
 did give them anything, he had a right to annex to 
 his gift what condition he pleased.' — (Name, name.) 
 The minister who said this was the Reverend 
 Thomas Galland, M.A., of Queen's College, Cam- 
 bridge. I do not know that I should have named 
 him only you Londoners are so curious. I do not 
 know, however, that it is wrong, for if all my freaks 
 and phrensies, as they are called, are given to the 
 world, I know not why his discoveries in practical 
 divinity should not also be made known, particularly 
 as they are, I think, far more extraordinary than 
 
Passages from His Speeches and Sermons, 131 
 
 mine, or any that have been attributed to me, 
 although upon my shoulders have been heaped the 
 sins of the people, whilst, like the scapegoat, I am 
 hurried into the wilderness of persecution, there to 
 meet imprisonment, or, for aught I know or care, to 
 endure death itself""^ 
 
 Dislike of a ^^ Democratic' Chapel. 
 
 " Until I was within a few yards of this room I did 
 not know we were to meet in the Democratic Chapel 
 of Hebden Bridge. What a strange, what a significant, 
 what an ominous name ! I thought I was acquainted 
 with all the various sects and parties into which, 
 unhappily, the Church of God has been divided. But 
 there was one I knew nothing of — the Democratic 
 Church ! (Laughter.) What can be the origin and 
 meaning of this singular, this most unnatural ap- 
 pellation } I will tell you what I judge it to be. If 
 wrong in the view I have taken of it, set me right, 
 that I may not convey a false impression respecting 
 this very remarkable form of religion, or attempt to 
 supply the defect in already existing forms of religion 
 hereabouts. It struck me when I read the placard 
 on the walls announcing the place of meeting, that 
 the labouring people of this district had looked upon 
 themselves as a despised, forsaken, outcast race of 
 beings, and had wandered away from the fold, where 
 
 * Sermon, *' Shepherd and Shepherdess Fields." London, May 12, 
 1839. 
 
 I 2 
 
132 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 they were, indeed, fleeced, but not fed — (Loud cheers) 
 — and had gone into the wilderness, lost sheep without 
 a shepherd — (Hear, hear, and a voice, ' That was it';) — 
 and so they did the best they could for themselves^ 
 and blundered into democracy, having been told by 
 somebody or other that democracy meant all that 
 was true, and right, and good, applied to promote the 
 well-being and happiness of the people at large. 
 (Hear, hear.) Alas, that the Church, in any part of 
 England, can thus drive her children from her path ! 
 I am certain there never would have been di Democratic 
 Chapel in Hebden Bridge if the Theocratic Church had 
 done her duty." (Loud cheers.)^ 
 
 What a Foreign Bishop did. 
 
 "If the relation between master and men were_ 
 what it ought to be, men would have no need to 
 strike, nor would the masters be driven to lock 
 people out. (Applause.) Of all organizations in 
 this country, that which was least understood, least 
 studied, and least of all brought into usage, was 
 the organization of factory labour. (Hear^ hear.) 
 They had organizations in almost everything else ; 
 but in important and vital matters affecting the very 
 existence of labour on the one hand, and of capital 
 on the other, they seemed to have arrived at no 
 fundamental law ; they seemed to be unable to bring 
 any principle to bear on it, and the consequence was 
 
 * Sermon at Hebden Bridge, Aug. 18, 1849. 
 
Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 133 
 
 that throughout the whole of these islands, where 
 capital has established so many manufactures, and 
 where the labour of tens of thousands is gathered 
 together, they had nothing but strife, disunion, and 
 division. 
 
 " He hoped they would see the necessity there was 
 for union before the sun of their opportunity went 
 down. They saw how needful it was to have their 
 committees connected, centralized, and organized, so 
 as to do something which would raise factory labour 
 to the same standard as other trades. 
 
 " Hundreds of years ago — so far from this being an 
 innovation or intrusion into business, with which w^e 
 have no right to intermeddle, — Eustace, a foreign 
 bishop, came into this country, and into this very 
 county, to proclaim the duty of Christian England, 
 beginning its Sabbath at three o'clock on Saturday 
 afternoon and to last till sunrise on Monday morning. 
 And what said the old chronicle of England } That 
 the shrewd people of Yorkshire would not hearken 
 to him, and called him a fanatic. There was one 
 fellow, a corn miller, of Wakefield, who said he 
 would run his wheel round in spite of the bishop ; 
 but the old chronicle goes on to say that the wheel 
 would not turn round, and the waters of the Calder 
 would not make it go round, and he was obliged to 
 knock off at three o'clock on Saturday afternoon. 
 
 " I was at church this morning, and heard the 
 Vicar offer up this prayer — * We humbly beseech 
 
1 34 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 Thee so to dispose and govern the heart of Victoria^ 
 Thy servant, our queen and governor, that in all her 
 thoughts, words and works, she may ever seek Thy 
 honour and glory, and study to preserve Thy people 
 committed to her charge, in wealth, peace, and God- 
 liness." In wealth first, in peace next, and in 
 Godliness last ; as much as to say, that if the people 
 are not kept in wealth they cannot be kept long in 
 peace ; and if they cannot be kept in wealth and 
 peace, it is hardly likely they will much longer go on 
 in Godliness." ''* 
 
 Social Morality of Co-operation. 
 
 " My sympathies are always with efforts of this 
 description, because I know that those who make 
 them are amongst the most meritorious of their class. 
 They are men who would either do away with selfish- 
 ness, or make selfishness an instrument of good to. 
 others. Your right to co-operate in trade rests on 
 the same ground as that of any single individual to 
 begin to trade on his own private account. And it 
 the peculiar character of your co-partnery gives you 
 an opportunity of fostering habits of thoughtfulness 
 and frugality in those who aforetime were improvident 
 and wasteful, you have so far conferred a great 
 benefit upon society. It is also of advantage to 
 persons of a certain order of mind, to be brought 
 into connection with others of similar temperaments. 
 
 * Speech on Strikes and Lock-outs, Dewsbury, 1865. 
 
Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 135 
 
 and habits with themselves. Social intercourse in 
 such cases strengthens and cheers ; friendships are 
 formed which conduce to the mutual good of those 
 who thus become acquainted with one another. It 
 is one of the serious drawbacks of our crowded towns 
 that the individual is lost in the mass. Associations 
 therefore of every kind, which have a praiseworthy- 
 object in view, ought by all means to be encouraged. 
 There are some hundreds here to-night, and each 
 one of you seems to know many of those around 
 him, and you are evidently happy in each other's 
 company. Good fellowship, leading to the inter- 
 change of kind acts one toward another, is of more 
 value than the mere profit you derive as shareholders 
 in the concern.'"^' 
 
 Songsmiths and Wordsmiths, 
 
 " Kingship, the office of king, is a trade ; it is a 
 business. In our old speech we read of every kind 
 of craft. You who spin and weave were called 
 handicraftsmen, and the clergy were said to be 
 learners, workers, and members of the priestcraft, 
 not in the sense of cunning, not in our sense of 
 subtlety and selfish aggrandizement, playing and 
 toying and trading on the superstitions of men, on 
 the credulity of men, on the ignorance of men — but 
 the priestcraft was the highest of all callings in the 
 world, and the same old English tongue that gave 
 * Co-operative Tea Party, Staleybridge. 
 
136 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 us the word priestcraft also gave us the word 
 kingscraft. I wish not by that word to convey to 
 your mind any notion of trading on the abject 
 servility of the nation ; on the blind, passive resis- 
 tance of the people ; nothing at all of the kind. 
 Kingcraft in those days was a holy calling, and the 
 kings were bound to know how to govern, and 
 governed by the laws accordingly. Now, that is 
 what we expect by-and-by of the Prince of Wales. 
 (Hear, hear.) In that day of which I am speaking — 
 the day of simplicities, the day of realities, the day 
 of individual freedom and mutual right ; in that day 
 there was only one word as the basis of all trades 
 whatever. That word still lives amongst us in two 
 or three trades ; it still lives amongst us as con- 
 stituting the name of thousands and tens of thousands 
 of families. I mean the word * smith.' You under- 
 stand what is meant by blacksmith, and whitesmith, 
 and silversmith. But you would not understand 
 if I were to say that Milton and Shakespeare were 
 
 * songsmiths ;' but your forefathers would have called 
 them that, and did call the like of them ' songsmiths/ 
 You would not understand what I meant if I said 
 that better men than I am, who stand on boards like 
 these, were ' wordsmiths.' (Laughter.) But that 
 was our title in years gone by. A poet was called a 
 
 * songsmith ;' and a speaker was called a ' wordsmith/ 
 — the man who could take his words in the same way 
 as the blacksmith takes his iron, or the silversmith his 
 
Passages from His Speeches and Sermons. 137 
 
 silver, and who could weld his words, working them 
 together ; bringing them out of the storehouse of his 
 mind, having first found them in the deep unfathom- 
 able mine of his own emotions, his own consciousness. 
 (Cheers). Every man in that day was proud of 
 understanding the business of his life, and he 
 followed it under the highest sense of obligation and 
 responsibility."* 
 
 Funeral Sermon on Henry Hindle, 
 
 " His mechanical genius, his mechanical application, 
 his mechanical discoveries, were wonderful — some of 
 them might be known to the world, and some of 
 those he had left behind he trusted were in a state 
 to be taken up by other mechanicians and given to 
 the world hereafter." ' After speaking of him as a 
 clever metaphysician, and a psychologist, he spoke of 
 the agitation which was taking place in Lancashire 
 and the surrounding counties in the year 1842. 
 *' Henry Hindle took a deep interest in that agitation : 
 in the heat of it Henry Hindle's little brother, James, 
 the youngest, aged seven years, whom he never heard 
 of until a long period from the day he first saw him 
 leading his blind brother — he had offered up many a 
 prayer, if they were worth anything, for that little 
 boy — well, he was leading his brother down Stamford 
 Street, and a man knowing that Henry Hindle took 
 a deep interest in political matters at that time, with a 
 
 * Padiham, March 2, 1872. 
 
138 Lifeof Joseph Rayner Stephe^is, 
 
 loud voice began to talk very hardly, and he dropped 
 some ugly words about going at it and burning the 
 town of Ashton down. Henry at once, very calmly 
 with great firmness — and there was immense pressure 
 in that quiet firmness of his — it seemed to come 
 down like a screw, slow, but sure — he said * let the 
 word be peace, law, and order/ These words were 
 afterwards repeated at all the meetings, and that 
 little boy has since said that was the first opening of 
 his mind. He never knew before that there was a 
 world, or that it was out of gear. When the man 
 was talking about burning down Ashton, he heard his 
 brother with a quiet, dignified, and composed voice 
 saying, * Let the word be peace, law, and order.' 
 That young intellect awoke ; it was the first awakening 
 of the mind of that boy, and he had been a seer ever 
 since, and a thinker ever since." After a very affec- 
 tionate reference to the aged mother who was still 
 alive, the preacher proceeded to read extracts from a 
 number of letters which he had received concerning 
 the life of Mr. Hindle. One person wrote, " I shall 
 never see my loved and honoured friend Henry Hindle 
 again in this life — he whom I admired at first sight — 
 he whose voice pronounced words with such exactness 
 that I was as one spell-bound. He whose face was 
 as beautiful as Epicurus, and as classical. He 
 whose hair was like Milton's, long and smooth. He 
 whose cleanliness was admirable — whose dress was 
 neat, and whose shoes were polished to rivet attention. 
 
Passages from His Speeches and Ser7nons, 139 
 
 as they did when I first saw him. He was a marvel 
 of neatness and completeness, when his clear bright 
 eyes fixed themselves on mine with kindliness and 
 love, we were friends. He was a gentleman — I was 
 a boy. He was learned — I was not. He was a 
 model which compelled me to study him and his 
 praiseworthy ways. He could lecture upon almost 
 any subject, compose essays of the greatest import- 
 ance, and write lyrics of beauty and sweetness for the 
 improvement of mankind, which made me nobler, and 
 purer, and truer, when I read them and talked with 
 him about them. Everybody that heard them liked 
 them, and honoured him the more, as I did : his 
 influence was so good, his manners so attractive, that 
 he made young men to think and act their parts well 
 in daily life. Aged men honoured him for his wisdom 
 and understanding, and courted his company that 
 they might spend their time in the wisest and happiest 
 way, and kept him as long as they could for that 
 laudable purpose. I did the same, and I cannot but 
 regret that his end has come at last. We shall never 
 eat bread and figs together with joy again, nor study 
 how to live on vegetable diet on 6d. per day in the 
 heart of the great metropolis of England, as we did 
 when I went more than two miles every night to see 
 him for the sake of himself in his days of blindness^ 
 and for the sake of his learning and instruction.'^ He 
 could sing and fiddle to his own songs ; this was 
 one : — 
 
140 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 If you seek for useful knowledge 
 Think for yourself; 
 
 Let the wide world be your college, 
 Think for yourself ; 
 
 In a college so extensive, 
 
 Knowledge may be comprehensive. 
 
 Without being made expensive, 
 Think for yourself. 
 
His Trial and Imprisonment, 141 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HIS TRIAL AND IMPRISONMENT. 
 
 The passages quoted in the previous chapter from 
 Mr. Stephens's speeches and sermons give a fair idea of 
 his readiness and vehemence of speech, but his defence 
 on his trial would satisfy any reader in how large a 
 degree he was capable of sustained eloquence. The 
 effect of what he said was at anytime increased by 
 a knowledge of his character. Francis Place, 
 who had a good knowledge of Mr. Stephens, 
 described him as " regardless of personal conse- 
 quences" — this meant that he intended to accept 
 the consequences, whatever they were, of the advice 
 he gave to others. During the long time which 
 elapsed between Mr. Stephens's arrest and his trial, 
 he spoke and preached oftener and as vehemently 
 as before.^ Francis Place, who was one of the most 
 dispassionate observers, and careful in the use of 
 
 * The Rev. W. N. Molesworth, in his History of England, remarks 
 that ** Stephens is said not to have displayed the resolution on his trial 
 before the magistrates at Manchester, which his previous conduct seemed 
 to promise." But he also records *'when O'Connor hung back 
 Stephens was undaunted," and that the Chartists collected £2fioo for 
 his defence at Chester. 
 
142 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 descriptive words, is unable to convey the effect 
 produced by his rhetoric at this time. His statement 
 is as follows : — 
 
 *' Mr. Stephens preached two sermons, one in the 
 morning and the other in the evening, at Staleybridge. 
 Here the chapel was by no means large enough to 
 hold the congregation, it was crammed to such excess 
 that the people could not bear the pressure, whilst 
 hundreds could not gain admission, and an adjourn- 
 ment therefore was made to the market-place, and 
 there from a waggon Mr. Stephens preached.* His 
 speech is described as animated beyond description : 
 he condemned the Poor Law with fervour beyond 
 imagination ; he condemned the Poor Law Commis- 
 sioners with vehemence unparalleled, as the authors 
 of the pamphlet signed ' Marcus.' He put the 
 matter into every form his imagination could conceive, 
 and excited the horror of his audience to a pitch of 
 fury which excited wonder in some who went as 
 observers."t 
 
 For a long time public meetings and associated 
 bodies had passed resolutions of confidence in Mr. 
 Stephens, and expressed obligations for his advocacy. 
 O'Connor justified Stephens, and " pledged himself 
 
 * One writer in the newspapers of the time states that he listened to 
 Mr. Stephens for a while, then went to Manchester, and when he 
 returned Mr. Stephens was still speaking. 
 
 t Meeting, Chesney's Great Room, Foley Street, Marylebone ; 
 O'Connor in the chair.— F. Place, " W. M. A.," 27-82i,vol. iii. pp. 8, 13. 
 
His Trial and Imprisonment. 143 
 
 to the meeting to hold firmly to him and never to 
 forsake him." 
 
 At the Staleybridge dinner to Sharman Crawford, 
 Esq., M.P., in January, 1837, Mr. Feargus O'Connor 
 proposed the toast of " The Rev. J. R. Stephens and 
 the Ten Hours Bill." * When the Rev. J. R. Stephens 
 was introduced to the General Convention in London 
 in April, 1839, he was received with enthusiastic 
 cheering, which lasted for several minutes.f These 
 instances show the national popularity Mr. Stephens 
 had attained. 
 
 At a delegate meeting previously held in the West 
 Riding of Yorkshire, at the Black Bull, Liver- 
 sedge, in December, 1838, a resolution was passed 
 declaring that the delegates assembled placed implicit 
 confidence in Feargus O'Connor and the Rev. J. R. 
 Stephens. 
 
 It was on the 27th of December, 1838, that 
 Mr. Stephens was arrested. The names of the officers 
 employed on this duty have been preserved — Goddard 
 and Shacken. Mr. Stephens was leaving Ashton at 
 the time, and Worsley being the nearest Petty Session 
 to Leigh, Mr. Stephens was taken there in order to 
 be produced before Lord Francis Littleton, who it 
 was discovered could not act as magistrate, he not 
 having qualified under her Majesty Victoria. Goddard 
 and the magistrate's clerk went at half-past five o'clock 
 in search of some one in the Commission of the Peace ; 
 
 * Northern Star^ Jan. 13, 1837. f Place's MSB., vol. iii, p. 98. 
 
144 ^if^ of yoseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 but they were not like Miss Bronte's curates, " thick 
 upon the hills," for the messengers returned, after six 
 hours' search, without -having found one. At midnight 
 it was determined to send Mr. Stephens to the New 
 Bailey, Manchester. Although many people were not 
 likely to be about in the night, two troops of dragoons 
 were summoned from Manchester, and arrived on the 
 spot before Mr. Stephens's post-chaise set out. Pickets 
 were stationed at convenient distances all the way 
 to Manchester ; along which route, guarded by a troop 
 of dragoons, Mr. Stephens was conveyed. Another 
 chaise, containing three reporters, went at the same 
 time in the same company, guarded by half-a-dozen 
 troopers. The Manchester Guardian reported that 
 Mr. Stephens was in exceeding good spirits, and 
 seemed to make very light of his situation. 
 
 A long examination took place on Saturday the 
 29th of December, at three o'clock in the afternoon, 
 when it was agreed to liberate Mr. Stephens till the 
 next sitting of the magistrates, upon bail, himself in 
 ;^5oo, and two sureties in ;^2 5o each. Bail was 
 tendered, but not accepted. An officer was directed 
 to inquire respecting the sufficiency of the bail ; this 
 was done, and on Saturday the 29th it was accepted, 
 and Mr. Stephens was liberated. 
 
 On the 3rd of January, 1839, ^ further exami- 
 nation was held, when Mr. Stephens was committed 
 to the ensuing assizes at Liverpool, bail being required 
 for himself in the sum of ;^ 1,000, and two sureties 
 
His Trial and Imprisonment. 145 
 
 in ;^SOo each. Bail was accepted the same even- 
 ing, and Mr. Stephens was discharged from cus- 
 tody. 
 
 "The agitation caused by his apprehension was 
 very remarkable. The whole body of Radicals 
 felt it, and in Manchester and its environs great 
 apprehensions were entertained of riotings and 
 extensive mischief. All the associations called 
 meetings, and vast numbers of people came to Man- 
 chester ready for mischief; but still no apprehension 
 of any evil need have been entertained, as there 
 was a sufficient military force to put down any body 
 of rioters. This was well known to the mob, and 
 nothing was to be feared from the assemblies of the 
 Radicals, as it might have been reasonably expected 
 that the leading men in these associations would 
 prevent any of the members from attempting any 
 improper interference with the due course of law.""^ 
 
 Mr. Stephens's defence was thought highly of for 
 its eloquence and dignity. As soon as arrests set 
 in, O'Connor disclaimed having advocated physical 
 force, and at the same time disparaged those who 
 opposed it. In the sermons which Mr. Stephens 
 delivered in the provinces and in London, he retracted 
 nothing. Against hunger and personal oppression, 
 and for the rights of domestic life, he was ready to 
 fight, and believed God sanctioned such resistance. 
 
 * From Place's MS. '* History of Working Men's Associations,* 
 British Museum. 
 
 K 
 
146 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 He better knew his mind than any other agitator 
 among whom he was thrown. He had little sympathy 
 with political remedies ; Chartism and the '' rights of 
 man " were not to his mind. All his politics were 
 summed up in two principles — the justice of God and 
 the comfort of the common people. 
 
 Mr. Stephens's trial took place at the Chester 
 Assizes, on Monday, August 15,1839. What follows 
 is quoted from a verbatim report of the proceedings 
 taken in shorthand by P. B. Templeton. It is not 
 likely that Mr. Stephens had any opportunity of re- 
 vising it — he being a prisoner. Indeed, the Templeton 
 report was first published in the Northern Star, and 
 therefore must have been transcribed at once from 
 the original notes, so that the passages we quote from 
 the defence show the accuracy, completeness, and 
 force of Mr. Stephens's habitual expression.^ He 
 conducted his defence entirely himself, he cross- 
 examined the witnesses, he discussed questions with 
 the Judge and the Attorney-General, and was at all 
 times clear, relevant, and self-possessed. The entire 
 report would occupy nearly as many pages as this 
 book — the passages given, therefore, are only such 
 as will enable the reader to understand the course of 
 the trial, and the more characteristic passages of the 
 defence : — 
 
 Long before nine o'clock — the hour appointed 
 
 * Indeed, the only Report extant in a separate form is made up from 
 the columns of the Star, 
 
His Trial and Imprisonment, 147 
 
 for the opening of the Court — a considerable crowd 
 surrounded it, waiting to hear the case. About a 
 quarter-past nine, Mr. Justice Pattison took his seat 
 upon the Bench. The Court, a small building, 
 not capable of holding more than 300 persons, was 
 crammed in a few minutes ; several ladies were present, 
 and most of the magistrates for the county. 
 
 Mr. Welsby read the indictment charging the 
 Rev. Joseph Rayner Stephens with *^ attending an 
 unlawful meeting at Hyde on the 14th November, 
 1838, seditiously and tumultuously met together by 
 torch-light, and with fire-arms, disturbing the public 
 peace." The indictment, in two other counts, 
 charged Mr. Stephens with speaking at that meeting. 
 
 The rev. defendant appeared in person, and sat 
 at the bar next to the Attorney-General. He was 
 attended by his solicitor, Mr. J. Law, of Manchester. 
 
 The Attorney-General — Sir John Campbell — 
 rose and said : — -My Lord, Gentlemen of the 
 Jury — I have the honour to attend you as counsel 
 to conduct this prosecution against the defendant, 
 Joseph Rayner Stephens. A bill of indictment 
 has been found against him by a Grand Jury of 
 the County of Chester. You are now to deter- 
 mine whether he is guilty, or not guilty, of the 
 offence laid to his charge. Gentlemen, it humbly 
 seems to me that it is indispensably necessary, under 
 circumstances such as will be detailed to you in 
 •evidence, that the law should be vindicated, and that 
 
 K 2 
 
148 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 such offences should be repressed and punished. 
 The indictment, as you heard it opened by my learned 
 friend, Mr. Welsby, charges Mr. Stephens with a 
 misdemeanour, in attending an unlawful assemblage, 
 and in inciting those who were present to dis- 
 obedience of the law. This prosecution in no degree 
 trenches upon fair inquiry, which I hope will ever 
 remain unrestrained in this land of liberty. It in no 
 degree interferes with the right of the subjects of 
 this free country to meet in a quiet and peaceable 
 manner to consider any grievance that they may 
 think they labour under, and to apply by constitu- 
 tional means to have these grievances redressed. 
 Gentlemen, there may be the freest inquiry, there 
 may be the most ample means of obtaining redress 
 of grievances, without any violation of the law. 
 Neither in this nor in any civilized country can it be 
 endured that meetings should be held where the 
 law is set at defiance, and where language is used 
 that necessarily and inevitably leads to a disturbance 
 of the public peace. Mr. Stephens, the defendant, 
 took an active part in the assemblage at Hyde, and the 
 ■question is whether he did not upon that occasion use 
 language to the multitude which amounts of itself to 
 misdemeanour, and one of a very aggravated nature. 
 This meeting took place on Wednesday, the 
 14th day of November last. It took place after 
 dark. There was a vast assemblage of people from 
 different parts of that portion of the county of 
 
His Trial and Imprisonment. 149 
 
 Cheshire, and the adjoining county of Lancashire, 
 Ashton, Staleybridge, Dukinfield, and other quarters. 
 They assembled in great numbers after dark — I 
 think seven or eight o'clock — at a place called the 
 Cotton Tree, about a mile and a half from Hyde, 
 which is a great manufacturing village in this 
 county. There were assembled, I believe, about 
 5,000 persons, almost all strangers to the town 01 
 Hyde. The leader upon that occasion was 
 Mr. Stephens, the defendant. I abstain most 
 scrupulously from any allusion to the conduct of that 
 gentleman, except upon this particular occasion, for 
 which he is now called upon to answer in a court of 
 justice : but it is my duty to detail to you his conduct 
 and his language at that time. He mounted the 
 hustings, and addressed the assembled multitude. 
 Amongst other things he told them that he had news 
 for them ; that he had been in the barracks, and that 
 the soldiers would not act against them. He said 
 that there were several clubs that had bought arms 
 with their burying funds, and that the funds set apart 
 by these clubs for the purpose of the decent interment 
 of their members were diverted from that purpose 
 and appropriated to the buying of arms. He asked 
 them if they were armed. By way of an answer to 
 that question there was a discharge of firearms. He 
 then said, *' I see you are ready," and he wished them 
 *' good night." The assembly, such as I have 
 •described it to you, continued till nearly midnight. 
 
150 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 They then took their departure. There were several 
 bands of music ; there were a number of torches, and 
 at midnight the torches were seen blazing through 
 the streets of Hyde and on the roads leading into the 
 country, and at last the distant music died away 
 upon the ear. I understand that Mr. Stephens 
 is to defend himself, an undoubted right that he 
 enjoys. I understand that he possesses very con- 
 siderable talents, and I have no doubt they will be 
 exerted in trying to vindicate himself against the 
 charges now brought against him. 
 
 Mr. Stephens then rose, and applied that the 
 witnesses might be ordered out of court. The appli- 
 cation was complied with, and the examination 
 of the witnesses for the prosecution was proceeded 
 with. At its conclusion the defence began, and at a 
 quarter past twelve the defendant rose to address 
 the Jury. 
 
 Mr. Stephens said : — May it please your Lord- 
 ship and Gentlemen of the Jury — This day has 
 not overtaken me unawares, nor has it found 
 me unprepared. I have long since foreseen its 
 coming ; I welcome it now that it has come. I 
 have often told the poor, my lord, on whose behalf 
 rather than my own I am here to plead, and in 
 whose stead I am willing to suffer, though I have 
 done nothing worthy of bonds — that the faithful and 
 fearless advocacy of their righteous cause would 
 eventually lead to scenes like this. My lord, it could 
 
His Trial and Imprisonment. 151 
 
 not be otherwise ; for that new species of tyranny 
 which, in the name and under the forms of law, has 
 of late years endeavoured to overturn the liberties of 
 this country, could only hope for establishment and 
 permanency by crushing and overthrowing all those, 
 however humble, who had the heart and the hardi- 
 hood to oppose it. This, my lord, is of the very 
 nature of tyranny. It begins by first of all taking 
 the weaker and the more defenceless. It draws off 
 the eye, and lulls to sleep the suspicions of those who 
 would oppose it in the first instance, either by the 
 promise of some immediate advantage, or by holding 
 out hopes of greater security and benefit to them- 
 selves. But stealthily and insidiously as it begins, 
 it must, my lord, go on, taking us one by one, until 
 one by one we have become enclosed within its net, 
 and lie prostrate at its mercy. You, gentlemen of 
 the jury, as well as myself, are an example in 
 proof of this. You may well ask yourselves — you 
 may well inquire of one another why and for what 
 purpose it is that you have been placed in that box t 
 I need only remind gentlemen of your station and 
 intelligence, of the origin and professed reason for 
 the establishment of the special jury system. It is 
 but of yesterday that special juries were known at 
 all in this country — not longer since than the reign ot 
 George the Second. The cause assigned for this 
 innovation upon our ancient institution was, that 
 there might arise, in the complicated and intricate 
 
152 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 nature of commercial transactions, questions which 
 men moving in the ordinary spheres of life would 
 not be capable thoroughly to understand, and rightly 
 to adjudicate upon. Here, my lord, I may be 
 allowed to say — such is my veneration for all the 
 institutions of my native land — that it would have 
 been much better, in that case, instead of laying 
 aside the old usages and practices which have been 
 the palladium of our liberties, to have required that 
 gentlemen engaged in commerce should so have 
 simplified their transactions as to bring them 
 within the range of the understandings of the 
 commonalty of this country, rather than have in- 
 troduced any change in the forms of our civil and 
 criminal jurisprudence, as we find now has been 
 the case. But, gentlemen, allowing, that these 
 innovations, which I am bold enough to call cor- 
 ruptions in the institutions of our country, were just 
 and reasonable for the purpose professed at the 
 time, you would agree with me that this is not a 
 case which calls for such an extraordinary departure 
 from the ordinary usages in our courts of justice. 
 If this were a simple case, as the Attorney-General 
 wishes you to believe it to be, of attending that 
 meeting, a meeting so clearly unlawful that he 
 needed not to say five words on the subject ; if this 
 were a case so simple, and the mere fact of the 
 meeting having been so convened and held, the mere 
 fact of my having attended that meeting and said 
 
His Trial and Imprisonment. 153 
 
 certain words was all that was requisite to be 
 proved, then, I ask you what reasonable pretext 
 there is for your being present in that box 
 upon this occasion ? There must be something 
 behind the scenes — there must be something that 
 remains untold, something which the learned and 
 honourable Attorney- General has designedly left un 
 disclosed. It will be my duty to withdraw the curtain 
 from that which at present is legally hidden from 
 your eyes. I know not in what manner special juries 
 are got together ; you do not know in what manner 
 special juries are got together — the Attorney-General 
 may know. Suffice it for me to say that I have not 
 objected to you. When the list of forty-eight was 
 sent down to me, who was struck off I cannot telL 
 I made no objection against that list ; I have not 
 struck off a single individual of that number of forty- 
 eight, nor do I object to any gentleman now present, 
 notwithstanding all the reports, all the rumours, all 
 the more than credible reports I have heard on this 
 subject. My lord, I have been advised, I have been 
 urged to apply to your lordship for a postponement 
 of this trial, in consequence of the most excited state, 
 not only of the public mind in general, but of the 
 public mind of the inhabitants of Chester at this 
 moment. It is a matter of notoriety, it is upon 
 your walls, it is within every man's knowledge, 
 that a letter has been written by the attorneys con- 
 ducting this prosecution, instructing the mayor and 
 
154 ^if^ of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 authorities of this ancient and really peaceable city^ 
 that a rescue is to be attempted ; that mobs, multi- 
 tudes, armed assemblages of men^ are upon their 
 march to the city of Chester, for the purpose of 
 rescuing voluntary defendants, or involuntary prisoners, 
 out of the hands of justice, even in the presence of 
 an English judge. My lord, I ask whether this is fair; 
 I ask whether in any other place than in an English 
 court of justice, whether under any other presidency 
 than that of a constitutional judge, and before any 
 other array than that of an honest English jury, it 
 would be possible for a defendant, situated as I am, 
 to have a fair and impartial trial ? Why, my lord, 
 when I came into the town, I came unbound, and I 
 came without any legal fetters, pains, penalties, or 
 disabilities upon me ! — I have three indictments 
 hanging over my head, to one of which I am called 
 this day to speak : each of these indictments, if its 
 allegation be substantiated, renders me liable to a 
 sentence of imprisonment for life, and I may be 
 otherwise imprisoned, and otherwise sentenced to 
 pay a fine, which would render the extent of that 
 imprisonment to the term of my natural life ; and 
 yet with three indictments over my head, I am held 
 to bail upon all of them ; I have been since the 
 month of March a free man. It is evident from this 
 that the Crown cannot consider me the dangerous 
 person the Attorney-General has endeavoured to 
 represent me to-day. If, my lord, I had committed 
 
His Trial and Imprisomnent, 1 5 5 
 
 the criminal acts, if I were the man whose prin- 
 ciples and intentions were such as have been 
 represented to the jury, in the speech of the hon. 
 and learned Attorney-General, I say it would have 
 been impossible for the Government to have allowed 
 me to remain at large in the way it was done. 
 What inference can I draw from this, except it is 
 an inference, as the learned Attorney-General says, 
 which necessarily and inevitably arises from the 
 premises, that the Government wished me quietly 
 and peaceably to walk away and to escape meeting 
 this charge ? But, though I have reason to believe 
 that to be the wish of the Government, though 
 I have reasonable ground to believe that the 
 Crown had no wish and no intention to prosecute 
 this inquiry, which has been forced upon it to-day, 
 yet so conscious am I of my own innocence, and 
 so fully am I persuaded that I shall be able to 
 convince the jury of my innocence, that, without 
 bail, without bond, without liability to appear, 
 I throw myself not upon the mercy or indulgence, 
 but upon the sense of justice which pervades this 
 court. 
 
 #J/. J«, JA, JA. 
 
 TT TV* "TV" "A* 
 
 In the latter end of December, shortly after 
 the burning of the factory which has been alluded 
 to, I was arrested under extraordinary circumstances. 
 Two Bow Street officers, one of whom had in his 
 pocket an authority to call up the whole military 
 
156 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 force of the district, hurried me away upon 
 a warrant charging me with making a speech of a 
 tendency to destroy Hfe and property, from Ashton- 
 under-Lyne to Worsley,in the neighbourhood of Leigh, 
 the place where the speech was said to have been 
 delivered. When we reached there, no magistrate 
 could be found, nor witnesses to meet me face to 
 face. I was then taken to Manchester, in the 
 dead of night, escorted by a troop of dragoons, and 
 consigned to the New Bailey prison. When I did 
 come before the court, one of the magistrates who 
 endorsed the warrant could with difficulty be found, 
 or induced to appear, On the second examination, 
 he would not come at all. In the examination — one 
 of the most extraordinary that ever took place in an 
 English court of justice — the forms of the Court 
 were so far departed from, that no part of the 
 cross-examination of the witnesses on my part should 
 appear. All that those witnesses had stated against 
 me was there ; all that they stated in my favour was 
 omitted. The proceedings were altogether so singular, 
 so irregular, and I will say, rather of a persecuting 
 than of a prosecuting nature, that before I was com- 
 mitted, the learned counsel who conducted the case 
 stated in court that it was his intention to prose- 
 cute me for conspiracy, along with others, for ob- 
 structing the laws, but more particularly those relating 
 to the Poor Law Amendment Act. I went down to 
 Liverpool, bound in the sum of ;£" 2,000, a most 
 
His Trial and Imprzson7ne7tt, 157 
 
 unconstitutional bail in any case of that kind — 
 especially in the case of a person circumstanced as 
 I was. I went to Liverpool to appear to answer all 
 charges that should be brought against me. A 
 true bill was found — a second bill was found, 
 of which likewise I had no previous intimation. 
 The circumstances said to have transpired in 
 that second bill occurred in the month of December 
 last ; and yet, as in the case of the present indict- 
 ment^ there have been no depositions — no informa- 
 tions — no examinations before the magistrates, no 
 opportunity afforded me of meeting my accusers 
 
 face to face. 
 
 # « # # ^ 
 
 My lord, I will ask further, why am I to be tried 
 at all ? A man who, the Attorney-General has told 
 you, sustaining the character and fulfilling the office 
 of a minister of religion ; a man known to advocate 
 no political theory whatever ; to belong to no politi- 
 cal party ; a man who has no connection with any 
 political party in this country ; who has sedulously, 
 from Christian principles, stood aloof from all the 
 questions that agitate the public mind of a political 
 nature ? If, my lord, my life and those humble 
 talents which the Attorney-General has been pleased 
 to compliment, had been employed in speaking 
 against the constitution of this kingdom — against 
 the monarchy, the House of Lords, the House of 
 Commons ; if I were a man whose public conduct had 
 
1 5 8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephe^is. 
 
 been of this description, then I might well have 
 been marked out as a fit subject for a criminal 
 prosecution. But, it is notorious to the whole coun- 
 try, so far as my proceedings have attracted the notice 
 of the public, that so far from advocating any scheme 
 for the purpose of effecting political changes for over- 
 throwing the constitution, one of my principal en- 
 deavours has been, by reason and Scripture, by 
 authorities taken out of our old law books, and from 
 the Word of God, to disabuse the public mind of all 
 those prejudices of the party to which the Attorney- 
 General belongs, a party which has been mainly instru- 
 mental in consigning the people of this country to 
 its present unsettled and disturbed state. It is 
 notorious that I have lived in a part of the country 
 which for years has been the scene of infidelity 
 — overrun with principles, religious and political, 
 similar to those of Thomas Paine, Richard Carlile, and 
 men of that school — a district, the people of which 
 have been saturated with the false and dangerous 
 notion of " the greatest happiness to the greatest 
 number," as though, my lord, it was not equally imjicst 
 and criminal to seek the happiness of the greatest 
 member at the expense of a fezv^ as to compass the 
 happiness of the few at the expense of the 
 many. For years I have lifted up my voice 
 against the folly of these Liberal notions. I have 
 embraced every opportunity of showing to the 
 people that the principles of what is now called 
 
His Trial and Imprisonment. 159 
 
 liberalism and reform are the most dangerous prin- 
 ciples that can be entertained by any. I have shown 
 the people that instead of removing institutions they 
 ought to amend them — that instead of asking for 
 anything new they ought rather to go back and look 
 to what the wisdom of their forefathers so carefully, 
 and I will add, my lord, religiously, laid down as the 
 foundation of civil and political liberty. I have taken 
 every opportunity of showing that, so far from the 
 people — as the party to which the Attorney-General 
 belongs asserts — being the source of all political 
 power, I have maintained, out of the Word of 
 God, that all power is of God — that the powers 
 that be are ordained of God — that there are 
 certain immutable principles of truth which no 
 times can change, and which no circumstances ought 
 to modify, excepting such cases as do apply them- 
 selves to the emergencies of the occasion, without at 
 all altering their nature and character. I have main- 
 tained that these immutable and everlasting principles 
 of truth — of righteousness — of brotherly kindness, 
 and of charity, contained in the Scriptures, if they 
 are to be found anywhere on earth out of the Word of 
 God, are to be found in this country ; if they are to 
 be found in any constitution on the face of the globe, 
 they are to be found in the constitution of England ; 
 if they are to be found inspiring and animating any 
 institutions, breathing life into any customs, and 
 producing happiness in any usages, they are to be 
 
i6o Life of yosepk Rayner Stephens. 
 
 found in the institutions, customs and usages of our 
 forefathers. 
 
 * 71? ^ Iff ^^ 
 
 In truth, my lord, in the case of the Whigs, at 
 the time of the Reform Bill, we find that meetings 
 precisely of the character of those I am charged with 
 attending, were held in every part of the country ; 
 we find ensigns, flags and banners, inscribed with 
 " Liberty or death," " Reform or vengeance," " Down 
 with the tyrants," caps of Liberty, and banner staves 
 headed with pikes, and everything of that description. 
 We find the people of the country recommended to 
 stop the supplies, to pay no more taxes, to compel 
 " Old Billy," as those learned and loyal gentlemen 
 undertook to denominate William IV., the Sovereign 
 of these realms, to pass the Reform Bill. You find 
 " three groans " proposed for the Queen, the first 
 female in the land. You find banners and ensigns 
 depicting the King^ and bloody axe and block, inti- 
 mating that unless the King would pass " the Bill, 
 the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill," he was to 
 remember the fate of some of his predecessors in this 
 and other countries. Now, gentlemen, I put it to 
 you, whether you can believe the hon. and learned 
 counsel when he tells you that the only reason why 
 he comes here is to "vindicate the law." For what 
 purpose do I trouble your lordship, and tax that 
 patience and condescension which is always by a 
 British judge awarded to a defendant situated as I 
 
His Trial and ImprisoJtment. 1 6 1 
 
 am ? It is, to put it clearly before your lordship and 
 before the jury, that there are a certain class of per- 
 sons, and of writings, which are tolerated, and suffered 
 to go unreproved, without prosecution, and without 
 punishment. Yes, my lord^ when it suits the pur- 
 pose, or when it conduces to the stability of an 
 administration — we can have disturbers of the 
 public peace, incendiaries — men who speak so as to 
 lead to a subversion of the law — who propose 
 not a repeal of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 
 but a repeal of the Union which connects this 
 kingdom with the adjoining kingdom of Ireland — 
 we can have O^Connell moving through the 
 country, forming and organizing societies in every 
 direction, marshalling their members, counting their 
 numbers, receiving their money — we can have this 
 man publicly declaring that if they wanted a Repeal 
 of the Union, some 50,000 or 500,000, or in some 
 cases, two millions of fighting men were to go and 
 petition the Crown. Yes, my lord, the Attorney- 
 General does not consider that illegal. He does not 
 come forward to "vindicate the laws" then. This Union 
 may be threatened to be dissolved ; two millions of 
 fighting men maybe paraded to compel Government to 
 give to that gentleman as much power as he requires; 
 but no sooner does a poor undefended minister 
 of the Gospel of peace to man, without talent, 
 save the talent of telling the truth fearlessly, and as 
 far as he knows it — a man without name and 
 
 L 
 
1 62 Life of y oseph Rayiier Stephens, 
 
 character, save the name and character of ''fire- 
 brand, and incendiary, and assassin, and madman, and 
 demon;" a man without influence, save the influence 
 of the widow's prayer and the power of truth, which 
 is great, and will prevail; no sooner does a man, 
 situate and charactered as I am, step forward to 
 plead the poor man's right — to speak on behalf of 
 the widow and fatherless, to express constitu- 
 tionally his opinions and his views of the Poor Law 
 Amendment Act, and the factory system, upon the 
 case of the hand-loom weavers, and similar prac 
 tical grievances for which he proposes constitutional 
 remedy — than the Attorney-General comes down 
 to this assize at Chester and prosecutes that indi- 
 vidual, as he tells you, simply for the purpose of 
 
 " vindicating the law." 
 
 ^ ^ * -)^ * 
 
 My opinions are known — there need be no three 
 indictments, no calling of witnesses, for your lordship 
 will have perceived that, except the policemen, the 
 witnesses were all cotton-spinners, or the children, or 
 cousins, or other relations of cotton manufacturers, and 
 the . attorneys conducting this prosecution. The 
 honourable gentleman reminds me that I have for- 
 gotten Tinker, who is a surgeon, a man appointed 
 under the Factories' Regulation Act, a man whose 
 conduct I have frequently had occasion to bring 
 before the notice of the country. I repeat, there 
 would have been no occasion for this calling of 
 
His Trial and Imprisonment, 163 
 
 witnesses, this bringing together into that box a 
 family party, for you have nothing else — the families 
 of the Howards, the Ashtons, the Tinkers, and 
 others directly or indirectly connected with this large 
 family compact. 
 
 If the intention of the Attorney-General had been to 
 defend the law, I submit that he should have proceeded 
 against me for some speech, of which there could be 
 no manner of doubt whatever. I have not done 
 these things in a corner. Why is it, then, that 
 no speech of mine, ever taken down by a short- 
 hand wTiter, has been made the basis of a criminal 
 prosecution? Why is it, my lord, that while even 
 Her Majesty's Secretary of State has given out 
 in the House of Commons on Friday last, that Ste- 
 phens inculcates murder and the destruction of pro- 
 perty; that Stephens declares in his printed sermons 
 that under the Poor Law Amendment Act the divine 
 command, " Thou shalt not steal," is of no force or 
 obligation? I either have said those things, or not; 
 I have either written and published them, or not. The 
 Secretary of State has reported that I have said 
 those things ; and if I have published them, how is 
 it, I ask with boldness and confidence, that the 
 Secretary of State has not instructed the learned 
 Attorney-General to proceed against me for such 
 speeches and sermons? Why, my lord, clearly for 
 this reason, that when read and examined, and 
 weighed over — when brought to the touchstone of 
 
 L 2 
 
164 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 truth, and applied to the standard of your books — • 
 my lord, when brought to the standard of tliat Book 
 which is part and parcel of the common law of 
 the land, it would be found I have inculcated no 
 doctrines, and advanced no opinions, but such as 
 are strictly constitutional and Christian. 
 
 •55- ^ -5^ ^ rr 
 
 On the Monday cited, I left the neighbour- 
 hood where I reside ; no neighbourhood could be 
 more peaceable ; having lived in it seven years^ 
 and constantly officiating amongst the poorest 
 classes of the people from time to time, there never 
 has been since I came into that neighbourhood,, 
 and up to the commencement of this prosecution 
 against me — there never has been, at any one 
 meeting that ever I Avas at, or on any one occasion, 
 in which I had the shadow of a share — there 
 never has been a single instance of a violation of 
 public property — there never has been a single 
 instance of a breach of the peace. The morals of 
 the people have been amended rather than deterio- 
 rated ; their habits have become more domestic — and 
 I am glad to see their political principles becoming 
 more constitutional, and their religious principles 
 more fixed and devout. This has been my aim, and 
 this being known and read of all men in the district 
 from which I came, I am dragged here, my lord,, 
 under this legal mask, for i ■ is not the true face of 
 the prosecution — this the Attorney-General has not 
 
His Trial and Imprisonvicnt. 165 
 
 ,dared to exhibit in this Court — but under this mask 
 .alone, as though I were a party to the Convention, 
 and to the disturbances of Birmingham, to the Charter, 
 to annual Parliaments, vote by ballot, universal suf- 
 frage, and all the rest of that rigmarole, in which I 
 never had a share. I only came forward to the men 
 of Leigh, and there declared my detestation of the 
 doctrines of Chartism, declared that if Radicals were in 
 power, my views were such that my head would be 
 brought first to the block, and my blood would be the 
 first blood that would have to flow for the olden 
 liberties of the country. Gentlemen, this is the 
 individual who is now brought before you as a Chartist, 
 and his proceedings made to appear as though he was 
 identified with all that has lately taken place in the 
 country : the learned Attorney-General told you that 
 he did not intend to make any statements as to the 
 recent occurrences in this county. The allusion was 
 sufficient ; the innuendo was thought by him to be 
 enough to connect and identify me with them. As I 
 :said before, if I am to be tried, let me be tried in my 
 own person, and not in the person of Chartism, of 
 Radicalism, torch-light meetings, or things of that 
 kind. If I am to be tried, let me be tried upon my 
 own opinions — upon my own principles — upon my 
 £>wn authorized and published documents. 
 
 # -5^ ^ * * 
 
 I stand before you giiilty of no other crime than 
 that of endeavouring to reconcile the differences that 
 
1 66 Life of Joseph Rayne^^ Stepheiis. 
 
 unhappily have existed between the masters and the 
 men ; and never since Ashton, and Staleybridge, and 
 Dukinfield, places that have been mentioned so often 
 in this charge, never since the first stone of these towns 
 was laid has there been so much peace, tranquillity^ 
 good-will, and good understanding between the masters 
 and the men as there has been during the seven 
 years of my residence among these people. 
 
 Five years ago, I was unconnected with an/ 
 political party, unassociated with any individual,. 
 when simply in my closet I had forced upon my con- 
 sideration, under the friendship of Mr. Howard and 
 Mr. Ashton,^' both of whom I have had the honour to- 
 call friends, and whom I should still have had the 
 honour to call friends, had I not conscientiously gone 
 against my own interest, reducing myself to poverty 
 thereby, instead of living, as I did then, in comparative 
 affluence. Gentlemen, it is because five years ago I 
 took up the question of the circumstances and con- 
 dition of the Factory labourers thus forced upon my 
 attention, and the condition of the poor as affected by 
 the Poor Law Amendment Act, that I stand before 
 you to-day, and it is only in connection with those 
 two questions that I have had anything to do in public. 
 I am guiltless of everything else, and whatever your 
 verdict may be, I have used no talent, no elo- 
 quence — I have not attempted to excite your 
 
 * Two millowners mentioned by the prosecution. 
 
His Trial and Ij:iprisonment. 167 
 
 passions, to arouse your feelings, or to awaken 
 your sympathies on my behalf. If I had had any 
 favour to ask, I should have asked the postpone- 
 ment of this trial. If I had not been guiltless, 
 I should have gone away until the time of next 
 assizes — until there was something like calmness and 
 tranquillity in the country. Put all these things 
 together — look at them singly — and let the concen- 
 trated impression have weight upon your unprejudiced 
 judgments, upon your loyal principles, upon your 
 Christian emotions, as Englishmen and Christians ; 
 as men who, with myself, fear God and honour 
 the Queen and all that are in authority under her, 
 and over us. In your own consciences before God, 
 in the face of this country and of this Court, say 
 whether I am guilty of this charge. 
 
 This speech occupied five hours in delivery and 
 was listened to — reports of the day said — " with 
 breathless attention by a Court crowded to excess." 
 
 The Attorney-General. — I hope, gentlemen, 
 that, after this trial has terminated, the defendant 
 himself will have no cause, in this instance, to com- 
 plain of the laws of his country. 
 
 '^ -K- -Jf 5(; 5f: 
 
 Some are of opinion, and amongst those I may 
 mention the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, 
 and Sir James Graham, as well as Lord John Russeli 
 and Lord Spencer, that the Poor Law was highly 
 beneficial — that it had a direct tendency to raise the 
 
1 68 Life of Joseph Rayne^^ Stephens. 
 
 price of labour, to prevent industrious persons from 
 
 receiving elemosynary relief — to make the poor and 
 
 industrious classes of this country independent 
 
 of the overseer, and to give them a greater share 
 
 in the enjoyments of life than they would otherwise 
 
 have. Others, I believe honestly, are of a different 
 
 opinion ; but it is wholly immaterial to this question 
 
 which side is right and which wrong ; we are not 
 
 now discussing the propriety of the Poor Law 
 
 Amendment Act. 
 
 # # # # # 
 
 Mr. Stephens says that he is a devoted friend 
 to the ancient institutions of his country, insomuch 
 that he regrets exceedingly that a form of expres- 
 sion which he says prevailed formerly in indict- 
 ments is laid aside ; and is very much offended 
 because in this bill of indictment it is not alleged 
 that he was " seduced by the instigation of the devil.'* 
 But was this a meeting for the preservation of the 
 ancient institutions of the country } He says, you 
 see, how very much he disapproves of the reforms 
 that have taken place in our institutions. Now, was 
 this an anti-Reform meeting } Why, what is there 
 in the banners that stared Mr. Stephens in the face, 
 when he was addressing the multitude from the 
 hustings, and of which he expressed no disapproba- 
 tion, which animated his eloquence upon that memor- 
 able occasion } Mr. Stephens says he thinks that 
 the suffrage is now too much extended, and that it 
 
His Trial and Imprisonment. 169 
 
 Avas wrong to depart from the system of our ancestors, 
 in which we had close boroughs, with ten or half a 
 dozen electors, and according to which system a vast 
 proportion of the people did not enjoy the elective 
 franchise at all. Mr. Stephens says he approves of 
 the old system. 
 
 •5^ * ^ ^ -r? 
 
 The more Mr. Stephens inquired into the matter 
 in his cross-examination, the worse he fared ; and 
 when he asked Mr. Hibbert, " Did I not say some- 
 thing more T the answer was, " Yes, you said you 
 would lead them on, and lose every drop of blood in 
 your body in their cause, if there were a rising ?" 
 What was a rising } What did he contemplate ? 
 These industrious classes rising in a mass, and that 
 there should be a sort of Jaqiierie in this country ; 
 that persons of small, or no property, sliould rise 
 against those who had property, and that there 
 
 should be universal pillage and plunder 
 
 Find your verdict, gentlemen, upon the evidence 
 that is laid before you, upon oath of the witnesses, 
 since this trial began. If upon that evidence you 
 can entertain no reasonable doubt of the guilt of the 
 defendant upon this charge, you will not shrink from 
 pronouncing a verdict of guilty — if he has so debased 
 the holy character that he fills — if he has so forgotten 
 his duty to his God and to his sovereign, I think that 
 little sympathy can be entertained for him. 
 
 Mr. Justice Pattison then summed up : The 
 
i7o Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 observations which the defendant had made were 
 
 adduced in very powerful language, with great 
 
 talent and ability, and with a fluency and power of 
 
 language which I have very seldom seen equalled, and 
 
 which would undoubtedly make, as they ought to 
 
 make, a great impression on the minds of the jury, 
 
 provided that they really bore upon the points in 
 
 question. 
 
 # # # . # # 
 
 The defendant in the most deliberate part of his 
 address to the jury, that which was worked up with 
 most eloquence of all perhaps, showing that there 
 could be no crime at all unless there were a criminal 
 intention — said that it was for them to see what 
 his intentions were. The evidence of intention 
 was to be collected by the jury from the acts 
 which they found to have taken place, and 
 w^hatever those acts were naturally and inevitably 
 calculated to produce, that was to be taken as 
 evidence of the intention to produce such results. 
 We could not dive into the hearts of men, to see 
 their real intentions there ; and we could only 
 ascertain it by attributing to men such intentions as 
 their acts manifestly seemed to imply. The circum- 
 stance alone of this meeting being held at night and 
 by torch-light, would not of itself be sufficient tO' 
 justify them in saying that it was an illegal meeting,, 
 but it was one of the circumstances to be taken inta 
 consideration. The object of the meeting might be 
 
His Trial and ImpiHsoninent. i 7 1 
 
 fairly collected from the banners that were carried, 
 and their inscriptions : " For children and wife we" 
 will war to the knife/' " Ashton demands universal 
 suffrage or universal vengeance/'' The defendant 
 said he was of no party in politics, Whig or Tory or 
 Radical, or any other description of persons ; that 
 he had nothing to do with Chartism, or universal 
 suffrage, or the ballot. If that were so, it was 
 certainly very extraordinary that he suffered himself 
 to be at the meeting where these banners were 
 carried. 
 
 When Mr. Justice Pattison had concluded his 
 charge to the jury, it was twenty minutes to eight 
 o'clock. The jury, after a short consultation, found 
 Mr. Stephens guilty ; whereupon — 
 
 The Judge (to Mr. Stephens). — Have you any- 
 thing to say against judgment being now passed } 
 
 Mr. Stephens. — No, my lord, the Crown has 
 had its own way throughout. I have nothing what- 
 ever to ask. 
 
 The Judge. — Joseph Rayner Stephens, the jury, 
 after hearing the address which the Attorney-General 
 made, the evidence on the part of the prosecution 
 and the address — the very powerful address — which 
 you have made to them, have found you guilty of 
 attending an unlawful assembly, addressing to them 
 seditious words, and inciting them to provide arms 
 to resist the execution of the law. I am very sorry 
 to have to pass sentence upon any person of your' 
 
172 
 
 ^yx^TjosepnK 
 
 talent and ability, and of your education. The 
 sentence upon you is, that you be imprisoned in the 
 House of Correction at Knutsford, for the term of 
 EIGHTEEN CALENDAR MONTHS, and that at the 
 end of that time you find sureties for your good 
 behaviour for the term of five years, for yourself 
 in ;£500, and two sureties in £2^0 each. 
 
 Mr. Stephens asked his lordship whether that 
 sentence precluded him from the use of pens, ink, 
 and paper } 
 
 The Learned JUDGE said he did not know the 
 regulations of the gaol. 
 
 The Attorney-General. — My lord, he may 
 have pens, ink, paper, and books, so far as I am 
 concerned. God forbid that he should be debarred^ as 
 far as my influence extends, from anything that can 
 alleviate the suffering which he must endure. 
 
 The Judge w^as understood to say, that the 
 prisoner might be allowed to have pens, ink, and 
 paper, always taking care, that it was forbidden to 
 the defendant to write for publication anything of 
 a similar character to that for which he had been 
 convicted. 
 
 Mr. Stephens was then removed in the custody of 
 an officer to the inside of the Castle, where he was 
 lodged for the night. 
 
 The trial terminated soon after eight o'clock, having 
 .occupied about ten hours and a half. 
 
 The Government accounted Mr. Stephens a for- 
 
His Trial and Imprisonment. 
 
 7o^ 
 
 midable speaker, seeing that in addition to " eighteen^ 
 months' imprisonment," they exacted practical silence 
 from him for five years. Mr. Stephens spoke upwards 
 of five hours. There is quoted here altogether 
 scarcely a seventh part of the printed report of the trial. 
 The reader cannot fail to be struck with the sagacity 
 and good judgment which mark the commence- 
 ment of the address, and from which the orator 
 never deviated in all the stately and passionate 
 march of his speech. Very few of the persons 
 indicted in those stormy times defended themselves. 
 The other instance of distinction was that of Thomas 
 Cooper, who displayed marvellous courage of defence, 
 his trial extending over nearly three days. But Mr. 
 Stephens's defence is unrivalled for its complete and 
 sustained eloquence. The Attorney- General, Sir 
 John Campbell (afterwards Lord Chancellor) was 
 very much stung by what Mr. Stephens said of him* 
 and his political colleagues, and when he came to 
 reply he retorted with elaborate bitterness. But as 
 the Judge spoke of Mr. Stephens with great fairness 
 and respect, and paid a very high compliment to his 
 great ability, the Attorney-General made some tardy 
 atonement by making no opposition to Mr. Stephens's 
 request for some literary conveniences in prison. 
 Mr. Stephens maintained throughout the same tone 
 of independence and even defiance. When asked 
 "whether he had anything to say against sentence 
 being passed," he answered ^' I have nothing to ask.'^ 
 
r4 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 In the report in the TimeSy he is represented as 
 saying : ^' I have nothing to ask, and I leave them 
 (meaning the Crown prosecutors) to do as they like 
 with me,'* which is more likely what he did say. 
 
 While the jury were retiring, he wrote to his wife, 
 and later dispatched a letter from the " Court House, 
 Chester, Thursday evening,'* saying, "The trial is 
 .over. My next letter will be dated Knutsford. 
 It is a lovely, healthful village. My sentence is 
 eighteen months — not quite so long as we had made 
 up our minds to. The judge was as urbane and 
 courteous as he could be under the circumstances.'' 
 In a subsequent letter to his wife, he informs her 
 that " in all likelihood I shall remain at Chester 
 Castle — that jail being much better than Knutsford. 
 The judge promised to make the alteration.'* Mr. 
 Stephens also said that " to my thinking my defence 
 was not a good speech. I was not myself — fatigued 
 with the previous business — and exhausted with 
 reading so many quotations." 
 
 During the first period of his incarceration in 
 Chester Castle his treatment was the same as that of 
 .other prisoners, of whom there were nine, detained 
 there for similar political offences. A condemned 
 cell being then happily vacant, the Governor allowed 
 it to be used as a place in which prisoners could see 
 their visitors. Not a very cheerful place of meeting ! 
 When there were no visitors Mr. Stephens w^as 
 .allowed to take his meals in this exhilarating apart- 
 
His Trial and Imp riso7imcnt. 175 
 
 ment. He was treated with civility by the authori- 
 ties, and said so, as he thought it due to them, and 
 because he wished that his friends should not be 
 under an impression that he was used with harshness 
 when he experienced respectful kindness. He desired 
 not to be an object of sympathy without cause, nor 
 would he make pretence of suffering, or allow it to 
 be suggested, when it was not so. One of his fellow- 
 prisoners testified that his dietary was precisely the 
 same as theirs. Being a gentleman, whose conversa- 
 tion was interesting and instructive, he became a 
 favourite with the Governor, and ultimately had some 
 indulgences, but whatever befell him he never com- 
 plained. Feargus O'Connor began sending forth 
 distressing complaints the first day of his imprison- 
 ment. Mr. Stephens murmured not ; what he had 
 done had been done deliberately, with his eyes open, 
 foreknowing the consequences as serious. He was 
 always fearless, and condemned O'Connor and other 
 leaders, whom the exigencies of advocacy caused him 
 to be associated with, because they were unequal to 
 the emergencies they had provoked. 
 
 A political prisoner liberated before he was, sent 
 him a versified letter of thanks for the benefits he and 
 others had experienced at Mr. Stephens's hands. He 
 had conversed with them, sung them German songs 
 to enliven their days, and made them many presents 
 of better fare, when he had means of doing it out of 
 that supplied to him. 
 
176 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 Among the letters which he received while at 
 Chester Castle, there is one from his friend, R. B. W, 
 Cobbett. It is interesting in itself, and from the 
 account it gives of the Socialists, who appear not ta 
 have put their case into very suitable hands in* 
 putting them into his. He, as their attorney-general^ 
 was simply impressed by the caricatures of their 
 doctrine which their adversaries had made. The 
 Socialist theory merely was, that the improvement 
 of the material condition of the poorer classes was 
 possible, and would give them a better chance of 
 happiness and virtue than they then possessed : — 
 
 "5, Marsden Street, Manchester. 
 "Aug. 29, 1840. 
 
 '* My dear Sir, 
 
 " Having been disappointed in an intention 
 which I had of seeing you during the Liverpool 
 Assizes (to which, contrary to expectation, I did not 
 go), I write this by way of consoling myself for my 
 disappointment. In the first place, I must explain 
 how it happened that I did not see Mrs. Stephens- 
 when last at Chester. I thought I would call on her 
 when my work was over, and I did not expect that 
 that would last long, when it had once begun. Alas! 
 how little did I know Xki^ physical force of my clients' 
 lungs ! They talked us all near dead, and the last 
 two nights I was kept in Court till near midnight, 
 and then I had to leave too early in the morning to 
 call on Mrs. Stephens. 
 
His Trial and Imprisonment, 177 
 
 *' The little Doctor called on me a day or two ago : 
 our meeting was not very cordial, owing to a ridiculous 
 circumstance, which is as follows : — Some time since 
 I wrote to the Doctor to request him to urge his 
 Ashton constituents to pay my bill. To fill up my 
 letter and amuse him, I cracked sundry jokes on his 
 disconsolate state, advised him to write a book and 
 call it * Reflections on Stone Walls,' said something 
 about the poverty of patriots, and gave him a quota- 
 tion from Lord Rochester to the effect that it is part 
 of man's duty to God to get rich, as he cannot be 
 honest if he is poor. To my infinite consterna- 
 tion the Doctor took all this to himself! and back 
 comes a letter breathing pistols, pikes, bullets, and 
 all other kinds of destructive weapons in every line. 
 Now, had I been * an evil-disposed person,' here 
 was an excuse for kicking up a row, * contrary to the 
 peace of our Lady the Queen, her Crown and 
 dignity ;' but being a peaceably-disposed attorney, I 
 put the letter in my pocket, which, thank God, it did 
 not set on fire ! 
 
 " I know very little how the world wags just now 
 as to affairs in general, finding myself sufficiently 
 occupied by attending to my own and my clients* 
 business. I rarely see a newspaper, and when I do I 
 see so little either amusing or instructive therein that I 
 soon lay it aside. As you see the Times, you have 
 seen how Mr. Oastler's affair with Thornhill ended. 
 It was, I can assure you, quite to my and my client's 
 
 M 
 
lyS Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 •satisfaction ; and I think the libellous tongues of our 
 most Hbel-loving and respectable people will be now 
 tied on that subject. By-the-by, I have just been 
 reading in said Times a little of the stuff about the 
 Jews of Damascus and Rhodes. I can't think why 
 they should make such a fuss about Father Thomaso 
 and the child, when all the world knows that since 
 they crucified our Saviour they have amused them- 
 selves by crucifying his followers, not one at a time, 
 but in the lump ! Witness National Debt, paper- 
 money, &c. The document which they have addressed 
 to the various Powers is certainly curious, but it is 
 more curious to see the great ' Conservative ' Church 
 papers taking part with Jews. Oh ! Mammon, how 
 wondrous is thy power ! 
 
 "You must know that I am Attorney- General to 
 the Manchester Socialists ! and, truly, it does not go 
 much against my conscience ; for, however powerful 
 some kinds of folly may be for mischief, I do believe 
 that this one particular sort is beneficial in the way 
 of burlesque. Of all the incomprehensible philosophy 
 that mad imagination ever invented, nothing, I believe, 
 ever equalled this ! What think you of mankind 
 having acted contrary to Nature from the begin- 
 ning of the world, and having done so because all 
 circumstances {i.e. everything) have been contrary to 
 Nature also, which unnatural circumstances have had 
 an absolute power over the destinies of men, and yet 
 Robert Owen can change all men and all things ; or, 
 
His Trial and ImpiHsonniciit, lyg 
 
 111 other words, can make all things as God meant 
 them to be, but could not make them ! Now, do 
 you believe that any serious harm can come of this ? 
 For my part, I think it a very good satire on modern 
 -philosophy and folly. 
 
 " I am, my dear sir, 
 
 "Yours most sincerely, 
 
 '' R. B. B. COBBETT. 
 ^' The Rev. J. R. Stephens." 
 
 Another letter was from Mr. O'Brien, of whom 
 ^mention has been made : he being then a resident in 
 Lancaster Castle, had leisure to remember that he 
 was under personal obligations to Mr. Stephens, which 
 he had somewhat neglected, and his letter is one of 
 inquiry, as it seems intended to ascertain whether or 
 no estrangement had grown up between them : — 
 
 " Lancaster Castle, 
 
 "Sept. 4, 1840. 
 
 ■'' My dear Stephens, 
 
 " When I last had the pleasure of seeing you, I 
 little thought that our next intercommunication should 
 take place between Lancaster and Chester Castles. 
 Though we have not corresponded, I was not, however, 
 1 assure you, indifferent to your situation, and much 
 less to the malicious efforts of certain parties to destroy 
 your usefulness, by undermining your popularity and 
 influence. And if I have been hitherto silent on the 
 
 isi 2 
 
i8o Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 subject, I wish you to believe that such silence 
 proceeded not from any fallingoff in those sentiments 
 of esteem and friendship which I have entertained 
 towards you. 
 
 "Though since we last met (about June 2, 1839)' 
 no correspondence has passed between us, I have had 
 you constantly in my eye, and, since the commence- 
 ment of your imprisonment, have made many inquiries 
 and frequently heard about you. It gave me great 
 pleasure indeed to learn that confinement did not affect 
 your health or spirits, and still greater pleasure to 
 learn that there was no disposition on your part to 
 conciliate your persecutors by any unworthy con- 
 cessions. 
 
 " My object in writing to you now is simply to let 
 you see that I have not forgotten you, and to assure 
 you that with respect to a certain affair between you 
 and me, it would have been settled long ago, but for 
 reasons which you may easily guess, and shall be 
 settled the moment fortune takes a turn in vay 
 favour. 
 
 *' My dear Stephens, 
 
 " Yours most sincerely, 
 
 " James Bronterre O'Brien.'^ 
 
 There is much more to the same effect. After- 
 ivards, another letter came from Mr. O'Brien, effusive 
 and explanatory. It appears that Mr. Stephens had 
 replied in the meantime in a general way, but mani- 
 
His Trial and Imprisonment, i S r 
 
 festly without enthusiasm. The following is a copy 
 of a receipt which appears among papers still extant 
 of his : — 
 
 " NortJiern Star Newspaper, 
 
 "Mr. Stephens of Ashton has purchased twenty 
 shares in the Northern Star^ but is exempt from all 
 expenses connected with the paper. 
 
 "Leeds, Sept. 9, 1837. 
 
 ";£"20 o o 
 
 " Feargus O'Connor.*' 
 
 This receipt shows that Mr. Stephens took a liberal 
 part, as far as his means permitted, in supporting 
 the undertakings intended to promote the public 
 .objects with which he was concerned. The letter 
 of Mr. Bronterre O'Brien shows that Mr. Stephens's 
 political colleagues were in the habit of applying 
 to him for loans. 
 
 Mr. Stephens's father had told his son in 1833, 
 ^'' That he should die rejoicing that when the Gospel 
 trumpet was taken from his mouth it would be blown 
 much more effectively by him." This gratification 
 was not to occur to him in the way he wished ; but 
 that he never lost affection for his son, the following 
 letter sent to him at Chester Castle shows, and not 
 less the characteristic steadfastness with which the 
 writer walked in the " ancient ways," and carefully 
 .qualified his approval. 
 
1 82 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 '' Brixton Hill, Oct. 27, 1840, 
 
 ^' My very dear Joseph, 
 
 " It gives me pleasure to hear that anything I 
 ever said or did gave you pleasure. The communi- 
 cation you allude to was limited, firsts to those letters 
 in which you confine yourself to religion and morality ,^ 
 and keep clear of politics ; and, secondly, to the ease,, 
 freedom, purity, and eloquence in which you write 
 the Anglo-Saxon language. Perhaps I may add^ 
 the endless variety in which you succeed, without any 
 apparent effort, in placing the same topics before 
 your hearers and readers. 
 
 ''With regard to your Magazine, I fear I can da 
 nothing for you ; your political views and mine are 
 wide as the poles asunder. That an obscure 
 individual, like you or me, is called, or can reasonably 
 expect, by agitation or otherwise, to revolutionize 
 the long- established institutions of this or any other 
 country, for good or evil, in the short period of our 
 age, appears to me as visionary as would be an 
 effort to construct a trumpet whose sound should 
 wake the dead 365,000 years before the appointed 
 time. One or one thousand souls may be converted 
 in a little time, by the blessing of God upon the 
 preaching of the Gospel, because the time of their 
 probation is short and uncertain ; but national 
 changes are slow in their progress — and the political 
 husbandman must sow the seed in one generation,, 
 succeeding generations must water, and fence, and 
 
His Trial aiid Imprisonment, 183 
 
 weed, and watch it — and many ages enjoy the feast 
 of harvest home. I will think of your request, and 
 if anything should strike me you shall have it ; albeit,. 
 I am become like a bottle in the smoke, a shrivelled 
 memorandum of olden times. 
 
 " Your affectionate father, 
 
 "John Stephens." 
 
184 Life of Joseph Ray iter Stephens. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE TWO KINDS OF CONSERVATISM. 
 
 When the great questions of social injustice, which 
 had so generously moved Mr. Stephens, were abated 
 by time and legislation, his political sympathies 
 were found to be with the Conservatives. Only 
 persons were surprised at this who had never looked 
 discerningly at the mixed nature of the political forces 
 of which he was a leader. He was always a Tory- 
 Radical on principle. " Tory-Radical " was a name 
 first applied by O'Connell to the Chartist school set 
 up by Feargus O'Connor. Daniel O'Connell was a 
 discerning epithet-maker, and seeing that O'Connor- 
 Chartists did the work of the Tories, and were used 
 by the Tories, he, in party keenness, invented this 
 term. O'Connor, in the first words he wrote in the 
 Northern Star, which I have quoted, said, " Behold 
 that red spot on the corner of my newspaper ! That 
 is the stamp — the Whig beauty spot .... which 
 has cost me nearly ;^8o in money." 
 
 Thiswas the O'Connor way, and is the Tory Chartist 
 way even unto this day. O^Connor ascribed every 
 evil to the Whigs. Yet it was the more astute sort of 
 
The Two Kmds of Conservatism. 185 
 
 Tories who invented the taxes upon knowledge — 
 who kept them in force and resisted their repeal. It 
 was the Whigs who eventually abolished them, 
 incited thereto by real Radicals — Cobden, Bright 
 and Milner-Gibson, who could never have obtained 
 their repeal from the class of old school Tories, so 
 numerous in both Houses of Parliament. 
 
 O'Connor retaliated upon O'Connell by inventing 
 the term " Whig-Radical," to designate those Liberals 
 who more consistently looked to the Whigs for 
 assistance, seeing that the Whigs were in favour of 
 the self-government of the people — with however the 
 drawback of being more than half afraid of trusting 
 them with the necessary political power. 
 
 A Radical, as George Eliot depicts him in *' Felix 
 Holt," is a man who has heroic unrest under injustice, 
 a strong sense of personal self-respect and social 
 independence — who generously takes the part of the 
 oppressed — who is content when the oppression ceases, 
 but is without any political policy for rendering it 
 impossible in the future. 
 
 Mr. Stephens never concealed his utter want of 
 sympathy with " Political Charters," " National Peti- 
 tions," " Sacred weeks," of cessation from work, and 
 other devices of his immediate colleagues. 
 
 At the Colchester meeting a resolution was adopted 
 reprobating the conduct of Stephens and Oastler for 
 endeavouring to draw the working people from the 
 duty which they owed to themselves and their 
 
1 86 Life of yoseph Raynei^' Slephejis. 
 
 country.'^' This referred to the schism which had 
 been commenced by Stephens, O'Connor and Oastler. 
 It was denied that any schism was intended — but it 
 was made. Chartist crowds following their passions,, 
 were unobservant that their forces were being brokea 
 in two. The wiser politicians saw the danger, and 
 those who created it knew what they were about. 
 The Tory inspiration of the Chartist organs would 
 appear under amusing disguises. Here is an ex- 
 ample : " For nothing in the present age is more 
 remarkable than the number of its splendid dis- 
 coveries. . . . Not the least notable is the discovery 
 now made by persons of a certain description, relative 
 to that splendid humbug the Ballot."t The '' persons 
 of a certain description " are named as the " Mel- 
 bournes, O'Connells, and Humes — Whigs, Whig- 
 Radicals and sham Radicals." 
 
 " Stephens, Oastler, and Fielden " formed the 
 title of placards and poems current among factory 
 workers. Stephens's name stood first in popular 
 regard. The NortJicrn Star, which naturally had 
 great things to say of O'Connor, yet set forth with 
 respect to a great Manchester meeting on behalf of 
 the Glasgow cotton-spinners, that '' the building 
 resounded with cheers while Stephens, Oastler, and 
 O'Connor" spoke against the Whigs — " were hurling 
 defiance " is the phrase used. J 
 
 * F. Place, " Working Men's Assoc," vol. iii. 27, 82 r. 
 
 f Northern Liberator^ quoted in Northern Star, Dec. 9. 1 837. 
 
 X Northern Star, Dec. 23, 1837. 
 
The Two Kinds of Consei^vatism. 187 
 
 Though sohcitous for the personal welfare rather 
 than for the political emancipation of the people, 
 Mr. Stephens was quite free from intending that 
 their condition should be one of abject docility. He 
 was for maintaining their self-respect and household 
 independence. Infringement herein, always excited 
 his indignation. He relates in the CJiavipion that 
 the daughter of a game-preserving rector and squire — 
 both in one — in a parochial visitation entered a cottage 
 from which the inmates seemed to be absent, and 
 when gratifying her curiosity received from an un- 
 noticed clown a most sonorous kiss, accompanied 
 with the apology, " Lawk, miss, I took you for 
 Mary — who would have thought of you looking into 
 mother's porridge-pot." The father of the outraged 
 damsel inflicted a fine of ten shillings, accompanied 
 by a lecture on the ingratitude of thus insulting a 
 maiden in the act of displaying such laudable anxiety 
 for his tenants' welfare. The whole village insists 
 that the young lady's " laudable anxiety " was ta 
 ascertain if any game had found its way from her 
 father's covers to his tenant's culinary utensils. 
 ^' What business," asks the Cliampioii^ ** has any 
 stranger to intrude, unasked, into another's dwelling }' 
 Poverty would conceal its rags and its wants, and 
 resent the invasion of its privacy." 
 
 A saying of Mr. Stephens, which occurs in the 
 Champion, shows that he had an innate dislike of 
 tyranny in politics or in piety ; in employer or 
 
1 88 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 .employed. '* It is an axiom with us, which God has 
 told us in His Word, and history has confirmed in a 
 thousand instances, that the man who becomes a 
 willing thrall to another would be himself a tyrant, 
 did time and opportunity admit of it. He who 
 swore by Calvin would have burnt Servetus."^ 
 
 What is generally overlooked, alike by journalists 
 and other politicians, is the fact that there are 
 two distinct classes of Conservatives, political Conser- 
 vatives and social Conservatives. The political 
 Conservatives care only for power for themselves ; 
 the social Conservatives care for the welfare of the 
 people. Both care for authority, and when authority 
 is in question they are united, and this prevents 
 .ordinary observers from seeing the difference between 
 them. The social or generous school of Conserva- 
 tives, believe steadfastly in the rule of the wealthy 
 and the educated. They distrust altogether the 
 .capacity of the people to govern themselves. They 
 are fpr a wise despotism ; but it is a wise and just 
 rule that they intend. Their feeling is that the 
 happiness of the many can be best insured by patron- 
 age of the people, and they are favourable to such 
 liberty only as is conducive to this end — provided 
 also they can control it. They are friendly indeed to 
 .education, so far as it does not unfit the people for 
 their control. To do them justice, the misery and 
 wretchedness of the poor excite their strong com- 
 
 * The Chanition, p. 5, Feb. 1850. 
 
The Tzvo Kinds of Conservatism, 1S9 
 
 passion, and under the dominion of this sympathy 
 they are practically Radicals. They show so much 
 real kindness to those they employ in their workshops, 
 or on their estates, that Radicals who are Radicals 
 from suffering, rather than from knowledge of 
 political principles, mistake them for Democratic 
 Radicals, and are won to them. Indeed, the generous 
 Tories are often better and kinder employers than 
 the Whig or Radical manufacturer or landlord ; that 
 is, than those who are Liberal without social 
 sympathy. So strong are generous Conservatives 
 in their compassion for the poor, that they will even 
 abandon their political principles which constitute 
 them Tories, rather than that the sufferings of the 
 people shall continue. At a great meeting Mr. Oastler 
 said, " Down with the Church and down with the 
 State, if they shall combine to oppress the labourers, 
 whom God says, are the first that shall be fed." 
 '' Again," says the Star, " did the room tremble 
 when the *Tory' thus expressed himself: — iThey 
 have endeavoured to rule us, and have failed. Now 
 let the people make laws for themselves, and see 
 what that will do ! ' "^ 
 
 This was the generous Toryism of Richard- 
 Oastler ; and Joseph Rayner Stephens went as fan 
 Many of the insurgent Radicals were of the same 
 opinion. My valued friend, Thomas Allsop — who 
 gave O'Connor his property qualification oi £100 2l 
 * The Northern Star, Dec. 23, 1S37. 
 
iQO Life of Joseph Ray iter Stephens. 
 
 year in land, to enable him to take his seat in the 
 House of Commons when elected member for 
 Nottingham — was a Tory of this school, as also 
 Robert Owen, the founder of English Socialism. 
 He contemned politics as diverting attention from 
 social arrangements, and as an impediment in their 
 way. He saw no objection to slavery, when 
 beneficently controlled. Sidmouth and Castlereagh 
 lent a favourable ear to his plans : and Socialist 
 schemes, so far as they promised to organize comfort 
 and contentment, apart from politics, have always 
 been approved by Tories in England ; and in Europe, 
 by Bismarck and Louis Napoleon, alike. 
 
 The following is the most singular example of a 
 paternal Tory petition extant : it was doubtless 
 forwarded to the Queen : the handwriting of the 
 original is that of Mr. Oastler. It is worth preserving 
 as a specimen of the art of educating grown men 
 and women in all the docility of political children : — 
 
 ^' To Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, 
 
 " We are your loyal and grateful subjects, anxious 
 at this as at all times to maintain the dignity of the 
 law and the honour of the Crown. 
 
 " We place our hope in the powerful and benign 
 shelter of royalty, convinced that your Majesty will 
 listen with a willing ear to our just complaint and 
 earnest prayer. 
 
 " After more than thirty years patient struggling — 
 
The Tzuo Kinds of Conservatism, 1 9 1 
 
 after the endurance of many sacrifices — after the 
 most careful examination into the truth of our case 
 and claims, by Select Committees of the Houses of 
 Lords and Commons and by a Royal Commission, 
 all that we had affirmed was proved and admitted — 
 in 1847 the Ten Hours' Bill was passed. 
 
 "That Act was received with gratitude. Even 
 our enemies say that we have used it beneficially. 
 No complaints have been made against it. We 
 have felt its benefits. The ministers of religion have 
 joined with us in thanksgiving for its results ; our 
 reverend and beloved bishop has, with truly 
 Christian eloquence, in the House of Peers^ described 
 those results, and supported our claim, but our 
 tormentors grudge us the enjoyment of the benefits 
 which we were tauorht to believe the law had secured 
 
 to us. 
 
 "We were told, by one who was then our leader, 
 that your Majesty rejoiced to sign that Act ; that, 
 although our Queen, you did not despise our grati- 
 tude ; nay, that your Majesty was pleased most 
 graciously to accept a very trifling but significant 
 token of our loyalty in commemoration of that, to us, 
 most important and joyous event ; nay, that your 
 Majesty deigned, in terms we shall ever cherish and 
 remember, to assure Lord Ashley — * You knew that 
 we were grateful and loyal !" 
 
 "The Act of 1847 is perfect. Why should it be 
 repealed } That of 1844 is imperfect, and requires 
 
192 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 amendment; but it is asserted no English words can 
 be found to secure us the benefit intended — release 
 from the oppressive ' shift ' system. We do not 
 believe there is such paucity of words in our native 
 tongue. By a quibble we have been deprived of the 
 intended protection of the Act of 1844 — by a tiHck 
 it is now intended to deprive us of the Ten Hours' 
 Act of 1847. 
 
 '' The two Houses being composed of many men 
 have no regard to individ2ial responsibility. They 
 have collectively done that which as individuals 
 they would have spurned. They have rewarded the 
 guilty at the expense of the innocent, whom they 
 have betrayed and punished. 
 
 " Your Majesty's humble and grateful 
 
 " Petitioners will ever pray." 
 
 Such language of child-like dependence upon the 
 Throne had never before proceeded from any body 
 of working people. Until the reign of Victoria, no 
 monarch was felt or imagined to be much concerned 
 about the condition of the poor. The Crown was only 
 known to the people through its ministers; and its 
 ministers were only known to the people as passing 
 oppressive laws against them ; taxing them, sus- 
 pecting and defaming them when they sought redress. 
 These poor petitioners state that they were loyal 
 and grateful. They never had anything to be grate- 
 ful for — or, if they had, they did not know it. They 
 
The Tzvo Kinds of Conservatism, 193 
 
 are made to state that they are anxious at all times 
 to maintain the dignity of the law and the honour 
 of the Crown. What the common people knew of 
 the " law " they did not like, and for the " dignity " 
 of that, they would not be very solicitous, and they 
 were too far from the Crown to know much of its 
 '' honour ; " and were ignorant of the means of main- 
 taining it. The petition was the work of other 
 hands than those of the people. It is very gracefully 
 expressed. Its simple eloquence is striking ; but 
 the passion of the authors of it betrays them into bad 
 taste and indiscretion in one part, where they pour 
 into the ears of the Queen coarse charges of " tricks" 
 and ''quibbles'' — accusations, in fact, against some 
 of Her Majesty's nearest advisers. The Queen may 
 be solicited to bend her ear to the cry of humanity 
 and justice, but it is alien to the dignity of her 
 exalted position to recognize the heated imputations 
 of party controversialists. The last passage quoted 
 illustrates the instinct of personal government by an 
 out-spoken distrust of the sympathies of a legislative 
 assembly. The petition is a masterly specimen of 
 the best and worst qualities of paternal Toryism. 
 
 The latter part of the petition is directed against 
 Lord Ashley, and is intended to warn the Crown 
 against him. About 1852, when the Factory 
 Act was but a very few years old, an attempt was 
 made to destroy its value by new legislation. Lord 
 Ashley, who was entrusted with the defence of the 
 
 N 
 
S94 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 Act, for which he had long and generously laboured, 
 accepted a compromise from the mill-owners, for 
 which the petitioners disowned him. 
 
 Sadler, himself, was of the school which regarded 
 politics as a scheme of compassionate patronage. His 
 own system was described by himself as "the Paternal, 
 its leading characteristics being to foster, protect, 
 cherish, encourage, promote ; its chief means of 
 operation, the presenting to human beings the motives 
 of benevolence and hoper He waged endless war 
 against the political economists, whose system he 
 •described as '' the Preventive, or repressive ; its object 
 being to repress, discourage, isolate, and limit; and 
 its favourite means the inculcation oi fear!'^ 
 
 The majority of political Conservatives think 
 only of those legislative conditions w^hich main- 
 tain their ascendancy as the governing class. 
 The socialist Conservatives (using the term socialist 
 in its natural sense, that of organized social 
 life) are essentially generous-minded. They are 
 for good government, for which their demand is 
 .absolute. They believe with Plato, that "the evils 
 of the world will continue until philosophers become 
 kings, or kings become philosophers." Therefore, if 
 the King will not become a philosopher, these 
 Royalist reformers will change the King, if that is 
 necessary, in order that the people shall be well 
 governed. This is the doctrine of the Tory- Radicals, 
 * "Life of M. T. Sadler, M.P." pp. 33, 34- 
 
The Two Kinds of Conservatism. 195 
 
 and was adopted by the Tory-Chartists who succeeded 
 them. - 
 
 The Radical democrat is quite a different speci- 
 men : he is clearly for good government, but has 
 -iio intention of allowing good government to depend 
 upon other people^s good nature. He is not content 
 to owe his prosperity to a happy accident, or his free- 
 dom to charity. He seeks security for his political 
 and social welfare by securing a substantial voice in 
 the choice of those who are to control it. 
 
 In 1838, Z'^^Z/'i" Jf"<^^<^;r/;^^, which had some Radical 
 repute, contained a song translated from Beranger. The 
 lines had not the finish of the French poet, but their 
 sentiment, that of the feudal poor in all countries, was 
 popular in that day. Their burden w^as, " Do kings or 
 iiobles care for us. ^" Two of the stanzas were as follow: — 
 
 When you behold a king enthroned 
 
 Or sitting at a foolish feast, 
 Or queens in luxury enzoned, 
 
 And treated like some heavenly guest, 
 Restrain yourselves, keep on your hat, 
 
 Make not the least degrading fuss, 
 For, when the truth is spoken. 
 
 What do kings or nobles care for us ? 
 
 The working man should have one thought — 
 
 To be for ever free to toil, 
 And keep the wealth so dearly bought 
 
 To make his own hearthstone smile : 
 Some toil in this and some in that. 
 
 But o'er the great make you no fuss : 
 Their toils may soon be told — and what 
 
 Does any great man care for us ? 
 
 N 2 
 
196 Life of Joseph Rayiiei^ Stephens. 
 
 These lines exactly explain the nature of the 
 Tory-Radical mind, whose cry was for somebody " to 
 care for them/-^ A true Radical of the democratic 
 type seeks independence. He does not care whether 
 kings or nobles care for him or not : he does not 
 w^ant them to care for him : his business is to care 
 for himself. He will serve kings or nobles, in any 
 legitimate way, but he does not intend to impose 
 upon them the task of taking care of him. He 
 believes in government — as all men with common 
 sense must — but he believes with Goethe that, *' that 
 is the best government which teaches self-govern- 
 ment." 
 
 The Tory-Radical doctrine got itself expressed in" 
 what was called a people's paper, in these words : *^ It 
 is not the transfer or the extension of power to make 
 laws that we mainly w^ant, but the zvill only to make, 
 only to obey, such laws as are right. This is the first 
 and the great wantr^ 
 
 Right laws cannot be made by " will," but by 
 knowledge only, and the greater the "extension of 
 the power to make laws" the greater the chance 
 that the laws made will be adapted to the needs of 
 the greater number. Working-class politicians do 
 not reason over-much in these days. They reasoned 
 less in Mr. Stephens's time. Poverty aind local op- 
 pression enraged the working-people. Mr. Stephens 
 
 * I,efter to a Chartist on Result of Three Years' Agitation^ 
 Fcop. Ma^., July, 1841. Edited by J. R. Stephens. 
 
The Two Kinds of Conservatism, 1 9 7 
 
 commanded them because he shared their rage with 
 a mightier and better-instructed passion than theirs. 
 He conquered them by his great sympathy : they 
 never conquered him by their poHtical principles — 
 such as they were. Nor did they understand that 
 he was an ahen in their camps. And persons better 
 educated, but equally unobserving, made the same 
 mistake. Many Tories regarded him, and to this 
 day ignorantly regard him, as a Chartist ; while 
 Chartists who understood their own principles regarded 
 him always as a Tory. Mr. Justice Pattison, who 
 tried him, displayed the same ignorance. He could 
 not understand, he said, " how it could be, if Mr. 
 Stephens was, as he said, a person disapproving 
 Chartism, that he should be found at their meetings." 
 Many Conservatives objected, without much reflec- 
 tion, to Mr. Stephens taking, as he did, the part of 
 the poor. This is as unstatesmanly as the conduct 
 x)f those who object to Radicals vehemently assailing 
 admitted wrong to procure its abolition. What and 
 where would the English Constitution be now but for 
 its amendments ? But for timely agitations, with con- 
 cessions following, the political tornadoes which swept 
 monarchy out of France, would ere this have swept 
 it out of England. They who were foolishly accused 
 of making revolution in this country, were alone they 
 who prevented revolution. What would have hap- 
 pened had there been no generous Tories, who, like 
 Stephens, Oastler and others, showed at their own 
 
198 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 peril genuine compassion for the poor ? But for them., 
 and others like them, the Tory nobility would have 
 been extinguished, as the nobility of France has been. 
 We continue a great nation because deep in the 
 English heart — whether Tory or Radical — lies the 
 love of truth, justice, and fair play. And near by 
 that passion for right, lie also in every true Briton'.s 
 heart, the sleeping dogs of agitation and sedition who 
 guard the right, and they spring up, sooner or later, in- 
 men of every party when the spur of real oppression 
 pricks them. This heroic turbulence is in the heart 
 of the Lords as well as of the Commons — in Tory 
 as- well as Radical — as political history records, in 
 every volume of it. The gentleman, lay or eccle- 
 siastic, the farmer as well as the labourer, are equally 
 revolutionary when stung by wrong or ruin, and no 
 other redress seems attainable. This is our English 
 way, and it is ignorance and silliness to censure that 
 manly energy of independence which is the charac- 
 teristic of the Englishman in every land in which he 
 is found. The maxim of Confucius is true to this 
 day : " Advance the upright, and set aside the 
 crooked, and the people will submit. Advance the 
 crooked, and set aside the upright, and the people 
 will not submit." 
 
Later Career, Character, and Death. 199 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 LATER CAREER, CHARACTER, AND DEATH. 
 
 When Joseph Rayner Stephens was yet a young^ 
 man in the Wesleyan ministry, he was regarded by 
 his compeers, and by the older and discerning 
 preachers, as a person of great promise : then^ 
 activity of thought, soundness of judgment, and 
 mastery in statement were manifest in him. Nor 
 were these judges wrong. His future justified the 
 expectations his early youth created. His later years 
 were less publicly known than those of his mid-life,, 
 but this was because quieter times had come. The 
 storm had subsided which had revealed him as one of 
 its most conspicuous and potent spirits. The social 
 tempest was allayed by concessions which his 
 eloquence had helped to win. He always remained 
 a sort of stormy petrel of industry, and whenever 
 injustice of any kind disturbed its w^aters he was out 
 on the waves. 
 
 A passage, written many years ago when Mn 
 Stephens's name was familiar to all politicians^ 
 and when the facts alleged could and would 
 
200 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 have been contradicted had they not been true, 
 will illustrate the purport of this story of his 
 days. The passage in question is from the 
 valuable " History of the Factory Movement," a 
 book in the library of John Fielden Cobbett, of 
 Edenbridge ; the volume was presented to him by 
 his father^ John Morgan Cobbett. who was long 
 Member of Parliament for Oldham. The author 
 of this history states that "Joseph Rayner Stephens 
 is a name familiar to the ears of all the working 
 men in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire 
 and Yorkshire. He is a man of small stature, but 
 of great power ; he is more than a man of talent 
 and acquirements ; he is a man of genius, and 
 possesses the art of reaching and quickening the 
 
 hearts of others Whoever can and will, 
 
 in his own active labours, unite the theologian and 
 politician, and become, as Mr. Stephens did, 'a 
 political preacher,' will, in times of political ex- 
 citement, increase his popularity and the means at 
 his command for good or for evil. The phrase 
 'political preacher' is now a term of opprobrium, 
 .... yet the greatest preachers the Church of 
 England has known have made continual reference 
 to the duties of the * rulers and the ruled.' At the 
 head of the list stand the names of Bishop Latimer 
 and John Wesley. 
 
 ** The centre of Mr. Stephens's labours was Ashton- 
 under-Line and district. In 1838 and 1839, he 
 
Later Career, Character, and Death. 201 
 
 travelled from the Tyne to the Thames as occasion 
 required, and preached in the open air, sometimes 
 thrice on a Sunday, to audiences numbering from 
 five to twenty thousand, speaking at each service 
 from one to three hours,"^ travelling during the week, 
 and attending public meetings, at which he was the 
 leading orator. It was calculated by Dr. PVanklin, 
 that Whitfield, the greatest out-of-doors travelling 
 preacher of his day, might be clearly understood in 
 the open air by 20,000 persons. Mr. Stephens has 
 been distinctly heard on several occasions by as 
 great a number. The sources of his influence as a 
 political preacher were various. He was an orator, 
 a logician, and knew how to appeal to the affections 
 of the poor. It was his habit to raise himself, step 
 by step, to an altitude of reasoning which all could 
 see ; he would then strike out in bold and homely 
 Saxon against his opponents, depict in thrilling 
 words the sufferings of the oppressed, and having 
 pointed to the victims, he w^ould appeal to the 
 affections of the heart. Mr. Stephens was never 
 more thoroughly * at home ' than when talking of 
 
 * It is recorded that Mr. Stephens would appear on Primrose Hill, 
 London, at 1 1 o clock, and speak uncovered in the rain for three hours, 
 the vast throng staying to hear him. He would then announce that he 
 would preach in Copenhagen Plelds at 3 o clock, where he would speak 
 for more than two hours, and end by inviting his congregation to meet 
 him at 7 o clock on Kennington Common, where he would preach for 
 two hours more. His discourses were always fresh, and special reports 
 ^f them published in London at the time, stated that everybody could 
 hear him. 
 
202 Life of yosepJi Rayner Stephens, 
 
 the gambols of children, the affections of mothers^ 
 the duties of manhood ; by appealing to the inner- 
 most workings of the heart of each he commanded 
 the sympathies of all. He received power from, as 
 well as gave force to, the thousands of human beings, 
 to whose hearts his words were welcome messengers of 
 reproof and hope. This is the case with every really 
 popular speaker ; hence the failure of the best 
 possible reports of speeches to convey the electric 
 influence which bound audience and orator. Few 
 truer words have been penned than those of 
 Hooker : — ' He that goeth about to persuade 
 a multitude that they are not so well governed 
 as they ought to be, shall never want attentive 
 and favourable hearers, because they know the 
 manifold defects whereunto every kind of regimen 
 is subject ; but the secret lets and difficulties, which in 
 public proceedings are innumerable and inevitable,, 
 they have not ordinarily the judgment to consider. 
 And because such as openly reprove supposed 
 disorders of state are taken for principal friends to 
 the common benefit of all, and for men who carry 
 singular freedom of mind ; under this fair and 
 plausible colour, whatsoever they utter passeth for 
 good and current. That which wanteth in the weight 
 of their speech is supplied by the aptness of men's 
 minds to accept and believe it' 
 
 ** Mr. Stephens possessed the faculties which in 
 action could net fail to give to the side he espoused 
 
Later Career, Character, and Death. 203. 
 
 increased influence; but he was, for the reason stated 
 by Hooker, more popular than he would have been 
 had he been the supporter of Government ; yet, 
 surely, he advocated no measure for popularity's 
 sake, for no man has greater moral courage, or 
 knows better how to bear neglect or slander, or can 
 laugh more heartily at the venom of personal or 
 party sarcasm. It is due to truth to say that few 
 men can more boldly oppose a multitude when he 
 believes them to be in error. The religious and 
 political tenets of Mr. Stephens were thus sketched 
 by himself before his congregation in Ashton-under- 
 Lyne, in a New Year's Day address in 1839 ; they 
 are substantially a summary of his preaching and 
 teaching." ' The battle which we are now fighting 
 from one end of England to the other is not the 
 battle which most men take it to be. It goes much 
 further; it runs much deeper than most men have 
 yet supposed it to do. It is not a battle of party 
 against party for the time being; it is not a struggle 
 for power or for place among men who, for the 
 moment, are placed in antagonistic relation to each 
 other. Much less is it a war of words — a mere strife 
 between unthinking men about trifling points of faith : 
 the idle theories, the dry attractions, or the circum- 
 stantial secondary relations of acknowledged law 
 when applied to practice. No! It is the question 
 of law or no law, order or anarchy, religion or infi- 
 delity, heaven-sprung truth and peace and love, or 
 
204 Life of Joseph Rayner Slcphens, 
 
 hell-born withering atheism It is the battle, 
 
 my brethren, of the book (the Bible) against the men 
 of the world and against hell. If the book stand, 
 they fall; if this book fall, great will be the tem- 
 porary fall of the house of God, and you will be 
 buried in its ruins. The lists are drawn — the battle 
 is set — the field is pitched — deadly will be the 
 struggle; and who is able — who feels himself willing 
 to enter into that warfare t Pray God that he will 
 teach your hands to war, and your fingers to fight. 
 
 ' I am well aware, my brethren, that I have long 
 been charged — indeed, have always been charged — 
 with a positive departure from the line of duty 
 presented to the profession, of which I am a member. 
 It is said that I have dishonoured and desecrated 
 that holy office, by neglecting the purely religious 
 ,and exclusively spiritual claims which the Church has 
 made upon the time, the talents, and the influence of 
 her ministers — and instead of this, or before this, or 
 ,along with this, insisting on the obligation the whole 
 Christian world is under to carry into actual, visible, 
 immediate practice the plain precepts of that religion, 
 whose first and last, and only law on earth is, that 
 we should love our neighbour as oneself. It has been 
 my practice, and been charged upon me as a crime, 
 to apply the rules of God's Commandments to various 
 institutions of the social system in my own immediate 
 neighbourhood, and in the country at large, to bring 
 the principles and operations of the manufactures, 
 
Later Career, Character^ aiid Death, 205 
 
 the commerce, and the legislation of this professedly 
 Christian land to the standard of God s Holy Word. 
 I have asked whether merchants, senators, and 
 statesmen are amenable to any authority higher than 
 themselves, or whether they are free to do what 
 their own thirst for gold, or lust of power, may lead 
 them to attempt to execute upon the poor, the 
 weak, the unfriended, and defenceless portions of the 
 community 
 
 * I have gone on to inquire whether the practices 
 of the Factory system, for instance, are in accordance 
 with the precepts of our most holy religion — whether 
 Christian mill-owners are justified in pursuing a 
 system of manufacture which has made such a 
 fearful waste of the natural, the social, and the moral 
 life of our industrious countrymen, that is, has become 
 a question not only whether the silken ties that 
 should bind society in love can any longer hold her 
 various members within its soft and peaceful 
 circle ; but whether the race itself — the human 
 breed — be not so far degenerate as to threaten 
 imbecility, idiotcy, or actual extinction to a most 
 extensive and alarming degree ' P""^ 
 
 This extract from the '^History of the Factory 
 Movement " may be instructively supplemented by the 
 opinion lately expressed by a distinguished public 
 writer. Dr. J. H. Bridges, who says : — " In all that part 
 of Mr. Stephens's work and teaching which strove to set 
 
 * ** Hist, of the Factory Movement." 
 
2o6 Life of yoseph Ray Iter Stephejis. 
 
 up a standard of simple, wholesome, family life, I most 
 cordially sympathize. His protests against the ex- 
 aggerated admiration of the mechanical and political 
 progress of our time were full of deep truth ; his 
 services in the great reform of factory labour were 
 invaluable. All this I believe heartily. I am glad 
 to remember that I stood by him during the Cotton 
 Famine, and echoed his protests against the ignorant 
 and purblind application to the hard-working mass of 
 Lancashire men and women, when stricken by unfor- 
 seen disaster of the machinery of the Poor Law. On 
 the other hand, I cannot go with him in the least in 
 his vehement denunciations of the Poor Law, which I 
 believe to be, when rightly administered (and it is 
 the responsibility of the rate-paying inhabitants 
 .of each parish to choose wise administrators), a 
 means of saving the mass of the people from degra- 
 dation. Further, I think his criticisms of many of 
 the philanthropic movements of our time, sanitary, 
 educational, and other, were far too unsparing and 
 •violent." 
 
 The writer here quoted being officially connected 
 with the administration of the Poor Law, naturally 
 speaks of it under the wiser and more considerate 
 treatment of the poor observed in these days, and 
 which did not exist in Mr. Stephens's time. 
 
 In addition to the sentence of eighteen months' 
 imprisonment passed on Mr. Stephens in 1839, he 
 had to give sureties of ;^500 on his own part, and 
 
Later Career, Character, and Death. 207 
 
 two others of ;£2 50 each, for his good behaviour 
 during five years. At the expiration of this period a 
 very handsome present was made to him, bearing the 
 following interesting and honourable inscription : — 
 
 TO THE REVEREND JOSEPH RAYNER STEPHENS, 
 
 Who, for maintaining, in perilous times, the 
 
 Cause of the Poor, 
 
 Suffered eighteen months' imprisonment in Chester Castle ; 
 
 This Cup* 
 
 (With the accompanying Tea Service 
 
 to 
 
 MRS. STEPHENS) 
 
 Was presented by admiring and devoted friends 
 at Staleybridge. 
 
 GEORGE GARSIDE AND ABEL WILLIAMSON, 
 
 UnsoUcited, took upon themselves on behalf of this 
 
 Defender of the Poor, 
 
 The responsibility of an 
 
 Unconstitutionally Heavy Bail, which terminated 
 
 On the day of 
 
 This Presentation 
 
 Feby. loth, 1846. 
 
 In the later years of his life Mr. Stephens was 
 constantly busy with public questions which came 
 within the scope of his ministry, or related to matters 
 in which he had in former times taken part on a 
 more public stage. As a friend of temperance, he 
 would oppose the narrowness of total abstinence. 
 Again, he would oppose the Sunday closing of inns, 
 as a further restriction of the few social rights 
 * Now in the possession of his nephew, John JBtephens Storr. 
 
2o8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 enjoyed by the people. He became himself an advo- 
 cate of the union of Church and State, so that the Wes- 
 leyan Conference, which had suspended him for not 
 holding this doctrine, had made themselves disagree- 
 able prematurely. They might have seen that a man 
 who was a Paternal Conservative would be sure to 
 come back to that Church and State doctrine again. 
 
 After the Ten Hours Bill had been some time in 
 operation, as has been already stated, the mill- 
 owners proposed that a Bill should be introduced 
 into Parliament changing its operations. It was this 
 which gave rise to the charge of treachery against 
 Lord Ashley, who aided this new Bill of 1852. The 
 official statement of the friends of the mill-hands, as 
 to the effect of the new measure, is the following 
 opinion, given at the request of Mr. Avison, by 
 R. B. B. Cobbett. 
 
 " 1st. The period of labour of women and young 
 persons is extended to ten hours and a half per day, 
 except Saturdays, and on that day the period of 
 labour is limited to seven hours and a half Instead, 
 therefore, of the labour being limited to ten hours per 
 day, and fifty-eight hours per week, it would be ten 
 and a half hours per day and sixty hours per w^eek. 
 
 "2nd. The effect of the proposition is to render 
 w^orking by shifts and relays legal, between six and 
 six, so that women and young persons may be kept 
 at work, or about the mill, for twelve hours per day^ 
 and with one hour and a half off for' meals." 
 
Later Career^ Character^ and Death, 209 
 
 The proposal of such changes brought Mr. Stephens 
 again to the front. He once more took the platform 
 in defence of the poor workers^ with unabated energy 
 and disinterestedness. Some of the passages quoted 
 from his speeches in a previous chapter, were made 
 in this new campaign. 
 
 It has been said that he took much interest in de- 
 fending the people against the grimness of political 
 enactments souring the pleasant face of temperance. 
 Regarding Dr. F. R. Lees as one of those agents 
 of Puritanic rigour, he challenges him to discussion. 
 Dr. Lees, who had many agreeable qualities and a 
 social liberalism which brought him into jeopardy 
 with narrow sectaries whom he officially represented, 
 had his own views of the conditions of debate. 
 Thinking Dr. Lees evasive, Mr. Stephens took 
 steps which indicated his characteristic decision and 
 courage on the platform. He issued the following 
 placard : — 
 
 " Staleybridge, Jan. 28, 1848. 
 " To Dr. Lees. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 This is my last — Ay or No } 
 
 I will meet you to-night, and in the Town Hall. 
 
 Will you meet me t Let the bearers bring me word. 
 
 Proposition to be discussed— -What you w^ill. 
 
 Mode of proof — What you like. 
 
 Court of appeal — The assembled people. 
 
 Final decision — Their solemn and deliberate verdict. 
 
 O 
 
2IO Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 Admission free, with or without ticket. Expenses 
 of the Hall to be paid by me — -the meeting to choose 
 its own chairman, and to make its own regulations. 
 I am. Sir, 
 Your most obedient humble servant, 
 
 J. R. Stephens." 
 
 The placard continues : — 
 
 " I wrote a letter directly to himself, without any 
 committee between us to garble or suppress the cor- 
 respondence. I signed, and had a witness to, an 
 acceptance on my part, of his deceitful challenge. I 
 found out where he was — ordered a stand coach — 
 and sent a deputation of two persons, from Ashton, 
 in charge of my letter, with instructions to drive 
 after him to Compstall Bridge as fast as they could. 
 They found him there, delivered my letter, and 
 awaited his answer, ^ i\y or No.' " 
 
 The reader has seen that a noticeable feature in 
 Mr. Stephens was his strength of w^ill, and his belief 
 in its power. He held that a man could do any- 
 thing that he ought to do, if he had a resolute will. 
 The following account of his early life, by Mrs. Earle 
 (his daughter " Henrietta ^'), contains an interesting 
 example of it : — 
 
 "As a young man he used to write all his sermons 
 and speeches, and could not bear the slightest noise 
 or interruption, but this habit became inconvenient, 
 and caused him so much trouble that when he was 
 
Later Career, Character, and Death. 2 1 1 
 
 in Bristol he resolved to give it up, and that he 
 might do so he used to go into the most busy and 
 noisy parts of the public market-place and there 
 'Compose his sermons ; and ever afterwards — as he has 
 -often told me — he had not as many notes of his 
 many sermons and speeches as could be written on 
 his thumb-nail. 
 
 *' His wonderful strength of will in this instance — 
 •and in many others I could mention — was very great. 
 How well I can remember one Sunday at Staley- 
 bridge — during the time of the Cotton Famine — - 
 when hundreds of people used to gather together to 
 hear him : he had preached a long sermon in the 
 morning, and at the close of the service said to mq 
 that I had better — as it was so late — go to the house 
 of a friend for a little refreshment, and that he would 
 also spend the interval with another friend who lived 
 near. So we parted ; and at half-past two. on going 
 to King Street again — where one might almost have 
 "walked on the people's heads — I was surprised and 
 alarmed to find that he had not arrived. I hurried to 
 the house he had told me he was going to, and there 
 found him slowly walking up and down the room, 
 looking very pale. I learnt that in moving his chair 
 he had caught his foot and fallen heavily on the 
 floor — so heavily indeed, that the marks of the 
 matting under the carpet were impressed on his 
 temple. I begged him to go home and at once see 
 a doctor, but he calmly said, ' No, my child ; I have 
 
 O 2 
 
212 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 made np my viind to preach. Come with mc/ 
 Our kind friend made a skull-cap to hide the scar, 
 and he proceeded to preach. The service had been 
 commenced when we arrived, and the place was 
 crowded to excess. My father at once began his 
 discourse, and for two hours continued it without a 
 falter, whilst I — standing all the time on the edge 
 of the pulpit steps, listening to every tone of his 
 voice, and from time to time giving him water to 
 drink — watched and listened in anxious wonder 
 to one of the finest sermons I ever heard him 
 preach." 
 
 In 1866, the "Odd Fellows," at a meetinq; in 
 Staleybridge, presented Mr. Stephens with an inkstand 
 and a walking-stick. Mr. Charles Hardwick, the 
 editor of the Oddfellows' Magazine, made the presen- 
 tation, in acknowledgment of Mr. Stephens's defence 
 of their Order. He had also preached them the 
 most eloquent sermon on their records, which had 
 added 200 members to their Lodges within a short 
 time after its delivery. 
 
 He never lacked proofs of the regard in which he 
 was held by the neighbours who knew him. On 
 one occasion he spoke of this ; it was at a public 
 meeting at Staleybridge. He said : " I believe that, 
 with perhaps one exception, I am the oldest 
 member of the sacred profession to which I have the 
 honour to belong, within the range of a district con- 
 taining something like 100,000 inhabitants. I have 
 
Later Career, Characler, and Death. 2 1 3 
 
 lived amongst you now for nearly twenty years, 
 during which my attention has been directed, and my 
 feeble services most heartily and earnestly devoted, 
 to the amelioration of the social and moral condition 
 of the factory population. You know how often I 
 have spoken at such meetings as these, both here and 
 elsewhere ; how much I have written in periodicals 
 and other publications ; and how unmistakably I 
 have, for this long space of time, laid my opinions 
 on the factory question before you. And yet, it 
 would seem, my fellow-parishioners give even a 
 warmer welcome to one they have heard so many 
 times before than to more distinguished persons 
 from a distance. There must be a meaning in this ; 
 and though I am not in the habit of noticing these 
 marks of affectionate respect, I have a reason to- 
 night for more especially referring to them. The 
 much esteemed clergyman, who occupies the chair 
 on this occasion, would hardly be prepared, after 
 listening to the burst of applause with which my 
 name was received, to learn that, so lately as the 
 day before yesterday, a Manchester paper told its 
 readers that everybody who knew Mr. Stephens was 
 well aware how unworthy of credit was his testimony 
 in matters connected with the subject of the present 
 meeting ! Surely, in such an assembly as this, com- 
 posed of all classes of the community, in a town 
 v/here I have preached for about twenty years, my 
 neighbours would not thus warmly greet a man 
 
2 14 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 whose word could not be believed I have 
 
 a right to be proud of those cheers.'"^^ 
 
 Mr. Stephens delivered a lecture under the title^ 
 "What is it you Want?" As everybody wanted! 
 something, an immense audience assembled. The 
 treatment of the subject occupied the speaker twa 
 hours and a half. At the end of an address so pro- 
 tracted, what most people would want would be to go 
 home; but it was not so in this case. In the report, 
 which was very long, the newspaper printing it omitted 
 the various anecdotes, illustrations, and quaint stories, 
 of humour common with Mr. Stephens ; and yet the 
 report was of great public interest. 
 
 At the time of the Factory agitation, in which he 
 w^as engaged, Mr. Stephens was also a frequent 
 writer. The Political Piclpit, which contained his 
 weekly sermons, was probably the production of the 
 reporter. The discourses were long, were freshly 
 conceived, and their issue had great popularity. In 
 1840 he published Stepheftss Monthly Magazine, 
 Later (1848—9), he edited the Ashton Chronicle. He 
 also published pamphlets on local questions of interest. 
 Another periodical, which extended to two volumes,, 
 was entitled The Champion^ " of what is true and 
 right, and for the good of all." It is dateless ; no 
 
 ^ August 10, 1849. 
 
 + There was a previous Champion and Weekly Herald, objects 
 undefined, issued in 1837 and 1838, published by Richard Cobbett, 137, 
 Strand, London. It was an important well-written Journal : attacked 
 O'Connell and the Whigs. 
 
Later Career, Character, and Death. 2 1 5 
 
 editor's name is given. From an address contained in 
 the first number, being dated 1 850, it may be inferred 
 that that was the year of the issue of TJic CJiampion, 
 and from readers being requested to write to the 
 Editor, at Ashton-under-Lyne, it may be concluded 
 that Mr. Stephens was he, since no one else in Ashton 
 was either known or suspected to be able to write 
 as The Champion was written. Indeed, the title is 
 Stephensesque. Ke was no " Champion" o^ anything : 
 he defined what he defended; it was what ''was true 
 and right, and for the good of all." A letter from 
 Mr. J. P. Cobbett identifies Mr. Stephens as the 
 editor of The Champion of 1850. 
 
 "41, Bedford Street North, Liverpool, 
 Jan. 18, 1850. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " Your letter of yesterday with ye CIiampio7i 
 came to me here (forwarded by my clerk) at 5 P.M. 
 to-day. So it is not possible to do anything with 
 it for ye Courier of to-morrow. I will do what I 
 can to get all, or a part, in next week. 
 
 " I see you have inserted a letter from poor Crab- 
 tree. We considered his case, when he was leaving 
 England, as one of a somewhat cruel transportation, 
 A long term, probably for life, considering ye crime, 
 that of poverty in his native land of * roast beef,' 
 and considering ye 'previous good character' which 
 he might urge before ye court of cant, that of having 
 sincerely aided towards accomplishing all ye good 
 
2 1 6 Life of foseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 which selfish hypocrites had been forced to take a . 
 part in. I hope he may be able to get back alive. 
 And, meanwhile, I hope you have some other letters 
 of his to publish, containing more details concerning 
 the ' emigration fields.' 
 
 '^ Your reverence has chosen a text which I once 
 adopted myself in a printed sermon : ^ Weep not 
 for ye dead.' It always struck me as being a 
 perfect sermon in itself; one which few divines (save 
 such as him of Ashton) can preach on without their 
 own candle being put in darkness by the spark that 
 they light it at. 
 
 " I am, my dear Sir, yours truly, 
 
 '' J. P. COBBETT.'* 
 
 Mr. Stephens wrote as well as spoke, but not so 
 well as he spoke. Instances are familiar to all men 
 of reading and observation, of great orators, whose 
 genius deserts them when they take up the pen ; 
 just as famous soldiers who are but as ordinary men 
 in daily life, or in the senate — as Garibaldi, for 
 instance, is, and who like him became suddenly wise 
 and self-possessed in the din of battle and in the 
 presence of real danger. So orators, whose literary 
 animation is low, are filled with fire and splendour 
 of words in front of expectant faces, and amid the 
 conflict of menacing crowds. Our preacher and 
 political orator also wrote verses ; but undoubted 
 vigour of poetic imagination, which illumined his 
 
Later Career, Character, and Death. 217 
 
 speeches, did not attend him in his efforts at verse, 
 though some translations from the German had con- 
 siderable vigour. The following lines are a fair 
 example of his milder muse : — 
 
 ^ 
 
 SCATTER THE SEED. 
 
 Scatter the seed ! the seed of truth, 
 
 Beheving it will grow ; 
 Look on the wilderness of truth, 
 
 It was not always so. 
 A garden once, it may again 
 
 A lovely garden be ; 
 It wants the sun, it wants the rain, 
 
 Of godlike charity. 
 
 Scatter the seed ! the wholesome seed 
 
 Of knowledge manifold. 
 And time will deck the flowery mead 
 
 With blended white and gold. 
 No leaf so green as knowledge flings 
 
 Unfading o'er the mind ; 
 No fruit so sweet as wisdom brings — 
 
 Rich fruit of every kind. 
 
 Scatter the seed ! the teeming seed, 
 
 Wide as the world abroad ; 
 Soon it will show itself indeed 
 
 The garden of our God. 
 We work and v/ait — we toil and trust. 
 
 Sure that the end will come ; 
 This wilderness of evil must 
 
 Be clothed with heavenly bloom ! 
 
 Another example is that of lines written by him in 
 an album, expressing that calm contemplation of death 
 which was characteristic of his life and teaching : — 
 
2 1 8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 Oh, lost too soon — oh, loved too well ! 
 
 Too dear for death, farewell, farewell ! 
 
 One soothing solace yet is given, 
 
 Tho' lost on earth thou liv^st in Heaven : 
 
 Fond faith forbids us to deplore 
 
 The loved, not dead, but gone before.* 
 
 In a letter dated 4th December, 1838, from 
 Esaias Tegner, Bishop of Wexio, in Sweden, to 
 Professor George Stephens, the Bishop says : 
 
 " I am of opinion that not one of all the previous 
 translators whom I have had an opportunity of 
 meeting, has penetrated so deeply into the funda- 
 mental spirit of the original, and so much respected 
 its northern characteristics, as — yourself." 
 
 In the preface written by Professor George Stephens 
 to his translation o{ Frithiof s Saga, from the Swedish 
 of Tegner, published in 1839, to which the above 
 extract refers, appears the following passage : 
 
 "Lastly, if this work has any merit — let the 
 honour fall where it is due. It is to my dear and 
 distinguished brother, the Rev. J. R. Stephens, the 
 tidhitne of the poor, that I am indebted for having 
 my attention turned 
 
 * From sounds to things ;' 
 
 and he it was who recommended to my eager study 
 the literature of the North in general, and FritJiiofs 
 Saga in particular — which he unrolled before me by 
 an oral translation — at a time when far away from 
 
 * J. R. S., from Mrs. Earle's, his daughter's, Album. 
 
Later Career, Character, a7id Death, 2 r 9 
 
 the shores of the North, and when the work was 
 altogether unknown in England." 
 
 Mr. Stephens had the happy taste of domesticity^ 
 and many bright passages in his speeches and 
 sermons, inculcating domestic affection, were consis- 
 tently illustrated in his private life. His letters to 
 his family were full of wise advice, or tender solici- 
 tude. When absent from home, preaching or speak- 
 ing, he appears always to have taken time to advise 
 with them on questions of personal interest, and to 
 report to them whatever there was of public interest 
 in his proceedings. His letters showed great affec- 
 tion for his nephews, John Stephens Storr and 
 Rayner Storr. One of them is as follows : — 
 
 **The Hollins, Staleybridge, 
 *'June 26, 1877. 
 
 '' My dear Rayner, 
 
 '' Clarant's * Geometry' and your loving letter are 
 both to hand. The book I certainly never saw before, 
 and am now quite certain it never reached me till 
 to-day. Thank you for sending it. I have read the 
 preface, of which, and of the work itself, I will tell you 
 what I think at an early date, although anything I 
 may have to say on the subject will be given with 
 extreme diffidence, and must be received with many 
 charitable qualifications. I never gave my mind to 
 mathematical studies, in part perhaps for want of 
 a book like Clarant's, and a teacher like yourself. 
 Before I write, will you be good enough to say 
 
2 20 Life of yoseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 whether ' the work which is absorbing the best years 
 of your Hfe' is that of education in general, or the 
 pursuit of the so-called positive or abstract sciences, 
 of which geometry is one ? Be assured that in the 
 first, especially, I always have taken, and still continue 
 to take, the liveliest interest. 
 
 " If you still feel it impossible to speak on the 
 bereavement, do not call it " the loss " [meaning of his 
 wife], you have lately suffered, you will understand 
 why it was that your uncle did not obtrude upon the 
 sanctity of your sorrow when he heard of it. I wrote 
 a few words, such as seemed to me at the time to be 
 seasonable, whilst your dear mother was hovering 
 between life and death. When God speaks to us as He 
 has spoken to you, the most expressive sympathy of 
 those who know and love us best is silence. We 
 must all of us, my dear Rayner, be willing as well 
 as ready to die when the days of our life are brought 
 to a close ; and we must also be equally ready and 
 equally willing to see those die with w^hose life our 
 own life has been bound up, not with resignation 
 merely, but with acquiesence, with radiant hope and 
 with a chastened joy. This is what we have been 
 taught, and if we have not as yet fully come to the 
 knowledge of it, we should earnestly strive to attain 
 its possession — this surely is, amongst other things, 
 what is meant by the exhortation ' to grow in grace 
 and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ.' Your elder brother John, and yourself, with 
 
Later Career, Character, and Death, 221 
 
 your sister in the midst, are now in the front rank 
 of the family of Storr — your fathers and mothers 
 on both sides have passed away, and this, Rayner, 
 is God's order — generation cometh, and generation 
 goeth, but the earth — the abode of the whole family 
 of man — abideth ever. 
 
 ** Do not think of me as of one afflicted with 
 'frequent indisposition.' I am in all things, so far as I 
 know, the same as you have always seen me, with 
 the exception of being tethered by the feet through 
 rheumatism, which now and then takes an excursion 
 and visits the hands. If one chose to take it so, 
 one might talk of this as a plague, as being wearisome 
 and depressing, and now and then more or less 
 painful and hard to bear. Thank God, this is not the 
 mood in which I regard it. I am as merry as a lark ; 
 read a good deal, talk a good deal to the numerous 
 visitors who come expressly to hear me talk, because 
 they tell me they never hear the thoughts I set 
 before them, either from books or from any of their 
 own circle. Hardly a day passes without my being 
 called upon — not by old friends only — but by persons 
 whom I had never seen or heard of before. I name 
 this to show you that I do what little good I can in 
 my own small way. I have written a little in my 
 time, and published it. I now and then think that 
 the two or three volumes on my shelves might be 
 revised and perhaps re-written to some advantage, 
 but hitherto, for various reasons, I have not done this, 
 
2 22 Life of yoseph Ray iter Stephe^ts, 
 
 except mentally. Whether the books I have in my 
 head will ever find their way to the printer I do not 
 know ; I am rather inclined to think they will not. 
 
 '' If you will answer the question I have put to 
 you, I wall try to wTite upon the subject before very 
 long, though of all things in the world the use of the 
 pen is the most irksome to me. I much question 
 whether the scraps you are now reading would ever 
 have been penned but for the good-willingness of my 
 wife to write to my dictation. 
 
 "With our united love, I remain, 
 *' My dear Rayner, 
 
 " Your loving uncle, 
 
 "Joseph." 
 
 Later he writes again, saying, " Only a word, 
 dearest of boys, and best of brothers, to tell you to 
 think of me cheerfully, as well as lovingly. Call it 
 gout^ if you like ; in our olden speech it is written 
 gikt, the very sight of which, by you^ unpronounceable 
 letters, will help in a shadowy way to give a better idea 
 of the effect of the disorder. This is the seventeenth 
 day I have been laid helplessly by the heels, during 
 all which time I could only bear to have the bed 
 made once, to wit, last night. I have had as much 
 pain and weariness as I could very well bear, and 
 there is this comfort in it all, that one knows all the 
 time there is nothing the matter ; it is only throb, and 
 sting, and dig, and lutch, and shoot in unbroken 
 
Later Career, Character y and Death, 223 
 
 succession. If, when you come to my age, you are to 
 ail anything at all — please pray to God to let you 
 have the gout. Here I lie, but nobody comes round 
 the bed pulling long faces, shedding tears, asking me 
 where I will be buried, and if I had better not send 
 for the priest: on the contrary, I have lots of fellows 
 who come to sit with me ; they say it does them 
 good to see me laugh, and listen to my conversation.'* 
 Mr. John S. Storr writes, August, 1881 : — ''My 
 dear uncle Joseph could not Jialf do anything — he 
 could fast and pray, or he could eat and work. 
 Sometimes he would rise early and 4:ake very long 
 walks : at other times he would sit up and read far 
 into the night ; take his breakfast in bed in the 
 morning, and perhaps not get up until the afternoon. 
 In company, too, he would oft-times keep the whole 
 table in a roar of laughter, or, when on a serious 
 subject, in rapt attention ; whilst at another time — 
 with different surroundings — he would be still, and 
 seem to be dull and listless. He smoked much, and 
 Turkish-bathed too much ; for years he took these 
 baths five or six times a week, often remaining in the 
 bath, with some friend, for six or eight hours at 
 a stretch. No man I ever knew had so keen a 
 sense of humour, such a fund of humour in himself ; 
 so much solid bearing with brilliant dauntlessness ; 
 such intuitive perception with a faculty of observa- 
 tion rapid as thought itself. In fine, he was a Seer, 
 with a delicate, sensitive, dramatic temperament, that 
 
2 24 Life of Joseph Ray iter Stephens. 
 
 made him at a moment master of whatever situation 
 he minded to fill. He could influence one mind, or 
 carry away the feelings of thousands of his hearers 
 at his will. 
 
 " He suffered for five years from occasional attacks 
 of gout and bronchitis. During his last illness he 
 was so full of brightness, that even his own wife and 
 medical attendant failed to realize that his end was 
 so near. A little while before his death he repeated 
 slowly, but in a loud voice, the Lord's Prayer, and 
 met the ^ last enemy ' with a calm courage worthy of 
 him." 
 
 His decease took place on the morning of Tues- 
 day, February i8, 1879. He was interred on the 
 following Saturday, in Duckinfield Parish Church- 
 yard. Of the family there were present the widow 
 and her two sons, Arthur Cornwall Stephens, and 
 George Alfred Stephens ; Mrs. Neate, his niece ; 
 Mr. Rayner Storr, and Mr. William Helsby, nephews, 
 and Mr. Alfred Earle, son-in-law. A vast concourse 
 of people lined the streets, and crowded the church- 
 yard, to pay their last tribute of respectful admira- 
 tion and loving regard for the life-long labours of 
 their preacher, guide and friend. The christening 
 font, which used to be in Mr. Stephens's King Street 
 Chapel — a stone basin on a sculptured pedestal — 
 miarks the spot where he is laid. On the base is 
 inscribed — 
 
Later Career, Character, and Death, 225 
 
 In loving Memory of 
 
 JOSEPH RAYNER STEPHENS, 
 
 Born March 8, 1805. 
 
 Died Febrtiary 18, 1879. 
 
 " He hath done what he could." 
 
 What he did is finely expressed in the words of 
 George Herbert — 
 
 " Be useful where thou livest ; that they may 
 
 Both want and wish thy pleasing presence still. 
 Kindness, good parts, great places, are the way 
 To compass this. Find out men's wants and will ; 
 And meet them there. All worldly joys go less, 
 To the one joy of doing kindnesses."* 
 
 These extracts serve to show the fine spirit of 
 cheerfulness and fortitude which he maintained 
 during his last illness. During the period which 
 preceded it, I was for a time his guest, and 
 witnessed the wise audiences he gave his visitors. 
 Often he would, of his own choice and pleasure, 
 continue conversing until past midnight. His 
 talk was the most remarkable to which I had 
 ever listened. Newness of idea, aptness of quaint 
 illustration, singular richness of language, a pic- 
 turesque eloquence devoid of all effort, gave the 
 impression of a new quality of speech. His 
 most frequent theme was natural education, and the 
 friendship of little children. He had all the love 
 of children which his friend Oastler displayed, but 
 with deeper knowledge. He had much of the 
 
 * George Herbert : born a.d. 1593. 
 
 P 
 
2 26 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 tenderness and sympathy of his Master, who said, 
 " Suffer little children to come unto Me." 
 
 One of his public speeches, towards the end of his 
 life, is itself an impressive vindication of his career, 
 and shows the noble steadfastness of the convictions 
 which animated him in the stormiest days, and 
 sustained him in the modest dignity of life's close. 
 
 " I did not first become acquainted with the details 
 of this question, nor enter into its support with those 
 who at that time were its leading advocates, with any 
 motive, as a previous speaker has said of himself, of 
 popularity. I was then a retired, studious young 
 man, following the duties of my profession ; and while 
 I was endeavouring to discharge the duties of that 
 profession my attention was directed, by the study 
 of the Word of God, to the condition of the people 
 around me, and my mind was affected by that con- 
 dition. I began to see into, to examine, the Factory 
 system, and to try it according to the principles which 
 should regulate our morals. I considered that I was 
 bound to spread, through the length and breadth of 
 the land, and enforce the precepts of Jesus on people 
 of all classes and all conditions, even the lowest. 
 It was here, sir, and amid these scenes of thought 
 and meditation, that my young heart first — I trust 
 under the direction and blessing of the good God — 
 nursed and prepared itself for some little, I hope not 
 unv/orthy, service in the great campaign in which I 
 trust you all are fellow-soldiers. Since first I began 
 
Later Career, Character, a^td Death, 227 
 
 to advocate the cause of the poor, oppressed, and 
 
 all but defenceless, factory child, if ever a shadow 
 
 of doubt or misgiving entered my breast, it was 
 
 dispelled and dispersed by the next wind or the next 
 
 5un. 
 
 ^ -se -x- -x- -Jf 
 
 " I wish not to live in excitement ; I am not fond 
 of popularity. I am not a public man by nature or 
 by choice. I would rather be at home with my chil- 
 dren, my books, and my cattle, and discharging the 
 duties of my profession. But I know what it is to 
 surrender my natural tastes, my congenial pursuits 
 n my own loved spot of quiet domestic bliss ; for I 
 can and will endeavour to be where conscience calls 
 me to a duty." 
 
 In a poem which he wrote, a traveller questions 
 a stranger as to the source of rest, and receives 
 the answer which Mr. Stephens himself had sought 
 and found : — 
 
 Thou seekest peace ? 
 Peace dwelleth here. 
 Then here repose, 
 Where the yew trees wave 
 With the moan of the winds 
 O'er the peaceful grave — 
 Peace of the living, 
 Dwelleth thou here ? '' 
 Stranger, thou findest it 
 Deep in thy breast ; 
 There dwelleth rest. 
 
 It is chiefly by his orations that he will be 
 
 P 2 
 
22 8 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 remembered as one of the men of mark of his time. 
 How great was the influence he exercised by his 
 speech is proved by the fact that the Government 
 required to keep troops in the north, chiefly to allay 
 the fierce tumults of indignation evoked by his tongue. 
 
 There were other political leaders of great popu- 
 larity v/ith the men of Lancashire. But they came 
 and went — Mr. Stephens remained. He, too, might 
 have gone, During many years all England was 
 open to him. Personally he might have had a more 
 advantageous lot in many towns, but he elected to 
 minister among those given to him to guide. His 
 sincerity was never questioned by colleagues who had 
 a talent for distrust. When funds were needed for 
 his trial, this was said : " If Mr. Stephens's talents 
 could be purchased, they are worth thousands a 
 year to either Whigs or Tories ; and yet the Radicals 
 allow him to be the sport of a faction : whilst his only 
 crime is attachment to the poor! He that giveth to 
 the poor lendeth to the Lord. Therefore, lend God's 
 minister wherewith to save God's people."^ 
 
 This was the appeal made on behalf of Mr. Stephens 
 in the days when he was threatened with the penal 
 consequences which befel him. After his liberation, 
 he separated himself from Feargus O'Connor, because 
 it was not in his nature to be a partizan of the 
 democratic views of which the Chartist party mostly 
 
 * From the Northern Star, F. Place, vol. ii., 27, 820. *'AV. ]M. A.," 
 p. 18. 
 
Later Career, Character, and Death. 229 
 
 believed themselves to be in favour. Now that no 
 support from that party could accrue to him, he sought 
 none from the party he aided. All the same, he was 
 faithful to the social welfare of the people, which he 
 always had at heart. With what fidelity he did this, 
 and how much he was trusted because the people 
 had reason to believe in his fidelity and unselfishness, 
 is attested by what took place at that time. 
 
 In 1864, the Leeds Ironworks posted notices at 
 Pottery Fields, Monkbridge, Bowling, Lowmoor, 
 Perseverance, Farnley and Clarence, that all workmen 
 must sign " the Declaration" on pain of dismissal — 
 ^^ That they were not members of any society or club 
 for regulating in any way the hours or terms of labour, 
 where they themselves worked or elsewhere T This 
 insolence of capital to labour Mr. Stephens counselled 
 the men to resent, and the employers not to insist 
 upon. It would be owned even by his enemies that 
 at no time was he to be turned from his purpose by 
 considerations personal to himself. He never thought 
 anything of the maxim — 
 
 Success, that owns and justifies all quarrels, 
 And vindicates deserts of hemp with laurels ; 
 Or, but miscarrying in the bold attempt, 
 Turns wreaths of laurels back again to hemp. 
 
 He cared nothing for the " laurel," and he never 
 feared the " hemp." Space would not suffice to tell 
 in how many contests he engaged on behalf of the 
 people. We have seen what he did in regard to 
 
230 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. 
 
 tyrants in high quarters. He engaged, with no less 
 generosity and courage, with local tyrants in his own 
 neighbourhood, where success could bring him nothing 
 but the thanks of the poor who had nothing else to 
 give, and was sure to bring him discomfort and 
 dislike from his powerful neighbours, with whom he 
 would have preferred to have continued on good terms. 
 Very few men show the courage, disinterestedness, 
 and self-denial involved in this sort of service. Local 
 magistrates are not always wise, and are sometimes 
 prejudiced and unjust : Poor Law Guardians are often 
 selfish, ignorant and insolent, and do brutal things to 
 the poor : these people Mr. Stephens unhesitatingly 
 attacked. 
 
 Young women, insulted by employers or by chair- 
 men of Boards of Guardians (as sometimes occurred), 
 went to him,^ and never found him to fail them. He 
 was " their friend when other friend they had none.'* 
 Christianity has heroisms and noble inspirations. 
 Mr. Stephens never forgot that he was a minister of 
 God, and his duty was to stand by the weak against 
 the strong at any peril to himself — and he did it ; 
 and it was his gladness and reward to find that when 
 those who should have honoured him forsook him^ 
 many such afterwards saw their error, and were grateful 
 to him all their days. Plutarch says, " Good fame is 
 like fire. When you have kindled it, you may easily 
 preserve it ; but if you extinguish it, you will not 
 
 * Northern Star, Dec. 23, 1837. 
 
Later Career^ Character, and Death, 231 
 
 easily kindle it again." Mr. Stephens could always 
 kindle it again. He commanded his popularity by 
 his heart and not by ambition. In his mid-career he 
 had powerful friends in every part of the country — in 
 Parliament and in the Court — and had he cared for 
 himself, he might have commanded a place of honour 
 and opulence ; but he preferred " to dwell nong his 
 own people," and died rich only in the gratitude of 
 the poor and in the proud memories of the services 
 he had rendered to his country. 
 
 On one occasion, two gentlemen came down to 
 Staleybridge from the Carlton Club, and said they 
 wished Mr. Stephens to stand for a certain borough, 
 and that his election to Parliament should cost him 
 nothing. They added that they wanted to keep the 
 seat until a particular person was ready to take it. 
 Mr. Stephens opened his door, and desired these 
 gentlemen to leave his house at once. 
 
 At another time, a rich mill-owner called on Mr. 
 Stephens in the early part of the Factory agitation, 
 and said he would give him ;^ 1,000, and build him 
 a new chapel, if he would but hold his tongue on the 
 question. Mr. Stephens answered: "Yes, and yoic 
 would get ;{;* 1,000 a-year more out of the blood 
 of those poor factory children." He, too, left some- 
 what more hurriedly than he entered Mr. Stephens's 
 modest abode. 
 
 Mr. Stephens resembled Cromwell in this, that his 
 religious fervour was the source of his power. He 
 
2 32 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 allured a class of men whom few other agitators 
 interested — working people of religious convictions, 
 men who will go very far when moved by passion and 
 faith. He was a political preacher : his generous 
 inspiration was religious and not political. His great 
 conviction was that it was the duty of a minister of 
 God to stand up like the Prophets of old in defence 
 and protection of the people against whoever might 
 be their oppressors, masters, judges or kings. He 
 went among politicians, but was never of them. He 
 spoke in defence of the People's Charter, but it was 
 because no other means seemed open whereby the 
 people could be helped, save by giving them the 
 power to choose better rulers than those they then 
 had — men whose hearts were steeled against the cry 
 of the poor. 
 
 A popular advocate may be moved mainly by 
 vanity; but such persons are known by this mark — 
 they do not put themselves forward where there is 
 real danger, and they bring their zeal well under 
 control when indictments are about, out of which it 
 is not possible to wriggle. Applause was very 
 welcome to Mr. Stephens, and gave him great 
 pleasure. He took pride in distinction, but he had 
 genuine passion as well as pride. His nature 
 was brave and defiant. His sense of duty, as a 
 preacher of religion^ was his strong and abiding con- 
 viction. It was plainly so, for it moved him when 
 the voice of applause had long ceased, and his 
 
Later Career, Character, and Death. 233 
 
 splendid services no longer occupied the chief place 
 in the memories of men. 
 
 In the great agitations in which he took part, he 
 undoubtedly excelled all other public speakers. He 
 had the spring of a lion in his speech. When he 
 rose, it was as though a new power had appeared on 
 the platform. He had not only the faculty but the 
 consciousness of the orator. Speaking was his natural 
 element, and he had no misgiving that he should 
 acquit himself with clearness and force. In 1863 
 he was the chief speaker at a great meeting 
 at Staleybridge, called to memorialize Sir George 
 Grey on behalf of unemployed operatives. Mr. 
 Stephens said : " I am now an old man, and though 
 for forty years of my life I have had to speak on 
 almost every subject of religious, social, and political 
 interest, I never rose, either here or elsewhere, with a 
 heavier heart. Not that what I have to say does not 
 lie very clearly before me, nor that I have any fear 
 that words will not come to me at will in which to give 
 meaning to my thoughts. I both know what is on 
 my mind, and I am at no loss how to utter it." All 
 this was true, and spoken with as much confidence as 
 though the promise was made to him that, in the hour 
 in which he had to speak, it should be given to him 
 what he should say. Like a great orator, who ac- 
 quired fame after him — W. J. Fox, of the Anti-Corn- 
 Law League — Mr. Stephens could " think upon his 
 feet." Mr. Fox once told me that speaking was to 
 
2 34 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 him an inspiration, and all the powers of his mind 
 came to him then. This was the case with Mr. 
 Stephens, who not only spoke better than he wrote, 
 but better than most men can write. To the last 
 days of his life his remarkable powers of expression 
 not only remained unimpaired, they seemed even 
 more perfect. His familiar conversation was like a 
 fruitful tree of which the produce never appeared 
 too much, it was so good ; vigorous and picturesque 
 speech was an endowment of his family : in him it 
 had become an art. He was not a man of mere 
 words — he had ideas ; but being a thinker who pursued 
 thoughts for their own sake, he often, in later years, 
 carried his hearers into regions where he alone could 
 see the way, and they lost interest. But on questions 
 of every-day life no one could listen to him without 
 admiration. His expression was so perfect, his 
 illustrations were so ready, so quaint, and so vivid, 
 that his words seemed alive. The meaning of some 
 men's speech wriggles its dubious way under a heap 
 of words, like a snake in brushwood : now it is out- 
 side, soon it is seen glistening among the branches, 
 next you hear it rustling among the leaves, and at 
 last it shoots through some hole, and you see it no 
 more. Mr. Stephens's meaning was always palpable 
 and always in sight. That was because his life had 
 been passed in contest with powerful adversaries — 
 only to be combatted with palpable and invincible 
 weapons. Love peace as he might, all the powers of his 
 
Later Career, Character, and Death, 235 
 
 soul were aflame when right, as he conceived it, had to 
 be championed against what he beheved to be wrong. 
 It was as though the words of Thomas a Kempis 
 were always in his mind : " Be therefore prepared 
 for battle if thou desirest to obtain victory. The 
 crown of patience cannot be received where there 
 has been no suffering. If thou refusest to suffer, 
 thou refusest to be crowned ; but if thou wishest to 
 be crowned, thou must fight manfully and suffer 
 patiently. Without labour none can obtain rest ; 
 and without battle there can be no victory." 
 
 As respects theological and political principles, I 
 differed from Mr. Stephens very widely ; but him I 
 respected very much. In choosing principles, one 
 regards their tendency and their truth ; in judging 
 men, we estimate them by their motives and their 
 character. Conservative and Liberal principles are 
 but as glasses, through which men see public affairs. 
 Conservative glasses are to my mind short-sighted, 
 and do not enable the user to see more than his own 
 relation to the objects he inspects ; while Liberal 
 glasses I conceive to have a longer vision, and bring 
 the people and their interests into view, and reveal 
 things good for progress as well as party. That 
 Liberalism is of a very poor sort, which cannot 
 recognize nobility of conscience and integrity of aim 
 in those of entirely opposite schools of thought and 
 action. Infallibility is rarely met with among men, 
 but honour is an attribute of all parties. 
 
236 Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, 
 
 A monument to Sadler was erected in Leeds in 
 1835, at a cost of £700. It stands at the entrance 
 of what was then spoken of as the " New Church." 
 Thirty years later a statue of Richard Oastler was 
 put up in Bradford, in honour of the champion of 
 factory children. It is surely meet that a monument 
 should stand in the park of Staleybridge, in com- 
 memoration of the great friend and advocate in the 
 same merciful movement. Mr. Stephens was faithful 
 to it during nearly half a century — his mighty 
 eloquence advanced it, and he incurred peril to 
 secure its triumph. 
 
THE STEPHENS^S MEMORIAL FUND 
 COMMITTEE. 
 
 [^Prelminary.'] 
 
 Thomas Birtwistle, Esq., Ac- 
 
 crington. 
 Dr. John H. Bridges, Whnble- 
 
 don. 
 Charles Buckley, Esq., Solici- 
 tor, Leigh. 
 W. H. Hatton, Esq., Bradford. 
 William G. Helsby, Esq., 
 
 Pen-y-Bryn, St. Asaph. 
 John Hindle, Esq., Stockport. 
 Dr. Hollinworth, Lees, near 
 
 Oldham. 
 John Holmes, Esq., Leeds. 
 George Jacob Holyoake, Esq., 
 
 22, Essex Street, Temple. 
 Sanriuel Kydd, Esq., 5, Mitre 
 
 Court Chambers, Temple. 
 William Radcliffe, Esq., 
 
 Mossley. 
 John S. Storr, Esq., King St., 
 
 Covent Garden, London. 
 Rayner Storr, Esq., Haslemere, 
 
 Surrey. 
 Wilham Whitworth, Esq., 
 
 Manchester. 
 Mr. James Blanchflower, 
 
 Staly bridge. 
 Mr. George Buck, Stalybridge. 
 Mr. James Clegg, „ 
 
 Mr. Edward Dain, „ 
 
 Mr. James France „ 
 
 Mr. Elijah Hall, 
 Mr. Alfred Hobson, „ 
 Mr. John Kiddy, „ 
 
 Mr. Hellion Lockwood,,, 
 
 Mr. George Mitchell, Staly- 
 bridge. 
 
 Mr. James Piatt, Stalybridge. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Piatt, „ 
 
 Mr. Josiah Rigby, „ 
 
 Mr. Benjamin Rigby, „ 
 
 Mr. Jonathan Schofield, Staly- 
 bridge. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Sidebottom, 
 Stalybridge. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Stanfield, Staly- 
 bridge. 
 
 Mr. Henry Stevenson, Staly- 
 bridge. 
 
 Mr. Swann, Stalybridge. 
 
 Mr. David Taylor, Stalybridge. 
 
 Mr. Frank Taylor, „ 
 
 Mr. Joseph Thomas, „ 
 
 Mr. Samuel Warburton, Staly- 
 bridge. 
 
 Mr. Charles Warhurst, Staly- 
 bridge. 
 
 Mr. James Warhurst, Staly- 
 bridge. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Armfield, Moss- 
 ley. 
 
 Mr. John Avison, Saddlevvorth. 
 
 Mr. Miles Brearey, Batley. 
 
 Mr. James Hobson, Man- 
 chester. 
 
 Mr. Edward Holt, Hurst. 
 
 Mr. Alfred Loney, Dewsbury. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Newsome, Batley. 
 
 Mr. George Saxon, Dukinfield. 
 
 Mr. John Waring, Dewsbury, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Absentee Magistrates, 156 
 "Alfred," Historian of the Factory Movement, 97 
 Allsop, Thomas, a Social Conservative, 189 
 Ashley, Lord, his reputed Treachery, 99, 208 
 
 „ „ the Queen warned against him, 193 
 
 Avison, John, loi, 208 
 
 Baines, Edward, proposes a Compromise, 72 
 
 Ballot denounced, The, 186 
 
 Beaumont, A. H., wild Speech of, 104, 105 
 
 Benthamite Principle Restated, 158 
 
 Bhncoe, Robert, attacked by Pigs, 64 
 
 Bridges, Dr. J. H., on Characteristics of Mr. Stephens, 205, 206 
 
 Bright, Rt. Hon. John, his undoubted sympathy with factory 
 
 workers, 71, 74 
 Brougham, Lord, revolutionary speech at Newmill, "j^^ 103 
 Buchanan, Robert, ''Anticipations " by him, loi 
 Bull, Rev. G. S., 79 
 Bunting, Rev. Jabez, 49 
 
 Campbell, Sir John, speech against Mr. Stephens, 147-149 
 Case, the, against Brother J. R. Stephens, 50, 51 
 Children, incredible treatment of, 65 
 Cobbett, R» B. B., letter from, 176 
 
 „ „ legal Opinion upon the Bill oi 1852, 208 
 
 Cobbett, J. P., letter from, 215, 216 
 
 Cobden, Richard, influenced by Political Economy, 'j'}), 74 
 Colhns, John, speech at Hunslet Moor, 102 
 
Index, 239 
 
 Conservative Advocates, their disappearance from the Reform 
 
 field, 74 
 Cooper, Thompson, 18 
 Crabtree, James, 10 1 
 Crabtree, Joseph, 10 1 
 
 Distrust, the pohcy of Evasionists, 109 
 D'Orsay, Count, his Tailor-view of Politics, no 
 
 Earle, Mrs., Character of her Father Mr. J. R. Stephens, 210 
 Elliott, Ebenezer, his speech at Sheffield, 94 
 „ „ his Song of Labour, 95, 96 
 
 Enthusiasm for the Factory Bill, Z^^ 
 
 Factory Girl's Last Day, The, 68, 69 
 Factory Movement, unrecorded points, 71 
 Fehx Holt's Radicahsm defined, 185 
 Fielden, John, 65-72 
 
 „ „ how he entered Parliment, 106 
 French Revohition, its disastrous influence, 94 
 
 ** General sentiment," a Wesleyan principle, 54 
 Generous Toryism, characteristics of, 189 
 
 Hales, Lord, his wise Recommendation, 64 
 
 Hardwicke, Charles, 212 
 
 Herbert, George, 225 
 
 Hierocles as house-seller, 112 
 
 Hooker's, Bishop, description of a Popular Orator, 202 
 
 Howarth, Charles, 100 
 
 Hutton, Joshua, 18 
 
 Idiot, The, of Edenbridge, 88 
 Indignation at Mr. Stephens's Suspension, 55 
 Injustice in Court, 156 
 Intimidation by Manufacturers, 229 
 
 Kempis, Thomas ^,235 
 King Alfred's Rule, 63 
 
 Lees, Dr. F. R., controversy with him, 209, 210 
 Liberal opponents of the Factory Bill, 73 
 Livsey, Thomas. 100 
 
240 Index, 
 
 Locke, John, his proposal of Industrial Schools, 64 
 „ „ his Schools surpass Mr. Forster's, 64 
 
 Mallalieu, William, 100 
 
 Menace of Civil War, 103 
 
 Methodists, the Church party among them, 50 
 
 Methodism, its generous influence, 78 
 
 Methodist Fathers, their opinions a form of principle, 52 
 
 Millowners, their two clocks, 65 
 
 Molesworth, Rev. Wm. Nassau, 141 
 
 Montalembert, Count C. F. de, Letter from, 36 
 
 „ his youthful experience and principles, 38, 39 
 
 „ Parallel Careers of himself and J. R. Stephens, 40, 41 
 
 Newspaper Stamp, The, 17-184 
 
 Newton, Rev. Robert, his Letters to Mr. Stephens, 58 
 
 Northern Star, its strange advertisements, 98 
 
 Oastler, Richard, 72, 73 
 
 „ „ his character described by Francis Place, 
 
 is-n 
 
 „ „ his emphasis, %2) 
 
 „ „ consults Mr. Stephens, 83, 84 
 
 „ „ letters to Mr. Stephens, 84-86, 91 
 
 „ „ letter to Mr. Anty, 87 
 
 „ „ picturesque dedication by him, 106 
 
 „ „ his fierce Speeches, 107 
 
 Oastler, Robert, his Innovation in Methodist Burials, 79 
 O'Brien, James Bronterre, 97 
 
 „ „ „ Letters from, 179, 180 
 
 O'Connell, Daniel, Conversant with Democratic Principles, 98 
 O'Connor, Feargus, "j^, 141--145 
 
 „ „ his " floating recklessness," 97 
 
 Orators, the precariousness of their fame, 15 
 
 „ their [inspiration, 216 
 Origin of Special Juries, 151 
 Owen, Robert, a Tory Socialist, 190 
 
 Pattison, Mr. Justice, Estimate of Mr. Stephens's eloquence, 
 170, 171 
 „ „ his misconception, 197 
 
Index, 241 
 
 Petition, a remarkable Paternal, 190-192 
 
 Petrarch, 13 
 
 Philosophical Radicals, their aim, "j^i 
 
 „ „ their persistence in Reform, 74 
 
 Pitkeithly, Lawrence, 108 
 Place, Francis, his observing Capacity, 141 
 
 „ „ on Mr. Stephens's vehemence, 142 
 
 Political Conservatives defined, 188 
 Poor Law, a species of Elizabethan Communism, 60 
 
 „ „ a Penal infliction in the eyes of industry, 61 
 
 Queen, The, her words on signing the Factory Act, 82 
 
 Radical Democrat defined, The, 196 
 
 Rayner, Rebecca Ehza, her remarkable Capacity, 22 
 
 „ „ „ Vicissitudes of her Tea Service, 23 
 
 Rector's Daughter, her adventure in the kitchen, 187 
 Resolutions concerning '* Brother Stephens," 51-53 
 Royahst Revolutionists, 194, 198 
 Russell, Lord John, his Eleven Hours Motion, 72 
 
 Sadler, Michael Thomas, Poem by, 68, 69 
 „ „ „ his early Life, 81 
 
 „ „ „ attempt to drown him, 81 
 
 „ „ „ his distinguished Integrity, 81 
 
 „ „ „ accusation against him, 105 
 
 „ „ „ his paternal Toryism, 194 
 
 Schwerin, von, Countess, letter from, 34 
 
 „ „ „ on Mr. Stephens's Swedish Career, 35 
 
 Sentence, The, 172 
 
 Shadows of Despair, 1 1 1 
 
 Sharpe, Gillet, his tragic evidence, 69 
 
 Shiel, Richard Lalor, his Warning to Irish Shopkeepers, 62 
 
 Sibthorp's, Col., Model Speech, 109 
 
 Smith, Alexander, 70 
 
 Socialists in the Factory Movement, 100 
 
 Socialists, the, their Attorney-General, 176 
 
 Social Conservatives defined, 188 
 
 Stanhope's, Lord, letter to Mr. Stephens, 93 
 
 Stephens, Mrs. EHzabeth, 45 
 
242 Index^ 
 
 Stephens, Joseph Rayner, the manner of man he was, 9-12 
 t» „ „ origin of this Biography, 14 
 
 •I „ „ manufacturers' hostility to him, 16 
 
 If „ „ described by Francis Place, 142 
 
 i> » », early days, 27 
 
 I* )} „ early friendships, 28 
 
 » » „ appointed Preacher at Stockholm, 29 
 
 19 i> „ Lord Bloomfield's friendship for him, 
 
 30-32 
 M n )) letter to his Father and Mother, 41-44 
 
 •I » „ instance of his Self-respect, 42 
 
 If )) J, his social discernment, 44, 
 
 If ,> „ his religious steadfastness, 56 
 
 II „ „ a Parliamentary Candidate, 57 
 
 If ff ,1 character of his Orations, 113, 114 
 
 %% If f, on the Poor Law in Court and 
 
 Cottage, 115 
 ff If „ his Exordium at Saddleworth, 116 
 
 II fi If his Defence of himself as a Political 
 
 Advocate, 117 
 II II ,f on the Poor Law, 122 
 
 II f» „ his Defiance of Lord John Russell, 124 
 
 II f» „ on the Rising Tide of Time, 125 
 
 If „ „ on Salvation to those who serve, 126 
 
 If I, „ the Queen at the Wild Beast Show, 
 
 126, 127 
 „ „ „ Naming a Minister, 129 
 
 „ „ 3, Dislike of a Democratic Chapel, 131 
 
 ,» „ ., What a foreign Bishop did, 132 
 
 u „ „ The Social Morality of Co-operation, 
 
 134 
 „ „ „ Songsmiths and Wordsmiths, 135 
 
 ,1 „ „ Henry Hindle's Funeral Sermon, 137- 
 
 140 
 „ ,, „ his wide popularity, 143 
 
 „ „ „ his Apprehension, 143 
 
 „ „ „ the Bail of ^2,000, 144 
 
 ,, 5, „ his completeness of speech, 146 
 
 „ „ „ his Two Principles, 146 
 
Index, 2\% 
 
 Stephens, Joseph Ray ner, his Defence, 150-167 
 „ „ J, refusal to escape, 155 
 
 „ „ „ defiance in Court, 174 
 
 ii i> „ manliness in Prison, 175 
 
 „ „ „ a Shareholder in the Northern Star, 
 
 181 
 5, 59 J, is censured at Colchester, 185 
 
 9, „ „ his character by Alfred, 200-205 
 
 $f i, „ his remarkable voice, 201 
 
 99 9> >i his London Orations, 201 
 
 „ „ „ defence of his Political Ministry, 
 
 124, 204 
 „ „ „ anecdote of his preaching, 211 
 
 99 >j j> his Publications, 214 
 
 „ „ „ Poems by, 217, 218, 227 
 
 „ „ „ letters to Rayner Storr, 219-222 
 
 „ „ „ originality of his conversation, 225 
 
 „ „ „ characteristics of his Oratory, 233-235 
 
 „ „ „ his rejection of great offers made to 
 
 him, 228, 231 
 „ „ „ Proposed Monument to him, 14-236 
 
 „ „ „ Inscription on the Presentation to 
 
 him, 207 
 „ „ „ his burial, 224 
 
 Stephens's Memorial Fund Committee, 237 
 Stephens, Edward, his Australian career, 24, 25 
 Stephens, Prof. George, 26, 29 
 Stephens, Mrs. Susannah, 45 
 
 Stephens, Rev. John, President of the Wesleyan Conference, 20 
 on result of his Son's Suspension, 56 
 example of his candour, 57 
 he decries political effort, 182 
 his Last Hours, 21 
 inscription on his Tomb, 22 
 Stephens Junr., John, Editor of Christian Advocate^ 24, 47 
 
 „ „ „ letter from, 48 
 
 Storr, John Stephens, 9-12, 207, 223 
 Storr, Rebecca Eliza, her singular qualities, 23, 24 
 Storr, WilUam Brumfitt, 23 
 
244 Index, 
 
 Sussex, Duke of, his friendship for factory children, 65 
 Swederus, Ric. James, letter from, 2)Z 
 
 Terror of the Poor Law, 60 
 
 Thomas Attwood, 103 
 
 Tinker, Not forgotten, 162 
 
 Torture in Factories, 66 
 
 Tory Radicals, origin of the name, 184 
 
 Tory Radical doctrine, 196 
 
 Walpole, Mr. Spencer, on criminal treatment of paupers, 62 
 Wesleyanism, its distinguishing sentiments, 59 
 
 „ its abject affection for the Church, 54 
 
 Wesleyans, Opposed by the Bishops, the Formalists, and the 
 
 Clergy, 80 
 Whigs, their industrial principle, 73 
 Whig sedition, 160, 161 
 Whig Radicals, origin of the name, 185 
 Whiggery, reputed Victims of, 108 
 White, Henry Kirke, 70 
 Wing, Charles, his definition of good government, "]% 
 
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 Berkeley 
 

 707011 
 
 Sis fie 
 
 ^^i . 
 
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