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CORRESPONDENCE AND SPEECHES

IMR. PETER RYLANDS,
M.P.

With a Sketch of his Career.

BY HIS SON,

L. GORDON RYLANDS, B.A.,
Author of''^ Crime : its Causes and Remedy.'"

VOL. I.
LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

/IDancbester :
Abel Heywood & Son, 56 & 58, Oldham Street.
Xonbon :
SiMPKiN, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Limited,
Stationers' Hall Court,
1890,

cr3u i

CZ

CONTENTS.

Life of Peter Rylands, 5.
Correspondence, being letters
from : —
Adams, Mr G. G., 335, 337, 339.
Aston Mr. J. K. (Bounty Office)
129.
Balfour, Sir George, M. P. , 306, 307.
Baron, Mr. John, 358.
Barton, Mr. Edwin. (See Central
Association.)
Baxter, Right Hon. W. E., M.P.,
196, 201.
Beales, Mr. Edmond, 206, 219.
Becker, Miss Lydia E., 53, 77, 86,
97> 127-
Bright, Mr. Jacob, M.P., 157, 158,
231.
Bright, Mrs. Jacob, 151, 203.
Bright, Right Hon. John, M.P., 71,
263, 364.
Brown, Mr. A. H., M.P., 81.
Bulwer, Sir Henry L., 67, lOl, 138.
Butler, Mrs. Josephine E., 150, 170.
Butt, Mr. Isaac, M.P., 243, 245.
Caine, Mr. W. S., M.P., 372.
Callan, Mr. Philip, M.P., 239.
Carter, Mr. R. M., M.P., 216.
Carver, Mr. Benj., 260.
Cavendish-Bentinck, Right Hon.
G. A. F., 338.
Central Association for Stopping the
Sale of Intoxicating Liquor on
Sunday, 58, 60, 75, 78, 96,
131, 164, 184.
Chamberlain, Right Hon. Joseph,
M.P., 291, 314.
Chesson, Mr. F. W., 293, 294.
Childers, Mr. H.C.E., M P., 289. i

Christie, Mr. W. D., 62, 63,65, 95,
99, 100, 103, 104, io7> 108, 112,
113, 120, 121, 127, 132, 141,
159, 162, 186, 194, 195, 197,
198.
Churchill, Lord Randolph, M. P., 370.
Cobb, Mrs. H. P., 311.
CoUinge, Mr. W., 357.
CoUings, Mr. Jesse, M.P., 353, 359.
Cowen, Mr. Joseph, 366.
Crosfield, Mr. John, 175.
Crossley, Mr. Edward, 172.
D'Albeca, Count, 222.
Daly, Mr. Michael, 89, 90, 91, 109,
271. 334-
Diike, Sir Charles, M.P., 292.
Dufferin, Lord, 51.
Forwood, Mr. A. B., M.P., 371.
Fowler, Mr. Wm., M.P., i8l.
Gadsby, Mr. Jno., 328.
Gaskell, Mr. Robert, 183.
Gladstone, Right Hon.W.E., M.P.,
47> 254,
Glyn, Hon. Geo. G., M.P., 200.
Gritton, Mr. John (Lord's Day
Observance Society), 130, 149.
Hadfield, Mr. George, M.P., 48, 49.
Hall, Mr. Spencer T., 259.
Harcourt, Sir William, M.P., 217,
234.
Harden, Judge, 167.
Harrison, Mr. Joseph, 125.
Hartington, Marquis of, M.P., 273,
286.
Henwood-Thomas, Mr. J , 355.
Holms, Mr. John, M.P., 236.
Howard, Mr. James, M.P., 257,
278, 326.

CONTENTS.

lUingworth, Mr. J., M.P., 50.
James, Sir Henry, M.P., 229.
Jenkins, Edward, M.P., 261, 267,
274, 280, 281.
Jerrold, Mr. Blanchard, 301.
Johnson, Mr. P. F. Campbell, 144.
Johnson-Ferguson, Mr. J. E., 332
Kay, Joseph, Mrs. , 345
Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir U., M.P.,
295. 352.
Kimber, Mr. F. , 302.
I-abouchere, Mr Henry, 124, 133,
134, 142, 189, 191, 193, 246,
247, 249, 251.
Latham, Mr. G. W., 367.
Lawes, Mr. C. B. (Sculptor), 340.
Lawson, Sir Wilfrid, M.P., 80, 237,
238, 242, 265, 268, 269, 279,
344, 349.
Lewis, Mr. J. D , M.P., 146, 148,
202.
Lindley, Mr. Augustus F., 119.
Lloyd, Mr. Morgan, 347, 363.
McCoan, Mr. J. C, (Editor Levant
Herald) 136
Macfarlane, Mr. D. AV., 369.
Maclaren, Mr. Duncan, M P., 153,
282, 341.
McMinnies, Mr. J. Gordon, 173,
177, 287.
Macqueen, Mr. C. E. (Financial
Reform Association), 87, 137,
163, 176, 204, 235.
Manners, Lord John, M.P., 373.
Mason, Mr. Hugh, 253, 264, 270,
276.
Matheson, Mr. Hugh M., 114, 116.
.Matthews, Rev. Edward. {See Cen
tral Association. )
Medley, Mr. Edward, 54.
Melior, Mr. AA''. 342.
Mooney, Mr. Thos. (Irish Home
Rule Association) 223.
Morgan, Mr. G. Osborne, M.P,, 97.
Nolan, Captain, J.P., M.P., 285.
O'Donoghue, The, 361.
Ouvrey, Lieut.-Col., 305.
Pennington, Mr. F., 180, 226.
Pennington, Mrs. F., 161, 167, 182,
187.

Percy, Mr. John, 290, 310.
PlimsoU, Mr. Samuel, M.P., no.
Potter, Mr. George, 145, 146.
Potter, Mr. T. B., M. P., 51.214,
230, 241, 244, 266, 288, 327.
Ramsay, Mr. John, 350.
Raper, Mr. J. H. (United Kingdom
Alliance), 72, 79.
Rawlinson, Mr. Joshua, 299.
Rawlinson, Mr. Robert, 83, 84.
Reaney, Rev. G. S,, in.
Reid, Mr. Andrew (Land Tenure
ileform Association), 123.
Richard, Mr. Henry, M.P., 124,
258, 276.
Risley, Mr. Robert, 70.
Robertson, Mr. David, M.P., 208,
212.
Salisbury, Mr. E. G., 315, 316, 318,
320, 322, 324, 346.
Schnadhorst, Mr. F. (National Lib
eral Federation), 348.
Shaw, Mr. Richard, M.P., 74, 82,
106.
Shaw-Lefevre, RightHon. G., M.P.,
336.
Stansfield, Right Hon. J., M.P.,
313.
Stead, Mr. W. T. (Editor Northern
Echo), 255.
Stokes, Mr. Wm., 73.
Stowell, Rev. T. A., 185.
Sullivan, Mr. A. M., M.P , 283.
Trant, Mr. Wm., 218, 224.
Trevelyan, Right Hon. Sir G. O.,
152, 199, 366.
\erney. Captain E. H., 296, 298.
AValters, Mr. G. T., 252.
AVaterlowe, Sir Sidney, 93.
Wedderburn, Sir W., 329, 330,
333.
AVells, Mr. Charles (Author of
Mehemet, the Kurd) 67.
AVhite, Mr. James, M.P., 227 228,
231, 233.
AVhittmgham, Major-Gen., 165.
Whitworth, Mr. Robert {See Central
Association,)
Wilson-Patten, Col. J., 44, 46.
Wright, Mr. Joseph, 303, 304.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 7
member of the Warrington Phrenological Society,
and at some of the meetings of this society, in the
year 1838, he read a series of papers on the subject,
entitled respectively, " On the Primitive Feeling of
the Organ denominated by Phrenologists ' Cautious
ness,' " " A Few General Observations on Compara
tive Phrenology," " Considerations respecting the
Organs which do not appear to be possessed by
Animals." Yet Mr. Ryiands was not really of a
scientific or philosophical nature, so that when the
claims of public life began to clash with those of
natural science, the latter had to give way, and
although a love of birds and of Nature always re
mained, the turmoil of Municipal and Parliamentary
Jife soon became all-absorbing.
But between the period of devotion to scientific
pursuits and the period of devotion to public matters,
there was to some extent a break. Up to the age of
21 Mr. Ryiands had given no thought to business.
He was, indeed, nominally engaged in the office of
his father, who carried on business as a sail-cloth
manufacturer, and had also a mill, in partnership with
Mr. Greening, of Warrington, for the manufacture of
iron wire ; but the time he spent in the office was
almost entirely occupied in reading works upon
Natural History, and writing letters and articles upon
the same subject. He imagined that his father was a
wealthy man, that the iron-wire business was a paying
concern, and that his father was in a position to leave
him and his brothers comfortably off; but he was
awakened to the stern realities of life by an unpleasant

8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
shock. The sail-cloth business had entirely deserted
Warrington, and the wire manufactory, which had
been left for some time by the elder Mr. Ryiands
entirely in the hands of his partner Greening, was not
in reality paying its way. Nevertheless, Mr. John
Ryiands had regularly drawn an income from the
concern, quite in ignorance that no profits were being
made. Mr. Peter Ryiands and his brothers, having
investigated matters, had their eyes opened to the fact
that their father's affairs were in anything but a
satisfactory condition, and they saw that, to make the
wire manufacture pay, the business must be entirely
re-organized and carefully developed. In the year
1843, therefore, Mr. John Ryiands and Mr. Greening
were bought out, and a new firm, under the style of
Ryiands Bros., was established. The development of
this business required all the energies of the three
brothers for some years, but, after a period of anxiety
and slow progress, their efforts were crowned with
complete success. Their enterprise, their upright
dealing, and their determination that they would turn
out nothing that was not of excellent quality, eventu
ally brought Ryiands Bros.' wire into repute, and their
firm became one of the largest of the kind in England.
For some years past the firm has exported large
quantities of iron and steel wire to all parts of the
world. At one time the production rose to nearly 400'
tons per week, but of late years the competition of
German manufacturers has made itself very severely
felt, and has reduced not only the price of wire, but
also the amount of orders placed in this country. Up

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, g
to 1864 the iron used by the firm was purchased from
-Staffordshire and Shropshire, but in that year Messrs.
Ryiands established works at Warrington itself for the
production of puddled iron suitable for their wire
mills. To the production of puddled iron was soon
added the manufacture of sheets and hoops, and, in
1874, these ironworks were amalgamated with those
•of the Dallam Forge Company, at Warrington, and
with Messrs. Pearson and Knowles' collieries at
Wigan. The capital of the new company, called
" The Pearson and Knowles Coal and Iron Company,
Limited," amounts to nearly a million, the principal
shareholders and directors being the former partners.
The Pearson and Knowles Company turn out upwards
of 2,000 tons of bars, plates, sheets, hoops, and wire
iron weekly, while the collieries at Wigan produce
about 700,000 tons of coal and cannel yearly. Mr.
John Ryiands, Mr. Peter Ryiands' eldest brother, is
now chairman of this company. The success of Mr.
Peter Ryiands and his coadjutors has given a great
impulse to the trade of Warrington, which had for
some time languished. Many other similar manu
factories have been established, the town has grown
greatly in size, and the value of property has largely
increased. In fact, the present prosperity of Warring
ton is mainly due to Mr. Ryiands and his brothers.
It will not be necessary for me to say that Mr.
Peter Ryiands was not a man whose mind could ever
be entirely absorbed in money-making. So soon,
therefore, as the anxiety and care required by the re
organization of the wire business were somewhat

10 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
relieved, he began once more to occupy himself
in literary pursuits, devoting himself specially to the
considerations of religious questions. Mr. Ryiands
was at this time an earnest Christian, firmly believing
that Christianity is the only religion fit to be held by
civilized men, and that the highest obligation imposed
upon the Church is that of Christianizing the whole
world. This conviction naturally led to a considera
tion of the means by which the Church would best
accomplish this great work, and in the year 1845 Mr.
Ryiands published a little pamphlet, setting forth the
opinions at which he had arrived. This pamphlet
was entitled "The Mission of the Church; or,.
Remarks on the relative importance of Home and
Foreign Missionary Effort in the present state of the
World," and was intended to prove that Home are
more important than Foreign Missions. In this little
pamphlet it is pointed out, in the first place, that the
more highly civilized a nation is, the greater is its
influence upon the world, and that it is consequently
important for the Church to thoroughly Christianize
England. Again, it is shown that, with the entrance
of missionaries into savage lands, come also traders.
and adventurers, who offer the natives drink, accustom
them to the vices of civilization, and do more harm
than the missionaries do good ; and that, therefore,.
until the English people are themselves truly Christian,,
the English Church can never do much good among
the heathen. Then the total number of persons exist
ing on groups of savage islands is compared with the
number living in vice and ignorance in one of our

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, it
large towns ; and it is argued that the money, toil,
and lives spent upon the conversion of the former few
would have worked a wondrous change for the
better among the multitudes of the latter. Further,
the paucity of ideas in the mind of the savage is
shown to put difficulties in the way of his conception
of a Deity and of the Christian dogmas, whereas the
intellectual activity of the civilized man will lead him
to embrace erroneous doctrines, should the truth not
be placed clearly before his mind. Most of the argu
ments in the pamphlet are sound, and it must be a
matter of regret to every man who has at heart the
welfare of his race, whether he be a Christian or not,
that so much energy and money is wasted by the
Church in comparatively futile endeavours in remote
lands, while vice, crime, and ignorance flourish in our
midst. All these things are bringing the Church into
greater and greater discredit. It cannot fail to be
observed that, while its revenues are enormous and
its dignitaries wealthy, it effects practically nothing
in the way of raising the moral and intellectual status
of the people. As to their intellectual status, seeing
that the Church has for so many centuries striven to
keep the people in ignorance, it is, perhaps, too much to
expect it to change its habits now ; and, as to their
moral status, it has always been inclined to wink at
breaches of the commandments if a man will but
worship regularly and repeat his Creed. The only
Christian body which really gets at the people is the
Salvation Army, and this the Church persecutes and
hates. Therefore, although Mr. Ryiands' pamphlet

12 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
was written more than 50 years ag6, it is as
applicable to-day as it was then, and I can confi
dently recommend it to the careful consideration of
all Churchmen.
But even more strongly can I recommend a some
what more important work, which Mr. Ryiands
published in 1847 ; alittle book of 118 pages, entitled,
" The Pulpit and the People ; or, an Inquiry into the
Cause of the Present Failure of Christian Agency."
The object of this work was to show the superiority
of individual exertion over that of a special class of
paid agents. The author begins by pointing out that
" Christian agency, viewed in relation to the spiritual
necessities of mankind, is, at the present time, a
lamentable failure," and contrasts the remarkable
success and rapid growth of the Christian Church in
its early days with its stagnation and declining
influence now. The cause of this great contrast he
considers to lie in the fact that the spread of Chris
tianity in early times depended almost entirely upon
individual effort. He points out that the Apostles
only differed from ordinary men in their zeal and
ability, that they formed no special class set apart and
consecrated for the service of their God, but that any
individual was at liberty to preach the Gospel and
make converts, and obtain the honourable title of
Apostle by common consent, by proving himself
worthy of it. He proves that Paul held no rank in
the Church such as is held by a Bishop now; that, in
fact, no such hierarchy as the present existed, but
that in every separate town where a church had been

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 13
formed, a president and other officers were chosen by
the votes of the members, owing obedience only to
those by whom they had been elected. There was
thus no distinct order of preachers, but every man
who felt that he had something profitable to say was
at liberty to say it. Mr. Ryiands shows how effica
cious this system was, and points out how greatly the
distinction between clergy and laity — which appeared
first in the time of TertuUian — paralysed the energies
of the Church. The evil results of this distinction he
maintains to be these : That the spread of religion has
ceased to be a disinterested labour of love, and has
become a trade ; that eloquent preachers no longer
preach to those who most want preaching to, but
regard their abilities as the means by which they may
win honours and emoluments ; that hundreds of
inefficient men, having as a duty to deliver two
sermons weekly, utter the most wearisome common
places upon the most trivial subjects ; that sermons
have, to a large extent, become a mere " routine of
sacred words ; " that mere doctrinal views are elevated
into a greater importance than practical godliness ;
that the gospel is preached to the rich, who crowd to
listen to a preacher of distinction because he is
"fashionable," and remain unconverted because,
Pharisee-like, they believe they need no conversion ;
but that to the poor the gospel is not preached, be
cause they cannot afford a suit of Sunday clothes, nor
to pay the rent of a pew ; that many of the " noblest
eff'orts, springing from the spirit of Christ's teaching,
for the social and religious elevation of mankind, have

14 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
had to struggle at the onset against the attacks of
' reverend ' opponents, and have had to overcome
the indifference of religious men whose energies were
withered by sectarian frigidity and priestly domina
tion ; " that, however closely a man may conform to
the precepts of Christ, yet if he refuses submission to
the dogmas of " the Church," he is persecuted and
anathematized as an infidel ; and that, in consequence
of all these things, the Church of the present day, in
spite of (perhaps partly because of) its enormous
revenue of more than ten millions per annum, is losing
ground, whereas the primitive Church, poor though it
was, advanced with gigantic strides. Well would it
be for the Church if it would pay heed to such argu
ments and exhortations as those contained in Mr.
Ryiands' book ; but now, at the end of 50 years,
every word which Mr. Ryiands wrote is still fully
applicable. It is very much to be feared that all such
exhortations are as words spoken to the winds. The
arguments of those who utter them are based upon an
assumption which is false, and that assumption is, that
the Church as a body desires, alone and disinterestedly,
the moral elevation of the people. It is sad to be
obliged to think that this is not so. What would
grieve the hearts of the Bishops and Church dignitaries
far more than the bestiality of the multitude, would be
the loss of prestige and influence involved in the sever
ance of Church and State ; and, though the founder of
their religion was poor, and a man of the people, they
would bitterly resist the proposal to employ for the
common good any portion of those millions of pounds

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 15.
on which they wax fat and live luxuriously. The
young man to whom Jesus said, "it is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich
man to enter into the kingdom of heaven," went away
sorrowing ; and quite as poignant would be the mental
anguish of a modern Bishop could Jesus now address
him in the same words.
But Mr. Ryiands was too much a man of action to
give himself up entirely to a literary career ; and, hav
ing commenced at an early age to take part in political
strife, and an active interest in the public institutions
of his native town, he presently found that the claims
of private business and a public career left no time for
literary pursuits. At the age of 21 he was already
well known in Warrington as a public speaker, when
he joined the Reform party of the borough in the
attempt to oust Mr. Blackburn, the Protectionist
member. Between the years 1841 and 1848 he
actively assisted the efforts df the Anti-Corn Law
League by many public speeches, delivered at War
rington and other towns, in favour of free trade in corn.
He was present, as one of the deputies from Warring
ton, at the great banquets and public meetings held
during the week commencing January 30 and ending
February 3, 1843, in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester,
at which nearly all the leading Leaguers were present,.
and not long after became one of the vice-presidents of
the League.
During the same time Mr. Ryiands was becoming
one of the leading men in Warrington. He actively
assisted in procuring the incorporation of the

1 6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
borough, which took place in 1848, and was elected
a town councillor in that year. He at once began to
apply to municipal matters the sound common sense
and great business ability which were his by nature,
and which had been increased by the training under
gone in connection with the development of the firm
of Ryiands Bros. His judgment and powers of
argument soon secured for him an ascendency in the
Town Council, by which he was, after a short time,
elected Alderman.
The subject of education was one in which Mr.
Ryiands had always taken much interest ; while
quite a youth he had been chiefly instrumental in
founding a British school, which is now a flourishing
institution, under the name of the People's College.
He believed that much injustice was done to Non
conformists by the system of sectarian education
which prevailed in schools, and which often pre
vented Nonconformists and others from sending their
children to the best school through the fear that
their religious convictions would be tampered with.
Under the influence of this feeling he eagerly united
with a number of Lancashire men, who contemplated
forming an association for the purpose of promoting
secular education. On the 25th of August, 1847, a
meeting of these men was held at the Mechanics'
Institution, Cooper Street, Manchester, at which the
following resolutions were passed : —
On the motion of Mr. Samuel Lucas, of Manches
ter ; seconded by Mr. Peter Ryiands, of Warrington,
It was resolved —

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 17
" That this meeting do now constitute itself an
Association, to be called 'The Lancashire Public
School Association, for Promoting the Establishment
of a General System of Secular Education in the
County of Lancaster.' "
On the motion of Mr. Thos. Ballantyne, of Man
chester ; seconded by Mr. Hugh Mason, of Ashton-
under-Lyne, It was resolved —
" That the principles enunciated in the pamphlet
now laid before the meeting be adopted as those of
the Association ; that the plan contained in the
pamphlet be also adopted, with a view to its introduc
tion to the House of Commons in the shape of a
Bill ; and that the efforts of the Association be
directed to procure an expression of public opinion
in this county in its favour. A Provisional Committee
was appointed, of which Mr. Ryiands was a member,
and on which were also nominated Mr. Jacob Bright,
Mr. Jas. Heywood, M.P. (North Lancashire), Mr.
Hugh Mason, afterwards M.P. for Ashton-under-Lyne,
Mr. William Rathbone, Mr. John Ryiands (Mr. Peter
Rylands's eldest brother), and Mr. J. G. McMinnies
(Mr. Peter Rylands's brother-in-law, and afterwards
M.P. for Wafrington).
This Association became very active. The Pro
visional Committee met frequently at Manchester,
and public meetings were arranged in various parts
of the county, as well as in Manchester, at nearly all
of which meetings Mr. Ryiands was one of the
principal speakers. The life of the Association was

1 8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
a short and rather stormy one ; much opposition was
met with, chiefly, of course, on the part of members
of the Established Church, but to some extent even
on the part of Dissenters, and, as is usual in public
controversies, the designs of the Association were
shamefully misrepresented. The members were
declared to be opposed to all religion, and were called
" Godless educationists," " advocates of a lifeless
utilitarianism, "and many other hard names, employed,
it is to be presumed, to conceal the weakness of the
adversaries' case ; but in spite of bitter opposition
in influential quarters the Association made way. In
1850 it was reconstructed on a wider basis under the
title of the " National PubHc Schools Association,"
and had gained the active support of many leading
men, among whom were Richard Cobden, M.P.,
Rt. Hon. T. Milner Gibson, M.P., Alexander Henry,
M.P., President of the Association, Sir Elkanah
Armitage, R. N. Philips, and Sails Schwabe. The
Association did not, however, live long in its new
form ; but although it failed in the sense that it did not
then succeed in securing the objects for which it was
formed, yet its many public meetings and the
discussions to which they gave rise, must have done
much to enlighten people on the subject, and prepare
the way for the legislation which has since taken
place in the direction advocated by the Associ
ation. In 1 85 1 Mr. Ryiands was appointed Justice of the
Peace for the Borough of Warrington, and was for
many years a constant attendant on the Bench.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 19
About the same time he was also appointed Justice
of the Peace for the County Palatine of Lancaster.
In 1853 he was unanimously elected Mayor. His
Mayoralty was not destined to be entirely peaceful
and without incident, as, during it, two burning
questions commenced to make a stir in Warrington —
the Footpaths question and the Police question. The
first was like a thunder-storm, furious while it lasted,
but soon over, or perhaps it would be more appro
priate to term it a storm in a tea-cup ; while the
latter remained a bone of contention for years. On
the footpath question Mr. Ryiands was able to plead
his position as Mayor as a ground for remaining
neutral, and so escaped some temporary unpopularity
which would have fallen upon him had he actively
taken the part of those with whom his sympathies lay.
In brief, the case was this. In 1853 the railway
from Stockport to Widnes was completed through
Warrington, cutting certain footpaths along which
the public had a right of way, and particularly a path
which led from the town to Arpley Meadows, a
favourite resort of the common people on Sundays
and holidays. Much excitement was hereby occasioned
in the town, and a Footpaths' Protection Society was
formed. As the result of negotiations the Railway
Company offered to make a public road along the
River Mersey passing underneath the railway and
leading to Arpley Meadows, and also to make a level
crossing over the railway at the same spot. This
simple plan would have increased the distance to be
traversed in order to reach the fields by about 200

20 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
yards merely. Many leading men in the town recog
nising that this scheme met aU reasonable objections^
and being unwilling to harass the Railway Company,
which was likely to be of great service to Warrington,
expressed themselves satisfied. But a certain number
of unpractical and unreasonable persons worked up
the populace into a frenzy by declaring that popular
rights were being disregarded, and insisted that a foot
bridge should be made over the line at the spot
where the old path had been cut. This demand was
most absurd ; the Hne is very broad at that point, there-
being many sidings for shunting goods trains, and
the bridge would have to be reached by an ugly md
expensive spiral staircase at each end. However,
reasoning was powerless, the spark had been applied
to the inflammable tinder of popular passion, and the
whole town was in a ferment. The excitement was
also aggravated by the importation of personal
matters into the dispute, for Mr. McMinnies, who was
the chief advocate for accepting the Company's offer,
had incurred popular displeasure on account of action
which he had recently taken in some other matters.
Finally a public meeting was held on February 6th,
1854, to decide the question ; the room in which the
meeting was held was crowded to suffocation, and
hundreds could not gain admittance. Mr. Ryiands,
as Mayor, presided, and his office was no sinecure, for
the meeting was an uproarious one. Mr. McMinnies
and Mr. Beamont were howled at, and could with
difficulty speak a few sentences between the inter
ruptions. In the end the meeting decided almost

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 21,
unanimously to insist upon the building of a foot
bridge over the railway. The storm subsided as
quickly as it had arisen ; the footbridge over the line
was made, and proved to be inconvenient as well as
unsightly, little use was made of it, a few years later
it was quietly removed without a word of protest from
anyone, and it is to be hoped that those men who had
on such a paltry matter stirred up popular animosity
against some of the greatest benefactors of the town
felt heartily ashamed of themselves.
The other question which I mentioned — the Police
question — was more serious, and gave rise to a more
protracted struggle. In the year 1854 the police force
of Warrington consisted of one chief constable, one
inspector, and eight constables, which was a smaller
force, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, than
existed in any other important town. Constant com
plaints were received by the Watch Committee and
by the Magistrates of assaults and robberies committed
with impunity. The police force, small as it was, was
often diminished by the absence of constables with
prisoners at Kirkdale Gaol, and to find a policeman in
the out-lying parts of the town at night was almost
impossible. Some people employed a private night
watchman. Mr. Ryiands, as a Magistrate, had be
come thoroughly alive to this unsatisfactory state of
affairs, and, while Mayor, in June, 1854, he succeeded
in. inducing the Watch Committee, of which he was a
member, to propose an addition of two constables to
the police force. Now, I suppose there are in all
Town Councils and public bodies a certain number of-

22 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
men who endeavour to gain favour with the ratepayers
by constant efforts to keep down the rates at any cost.
No matter how desirable in itself a proposed reform
may be, nor how likely eventually to augment the
wealth of the town, such men obstinately oppose it on
the ground that it will cause a temporary increase of a
penny or so to the rates. And so it was at Warring
ton ; and, on the question of the increase of the police
force, the short-sighted anti-reformers succeeded in
influencing the Council to such an extent that Mr.
Ryiands' proposal was defeated by 12 votes to 3. A
certain amount of heat was evidently excited by this
discussion, and the anti-reformers certainly seemed to
be adopting a very defiant attitude when, a few months
later, they proposed that the place of a constable, who
had been discharged for misconduct, should not be
filled up, and carried their proposal by 15 votes to 6.
The Warrington police force, which had been quite
inadequate before, was now still further weakened, and
consisted only of nine men, all told. However, if the
obstructionists had their own way for the time being
in this matter, in some other directions those who
wished to see Warrington progress had been success
ful, for a new market had been decided upon, and a
committee had been formed to superintend its con
struction, of which Mr. Ryiands was chairman.
Proposals for a museum and library were being dis
cussed, and in this matter again Mr. Ryiands took a
leading part. Works were in progress for improving
the sewering and widening the streets of the town ;
and schemes for a cemetery were being seriously

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 23
considered. In fact, Warrington was beginning to
wake up.
In November, 1854, Mr. Ryiands' mayoralty came
to an end. He was urgently requested to continue to
hold the office for another year, but was obliged to
refuse, owing to the cares of business and many
demands upon his time. On this occasion he received
the compliment of a public dinner, which was attended
by all the principal inhabitants of the neighbourhood,
and presided over by Colonel Wilson Patten, who was
afterwards raised to the peerage, with the title of Lord
Winmarleigh. During the following year the question of the police
force remained in an acute stage. Mr. Ryiands re
signed his seat on the Watch Committee, as he would
not be responsible for the orderly government of the
town while the force was so small ; whereupon the
Committee, it would almost seem out of spite, reduced
the force still further to seven men. Long discussions
¦on the subject took place at almost every meeting of
the Town Council, and Mr. Ryiands at length suc
ceeded in getting the number fixed at the former
amount, namely, 10 men in all.
In 1855, for the first time since the incorporation of
the borough, the election of Mayor was not unanimous.
This circumstance was probably owing partly to per
sonal and partly to political feeling. There was
gradually growing up in the Town Council at this
time a party of narrow-minded men, who were jealous
of the great influence which Mr. Ryiands had obtained
in the Council. They could not see that it was both

24 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
natural and even advisable that a man who not only pos
sessed sound common sense and great business ability,
but also the power of expressing himself clearly and
convincingly, should be a leader in the Council. They
refused to recognise the abilities by which Mr. Ryiands.
had won for himself so influential a position. They
only saw that while his opinion always carried great
weight, theirs was often disregarded in a way that
much wounded their self-esteem. They, therefore,
declared that Alderman Peter Ryiands had got the
Town Council under his thumb, and that it was neces
sary the Council should be emancipated. The election
of Mayor seemed to give them their opportunity, and,
actuated by a petty jealousy, they determined ta
strike at Mr. Ryiands through his friend. Dr. Hardy,,
who had been proposed as a candidate. Political
feeling also had some force, and Tory Councillors
were requested to support Mr. Joseph Chrimes, be
cause he was a Tory. Again, hitherto no shopkeeper
had been elected as Mayor, and the proposers of Mr.
Chrimes excited class prejudices in his favour by say
ing that there was a conspiracy among the upper
classes in the town to keep municipal honours in their
own hands, and calling upon shopkeepers in the
Council to vindicate the rights of their class by sup
porting Mr. Chrimes. The result of all this was, that
Mr. Chrimes was elected by i8 votes to 15. This was.
a most unfortunate election. Hitherto the delibera
tions of the Town Council had been on the whole
harmonious, and the elections of Mayor unanimous.
Had the supporters of Mr. Chrimes been willing ta

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 25
make a compromise, that gentleman might have been
unanimously elected the following year ; but nothing
could induce them to forego the miserable pleasure of
annoying Mr. Ryiands, and showing him that " he
was not to have things all his own way." From this
time there were in the Warrington Town Council two
bitterly hostile parties ; acrimonious discussions were
frequent, sarcastic letters to the 'Warrington Guardian
were numerous, and personalities were frequently
indulged in.
The epistolary warfare in the columns of the Wav-
¦vington Guardian produced much polemical writing of
considerable abihty, but the letters which attracted
the greatest amount' of attention were those which
appeared over the signature of " Oliver West," and
soon became generally known as " the ' Oliver West '
letters." These letters appeared at frequent intervals
throughout the year 1856, commenting freely upon
municipal matters, and vigorously satirizing any
Warrington public man who seemed to be impelled
by jealousy, personal feeling, ambition, love of noto
riety, or party spite, rather than by a desire to promote
the best interests of the town. Personalities were
carefully avoided, but many prominent men who had
been guilty of mean or spiteful conduct in public
matters had their actions held up to public scorn in a
way that made them writhe. Nearly every one in
Warrington was asking who could be the author of
these letters. Some of those attacked pretended not
to mind ; others went about vowing vengeance, and
inquiring for the author. The excitement became

26 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
very great ; several names were mentioned, and one
or two leading men were publicly charged with the
authorship ; but the secret was known to very few,
and was perfectly well kept. The Editor of the
Guardian, even though an action for libel was insti
tuted against him by one man who had been most
unmercifully ridiculed, yet refused to disclose the
name of the author ; and, however near the truth
men's guesses and suspicions may have been, the
secret is as much a secret at this day as it was 40.
years ago. As the writers are now dead, there is no
indiscretion in saying that these letters were the work
of more than one man, and that Mr. Peter Ryiands,
Mr. J. G. McMinnies, and the Rev. Ralph Allen
Mould were the joint authors. Mr. Ryiands was.
suspected at the time of having a hand in the produc
tion of the letters, but it was impossible for such
suspicions to be confirmed.
On the 15th of October, 1856, the new market was
opened. Before this time the Warrington Market
place had been simply an open square ; now this
square was covered over with a shed, and a new and
convenient Market Hall built adjoining it. For some
years the question of a market had been discussed in
Warrington. In 1852 a scheme had been proposed
which met with much opposition, and had to be aban
doned. In the following year, however, Mr. Ryiands
again took the question up, and succeeded in getting
a Warrington Improvement and Market Act passed
by Parhament. A committee of the Town Council
was then formed, of which Mr. Ryiands was elected

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 27
chairman ; but then arose questions of cost, site, size,
form, &c. Some men kept raising discussions on side
issues to disguise their hostility to the whole scheme ;
some obstinately insisted upon their own pet plan,
and would hear of no other ; and some, by advocating
a niggardly and cheese-paring policy, would have
spoilt the new market altogether. However, by the
employment of much tact, and withthe assistance of
other public-spirited men, Mr. Ryiands brought the
matter to a triumphant conclusion. The foundation-
stone was laid in October, 1855, and the m.arket was
opened amid universal acclamation a year later.
In this year a Police Bill was passed by Parliament
appointing Inspectors to report upon the Municipal
Police Forces, and providing that every town whose
force was up to a certain fixed strength should
receive a Government grant in aid. Colonel Wood
ford, the Inspector under whose supervision the
Warrington Police Force came, sent a letter to the
Watch Committee representing to them that the
town was much under-policed, and recommending
that the number of the force should be increased
from II, at which it then stood, to 24. Mr. Ryiands
raised a discussion in the Town Council on this
letter, but the Watch Committee refused to take any
action. In May, 1857, Mr. Ryiands again returned
to the charge with a motion that Colonel Woodford's
suggestion be acted upon, and supported his proposal
in a long and closely-argued speech ; but after a
discussion, which lasted two days, the motion was
lost by 21 votes to 5. Mr. Ryiands kept raising this

28 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
question at intervals, and his arguments, backed up
by constant complaints of unchecked depredations,
began to produce some effect, so that when in Janu
ary, 1863, Colonel Woodford again drew attention to
the inadequacy ofthe Police Force, it was clear that a
good many of the old opponents of an increase were
beginning to waver. In December of that year
the Watch Committee themselves came forward with
a recommendation for the appointment of one more
inspector and two constables, which was endorsed by
the Council. The force now amounted to 15, which
was, however, still far too few for a large and rapidly
increasing town like Warrington ; but public opinion
was growing, new members were being elected to the
Council, and in March, 1864, Mr. Ryiands had the
satisfaction of carrying a motion of no-confidence in
the Watch Committee by 18 votes to 2. A new
Committee was appointed which at once recom
mended an increase of the police force to 29 men in
all ; this proposal was adopted by the Council, and
thus Mr. Ryiands won the battle which he had been
fighting for nearly 12 years, and to his exertions
Warrington at length owed the advantage of an
efficient body of police.
Meanwhile the town had been in many ways
improved ; a Cemetery had been opened, a Public
Hall had been built, the Museum and Free Library
had been completed, and other public works of
greater or less utility had been carried out, in all
which improvements Mr. Ryiands took an active
part.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 29
In 1859 he had been unanimously invited by the
Liberal party in Warrington to stand as the Liberal
candidate in opposition to Mr. Greenall, who had
represented the borough since 1847 ; but was obliged
to decline owing to the pressure of business engage-
tnents. From that time, however, he continued to
take an active part in the discussion of public
questions, addressing meetings on various political
subjects both in Warrington and elsewhere, and in
1868, when he was again asked to stand, he found
himself in a position to consent to do so.
Mr. Greenall had then held unchallenged possession
of the seat for 21 years, and the candidature of Mr.
Ryiands excited much bitterness of feeling among
the Tory party in the borough. As the contest pro
ceeded and the Tories began to perceive that Mr.
Ryiands would be a very dangerous opponent, their
bitterness greatly increased, and in the speeches at
their meetings very strong expressions began to be
made use of which provoked retaliation on the part
of their opponents, and thus as the election day drew
near party strife in Warrington grew more intense
and more envenomed than ever before or since. As
the conviction was more and more borne in upon the
minds of the leaders of the Tory party that there
was a .very strong probability of their losing the
election, they became like men striking out at random,
and so long as they could only succeed in hitting their
adversaries they were not particular as to the fairness
of their blows. Perhaps the most discreditable of
their tactics was the publication in the Warrington

30 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Guardian of a series of letters as advertisements, filled
with coarse abuse of Mr. Ryiands and his leading-
supporters. The two great questions on which the
election was fought were the Disestablishment of the
Irish Church, and the Ballot. These miserable letters,
which were signed " Benjamin Darby," made no
attempt whatever to argue out these great questions
or others with regard to which the Liberal and Tory
parties were at variance. There was no discussion of
principles in them. They attacked not measures but
men. The fact that Mr. Ryiands had ceased to be a
Dissenter, and become a Churchman, was turned to
his discredit ; the amount of money he had subscribed
to local charities, etc., was ferreted out and compared
Avith that subscribed by the wealthiest men in the
town in order to make him appear mean. In every
possible way, previous actions of his were mis
represented and placed in an odious Hght. It is,
however, pleasant to think that such contemptible
tactics failed to effect their purpose.
On the nomination day and the day of election the
excitement in the streets of Warrington was intense,
and order was with difficulty maintained. Matters
came to a crisis about a quarter of an hour before the
close ofthe poll, when a rumour was rapidly circulated
among the Liberals that a number of working men
belonging to their party had been made drunk and
shut up in a yard by the opposite party. A body of
Liberals went to the place indicated, but were stopped
at the gate by a band of rough men armed with blud-

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 31
geons, who succeeded in preventing an entrance being
made, and seriously injured three of those who
attempted to enter.
The poll closed at four o'clock, when, according to
the Conservative figures, Mr. Greenall had a majority
of 78, and according to the Liberal figures, a majority
of seven. It was scarcely possible for anyone to doubt
that Mr. Greenall was really elected, and the night
was spent by the Tories in frantic demonstrations of
joy. The morning, however, brought them an un
pleasant shock, for the Mayor announced that, accord
ing to his official polling book, Mr. Ryiands had
received 1,984 votes and Mr. Greenall 1,957, giving
Mr. Ryiands a majority of 27.
This result, so unexpected, since the close of the
poll, by both parties, was due to the fact that in the
midst of confusion caused by a great pressure of voters,
some seventy or eighty of Mr. Greenall's supporters
gave in their voting cards, not to the poll-clerk, but to
oneof the check-clerks acting in Mr. Greenall's behalf.
The men then left the booth under the im.pression that
they had voted. The check-clerk entered the votes
in the check-book, but in the hurry and confusion
prevailing at the time omitted to see that they were
properly entered in the poll-book. The result was
that Mr. Ryiands had a majority of recorded votes.
The leading Conservatives demanded that under
these circumstances the election should be declared
null and void. The Mayor, however, considered
that he had only to do with the official poll-book,,
and held it to be his duty to return Mr. Ryiands

32 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
as member, maintaining, also, that Mr. Ryiands
could not legally refuse his election, even if he
wished. The Tories were very angry at this decision. They
accused the Mayor of partiality, and called upon him to
resign. But the Mayor, Mr. Neild, acted extremely
well all through the difficult circumstances in which
he was placed — he disregarded abuse, and did his duty
without flinching.
When Mr. Greenall's friends found they could pro
duce no impression upon the Mayor, they decided to
lodge a petition against Mr. Ryiands' return. This
they did, and Mr. Baron Martin Avas appointed to try
the case. The question was really a very simple one,
and after hearing all the evidence the judge gave his
decision to the effect that if there had been any omis
sion to record in the poll-book votes which were
"legally tendered," it would be his duty to order those
votes to be added to the list, and to give the candidate
in whose behalf they were tendered the benefit of
them ; that the legal tender of a vote consisted in the
voter giving his name to the poll-clerk, and telling that
functionary for whom he polled ; that in the case con
sidered it had been proved that the votes in dispute
had not been tendered to the poll-clerk at all ; that the
giving in of the cards to somebody who happened to
be sitting at the table was not the legal tender of votes ;
that, consequently, the votes in question were not lost,
for they were never recorded ; that they were not re
corded because they were not tendered ; and that, in
fine, to say the election ought, on that account, to be

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 33
declared void, was " an absurd and ridiculous proposi
tion." This election was certainly a remarkable one.
Possibly no case precisely similar has ever been
recorded ; nevertheless a similar result might con
ceivably occur under our present system of ballot
voting ; for, suppose the majority of the elected
candidate were very small, say 5, and suppose there
were 30 spoiled votes; now, it is quite possible that
20 of these spoiled votes might be intended for the
beaten candidate and 10 for the victorious one, in
which case the successful candidate would represent
a minority of voters. But no one would dream of
demanding that an election should be declared void
because a number of votes were " spoiled," that is,
not "legally tendered," or that an attempt should be
made to discover which candidate each spoiled vote
was intended for, in order that the candidates might
be credited with them. Therefore the taunt which
was on one or two occasions subsequently directed
against Mr. Ryiands by the Tory Press, and once by
a Tory member of Parliament, that he was the mem
ber for the minority of Warrington, was utterly
without point. Mr. Ryiands himself had no scruples
about taking the seat he had thus won, because he
felt convinced that about 200 of his supporters had
been tampered with, and prevented from voting, and
that, if the election had been fairly fought, he would
have had a considerable majority. He, therefore,
considered himself no less morally than legally the
member for Warrington.

34 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
I do not intend to dwell at length upon the various
incidents of Mr. Ryiands' Parliamentary career,
because these may be learnt from the perusal of the
•correspondence to which this sketch is an introduction,
and of Mr. Ryiands' speeches, which are published in
a separate volume. I shall merely refer briefly to some
of the more important questions with which he was
concerned. Mr. Ryiands was extremely well fitted, both by
natural ability and by long training, to take at once a
leading position in the House of Commons. The
experience which he had been gaining for so many
years in the miniature parliament of the Warrington
Town Council, had made him a ready debater and
practised in dealing with public questions; while his
natural business ability, and his close acquaintance
with business matters, not only caused him to look at
all public questions from a thoroughly common-sense
point of view, but especially qualified him to form an
opinion upon financial and economical affairs. He,
therefore, saw with great disgust the extravagance
which characterised (as it stiU does) the great spend
ing departments of the State, more especially the
naval and miHtary departments, and the Diplomatic
Service ; and, as he never hesitated to condemn
wasteful expenditure, irrespective of the party respon
sible for it, he soon obtained a reputation for sturdy
independence. He also identified himself with the
cause of Social Progress, particularly with regard to
the Hquor traffic, on which subject he not only moved
several resolutions, but was one of the promoters of a

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 35
Bill in the sessions of 1870 and 1871 to prohibit the
sale of liquors on Sunday. He also became a vice-
president of the License Amendment League, the
chairman of the Warrington branch of the National
Education League, a member ofthe committee ofthe
London Chamber of Commerce, a member of the
Cobden Club, a member of the committee of the Land
Reform Association, and a vice-president of the
National Union for the Suppression of Intemperance ;
and in many other ways showed his sympathy with
the cause of social and economical reform.
His activity during the years 1869-74 "'^^s very
great, and the subjects to which he devoted himself
very numerous ; indeed, so intensely had he applied
himself to his public duties that his health was much
impaired, but he had the satisfaction of feeling that he
had won for himself a considerable reputation and a
leading position among the advanced section of
Radicals. No doubt he expected that the Warrington electors
— especially now that they had the protection of the
ballot — would reward his labours by returning him
again to Parliament by a large majority ; but, as
every one knows, a wave of Tory re-action swept over
England in 1874, and, in company with a large num
ber of other Liberals, Mr. Ryiands was overthrown
by it. His total poll on this occasion was 2,201,
while Mr. Greenall's was 2,381, the latter being, there
fore, elected by a majority of 180.
Mr. Ryiands thereupon accepted an invitation to
contest South-East Lancashire — a forlorn hope. The

36 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
two Liberal candidates spared no pains, but were
defeated by a considerable majority.
Although Mr. Ryiands was disappointed at being thus
excluded from the new Parliament, it was really by
no means a disadvantage to him, for he stood sadly
in need of rest, and was enabled, in 1876, to return
with renewed vigour to the House of Commons as
member for Burnley, a far more satisfactory constitu
ency to him than Warrington had been.
The Conservatives being now in office, Mr. Ryiands
felt more free than he had previously been to criticise
wasteful expenditure, and to denounce jobs and
abuses of all kinds. He also turned his attention to
foreign questions, and often spoke, both in Parlia
ment and in the country, in opposition to the foreign
policy of Lord Beaconsfield, whom he distrusted pro
foundly, and whose methods he considered most
dangerous. All through this Parliament again his
energy was remarkable, and the range of subjects of
which he made himself master very wide ; but his
labours undoubtedly told still further upon his health.
In 1880 Mr. Ryiands was again elected member for
Burnley by an increased majority. He looked with
pleasurable anticipation to the future, for the Liberal
party was again in power, and Mr. Gladstone's Mid
lothian speeches gave promise of much prosperity to
the country from prudent administration and wise
and progressive legislation. But the event was very
different, and as time went on Mr. Ryiands began to
find Parliamentary life distasteful, and began gradu
aUy to lose confidence in the leader whom he had

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 37
hitherto enthusiastically admired. He entirely dis
approved of much of the foreign policy of the Govern
ment, and was particularly disgusted with their
discreditable mismanagement of Egyptian affairs ; but
the measure of his annoyance was filled up by their
vacillation in regard to Ireland. He welcomed the
Land Bill, and believed that, if it had a fair chance,
it would go very far towards pacifying Irish discon
tent ; and he could scarcely find words to express his
contempt for the weakness of the Government in not
making up their minds boldly to try the effect of a
generous policy of conciliation in Ireland. In private
he denounced the Coercion Bill in strong terms,
affirming his belief that the whole effect of the Land
Bill would be neutralised by it, and of Mr. W. E.
Forster he never could speak without irritation. He
attempted in the House of Commons to give practical
effect to the opinions he entertained on this subject,
but was immediately so inundated with remonstrances
from his constituents in Burnley, who implored him
not to embarrass Mr. Gladstone, that he sank his
independence, and, by his votes, supported a measure
which he detested. This was a very bitter experience
for a man of such strong convictions and such inde
pendence of character as Mr. Ryiands. He writhed
under the compulsion to which he yielded, and the
whole volume of his pent-up wrath was directed
against Mr. Gladstone. It was Mr. Gladstone who,
as head of the Government, was responsible for this
mistaken policy, and it was the remarkable influence
of Mr. Gladstone upon men that led his constituents

38 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
to insist upon their member's loyalty to his leader.
It was Mr. Gladstone, therefore, whom Mr.
Ryiands made responsible for the humiliation he
felt in voting one way while his convictions pointed
in another.
It will be said that Mr. Ryiands was not compelled
thus to sacrifice his principles, that a member of Par
liament is not a delegate, and that it was his duty to act
according to his convictions whether his constituents
liked it or not. This is quite true, and I have not
one word to say in defence of the course Mr. Ryiands
then took, but I may plead certain things in extenua
tion. Mr. Ryiands was getting on in years, and to
be obliged to find and work up a new constituency
would have been very irksome to him, more especially
as failing health, the result largely of over-work,
rendered him disinclined for much exertion ; under
these circumstances the loss of his seat at Burnley
would have been practically equivalent to the termi
nation of his public career. Burnley suited him, he
liked the Burnley people and they liked him. What
wonder then if he hesitated to take a step which
might alienate the good will of his strongest supporters
in that borough ? Besides, if the Government bad
been turned out he did not beHeve that any other
could have been formed in which he could have
confidence. I might also plead that it is of almost
daily occurrence for members of Parliament to
sacrifice their principles for party or personal
ends, but if a man has done wrong it would be no
excuse for him could he say that everyone else has

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 39
•done wrong too, though it might be to some extent a
palliation of his conduct.
In the very case of which we are speaking other
Liberal members acted in the same way, some of
them even members of the Government. Mr.
Chamberlain repeatedly expressed to Mr. Ryiands
his disapproval of the Coercion Bill, telling him that
Mr. John Bright was equally opposed to it, and urged
him to vote against the Bill. Mr. Ryiands replied,
^' No ; if I, and other Radicals oppose this Bill, our
constituents will say to us that if Bright and
Chamberlain, whose Liberalism is beyond question,
can support Mr. Gladstone on this question, surely
they may expect us to do so. No ! we won't sacrifice
ourselves, but if you and Bright will resign we
will not hesitate to support you." However, Mr.
Chamberlain would not resign, for though he would
have been pleased enough to see Mr. Gladstone's
Government overthrown by the votes of others, he
was not the man to burn his fingers in pulling the
chestnuts out of the fire for himself.
Another measure of the Government which Mr.
Ryiands regarded with intense dislike was the adop
tion of the Cloture, and in this case again he refrained
from opposing the Government, in conformity with,
the wishes of his constituents.
The conduct of the Irish members also made
Parliamentary life less pleasant than it had previously
been, the all-night sittings and the occasional strong
language indulged in by some members of the Irish
party, together with their general obstructive tactics.

40 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
gradually rendered that party distasteful to him, and
having once become prejudiced against them he began
to credit the many current reports as to their compli
city with crime in Ireland. This dislike was much
intensified by the action of the Irish party with regard
to the elections in 1885, and he was extremely annoyed
that Mr. Parnell should request the Irish voters in.
Burnley to oppose him, as he considered that he was
entitled to the gratitude of the Irish people, quite
forgetting that in their estimation all obligations had
been cancelled by the Coercion Act.
In the year 1885, therefore, Mr. Ryiands was domi
nated by two powerful feelings : a feeling of distrust
and dislike of Mr. Gladstone, which had grown, Httle
by little, since 1880, until it amounted almost to a
monomania ; and a feeling of disgust at the Irish party.
Half-a-dozen years previous to this he would never
have allowed his judgment to be warped by prejudices
such as these, but overwork during the sessions 1868-
74, i874-8ohad wornout his constitution. His health
was now very seriously impaired — far more so than he
himself or any of his friends ever suspected, and in
consequence of this failing of bodily vigour, there was.
bound to be a failing of intellectual vigour ; his mind
was no longer as active and as keen as it had formerly
been ; he could no longer view a question under all
its different aspects, and take the same broad view of
acts and events ; a feeling of weariness and disinclin
ation for change had come over him. I myself heard
him remark about this time that "really, there is very
little difference now between Liberals and Conserva-

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 41
tives ; so much has been done in the last fifty years,
such rapid progress has been made, that there is
scarcely anything which urgently calls for reform."
It will now be easy for anyone to understand the
attitude which Mr. Ryiands adopted in relation to Mr.
Gladstone's Home Rule BiH. In fact, there was
nothing at all surprising about it. Supposing that
any one beforehand had been asked to consider
this hypothetical case : on the one hand, a man who
intensely disliked and distrusted Mr. Gladstone, who
was extremely annoyed with the conduct of the Irish
members, and who even believed them capable of
countenancing crime, and who had begun to long for
intellectual rest, and view with disquietude any politi
cal change ; on the other hand, a measure proposed
by Mr. Gladstone to satisfy the demands of those Irish
members, and supported by them, and embodying a
political change of such magnitude as to be almost
revolutionary. Now put the question, what will be
the attitude of that man towards that measure ?
There is but one answer possible, — he will certainly
oppose it.
Mr. Ryiands' opposition to Home Rule probably
caused more astonishment, especially among Liberals,
than the opposition of any other man. The majority
•of the dissentients were Whigs. Everyone knew that
they were only waiting for such an opportunity of
seceding to the Conservative party. In the case of
other Radicals it was not difficult to suspect inter
ested motives. But Mr. Ryiands was regarded as an
advanced Radical, and he was known to be a man

42 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
whose honesty was beyond question. The news of
his defection, therefore, came upon Burnley Liberals,
and, indeed. Liberals aU over the country, as a great
shock. They did not know that failing health and in
creasing age had made him more a Conservative than
a Radical in his sympathies ; and they did not know
that, owing to the decay of mental vigour, he had
allowed two powerful prejudices so to obscure his
judgment as to prevent him forming an impartial
opinion on any matter upon which they were able to
operate. Had he been ten years younger he would
have taken a different course ; and his numerous
admirers, who viewed with grief a line of action so
opposed to his earlier convictions, and so different
from his former actions, understanding how he came
to follow such a line, would banish from their minds
all desire to blame, even if they entertained any, which
they do not ; for it is certain that those thousands of
men who have been fired by his earnest words, and
who have admired his integrity and honesty of pur
pose, remember only the great measures of progress
which he helped to pass, and the many years of self-
sacrificing toil which he devoted to the public service,
a toil in which he wore himself away.
It may be that if Mr. Ryiands had retired from
public life in 1885 his health might have been restored.
It is impossible to say, but certainly he was quite
unfit to go through such a trying ordeal as the election
of 1886. To find the bulk of his former supporters in
opposition to him ; to see that many of those who
were formerly his most ardent admirers condemned

LIFE AND CORRES'PONDENCE. 43
him ; to be accused, in the heat of a bitter controversy,
of having been actuated by unworthy motives ; to be
obliged to fight for victory as, perhaps, he had never
fought since the first Warrington election, if even
then — such physical and mental trials as these might
have broken down the health of a strong man, how
much more, then, that of one whose constitution was
already seriously undermined ? It is not too much to
say that this election hastened his death. He gained a
narrow victory, hardly earned, but was not allowed to
enjoy it, for very serious symptoms shortly after
appeared, and, in spite of all that doctors could do, he
slowly but steadily sank, and eventually expired, un
conscious and free from pain, early in the morning of
Tuesday, February the 4th, 1887. His death was a
loss to politics, for pubiic men of his stamp are not
too common. He was a thoroughly able, conscien
tious, and hard-working man. He honestly strove to
do his duty, and at the close of his life could have
truly declared that his exertions had assisted in
making the world a little better when he left it than it
was when he entered it. Well would it be if every
man could say the same.

CORRESPONDENCE.

No. I.
Col, j. WILSON PATTEN.
Bank Hall, Warrington,
Jany. i, 1869.
Dear Sir, —
On my arrival here I have heard that the inquiry
into the Warrington Election Petition is fixed for the
ist of February, and that Baron Martin is the Judge
entrusted with it. It has occurred to me that there
may be some little difficulty in making proper arrange
ments for the latter, and that I might be able to
obviate it by placing Bank Hall, with a proper
equipage, at his disposal during the inquiry.
It is obvious, however, that, under the circum
stances, it would be improper for me to do so,
unless with your entire concurrence and that of
your Election Committee, or, indeed, without some
grounds for believing that the political party in the
borough with which you are connected could be

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 45
induced to view the matter in the same light with
myself, namely, as an act of public duty to the Mayor
and the Borough, without the slightest political
object. With such concurrence, but not otherwise, I would
invite Baron Martin to Bank Hall, and offer him
every accommodation in my power ; and in that case
you would, perhaps, oblige me by such a reply as I
could forward to him with my invitation ; but pray
do not hesitate to express any opinion on the subject
entertained by yourself or your political friends. I
should quite understand that yours and their decision,
even if opposed to the above suggestion, was founded
on reasonable grounds, and should, of course, be
entirely guided by it.
Believe me, Yours faithfully, J. Wilson Patten.

45 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. II.
Colonel WILSON PATTEN.
Bank HaH, Warrington,
Jany. 4, i86g.
Dear Sir, —
Having heard, through Mr. White and the Mayor,
that you were likely to coincide in the suggestion
which I made to you, that I should invite Mr. Baron
Martin to Bank Hall for the time of the inquiry into
the Warrington Election Petition, I sounded the
latter on the subject, and I learn from his reply to me
that he thinks it better not to accept any private
hospitality during the circuit which he is about to
make. Under these circumstances I have informed
the Mayor.
Accept my thanks for the expression of your
confidence. And believe me,
Yours truly,
J. Wilson Patten.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 47

No. III.
Right Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P.
Hagley,
Dec. 31, 1868.
My Dear Sir, — ¦
Before complying with your request as to Mr. John
Crosfield, I write to make sure that his works are in
Lancashire, and that he is so much on that side the
border as not to be open to objection in the character
of a non-resident ? Satisfied on this point, I will
cheerfully comply.
I am rejoiced at the announcement with which you
close, and I remain, Very faithfully yours,
W. E. Gladstone.

[This was in reference to a request that Mr. Glad
stone would use his influence to have Mr. John
Crosfield placed upon the Commission of the
Peace for the County of Lancashire.]

48 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. IV.
Mr. GEORGE HADFIELD, M.P.
Conyngham Road,
Victoria Park,
Manchester, Jany. 30, i86g.
My Dear Sir, —
I earnestly hope you will keep your seat. So useful
and welcome a colleague will be very acceptable.
The statement in the Times I read with satisfaction.
There is, as usual, a little of the Americanism in
it, but it is in the right direction, and bespeaks a
willingness on their part. We have no news yet from
the Envoy, but we expect it daily. Mr. Bazley is in
Manchester. We can proceed no further until we
hear from America, and the Session is fast approach
ing, and I hope we shall all be in our places in the
House. It is an important measure, and may have a world
wide infiuence.
Excuse haste. Yours truly,
.Geo. Hadfield.

[This letter refers to the Convention which had
just been signed, appointing four Commissioners
to whom the " Alabama " dispute should be
referred ; which was, however, rejected by the
American Senate.]

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 49
No. V.
Mr. GEO. HADFIELD, M.P.
Conyngham Road,
Victoria Park,
Manchester, Feb. 5, i86g.
My Dear Sir, —
Accept my hearty congratulations on your successful
maintenance of your seat in the House of Commons
yesterday. You have done a public service, and I
hope your life and health may be long to enjoy your
well earned honour. I must not call on the loved and
honoured ones now in heaven, but I could relish the
thought of your Father, my old friend, and the Rev.
J. Turner and others, participating in the pleasure
occasioned by your achievement.
Command me in the House of Commons whenever
I can be useful to you, in matters of practice and
otherwise. Let me walk with you over the offices, etc., when
convenient. I remain, Yours very truly,
Geo. Hadfield.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. VI.
Mr. ALFRED ILLINGWORTH, M.P.
Daisy Bank, Bradford,
Feb. 5, 1869.
My Dear Rylands, —
Let me congratulate you on the result of your
petitions, a report of which I have seen in this
morning's Exatninev and Times.
We shall, I trust, meet " all well " and ready for
active service in 10 days. You would see that we got
thro' triumphantly, saving Forster, and doing justice
to Ripley. What next we scarcely know ; if we are
honest the seat will go to its rightful owner, Miall.
I am, Yours faithfully,
Alfred Illingworth.

[Mr. Ripley was soon after unseated on petition,
and Mr. Miall obtained the seat.l

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 51
No. VII.
Mr. T. B. potter, M.P.
Buile Hill,
Manchester, Feb. 6, i85g.
Dear Mr. Rylands,
Let me offer my congratulations ; I am thankful you
have come off with flying colours. What an excellent
article in the Examiner and Times to-day.
Greenall is scarified. Yours truly,
Thomas B. Potter.

No. VIII.
LORD DUFFERIN. 8, Grosvenor Square,
March 26, 1869.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I shall be very happy to place Mr. Smith's name
and Mr. Rigby's name in the Commission of the
Peace for the County Palatine, but I am so over
whelmed with similar applications from different parts
of the Duchy that with the consent and approval of

52 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
several members of Parliament who met me for the
purpose of discussing the point, itwas arranged that for
the present I should make a batch consisting of only the
more prominent names on the lists furnished to me.
Even in this restricted form the addition I am con
templating is enormous, and could only be justified by
the necessity for redressing the disproportion created
by the late Government.
In giving you three I have gone beyond what was
recommended, and I am in hopes, therefore, you will
not press for the two others, though, of course, at a
future time, or, indeed, at any time, I shall be always
anxious to pay great attention to any suggestion you
may make. Yours sincerely, Dufferin.
P.S. — Of course, if you find the Chancellor more
malleable, that circumstance would alter the case.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 53
No. IX.
Miss BECKER.
Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage,
28, Jackson's Row,
Albert Square,
May g, i86g.
Dear Sir, —
Mr. Jacob Bright's amendment to give the municipal
franchise to women-ratepayers will come on for dis
cussion in committee on Mr. Hibbert's Bill to-movvovi,
Monday, May 10.
I earnestly hope that you will give your support in
his generous efforts to obtain for women-taxpayers
some measure of justice.
In non-corporate districts all persons rated for the
relief of the poor have votes in local affairs under the
Health of Towns Act. Women in Manchester have
expressed great surprise and dissatisfaction at finding
that women in the country could vote while they were
excluded. Should Mr. Bright's amendment be carried
this anomaly would be removed.
I have for so many years associated your name
with such eloquent and powerful advocacy of liberal
principles that I am most anxious we should obtain
your help in the cause of justice to women.
Believe me to be.
Yours sincerely,
Lydia E. Becker.

54 I'LFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. X.
Mr. EDWARD MEDLEY.
3, Penley Grove Street, York,
June i6, i86g.
Sir, —
I beg to thank you for opposing the passing of Mr.
Hughes' inconsistent and unjust Sunday Trading Bill.
Since the year 1847 Bills of a similar character have
been brought before the House from time to time.
Those Bills were opposed by Mr. Joseph Hume, Mr.
Thos. Duncombe, and others since departed, and we
now seem to be in need of someone to check the pro
gress of Bills of such a mischievous and vexatious
character. I was in the Lobby on the Wednesday
afternoon after you had talked it out, and would have
spoken to you, but there was not then time. Having
lived from 1831 to 1868 in the parish of St. Luke's,
London, in a poor neighbourhood, as a small shop
keeper, I know something ofthe wants and necessities
of the poorer classes, thousands of whom have but one
room to sleep and live in. If food was bought on
Saturday in summer time it would be unfit to eat on
Sunday. I am certain that if this Bill becomes law that
there will be many tons of meat and fish spoiled and
unfit for food, which, otherwise, would be purchased
by the poor, cheap and wholesome for themselves and
families. I gave evidence before the Committee in
1847, contending that if the 2gth of Charles II. was
put in force against poor people it was very onerous.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 55
and that we do not require a more stringent law. If
it were not for trespassing too much upon your time,
I could give you many cases of hardship. I will just
mention some of my own. The first was for selling a
two-pound loaf to a man at half-past five in the after
noon who had to work all night in the gas-works close
by. I pleaded that bread was an article of necessity
in this case, nevertheless I was convicted in 5/- pen
alty and costs. Believing I was convicted wrongly I
declined to pay. A short time afterwards when I
came home to dinner, I found a broker had been put in,
and two table-cloths and a hearth-rug had been seized,
which my wife had just bought. Fined afterwards
for a halfpenny biscuit ; next for a pound of flour ;
again for a pennyworth of oatmeal, at half-past eight
in the evening, for a woman that was ill ; and on one
other occasion— five times in all. Not one of them in
church time. To protect ourselves and the poorer
people we formed associations in different parts of Lon
don, and at last I think the Magistrates got sick of these
cases ; very few of them would convict if they could
help it. In 1848 and 1849 Bills were brought into the
Commons and defeated, but in 1850 the promoters
adopted a different mode of tactics. They introduced
their Bill early in the session in the Lords, and it was
referred to a committee. I was the first witness called.
Upwards of 200 questions were put to me. Ultimately
the Lords passed the Bill. When sent to the Com
mons they would not proceed until they had the
evidence printed which had been given before the
Lords, and, when printed, it was referred to a com-

56 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
mittee. Ultimately, after a good deal of discussion,
the Commons rejected the Bill. Since that time the
same party has introduced a similar Bill about every
other year. Since 1847 I have taken a leading part
in opposing those Bills ; and I hope, sir, with your
assistance we shall be successful now. The Bill, if
passed, would bring discredit on the Legislature, and
in thousands of cases prevent the poor from obtaining
the common necessaries of life. Compared with this
BiH, the Act of Charles II. is a good law, for under it
we can sometimes turn the tables upon our oppres
sors. Some of our committee watched whose carriage
came to Jolington Church on Sunday. They found
one to be the Vicar's, who happened to be an advocate
for prosecuting us. We took a summons out against
his coachman for exercising his worldly calling upon
the Lord's Day. The Vicar pleaded in justification
that his wife had been confined, and he had brought
her to be churched. The Magistrate accepted the
plea, and after that the small shopkeepers were not
molested. I will just beg, sir, to call your attention
to the evidence of a gentleman who, from his position
in early life and afterwards was, perhaps, more com
petent to give an opinion upon this question than any
other man. I mean the late Mr. Charles Pearson, the
city solicitor, who gave evidence in 1847. After stat
ing that in enforcingthe Act of Charles II. there were
riots— complete riots — he is asked if he is prepared to
recommend anything. He says, " I am not prepared
to recommend anything. It is a question full of diffi
culties, and great responsibility would rest upon any-

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 57
body with any reputation who would recommend to
Parliament a measure with reference to a matter of
this kind." The cumulative penalties which Mr.
Hughes now seeks to obtain by his Bill was tried to be
obtained under the Act of Charles II. I think about
80 years ago a man sold, not one only, but, at different
times, several loaves of bread. The Magistrate con
victed him not upon one offence only, but on more.
The man brought his case before the Superior Court,
and Lord Mansfield said that the Legislature never
contemplated more than one offence in one day. If
they had, then a tailor would be liable for every stitch
he took in making a garment, a shoemaker a shoe, and
so on ; and the conviction was quashed. I am com
pelled to be here, but hope to be in London before
the Bill again comes on in committee. I beg to
apologise for this trespass upon your time.
I am, sir, Your obedient servant,
Edwd. Medley.

S8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. XI.
Central Association for Stopping the Sale of Intoxi
cating Liquors on Sunday,
43, Market Street,
Manchester, June 30, 1869.
Dear Sir, —
Our Executive Committee, feeling very grateful for
your courageous and able advocacy in the House of
Commons of a measure which would nearly abolish
Sunday intemperance, unanimously adopted, at its
meeting on Monday last, the accompanying resolution
of thanks, which we have the greatest pleasure in for
warding you. Trusting that the energetic labours in
which you take so responsible and prominent a part
may soon prove successful in preventing the evils
inseparable from the Sunday liquor traffic.
We are, dear sir.
Yours very truly,
R. Whitworth,
T. A. Stowell, M.A.,
Honorary Secretaries.
The following is the resolution referred to : —
" That this committee tender their sincere thanks
to Peter Rylands, Esq., for his able exposition in
Parliament of the justice and necessity of including
the stopping of the Sunday sale of intoxicating liquors
in the general measure projected by the Government,
and they rejoice to learn that Mr. Bruce, M.P., the

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 59
Home Secretary, in reference to the motion made on
the 22nd of June, promised that the subject should
have the best consideration ot the Government ; and
further, this committee regard the resolutiori and
speech 01 Mr. Rylands as appropriate expressions
of the desire of the working classes, and anticipate
that they wiU inspire with new courage all who are
labouring to secure the stopping of the sale of intoxi
cating liquors on Sunday.'

No. XII.
Mr. RYLANDS' REPLY.
I, Gloucester Place,
Hyde Park, London,
July I, 1869.
Dear Sir, —
I am much gratified by the kind manner in which
your committee have recognised my effort in the House
of Commons to secure attentionjto the question of
Sunday closing. I should have been glad if the
motion could have been brought on at an earlier hour,
as it would not only have rendered my task much
more agreeable to myself, but would have enabled

6o LIFE AND CORRE.SPONDENCE.
several members, including Mr. Jacob Bright, Mr.
Baines, Mr. M'Laren, and Sir Wilfrid Lawson to
have supported me by their speeches. However, the
best was done under the circumstances, and I sincerely
hope may not be without good effect. Again thank
ing you for the kind terms of your letter, and your
committee for the resolution which they have adopted.
Believe me, dear sir, yours sincerely,
Peter Rylands.

No. XIII.
Rev. EDWARD MATHEWS, M.A.
(Travelling Secretary to the Central Association for
Stopping the Sale of Intoxicating Liquors on
Sunday.) 43, Market Street,
Manchester,
_ ^ July 13. 1869.
Dear Sir, —
I beg to send you a reprint of your speech on the
Sunday Closing question. Our committee have decided
to ask the Town Councils, Boards of Guardians, and
Boards of Health to pass a resolution similar to the
one you moved in the House of Commons. I send a
copy of our appeal to the Town Councillors, and

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 6i
enclose the note of our Hon. Sees. This will be rather
expensive, but Mr. Kirig, of Rochdale, and Mr. Baines,
of this city, have each given us ;^ioo, so that we feel
cheered. I shall be writing in a day or two to your
firm in Warrington. I anticipate they will encourage
our efforts by a liberal subscription. Last week I
attended the annual meeting ofthe British Temperance
League, and arranged with Mr. Bradley, the Temper
ance Agent, to distribute our publications in Warring
ton. I have sent him a large bundle for this purpose.
I wrote to Mr. Haughton, of Dublin, and asked him
kindly to reply to Mr. Newdegate. He sent me a letter
which I had copied and sent to each London daily
newspaper. I have only seen it in the Daily News and
Standard. There has been a number of letters in the
Morning Star on the subject.
Mr. Thompson, of Pin Mill, will move your resolu
tion in the next meeting of our Town Council. Mr.
Birch, jun., will second it. To-morrow the working
men's Sunday Closing League meet to arrange for an
open-air meeting on a large scale-.
We are still keeping in view a good deputation to
the Premier before the close of the session of Parlia
ment. Yours obediently,
Edward Mathews.

62 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. XIV.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Sq.,
July 30, i86g.
My Dear Sir, —
Permit me to congratulate you on the effect of j'our
motion and speech. You have at any rate secured a
Committee for next year. Those with whom I spoke
last year thought it then hopeless to try for a Com
mittee. You will, I think, not require to be cautioned
as to the selection of members, and against schemes
which will be prepared between this and then for
getting members and witnesses agreeable to the
Foreign Office.
On the subject of " Extraordinary Expenses " I
may be able, perhaps, to give you some useful infor
mation of detail. So far as my experience extends
(but I know nothing of Constantinople), I think
that you will not find much really objectionable in
them, and that Ministers have to complain of the
Foreign Office in several matters in connection with
them. If Otway has been correctly reported, in his answer
to Mr. Shaw about the Consul at Buenos Ayres, he
has misrepresented matters much. Mr. Parish had a
very small appointment in China. He was trans
ferred to a small appointment at Buenos Ayres, Vice-
Consul. Luckily he was Acting Consul-General
for some years ; but that was a piece of luck and

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 63
favour. Nothing that Otway said, even if it were
all true, could explain the increase of ;^ioo of last
year. Believe me, yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

No. XV.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Sq.,
Aug. 12, 1869.
My Dear Sir, —
I am sorry Mr. H. Bulwer has given notice of his
amendment. He told me the day before the House
was up he was thinking of it, and I immediately
expressed a hope that he would let the House of
Commons Committee sit first. A Royal Commission
will virtually be a soft cushion for the Foreign Office.
There will be a safe chairman, and Government will
select the members. The evidence is all taken quietly
and privately, and, when ultimately published in
raass, not read : whereas you can get the newspapers
to give daily reports of a House of Commons Com
mittee. I will try and see Bulwer to-morrow, before
I leave town.

64 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
I hope Otway's pledge to give you a Committee is
so distinct that you can keep him to it. Arrange
ments with Bulwer, if you could make them, about
the composition of the Committee, might lead to his
acting with you more cordially ; and, if you have
Gladstone and Bright with you in feeling, you might,
perhaps, agree with them on some chairman who
would be entirely satisfactory to them.
Also, it would be a great aid for united action if you
could come to some compromise with Bulwer and
those whose opinions on the subject he would greatly
influence, about salaries for the greatest places ; and
I do not despair of putting this matter before you
between this and next session in a manner which may,
perhaps, have some effect on your mind. I go very
heartily with you for reductions in many ways, and
principally through ch.a.ngi-ng management , and stopping
jobbery and nepotism, great sources of prodigality.
Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.
I think it may be fairly said against Bulwer's pro
posal that the Diplomatic Service is not a large enough
field for a Royal Commission ; if it were the whole
Civil Service it would be different.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 65
No. XVI.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Sq.,
Aug. 16, 1869.
My Dear Sir, —
I am detained in town, but I have thought it better,
on further consideration, not to go near Sir H. Bulwer
about his commission.
I am very much annoyed at his proposal. You will
remember my teUing you the first day I had the plea
sure of seeing you, that it was difficult to say what
line he would take. He has now put himself in a
position as between you and the Government, which
may enable him to do what will be agreeable to Lord
Clarendon and the Foreign Office connexion, and
they will now be glad to make use of him for reducing
the next year's investigation to a minimum of
efficiency with a maximum of softness.
I think from the terms of his motion he has sought
to profit by your and Mr. Shaw's* separate notices ;
and, as you are going to combine, that may help to
thwart him, and it will be still better if you could get
Lord Sandon to act with you and Mr. Shaw;
Ifyou can get Gladstone and the earnest retrenchers
and reformers of the Government to keep to Otway's
promise to you of a Committee, and if Lord Sandon
would bring the Tories to your aid, you would, I
* Member for Burnley.

¦66 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
should hope, easily beat Bulwer, whom Lord Claren
don and Otway will certainly wish to aid.
I shall myself be very much disappointed if Bulwer
gets the Government to parry your attack by appoint
ing a Commission, Bulwer has got hold of the Pall
Mall Gazette, and I have a suspicion that that article
about your motion came from him. The Star is all
right on your side, and will, I hope, when the time
comes, help effectually against Bulwer's motion.
You will see in Bulwer's letter in one of the Pall
Mall Gazettes, in reply to a very unjustifiable allusion
to him by Lord Russell, that he mentions that he
asked for a peerage. He (Bulwer) has for a long time
been at daggers drawn with the Foreign Office ; and
there is a fact against him of having sold an island,
which he had bought cheap, dear to the Sultan, when
he was ambassador at Constantinople. He ought
not, of course, to have had pecuniary dealings with
the Sultan. Yours very truly.
W. D. Christie.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 67
No. XVII.
SIR HENRY LYTTON BULWER.
53, Upper Brook Street,
nth August, 1869.
My dear Sir, —
You will see a motion of mine as to a Royal
Commission. But I will concert with you on the
matter before anything comes off, and do nothing
that can clash with a proper enquiry into the subject
concerned, nor with the credit you deserve for the
attention you have paid to it. Very truly yours,
H. L. Bulwer.

No. XVIII.
Mr. CHARLES WELLS.
(Author of " Mehemet the Kurd," etc.)
II, Southampton Street, Strand,
August I oth, i86g.
Dear Sir, —
Permit me to thank you for your courteous reply of
the 5th inst. It is a great satisfaction to find that a
man of ability and courage has, at last, determined

68 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
to probe the sores in our diplomatic and consular
system. I take the liberty of enclosing a letter on
this subject in the Moming Post, which explains facts
which possibly you may not know, and which,
certainly, would appear incredible to the ordinary
public, but which are, nevertheless, indisputable.
The Government has, moreover, never attempted to
deny what I said. Many Turks I have met in
London, who have held high position in the Govern
ment, have often lamented to me the vast injury done
to England and Turkey by the interpreters, and
expressed their surprise at the English Government
not giving any encouragement or reward to those
who devoted themselves to the study of Oriental
languages. At present, they tell me, the interpreters
are the real Ambassadors and Consuls, and not being
either Englishmen or Turks, they have naturally
neither the interest of England or Turkey at heart.
The character of those men is, moreover, notorious
in the East.
It would appear, however, that the English
Government is not desirous of remedying this
evil, judging from my experience. On my com
pleting my study of Oriental languages at King's
College, London, and receiving a Special Prize for
" Proficiency in Turkish," the Principal wrote to the
Foreign Office, recommending me, but in vain. Sub
sequently I myself applied to Earl Russell and others
in similar positions, but to no purpose ; and quite
lately the Earl of Denbigh kindly offered to speak to
the Earl of Clarendon about me. He submitted to

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 69
him testimonials as to my proficiency in Turkish,
Arabic and other languages, from the Turkish
Ambassador, the Turkish Consul General, and
others, " the advisability of employing a man with
my qualifications in the East." Lord Clarendon's
reply, strangely enough, I think, makes the recent
Debate in the House of Commons the plea for not
acceding, stating that, owing to the consequent
reduction of consulates, "there will at present be but
little prospect " of his meeting Lord Denbigh's views
in my favour. I have written to Lord Denbigh
saying that Lord Clarendon appears to forget that
your arguments were directed against the dragoman
system, and that you urged the advantage of obtain
ing economy, and superior efficiency by employing
English officials knowing Turkish instead of gentle
men who require interpreters with exorbitant
salaries. I believe I took a correct view of the
objects of your speech, and that it was a strange
distortion to make the reduction of consulates con
sequent on it a plea for not accepting the services of
a man who could have dispensed with interpreters.
With apologies for troubling you, I have the
honour to remain. Yours faithfully,
Charles Wells.

70 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. XIX.
Mr. ROBERT RISLEY.
Aug. 12, i86g.
Dear Sir, —
I was gratified by your note. 'Tis true I am the next
in rotation for the Mayoralty, but the Lawrences are
moving heaven and earth for a second go in for the
present Lord Mayor. Nothing can be in worse taste
than this, for William Lawrence holds his seat for
London by a very slight thread, and for the jamily to
make opponents of the junior aldermen below the
chair, seems a want of that cunning they have always
had a reputation for. Besides, I fought hard for
William's seat in the late contest, and this is my
reward. Whether Lord Mayor or not, I shall be glad to see
you. I remain. Yours sincerely, Rob. Risley.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 71

No. XX.
Rt. Hon. JOHN BRIGHT, M.P.
Rochdale, August 28, 1869.
My Dear Sir, —
I think you may get all you want from Mr. Moran,
Secretary of Legation of the United States in London,
if you can call upon him some day when you are in
town. I do not wish just now to trouble Mr. Sumner
with letters not absolutely necessary to be written.
I can explain this more fully when I see you.
If you write to Mr. Moran you may say that I
recommended you to write to him. His address is
Benjamin Moran, Esq.,
U.S. Legation, London.
I suppose you will have a terrible attack ready for
•us in February. Yours sincerely, John Bright.

72 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. XXI.
Mr. j. H. RAPER.
Parliamentary Agent of the United Kingdom
Alliance.
41, John Dalton St.,
Manchester, Sept. 15, i86g.
Dear Sir, —
Our Executive Council have a great desire to have
your presence at their annual meeting in the Free
Trade Hall, on the igth October. You will have a
glowing welcome, and you know the Hall well. As
there will be a goodly band of all shades, you will not
have a great responsibility resting upon your mind
for speaking purposes, and all information necessary
wiH be forthcoming. Say "Yes," if you can, to the
invitation duly sent by our secretary some days ago.
Apologising for being a party to press a good and
willing horse, I remain. Yours very respectfully, J. H. Raper.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 73
No. XXII.
Mr. WILLIAM STOKES.
71, Robert Street,
Manchester, October i, i86g.
My Deae Sir,—
I have not succeeded as I had hoped to do. The
greater wars, cost, etc., are on the enclosed paper, but
the smaller ones, such as Persia, China, Burmah, etc..
etc., I cannot specify.
The forces of Europe are from 5,500,000 to 6,000,000
of armed men ; and, as nearly as I can calculate, their
cost to the European States (including Great Britain)
will be : —
Actual cost per annum  ;^i3o,ooo,ooo
Loss of labour, etc. ,,  120,000,000
Total  ;^25o,ooo,ooo
Yours very truly, William Stokes.

(paper enclosed in the above letter.)
Total cost of French War for 22 years, from )
1793 to close of 1815 (the Peace of ^ ;^I, 210.047,986
Araiens, of course, omitted)..  >
Average annual cost of ditto for 22 years  ^^55,002, 181
The Crimean War lasted from 2 to 3 years.
Total cost of war, about  ;^iio,ooo,ooo
Average annual cost   .?o38)°'l)972
The Abyssinian War lasted 8 months.
Total cost  ;^8,773,000

74 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE,
No. XXIII.
Mr. RICHARD SHAW, M.P.
Holm Lodge,
Oct. 6, 1869.
My Dear Sir, —
I was very sorry to miss saying " Good night " to-
you and Mrs. Rylands on Monday evening. I thought
you were following me into the cloak-room. The
crowd was so great I could not get back.
I have just been reading your speech last night in
Manchester ; it is very good.
I think reciprocity* is once more done for. I have
just been talking with a rank Tory, who denounces
the whole thing as a piece of d  d rot ; and Lord
Stanley gave them their quietus at Liverpool.
I want you to come to me on Monday, and remain
over Tuesday. I am entertaining some of my political
friends on those evenings, and I should like to intro
duce you to them. We dine at 7 both evenings.
With kind regards.Yours very truly.
Rich. Shaw.
* One of the many aliases of Protection.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 75
No. XXIV.
Mr. EDWARD MATHEWS.
(Central Association for Stopping the Sale of
Intoxicating Liquors on Sunday.)
43, Market Street, Manchester,
October 12th, 1869.
Dear Sir, —
We are looking forward to the pleasure of hearing
you and other members of Parliament at the Free
Trade Hall, at our Public Meeting on the 2nd of
November. If the Premier would receive a deputa
tion on the subject in November it would be of great
value, as the Government is preparing its measure.
By the desire of an influential member of our Com
mittee I write to ask ifyou would kindly communicate
with the Premier, and ascertain if he would consent
to receive a deputation in November, at such part of
the month as would best suit his convenience. We
should be glad to have a good notice, so as to secure
a very influential deputation. By the enclosed you
will see that some religious Bodies have already
appointed deputations to accompany ours.
Awaiting your reply.
Yours obediently,
Edward Mathews.

76 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. XXV.
Mr. EDWARD MATHEWS.
43, Market Street, October 23rd, i86g.
Dear Sir, —
Your note was read to our committee yesterday ;
it was felt to be all-important that the deputation to
the Premier should be very influential, even if it
involved a delaj;- till Parliament meets. If by an
earlier deputation we can secure a recognition of the
Sunday Closing Question in the Queen's Speech it
would be of great value. I beg to send you the
resolutions which will be proposed. Sir Thos. Bazley
will not be with us till the middle of the proceedings,
hence we have arranged for him to speak to the 3rd
resolution. Can you kindly be with us at the preliminary meet
ing at the Trevelyan ?
Yours very truly,
Edward Mathews.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 77
No. XXVI.
Miss BECKER.
Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage.
28, Jackson's Row,
Albert Sq., Oct. 18, 1869.
Dear Sir, —
I am desired by the Executive Committee to invite
you to take part in the annual general meeting of
members and friends of the above society, to be held
in the Mayor's Parlour, Town Hall, Manchester,
towards the end of November. The precise time is
not yet fixed, but if, as I hope, you will be willing to
attend the meeting, I will take care to inform you
directly the arrangements are completed.
I desire to express our earnest thanks for the sup
port you gave to Mr. Jacob Bright on the Municipal
Franchise Bill, and the hope that the same may be
continued in behalf of the Bill which he has pledged
himself to introduce for removing the electoral dis
abilities of women as to the Parliamentary Franchise.
The urgent need of this measure is exemplified in the
fate of the Married Women's Property Bill. One
year's delay in passing this measure involves the con
fiscation of sums which, at the lowest computation,
must be set down at twenty million pounds sterling.
This one year of the Married Women's Property Bill
¦deals with much larger pecuniary interests than the
whole question in perpetuity of the Irish Church Bill.

78 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
It must be obvious to every one that interests so
great in extent would not have received such careless
and indifferent treatment at the hands of the Legisla
ture had they concerned a class which had a right to
representation in Parliament.
Believe me to be,
Yours very truly,
Lydia E. Becker, Secretary.

No. XXVII.
Mr. EDWARD MATHEWS.
Central Association
for
Stopping the Sale of Intoxicating Liquors on Sunday.
82, Norfolk St.,
Sheffield, Nov. 13.
Dear Sir, —
We are to have a demonstration here on the 29th
in favour of your Bill. If you can be with us kindly
apprise me by return post.
We will have one in Warrington. When can
you attend ? Kindly fix the day. I will come and

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 79
work up the meeting. I am working the press. See
enclosed. Yours very truly,
E. Mathews.

No. XXVIII.
Mr. J. H. RAPER.
United Kingdom Alliance,
41, John Dalton St.,
Manchester, Nov. 18, 1869.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I wrote you last week asking the favour of complet
ing your half promise if Sir Wilfrid Lawson came to
Liverpool you would stand by him. We have been
compelled to go to press for Monday, the 29th, with
the announcements, and have ventured to announce
you. I hope you will be at liberty to attend. It will
not impose much responsibility, as we have one of the
most able of America's sons (Samuel F. Cary, ex-
member of Congress), to aid us on that night. He is
a noble freetrader into the bargain. You will not
regret hearing him.
Yours very respectfully, J. H. Raper.

So LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. XXIX.
Sir WILFRID LAWSON, M.P., Bart.
Hutton Hall, Nov. 19, 1869.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Many thanks for your kind invitation to Warrington.
I am sorry to say that I cannot accept of it, as I have
an engagement on Thursday afternoon at home,
which I could not meet were I to be at Warrington
on Wednesday evening I should have really liked
not only pa}'ing you a visit, but also seeing the won
derful town which, with a " public " in every street,
yet returns an M.P. who votes for the Permissive
BiH! I hope that I shall see you on the platform at
Liverpool, and hear you make as good a speech as
you did at Manchester. You call yourself a weak
brother, but nobody else will call you so.
I am pleased that you did me the honour of reading
the Carlisle speech. I hadn't time to give your Dip
lomatic motion a word of praise, as it took me all the
time to sort those Bishops and Peers. Let us form a
solemn league and covenant to abolish all Bishops
and Lords, and have this country governed solely by
Baronets and radical M.P.'s ! !
Hoping to see you at Liverpool,
I am. Yours truly,
Wilfrid Lawson.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 8i
No. XXX.
Mr. a. H. BROWN, M.P. (Wenlock).
Richmond Hill,
Liverpool, Nov. 19, 1869.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I am very glad to hear you addressed the Madeley
people during your visit there ; it will do a deal of
good ; and I am much obliged to you for the kind
manner in which you mention me. I hope, when we
meet in London, I may have the pleasure of thanking
you personally.
The memorial of the Town Council of Wenlock,
requesting the appointment of Messrs. Antus and
Davis, was referred to me. I informed the Lord
Chancellor of the politics of those gentlemen and their
position, and also said that it was thought no more
Conservatives should be appointed to the office of
J. P., as they already predominated in the proportion
of 8 to I. Further, I sent up the names of Mr. G.
Norris and Mr. G. Man for the appointments. These
gentlemen will be, I understand from a letter received
to-day from the Lord Chancellor's Office, made
magistrates ; but the only point in the mind of the
Secretary to Lord Hatherley is whether the other
two should be made also. I have written back to
them, repeating the reasons I stated before. I think
the matter is in good train now, and I do not see any
reason to apply to Glynn. The two names you sub-

S2 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
mit are most eligible for appointment, and, if there is
any chance, I will try what I can do.
Believe me, Yours truly,
A. H. Brown.

No. XXXI.
Mr. RICHARD SHAW, M.P.
Holme Lodge, Burnley,
Nov. 23, 1869.
Dear Sir, —
We are going to celebrate the return of our friend
Shuttleworth, for Hastings, by a public meeting on
Saturday evening next, and I want you to come and
join us. Sir James and Ughtred are most anxious
that you should ; and I promised them that I would
write and ask you to come and stop with me. Sir
James wishes us to dine with him on Saturday, and go
from thence to the meeting. / will have no excuse, and
if you can stop over Sunday so much the better.
Yours very truly.
Rich. Shaw.
You will be expected to say a few words.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 83
No. XXXII.
Mr. ROBERT RAWLINSON.
8, Richmond Terrace,
WhitehaH, London, S.W.,
Nov. 3, 1869.
Dear Sir, —
I have just seen a report of a speech, made by you
in Warrington, in the Examiner of 26th ult. You
directly accuse me of writing an " unjustifiable "
report on the Warrington smoke nuisance, and you
say that you will so represent to the Government.
You will be, of course, at liberty to do so ; and if I
should be called upon to defend my report, I hope to
justify every sentence in it, and to very materially
increase the strength of any remarks as to the
nuisance unnecessarily caused in Warrington by
smoke. Your remarks as to my visit to Mr. Beamont,
an old friend, I cannot consent to notice further than
to say you have evidently a very bad opinion of poor
human nature. I shall not shrink, however, from
justifying that portion of my conduct also. Pray, for
your own sake, dismiss prejudice as much as possible,
and allow me to say that it ever has been, and is, my
earnest endeavour to do my duty, publicly and
privately, as becomes an honest man ; subject, of
course, to the infirmities of poor human nature. My
report, I say, is a tame abstract of the evidence as
given in public, and as published in the local papers.

84 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Mr. Beamont in no degree influenced me ; and, as a
man of recognised honour among honest men, he
never attempted to do so.
I have the honour to be,
Your most obedient servant,
Robert Rawlinson.

No. XXXIII.
Mr. ROBERT RAWLINSON.
8, Richmond Terrace,
WhitehaU, London, S.W.,
26th Nov., 1866.
Dear Sir, —
I duly received your letter of the 22nd inst. I think
you have both spoken of me and have written to me
under wrong impressions. I was, until I read your
letter, profoundly ignorant of party politics in War
rington. The memorial to the Home Office asking
for enquiry, contained (I think) above one thousand
signatures. I made enquiry honestly, to the best of
my ability, and if I exhibited partiality it was uncon
sciously. My dining with Mr. Beamont was as an old
friend of more than twenty years' standing, but, until

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 85
you informed me, I never knew his politics. (I think
you and I are on the same side, if this can have any
thing to do with the question.) Of Mr. Davies I
knew absolutely nothing but through the enquiry.
The Home Secretary has not been partially in
formed by me, as, appended to my report, were
verbatim copies of the evidence as printed in the
Warrington Newspapers, and even the Editorial
comments. You say I failed in my duty at Warrington. I, of
course, cannot be the judge. I think that you have
publicly attacked me wrongfuHy ; but, if you press
your accusations at the Home Office, and I should be
called upon to defend myself, I will do so to the best
of my ability.
In the public servant I have never sunk the private
friend, but private friendship will not bend me from
the course of truth and duty.
The Sanitary Act, 1866, has been passed by Parlia
ment, and is in force. A duty has been imposed
upon the Home Secretary ; and if I, as an instrument
under the Act, at his orders, have a very disagreeable
duty to perform in conducting smoke nuisance en
quiries, I shall do the best I can, utterly regardless of
such censure as yours or the contingent consequences*.
I have the honour to be, dear Sir,
Yours obediently,
Robert Rawlinson.

86 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE,

No. XXXIV.
Miss BECKER.
Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage,
28, Jackson's Row,
Albert Sq.,
Dec. 9, i86g.
My Dear Sir, —
Enclosed is copy of the Resolution which we ask
you to move at our meeting, also of the Bill we pro
pose to recommend for adoption. We count ourselves
very fortunate in receiving your support to our cause,
for principles, however just, need to be clearly and
ably set forth if they are to make way.
Believe me to be,
Yours sincerely, Lydia E. Becker.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 87
No. XXXV.
Mr. C. E. MACQUEEN.
Financial Reform Association,
13, Eldon Chambers,
20, South John St.,
Liverpool, Nov. 26, 1869.
My Dear Sir, —
Mr Michael Daly, a thorough Custom House
reformer — to the extent of reforming it off the face of
the earth altogether — is particularly anxious to see
you on the subject ; and he thinks, rightly or wrongly,
that a word or two from me might improve his chances
of an interview.
He has been connected with the Custom House
between 20 and 30 years, has had a great deal to do
with such reforms as have been effected, and was the
right-hand man of Mr. F. B. Horsfall in his attempts
to obtain a consolidation of the Customs and Excise
Departments. He was lately transferred to the Board
of Trade, but was sent back to the Customs because,
to the horror and amazement of some of the subs, he
not only rooted into abuses involving shameful and
utterly useless waste of the public money, touching
statistical returns relating to Trade, but was resolutely
bent on exposing and doing away with them.
I have read two reports of his, which some of the
honest officials, including Sir L. Mallet, were for having
printed by order of the House of Commons ; but others

88 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
seem, and no wonder, to have considered them too
damaging for official publication.
The revelations are absolutely astounding ; and Mr.
Daly got his conge from the Board for presuming to
make them, headed though the Board be by so
thorough a reformer as John Bright was in his un
official days. Entre nous Mr. Daly had an interview
with Mr. Bright, who then called the Custom House
" an Augean stable," but who has since permitted his
subordinates to burke the attempt made to cleanse it.
The task is one to make name and fame for any
M.P., even if he were previously unknown ; and I
know of none more likely than yourself to undertake
it. So I told Mr. Daly, who expects to be in Lanca
shire about ten days hence, and will do himself the
honour of calling upon you— *'.«., with your permission.
Yours truly,
C. E. Macqueen.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 89
No. XXXVI.
Mr. MICHAEL DALY.
II, South Crescent,
Bedford Sq., W.C,
Dec. 16, i86g.
My Dear Sir, —
I have sent you the reports containing the evidence,
etc., brought out by the select committee 1862/3, o^*
the proposed consolidation and reform ofthe Revenue
Departments. I have also sent you a return, ordered by the House
in 1861, of the number of people employed, cost, etc.,
which may be of interest. There has been no such
return made since.
Enclosed is an article from The Produce Markets
Review of last Saturday, touching the part of the ques
tion which we were discussing at your house the same
•day — the heavy indirect tax which the present system
imposes on the public.
There can be no doubt that public opinion is now
ripe for this matter ; and I feel assured that you will
have little or no difficulty in disposing of it. The
time has come for a settlement of the question, so that
in the next move made towards that object the final
blow, if well directed, wiH be given to the present very
•discreditable system. Believe me.
My dear Sir,
Very faithfully yours,
M. Daly.

90 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
P.S. — I have just had to-day's Daily News sent me,
and forward it by this post. I have marked some
thing relative to this question, which you wUl see.

No. XXXVII.
Mr. MICHAEL DALY.
II, South Crescent,
Bedford Square,
W.C,
Dec. 17, i86g.
My Dear Sir, —
I forgot to tell you, in my note of yesterday, that
the vacancy at the Board of Customs has been filled
up by the appointment of Sir F. Doyle, Bart., who
was, as you are aware, the Receiver General of
Customs. It is said (I do not know with what truth) that Sir
F. Doyle's place is not to be filled up ; but the same
thing was said as to the vacancy at the Board.
I proposed the abolition of the Receiver General's
departments in both the Customs and Inland
Revenue, as you may see by my evidence : in neither
case are they of more use than the fifth wheel of a
coach.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 91
But this, after all, is only a mere detail ofthe whole
scheme of Reform, which should be dealt with broadly
and comprehensively.
Mr. H. Caulier, whose letter appears in the Daily
News, is one of those men who defend the present
system vigorously, and by whose advice the Board
have been induced to add largely to the public expen
diture, under the guise of improvement. I know of
no branch which calls more for a thorough reform
than Caulier's. Very faithfully yours,
M. Daly.

No. XXXVIII.
Mr. MICHAEL DALY.
II, South Crescent,
Bedford Square,
W.C,
Dec. 25, i86g.
My Dear Sir, —
I had some conversation with Sir Louis MaHet on
the day before yesterday, respecting your diplomatic
movement. I told him that as from his great experi
ence in connection with the Foreign Office and the
Board of Trade, both at home and at Foreign Courts,

92 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE
great value would attach to his evidence, my impres
sion was that you would be glad of his aid in the event
of a select committee being appointed. He wished me
to tell you that, if you will call on him when you get
to town, he will be very happy to see you, and talk the
matter over, as he will be glad to render what assist
ance he can.
I told him you thought of having an introduction
to him through Mr. Bright, but he wished me to say
that there is no necessity of that. He will be just as
well pleased if you will go direct and introduce your
self I think you may rely on him as a thorough and an
honest reformer ; but, of course, in his position he
can only express an opinion and offer advice, not at
all times a grateful task. But it is one of the great
scandals of the public service of this country, that
those very men who are most willing, and at the same
time most able, to reform that service, are never
afforded the opportunity, or permitted to attain the
position which would enable them to do so.
Very faithfully yours,
M. Daly.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 93
No. XXXIX.
Sir SYDNEY WATERLOWE.
Carpenters' Hall,
68, London WaH,
Jan. II, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
Southwark Election.
The friends of the Liberal Party are of opinion that
Sir Francis Lycett and I ought to refer our relative
claims upon the Electors to the Arbitration of five
Liberal Members of Parliament, two to be named by
each Candidate, and an umpire chosen by the four.
If we agree upon the conditions of reference, which
we shall probably do to-morrow, I should feel very
much obliged if you would act as one of the Arbitra
tors on my side. Could you meet the others on
Thursday or Friday ? Please telegraph " Yes." I
shall understand what you mean.
Yours faithfully,
Sydney H. Waterlowe.

[Sir F. Lycett retired in favour of Sir Sydney
Waterlowe, but the party was no better off, as
another Liberal candidate, Mr. G. Ogden, came
into the field, splitting the party, and aUowing
the Conservative, Lt.-Col. M. Beresford, to be
elected. The same insane course was taken in
1874, three Liberals standing for the two seats

94 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
against one Conservative, with the same result.
Thus in Southwark a seat was presented by
the Liberal Party to the Conservatives for lo
years, from 1870 to 1880.]

No. XL.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square, Dec. 29, 1869.
My Dear Sir, —
You will see what has happened about the re
appointment of Messrs. Fenwick and Schneider to
the Magistracy, and the subsequent cancelling of their
new commissions. Lord Dufferin, itis said, not having
been aware of the circumstances under which they
were removed by Lord Devon from the commission
of the peace. Now, my opinion is, that Messrs.
Schneider and Fenwick have great reason to com
plain that they are singled out for punishment.
Disraeli allowed all the others similarly reported at
the same time guilty of bribery to escape, and he even
gave Sir Edmond Lacon and Mr. Goodson, two ofhis
supporters, general praise.
My object in writing to you about this is to tell you
that Mr. Monson (Lord Monson's brother), appointed

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 95
during the last twelve months Consul at Foyat (a very
pleasant Consulate), was reported by the Reigate
Commission guilty of bribery. He had been a candi
date there, and he was scheduled by the Commission
as a briber. Reigate was disfranchised. The Revis
ing Barrister this year has struck offthe list of county
voters all who were scheduled for bribery at Reigate.
Mr. Monson, the candidate, and a source of corrupt
practices, is rewarded with one of the First Consu
lates which Lord Clarendon has had to give away. It
will be said, doubtless, that he did not know the cir
cumstances. They must have been known in the
office. This may interest you apropos of Foreign Office
management. Hoping that you persevere in your intention of
moving early for a Committee to inquire into the
management of the Diplomatic and Consular Service,
with a view to economy and efficiency, I propose
now, if it is agreeable to you, to send you between this
and the meeting of Parliament, observations on dif
ferent points of management which, if you do not turn
them otherwise to account, will give you a notion
of what I should say as a witness in answer to
questions. I hear that the Foreign Office is busy at economies.
You will have seen that they reduced Venezuela. Up
to the time of your motion they had been systemati
cally increasing and improving those appointments ;
and in the Diplomatic Services Act of last session
(which passed unnoticed) they increased the pensions

96 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
ofthe Charge d'Affaireships, such as Venezuela, from
/700 to ;^goo. Believe me, yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

No. XLL
Mr. EDWIN BARTON.
Central Association
for
Stopping the Sale of Intoxicating Liquors on Sunday.
43, Market St.,
Manchester, Jany. 13.
Dear Sir, —
I send you a note just received from our Welsh
Agent (Mr. Jones), containing abstract from a letter
received from G. O. Morgan, Esq., M.P. for Denbigh
shire. It seems our friends in Wales are anxious to
have upon the back of your Bill the name of a Welsh
Member, and they prefer Mr. Morgan, and have
pressed him. I may say that our Committee fully
agree if it meets with your approval, and, if so,
perhaps you will kindly write Mr. Morgan.
Yours respectfully,
Edwin Barton.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 97
No. XLII.
Mr. G. OSBORNE MORGAN, M.P.
20, Bolton Street,
Jany. 27, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I am obliged to you for your note of the 25th.
In default of your finding any better or weightier
name (which I should think would not be difficult), I
shall be glad to have my name on the back of your
Sunday Closing Bill. Yours truly,
G. Osborne Morgan.

No. XLIII.
Miss BECKER.
Manchester National Society for
Women's Suffrage.
28, Jackson's Row,
Albert Sq.,
Feb. 8, 1870.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Thank you very much for your kindness in sending
me the Warrington paper, and for the support you

•98 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
gave to the good cause. We begin the session with
^ood prospects, and we outsiders will do all that lies
in us to support our Parliamentary champions, who
are working so generously in our behalf.
We are having a public meeting this evening at
Crewe in support of the Bill.
With kind regards to Mrs. Rylands and yourself,
I am, yours truly,
Lydia E. Becker.

No. XLIV.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square, Jan. 27, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I send you by book-post two parliamentary papers
of the last session of last Parliament, relating to
Foreign Office, and a privately-circulated pamphlet
of mine of 1863 relating to my Brazilian Mission.
You will find in the last some matters bearing on
" management " of the service : for example. Lord
Malmesbury's strange proceedings as to filling up the
Naples mission ; and something about secretaries and
attaches towards the end.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 99
I am wishing and hoping, of course, that my case
may be brought out as an illustration of the patron
age and aristocratic nature of the system. I am the
youngest of the Diplomatic pensioners, put on a pen
sion against my .wiH when I was 47, and under cir
cumstances of great injustice. Lord RusseH, in fact,
wanted to quiet the clamour about the reprisals he
ordered, and so gave out at once that I was not to go
back to Brazil. I was just ripe for a pension, so he
made use of the pension for the purpose, and saddled
the public with ;^goo a year. But I will give you a
brief resume of my case before your motion comes
on. I also enclose a pamphlet published last year by a
young attache, who argues in his own interest, and
states the discontent of all the young ones who want
promotion. He is, of course, for a close service, will
be angry at Layard's* appointment, and would growl
also if I or any other pensioner were re-employed. I
object altogether to this close service system ; but it
is as well always to know what is said on the other
side, and this pamphlet is very absurd and open to
ridicule in parts.
It would be well on the meeting of Parliament to
get from the government the continuation of corre
spondence with the Foreign Office about the agency
system. That system is a very important bad feature

* Layard had previously been retired on a pension. His re-entry.
therefore, into active service, and appointment to an important
mission to Madrid would, of course, have the effect of checking pro
motion in the lower ranks of the Diplomatic service.

lOO LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
of Foreign Office " management." Bulwer is, 1
believe, much opposed to it.
Believe me.
Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

No. XLV.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square,
Jan. 31, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I am obliged and gratified by your letter. I have
no interest now in defending Lord Russell, who sacri
ficed me in the most deliberate and meanest manner;
but he was right in his dealing with the Brazilian
Government through me. That, however, it does not
concern me now to press. He deliberately sacrificed
me, and has inflicted on me immense injury.
I may tell you that I was on very friendly terms
with Cobden to the last, and that he expressed to me
his regret at having given so much heed to Mr.
Bramley Moore. I saw Bright on my return from
Brazil, and he blamed me for having made no endeav
our, before I called on the Admiral to make reprisals,
to make the Brazilian Government privately informed

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. lol
of my instructions. This was the gravamen, as he
called it, of Lord Malmesbury's charge. Now, the
fact is, that I did make such an endeavour privately,
but my mouth was closed. I endeavoured with the
French minister, but what passed between me and
him was confidential. Lord Russell knew of it, of
course. He made no defence of me against Lord
Malmesbury's specific charge. I was even forbidden
by the Foreign Office to aUude to that endeavour in
the pamphlet you have read, and a sentence so allud
ing, which I had printed, was struck out. I told
Bright in 1868 how it was. Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

No. XLVI.
SIR HENRY L. BULWER.
Hotel du Pare, Hyferes,
Feb. 6, 1870.
My Dear Sir, — ¦
I had a motion for a Royal Commission, you for one
in favour of a Committee with reference to the Dip
lomatic service.
Had the question merely related to expense, yours
would, I think, have been the most appropriate, but

I02 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
as the whole system to be adopted with reference to
an important branch of the public service with which
members of the House of Commons are not, as a
general rule, practically acquainted, has more or less
to be decided, I am of opinion that my proposition
was most suitable to the case.
The Government, however, is, I hear, more disposed
to agree to a Committee than to a Commission. I
merely write, therefore, to say I shall cordially concur
(though, you know, I don't hope very much from Com
mittees) with you on the course you propose taking,
and, if I happen to be on the Committee, give you my
best assistance.
I confess that I think a proper diplomacy can do so
much good, and prevent so much mischief, that I do
not grudge it any beneficial expenditure, 'out my pre
sent opinion is that this service might be made more
useful and less costly, and hence my reason for
thinking that the subject well deserves enquiry.
I am, Dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
H. L. Bulwer.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 103
No. XLVII.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square,
Feb. g, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I send you by book post some general remarks on
the Diplomatic and Consular Services and Foreign
Office. I see that Otway has taken the initiative. I hope
you are satisfied with him. But I hope you will not
allow him to prevent you from making a statement
before the Committee is agreed to.
I may caution you that Otway is very intimate and
in frequent consultation on this subject with Sir H.
Drummond Wolff, a former clerk in Foreign Office,
who is a very keen Tory and a notorious follower and
worshipper of Lord Malmesbury. It is as well you
should know this. I hear that Otway is very much op
posed to Hammond in the Foreign Office. I do not
like the words of his motion ; the construction, indeed,
is ungrammatical. I hope you will be able to get
words inserted so as to secure inquiry into the man
agement as well as the constitution of the services.
Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

104 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. XLVIII.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE. 32, Dorset Square,
Feb. 13, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
Mrs. Christie informed me as we came home that
news had come to Mrs. Rylands of your having a
domestic loss, on which I beg suitably to condole with
you, and which is likely to embarrass you in your
dealings with Mr. Otway.
I am so strongly persuaded that there is mischief
in Otway's movements that I write to express my
strong hope that you will be able to insist on his post
poning the motion till you can attend the House. It
is due to you. His being in a hurry for the estimates
is probably humbug. Though Otway is, as I believe,
opposed to much of the Foreign Office management,
Hammond is more powerful than he in the Office, and
with Lord Clarendon ; and I distrust Otway's friends
and associates very much. It is not only Wolff;
Borthwick, the editor oixh^ Morning Post 2.r\A. Owl, is a
friend of his, and the pamphlet I sent you has been
much puffed in the Owl, and it probably represents
Wolffs and Otway's views of Diplomatic Service
Reform. Bouverie has gone out of town, leaving word that
he will probably not be back till next week. I have
no doubt whatever as to the superiority of Bouverie
for chairman over Brand, who knows nothing at all

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 105
about the Diplomatic Services, and has been whipper-
in under Lord Russell — a very bad training.
I have heard to-day something which makes me
think that the Government wish for Brand, and
not Bouverie. Pray have Bouverie if you can
decide it. There is no one else of the same rank and
position. I heard also that Arthur Russell and Cartwright,
the member for Oxfordshire, and son of Sir Thomas
Cartwright, a former diplomatic Minister, were likely
to be named on the Committee by the Government.
One of these two, who are great friends, would be
enough ; and get rid ifyou can of Arthur Russell, who
is Lord Russell's nephew, but himself a good man.
Cartwright is, I believe, a very able man. He is a
new member.
I cannot say how much I hope you will make Otway
wait for you, and that you will make a debate on the
appointment of the Committee. Bouverie's being out
of town may be another reason for waiting. I hope
to get him to say something in a debate.
As to witnesses, I hope you will make Otway
understand that you mean to call witnesses from
among the Diplomatic servants who are in this
country on Pension, and name Sir Henry Bulwer and
myself. You will also do well— indeed, it is very
important — to ascertain, when the Committee is
appointed, who are the diplomatists and consuls at
present at home on leave of absence, or expected
home shortly on leave. The Foreign Office can, of
course, furnish a list. They are quite likely to bring

io6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
home men suited for their purpose, and send back
to their posts others whose evidence they would
not like. Believe me.
Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

No. XLIX.
Mr. RICHARD SHAW, M.P.
Reform Club,
Feb. 19, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I fear you will not get Whitwell on the Committee.
Glyn showed me the list last night. Lefevre, Cart
wright, and Campbell are on, and, if Whitwell is to
be on, it must be in lieu of Campbell. On the other
side there are Sclater-Booth, Lord Stanley, Lord
Sandon, not Graves. I asked Glyn not to nominate
until after he had seen you, and he agreed.
Holmes spoke well, but did not carry the House
with him.
We go to No. 13 to-day, and I shall be glad to see
you to-morrow, and Mrs. Shaw will enjoy a chat with
Mrs. Rylands. Yours very truly,
Richard Shaw.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 107

L.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square,
Feb. 20, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I cannot tell you how much I wish that you could
get Grant Duff substituted for George Lefevre. He
would be very much better than Gladstone, Junr., if
you could get him. I am not in a condition to say
that Grant Duff wiH act, for his work at the India
House may prevent it. But I am sure that he would
wish very much to be on the Committee if it were
possible, and would be disposed to make some sacri
fice in order to sit on it. He was the originator of
the enquiry which took place in 1861, but it was then
taken out of his hands, very much as it has now been
taken out of yours. And Grant Duff's aspirations
have been much more for the Foreign Office than the
India Office, where he is placed.
The Government would, I should think, be glad to
have him rather than Lefevre. Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

io8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, LI.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square,
Feb. 23, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
The Foreign Office deserves a whipping for the
return they have made to Mr. Shaw's motion. I
enclose a memo, on the subject.
You will see in the list Mr. L., Consul at B., receiv
ing for himself fees amounting to more than ;^i,6oo a
year. This appointment of Mr. L. has been always a
scandal. He was a man living in foreign capitals —
Paris chiefly — by the prostitution of his wife, a very
pretty woman, who fascinated many great people.
Lord Clarendon appointed Mr. L. to this lucrative
consulship without any consular antecedents or
known fitness. It has always been supposed that
Mrs. L. had claims upon Lord Clarendon. The
Queen's Messenger last year used to bring up L.'s
appointment constantly against Lord Clarendon.
If he goes before the Committee he might be
judiciously and rather closely questioned on what
proofs there are of Mr. L.'s fitness, why he was
selected, who recommended him, etc.
Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 109
No. LII.
Mr. MICHAEL DALY.
II, South Crescent,
Bedford Square,
W. C,
Feb. 19, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I went down to the House of Commons, where I
had an appointment with Mr. Macfie, yesterday even
ing, and I entertained the hope of having the pleasure
of meeting you there, but I was not fortunate enough
to fall in with you.
Mr. Macfie has been called upon by the Edinburgh
Chamber of Commerce to present a memorial to the
Treasury praying for a reform of the present system
in the Customs, and he has been anxious to discuss
the matter with me. I promised to call upon him at
10 a.m. on Monday next, and talk the thing over.
But I should like to have some conversation with
yourself on the broad question of Consolidation and
Reform, and which must necessarily embrace all
those details at which so many people, official and
non-official, are now nibbling or driving. If I thought
I should be likely to find you at home on Monday at
12 o'clock, and it would not be inconvenient to you, I
would take the liberty of calling on you.
I should have thanked you before for the paper
containing your speech, every word of which I read
with great interest. It was excellent, one of the best

IIO LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
practical addresses made to any constituency during
the whole recess. Very faithfully yours,
M. Daly.

No. LIII.
Mr. SAMUEL PLIMSOLL, M.P.
Agar Town Coal Depot,
London, N.W.,
Feb. 21, 1870.
My Dear Sir, — •
Mr. Shaw and I thought you would like, or, at least,
have no objection, to have your name on the back of
my Bill, and therefore ventured to put it on. As I
cannot be at the House to-day, I thought it better to
write, so that if you object, I may remove it before
the bill is printed. I am. My dear sir.
Yours very truly,
Samuel Plimsoll.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. iii
No. LIV.
REV. G. S. REANEY. Warrington, March 3, 1870.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
We are very indignant with Forster ; he looks to me
something like a humbug. The Bill, as it is, will not
meet with our approval (Nonconformist). If the
Government will force it through by the help of the
Tory party, we can only bide our time, and when the
next fight comes leave Gladstone to our Tory friends.
I think the measure is a compromise all on one side. I
am utterly surprised that the Cabinet ever imagin ed
that the Nonconformist party would accept such a
pro-Church measure. If this is the Liberalism ofthe
men for whom the Dissenters fought tooth and nail, I
think we made a terrible blunder. I don't hesitate to
say, from the information I have, that the passing of
this Bill in anything like the form it now has, will end
in the break-up of the Liberal party and the return of
Dizzy with Derby to power. Anyhow, the effect
produced upon us by the conduct of Forster is that
we shall never trust him or the Premier again with fuH
confidence. Oh, that Bright were well ! I understand
aU that Bright said both in public and private about
Forster and his BiH. I hope you are aH weU. Please
remember me to your sister and Mrs. Rylands.
Yours faithfully,
G. S. Reaney.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE,

No. LV.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square,
March 16, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I like your questioning of Hammond very much. It
reads very well. I return the evidence with my
marginal notes, and to-morrow I will take from you
the other copy.
I wish you would look at the circulars describing
the mode of employing secretaries. They are in the
appendix to the Diplomatic Committee's report.
I think you have not brought out the most impor
tant point as regards the reports of Secretaries of
Legation. They ought to be reports made by the
Minister, revising his Secretaries'. See my note in
margin on questions 374 and 375.
I feel sure that if you go through your details as to
the Diplomatic Services with Hammond, you will find
Otway and others more and more with you. The
general impression has been that your only wish was
to reduce expenditure. Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 113
No. LVI.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE. 32, Dorset Square,
March 18, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
Thanks for your note.
Hammond was very excited after the room was
cleared, in the lobby. He will have a dreadful fit of
the gout after all this is over.
If you feel disposed to go straight at Lord Malmes
bury's jobbery, I can prime you with minute details.
I have the Foreign Office lists of the time, so that it
will be very easy to make out the cases.
If you look at Mr. Earle's evidence before the
Diplomatic Committee of 186 1, you will see that he
went out of his way to say that Lord Clarendon
favoured his friends and Lord Malmesbury did not (!)..
Mr. Earle was lately Tory M.P. for Maldon, and was
at one time Disraeli's private secretary. A reference
to this piece of evidence and some examination of
Lord Malmesbury, to show the injustice ofthe com
parison, might be so managed as rather to please Lord
Clarendon. Till to-morrow, Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

114 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. LVII.
Mr. HUGH M. MATHESON.
Heathlands, Hampstead, N.W.,
March 30, 1870.
Sir, —
I am quite sure that when you referred to Consul
Gibson in your speech last night, you must have
spoken in ignorance of the fact of that gentleman's
death, as I cannot believe that you would willingly
have harrowed the feelings of his relatives had you
known that he could no longer defend his own charac
ter and reputation.
But I am no less certain that if you will quietly and
dispassionately refer again to the Parliamentary
Papers, China No. 3, i86g, you will regret having
condemned in such unmeasured terms the conduct of
Mr. Gibson in a position of extreme difficulty, what
ever may be your general view in regard to the
attitude that ought to be assumed by the Diplomatic
servants of the Crown in foreign and semi-civilised
countries. According to the report of your speech in the Times
your description of Mr. Gibson's proceedings is ex
tremely unfair, as you wiH, I feel sure, admit, on
carefully reading the narrative of the whole events at
pages 26 to 30, and Sir R. Alcock's despatch to Lord
Stanley at pages 35 and 38, to which I very particu
larly direct your attention.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 115
Mr. Gibson's conduct was most hastily condemned
at the Foreign Office before any despatches were
received, and he himself was degraded to the rank of
an Interpreter. But it is due to his memory to say
that his firm, temperate, and consistent conduct
secured for him the singularly cordial esteem of the
Chinese community, for on his leaving the Island he
was presented with an earnest address signed by 84
merchants aud shopkeepers of Taiwanfou, mourning
his departure " on account ofhis upright and straight
forward conduct in office." In addition to this, the
Heptai, or Military Governor of Amping, thS very
town which had been occupied under his instructions,
loaded him with unprecedented honours, and emphati
cally declared before a number of Chinese and
Europeans, " There goes a just and honourable
foreigner ! "
That Mr. Gibson's condemnation was cruel and
unjust in the extreme I felt very deeply at the time,
and have taken the liberty of sending you a copy ofa
letter which I addressed to the newspapers on the
subject. The result of Mr. Gibson's measures has justified
their wisdom in the most marvellous and complete
manner, peace and harmony having reigned among
all classes to an extent before unknown. But it is
unhappily true that, from the effects of grief and
mortification at the cruelly unjust treatment he
received from the Home Government, poor Mr,
Gibson died at Amoy shortly after his return to the
mainland.

Ii6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
It would be satisfactory if, on reflexion and a re
examination of the subject, you could see your way to
repair the injury which your severe remarks have
caused to the reputation, dear to survivors, of an
excellent man and an able and conscientious public
servant. I am. Sir,
Your obedient servant,
H. M. Matheson.

No. LVIII.
Mr. HUGH M. MATHESON.
3, Lombard St.,
London, E.C,
April 2, 1870.
Sir, —
I thank you for your note, though I cannot but
regret that you have still failed to see the facts in
their natural light. If it were true, as you stated to
the House, that because of undue delay in delivering
a quantity of camphor, and satisfaction not being
obtained, Mr. Gibson had proceeded to bombard
Amping to bring the authorities to reason, all reason
able men should have joined you in condemning the
proceeding. But the reason why I drew your atten-

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 117
tion to the Papers was that the story was in reality
widely different. I shall not argue it further beyond
saying that when the Viceroy of Foochow at last sent
over a high authority to settle the matters, and it was
found that he had not brought sufficient authority to
dismiss the wicked mandarins, and coolly announced
his intention to return without doing anything, a
crisis had arrived which called for a display of firm
ness on the part of Mr. Gibson if life and property
were to be in any degree secure to British subjects
from that day forward. Mr. Gibson accordingly
determined to occupy Amping as a material guarantee,
while the Tantai should return to the mainland
for fresh instructions. This was effected without
a shot being fired, and Mr. Gibson returned to
Takao to find that all his just demands were
immediately acceded to, and in due time, on the
return of the Tantai with proper powers, redress
was obtained, and one red-handed murderer was
executed. I do not think it is fair to make Mr. Gibson
responsible for what took place at Amping after he
had left, and without instructions from him, and
which had no effect whatever in procuring the settle
ment. He was indirectly, but, it is fair to sa}',
very remotel}' responsible. The naval officer having
incautiously withdrawn his men on board ship, a
band of Braves from Taiwanfoo came down and
occupied the place. He conceived it to be his duty
to drive them out, and succeeded in doing so, some
lives being sacrificed in the affray. Had he not held

Il8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
possession of the ground I presume he would have
been blamed by his superiors.
In judging of the action of men in the position of
Mr. Gibson at that time, I think forbearance and con
sideration should be shown by those who are entirely
unacquainted with the character ofthe official classes
in China. And vvith regard to your reflection upon
the missionaries, I am not careful to defend them, as
you have utterly mistaken their character. These
are men of whom Great Britain has reason to be
proud. They are doing a noble work in China, and
if they cannot take the view of events around them
which you take at this distance, I fear I must, with
out meaning offence, prefer their opinion to yours.
I remain. Sir,
Your faithful servant,
H. M. Matheson.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. iig
[rider.]
No. LIX.
Mr. AUGUSTUS F. LINDLEY.
Author of" Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh," etc,
IO, Myddleton Square,
E.C, March 31, 1870.
Sir, —
Allow me to congratulate you upon your able
reference to Chinese matters the other evening in the
House. I entirely agree with all you said. It was
the truest (and, therefore, most unpalatable) as well
as ablest exposition on the subject since the late Mr.
Cobden's famous opening of the China debate in
May, 1864.
I have attentively studied Chinese matters and
our policy towards that country for many years ; and
have written much on the subject, besides having
lived there for more than five years, during which
time I travelled extensively. If it were not that I am
now so busily engaged in literary matters, I should
certainly have taken up the cudgels in support of
your speech in the Times and Standard ; if, however,
you do so, and notice Commander Gurdon's letter in
yesterday's Times, I shall be willing to place at your
disposal any quantity of published evidence proving
and corroborating your case. By forcing opium
upon the Chinese we caused all the wars, and our

120 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
officials have invariably acted with lawless aggression.
The thing is notorious, and I have exhaustive docu
mentary and other proof of it.
Truly yours,
Augustus F. Lindley.

No. LX.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square, April 5, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I am glad to have the evidence, and will send to
morrow, hoping to get yesterday's then ; and I will
try to call on you Thursday morning.
I do not know if they are misprints, but if not, it is
very curious and important that Forbes' outfit money
was repaid only on Feb. 16, 1868 (he received it in
1859), and that he only repaid ;^8oo. What has
become of the other ;^30o ? He would have been
entitled to ;^i,ioo as well as Lowther and myself
This is worth inquiring into if the printing is correct.
.1 suspect that Lowther tried to avoid repayment
(this would explain what he said to you about his
furniture), and that on their making Lowther repay

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 121
they were obliged to go back upon Forbes and make
him repay, too. He repays six days after Lowther.
They both had the same agents — Bidwell and Alston.
I am glad to see that Lowther mentioned my
pension, and I hope he will ask me about it.
I have heard from Spring Rice that he is to be
examined after Easter. Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

No. LXI.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE. 32, Dorset Square,
April 9, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I.- I see that Alston denies stoutly that Conyng-
ham's accounts were confused. I am surprised. I
strongly suspect it is an official denial, but how to get
inside I cannot tell you.
2. I hope you will pursue with further questions,
which I enclose, the law expenses of the Foreign
Office. 3. Mr. Bingham's was a dreadful career. Lord
Malmesbury forced him out of the Secretaryship of
Naples in 1852 to make way for your friend Lowther,

122 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
and was afterwards obliged to make him Charge
d' Affaires at Venezuela. You should get Bingham
before the Committee. It would be fine fun. He is
a very clever, amusing fellow, but a dreadful scape
grace. 4. Alston has got into a sad mess about the Consular
pensions. See my questions enclosed.
5. There is still some mistake about Forbes' outfit
— the sum ; but it is of no public consequence. He
ought to have received ;^i,ioo, as I did, which is not
the full outfit for Rio. He was second from a second-
class mission (Dresden), and I from a second-class
mission (Buenos Ayres). My case and his are
parallel. 6. I have been trying, without success, to find my
copy of Mr. James Murray's circular. Alston has
given you a favourable version of it, and told you a
very clear story. He ought to produce a copy of the
circular, which his friend Murray could, of course,
furnish him with. Also, he ignores T. Bidwell, the
present man, son of his old partner, and his partner
now and at the time when Murray advised his clients
to go over. And Bidwell was Private Secretary to
Lord Malmesbury, who gave Murray the appoint
ment. Also C Spring Rice, when he became
Superintendent of Consular Service, gave up his
agencies; and the Superintendent of Consular Service
was of lower rank than Chief Clerk.
Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 123

No. LXII.
Mr. ANDREW REID.
Land Tenure Reform Association.
9, Buckingham St.,
Strand, May 2, 1870.
Dear Sir, —
Will you not allow me to retain your name upon
the General Committee, or, at least, upon the list of
our members, until after the meeting in July ? The
programme will not be regularly adopted until then,
and by that time it may be that you will see your way
clear to go still with us. It would be a matter of grief
that one so advanced in his views, and such a
valuable ally, should be lost to us. Pray keep with
us if you can. Yours very truly,
Andrew Reid.

124 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. LXIII.
Mr. HENRY LABOUCHERE. May 5, 1870,
2, Bolton St.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I enclose you some questions which I think would,
if asked, enable me to give the Committee some
details respecting the inner life of an Embassy and
Legations. I am going to Paris, but if you would
send me a Hne next week to the " Grand Hotel,"
letting me know when you wish me to be examined, I
would come over to London. Yours faithfully,
H. Labouchere.

No. LXIV.
Mr. HENRY RICHARD.
Peace Society,
19, New Broad Street,
London, E.C,
May 14, 1870.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I enclose the resolution to which we shall ask you
to speak on Tuesday evening. It wiH be, I think, just

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 125
in your line. We need not tax you to make a very
long speech, but I don't want to fetter you at aH.
With many thanks for your kind promise to be
present, I remain. Yours very truly,
Henry Richard.

No. LXV.
Mr. JOSEPH HARRISON.
County Court Office,
Warrington, May 12, 1870.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Enoch Morgan called upon me yesterday for the
half-year's rent of the house and land at Thelwall,
•due the ist inst.
To save him the trouble of communicating with
you I paid him the amount.
I saw a very elegant silver trowel and polished
wood mallet this morning, v/hich were to be used to
day in laying the foundation stone of your brother's
house at Thelwall, and I suppose the " member for
Warrington " will soon follow suit.

126 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
The elevation of Charles Holmes and Peter Smith
to the Borough Bench, through your instrumentality,
appears to give great satisfaction to the inhabitants
generally, but, really, the latter gentleman is an
" enigma." I was, the other day, congratulating him
upon his newly-acquired honour, when he was un
gracious enough to saj', •' he did not seek it," " he
did not want it," and " he thought it no honour."
However, whether he appreciates it or not, you have
the satisfaction of knowing that you have faithfully
redeemed your promise, and considering the state of
political feeHng in Warrington, and the very pro
minent part he took in the Council on the " vote of
thanks question " (which, I confess, was a great
mistake), I think he has been treated with great
consideration, which, I regret to say, he does not
seem to value.
Hoping you are quite well, I remain,
Yours very respectfully,
Joseph Harrison.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 127
No. LXVI.
Miss BECKER.
Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage,
28, Jackson's Row,
Albert Square,
May 19, 1870.
My dear Mr. Rylands, —
I beg to thank you for your votes in favour of the
Women's Disabilities Bill. The result shows that we
have a hard battle to fight, in which I trust we may
rely on your continued support. Yours sincerely, Lydia E. Becker.

No. LXVII.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square,
May 27, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I heard your examination of Lord Clarendon yes
terday. I think you will know now that he is skilful,
plausible, and humbugging. If I might give you a
little advice, I would not ask him any more questions

128 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
to which you know that he will give you answers
adverse to your views. On the subject of open com
petitive examination into the Diplomatic Service he
was sure to be against you, and his answers will have
more authoritj' with the public than the innuendo of
your question.
If you will let me have his evidence as soon as you
can by book post, I will suggest a few questions on
his yesterday's evidence ; and, if it is agreeable to
you, I will call on you on Monday morning, before
you go to the Committee, at eleven if that is not too
early. Lord Clarendon has not been a Minister
abroad since 1839, that is, 30 years ago. Great
changes since in the service.
I have heard that the whole of my letter has been
read except the paragraph about Eastwick. But I
think, and I wrote to Bouverie, that my letter ought
to be printed if Otway's question remains on the
minutes. Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 129.
No. LXVIII.
Mr. J. K. ASTON.
Bounty Office,
Dean's Yard,
Westminster,
June 6, 1870.
Sir, —
If your amendment to the Bounty Superannuation
Bill cannot be entered upon on the gth inst., for want
of time, I must appeal to you to withdraw it.
It is very essential for the Bounty Office to be able
to pension Mr. Hodgson, and that this Bill, which
stood over from last year, should not be further
delayed this Session.
Of course, a Department is always most unwilling
to ask any Honourable Member to forego his proposed
course of action ; but as the rules of the House, in
going into Committee of Supply, etc., give you other
opportunities of stating your views on the subject of
superannuations in general, and as this Bill is intended
to remove doubts as to the past practice of the
Bounty Board, and to reduce the amount to be in
future granted for superannuation, I do appeal to you,
as a matter of business and kind gentlemanly feeling,
to allow this little Bill to now pass without opposition,
taking to yourself a more fitting opportunity of enforc
ing your wide views upon the House and country.
Mr. Hodgson is 86, and yet likely to live 4 or 5
years. It will be cruel and unwise, by delaying the

130 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Bill, to keep him, with his impaired faculties, at the
head of a large Monetary Office.
Asking the favour of a reply,
I am. Sir, Your faithful servant,
J. K. Aston.

No. LXIX.
Mr. JOHN GRITTON.
Lord's Day Observance Society,
20, John St., Adelphi, W.C,
June 15, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
We have been endeavouring to promote petitions
in favour of your Sunday Closing Bill, but have not
met with much success.
The committee are now arranging a circular to
members on the subject, to be put in their hands on
the 28th, but, before settling the form of it, may I beg
to know whether it is your intention to push for a
division on the 29th, or whether, in face of Mr.
Bruce's engagement to bring in his Bill next session,
you will be content simply to provoke discussion ?
I rather fear that an adverse Division would cause
the Government to make their Bill less strict than

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 131
they are now prepared to do. Of course, a favourable
Division would tend in the opposite direction.
I am. My dear Sir,
Very faithfully yours,
John Gritton.

No. LXX.
Mr. ROBERT WHITWORTH, Hon. Secy.
Central Association for
Stopping the Sale of Intoxicating Liquors on Sunday.
43, Market St.,
Manchester, June 21, 1870.
Dear Sir, —
As desired by you, we have written Messrs. Birley,
Candlish, Morgan, Allen, and Jacob Bright, request
ing them to take part in the Debate expected on the
29th, and would be glad if you will also press them to
be prepared for the occasion, as I have not all their
private addresses.
We expect upwards of 10,000 signatures to our
Manchester petition, which shall be sent up shortly.

132 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
The working men are holding a meeting in the open
air here on the 27th, in Ancoats district, when I hope
to take the chair for them. I need hardly say any
details you may require shall be at once sent you, or
Mr. Mathews will wait on you if preferred.
Again thanking you for the good you have done
this noble cause by your advocacy,
I remain. Yours faithfully,
Robert Whitworth, Hon. Secy.

No. LXXI.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
June 29, 1870.
My dear Sir, —
Those who wish for reforms in the Foreign Office
as you do should make known in such ways as you
can to Gladstone that if Lord Granville succeeds
Lord Clarendon, Hammond's rule will practically con
tinue, while Lord Kimberley's appointment would be
the knell of Hammond's power. I do not think
Hammond could stay with Lord Kimberley. They
were long under-secretaries together. Lord Kimber
ley knows him and the Office, and is a vigorous.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 133
determined man. Lord Granville will fall into
Hammond's hands.
There is a very good letter of Lord Kimberley (then
Lord Woodhouse) in the Appendix to the Report of
the Consular Committee of 1858. Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

No. LXXII.
Mr. HENRY LABOUCHERE. Grand Hotel, Paris,
June 30, 1870.
Dear Mr. Rylands,^
I will be before the Diplomatic Committee on June
30 ; if not, I shall have caught the small-pox, which is
very bad here. The hour is, I think, two o'clock. It
is a mystery to me why clerks in the Foreign Office
are not to be appointed by competitive examination.
In the Diplomatic Service it may be urged that if thej'
are expected to go into society, you must have persons
accustomed to society; but clerks in the Foreign
Office have to copy, and not to attend balls. If they
are expected to be able to keep secrets, I do not see
how the Secretary ofthe Foreign Office is able to test

134 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
their capacity to do so. The fact is that the Foreign
Office is a close Corporation. Clerks only are
admitted who belong to a certain number of families
who seem to have established a hereditary right to do
nothing there, and who are cousins and social hangers-
on ofthe Minister. As long as Parliament listens to the
ex parte evidence of Ministers and Under-Secretaries
this will continue. Beyond mere assertion. Clarendon
cannot say one word for keeping up the present system
of direct appointment. Yours truly,
Henry Labouchere.

No. LXXIII.
Mr. henry LABOUCHERE. Union Club,
July 4, 1876.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Before I forget it and go to Paris, I want to call
your attention to an observation of Otway's.
He said that the number of despatches written did
not bear out my assertions respecting the amount of
work done at an Embassy.
Now, unless explained, nothing is more deceptive
than the number of despatches as a criterion respect-

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 135
ing the work, for, by the rules of the Foreign Office,
each subject has its despatch ; thus, one despatch
will be the acknowledgment of the receipt of another,
another acknowledging the receipt of a letter from
the Queen (and she sends her correspondence to her
numerous cousins through the Foreign Office) to a
relative, another stating that a former letter has been
received by a courier; I have written half a dozen of
these despatches in half an hour, and, of course, they
swell the number written in a year. I think that you
might elicit this fact from a witness by a few adroit
questions. The best way, however, would be to ask for the
despatches written to the Foreign Office whilst I was
at Dresden ; or, if this is declined, the precis of
these despatches. There is at the Foreign Office a
Precis writer, who enters, or ought to enter, all the
despatches. Yours truly,
H. Labouchere.
A Minister at a place like Munich wHl, of course,
occasionally write a pohtical despatch. The question,
however, is, is this despatch worth the money it
costs ?

136 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. LXXIV.
Mr. j. C McCOAN.
hevant Herald,
Constantinople, June 24, 1870.
Sir, —
As you have, I see, given notice of a motion on the
subject of the recent burning of the Pera Embassy, I
take leave to send you some materiel on the subject in
4 copies of the Levant Herald, forwarded by this mail.
In doing so I need merely add that I have absolutely
no animus or motive whatever but the public interest
in view, as I venture to say will be vouched for by my
old and honoured friend Sir Henry Bulwer, should
you have occasion to speak with him on the
subject. I was myself an eye-witness of the disaster. I saw
the engines lying idle at the very crisis of the fire ; I
was told by one of the only two men near them that
they would not work, and afterwards by Mr. Gribble
(the Embassy chaplain) that their hose was
completely worthless, and that he himself had stuck
his fingers and thumbs into the holes in them. All
this is now denied by Sir H. Elliot and Mr. Vice-
Consul Suaracino (the " keeper " of the Embassy
and other public buildings here, appointed on Sir H.
Elliot's recommendation), but all the evidence I have
been able to gather supports the version given in the
Herald.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 137
In any case, the copies sent may, perhaps, be useful,
and if so, my object in sending them will be served.
I am. Sir,
Your very faithful servant,
J. C McCoAN,
Ed. Levant Herald.

No. LXXV.
Mr. C E. macqueen,
Financial Reform Association, Lord Street,
Liverpool, July II, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I thank you heartily on behalf of Council and
Treasurer for your two influential recruits, and
considering what a fanatic, self sacrificing, I am in
this matter, I think I may venture to add, on my own
account also.
Oh ! that other members would follow your most
exceHent example. If they did we should be enabled
to send lecturers all over the kingdom, instead of
being engaged in a constant struggle to keep our
heads above water.

138 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Papers and almanacks have been sent to Messrs.
Melior and Bentall, and during the session the paper
will be forwarded to them in London, as well as to
their private addresses in the country. The same
plan will be adopted with regard to other subscribing
M.P.'s. Again thanking you or your kind exertions on our
behalf, I am, my dear sir.
Yours truly,
C. E. Macqueen.

No. LXXVI.
SIR HENRY L. BULWER.
Clarendon Hotel,
i6g. New Bond Street, London,
July 17, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I did not mean to say anything witty or comical
the other day in answer to the question you put, and
was so far confused by finding people imagine I did
that I stopped in the explanations I had meant to
give you, and which I will give you now, though I beg
you to consider what I say private.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 139
I look upon our position as to Greece as excep
tional : —
ist. There is her conduct in the special instance
we have under consideration.
2nd. There is her general conduct under our
so-called protection.
The course we are taking as to the first seems
to me small and shuffling for a nation that is
straightforward and great. The parties against
whom we have a grievance, and with whom alone we
have to do, are the Greek Government. Their
conduct is clear from the correspondence long since
before us. Do we mean to do anything upon it or
do we not ? All the material that can possibly be
required for an opinion is before us. If we do, let us
do it ; if we don't, let us say we don't. But to invent
an excuse for doing nothing, and to pretend to be doing
something, is mean and paltry.
We talk of inquiry ; inquiry about what, or whom ?
The Government and the Government officials we
know enough of, and they are not likely to teach us
more. The brigands ? We know that those who
were poor have been caught and killed, and that
those who were rich have escaped. The outsiders ?
Supposing we discover that gentlemen in the
opposition party visited the brigands : well, every
body visited them — priests, peasants, gens-d'armes.
Government officials ; they seem to have been the
best possible company ! What then ?
Thus we are keeping the matter open on a flimsy,
unworthy pretext, pretending to look for culprits, and

140 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
turning our eyes from the culprits who are just in
front of us. I can't bear this conduct in England.
So much for the brigand case. Now for the
protection one. If I take a lad out of an orphan
asylum and bring him up, and feed him and clothe
him, and I at last find that when he becomes a man
he does everything he ought not to do, and nothing
that he ought to do, I withdraw my protection from
him. This is just our position with Greece. There is no
fault that a State can commit that she has not
committed, no virtue that a State ought to possess
that she has displayed. People say this is the fault
of the form of Government. I don't know the cause.
I see the result, but it is more likely the result will be
the same if the form of Government be the same.
At all events, if things are to go on as they have
gone on, I don't want England to be mixed up with
them. Thus, you see, my views are very simple.
My resolution would be framed so as to give me the
best means of explaining them, if I bring on the
matter, which, possibly, my recent complication may
prevent. In that case you shall be the first to hear.
Yours very sincerely,
Henry Bulwer.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 141
No. LXXVIL
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square,
July 21, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
Your motion about secret service money has not
yet come on.
Lord Clarendon answered you that he thought
your questioning him at all about his expenditure of
secret service money was an unpleasant imputation.
It implied that you thought him capable of spending
the money wrongly.
Now, m i84g. Lord Clarendon spent ;£fi,7oo of
secret service money in Ireland on a newspaper, and
he was ultimatelj' advised by the present Lord
Halifax, whom he consulted, and who was then
Chancellor of the Exchequer, that he had made an
improper use of secret service money, and he
refunded the £i,'joo. You will see all about this in
Hansard, Februarj- 19, 1852.
Another thing I wish to say to you about secret
service money. Hammond and Lord Clarendon
answered you as if everything as to secret service
money was done on the responsibility of the Secretary
of State for the time being. But if there are
continuous payments, as no doubt there are, Lord
Clarendon or any other Secretary of State carries on
what his predecessor has determined — a pension say :
Do you believe that Lord Clardendon would go into

142 LILE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
the merits of every pension granted by a predecessor ?
Then it comes again to there being a permanent
officer in the office who knows more about it than the
Secretary of State for the time being.
Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

No. LXXVIII.
Mr. HENRY LABOUCHERE.
2, Bolton St.,
Piccadilly, July, 1870.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
You will see in a letter signed by a Parisian
Resident, in to-day's Daily News, the following
statement : — " Mr. Layard had been aware of this
candidature and had spoken to M. Mercier on the
subject, although unfortunately he did not inform his
own government of either fact until after the protests
of the French Government."
I am the Parisian correspondent, and I happen to
know that this statement is correct. Would you mind
asking the following question : — Mr. Rylands — to ask
Mr. Otway whether there is any foundation for a
statement which appears to-daj' in a Parisian

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 143
correspondence of the Baily News that Mr. Layard
was aware of the candidature of Prince Leopold of
HohenzoUern, and spoke to M. Mercier on the
subject before the action of the French Government
in the matter, but did not communicate this
important information to the Foreign Office until it
had learnt it from other quarters.
They may try to twist out of it, or they may even
deny it ; but you have only got to repeat the question
with the usual peroration ; so I understand my hon.
friend to assert that there is absolutely no sort of
foundation for this report, and the Foreign Office has
no reason to believe that Mr. Layard had heard of
this candidature before, etc..
This will, I think, show the public that as far as
information is concerned, we pay too highly for
getting nothing, by keeping up the parade of a large
legation. Yours truly,
H. Labouchere.

144 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. LXXIX.
INIr. P. F. CAMPBELL JOHNSON.
The Athenseum, July 31, 1870.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
This evening it is proposed to take the second
reading of a Bill to add ;/r7,ooo a year to the expenses
of the Judicial Establishment of this country.
This Bill is caHed " The Judicial Committee BiH,"
and this morning there is an admirable leading
article of one column in the Times nev/spaper,
throwing the greatest ridicule on the inefficiency of the
measure, well worth your perusing and digesting.
The'fact is, the whole Appellate Jurisdiction, whether
with reference to this country, the Colonies, or India,
requires a remodelling , and it is necessary to take it up
next session. You will, therefore, no doubt urge the
postponement of this ridiculous Bill till next session,
so as to enable the whole question to be gone into ;
and not at the complete end of the session to add,
without enquiry, ;^7,ooo a year to the expenses of
this country. Yours,
P . F. Campbell Johnston.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 145

No. LXXX.
Mr. GEORGE POTTER.
Bee Hive Office,
10, Bolt Court,
Fleet Street,
July 30, 1870.
Dear Sir, —
On the other side you will find a list of names of
gentlemen who are supporters of or subscribers to
the Bee Hive, which is established to instruct and
guide working men upon the great political and
social questions, the settlement of which will greatly
affect the future of this country. Another speciality
of the Bee Hive is to inform public men of the
opinions and movements of the working classes.
My object in addressing you is to respectfully
solicit you to become a subscriber of one guinea per
annum, in return for which a free copy of the paper
will be sent to you weekly. Although that sum is
more than the cost of the paper, the conductors will
use the difference to extend its circulation and
usefulness. Yours obediently, George Potter.

146 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE
No. LXXXI.
GEORGE POTTER.
Bee Hive Office,
IO, Bolt Court,
Fleet Street,
Aug. 12, 1870.
Dear Sir, —
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of j'our letter con
taining cheque for £i is. od., being subscription to
Bee Hive. Enclosed is receipt for same, which I
forward with my best thanks. Yours obediently,
George Potter.

No. LXXXII.
Mr. j. D. LEWIS, M.P. (Devonport.
Westbury House,
Petersfield, Hants,
Aug. 4, 1870.
Dear Rylands, —
You will, I am sure, not forget to take charge of
Clerical Disabilities Bill, putting it on for to-morrow,
if it comes to us to-day, and then (i.e., to-morrow)

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 147
moving that we agree to Lords' amendments ; or, if
it comes to us to-morrow, putting it on for Monday
and leaving it to me.
I send you the enclosed, which Hibbert has for
warded to me from Mr. Beresford Hope. It might
be as well if you see him in the House, to say that we
propose to accept the Lords' amendments, else we
shall lose the Bill. If Collins, or any opponent,
attempts to divide the House, of course you must
divide. All that the Lords have done is to strike out
the clause permitting an ex-clergyman to return to the
clerical profession. This clause was not put into the
Bill till the last minute, and it may be fairly said that
the Bishops who threw it out are the best judges on
the point. I have written to Bruce, stating our inten
tions, also to Glyn.
You know your plan is to take the 11.30 train from
Waterloo to Petersfield on Saturday, with a return
ticket. You arrive at Petersfield at 1.17, and will
be met there. Yours very truly,
J. D. Lewis.

148 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. LXXXIII.
Mr. j. D. LEWIS, M.P.
Westbury House,
Petersfield, Hants,
Aug. 5, 1870.
Dear Rylands, —
I have just received the enclosed, which I think s&
important that I send up a special messenger. After
clause 6 (as the Bill now stands) the Lords seem to
have omitted the accompanying clause, which was
clause 8 in the original Bill. I think it must have
been done through inadvertence. It is desirable that
this clause as altered should be re-inserted, but if so-
doing would risk the BiH, it would be better to leave
it alone. Perhaps you would show it to Bruce. I
am in hopes the BiH has not come down to us till
to-day, in which case you would be rid of all trouble,
as I shall be up on Monday. Yours truly,
J. D. Lewis.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 149
No. LXXXIV.
Mr. JOHN GRITTON.
Lord's Day Obervance Society,
20, John St., Adelphi, W.C,
Aug. 5, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
Will you permit me, in the name of this Committee,
to thank you for the efforts you have made during this
session to promote Sunday Closing of Public Houses
by Legislative enactment.
This Committee trusts that sufficient pressure may
be brought to bear on Mr. Bruce to secure from him
in the Session of 1871 a measure which, although it
may not go as far as we could wish, may at least
considerably reduce the time during which intoxicat
ing liquors may be sold on the Lord's Day. '^
We have a long and severe fight before us, but may
hope that earnest efforts of right-minded men may
overcome even the tremendous obstacles which lie in
our way. I am. My dear Sir,
Your faithful servant,
John Gritton.

I50 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. LXXXV.
Mrs. JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER.
Ladies' National Association
for the
Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts.
280, South HHl, Park Road,
Liverpool, Oct. 20, 1870.
My Dear Sir, —
I forget whether I have told you that our Free
Trade Hall meeting is fixed for the i6th of November.
We are reckoning greatly on your presence. Indeed,
Mr. Bright and Mr. Fowler make it almost a condition
of their taking part that you shall be present on the
platform, so as to have a pretty strong platform (with
a few others) to advertise. I earnestly trust, and so
do 1,400 ladies of our association, that nothing will
prevent you being present.
I remain, Dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
Josephine E. Butler.
P.S. — I do not mean to say that these ladies will be
present at the meeting.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 151
No. LXXXVI.
Mrs. JACOB BRIGHT. Alderley Edge,
Nov. 9, 1870.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I hear you have refused to come to our meeting on
the i6th against the Contagious Diseases Acts, and
that you have given as your reason that you are
intending to serve on the Royal Commission. I trust
you will reconsider this decision, as it is already, well
known that you are against the Acts. If Mr.
Dalrymple can speak in public in favour of the Acts,
I cannot see why you should not speak against them.
The Government does not pretend to have chosen
men for the Commission whose opinions are not
already fixed, otherwise Mr. Fowler and Mr. Bright
would not have been asked to sit upon it. I hope you
will come. This is a critical time in the agitation of
our cause, and we must try to make a strong
impression before Parliament meets. The Colchester
election has done much, and some Liberals are
grumbling at having lost the seat ; but the Govern
ment is beginning to understand by that defeat that
we are implacable. We are doing our utmost to
secure a good meeting. There will be many ladies
present. Will Mrs. Rylands come, and bring any
friends with her she can ? You do not need to speak
if you would rather not, and in any case, a few
minutes' speech, just to show your sympathy, is all

152 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
that would be desired. We have plenty of speakers
who can expose the Acts ; what we want are names
that command influence. Mr. Millar writes us he
will be prevented from coming. Mr. Potter is
doubtful ; but if you and my husband and Mr. Fowler
are present, that is enough to make the meeting an
important one, for you are all men who can command
a hearing on the floor of the House.
Excuse this pressure, and believe me, with kind
regards to your wife. Very sincerely yours,
Ursula M. Bright.

No. LXXXVII.
Right Hon. Sir GEORGE O. TREVELYAN.
31, Park St.,
Grosvenor Sq.,
Oct. 24, 1870.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I am much gratified by the article which you have
sent, and by your assurances of approval and future
support. It is of vital importance to take occasion of
the present crisis to direct our interest in any reform
into a Radical channel. I am not without hope that

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 153
even before Parliament sits we may have an
opportunity for a demonstration.
Would it be impertinence in me to urge you to
master the subject as you have mastered others ?
Army Reform has hitherto failed in Parliament from
the paucity of Army Reformers. We must attack
in echelon.
I remain, Yours very truly,
G. O. Trevelyan.

No. LXXXVIIL
Mr. DUNCAN MACLAREN, M.P. (Edinburgh).
Matlock Bank,
Near Derby,
Nov. 27, 1870.
My Dear Rylands, —
I duly received your letter in Edinburgh, for which
accept my thanks.
I was glad to learn yesterday, from London, that
you were to be one of the Contagious Diseases Acts
Commissioners of Enquiry. Before Parliament broke
up, Mr. Jacob Bright, who had been spoken to by Mr.
Bruce on the subject, asked my opinion as to who
would be well qualified men, and I at once named

154 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
you ; and he agreed with me, but doubted whether
you would accept. I am very glad to hear that you
have accepted.
In your letter you refer to the article in the
Saturday Review. I read it carefully. The writer
(supposed to be Dr. Lyon Playfair), it is plain, had
not seen the second edition of my pamphlet, where
his main argument is met by anticipation in a
supplementary note (not in the first edition), p. 17.
There are just two points in the Review. The one
is that the 7,766 women originally in the towns (p. 229,
2nd edition) — and there were now only 3,016 — were
never pretended to have existed all at the same time, but
were avowedly the total accumulations of the five
years. This my speech, of course, made clear. You
say you have not the Parliamentary Paper with you,
but the " Report " on which I comment is printed
verbatim, at full length, as appendix III (2nd edition
pp. 21, 22, 23). Read top of p. 22, where the
statement commented on by me is made. Nobody
can doubt that the Report is intended to lead the
public to beHeve that the number of women in these
districts is now much reduced compared with what it
was in former years, whereas I have shown that there
has been a steady increase in the number of women,
during each of the last four years. This is proved to
have been the intention ofthe Report (to mislead), by
the fact that it has always been so used in arguments,
m both Houses of Parliament, and in speeches and
papers read in public meetings outside, and Mr. Bruce
(Home Secretary), in a conversation I had with him

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 155
before thereturn was published, said distinctly, giving
these figures, that the number of women had been
reduced in that proportion, more than a half.
The first line ofthe succeeding passage, p. 22, about
men, also shows that this was the intention (to mis
lead) about the number of women, for it says, " The
Return also shows a decrease by one-half of the
number of men," etc.
If it was honest to take all the Viromen registered
during the five years as a total, and contrast them
with the existing number, why not take the number
for ten years, or fifty years, and contrast them in the
same way ? It is a most dishonest way of misleading
the public, by merely inferentiaUy insinuating the false
statement, without plainly telling a direct falsehood.
Suppose the number of women had been, at first —
1st year  1,000
2nd year  2,000
3rd year  3,ooo
4th year  4,000
5th year  5,000
Total  15,000
With this growing steady increase in the number,
what would have been thought of you or myself if
either of us had used the words of this report, and
merely said that of this 15,000 there had been removed,
from the causes stated, 10,000, leaving only 5,000.
Everyone would have cried shame on us, for conceal
ing the fact that, under the operation ofthe Act, the
number of women had been five times greater during
the last year than during the first. Yet this is what
is done in the Report.

156 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
The second point which the Reviewer lays hold of
is the alleged number of 1,770 women in Devonport
district at the commencement of the Act. This
matter I have dealt with so fully at page 17, that I
need not trouble you with any additional remarks.
I have had a correspondence with Captain Vivian,
M.P., ofthe War Office, on the subject, and he says
the framer of the report, Harris, is to go before the
commissioners to be examined on the charges con
tained in my pamphlet, and to vindicate the accuracy
of his report. This is all right, that he should do so;
but it is equally right that commissioners who, like
yourself, have strong views on the subject, should
carefully examine for yourselves, beforehand, what
the charges are, and on what evidence they are sup
ported, so as to be able to unravel any sophistical
statements which may be made by putting the proper
questions to him.
I don't ask you to beHeve my statements to be
accurate on my authority, but I ask you to examine
them by the light of the documents on which they are
founded, and in particular I ask you to read carefully
all thenotes in the second edition, because they embody
many important facts not included in my speech.
What 'an excellent meeting at Manchester! My
wife unites in kind regards to Mrs. Rylands and
yourself. Ever yours,
D. McLaren.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 157
No. LXXXIX.
Mr. JACOB BRIGHT, M.P.
Alderley Edge,
Manchester,
Dec. 9, 1870.
My Dear Rylands, —
Is the inquiry ofthe Royal Commission (C D. A.)
going to be a hole-and-corner affair in harmony with
all past proceedings on this subject? I am told the
Commission sits on Wednesday next at Plymouth,
that everything is to be private, only that the associa
tions for and against the Acts are each to have a
representative there. Please tell me if I am well
informed, and do me the favour to keep me informed
of the way you proceed. I trust to you more than to
any other man on the Commission to give fair play to
the opponents of the Acts. At Plymouth there is a
surgeon of the name of Wolferstan who has great
information. Be sure you get everything out of him
if he is a witness. I understand Massey is to be
chairman. He would be the tool of any Government,
as he was of Lord Palmerston's. I take for granted
the Commission has been appointed to report in favour
of the Acts. An early reply will oblige. You appear
to have had a great meeting I send me your paper.
Very truly, J. Bright.

158 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. XC.
Mr. JACOB BRIGHT, M.P.
Alderley Edge,
Manchester,
Jan. 8, 1871.
My Dear Rylands,—
I have a note from Dr. Charles Bell Taylor, of
Nottingham, on the subject of the Royal Commission
(C D. A.) He wishes to be called as a v/itness, and
hopes that you may be able to manage it for him. In
that case, it would be necessary for him to have some
communication with you beforehand, so that you
might not fail to draw from him all the information
he wishes to give. Dr. Taylor knows, perhaps, more
on this subject than any other man; therefore, if the
Commission desire information his evidence ought to
be fully taken.
Waiting your reply. Very truly, J. Bright.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 159.
No. XCI.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Sq.,
Jan. I, 1871.
My Dear Sir, —
I begin, as in duty bound, by wishing you and Mrs.
Rylands a happy New Year.
I begin the new year with a resolution to write, if
possible, more legibly.
I have been often thinking of writing to you. In a
month your labours will begin again. I can find no
one yet who can tell me why Otway has left the
Foreign Office. Some say there has been a row ;
others that it is in consequence of general dissatisfac
tion with him, and that all last year they complained of
his idleness, as well as his modes of proceeding in and
about the Committee ; others, again, think that he
has been opposed to some of Lord Granville's policy
as between France and Prussia. The thing is kept
so secret that Grant Duff told me only yesterday he
could learn nothing.
I hear that Shaw has given up to Holmes the
management of the Consular inquiry. Is this so ?
I hope that Holmes will be willing to call me, and
enable me to complete myinformatipn about consular
reductions, etc.
I propose as soon as the Committee is reappointed,
to write to the Chairman and ask for an opportunity
of revising my memorandum on the Foreign Office,

i6o LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
and then send it in again, making it clear that I
understood I was asked by the Chairman to send in
a written statement ; but whether it was the Chairman
or you, it really makes no difference, for the
Committee ratified the request.
I shall wish to give in to the Committee in writing,
or in a new examination, a precise statement for my
plan for the Diplomatic Service of Private Secretaries
and Clerks, showing in each case, with the Consular
absorptions and reductions, the difference of expense.
I observe that the Foreign Office did not furnish the
list of absences on leave you asked for. It has also
come to me since I had the pleasure of seeing you, that
the saving of ;^8,ooo mentioned by Otway at the end
of the session, is the pretended saving of the return
given by the Foreign Office before the Committee was
appointed, which I showed you was fallacious, and
you expounded it all clearly in the speech you made
in the House before the Committee was appointed.
Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. i6i
No. XCII.
Mrs. F. PENNINGTON.
17, Hyde Park Terrace, W.,
Jan. 24, 1871.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Our Secretary, Mr. Banks, who worked under Dr.
Bell Taylor above a year at Nottingham, warned me
very seriously this morning that we must not let him
see the evidence before the Royal Commission ; he
says that he will publish anything he hears or sees
directly, without the least scruple ; so I told him, or
rather he proposed to write at once to Mr. Kingsford
and warn him. I thought it better to warn you too,
as Dr. Taylor said at our committee meeting last
night, he had been smoking a cigar with you the
previous night, and had " strengthened you
considerably." (This called forth a general shout
from the committee that you , did not require
strengthening.) I thought, however, you might
perhaps have told him things you would not care to
have published as coming from you, and might like to
warn him. He writes no end of letters and articles for
the papers, but owns with his usual candour and
good nature, that not one in fifty is ever inserted.
We have had to reject several for The Shield, because
the language was so violent, but he never seems to
resent it. I suppose he thinks it is a law of Nature
now. In haste. Yours very truly, M. Pennington.

i62 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. XCIII.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square,
Feb. 27, 1871.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I have been an invalid more or less ever since I
was unable to see you one evening in this house, and
I am still weak and not able to get about much.
I have just written a note addressed to the
Chairman of the Diplomatic Committee, asking to be
allowed to revise my memo, on the Foreign Office.
I now have, confidentially, supplied to me by Griffith,
the printed correspondence between him and the
Foreign Office and the Treasury. I could let you see it
¦confidentially, if you wish it. You could not ostensibly
make use of it, but it gives a wonderful insight into
Foreign Office ways. Hammond and James Murray
are both convicted of mis-statements, which, of course,
they will not apologise for or acknowledge. In the
end the Treasury supports Griffith against the Foreign
Office and enables him to beat Hammond and
Murray. Would you like to see it ?
Have you ascertained yet whether Shaw gives up
the management of the Consular question to Holmes
or not ? Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 163
No. XCIV.
Mr. C. E. MACQUEEN.
Financial Reform Association,
Lord St.,
Liverpool, March 4, 1871.
My Dear Sir, —
Thanks for your notification and intention in re
Petition. Can you extract from any military friend in the
House or out of it, the exact terms of the declaration
said to be required from, and made by, every
purchaser of a commission, to the effect that he has
paid no more than the regulation prices for it.
I wrote to a Major General, who is one of our
subscribers, about it, and he sent me most stringent
extracts from the Queen's Regulations against over
regulation prices, but not the declaration ; so I wrote
to him again, and in his reply, received this morning,
hesaj's: — " On receiving your note of the 28th ult.,
I wrote to a gentleman in London, well-informed
upon military matters, and in his reply he informs
me that he has not seen anything of the form
referred to, nor has he any knowledge of such a
declaration being in existence. My own impression
is that there is no separate formal declaration, the
regulations being so explicit upon the subject of
purchase." As a statement to the contrary has often been
publicly made and not contradicted, so far as I am

i64 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
aware, I think that the " impression " must be
erroneous. Can you ferret out the fact, if so it be ?
I want it to shot a protest against paying one penny
more than regulation prices. Yours truly,
C E. Macqueen.

No. XCV.
Mr. EDWIN BARTON.
(Secretary to the Central Association for Stopping
the Sale of Intoxicating Liquors on Sunday.)
43, Market Street,
Manchester, March lo, 1871.
Dear Sir, —
I shall be glad if you will kindly send me half a
dozen copies of your Bill, also, if convenient, to furnish
us from time to time with Petition reports.
May I trouble you also to give me some idea of the
date of second reading ? I have the enquiry from all
parts, and as our committee meet on Monday, shall
be glad if you may have time to write prior.
We are thinking of a great city meeting at the
Guildhall under the presidency of the Lord Mayor.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 165
Would it be advisable ? Our magistrates' memorial
is progressing in grand style— about 1,000 signatures
already. I send you by book-post two or three
documents. Petitions are being sent out wholesale.
We shall have a grand petition movement this year.
I wrote to Mr. Bruce the other day, giving him some
idea of what he may expect. Respectfully, Edwin Barton.

No. XCVI.
MAJOR-GENERAL WHITTINGHAM.
35, Queensborough Terrace,
Kensington Gardens, W.,
March 10, 1871.
Sir, —
I may tell you in confidence, as a householder of small
means, most interested against needless increase of
taxes, that I never was more astonished in my life
than when I heard a Liberal Government proposing —
whilst abolishing purchase in the army — a bill to
compensate the officers, not only for the regulation
prices of their commissions, but actually, also, for
those private and illegal extra-regulation prices, for
which the officers have not a shadow of a claim, either

1 66 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
morally, or legally, or equitably. I have served
regimentally more than thirty years, and commanded
a regiment for seven years, and was all the time well
aware that extra prices were illegal and made at the
risk of the officers concerned. The Horse Guards
constantly issued circulars to the same effect, and
though the practice may be said to have been winked, at
(and privately known) by the highest authorities, I yet
do not think any just claim for extra prices can be
rationally maintained by uninterested persons.
I, at all events, who have rather lost, on the whole,
than gained by such practices (little as I had to do
with them, as it happened), shall grudge, very much,
paying now a tax on that account.
I cannot consent to be publicly quoted by name, but
(in the interest both of truth and of my own pocket) I
should be glad to see this extraordinary and inde
fensible assault on the public purse frustrated.
I am. Sir,
Your obedient servant,
A Retired General.
P.S. — I enclose my card for yourself alone. — F. W.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 167
No. XCVII.
JUDGE HARDEN. Warrington, March 9, 1871.
The Judge of the County Court presents his com
pliments to the honourable M.P. for Warrington, and
would respectfully beg of him to hand the enclosure to
Mr. Ayrton, and to back it with allthe earnestness he
knows full well the subject requires, and it is, indeed,
no trifling matter. The Judge hopes that it is not
figuratively, though it assuredly is literallj', true, that
at Warrington the County Court " stinks in the
nostrils of the public."

No. xcvin.
Mrs. F. PENNINGTON.
17, Hyde Park Terrace, W.,
March 2, 1871.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
There is a very strong feeling in our committee
(CD. A.) that some ofthe subjected women should be
examined ; we shall not consider the case complete
unless they are. Can you do anything to further

1 68 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
this ? I was asked to see you and ascertain, but I am
doing two hours' work in every one as it is, and cannot
get over to see you. I know you will be grateful too
for escaping the loss of time it would cause you ! We
are also very much pressed by friends in all parts
about Mrs. Butler giving evidence. I know you have
this in hand too, and hope you may manage it. I
had a letter from her yesterday in which she says
that her committee (which means Miss Becker, Mrs.
Bright and Miss Wolsterholme) are strongly against
her giving evidence unless she is " dragged up.'' But
she is evidently quite willing to come herself, and I
think even dragging her up would be better than not
having her. I don't think she would do us harm bj'
her evidence, and her appearance in the flesh would
remove some prejudices from the minds of commis
sioners. They no doubt expect her to be a large,
rawboned, strong featured individual about ten feet
high, and I doubt whether they will believe she is the
real "Simon Pure " when they see her. Mrs.
Milleson and I indulged in a little fling at the Com
mission in the Shield, which comes out this week.
You must forgive us, for our friends in all parts ofthe
country are threatening to slacken work, under the im
pression that the Commission is going to seal the fate
of the Acts by an adverse verdict. I did so long to
be able to say that we knew they would not, but you
need not be frightened, I said nothing of the kind.
Mr. McLaren is to try and see you and other friendly
M.P.'s to-day about Parliamentary action. Mr.
Pennington called to see you last night but found you

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 169
out. Jacob Bright' and others are for delaying
Fowler's motion, but I can't help thinking this a mis
take. They say so many M.P.'s will shelter themselves
behind the Royal Commission, and abstain from
voting, but these will be mainly our opponents and
very shaky friends. Those who are heartily with us
will give their votes irrespective of any expected
report of the Royal Commission, and we shall at least
know upon whom we may rely. Our position must
be made worse by the adverse report of the Commis
sion, and if we wait for that we may lose all chance
of bringing on the question effectively this year. I
am so sorry for all your time and labour spent on this
wretched business. I hope the size of the testimonial
is not to be proportioned to the time spent in earning
it, or you will have to find another house large enough
to hold it !
I meant to write a few lines, and this is the result.
Yours very truly,
M. Pennington.

170 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. XCIX.
Mrs. JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER.
Ladies' National Association
for the
Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts.
280, South HiH, Park Road,
Liverpool, March 13, 1871.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I have written to the Secretary of the Royal
Commission to tell him that the only portion of the
subject on which he has called me to give evidence, on
which I can consent to give evidence, is public
opinion in the North on the subject of the C D. Acts,
and especially with reference to the views of working
men, with whom I have had a good deal of intercourse.
The Commission, I am told, deals only with facts,
but as the persons to whom I refer are for the most
part electors, it seems to me that their opinions on
this subject may be regarded as facts which may in
future elections practically influence the whole ques
tion, more than the opinions of medical men, etc.
I have, however, said to the Secretary that this is
the sole point on which I am willing to give evidence,
and asked him, if it should be thought not worth
while for me to give such evidence, to let me know
whether I am released from appearing at all.
This would be a great relief to me ; not that I fear
in the least standing before the Commission, nor that

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 171
I shall have any difficulty in giving briefly and clearly
the information I have to give, but it seems some of
our friends are so much averse to my giving evidence
at all, that I shall be glad, by not doing so, to avoid
incurring their displeasure. As it is, I only consented
to give this evidence as a private individual, and not
as Secretary to the Association of Women, who do
not recognise any authority in the Royal Commis
sion, and who are indifferent to its verdict, even as I
am myself, as far as the great moral question is
concerned. If I have to come up, I shall be glad to put in your
hands a sketch of what I have to say. I suppose I
shall not be judged to be guilty of " contempt of
court " if I absolutely decline to answer questions on
any other part of the subject.
I remain. Yours very truly,
Josephine E. Butler.

172 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Ko. C
Mr. EDWARD CROSSLEY.
Park Road, Halifax, March ii, 1871.
Dear Sir, —
I am very much obHged to you for writing to me
on behalf of the re-election of Mr. Stansfield. Any
other course I should have most strenuously opposed.
Our Committee decided simply to wait upon Mr.
Stansfield with a resolution maintaining their hostility
to the C D. Acts, expressing the hope that when the
time came for decision Mr. Stansfield would vote un
hesitatingly against the Acts, and also congratulating
him upon receiving a seat in the Cabinet. Some of
our extreme members talked of opposition more, I
believe, as a show of fight than anything else.
Mr. Stansfield has given us a very candid and
courteous interview, and has said as much as he was
at liberty to do without committing Government.
I am glad to have your assurance along with Mr.
Mundella's that Mr. Stansfield is with us. We have
expressed ourselves hopefully to him, and if we have
used severe means in the past, it has been with the
object of thoroughly rousing the attention of Govern
ment to the subject. I sincerely trust the Royal
Commission will do its utmost to report as early as
possible, so that the matter may be decided this
Session.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 173
Mr. Stansfield has stated that this will very likely
be accomplished. I remain. Dear Sir,
Yours sincerely, Edward Crossley.

No. CI.
Mr. JOHN GORDON M'MINNIES.
Farington,
April 27, 1871.
My Dear Peter, —
You have had a busy week, and we are all satisfied
with the result, so far as we know it. I suppose Lowe
will carry his new proposals, whatever they are, and
that the gentlemen below the gangway will not support
Disraeli in any vote that amounts to one of want of
confidence. I can give you no idea ofthe despair and dishearten-
ment which the recent conduct of the ministry has
occasioned to its best and most useful supporters in
this part of the country. The feeling is that all the
efforts made by the party in 1868 have been made
useless, and we are all very greatly discouraged.
Gladstone has put us in a false position by these
proposed taxes and this excessive expenditure. There
has been some talk of a private remonstrance with

174 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
him, coming from the various towns in the country,
on the way in which he is leading the party. Forster
has thoroughly estranged the most active dissenters,
and now this unpardonable retrogressive financial
policy has made what was bad enough before still
worse. Gladstone must use his majority to carry his
measures and beat the Tories, and not accept their
help to beat his best friends. John Crosfield has been
in correspondence with him about this feeling on the
part of the Liberals in the country, and Gladstone, in
his reply, seems to blame the House for driving him
into extravagant estimates. He mentions particularly
some " ultra Liberal " who boasted to his constituents
that he had forced him into the additional estimates
of last session for the defence of Belgium. He says
that this " ultra Liberal " spoke against the Budget
on Monday night, and I suppose he must have meant
Fawcett. I do not think Gladstone, in his long defence
of himself in reply to John Crosfield, is successful.
He says he was forced, but he ought not to have
allowed himself to be forced. Bright would not have
done so. He seems to trace everything to the
additional vote for ;^2,ooo,ooo and 20,000 men last
session, but he should have kept cool and waited.
His majority, or most of them, would have supported
him, and time and events would have justified him. I
hope this will be a lesson to them all.
With kind regards to Carrie,
I remain. Yours affectionately,
J. G. M'Minnies.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 175
No. CII.
Mr. JOHN CROSFIELD. Llandudno, April 29, 1871.
My Dear Peter, —
I received your letter yesterday and told Hadfield
he must be sure to give your speech verbatim as
written by you. I also ordered him to print 250 copies
in pamphlet form.
We shall come to you on Tuesday, the gth, as
arranged, if, in the meantime. Parliament is not
dissolved and you are all sent back to your
constituents !
Much as I disapprove of the increased expenditure,
I do not wish to see a majority against the Government
on Monday night, and I hope you below the gangway
wiU support Mr. Gladstone when the division takes
place on the 2d Income Tax.
I wrote to Gladstone last Sunday, telling him how
disappointed the Liberals in Lancashire were that he
had not resisted this great expenditure, and how it
damaged us as a party. I got a long and courteous
reply by return of post, which I will show you. I was
delighted with your speech. We consider it the best
you have made, and will raise you to a high position
in the House and the country. Mackie,* as usual,
showed his love for you by quoting every bit he could
find in the Tory papers against you. You will see a
letter in the Examiner signed, " A Liberal."
?Editor of the Wanington Guardian

176 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
I trust you wiH carry the Budget on Monday night ;
it would be a great loss to us if the Government went
out of office now. Yours very truly, John Crosfield.

No. cm.
Mr. C E. MACQUEEN.
Financial Reform Association,
Lord Street, Liverpool, May 3, 1871.
My Dear Sir, —
I send you half a dozen of the Almanacs for
distribution if you will take the trouble, and shall be
glad to forward more for the same purpose, as we
are overstocked, and the thing is likely to be more
serviceable abroad than lying on our shelves.
Mr. Gladstone has, no doubt, said and done good
and great things in his time, but I don't see that past
performances afford any palliation whatever for
present backslidings, and to tell you the plain truth
my faith in him has long been of a very flickering
description.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 177
Are we to expect genuine Freedom of Trade as
well as Household Suffrage from the Right Hon.
Ben. ? It seems quite on the cards.
Yours truly,
C E. Macqueen.

No. CIV.
Mr. j. GORDON M'MINNIES. Farington,
5 June, 1871.
My Dear Peter, —
Politics are in a very unsatisfactory state.
Government are greatly to blame. There never was
a party worse led. I suppose nobody expected the
Liberal party to keep together, and for Gladstone to
keep the majority more than some five years ; but we
did not expect to see the party macadamised in the
third session. The beginning of the evil was that
stupid increase of the estimates last July, and of
course Lowe's Budget made everything worse.
People who knew Lowe at Sydney, say that he is a
traitor, a traitor by nature, that he cannot help
betraying anybody with whom he is connected.
" Lowe's dodges " became quite a phrase in the
House there, and the gentleman who has this opinion

178 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE
of Lowe and who knew him well in Australia, told
our friend Smith Robinson that some day or other he
would ruin this Government, intentionally, and not
by accident or blunder.
At the same time I think the Government have
reason to complain of their friends, and especiallj' oi
those below the gangway. Our advanced friends
have not been loyal to the party and their leaders, and
they have played into the hands of the Tory party by
their everlasting motions and speeches. Take White's
motion the other night — no good object was served by
it, and no good object could be served by it ; it was
simply a waste of time. The result of all is a session
lost. I am afraid the Army BiH and the BaHot Bill
will both be lost. I do not care for the Ballot, but
the Liberal party in the country are wild for it. The
Army Bill I shall regret, for I think it the best
measure introduced to Parliament for years. I quite
agree with you as to the injustice of paying for over-
regulation prices, but the three millions unjustly paid
is well earned by the abolition of the purchase system,
and so would ten times three millions. Besides, these
reforms in England are always compromises, and
mostly compromises at the expense ofthe taxpayers.
The gift of 20 millions to the slave-owners could not
be justified, and it was opposed by many good and
earnest politicians. A duty on corn was levied for
three years after the Country and Parliament had
come to the conviction that duties on corn were
unjust and impolitic, and so on in other instances
which I do not remember now.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 179
I hope Government will be supported by votes and
silence, for nothing could be worse than a change of
government and a dissolution just now. The Liberal
party would go like chaff before the wind. I do not
know precisely how we stand in Warrington. I am
told that Todd thinks we have no chance of winning,
but we cannot get him to mark a list. He is
incorrigibly lazy and inefficient. Every year will tell
in our favour, but I fear that upon the last Register
we should be beaten hollow. If there is a chance of
an early dissolution we must meet together (which we
have not done for some time) and consult as to our
action. I have not seen George Crosfield for some time, but
I gather from a conversation with Mrs. George, that
he is thoroughly disgusted with Gladstone's conduct
and the course of politics generally. In fact we are
all very much down on our luck, and the Tories are
correspondingly jubilant. They had a dinner party
of the captains, etc., at the Lion, the other day,
which appears to have been no great affair, but it no
doubt keeps them together and ready. I have not
read the speeches.
I am glad you have enjoyed your holiday. I was
not in Warrington during Whitsun week, until the
end of it, for my house was not quite habitable, and
my people were moving.
I am, My dear Peter,
Yours affectionately, J. G. M'Minnies.

i8o LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE
No. CV.
Mr. F. PENNINGTON. Broome Hall, Surrey,
June 3, 1871.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Mrs. Pennington has read to me the letter from
your Secretary [Mrs. Rylands] , which gives a short
and clear account of the most important part of the
draft of Report of Royal Commission. (I congratu
late you on the possession of such a secretary). Mrs.
Pennington goes to town on Monday morning next,
and purposes to call at your house to look at the
Draft Report, if you have no objection. If you have,
please drop a line, that she may not trouble you. We
hear that several Commissioners are disposed to re
commend the adoption of the Act of 1864, which
enforces the examination of any woman, who any
one swears they have reason to believe has infected
them. I think you will agree with me that this is a
retention of the most odious part of the present Acts,
and places in the hands of every man a weapon
against every woman ofthe vilest kind.
Yours,
Fred. Pennington.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. i8i;
No. CVI.
Mr. WILLIAM FOWLER, M.P. (Cambridge.)
Berkeley Square, June 17, 1871.
My Dear Sir, —
I am extremely obliged for your note. I am verj'
sensible of the value of your self-denying labours on
the Commission. I thank you for them, and I feel
that you have more right than almost any one to urge
your views on me. I see, too, the great force of your
arguments. I have been extremely puzzled through
out as to what would be the right course to adopt.
I thought the compromise to which I referred, and to
which the Government have assented, would have
avoided the difficulty. It still appears to me that it
will, because if the Government vote with me, we shall'
be sure to carry our point, and the Commission will
be very anxious to get the division, and so test the
opinions of members. But I feel strongly the force
of what you say on the other side, and I will care
fully consider the matter from your point of view
before we meet on Monday.
At this period of the Session, it appears to me a,
very serious thing to lose my place on Tuesday.
You know as well as I how difficult it is to get a day;
and I am afraid if I lose this chance I shall not get
another this Session, and therefore, if the Report after
all is not to our mind, we shall have lost the chance
of a division this Session. Yours faithfully,
W. Fowler.

l82 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CVII.
Mrs. F. PENNINGTON.
The National Association for the Repeal of the
Contagious Diseases Acts.
50, Great Marlborough St.,
London, W.,
June ig, 1871.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Mr. Pennington has just announced to our
committee that Mr. Fowler has agreed, after
consultation with several members, to withdraw his
motion for Repeal. Is withdraw a mistake for
postpone ? No doubt practically, they amount to
the same thing, but won't it look better to the outside
public if it is put in the form of a postponement ?
I write this privately, not as from the Committee,
and feel almost sure you or Mr. Fowler will have
thought of this ; but I write for the chance of it
having been overlooked. Yours very truly,
M. Pennington.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 183
No. CVIII.
Mr. ROBERT GASKELL. Weymouth,
June 26, 1871.
My Dear Sir, —
The debate in reference to the dethronement of the
Nawab of Tonk will be renewed on the 30th. Miss
Carpenter has asked me to communicate with any
members of whom I have any personal knowledge,
and to ask the favour of their attendance in the
House on that occasion.
I have carefully read a small book entitled
" Pilgrimage to the Caaba and Charing Cross ;" the
statement of this case therein contained formed the
basis of the speeches in the previous debate. I have
come to the conclusion that what is asked is a simple
act of justice, and the enquiry ought to be granted,
unless Sir Stafford Northcote satisfactorily accounts
for the dethronement of this native Indian Prince. I
hope you will be able to make it convenient to be
present when the debate is renewed.
I am quite glad to have this opportunity of
conveying to you my admiration of the patriotic
position you have taken in the House, and hope that,
notwithstanding Dizzy's sneers, you will give them
plenty more of your didactic drilling. I wish we had
such representatives from this benighted place, the
folly and knavery of which may have its apt
representatives probably in our respective members.
We are regularly bought and sold with a price, and

184 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
are most admirably^nursed, both wet and dry ; and
what is worse, I see no way out of it here.
¦ - With kind regards,
I am. Dear Sir,
Yours truly,
Robert Gaskell.

No. CIX.

(Central Association for Stopping the Sale of
Intoxicating Liquors on Sunday.)
43, Market Street, Manchester, June 26, 1871.
Dear Sir, —
We have pleasure in sending you the following copy
of a resolution adopted by our Executive Committee
this day : —
" That the warmest thanks of this committee be
given to Peter Rylands, Esq., M.P., for his able and
praiseworthy efforts made in endeavouring to pass
the ' Sale of Liquors on Sunday Bill.' "
We are, dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
Robert Whitworth,
Edward Whitwell, Hon. Sees.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 185

No. ex.
Rev. T. a. STOWELL.
Haltwhistle Vicarage,
Near Carlisle,
July 6, 1 87 1.
My Dear Sir, —
A statement was made at our committee meeting
last Monday, on the authority of Mr. Raper, that you
had expressed your unwillingness again to give notice
of the introduction of our Bill. Our committee wished
me to write and ask you if this was true, and also, if
it should be so, whether it would be agreeable to you
that we should ask Mr. Birley to give notice to that
effect. I need hardly say how sorry we should be to lose
your kind services, though, I am sure, not your
sympathy, and how grateful we are for your past
co-operation and uniform courtesy.
With kind regards. Believe me. Yours sincerely,
T. Alfred Stowell.

I86 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CXI.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Sq., July 7,1871.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I return you Hammond's evidence— or, rather,
no-evidence — with thanks. I enclose some questions
I suggest. Pray work out that delusive return of last year to
Shaw. As to Hammond's receipt of secret service
money, I have been surprised to find by how many
persons it is known. It has been known some time
to H. Merivale, Under Secretary of Indian Office, and
to C J. Herries, Deputy Chairman of Board of Inland
Revenue, among others. It seems, indeed, extensively
known. I never heard of it till you told me.
I have not seen your new notice. I should advise
you to act as follows : —
Move for a committee to enquire as to whether
Foreign Office Secret Service money is or is not applied
only to objects recognised as legitimate, and whether
it is applied for salaries and pensions where there
should and need be no secrecy. State in j'our speech
on your honour as a member of Parliament that you
believe secret service money to be appropriated
wrongly to salaries of officials and to pensions, naming
the cases of which you are sure, but not your
authorities, and demand a committee to enquire. With
such a statement I do not think they could refuse you.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 187
Excuse me for offering you this advice. Tempo
rising with them is of no use. Evasive official answers
will be given as long as possible to simple questions
put in the House of Commons, when you have no
power of replying or criticising.
You should get the Tories to back you. Drummond
Wolff and, I hear, his cousin, F. Walpole, member of
the committee, are zealously with you, and I fancy
you might rely on the exertions of the Tory whip, for
a man understood to be against Hammond. Lowther
has lately told me that he simply hates Hammond.
Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie*

No. CXII.
Mrs. F. PENNINGTON. Broome Hall,
Surrey,
July 22, 1871.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I am afraid you thought our party very ungrateful
on Thursday, and I think some of them are, though,
as you know, I am not one of them. Unfortunately,
they will persist in expecting all the commissioners on
our side to be " apostles." But without being very

i88 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
unreasonable, they are somewhat justified in feeling
annoyance at being told by all our opponents, and
almost every newspaper, and by Bruce, that " every
case of abuse on the part of the police has broken
down," and that the statements of opponents of the
* Acts are mostly " perversions ofthe truth." You know,
and we know, that this is not the case, but if we
attempt to deny it we are floored immediately by being
told that it is the unanimous verdict of the commis
sioners, as all have signed the report, and none have
dissented from those parts of it. At the adjourned
conference, after the deputation, the feeling was so
strong, and the meeting generally so excited, that
I asked Mr. Shaw to explain that the particular
clauses most resented, and others, were carried by a
majority against our friends on the commission. This
allayed the tumult to some extent, though manj' said,
" Then why did they sign a report with which they
did not agree ? " The feeling is still very strong
amongst us that something must be done to clear
our witnesses and ourselves from the charges brought
against us in the report, and money has been sub
scribed to enable our association to advertise the
truth, if it cannot be done any other way. The most
effectual way would be for you, and any other
commissioners who agree with you, to write a letter,
to the papers saying that j'ou were beaten on a
division ; but this may be contrary to the etiquette
of Royal Commissions. If you can't do it, I suppose
we may make use of it ; but what reasons are we to
give for your having signed that " very inconsequent

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 189
document," seeing that you differed from it in other
points besides those contained in your two Minority
Reports ? Our committee meets on Monday to decide
what is to be done, and I should be glad of a line
from you or Mrs. Rylands, addressed to Great
Marlborough Street, telling me what can be done.
I am very sorry to trouble you when you are away for
rest, but it is part of mj- gratitude to you, for I am
reluctant anything should be done in this matter which
does not put your share in it in the best light. We
shall,of course, publish that the commissioners refused
to hear any of the women concerned, and as women
are not necessarily liars because they are unchaste,
any more than men are, it is difficult to see how they
justify the refusal. Yours very truly,
M. Pennington.

No. CXIII.
Mr. H. labouchere.
2, Bolton Street,
July 19, 1871.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Would you be good enough to cast your eye over a
letter which I published to-day in the Daily News
signed " Ensign Jones."

190 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Captain Wellesley, adjutant and lieutenant in the
regiment of the Guards (the Captain is only honorary)
is the gentleman who is to go to St. Petersburg. He
is the son of Lord Cowley. I understand on good
authority that Hoyer, the Times war correspondent,
and, if I remember rightly, one of the officers sent out
by the Government to report on the war, and a
Colonel who speaks Russian, applied for it. These
facts were told me by a Captain who himself is
senior in service to Wellesley, who speaks Russian,
and who applied.
I need not observe that this is a job, and that it is
a mere waste of money to send out a young guards
man to report on the Russian army. Perhaps a
question, whether a statement which has appeared
in the papers that a young guardsman, who has only
done duty as a Lieutenant, is to go as Military
Attache at Petersburg is true, and whether it is also
true that gentlemen his seniors who knew Russian,
and a well known miHtary officer applied for the
place, might elicit something.
The authorities are so cunning that they probably
will stave off a compromising reply. I think that, in
reality, the appointment is made by the Foreign
Office, and not by the Duke of Cambridge.
Yours truly,
H. Labouchere.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 191
No. CXIV.
Mr. henry labouchere.
2, Bolton Street, Piccadilly, July 22, 1871.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Would you be good enough to let me have the
dates of the two questions which you have already
put, respecting the application of the secret service
money to increase the salaries of officials.
It may be a question whether it will be better to
take up the case in the Daily News on the Estimates,
or on your receiving a reply to your question on
Monday. With respect to the appointment of Lieutenant
Wellesley, Enfield will no doubt deny that applica
tions were made to the War Office ; the fact being
that officers who wished for the post " sounded " the
authorities in the same way as the authorities sounded
their eight pets, who thought Russia too cold a
climate for their constitutions. Col. Chesney was, I
believe, the only man of any mark who refused. I
am assured that the Grand Duke Vladimir, or Brunerv,
who is very thick with Lord Cowley, really did un
officially convey to the Foreign Office the fact that
our friend, the Lieutenant, would be acceptable to
the Russian Court.
If you want a fact, in drawing attention to the case
on the estimates, to prove the importance of, say, a

192 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
good military man at a foreign court, here is one :—
Stoffel, the French military attache at Berlin, was
given a command during the siege of Paris. The
press protested, and said he had proved himself use
less to his Government by not keeping it advised as
to the efficiency of Germany. He, on this, demanded
that his reports should be published. They were
looked up at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and
several of them were found to be unopened ; when
published they proved that, had they been read, the
French War Office would have had ample details
respecting the military condition of Germany ; and,
it is to be presumed, would not have rushed into
hostilities. In one of these reports, Stoffel points out that the
Prussian Government insists upon a certain number
of Staff Officers learning Russian, in order to be used
for missions to Russia.
As the Second-Secretaries in the Diplomatic Service
do not, after perhaps 20 years of service, receive ;^500
for living and working at St. Petersburg ; it is simply
ridiculous to say that ;^5oo per annum is not a suffi
cient salary to induce any officer in the army above
the rank of a lieutenant to go there.
Yours truly,
H. Labouchere.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 193
No. CXV.
Mr. henry LABOUCHERE.
2, Bolton St.,
Piccadilly, July 30, 1871.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
You will see in to-morrow's Daily News an article
and several letters upon the subject of " Secret
Service Money." Pray do not mention my name
to anyone in connection with the matter, as, from
my having been in the Diplomatic Service, it will
be said that I am making use of knowledge which
I obtained through having been under the Foreign
Office. With respect to the ;^io,ooo alleged to be spent by
Glyn, I, of course, never saw the cheques, but it has
always been understood in the Foreign Office, that
this amount finds its way to the Treasury for
party purposes. Of course, if you inquire of
Gladstone or anyone, an attempt will be made to
conceal the fact by some sort of official special
pleading. What do you think of a question to Glyn
himself ? He might be asked whether he directly or
indirectly receives any portion of the Secret Service
money, and whether directly or indirectly any part
of it is used for any purposes connected with
elections, or with thpse party functions, which , it is
understood that he fulfils as Parliamentary Secretary
of the, Treasury. Perhaps you will be told that it is.

194 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE,
spent in duties such as are openly notorious, such as
printing the whips to members, etc. These, however,
cannot cost more than :^5oo per annum.
Yours truly,
H. Labouchere.

No. CXVI.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square,
August 4, 1 87 1.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I suspect and fear that the Daily News has had a
bint from the Government not to go on about the
Secret Service Money, or at any rate to moderate
their tone. Otherwise, I cannot understand their not
putting in my last letter signed " A Taxpayer." I do
not know if a hint from you, through your channel,
whatever it may be, might yet get it put in in time for
your discussion. Why should Hammond have more
salary than the other permanent Under Secretaries,
who all have Secret Service Money to manage ? And
it is not hinted that any of the others get anything
for themselves out of the secret fund. Herman
Merivale, Under Secretary to the India Council,
formerly Under Secretary of Colonial Office, is

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 195
at least as " eminent " as His Eminence of the
Foreign Office. So is Liddell of the Home Office.
By the way, Odo Russell is doing Hammond's
work in his absence. Question to put to Lord Enfield :
Is Odo Russell receiving the quota of the ;^5oo a year
for secret-service duty ? Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

No. CXVII.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square,
Sept. 23, 1871.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I write you a line to tell you that the Foreign Office
have sanctioned a claim from Sir R. Alcock to a
pension of ;£'3,20o a year ! ! and sent in their
recommendation to the Treasury, where the question
now rests. The thing is a monstrosity ; a blunder of
our friend Hammond's. The pension has been
calculated on the ground of his having 32 years of
service, ending with a salary of ;^6,ooo, and the
calculation is under the Superannuation Act of 1859.
But Alcock, for a pension under this Act, cannot, I
contend, avail himself of consular service beyond

196 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
the- time when he ceased to be Minister and Consul
General in Japan, and then there would be something
to be said as to the amount. And perhaps he
has the option between a pension under tbe
Superannuation Act up to that date and a pension
under clause 15 of the Diplomatic Pensions Act
(Hammond's) of 1869. I shall look into it more
closely. It is a monstrous pension anyhow, against
equity and the spirit of the Pension Acts. If you
can do anything by threatening the Foreign Office or
Treasury you should do so.
The highest ambassador of longest service gets only
£i,']oo a year. You may rely on my facts, which I
have on the best authority. It will be a precedent
for other cases. Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

No. CXVIIl.
Right Hon. W. E. BAXTER, M.P.
Kirkcaldrum, Forfar ,
Sept. 27, 1871.
Dear Rylands, —
I have received your favour of 25th, and am
astonished to hear of the proposed pension to Sir R.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 197
Alcock. Surely it can't be true. I have written
to-day to know. Ever truly yours,
W. E. Baxter.

No. CXIX.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square, Oct. I, 1871.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
It seems as if the Editor of the Daily News does not
mean to attend to you, and enable you to prevent this
monstrously anomalous pension for Sir R. Alcock. I
suspect that Lord Granville, who is a very insinuating
man, has given " a hint " to the Editor, and Daily
News does not like to go against him.
I hear that Baxter is considered in the Treasury
the laziest official that ever was there ; and my infor
mation is not derived from my son, who (I dare say
you know) is a clerk in the Treasury.
Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

198 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CXX.
Mr. W. D. CHRISTIE.
32, Dorset Square, Nov. 2, 1871.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I caused enquiry to be made yesterday about what
the Treasury had done in the matter of Sir R. Alcock's
pension, and I am glad to find that they have cut
down Hammond's ;^3,20o to ;^i,300. This is well ;
it might be a good subject for you next year to ques
tion Hammond about. And do you think you could
ask Hill to return you that long letter on the Pension
Acts, of which I kept no copy, and which might serve
as a brief. There is no doubt that the spirit of the
Acts was frustrated by the pensions granted to
Griffith and Bingham, but then the Treasury was
chiefly in fault.
I wish you could take up and lecture on the Civil
Service Estimates generally. Here is a matter which
I wish you could get some of your economist friends
to manage next year.
Soon after Gladstone's Government came in, they
made a new salaried appointment of ;^i,200 a year,
2nd Civil Service Commissioner. Till then the Chief
Commissioner, Mr. E. Ryan, was assisted only by
unpaid Commissioners. Dr. Dasent (sub-editor of the
Times) was appointed ; Walrond, the Secretary, passed
over. Dasent has now become Editor of Eraser's
Magazine, /500 a year. Surely Dasent ought to be

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 199
required to give all his valuable time to his public
appointment. There are as fit and fitter men who
would take the appointment and give all their good
time to it. Dasent, I know, does nothing at the Conj-
mission, Walrond is the labouring oar. Dasent writes
much, edits the Times when Delane is away (very
wrong), and now is going to edit a monthly magazine.
My notion of proper economy is that a chief of a
laborious and largely responsible office, liberally paid
by the public, should give all his business time to it,
and that a man who will not give this should not be
appointed, if an equally good man, who will give all
his time, will take it.
With kind regards. Yours very truly,
W. D. Christie.

No. CXXI.
Right Hon. Sir G. O. TREVELYAN, M.P.
31, Park Street,
Grosvenor Sq.,
Nov. 20, 1871.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I am very glad you are . going to preside at fhe
Warrington meeting. May the Alliance never have

200 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
a less useful neutral than yourself! It is what, I
suppose, the lawyers call an armed neutrality. I am
afraid I cannot come. There is a meeting at
Liverpool the next day, and I am not strong enough
in mind or body to exceed an average of over a
meeting a week, and least of all two on two days.
running. You and Lawson are made of tougher
stuff". If it was a mere question of health and
longevity, I should care little, but health, or a certain
standard of health, is necessary for usefulness ; and
really you and Lawson are a battery powerful enough
for any single action. We must not waste metal. I
regret much not being able to accept your hospitality
at Bewsey House, and remain. Yours very truly,
G. O. Trevelyan.

No. CXXII.
Hon. GEORGE GLYN, M.P.
(Parliamentary Secretary of the Treasury).
Blandford, Nov. 29, 1871.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I am glad the matter has been arranged at the
Admiralty. I quite agree with your P.S., it is clear

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 201
we shall have trouble upon the Education Question,
though I have much faith in the desire ofthe country
to get what good they can out of the Act and not to
carp too severely at trifles ; still there are many rocks
ahead which we must sail over, and if our friends wish
it, we can do so without grounding ! I think the
pressure of other matter will of itself postpone the
Irish question, but Fawcett and the Tories make it
^difficult, or may do so.
I don't at all look forward myself to next session
with apprehension, for though the proof of unity of
late in the constituencies is not satisfactory, I have
more faith than many in our Liberal members
sticking to our Leader, and in his power of leading in
difficult times. Yours truly.
G. G. Glyn.

No. CXXIII.
Right Hon. W. E. BAXTER, M.P.
Treasury,
Dec. II, 1871.
Dear Rylands, —
Did you arrange with Lord Granville not to oppose
an addition of ;£'30o to Hammond's salary in place of

202 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
what he used to crib from the Secret Service Money ?
I strongly opposed it, but am confronted by the
authority ofthe member for Warrington. Ever yours,
W. E. Baxter.

No. CXXIV.
Mr. j. D. LEWIS, M.P.
Westbury House,
Petersfield, Dec. 20, 1871.
My Dear Rylands, —
The first sentence which met my eye in your address
at Manchester almost took my breath away.
" If we got rid of the traditions of the Foreign
Office, we should find that we could do with a much
less army and navy.''
And you expect me to endorse such sentiments as
that 1 However, on the subject of foreign treaties
generally, I agree with you. With respect to Belgium,
however, the point always made was not as to the
addition of 40 miles of coast to 929 miles, nor of
4,000,000 of men to 40,000,000, but as to the Port of
Antwerp. Napoleon I., if I remember aright, always
spoke of this as a " pistol held to the heait of England.'"

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 205
However, I believe the importance of the port of
Antwerp, in this connection, has been much exagger
ated, as has been well shown in some letters of Captain
Stuard Osborn to the Times a year or two ago.
Very truly yours,
J. D. Lewis.
" But no more about cutting down the Navy, an
thou lovest me, Peter !"

No. CXXV.
Mrs. JACOB BRIGHT. Alderley Edge,
Jan. 4, 1872.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I write to ask you if you will kindly tell me what
day will suit you to take the chair at our Women's
Suffrage meeting in Warrington. We should be glad
to hold it anj' time after the 30th of January. We
want to form a committee in Warrington. Can you
give me a list of names of people likely to help to
form one ? Miss Becker will then come over and call
upon them. We must have Mrs. Rylands' name
among them.
If you cannot take the chair after the 30th, what
day would suit you ? Will you let me have an answer

204 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
by return of post, as our committee is making arrange
ments to hold public meetings in all the Lancashire
and Yorkshire towns, and of course it will greatly
facilitate matters to know what days we have at liberty
for other places. We can get you several good lady
speakers for Warrington. I think LHias Ashworth
and Mrs. Fawcett will come. They both spoke
beautifully at Birmingham. Miss Becker will speak
if required. Who is the best person to apply to to
get up the meeting ?
Please give me the address of that Independent
minister we met at your house, as I want him to speak
for us. Very truly yours,
Ursula M. Bright.

No. CXXVI.
Mr. C E. macqueen.
Financial Reform Association,
Lord St., Liverpool, March 25, 1872.
My Dear Sir, —
Your contribution for next Financial Reformer is
most welcome, anything else which you find time

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 205
and inclination to write will always be, and it shall
stand No. i.
I will get the Council on Wednesday to authorise
me to write to all our subscribing M.P.'s, and even
to the ex-ones, including Mr. Stansfeld, who promised
grand things some years ago, when he attended our
meeting in the Philharmonic Hall, along with Bright,
Pollard, and others, and Mr. Goschen himself, who
sent us £e^ a year or two ago, with high commendation.
As to expenditure — Royal Parks, Civil List jobbery.
Eyre the Butcher, match tax, etc., etc., — Gladstone
seems bent on building up a wall strong enough to
break his own head against, and he will undoubtedly
succeed in that exploit unless he mends his ways most
materially. Anything more sophistical, supercilious,
more open to contradiction, or more domineering than
that speech of his in answer to Diike, I never saw.
He came in with a blaze, and, at present, nothing
seems more likely than that he will go out with a stink,
" 'Tis true, 'tis pity ; pity 'tis, 'tis true."
Yours truly,
C F. Macqueen.

2o6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CXXVII.
Mr. EDMOND BEALES.
Osborn House,
Bolton Gardens, South, S.W.,
April I, 1872.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I am glad to see that you intend still to raise the
question in the House of the right of the people to
meet in the parks. I have never had any doubt of
that right, and consider that the Derby Government
acted wholly illegally in closing the park gates against
the Reform League meeting in July, 1866. I could.
not afford to incur the expense of an action to try the
question at that time, and there were technical
difficulties also in the way. But I determined tO)
insist on the right in the following May, 1867, and I
think it is quite clear that if the Government then
felt they could legally oppose the right, or prevent
this meeting, of which I had given notice, they would
have done so, after warning me formally through Mr.
Walpole and Sir Richard Mayne that the meeting was
prohibited ; after making large preparations as to both
military and police for forcibly preventing it ; after,
also, swearing-in large detachments of special con
stables, and endeavouring, through various members
of Parliament, to dissuade me from an attempt, which,
it was alleged, might cause much bloodshed and
endanger my own life. It was not till the very
morning of the meeting, and after I had ex-

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 207
pressed my determination to persevere at all risks,
that they, in accordance with an opinion of
their own law officers, which they had had
some months in their possession, undid all their
preparations, and notified that there would be no
attempt to prevent the meeting being held. I con
sidered that a clear admission of the right, for I do-
not admit that the law, even of trespass, could be
applied as intimated in their opinion referred to ; and
when Mr. Hardy's Bill was, a few months afterwards,
introduced for the purpose of placing the right thus
admitted under the control of the Home Secretary,
Mr. Mill and others, at my request, successfully
opposed that Bill on the ground that the Common
Law gave all necessary power for preventing a legal
right, like that of public meeting in the parks, being
riotously, or otherwise improperly exercised. The with
drawal of that Bill was a further admission ofthe right
thus insisted on. I cannot understand the attitude of
the present Government on this question. I was under
the impression that they, equally with me, considered
this right to have been admitted and established by
what occurred in 1867. I further understood that they
actually intended to arrange for convenient places in
four parks (including Hyde Park), N., E., S., and W.,
in the metropolis being aHotted for the holding of
meetings. Why they should not at once have made
known this -intention, and their purposes generally,
and thus have avoided, instead of inviting, as it were,
a storm of unnecessary irritation and unpopularity, I
can not conceive.

2o8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Of one thing I am certain, that to dispute the right
of meeting in the parks is to risk the raising of serious
questions as to the title to the parks on the part of
the reigning familj'.
I do not wish, in my present position, to mix myself
up unnecessarily with this important question, but I
think it only due to you, who are now championing it,
to put you in possession thus frankly of my views on
the subject, after being formerly so much and so
personally interested in it. Yours faithfully,
Edmond Beales.

No. CXXVIII.
Mr. DAVID ROBERTSON, M.P. (Berwick Co.)
56, Upper Brook Street,
July 18, 1872.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I have had a most unfortunate sore throat, and
have been in bed these three days, where I now am,
or I should have had the pleasure of a conversation
with you in the House of Commons, and I am per
suaded that in five minutes I could convince you of

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 209
the immense importance and desirableness, in the
interests of England, to continue entire the present
legation and consulate at Buenos Ayres.
I learn this morning that you also propose not to
allow that excellent man Mr. Parish to continue
Chairman of the Committee of the Great Southern
Railway of Buenos Ayres made entirely by English
Capital. Now it does so happen that I am the Chairman of
that Railway, the only company I ever belonged to
in my life, and which I am proud to think has done a
great deal of good to that country as well as paid its
shareholders, from its excellent management, to
which Mr. Parish has greatly contributed ; and there
is no less amount than ^1,200,000 embarked, and it
is of immense importance to have a man of Mr.
Parish's high integrity at the head of it in Buenos
Ayres, which he has been since 1862.
The Consuls in those countries are the worst paid
men of all her Majesty's servants abroad, and are the
most valuable, especially if you get so able a one as
Mr. Parish, in preserving peace between England
and the countries to which they are accredited, and
in promoting the commercial and other relations
of Englishmen. It is also well known that the expenses
of living in those countries being so great, the
consular pay is quite inadequate to support a man,
and it has long been the practice that with the consent
of the Foreign Office, Consuls may undertake other
duties which will not interfere with their public duties
as Consul.

210 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Mr. Parish was appointed, in 1862, the Chairman of
our Committee, with the entire approbation of Lord
Clarendon, who knew more about these South
American countries than any Foreign Minister
we have ever had, excepting Lord Palmerston, who
took a great interest in Buenos Ayres, and knowing
the great value to England of amicable relations and
of the increasing interest of England with them,
he did everything he could to promote it, and had
a high opinion of Mr. Parish, whose father. Sir
Woodbine Parish, was the first man sent out by
Mr. Canning and negotiated the Treaty, which has
led to so much prosperity between Buenos Ayres
and England.
I will venture to say amongst the merchants of all
England, of whom there are a great many interested
in those countries m London, Liverpool, and
Manchester, there is not a man who would not concur
in stating how invaluable Mr. Parish's services have
been to one and all of them, and to all British
interests. I will also venture to say that there is not
one amongst them who does not highly approve of
Mr. Parish continuing Chairman on the Committee
of our Railway ; and without the little compensation
it gives him he would hardly be able to live at Buenos
Ayres and do his duty to them and to all English
Interests as he has done.
I believe there is only one man in Great Britain or
out of it who would give an opposite opinion, namely
.Mr. Christie, and that is from pure jealousy and
enmity to Mr. Parish. Hewas unhappily Minister in

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, ill
Buenos Ayres and in Brazil, and in both countries
created such an angry feeling and so completely
disturbed our relations with the two Governments,
that but for our Government withdrawing him and
happily sending that most excellent man, who was
beloved by every one at Buenos Ayres and Rio also.
Sir Edward Thornton, now our Minister at
Washington, who at once did away with the ill-
feeling created by Mr. Christie, Heaven only knows
what would have happened.
I understand that Mr. Christie has given some
evidence before a Committee ofthe House of Commons
about Mr. Parish not being permitted to continue
Chairman of our Railway Committee, as interfering
with his Consular duties. Now, mj' dear Mr.
Rylands, I pray you to take no notice of the evidence
of such a. man as Mr. Christie, of whom I say
advisedly, and wiH say publicly in the House of
Commons if I am called upon to do so, that he has
been the maker of mischief wherever he has been, and
rely on it, you will gain no credit in acting upon any
opinion of his, which will be held as unworthy of
notice by everyone who is acquainted with the
¦subject. Let me beseech you then as a friend (if you .will
allow me to call you such) to withdraw the notice
which you have put on the Paper on this subject; and
take my word for it (which I hope is worth something
in the House of Commons arid out of it) that you;will
get no credit by your motion, and find every man. in
England, who knows anything about the' matter,.

212 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
against you and surprised that you should move in
the raatter; and pray
Believe me.
My Dear Mr. Rylands,
Yours most sincerely,
David Robertson.

No. CXXIX.
Mr. DAVID ROBERTSON, M.P.
56, Upper Brook Street,
July 20, 1872.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I have the pleasure of receiving your most friendly
letter in reply to mine, and beg to thank you for it.
I am better, thank you, but shall have to go home
on Monday next to Scotland, being quite unfit any
longer for the late hours of the House of Comraons,
which are enough to kill us all ; and have paired off"
with Lord Mahon for the rest ofthe Session.
However rauch I admire your disposition to cut
down unnecessary expenses, had you gone on with
your motion about the Argentine Legation I should
most assuredly have spoken in favour of its continu
ance, — indeed, the absolute necessity of its being
' continued, as you can have no conception of the good

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 213
it has done and will continue to do. Indeed, I do not
know any part ofthe world where a first-class Legation
is so much needed.
The Buenos Ayreans and Argentines are an excellent
people and very much attached to England, but like
all descendants of the original Spanish race they are
a very proud people and easily offended. Quite
unconnected with British interests, the continuance
of the British Legation, as it is, is necessary, and it
would offend the Argentines immensely if it were
diminished. In conclusion, I venture to express a hope that as
the time draws near and you obtain further informa
tion, you raay think proper to withdraw your motion
altogether. I hope that we shall meet another year in the House
of Coraraons and for many years to corae, and as we
have hitherto been, that we shall always be found in
the same lobby. If ever you corae to Scotland I shall
be charmed to see you at ray house, Ladykirk,
Berwickshire, on the banks of the Tweed, and pray
Believe rae,
My dear Mr. Rylands,
Yours most sincerely,
David Robertson.

214 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CXXX.
Mr. T. B. potter, M.P.
Pitnacree, Ballinling, Perthshire, Dec. 9, 1872.
My Dear Rylands, —
I have been thinking over the Land Question, and I
want to suggest to j'Ou that you shoidd make the question
your own, W. Fowler is a lawyer and will do his part
well, but it is not the broad question of justice to
the people on the land question, as you would take
it up against Massey Lopes, and bringing forward a
substantial programme involving the whole question of
the burthen of taxation, now very unfairly distributed.
The Game Laws, Hypothec, and Leases are fleabites
in coraparison with the grand effort to bring rogues to
justice and raake them pay their share of taxes which
they have avoided by humbugging the people for 200 years.
\i you take up this great question it will bear you on
to high power and to eminence such as Cobden and
Bright have attained, and you have all their power
and industry. The economical measures lead to no
great success in political life, nor even " Foreign
Affairs," but the Land question looms larger than all.
You must take it up. Any little thing I can do, or the
Cobden Club can do, will be worked for you, though
you and I can go beyond the Cobden Club. Shall
the nation be free, or are we to go on as slaveys to the

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 215
upper 10,000 ; the plutocracy worse than the aristo
cracy ; the upper 10,000, who want education more
than the dregs, and yet are our rulers.
A son of a noble earl, who fought for us best in the
Corn Law days, asked Bright the other day, at Bass's,
" What were the Corn Laws ? I never heard of them."
This was Mr. M., brother of the present and son of
the late Lord D. This story would require modify
ing to bear repeating in public, but it is a fact and
would make a good story.
This land question will begin a long war, but we
must and shall win, and then how proud you would
be ! And how your efforts would be appreciated if
you succeeded in doing what Cobden said would be
such a triumph — obtaining free trade in land I Free
trade in Church Miall takes up ; Peter Rylands raust
have " free trade in land," and becorae our leader on
the question. Gladstone will, I think, give us the
Intestacy Bill ; but it is only a starting point, though
the keystone, of priraogeniture. The tug of war comes
in the tax question. We shall have to get a real
popular House of Commons to carry this, not a land
lords' parliaraent, which this is, and in which real land
reforra is hopeless. Yours,
T. B. Potter.

2i6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CXXXI.
Mr. R. M. carter, M.P. (Leeds).
Leeds,
Jan. 9, 1873.
Dear Mr. Rylands,—
Our friends at Leeds have got tired out with the
lukewarraness of the Whigs, and have deterrained to
forra a Radical Reforra Association. They wish to
inaugurate their new Society by a Public Meeting to
be held about the end of this month, in the Town
Hall, Leeds. We are inviting three members of
Parliament, Sir C Diike, A. Illingworth, and yourself
to corae to our meeting. Can you do us the honour
to corae and give us an hour's speech on the necessity
of increased activity in political matters, choosing
your own subject ? Oblige us if you can.
Yours truly, R, M. Carter.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 217
No. CXXXII.
Sir WILLIAM HARCOURT, M.P.
16, Stratford Place, W.,
Jan. 8, 1873.
My Dear Rylands,
As the time for the meeting of Parliament
approaches, you and I must deterraine what is to be
done in re Ayrton. We cannot, after what we have
done and said, be quiescent. We should be thought
to be sneaks if we did, and we must, therefore, give
Ayrton " a meeting " and let him have his shot.
If you are likely to be in town I should be glad to
talk the matter over with you. My irapression is that
you should raove and I should support. We ought to
make the motion such as not to involve the
Governraent as accomplices of Ayrton.
It will not do, I think, to take issue on the Rules
when presented. My notion is that we should move
a substantive resolution affirraing that " The conduct
of the First Commissioner in respect of the Park
Regulations has been such as to shake the authority
of the law," or soraething to that effect.
I shall be glad to know your views on the subject.
Yours very truly,
W. V. Harcourt.

21 8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CXXXIII.
Mr. WILLIAM TRANT.
Over Darwen,
Jan. i6, 1873.
Dear Sir, —
I ara afraid you will think I ara a great trouble to
you, but I write this letter at the Co-operative Hall,
Over Darwen. The people here are very anxious that
you should address thera, and as I have arranged
a raeeting here for Monday, the 27th inst., to advocate
the principles of the Financial Reforra Association,
I should feel it a very great favour if you would be
one of the speakers. We have also a raeeting at the
Town Hall, Blackburn, next Thursday, the 23rd, at
which I should also be glad if you would take a part.
I should not be so bold to ask you to do so rauch
hard work for us, were I not convinced that if our
principles are to gain ground rapidly, we must have a
meraber of Parliaraent as a charapion. You have
done so well in the past, that I dare to ask you to do
even raore in the future. All great societies are so
supported. The Alliance has Sir W. Lawson ; the
Liberation Society, Mr. Miall ; the Peace Society,
Mr. Richard ; the Birrainghara League, Mr. Dixon ;
and I ara convincedthat if we are to do well, we must
have you. Yours respectfully,
Wm. Trant.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 219
No. CXXXIV.
Mr. EDMOND BEALES.
Osborn House,
Bolton Gardens, S.W.,
Feb. 10, 1873.
Dear Sir,
After calling with Mrs. Pennington at your
residence on Friday, and not finding you at home, I
went down to the House in the evening, but,
unfortunately, not till just after the House had
risen. As, however, it seems Mr. Bruce is disposed to
withdraw the obnoxious Ayrton Rules, and substitute
others, it is to be hoped, more agreeable to common
sense and public rights, it is of less consequence for
me to atterapt to render you any assistance in your
proposed raotion on the subject. But I venture to
trouble you thus far.
You and Mr. Harcourt complain of Mr. Ayrton's
want of good faith in the House. I have sorae right
to complain of the same conduct to me out of the
House. When Mr. Ayrton introduced his Bill last
Spring, I wrote to him expressing my astonish
ment that, after Mr. Gathorne Hardy had been
obHged to withdraw, in 1S67, his Bill for the restriction
of the right or custora of public meeting in Hyde
Park, in consequence of the opposition of Mr. Mill
and others, supported by the members of the present

220 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Government then in opposition, these sarae persons
should, when in office as a Liberal Government,
volunteer a Bill which I understood to be intended to
be raore prohibitory of this great and raost useful con
stitutional right, the very safeguard of onr institutions,
than Mr. Hardy's BHl, which Mr. MHl had, in
consultation with me on the law of the question, so
successfully opposed with the aid of the raembers of
present Governraent.
Mr. Ayrton wrote in reply, assuring me that his
intentions were quite raisunderstood, that he intended
to " make rules for meetings in an appointed place in
each of the parks — North, East, South, and West —
so as to accommodate the people — Hyde Park,
Regent's Park, Victoria Park, and Battersea Park."
I instantly wrote to thank hira, stating that I
understood his intentions to be to carry out sub
stantially what I had proposed to both Mr. Walpole
and Mr. Hardy in 1866 and 1867, namely, that a
convenient spot should be selected in Hyde Park
for public meetings, so as not in the least to interfere
with the ordinary enjoyment of the park by others.
How far Mr. Ayrton's rules are in accordance with
this letter to me, or for the accomraodation of the
people, especially as those rules have been inter
preted by raagistrates and judges, I leave you to
determine. I utterly dispute the doctrines laid down in the
Queen's Bench with regard to the rights of the Crown
over the park, or that those rights are the same as
those of a private gentleman over his property. If

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 221
even they were, had any private owners allowed the
inhabitants of the district to use a portion of his pro
perty for the length of time that Hyde Park has been
used by the public of the metropolis, the inhabitants
of the district also maintaining this portion at their
own expense, he would be presumed in law to have
dedicated this land to the public use. The Crown
has no power whatever, as Mr. Justice Blackburn
intimated, to enclose the park. So long ago as the
discussion in 1867 Lord Romilly stated in the Lords
that, from investigations he had officially been called
upon to make with regard to the Exhibition of 1851,
he had ascertained there were iraraeraorial rights of
way over the park that no claira of the Crown could
override. In the Act, at the commencement now of every reign,
the sovereign for the time being surrenders and trans
fers his or her life interest in the Crown lands in
exchange for the Civil List. By express Acts Hyde
Park can neither be alienated nor leased ; it is, in fact,
national property. It is very doubtful whether the
Crown has had any legal estate in Hyde Park since
the days of the Coraraonwealth. It was then sold and
conveyed in three lots to three purchasers, and there
was, I believe, no reconveyance executed at the time
of the Restoration, nor has been at any time
since. I am obliged to throw these views together in haste
for your consideration, in case you should think thera
of any use, supposing you to find it necessary to con
tinue your raotion conderanatory of the Ayrton Rules,

222 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
through Mr. Bruce's proposed substitution not being
satisfactory. Believe me.
Very truly yours,
Edmond Beai.es.

No. CXXXV.
Count D'ALBECA.
CivH and Military Club, W.,
May 5, 1873.
Dear Sir, —
I am extremely obliged to you for the kind sending
of your speech on the " Right of Parliamentary
Control over Foreign Treaties." Really and truly I
never saw this question more clearly and in a more
sensible way discussed as it is in your " discours."
We Continental people take generally your Parlia
mentary institutions as models in our propaganda of
Liberal and progressive raeasures ; and for myself I
confess that raany times I have been at a loss for a
precedent in this matter. It is a serious lacune in the
English Parliamentary rights. If you succeed in
obtaining a serious right of control and discussion of
those treaties beforehand, I am sure you will save

LII-E AND CORRESPONDENCE. 223
many blunders to your country, and treaties will
become something raore than an empty scribble.
Yours very truly, L. D'Albeca.

No. CXXXVI.
Mr. THOMAS MOONEY.
(Secretary Irish Home Rule Association).
Grafton Hall, Soho,
May 26, 1873.
Sir, —
I have the honour to acquaint you that a Special
Resolution of the thanks of the Irish Home Rule
Association was passed to the English Merabers of
Parliament who voted on Thursday night. May 15th,
against the Irish Coercion Bill. Knowing you to be
among the foremost of the friends of Ireland in
Parliament, it gives me great pleasure to be the
medium of communicating to you the grateful thanks
of my countryraen for your honest opposition to the
most tyrannical laws that ever emanated from the
Parliament of England.
I have the honour to be. Sir, with very great
respect. Your very obedient servant,
Thomas Mooney, Secretary.

224 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CXXXVII.
Mr. WILLIAM TRANT.
Financial Reform Association,
Lord St., Liverpool,
July 28, 1873.
My Dear Sir, —
No one can have watched your praiseworthy
activity in the House of Commons without fearing
that your energy is beyond your strength. I ara not,
therefore, surprised, though I am very sorry that you
feel physically worse for the good work you have done.
I do mo^t sincerely hope that as soon as you can you
will take a complete and perfect rest and get strong
again as soon as you can, for no one (unless it is
yourself) knows better than we do how rauch hard
work there is for you yet to do, and how capable you
are of doing it. Perhaps just now you feel worse than
you really are, on the principle that you should never
ask a man what and how much he will have to
luncheon when he has just had his breakfast. At
any rate, I hope such is the case, and that August,
September, and a portion of October will make you
yourself again, in order that you raay do something
for us in October and November. I am sure I need
not ask you to say that you will give us the first
chance, if you get strong, as I repeat I hope you will.
You have no idea how earnest I feel just now, because
I think we raay win a large portion of our progrararae
if we fight hard this winter. To do this it is essential

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 225
that we should have as many members of Parliament
speaking for us as possible, and I hope to be
successful on this head. When, therefore, I have
given you ample time to get well, I shall write to you
again, a.s your active countenance, above all others, is
very important.
I have written to Mr. Colman and to Mr. Howard
with regard to our holding raeetings at Norwich and
Bedford, but they have not yet replied. I hope,
however, they will not give us the cold shoulder.
Should you happen to be chatting with either or
both of them, will you kindly (without saying you
have heard from me) say something to make thera do
soraething for us at our meetings. I also intend to
try Mr. Dillwyn and Mr. Hoskyns.
I shall be glad if you will get me Mr. Wells' First
Report, but do not by any raeans put yourself out of
the way about it. I am, dear sir.
Yours very truly, W.\i. Trant.

226 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CXXXVIII.
Mr. F. PENNINGTON. Broom Hall,
Holmwood, Oct. 22, 1873.
My Dear Rylands, —
I have been waiting, before answering your letter of
the i6th inst., to decide about accepting the invitation
of the Stockport Liberals ; but before doing so I have
to see the Liberals of Christchurch, where I am
expecting to go immediately.
I was at Stockport three days last week staying
with McClure, and met at dinner about sixteen of
the raost influential Liberals. I also went about the
town and was introduced to a few of the hardworking
men in elections, and otherwise gathered as much
information as I could to guide me in coming to a
decision. I ara, to meet Sir E. Watkin after my
return frora Christchurch, when we shall decide upon
our course. I ara certainly inclined to go in for
Stockport, and think it raay be won if properly
managed. I was glad to see by your letter that you
disapproved of the women interfering at Taunton,
and that you wrote to the Comraittee to say so. I
quite agree with you, it was irapolitic for raany
reasons, and will not aid the cause of Woraan
Franchise. I enclose a letter frora Hopwood,

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 227
which will inform you who is responsible for the
interference. Yours truly,
Fred Pennington.

No. CXXXIX.
Mr. JAMES WHITE, M.P. (Brighton).
14, Chichester Terrace, Brighton, Oct. 9, 1873.
My Dear Rylands, —
Having had so many letters frora brother Members,
generally approving of my letter replying to the
enquiry " What shoulli the Ministry do ? " a copy of
which I sent to you, I confess that I was rather
surprised not to get a line frora you thereanent. I
may tell you that that letter was but an amplification
of one addressed to our friend John Bright, on the
8th August last, the day I first learned that he had
consented to rejoin the Gladstone Cabinet.
After Disraeli's epistle (worthy of the worst
scurrilous era of Toryism) it is indeed glad tidings to
learn that Hayter won at Bath. Such a success —
coincident with John Bright's assuming office, is very

228 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
encouraging, and I trust indicative of Henry James's
return for Taunton. If so, we shall all be in good
heart again. I remain. Yours truly,
James White.

No. CXL.
Mr. JAMES WHITE, M.P.
14, Chichester Terrace,
Brighton, Oct. 14, 1873.
My Dear Rylands, —
I received yours of the nth instant yesterday, but
did not then reply as I wished to know whether my
anticipation of the Solicitor General's success was
correct or not. I need not tell you how rejoiced I
am at the result of the Taunton Election. Our recent
successes simultaneously, or rather coincidently, with
Bright's assumption of office and Dizzy's letter are
indeed encouraging.
Your remarks as to Legacy and Probate Duties are
quite right, and I wish I had urged their imposition
on the Land Owners, seeing that the Government

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 229
had consented to relieve them of Local Burdens to
the extent of ;£"!, 200,000. Very truly yours, James White.

No. CXLI.
Sir henry JAMES, M.P. (Taunton).
23, Wilton Place, .
Oct. 15, 1873.
My Dear Rylands, —
A thousand thanks. I am dreadfully sorry to leave
my old place and friends.
I have had a hard fight. Those women were like
tigresses. I am delighted to hear that you have
objected to their proceedings. Any man who wishes
well for the progress of our. country will soon find
Women's Suffrage a mistake. Yours very truly, Henry James.

230 'LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CXLIL
Mr. T. B. POTTER, M.P.
Pitnacree,
Ballinling, Jan. 12, 1874.
My Dear Rylands, —
I am grateful to you for your speech — true, manly,
unanswerable. However life is precious in the eyes of
song, but children are slaughtered wholesale by
Typhus, Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, etc., owing to
wretched cottages and neglect of sanitary arrange
ments. Read the enclosed from the Scotsman of the
loth, it is only from their correspondent, I hope there
may be truth in in. I have written to Stansfield
about this district. Strath Tay, where scores of lives
are lost annually through wilful and perverse and
wicked Landlordism, which is the curse of this
country. " Greed, Tyranny, and Lust " are the attributes of
the landlords here about, yet they are all powerful.
Yours sincerely,
T. B. Potter.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 231
No. CXLIII.
Mr. JACOB BRIGHT. Alderley Edge,
Feb. 3, 1874.
My Dear Rylands, —
I was surprised and indignant to hear of your defeat
this morning. I had thought better of Warrington.
The result of your election makes me anticipate a
worse general result than I did before. I feel sure you
will not be long without a constituency.
With deep regret.
Very truly yours,
Jacob Bright.

No. CXLIV.
Mr. JAMES WHITE.
14, Chichester Terrace,
Brighton, Feb. 15, 1874.
My Dear Rylands, —
By the Observer I see that Gladstone intends to make
a few peers and baronets before resigning. If Mrs.
Rylands would have pleasure in calling you " Sir

232 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Peter" I do think you ought to be one of the new
baronets. You have certainly earned that distinction
by your plucky attempt to win a county after losing
a borough seat so recently.
I raay i^Ciyou that the Tories here did not wish ta
unseat rae, and up to the last would have withdrawn
their second candidate if Fawcett would have retired,
but he would not. Fawcett well knew he could not
be returned for Brighton raonths back, but persisted
in his candidature and contrived to coerce me into a
coalition with him, hoping that there was a chance of
his riding in on my back as he did in 1868, which this
time was fatal to both.
Fawcett has announced that he will never again
contest Brighton, so now the Liberals are a united
party, and on the next occasion of an election Brighton
will prove that it is a truly Liberal Borough.
Sorae 430 publicans and beershop keepers, besides
their respective followers and allies, voted Tory ; also.
nearly all the Roraanists, Ritualists, flyraen, chairraen,
fisherraen, parsons, chiraney-sweeps, illiterates, and
residuura. Now, knowing this, I ara surprised that
we did so weH, seeing that the total expenses for both
the Liberals will not exceed £"500, against an expendi
ture quite twelve times as much on the Tory side.
With all good wishes,
I remain, yours truly,
James White.
P.S. — Are we not a noble army of martyrs ?

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 233
No. CXLV.
Mr. JAMES WHITE.
14, Chichester Terrace,
Brighton, Feb. 18, 1874.
My Dear Rylands, —
I have to thank you for your two letters ofthe 15th
and 17th inst., which much interested me. About my
late colleague, you and I are of the same opinion.
I do not know, bttt hope we shall soon meet again in
the House. I have a strong conviction that we shall
soon see a vapid reaction Liberal- wards. That is not
the opinion of Mr. Bright, judging from a nice, long,
and very kind letter I have had from hira.
I raust conclude this with a characteristic extract
from John Bright's letter : —
" This Parliaraent should be termed in history the
' Publicans' Parliament.' Enormous lying for three
years past or more has done much to change the result
of the elections, and State ministers ofthe Gospel have
gone up to the poll arra-in-arra with the dealers in
delirium-tremens ! "
In my reply I have suggested that this Parliament
had better be called the Bung Parliament, and added
that our defeat was mainly attributable to the publicans
and republicans.
I trust you will benefit in health by your enforced
rest, and with all good wishes,
I remain, yours truly,
James White.

234 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CXLVI.
Sir WILLIAM HARCOURT, M P.
14, Stratford Place,
Oxford Street, W.,
Feb. 15, 1874.
Dear Rylands, —
I must write a line to tell you how sincerely sorry I
ara that you have not succeeded in your two gallant
fights. Our benches will be sadlj' desolate, but we
must console ourselves with the recollection of the
days that are no raore. We had many jolly evenings
together and, I hope, raay yet again in better times.
I have long seen this smash coming. There has
been a great deal too much want of common sense in
the conduct of the party. We must learn not to bark
when we can't bite. Yours very truly,
W. V. Harcourt.

LIPE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 235

No. CXLVII.
Mr. C E. macqueen.
Financial Reform Association,
Lord Street, Liverpool, Feb. 23, 1874.
My Dear Sir, —
So the beer bibbing noodles of Warrington have
chosen the brewer again in preference to yourself.
There is no accounting for tastes, as was said of the
old woraan who kissed her pig, and the taste displayed
by the Warringtonians is very rauch of that descrip
tion. I don't condole with you personally half so rauch
as with our cause, on the loss of so zealous and
efficient a friend in Parliaraent.
Earnestly hoping and nothing doubting that sorae
constituency will have the sense and patriotisra to
send you there again ere long.
I ara, ray dear Sir,
Yours truly,
C E. Macqueen.

236 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CXLVIII.
Mr. JOHN HOLMS, M.P. (Hackney.)
i6, Cornwall Gardens,
Queen's Gate, W.,
March 2, 1874.
My Dear Rylands,^
I have yours of Saturday, and ara pleased to think
that your old courage does not forsake you ; and that
you are now prepared to corae back to Parliaraent,
where I am sure you will be welcome to many old
friends. As to Hackney, I naturally avoid saying or
doing anything about a successor to Sir C Reed, as
it inight be taken for dictation on my part. I have
no doubt you would be a most eligible candidate,
once you were known araongst thera. The cost is not
so rauch once one is known, but it is the process of
raaking oneself known that is costly ; it requires
meetings, circulars^ bills, etc., to an enormous extent
with a Borough of 41,000 electors, and I think with
great personal work and good management, might be
done at ;^2,ooo to ;^3,ooo, all dependent too upon the
length of the contest. I shall be glad to hear from
you if you think you would like your narae spoken of.
Yours very faithfully,
John Holms.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 237
No. CXLIX.
SIR WILFRID LAWSON, M.P.
I, Grosvenor Crescent, S.W.,
Feb. 26, 1875.
Dear Mr. RYUANDSr-^""
Thank you for sending rae the newspaper with the
account of your Alliance Meeting at Warrington.
It seeras to have been a good meeting, and I have
read your speech with great interest. But what on
earth did you mean by saying that you did not go so
far as I go, and then saying that the ratepayers have
a right to say how many public houses there shall be
in a locality ?
Why ! I only propose to give them power to say
one thing: — drink shops- or no drink shops 1 If they
prefer drink shops, I leave the number to be decided
by the Magistrates exactly as at present, or with any
araendraent of the licensing systera as raay be passed.
But you go for the very great change of allowing the
ratepayers to select the fanciful number which they
may desire. I'm not blaraing your Bill, and shall
probably support it when you bring it in. Only, at
present, I'm not quite such an extreme raan as you are
on this question.
I wish you were back in the House. They are an
awfully dull lot, and have very few political ideas
araong them. The Home Rulers are taking to
making orations, but as nobody takes much trouble

238 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
to reply to them, I hope they wHl drop the practice
by and bye. Yours very truly,
W. Lawson.

No. CL.
SIR WILFRID LAWSON, M.P-
House of Commons,March 3, 1875.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Thanks to you for answering my little note. As to
Permissive Bill, all I want is for people to support the
principle of the Bill on 2nd reading — viz., that
irresponsible authorities ought not to be allowed to
overrule the wishes of the inhabitants.
When in Committee, I shall be delighted for you
clever fellows to devise better plans than mine for
carrying out the principle. I must have you back to
help me. It will take all we can do to beat these
members who have been rolled into the House on
Beer Barrels. Yours very truly,
W. Lawson.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 239
No. CLI.
PHILIP CALLAN, M.P. (Dundalk.)
39, North Great George St.,
Dublin, Feb. I, 1876.
My Dear Rylands, —
Yours of yesterday from Warrington, of which I'm
sorry you are not the M.P., re-directed frora Cook-
town here, where I have been residing for the past
year, only to hand to-night.
Whilst busily engaged in ray own elections, Jan.
1874, I had a "wire" frora poor Richard Shaw to
interfere in his behalf with the Horae Rulers of
Burnley. I " wired " then that in the absence of an
avowed Horae Ruler, Shaw deserved well at our hands,
and should be supported by the Irish vote. And soon
after I was glad to hear frora hira that the Irish vote
had been given to hira in his need. Whatever I felt
and said about Shaw I feel still more strongly about
you, and will be glad to aid you in any way in ray
power, but I don't know any ofthe Horae Rulers now
in Burnley. The local association is not, so far as I
can ascertain, in active existence, and therefore I really
don't know how or in what way to raove.
In Jan., 1874, I was actively engaged in organising
the Irish vote in England, and in the early part of
that raonth was so engaged in Manchester, Liverpool,
Bolton, Bradford, Sheffield, etc., so then was "well
up '' on the raatter ; am not so now. Let me know

240 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
the parties to whom you wish me to write and I'll
do so.
Mr. John Barry, of Manchester, whose address you
can easily ascertain, is the Hon. Sec. of the Horae
Rule Confederation of Great Britain. He is an able
raan, thoroughly honest and dependable, you may
rely implicitly on his word. I'll write him to-morrow.
Communicate with him, and if you think well you
are fully at liberty to show him this letter.
Soon after receiving your letter to-night, I went up
to see Mr. Butt. He was hard at work preparing for
to-morrow "to open'' the great Devonshire fishery
case. He requested rae to say that he'll write you
to-morrow as soon as he delivers himself on the above
most important case, and in the meantirae authorises
me to tell you that he fully agtees with me as to the
desirability of your return, and in wishing you every
success, and the aid of the Irish vote. You raay rely
on having, by Friday, if not earlier, a warm letter
from him. Mr. Butt purposes crossing over to
London on Monday night. I'll probably be in Man
chester on Sunday evening.
Wishing you every success.
Believe me to reraain. Yours faithfully,
Philip Callan.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 241

No. CLII.
Mr. T. B. potter, M.P.
Buile HiH,
Feb. 5, 1876.
My Dear Rylands, —
. Enclosed will show you how earnest Gladstone is ;
the letter is, of course, private, but why should you in
your speeches not say that you know Gladstone will come
back to lead us when we are worthy of him and his lead ;
or soraething to that effect. He did not disapprove
of our National Reforra Union progrararae, and is
dead against stagnation.
, Surely, Trevelyan is not abandoning his annual
motion : see to-day's Guardian report of R. N. Philips's
speech, if so, sorae one else must take it up. Query,
P. Rylands ? Ever yours,
T. 13. Potter.

242 LJFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CLIII.
SIR WILFRID LAWSON, M.P.
I, Grosvenor Crescent, S.W.,
Feb. IO, 1876.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I must just drop you a line to saj' how anxiously I
ara hoping for your success at Burnley. Not only
are the eyes of England upon you, but the eyes of
Lawson — think of that ! I do hope that we shall find
Burnley better than Blackburn was, but I can't help
being a little anxious still, for the epoch of high wages
and heavy drinking has sunk the people of this country
lower than many of us understand. However, I hope
for the best.
The House seems to be awfully flat. Even Dizzy's
Egyptian conjuring seems to excite them but little.
You raust corae back and stir thera up about Badaihhan,
which is coraraonly supposed to be a town soraewhere
in Lancashire.
With heartiest wishes for a great triuraph,
I am, yours very truly,
W. Lawson.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 243
No. CLIV.
Mr. ISAAC BUTT, M.P. (Limerick.)
House of Commons, Feb. II, 1876.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I regret greatly that owing to my not coming over
for the opening day your letter ofthe 7th only reached
me to-day, having been sent to my address of last
year. I think, however, I have done all I could before
it reached me.
I have this evening given notice of a motion for a
select comraittee to enquire into the nature, extent,
and grounds of the demand raade by a large propor
tion of the Irish people for the restoration to Ireland
of an Irish Parliament, with power to ordain Irish
aff'airs. If you are able to say you will vote for this
I think J'OU will receive the support of the Irish
electors. I do not wish publicly to interfere in any
English election, but ifyou have occasion to see either
Captain Norraan or the Secretary of the Home Rule
Confederation you raay show him this letter and say
that I would write to both of them, but that I have
been detained in the House until just post time.
Wishing you every success, I remain. Yours very truly,
Isaac Butt.

244 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CLV.
Mr. T. B. potter, M.P.
105, PaH MaH, S.W.,
Feb. 15, 1876.
My Dear Rylands,—
I wHl roost gladly attend to your wishes, and shall
be proud to be one to introduce you. I v;ill speak to
Bright, and he will, I am sure, rejoice to be the other.
I will see to the certificate ; you get it in one of the
rooras adjoining the lobby.
We were all ready to cheer you like mad if you had
come up. I do hope Jacob will be with you on
Monday, though it would be almost too rauch for
Tory nerves to hear the cheers from below the gang
way opposite them.
I do so much want you. A little stern Radicalism
wiirbe a Godsend to the House. Mr. Gladstone told
me yesterdaj- — "You Lancashire Radicals are an
excellent lot ; the only fault is there are so few of
you." Gladstone was in capital forra last night, and
full of fighting power.
I rejoice with you anS Mrs. Rylands at your success.
J. P. C Starkie, M.P., told me last evening — "Peter
Rylands has a seat at Burnley for life."
Ever yours sincerely,
T. B. Potter.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 245

No. CLVI.
Me. ISAAC BUTT, M.P.
London, Feb. 17th, 1876.
My Dear Rylands, —
I need not tell you how glad I was to get your
telegram. I had written as strongly as I could to the
chiefs of the English Confederation, but not having
got their replies I was a little uneasy. Everything
they could do for j'ou was done, and I believe you
have the whole Irish vote.
I hope and believe that the sarae result will follow
in Manchester, but Bright was very obstinate in
refusing to say he would vote for ray motion. I got
to Manchester just in time to prevent an appeal to
the Irish not to vote for him. Powell, in the end,
anticipated him in his declaration, but I am confident
almost all the Home Rulers will vote for Bright.
Up to the very last, your opponents reckoned con
fidently on the Irish vote. Their disappointraent
accounts for their rage. Yours very faithfully, Isaac Butt.

246 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CLVU.
Mr. HENRY LABOUCHERE.
44, Curzon Street,
March 4, 1876.
Dear Rylands, —
I do not know Lange personaHy. With regard to
Egypt, it seeras to me that although both were foohsh,
public opinion goes for the purchase of the Canal
shares, but is doubtful about Cave's mission. Cave's
report is favourable, but since making it he has reason
to doubt whether it was not raade upon insufficient
data. Cave one night told Barrett, the private secre
tary of the Khedive, what his report was.
Please do not raention to anyone the above facts.
The object of the Renter telegraras is to force the
English Governraent to publish Cave's report, for
they are inclined to regard it as a private document,
not being certain whether it can be depended on. I
know what takes place through a person with
Cave, but, of course, I am pledged to absolute
secrecy. As a party move, would it not be well to ask
whether H.M. Governraent has authorised Mr. Cave
to give a resume of his report to newspaper corre
spondents before it has been coraraunicated to
Parliament ? I think that this would be a teaser.
Another teaser would be — " Is there any truth in a
Renter telegram of Saturday that it becarae irapossible
for the English Governraent to guarantee the interest

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 247
on the entire debt of Egypt, owing to the opposition
of foreign Governments ? " Yours truly,
H. Labouchere.

No. CLVIII.
Mr. henry LABOUCHERE.
44, Curzon Street Tuesday,
March 29, 1876.
Dear Rylands, —
If you really want to qualify yourself to talk on
Egypt, here are a few questions to ask Dizzy.
The key of the position is this : The Khedive is a
thief, and is and has been a partner with a gang of
usurers to rob Egypt. The gang hold a vast amount
of Treasury bills. The chief of the gang is one
Soubepan, a natural son of Fould, and the real head
of the Societe Financifere, the Societe Agricole, and
the Anglo-Egyptian Bank (the latter is Anglo only
in name). The credit establishments hold above
£"10,000,000 of Treasury bills. Naturally they want
to get out of them. They will therefore forra a syndi
cate and themselves subscribe to a new loan, the
equivalent of what they hold in Treasury bills. The

248 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
loan wiH thus norainally be subscribed for, the
quotation wiH be obtained, and by the usual trickery
the bonds will, little by little, be shunted on the
public. But even if the public do not take any, the holders
of Treasury biHs will benefit by the raove, for special
hypothecations will be given to them, and from
unsecured creditors they will become secured credi
tors. Thus, when the general liquidation takes place
they will get as much in the pound as the present
secured creditors, i.e,, the interest on their loan and
on former loans will be equally reduced.
There is no doubt that Pastre is telling every one
what Cave's report is to be in order to get up his
syndicate before that report is published. If Cave
really told hira, which is irapossible, it is a gross.
violation of truth. But as, clearly. Cave cannot have
advised Pastre's plan, which is a palpable swindle,
the Khedive is not acting under Cave's advice ; and
as Stafford Northcote said that Cave was a sort of
John the Baptist to find out whether the Khedive
would act under English advice — for H.M. Govern
raent, without being sure of this, would not send out
accountants — it seeras to rae clear, that the question
being answered in the negative by the acts of the
Khedive, according to StaffordNorthcote, accountants
should not be sent out. Then why is Rivers Wilson
sent ? Yours truly,
H. Labouchere.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 249
No. CLIX.
Mr. HENRY LABOUCHERE.
Pope's Villa,
Twickenham, May 9, 1876.
Dear Rylands, —
The House of Coraraons never seems to have got
hold of the real connection between the Egyptian
Governraent and our Government, nor does the
question of Sir G. Campbell, notice of which I see in
to-daj''s paper, help to elucidate it.
In England, there are bondholders, in Paris there
are Treasury bill holders. All negotiation has been
carried on by the latter, and very naturally the former
are sacrificed.
Cave said, if certain accounts are correct, Egypt
can pay 7 per cent, on about 77 millions. But the
•existence of the floating debt showed that the
accounts which proved a yearly surplus were not
correct ; the hypothesis, therefore, on which Cave
proceeded was overturned by Cave himself. It is
consequently absurd to assert that the reorganisation
of Egyptian Finance, as decreed, is in accordance
with the report of Cave.
But there is no question that the fellahs are
grossly ill-treated. Practically everything is taken
from them except enough to keep body and soul
together. Lately they have had to sell their cattle
to pay taxes and forced loans.

250 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
If England, therefore, aHows Rivers Wilson to be a
Commissioner to receive taxes for European creditors
which are collected by Egyption task-masters, we
encourage investment in Egyptian securities on the
plea that they will return 7 per cent., which is
impossible, and we encourage the system of
oppression which is called in Egypt Government.
Could you not supplement Sir G. Campbell's
question by the following ? Whether the decrees
issued by the Khedive for the re-arrangement of his
debts, which place secured creditors in a worse
position than unsecured creditors, and which
promise a yearly payment of interest considerably
in excess of that which, in the opinion of Mr. Cave,
Egypt under the most favourable circumstances can
pay, have received the approval of Mr. Rivers Wilson,
as stated in several telegrams which have been
published in the newspapers, and whether H.M.
Government will assent to the appointment of an
English Commissioner to superintend the payment of
interest to Egyptian creditors without some
guarantees that the revenue raised in order to meet
this interest be proportioned to the means of the
fellahs, and be no longer obtained by torture.
Yours truly,
H. Labouchere.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 251
No. CLX.
Mr. henry LABOUCHERE.
Pope's Villa, Twickenham, Aug. 3, 1876.
Dear Rylands, —
I am sick of the Khedive, he is such a scoundrel.
The man has raade a treaty with Abyssinia by which
he pays to the latter country a heavy war indemnity.
This he has, to a great extent, concealed from Europe,
and I should be curious to know whether the Foreign
Office have heard of it.
Vivian, who has just been raade Consul General, is
personally a good fellow, but a London dandy. On
being sent there before as acting Consul General, he
rode the Khedive's horses at a race, arrayed as a
jockey. Is it likely that the Foreign Office will receive
rauch useful inforraation frora hira except what the
Khedive chooses to knock into his head ?
You would put Stafford Northcote in a considerable
hole (but don't say I told you) ifyou were to ask hira
whether he lias reason to question the truth of the
statements made by the Khedive to Cave, and whether
he has since these statements seen Nuba Pacha, and
elicited his views respecting them. Yours truly,
H. Labouchere.

252 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CLXI.
Mr. G. T. WALTERS. Byerden Terrace, Burnley,
Sept. 10, 1876.
Dear Sir, —
I have read with interest the report in the Burnley
Gazette (gth inst.) of your speech on " Wesleyanism,"
delivered at Leyland last Wednesday.
But there is a passage at the close, to which you
will, perhaps, perrait me to draw your attention. It
reads as follows: — "Let us always bear in raind
when we see these struggles and controversies that
Christianity, which is at the present moment the only
religion held by enlightened men, is destined to be
hereafter the religion of the world." I should be glad
to know if the report is correct, for I cannot other
wise believe that you really gave utterance to the
words. Would you not allow that there are
enlightened raen who hold the Hindoo faith ? Among
the Brahmans and the Buddhists there are men of
great intellect. And you must surely be aware of
the fact that foreign missionaries have found that
Christianity, as a code of doctrines, can make but
little progress abroad. Dr. Rowland Williams told
his fellow-Christians that they would never convert
the Hindoos to the Trinity, or to our form of
Christianity, any raore than they could grow our
flowers in their soil or climate ; they could only

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 253
Christianise thera by showing that our religion is a
higher development of what their religion teaches —
justice and self-denial.
At the present day in Japan, the people having
rejected their former faith, decline to accept Christi
anity because, as they say, they might as well have
kept their own. Indeed, the popular Christian creed
is totally inadequate to fulfil the raission of a universal
faith. I ara. Respectfully yours,
George Thos. Walters.

No. CLXII.
Mr. HUGH MASON. Groby Hall,
Feb. 20, 1877.
Dear Rylands, —
Surely they are not going to bring in the Prisons'
Bill without giving the country time to express an
opinion. I think it would be a most improper
proceeding. Those who have devoted so much of
their time to manage the prisons ought not to be
ignored. Take our great Salford Hundred Prison.
We do the work and we find the raoney to a very large

254 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
extent. The Government Prisons, as you so ably
stated, are altogether inferior. We shall be dragged
down to their bad level.
WHl men like me and others continue to give our
time when we are to be only treated like servants ?
You have a capital subject, and you have sorae able
coadjutors, and I hope you will go forward doing your
duty so nobly. Ever yours sincerely,
Hugh Mason.

No. CLXIIL
Rt. Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P.
73, Harley Street,
March 25, 1877.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Accept ray best thanks for your note. If you raise
the question of Sir H. Elliot's return on Tuesday, I
intend to say a very few words, from which I would
endeavour to exclude all venom. But I think it due
frora rae to those who are responsible for the pro
ceedings and fortunes of the party to express my
reluctance to advise without knowing what their
wishes may be. I do not see any disadvantage in a
temperate discussion, but after the events of Friday

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 255-
(in which the Government ended, it seems, with a
miserable fiasco) I should be sorry if anything were
done which they might think inconvenient.
It pleases me much that you and I are heartily
united in this great matter, and I remain.
Faithfully yours,
W. E. Gladstone.

No. CLXIV.
Mr. W. T. stead.
The Editor,
Northern Echo,
Darlington, April 4, 1877.
Dear Sir, —
I am rauch obliged to you for your kindness
in sending rae the full report of your scathing
indictment of Sir Henry Elliot's conduct at Constan
tinople. There was no atterapt made to answer it,
either that night or in the last day before the Easter
recess. " Vile and calumnious " are siraply mud
balls, which are a poor weapon of controversy. I
express the feelings of multitudes when I say that we
are grateful to you for speaking out when speaking
out was greatly needed. Mealy-raouthedness has

256 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
become such a virtue of late that to caH a spade a
spade will be denounced before long as the vilest
calumny. With regard to the future, we must, it appears to
me, at any cost win over the peace party, whose
natural, but most unfortunate persistency in depre
cating measures of coercion prevents the striking of
the grandest stroke for peace that has ever been
offered to mankind. The stupendous folly of hesitat
ing to take the decisive step, which would realise the
ideal of the poet, the visions of the seer, by establishing
really, and not in name, the United States of Europe,
with a supreme tribunal, that in ten years would
inake war irapossible, fills rae with more sorrow and
indignation than even the Turkish leanings of the
Ministry. In the Echo sent herewith you will find an
article developing this. I shall be glad to hear from
you as to the best course to be pursued.
I am, yours truly,
William T. Stead.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 257
No. CLXV.
Mr. JAMES HOWARD.
Clapham Park,
Bedfordshire, April 16, 1877.
My Dear Rylands, —
I have seen your letter upon the Duke of Argyll's
pamphlet ; our views entirely coincide. I wrote to
Potter to say it was a Paper raore fit for The Quarterly
Review that the Cobden Club Papers. Upon tlje
Land Question and on sorae others ray experience is
that the old Whigs are more Tory than the Tories
theraselves, and far raore dangerous, because with a
great show of reasoning, fallacious as it is, they appeal
to economic principles, forgetting that they as Land
owners are in the enjoyment of a monopoly, and have
the advantage of exceptional laws (the law of distraint
and hypothec for instance) made by themselves.
The Duke deals with my arguments very unfairly
in the first place by misstating them. In another
place he disposes of me by saying that ray language
upon the principle of compensation is often ambiguous.
Well, I think after a raan had brought in a Bill
dealing with all the details of this very question, he
ought not to be open to such a charge, based upon
previous utterances, particularly as no ambiguous
expressions are adduced in support of the charge.
Read the few words bracketed in the enclosed. There
is no ambiguity here. I believe the argument was

-258 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
put before the Preraier as succinctly as it well could
be. Yours very truly,
James Howard.

No. CLXVI.
Mr. henry RICHARD, M.P.
22, Bolton Gardens,
S. Kensington, Dec. 12, 1877.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I enclose the letters you sent rae. I had been
engaged, as you are aware, for several years over the
preparation of Cobden's letters for the press, and had
spent a large amount of time and labour upon thera.
Sorae of thera raight have been in print long ago, but
for reasons I once explained to you and a deputation
frora the Cobden Club. But since Mrs. Cobden's
death the daughters have insisted upon taking the
whole thing out of ray hands into their own. I have
-offered, in the kindest way I could, to co-operate with
them, seeing that my work was already so far
advanced as to be nearly ready for the press. But
they will hear of nothing but the unconditional
.surrender of everything into their hands.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 259
I wished just to give you this explanation in
confidence, as I don't know what may be said on the
subject. Yours faithfully, Henry Richard.

No. CLXVII,
Mr. spencer T. HALL.
Burnley,
Dec. 18, 1877.
My Dear Sir, —
I have been wondering if you would have time or
care for glancing through the accompanying "part"
of one of my later works. If you should, the chapters
on J. S. Buckingham and the later Earl of Carlisle,
may recall sorae of your own experiences of " auld
lang syne," and it may interest you to know that
John Gratton, sketched in the last chapter, was
related on the maternal side to noble John Bright.
As Mr. Bright one day put it to me, John
Grafton's granddaughter was his (J. B.'s) great
grandmother. But this was not told me before the
chapter was published, which I regret.
Strange to think how obscure an old writer and
lecturer, whose name has been amongst the most

26o LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
popular of his day may live to become araongst those
who are themselves comparatively obscure. There
are very few of our townspeople here who know that
I ever wrote such a book at all ; while raany think
they pay rae a sort of compliment by acknowledging
me as the author of "Pendle hill and its surroundings,"
the most trivial thing I ever wrote, however true and
genial in its way.
I trust you are well after your last night's most
graphic and telling address ; and that you and all
you love raay thoroughly enjoy Christmas.
Yours, dear Sir, most truly,
Spencer T. Hall.

No. CLXVIII.
Mr. BENJAMIN CARVER.
7, Lower Mosley Street,
Manchester,
Feb. 21, 1878.
My Dear Sir, —
Although you would no doubt notice the fate of
the Gibraltar Ordinance when, at the beginning of
the session, in reply to Mr. Whitwell's question, Mr.
Lowther stated that H.M.'s Government had for
various reasons decided not to press the raeasure

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 261
further. I have been soraewhat troubled in mind
that I have not addressed a few lines to you to say
how deeply grateful the merchants of Gibraltar are
for the kind assistance which you and other friends
rendered when the battle was being fought.
It was mainly owing to the pressure brought to
bear at the Colonial Office that we won the day.
It happened rather curiously that alraost at the
verj' tirae Lord Carnarvon was receiving the deputa
tion on the 26th July, Spain was plotting mischief
and raising her already too prohibitory tariff to our
special injury. Believe me to remain.
Very truly yours,
BENj.iMiN Carver.

No. CLXIX.
Mr. EDWARD JENKINS, M.P. (Dundee.)
Park House, Ellenslea Road,
St. Leonards,
March 5, 1878.
My Dear Rylands, —
You are a raan of action and proraptitude. If there
are not ten righteous men in the House, thank God

262 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
that there is one Rylands. I have been thinking
about this matter a good deal, and I think we should
bring Layard's conduct forward at once, and that the
case could be raade so strong, with the weight of the
men who would speak to the motion, it would power
fully affect the country. Why does divine Providence
afford us such opportunities if we wantonly waste
them ? However, what could you do when our best
men are against it ?
Have you read yesterday's Standard and its indica
tion of the drift of Government policy ? This has
again and again been stated. Mytilene, Egypt,
Egean, etc. It appeals to English imagination and
ambition ; it is at the moment a terrible danger. Do
you not see that Garnet Wolseley, who has been
writing urgent letters for sorae work to do, and
Farrer (Board of Trade) have both been set to try
and convince the English people that we are invul
nerable and ready for anything ? Once calm English
fears and you raay excite English blood. I am
strongly convinced some action ought now to be
taken from our side to force the hand of the Govern
ment, and know what they are driving at. The
pretence of any ground for continuing war prepara
tions is taken away. Why not demand of the
Government some explanation of their policy before
they push their preparations any further ?
The weather here is glorious, and I won't corae up
even to save my country. Yours ever and obliged,Edward Jenkins.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 263
CLXX.
Rt. Hon. JOHN BRIGHT, M.P.
Rochdale, May 5, 1878.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I cannot come up to town to-morrow ; Tuesday I
may be able to leave home, for I have some friends
here unexpected, to whom I must pay some atten
tion. The Government seem utterly careless of consti
tutional practice and of public opinion so long as
they have a subservient majority at their back. I
have heard nothing as to the view of Lord Hartington,
or of any other of our " front Bench " men on the
question of the Indian troops, and I doubt not the
"mechanical majority" will support anything the
-Government dares to do.
I ara sorry I cannot be with you to-morrow, but on
the first evening after a recess there is not often a full
House, or much discussion.
The Times has acted in a manner singularly base
and cowardly even for it. Its articles are feeble and
mean to the last degree. To follow in the wake
of the D,T, is a degradation they should have
avoided. I am receiving by every post letters of the most
ruffianly, and some of a threatening, character, with
many others of an opposite character. The Man
chester meeting has touched a good many people " on

264 I-IFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
the raw." Still I think there wiH not be war, though
facts just now are against me.
Yours very sincerely, John Bright.

No. CLXXI.
Mr. HUGH MASON.
Ashton-under-Lyne,
June 22, 1878.
My Dear Rylands, —
I am delighted you are attacking that sink of
iniquity — the Bill of Entry. When President of
Chamber of Commerce I did all I could to stop their
plunder. Lowe was Chancellor, and I had a long
interview with him. He was willing ; he saw the
nuisance, but said he raust wait till the Patent
expired. Do you know M. Daly, of the Customs ?
He gave me valuable assistance. No raan in England
knows more than Daly on these subjects ; he is full
of information, and he takes pleasure in helping
one. Has Dizzy really sold the vagabond Jingoes, or is
the old villain playing some deep game of his own ?
How refreshing to read the Pall MaU ; it, at all events,
has been sold.

LIPE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 265
I am delighted to see your useful activities. What
has become of Mundella and Rathbone ? Has Dizzy
tickled their tails ? Sincerely yours,
Hugh Mason.

No. CLXXII.
Sir WILFRID LAWSON, M.P.
ig, Wellington Crescent,
Ramsgate, June 23, 1878.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I don't think you have ever given us a speech in the
House on the Permissive Bill. Now's the day and
now's the hour ! Give us a stave on Wednesday, like
a good man, and redeem the credit of Lancashire.
I shan't be up until Tuesday, so shall miss the
cattle debate to-morrow night. Isn't it strange to
see such efforts made to dirainish the supply of Beef
to the people, while the greatest pains are taken to
drench them with Beev ? Yours truly,
W. Lawson.

266 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CLXXIII.
Mr. T. B. POTTER, M.P.
Reform Club,
July 14, 1878.
My Dear Rylands, —
The Cobden Club Coramittee put down yesterday
your name to reply to the toast of the evening, " The
Cobden Club." You will not mince raatters, I know,
and a short, concise, and plain spoken address, just
as no one can deliver better than you, will be useful
as a political progrararae, such a one as Cobden
would have laid before the country fearlessly and
confidently, if he had been alive now.
Ever yours,
T. B. Potter.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 267
No. CLXXIV.
Mr. EDWARD JENKINS, M.P.
75, West Crorawell Road,
South Kensington, Sept. 27, 1878.
My Dear Rylands, —
I ara answering you from my sister's house just
before dinner. Ergo, I am hungry and uncongenial.
Two hours later I might be in a better humour for
writing to a jovial friend. Next week 'tis impossible ;
the week after not wholly out of the question, were I
to return from Dundee, but I ara so uncertain I dare
not proraise. Let me know if your kind, benevolent,
hospitable intentions remain in full flower a little
longer. Perhaps they have nearly all bloomed away
among your charming guests.
You are right. The imposture is now being
gradually revealed, and before so very long the
impostor will be disraissed without a character,
except frora his mistress. I hope you are prepared
to assist me in forming a rainistry. See the Pall Mall
of to-night for an arausing skit, "The Gladstone
Exploitation Company, Liraited," in which I have
the honour to figure. Yours sincerely, Edward Jenkins.

268 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CLXXV.
Sir WILFRID LAWSON, M.P.
Brayton,
Carlisle.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
" Even Don Ferdinando,"
we are told, " Can't do more than he can do."
So the fact is I have got off any more meetings, except
the Manchester annual one on the 22nd inst., during
that week. But thank you very rauch all the sarae
for your kind invitation and progrararae. I have to
go to Ireland in the beginning of Noveraber, so I really
raust not undertake too rauch.
How about this Afghan war ? Are the people of
this country mesmerised, or dead drunk, or become
heathens, or what is the matter with thera that they
allow such a hideous atrocity to go on ? If Govern
ment delay hostilities until Parliament meets we ought
to stop the supplies until they dissolve Parliament,
and get the whole question fairly laid before the
country. It is absolutely infamous.
Can't you rouse Lancashire ?
Ever yours,
W. Lawson.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 269
No. CLXXVI.
Sir WILFRID LAWSON, M.P.
Brayton,
Carlisle,
Oct. 10, 1878.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Thanks for your kind note. The fact is that I have
engaged rayself to stay over the Manchester raeeting
with friends in Manchester, so I cannot throw them over
to avail myself even of a visit to you, which I need
not say is really very terapting. However, I shall
have a peep at you at the great raeeting on the
Tuesday night. Don't get drunk and forget the right
day, as you did last year 1
Afghan looks worse the more it is inquired into.
Do you see what Col. Stanley says yesterday ? — "So
far as he could see we had no reason to complain of
the action of our Government at this moment."
So, I suppose, on their own showing it is not Russia
which has offended, and these wretched Afghans are
to be slaughtered by English Christians because their
chief would not receive a morning call from a British
officer who went accompanied by 1,000 jingoes.
ReaUy, I think we are about the raost wicked people
going. But Havelock says the war is necessary to
promote Baptist missions ! Yours truly,
W. Lawson.

270 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CLXXVII.
Mr. HUGH MASON.
Groby Hall,
Ashton-under-Lyne, March lo, 1879.
My Dear Rylands, —
Our Chamber of Coramerce are determined to have
an interview with Northcote on Bill of Entry, and
will ask Bazley to get us ari interview. I should like
a good number of Lancashire merabers to lead us
up. Would you believe it, Liverpool Chamber has
meraorialised Dizzy just now to prolong the Bill of
Entry job. I greatly suspect Daly has twisted right
round dead against us, and is egging on the Liverpool
Chamber. What sop has he had ?
Very sincerely,
Hugh Mason.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 271
No. CLXXVIII.
Mr. MICHAEL DALY.
H.M. Customs,
St. Katharine's Wharf, E.,
March 21, 1879.
My Dear Sir, —
When I had the pleasure of dining with you at your
house, I told you that a few years back I had sub
mitted a paper to the Board of Customs with a view
to simplicity of arrangements and econoray in cost.
I now enclose you a copy of that paper, the original
being dated the 23rd Oct., 1875.
On the subject ot statistics generally, please refer
to paragraphs 20, 21, and 26 to 34; but raore
especially as bearing on the question of the " Bill of
Entry " to 26 — 34. No mention is made of the " Bill
of Entry,'' but it will be found that those paragraphs
contain the starting point for setting aside that
establishment. Upon the basis, therein laid down,
an arrangement can readily be made by which the
" Bill of Entry '' concern can easily be dispensed
with altogether. This paper is however to be con
sidered as strictly confidential. You raust not use or refer
to it in any way. It is of course intended to be taken
as a whole ; and if you have the tirae I would be
glad if you would read it all through. You will see
the Board's order at the end.
I send you also copy of another paper got up a few
years back about rae, but which I had to stop as it

272 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
would probably have done me more harm than good.
It is aU perfectly true, but people in this country do
not care to know the truth about those in their
service. It is so very much more agreeable to be
humbugged. It is a fact that there is not a raan in
the whole range of the civil service who can point to
anything like the services enuraerated in that paper,
and yet I dare not use it, and raust beg you to keep
it private. Still the British public complain of their
servants. Well, I owe my raasters nothing.
Have you had the Report yet ? I understand that
when it was presented to the Treasury it was referred
down to the Board of Custoras, by whom an elaborate
Report was raade in reply, and in support of the
" Bill of Entry." This Report will, I ara informed,
be given with that prepared by Childers, or his Com
raittee. It will be as well, for then we shall know all
that can be said in favour of its continuance. But
the tirae gets on, and the Patent expires in July. Do
not forget that. If it is not to be renewed, some
other arrangement must be raade to raeet the public
requireraents; and on the plea of "want of tirae"
a new lease may be given to the concern.
Mr. Cartwright is, 1 perceive, to have his select
committee on the wine duties. I am very glad of it,
and if well managed a great deal of good may come
out of it. The present raode of dealing with wines —
I mean fiscally — is troublesorae and vexatious to the
trade, while it is very costly to the public.
Very faithfully yours,
M. Daly.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 273
No. CLXXIX.
Marquis of HARTINGTON, M.P.
Devonshire House,
April 14, 1879.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
With reference to your letter ofthe 6th inst., on the
subject of the Motion which you intend to bring
forward on the Budget, I ara far frora saying that
there may not be sorae advantage in a question of
this kind being left in the hands of an independent
Member. Indeed I think it probable that under any
circumstances we should have come to the conclusion
that this would be the best course. But I wished,
when I saw you, to reraind you that at the very time
when you gave your notice, without any consultation
with Adam or rayself, I was in coraraunication with Mr.
Gladstone and others as to the course to be taken, and
that it was at least possible that sorae Resolution
would be moved in the name of the Party ; a course
which would be at least rendered more difficult by the
action you had taken. I quite admit that independent
members cannot, on all occasions, allow their course
to be restrained by the opinion of the official leaders
of the party ; but it appears to me that there is an
end of everything in the shape of united action, if we
are not even informed or consulted beforehand, on
what is proposed to be done on the most important
questions which come under the consideration of
Parliament.

274 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE,
With regard to the present case, I do not think, as
I have already said, that any harm has been done.
The wording of the Resolutions might perhaps be
soraewhat improved, but I think that the advantages
of the independent action which has been taken
would be lost if I were to make any suggestions which
would raake me in any way responsible for a Motion
in regard to which I am now perfectly independent.
I reraain. Yours sincerely, Hartington.

No. CLXXX,
Mr. EDWARD JENKINS, M.P.
House of Commons, April 15, 1879.
My Dear Rylands, —
I found your letter at the Club yesterday, and ara
greatly araused, as well as abused. Our little party
is evidently growing in weight and interest ! When
the first-rate members die off or go to glory in " another
place," I suppose the second and third rates must
corae to the front. Meantime, let us wrap ourselves
in the toga, of our natural raodesty.
I have not seen the letter to the Newcastle paper,
.and don't rauch care about it. You will see a letter

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 275
of raine on Egypt in to-day's Times. Goldsraid writes
and talks rauch rot — like the rest of us.
While you are idling in the country, I have been
getting up Array Discipline, Egypt, Greece, and
other questions. How can you expect to be a leader
with your indolent habits ?
Ever sincerely yours,
Edward Jenkins.
To My Peter,—
(Slightly altered from Moore. )
Rylands hath a roving eye
For jobs and ministerial messes.
Questions, motions, in supply
But -what he aims at no one guesses.
Jollier 'tis to gaze upon
Samuda's nose, that seldom rises
In its place, but every one
Its unexpected length surprises !
My serious solemn -wise Samuda
Cunning reposes
In many noses
But sense in yours, my dear Samuda !
[Hic nonnuUa desunt], etc. , etc.

276 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CLXXXI.
Mr. HUGH MzVSON.
Fenton's Hotel, S.W.
May I, 1879.
My Dear Rylands, —
Will Mrs. Rylands and you do us the pleasure to
dine with us on Saturday at 6.30. Morning dress
you have no objection.
I want to hear all about your grand motion for
which the Radicals owe you a great debt of gratitude.
If front benchers won't lead, brush thera on one side
without delay. Very sincerely,
Hugh Mason.

No. CLXXXII.
Mr. henry RICHARD, M.P.
22, Bolton Gardens,
South Kensington, May 10, 1879.
My Dear Mr. Rylands,^
I ara very sorry that anything should have appeared
in the Nonconformist that is unjust and offensive to you.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 277
But I hardly need tell you that I have no sort of
connection with or control over the Nonconformist, I
am no favourite with the writer of those " sketches,"
whoever he may be, as his notices of me have often
been anything but flattering, though on that
particular occasion he took it into his head to pay me
a sort of left-handed corapliraent. But I corafort
myself with the reflection, when I see newspaper
attacks upon me, that probably they make a deeper
irapression upon rae than upon anyone else. Other
people read thera and forget them the next day, and
the only thing that can give them importance is for
the victira to take notice of them.
I think you exaggerate a little, too. I don't think
it is "indignity" so much as sheer impertinence,
which prompts those comraents upon us by men of
" our own correspondent " class. I am sure the
remarks referred to can do you no harm, though at
the raoment they are no doubt sufficiently irritating.
I ought to say that I believe Mr. Miall hiraself is no
longer editor of the Nonconformist,
Yours very truly,
Henry Richard.

278 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CLXXXIII.
Mr. JAMES HOWARD.
Hotel d'Angleterre, Cauterets, May 22, 1879.
Dear Rylands, —
Your word, " bubbled," seemed to amuse the Press
at the time. Taking up a Leipsic edition of Gulliver's
Travels on the tables at this little place, I found in
the dialogue between a Whig and a Tory.
" Tory: — Then all this while I have been bubbled."
The word is so expressive, that the countrj' is indebted
to you for its revival.
I read Gulliver when a boy, but find now much in it
worthy of a raan's perusal, especiallj' at the present
time ; for instance, Swift, in describing to the Yahoo
the motives for war, remarks : —
" Sometiraes the arabition of Princes, who never
think they have land or people enough to govern.
Soraetiraes the corruption of ministers who engage
their master in a war, in order to stifle or divert the
clamour of the subjects against their evil adminis
tration." I am. Yours very truly,
James Howard.

LIIE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 279

No. CLXXXIV.
Sir WILFRID LAWSON, M.P.
Brayton,
Carlisle, Oct. 15, 1879.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
How very kind of you to make out allthe trains, etc.,
for rae so nicely. All will suit well and I can stick
to your progrararae. Only I think I raust get away
on Saturday night at raidnight (Hartington won't
speak till then, I hope !) as I should like to get home,
as I am " on the stump " again in a benighted west
Cumberland village on the following Tuesday.
Charaberlain has done well at Glasgow, the best
speech of his which I ever read, except one which, he
once made at an Alliance raeeting. Cross is wretched.
Poor old Cross
Is at a loss
To find out -what to say ;
" I'm right — you're vcrong,''
His only song,
' ' And who dare say me nay ? "
Ever yours,
Wilfrid Lawson.

28o LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CLXXXV.
Mr. EDWARD JENKINS, M.P.
20, Southwell Gardens,
South Kensington,
Oct. II, 1879.
My Dear Rylands, —
By good luck your letter finds me at home. I got
back this week frora the Continent. Since I saw you
I have been twice to Vienna, and have visited Cologne,
Frankfort, Nurnberg, Ratisbon, and Paris.
What is the Manchester Demonstration ? I know
nothing of it, and ara little interested in politics,
which is a wild and windy pursuit.
But Massey Hall is attractive; the"houris" so
lavishly promised, tickle one's imagination, and
awaken lively hopes in a too susceptible heart. The
genial face of my Rylands seems waiting to welcome
rae at the" station, with a finger to dig into ray ribs,
and a cordial arm to draw me to his side. How can
I refuse ? Yes ! I must come. They want rae at
Bolton. Is that within striking distance of you ?
Perhaps they don't want me at Manchester, I am too
sound a politician to go down with your partisans.
To Mistress Rylands my most gracious compli
ments. Yours ever sincerely,Edward Jenki,ns.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 281

No. CLXXXVI.
EDWARD JENKINS, M.P.
20, Southwell Gardens,
South Kensington, Oct. 15, 1879.
Dear Rylands, —
At least get me a card for the Z3(SMo«stration, if
I am to join in the infernal orgies.
I am expecting my wife. Can you give me a bath
room, and let her sleep with the housekeeper if I
induce her to come? Or put Lawson in the bath-room,
where he will be in his natural element. My
conscience pricks me about going among those
Lancashire witches (you call them houris) without her
protection. I will bring Mrs. Rylands down the ist Book of
Jobson's Enemies, which begins to appear in November.
Ever yours,
Edward Jenkins.

282 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CLXXXVII.
Mr. DUNCAN McLAREN, M.P.
Newington House, Edinburgh,
Oct. 12, 1879.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
A few days since I saw a foolish letter by a raan in
a passion, written to a Mr. Rylands, who I suppose
was your brother. If he was, or if you feel interested
in the matter, I beg to give you a bit of information
which raay be useful to fire off against the passionate
raan. The narae " Cromwell Road " in London was pro
posed by the Prince Consort, the husband of the
Queen, at a raeeting ofthe Royal Commission, whose
land it was ; and the name was agreed to by thera on
his recoraraendation. This fact I had frora Mr.
Bowring, forraerly M.P. (Exeter 1868-74) 3^'^'i again a
candidate. Mr. Bowring was Secretarj' to the
Coraraission, and raentioned the fact to rae two years
ago as within his own personal knowledge.
The public and national affairs are in a sad state.
I ara, yours very truly,
D. McLaren.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 283
No. CLXXXVIII.
Mr. a. M. SULLIVAN, M.P. (Louth).
Temple, London, Jan. 13, 1880.
My Dear Rylands, —
I read the announceraent in the papers ; and it
struck me as one of the most clever and crafty
stratagems the Downing Street electioneers could
devise for catching the Irish vote. It is true we
Catholic Irishmen have a hearty regard and a high
respect for the Duke of Norfolk and his family. Not
only is he in social rank " the first Catholic in
England " of laymen, but his personal conduct and
character are so good and so pure that we all love hira
and are proud of hira as his co-religionists. We
Irishmen know him and his family to be quite
opposed to us in politics; but, as I said at Sheffield, we
do not quarrel with him for that ; we leave hira to his
own convictions on that score, just as he and his
faraily will, we hope, continue to leave us to ours.
I personally shall deeply regret if it be true (as to
which it is only fair to reserve judgraent) that any
meraber of the Duke's faraily lends himself to such a
transparent artifice in the mterest of the Government,
Cruel, cruel, I shall call it, nay, indeed, an out
rage, to attempt to exploit the religious emotions and
sympathies of poor Irish Catholics for the party
purposes of Lord Beaconsfield. Speaking as an

284 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
" Ukramontane " CathoHc, I would call it an awful
responsibHity for any CathoHc to put Rehgion to such
a use as this. Until I see it with my own eyes, I
shall be slow to credit that Lord Edmond Talbot will
do anything of the sort. If the Conservative party
wish to return him to Parliament, let them send him
in for one of their own constituencies — North
Warwickshire, for instance, or Belfast. Or if they
run him for Burnley let it be honestly stated that he
appeals for support only to those Catholics who belong
like himself to the Conservative party. The very men
in the Carlton Club who are now joking and rejoicing
over this " capital stroke " would be the first to revile
and denounce Irish Catholic Horae Rulers as " slaves
to their priests," if raerely because Lord Edraund
Talbot is a Catholic they flung political principles to
the wind, and voting for him, rejected the honest
English Protestant friend who has kept his pledges
like a man of honour.
As to all this let rae point out that the issue
threatened to be raised in Burnley is not new to
Irishmen, that Roland Ponsonby Blennerhasset, a
Protestant, was elected by the Priests and people of
Catholic Kerry in preference to a most estimable
Catholic gentleraan, Mr. J. A. Dease, whose political
principles were unacceptable ; that Mr. Mitchell
rfenry sits for Galway, Mr. Shaw for Cork, Lord
Francis Conyngham for Clare, these being about the
raost Catholic and Celtic countries in Ireland, and
that these representatives, all Protestants, were and
are enthusiasticaHy supported by the CathoHc

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 285
prelates, priests, and people. From all this I think
I ara warranted in saying that my fellow-countrymen
in Burnley are very unlikely to play a recreant part.
I have never had the pleasure of raeeting thera, but
ray proud confidence in their intelligence, patriotism,
and fidelity is none the less strong and high. The
device of the Conservative election managers raay
put them to a painful trial, but they will come through
it with honour and triuraph.
Yours very faithfully, A. M. Sullivan.

No. CLXXXIX.
CAPTAIN J. P. NOLAN, M.P. (Galway Co.)
House of Commons,
March 12, 1880.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I think it my duty, as one of the whips of the Irish
party, to state that you have voted with the Irish
merabers in nearly all the principal Irish divisions.
I have found you a raost constant friend to Ireland.
You have striven always to obtain for us justice and
equality, and you have been ready to help us when
many others held aloof. I am very sorry to hear that
you are likely to have a contest, as I am convinced

286 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
that if you are not returned to the House of Commons,
Ireland wHl lose one of her very best friends amongst
the English raembers. Believe rae.
Faithfully j'ours,
J. P. Nolan.

No. CXC
MARQUIS OF HARTINGTON.
Crawshaw Hall,
Rawtenstall, March 30, 1880.
My Dear Rylands, —
I ara sorry that it has not been found possible lo
hold one of our county meetings in Burnley before
your election. It has been thought best to reserve
one or two of the next important meetings, including
that at Burnley, till the last week. I believe that the
present arrangement is that we should visit Burnley
on Wednesday, the 7th April, but on this point I must
be guided by the advice of my comraittee, sorae of the
members of which have, I think, been in coraraunica
tion with you upon the subject.
I need not tell you that I take a very strong interest
in the Burnley election, and that you have my best

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 287
wishes for your success, as to which I hope there can
be no doubt. I remain. Yours sincerely, Hartington.

No. CXCI.
Mr. J. G. McMINNIES, M.P. (Warrington.)
Farington, April 23, 1880.
My Dear Peter, —
I forgot to ask you if you are going to the banquet
to be given to the Liberal members and candidates
belonging to the Manchester Reforra Club next Wed
nesday. If you are going and there is any difficulty
in getting back to Thelwall, I shall be glad if you and
Carrie will stay the night with rae at Suraraer House.
If Lord Hartington's walk to and frora Windsor
Castle was an intentional slight to hira, it was an
insult to the whole of the United Kingdora. I hope
it was not intentional. The Queen is not a very wise
woraan, as raost of her subjects know, but she is surely
not an unraitigated fool. She has never been forgiven
down here for refusing to open the Manchester Town
Hall, because the Mayor's wife had given a statue of

288 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
CroraweH to the city, and if she has snubbed the whole
Liberal party in this way she ought never to be for
given by the nation. Looking at what we have got
as a sovereign and at what we may expect, I think we
had better go in for a repubhc and pack the Queen
and Lord B. off to Jerusalem.
Ever yours affectionately, J. G. McMinnies.

No. CXCII.
Mr. T. B. POTTER, M.P.
Cobden Club,
April 19, 1880.
My Dear Rylands, —
I want to speak to you about the annual meeting of
the Reform Club on the 6th of May. You know how
I have fought, year by j'ear, the jingo element in the
club. It is now more rampant than ever, and I am
to be turned out of coraraittee on the 6th of May. I
have been an active raember for nine years or twelve,
I forget which, and I hope my friends will support me
and not see rae kicked out for no other reason than I
ara a stern political watch dog always at my post.
Ever yours,
Thomas B. Potter.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 289
No. CXCIII.
HUGH C E. CHILDERS, M.P.
17, Prince's Gardens,
S.W., May 4, 1884.
My Dear Rylands, —
You and I have so often fought the same battle
that you will believe that I speak with absolute
sincerity when I say that I deeply regret your not being
in office. I certainly had no idea that you had either
time or inclination for it, but when you tell me that
this is not so, I can onlj' deplore that Mr. Gladstone
was not better informed than myself. If you had
given a hint to myself, or to any of those who have
taken the same line that you have in opposition, I
feel sure that your claims would have been recognised.
Of course, I say this only frora rayself (for I have
shown your note to no one), but you know how
rauch Mr. Gladstone looks to those who have fought
the battle of economy through good report and evil
report. I have myself a very hard task before me, not so
much this session, for I shafl take time to study the
grave questions to be solved, but later on, when the
difficulties must be boldly grappled with. I may have
to task your patience a little, but I hope in the end to
shew good results. Believe me, yours very truly,
Hugh C E. Childers.

290 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CXCIV.
Mr. JOHN PERCY.
House of Comraons,
June 3, 1880.
Dear Mr. Rylands,—
If a few raembers of the House of Coramons will
listen to what I have to coraraunicate concerning the
Science and Art Department, and proceed to act
thereon, — provided I advance conclusive evidence, as
I can do, of the accuracy of ray coraraunication, — a
reforra will be effected, which, I am sure, will save
the nation ;^20,ooo or ;£"30,ooo per annum. This
raoney, 1 shall be prepared to show, is wasted, actually
wasted ! I defy either yourself or any raeraber of the
House of Commons, however skilful in interpreting
the Estimates, to discover the true state of the case
without assistance, such as I can give. Mr. Stansfield
has been with me and has offered to speak on this
matter, and so has Mr. Dillwyn. I have no private
object to promote, but I am deterrained to work on
energetically for any tirae, so long as my health
continues, until I see the eyes of financial raerabers,
if I raay so designate thera, of the House of Coramons,
fully opened.
Mr. Prim informs me that after the questions
to-morrow you wiH give me an interview. I must
ask you to be so good as to come to ray rooms here,
where I have all the documentary evidence duly
arranged. Vary truly yours,
John Percy.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 291

No. CXCV.
Rt. Hon. J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P.
72, Prince's Gate,
June 6, 1880.
My Dear Rylands, —
If Lawson goes on with his Frere raotion, or if
Parnell, or any one else takes it up, should not you
give notice of the previous question as an amendment ?
It seems to me that this would come best from you,
as you could explain with effect, your opinions on
the retentions, and at the sarae tirae your deterraination
not to erabarrass the Government, or to play into the
hands of the Tories, and your conviction that the
appointment was only temporary, and that, under
these circumstances, you are willing to suspend
judgraent, etc., etc.
If some such amendment is not proposed at once
the Tories will probably give notice of one, and they
may so word it as to be awkward. Yours sincerely, J. Chamberlain.

292 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CXCVI.
Sir CHARLES DILKE, M.P.
Foreign Office, June 30, 1880.
My Dear Rylands, —
Biddulph has written rae a treraendous dispatch
because I did not contradict the enclosed statement
in your Cyprus speech. Times report. My impression
is that you did not say what you are reported in the
Times as having said ; but that you confined yourself
to quoting Mrs. Scott-Stevenson and Sir S. Baker.
What shall I say to Biddulph ? Could you write me a
private note which I could confidentially send hira ?
Yours, Charles W. Dilke.

[Stateraent referred to in the above letter — "The
Custora House too, at which we had a raost iraportant
official, was an absolute nuisance."]

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 293
No. CXCVII.
Mr. F. W. chesson.
172, Lambeth Rd., S.E.,
Sept. 6, 1880.
My Dear Rylands, —
I am very glad to receive your note. I wondered
what had becorae of you, it so rarely happens that
you leave town before the close of the session.
Things do not iraprove in Cyprus, which is now
under the Colonial Office. I enclose you some further
letters frora Rossetto. I hope you will kindly be pre
pared to take action in the raatter next year. You
will see that he intends to apply to the High
Coraraissioner for the authorisation necessary to enable
hira to becorae a public notary. Dilke informs me
confidentially that so long as Biddulph remains in
Cyprus, Rossetto has no chance of getting his
application acceded to. That, however, is no reason
why he should not apply, and send us the corre
spondence which ensues. I have advised him to do
this. I regret to learn that Dilke is very unwell. After his
admirable speech on Saturday evening, he had to go
to bed for twenty-four hours.
Beheve me,
Very faithfully yours,
F. W. Chesson.

294 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE,
No. CXCVIII.
Mr. F. W. chesson.
172, Larabeth Rd., S.E.,
Oct. 23, 1880.
My Dear Rylands, —
There is a general feeling araong our friends here
that the Greek Comraittee should take sorae public
step at the present raoraent to show its sympathy
with the Greek Government in the existing crisis. As
you are aware, the objects of the Committee are
limited to the boundary question, but this is of course
the very subject upon which action on our part is now
called for.
The alternatives open to us seem to me to be the
following : —
(i) A public meeting in London or Manchester.
(2) An address of sympathy to be presented through
the Greek Minister.
(3) A deputation to Lord Granville, or
(4) A general meeting of the merabers and
supporters of the Comraittee to consider the line
of action to be taken.
I should feel rauch obliged if you would kindly
inforra rae what view you take of the matter. I
incline to the 2nd and 4th.
I reraain, Very faithfully yours,
F. W. Chesson.

LIFE_ AND CORRESPONDENCE. 295
No. CXCVIX.
Sir ughtred KAY SHUTTLEWORTH.

28, Prince's Gardens,
S.W., Jan. 22, 1881.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I have been answering Captain Verney's invitation
to rae to join " a Coramittee that has been formed to
forward, by all legitimate means, the re-establishment
ofthe independence ofthe Transvaal." I do not know
whether you have joined the Coramittee, but, as a
constituent of yours, I have observed, with some
anxiety, the course you have taken since Parliament
met on this and on the Irish question. I venture,
therefore, to send you a copy of ray letter to Captain
Vemey, feeling that views which I raust freely express
to others should not be withheld frora a. representative
in Parliaraent, of whora I have been a hearty sup
porter. Those views apply with special force to the
policy of Pier Majesty's Government regarding
Ireland. At such a time as this, after the repeated
proofs we have had of our leaders' desire to do "justice
to Ireland," and after the great unwiHingness they have
displayed to resort to exceptionally severe measures
for maintaining order, and preserving life and property,
I feel that every man who has professed confidence in
Mr. Gladstone and Lord Hartington, should stand
by them and assist by vote (if not by voice) in
strengthening their hands, so long, at least, as they

296 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
have neither said, proposed, nor done anything to
forfeit our confidence. Believe me.
Dear Mr. Rylands,
Yours sincerely,
Ughtred Kay Shuttleworth.

No. CC.
CAPTAIN E. H. VERNEY.
2, Great Stanhope Street,
Park Lane, W.,
Jan. 24, 1881.
Dear Sir, —
The Transvaal Independence Coramittee was forraed
as a focus to gather in the naraes and sympathies of
all those who believe that the ultimate independence
of the Transvaal in due tirae is the object to be worked
for. This object we keep steadily in view ; we do not
presurae to dictate to the Governraent when or how it
is to be brought about ; sorae of us are for active and
energetic agitation ; others are for waiting ; as indi
viduals we differ widely ; as a coraraittee we are
determined to take no line that raay erabarrass the
Governraent or encourage revolt. We believe the
public don't know the merits ofthe case. We propose

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 297
to disseminate accurate information. We believe the
Government would welcome any pressure of public
opinion that would enable them to wash their hands
of the Transvaal altogether.
As a committee we adopt and adhere to a tone
of studied moderation, and are careful to offend
none who desire the ultimate independence of the
Transvaal. The withdrawal of your narae will be a
discouragement to us. Your admirable exposition of
our case in the House of Comraons gladdened our
hearts. I have not the pleasure of knowing you personally,
so must earnestly beg you to accept my excuses if I
ask you, at least for the present, not to withdraw your
name. I will gladly wait on you, if you desire it, at
any time and place, to inform you raore fully of our
proceedings and intentions. Faithfully yours,
Edmund H. Verney.

298' LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CCI.
CAPTAIN VERNEY.
Travellers' Club,
PaH MaH, S.W.,
Jan. 25, 1881.
Dear Sir, —
I am obliged for your note, and will have your name
removed frora the list of the coramittee. To-raorrow
I ara going to Birrainghara for the annual raeeting of
the National Liberal Federation. On ray return I
will take advantage of your kind invitation to call
upon you at the House. No doubt you know ray
father ; I will ask hira to bring rae into the lobby one
day. Faithfully yours,
Edmund H. Verney.

No. ecu.
CAPTAIN VERNEY.
Transvaal Independence Coraraittee,
Draper's Gardens, E.C.
Feb. I, 1881.
My Dear Sir,—
I quite agree with you that there is nothing to be
done imraediately ; this coramittee is not influential

LIPE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 299
enough from anj' point of view to have weight with
Lord Kimberley, even if he would consent to receive
a deputation, which I doubt. Until the constituencies
begin to make their voices heard I expect we shall
see no signs of a better mind among those in power.
The work of arousing the constituencies on this
subject, and informing them, and enlightening thera,
on the oppressive injustice and iniquity of the war
being waged against the Boers, is the work to which
this Coraraittee is now addressing itself.
Verj' faithfully yours,
Edmund H. Verney.

No. CCHI.
Mr. JOSHUA RAWLINSON.
16, Nicholas Street, Burnley, Jan. 31, 1881.
Dear Sir, —
I have had it in my mind to write you ever since
you omitted to vote for the address, but for various
reasons I have deferred doing so till now. I can
scarcely express to you the feeling of disappointment,
if not consternation, that prevailed amongst the great
bulk of our friends, when they found that your
name was not in the Division list supporting the
Government.

300 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
It is quite true that your abstention pleased a few
of the raore noisy and rarapageous liberals, but as far
as my own experience and judgraent are concerned,
I have no hesitation in saying that ten were displeased
where one was pleased. I know you will vote in each
case as your own conscience dictates, irrespective of
what this or that person may think of it, and I,
personally, ara in favour of leaving the hands ot
merabers as rauch unfettered as possible. But when
we consider that the great issue on which the election
was fought was confidence in Mr. Gladstone, I think
that you will not wonder at the surprise and anxiety
expressed by your friends at the course you, no doubt,
felt compelled to take.
As to the' Bill for the protection of life and property
in Ireland, I do hope you will be able to give Mr.
Gladstone your hearty and unfaltering support in each
stage of the measure. Liberals here are not pleased
that the Governraent should be dependent on the
opposition to carry their measures, and they feel that
any measures of repression recoraraended by Mr.
Gladstone and Mr. Bright, ought to receive the
earnest support of all sections of the party. As to
the Irish raerabers, intense disgust at their conduct is
the universal feeling, even araongst those opposed to
coercion, and they feel that the only course open is to
give the Governraent a loyal and hearty support.
Trusting you will excuse this trouble I am giving,
I remain, Yours faithfully,
Joshua Rawlinson.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 301
No. CCIV.
Mr. BLANCHARD JERROLD.
27, Victoria St., S.W.,
March 23, 1881.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Have J'OU remarked in the World of yesterday and
in the Sianiay^ of to-day authoritative statements to
the effect that the French Government has in the
Foreign Office archives the admissions of a leading
statesman lately in office, acknowledging the clairas
of France to supreraacy in Tunis and her right to
exercise a Protectorate over the Bey ; and further
that this admission was made imraediately after the
annexation of Cyprus.
The hostile action ofthe French authorities towards
the Bey, and the sending of war ships to Tunis, is
regarded as a beginning of the assuraption of this
Protectorate. Could we persuade you, in the interests
of freedora and independence guaranteed to the weak,
by the treaties of the strong, to put a question to the
Governraent on this subject ?
I send you the East, in which you will find much
material on the general question.
Faithfully yours,
Blanchard Jerrold.

302 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CCV.
Mr. F. kimber.
22, Queen's St.,
London, E.C,
AprH 9, i88i.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I ara glad you are going to bring the subject
ot " corrupt solicitors " before the House. It is high
tirae they were struck offthe rolls. Their evil example
and influence is most baneful. Other people say " if
they bribe why should not we ?" All ray life I have
been fighting against this curse to the profession.
Read the two enclosed addresses I have just sent out.
They raay open your eyes. This Hughes is the
Conservative agent for the city, but knows very little
law. Yours faithfully, F. Kimber.
P.S. — I think ray friend Mr. Firth will help you in
the House if necessary.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 303

No. CCVI.
Mr. JOSEPH WRIGHT.
Summer Hill,
Macclesfield, AprH 16, 1881.
Dear Sir, —
Some of our friends are anxious to have an inter
view with you to ascertain your views respecting the
present unhappy state of aff'airs in our Borough, and
I intended to have called upon you in town last week,
but had to leave sooner than expected. At a meeting
held at .my office this raorning, I was requested to
coraraunicate with you, and to ask if it would b'e
convenient for you to receive a friend and rayself in
Manchester or elsewhere, during the ensuing week. If
this would be acceptable to you, it would be rauch
valued by the leaders of the Liberal party here.
I am. Yours faithfully, Joseph Wright.

304 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CCVII.
Mr. JOSEPH WRIGHT.
Macclesfield, AprH 21, 1881.
My Dear Sir, —
Mr. Alderraan Bullock and rayself met a few of our
Liberal friends this morning and told them of your
kind reception and generous and friendly offer of
assistance, and I was desired to write and thank you
on behalf of the meeting. I send you by this post a
printed copy ofthe Comraissioners' report, and when
ever we receive a blue book of the evidence we shall
be glad to call your attention to it in detail.
The four Conservative magistrates received on
Tuesday a letter from the Lord Chancellor asking
them to resign.
I have the honour to be. Dear Sir,
Yours faithfully, Jos. Wright.
Both parties here ask why was not Mr. Eaton
scheduled ? His treasurer, Mr. Godwin, to whom he
paid the money, has lost his J. P.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 305
No. CCVIII.
LIEUT.-COL. OUVREY. Lyraington, Hants,
May 15, 1881.
Dear Sir, —
As you have always shown yourself ready to redress,
as far as possible, public grievances, I take this occa
sion to bring to your notice, now that the question of
opening Lincoln's Inn Fields is being mooted, that
not only Lincoln's Inn Fields but many other London
squares were once open to the public. If you will take an
opportunity of consulting " Stowe's London," which.
you will find in the British Museura Library, if you-
have not a copy in the House of Coraraons, there you
will see plates of Bloorasbury, Hanover, and other
squares with paths through thera, and open to the
public. I beHeve that 150 years ago all squares were open ;
and if this should prove to be the case I think that
they could only have becorae so by the authority of
ParHaraent, and the same authority which was wrong
fully asserted to rob the public of these open spaces
can, I should think, be now employed to restore them
to their legitimate uses. Yours faithfully, H. A. OuVREY.

306 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE
No. CCIX.
SIR GEORGE BALFOUR, M.P.
6, Cleveland Gardens, Hyde Park,
May 13, 1881.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I see by a notice in the Daily News that there was a
meeting of a few merabers to advocate the exclusion
of railitary officers from the House of Commons, and
that you sent an apology for not being able to
attend. I appeal to you not to set the exaraple of advocating
the exclusion of any class. Surely we have had suffi
cient experience of the evils of class legislation. I
appeal to you to support the claira that Sir A. Gordon,
Sir H. Havelock, and Major Nolan raay justly raake
of having been true by their votes to the Liberal
interest. I raay also ask to have a single vote given
by myself challenged as opposed to the Liberal cause.
Speaking now from raore than fifty years' observation,
I do assert that one of the great raistakes made by the
Liberal party has been the neglect of the interests of
the army. If officers of the Liberal party had been
encouraged, I have no hesitation in stating that the
cost of the army at the present day would have been
four millions less than it now is. Look at the officers
in power at present, nearly every one of the Con
servative party, every office of trust being held by
this class. But, I ask, why should officers be

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 307
excluded ? There are raany drawing raoney frora the
public funds.
There are also others who have held contracts, and
whose relatives expect contracts. Again, why should
lawyers reraain when they draw money from the
public. Take the Attornej'-General, who received
nearly ;^i 2,000 besides his pay in the year before last,
and the Solicitor-General nearly ;^5,ooo for fees. Also
the Advocate and Solicitor-General for Scotland
received extra fees. There are also men receiving
pensions ; for instance, Walpole, Villiers, Wilraot.
Yours very sincerely,
G. Balfour.

No. OCX.
Sir GEORGE BALFOUR, M.P.
Caterhara Valley, Surrey, May 18, 1881.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I agree with all your views, even to the extent of
Full Pay Officers. And as regards this class, I only
urge that they are few in number and will be fewer
hereafter. I only know of three in the present Parlia
ment, viz. : — Lt.-Col. Home, Major Nolan, and Lt.

3o8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Fort ; there may be a few raore, only I have not taken
notice. Now it is a great point not to allow objections to be
raised by the Executive Government as to those who
stand for Parliament. Every one qualified or fit to
represent the People should be free to come forward.
Last year Nolan consulted rae about the intended
objection to his getting leave of absence from his
Battery, and which the General Officer in coramand
had indicated his intention to refuse when Parliaraent
became non est. I advised hira to appeal at once tp
Col. Stanley, who promptly decided to tell the
Comraander-in-Chief that no interference raust take
place with Major Nolan's freedora to stand. Major
Nolan was very attentive to his duties. I took the
pains to enquire of hira. He joined his Battery
iramediately on Parliament rising, and served con
stantly during the recess.
Lt.-Col. Home is very attentive. I have known
him after a division, between 12 and i, go off, this
year, to join the men who were kept out from an
alarra about the Barracks, and he goes up and down
to Windsor with great regularity.
Lt. Fort is praised by his Coraraanding Officer for
his marked attention to his regiraental duties, the
Regiment being at Hounslow. I raerely raention these
details to shew that I have been watching these
results. On Havelock consulting rae about taking the
command, I at once asked about Parliament, and he
replied that the condition was to give up the House ;

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 309
now that is very proper. If Nolan were off'ered a
staff appointment, then the authorities raight rightly
require him to retire from Parliaraent on condition.
Lt.-Col. Home has lately obtained his Lt. -Colonelcy
in the Blues, and it might have been right to raake
his proraotion depend on his giving up his seat. But
in fact, at the present day the abuse is slight corapared
with the evil which power in the hands of the
Coraraander-in-Chief raight create by meddling with
members, and with men standing for election.
As regards Nolan, I may add that the authorities
could have removed him from his Battery, now at
Rangoon, if they had desired. There are raany
Artillery Majors anxious to go out to India. As it is
the Battery has now a Captain and three Subalterns
to 80 gunners. When I was a boy, under 17, I
commanded a corapany stronger than this, and I was
told did it very well. Yours very sincerely,
G. Balfour

3IO LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CCXI.
Mr. JOHN PERCY.
House of Commons, June 15, 1881.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I have pleasure in presenting you with ray last
published volurae on Metallurgy, the fifth, on silver
and gold. I have indicated certain places to which
I beg to direct your special attention.
If I live I shall coraplete the series. I have nearly
ready a new edition of my " Iron and Steel." I have
spent nearly 40 years of my life in the study of
metallurgy, and the writing of the volumes I have
published has cost rae 20 years. I did the latter
solely with the object of proraoting the School of
Mines which I laboured hard to establish, or assist in
establishing. I have made no profit whatever from
these voluraes, but I ara amply repaid for my labour by
the fact that they have been well, more than well,
received in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain,
the United States, South America, and the Australian
Colonies. My collection, which it has cost me forty years to
form, can never be got again. Not all the money in
the Treasury could purchase raany of the speciraens,
because they are unique. I intended to have
bequeathed it to the nation, but now, thanks to the
action of Mundella's iraraediate predecessors, it shall
go to America, anywhere, even to the bottom of the

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 311
sea, sooner than that department at South Kensington
shall have it. Very truly yours, John Percy.

No. CCXII.
Mrs. H. p. COBB.
Wealdstone House,
Harrow Weald, Stanmore, Nov. 4, 1 881.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Ever since I have seen you I have so often thought
of your views of the Coercion Act, and how you
wished that all prisoners had been let free on the
passing of the Land Act, and I have so much wished
I could know what you thought of the arrest of Mr.
Parnell and his chief colleagues, that I thought I
might write to ask you. At first I felt dreadfully
sorry about it, but so soon after it really seeraed as if
order were at last coraing out of chaos, and the people
going to use the new Land Courts in a fair spirit, that
I could not help believing it was right to have
silenced the man who so tried to keep up the chaos.
Do you think so now ? A letter Mr. Goldwin Sraith

312 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
wrote in the Pall Mall Gazette, of Oct. 14, influenced
me very much. I wonder if you saw it. I always
do agree with hira. He says " It is not in ray line to
conderan any man for wanting to overturn a Govern
ment if he thinks it is bad, and that he can put a
better in its place," but he still thinks the Union
ought to be maintained, and the Governraent has been
right unless it raeant to forfeit all authority.
It really does seera hopeful, does it not, that the
people are trying to give the Land Act a fair trial,
and the way the priests speak in favour of order is
satisfactory too. I ara so very fearful, finding myself
through all times of history sympathising with the
revolutionary side, that I now ara false to ray
principles in not being heart and soul with these
insurgents, and I should like to know very much what
you with your Radical principles think. Please do
not write to me if it is a trouble, and forgive me for
troubling you.
I hope that Mrs. Rylands is well.
Believe me, Sincerely yours,
Elizabeth Cobb.
My husband is not at this raoment at home, or he
would send some message.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 313
No. CCXIII.
Rt. Hon. J. STANSFELD, M.P.
Hyde Park Gate,
London, S.W.,
Nov. 9, 1881.
Dear Rylands, —
I have determined to take the opinion of the House
next session on Contagious Diseases question, and
not to be longer delayed and shunted, and put offi
The question is ripe, though the Coraraittee has not
reported ; for, at least, in my opinion, the hygienic
case for the Acts has broken down. I am quite
determined to begin the real fight, and that it shall be
real. Under these circumstances I confidently rely
on your active and friendly aid and co-operation,
both in the House and out of it.
Out of the House the request I have to make is
that you will accede to the request which will be
made to you, to speak at Bradford on our subject. I
intend to speak at Halifax. In the House you will
help me in the Debate, I feel sure. You will not
refuse me, I feel sure, either on public or on private
grounds. Truly yours, J. Stansfeld.

314 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE

No. CCXIV.
Rt. Hon. J. CHAMBERLAIN.
72, Prince's Gate, S.W.,
March 13, 1882.
My Dear Rylands, —
Many thanks for your friendly note. I raade up
my mind not to do anything rashly, or to give the
eneray a chance ; but I don't intend to let those d — d
snobs have it all their own way. It is monstrous that
it should actually be a disqualification for meraber
ship of a Liberal Club to have been in any way
distinguished as a Liberal. But I agree with you
that indignation would play into the hands of fellows
we want to beat, and must not be thought of while
anything else remains.
I find the good people at Birminghara are furious.
They will corae up and storm the club, if something
is not done. We can do a good deal, however, to
prevent such cowardly spite in future, and about this
I will talk to you when I see you.
Meanwhile again thanks for your letter.
Yours very truly,
J. Chamberlain.

UFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 315
No. CCXV.
Mr. E. G. SALISBURY.
13A, Gt. George Street,
Westminster, May 2, 1882.
My Dear Rylands, —
I saw Firth on Sunday evening, and read over to
him my draft petition, and we afterwards decided
that it was only due to Sir Henry James that he
should be warned not to coramit himself to any
statement about Chester in answer to anything Mr.
Charles Lewis raay saj', until he had seen rae. Of
course I ara very angry that those whose duty it was
to serve me, by stating the true facts to the Lord
Chancellor, and, indeed to the Coramissioners, should
have acted otherwise, but that is no good reason why
I should let Sir Henry James fall into a trap, and I
accordingly agreed that Firth should see him. I
understand that he has done so, and will tell me what
passed between thera, on his return frora Leeds,
where he has gone for a couple of days. The Draft
Petition is now settled, but as I am soft enough to
hesitate about printing it, and silly enough to hope
that, after all, I raay be saved from doing so, I have
not got it engrossed. The proper thing and just must
be for the Lord Chancellor to "hear" me formally,
as is provided for by law, but I ara too proud to go to
him cap in hand, when I know that he has unwittingly
done me a great wrong, although I ara told by those

3i6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
who know hira well that he would only be too glad,
as dear old Lush was, to be set right.
I shall be here all to-raorrow if you have occasion
to write rae. I am, my dear Rylands,
Yours very truly,
E. G. Salisbury.

CCXVI.
Mr. E. G. SALISBURY. Glan Aber, Chester, May 20, 1882.
My Dear Rylands, —
Tired to death, almost, I raanaged to slip away
frora town yesterday, and am now quietly reposing in
my old corner at home, trying to find out what our
local Tories have to saj' about Mr. Lewis, and his
proposed Chester motions in Parliaraent. He is
supposed to be nursing some spite against Mr.
Dodson, but why or wherefore I cannot find out. I
am satisfied, however, that he knows nothing of the
tme nature of the suppressed paragraph in my letter to
Lord Richard Grosvenor, but supposes it to have

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 317
reference only to something relating to the Duke of
Westminster !
This arises, I suspect, from a letter of mine to Mr.
Dodson (in which the Duke is referred to), and which
he so unfairly and needlessly handed over to the
Coraraissioners, and which they so spitefully printed
in the evidence ; but, as I told you, the Duke is in no
way alluded to in my letter to Lord Richard, and we
may rest content, therefore, as to that particular,
unless sorae of the Coramissioners have let the cat
out of the bag.
I have not, of course, proceeded further with my
petition since we raet, but it is readj' for engross
ment. My unwillingness to drag Mr. Gladstone's and
Lord Richard's naraes before Parliaraent reraains as
strong as ever, and I ara still hoping, even against
hope, thatthe Law Officersof the Crown will hit upon
some method of relieving me frora the false, unjust,
and (I think) illegal position in which the Coramis
sioners left rae. Had there been any pretext for their
action I should have remained passive, but as there is
none, and seeing also that I had acted in thorough good
faith and in compliance only with Lord Richard
Grosvenor's and Mr. Dodson's wishes, and upon the
assurance of counsel that I was legally entitled to act
as I did, I feel very strongly that the Government
are bound in honour to stand by me. Herbert
Gladstone asked me to see the Attorney-General,
but I cannot do that uninvited ; but I suppose no
progress will be made with the Bill until after the
holidays. This will give me time not only to confer

3l8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
with ray friends here as to the course I should adopt
in the last resource, but will give him time to con
sider what he can do for me.
Meanwhile, if you hear anything more I should be
glad if you would write to me here, where I propose
remaining for a fortnight.
I am, my dear Rylands,
Yours very truly,
E. G. Salisbury.

No. CCXVII.
Mr. E. G. SALISBURY. Glan Aber, Chester,
May 28, 1882.
My Dear Rylands, —
Amen ! I wish on many accounts your prayer
were answered quickly, for we true Reformers are
being led a very ugly and painful dance, and in the
very nature of things we must suffer. But low down
in the depths I find a sort of clinging affection for the
"Grand Old Man," though ray reason and ray experi
ence of hira would fain lay violent hands upon
"Grand," and say the "Old Man," is on the wane.
If Providence did but provide the way for escape I

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 319,
think Lord Hartington, with very raany short
comings, would be a safer and a better leader in
these degenerate times. I daily lift up my voice in
praise that Forster has gone to his own, and after
seeing the stuff Lord Granville is made of I can have
no manner of doubt that Lord Hartington is the man
for our money. I am very glad he took in good part
the "snub" of Thursday week ; it was not meant for
Um, for we renegades felt and do feel that it was a
downright shame to deceive him. We very soon
learnt that the race was ours, and if we had to fight
it over again we should add a hundred to our number.
I do not know Lord Hartington, but they say he was
far too busy in that business, and in reward for his
good service against "the Party," as they put it, he
wHl, I am told, have to fight a Liberal at Haverford
west next election. Bad as I ara, I've not got that
far yet, and I am a sufficiently good Liberal and
Welshman to object to that little game ; but if our
Treasury people are such fools as to go on annoying
their own supporters and patting the Tories on the
back, I cannot say that I will stand to my Welsh
guns much longer.
Lewis, I hear, has gone to Araerica. Good luck to
him ! for however much I should like to see Master
Ingrate Dodson trounced, I suspect Mr. Lewis would
have done us no good service. I thank you very
much for giving Mr. S. G. a poke. The pot is boiling,
and I can see the froth rising, and, in view of a
possible storra, I have told Lord Richard that if I put
in ray petition I raust have him examined. Should it

320 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
come to that pass, both he and others wiH fare badly,
I ara sorry to say, but they wiH have brought aU upon
themselves, because they have not believed the dictum
of Lord Justice Knight Bruce that "dishonesty was
the worst possible policy in the end." May your rest
be sweet, and till we raeet in the wicked upper room
at PaH Mall, where native Peers do raost congregate on
Saturdays, Believe me to remain, as ever.
Yours very truly,
E. G. Salisbury.

No. CCXVIII.
Mr. E. G. SALISBURY. Glan Aber, Chester,
June 6, 1882.
My Dear Rylands,—
The enclosed will be pleasant reading for you, if
you can only manage to wade through it. The first
letters gave rae a fair opportunity of writing and
printing ray own, and I hear that it is looked upon
in certain quarters as the warning of a coraing storm,
but that is far raore due to the io\\o^'vs\g fact , than to
the letter itself

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 321
Lord R. G. had professed to be working away like
a nigger with the Lord Chancellor on my behalf, and
on the i8th of August last he wrote to me, " I ara sure
everyone feels for you, and I can only regret as I do,
that my efforts with the Lord Chancellor produced no
good result." Of course, I believed him, but in
October last a friend told me he knew he had done
nothing, and Mary like, I nursed the stateraent in my
heart until I could fairly challenge the noble lord to
say ditto to the above or to assert the contrary. The
opportunitj' carae last week, and I wrote to ask, if he
had ever seen the Chancellor, or written to hira on ray
behalf ; the reply was (in my opinion) a shuffler, and
I accordingly required a distinct yes or no to my
question, and the other day I got this letter. ' ' I thought
that I had made it clear, for the reasons I gave you
in my letter of Thursday that I did not approach the
Lord Chancellor in your behalf ! " Whereupon, I sent
him a copy of what he had said in Aug., 1881, and if
thatleaven doesnot work the whole lump, there is more
in store that will put others ofthe co-fraternity in just
the same sort of hole. If these people are resolved
to act so unjustly to myself, and other good friends
who have helped them ; weH, they must be prepared
to bear the burden of their own sins, for if they refuse
to be warned by barkings, the bites will play old
Harry with them. My patience is all but exhausted,
and sorely as it will sorrow me to pay thera back in
their own coin, it will have to be done I fear. I ara
reraaining here as long as I can do so, but am coming
up the moment my clerk wires for me. A Tory friend

322 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
has been wanting me to tell him, in confidence, what
the " suppressed paragraph " contains, but I laughed
at him, and told hira they had better ask Mr. Lewis,
who pretended to know all about it. " Ah !" said he,
" it is about the Duke of course," and I laughed
again, for he rubbed his hands with glee, because he
thought he had me. Keep it dark, for although I owe
our own friends nothing, it would be fine fun to
see these fellows dropped into a hole of their own
making. I am, my dear Rylands,
Yours very truly,
E. G. Salisbury.

No. CCXIX.
Mr. E. G. SALISBURY. Glan Aber,
Chester, June 30, 1882.
My Dear Rylands, —
I have had to run home for a mouthful of fresh air,
and shall reraain here until my clerk says I am wanted
in Coramittees. I have a letter this morning frora a
friend who says there is no chance of the Disfranchise
ment BiH proceeding, for he says, " the Government

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 323
has more to do than it can accomplish, and I am not
at all sure that the ministers are not glad enough of
an excuse to get out of the foolish bill." I am told
Bright will not remain in the Cabinet if troops are
landed in Egypt, and I hope the statement is true,
for after the words he used to us on Saturday last, it
is manifest he is no " Jingo." But I am afraid the
diplomatists will persuade the Porte to let us occupy
the country, and so get over " the act of war " which
Bright spoke of.
I sincerely hope we have sufficient non-interven
tionists in Parliament to protest against an act of
aggression which has the elements^of danger in it, and
that they will be honest enough to do so, whether " the
grand old man " likes it or not. I even hope that he
is not so far lost to every sense of honour as to become
a party to the policy which he has so often condemned.
But my faith in him has been falling away so rapidly
of late that I can only just hope, and nothing more.
I have got Mr. William Brown to put the 1865 story
into writing for me, so that if anything should happen
to him, he having been the chief mover in it, and my
principal informant, I may have at hand a document
which will prove that Lord Richard's " not true," is
no better founded than the stateraent he hiraself raade
to me in 1881 in writing, and then flatly contradicted
in June, 1882, under his own hand.
I ara, my dear Rylands,
Yours very truly,
E. G. Salisbury.

324 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CCXX.
Mr. E. G. SALISBURY. Glan Aber, Chester,
Nov. 7, 1882.
My Dear Rylands, —
You know what a heaven-forsaken people we are
in this dooraed city, politically speaking, but there
are some good Liberals here who have not bowed
down and worshipped the great Idol, and who think
with Bright that the raoral law has some force left,
though it be not binding upon the nation unless it has
been blessed by Gladstone. The rank and file of the
party, however, swear by him and none else, and if
he bade thera crucify the Saviour afresh they would
do so with the greatest pleasure. But just now the
evil and the good politicians are wanting a Liberal
meeting, and as I happen to be "chief boss" at
present, it falls to my lot to deterraine what sort of a
meeting it is to be, and to bring down to it a swell
who can speak. We propose to have the meeting
early in December, and this is to be the order of it,
as fixed in ray own mind : —
1st. A few wise words from the chairraan.
2nd. A formal resolution, proposed and seconded
by local men, approving of the three hundred selected
for the " caucus " devildom.
3rd. A resolution calling upon the Government to
pass horae measures of a Liberal character, and to

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 325
reduce the public expenditure and taxation. That to
be proposed and seconded formally by local men, and
supported by a swell M.P. who can speak to it with
power. Will you come and plaj- " the part " in this great
performance ? I have asked no other friend, nor shall
I do so if you will come. I ara, as you know, anti-
Coercion, anti-Egypt, anti-Cloture, but I do not
propose to air ray fancies now, nor do I expect you to
do so, although I suppose we are all but one in faith,
but if you wish to do so, you are welcorae, and no one
shall say you nay. All I ask is that the " Grand Old
Man " may be allowed to enjoy his eminence in peace,
for greater far are the objects we have at heart than
is the erainence of the chief — at least, it is so with me,
for I do not care very much for the brightness of the
outside of the platter, when I have a very strong,
though unwilling, anxiety that the inside is but so-so,
at best. It has taken line upon line to bring my lagging
heart to the point, but the "moral law'' business
settled me, and I stand at " attention."
Let me have a quick reply and an affirmative one,
for upon this rock, Peter, I place my trust.
I am, my dear Rylands,
Yours very truly,
E. G. Salisbury.

326 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CCXXI.
Mr. JAMES HOWARD, M.P. (Bedfordshire.)
Claphara Park,
Bedfordshire, Dec. i6, 1882.
My Dear Rylands, —
The Warrington Guardian enclosed was sent to rae, I
assurae, by Mr. Thomas Robinson. On looking at
the first leader I was surprised to find it a reproduc
tion from the landlords' Tory paper, the Chamber of
Agricidture Journal, often styled " Pell's Gazette,"
Albert being the chief wire-puller. What can
Robinson be thinking about in disseminating Tory
sentiments on the Land Question ? I enclose you a
copy of my last speech, the one referred to, as it
shows the lines upon which advanced men think the
tenant right question should be based. I also send
you a copy of my evidence ; just glance at Bonamy
Price's cross-examination.
With kind regards to Mrs. Rylands,
I ara, yours very truly,
James Howard.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 327
No. CCXXII.
Mr. T. B. POTTER, M.P.
105, PaH MaH, S.W.,
March 31, 1883.
My Dear Rylands, —
I was yesterday talking to Mr. Sarauel Whitbread,
M.P,, about the advisability of republishing our 1887
little volurae, the correspondence relative to the
" Budgets of Foreign Countries," with a view to the
enlightenment of Members of Parliament and others
on the subject of forming some sort of Estimates
Committee for our own country. He thinks well of
the idea, and is to give rae further advice.
You should read up the little volurae which was
edited by Probyn, and of which we distributed 3000
copies. Of course, now, extensive additions could be
raade, and Whitbread raight give good counsel in the
raatter. This question should form part of your
speech on Friday next.
Without some sort of Estiraates Committee to
control prospective expenditure, before the raoney is
spent, all the efforts of raen like you and Joe Hurae
Will be comparatively fruitless. Ever yours,
T. B. Potter.

328 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
CCXXIII.
Mr. JOHN GADSBY.
12, Carabridge Road,
Brighton,
April 9, 1883.
Dear Sir, — •
I venture to think that ray name will be familiar to
you as that of an old Manchester man ; I was the
printer and publisher ofthe Anti-Corn-Law League.
Referring to your Bill on the National Expenditure,
I will give you a fact or two. I knew a young man
sorae years ago who was a clerk in the Adrairalty ; I
called upon hira several tiraes at Somerset House ; on
one occasion I said to him, " you don't appear to be
killed with work here." " Killed," he replied, " there
are three of us in this roora with ;^30o a year each,
and I could do double the work of all three, but it is
not for rae to say so." I knew another case. There
was a change in the Government, and sorae consequent
changes were made. I was taking supper with a
gentleman, not raore than 45 years of age, when he
said, jocularly, he was out of work. " Here," he
said, " I ara in the prime of life, and have been made
into a pauper by Mr.  " (the new Prime Minister,)
"he has superannuated rae on full pay, ;^8oo a year."
Now these are facts ; this is the way our money goes.
I heard of a third case, my informant assuring rae
he knew the parties. A warra supporter of the then
Government applied for a berth for his nephew.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 329
" Oh yes," said the Premier, " he shaH have ;^300 a
year." Months passed away, but nothing was heard
of the berth, therefore the uncle told the Premier
he had forgotten his promise. " No," replied the
Premier, " I have not ; if he will go to Somerset
House, he will find his quarter's salary waiting for
him." I wonder if he had to enquire where Soraerset
House was. Yours, truly, John Gadsby.

No. CCXXIV.
Sir WILLIAM WEDDERBURN.
14, St. Jaraes's Square, S.W.,
July I, 1883.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
With reference to our conversation, in which you
expressed a wish to become more familiar with Indian
affairs, I take the liberty to enclose copies of the
prospectus of a Magazine, which we have lately
started, intended to bring Indian questions more
before the English public; I am sorry to say that,
hitherto, we have not been successfu- in getting it a
circulation in England ; in part, I think, because
retired Indians are, for the most part, at present

330 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
strongly against Lord Ripon's raeasures, approved by
the native Press, and, therefore, we do not get support
frora those naturally interested in India. What we
specially desire is to get the Magazine into the
reading rooms of popular Libraries, Institutes, etc.,
so that it raight be generally read, and I thought that
perhaps you could kindly help us in this respect as
regards Lancashire, which has a direct interest in
Indian prosperity. In India we have a circulation
of over 500, but (alas!) in England, where a circulation
is really important, we have only some 50 subscribers.
In a separate packet I forward a copy of the last
nuraber issued. Believe rae,
Yours sincerely,
W. Wedderburn.

No. CCXXV.
Sir WILLIAM WEDDERBURN.
14, St. Jaraes' Sq.,
London, S.W.,
Sept. 7, 1883.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I am sure that you wHl be glad to hear that I had a
friendly and sympathetic reception from the Chamber

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 331
of Coraraerce, and they have asked me to give a
public lecture on the subject of Agricultural Banks ;"
this I hope to do about the beginning of next month.
One of those who took the most interest was the
Mayor of Salford, and I was in great hopes that his
name would turn out to be Young in order to fulfil the
prophecy of the spirits, but unfortunately his name is
Husband. However, I think the young ladies will be
glad to hear that the spirit was partly correct.
My interview with Sir A. Colvin was a brief one,
but I was glad to find that he holds " sound " views
regarding the Indian raigat. I also, to-day, saw Sir
Louis Mallet and had some talk with him on the
topic we discussed. He seemed to think that Lord
Hartington was inclined to a reform of the Indian
Office, and I have no doubt Sir Louis himself would
give effectual help when out of harness. He seeraed
to think that the first step would be to get a
Parliamentary Enquiry.
With kindest regards to Mrs. Rylands and yourself,
and thanks for my very pleasant visit.
Believe me. Yours sincerely,
W. Wedderburn.

332 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE,
No. CCXXVI.
Mr. j. E. JOHNSON-FERGUSON. Kenyon, Dec. 2, 1883.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I ara duly in receipt of your letter of the ist inst. I
ara both astonished and disappointed on receiving
last evening from Mr. Blackly the progrararae of the
raeeting. I instructed hira to reverse the order of
the resolutions, which places you fourth in order of
speakers, and if you wish you can raove in place of
supporting the resolution. No doubt they placed
your name to a resolution dealing with the franchise
rather than to one expressing unabated confidence in
the future administration of national affairs by the
Government, as you have so often opposed the
Government that they felt doubtful whether it would
be agreeable to you. But it would be better, in ray
opinion, if agreeable to you, for you to raove or second,
and Mr. Russell to second or support the first
resolution of confidence in the Governraent ; and let
the second resolution on the Franchise be dealt with
solely by local raen.
It will be a great disappointraent for our people not
to see you, and no inconvenience to arrange the
resolutions as you raay wish. I, therefore, hope we
raay see you. Yours truly,
J. E. Johnson-Ferguson.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 333
No. CCXXVII.
Sir WILLIAM WEDDERBURN.
48, Welbeck St.,
London, W.,
Deceraber ig, 1883.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Since I last saw you I have been working at the
scheme for a small and inforraal coraraittee of
independent members for the raanagement of Indian
Affairs in the House of Comraons. I now enclose a
printed merao giving a sketch of the scherae. This I
have shown to Mr.John Bright, who is, I think, willing
to take the lead in the raatter. Mr. Slagg, who is
now in London, is taking rauch interest in the
proposal. We think that Colonel Osborn would
make an excellent secretary, as he is well informed on
all Indian subjects, sound in his views, and very
accurate. He is willing to give us his services.
I should have much liked to see you again to talk
over the matter, but unfortunately I have to leave for
India next week (Monday, 24th). I have the pleasure
to enclose copy of a lecture I have just been giving
about the Indian raigat.
Please remember me very kindly to Mrs. Rylands
and the young ladies.
And believe me.
Yours sincerely,
W. Wedderburn.

334 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CCXXVIII.
Mr. M. DALY.
Bostall House,Abbey Wood,
Kent, Feb. I, 1884.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
It is a very long time since I have had this
pleasure, although I have often wished to write you,
but not liking to bother you I always put the idea
aside. Lately I have thought a good deal about your last
speech on the public expenditure of this country, a
subject which has not received or raet with that
attention in Parliaraent which it deserves. The
enorraous burdens of taxation in this country are
frightful, the worst feature of which is the rapidity
with which they are increasing without any effectual
check upon them. And this is general in every depart
ment of the State. In the two great Revenue
Departments, the Custoras and Inland Revenue
Departraents, notwithstanding the abolishing of so
many duties and the simplification of others, the total
cost has been making steady advance year by year.
In sorae cases the increased cost can only be properly
described as a scandalous raisappropriation of the
public raoney. The wholething is perfectly astounding,
and it seeras altogether inconceivable that such a
state of things should be allowed to exist.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 335
I do not know if it is your intention to take any
action in the matter next session. My hope and wish
is that you may. I do not think, however, if you will
permit me to say so, that a mere Resolution will have
any good result. A select coramittee, with an open
enquiry, would be far raore useful. Should you decide
upon any action, I need scarcely say that I shall be
delighted to assist you in every way I can, and give
evidence, if a Committee is appointed.
Believe me.
Very faithfully yours,
M. Daly.

No. CCXXIX.
Mr. G. G. ADAMS.
126, Sloane Street,
Feb. 14, 1884.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Having noticed that there is to be a new equestrian
statue of the late Duke of Wellington, I prepared a
group for the corapetition promised by Mr. Shaw-
Lefevre in the House of Commons, and reported in
the Times oi K-ag. 10, 1883. I was appointed to cast
the features after death of the great Duke, and after
producing a bust, received a comraission from her

336 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Majesty to execute one in marble for Buckingham
Palace. I have executed many for H. G., the
present Duke, and also many for others ofthe nobility;
one has been placed in the Church at Waterloo,
Belgium ; in competition I obtained the coraraission
for the bronze statue of the great Duke, erected in the
city of Norwich ; this has given rae opportunities of
portraying the exact linearaents of the hero, which
should, I think, obtain for rae the greater consideration
for the commission. I executed, amongst other
statues, the colossal bronze statue of General Sir
C J. Napier, Trafalgar Sq., London. I forgot to
raention that the present Duke, the faraily, and all
who knew hira best, have pronounced mine as the
authentic head of Wellington.
And beHeve me, I am.
Yours very truly,
Geo. G. Adams.

No. CCXXX.
Rt. Hon. G. SHAW-LEFEVRE, M.P. (Reading.)
House of Commons, March 5, 1884.
Dear Rylands, —
I ara quite asharaed to have to ask you to put oft
your question again about the statue ; I expect.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 337
however, to receive the report frora the Prince of
Wales Coraraittee, on the subject, in two or three
days' time, and tiH then, I shaH not be in a position to
answer. Cavendish Bentinck has put off a question
on the same subject tiH Thursday in next week, and
if you will do the same I will answer both at the same
time. Yours very truly,
G. Shaw-Lefevre.

No. CCXXXI.
Mr. G. G. ADAMS.
126, Sloane Street,
AprH 7, 1884.
Dear My. Rylands, —
This is to thank you for all you did m the
House of Commons on Thursday last, with regard to
the Wellington equestrian group. I hope to see you
soon and to thank you personally. I find you are
commended on all sides for your good endeavours.
And believe me, I am,
Yours very obligedly,
G. G. Adams.

338 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CCXXXII.
Rt. Hon. G. A. F. CAVENDISH BENTINCK.
3, Grafton Street,
Bond Street, W.,
April ig, 1884.
My Dear Rylands, —
If we don't look sharp Shaw-Lefevre will jockey us.
He has never presented the report of the Wellington
Statue Committee, without which the question raani
festly cannot be properly discussed, and if he brings
the vote on next Monday he will distinctly violate the
promise he gave to rae. I have sent to the House
to-day, when I was informed that the report had not
yet been presented to Parliaraent. I have written to
Shaw-Lefevre on the subject, but like all Radical
rainisters he is sure to repudiate.
Considering that the Governraent handed over the
decision of the question to the coraraittee, I do not
see how we can decide the question without the com
mittee's decision and the grounds of it.
Yours faithfully,
G. C Bentinck.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 339

No. CCXXXIII.
Mr. G. G. ADAMS.
126, Sloane St.,
AprH 28, 1884.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Thanks for your kind letter, and thought I raust
acquaint you with a fact which I have just heard, that
I am chosen to produce an equestrian group in
preference to Mr. Boehm, and by, I ara told,
coraparison of work ; it will be colossal. It appeared
to me Mr. Shaw-Lefevre's wishing to postpone your
motion was to take advantage, as a kind of doubling
upon you, forming a new comraittee and giving the
comraission to Mr. Boehm.
I shall hope to see you in a day or two, and I shall
be most interested in watching matters with regard
to the Board of Works, etc. Mr. Cowan was sorry
to have been absent, but will be present on the next
occasion. In haste, I ara.
Yours very faithfully,
Geo. G. Adams.

340 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CCXXXIV.
Mr. C B. lawes (Sculptor).
i6, Michael's Grove, S.W. May 3, 1884.
Wellington Statue.
Sir, —
I see by the report of your speech that you are
already well inforraed on this subject ; and I write to
ask you (if it is not too late) if you would bring
forward a raotion to the effect that " It would be
raore just, and give greater satisfaction to the country,
if Messrs. Birch and Brock were asked to send in
sketches as well as Mr. Boehm," Messrs. Birch and
Brock being the two artists who by coramon consent
have most distinguished themselves in the pro
duction of equestrian groups (besides Mr. Boehm).
I may add that the two artists who shall be not
selected should be paid for their time and trouble.
I put rayself at your service in any way you raay
desire for supplying inforraation, etc.
I remain, Yours truly,
C B. Lawes.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 341
No. CCXXXV.
Mr. DUNCAN McLAREN.
Newington House, Edinburgh, Dec. 29, 1884.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
In nearly all you say I agree, but still I think there
are blots in the BiU, and that the Tories have got
great concessions. My published letters were of course
written before I had seen the Distribution Bill, but I
have good reason to believe that from copies of my
published letters and private letters sent to Mr.
Gladstone and others an important protective safe
guard was inserted (sub-section 3 of clause 8) which
struck at the root, preventing rich men having more
than one vote in large towns. My fear is that " faggot
votes " will be largely increased in counties. There is
nothing to prevent a man having qualifications and
voting in each of the 23 divisions of Lancashire, for
exaraple, by purchasing forty shilling freeholds, whilst
the poor man, who forraerly voted for two merabers,
can only vote for one, owing to the single raember
system. But the admission of all householders will
cover a raultitude of defects. In Scotland, the class
now admitted will be nearly all Liberals, and very few
Tories can by any chance be returned to Parliament.
I am always pleased to see your name in the debates,
holding up the Radical flag as of old, and I trust there
will be many helpers returned to assist you in the

342 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
battle. In a fortnight I shall have completed my
85th year, and I feel very weH in health but very deaf.
Believe me.
Yours very sincerely,
D. McLaren.

No. CCXXXVI.
Mr. W. MELLOR.
23, Sarauel Street, Crewe,
Jan. 24, 1885.
Dear Sir,^ —
I thank you for your letter, which I received yester
day, though, I assure you, we at Crewe are not at all
likely to forget the claims of Mr. Latham. The
association of which I ara president will support that
gentleraan's candidature, and I have good reason to
think we shall carry him at the raeeting of the District
election Coraraittee, which is to be held at Crewe on
this day raonth. His only rival, I think, will be
Torakinson, whose friends have been very busy during
the last few weeks. Hence the rather audacious
proceedings of the Nantwich people — or, rather, of a
few of them who have promised to act for the rest.
In Crewe, however, I only know of one raan of any

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 343
influence whatever who is in favour of Torakinson as
against Latham. We are nearly half of the Division,
and shall have 122 votes on the Election Committee,
the whole number of members of that comraittee being
between 250 and 260. I am aiming to secure perfect
unanimity among our Crewe men, and having secured
that, the rest will be easy. How the rural populations
will go I cannot tell, as they are new to us and we to
them, for the most part ; but we shall be all right if
we can only secure a few of them. I respect
Torakinson, but he will compare badly with Latham
as a politician, and, moreover, his place seeras to rae
in his own locality. The people in his own Division
-want hira, and I should be glad if he will coraply with
their request. Truly yours,
W. Mellor.

In March, 1885, the following Letter of Thanks was
sent frora England to those colonies which had offered
troops for the campaign in Egypt : —
"We, the undersigned subjects of the Queen resi
dent in the Old Country, desire to express our gratitude
to our countrymen and kindred beyond the sea for the
generous offer they have raade to send troops for active
service. We have always believed that our ties of
blood and common love of freedora would keep the
Empire one and indivisible. We thank you for this
proof that our faith is founded on truth."

344 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Araong the signatures to this letter was that of Mr.
Peter Rylands, which called forth frora Sir Wilfrid
Lawson the following ironical note : — ¦

No. CCXXXVII.
Letter of Thanks to the Colonies.
This is what it ought to have been : —
" We, the undersigned Dukes, Lord Mayors,
Goschenites, Forsterites, jingoes, philosophers, poets,
Marquises, and recreant Radicals, resident in this
crazy old country, desire to express our gratitude
to our countryraen and kindred at the antipodes for
the idiotic step which they have taken in sending
their fellow-citizens to be slaughtered in the Soudan,
We have always believed that our common love for
bloodshed, rapine, and plunder, and hatred of all right
and justice would keep us thoroughly united when we
could discover any weaker nation whora we could rob
with irapunity.
We thank you for this proof that you are as blood
thirsty hurabugs as we are ourselves, and remain.
Your fellow bandits,
Peter Rylands, etc., etc.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 345
No. CCXXXVIII.
Mrs. JOSEPH KAY.
18, Hyde Park Gardens, W.,
May 14, 1885.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I proraised to write to you again when all the
arrangeraents were raade for the cheap edition of my
husband's book, " Free Trade in Land." L took the
proofs of the Title Page, etc., back to Messrs. Kegan,
Paul, Trench & Co. the day before yesterday, and in
a short tirae I hope the book will be out, as the
publishers are anxious it should be ready as soon a§
possible. I told you that I wished the " Note " about Lord
Cairns' Act, etc., should be written by " a Chancery
Barrister of high reputation and Liberal views," and
I have succeeded, beyond my hopes, as Mr. Osborn
Morgan's " Review of recent changes in the Land Laws
of England," which he has raost kindly and generously
written for me, and this cheap edition of " Free Trade in
Land " is very interesting, and will add to the interest
and value of the Letters. The Review will take the
place of the Appendix, which, as you know, is oraitted
in the present edition.
The copies which the Cobden Club have arranged
to take will, I believe, be ready before the dinner (of
the Club) takes place.
Believe rae. Dear Mr. Rylands,
Yours sincerely,
Mary E. Kay.

346 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CCXXXIX.
Mr. E. G. SALISBURY. Glan Aber, Chester, Aug. 25, 1885.
My Dear Rylands, —
You will, no doubt, have seen that Morgan Lloyd
has been acting upon raj' suggestion, when we last saw
hira together at the Club, and he is, in ray opinion,
carrying all before him. Pope-- addressed a very
'• Pope-' ' like letter to him, calling hira over the coals, etc. ,
and threatening all sorts of pains and penalties if he
persevered in his wicked ways, and — as I think — very
foolishly, and unfairly, published it, before Lloyd
could have a chance of answering it. I have cut out
Morgan's reply and send it to you, as you raaj' not
have seen it.
I have another brew on hand now, and expect to
play old gooseberry with another of the blood and
thunder Gladstonians, but it will take sorae little tirae
to bring it to pass. The Chester fiasco is being
worked out, and so far it looks healthy.
I am, ray dear Rylands,
Yours very truly,
E. G. Salisbury.
•Gladstone.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 347

No. CCXL.
Mr. MORGAN LLOYD. Aberdovey,
Sept. 27, 1885.
Dear Rylands, —
Herel ara, fighting two, asyouare probably aware, and
ray Liberal Opponent* is unscrupulous, and scattering
his raoney right and left. I propose having a deraon
stration at Blsenau Festiniog, the only really populous
place, here I ara very strong, and I want sorae help.
Can you corae and help me ? You will be received
bythe electors like a Prince. Salisbury has been with
rae, and I hope he will come to Blaenau Festiniog.
You would do rae a great service if you could corae.
Would Saturday next suit you, or would some other
day suit you better ? Say the following Saturday.
Yours sincerely,
Morgan Lloyd.
* Mr. Robertson, of Pale, whowas elected.

348 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE,
No. CCXLI.
Mr. F. schnadhorst.
National Liberal Federation,
Birmingham, September 9, 1885.
Dear Sir, —
Although writing under the above heading, I am
not writing on a political matter, but to ask you if
you care to assist some hurable friends of raine. To
day, a Mr. Church, whom I have known sorae years
as a secretary of a trade society, called upon and told
me that he and a few other workraen had started a
co-operative society for the raanufacture of vegetable
ivory buttons, and to ask rae if I would write to you
and beg you to get your firra to give them a chance of
showing what they can do. I know the men to be
honest and steady, and if you can give them a chance
at the beginning of this undertaking, I shall be much
obliged. Pray excuse ray troubling you upon a matter of this
kind. I ara. Yours faithfully,
F. Schnadhorst.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 349

No. CCXLII.
Sir WILFRID LAWSON. Brayton,
Carlisle, Nov 2, 1885.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Thanks for yours. These stupid people keep
writing rae stupid letters, and I ara obliged to send
thera stupid answers of some kind or other.
I don't in the least doubt that you will go as of yore
against trie publican and for the public. Are not
things going on grandly ?
The Bishops, the Beershops, and all of that lot.
Like lightning, I tell you, they're going to jiiot ;
Though Goschen and Hartington put on the brake.
It all is in vain, for the folks are awake.
The horses are good, and Joe Chamberlain steers
Smack bang over publicans, jDrelates, and peers,
'VS'hile Rylands and Lawson, as pleased as can be,
Stand up in the dickey both yelling with glee.
Ever yours,
Wilfrid Lawson.

350 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CCXLIII.
Mr. JOHN RAMSAY.
Western Club, Glasgow,
Nov. 28, 1885.
Dear Mr. Rylands,—
I congratulate you on your return as Representative
of Burnley to your seat in the House of Commons.
The poll in ray case does not take place till Friday,
the 4th prox., and I have been thinking this evening
that if convenient and you are not engaged, you
raight possibly be willing to come North and address a
meeting to promote Liberal unity araong the electors,
and secure the seat against the Tory who is opposed
to me. For my success against that person himself
I should have required no aid, but as two carpet
baggers have entered the field you will easily under
stand that the votes of the Liberal electors raay be
divided and the Tory maj' gain the seat.
Of Mr. Mason, the Tory candidate, I know nothing,
but he is said at one time to have been the General
Manager of the North British Railway, and to have
been requested to resign. Some of those who know
him say that he would not well raaintain the position
of a Scottish representative. Mr. Mason, as I have
said, would not have had a chance of success, indeed
I think he would not have corae forward, were it not
that a Mr. Weir, frora Hampstead, who, it seems, is
a norainee of the London Land Restoration League,

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 351
and a German Jew from Manchester, a lad of 22 years
of age, have both become candidates, claiming to be
regarded as extremely advanced Radicals, further
advanced I presume than even Charaberlain. None
of the three are known here, but the two Radicals
would doubtless each receive votes, and this would so
divide the electors as to give the seat to the Tory.
Several respectable raen have been privately asked
to take ray place, and I would gladly have withdrawn,
but no one would corae forward, and ray friends are
anxious I should go to the poll. I have agreed to da
so. In these circumstances I think ifyou could make
a speech at Hamilton on the evening of Thursday, the
3rd prox, you might aid the Liberal cause, do me a
personal service, and gain the seat. Consider this,
and if you possibly can come wire to let me know.
You will excuse me for making such a request, in any
case. I am ever. Yours very truly,
John Ramsay.

352 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CCXLIV.
Sir ughtred KAY-SHUTTLEWORTH. Gawthorpe Hall,
Padiham,
Nov. 28, 1885.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
We heartily rejoice that Burnley is true to you and
the Liberal cause, and that you are again our M.P.
It is most satisfactory that the combination of two
unscrupulous parties against you and the Liberal
party has failed, and that your raajority is within 60 of
that you gained in 1880. If another election occurs
within the next year or so, as seeras not unlikely now,
your seat will be held by a larger raajority than ever.
I get letters daily frora Liberal politicians of various
degrees of Radicalisra, attributing their difficulties or
disasters to our friend Charaberlain and his progrararae,
and the spirit in whichhe has thrust it forward. There
is an able article in to-day's " Econoraist," supporting
this view. We have all to take to heart the fact that
the truest Liberals and Radicals should be, and should
show that they are. Conservative in the true sense of
the word, and show that they are not Jacobins.
How utterly the Times fails to realise the situation,
and the danger of Toryisra, especially Randolphian
Toryism, in office by favour of Parnell, and at the
mercy of hira and his henchraen ! It is conveniently
ignored that there will be raore Liberals than Conser
vatives in the Parliaraent, when Wales and Scotland

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 353,
have spoken, and that the Conservatives will really
be in a helpless minority.
Lord G. Hamilton is vulgarly offensive at Shaw-
Lefevre's expense.
I hope a week hence I may claim to be your
colleague. Yours very truly,
U. K. Shuttleworth.

No. CCXLV.
Mr. JESSE COLLINGS, M.P. (Ipswich.)
Edgbaston, Birminghara, ,
Dec. 31, 1885.
My Dear Rylands, —
Many thanks for your letter. So far as we know or
can guess in any way there is not the least grounds
for a petition. No one could be more careful than we
were, or could take raore precautions than we did.
The Tories were quite sure of winning, and had my
effigy and a coffin ready to bury rae, on the declaration
of the poll. Their rage against me knows no bounds,
and was expressed over and over again while I was.
at work in the County, before I got to the Borough.
When they lost not only the Borough, but every

354 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
division of the County (where no Liberal had ever
been before), they declared they would " get me out
by hook or by crook."
The money is supplied by the Carlton Club and
others outside, not a penny by the Tories in the
Borough. Unfortunately they do not claim the seat,
for we have many clear cases against them, which,
we cannot, in consequence, deal with. Indeed, their
corrupt action is notorious.
There is no charge brought against rae personallj',
but against agents, and it depends what agency is.
If I ara raade responsible for every act of everyone
whora I do not know, and over whom I have no
•control, and after I have (which is the case) used
every endeavour, these elections will be very difficult.
However, they won't care what happens if I can be
got out. In any case they can give rae rauch trouble
and create great expense. The position is rather a
coraical one. I ara credited, generally, with having
redeemed the Borough from corruption, so far as the
Liberal party is concerned. Three elections have
been fought since 1880, absolutely pure, and though
the Tories have used their old practices, they have in
each case lost, and now thej' are charging with
corruption the very people who have opposed and
destroyed corrupt practices.
Believe me with all good wishes for you and yours
for the coming season. Very truly yourr,
Jesse Collings.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 355
No. CCLXVl.
Mr. j. HENWOOD THOMAS.
H.M. Customs, London, E.C,
Dec. 5, 1885.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
Now that the fight is over and you have had time
to take breath, will you allow rae to congratulate you
on your victory at Burnley ? I felt very anxious
about your contest, because I did not know whether
there might be a large contingent of Irish electors
who, voting with mechanical obedience to the Nation
alist wire-pullers, would turn the scale against you.
I was much delighted when I saw the telegram
announcing your success. My satisfaction was, of
course, largely due to personal regard, but it was
increased by the hope that you will insist on the
appointraent of your Coraraittee on Public Expendi
ture. As editor of the Civilian, I have encouraged
the service to believe that the result of the
enquiry which you have in conteraplation raust
be beneficial to the "working bees," while getting
rid of the "drones," as j'Our coramittee would ascertain
the why and the wherefore of all the raain iteras
of expenditure
At present the two departments of Customs and
Inland Revenue are in a raost deplorable condition.
Tlie adrainistrative policy pursued in both has created,
and is deepening, a feeling of positive disgust in the

356 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
official ranks. Men who are thus treated and dis
heartened are those upon whose zealous and voluntary
activity the securitj' of the revenue depends, and I
ara not surprised to hear, consequently, that smuggling
is largely on the increase at numerous ports, while
illicit distillation seems to be simply rampant. It really
amuses rae to see statesraen and journalists speculating
on the causes of a declining revenue, when I feel
certain that rauch is due to the " penny wise, pound
foolish " policy that is dignified with the narae of
administration. The constant violation of implied
contracts is not conducive to zealous service. It may
be both wise and equitable (I don't think so) to reduce
the salary of one official from ;^i8o to ;£'8o, and at the
sarae tirae to increase the salary of another from /"goo
to ;^i,ooo; also to take away sixpence a day (given
by Treasury order on account of long and good
service) from a number of men whose day pay is but
3s. 6d., and give a lurap sura of ;^400 as a gratuity to
a raan whose raaximura salary is ;^i,ooo ; also to
deprive men, whose pay is hardlj' sufficient to enable
them to keep body and soul together, of sixpence a
day allowed for travelling expenses when eraployed
at the distant docks, and to give ;^ioo as
"removal expenses" to a raan who is proraoted
to an office with a salary of ^1,400. The policy
which such cases represent may be wise, but I
know that it creates disgust, and I believe that
instead of being economical it is really wasteful,
because it destroys the zeal upon which the safety of
the revenue depends.

LIFE .4ND CORRESPONDENCE. 357
It is high time for your comraittee to enquire into
the work and expense of administration.
Yours very sincerely,
J. Henwood Thomas.

No. CCXLVII.
Mr. W. COLLINGE.
St. James' Street, Burnley,
March 24, 1886.
My Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I read your message anent the political situation at
our last raeeting of the Executive Coraraittee. I pre
sumed you would have no objection to this, seeing
that your name has been frequently mentioned in
connection with the subject in the papers. Personally,
so far as Mr. Gladstone has declared himself, I ara
strongly in syrapathy with the position you have taken
up, and so are raany others. Still, as you know, there
are many in Burnley who swear by Mr. Gladstone,
and if there is any probability of an election soon, no
doubt you would poll best here by adopting a waiting
policy before declaring yourself strongly against his
plan. This is a very awkward question, and without
the Irish vote we cannot afford to alienate any large

358 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE
section of the party. However, you know best what
course to adopt.
Excuse this hint. With kind regards,
I am, yours sincerely,
W. Collinge.

CCXLVIIL
Mr. JOHN BARON. Burnley, AprH 13, 1886.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I hope you will excuse rae writing a line to you in
the present crisis in political raatters, but I feel I
cannot refrain from doing so. It is announced that
you are to speak at a raeeting in London to-morrow
night, along with Lord Hartington, Lord Salisbury,
and others, against Gladstone's Bill for the future
government of Ireland. I can assure you the feeling
in Burnley is very strong against the action you are
taking in this raatter. Many think it will seriously
prejudice j'ou with the electors, that you will split up
your own supporters, further alienate the Irish in the
town, and, on a contest, the Tories would, to a man,
go against you.
It is thought that although you cannot see your
way at present to support Gladstone's Bill, it would

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 359
be very much better for you to pursue a waiting policy
for a little while, at any rate until you see further
development of the scherae. You will, however, take
the course which your judgment guides you.
I trust you will forgive rae troubling you at all on
this subject.
Accept regards. Yours truly, Jno. Baron.

No. CCXLIX.
Mr. JESSE COLLINGS.
Edgbaston, Birminghara, AprH 13, 1886.
My Dear Rylands, —
I wrote you a letter the other day about the
Ipswich election, pointing out what was a fact, and a
fact which the Judges dwelt on, that the Liberal
managers of the petition had put everybody required,
and indeed everybody who was naraed, into the
witness-box, and had shown the raost ardent desire
to conceal nothing. I would not, of course, consent
to any course of which this was not the basis, and I
was glad to hear the Judges at Norwich fully admitting

36o LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
this fact, and comparing it favourably with the reti
cence which was being shown by the parties in that
borough. I write now, hovvever, to refer to the few words I
addressed to you in the Lobby of the House of
Commons on this subject, which I feel were wanting
in moderation and were verj- hasty, and I fear, might
be taken by you to be a little offensive. I want,
therefore, to withdraw them. The worries of the past
raonth or two have made me nervous and irritable,
but I should be doubly sorry to say anything to annoy
such a good old friend as yourself, and one whose
invariable goodness and kindness to me have been so
valuable. Excuse my writing, but this little incident has been
on my mind. Believe me.
Sincerely yours,
Jesse Collings.

P.S. — I am glad to notice that you are taking part
in opposition to the Grand Old Man's irapracticable
proposals. Tirae will vindicate your position ; infalli
bility in politics is as bad as infallibilitj' in religion.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 361
No. CCL.
THE O'DONOGHUE. Ballinahown Court,
Athlone,
AprH 12, 1886.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
As we sat for so raany years on the Liberal side,
and voted so invariably in the same lobby, I ara sure
you will not object to ray saying that I felt revived
when I saw that you had, with your usual thorough
ness, declared against Mr. Gladstone's most ruinous
and most insidious proposals. Their effect would be
to dirainish, seriously, the strength and prosperity and
glory of England, and absolutely to rend the Irish
social systera.
When the ruraour reached rae that Mr. Gladstone
was about yielding to the pressure of the Parnellites I
could not bring rayself to believe it, and told everyone
there was not a particle of truth in the report. It
appeared to rae inconceivable that the very raan who
had just proved the readiness and capacity of the
Imperial Parliament to do full justice to Ireland,
should be the man to set about impairing or destroying
the authority of that Parliament. No one points to a
single Irish grievance with which the Iraperial
Parliaraent refuses to deal.
All recent raoveraents have had for their object the
redress of sorae specific grievance or grievances.
O'Connell's agitation for the repeal of the Union, the

362 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
agitations for the repeal of the Corn Laws, for the
Disestablishment and Disendowraent ofthe Irish Pro
testant Church, all derived vitality and force frora
charges of injustice successfully brought against the
action of the Imperial Parliament. Now, no such
charges are brought, or can be brought, and thepresent
movement is purely and simply a "veiled" revolt
against the authority of the Imperial Parliament for
reasons that cannot be maintained without shocking
the conscience of raankind.
Mr. Gladstone has constantly pointed with legiti
mate pride to all that has been done for Ireland, and
I fully expected that he would have taken his stand
upon the broad and solid ground that the Iraperial
Parliaraent was able and willing to raeet all the
requireraents of the Irish people, but that to an
abridgment or surrender of its authority he could
never consent. You well know that when Mr. Pitt
carried the Union, it was not with the view of inter
fering in the local affairs of Ireland. For years and
years after the Union our local laws were different
frora those of England and Scotland. What Mr.
Pitt wanted to do was once and forever to preclude
the possibility of having seated at Dublin a hostile
legislature, which, in moraents of difficulty and danger
raight haraper and thwart the action of Great Britain,
and probably lead to grave disasters. It is ridiculous
to pretend that the danger which Mr. Pitt sought to
avert is a thing of the past. It is, in truth, greatlj'
intensified bj' raany circumstances peculiar to our
time, and by the notorious character of the body

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 363
which Mr. Gladstone proposes to invest with legis
lative authority.
O'Connell was a near relative of mine, and the
object of my devoted attachment and veneration. I
am well versed in his history and that of his family.
He was loyal to the Crown, to the connexion, to the
greatness and glory of old England, and I am con
vinced that he would recoil with horror at the idea of
placing the Governraent of Ireland in the hands of
what is now known as the Irish Parliaraentary Party.
With best wishes for the success of your patriotic
efforts, I am, yours trulj',
O'Donoghue.

No. CCLI.
Mr. MORGAN LLOYD.
53, Cornwall Gardens, S.W.,
June 7, 1886.
My Dear Rylands, —
Referring to our conversation on Saturday I need
not repeat the views on the present crisis which I
have more than once expressed to you, but I raay say
that I shall be prepared to do ray part in Wales
should a dissolution take place. I would suggest that

364 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
you could not do better, so far as Wales is concerned,
than to get Mr. Thomas Gee, of Denbigh, the pro
prietor of the Banner newspaper, to publish some of
the " Leaflets " in Welsh. Mr. Gee is opposed to the
Irish Bills, but he is a Radical, and agrees with
Charaberlain. He knows the Welsh people's way of
thinking, and could therefore give the " Leaflets " a
form which may be accptable to them. What raay
take in England would not necessarily promote the
cause amongst the Welsh people. We shall probably
see our way more clearly after the Division.
Yours sincerely,
Morgan Lloyd.

CCLII.
Rt. Hon. JOHN BRIGHT, M.P.
One Ash,
Rochdale, June 24, 1886.
My Dear Rylands, —
I see some of your old friends are at war with you,
and ara sorry to see it.
They make no allowance for what thej' deera an
error, even when viewed in connexion with many
years of honest service, and when the future may show

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 365
that, what to them is error, may turn out to have been
patriotism and wisdora.
It is grievous to see with what bitterness Liberals
can treat Liberals, whose fault is that they have
consistently supported principles which all Liberals
accepted less than a year ago.
Honesty and capacity in a raeraber are, with some,
of small value, in comparison with the suppleness
which permits or enables him to " turn his own back
upon himself," when a great political leader changes
his mind and his course.
I am surprised that any real Liberal should be
induced to oppose you ; he cannot excel you in a
faithful discharge of public duty, and I think he should
rather admire, than blame, your steadfast adherence
to the policy on which you believe you were elected
in November last.
If I have a place in the new Parliaraent, I hope I
raay find you in your seat, which is very near the one
I often occupy. Believe me, sincerely yours,
John Bright.

366 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
No. CCLIII.
Mr. JOSEPH COWEN.
Blaydon-on-Tune,
July 4, i885.
My Dear Rylands, —
Although you " have gone wrong," I must cordially
congratulate you on your re-election. I was sincerely
delighted at it.
You will now have an opportunity of expounding
the " wrong " way in a way that your critics and
censors won't like.
I hope you are well and hearty.
Believe me, ray dear Rylands,
Yours truly, Jos. CowEN.

No. CCLIV.
Right Hon. Sir G. O. TREVELYAN.
8, Grosvenor Crescent,
July 15, 1886.
Dear Rylands, —
In answer to your very kind letter I can only say I
had rather I was out than you, so you may iraagine
that the joy of battle and of victory is not the

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 367
sentiment that is uppermost in ray raind. The last
returns, showing a genuine rally in Scotland and sO'
largely increasing the Liberal Unionist contingent, are
very gratifying. You have been the worst used of
anybody, so that your return has been our greatest
success of this great carapaign.
Ever yours sincerely,
G. O. Trevelyan.

No. CCLV.
Mr. G. W. LATHAM.
Bradwall HaH,
Sandbach,
July 22, 1886.
My Dear Rylands,
I have not written to you since your election ;
partly because I have been out of heart and spirits,
and partly because politically I did not feel sure that
I could honestly congratulate you. But though
perhaps I might in one sense have rejoiced if the poll
had gone the other way, yet I can rejoice for your
sake that you have not after years of service been
turned adrift ; and I ara so sure that, when this
teraporary difference has passed away, we shall all be
at one again, that I count you as good a Liberal as
ever. I rejoice that the Governraent has not

368 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
challenged a vote of non-confidence before resignation.
A division on that would have accentuated our
differences and raade the breach irreparable. As it
is we shall soon unite on the coraraon ground of
opposition to Conservative maladministration.
I want to tell you about myself and why I have
.given up all my dreams of Parliament. The old
sj'mptoms which came on last Auturan, and were the
prelude to my breakdown, reappeared, and I went to
one Christopher Heath, who is said to be the surgeon
who knows most on these special troubles. He told
me that I could not live through a contested election ;
that, even were the seat uncontested, I should very
likely not be able to take my seat in November, and
that speaking broadly, I had the seeds of mortal
disease in me, and must preserve by rest and quiet
every particle of vitality which I had. I should have
been well content to have worked on, and if it need
have been to have died in harness ; but my own family
and my constituency had to be considered, and I
resigned all after a hard struggle. I was wise, for I
am gomg pretty fast down the hill already, though I ara
certainly better than I was in the middle of last week.
How solitary I should have been. Our benches
below the gangway have suffered more than any part
of the House. About half ofthe occupiers are turned
out. Cheshire too has almost reverted to Con
servatism. All kind regards. Yours sincerely,
G. W. Latham.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE, 369-
No. CCLVI.
Mr. D. W. MACFARLANE.
Oriental Club,
Hanover Square, W.,
July 23, 1886.
My Dear Rylands, —
Many thanks for your note of yesterday. I am not
very deeply grieved at the result of my election, for I
. shall take advantage ofit to spend the winter yachting
in the Mediterranean, and thus escape the jaws of an
English cliraate. If I had voted as you did I should
have been returned unopposed, but I would give the
sarae vote again and take the sarae consequences.
" The wicked flourish like a green bay tree," but it is
only for a time. I have no doubt, and I never had,
that the old man was driving faster than public
opinion justified, and he has come to grief for a time,
but Home Rule is as sure as to-morrow's sunrise, and
you will vote for it before long. I was beaten by
panic, terrorism, abstentions and undue influence, but
they might be hard to prove, and I am not going to
worry myself with a petition.
I daresay I shall raiss the sraoking room at first, but
I shall not think of it in time.
Kindest regards to your circle.
And believe me, yours sincerely,
D. W. Macfarlane.

370 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CCLVII.
LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL, M.P.
Treasury Charabers,
WhitehaH, S.W.,
Aug. 27, i885.
My Dear Rylands, —
The Government intend to appoint a Royal Com
mission to examine and report upon our public
departraents, their raanageraent, and the expenditure
involved by thera. May I inforra the First Lord of
the Treasury that he has your authority to subrait
your narae to Her Majesty as one of the Royal
Coraraissioners ?
The Governraent are anxious that the enquiry
should be assisted ,by your long experience and
knowledge of the public expenditure.
Believe rae to be.
Yours sincerely,
Randolph S. Churchill.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 371
No. CCLVIII.
Mr. a. B. forwood, M.P.
House of Coramons,
Sept. g, 1886.
My Dear Sir, —
The First Lord of the Admiralty and myself are
anxious to have a thQrough investigation conducted
by independent business men into the system of
obtaining and receiving supplies, and contracting for
work by the Adrairalty.
We think such an enquiry raay lead to suggestions
of alterations that will be of benefit to the service.
Knowing the great interest you have ever taken in
public expenditure, and appreciating your large
business experience, we feel that if we could have
you on the Committee of Enquiry, we should obtain
the services of a most valuable auxiliarj'. May I
therefore ask if it would be agreeable to you to be a
raember of the Coraraittee, which will be coraposed of
rayself as Chairraan, Sir Jaraes Corry, M.P., The
Accountant-General to the Admiralty, and possibly
one more ? It would sit sorae tirae in Noveraber, and
I think need not be of long duration.
Very faithfully yours,
A. B. Forwood.

372 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

No. CCLIX.
Mr. W. S. CAINE, M.P.
House of Commons Library,
Sept. 10, i885.
Dear Rylands, —
I am very sorry indeed to hear you have been so ill.
I had no idea you were so bad. I hope you will soon
be your old self again.
There is nothing either to bring you up, or to pair
you for. Parnell's Bill is the only thing, and we don't
intend to bring our men up for it. Charaberlain
couldn't vote for it, and Hartington probably will,
so we let everybody do as he likes, as the Governraent
are quite safe without us.
I am off to the Tyrol and Austria on Monday, and
don't want to hear the word " Ireland " for six weeks.
My kindest regards to all your circle.
Yours very truly,
W. S. Caine.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 373
CCLX.
LORD JOHN MANNERS, M.P.
Belvoir Castle,
Grantham, Oct. 20, 1886.
Dear Mr. Rylands, —
I have, with pleasure, given instructions for Mr.
N. P. Gray and Mr. Joshua Rawlinson to be placed
in the Commission 01 the Peace for the Borough of
Burnley on your recoraraendation, and in recognition
of their services in connection with the Royal Hospital.
May I add that it affords rae much satisfaction to
be able to comply with a request made by you ?
Believe me.
Yours very fathfully,
John Manners.

Abel Heywood and Son,
Printers,
Oldham Street Manchester.