My first public discussion in London was with Mr. Passmore
Edwards--personally, the handsomest adversary I ever met. A mass of wavy
black hair and pleasant expression made him picturesque. He was slim,
alert, and fervid. The subject of debate was the famous delineation of
the Bottle, by George Cruikshank, which I regarded as a libel on the
wholesome virtue of Temperance. Exaggerations which inform and do not
deceive, as American humour, or Swift's Lilliputians, Aztecs, and
giants of Brobdingnag, have instruction and amusement. The exaggeration
intended to deride and intimidate those who observe moderation is a
hurtful and misleading extreme. Mr. Edwards took the opposite view.
Cruikshank could not be moderate, and he did right to adopt the rule of
absolute abstinence. It was his only salvation. To every man or woman of
the Cruikshank tendency I would preach the same doctrine. To all others
I, as fervently, commend the habit of use without abuse. Without that
power no man would live a month. Had Mr. Edwards been of this way of
thinking, there had been no debate between us.
Mr. Edwards had much reason on his side. Mankind are historically
regarded as possessing insufficiency of brains, and it is bad economics
to put an incorrigible thief into their mouths to steal away what brains
they have.
I had respect for Mr. Edwards' side of the argument. For when a man
makes a fool of himself, or fails to keep an engagement, or departs, in
his behaviour from his best manner--through drink--he should take the
next train to the safe and serene land of Abstinence.
The first person who mentioned to me the idea of a halfpenny newspaper
was Mr. Passmore Edwards. One night as we were walking down Fleet Street
from Temple Bar, when the Bar stood where the Griffin now stands,
Mr. Edwards asked me, as I had had experience in the publishing trade
whether I thought a halfpenny newspaper would pay, which evidently had
for some time occupied his mind. The chief difficulty I foresaw was,
would newsagents give it a chance? It afterwards cost the house of
Cassells'--the first to make the experiment--many thousands. The
_Workman_, in which I had a department, was intended, I was told, to be
a forerunner of the halfpenny paper. But that title would never do, as I
ventured to predict. Workmen, as a rule with no partnership in
profits, had enough of work without buying a paper about it. Tradesmen,
middle-class and others, did not want to be taken for workmen, and the
_Workman_ was discontinued. But, strange to say, the same paper issued
under the title of _Work_ became successful Everybody was interested in
work but not in being workmen. Such are the subtleties of titles! Their
right choice--is it art or instinct? The _Echo_ was the name fixed
upon for the first halfpenny paper. Echo of what? was not indicated. It
excluded expectations of originality. Probably curiosity was the charm.
It committed no one to any side. There were always more noises about
than any one could listen to, and many were glad to hear the most
articulate. I wrote articles in the earliest numbers under the
editorship of Sir Arthur Arnold.
*****
The House of Allsop, as known to the world of progress in the last
century, is ended. The first who gave it public interest was Thomas
AIlsop, who assisted Robert Owen in 1832 in the Gray's Inn Lane Labour
Exchanges. He was a watchful assistant of those who contributed to the
public service without expecting or receiving requital. His admiration
of genius always took the form of a gift--a rare but encouraging form
of applause. Serjeant Talfourd somewhere bears testimony to the generous
assistance Mr. AIlsop rendered to Hazlitt, Lamb, and Coleridge. To Lamb,
he continually sent gifts, and Coleridge dined at his table every Sunday
for nineteen years. Landor, who had always nobility of character, and
was an impulsive writer--represented Mr. Allsop's interest in European
freedom as proceeding from "vanity," forgetful of his own letter to
Jessie Meriton White, offering L100 to any assassin of Napoleon III.;
and John Forster preserves Landor's remark upon Mr. Allsop, but does
not, so far as I remember, give Landor's Assassin Letter. The fact was,
no man less sought publicity or disliked it more than Mr. Allsop. When
Feargus O'Connor was elected member for Nottingham, Mr. Allsop qualified
him by conferring upon him lands bringing an income of L300. He divided
his Lincoln estate into allotments for working men, but he never
mentioned these things himself. His son Robert held his father's
intellectual views. His eldest son Thomas, who was class-mate with Mr.
Dixon Galpin at Queenwood, a considerable landowner in British Columbia,
was the philosopher of the family, and like Archbishop Whately, had a
power of stating them with ever apt and ready illustrations.
They were like Mr. Owen, Conservative in politics; but in social and
mental matters they were intrepid in welcoming new truth. It was at
Thomas's suggestion that I omitted his father's name altogether in my
chapter, "Mr. Secretary Walpole and the Jacobin's Friend."* Landor was
quite wrong, there was no "vanity" in the Allsop family. Were Thomas
Allsop the younger now living I should not write these paragraphs. As it
is, I may say that I owed to his generosity an annuity of L100. He
commenced it by a subscription of L200, and by Mr. Robert Applegarth's
friendly secretaryship, which had devotion and inspiration in it, a
committee to which the Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker, with his intrepid
tolerance, gave his name, was formed, and an annuity of L100 was
purchased for me.
* "Sixty Years," chap. lxx. p. 72.
[Illustration: Parker]
*****
When the Taxes on Knowledge were repealed, Mr. Collet and I attempted
to procure the repeal of the Passenger Tax on Railways. For forty years
after the imposition of the tax of Lord Halford, 1832, the workman was
taxed who went in search of an employer. When a poor sailor, arriving in
London after a long voyage, desired to visit his poor mother in Glasgow,
the Government added to his fare a tax of three shillings, to encourage
him in filial affection. In the interests of locomotion and trade, two
or three associations had attempted to get this pernicious tax repealed,
without success. It was remarked in Parliament in 1877 that no
committee representing the working class asked for the repeal of this
discreditable impost, which most concerned them. This was the reason of
the formation of the Travelling Tax Abolition Committee, of which Mr.
Collet became secretary and I the chairman. We were assisted by an
influential committee of civic and industrial leaders. After six years'
agitation we were mainly instrumental (that was in Mr. Gladstone's
days) in obtaining the repeal of the penny a mile tax on all third-class
fares, effected by Mr. Childers in 1883, which ever since has put into
the pocket of working-class travellers L400,000 a year, besides the
improved carriages and improved service the repeal has enabled railway
companies to give. We continued the committee many years longer in the
hope of freeing the railways wholly from taxation, which still hampers
the directors and is obstructive of commerce. I was chairman for
twenty-four years, during which time twenty-two of the committee died.
Our memorials, interviews with ministers, correspondence with officials,
petitions to Parliament, public meetings and various publications,
involved a large and incessant amount of work without payment of any
kind. Subsequently a committee of publicists, journalists and members of
Parliament, for whom Mr. Applegarth was the secretary, caused L80 to be
given to me, in recognition of my services. Though it represented less
than L4 a year as the salary of the chairman, it was valuable in my
eyes from the persons who gave it, as they were not the persons much
benefited by the work done, and who really taxed themselves on behalf
of others. A subscription of a halfpenny each from the working-class
travellers who had profited by the repeal would have amounted to a
handsome acknowledgment. But from them it was impossible to collect
it. Testimonials, I believe, are often given by persons who generously
subscribe for others upon whom the obligation of making it more properly
rests.
*****
It would seem insensibility or ingratitude not to record, that on
my eightieth birthday--now eight years ago--I was entertained at a
numerously attended dinner party in the National Liberal Club, at which
to my gratification, Mr. Walter Morrison presided. The speakers, and
distinction of many in the assembly, were a surprise, transcending all
I had foreseen. The words of Mr. Morrison's speech, to use Tennyson's
words, were like
"Jewels
That on the stretch'd forefinger of all time
Sparkle forever"
in my memory.
On my eighty-sixth birthday a reception was given me by the Ethical
Society of South Place Chapel, Finsbury--the oldest Free Thought temple
in London, where the _duty_ of free inquiry was first proclaimed by W.
J. Fox. The place was filled with faces familiar and unfamiliar, from
near and far, of artists, poets, publicists, journalists, philosophers,
as at the National Liberal Club, but in greater numbers. Lady Florence
Dixie purchased a large and costly oil painting,* and sent it for me to
present to the Library of the Rationalist Press Association. Among the
letters sent was one, the last sent to a public meeting, by Herbert
Spencer. The reader will pardon the pride I have in quoting it.
* By my nephew, Roland Holyoake.
Writing from 5, Percival Terrace, Brighton, March 28, 1903, Mr. Spencer
said: "I have not been out of doors since last August, and as Mr.
Holyoake knows, it is impossible for me to join in the Reception to
be given to him on the occasion of his eighty-sixth birthday. I can do
nothing more than express my warm feeling of concurrence. Not dwelling
upon his intellectual capacity, which is high, I would emphasise my
appreciation of his courage, sincerity, truthfulness, philanthropy, and
unwearied perseverance. Such a combination of these qualities, it will,
I think, be difficult to find."
*****
For a period I had the opportunity accorded me of editing a daily
newspaper--_The Sun_. The Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker had been my
predecessor. I was left at liberty to say whatever I pleased, and I did.
In one week I wrote twenty-nine articles.
But opulent opportunity of working was afforded me. As I was paid ten
times as much as I had received before, I thought myself in a paradise
of journalism.
*****
In the correspondence of Robert Owen, now in possession of the
Co-operative Union Memorial Committee, Manchester, is the following
letter from his customary legal adviser, who then resided at Hornsey.
"6, Old Jewry, London,
"February 17, 1853. "R. Owen, Esq.,
"Dear Sir,--I am glad to see your handwriting upon an
envelope conveying to me a pamphlet of yours.
"Holyoake I expect will breakfast with me on Sunday morning.
He comes down by the railway to Hornsey, which leaves London
at nine o'clock precisely.
"I am afraid it is too cold for you, and that the walk from
the railway to our house, which is three quarters of a mile,
may not be agreeable.
"Yours truly,
"W. H. Ashurst.
"H. will return about 12 or 1."
After breakfast Mr. Owen walked briskly with me into town. He was then
eighty-two. On his way he explained to me that, when walking as
often had done from Birmingham to Worcester, or from Huddersfield to
Sheffield--to lecture, I should find it an advantage to use the horse
road, as on the footpath there is more unevenness and necessity of
deviation to allow persons to pass, which increases the fatigue of a day
on foot. So thoughtful and practical was the reputed visionary.
*****
Of letters on public affairs I confine myself to three instances.
When the South Kensington Exhibitions were in force, more than twenty
thousand visitors a day thronged the Exhibition Road. Mothers with their
children had to cross the wide Museum Road, where policemen, stationed
to protect the passengers, had enough to do to keep their own toes on
their feet, in the undivided traffic of cabs. I wrote to the _Times_
suggesting that a lamp should be erected in the middle of the wide road
serving as a light, a retreat, and a division of traffic. All the cabmen
who could write protested against the danger, or the necessity, and
possibility of the proposal. But it was done, to the great joy of
mothers and advantage to the public.
*****
After the fall of the French Assassin at Sedan when Marshal Bazaine
was hanging about Europe in obscurity and ignominy, Mr. Arthur Arnold
proposed that he should be invited to a banquet in London. Seeing that
the citizens of Paris went out at night in bands of twenty or thirty
heroically to help to raise the siege--on what ground could we offer to
honour Bazaine, who with 192,000 soldiers under his command, was afraid
to attempt it? I asked the question in the Press, and the proposal,
which had a sentiment of chivalry in it to a fallen general, and was
commanding some concurrence--went out--like the Marshal--into outer
darkness. *****
When public opinion was in the balance respecting the South American
War, Mr. Reverdy Johnson and a Copperhead colleague arrived in London
and began to do a respectable business in public mystification. From
information supplied to me I wrote letters explaining the real nature
of that sinister mission, in consequence of which the two emissaries of
slavery made tracks for New York.
But of instances, as of other things, there must be an end.