[Lord Shaftesbury's copious diaries were not intended for
publication, but late in life he permitted Mr. Hodder to
introduce selections from them in his authorized Biography. These
extracts from the period when he was fighting the cause of the
London chimney-sweeps, reflect the spirit of the great
philanthropist, the legislator who at twenty-five proposed "to
found a public policy upon the principles of the Bible."]
July 4th. Anxious, very anxious, about my sweeps; the
Conservative (?) Peers threaten a fierce opposition, and the
Radical Ministers warmly support the bill. Normanby has been
manly, open, kind-hearted, and firm. As I said to him in a
letter, so say I now, "God help him with the bill, and God bless
him for it!" I shall have no ease or pleasure in the recess,
should these poor children be despised by the Lords, and tossed
to the mercy of their savage purchasers. I find that Evangelical
religionists are not those on whom I can rely. The Factory
Question, and every question for what is called "humanity,"
receive as much support from the "men of the world" as from the
men who say they will have nothing to do with it!
I do not wonder at the Duke of Wellington--I have never expected
from him anything of the "soft and tender" kind. Let people say
what they will, he is a hard man. Steven tells me he left the
Oxford Petition at Apsley House, thinking that the Duke, as
Chancellor, would present it; he received this answer, "Mr.
Steven has thought fit to leave some petitions at Apsley House;
they will be found with the porter."
July 21st. Much anxiety, hard labor, many hopes, and many fears,
all rendered useless by "counting out the House." The object of
years within my grasp, and put aside in a moment. A notice to
investigate the condition of all the wretched and helpless
children in pin-works, needle-works, collieries, etc. The
necessary and beneficial consequence of the Factory Question! God
knows I had felt for it, and prayed for it; but the day arrived;
everything seemed adverse-a morning sitting, a late period of the
session, and a wet afternoon; and true enough, at five o'clock
there were but thirty-seven members, and these mostly Radicals or
Whigs. Shall I have another opportunity? The inquiry, without a
statement in Parliament, will be but half the battle, nay, not so
much--I must have public knowledge and public opinion working
with it. Well, it is God's cause, and I commit it altogether to
him. I am, however, sadly disappointed, but how weak and short-
sighted is man! This temporary failure may be the harbinger of
success.
August 24th. Succeeded in both my suits. I undertook them in a
spirit of justice. I constituted myself, no doubt, a defender of
the poor, to see that the poor and miserable had their rights;
but "I looked, and there was none to help. I wondered that there
was none to uphold; therefore God's arm, it brought salvation to
me, and his fury, it upheld me." I stood to lose several hundred
pounds, but I have not lost a farthing; I have advanced the
cause, done individual justice, anticipated many calamities by
this forced prevention, and soothed, I hope, many angry,
discontented Chartist spirits by showing them that men of rank
and property can, and do, care for the rights and feelings of all
their brethren. Let no one ever despair of a good cause for want
of coadjutors; let him persevere, persevere, persevere, and God
will raise him up friends and assistants! I have had, and still
have, Jowett and Low; they are matchless.
September 16th. I hear encouraging things, both of my speech in
the House of Commons, and of my suit v. Stocks. The justice of
the suit is so manifest that even (so to speak) "my enemies are
at peace with me." What man ever lost in the long run by seeking
God's honor?
September 19th. Steven wrote to me yesterday, and gave me
information that he had at last succeeded in negotiating the
delivery of the wretched sweep behind my house in London. I had
begun to negotiate, but the master stood out for more money than
was fair, and we determined to seek the unnatural father of the
boy, and tempt him, by the offer of a gratuitous education. We
have done so, and have prospered; and the child will this day be
conveyed from his soot-hole to the Union School on Norwood Hill,
where, under God's blessing and especial, merciful grace, he will
be trained in the knowledge, and love, and faith of our common
Lord and only Saviour Jesus Christ. I entertain hopes of the boy;
he is described as gentle, and of a sweet disposition; we all
know he has suffered, and were eager to rescue him from his
temporal and spiritual tyrant. May God, in his unbounded goodness
and mercy, accept and defend the child, and train him up to his
honor and service, now and forever, through the mediation and
love of our dear and blessed Lord!