trial did not take place at the Assizes then being held, and the
indictment was afterwards removed by _certiorari_ into the Court of
King's Bench. It came on for trial at Warwick, on August 7th, 1820,
before the Lord Chief Baron Richards. When the special jury was called,
only four answered to their names. Mr. Barber was the foreman, and on
taking the book into his hands, one of the defendants asked him whether
he had "ever expressed any opinion as to the merits or demerits of this
case." The Judge interfered, and said that "as a _special_ juryman he
was not bound to answer the question." Eight names were then added from
the common jury list, and the trial proceeded. Denman was counsel for
Edmonds, and Matthew Davenport Hill for Major Cartwright. The others
defended themselves in person. The Judge summed up unfavourably, and
after twenty minutes' deliberation the jury gave a verdict of guilty
against all the defendants. Judgment, however, was deferred.
On May 28, 1821, the Attorney-General moved the judgment of the court.
The Lord Chief Justice Abbott, afterwards Lord Tenterden, recapitulated
the arguments as to the legality of the jury, and held that no legal
challenge could have been made until a full jury appeared; and as in
this case the challenges had been made before the full jury had
assembled, there were no grounds for a new trial. Several motions in
arrest of judgment were subsequently made, but eventually Mr. Edmonds
was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment in the common gaol of the
county, and he was thereupon removed to Warwick, where, within the walls
of the gaol, he spent every minute of the period for which he had been
sentenced.
Upon his restoration to liberty, he published the following
characteristic advertisement in the Birmingham newspapers:
"George Edmonds begs to inform his _friends_, his _enemies_, and the
_public_, that on leaving Warwick Jail he recommenced his profession
of a schoolmaster; that by the zeal of his patrons he has succeeded
beyond his most sanguine expectations; that he has taken for a
period of seven years those extensive premises opposite Bond Street
Chapel, and that the school re-opened on Monday last.
"The public are respectfully referred by G.E. to his _enemies_ as
the judges of his capacity to _instruct_ and _correct_.... To his
_enemies_--if it be possible that he can have any--G.E. offers the
most entire absolution for their sins against the _best of men_,
on the following most reasonable terms: That they henceforth
zealously trumpet forth his merits; and on his part he agrees to
receive their children at his academy, as hostages for the
performance of these conditions. _Quid rides?_
"Bond Street, July 2, 1823."
Mr. Edmonds's trial, so far from impeding the popular cause, gave it a
forward impetus. It was contended that the jury had been improperly
impanelled; and Mr. Peel, afterwards Sir Robert, was compelled to admit
in the House of Commons that such was the case, as the panel did not
contain the proper number of names. The great Jeremy Bentham took up the
case, and published a pamphlet impugning the legality of the whole
proceedings, and exposing the utter sham of the special jury system.
Peel, much to his honour, brought into the House, and carried, a bill to
amend the whole jury system, and thus Edmonds's trial led to the
abolition of a great public scandal and a national grievance.
Henceforward, Edmonds was the recognised leader of the Birmingham
Radicals, and the agitation for Parliamentary Reform commenced anew. The
Whigs, though favourable, held aloof, looking upon it as a hopeless
case. In the year 1827, Mr. Charles Tennyson, afterwards known as Mr.
Tennyson D'Eyncourt, proposed to the House of Commons that the two seats
forfeited by the disfranchised borough of East Retford should be
transferred to Birmingham. The proposition was supported by Sir James
Mackintosh and others, but was eventually negatived. The mere
proposition, however, revived the dying embers of Birmingham political
life. All classes, and all sections of politicians, hailed the proposal
with delight. Tories, Whigs, and Radicals united in a requisition to Mr.
George Attwood, who was then High Bailiff, to hold a town's meeting,
which was held accordingly on June 25th, 1827, at Beardsworth's
Repository. At this meeting, resolutions in favour of Mr. Tennyson's
proposition were proposed and seconded by gentlemen belonging to the
three parties, Tories, Whigs, and Radicals. A committee, thirty-two in
number, composed of men of all shades of opinion, was appointed to work
in support of the enfranchisement of the town. Edmonds's name was left
out for strategic reasons: a convicted conspirator, it was thought,
would do the cause no good. He, however, endorsed the scheme heartily,
worked energetically, and spoke frequently and eloquently in its favour.
The proposition, as I have said, was negatived by the House of
Commons, but it had borne good fruit in Birmingham. Henceforth the
timid Whigs came once more into the sunlight of political life; and
the Tories, being divided in opinion on the measure, split into
two sections, with the result that the _ultra_ party, which had
monopolised all municipal power, was broken up. Prom this time united
action became possible, and more reasonable relations were established
between the active and the passive Liberals. The extreme Radical
section, seeing that the men of moderate views had joined in the
movement for the Reform of Parliament, became less extravagant in
their demands. On the 14th of December, 1829, sixteen gentlemen,
called together by circular, met at the Royal Hotel, and founded the
great Political Union. Rules having been prepared, it was proposed to
hold a Town's Meeting, under the presidency of the High Bailiff--Mr.
William Chance--to ratify them. That gentleman, on the proposal being
made to him, stated that he could not view it as "any part of his
duty to call a meeting of the inhabitants of the town for any such
purpose." The meeting was, notwithstanding, held at Beardsworth's
Repository, on the 25th January, 1830, Mr. G.F. Muntz being chairman.
About 15,000 persons were present, and a number of resolutions,
embodying the principles and objects of the new organisation, were
proposed and carried; some "unanimously," some with "one dissentient,"
and some "by a majority of at least one thousand and one;" and the
"General Political Union between the Lower and Middle Classes of the
People," became an accomplished fact.
From this time, for more than three years, nearly the whole of Mr.
Edmonds's time was devoted to the cause he had so much at heart. Night
after night, and month after month, he fanned the flame of popular
feeling, until it culminated in the unparalleled meetings on Newhall
Hill. At the one held on May 14th, 1832, there were nearly 200,000
persons present. Mr. Attwood occupied the chair, and the proceedings
commenced by the vast assembly singing a hymn composed for the
occasion by the Rev. Hugh Hutton, the two final verses of which were
as follow:
"God is our guide! From field, from wave,
The plough, the anvil, and the loom,
We come, our country's rights to save,
And speak a tyrant faction's doom.
And hark! we raise, from sea to sea,
Our sacred watchword, Liberty!
"God is our guide! No sword we draw,
We kindle not war's fatal fires;
By union, justice, reason, law,
We claim the birthright of our sires!
And thus we raise from sea to sea,
Our sacred watchword, Liberty!"
At this meeting, what has been described as "one of the most solemn
spectacles ever seen in the world" took place. After it had been
determined to petition the House of Lords "not to drive to despair a
high-minded, generous, and fearless people," Mr. Clutton Salt took
off his hat, and, calling upon the people to follow his example, the
entire assembly stood uncovered as they repeated after him the Union
vow: "In unbroken faith, through every peril and privation, we devote
ourselves and our children to our country's cause." The sound of the
thousands of voices in unison, as they uttered these words, has been
described as resembling the sound of the waves of the sea on a rocky
shore.
Earl Grey, on the adverse vote of the House of Lords, had resigned on
the 9th of May. The Duke of Wellington and Sir R. Peel endeavoured to
form a Government, but failed utterly; so that on the 18th, Earl
Grey returned to power. "At the personal request of the King, a large
number of the Tory peers consented to absent themselves from the House
of Lords during the further discussion of the Reform Bill." "By the
first week of August the bills had received the Royal assent, and the
political excitement which had kept the country agitated for nearly
two years was suddenly changed into complete listlessness and apathy."
Meanwhile, the personal sacrifices which Mr. Edmonds had made, and the
sufferings he had endured, were not unheeded by his friends. On April
25th, 1831, a meeting was held, under the presidency of Mr. John
Betts, at which it was resolved to raise a subscription in his behalf,
in recognition of "his superior talents, his tried integrity, and the
persevering industry with which he has, for a long series of years,
devoted himself to the great cause of public liberty, and
more especially to the rights, privileges, and welfare of his
fellow-townsmen." Mr. Thomas Attwood was appointed the treasurer, and
a committee of twenty of the leading Liberals of the town took charge
of the movement, which resulted in a handsome sum being presented to
Mr. Edmonds.
Mr. Edmonds was not one to become politically listless and apathetic.
He considered the passing of the Reform Bill to be only the
stepping-stone to other beneficial measures. At his instigation it was
resolved that the Political Union should not be dissolved, but should
be "kept firmly united." On May 20th, 1833, another monster meeting
was held on Newhall Hill, at which the Government was censured for
passing the Irish Coercion Bill; for refusing the right to vote
by ballot; for persevering in unjust and cruel Corn Laws; and for
continuing the House and Window Taxes.
George Edmonds was one of the most active agitators for the grant of a
Charter of Incorporation to the town. He was generally selected to
be either proposer or seconder of the Reform candidates, at the
elections. Few political meetings of any kind, were held at which he
was not only present, but took an active part; and even when old age
had bent his frame and weakened the tones of his once trumpet-like
voice, he would occasionally make the walls of the Town Hall ring, as
he denounced oppression, or called upon his fellow-townsmen to rise
to vindicate a right. His spoken addresses were singularly clear and
forcible in their construction. His language was very simple, and was
nearly pure Saxon, and his enunciation of every syllable of each
word distinct and perfect. He was a born politician, and a bold and
fearless leader. He had a very genial disposition, and a charitable
heart; but was impulsive, and was very strong in his resentments.
He was what Dr. Johnson might call "a good hater." He combined the
fierceness of the lion with the gentleness and docility of the lamb.
Hitherto, I have spoken of Mr. Edmonds chiefly in reference to his
professional career and his political activity. I now turn to a phase
of his character which is little known, but which is not in any way
less remarkable. As a scholar and a philologian he had rare abilities,
and a rarer industry. Having, somewhat early in life, possessed
himself of a copy of the works of Dr. Wilkins, who was a bishop in
the reign of Charles II., he became impressed with the thought that a
universal language was within the bounds of human possibility, and he
set himself diligently to work out the problem. During the whole of
his busy political life; all through his active professional career;
amid the strife and the worry, the turmoil, and the rancour, of the
controversy in which he was so prominent; it was his habit to rise
from his bed at three or four o'clock in the morning to endeavour to
master this intricate task. In the failures of others who had essayed
this gigantic work, he saw only incentives to fresh exertions. Nothing
daunted him. Failing to find in ordinary type, as used by printers,
the necessary symbols to embody his thoughts, he, at enormous expense,
had an entirely new fount, from his own designs, made expressly for
the book which was to be the crowning monument of his life. Finding
no printing-office willing to undertake a work of so unaccustomed a
nature, he fitted up a room in his house in Whittall Street, and here,
by his own hands, the whole of the type was set. Mr. Massey, of Friday
Bridge, informs me that he _printed_ the book, and he has obligingly
placed at my disposal a few specimens of the peculiar types used. The
result was, a thick quarto volume, every page of which bristles with
evidences of acute erudition, and the most accurate reasoning and
discernment. It bears the title of "A Universal Alphabet, Grammar,
and Language," and it has for a motto a text from the book of
_Zephaniah_--"For then will I turn to the people a _pure language_,
that they may call upon the name of the Lord."
He seems to have aimed at the production of an "Alphabet of
Characters," which should indicate the various sounds of the voice,
and he succeeded. "I thought," he says, in the preface to his book,
"and still think it, theoretically, a near approach to perfection.
Into this character I translated the whole of St. Matthew's Gospel,
and various extracts from the _Psalms_ and other books." "With great
reluctance, and not without much pain," he came to the conclusion
that this system was impracticable, and he "therefore gave up the idea
altogether of that character, and looked about for some other." It
then occurred to him that the Roman alphabet "might be supplemented by
certain marks, so as to represent all the elementary sounds;" and this
resulted in his compiling an alphabet containing forty symbols, of
which five--_ai_, _au_, _oi_, _ou_, and _oo_ are compounds; the
remaining thirty-five are the ordinary letters, some of which have
marks under them, like the dash we make under a word in writing to
indicate greater force or emphasis, thus--U D Z o d z.
Having arrived at this point, he intimates his belief that his
next discovery was the result of direct inspiration. "I am far from
superstitious, yet I must confess, with regard to this discovery, I
have long felt as though I had been no more than a mere instrument,
accomplishing the will of Another; and that the direction of my
thoughts, and my ultimate convictions, were only a part of the
development of my own mind, enforced and controlled by some internal
law, which ensured its own effects without any original exercise of
my own reason. One thing is certain: I cannot tell how it was brought
into my own i mind, and I have no recollection of the process which
ultimately revealed to me a knowledge of the power and essential
importance of the discovery."
The discovery of which he speaks is that the "success of the
Philosophic [language] turned upon the proper use of two short vowels
and three nasal consonants. These are the short _u_, as in faithful,
and the _i_ in pin, and the consonants, _m_, _n_, and _n _ [_i.e._,
_ng_]. One of these three consonants is to be found in the centre of
every root of the [philosophic] language. They resemble the reed in
the hautboy--they give B metallic ring in the words where they occur.
They may be compared to the sound of the trumpet in a concert; the
other consonants are the sound of the drum--rub-a-dub-dub."
It is of course impossible, in a short notice like this, to give a
thousandth part of the methods and arguments by which Mr. Edmonds
works out his theory; but I shall attempt to make his process clear by
one or two short examples.
He starts by assuming that, as all words are reducible to nouns as
a first principle, so the whole of the nouns can be classified into
forty "genera." These genera are each divisible into "differences,"
and the differences are sub-divisible into "species." He gives a
list of the "genera," each of which is composed of two vowels and
two consonants; and then, in a series of very elaborate tables, he
proceeds to show how words of every possible signification can
be built up from the materials thus provided and classified. For
instance, amongst the genera, _onji_ is the root-word for insects,
_anji_ for fish, _enji_ for birds, and _inji_ for beasts. Taking
_anji_--or fish--for my example, because it is the shortest, I
may mention that he divides fish into nine "differences," two of
viviparous, five of oviparous, one of crustacea, and one of scaly
river fish. I will give one example of each class, merely pointing
out that the letters _anj_ occur in the middle of each name. The
final letters give the _species_, and the initials the _specific fish_
indicated, thus: _Panjoo_ is whale, _Banjoi_ is skate, _Danjo_ is
herring, _Kanja_ is gurnet, _Danji_ is sea-perch, _Danjai_ is eel,
_Banjino_ is plaice, _Vanjoinoi_ is star-fish, and _Fanjino_ is
salmon.
The same process of building up words from simple roots is carried on
all through the whole range of thought and action; and the result as
a whole is that, as a theoretical system, the entire subject is
successfully worked out.
Whether it will ever be carried out in practice is extremely doubtful.
Some Spanish enthusiasts were so enraptured with Mr. Edmonds's book
that they sought and obtained an interview with the late Emperor
Napoleon, with a view to secure his patronage of the new scheme. The
expression of his opinion was short, but shrewd. He said the only
way to establish universal language was to first establish universal
empire; and that, he thought, would not be possible just yet.
In July, 1867, Mr. Edmonds, when 79 years of age, married, at the Old
Church, Leamington, as his second wife, Miss Mary Fairfax, of Barford,
near Warwick, the descendant of a truly noble family. She was 75 years
of age at the time. Their natures and dispositions, however, being so
very dissimilar, this proved to be an unhappy union, and after living
together three weeks only, they separated by mutual consent. His mind
at this time--and, indeed, for some previous time--must have been
giving way. Eventually, he was placed in the asylum at Winson Green.
From thence he was removed to a private asylum at Northampton, where
he died in the year 1868, being 80 years of age.
His funeral at the General Cemetery was attended by most of the
leading Liberals of the town, and by great crowds of admirers. Charles
Vince, who was so soon to follow him, delivered a very eloquent
address over the open grave, in which he said, "For the firmness with
which he maintained his convictions, and for the zeal and ability with
which he advocated them, he will always have a name and a place in the
history of his native town, if not in the history of his country. To
the honour of his memory it will be said that he held his opinions
honestly; laboured for them diligently; devoted great gifts and rare
energy to their promotion; and amply proved his sincerity, and won the
crown of the conscientious, by the things that he suffered."
It is, in my opinion, not very creditable to the Liberal party in
the town that George Edmonds has no public memorial. The generation
passing away may remember his face and figure; but before it goes, it
has a duty to its successors to perform. That duty is to leave some
lasting memorial, in the shape of a statue, bust, or portrait, of the
man, who, sacrificing his own freedom, helped thereby to gain for his
countrymen liberty of thought, liberty of speech, and liberty to carry
on in the future the beneficent policy which he advocated with, so
much eloquence and perseverance.
THE EARLY DAYS OF CHARLES VINCE.
With reverent pen and loving spirit, I sit down to write of one whose
sunny smile brightened every circle upon which it shone; whose massive
intellect and clear mental vision discovered subtle truths and
deep symbolic meanings in common things; whose winning and graphic
eloquence made these truths and meanings clear to others, showing
them that not a blade of grass springs by the roadside, nor an insect
flutters for a day in the gladdening light of the spring-time, but
has its lesson, if men will but search for it, of tender mercy and
fatherly care. His broad and catholic spirit was wide enough to
embrace within his friendship men of widely divergent thought and
belief. His life was one long and eloquent lesson to us all. If ever
man deserved the blessing following the words, "Inasmuch as ye did it
unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye did it unto me," that
man was Charles Vince, for of him, more emphatically than can be said
of most of us, it may be recorded that "he went about doing good."
It is not necessary to sketch the mature character of one so recently
taken from amongst us. The shadow of his homely figure has scarcely
faded from our streets, and the sound of his eloquent voice still
seems to vibrate in our ears. It seems but yesterday that, on that
cold and cheerless day, his lifeless but honoured remains were borne
to the grave through the crowds of sympathising people who thronged
the busy streets to see the last of him they knew so well and loved so
heartily. Little could be added to the warm tributes that were paid
so recently to the memory of the gifted, truthful, fearless, earnest,
hard-working Christian teacher, who, in the prime of his life and the
zenith of his powers, was removed from the sphere which he adorned by
the purity of his character, and benefited by the power and graces of
his intellect.
But these tributes referred mainly to what he was, and what he did,
in the later part of his career, and in the maturity of his powers.
In some of them the references to his parentage, his birth, and
his boyhood, were singularly inaccurate. In one periodical of
large circulation and great influence, statements full of error and
misrepresentation went forth to the world unchallenged. It is my
purpose, therefore, in this paper, to correct the mistakes of those
who wrote, being imperfectly informed; and to give, as I had it from
the lips of his friends, his schoolfellows, and his relatives, a
simple, but at all events a strictly accurate, record of the few and
unromantic events of the early days of one who became so fruitful in
goodness and in charity.
With the view that this little sketch should at least be free from
serious error, I made, the other day, a special pilgrimage to Vince's
birthplace--the pleasant town of Farnham in Surrey. I stood before the
lowly cottage in which he first drew breath; I sat in the little
room where his father and his mother taught him practical lessons
of truthfulness and sympathy; I looked into the little plain deal
cupboard his father made for him, in which he stored the books he
loved so well and studied so intently. I talked with his schoolfellows
and the companions of his boyish days, and listened to those who were
the chosen friends of his youth-hood, and I noted the brightening of
the eye, and the more fervid tones of the voice, as one after another
told me of the budding intellect, and of the germination of the warm
and tender spirit, of him they were all so proud of.
After a long continuance of cold and cheerless weather, the morning of
Saturday, the 26th of May, 1877, was bright and genial. An unclouded
sun, and a warm south-western wind, awoke the birds to melody, and
gave the flowers new fragrance. As the train bore me through pleasant
Surrey, the fields not only smiled--they absolutely seemed to laugh
with joy at the advent of the first day of summer, and when we stopped
at the pretty station of plutocratic Surbiton, the air was laden with
the perfume of lilacs and of hawthorn blossom. From a dense thicket,
nearly overhead, came cheerfully the melodious notes of "the careful
thrush," who, as Browning says--
"Sings his song thrice over,
Lest I should think he never could recapture
That first, fine, careless rapture."