Chapter X: A Constellation of Celebrated Cobblers (4)

In 1817, Dr. Morrison accompanied Lord Amherst in his embassy to Pekin, and afterward, as the last great work of a noble life, founded an Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca, to whose funds he left the bulk of his property. On his return to England in 1823 for rest and change, his great gifts and labors as a linguist and a missionary were cordially recognized in many quarters. The Royal Society made him a member, and King George IV. honored himself, as well as his distinguished subject, by seeking an interview with him. In 1826 he returned to the field of his missionary labors. On his death at Canton in 1834, England lost her best Chinese scholar, and one of the most devoted, self-sacrificing, and useful missionaries who ever left her shores.

THE REV. JOHN BURNET, PREACHER AND PHILANTHROPIST.

The eloquent and popular minister of Camberwell Green Congregational Church, the _Rev. John Burnet_, who divided his time and energies between preaching and philanthropic labors, is claimed by the craft as one of the most gifted and useful men who have sprung from their ranks.[175] He was of Highland descent, and was born in Perth, 13th April, 1789. His early education at the High School of Perth must have given him great advantage over most youths of the _souter_ fraternity. How long he plied the awl we cannot say. Soon after his union with a Christian Church in Perth his friends discovered his gifts as a speaker, and encouraged his adoption of the ministry as a profession. To this end they supplied him with funds, and for a time he studied with much advantage under the Rev. William Orme of Perth. In 1815 Mr. Burnet removed from Perth to Dublin, and soon afterward became an agent of the Irish Evangelical Society. His labors at Cork proving acceptable to the Independent Church there, he was invited to become their pastor, and for fifteen years was well known by all the Protestants of the district as an eloquent and faithful preacher. The growth of his congregation led to the building of a handsome new chapel for his ministry in George Street. But his labors were not confined to these localities (Cork and Mallow). His biographer states that "he continually visited the other towns and places in the South of Ireland, preaching in the court-houses, market-places, and frequently in the halls of the resident nobility and gentry--all the Protestants gladly giving him the requisite facilities. On these journeys he had usually a free pass by the mails and coaches, but he travelled a good deal on horseback."[176]

[175] See Campion's "Delightful History," p. 83.

[176] "Congregational Year-Book" for 1863, pp. 214-216.
To the obituary notice given in the Year-Book I owe the facts
given in this sketch.

It would have been an easy matter for Mr. Burnet to enter Parliament, if he could have been persuaded to quit the ministry and devote himself entirely to political life; for he was popular with the Liberals of his day, had rare gifts as a speaker, and was thoroughly acquainted with politics. But the best efforts of his friend Joseph Sturge, and the offer of ample means to maintain the position of a member of Parliament, failed to induce him to accept the flattering offer. He was constantly employed as a platform speaker, and never refused his aid to any cause "affecting the rights of the people or the progress of humanity."

For many years he was on the Committee of the Bible Society, the London Missionary Society, the Irish Evangelical and the British and Foreign Sailors' Societies. Yet with all this public work he never neglected the duties of the pastorate, but occupied his pulpit efficiently from Sunday to Sunday, and held several meetings during the week for the instruction of his people. In 1845 his brethren of the Independent Connection showed their esteem by electing him to fill the chair of the Congregational Union.

In 1825 Mr. Burnet was summoned to give evidence before a committee of the House of Lords on the state of the Catholic population in Ireland. At first he declined to attend, saying that he could not leave his work, for he had no one to supply his place in his absence. But a second summons made it clear that he was bound to obey orders, and he accordingly went up to London and gave the committee the benefit of his extensive acquaintance with the religious condition of the South of Ireland. His visit to London brought him again into the company of his old friend Mr. Orme, who introduced him to the congregation, of which Mr. Orme was the pastor, at the Mansion House Chapel. On his death in 1830, Mr. Burnet was invited to succeed his friend as the pastor of the church. This pastorate he held for thirty-two years, till the day of his death. In 1852 the new and costly building opposite Camberwell Green was built, the congregation removing thither from the old "Mansion House."

Mr. Burnet was best known for his philanthropic labors, chiefly in connection with the anti-slavery cause. In this work he labored side by side, and on intimate terms of friendship, with Wilberforce, Brougham, Zachary Macaulay, Lord Macaulay, Sir T. F. Buxton, and other advocates of freedom for the slave. "His labors," it is said, "in committee were continuous and valuable, and his good sense and sound judgment were not seldom needed in the conduct of this great movement. He went frequently on deputations to the Government, and was obliged to spend much time at the House of Commons to be near the anti-slavery leaders in all times of difficulty, and by this means became acquainted with the leading public men of the day, who admired his straightforward character, readiness, and humor." He died at the age of seventy-three, June 10th, 1862.

JOHN KITTO, D.D., THE BIBLICAL SCHOLAR.

Very few illustrious men have been so heavily handicapped in the race of life and the pursuit of knowledge as the eminent Biblical scholar, _John Kitto_, who was born at Plymouth, 4th December, 1804.[177] Added to poverty, the want of proper food and clothing, he had to endure in early life the deprivation of natural guardians and friends, terrible cruelty from a master under whose care he was placed, and, worst of all, the entire loss of the sense of hearing, so that from the age of twelve to the day of his death he never could hear a sound of any description. Deeply pathetic is the story of his early life as told by himself in his journal and letters. His father was a working mason at Plymouth, who had lost a good business by intemperate habits. When John was only four years old, his grandmother, who could not endure the sight of his misery at home, engaged to bring him up. This good woman was the guardian angel of Kitto's childhood, and did more, perhaps, than any one else to mould his character. It was a sad day for him when she was compelled by poverty and illness to break up her home and go with her little ward to live with his parents. He had already become fond of reading, and had even tried his hand at writing tales for the amusement of his childish companions and the more serious purpose of earning a few pence to buy books. One day, when working with his father, he fell from the top of a house thirty-five feet high, and was carried home in a state of unconsciousness. After lying in this state for a fortnight, he awoke to discover to his dismay that he was absolutely deaf. He had asked for a book which a neighbor had lent him just before the accident, and when his friends found that he could not hear their reply, one of them took up a slate and _wrote_ upon it. "Why do you not speak?" he cried. "Why do you _write_ to me? Why not speak? Speak, speak!" "Then," he tells us, "those who stood around the bed exchanged significant looks of concern, and the writer soon displayed upon his slate the awful words, 'YOU ARE DEAF!' Did not this utterly crush me? By no means. In my then weakened condition nothing like this could affect me. Besides, I was a child; and to a child the full extent of such a calamity could not be at once apparent. However, I knew not the future--it was well I did not; and there was nothing to show me that I suffered under more than a temporary deafness, which in a few days might pass away. It was left for time to show me the sad realities of the condition to which I was reduced."

[177] "Memoirs of John Kitto, D.D.," by R. E. Ryland,
M.A. Edinburgh: William Oliphant & Sons, 1856.

At the age of fifteen he was sent to the workhouse, scarcely understanding what was being done with him. On realizing his true position in this place, "his anguish was indescribable." Yet in Kitto's time this place was hardly like an ordinary modern workhouse. It had long borne the name of _The Hospital of the Poor's Portion_, was founded in 1630 by Gayer, Colmer, and Fowell, and endowed in 1674 by Lanyon with £2000, and in 1708 was converted into a poorhouse by Act of Parliament. It had apartments for boys, who were admitted on Hele's and Lanyon's charities. Young Kitto was kindly treated by the guardians, even being allowed to go out every day, and for a long time to sleep at home. His occupation was the making of _list shoes_, in which he became so proficient that he was sent out as an apprentice to a shoemaker in the town, who treated him so savagely that the humane guardians quashed the agreement and took him again under their care. But even in this wretched situation, where he was often compelled to work sixteen or eighteen hours a day, the poor deaf boy managed to go on with his studies; and in his interesting work called "The Lost Senses," published twenty years afterward, he remarks, "Now that I look back upon this time, the amount of study which I did, under these circumstances, contrive to get through, amazes and confounds me."

About a year after his return to the poorhouse, certain gentlemen in Plymouth, who had come to hear of his superior abilities and passion for reading, drew up a circular asking for funds to enable him to devote his time entirely to study. This appeal was so successful that the poor workhouse boy was placed under the care of a good friend, named Mr. Barnard, to board and lodge, and allowed to go to the public library for the purpose of reading and study. His course as a student was now fairly open. In a few years he published his first book, "Essays and Letters," with a short memoir of the author. In 1825 his friend Mr. Groves of Exeter was the means of sending him to the Church Missionary Institution, London, where for a time he was employed as a printer. For two years he resided at Malta in the service of this Society. After this, an arrangement was made with his friend Mr. Groves which proved of the utmost possible service to the diligent student, whose mind had long been set on travelling as a means of increasing his knowledge. Mr. Groves asked Kitto to accompany him to the East. Five years were spent in a journey through Russia, Persia, and Asiatic Turkey, during which "the deaf traveller" obtained the vast stores of information of which he made such good use in the various works written on his return to England. In 1833 he was engaged by Mr. Charles Knight, the well-known publisher, to write for the _Penny Magazine_, and wrote for that journal a number of articles entitled "The Deaf Traveller." He contributed many articles also to the _Penny Cyclopædia_. His best known works are "The Pictorial Bible," "The Pictorial Sunday Book," "Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature," "The Lost Senses," "Journal of Sacred Literature," and "Daily Bible Illustrations," a work of great value, in eight volumes. In 1844 the University of Giessen conferred on him the diploma of D.D., and in the following year he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Notwithstanding his immense labors and the great value of his writings, he was, toward the close of his life, considerably embarrassed by pecuniary difficulties, which were alleviated, but not entirely removed, by a Government pension of £100 per year. John Kitto died and was buried at Cannstatt, in Germany, 25th November, 1854, at the age of forty-nine.

SCIENCE.

WILLIAM STURGEON, THE ELECTRICIAN.

The name of _William Sturgeon_, so honorably connected with the science of electricity and magnetism, has a fair claim to be entered on this list. Sturgeon was a Lancashire man, born at Wittington in that county in 1783. All his youth was spent at the shoemaker's stall. On arriving at manhood he abandoned this quiet, peaceful occupation for the life of a soldier. After two years' service in the militia he enlisted in the Royal Artillery. Like William Cobbett, he found it possible to read in the midst of the distractions of the barrack-room. His chief attention was given to the study of electricity and magnetism, which at that time were attracting a great deal of attention on the part of men of science.[178] The first proof Sturgeon gave of special and extensive knowledge on the subject was in the papers which he contributed to the _Philosophical Magazine_ in 1823-24. In 1825 he published an account of certain magneto-electric appliances, for which the Society of Arts awarded him their silver medal and a purse containing £30. About this time, that is, soon after leaving the army, he was appointed to the chair of experimental philosophy in the East India Company's Military Academy at Addiscombe. His pamphlet, published in 1830, on "Experimental Researches in Electro-Magnetism and Galvanism," described his own experiments, which issued in an improved method of preparing plates for the galvanic battery; a method still found, in many respects, to be the best. He invented the electro-magnetic-coil machine, now used very frequently by medical men in giving a succession of shocks to the patient, and still preferred by the faculty to other instruments for this purpose. This industrious and original investigator was also the inventor of a method of driving machinery by electro-magnetism; but he little dreamt, it may be, of the extent to which electricity would be employed in these days as a motive power and for lighting purposes. He edited the "Annals of Electricity, Magnetism, and Chemistry," and published his own works in one volume a few years before his death. Like many inventors, he never made a fortune, but died poor. A Government pension of £50 per annum came to relieve him of his cares only the year before his death, which occurred in 1850.

[178] Magneto-electricity was discovered by Oersted in
1820.

POLITICIANS.

THOMAS HARDY, OF "THE STATE TRIALS."

The "_gentle_ craft." has been as prolific of fiery politicians as of peaceful poets. We have to speak now of two men who were connected respectively with the political agitations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In the year 1794, when the events of the French Revolution had convulsed the whole of Europe, society in England was stirred to its depths, and grave fears were entertained by the King and his Parliament lest the spirit of revolution should break loose in this country. Such fears were not altogether unfounded. Societies sprang up whose object was reform, by legitimate means if possible, but if not, by violence and bloodshed. One of the strongest of these societies existed in London, and had carried its proceedings to such a pitch that four of its leading members were brought to trial on a charge of treason and sedition. It is a remarkable fact that of these four men--Hardy, Horne-Tooke, Thelwall, and Holcroft--the first and last belonged to the class of shoemakers.[179]

[179] A story is told of Sir Robert Peel which is
worth repeating here. A deputation of working-men once waited
on Sir Robert to lay the wants of the trades' societies before
him. The two speakers selected by the deputation were
shoemakers. On learning this interesting fact, the statesman
turned to the sons of Crispin and said, half in earnest and
half in jest, "How is it that you shoemakers are foremost in
every movement? If there is a plot or conspiracy or
insurrection or political movement, I always find that there is
a shoemaker in the fray!"

It is a singular fact that the shorthand notes of Hardy's trial
were taken down by another illustrious shoemaker--Manoah Sibly
(see above). There is a printed copy of these notes in the
British Museum, published 1795.

_Thomas Hardy_ was the secretary of the Association, and had to bear the brunt of the trial, in which he was defended by the Honorable Thomas Erskine. Speaking of these famous state trials, Henry Crabb Robinson, who was then living at Colchester, says, "I felt an intense interest in them. During the first trial I was in a state of agitation that rendered me unfit for business. I used to beset the post-office early, and one morning at six I obtained the London paper with NOT GUILTY printed in letters an inch in height, recording the issue of Hardy's trial. I ran about the town knocking at people's doors and screaming out the joyful words. Thomas Hardy, who was a shoemaker, made a sort of circuit, and obtained, of course, many an order in the way of his trade.... Hardy was a good-hearted, simple, and honest man. He had neither the talents nor the vices which might be supposed to belong to an acquitted traitor. He lived to an advanced age and died universally respected."[180] Hardy died in the year 1831, in his eighty-second year, having been born in 1751. At the close of his life he was connected with the Wesleyan Methodists. His monument may still be seen in the Bunhill Fields Burying Ground, opposite the City Road Chapel, London.

[180] H. C. Robinson's Diary, vol. i. pp. 26, 27.

GEORGE ODGER, POLITICAL ORATOR.

It has been remarked above, that shoemakers, whether "illustrious" or not, have played a prominent part in connection with religious and political reform. In proof of this we have only to ask the reader to recall what has been said of Henry Michael Buch, Hans Sachs, George Fox, Drs. Carey and Morrison, and John Pounds, among moral and religious reformers; and such men as Hardy, Holcroft, and Thomas Cooper, in the sphere of politics. The name of _George Odger_ deserves a place also in this list of reformers and improvers of the world, for although his field of labor was a very humble one, it was sufficient for the display of fine qualities of mind and heart. Odger was one of the best specimens this country has produced of a powerful class in modern society, called "working-men politicians." His influence as a working-man among the working-men of London was unrivalled in his day, and was always of a wholesome and ennobling character. Professor Fawcett said "he was as good and true a man as ever lived," paid a warm tribute to his "rare intelligence and power and eloquence," and added, moreover, that if the poor shoemaker "had been born in circumstances in which he could have had the advantages of education, there would have been for him a career as distinguished as any Englishman had achieved." John Stuart Mill also held similar opinions in regard to Odger's excellent character and remarkable abilities. Other members of Parliament have done honor to Odger's worth, and recognized his unselfishness and patriotism as a leader of the people. He was no vulgar demagogue, pandering to popular passion, and seeking fame and power at any cost. His appeals were always made to the intelligence of his hearers, and his demands for reform were based on what he conscientiously regarded as principles of justice. Throughout the American war, 1861-65, he sought to direct public opinion against the slave-holding interest.

George Odger was born at Rogborough, near Plymouth, in 1813. His father was a Cornish miner, and so poor that he was obliged to send his boy out to earn his living at shoemaking as soon as he was able to work. It goes without saying that under such circumstances he had no advantages of education, and that he was indebted to his own efforts for any measure of culture displayed in later life. In his youthful days he made diligent use of every moment of leisure for the purpose of study, and acquired an amount of general information which was of immense service to him as a public speaker. His first attempts at speaking were made in connection with the Reform movement. He rapidly acquired influence among the working class, and was well known and respected both in London and the provinces as a safe leader and counsellor of the people, so that in the Liverpool and Kendal strikes he was accepted by both masters and men as a mediator. In 1868 he stood for a time as a candidate for the newly made borough of Chelsea, and in the following year he was accepted by a large party as a candidate for Stafford, but in each case he retired from the contest lest his candidature should damage the interests of his party. In 1870 and 1874 he contested Southwark as a working-man's candidate, but was not successful. In the former of these contests he polled only 300 fewer votes than the elected candidate.

George Odger never followed any other trade than that of a shoemaker, and was always in very humble circumstances. Shortly before his death a subscription was raised by the Trade Union Congress at Newcastle to supply the wants of his declining years, and in consequence of the esteem in which he was held, "the result was liberal and prompt."[181] After a long illness he died at his residence, Bloomsbury, London, 3d March, 1877.

[181] "The Oracle," vol. vi. pp. 154, 237. London: 155
Fleet Street.

The honor done him at his funeral was such as many a nobleman might envy. The _Times'_ report of the funeral says: "The remains of Mr. Odger were borne to the grave at Brompton Cemetery with all the honors of a public funeral. The crowd around the house of the deceased was immense." The Shoemakers' Society, to which Odger belonged, held the foremost place in the long procession which accompanied the remains of this illustrious shoemaker to the grave. Members of the House of Commons, and other men of position and influence in the great city, stood side by side with the working-men of Clerkenwell, Southwark, and Bloomsbury, to pay their last tribute of esteem to the memory of this truly estimable man.

AMERICA.

NOAH WORCESTER, D.D., "THE APOSTLE OF PEACE."

America has her share of illustrious shoemakers. The United States can boast of men worthy to stand on a level with the best examples of merit the gentle craft can produce in the Old World. We select four "representative men" from the long list that might be named, to whom we shall chiefly devote our remaining space. These men show in their character and life-work the best features of the New England type of the American citizen. They are men of sterling moral and religious worth, intense haters of tyranny and slavery, and war and intemperance, "sound as gospel" in their political principles, "clear as Wenham ice" in their transparency of character.

We are fain to believe that every intelligent person in the United States knows the name of _Noah Worcester_, the "Apostle of Peace," as he has been very justly styled. Every intelligent person also on the British side of the Atlantic ought to know something of this good man. He was one of the world's reformers, and commenced a movement which is destined to deepen and widen in its influence until it becomes universal, and changes for the better the entire condition of mankind. We allude to the establishment of the Peace Society of Massachusetts--the parent of numberless similar societies in America and Europe. "I well recollect," says Dr. Channing,[182] "the day of its formation in yonder house, then the parsonage of this parish; and if there was a happy man that day on earth it was the founder of this institution. This Society gave birth to all the kindred ones in this country, and its influence was felt abroad. Dr. Worcester assumed the charge of its periodical, and devoted himself for years to this cause, with unabating faith and zeal; and it may be doubted whether any man who ever lived contributed more than he to spread just sentiment on the subject of war, and to hasten the era of universal peace. He began his efforts in the darkest day, when the whole civilized world was shaken by conflict and threatened with military despotism. He lived to see more than twenty years of general peace, and to see through these years the multiplication of national ties, an extension of commercial communications, an establishment of new connections between Christians and learned men throughout the world, and a growing reciprocity of friendly and beneficent influence among different States, all giving aid to the principles of peace, and encouraging hopes which a century ago would have been deemed insane."

[182] Sermon entitled "The Philanthropist, a Tribute
to the Memory of the Rev. Noah Worcester, D.D." Channing's
Works, People's Edition, vol. ii. p. 251, etc. Belfast: Simms &
M'Intyre, 1843.

Noah Worcester, born at Hollis, New Hampshire, November 25th, 1758, was the son of a farmer, and until the age of twenty-one worked on the farm. His father's means were limited, and the education of the family was stinted in consequence. When hostilities commenced between the American Colonies and Great Britain, young Worcester, then only about eighteen years of age, became a soldier and fought at the battle of Bunker's Hill. It is said that his disgust with the vices of soldier life, and horror at the awful sights of the battle-field, drove him from the army and made him forever afterward a hater of war and an advocate of peace. Returning to farm life, he divided his time between outdoor labor and shoemaking, which occupation he followed when the darkness of night time or the cold of winter prevented his working in the fields. He also betook himself earnestly to the work of self-education. Like many another shoemaker, he made his work-room his study. The materials for the improvement of his mind lay all round his bench--books, pens, ink, paper, etc. An early marriage increased the difficulties of his situation as a poor student, yet he managed by dint of extraordinary application to improve himself and become fit for the ministry before he had reached the age of thirty. His first church was small, and his salary amounted to only two hundred dollars (£45.) Many of the members were poor, and the conscientious pastor could not allow them to pay their share to his support. On this account he often gave up as much as a quarter of his salary in the year, getting through as best he could by a little farming and a good deal of shoemaking. When times were bad he turned his "study" into a day-school and taught the children of his parishioners for nothing. "His first book was a series of letters to a Baptist minister, and in this he gave promise of the direction the efforts of his life were to assume." Its aim was to promote unity among men of different denominations. Later on he published a remarkable book, which made no small stir in its day, entitled "Bible News Relating to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit;" and a second on the same subject, under the title "Letters to Trinitarians." "These works," says Channing, "obtained such favor, that he was solicited to leave the obscure town in which he ministered, and to take charge in this place (Brighton, Mass.) of a periodical at first called the _Christian Disciple_, and now better known as the _Christian Examiner_."[183]

[183] Written in 1837.

At length he issued, in 1814, the famous pamphlet by which his name became known and honored among Christian men and lovers of peace throughout the world. It bore the title "A Solemn Review of the Custom of War." No more effective tract was ever printed. It was translated into several of the languages of Europe. The impression it produced in America led to the formation of the "Peace Society of Massachusetts." Worcester's views on war were identical with those of the Society of Friends. "He interpreted literally the precept, 'Resist not evil,' and believed that nations as well as individuals would find safety as well as fulfil righteousness in yielding it literal obedience.... He believed that no mightier man ever trod the earth than William Penn when entering the wilderness unarmed, and stretching out to the savage a hand which refused all earthly weapons in token of peace and brotherhood." So absorbed was he in this great theme, that he declared, eight years after his famous pamphlet was issued, that "its subject had not been out of his mind when awake an hour at a time during the whole period." He died at Brighton, Mass., in his eightieth year, 31st October, 1838. It was his wish to have written on his tombstone the words, "He wrote the 'Friend of Peace.'" Dr. Channing's testimony to Dr. Worcester's character is the highest one man can bear to another. He says, "Two views of him particularly impressed me. The first was the unity, the harmony of his character. He had no jarring elements. His whole nature had been blended and melted into one strong, serene love. His mission was to preach peace, and he preached it, not on set occasions or by separate efforts, but in his whole life.... My acquaintance with him gave me clearer comprehension of the spirit of Christ and the dignity of man."

Worcester received his degree of Master of Arts from Dartmouth College, and his diploma of Doctor of Divinity from Harvard.

ROGER SHERMAN, ONE OF THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

Another famous American citizen, contemporary during the early part of his life with Noah Worcester, was Roger Sherman, who was born at Newton, Massachusetts, 19th April, 1721. Until the age of twenty-two he was a shoemaker, and from the age of twenty supported his widowed mother and the younger members of the family, and found the means to enable two brothers to enter the ministry. At this time he devoted his leisure to the study of mathematics and astronomy. In 1743 he laid aside the awl, and left his native place to settle at New Milford, Connecticut, where he joined his elder brother in keeping a small store. His accomplishments very soon led to his appointment as surveyor of roads. While holding this office he began the study of law, and made such progress that in 1745, at the age of twenty-four, he was admitted to the bar. In 1748 he began to supply the astronomical calculations for a New York almanac. His life as a legislator commenced with his membership of the Connecticut Assembly, where he held a seat during several sessions. The appointment of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas was given him in 1759, and again in 1765, at New Haven, whither he had removed four years previously. He was made an assistant in 1766, and held the office for nineteen years. The judgeship was not resigned until 1789, part of the time since his appointment having been spent on the bench of the Superior Court.

Roger Sherman's connection with the American Congress was long and highly honorable. He became a Congressman in 1774, and served his country faithfully in that capacity for nearly twenty years till the time of his death, at which time he held a seat in the Senate of the United States. He was appointed also as a member of the Council of Safety. During the last nine years of his life he was Mayor of New Haven. For many years he held the honorable office of treasurer of Yale College.

In the year 1766 Sherman was placed on the Commission appointed to draught the Declaration of Independence, and he was one of those who afterward signed the Declaration. Having been one of those who framed the old "Articles of Confederation," and a very useful member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, his services in obtaining the indorsement or ratification of the Constitution by his own State Convention (_i.e._, of Connecticut) were of the utmost value.

The foregoing statements will sufficiently show how well the quondam shoemaker of Massachusetts earned the noble name of Patriot. Few men in his day did more solid and lasting public work. Although he was a man of remarkably cool, deliberate judgment, he was none the less an enthusiast in the cause of political freedom and independence. During the War of Independence he urged his compatriots by every means in his power to resist the English claims to impose taxation upon the colonies. He never swerved for a moment from the view he first took on the crucial question of "taxation without representation," but always avowed his firm conviction that "no European Government would ever give its sanction to such unfair legislation." His rectitude and integrity were unimpeachable, and his "rare good sense" made him a man of mark even among the noteworthy men of the first Federal Congress. Mr. Macon used to say of him, "Roger Sherman had more common-sense than any man I ever knew;" and Thomas Jefferson was wont to declare that Roger Sherman was "a man who never said a foolish thing in his life." To this opinion of his judgment and mental qualities may be added a valuable estimate of his moral and religious character. Goodrich[184] says that Sherman "having made a public profession of religion in early life, was never ashamed to advocate the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, which are often so unwelcome to men of worldly eminence. His sentiments were derived from the Word of God, and not from his own reason."

[184] In "American Biographical Dictionary." Boston:
J. P. Jewett & Co.

The life of this man of "patriot fame"[185] came to an end July 23d, 1793. His good name is in no danger of being lost to posterity, for in addition to his own personal claim to immortality, he gave "hostages to fortune" in a family of fifteen children, one of whom, his namesake, died in 1856 at the patriarchal age of eighty-eight.

[185] See the allusion to Sherman in Whittier's lines,
given below.

HENRY WILSON, "THE NATICK COBBLER."

Among the political leaders of modern times _Henry Wilson_ long held a conspicuous place in the United States. His early connection with the gentle craft procured for him the familiar and not unfriendly sobriquet "The Natick Cobbler." Wilson was born at Farmington, New Hampshire, February 16th, 1812. From his schoolboy days until he entered on political life he seems to have been connected both with shoemaking and farming, but chiefly with the former occupation. Part of his time, viz., from 1832 to 1837, he was a thorough-going son of Crispin, working on the stool from daylight till dusk. From 1837 to 1840 he was still connected with the trade, but in the more ambitious position of a "shoe manufacturer." In the year 1840 he devoted himself to the life of a politician. The office of President of the Massachusetts Senate was held by him in 1851 and 1852. Three years after this he became a senator as a representative of the same State. This honor he held for seventeen years, that is, till 1872. In 1861 he was made Colonel of the Twenty-second Massachusetts Volunteers. The highest office to which he attained was that of Vice-President of the United States, which post he held from 1872 to 1875, the year of his death. Henry Wilson was held at the time of his death in general and hearty esteem for the valuable services which he had rendered for thirty-five years to his country. Like many another famous son of St. Crispin, _The Natick Cobbler_ was a friend of freedom and a sworn foe to all kinds of tyranny. For many years he stood side by side with the best men in the Northern States, fighting the battle of liberation for the slaves, and at last was permitted to rejoice with them in the triumph of the good cause.

One is very much tempted to multiply instances of men like Wilson, who, having begun life as shoemakers, found their way into the Congress of the United States. _Seven_ such men at least have sat in Congress during the present century.[186] It may also be mentioned here that Franklin in his Autobiography speaks of a member of the _Junto_, a "William Parsons, bred a shoemaker, but loving reading, who acquired a considerable share of mathematics," and "became surveyor-general;" and that Philip Kirtland, a shoemaker from Sherrington, Buckinghamshire, who settled at Lynn, Mass., in 1635, was the founder of the immense trade in boots and shoes for which that city has obtained an unrivalled name throughout the States.

[186] These are Roger Sherman and Henry Wilson,
already noticed, and Daniel Sheffey, Gideon Lee, William
Claflin, John B. Alley, and H. P. Baldwin. In answer to the
question, "What shoemaker has risen to political or literary
eminence in the United States?" a writer in the Philadelphia
_Dispatch_, besides speaking of the four remarkable men we have
selected as examples, says, "There are other famous names of
graduates from that profession. _Daniel Sheffey_ of Virginia
learned the trade, and worked at it many years, and from 1809
to 1817 represented his district in the Congress of the United
States. His retort to John Randolph of Roanoke, who taunted him
on the floor of Congress with his former occupation, was, 'The
difference, sir, between my colleague and myself is this, that
if his lot had been cast like mine in early life, instead of
rising, by industry, enterprise, and study, above his calling,
and occupying a seat on this floor, he would at this time be
engaged in making shoes on the bench.' ... _Gideon Lee_, a
mayor of New York City, and a member of Congress from about
1840 to 1844, was a working shoemaker, and afterward a leather
dealer. _William Claflin_, an ex-governor of Massachusetts and
a member of Congress, worked at the shoemaker's trade when
young, and is now at the head of a very large
shoe-manufacturing firm. _John B. Attey_, an ex-member of
Congress from Massachusetts, was in the shoe trade, as was also
_H. P. Baldwin_, ex-governor of Michigan, and ex-member of
Congress from that State."

J. G. WHITTIER, "THE QUAKER POET."

The last name we have to give in this long, but still incomplete, list of illustrious shoemakers is that of _John Greenleaf Whittier_, who happily is still living to charm and educate the English-speaking people on both sides of the Atlantic with his simple, spirit-stirring poetry. Whittier is frequently spoken of in the States as _the Quaker Poet_. This designation is sufficiently distinctive, for poets are not very numerous in the Society of Friends. Preachers, patriots, philanthropists, orators, and writers of prose are numerous enough, but poets are very hard to find in this intensely earnest and practical religious community.

Like his coreligionists in every generation since the days of George Fox and William Penn, Whittier is "right on all points" relating to social and religious reform. The assistance his vigorous, thrilling lines have given to every philanthropic movement in the United States is beyond calculation. For many years he was the _Hans Sachs_ or _Ebenezer Elliott_ of the Liberation cause, giving similar help by his songs to the work of emancipation in America to that which the German gave to the cause of Protestantism on the continent of Europe, and the Englishman gave to the labors of the Anti-Corn Law League in Great Britain.

His father was a farmer at Haverhill, Massachusetts, where the poet was born in 1807. He remained on the farm until he was nearly nineteen years of age, and divided his time between field-work and shoemaking. In 1825 he was sent to a college belonging to the Society of Friends. Four years after this he became editor of _The American Manufacturer_, which office he held for only twelve months, and then resigned in order to take the management of the _New England Weekly Review_. In 1832 he went back to the old home, worked on the farm, and edited _The Haverhill Gazette_. Twice he represented Haverhill in the State Legislature. All through life he has been a strong and consistent anti-slavery advocate, and at various times has been made secretary of societies and editor of papers whose aim has been the abolition of slavery. About 1838-39 he became the editor of the _Pennsylvania Freeman_, an ardent anti-slavery paper. It required no small amount of courage to advocate freedom for the slave in those days. On one occasion Whittier's office was surrounded by a mob, who plundered and set fire to the building. His published works in prose and verse are very numerous, beginning with the "Legends of New England" in 1831, and coming down to volumes of verse like "The King's Missive, Mabel Martin, and Later Poems," etc.,[187] published within the last few years. Through all his writings there runs a healthy moral tone, and his poetry is no less distinguished for purity of sentiment than for sweetness of numbers and true poetic fire. No man in New England, nor, indeed, in the States, has earned a better title to the thanks and esteem of his fellow-countrymen than the "Quaker Poet," who began the hard work of life by blending the duties of the farm with the occupation of a shoemaker. Whittier College at Salem, Iowa, was established and named in his honor.

[187] In a review of this last volume of Whittier's
poems (Macmillan & Co.), a writer in the _Athenæum_ (February
18th, 1882) gives the following just estimate of Whittier's
character and merits as a man and a poet: "The poems in this
collection ... show that delicate apprehension of nature, that
deep-seated sympathy with suffering mankind, that unwavering
love of liberty and all things lovable, that earnest belief in
a spirit of beneficence guiding to right issues the affairs of
the world, that beautiful tolerance of differences--in a word,
all those high qualities which, being fused with imagination,
make Mr. Whittier, not indeed an analytical and subtle poet,
nor a poet dealing with great passions, but what he is
emphatically, the apostle of all that is pure, fair, and
morally beautiful.

Whittier has never forgotten his connection with the gentle craft in early life; nor has he been ashamed to own fellowship with its humble but worthy members. What he thinks of the craft itself, and of the spirit of the men who have followed it, may be learned from his lines addressed to shoemakers in the "Songs of Labor," published in 1850:

TO SHOEMAKERS.

Ho! workers of the old time, styled
The Gentle Craft of Leather!
Young brothers of the ancient guild,
Stand forth once more together!
Call out again your long array,
In the olden merry manner!
Once more, on gay St. Crispin's Day,
Fling out your blazoned banner!

Rap, rap! upon the well-worn stone
How falls the polished hammer!
Rap, rap! the measured sound has grown
A quick and merry clamor.
Now shape the sole! now deftly curl
The glossy vamp around it,
And bless the while the bright-eyed girl
Whose gentle fingers bound it!

For you, along the Spanish main
A hundred keels are ploughing;
For you, the Indian on the plain
His lasso-coil is throwing;
For you, deep glens with hemlock dark
The woodman's fire is lighting;
For you, upon the oak's gray bark
The woodman's axe is smiting.

For you, from Carolina's pine
The rosin-gum is stealing;
For you, the dark-eyed Florentine
Her silken skein is reeling;
For you, the dizzy goatherd roams
His rugged Alpine ledges;
For you, round all her shepherd homes
Bloom England's thorny hedges.

The foremost still, by day or night,
On moated mound or heather,
Where'er the need of trampled right
Brought toiling men together;
Where the free burghers from the wall
Defied the mail-clad master,
Than yours, at Freedom's trumpet-call,
No craftsmen rallied faster.

Let foplings sneer, let fools deride--
Ye heed no idle scorner;
Free hands and hearts are still your pride,
And duty done your honor.
Ye dare to trust, for honest fame,
The jury Time empanels,
And leave to truth each noble name
Which glorifies your annals.

Thy songs, Hans Sachs, are living yet,
In strong and hearty German;
And Bloomfield's lay, and Gifford's wit,
And patriot fame of Sherman;
Still from his book, a mystic seer,
The soul of Behmen teaches,
And England's priestcraft shakes to hear
Of Fox's leathern breeches.

The foot is yours; where'er it falls,
It treads your well-wrought leather,
On earthen floor, in marble halls,
On carpet, or on heather.
Still there the sweetest charm is found
Of matron grace or vestal's,
As Hebe's foot bore nectar round
Among the old celestials!

Rap, rap! your stout and bluff brogan,
With footsteps slow and weary,
May wander where the sky's blue span
Shuts down upon the prairie.
On beauty's foot, your slippers glance
By Saratoga's fountains,
Or twinkle down the summer dance
Beneath the crystal mountains!

The red brick to the mason's hand,
The brown earth to the tiller's,
The shoe in yours shall wealth command,
Like fairy Cinderella's!
As they who shunned the household maid
Beheld the crown upon her,
So all shall see your toil repaid
With heart and home and honor.

Then let the toast be freely quaffed,
In water cool and brimming--
"All honor to the good old Craft
Its merry men and women!"
Call out again your long array,
In the old time's pleasant manner:
Once more, on gay St. Crispin's Day,
Fling out his blazoned banner.

INDEX.

Adult schools at Gainsborough, started by J. F. Winks and T. Cooper, 171

Akiba, Ben Joseph, 194, 195

Alexander of Comana, 193

Alexandria, the pious cobbler of, 198

Alley, John B., 277

Andersen, Hans C., 210

Angling, book on, by Younger, 246, 247

Annianus of Alexandria, 192

Ansell and the battle of Aughrim, 245

Apelles and the cobbler, 191

Ashmole, Elias, and Partridge, 221

Askham, John, 248

Athenæum, quoted from, 115, 247, 278

Baldwin, H. P., 277

Baptist jubilee memorial, 131

Baptist missions commenced by Carey and Thomas, 141, 142

Barebones, Praise God, 216

Baudouin, the learned, 200

Baviad and Mæviad, 75, 82, 86-7

Benbow and nautical songs, 17

Bennet, John, poet, 229

Bennett, Timothy, of Hampton-Wick, 212

Bentinck, Lady, visits Carey when dying, 146

Berridge, John, and John Thorp, 257

Blacket, Joseph, 236, 242

Blanshard's Life of Bradburn, 65, 66, 67, 70

Bloomfield and Blacket, 239

Bloomfield, George, 94, 95, 96, 238

Bloomfield, Nathaniel, 94, 96, 98, 239

Bloomfield, Robert, a farmer's boy at Sapiston, 94
a ladies' shoemaker, 171
becomes a shoemaker, 94, 95
Birth and childhood, 94
his first poems, 96, 97
his mother, 94, 102
his last years, death, and burial, 101
life in London, 94, 101
list of his poems, 96, 97, 102-3
marriage of, 98
method of composing "The Farmer's Boy," 98
poetical tributes in "Blackwood," etc., 102, 103

Bloomfield, Robert, publishes "The Farmer's Boy," 99

Boehmen, Jacob, the mystic, 205-207
opinions of, by Charles I., William Law, &c., 206

Bowden, Mr., of Taunton, Lackington's master, 34

Bradburn, Samuel, and Charles Wesley, 66
and the clergyman, 68, 69
anecdotes of early preaching, 68
born at Gibraltar, 54
called to be a preacher, 61
circuits he travelled in, 64, 65, 66, 71
death and burial, 71
early life at Chester, 55-60
eloquence as a preacher, 67, 68
his conversion, 55-57
his father pressed into the army, 54
his first sermon, 61
his marriage with Betsy Nangle, 65
his marriage with Sophia Cooke, 66
his mother a Welshwoman, 54
his mother's death, note, 63
his wit and humor, anecdotes of, 70, 71
offered the pastorate of an Independent Church, 66
overtaken in a fault, 71
President of Wesleyan Conference, 67

Brizzio, Francesco, 208

Bruce's "Elegy written in Spring," 322

Buch, Henry Michael, "Good Henry," 201-203

Bunyan and Bradburn compared, 56

Burnet, Rev. John, 259-262

Bushey Park and Timothy Bennett, 213

Byron, Lord, allusion to Gifford, 93

Campion's "Delightful History of ye Gentle Craft," 193, 199, 242, 259

Capellini, _il Caligarino_, 207

Carey and Thomas sail for India, 142

Carey, Eustace, "Life of Dr. Carey," 131
William, abilities as a shoemaker, 131
and Rev. John Ryland, 131, 138
an enthusiast, 131, 132
apprenticed to a shoemaker, 133
baptized by Rev. J. Ryland, 135
D.D. conferred on him by Brown University, 144
first Bengali New Testament, 143
first marriage a mistake, 137
first sermon and pastorate, 135
first study of languages, 132, 133, 135
first thought of missions to heathen, 138
his death, 146

Carey, William his famous sermon at Nottingham, 141
his self-sacrificing spirit, 143
life briefly sketched, 129, 130
life in India, 142, 146
lives at Moulton, 137, 139
"Only a Cobbler," 132
pamphlet on Missions, 140
parentage and birth and childhood, 131, 132
Professor of Oriental Languages,

Calcutta, 129, 143
removes to Leicester, 140

Carlisle, Gifford's guardian, 205

Carlyle on _Hans Sachs_, 76, 77, 205
Thomas, and Thomas Cooper, 184

Carter, Edward, Esq., friend to John Pounds, 151, 157

Castell, Richard, "Ye Cocke of Westminster," 210

Caxton Printing Establishment and S. Drew, 121

Chambers's "Book of Days," 217

Channing on Noah Worcester, 271, 273

Charles, Rev. Thomas, of Bala, 139

Chartists and Thomas Cooper, 179, 182

Chartist Newspapers edited by Thomas Cooper, 181

Christ's Hospital and Richard Castell, 121

Claflin, William, Governor of Massachusetts, 277

Clarke, Dr. Adam, and Samuel Drew, 114, 122

Coke, Dr., and S. Drew, 122, 123

Coleridge, S. T., and Boehmen, 206
and shoemakers, 189

Cooksley, Dr., Gifford's friend, 80, 81
William, son of Dr. Cooksley, Gifford's will in favor of, 86

Cooper, _Robert_, mistaken for _Thomas_

Cooper, 186

Cooper, Thomas, a copyist at the Board of Health, 186

Cooper, Thomas, and "Stamford Mercury," 178
a sceptic, his lectures as, 185: _footnote_, 186
as a lecturer on Christianity, 187
becomes a shoemaker, 169
birth and parentage, 165
childhood at Exeter, 165-167
early studies while a shoemaker, 169-175
editorship and authorship in 1848-49, 185
final conversion to Christianity, 185, 186
first poem, 170
his connection with the Methodists, 177, 178
his excessive studies, 175, 176
his first published poems, 177
in Stafford Jail, 182-3
lectures at City Hall, London, on Theism, 186
life in Leicester, 180-3
life in Lincoln, 177
life in London, 179-180
Cooper, Thomas, list of his writings, 181-7
marries Miss Jobson, 177
professes Christianity in Baptism by immersion, 185
schoolboy days, 168, 169
sets up a school, 176
the railway accident, 186
Trial at Stafford and in London, 182-3

Craggs, Secretary, 216

Crispin and Crispianus, 197-199

Crispin anecdotes, 198-216, 223, 228, 242

Crocker, Charles, 247, 248

Cromwell and Fox, 249-51

Cruickshank and O'Neill, 244-6

Curwen's "History of Booksellers," 37, 45, 83

D'Albrione, Signor, 178

Davies, Ann, Gifford's lines on, 68, 87

Dekker, Thomas, 228

Della Cruscan School, 75, 82

Deloney's "History of Gentle Craft," 199, 228

Dennis, friend of Lackington, 40

Devlin, James, 242

Dey of Tripoli and Lieutenant Shovel, 20-21

D'Israeli, Mr., and Thomas Cooper, 183

"Dramatists, Early English," edited by Gifford, 75, 82

Drew, Samuel, as a preacher, 122, 123
as editor and author, list of works, 139-141
apprenticeship days, 111-113
attempts at poetry, 118-119
begins to study, 114-115
birth and childhood, 110-111
competes for prize of £1500, 122
conversion, joins the Wesleyans, 114
Defence of the Methodists, 119
his generosity, 117
his method of writing books while a shoemaker, 121
his works on immortality of the soul, 120
honors conferred on, 123, 124
last days, 124
lives in Liverpool and London, 124
marriage, 118
narrow escape from drowning, 113
quits the shoemaker's stall, 122
starts in business on £5, his thrift, 116
the midnight visitor, 118
writes "Remarks on Paine's Age of Reason," 118

Duncombe, T. S., M.P., and Thomas Cooper, 183

Elliott, Ebenezer, and John Younger, 246

Eyre, Sir Simon, Lord Mayor of London, 228

Fletcher, vicar of Madely and Bradburn, 62

Foster, John, 242

Fox, George, 249

Fullarton's "Lives of Eminent Englishmen," 84

Fuller, Rev. Andrew, the friend of Carey, 138, 141

Gainsborough the painter, 93

Gentle Craft, etc., origin of the terms, _note_, 198

George III. and Shillitoe, 254

Gifford, William, and Lord Grosvenor, 81, 82
childhood and youth, 76, 79
editorship of London "Quarterly," 75, 76, 83, 84
first attempts at verse, 79
his character, 83, 84
parentage and birth, 76
private tutor to Lord Belgrave, 81
story of the candle, 84
translations of Persius and Juvenal, 82
works his sums on pieces of leather, 78

Goethe's opinion of _Hans Sachs_, 204

Grafton, the duke of, and Bloomfield, 100

Grainger's "Biographical History," 215, 218, 219

Gray's Elegy, 232

Gregory Thaumaturgus, 143

Grosvenor, Lord, a friend to Gifford, 81, 82

Guilds or fraternities of shoemakers in Paris, 201-203

Guthrie, Dr., anecdotes and stories, 151
on John Pounds, 151, 152

Halifax, Lord, and Timothy Bennett, 212, 213

Hanley, Thomas Cooper's speech at, 182

Hardy, Thomas, 265, 266

"Helmsley," the tune, who composed it? 234

Hewson, Colonel, the Cerdon of Hudibras, 215-217

Holcroft, Thomas, 234

Hook, Dr., of Leeds, and Thomas Cooper, 186