Bygones Worth Remembering, Vol. 1 (of 2)

d a list of those among them who were paid in the days of their hired activity. But the business of this c

the map of the country, and fixed the destination of the journey. Joseph Parkes himself, known as "The People's Attorney-General," first addressed Place as the "Old Postillion."* James Watson, a workin

ace," p. 346. Longman

409, vol. xvi.

running after his character seldom has a character worth the chase." Some far-seeing qualification was generally present in what he said. For a man who is "always" vindicating himself becomes tiresome and ineffectual. Yet now and then, sooner or later

of personal explanation. Nevertheless, I made it.* Mr. Place told me that in the course of his career as defender of the people, "he had been charged with every crime known to the Newgate Calendar save wilful murder." A needless reservation, for that would have been believed. He let them pass, merely keeping a record of the accusations to see if their variety included any originality. There was one charge brought agai

th of O

e in the Spirit of the Age, of which Chambers's Journal took, for them, the unusual course of replying. The Spirit of the Age coming un

pton

h 3,

d and quoted, that he, like yourself, has been led by his feelings, and not by his understanding, and has therefore written a mischievous paper. I will read this paper and decide for myself. Knowledge is not wisdom. The most conspicuous proof of this is the conduct of Lord Brougham. He knows many things, more, indeed, than most men, but is altogether incapable of combining all that relates to any one

ndency, but a much worse one; that of depraving them, by teaching them, in their public capacity, to seek revenge, to an extent which, could it pervade the whole mass, must lead to slaughter among the human race-the beasts of prey called mankind; for such they have ever been since they have had existenc

cis P

for those for whom he cared he would do the service of showing to them the limits within which they were working. It wa

was excited, and the Duke of Wellington indignant and repellant-we

rs," vol. i

he had been with the other officers, and becoming hungrier by delay, he requested permission to make his complaint to the Commander-in-Chief (Lord Wellington), which was granted. Upon being introduced he found his lordship seated at a table perusing some documents. "Well," said the Commander, without raising his eyes from the papers before him, "what does this man want?" "He is come to appeal to your lordship about his rations," replied the officer in attendance; whereupon the Commander-in-Chief, without asking or permitting a single word of explanation from the injured soldier, without discovering (as he ought in common justice to have done) whether the soldier had a real grievance for the redress of which he had sought the protection of the head of the army, Wellington hurriedly exclaimed, "Take the fellow away and give him a d--d good flogging!" Petrie, naturally indignant and a determined man, lay in wait two nights to shoot Wellington, who escaped

blic life, and the politician is most to be valued whose measures tend to exalt the daily life of the people. Near the end

ompton

h 26,

am never wholly free. Worst of all, I have an affection of the brain, which will not permit me either to read or write, and when these two complaints co-operate I am something worse than good for nothing. You are, I conclude, in a much better

rs t

cis P

Shrewd, hard-headed, painstaking, vigilant and prudent as he was, he found, when more than sixty, that ￡650 of his income was irrevocably lost He had put a large part of his capital

stments, and judge for himself their value? His absorbed interest in public affairs is the only explanation. Yet he had often war

the Reasoner expressed a hope that a life of Place would be written as one

I told him where, in the Manuscript Department of the British Museum, he would find virgin material in Place's own compact and clear hand. By research t

s "Life of Pl

y Years," vo

cis Place," by Gr

s, Gree

aning those of nine years' imprisonment) separated from the immediate acquaintance of Mr. Place for several years past, I can, by experience of eighteen and the well-founded report of forty years, pronounce him a prodigy of useful, resolute, consistent politica

"Real Nobility of t

hard Carlile) in th

835.

e wrote in 1835, and the public work Place was engaged in then he continued until his death in 1854, at which time