The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JULY 24, 1868.

211 E LATE 111 R. .EFFINGBAiII 1171LSON.

(From the City Press)

Our columns recently recorded the death of Mr.
Effingham Wilson. In the belief that many may
like to know something of the life of one who, in his
time, held a prominent position, both as a publisher
and a politician, the following particulars have been
compiled.
Mr. Wilson was born about 1783, in the parish
of Kirby-Ravensworth, near Richmond, in the
North Riding of Yorkshire. He was a member of
an old Yorkshire family, and the fact of some of his
relations having farmed under the Earl of Effing-
ham, induced his parents to give him the distinctive
Christian name that he subsequently made so well
and widely known. His earliest years were passed
in the neighbourhood of the place of his birth,
and when still a b)y he was removed to Knares-
borough, in the same county, where he went
to reside with his uncle, Dr. Hutchinson, for
the purpose of being educated and trained
to the medical profession, for which, at that
time, he was destined. Dr. Hutchinson was a
celebrated man in his district, and possessed an ex-
cellent museum. It was this same Dr. Hutchinson
who went out to Knaresborough Moor, in the dead
of the night, and cut down the body of Eugene
Aram, which was grimly hanging there in chains,
for the purpose of possessing himself of the skall, he
being an ardent phrenologist. This skull he
secreted for years, and when it eventually came to
light, and he admitted that he was the culprit, it
was, owing to its peculiarities of formation, the
subject of much discussion and controversy amongst
phrenologists. Mr. Wilson knew Houseman's
widow, the man Houseman who is supposed by
many to have been the real murderer of Daniel
Clarke, and who turned king's evidence. Mr.
Wilson, from these early as:iocia,tions, took a deep
interest in all concerning the life and fate of
Eugene Aram, and possessed an extensive collec-
tion of all the works and pamphlets that were, from
time to time, issued and published upon that sub-
ject. The skull, which ht much coveted, and
which was at one time promised to him, still re-
mains in the family, and is now in the possession of
Miss Walton, of .Talton, in Yorkshire.
Mr. Wilson subsequently determined, from some
unexplained cause, to abandon the profession of
medicine ; and it is believed that when he left Dr.
Hutchinson, he fur some time went to reside with
a relation named Fall, at Rood Hall, in Yorkshire,
on an estate called the Theakston Estate, since pur-
chased by the Duke of Leeds. He left Mr. Fall,
after a considerable sojourn, and resolved, when
still a youth, to come to London, and seek his for-
tunes in the great city.
Mr. Wilson appears to have selected the publish-
ing business immediately after his arrival in Lon-
don. He first went to Mr. Aspern's, iu Coruhill,
whose place was known by the sign of " The Bible,
Crown, and Constitution." From Mr. Aspern's he
went to Mr. Thomas Hurst (the firm being Hurst
and Robinson), the Longmans joining the house
while Mr. Wilson was there, although Mr. Hurst
afterwards separated from the now great house of
Longman and Co., with which house Mr. Wilson
remained for some years. He formed for Mr. Hurst,
from this early time, a warm and enduring friend-
ship, which lasted until the death of that gentle-
man, a few years since. Many long years after
the early time to which we have referred, when
Mr. Hurst's fortunes had unhappily changed, Mr.
Wilson was chiefly instrumental in securing him a
haven in " The Charter House," at which place he
died.

After leaving Messrs. Longman's house, and com-
mencing business, Mr. Wilson was for a few years
in Paternoster-row, but removed, on the 30th of
June, 1812, to the south-east corner of the Royal
Exchange, which place he never afterwards quitted,
except during the rebuilding, after the fire of
January 10th, 1838, returning as soon as it was
again ready to the same spot, which still bears his
name. Although, with his wonted prudence, he
had taken out and held several fire policies for
'years, yet, by some unaccountable oversight, the
last premiums had not been duly paid ; and when
the great fire came, he learnt too late, greatly to his
own perplexity, that he was entirely. uninsured. On
the occasion of the opening of the new Exchange in
1844, he was most generously congratulated, on his
re-establishment, by the public press.
Mr. Wilson was for upwards of 60 years a busy
worker in the City, making his corner position cele-
brated as the birthplace of many useful and instruc-
tive commercial and important political and lite-
rary works. Ile had the longest career, and, we
believe, the most independent, public-spirited, and
fearless career, of any publisher of his time. He
was associated with much brave political work that
has been well, truly, and laboriously done. He was
a link between the past and present generations,
and he had consequently seen extraordinary changes.
lle took at one time an active and dangerous part
in politics, on the extreme Liberal side, and was the
producer of works for which it was difficult to find
a publisher, containing as theydid daring onslaughts
on the established wrongs of the day.
We extract the following remarks, in support
of what we have said, from the Money Market Re-
view :

Mr. "Wilson visited his friend Hone, in Newgate,
the night before his celebrated trial began, in 1817,
it ni order However
e.s, e r t or
nu ailc him in the preparation of bis defence.
h
he may have thought Hone's con-
duct questionable, and however widely he may have
differed from him, both as a matter of taste and
feeling, be considered the criminal prosecution to
which Hone was subjected wholly unjustifiable,
and, if successful, a pernicious precedent ;' and un-
der such circumstances he concluded that it would,
in the hour of peril, be an act of moral cowardice
to desert his friend. lie was fully borne out in his
opinion of the prosecution by the unanimous ac-
quittal of Hone by three special juries, and this in
spite of Lord Elleuborough, who, more in the spirit
of an advocate than a judge, pleaded hard for a
conviction. The public endorsed these verdicts by
a subscription of £3,000.
_

"Effingham Wilson was a man of strong im-
pulses, great moral courage, and unswerving deter-
mination, of all which his conflict with the leading
journal many years ag.) was a memorable example.
The journal in question punished him for years by
sedulously ignoring both him and his publications;
but he never condescended to complain. At alater
period, when the hatchet was buried between them,
Mr. Wilson's publicAtions were noticed with the
same impartiality as those of other publishers. A
feature of the late Mr. Wilson's character was a
generous inclination to help those who needed help
either in politics, in literature, or in business ; and
there may be many now living who can testify to
the value of the services he has rendered to them.
"He was the publisher of some of the earlier
works of Jeremy Bentham. He was the publisher
also of Wade's celebrated Black Book, in which the
pensions and jobberies of the Court and aristocracy
of that day were ruthlessly exposed to the indigna-
tion of the country. The book, though costly, had
an enormous sale, and created an immense sensa-
tion, and there is no doubt it contributed much to
arouse that spirit which ultimately carried the Re-
form Bill of 1832. how are times changed since
then 1 John Wade, the author of that book, is
now in the receipt of a pension from the Crown,
and the instrument in procuring that pension for
him was the son of his old publisher. It may also
be mentioned that Mr. Wilson was the first pub-
lisher of Alfred Tennyson (1830) and of the works
of Thomas Campbell in a complete form."

personal friend of Dr. Birk-
_
becjklr,.a\n‘drilstlolkwaas a
warm and active interest in the
establishment of Mechanics' Institutions, and the
spread of popular education. Re contended, in
the matter of sound instruction, to use his own
phraseology, that every child shou!d «have that
given to it which nobody can take away from it."
As an apt illustration of how appreciatively alive
he was to the continuity of progress and improve-
ment, scientific as well as political, it may be worth
while to mention, that he was the first man in his
own district to cause his place of business to be
lighted with gas, and that greatly to the terror of
his timid neighbours, and in spite of of their pro-
phetic remonstrances.
He used to ride in the steam carriage that at one
time. ran on the common highway ; and he went the
first experimental trip, with the directors, on the
Greenwich Railway ; and as a contrast in one life,
he had known the time when it took him four days
to go to Margate in a boy, and a week to go to
Edinburgh on a coach.

In 1827, years before the " Anti-Corn Law
League" was organised (in 1838) he published
General I'erronet Thompson's famous Catechism of
the Corn Laws. Many thousands of this work were
sold and circulated, year after year, with persistent
industry, until it could be found, with its familiar
ark alustration, in every nook and corner of Eng-
land. It may be said to have prepared the ground,
and sown the seed, for the coming political harvest.
In point of argument, this work has been pro-
nounced convincing and exhaustive, although the
subject received, of course, vast and continuous
subsequent illustration. After the long Anti-Corn
Law campaign was over and the victory was won,
Mr. Cobden, with rare and graceful political gene-
rosity, speaking of General Thompson, said, " He
was our master ; Vv e have all been but pupils in his
school." General Thompson has been styled " the
earliest and ablest asserter of the principles of Free
Trade."

Many of the works published by Mr. Wilson
have gone through numerous editions, and some
have existed for years, and have become accepted
standard Commercial Works. Mr. Wilson also
published at different times a considerable num-
ber of Educational Works, amongst them the works
of M. Merlet and M. Le Page, and some by the
well-known Mr. Pinnock. One of the earliest
cheap periodicals, 1830-31, entitled Vie Parterre,

was his, and had for some time cnsijerable suc-
cess. He also started in the very earliest days of
the railway system The Railway Journal, but this
paper was, at the period of its first production, be-
fore its time. fie sold it to Mr. I ferapath, who
tached his name to the paper, and it became after-
wards a great property. Ile published for mlny
years, and his house still publishes, a larger num-
ber of pamphlets than any other fir:n in the trade,
and his was the house that has acted for a long
time past for most of the great City nrignateF.
Within the lest few years he has published fir the
Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, for Mr. it. Wigram
Crawford, M.P., and for Mr. Thomson ninkey,
M.P. tie published for the Administrative Re-
form Association the speech of Mr. Charles
Dickens, delivered at Drury-lane Theatre ; and,
for the Liberal Registration Association, a speech
of Earl Lussell, dedvered at Guildhall, on the occa-
sion of a contested election. It was his invariable
cult An to print upon the title page of his books a
grasshopper, that being the test of Sir Thomas
Gre,,harn, and the sign of the grasshopper having
always been placed upon the tower of the Royal
Exchange, immediately above his place of business.

A friend of Mr. Wilson's, a Mr. Maurice, built
the Brunswick Theatre, in Wellclose-square, in
1828, which house, a few days after it was opened
to the public, fell down during a rehearsal, crush-
ing the pro.,rietor, au.l eleven others, in its ruin,.
Mr. Wilson, after a long search, found the bogy of
Mr. Maurice in the pit, in a
painfully mutilate I
condition; a friend of Mr. Maurice's who hat b.km
with him in the proscenium box during the accident,
and who, when the roof be4an to fail, had strongly
urged him to stay where he was, remaining unin-
jured. Mr. Wilson hal the mournful duty of
breaking to the family of his friend the sad intelli-
gence of his terrible death. Ile used to tell, with
great unction, the story of how a narrow-minded
parson thereabout, who, by way of "improving the
occasion," had taken upon himself to denounce. the
theatre as a godless house, and had presumed to de-
tect the hand of Providence in its destruction, and

_
At a time when a testimonial was presented to had the steeple of his own church toppled down by
Mr. Wilson, on account of the service he had ren- lightning during the ensuing summer—an itnpar- :
dered to the Reform cause of 1832 was put forward tiality of dispensation that Must have been obfus-
by his friends. It showed that, among many other catingly startling to so self-satisfied an interpreter
things, he, in 1806, published A Plain Letter to of infinite wisdom. One can well imagine such a
H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, on his Plain Ditties man, glasses on nose, gazing with blank amazment,
to his Wife, his Child, and his Country. Was in twenty times at least, at the empty space ,here his
consequence served with an ex-officio information steeple once had been, before he could gradually
by the then Attorney-General (Sir Vicary Gibbs), bring his stunned intelligence into a condition to
which caused the whole trade to discontinue the believe it possible.
sale of it except himself. 1812. Published Ma- The following is a very characteristic anecdote,
terials for Thinking, by William Burden, Esq. A and is an example of the sort of personal encounter
threat of prosecution caused many booksellers to to which Mr. Wilson's publications at one time ren-
abandon the sale of this work. 1821. The Art of dered him liable:--Col. Stephenson, aide-de-camp
Packing as applied to Special Juries incases of Libel to the Duke of York, one day called at the Royal
Law, by Jeremy Bentham. This work lay in the Exchange and inquired for Efflogliain Wilson.
hands of the printers for ten years, wanting a pub- Stepping forward, Mr. Wilson said, " That is my 1
Esher. 1830-2. The Black Book, usually known as name." The colonel then asked if he was the pub-
the Reformers' Bible, a work which, during the agita- usher of " a scandalous p simplilet reflectng on
tion of the Reform Bill, both the London and country H. R.H. the Duke of York." Mr. IVilson replied,
newspapers quoted and extracted from to an un- "No, I never issue scaudalous publications. I have
precedented extent, greatly to the advancement of lately published a pamphlet, in which his Royal
the cause. The sale of this work was impeded by the ; Highness's conduct is truthfully described." Then,
prosecution of several country vendors, but no pro- said the c010n.21, " I have come from the duke with
secution was attempted against Mr. Wilson in Lou- the intention of horse- whipping you," at the same '
don. 1833. Published The Times Extraordinary. time producing, from under his coat, a formi-
This completely stirred up the venom of that joule. dable whip. Mr. Wilson, nothing daunted by
1. ,
nal, which took occasion to designate him as the the appearance of his military visitor, or the
sight of the weapon, but standing bolt upright,
" Radical Bookseller of the Royal Exchange," and
recommended the partisans of its newly-adopted , restutVed the colonel to fulfil his commission, but
creed to punish such men by the adoption of " ex- he added, " the moment you lay hands on me
elusive dealing" with persons of their own political . you will find it necessary to make your appear-
faith. Th 1 Livery of the Clothworkers' Company ante before the Lord Mayor." The colonel, acting
was withheld from him for 25 years (until the Re- i upon the principle that " discretion is the better
form Bill conferred it upon him) on account of his
, part of valour," decided not to execute his commis-
Sion, but departed, threatening all sorts of yen-
publishing books " inimical to the State," as he
was repeatedly told by the dominant Tory faction geance, of which, however, nothing more was
of that day, who then ruled the affairs of the Com- ever heard. Those who knew Effingham Wilson
pany. Ile became the relater in the cause of the will feel pretty certain that had the Colonel but
" Lute Charity," left in trust to the Clothworkera, raised his arm to strike, something would have 1
by which means nearly £7OO per annum was appro- occurred prior to his appearance at the Mansion
priated to the poor, which had for almost two house.
centuries been applied to the " uses" of the Com- In public life he earuestly desired, to use his fa-
pany
vourite expression, manfully to do his all to " leave
Mr. Wilson was at one thee a frequent attendant the world better than he found it ;" his oft-repeated
in the lobby of the House of Commons, when any idea of the end of all good government was, to use
question of national importance was before the the words of Bentham, " the greatest happiness of
house, being well known to many of the members. the greatest number ;" he cherished tenaciously our
He took a great interest in Queen Caroline, and hardly-cotquered " right of private judgment ;"
formed one of the deputation who waited upon her he spoke ever of the great "fourth estate," a free
with the late Mr. Alderman Matthew Wood. He press, thus:—" It is like the air we breathe : if we
was a volunteer at the time when Napoleon Buona- have it not, we die ;" he frequently made pecuni-
parte threatened England with invasion, and was ary sacrifices for causes that he loved, and many a
justly proud of having been so. He had a great time were his private interests rendered subser-
veneration for the memory of Jeremy Bentham, and vient to the public good ; he was a staunch Pro-
took his children and his friends to the house of testant, and a hater of priestly rule and do-
Di Southwood Smitn, to see the Ito ly of Jeremy mination, but an advocate for religious as
Benthain, which was kept there embalmed, and well as civil liberty ; and he believed it to be the
dressed in the clothes iu which he died.
bounden duty of every good citizen to regard stcd-
'he great General, the Marquess de Lafayette, fastly Blackstone's patriotic injunction,. " The
on the occasion of Mr. Wilson publishing a trausla_ protection of the liberty of Britain is a duty we owe
1 tion of one of his works, sent him a cordial auto- to ourselves, who enjoy it; to our ancestry, who
graph letter, and a bust of himself. transmitted it down ; and to our posterity, who will
claim it at our hands as the beat birthright and
The novel in the list of works published by Mr.
noblest inheritance of mankind."
Wilson, entitled Arthur Coningsby, was written by
In private life he was full of amenity, kindliness,
John Sterling, who was associated, if we are not
and cheerfulness. He enjoyed excellent health',
mistaken, with the Times newspaper, and of whom
throughout his long life, and used often to remark
Thomas Carlyle has written a biography.
that he had lived sixty years in London without
Mr. "Wilson purchased of Thomas Campbell the
a headache. lie was fond of athletic exercises,
copyright of his life of Mrs. Siddons. Campbell
and was a first-rate horseman and swimmer. He
was the literary executor of the great tragic actress,
was devotedly loved by his family, and had many
and she left to him her diary. This diary Mr.
c. ordial friends and admirers amongst all parties
Wilson endeavoured to persuade the poet to print,
l
the State. He was touchingly remarkable
but in vain. The publisher contended that the for
one trait—his beautiful tenderness to
public or histrionic life of Mrs. Siddons was well little children. llis attachment to his native
known, and thoroughly appreciated, and that it was county
these very peeps behind the scenes, given in the was snigularly strong, and in his later years
there was no theme of which he so much loved to
pages of a private diary, in which the public would
talk as of the dear old Yorkshire days. He.was
twice naturally take the deepest interest. Campbell, •
cemarried. He married very young, and had
nevertheless, we think wrongly, was immovable a very large family, as many as fifteen children.
upon this point, and decided to destroy it, or at any ,
t,ome of his daughters lived to nearly the age of
rate the greater portion of it. sixty, and yet died some years before Mr. Wilson
When Tennyson forwarded to Mr. Wilson the himself. Besides those children of his own who
manuscript of his first poems, from Cambridge, it
survive him, he has left some five-and-twenty
was accompanied by the manuscript of some poems
grandchildren. Ha at length passed quietly and
by Mr. Arthur H. lizillatn, the intention at that
peacefully away, not one of those sorrowing relatives
time being that the poems of the two college friends who surrounded his bed knowing exactly the
should appear in the same volume. Mr. Hallam 's
MS., however, owing we presume to the advice of moment at which he breathed his last. Like a true
and trusty soldier, he had fought the long battle of
critical friends, was eventually withdrawn. It was
this same Mr. Hallam in whose honour the Poet life with high and with enduring courage. All
honour to his manful memory.
Laureate afterwards raised that marvellous mental
monument to human friendship, his In Memoriam.
It will be seen by the two preceding anecdotes
that Mr. Wilson published for two Poets-Laureate,
Campbell and Tennyson. Mr. Robert Browning
was in the Bank of England, in 1836, at the time
Mr. Wilson published his Paracelsus for him. It
was Mr. Browning's first poetical production.

The foregoing is a statement of facts, little
mingled with that deeper feeling of bereavement,
inseparable from the death of those for whom
grief is the most lasting, and the strongest. Those
who arc nearest and dearest to him must long
feel that his place 4 empty. He ever struggled,
guided by the broadest principles, after that which
he believed to be the pursuit of truth. All that
could promote the go.KI of society, freedom, know-
ledge, science, and humanity, were dear to him.
Around such a nature affection must necessarily
have grappled, and long and lovingly will recollec-
tion cling to his remembrance. He was full of
energetic consistency, and he shrank instinctively
from compromise. The spirit and power of such a
man must in some degree remain, though the life
itself may have passed away. He was of a pure, di-
rect, and healthful nature, ever controlled by whole-
some and ennobling influences, and some of those
whom he has left behind will doubtless feel their
lives henceforth impoverished by that which must
he to them indeed an irreparable loss.