The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-03-26 00:00:00

two of his works, " Vicarial Tithes," and " A Letter to
the Archbishop of Canterbury." These spirited pro-
ductions came forth in aid of a Memorable struggle be-
tween the parish of Halifax and its vicar, respecting
small tithes ; in which contest the parish prevailed, and
by the issue of which Mr. Thornhill's Yorkshire estates
were benefited to the amount of from £15,000 to
£lB,OOO. _ .

Mr. Oastler's philanthropy did not begin abroad, and
end before it arrived at home. In 1829 his attention
was first attracted to the rigour of the factory system,
and the sufferings of the poor factory children. He be-
gan by calling public attention to the subject in the local
newspapers. At first his statements were received by
the public generally as " exaggerations," "impossibili-
ties," and by the great body of the mill-owners with that
bitterness of hostility which invaded interests too often
prompts. Mr. J. Wood, of Bradford, however, stepped
forward to his assistance, though himself an extensive
mill-owner, and afforded the powerful aid of his prac-
tical knowledge and his purse. Oastler had rushed into
the truly holy war single-handed, and alike courageously
and ably maintained the fight ; but backed, first by Mr.
Wood, and afterwards by the lamented Michael Thomas
Sadler (whom he had known from boyhood), the " fac-
tory agitation," as it was called, spread rapidly over the
woollen and cotton districts ; committees were consti-
tuted, and meetings were held, to whom Mr. Oastler
and Mr. Sadler addressed spirit-stirring speeches, and
Mr. Sadler soon had the honour of piloting the question
into the House of Commons, where he succeeded in ob-
taining a parliamentary inquiry, and afterwards brought
forward (founded upon the evidence and report) the Ten
Hour Bill. The Whig ministers then in power found
themselves compelled, as it were, by public opinion, to
take the matter up ; and, though Sadler lived not to see
it, a Factory Protection Bill was passed—vastly short,
indeed, of the requirements of the case ; yet this enact-
ment, imperfect as it is, besides doing much good at
home, has served as the model of laws for factory regu-
lation in France, Germany, and the United States of
America. This act, which gave rise to the ameliora-
tions in other branches of labour obtained by Lord Ash-
ley, is now about to undergo revision.
It cannot be a matter of surprise that Mr. Oastler
declared himself a strenuous opponent of the New Poor
Law the moment that its character and objects became
known. In one of his earliest letters on this subject, he
predicted all that has since taken place. In 1834, he
said, " Never was there such a libel on Englishmen as
this poor law—this Malthusian act—which is framed on
the presumption that the labourers of England are idle,
and will not work, and that they deserve to be pined to
death, or banished from their native soil.' "
His movement against the New Poor Law, however,
made him an enemy in a quarter where he had hitherto
found approbation—Mr. Thornhill. That gentleman
had encouraged Mr. Oastler in his factory agitation, but
looked with far other feelings upon the poor-law agita-
tion. Mr. Thornhill, at first,
i satisfied himself with ex-
pressing his disapprobation n advice ; from advice he
advanced to command ; and Mr. Oastler's prompt, but
respectfully worded reply was, that be could give up his
situation, but not his principles and sense of public duty.
• • • In 1838 he quitted his favourite Fixby,
where he had resided, as his father's successor, upwards
of eighteen years. The day of departure was a memo-
rable one ; he was escorted by at least twenty thousand
persons, who accompanied him into Huddersfield, and
there he took leave of his friends in a long and heart-
melting speech, but iu which, though delivered under
circumstances of great irritation, and not a little wrong,
there was not one word derogatory to Mr. Thornhill's
character or motives. • * * _ _

This was the origin of the Fleet Papers, which, for
more than two years, consisted of a weekly epistle, on
public matters, inscribed to Thomas Thornhill, Esq.,
and when the prisoners in the Fleet were removed under
the new act to the Queen's Prison, the weekly letter was
addressed to Sir James Graham, the Home Secretary of
State, and sometimes, under the fee'ing that wrong had
been inflicted, the strain was rather that of a harsh
trumpet than the " soft pleadings " of the lute.
[Our contemporary then details the steps taken to
forward the subscription for Mr. Oastler's release, but
these have recently appeared in our columns.]
Mr. Oastler is a voluminous writer, as well as a copi-
ous speaker. Besides the Fleet Papers (now in the 4th
vol., 8vo.), and innumerable letters in various public
journals, some of them partaking of the character of
treatises, he is the author of " Letters to the Duke of
Wellington," " Facts and Plain Words," " The Right
of the Poor to Liberty and Life," &c. He is no meta-
physician—no rhetorical flourisher ; but for a statement
of facts, an array of bold impressive truths, an appeal to
the warm and genuine feelings of unsophisticated nature,
and a broadside upon the strongholds of selfishness or
hypocrisy, he is rarely equalled. Mr. Oastler, however,
has come out of prison deeply impressed with the inuti-
lity and impropriety of mixing up with public discussion
anything like personal vituperation, and, henceforth,
though inflexible in his adherence to principles, he is
resolved not to enter &feria personal quarrels of any kind
liC76l's-der's labou'r-s-in:neVought him in close
fellowship with men of rank and talent, and with most
of them he is .on terms of familiar friendship. Twice
has he contested the borough of Huddersfield ; the first
time with Mr. Ellis, jun., when he lost by 50 only ; the
second time with the late Mr. Blackburne, barrister-at-
law, when he was in the still smaller minority of 21. It
has been said in some of the journals that he did this
under the patronage of Mr. Thornhill. The fact is
otherwise. In coming forward he obeyed the call of the
Conservative and independent electors. The Ramsden
family possess the entire soil on which the lowa stands,
with a very slight exception, and it was in spite of that
overwhelming influence that he so nearly succeeded ; no
other man could have come within 150. It is generally
supposed that many months will not elapse ere Richard
Oastler take a seat in the House of Commons for one of
the boroughs where the success of an election mainly
depends upon the industricius classes.