Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet | Page 6

consisted of some
of his best short poems: "The Day of the Lord;" "The Three Fishers;"

"Old and New," and others; of a series of Letters on the Frimley murder;
of a short story called "The Nun's Pool," and of some most charming
articles on the pictures in the National Gallery, and the collections in
the British Museum, intended to teach the English people how to use
and enjoy their own property.
I think I know every line which was ever published under the signature
Parson Lot; and I take it upon myself to say, that there is in all that
"burning language" nothing more revolutionary than the extracts given
above from his letters to the Chartists.
But, it may be said, apart from his writings, did not Parson Lot declare
himself a Chartist in a public meeting in London; and did he not preach
in a London pulpit a political sermon, which brought up the incumbent,
who had invited him, to protest from the altar against the doctrine
which had just been delivered?
Yes! Both statements are true. Here are the facts as to the speech, those
as to the sermon I will give in their place. In the early summer of 1848
some of those who felt with C. Kingsley that the "People's Charter" had
not had fair play or courteous treatment, and that those who signed it
had real wrongs to complain of, put themselves into communication
with the leaders, and met and talked with them. At last it seemed that
the time was come for some more public meeting, and one was called
at the Cranbourn Tavern, over which Mr. Maurice presided. After the
president's address several very bitter speeches followed, and a
vehement attack was specially directed against the Church and the
clergy. The meeting waxed warm, and seemed likely to come to no
good, when Kingsley rose, folded his arms across his chest, threw his
head back, and began--with the stammer which always came at first
when he was much moved, but which fixed every one's attention at
once--"I am a Church of England parson"--a long pause--"and a
Chartist;" and then he went on to explain how far he thought them right
in their claim for a reform of Parliament; how deeply he sympathized
with their sense of the injustice of the law as it affected them; how
ready he was to help in all ways to get these things set right; and then to
denounce their methods, in very much the same terms as I have already

quoted from his letters to the Chartists. Probably no one who was
present ever heard a speech which told more at the time. I had a
singular proof that the effect did not pass away. The most violent
speaker on that occasion was one of the staff of the leading Chartist
newspaper. I lost sight of him entirely for more than twenty years, and
saw him again, a little grey shrivelled man, by Kingsley's side, at the
grave of Mr. Maurice, in the cemetery at Hampstead.
The experience of this meeting encouraged its promoters to continue
the series, which they did with a success which surprised no one more
than themselves. Kingsley's opinion of them may be gathered from the
following extract from a letter to his wife:--
"June 4, 1848, Evening.--A few words before bed. I have just come
home from the meeting. No one spoke but working men, gentlemen I
should call them, in every sense of the term. Even I was perfectly
astonished by the courtesy, the reverence to Maurice, who sat there like
an Apollo, their eloquence, the brilliant, nervous, well-chosen language,
the deep simple earnestness, the rightness and moderation of their
thoughts. And these are the Chartists, these are the men who are called
fools and knaves--who are refused the rights which are bestowed on
every profligate fop.... It is God's cause, fear not He will be with us,
and if He is with us, who shall be against us?"
But while he was rapidly winning the confidence of the working
classes, he was raising up a host of more or less hostile critics in other
quarters by his writings in "Politics for the People," which journal was
in the midst of its brief and stormy career. At the end of June, 1848, he
writes to Mr. Ludlow, one of the editors--
"I fear my utterances have had a great deal to do with the 'Politics''
unpopularity. I have got worse handled than any of you by poor and
rich. There is one comfort, that length of ears is in the donkey species
always compensated by toughness of hide. But it is a pleasing prospect
for me (if you knew all that has been said and written about Parson Lot),
when I look