In memoriam Lord Shaftesbury.

Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: In memoriam Lord Shaftesbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    this vile and cruel form of idolatry, for idolatry it is, , and like all idolatry, brutal, degrading, and deceptive.” . . . On the 15th July Lord Truro having presented his Bill in the House of Lords, Lord Shaftesbury made, in supporting it, the second speech printed in the following pages. No more affecting sight could well be witnessed than that of the aged philanthropist who for sixty years had pleaded for justice for all classes of human sufferers, standing up once more among his peers to ask for mercy to brutes ; his voice faltering as he described their tortures. Writing of the debate on the 16th July he said :—“ Defeated, you see, by 6 to 1. . . . All the papers seem full of contempt and hatred. . . . Carnarvon voted against us. I had almost hoped that he and some others would have stayed awmy. But we have done our best, at least I did mine, and that ‘ best ’ being but small, was only instrumental in obtaining 16 votes.” And again on July 18th he added, “ Some good will come out of the discussion. I have unmistakeable evidence that many were deeply impressed. But obedience to political leaders is a higher law with most politicians than obedience to truth.” The Annual Meeting for 1880 was held at the house (8, Cromwell Houses) of those generous friends of the Society, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Morrison ; and the President again took the chair. A few days later he presented to Mr. Gladstone the important Memorial, signed by 100 repre¬ sentative men—Peers, Judges, General Officers, and Heads of Colleges, &c.—to which Mr. Gladstone of course replied, expressing his (unfortunately still inactive) sympathy. The Meeting of 1881, at the house of Lord Coleridge ; that of 1882 at his own house ; that of 1883 at 1, Grosvenor Place; of 1884 at Prince’s Hall; and of 1885, at the Westminster Palace Hotel, were, every one of them, presided over by Lord Shaftesbury ; who also took the Chair at two Meetings of the East London and North London Branches of the Society. Beside all these more public assemblies. Lord Shaftesbury took the utmost pains to attend the meetings of the Executive Committee, appointing with great care the