Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/338

 MEYRIG (fl. 1250), treasurer of Llandaff. [See .]

MIALL, EDWARD (1809–1881), politician, younger son of Moses Miall, a general merchant, of Portsmouth, by his wife Sarah, daughter of George Rolph, was born at Portsmouth, 8 May 1809. During his childhood his father removed to London, first to Hammersmith, and afterwards to the north of London, and opened a school. After being for a short time a pupil at St. Saviour's grammar school, Edward became, at about the age of sixteen, assistant to his father, and in 1827, when, owing to his father's poverty, the home was broken up, he filled the office of usher, first in the school of a Mr. Saltmarsh of Bocking, near Braintree, and then in that of a Mr. Waddell of Nayland in Suffolk.

At an early date he developed strong religious feeling. At the same time he showed literary propensities, reading English poetry with avidity, and writing numerous verses. Shortly before the death of his father in 1829 he entered the Wymondley Theological Institution, Hertfordshire, subsequently merged in New College, London, and began his preparation for the independent ministry. In the debating society and in the chapel pulpit he distinguished himself by natural eloquence and great fluency, and he accepted, in February 1831, the charge of a congregation at Ware in Hertfordshire, and in 1834 became minister of the Bond Street Chapel, Leicester. He familiarised himself with the condition of the working classes in Leicester, but did not take an active part in politics till 1840.

In November of that year he began his lifelong attacks upon the established church, by taking part in a meeting to express sympathy with William Baines, a member of his congregation, who had been sent to gaol for non-payment of church rates. He had already planned the foundation of a newspaper to be the special organ of the nonconformist demand for disestablishment, and had acquired journalistic facility by writing for the ‘Leicester Mercury.’ He now gave up his congregation in Leicester, and after canvassing among English nonconformists for the requisite capital from August 1840 to March 1841, he established the ‘Nonconformist,’ a weekly publication with the motto and principle of ‘The Dissidence of Dissent and the Protestantism of the Protestant Religion.’ The first number appeared on 14 April 1841. Miall was appointed editor, and, settling at Stoke Newington, devoted all his energies to the venture. His weekly articles denouncing the state church he subsequently collected for republication as ‘The Nonconformist Sketch-Book’ (1845, republished in 1867), ‘Views of the Voluntary Principle’ (1845), and ‘Ethics of Nonconformity.’ He also opposed the Melbourne administration, denounced the tory party, and attacked aristocratic government. In spite of the silent disfavour of leading dissenters, the circulation of his paper grew, and he gradually acquired real political influence. He was one of that small band of radicals which endeavoured, fruitlessly, to bring the chartist leaders into line with the more established political organisations. He advocated what was practically manhood suffrage, and appealed to the middle classes to join hands with the artisans. Through his support of the Anti-Corn Law League he obtained the acquaintance of Joseph Sturge, and in April 1842 he, with Sturge, Bright, Mursell, and Sharman Crawford, arranged the Birmingham conferences with the chartist leaders, Lovett, O'Brien, and Henry Vincent, to promote the abolition of class legislation. The National Complete Suffrage Union was then founded, and carried on for some years the propaganda for a wider franchise, and the ‘Nonconformist’ was formally constituted its organ in the press, though after the second Birmingham conference, in December 1842, Miall did not take part in its meetings.

Miall's writings did more than anything else to produce a school of aggressive politicians among dissenters. The foundation of the free church of Scotland greatly encouraged his supporters, and his determined opposition to the compulsory religious education clauses in Graham's Factories Education Bill of 1843 increased his influence. After much effort he procured the assembling of a conference on disestablishment in London on 30 April 1844, when there was established a society called the ‘British Anti-State Church Association,’ having for its object ‘the liberation of religion from all governmental or legislative interference.’ It was renamed in 1853 ‘The Society for the Liberation of Religion from State Patronage and Control.’ On behalf of the Association Miall undertook frequent missionary tours in the north of England and in Scotland. In August 1845 he contested Southwark at a by-election, caused by the death of its member, Benjamin Wood. In his election address he declared himself consecrated to the separation of church and state, and advocated complete suffrage, the ballot, equal electoral districts, payment of members, and annual parliaments. He polled one-sixth of the votes of the successful liberal candidate, Sir William Molesworth [q. v.]

At the general election of 1847 he contested Halifax on the principles of his Anti-State