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 the teaching of drawing. He was a firm supporter of secular education as established in the colony, thinking it the only means of securing perfect fairness towards all religious denominations. Some parts of his work as minister are embodied in the Act for Amending the Education Act, which he succeeded in carrying through both the houses of the colonial parliament in 1889. At the time of his resignation of office he was preparing a scheme for the abolition of the system of payment by results.

An attack of influenza with pneumonia in 1892 led to his retirement from the assembly and to his return to England, where for a time his health was restored. Owing to pecuniary losses he accepted in 1893 the post of permanent secretary to the agent-general. He contributed to some English journals, and in 1893 published his ‘National Life and Character: a Forecast,’ which attracted general attention. In this book Pearson arrived at very pessimistic conclusions respecting the future of mankind. He prophesied the triumph of state socialism, the substitution of the state for the church, the loosening of family bonds, the tyranny of industrial organisations, and other developments consequent on the growth of modern democracy in highly civilised countries. He pointed out that these developments imply the decay of character, of independent genius, and of all that is best and noblest; and he argued that the time will come when Europeans will find that the increase of the black and yellow races will be so far greater in proportion to the white that Chinamen and negroes will become masterful factors in the trade and politics of the world. A second edition appeared in 1894, and the reception of the work held out to its author the hope of further literary success. He died in London on 29 May 1894, in his sixty-fourth year, his wife and three daughters surviving him. Speeches were made by the head of the government of Victoria and others in the assembly on 5 June expressing the general regret with which the news of his death had been received, and the high esteem felt for him by men of different parties. In 1895 his widow was granted a pension of 100l. on the civil list.

Pearson was a polished speaker, and his literary style was simple and graceful. Though he was primarily a man of letters, he showed practical ability in public affairs. His convictions were strong, and he stated them courageously and in forcible language, yet he never spoke harshly of his opponents; and one of the foremost of them, in a speech made in the legislative assembly on his death, declared that he had not left a personal enemy, and that he had raised the tone of debate in the house. Throughout his whole career he showed a fine sense of honour, and was always ready to sacrifice his personal interests to what he believed to be right. He was an honorary LL.D. of the university of St. Andrews.

In addition to ‘National Life and Character,’ magazine articles, contributions to journalism, and the report already noticed, his published works are:
 * 1) ‘Russia, by a recent Traveller,’ 1859, written after a visit to that country in the previous year.
 * 2) ‘The Early and Middle Ages of England,’ 1861, a brightly written and interesting book, though not fully representing the then state of historical scholarship, and afterwards held unsatisfactory by the author, who extensively revised it, and republished it as the first volume of
 * 3) ‘The History of England during the Early and Middle Ages,’ 1867, 2 vols., the second volume of which continues the history from the accession of John to the death of Edward I. This book was reviewed with some bitterness by E. A. Freeman in the ‘Fortnightly Review,’ 1868 (vol. ix. new ser. iii. pp. 397 sqq.), though the value of the second volume was acknowledged by him as well as by all others. Pearson replied to Freeman's review, referring to other criticisms which had appeared elsewhere anonymously, though coming, as he believed, from the same quarter, in a pamphlet entitled
 * 4) ‘A Short Answer to Mr. Freeman's Strictures,’ &c.
 * 5) ‘An Essay on the Working of Australian Institutions’ in ‘Essays on Reform,’ 1867.
 * 6) ‘An Essay’ in ‘Essays on Woman's Work,’ 1869.
 * 7) ‘Historic Maps of England during the first Thirteen Centuries,’ 1870, a work of much value.
 * 8) ‘English History in the Fourteenth Century,’ 1873, a handbook.
 * 9) ‘A Brief Statement of the Constitutional Question in Victoria’ [1879?], a pamphlet.
 * 10) ‘An English Grammar,’ with Professor H. A. Strong, published in Australia. Pearson also edited Blaauw's [see ] ‘Barons' War,’ 1871, and Thirteen Satires of Juvenal, with Professor Strong, Oxford, 1887, 1892.



PEARSON, EDWARD (1756–1811), theologian, was born at St. George's Tombland in Norwich on 25 Oct. 1756. His father, Edward Pearson (d. 1786), who was descended from a collateral branch of the family of Dr.