Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/157

 condition of the "stockingers" among whom his lot was cast, naturally disposed him to become a partisan of the "Charter," which was at that time being earnestly advocated in Leicester by the well-known Thomas Cooper, author of the "'Purgatory of Suicides," a work written in Leicester Jail. Cooper, in his interesting "Autobiography," published in 1872, gives us a vivid glimpse of the adolescent representative of Sheffield: "I had been appealing strongly one evening to the patriotic feelings of young Englishmen, mentioning the names of Hampden, Sydney, and Marvell, and eulogizing the grand spirit of disinterestedness and self-sacrifice which characterized so many of our brave forerunners, when a handsome young man sprang upon our little platform, and declared himself on the people's side, and desired to be enrolled as a Chartist. He did not belong to the poorest ranks; and it was the consciousness that he was acting in the spirit of self-sacrifice, as well as his fervid eloquence, that caused a thrilling cheer from the ranks of the working-men. He could not have been more than fifteen at the time. He passed away from us too soon, and I have never seen him but once all these years. But the men of Sheffield have signalized their confidence in his patriotism by returning him to the House of Commons; and all England knows, if there be a man of energy, as well as uprightness, in that House, it is Anthony John Mundella."

This picture is obviously somewhat overdrawn; but in the main it is doubtless correct. At Leicester, from 1840 to 1848, Mr. Mundella agitated by voice and pen for the "Charter," and had the satisfaction of hearing reform ballads of his own composition sung in the streets.