Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/273

 of rules, Mr. Picton was admitted to the pastorate of a congregation at Cheetham Hill, Manchester.

His work there lay chiefly among the poor and destitute, for whom no man seemed to care. For the children he composed a model little "Catechism of the Gospels;" and for the instruction of adults he and Mr. Arthur Mursell delivered weekly lectures on suitable subjects in the large room of a "ragged school." In 1862, however, while thus beneficently engaged, the bull's-eye of orthodoxy was again turned on him. In connection with the centenary of "Black Bartholomew," he published a discourse entitled "The Christian Law of Progress," which was pronounced to be "of dangerous tendency." Thereupon the heretic removed to Leicester, where he succeeded to Dr. Legge's charge; but his "tendencies," it is deplorable to relate, became worse instead of better. He fell into bad company, particularly that of Mr. Coe, the Unitarian minister, and a powerful contingent of Radical working-men, whom he was in the habit of addressing in his chapel on Sunday afternoons on such unhallowed topics as "True Radicalism," "The Rights of Man," the death of Ernest Jones, the Jamaica outrages under Gov. Eyre, &c. As in Galilee, so in Leicester, the common people heard their teacher gladly; but the uncommon folks took a different view of the matter. What amounted to a vote of want of confidence in Mr. Picton 's ministry was passed; and, though very active steps were taken to prevent his departure from Leicester, the heresiarch felt constrained to turn his face towards our metropolitan Babylon, which, with all her drawbacks, is generally large-hearted enough to welcome able and earnest exponents of the most diverse opinions, whether religious or political.