Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/91

 almost inevitably democrats. The mere gaudium certaminis of politics is life for them. With culture and honesty of purpose such as the Cambridge professor possesses, robust, hearty natures of this stamp make the most trustworthy Radical politicians. They have what is so necessary for political life, "staying power." They do not despair of progress because for a time there is an ebb in the popular tide. They know that high-water mark will again be reached before long; and, if they cannot do better, they are content to wait the event.

Henry Fawcett, M.P., was born in the neighborhood of Salisbury in the year 1833. His father, Alderman Fawcett of Salisbury, was born at Kirby Lonsdale in 1793, and is now consequently in his eighty-sixth year; and a haler old gentleman or more resolute Radical it would be difficult to find in all England. He came to Wiltshire from Westmoreland in his youth, and, after engaging for some time in trade, betook himself to the more congenial occupation of a gentleman farmer. His energy and intelligence as an agriculturist were conspicuous; and, when the anti-corn law agitatation was initiated, both were heartily enlisted on behalf of the league. Even yet he is an effective public speaker, and is a personal friend and warm admirer of Mr. Bright. Mr. Fawcett's mother is no less remarkable. Like her husband, the alderman, she is a sort of semper eadem no less in mind than in body. She is a keen politician,—on the right side, of course; and to her does Mr. Fawcett attribute, in no small measure, the strength of his own Radical convictions.

Thus happy in his parentage, the member for Hackney was no less so in other essential particulars affect-