BOOKS.

LIFE OF EDWARD BAINES.* TICE late Edward Baines, of the Leeds Mercury, and for some time a representative of Leeds, was compared by his friends to Ben- jamin Franklin. He himself, too, was inclined to encourage the idea; and on one occasion, at h sort of fancy assembly at Preston where the assumption of a character was required, he went in the costume of the philosopher of Philadelphia. This masquerade about reached the truth; Baines resembled Franklin in secondaries and externals. He had the industry, the business energy and tact, with the safe prudence of the American printer ; like him, Baines was descended from a family in the status of a franklin like him, he made his way to competence and public estimation, through his own exertions ; and he obtained this estimation with- out great wealth, which, like Franklin, he did not seem to care for. Here the parallel ends. The sphere of action within which Baines acted was much more limited than that which Fortune created for Franklin ; and save in some local parish matters he never rose to a post of command, much less of leadership. In the higher qualities that are requisite to give permanent fame, Baines bore no resemblance to Franklin. In mere literature, he wanted the humour, the terseness, the point, and felicity of the American ; in sooth, he was rather jogtrot. He had none of Franklin's origi- nality either in letters or moral and material philosophy; still less could he be said to have embodied in his own character a great leading movement of the advancing world, as Franklin did in his utilitarian philosophy. A Baines might be found at any time in any large and active business-town in England, especially during the stirring days of the war : for a serious man of good health, steady industry, vigorous economy, and plain habits, acquiring property and distinction in his country-town, and even represent- ing it, is not a rarity in England. The greater celebrity that Baines reached was owing to his connexion with the Leeds Mercury, though not altogether through it. He was among the first who gave weight and character to the provincial press ; but it was not his paper so much as his Reform Whiggery that made him generally known. He was less celebrated as a publicist than as the organ and advo- cate of a numerous party. That he was a conscientious, advocate is matter of course ; no other can be permanently useful, or even properly do his work. He was in fact a fair specimen of a race which yet survives ; a party-bounded, well-meaning, and sincere Ante-Reform-Bill Whig-Liberal.

Mr. Baines was born in 1774, near Preston. After he had been at two grammar-schools, his father took him to assist in his own

business, which was that of a cotton-spinner; young Edward's bias was to literature, so he was apprenticed o a printer. In 1795 he went to Leeds, in the character of a " turnover"—that is, an ap- prentice who is turned over from one master to another, though Baines turned himself. On the expiration of his indentures, he started in business as a printer and stationer, with a small capital ; married into a Dissenting family ; associated with Dissenters, who were then generally Whigs, or Parliamentary Reformers, (few Whigs in that day got as far as Parliamentary Reform,) and gra- dually advanced in life. Towards the close of the century the Leeds press was in the hands of the Tories ; and the provincials increased the bitterness if not the spirit of the Antijacobin. The Reformers became anxious to have a journal of their own; and in 1801 Edward Baines purchased the old Leeds Mercury, assisted therein by a subscription of a thousand pounds, which he subse- quently. repaid. Henceforward, Mr. Baines was engaged as a jour- nalist in all the events of his time ; and later in life he took a somewhat conspicuous part in public as a speaker or agitator. In 1834 he was elected Member for Leeds, on the resignation of Mr. Macaulay for his Indian appointment; and continued to sit till 1841, when he retired on the dissolution of Parliament after the vote of no-confidence in the Melbourne Ministry. His health was sinking under his Parliamentary career; for although he was not yet seventy, his constitution very vigorous, and sickness almost unknown to him, it is late at sixty to begin the fatigues and ex- citement of a Parliamentary life. He died in 1848 ; and great marks of respect were shown by his townsmen on the occasion. of his funeral. In early life he had no sense of vital religion, though his connexions were among Evangelicals, and his wife was a woman of somewhat eminent piety. As age approached, he be- came serious, and died in a frame of mind to satisfy his religious friends.

In itself and its concomitants, the life of Edward Baines was worth telling. If not quite the Franklin he and his friends thought, his career points the same moral to youth of the hum- bler middle classes ; although it must be observed that success with a very small capital was easier in the last century than now. His connexion with the provincial press in almost its slightest and its most elaborate epochs fitly introduces a sketch of its history ; his management of the Leeds Mercury associated him as an actor at all events with the events of the century, so far as they were con- nected with Yorkshire ; and his senatorial career, holding as he did the pen of a ready writer in his correspondence, lets the reader be- hind the scenes during the busy and exciting times of the Reform Ministries. The objection to the manner of the telling is one not easily obviated when a son is the biographer. It is not exactly that a false estimate is made of the merits of the father, but the • The Life of Edward Baines, late M.P. for the Borough of Leeds. By his son, Edward Baines, Author of " The History of the Cotton Manufacture." Published by Longman and Co.; and by Reid Newsome, Leeds.

whole is pitched in too high a key. Edward Baines is indirectly

held up as a sort of pater high founder instead of a citizen of the state. The style, too, partakes of this lofty tone, and is in many places a mixture of the paragraph and the platform. The same cause of error has unduly extended the work, by dwelling too long upon matters which are of a purely local character, or with which Mr. Baines was only connected in common with the world at large. The book, however, is a good and useful book as it stands, though it might be improved by a judicious revision. Although the Leeds Mercury was first raised to a high character by Mr. Baines, it was nearly a century old when he became con- nected with it.

"The Leeds Mercury was one of the oldest of the provincial newspapers ; having been originally established in May 1718, by John Hirst. The earliest numbers known to be in existence are from November 10, 1719, to November 8, 1720, in the possession of the author. Like the other weekly newspapers of the time, it was then of insignificant dimensions : it was printed in twelve pages, of small quarto size and large type, containing al- together about five thousand words, or little more than the contents of two columns of the modern paper : the price was three-halfpence : it was un- stamped, the stamp-duty. being levied only on papers of a single sheet, whereas the Mercury consisted of a sheet and a half. It contained scraps of London and foreign news, all extracted from the London papers, but not more than a paragraph of local news about once in a month. The title was,

The Leeds Mercury, being the freshest advices, foreign and domestick : together with an account of trade.' A few years later, namely, in 1729-30, when still in the hands of the same publisher, it was printed m four quarto containing about as much matter as the twelve of an earlier date : it

thpagenesbore a stamp, and its price was twopence.* * * * *

"The following is a specimen of the nature of these local paragraphs, and of the style and grammar in which they were written. " ' Leedes January 28 (1723). We hear from Woolley near Wakefield of a Apple-Tree that bloom'd in November last has now some scores of Apples thereon, some of which are said to be as big as Walnuts ; and from Bately we are informed that young Stock-Doves was taken in that Parish a fort- night ago. And from Tong, in Christmas last, Eggs were taken out of a Magpy Nest; and at Stone Hill Top, near Yeadon, the like were taken there.' * * * * * *

"'" That the reader may form an idea of the improvements effected in news- papers during the period that the Leeds Mercury was in the possession of Mr. Baines, the following comparison is given on a single point, namely that of dimensions.

Number of Words in a copy of the Leeds Mercury in 1801 21,376

Ditto ditto in 1848 (including the weekly Supplement) 180,000

"It will be immediately inferred, that a newspaper one eighth or one ninth of the present dimensions was a very different affair as to the editorial labour and care required, and also as to the information given and the influ- ence exercised by it, from the newspapers of the present day. But up to the year 1801, the Mercury, like almost every other provincial paper, had no editorial comments whatever : all the political paragraphs were then ex- tracted from the London papers."

A county election hotly contested is still an expensive affair ; but nothing to what it was before the change made by the Reform Act in the duration of the poll and the increase in the number of polling-places. In the good old times, families were crippled for a generation, or ruined outright, by their struggles in the cause of party. The great contest for Yorkshire between Lord Milton and Mr. Lascelles was celebrated for the recklessness with which money was scattered. What may be called the natural expenses of the fight were aggravated by impositions of all kinds : publi- cans on both sides charged for more liquors than they had in their houses, as was proved by the excise-officers.

"Parliament was dissolved by the Whigs in 1806, and again by the Can- ning and Castlereagh Administration in 1807. At the former election the county of York was not contested. The Honourable Henry Lasteelles one of its previous representatives, had retired under a storm of unpopularity, having offended the manufacturing interest ; and Mr. Walter Fawkes, of Fernley, a generous patriot and a speaker of fervid eloquence, had come in with Th.. Wilberforce. But at the election of 1807 Mr. Lascelles again of- fered himself ; and now Mr. Fawkes withdrew, not choosing to incur the heavy expense of contesting or the severe labour and responsibility of re- presenting the county. He used to tell of the alarm he felt when, during the short time he was in Parliament, his servant frequently brought up a tray full of letters in a morning from his constituents. With all his fine talents and tastes, Mr. Fawkes was not a man of business, and he was not, therefore, calculated to watch over the interests of the largest of English con- stituencies.

"Lord Milton, however, had just come of age ; and being ayoung man of talent and high spirit, his father consented to his standing for Yorkshire. The two great families of Wentworth and Harewood, representing the two great parties in the country, were thus directly pitted against each other ; and the struggle was one of the most memorable and costly in the history of elections. Money was expended in frightful profusion during a fifteen-days poll ; and, according to the ancient usage, all the freeholders went to York to vote. The county was stirred up to its very depths, and the interest was as intense as it was universal. On the first day, Mr. Lascelles polled the greater number of votes ; on the second day, Lord Milton headed the poll ; but on the fifth day Mr. Lascelles passed his opponent, and kept the lead till the thirteenth day ; at the close of which the numbers stood—Milton 10,313, Lascelles 10,255 Now the efforts were prodigious, and the excite- ment maddening. At the final close of the poll, Lord Milton had 11,177 votes, and Mr. Lascelles 10,990. Mr. Wilberforce, who received some votes from both sides, was at the head of the poll, having 11,808 votes. But Lord Milton had nearly 9,000 plumpers. The total number of votes ten- dered was 25,120, of which 23,056 were received. The contest cost Earl Fitzwilliam and the Earl of Harewood each upwards of one hundred thou- sand pounds. "The great Yorkshire election first brought Mr. Baines fully out as a po- litical combatant. He had before avoided controversy as much as possible ; but now it could be avoided no longer. He espoused the cause of Lord Milton with all his might. And fierce indeed was the paper war, exasperated on the side of the Tories by defeat into extreme bitterness. The Leeds Mer- cury was the leading paper on the Whig side ; it circulated in the manu- facturing districts, where Lord Milton's chief strength lay; and its activity and zeal exposed it to the utmost resentment. The full vials of Tory wrath were poured out upon it, scalding hot, through the organ of that party in Leeds." Mr. Baines was active during those disastrous years that imme- diately followed the peace, when Tory insolence flushed with Na- poleon's downfall was rampant, and distress from a variety of causes was rife among the people. In this period Mr. Baines did good service, especially in exposing "Oliver the spy." But the most interesting part of the political section of the book is his Parliamentary experience. This was the plan of action of the Whig Reformer,—a plan, we need not say, which eventually worked the decline of the party he wished to serve. " Within a few days after he had taken his seat, Mr. Baines thought it hia duty to vote against Ministers on Mx. Hume's motion to reduce the Army, on a motion of the same gentleman to reduce the General Staff, and on a mo- tion of Mr. Buckingham's for the appointment of a Committee to consider the practicability of dispensing with forcible impressment in the Navy. In a letter of the date of the 5th March, he says- " `I shall vote for each measure upon what I think its merits, unless the Ministers should seem to be at any ttme in danger, and then I would make some sacrifice of my individual views to serve or save them. I am going by invitation to dine with Lord Althorp on Saturday : if he should think my votes too free, he will not ask me to his Ministerial dinners again, and I must submit to the privation, as I shall without complaining.' "

The following passages give an idea of the life and labours of the hardest worked man in her Majesty's dominions, a business M.P. who represents a large and commercial constituency.

"He received every attention he could wish from the members of his party ; as will be inferred from a letter to a member of his family, giving a few particulars that might gratify their curiosity. Its date was the 30th May.

" 'I am going to dine by invitation with Lord Durham, at his house in Cleveland Row. On Saturday week I dined at Mr. Beaumont's, the M.P. for Northumberland; and the week before at the Lord Chancellor's (Lord Brougham's) ; where the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Fitzwilliam, Lord Melbourne, Lord Muigrave, Lord Morpeth, and two of the Judges, Littledale and Wil- liams, were of the party. I have also dined at Mr. Charles Wood's ; and of course have had sufficient hospitality shown me. The dinners are very sumptuous, but the conversation is of a very miscellaneous kind, partly po- litical, partly statistical, but principally such as you find at the dinner-tables of private gentlemen. There is no excess in drinking. The company ge- nerally sit down about half-past seven, and separate after tea, to be home about eleven. The most perfect freedom, and I may say equality, prevails ,• there is no affectation of rank or dignity, and the conversation is as free and easy as you would find at the table of a Leeds merchant or a Leeds printer. No ladies, not even the mistress of the house, are present, either at dinner or in the drawingroom afterwards. I have only been at one rout, that is at Mrs. Daniel G:skell's. The room was crowded with company and I was in- troduced to Mr. Godwin and Miss Martineau : the former is a lively old man, nearly eighty it was said, though he did not look so old ; and the latter a little body, who appears to no advantage in a room containing a hundred persons but not fit to accommodate fifty. Mr. and Mrs. Gaskell have been very kind : I dined there soon after I came to London, with Mr. and Mrs. Grote, Mr. Briggs of Halifax, and several other M.P.s.

" have thus made you up a letter of tittle-tattle, which the unexpected vacation, arising out of the pending Ministerial arrangements, has enabled me to write.'

" At the close of the first session, Mr. Baines wrote the following sketch of a week's work, as a specimen of the life of a Member of the House of Commons.

"`JOURNAL OF A WEEK IN PARLIAMENT.

"`Monday.—Rose at six, much refreshed by two successive good nights rest.. Read Parliamentary papers and reports till eight ; from the hour of post till half-past eleven corresponded with constituents ; at twelve attended the House to present petitions, but standing low on the ballot-list had not been called when the House adjourned at three. Attended Committees till four; House resumed at five ; debate continued till nearly midnight : real business then began ; continued till three in the morning, when the House adjourned. Walked home by morning twilight ; .pined a little after domestic comfort ; soon forgot all cares, public and private, in sleep. "' Tuesday.—Rose at seven ; read over petitions to be printed that day ; resumed correspondence after the arrival of the post with ten letters. At- tended the House at half-past eleven. In luck—name drawn out of the jar early, got on petitions; afterwards attended Committee till three. House re- sumed at five ; sat till two o'clock next morning. " Wednesday.—Rose at seven; attended to correspondence till twelve ; walked till two ; applied at the Board of Trade for information respecting the repeal of duties, and at the War-office for a soldier's discharge ; attended the House at five ; sat till half-past eleven. "' Thursday.—Rose at half-past six ; resumed perusal of Poor-law reports —quite overwhelming. (A bill should be introduced to enable Members to read and think by steam-power.) Attended the morning sitting ; from thence to two Committees. The House met again at five ; sat till half-past one o'clock in the morning.

" 'Friday.—Resumed perusal of documents at eight ; attended COriilliL.e from twelve to four. The House sat at five ' • continued the sitting till three the next morning; a great deal of business done after midnight. " 'Saturday.—Employed this day in bringing up arrears of correspondence, in taking exercise, and in reading and pondering over the copious Parlia- mentary bill of fare for the next week.'

This is an example of the attentive consideration which Peel found time to pay to opponents among all the vast and trying mat- ters pressing upon him during his struggles in 1835.

"The marvellous industry and energy of Sir Robert Peel during his three months' tenure of office have often been the subject of admiration. The author of this memoir received a decisive evidence of Sir Robert's power of application, as well as of his punctuality and remarkable courtesy; for having sent to Sir Robert a copy of his 'History of the Cotton Manufacture,' then just published, and little expecting that it would even be looked at in the midst of the Premier's urgent engagements, he received a very handsome acknowledgment at some length, in the Minister's own handwriting, and with remarks which showed that he had looked over the book with consider- able-attention. Perhaps the insertion of the following note, received from his father at the same time, will not be very severely. censured, though the chief motive to its publication must be admitted to be egotistical. "'London, February 25th, 1835. "`Last night Sir Robert Feel and I met accidentally at the bar of the House of Commons ; when, after the usual salutations on meeting again after a dis- solution of Parliament, he said, I am much obliged to your son for the

History of the Cotton Manufacture,' which he has been so kind as to send

me. It has interested me much. It is a subject in which I take a lively in- terest. I have found time to examine it amongst my other pressing en- gagements. Present my best thanks to him for having produced such a book.' To these compliments, which were addressed to me in ft very easy

and familiar way, I replied, that there was no family in the kingdom that had done more than his to raise that manufacture to its present importance in the country ; and that it afforded me, and I was sure it would afford you, gratification to know that the work had interested him and merited the ap- probation that he had pleased to express.' "