Originally published in Howitt's Journal (William & Mary Howitt) vol.1 #19 (08 May 1847).
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| Henry Anelay's drawing of William Lovett. |
William Lovett may be taken as one of the most sterling specimens of the English working man now living. By his long and patient industry—unceasing efforts at self-cultivation and improvement—courage and honesty in the pursuit of truth, and fearlessness in proclaiming it when found—generous self-sacrifice in the cause of human brotherhood—conscientious and unflinching perseverance in the path of conceived duty—he has earned the title of noble far more truly than those to whom such title is accorded by the usages of society in these modern times; and were there such a thing among us as an Order of Merit for the reward of popular services, assuredly William Lovett would be entitled to take rank as one of the first and worthiest members of such an Order.
The following very brief outline of his life and career, while it affords an admirable example for the imitation of the working class, cannot fail to prove instructive to all who take an interest, or are engaged, in the work of self-development, and the formation of individual character.
William Lovett was born in the year 1800, in the little fishing village of Newlyn, situated about a mile westward of Penzance, in the county of Cornwall. His mother was descended from a family well known if the west of the county for their skill as blacksmiths, and their strength and dexterity as wrestlers; and she was living at Falmouth, in service there, when she fist became acquainted with his father, who was master of a small trading vessel frequently entering that port. The father was drowned at sea before William was born, and his poor mother was suddenly thrown upon her own resources for a living. Being a woman of vigorous constitution, and of a persevering spirit, she was enabled, by labouring in the usual vocations of a fishing town, to bring up her child in some degree of comfort, as well as to support her own mother, Who had now become dependent on her. William was first taught to read by his great-grandmother, and subsequently acquired the rudiments of writing and arithmetic at the village-school, this forming the sum total of his scholastic acquirement. His mother, being a member of the Wesleyan Methodists, brought him up according to the rigid moral discipline of that sect.
At the age of eleven he was put apprentice to a rope-maker, thus early, like most of his class, commencing his encounter with the harsh and stern realities of life. The rope-walk in which he laboured being uncovered, and adjoining the edge of the cliff, was exposed to the sea winds at all weathers, and his constitution, which was always delicate, was thus severely tried; added to which, his master, after a hard day's work, would send him with heavy loads of rope to the adjoining towns, from which he usually returned exhausted and prostrate. Worse, however, than the mere toil, were felt to be those lonely walks at night, through and by places which popular credulity had peopled with ghosts and demons, the belief in which had been inculcated by tales related to him in childhood, and reiterated in after years. The belief in these agencies is to this day extremely prevalent in Cornwall, and the printing-press has still much to do in rooting up the cruel and degrading superstition of that and other districts similarly "haunted."
During his boyhood, Lovett displayed a considerable taste for mechanical art and contrivance. He was fond of drawing, with such rude colours as he could pick up, such as different coloured stones, which he dug out of the beach when the tide was out, and ground down so as to produce the colours he required; and with these he executed drawings of birds, flowers, etc., rather more brilliant than natural, which met with a ready sale among the fishers' wives, whose walls they were used to ornament, and may do to this day. He also became an adept in the making of birdcages, boxes, and, as his grandmother designated them, "gimcracks of every kind." He succeeded also in making a machine for the spinning of twine, which his master was so much pleased with as to adopt in his rope-yard. To please some straw-bonnet makers of his acquaintance, he also contrived for their use some steel straw splitters, for the purpose of splitting the reed into equal divisions. But as these were found to be of less value than those generally used, in consequence of the stocks being only of wood instead of ivory, he turned his attention to the making of a turning-lathe, in order to supply the defect. Having met with a description of one in a fragment of an old book which fell in his way, after a great deal of scheming and contriving he effected his purpose. He then not only succeeded in furnishing his straw splitters with bone stocks, turned out of the nicely bleached bone which he picked up on the beach, but in a short time he acquired some skill in the art of common turning. His female friends were soon supplied with mills for pressing their plat, with hat blocks, and tools of every description in their business. He also turned spinning-wheels for domestic purposes, and for spinning the fishermen's lines, besides occasionally doing some plain turning for the carpenters of the village, whose shops he frequented at his leisure hours, and, by dint of application, acquired some proficiency in the use of their tools.
Towards the expiration of his apprenticeship, the trade of rope-making had become so bad, in consequence of the introduction of chain as a substitute for rope, that Lovett found great difficulty in obtaining employment in his native village, unless it were occasionally in the winter months when vessels sometimes came into the bay disabled. He, therefore, sought out for some other employment, and turned his attention to the fishery a8 a means of subsistence for himself and grandmother, with whom he had been keeping house during the last years of his apprenticeship (his mother having married),—and this on the scanty pittance of five to eight shillings a week. This new occupation of a fisherman he pursued for some months, and in all probability would have continued at it, had he not been afflicted with violent sea-sickness when the weather was in the least rough. At the end of the fishing season, therefore, he cast about for some other occupation. His previous knowledge of carpentry suggested to him that trade, and he soon found work. But three or four young men of the neighbourhood, who were serving their apprenticeship to the business, were so enraged to find that a ropemaker should be thus employed, that they threatened his master with legal consequences; and he, ignorant of the law and very much alarmed at the threats, reluctantly broke off the engagement, and the young man was again thrown destitute.
An old naval officer, whom he by chance met at the carpenter's shop, advised him to go up to London and try his chances there, suggesting that if he failed in finding employment in a rope-yard, there would be abundant opportunities of getting a berth as ropemaker on board a ship. Lovett acted on the advice, and at once scraped together what means he could for the purpose of undertaking the journey. He expended the few shillings he had in mahogany veneers and other requisites for making a ladies' work-box and a pair of tea caddies. These he finished and succeeded in selling, together with a few other articles in his possession, by which he realised a capital of fifty shillings. He set to work upon a second work-box, which, when he had finished, he offered to the captain of the ship which was to convey him to London, as part payment of his passage, and the captain agreed to accept it. Furnished with letters of recommendation to two master ropemakers in London, he set out on his voyage, and after four days' reached the great metropolis; alone, amidst a million and a half of strangers; to fight his own stout battle for a subsistence and an honourable name; backed by twenty-one years of previous hard struggling under poverty and toil, and with only thirty shillings of clear capital as a defence against destitution and want.
With a stout heart, and big with hope, he set out next morning to deliver his letters. But the ropemaking trade was as bad in London as in the country; and for two weeks he canvassed among all the rope-yards in London without success, but still he did not despair. His slender knowledge of carpentry now stood him in good stead. On returning to his humble lodgings one evening, he found three of his countrymen, carpenters by trade, who, on entering into conversation with him, found him possessed of some slight acquaintance with their business, and that he was out of work like themselves. It was agreed that Lovett should join them in their canvass for work, and that, if they succeeded in getting a job, he was to do the rough work, and, in consideration of his not having served his time to the business, he was to pay each of them half-a-crown a week. To this proposal, under the circumstances, he readily assented; and on the following day they commenced their canvass, Two out of the four got work in a few days; but it was some weeks before Lovett and his companion succeeded, by which time he was reduced almost to an empty purse,—having lived on a penny loaf a day, and a drink from the nearest pump, for several weeks in succession.
At last, one day, going down Drury-lane, they saw some carpenters at work in a building; and Lovett, entering and going up to the person who seemed to be foreman, asked for a job, and to his great joy was informed that as some flooring was required to be laid in a hurry, he would employ him for the purpose. His companion, however, on being introduced, seemed such a stripling, that the foreman refused to employ him; and Lovett, who had never seen any flooring laid, and knew nothing about the process, felt in a very uncomfortable dilemma. But a low purse, and the near prospect of want, urged him on; and he determined to try his hand. Borrowing a few of the requisite tools, he proceeded next morning, with a fluttering heart, to his work; and by dint of closely observing all the movements of his partner, and following his example, he soon got hold of the method of laying flooring, and was fortunate enough to continue at this place until the job was finished; when he found his stock again replenished to the extent of fifty shillings.
Emboldened by this first success, he went round by himself to seek another job; and in a few days was offered some small staircases to make by the piece, provided he could find a partner to assist him. He succeeded in finding one, in the person of a countryman who had just reached London; but, after a fortnight's labour, the person got sick of London, and went home again, leaving Lovett just in the middle of the job. This being one of the most difficult departments of the trade for an inexperienced hand, he was reluctantly obliged to abandon it, at no inconsiderable sacrifice to himself, situated as he then was.
Several weeks passed by in a fruitless search for Work, and being at the time in a half-starved state, Lovett at last saw no other resource left but going to sea, provided he could find a berth as a ropemaker. A prospect of such soon opened to him, in an Indiaman; but, before going finally to engage himself as a sailor, he paid a visit to two of his countrymen, then working for a cabinet-maker, who dissuaded him, by all the arguments they could use, against going to sea. The master of the shop, overhearing their conversation, and ascertaining that Lovett knew something of cabinet-work, offered him employment in his shop, which was at once accepted; and from that happy turning-point in his fortune, seemingly when everything was at the darkest, Lovett's progress was steady. It is true, when work failed him at this place, which it did through the insolvency of his master, he was again reduced to great want: but he had a good trade at his fingers' ends, and was less dependent on fortuitous circumstances than before. He had serious obstacles to encounter from the working men in the trade, in consequence of not having served a regular apprenticeship to the business. He was mulcted in heavy penalties by his fellow workmen, exacted chiefly in contributions for drink, fines, and shop-scores, which would have disheartened and demoralized any character less courageous and manly than his. But he ultimately overcame these difficulties, and, after having worked the required time at the trade, was enabled to enter the Cabinet Makers' Society, by the payment of an extra admission fee; and thereafter took his standing as one of the most expert and skilful workmen of his class.
During the early part of William Lovett's career, he had been so exclusively occupied in providing for himself the merest indispensable of daily bread, that he had neither time nor desire to apply himself to the cultivation of his mental faculties. How large a part of the time of the great mass of the labouring class is so absorbed; rendering their moral and intellectual culture, in a large majority of cases, almost a moral and intellectual impossibility! They are so engrossed with anxieties as to the means of a bare subsistence—so constantly beset by those carking cares and miseries which tread so closely upon the heels of poverty—that the profitable culture of the mind, which requires rest, leisure, and means, is scarcely to be expected. The great wonder is, not that the working class are ignorant, but that so large a number of them should rise above, and conquer, the adverse circumstances of their condition, and exhibit evidences of a nobility of character, and strength and cultivation of mind, which would do honour to men in the very highest spheres of life. But when Lovett's anxieties as to a means of bodily sustenance were well-nigh at rest, and he was in the receipt of a good weekly wage, his mind began to set up its claims for satisfaction.
Politics were then stirring up all thinking men to active efforts in the cause of progress. Heretofore, in England, all political movements had been conducted by the middle and the upper classes; for, throughout the long war, brought to a close in 1815, the working classes had scarcely ever made any political appearance, except as loyal mobs, huzzaing for Church and King, and the glorious victories gained over "Boney" at sea and on the continent. But the peace brought sober thoughts with it; and the nation felt something like a drunken man after a night's debauch. The reckoning was now to come; and the governing classes were to be brought to book. These long wars and glorious victories had issued in rags and misery, low wages and scanty employment, for the mass of the people. The aristocracy had triumphed; but the industrious classes felt in the condition of a routed and discomfited host. Things were felt to be wrong somewhere; the working people found themselves living in the midst of civilization and wealth a degraded and oppressed class. Dim visions of political right floated through their minds. And they began to ask themselves questions—why these things should be. The Press sprung, at this time, into renewed activity. Topics of engrossing public interest were freely discussed. Cobbett, with his hearty English hatred of oppression, was working away in his Register, and, with a pen of fire, was exposing the manifold iniquities of our political system. There has been no more thorough and successful educator of the English people, during the last century, than that strong-minded, earnest, and honest, though often vehemently prejudiced man, William Cobbett. Writings such as these were circulated by millions, and were greedily devoured by the working classes, and indeed by all who could read. Society was stirred as from a long death-sleep. Then men began to combine, and to plan, and to devise measures of progress. They met in clubs, in societies, in classes,—read books, newspapers, and pamphlets; and probed all questions alike, boldly and fearlessly discussing them.
One of these working men's clubs, called "The Liberals," William Lovett joined; and this circumstance it was, as he himself states, which first stimulated him to anything like intellectual inquiry, and laid the foundations of what knowledge he now possesses. A small library of select works was attached to the club, which he read with much interest, stimulated by the discussions which the members held among themselves, some two or three times a week. It was here that Lovett heard impromptu speaking for the first time out of the pulpit. He was no less surprised than delighted at the power which it conferred; and he, too, by and by, joined in the debates. His mind was awakened to a sense of existence, as it were, for the first time. New feelings and desires sprang up; and every spare moment was devoted to the acquisition of some kind of useful knowledge. He also studied grammar and the art of composition; and several pieces of his appeared in the small periodicals and papers of the day. In the midst of these pursuits, he was arrested by a new and interesting object—the person of the woman who was afterwards united to him for life, and who has since cheered and solaced him in all his struggles. As soon as they were married, they started together a course of self-instruction: Lovett devoting his evenings to the purpose, reading and conversing on such subjects as he felt an interest in, and thus creating in her mind an appreciation of his literary and political pursuits.
It would occupy too much space to detail the numerous "political movements of the working classes in which William Lovett has during the last twenty years been engaged, very often as a leader, always as an ardent and zealous coadjutor. The first political society to which he belonged, was one established by the friends of Mr. Hunt, in the year 1827, and he was united with that gentleman and others in getting up the great public meeting which was held in the Eagle-gardens, City-road, in the year 1830, when Mr. O'Connell for the first time addressed the English Radicals. He was also elected one of the Council of the Society, formed at that meeting, entitled "The Metropolitan Political Union," for the recovery and protection of public rights. About the same period, he took a very active part among the "Co-operative Trading Association," intended to benefit the working classes by a system of trading and manufacturing for and by themselves for their mutual benefit. Many of these associations were then formed, and began manufactures on a small scale; but they were most of them broken up in a few years, chiefly because of the want of some legal security to protect small capital—an obstacle now happily removed. A society was formed in London for diffusing knowledge on the subject of co-operative production, of which Lovett was the secretary. He also took an active part in "The National Union of the Working Classes," which was formed in 1831; and was one of the chief directors of the society during its existence.
About this time a circumstance occurred which strikingly exemplifies Lovett's moral courage and conscientious firmness of purpose; and it is, in all respects, so thoroughly characteristic of the man, that we shall briefly detail it. A person of his acquaintance having been drawn for the Militia, the authorities refused to take a very able substitute who was willing to serve for him; they insisted on his paying a sum of money instead. This circumstance directed Lovett's attention to the monstrous injustice of those constant drawings for the militia, by which a number of poor men were periodically fleeced, frightened, and in many ways put to great inconvenience. When, therefore, he heard of the next schedules being distributed, he sent a letter to Carpenter's Political Letters, suggesting that the filling up of those papers afforded the people of England a good opportunity for recording their protest against the present system of unjust representation;—that they should assign as grounds for exemption, "that they had neither voice nor vote in the making of the laws,—that, as their labour, their only property, was not protected, they should not be called upon to arm for the protection of other property,—and, as they had no enemies but those who enslaved them, they were not disposed to take up arms against their friends and brothers." A number of persons filled up their militia papers as suggested, and, whether fairly or unfairly, Lovett was among the number of those who were drawn. He refused to serve, and when summoned before two different magistrates, he assigned reasons for his refusal similar to those stated; which, as might be supposed, had little effect with them. A number of constables were then sent to his house, and stripped him of all his goods, to the value of nearly forty pounds. Public feeling, however, prevented them from being then exposed for public sale; but they were kept for some months, and then sold at Foster's auction mart as goods seized for taxes. This serious loss to Lovett and his wife, who bore the affliction resolutely, (and the furniture was the more prized, as it was, for the most part, of his own manufacture previous to their marriage,) was, nevertheless, of much advantage to the public. Lovett petitioned Parliament on the subject; speeches were made there strongly: condemnatory of the militia system; public opinion was thus directed to the subject; and no drawing for the militia has taken place since that period.
Another arduous and honourable enterprise in which Lovett engaged about the same time, was the war which the unstamped periodicals carried on against the heavy stamp duty on newspapers; and which was justly conceived to operate as a most injurious restriction on the free circulation of knowledge. When Hetherington, the publisher of the Poor Man's Guardian, was thrown into prison, Lovett organized the "Victim Fund," for the purpose of assisting all who might be prosecuted for selling the Guardian; and he formed one of a large committee to supply the public with the paper at their own houses. The warfare lasted four years, during which not fewer than 500 persons were imprisoned for selling unstamped periodicals. But, in the end, public opinion prevailed; and Lord Brougham in the Lords, and Mr. Roebuck and others in the Commons, taking up the question with spirit, government was ultimately compelled to substitute the penny in place of the four-penny stamp. Few can adequately estimate the amount of good that sprang out of that struggle; for the host of cheap publications that now weekly teem from the press, and the number of which increases from day to day, may be said to date their origin from that event.
The next great public movement in connexion with which Mr. Lovett appeared, and of which he was the originator, in 1886, was the "Working Men's Association," which issued in the still more extensive movement for what is known by the name of the "People's Charter." Lovett was from the first the active spirit of the Association; he drew up its numerous admirable and truly eloquent addresses, which were circulated in immense numbers throughout the country. A few of the titles of these may be given; for instance, "The Address of the working men of England to the Belgian people," (this produced an excellent reply from the working men of Belgium)—"To the Canadians," (this also produced a response)—"To the people of Europe, and especially the Polish people"—" To the working classes on National Education," (a tract which deserves an extensive reprint at the present day)—"To the Irish people," etc. etc. These addresses were characterised by earnest and manly eloquence, by large and liberal views, and a warm-hearted sympathy for the well-being of mankind, of whatever creed, race, or colour they might be.
Lovett next officiated as Secretary to the Trades of London, in their contest with the government, which commenced an investigation into Trades' Societies in 1838, with the view, it was supposed, of enacting some legal restrictions respecting them. Lovett ably conducted the case on the part of the Trades, successfully rebutted the charges made against the societies, and the examination was speedily brought to a close.
It would be foreign to our purpose, in this hasty sketch, to give an account of Lovett's career in connexion with that great and absorbing movement of the working classes of England and Scotland, known us the Chartist agitation. It was, from the first, a thoroughly working-class movement, though a few individuals connected with the other classes identified themselves with it, and ultimately obtained the leadership in it. The agitation for the Charter was a great effort on the part of the working men of this country to elevate themselves in the social scale, to acquire the rank and privileges of citizenship; and it was the inevitable consequence of that reading and discussion, that extensive and searching inquiry into political subjects, which had been going on ever since the close of the war. They felt themselves to be excluded from the pale of the constitution; and they were impressed with the conviction that, so long as they were held in the position of a "slave class," they had no reason to expect those practical benefits from government, or that amount of protection and enjoyment of the fruits of their labour, which they considered themselves entitled to, in common with the men of every other class.
The National Convention of the Working Classes met in London, in 1839, to watch over the National Petition, (drawn up by Mr. Douglass, of Birmingham,) and to obtain by all legal and constitutional means the enactment of the "People's Charter." Lovett was elected their secretary. This Convention sat in London for some months, during. the Parliamentary Session; and then, at the instigation of one of the leading members, went down to Birmingham to hold their sittings. The working classes of the town and the public authorities having disputed about the right of publicly meeting in the Bull-ring, the latter sent to London for a strong posse of police, who, on their arrival, made an indiscriminate onslaught on men, women, and children. The people of Birmingham wished the Convention to put forth their opinion of this conduct. Lovett, as secretary, wrote three resolutions, which were published. They were declared a libel on the police, and he was arrested for the offence of writing and publishing them, John Collins being arrested at the same time for taking them to the printer. They were both sent to Warwick gaol on July 7th, 1839—stripped naked by the turnkeys, to see the marks on their bodies—had their hair cropped by a common felon—were made to bathe in the same bath with a number of the prisoners—together with other indignities,—and all this before they were found guilty! They petitioned against this treatment, and were allowed to go out on a bail of 1,000l. each—an immense sum for working men. Their trial came on at the Warwick Summer Sessions, when Lovett defended himself with an ability which commanded general admiration. But the result was, that they were both condemned to be imprisoned for one year in the common gaol. Their treatment in prison was most horrible, and produced a disease which reduced Lovett to death's door, from which he was rescued by the Member for Warwick, who interposed to save him, and succeeded in rendering his treatment less cruel and injurious. While in Warwick gaol, Lovett and Collins wrote their memorable work, entitled "Chartism; a Plan for the Education and Improvement of the People." This is an exceedingly able and comprehensive plan of education and infant training, embodying the best and most enlightened views on the subject. It also includes a plan for the organization of the people, in order to the promotion of their social and political improvement. This work breathes throughout the most truthful and ennobling sentiments; and there is no reader but will rise from its perusal with a greatly increased feeling of respect for its true-hearted authors.
Lovett was at length liberated from prison, with an injured constitution, but with a heart still beating warmly for his kind. He exerted himself to set on foot a "National Association" for the advancement of the working classes, according to the plan described in his "Chartism;" and, in connexion with the Association, wrote and published several admirable addresses, in which the great doctrine of Peace was eloquently enforced. He succeeded in erecting a Hall for the use of the London working classes in Holborn, which is now in almost daily use for many excellent purposes. He also took part in the Complete Suffrage movement, which was set on foot by Joseph Sturge in 1842; but he has since that period appeared less frequently in public than formerly, though he feels no less warmly for the cause of human progress and improvement. Though necessitated by a shattered frame to abandon his former trade, he is no less honourably than usefully employed, as an agent of that weekly literature which his strenuous efforts mainly contributed to cheapen, and bring within the reach of all classes. As the publisher of Howitt's Journal, William Lovett is in his true place, as the distributer of free thoughts, which carry abroad with them joy, and hope, and intellectual life to tens of thousands, and are the harbingers of freedom and emancipation to all.