This

tion for him was without a break. To him he was wont to turn for strong unerring judgment and wise 'counsel, and in him he ever saw the example of an upright and steadfast life given to the service of his fellows. loss naturally meant added work and responsibility for the son, notably at the Hucknall Collieries, where the further withdrawal of another of the original partners combined with it to cast the full weight of the enterprise on him as Managing Director.

Under the pressure of his many duties, public and private, his power of decision grew without any weakening of his love of accuracy. These two essentials to administrative efficiency often led to a quickness of thought and utterance, easily mistaken for harshness by minds moving at a slower rate, and schooled to less precision of language. A typical example occurs in a diary note of a lecture given at Hucknall: "too much advice and too little information." Never sparing himself, he expected much from his assistants. A highly valued confidential clerk has related that on getting a summons to his principal's office his one hope, as he went upstairs, was that his chief might not be overwhelming that day in his requirements. Yet the relationship between the two was such that the narrator, a good churchman, formed the habit of substituting his employer's name in the place of that of the Monarch, in the Morning Service, feeling that one petition less for the Crown would not be missed, and that his own master needed every help in the discharge of his multitudinous responsibilities.

Strangers who sometimes felt him difficult of access little knew how much tenderness there was under the strict judicial look that received them. During the strike of 1867 a visitor stepped out of the office for a few moments to make way for a poor woman with

1880]

THOUGHTS ON CHRISTIANITY

a shawl over her head. As she came out she looked delighted; the managing director at his desk was in tears.

The following lines may be quoted from the diary for 1880 as indicating the trend of his thoughts in higher spheres:

On the rationalistic side the Christian religion may I think be maintained and defended as follows:1. All knowledge comes to us through the medium of one of our five senses. But a careful working out of the modes of any one of these brings us to the same goal, viz.: the facts of consciousness. But these inferences of consciousness transcend material phenomena and go behind them as it were. Logically the inferences both of observation and consciousness imply much more than either matter or force, or both.

2. Volition again is at least an element in the problem which cannot be explained away. "Conscious automatism," begs the question. The relation of thought (and will) to a material brain is no metaphysical necessity.

If, however, the position be established and admitted that no explanation of us as we are and the world as it is is satisfactory which denies the existence of anything but matter and force, which in fact says all that is perceivable by our senses includes all that exists, then we must look beyond for a solution.

What is termed supernatural in the Christian religion is at least possible-though much may be beyond the actual comprehension of that of which our present senses are the gateways. It is not actually incredible because impossible, and if so, each part must be judged on its own merits.

These words betray the working of a mind untrained in the philosophy of the schools, and unversed in the philosophy of theism, but they show him still in the midst of the cark and care of business to be mindful of the great issues. His "incredible because impossible' is curious beside Tertullian's "Credo quia impossibile.'

CHAPTER V

HIS FIRST PARLIAMENT

UNDER the Redistribution Act of 1885 Nottinghamshire had been divided into the three constituencies, Mansfield, Newark, and Rushcliffe. The latter, which then numbered about 11,000 electors, surrounds the town of Nottingham and derives its name from an ancient geographical division of the county. The constituency is intersected by the Trent, and consists of an industrial area to the north of the river and an agricultural district on the south. Of the Rushcliffe that gives its name to the constituency and for which he was now the selected candidate he writes :

To Joshua Rowntree.

Nottingham, 12 Feb., 1885.

M. and I had our first drive since November to find Rushcliffe yesterday. The Ordnance Map gives it as two houses at the bottom of a low line of hills, but the houses are gone and one old man was digging on their sites. I have little doubt that an ancient village stood here, and that the line of hills was the "cliffe," but I shall pursue it further. What a mark of human change these ancient names are.

Thenceforward followed the usual routine of a candidate for parliamentary honours. Meetings were held, speeches were made, and the ground prepared in readiness for the

1885]

CANDIDATE FOR PARLIAMENT

General Election which men knew to be at hand. It must not be supposed that Ellis regarded his constituency as a means towards getting a seat in Parliament and nothing else. His first thought was to establish a mutual relationship between himself and the electors, so as to enable him to represent their views faithfully, and it was on this due representation that he considered the value of democratic election to the House of Commons depended. In his speeches he took special pains to acquaint his audiences with all the facts at his disposal regarding the principal measures before Parliament, and to elicit their views and judgment on them, and it was his habit to ask local committees to choose the subjects about which they wished him to speak.

The following extracts from reports of speeches delivered at his first series of meetings indicate this mutual relationship which he sought to establish with the electors and express his views in general :

The firm grasp of a great principle was the foundation of all energetic and sustained effort. They wanted to see a God-fearing and intelligent people whose mature will should be carried out by a reformed House of Commons, and that House supreme, uninterfered with by an hereditary assembly. (Burton Joyce.)

The same intelligence which enabled a man to fulfil all the relations of life towards God and his fellowman, to bring up his family honestly and properly, would in the long run guide him in the exercise of his political privilege on the polling day. (Stapleford.)

A member of the late Cabinet said "Conservatism consists in as much progress as is consistent with our institutions." Liberals believed Society to be a growing and living organism,-that institutions were made for the people, not the people for institutions. Justice

and not privilege should be the guiding rule between man and man. (Carlton.)

Equality of condition is an idle dream unless you have equality of abilities and character. But equality of opportunities so far as it can be given by the State is the aim for which we ought to strive. (Hucknall.)

To reverse some of the results of the Enclosure Acts would, he hoped, occupy the attention of the reformed Parliament. He had read those affecting Hucknall Torkard and many other parishes, and in all he found the same story. There was great regard for the Lord of the Manor, the owner of the glebe and the freeholders; but there was no regard for the rights of the mere peasant. The position of the day labourer was relatively and absolutely better in the year 1450 than in 1800. (Hucknall.)

On 2nd November he writes to his brother-inlaw: :

I finished my 17th meeting yesterday with an afternoon gathering of 250 Railway men at a new junction (Netherfield). I never spoke to a more intelligent audience. I have four meetings next week, finishing at Hucknall. I will venture (to you only) to prophesy the poll will come out about :

Two extracts from letters to a valued friend-H. J. Wilson, who was then fighting the Holmfirth division, show very clearly his views as to methods of canvassing: . . . "I think we don't stand quite on all fours as to bazaars and foundation stones. I have resolutely declined having anything to do with either one or the other for 15 years. Every man has his defects and one