purpose is a piece of impertinence, and a proof of low-mindedness, from which the sale of any number of editions will not anneal the perpetrator. It is from this feeling that we have resisted the temptation to emulate some of our contemporaries in the sketching of pulpit and other celebrities-from a feeling, that is, of reluctance to come within range of the practice we have described. And it was not without hesitation, that we resolved to furnish our readers with the outline of a career and character peculiarly interesting to them, because identified, beyond those of any other living man, with the principles of earnest Nonconformity and religious Radicalism; and elevated, by a recent event, to a greater conspicuousness and influence than heretofore.

Edward Miall was born at Portsmouth, in 1809. He was the fifth of thirteen children. He received the major part of his early education at home-in more advanced age, in London. From a passage in his recent writings we gather, that he learned French of the eccentric M. Carre, of Islington, the disposition of whose property was the subject of proceedings in the Court of Chancery, about a twelvemonth since. In 1828, Mr. Miall entered Wymondley (Independent) College, with a view to the Christian ministry. Among his fellow-students, was Professor Morell Mackenzie, of Glasgow, who perished in the unfortunate Pegasus.' In 1831, though only twenty-two years of age, he was chosen pastor of the Independent Church at Ware. In the following year he married Louisa, daughter of Edward Holmes, Esq., of Clay Hill. It is an indication of the manner in which he ministered at Ware, that twenty years subsequently he has received from a number of his old charge, an address of congratulation and confidence, on his election to Parliament for Rochdale. He was not long confined to this sequestered sphere of labour. In 1834, he removed to Leicester, taking the pastorate of the church and congregation meeting in Bond-street Chapel. In this town he soon formed a close friendship with the Rev. J. P. Mursell, the successor of Robert Hall. Mr. Mursell's vigorous character seems to have exerted a timely influence on the less practical intellect of his friend. Their intercourse turned much on the ecclesiastical and political topics of the day. In and around Leicester was a large population of operatives, whose deep poverty, moral destitution, and political discontents, deepened within the young pastors the thoughts excited by passing events. Five years of a Reform ministry had miserably failed to satisfy the expectations of those who had laboured the most ardently for its establishment. Conservative reaction on the one side, and increasing social distress on the other, were floating away popular support from the Melbourne Government. No section of the Liberal party had such reason for discontent as the Dissenters; but after several threatening manifestations, and the concession of the birth and marriage registration acts, they were fast settling down into acquiescence. Indeed, the more desperate became the condition of the Whigs, the more servile was the fidelity of the Dissenting leaders. But the key-note of a new policy had been sounded. A deputation from the Nottingham Dis

senters had candidly avowed to Earl Grey in 1834, that with nothing less than the separation of Church and State would they be content; and religious liberty meetings' in the largest towns of England and Scotland had ratified the declaration. It was this phase of public affairs that particularly impressed the confrères at Leicester. Both by Mr. Miall and Mr. Mursell the State-Church question, in its relation to New Testament Christianity, the actualities of religion, the polity of nations, the nature of the human mind itself, was deeply pondered. The professional convictions thus enlarged and deepened by reading and thought, they expressed with an unprofessional emphasis. From the pulpits, the platforms, and the press of the town and county -in ordination sermons* and newspaper articles-they put forth their views of the principles and duty of Dissenters; and with a degree of effect that soon gave to Leicester a new reputation. They came to London together, as delegates to the Church-rate Abolition conference of February, 1837. With the operations of the society instituted at that conference, they do not seem to have been well pleased; for we find their names appended to an address from the Leicester Voluntary Church Society' (Dec. 1839), in which there is a significant allusion to the abuse of centralized authority and resources; as well as a call to political and unsectarian action, rather for the advancement of Dissenting principles than the removal of Dissenters' grievances.

With the future editor of the Nonconformist' the latter years of his residence at Leicester must have been a time of intense thought and large reading, for it is the only period of his life in which he could have armed himself for the part he was, unconsciously, about to assume. His pulpit discourses were usually written-and with how much care, those who have heard their occasional repetition in London and elsewhere can judge. Yet he seems to have found time to familiarize himself with political philosophy and history, to have literally saturated his mind with Shakspere, and to have indulged largely in imaginative literature. Here, too, he seems to have formed those habits of strict mental discipline-of abstracted, unwritten thinkingof rapid perception and disposition-which are remarked by all who enjoy his friendship, and evince themselves in every department of his affairs. He did not restrict his meditations to ecclesiastical subjects. He sent his obedient and vigorous thoughts to the very basis, and into every ramification, of governmental action. He espoused with deliberate ardour the doctrines embodied in free-trade and manhood suffrage. It was unconsciously, we have said, that Mr. Miall prepared himself for editorial labours. The idea of a newspaper such as the 'Nonconformist' did not originate with him; and before it had been determined to make the experiment, he joined in seeking out a gentleman to take the editorship. Unsuccessful in that, the enterprise would have fallen to the ground had he not, on the suggestion, we

One of these, preached by Mr. Miall, and published under the title, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?' attracted much attention. It is now out of print.

believe, of Mr. Mursell, consented to take the post. But he had to create the country whose government he had accepted. He spent several months in procuring a sufficient number of shareholders and subscribers to give the paper a decent chance of success. It was still a very unhopeful speculation when he resigned his pastorate-which his attached hearers urged him only to suspend for six months, and threw himself, with his family (he had now five children), upon the chances of an untried pursuit. It was not the least trying element of his new position that many reproached him with the desertion of a sacred for a secular vocation, and not a few ascribed his daring step to motives of the lowest character. The latter underrated the sagacity as well as mistook the earnestness of the man.

6

The first number of the Nonconformist' appeared on the 14th of April, 1841. It was a sheet of much humbler dimensions than at present; but the tone of its articles permitted no disrespect. They struck out with a force and boldness which might, and did, give great offence, but left no room for contempt. On its first page, it described and ridiculed, with the help of a quotation from Burke, the circumlocutory policy of Dissenters-going round and round the circle of their wrongs; never striking at the central grievance, the wrong done to truth. This error the Nonconformist' avowed itself set up to undo; and upon this theme the editor hammered week after week. If additional stimulus was wanted, he had it in the imprisonment for non-payment of church-rates of Mr. W. Baines, one of his late flock. So early as the third number, he wrote, We are compelled to proclaim our conviction, that the principal cause of our present weakness and humiliation is, the conduct, on this question, of DISSENTING MINISTERS.' No wonder that he gave deep offence, and incurred much odium-that some in anger and others in alarm regarded him as a reviler of his brethren and a disturber of the churches. We remember to have heard a minister of some note speak of the time when, in his ignorant aversion, he literally kicked the Noncon' out of his room. But among the younger ministry, in the colleges, and with Sunday-school teachers, it excited a furore of enthusiasm. The editor's style was as novel, in a Dissenting periodical, as his views were bold, It was marvellous that a writer should be in earnest, and yet neither dull nor declamatory. The entire sheet bore the impress of one mind. Scarcely a paragraph of ordinary intelligence but seemed to have been touched by the elegant pen of the redacteur. The first book reviewed was Carlyle's Hero-worship-presently appeared a notice of Emerson's Essays, written with the acuteness and eloquence of a sympathetic mind. Every week brought an accession of subscribers; and in twelve months the circulation had risen from a few hundreds to two thousand weekly. In his prefatory address to the second volume, the editor

A similar story is told of the early days of the 'Edinburgh Review.' Sir disgusted by an article on the relations of France and England, ceremoniously placed the number on his threshold, and kicked it into the street.Jeffrey's Life.

remarks with pride and gratitude upon the extensive citations from his columns by the London and provincial press, though his Dissenting contemporaries scarcely deigned a mention. The series of articles afterwards republished as the Nonconformist's Sketch-book'-which not only exhausted the religious and philosophical aspects of the Statechurch question, but established the proposition, Church revenues, national property'-extended from the first to the fiftieth number of the paper. Contemporaneously appeared the papers in advocacy of the 'five points,' collected under the title Reconciliation.' Of that pamphlet some sixty thousand were circulated. The effect of its unsurpassed persuasiveness was seen in the Complete Suffrage movement. Of the conference originating that movement, Mr. Miall was a prominent member; and the confidence which his disinterested advocacy of their right inspired in the working classes, went far to promote the fusion at which he aimed. So strong was his conviction of the justice and necessity of the demand for the suffrage, that he erroneously assailed the position taken by the Anti-corn-law League, with considerable asperity, and temporary damage to his paper-contending that the attainment of Corn-law repeal from a Parliament of landlords, was hopeless.

6

In May, 1844, the first Anti-state-church Conference assembled. In the opening paper, this great step was acknowledged to have resulted directly from the exhortations of the Nonconformist,' and the more private exertions of its editor. How strong a hold he had taken, personally, on the heart of Dissent, was manifested in the enthusiastic acclamation of seven hundred delegates. The committee-room and platform of the association then founded, summoned Mr. Miall to new and onerous labours. His public appearances on its behalf were thenceforth more frequent, probably, than those of any other man ; and his attendance at its councils unremitting. The Scottish Disruption and the Maynooth Endowment Bill supplied his pen with topics, and kept the ear of his auditory awake. The Dissenters of Southwark were among the loudest in their protestations against the latter, and had declared, in public meeting, their determination to vote for no candidate at the next Parliamentary election, who had given his support to that measure. The death of Mr. B. Wood, one of the members for that borough, in August, 1845, presented an unexpected opportunity for the fulfilment of these declarations. Mr. Miall resolved to give the Dissenting electors of Southwark the means of proving the genuineness of their professions, and of setting an example for imitation by their fellow-religionists at the next general election. With but little previous conference, he presented himself as a candidate. His rival was Sir William Molesworth-a gentleman unobjectionable, except in the particular on which the Dissenting electors had declared their votes should turn. The contest was an exceedingly animated one, and the Liberal party appeared so irreconcilably divided, that a Conservative candidate Mr. ex-Sheriff Pilcher-made his appearance. Mr. Miall's position excited considerable attention among all classes of politicians; and though materially damaged by an error on the part of

his own friends, the leaders of the public press were candid enough to admit his claims to the support of the Dissenters. Had that support been faithfully rendered, there is little doubt that he would have been returned. He was unmistakably the popular candidate, and had a majority on the show of hands. At the close of the poll, however, he had received only 352 votes; Mr. Pilcher, 1,182; Sir W. Molesworth, 1,943. The class whose conduct he had indicated five years before as the weakness of Dissent, were on this occasion its dishonour, and, with some exceptions, his personal opponents.

In the first number of the Nonconformist' for the year 1846, there appeared an article, entitled, The Peacemaker,' commenting with great severity on the conduct of the Rev. Mr. Gathercole, of Chatteris. The admission of that article was certainly an editorial indiscretion, but it was visited by a monstrously disproportionate penalty. On the 16th of March an action for libel was tried at Cambridge, and damages to the amount of £200 were given by the jury. To aid him in warding off so heavy a blow, levelled by such a hand, Mr. Miall had a right to expect the sympathy of the public. Happily for him, the extraordinary direction of the judge changed the case from one of private hardship to public danger. Baron Parke solemnly laid it down, in charging the jury, that the press had no right to comment on a sermon delivered by a parish priest in the ordinary course of his duty; only if he chose to print it would the discourse come within the range of criticism. Dr. Campbell, with generous promptitude and characteristic energy, was the first to invoke, through the columns of the Patriot,' subscriptions to defray the verdict against Mr. Miall, and the costs, which were double the amount of the damages. The call was eagerly responded to; the Liberal press, both in town and country, evinced indignation and sympathy; and it was resolved to move the Court of Exchequer for a new trial. The appeal was made, but without success. Nothing remained but to bear the defendant harmless of pecuniary damages. The subscriptions amounted, before the lapse of three months, to 6247. 12s., which left a surplus of 1777. 17s. 4d. after the discharge of the damages and the lawyers' bills. The surplus was presented to Mr. Miall at a public soirée (held at the London Tavern, June the 23rd); when the distinguished persons present evinced, as the subscription list had done, that the editor of the Nonconformist' had inspired respect and admiration even in the most Conservative Dissenters, and had fairly taken his place with the leaders of public opinion. The rev. plaintiff, however, was neither abashed nor satisfied. He served upon Mr. Miall notices of a second action for an alleged repetition of the libel in his speech at the soirée, and in articles impugning the verdict. Preparations were made for the defence, but the plaintiff did not appear. The Vicar of Chatteris is a man of whom it is dangerous to speak while living; and of whom, when dead, there will be little to say-on the rule, de mortuis nil nisi bono.'

The remaining incidents of Mr. Miall's career are within the memory of all our readers. At the general election of 1847, he stood, on invitation, for Halifax, when his return with, or in place of, the Whig