ne of the wicked. One of Hannah More's characters, Mr. Fantom, is
thus described:--"He prated about _narrowness_ and _ignorance_ (the
derisive italics are Hannah's own), and _bigotry_ and _prejudice_ and
priestcraft on the one hand, and on the other of _public good_, the _love
of mankind_, and _liberality_ and _candour_, and above all of
benevolence." Dear Hannah made her hero, of course, come to a shocking
end, and so does his servant William, who as he lies in Chelmsford gaol
to be hung for murder confesses, "I was bred up in the fear of God, and
lived with credit in many sober families in which I was a faithful
servant, till, being tempted by a little higher wages, I left a good
place to go and live with Mr. Fantom, who, however, never made good his
fine promises, but proved a hard master." Another of Hannah's characters
was a Miss Simpson, a clergyman's daughter, who is always exclaiming,
"'Tis all for the best," though she ends her days in a workhouse, while
the man through whose persecution she comes to grief dies in agony,
bequeathing her 100 pounds as compensation for his injustice, and
declares that if he could live his life over again he would serve God and
keep the Sabbath. And such was the literature which was to stop reform,
and make the poor contented with their bitter lot!

But the seed, such as it was, often fell on stony soil. The labourers
became discontented, and began more and more to feel that it was not
always true that all was for the best, as their masters told them. They
were wretchedly clad, and lodged, and fed. Science, sanitary or
otherwise, was quite overlooked then. The parson and the squire took no
note of them, except when they heard that they went to the Baptist, or
Independent, or Methodist chapel, when great was their anger and dire
their threats. Again Hannah More took the field "to improve the habits
and raise the principles of the common people at a time when their
dangers and temptations--social and political--were multiplied beyond the
example of any former period. The inferior ranks were learning to read,
and they preferred to read the corrupt and inflammatory publications
which the French Revolution had called into existence." Alas! all was in
vain. Rachel, weeping for her children who had been torn from her to die
in foreign lands, fighting to keep up the Holy Alliance and the right
divine of kings to govern wrong, or had toiled and moiled in winter's
cold and summer