Many co-operated to bring about these results, but the
chief advocate of all the beneficent reforms which have
reinvigorated the English working-classes, saved the women from
slavish toil and given them opportunity to make homes for their
families, rescued the children from benumbing toil, and given
them time for healthful recreation and mental improvement, is, by
the common award of all, this simple-hearted Christian, Antony
Ashley Cooper.
On the fly-leaf of a book in his library the Earl of Shaftesbury
noted in pencil some of the obstacles which beset his progress
when seeking the good of the distressed children: "I had to break
every political connection, to encounter a most formidable array
of capitalists, mill-owners, doctrinaires, and men who by natural
impulse hate all 'humanity mongers' (tell it riot in Gath!) among
the Radicals, the Irishmen, and a few sincere Whigs and
Conservatives.....Peel was hostile.....Fielden and Brotherton
were the only 'practical' men who supported me, and to practical
prophecies of overthrow of trade, of ruin to the operatives
themselves, I could only oppose 'humanity' and general
principles. The newspapers were on the whole friendly. Out of
Parliament there was in society every form of 'good-natured' and
compassionate contempt.
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