ART. II.-JOSEPH STURGE.

Memoirs of Joseph Sturge. By Henry Richards. London: S. W. Partridge, 9, Paternoster Row; A. W. Bennett, 5, Bishopsgate Without.

JOSEPH STURGE was sprung of a Quaker family, settled

for many generations as substantial yeomen, in or near Elberton, in Gloucestershire. At an old manor house turned farmhouse, he was born on the 2nd of August, 1793, the fourth child and second son of William and Mary Sturge, who had, in all, twelve children, and eleven of these survived to middle age. Joseph is described as having been a very healthy and lively infant, 'whom it was a pleasure to nurse'happy in the companionship of brothers and sisters, and free, in that secluded district, to roam at will through the meadows and over the downs which border on the estuary of the Severn. A wild, free life in the open air was usually his when a child; and thus, as he had an excellent constitution from his parents, the strong, good health of his after years was built on a firm foundation.

It is probably to his seventh year that the following characteristic little anecdote pertains:-An eccentric old Quaker, annoyed by the trespassings of a neighbour's pigs, saw the child sauntering along, and half in jest, ordered him to drive the animals into a pond. Delighted with the fun, Joseph readily obeyed. Very soon, however, with broom in hand, alarmingly brandished over the boy's head, appeared upon the scene a woman, to whom the pigs belonged. To avert her anger from himself, the old man shook his head at the child, and said gravely, in Dr. Watts's words, ́ Ah!—

'Satan finds some mischief still

For idle hands to do.'

But the ruse failed; for the child looked up at the old hypocrite indignantly, and said, 'Thee be'st, Satan, then, for thee told me to do it.'

At Kingley, the house of his maternal grandfather, near Alcester, Joseph spent three years;-an enterprizing, nutgathering, bird-nesting boy, exuberant in animal spirits, and of a most fearless temper;- -a boy apt to climb trees and to plunge headlong into hedges, reckless alike of clothing and of skin. Ah, Joseph, Joseph,' said his grandfather one day, 'we must make thee a pair of tin breeches, and then all the children in the village will cry out, "Here comes the boy with the tin breeches." It was whilst residing at Kingley that, under the misguidance of a servant boy, he became a party to

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obtaining

obtaining change for a bad sixpence from the landlady of a public-house in a neighbouring village. Sixty years afterwards, when Joseph Sturge was revisiting the scenes of his boyhood, the long-forgotten event flashed across his mind; and the good old man could not rest until he had made some restitution. A needy granddaughter of the defrauded and long since departed landlady was discovered, and the Christian of between seventy and eighty years of age insisted on paying £5, or two hundred per cent., in memory of the offence of the boy of nine.

Not until he was ten years of age was Joseph sent to school. There, although remarkably athletic and of a dauntless spirit, he solemnly resolved never to permit himself to fight. It was not always easy to keep the vow. His temper was at that time somewhat fiery; and boys will be so very provoking! Once or twice, indeed, he only avoided actual boxing, by closing with and throwing down to the ground some vexatious antagonist.

After spending about a year at Thornbury Day School, he was sent to a boarding school at Sidcot, in Somersetshire, kept by a member of the Society of Friends, named Benwell. Here he remained about three years, acquiring nothing but the rudiments of a plain English education. A schoolfellow at Sidcot long afterwards said to Mr. Charles Sturge: Your brother was a kind friend of mine for many years; and one circumstance that occurred to me when at school, is so characteristic of his whole life, that I will relate it. He was one of the oldest boys, I was one of the youngest. A boy oppressed me; I appealed to Joseph, he saw me righted, but said I must shake hands and make it up with my opponent. I demurred to this; but he insisted, and said, "William, never let the sun go down on thy wrath." I immediately complied; and often have I since then thought of that boyish advice.'

At fourteen years of age, he finally left school, and returned to his father's house. Now first came into vividness the religious feelings that in the sequel became the masters of his life. As a youth at home, he retained a buoyancy of spirit, an exuberance of joyous, active life, in spite of some probably only fancied partiality shown by his parents to the other children, wherewith he at times allowed himself to feel distressed. He was especially fond of horse exercise, and loved to spur up the steepest and roughest banks that he could find. The bailiff on the farm, an old servant of the family, sometimes was heard forbidding exploits like these: 'Thee shan't break thy neck, if I can help it.'

For some years it seemed as though his father's wish that

Joseph

Joseph should become a farmer would be fulfilled. In his early journals are found frequent records of journeys to markets and fairs, of sheep-shearing and barley-sowing. A small farm at Aust Cliff was taken for him. Business, however, was not allowed to absorb him wholly. There were pleasant family excursions up the Wye; there was skating by moonlight; on fine autumn days there was shooting and coursing, for awhile. Of coursing he was passionately fond, but he soon gave it up, strongly convinced that it could not be right for a Christian to follow any mere amusement involving suffering to God's creatures. The 'Endeavour Society' was the name of a mutual improvement class to which he belonged at this early period; and before it he read papers on astronomy, optics, and meteorology, having found out for himself that science is a pursuit 'above most others worthy the attention of an intellectual being.'

His first activities in associated benevolent enterprize were in connection with the Bible Society, in 1813. He became member and secretary of the Thornbury branch; and he visited the poor to see who were in want of Bibles, and the rich to obtain donations. Temporary_intercourse with some excellent ministers of the Society of Friends about this time led him to feel very strongly 'what a glorious work it is to be engaged in, to turn men from their evil ways, and lead them towards a land of eternal peace.' It was in the same year that, whilst occupying his small farm, he was 'drawn' for the militia; and not feeling religiously free to bear arms either per se or per proxy, he had to pay the penalty in the loss of his small flock of sheep, which he returned home one day just in time to see being driven off by the distraining officer.

He was not to be a farmer. In 1814, whilst visiting his friends the Cottrells, at Bewdley, in Worcestershire, he very unexpectedly received a proposal to enter into business as a corn factor in partnership with the son of his host. After demur, the offer was accepted. Leaving behind him at home, a parcel, containing a present for each member of the family, with a letter bidding them an affectionate farewell, he took up his abode at Bewdley. At Wribbenhall, on the other side of the Severn, he became in 1815 for the first time a householder. Small was the tenement, for his business operations were not then extensive; but it enabled him to live with his beloved sister Sophia, who fulfilled the dearest wish of her heart when she became her brother Joseph's housekeeper. Except in one brief interval, she remained with him, his faithful counsellor and companion in all good works, until her death in 1845. A paper which he wrote prior to commencing housekeeping, gives

His Care of His Brothers and Sisters.

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'a proposed plan of life,' which he hoped to pursue. Having, like King Alfred, arranged the disposal of his time-so many hours to business, and to his religious duties, and home enjoyments so many,

'I hope,' he continues, in this, as in all other instances, I shall try to do, according to my poor ability, my duty, and endeavour to live acceptably in the divine light. The management of my domestic concerns to be left entirely to my sister, whom I hope to have to live with me, or to my wife, should I ever marry. The whole of my expenses, including everything out of my own pocket, not to exceed £1,000 for the first four years, after beginning housekeeping. If Providence should so render my endeavours successful as to make my income, during that period, far exceed this sum, rather than increase my own luxuries, lay it out in relieving the distressed, making sufficient allowance for casualties, &c. But should my expenses be found to exceed my income, look over the accounts of the preceding year, and, if it be possible, retrench, rather than presume on the possibility of having a better return next year. To sacrifice many of my own comforts, rather than not be able to entertain a friend or relation with pleasure, and give him a cordial welcome. As I am placed almost alone with regard to our Society, I trust that, however far I may be from attaining a true state of religious experience myself, I may be able so to conduct myself as not to be a stumbling block to others.'

Thus piously did he lay out, early in life, a chart of conduct, as thousands also have done; but how few have succeeded in living, as he did, nobly true to the scheme!

In 1817, when Joseph Sturge was in his twenty-fifth year, his father died. As far as an elder brother could supply the loss to the family, our hero did so. Members of the family now living retain a vivid recollection of his extreme tenderness to his mother at all times, but especially during her brief widowhood. She, in less than two years, followed her departed husband; and as the old home was then necessarily broken up, Joseph, having, with this object in view, removed into a larger house near Bewdley, received under his roof, with a welcome, warm and generous, his brothers and sisters who were not settled in life. With the utmost delicacy and affection he acted as a father to them until they all found homes of their own. Papers and letters still extant, show with what thoughtful care he watched over them, and with what disinterested love. His early experience in business was full of severe struggles and discouragements; but when the light of prosperity began to shine around him, his first thought was how best his orphan brothers and sisters might be enabled to bask in its rays. Those who still remember the home at Netherton, describe it as the very abode of peace and love; and they testify that the brother who was its head, was regarded by all its members with the deepest reverence and the warmest affection.

Of his experience in business, with all its trials, checks, losses, and gains, we do not propose to write. Energetic, careful, and industrious though he was, he always held that business ought

never to be the principal object in view. Under all circumstances,' he said, ' endeavour to act acceptably in the divine sight; let this be the paramount object. This disposition of the mind is, I believe, by no means incompatible with a full occupation of the mind with our proper affairs; but it requires great watchfulness.' 'His industry,' said a lifelong friend of his, 'was exceeded by few, and his power of endurance was scarcely less remarkable. Bewdley meeting was united to Worcester as a preparative meeting, and I have known him, at a time of great feverish excitement in the corn trade, come over to Worcester on a first-day morning and attend the preparative meeting; take the mail at night, and travel (on the old coaching system) an eleven or twelve hours' journey to London; attend Mark Lane market on the second day; proceed by that night's coach to Bristol; attend market there on third day, travel thence to Gloucester, and, reaching there late at night, obtain a few hours rest before proceeding sixteen miles to Ross to attend his quarterly meeting on fourth day; after which he again mounted coach and undertook another long journey to Liverpool.' It was by many years of hard struggles and deep anxieties that Joseph Sturge laid the basis of a commercial fabric, which afterwards arose so loftily and covered ground so wide. But his finer nature was not damaged in the process. In tenderness of conscience, in a large and generous interest in all moral questions, in a heart plenteous in gentlest charity for the failings, and sympathy with the errors of others, he remained always the same. The secret of this was, that he never, in the busiest times, allowed himself to neglect his pious engagements on the one hand, or to yield to the least temptation to take any unfair advantage on the other. Not merely at home, but also in the crowded town visited for business purposes, he delighted to retire for meditation and prayer. And alike in his early manhood, when business embarrassments were heavy upon him, and in his later years, he was determined, and acted on the determination, to keep his soul clear from every least stain of fraud. Never for a moment did he yield to the temptation to resortto the questionable expedients in business by which so many permit their consciences to be seared. Twice, at least, after heavy losses, he promptly reduced his expenditure to suit his altered circumstances. For three years in succession he limited his outlay to £100 a year, and during that period was known sometimes to deny himself a dinner that he might have wherewithal to bestow upon the needy. Being poor, why should he desire to seem otherwise? If his business suffered through thus declining to keep up false appearances, let it

suffer.