THE REAL NOBILITY OF THE HUMAN CHARACTER. 435 



by masters and workmen,] in their disputes about wages and hours of 

 labour; while, as a master tradesman, he encouraged every rational 

 effort that workmen could make to improve their wages and their 

 condition, always setting the example of paying his workmen the 

 highest rate of wages claimed. 



After retiring from the business of a tailor, Mr. Place applied 

 similar industry to mental pursuits, similar integrity to political cha- 

 racter; and for gratuitous mind and labour afforded to every import- 

 ant public question, and assistance to every useful public person or 

 individual of promising utility, the writer of this, though by circum- 

 stances separated from the immediate acquaintance of Mr. Place 

 for several years past, can, by ^'the experience of eighteen and the 

 well-founded report of forty years, pronounce him a prodigy of use- 

 ful, resolute, consistent, political exertion and indefatigable labour, 

 which evidently continues unabated to this day. 



Sir Robert Peel in the zenith of his ministerial character, while 

 improving the jury laws, did not hesitate, indirectly, to seek the cri- 

 ticism of Mr. Place on that bill, before it was presented to the House 

 of Commons. 



His (Mr. Place's) opinion and experience, on various subjects, 

 have been taken by several committees of the House of Commons. 



Jeremy Bentham, twenty years ago, pronounced Mr. Place to be 

 the most fit man living, from extensive knowledge of the state of the 

 country and its parties, the condition and wants of the people, and 

 from his own probity and mental energy, to become a Secretary of 

 State for the Home Department. 



The late Mr. Cobbett, notwithstanding after-abuse, once pro- 

 nounced Mr. Place the most fit man to represent the city of West- 

 minster in the House of Commons. 



Mr. Place has been more than once invited to take a seat in the 

 House of Commons, and has excused himself on the ground that 

 what he should consider his duty, as a member of that House, would 

 cost him five hundred pounds a year, which, injustice to his family, 

 he could not devote to that purpose. 



Much that has been good in the political character of Sir Francis 

 Burdetf, and all that has been good in the political character of Sir 

 John Cam Hobhouse, one of the present ministers, have been the 

 creation of the mentorship and industry of Francis Place. Even in 

 going to Newgate, by order of the House of Commons, the then Mr. 

 Hobhouse fathered a pamphlet which was not his own, but which 

 was written by Mr. Place. 



The present Lord Radnor sought the acquaintance of Mr. Place 

 many years before the latter retired from the business of a tailor; 

 and, on a compliment of that kind advanced by the then Lord 

 Folkstone, Mr. Place demurred, and jocularly observed, it might be- 

 come inconvenient to his lordship to have an acquaintance whom he 

 might some day meet taking home a suit of clothes to a customer, 

 upon which his lordship declared that he should even so deem the 

 acquaintance of Mr. Place an advantage and an honour. 



Who, then, is the writer or editor of " Fraser's Magazine,'' to 

 speak reproachfully of Francis Place because he has been a tailor ? 



