96 JAMES MUSPRATT 



to all these worries, there are legal pro- 

 ceedings, that too often degenerate into 

 bitter and unjust persecution, then the life of 

 a chemical manufacturer is one that must 

 often create an intense longing for retirement 

 and repose. It was so with James Muspratt, 

 and he gratefully entered on the rest he had 

 earned. But the land of the lotus eaters was 

 not his paradise. The cause of education 

 found in him an ardent promoter ; himself 

 such a lover of books and reading, knowing 

 the priceless value of knowledge, he did great 

 service to the cause of popular instruction 

 by the work which he and his friends, James 

 Mulleneux and George Holt, accomplished 

 in connection with the Mechanics' Institute 

 of Liverpool. The work of mechanics' 

 institutes became somewhat obsolete, and this 

 institution was transformed into an ordinary 

 public school, the Liverpool Institute, which 

 to-day ranks amongst the first schools of the 

 class in the land. 



In politics he was no less enthusiastic. 

 He was a thorough-going Liberal: one of 

 the earliest supporters of the Anti-Corn Law 

 movement. His Free Trade principles were 

 so strong that even when his own manu- 

 facture of Prussiate of Potash was threatened 



