DECLINING YEARS (1873-1893) 289 



organised attack against this particular form of 

 cruelty, which he always looked upon as a disgrace 

 to our age and country, as indeed, in his eyes, it 

 would be to every age and every country, when men 

 were found to put their hand to such abominations 

 under any pretence whatever. For several years he 

 was in the habit of sending off almost daily by post 

 countless packets of papers bearing upon the ques- 

 tion, in the hope of enlightening the minds of people 

 to what was really going on around them, and expos- 

 ing the horrors of the whole system, the very first 

 principles of which he looked upon as an outrage on 

 civilisation. Of his views on the subject generally I 

 have spoken elsewhere, and therefore need not here 

 dwell further upon them. It is only here again alluded 

 to in order to show that he never allowed the sub- 

 ject to drop, but that to the very end of his life he 

 was found vigorously preaching the gospel of kind- 

 ness and mercy, in the most practical and forcible 

 way that lay in his power, to thousands and tens of 

 thousands beyond the boundaries of his own parish, 

 lie kept his eye on passing events during these 

 latter years with quite as much interest and keen- 

 ness as ever. It was remarkable how sometimes 

 things seemingly unimportant had for him an in- 

 terest that astonished his friends. Those who attain 

 the allotted threescore years and ten may well claim 

 a certain indulgence for not displaying an active 

 concern in the events of the day or the hour ; no 

 such indulgence was ever claimed by my father. 

 The fact was, he was never an old man except in 



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