92 MEMOIR OF ALFRED SMEE. [CHAP. IX. 



CHAPTER IX. 



1865 TO 1870. 



Contests Rochester Alfred Smee a Freemason and an Oddfellow London 

 Institution saved from becoming a clerks' school Aquarium at Paris 

 Accident Sheet Professional life of Alfred Smee Illness Visit to Whitby 

 Posting up storm telegrams at Whitby Contests Rochester a second 

 time Speeches Visits Italy Anonymous writings on the Unseaworthiness 

 of Ships, on Chancery Reform, &c. 



AT the General Election of 1865, Alfred Srnee contested 

 Rochester, and there brought forward political views under a 

 new phase, which he termed " Conservative Progress." Although 

 enthusiastically received at that city, he was unsuccessful. He 

 was surrounded by his family during the contest, and I still 

 always look back to that general election as a very agreeable 

 phase of my existence. The year after he wrote two political 

 skits, the one termed * The Puppet Parliament,' and the other 

 ' The Final Reform Bill.' Neither of the pamphlets bore his name. 

 See the Appendix, Nos. XXVIII. and XXIX. 



In that entitled ' The Final Reform Bill,' he says :- 



There are four great diseases before Parliament this year: 1. The 

 rinderpest, or death of cattle ; 2. The cholera pest, or death of mankind 

 both bodily diseases, to be treated after an exact study of Nature's works : 

 3. The nigger pest, white murder by blacks; 4. The Fenian pest the 

 annihilation of social order and religion both mental epidemics, to be 

 treated after an earnest study of God's moral laws. 



Who shall legislate upon these serious maladies ? Shall they who 

 have bought their parliamentary seats by money, and pandered to the 

 follies of their age ? Or shall they who represent independent, thoughtful 

 voters, and who have studied Nature's works and followed moral laws ? 



In 1865 Mr. Smee was made a Freemason at Gundulph's 

 Lodge at Rochester, and he was about the same time also elected 

 a member of the Oddfellows in the same city. On the 22nd of 

 February, 1867, he was elected a member of Jerusalem Lodge, in 

 London, one of the oldest lodges. Although he took a warm interest 



