328 



TELFOHD'S POLITICS. 



PART VIII. 



Fortunately for Telford, his intercourse with the towns- 

 people of Shrewsbury was so small that his views on 

 these subjects were never known ; and we very shortly 

 find him employed by the clergy themselves in building 

 a new church in the town of Bridgenorth. His patron 

 and employer, Mr. Pulteney, however, knew of his 

 extreme views, and the knowledge came to him quite 

 accidentally. He found that Telford had made use of 

 his frank to send through the post a copy of Paine' s 

 4 Rights of Man ' to his Langholin correspondent, 1 where 

 the pamphlet excited as much fury in the minds of 

 some of the people of that town as it had done in that 

 of Telford himself. The " Langholin patriots " broke 

 out into drinking revolutionary toasts at the Cross, and 

 so disturbed the peace of the little town that some of 

 them were confined for six weeks in the county gaol. 

 Mr. Pulteney was very indignant at the liberty Telford 

 had taken with his frank, and a rupture between them 

 seemed likely to ensue ; but the former was forgiving, and 

 the matter went no further. It is only right to add, that 

 as Telford grew older and wiser, he became more careful 

 in jumping at conclusions on political topics. The events 

 which shortly occurred in France tended in a great 

 measure to heal his mental distresses as to the future of 

 England. When the " liberty " won by the Parisians 

 ran into riot, and the " Friends of Man " occupied 

 themselves in taking off the heads of those who differed 

 from them, he became wonderfully reconciled to the 



1 The writer of a memoir of Tel- 

 ford, in the ' Encyclopedia Britannica,' 

 says : " Andrew Little kept a pri- 

 vate and very small school at Lang- 

 holm. Telford did not neglect to 

 send him a copy of Paine's * Rights of 

 Man ;' and, as he was totally blind, 

 he employed one of his scholars to 

 read it in the evenings. Mr. Little 

 had received an academical education 

 before he lost his sight; and, aided 

 by a memory of uncommon powers, 

 he taught the classics, and particularly 



Greek, with much higher reputation 

 than any other schoolmaster within 

 a pretty extensive circuit. Two of his 

 pupils read all the Iliad, and all or 

 the greater part of Sophocles. After 

 hearing a long sentence of Greek or 

 Latin distinctly recited, he could gene- 

 rally construe and translate it with 

 little or no hesitation. He was always 

 much gratified by Telford's visits, 

 which were not infrequent, to his 

 native district." 



