1846.] 



PEACE MEETINGS. 



87 



first officer that ever resigned his commission on con- 

 scientious principles. I had the honour of knowing him, 

 and a more pure and Christian spirit I never met. But his 

 name was cast out as evil, because he was a heretic. How- 

 ever, the grain of mustard-seed was sown. The Peace Societies 

 were formed, and now we see the fruit. Two years ago, 

 the Manchester Peace Society thought they were doing a 

 great deal in having a public tea-party at the Town Hall, and 

 this year they hired the great Free Trade Hall, and had an 

 attentive audience of many thousand persons. 



"The difficulty which the Government experienced in 

 obtaining recruits led to the horrible proposal to call out 

 the militia, by ballot, for immediate service. But what was 

 the result? The most enthusiastic meetings were held all 

 over the country, and instead of gaining their ends, the military 

 people soon found that they were injuring their cause; and 

 they backed out of it. It was a new thing to hear the working 

 classes declare that they would suffer the penalties, rather than 

 have to fight, and forming themselves into militia clubs — not 

 to provide substitutes, as was wont, but to support those who 

 might be sent to prison ! I think I shall never forget our 

 Meeting at this little country place, which possesses a manu- 

 facturing population of 15,000. The most ultra peace principles 

 were received with enthusiasm, and our petition * to the 



works he printed himself, with a small press of his own invention, when 

 sitting in his armchair and crippled with chronic rheumatism. Mr. and 

 Mrs. Thrush lived at Harrogate, and in the season they often let their 

 house and visited York. The Peace Society was established in 18 16. 



* " The humble petition [to the Commons] of the undersigned in- 

 habitants of the townships of Radcliffe and Pilkington [with 1409 

 signatures] showeth : — 



" That your Petitioners have heard, with the greatest astonishment and 

 disapprobation, that it is the intention of the Government to call out 

 the Militia. 



"That, in the opinion of your Petitioners, to force men against their 

 will to engage in any employment, however laudable, is a species of 

 slavery ; but to compel people to leave their homes and their peaceful 

 occupations, in order to learn the trade of arms, is an outrage on the 

 privileges of Englishmen and the rights of humanity. 



' ' That such a measure would press with peculiar force upon the 

 working classes of this country, and on the increasing number of those 

 who deem the practice of warfare inconsistent with the Gospel of Christ, 



