THE LATE MR. BARRY. 
33 
the metropolis. Those who had the pleasure in after years of hearing from Mr. 
Barry’s lips the story of his life for the seventeen years covered by the above-men¬ 
tioned report, could till pages with stories of thrilling interest. He held that, wit! 
regard to a question on which public feeling must often prove fickle, and for which 
the masses of the people could hardly be expected to sustain any long-continued 
agitation, the course for him to adopt was to demonstrate by continued and persist¬ 
ent efforts the injustice, impolicy, and inconsistency of the law in dealing with 
individual offenders. By this means the administrators of the law became converted 
by circumstances rather than by argument from open opponents into allies or sup¬ 
porters. This line of action necessarily brought him into contact and sometimes 
collision with men in power, who exhibited not unfrequently the usual amount of 
official dislike to his humane interference. In after years, even when apparently 
exhausted by sickness, he would dwell with animation on some of these incidents of 
the past. He would tell how the first man convicted of murder, after the passing of 
Aglionby’s Act, was proved (through the time allowed by that measure to elapse 
between sentence and execution) to have been totally innocent; or he would describe, 
with a keen sense of injustice and wrong, how, after long and weary journeys into 
the country, after tough wrestling with the Home Secretary of the day, or long 
midnight interviews with his friend Sydney Taylor, followed by an eloquent appeal 
for mercy from Taylor’s pen, all proved in vain, and some unoffending victim of mis¬ 
taken justice died to expiate another’s crime. 
“ Mr. Barry took an active share, though in enfeebled health, in the operations of 
the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Capital Punishment, which took the 
place of its predecessor, the ‘ Society for Diffusing Information,’ etc., and never 
denied himself, however severe his physical suffering, to those who sought his 
counsel in aid of the cause he had so much at heart.” 
When in 1841 the chemists and druggists determined to offer an organized 
opposition to the Medical Bill of Mr. Hawes, Mr. Barry cordially united and 
afforded them the valuable aid of his great experience in Parliamentary business. 
Thus he became one of the founders of the Pharmaceutical Society, and ever 
after evinced a sincere interest in its welfare. 
About eight years ago Mr. Barry retired from business. He had never 
married, his health was frail, and as he frequently suffered from weakness or 
entire loss of voice he naturally shunned society and led a life of much seclusion, 
lie continued to take an active part in circulating publications relating to the 
object upon which the best energies of his life had been expended, and his deep 
abhorrence of oppression and injustice caused him to regard with lively interest 
every great event affecting the welfare of mankind. To objects of which he 
approved he liberally contributed, but so thoroughly did he act in the spirit of 
the injunction “ When thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right 
hand doeth,” that his name was scarcely ever seen on a subscription list, and his 
most intimate connections were, for the most part, unaware of his benevolent 
actions. In the same spirit he withheld his name from any public connection 
with the great labour of his life. It is scarcely to be found in the two volumes 
published under his superintendence by the committee of which he was the very 
soul ; and in the memoir of Sydney Taylor above referred to, we have sought for 
his name in vain, although the work is preceded by a biographical sketch, written 
by himself, and abounds in editorial notes. 
His personal appearance was striking. In figure he was tall and slim, his 
head was remarkably well developed and fine in form, his nose long and aquiline, 
and his features strongly expressive of the calm refined thoughtfulness of his 
mind. His general manner was remarkably gentle, affording no indication to 
the casual observer of the deep earnestness of purpose and stern energy of will 
which constituted the true basis of his character. It is not surprising that such 
a man inspired those immediately about him with respect amounting almost to 
awe. Yet blended with these indications of superiority and power there was ever 
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