THE LATE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY.

Kumara Times, Issue 2819, 3 October 1885, Page 2

THE LATE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY.

Some particulars of the life and career of the late Earl of Shaftesbury, whose decease was announced in a cablegram last evening, will doubtless be perused with interest; tbey are from one of the many excellent woiks of W. and R. Chambers. Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, was born in Grosvenor Square, London, April 28, 1801. He was sent to Harrow, and theuce to Christ-Church, Oxford, where he obtained a first-class degree in classics iu 1822. He represented the borough of Woodstock from 1826 to 1830; the county of Dorset (in which the family estates are situated), from 1831 to 1846; and the city of Bath from 1847 to 1851, when he succeeded to the earldom. During his long career in the Lower House, he held one or two subordinate posts. He is better known by his attempts to improve the social condition of the labouring classes. As he belonged to the Conservative party, and represented an agricultural county, the manufacturers, and their organs in the press, received his allegations respecting the condition of their operatives in a hostile aud antagonistic spirit, and retorted that the wages of families engaged iu factories amounted to twice and three times the sum pail to the Dorsetshire labourers. Yet L"nl Ashley returned again ami ng;iiu to i.lxcharge; and on the death of Atr Sa«ile'-, M .P., took charge of the Ten U-n .V Biil. The ma mi fact titers .InjlaM-.i wi !i ahum that any rt-i'u.: i : i i > >li>' hours, of labour would be faiai to our maim-

factoring supremacy. Successive governments naturally believed these prophecies, and almost all the lending statesmen of the day opposed the Ten Hours' Bill. But public opinion declared in favour of a limitation of the hours of labour. Lord Ashley carried bis bill through parliament, and had the satisfaction of knowing that the opponents of the measure admit ted, without an exception, that it was an act of wise and beneficent legislation, and that their alarms were groundless. When he visited the manufacturing districts, he was honoured with an enthusiastic ovation. He refused to join Sir R. Peel's administration in 1841, because that statesman refused to countenance the Ten Hours' Bill. In 1846, he supported Sir E. Peel in his proposal to repeal the Corn Laws, an act which A cost him his seat for Dorsetshire. When he successfully contested Bath aoainst Mr Roebuck in 1847, he appeared on the field of politics as a "Liberal Conservative." After his accession to the earldom, Shaftesbury took a more prominent part in connection with various religious, social, and philanthropic societies. These are so numerous that a list of the associations with which he is in some way officially concerned, would include almost every scheme having for its object the physical, moral, and spiritual improvement of society. He belonged to the Evangelical party in the Church of England, and was a prominent member of the chief church societies. He married a daughter of the fifth Earl Cowper, and being thus a connection by marriage of the late Viscount Palmerston (whose Government he steadily supported), many of the ecclesiastical appointments and promotions of Evangelical clergymen made by that minister were attributed to his influence. He followed up the Ten Hours' Bill by obtaining the assent of Parliament, to other measures regulating defective workshops and factories, night work, and the treatment of children by their employers. Among honours that were conferred on Lord Shaftesbury were the Oxford Degree of D.C.L. in IS4-1, and tinhonorary citizenship of Edinburgh, in 1878. His father, the sixth Earl of Shaftesbury, was for many years Chairman of Committees of the House of Lords.