PLACE
PODMOEE
Macvey Napier, p. 334) that Wilberforce
had his information from the Bishop of
Winchester. These are Pitt s most
intimate friends, and the story is thus
shown to be merely one more pious
fabrication about an " infidel s death-bed."
We do not know if Pitt even accepted
Deism ; but he certainly lived and died
outside Christianity. Walpole, Chatham,
Pitt, and Fox, four of England s greatest
statesmen, rejected Christianity. D.
Jan. 23, 1806.
PLACE, Francis, reformer. B. Nov. 3,
1771. Ed. private schools. At the age
of thirteen Place was apprenticed to a
breeches-maker, and he became secretary
of his trade club and other clubs. He took
also an active part in the advanced political
societies of the time. In 1795, when the
excesses of the French Eevolution brought
a blight upon English reform, he opened a
tailor s shop at Charing Cross, and his
business greatly prospered. In 1796 he
co-operated with Williams in producing an
edition of Paine s Age of Reason. Williams
refused to share the profit with him ; yet,
when Williams was afterwards imprisoned,
Place helped to support his widow and
children. With the return of better days
Place s shop at Charing Cross became one
of the best known meeting-places of
reformers in the metropolis, even after
Place retired from actual business in 1817.
Godwin, Mill, Bentham, Owen, etc., all
knew him. He revised Owen s first work,
compiled Bentham s Not Paul, but Jesus,
and was on the committee of the British
and Foreign Schools Society. It was
Place who inspired the run on gold in 1832
which did much to defeat Wellington and
secure the Eeform Bill. His greatest
service was, however, in the organization
and defence of the early Trade Unions and
Chartism. Graham Wallas, in the only
complete biography of him (Life of Francis
Place, 1918), says that after reading
Hume s Essays and Paine s Age of Reason
he became an Agnostic. Mr. Benn des
cribes him as an Atheist, and Lord Morley
609
(Recollections, i, 150) says that he was
" regarded as an Atheist " by his col
leagues. We may remember that the
word " Agnostic " was then unknown. He
was, like Bentham and Grote, an Atheist in
the sense of rejecting all shades of Theism
as well as Christianity. D. Jan. 1, 1854.
PLATE, Professor Ludwig, Ph.D., German zoologist. B. Aug. 16, 1862. Ed. Jena, Bonn, and Munich Universities. In 1887 he was appointed official examiner in natural science for high schools. In the following year he began to teach zoology at Marburg University, and he then made a series of scientific expeditions. He visited the west coast of Europe and South America (1893-95), Greece and the Red Sea (1901-1902), the West Indies (1904- 1905), and Ceylon (1913-14). For a time he was Curator of the Institute of Marine Science at Berlin University, and since 1909 he has been professor of zoology and Director of the Phyletic Museum at Jena University. Professor Plate is a Monist, one of the founders of the Monist League; and he has publicly debated in defence of Monism against Christianity (Ultramontane Weltanschauung und Modern Lebenskunde, 1907).
PLUMER, William, American poli tician. B. June 25, 1759. Plumer was a Baptist minister, who abandoned his creed for Deism. He studied law and was ad mitted to the American Bar in 1787. For many years he was solicitor for Eocking- ham County, and he served eight terms in the State Legislature. He was President of the Senate of his State 1810-11, and was elected to the Senate of the United States. From 1812 to 1816 and in 1817-18 he was Governor of New Hampshire. After 1820 he devoted himself chiefly to literary work and journalism, generally using the pen- name " Cincinnatus." His Address to the Clergy (1814) gives his Rationalist views. D. June 22, 1850.
PODMORE, Frank, writer. B. Feb. 5, 1855. Ed. Elstree High School, Hailey- 610 Y
