Ironworks, Southwark, where he established several of the leading engineers as a productive association. The scheme ended in total failure. The Central Co-operative Agency was at the same time involved in difficulties, and the loss on both schemes fell entirely on Neale, who is said to have spent 40,000l. in his efforts to promote co-operation (Economic Journal, December 1892, p. 753). From this time until he succeeded to the Bisham Abbey estate (November 1885) he was a poor man; but failure seemed only to make him cling more tenaciously to the cause of co-operation, in which he saw the promise of great improvement in the condition of the working classes.
Meanwhile Neale's activity in other directions was incessant. He had already (1850) given evidence before the select committee on the savings of the middle and working classes. When the Industrial and Provident Societies Act, which was the outcome of the inquiry, led to a great development of co-operation, Neale closely associated himself with the northern movement. This, however, did not prevent him from keeping in touch with the Society of Promoters, now merged in the Working Men's College, where he took a class in political economy for two terms. He frequently acted as legal adviser to co-operative societies, which sought his aid in the revision of rules for registration. Until 1876 he prepared, wholly or in part, all the amendments proposed in the act of 1852; the Consolidation Act (1862) and the Industrial and Provident Societies Act (1876) were almost entirely due to his efforts. He was a member of the executive committee appointed by the London conference of delegates from co-operative societies (July 1852), which was the germ of the central co-operative board; and, in addition to lectures and pamphlets, he found time to write ‘The Co-operator's Handbook, containing the Laws relating to a Company of Limited Liability,’ London, 1860, 8vo, which he gave to Mr. G. J. Holyoake to publish for the use of co-operators, and ‘The Analogy of Thought and Nature Investigated,’ London, 1863, 8vo. He also spent some months in Calcutta winding up the affairs of a branch of the Albert Insurance Company with which he had unfortunately been connected.
In the establishment of the central agency Neale had given practical expression to his view that associations of producers could be best promoted by concentrating the wholesale trade of the co-operative stores. Naturally therefore he was keenly interested in the formation of the North of England Co-operative Wholesale Society (1863), of which he drafted the rules for registration. He was one of the founders of the Cobden Mills in 1866, and of the Agricultural and Horticultural Association in 1867, the object of which was to introduce co-operation into agriculture (Social Economist, 1 Nov. 1868, p. 131). From 1869 he was one of the most active promoters of the annual co-operative congress. On the establishment of the central board at the Bolton congress (1872), he was elected one of the members of the London section, a position which he held until 1875. When, in that year, William Nuttall resigned the post of general secretary to the board, Neale, mainly on the suggestion of Mr. G. J. Holyoake, undertook to succeed him. That position required the exercise of great tact and patience. Some of his friends indeed regarded his appointment with anxiety, for it was doubtful how far he would be successful as the paid servant of working men. He received a salary of 250l. a year for his official work, acting gratuitously as legal adviser to the central board, until 1878, when his remuneration was increased to 350l. Devoting himself entirely to his work, he took lodgings in Manchester, visiting his family at Hampstead once a week. His succession to the Bisham Abbey estate made no difference in his habits. Though he was for some time treated ‘with a studied disrespect,’ long before he resigned the secretaryship he had completely won the confidence of the working classes, who regarded him with reverence and affection.
Neale was for seventeen years a director of the Co-operative Insurance Company, and for sixteen years a member of the committee of the Co-operative Newspaper Society. Throughout his life he kept up a large correspondence with foreign co-operators, and frequently attended the continental congresses. In 1875 he visited America, with Dr. Rutherford and John Thomas of Leeds, on behalf of the Mississippi Valley Trading Company, with a view to opening up a direct trade between the English co-operative stores and the farmers of the Western States. A diary of this visit was published in the ‘Co-operative News.’ In August 1890 Neale took part in a conference at the summer meeting of university extension students at Oxford on the relation of the university extension movement to working-class education. He resigned the general secretaryship on 11 Sept. 1891, at the age of eighty-one. Even then he did not entirely give up work in the cause of co-operation. On the formation of the Christian Social Union, he became a
