502
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. VIL JUNE 29, 1901.
pamphlets on the Free Kirk and education
questions and on the case of Prof. McDongall.
Mr. Mulock was a friend of Sheridan Knowles and an intense admirer of his dramas, on which he lectured in Liverpool and elsewhere.
During the later years of his life he lived at Stafford. In 1865 he was committed to Stafford Prison for contempt of court, he having published a pamphlet entitled ' The Divorce Court and the Chetwynd Case' while the Chetwynd divorce case was sub judice. He seems to have thrown himself into this matter with all his old enthusiastic obstinacy, and refused to obey Judge Wilde's injunction restraining him from further comment. Writing to his friend John Beavis Brindiey, afterwards first .Recorder of Hanley, on 28 Sept., 1864, he says :
" If he had simply confined himself to the exac- tion of a promise from me not to publish matter which would probably or necessarily come out in evidence before the Court, 1 would at once have yielded, but the Judge (I think unwisely and un- warrantably) persisted in extorting a pledge which struck at the root of all freedom ol the press. My correspondence with Chetwynd, his wife, her family and friends, is not only unobjectionable, but useful, instructive, and clearly demonstrating that i was the acknowledged common benefactor of all parties. 1 did not feel myself bound to submit to dictation of so arbitrary a cast, and i do not repent of my conscientious contumacy. But taking a tar loftier view of the entire case, i am convinced that as a believer in the (Scriptures of Truth, i am called on to obey every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, if Judges ordain Injustice, upon their heads be the guilt, but on my part I will not contravene their improper exercise of power."
Writing to Mr. Brindiey on the same subject at a later date, he adds :
"Is it true that the independent electors of Newcastle got 30^. per man / As for Statibrd, such wholesale, open corruption was, I am informed, never before practised to the tune of at least 20,00$. The best reform would be to disfranchise the Borough, or send the Town Crier and the Public Scavenger as representatives. They could not bribe."
On 23 Oct., 1865, he communicated to the press ' Some Errors and Omissions of the Public Journals with reference to the late Lord Palmers ton,' speaking of political events which passed under his personal knowledge. Mr. Mulock mentioned that once when Lord Palmerston had circulated a printed statement complaining of the bad and often illegible writing of public officials, he himself wrote a letter pointing out that it was due to " the false eagerness of professed teachers to put children into cramped small hand " ; ana " Lord Palmerston, who never pooh-poohed honest hints, as is customary
nowadays, answered the writer in warm
terms of acknowledgment, and admitted the
soundness of his remarks."
Early in 1868 he was summoned by Mr. William Edwards, of Eorebridge, Stafford, with whom he lodged, fora trifling amount ot rent which he disputed. The trouble seems to have arisen through Mr. Mulock, "who, as most of the inhabitants of this county were aware, was a gentleman who corre- sponded very largely," having asked the servant to buy him some stamps on a Sunday, which the landlord, from religious scruples, forbade her to do. Though advanced in years Mr. Mulock " stated his own case in an able and amusing speech" of considerable length and quite up to his old form :
" On one occasion Mrs. Edwards brought the grave charge against him of having too many visitors. Jbte was rather startled, and ventured to say something about the rights of lodgers to their own premises, and this was the cause of her giving him a week's notice. He sent for Mr. Edwards and expostulated with him. He, poor man, was very civil and very meek so meek, indeed, that he could see at once that he was one of those unfortunate beings who were subjected to the tyranny of 'petticoat government.' He had nothing to say in defence, and he [Mr. MulockJ had not the heart to do more than give him a brief lecture on the law of landlord and lodger, not omitting to inform him that lodgers had a right to their own premises, and that Mrs. jtidwarus, in complaining of the number of visitors who were as respectable as any in the neighbourhood had taken a great liberty/'
Referring to Mr. Edwards's conscientious scruples, he continued :
" With regard to this he might safely say he had lived a long life, and could live comfortably with Turks, intidels, and heathens ; but he really could not get on at all with self-righteous people par- ticularly Sabbatarians and other Pharisees. These were the people who above all others were the real pests of society. They were so in England, but still more so he might say in Scotland, where he sometimes lived, and where these ludicrous and un-Christian Sabbatarian scruples prevailed to the fullest extent. It was a very common thing for Sabbatarians in that country to attend three services at church on the Sabbath as they hypo- critically and incorrectly termed the Lord's Day and after the last of these services adjourn to the clachan, which was in plain English the pot-house, where they remained the rest of the night, even until morning."
He also alludes to his daughter with pride :
" He might state that he had the happiness to have a daughter whose powers the world well knew a very celebrated writer a daughter who was very kind and obedient to him, and who was worthy of every respect and honour."
Mr. Mulock was also at one time confined in Stafford Asylum through the influence of
