We’re now entering . The passive resistance campaign against the Education Act of has been going on for several years, and the House of Lords has successfully stymied attempts in the judiciary and in the newly Liberal-controlled House of Commons to reform the Act.
The Manchester Courier of covered the summons to court of another set of resisters. Excerpts:
More Passive Resistance.
Southport Magistrates at Variance.
, at Southport, a number of
“passive resisters,” including twelve Nonconformist ministers, were summoned
for non-payment of rate.
The Rev. J.T. Barkley said
that they objected to payment on conscientious grounds, more especially as the
will of the people had been thwarted by the House of Lords.
Dr. A. Wood,
J.P.,
observed that that was more a matter for the political platform than for the
court.
The Chairman, Mr. Jones, quite sympathised with Mr. Barkley and his friends,
but the magistrates had no choice in the matter and must make an order for
payment. What he objected to was the wasting of the time of the court, all for
no purpose.
Mr. Lawton, another magistrate, said that was the view of only one portion of
the Bench, and he and his colleague, Mr. R. Cooper, were prepared to hear what
Mr. Barkley had to say.
Mr. Davy, another Justice, dissented from Mr. Lawton, whereon the Chairman
observed that if they were all going to be chairmen he would resign his
position.
Mr. Lawton went into the body of the court from the Bench to answer his name.
He said he would like to ask the tax collector how much of the rate went to
the High Church, the Broad Church, and the Low Church. (Applause and
laughter.)
The Chairman said that he would not have the court made a laughing place.
The usual order for payment was made.
Would Prefer Gaol
Four “passive resisters” were summoned for non-payment of rates at Bolton
.
Mr. William W. Collinson, of 58, Moncrieffe-street, said they appeared not
because they could not pay the amounts due, but because they declined.
Alderman Brown: If you prefer to pay something extra in order to state your
objection, we don’t object.
Mr. Collinson: We prefer to do that till such times as we can go to gaol. We
should prefer the latter course.
Alderman Brown: We are not going to oblige you this morning.
Mr. Collinson: I wish you would, sir.
Orders were made in all the cases.
On there was a passive resistance demonstration at Hirst (Ashington), Northumberland. The Morpeth Herald and Reporter was there. Excerpts:
Passive Resistance Demonstration at Hirst.
Welcome to the Rev. G.R.
Bell.
Resolution of Protest Against the Lords.
Remarkable Speech by the
Rev. J.W. Ogden.
The return of the Rev. G.R.
Bell to Ashington, after undergoing seven days’ imprisonment at Newcastle
gaol, as a Passive Resister, was made the occasion of a passive resistance
demonstration on in the
Hirst P.M.
Chapel.…
The Rev. Bastow Wilson
moved the following resolution:– “This public meeting of citizens of Hirst and
Ashington hereby warmly welcomes with appreciation and honour the
Rev. G.R. Bell, Primitive
Methodist minister, after suffering the indignity of seven days’ imprisonment
in Newcastle gaol in vindication of his conscientious refusal to pay the
sectarian portion of the education rate. The meeting utters its indignant
protest against the mutilation and ultimate destruction of the Education Bill
by the Bishops and the House of Lords, and strongly urges His Majesty’s
Government immediately to give effect to the promise of the Prime Minister (in
whom and the Government it has unabated confidence) that a way must be found
and will be found to make the will of the people prevail; copies of this
resolution to be sent to the Premier, Mr. McKenna, the newly-appointed
Secretary of the Board of Education, and Mr. Charles Fenwick,
M.P. for the
constituency.” The reading of the resolution was greeted with applause.
Reginald McKenna succeeded Augustine Birrell as the Liberal cabinet’s President of the Board of Education after Birrell’s education bill was stymied by the House of Lords. McKenna would propose a new bill that was so watered down that it satisfied nobody, and in any case was again squashed by the House of Lords. Wilson continued:
The position of Non-conformists to-day was unchanged in the respect that they
could not obey the law of . They were looking
anxiously to Mr. McKenna, of whom they had great expectations. Whatever
happened the Liberal party must not drop the education matter. Such pressure
must be used that they would not dare to do so. (Applause.) They were glad to
have the assurance of the Prime Minister, in whom they had perfect confidence,
that the resources of the Government had not been exhausted in regard to the
education question, which they intended to deal with. He (Mr. Wilson) hoped
the Prime Minister would feel that he had the great body of public opinion to
back him up. The people of England were determined that this question should
be kept to the front until it was settled, and settled righteously. At present
the Lords barred the way. “If they don’t mind they will be swept into
oblivion, as they deserve to be,” said Mr. Wilson amid applause. “They had
better be wise, and read the notice, ‘Beware of the steam roller,’ for it is
coming surely on, and if they don’ get out of the way, so much the worse for
them.” … The Act of , said Mr. Wilson, in
conclusion, was still the law of the land. Could they in the sight of God obey
that law? They were not bound to obey a law simply because it was the law. A
law might infringe the most sacred rights of humanity, and were they going to
obey it because it was the law? Certainly not. In the sight of God they dare
not obey this law, and there came to them to-day an emphatic call for greater
resistance than they had ever yet made. (Loud applause.)
“Clerical Scoundrels.”
In a stirring speech, the
Rev. J.W. Ogden, who was
received with great enthusiasm, seconded the resolution. … Why did Mr. Bell go
to prison? Because he refused at the bidding of Cæsar to render the things he
regarded as belonging to God. (Applause.) Proceeding, Mr. Ogden said he hoped
those (if any) who came to that meeting expecting a comic show would be sadly
disappointed. He had never yet been able to see and appreciate the comic
aspect of passive resistance. If those people had seen as he had seen in
ministers’ homes the sorrowing wives and children, they would not see, as they
seemed to, anything of a comic character in meetings like this. “Are you going
to take this lying down?” he exclaimed a few moments later. “So far as I am
concerned,” he continued, “I would rot in gaol before I would permit a single
penny of my Master’s money to be used by these clerical scoundrels for the
poisoning of the minds of our children.” (Loud applause.)
“You never had such a chance in your life for striking a blow for God and
liberty as you have at this moment,” Mr. Ogden went on to say. [“]What are you
going to do? Protest and pay? The enemy can stand any amount of that. The
paying of money is to me a moral act. I have ceased to speak of ‘my’ money,
‘my’ house, or ‘my’ property. They are God’s, and I shall one day give an
account to my Master of the monies I have withheld for this education
rate — and I hope the bishops and curates will be there to audit it.”…
Mr. Bell’s Address.
The resolution was carried with enthusiasm, and the
Rev. G.R. Bell, whose rising
was the signal for a prolonged round of applause, then addressed the meeting.
He began by saying that he had dreaded that meeting more than he had dreaded
the gaol. He expressed his very hearty appreciation of their welcome. That
meeting was a great surprise to him, for he had thought that the passive
resistance movement in that district was despised and rejected, and that there
was not sufficient interest in it to get together such a large audience. When
he heard that they wanted to have a brass band and a carriage, and to pull him
up to the church, that surprised him more than ever. He really had not thought
there was all that heart and soul in the people of the district towards this
very important movement.… Perhaps they would be surprised when he told them
that ever since the beginning of the movement in Northumberland and Durham Mr.
Ogden had made it his duty, when a passive resister had been imprisoned, to
ascertain the day and hour of the prisoner’s release, and meet him at the
prison gates, with a full heart and a full bag. (Applause.)…
In prison, said Mr. Bell, they were not allowed to speak to one another, and
they were allowed to have only one letter a week, all letters sent in being
read by the Governor. He remarked that the Governor had learned quite a lot
about the passive resistance movement while he (Mr. Bell) was in prison,
through the letters he had to read and his conversation with Mr. Ogden when
the latter was endeavouring to gain admission. He hoped that the next time he
had to go to prison they would send him plenty of letters so as to further
educate the Governor in regard to the movement. (Laughter.)
A second article in the same paper gave a more in-depth look at Bell’s prison time. Excerpts:
Mr. Bell’s Experiences in Prison.
His Exposition of the Passive Resistance Attitude.
The week’s imprisonment undergone by the
Rev. G.R. Bell was (writes
a representative of the Herald) in respect of his
second commitment by the Morpeth magistrates, and as a matter of fact there
is still another week in gaol “due” to him. When, on
, Inspector Howey
called on Mr. Bell to execute the warrant, the minister asked, “Is it for a
fortnight?” The officer assured him the term was only a week, and it is
therefore to be assumed that the commitment order of six months earlier has
been allowed to lapse.
Mr. Bell had been laid up with influenza some days prior to the police
officer’s visit, and he was still suffering from the enervating effects of the
prevalent disease. He was really not fit to go away, but it is characteristic
of the man that, without saying anything to his doctor as to what was about to
happen, he immediately prepared himself to accompany Inspector Howey to the
Newcastle Gaol. Many sneers have been directed at the “martyrdom” of the
Passive Resisters; but there can be no doubt that a week in prison must be a
terrible ordeal for one who has no affinity with criminals, and Mr. Bell
unquestionably suffered a great deal, both physically and mentally, during his
seven days’ incarceration within the walls of the prison on Tyneside.
Passive Resisters who go to prison are treated as delinquents in Class B, a
division in which the food is dispensed less frugally than is the case in
Class A. Mr. Bell was allowed meat twice a week, but I rather gathered that
his reminiscences in connection with the commissariat of the gaol were
scarcely pleasant. A man of modest disposition, he was, I found, very
reluctant to talk about his prison experiences. He was allowed to wear his
own clothes, this being one of the concessions for such “privileged” inmates
of His Majesty’s prisons. He was, however, given a certain amount of manual
labour to perform every day, this taking the shape of picking hemp. But, as
will readily be believed, the day, with its anchorite fare, its exercise in
the court-yard, and its hemp-picking, was more tolerable than the night when
the prisoner was left to his hard pallet — and his thoughts. Mr. Bell
calculates that he would sleep no more than some eighteen hours throughout the
whole of the six nights that he was in custody; and the severity of the
nervous strain of such sleeplessness, and strenuous reflection, on a sensitive
mind can be readily imagined, though to be adequately comprehended the actual
experience must be undergone.
On , Mrs. Bell was permitted to
visit her husband, the interview taking place under the usual regulations of
prison– that is to say it was restricted to a quarter of an hour, and was
carried on in the presence of the warder. The term of imprisonment expired
Unknown to Mr.
Bell, the Rev. J.W. Ogden
was waiting at the prison gates early in the morning; and the sight of a
ministerial brother at such a moment was most welcome. As was reported in the
Herald last week, Mr. Bell reached Ashington
. It had been arranged at
Ashington to organise a demonstration and to escort the
rev. gentleman from the
station to his home amid the inspiring strains of a brass band; but Mr. Bell
promptly put his foot on any such outward manifestation. He was, however,
accorded a tremendously enthusiastic reception at the public meeting on
, a report of which appears
above.
