102 SINKING UNDER DEPRESSION

Lancasterian lies the most heavily on my mind.' Again, in 1814, Busy at school accounts, much exhausted.' And thus on he went, day after day, week after week, year after year. School meetings, canvassings for money, journeys, and foreign correspondence, regularly alternated with lectures, experiments, business, and social obligations; and it is sometimes difficult to say which received the closest and most constant attention.

It is pleasant to observe, in the midst of these engrossing labours, a not unfrequent recurrence to higher and more spiritual considerations; and we think we can sometimes trace a sort of secret link between the daily trial and the evening meditation. After a weary day, spent in thankless efforts to do good, how touching is the following record!

Still under depression; my little stock of faith almost exhausted; and yet I can humbly say, in the multitude of things which harass my mind, the main object is the good of others; for this I have in great measure given up my own gratification, for if instead of these things my time were devoted to philosophical pursuits and experiments, to which I am naturally so prone, the path to honour and distinction stands fair before me. May the sacrifice be accepted above!' We could almost imagine, on reading these lines, that the voice of his mother was even then sounding

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in his ears the tender appeal-Come, my beloved, if a right hand or a right eye be called for, give it up. The Lord loves a cheerful giver, and he will restore thee an hundredfold.'

The deep personal attachment which subsisted between the parties engaged in the propagation of Lancaster's plans was both singular and sustaining. Fox writes to Allen, Let us cheer each other; we shall reap, if we faint not. In the whole of the struggle my mind has been supported by a consciousness of the close fellowship of heart which was ever to be found in you, and I hope that so long as we are spared in this present sphere of action we shall be like Jonathan and David.' Allen notes, 'Dear Fox and I traced the gracious support of Divine Providence under the work, and were comforted.' In writing to him, he says, No great and important object was ever attained without considerable exertion; but when we are associated with those we love, as I firmly believe is the case in the present instance, we may, perhaps, adopt the lines of Cowper:

6

And one in heart, in purpose, and design,

Gird up each other to the race divine.'" So, in writing to Joseph Foster, an excellent man, to whom he was united by the strongest ties of personal regard, and the value of whose long-continued labours in the

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THE DUKE OF KENT.

school cause it would be impossible to overestimate, he says, 'I have often been very thankful in having such a coadjutor as thou art. I do not think we have entered into the work altogether in our own will, and humbly trust that we may be made instrumental in doing much good.'

School affairs, at this crisis, brought Mr. Allen into almost constant communication with members of the royal family, and other distinguished persons. The acquaintance

with the Duke of Kent thus commenced, eventually ripened into mutual and sincere regard. His Royal Highness frequently consulted Mr. Allen confidentially in relation to his own personal affairs, treated him as an attached friend, and subsequently induced him to act officially on his behalf. The duke's grateful sense of his services was from time to time expressed in very gratifying terms.

In 1823, Mr. Allen is recording thoughts, as to the best method of making an inroad upon the present demoralizing system of paying agricultural labourers out of the poor's rate, by building cottages for them, and giving them some land;' and, in 1824, we find him, while lodging at Brighton, going over to Lindfield to procure ground for the establishment of a school of industry. In 1825, he erected commodious school-rooms for boys, girls, and infants, with workshops adjoining. To these

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schools, in which three teachers were employed, lending libraries were attached. Some of the elder boys were engaged, during a portion of the day, on the school-farm, under a skilful husbandman; some in a printing-office, and others in different works of manual labour. The girls were taught needlework and knitting, and the infants learnt to make patchwork, and to plait straw.

Soon after the establishment of these schools, an old friend of Mr. Allen's, the late John Smith, M.P., of Dale Park, visited the place, and, approving the object, purchased the estate of Graveley, consisting of about a hundred acres, in the immediate neighbourhood of Lindfield, and subsequently built upon it eighteen cottages for labourers, with an acre-and-a-quarter of land to each. Seven other cottages, with from five to six acres each, were also erected, and a small house, as an occasional residence for Mr. Allen. Here he spent no inconsiderable portion of his later years. It was his favourite retreat, the chosen spot to which he always retired when fatigued with the bustle and business. of London. Here, too, he enjoyed a longer period of domestic felicity than had been his lot during any portion of his previous history. After the decease of his daughter, in 1827, he became, for the third time, a married man, uniting himself with Mrs. Birkbeck, a widow

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COLONIES AT HOME.

lady, of the Society of Friends, with whom he had long been on terms of intimate friendship. This union, which proved a very happy one, lasted for eight years, when it was terminated by her death, which took place in 1835.

A pamphlet on the manner of cultivating different articles, with directions for the rotation of crops,' which he published here, under the title of Colonies at Home,' has passed through several editions; and another, "On the Means of Diminishing the Poor's Rate,' was favourably received at the time of its appearance. A 'cottage society,' which he succeeded in establishing, and which was afterwards entitled The Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes,' also effected much good. After long-continued effort, and many a struggle with prejudice and supineness, his persevering ex ertions at length produced an obvious effect upon the habits of the people. The appearance of the children became more orderly and respectable; the dwellings of the cottagers presented comforts to which the poor man had hitherto been a stranger; and many were withdrawn from dependence on the parish, in consequence of the allotment of land enabling them to provide for their families by their own industry. The Duke of Sussex, the Earl of Chichester, Lord Brougham, Lord John Russell, and many other noble