BOOKS.
JAMES HACK TUBE.* ONE almost hesitates before bestowing on James Hack Take the hackneyed name " philanthropist," and yet in its true ety- mological meaning no man of our time deserved it more. Like Abou Ben Adhem, Take loved his fellow-men, not in the way of the abstract love of the arm-chair philanthropist, but in the way in which his fellow-believers—Woolman, Mrs. Fry, John Howard—loved them. He could not sit at home in ease while millions were suffering ; a divine impulse sent him forth from a pleasant home tto the huts where poor men lie. " I have felt inclined," he wrote, "to say I have no right to that home whilst so many are living in abject degradation in Ire- land and are homeless,—without seeking to use any small power which God may have given me to alleviate that condition." If only the spirit which animated Tuke were spread over the world how much of the most wretched aspect of physical suffering might be removed from mankind. Sir Edward Fry has done his part in revealing to us Take's life and personality with judg- ment and skill. He had no sensational tale to unfold, no " picturesque " incidents to lay bare. It is the very simple, quiet story of a Quaker banker, who found the work in life readiest to his hand and did it with industry, devotion, and large practical wisdom.
James Hack Take was born in York in 1819, the son of Samuel Take and the descendant of one of the early converts of George Fox. It is no small benefit to be brought up in an old city like York, with its glorious minster, old churches. dark gateways, and gabled ends, especially when one's natal house contained a " high-walled garden, green and old,"—it is an education of the best kind, and such an education young Take enjoyed. A quiet, peaceful home in an interesting old city,—what would not those who are stunned and bewildered amid the noise and vulgarity of crowded centres of life give for such a happy environment could they but attain it ?
Take's early years were saddened by the death of his mother, whose portrait is thus drawn for us :-
" The mother was a wonderfully sweet and lovely person—the miniature of her which is in my possession represents a pensive, beautiful woman, with large blue eyes and a Madonna face, framed with golden-brown hair, over which a white Friend's cap is fastened, a snow-white kerchief is crossed on her bosom, and in her arms nestle two children, James, a hazel-eyed boy of about three, and Elizabeth, a brown-eyed baby with a little white cap, tied under her chin ; James has his hands thrust into a basket of flowers, and looks out on life with an expression of questioning wonder."
James was a constant reader, fond, like so many boys, of
tales of Red Indians, but he was not quick at his lessons. The children were encouraged to be out in the country and to
learn at first hand facts of natural history :—
" Father, what bird is this ? " Thou must find that out for thyself, my boy,' said the wise father. So, with the direct object in view, the books were got down, and the name, habits, and peculiarities of the bird discovered by the boys themselves. The lesson bore fruit."
Yes, and the fruit lay not only in the regions of natural history, but in the service of man. Take always investigated every- thing, made himself master of his subject, and undertook nothing till he first knew. The consequence was that his work lasted. He was nearly entrapped into the game of party politics, but happily something better was reserved for him. At the York elections bribery was open and recog- nised, and one of Take's first political experiences was to go into one of the committee-rooms where the agent at with a bowl of guineas before him, greeting Take with the suggestive question, " Well, Mr. Take, what can I do for you ?" The boy's real education began when, after leaving school at the age of sixteen, he entered his father's counting-house; for he now began to read history, philosophy, and poetry. One notes with pleasure that he took instinctively to the best— Chaucer, Shakespeare's sonnets, Milton, Cowper, Coleridge,
Keats, Shelley—but above all Wordsworth, who became his " companion and friend," and from whom he derived " love of Nature and humanity," " fiery indignation at wrong or oppres- sion," and the feeling that it was England's duty "to be a sort of knight-errant of nations."
• James Hack Tuke: a Memoir. Compiled by the Right Hon. Sir Edward Fry. London : hiacmillan and Co. hia 6d.J
At the age or twenty-six 'race's horizon was immensely en- larged by a journey to America, a formidable affair in those days, for he went as far as St. Louis, through hundreds of miles in which no railway then existed. He had no "adven- tures," but he paid a pleasant visit to Audubon in his villa on the Hudson, and received pleasant impressions from the great caravans of pioneers to the West, and impressions the re- verse of pleasant from the horrible institution of slavery, especially in Louisville, where he stayed some time. He was chiefly interested in the better popular education and more highly alert intelligence than he was accustomed to at home. Ile gives a striking account of an annual Quaker gathering he saw in North Carolina. Coming home, he instantly faced the awful facts of the Irish famine. He visited the country with William Forster, the father of the late W. E. Forster, distributing relief, and doing it in such a way as to make the condition of things permanently better. Henceforth, Take's life may be said to have been specially dedicated to Ireland. He married and settled down at Hitchin, where he was partner in a well-known bank ; he had much delight in his family and in the beauties of Nature; he helped to distribute funds to the victims of the Franco- German War, taking the Paris district, where he saw not only the results of the bombardment, but some of the incidents of the Commune ; he had the great human experiences of joy and sorrow,—but the principal business of his life lay in Ireland, the condition of whose people appealed to him with intensity and power. With the politics of Ireland he did not meddle. He held an open mind at first about Home-rule, but after investigation decided against it, holding that Ireland's needs were economic, not political, and that Home-rale would not solve any real problem. It was the congested areas in the West of Ireland at which he worked. He established relief committees, prepared plans for emigration, clothed the emi- grants, distributed seeds, prepared a scheme of purchase, suggested a light railway scheme,made attempts at the develop- ment of industries in the West, and incubated the scheme for the development of the Congested Districts Board. In a word, we may say that the new social politics of Ireland, if it can be said to have had any distinct author, is due in a pre-eminent degree to the Quaker banker of Hitchin, who lived happily to see many changes for the better in Irish districts which he had visited under the terrible blight of the famine of 1840.
" The secret of his success," writes Sir Edward Fry, " lay, not in political or social influence, but in two things,—his passionate desire to lessen the sufferings and to increase the happiness of his fellow-men, and, secondly, his keen, calm intellect and the application of that intellect and of his business experience to the cause of charity." He is, indeed, of the salt of this land,—a strong, wholesome character, dominated by love of his kind, and directed by a clear, robust intelligence towards high and worthy aims. We thank Sir Edward Fry for this story with so good a moral.
Previous page
