a living illustration of the truth of a profound saving in Ecclesiasticus, "All things are double." Add to this that his energy is irrepressible; that he is not afflicted, to put it mildly, with mock modesty; that he represents, on pure principles, a constituency which is pre-eminently the most rascally in England; that he is, withal, fundamentally an able and honest politician, justly regarded by the working-class as one of its greatest benefactors, and it will readily be admitted that first impressions of such a man are apt to be erroneous.
Among so many seeming contradictions it is difficult to find the reconciling principle or central fact; but, like all other men and politicians, Mr. Mundella may be known by the surest of all tests,—by his "fruits." I shall merely premise, before recounting the leading facts of his career, that it would have, perhaps, been better to classify' the member for Sheffield as an eminent Democrat rather than as an eminent Radical. He is emphatically a man of the people, rightly or wrongly feeling as they feel, thinking as they think; and I doubt if there be in England, excepting Mr. Bradlaugh, a more effective out-of-door speaker, a more powerful haranguer of mass meetings. He is at home in a multitude, however vast or however rude. He is one of the very few members of the House of Commons who can beat down a refractory public meeting by unflinching resolution and sheer strength of lung. In the town of Broadhead such a qualification is simply invaluable; and, but for the unsparing exercise of it at the elections of 1874 and 1880, the Liberalism of Sheffield would have showed but poorly indeed.
Anthony John Mundella, M.P., was born at Leicester in March, 1825, the eldest son in a family of five.
