requested. Place had outlived much of the enthusiasm which characterised his earlier attachment to the cause of education, for he was already in his seventieth year. He criticised the scheme as impracticable. He preferred the scheme outlined in the Address on Education published in 1837. The chief difference between the two schemes was that the former presupposed a grant from Government for the building of schools, whilst the second was entirely voluntary. Lovett replied that he was convinced that the people had a greater disposition to support the scheme than Place believed, and if it were once started the country would rally round it. Place, however, returned to the charge and called the scheme a "Chartist popedom"; he said it was "sectarian" as it was purely Chartist—which was of course exactly what it was intended to be. The Charter, says Place, would not be obtained within a quarter of a century, and so he returns to his old thesis, urging Lovett to support the agitation for the Repeal of the Corn Laws, which was more immediately necessary and practicable. Place can find no language strong enough to describe his contempt for the Convention of 1839 and for the "Big O's" of the North, in fact for the whole movement since May 8, 1838. The whole correspondence between the class-conscious and very sensitive enthusiast and the wire-pulling old politician is very instructive. The upshot was that Lovett published the work in spite of Place and felt some bitterness at the delay which the latter had caused.
Lovett was released on July 25, 1840. A great ovation was arranged for the two prisoners at Birmingham, and the plan of the National Charter Association was to be made public on this occasion. Lovett, however, declined to attend on the plea of ill-health, and Collins received the honour alone. James Leach spoke as temporary chairman of the new Association, and voiced the enthusiasm with which the new organisation had been conceived. Lovett went to Cornwall, but attended a dinner in his honour at the White Conduit House in London on August 3. After refusing the offer by Samuel Smiles of a good appointment on the staff of the Leeds Times, he settled down in London, where he started a book shop in Tottenham Court Road, and floated his National Association Scheme. The National Association was inaugurated in the spring of 1841, when an address was published and circulated throughout the country as in the case of the London Working Men's Association. A large number of
