The life and letters of Benjamin Jowett, M. A., master of Balliol college, Oxford.

The Little Fold at Bath' I7
dabbling in journalism, especially on questions of philanthropy. Mr. Wood, of Bradford (brother-in-law to
Mr. Gathorne-Hardy, now Lord Cranbrook), the first
person who seriously took up the question of Factory
Legislation', employed him as a writer, and it was
probably through Mr. Wood's recommendation that
he became known to Lord Ashley, afterwards Lord
Shaftesbury. For several years he laboured at collecting
statistics and in other ways promoting the great work
which Lord Ashley had so much at heart. At this
time he must have been a familiar figure in the lobby
of the House of Commons. The following entry occurs
in Lord Shaftesbury's Diary for August 24, 1840:-' Let
no one ever despair of a good cause for want of coadjutors; let him persevere, persevere, persevere, and God
-will raise him up friends and assistants! I have had,
and still have, Jowett and Low; they are matchless 2.'
In 1835 Mr. Jowett was consulted by Captain F. C. Irwin
with regard to the publication of a work on Western
Australia 3. Captain, afterwards Colonel, Irwin always
retained a high regard for Mr. Jowett, whom he used
emphatically to describe as 'a Christian, a scholar, and
a gentleman.' The acquaintance ripened into friendship,
and before his return to his post of Commandant of the
troops at the Swan River settlement, Major Irwin had
married Mrs. Jowett's niece, Elizabeth Courthope.
Mrs. Jowett, meanwhile, had been anxious about her
son Benjamin's future, and appealed to several friends
for counsel about his proceeding to the University.
He was at the head of St. Paul's School, and in his
nineteenth year, and himself desired to go to Trinity
1 Life ofLord Shaftesbury, vol. i. 3 Major Irwin's book was
p. I43. published by Simpkin, Marshall
2 Ibid. p. 30I. & Co.
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