The Remarkable Lushington Family. David Taylor

Parliament

      After leaving Parliament, Lushington continued to pursue a wide range of areas of social concern. He was particularly concerned with the plight of working children, and he supported restrictions on the hours of work for children in factories, calling the former system “revolting to humanity, and to every principle of British justice.” In 1818, he spoke to a committee of the House of Lords in favor of the protection of chimney-sweepers’ boys, a cause that he continued to promote wherever possible. The “climbing boys,” as they were known, were small enough to climb narrow flues. They were often sold by their parents to chimney-sweepers for prices ranging from a few shillings to two guineas, the smaller the child, the better the price. Their plight was highlighted in Charles Kingsley’s novel The Water Babies. For some years, Lushington served on the committee of the Society for Superseding the Necessity of Climbing Boys.

      In 1819, after his appointment as a Governor of Guy’s Hospital in London, Lushington turned his attention to reform within the medical world. He used his parliamentary connections to help secure the passage of the first Anatomy Acts, which rescued anatomy from being “little better than an alliance with felony to a legitimate branch of medical education.”⁷ The Lushington family continued their connections with Guy’s into the next generation when Lushington’s eldest son, Edward Harbord, became Treasurer and then a Governor of the hospital. Lushington later established a nursing and convalescent home in the village of Ockham for patients in need of country air which was placed under the supervsion of his daughter Laura.

      The University of London

      Lushington’s interest in educational reform found the perfect outlet through the creation of the University of London, which was opened in Gower Street in 1828, and known from 1836 to the present day as University College London. The university was founded by what Jeremy Bentham called “as association of liberals” with the object of providing university education to those who were unable to graduate from Oxford and Cambridge because they were not confessing Anglicans. The university insisted that religion should play no part in its admissions policy and subsequently earned the reputation of being “the godless institution of Gower Street.” A wide syllabus was offered which included modern languages, geography, and a number of other scientific and medical subjects that were not available elsewhere.

      The prime mover in the development of the new university was the Scottish poet Thomas Campbell. He was supported by Lushington’s old friend and colleague Henry Brougham who regarded himself as a Benthamite, a believer in the utilitarian principle of “the greatest happiness of the greatest number.” Brougham drew Lushington into the project leading to Campbell’s dream becoming a reality. Among the other founders of the university were two other old friends of Lushington's, Zachary Macaulay, with whom he had campaigned against slavery, and the William Tooke MP with whom Lushington had worked on behalf of the climbing boys.

      Lushington, as one of the initial proprietors and shareholders in the scheme to build the university, delivered a public address at the laying of the foundation stone in 1827 in which he explained that the principal object of the new university was to make available the advantages of education to those excluded from the ancient universities by lack of wealth and by religious persuasion. The following year Lushington joined the university’s Education Committee and became a member of its governing body.

      Mindful that, despite the creation of the new university, education to masses remained limited, Lushington together with Brougham, Lord John Russell and other friends, founded the Society for Promoting the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge which was aimed primarily at the working class and middle class. The Society’s publications were seen as an antidote to some of the more radical output of the popular press at that time. One significant publication was the Library of Useful Knowledge which sold for sixpence and was published bi-weekly. Unfortunately, the Society failed to reach the working-class market, and it was wound up in 1848.

      Lushington also supported the establishment of a national educational system, with “separate and adequate religious instruction” for Churchmen, Catholics, and Dissenters.⁸ In 1849, following an invitation to lay the foundation stone for a new school in London, Lushington composed a hymn for the occasion which expressed his deep religious convictions.

      Grant thy blessing, God of truth,

      To instruct the rising youth:

      Fix their hope on Christ alone,

      Christ, the sure foundation stone.

      Lushington’s sons, Vernon and Godfrey, were later involved in University Reform and his daughters, Frances and Alice, became leading women educationalists.

      The Fight against Slavery Continued

      In 1820, Lushington was urged by his friend, the Anglo-Irish Whig politician George Tierney, to return to Parliament. He was reluctant to do and responded:

      Some three or four years since I had determined never again to engage in any parliamentary speculation however eligible: this resolution has in a degree been shaken when I have occasionally met with my political friends, and so I may have appeared inconsistent; but upon deliberation I deem it wisest to adhere to it, and to decline making any attempt to re-enter parliament.⁹

      Following continued pressure from friends, Lushington returned to Parliament in 1820 as the member for Ilchester.¹⁰ One of his first actions was, once again, to throw himself into the antislavery cause. Although, as far the British Empire was concerned, the trade had been abolished in 1807, the evil of slavery itself remained. Wilberforce and his fellow abolitionists optomisticlly believed that once the trade was abolished, the relationship between master and slave would cease. However, this did not happen and the movement’s faith in the natural benevolence of men was severely shaken by the failure of those involved in slavery reform.

      Wilberforce, hindered by advancing years, sought out the active support of young men such as Lushington to take on the mantle and, for a period of about ten years, a number of campaigns were run in attempt to end slavery itself. The Abolition Bill of 1807 had not prevented the transfer of slaves between British colonies, and it was in this area that Lushington chose to become became particularly active. He successfully fought for a new Act which effectively stopped the inter-colonial trade and this eventually paved the way for the total abolition of British slavery in 1833.

      In February 1822, facing a parliamentary committee, Lushington explained that although “for a period of 30 years, several statutes had been enacted to promote the abolition of the Slave Trade” those laws were “much at variance with each other.” The time had come to consolidate those Bills and make them more effective.

      Lushington’s anti-slavery work risked bringing him into conflict with the members of his family. There were strong links between the East India Company and the Caribbean slave economy and his brother, Sir Henry Lushington, had estates in Jamaica.¹¹ Despite this Lushington remained true to himself and took an active role in the various groups and committees that were opposing slavery. He joined the influential Anti-Slavery Society, formed in 1823, and the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade and the Civilization of Africa, formed in 1839. One of his contemporaries in the movement, George Stephen, wrote that Lushington’s characteristic qualities were “spirit, decision, and singular quickness of perception” with “a particular tact in seeing at a glance the gearings of a case, and indefatigable perseverance in working it out to the very bottom.”¹²

      Lushington used his legal skills to represent the noted free-born Jamaican anti-slavery activist Louis/Lewis Celeste Lecesne who was unlawfully arrested twice and transported for life from Jamaica together with a fellow activist John Escoffery. Lushington raised their case in the House of Commons and, as a result, Lecesne came to London and joined the board of the Anti-Slavery Society and later attended the first World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. He demonstrated his gratitude to Lushington by naming his son Stephen Lushington Macaulay Lecesne.

      Success came to the abolitionistst in 1833 when the historic Act was passed to end the slave trade. This passing of this Act was one of Lushington’s greatest successes both within Parliament and outside. Charles Buxton, son of Lushington’s old friend and fellow campaigner,