SAMUEL

See also:

• SAMUEL PLIMSOLL (1824-1898)

PLIMSOLL (1824-1898)  , British politician and social reformer, was born at Bristol on the loth of February 1824 . Leaving school at an early age, he became a clerk, and rose to be manager of a brewery in Yorkshire . In 1853 he endeavoured to set up a business of his own in London as a coal merchant . The venture proved a failure, and Plimsoll was reduced to destitution . He has himself related how for a time he lived in a common lodging-house on 7s. g d. a week . Through this experience he learnt to sympathize with the struggles of the poor; and when the success of his enterprise placed him in possession of a competence, he resolved to devote his leisure to the amelioration of their lot . His efforts were directed more especially against what were known as " coffin-ships "—unseaworthy and overloaded vessels, often heavily insured, in which unscrupulous owners were allowed by the law to risk the lives of their crews . Plimsoll entered parliament as Liberal member for Derby in 1868, and endeavoured in vain to pass a bill dealing with the subject . In 1872 he published a work entitled Our Seamen, which made a great impression throughout the country . Accordingly, on Plimsoll's motion in 1873, a royal commission was appointed, and in 1875 a government bill was introduced, which Plimsoll, though regarding it as inadequate, resolved to accept . On the 22nd of July, the premier, Disraeli, announced that the bill would be dropped . Plimsoll lost his self-control, applied the term " villains " to members of the house, and shook his fist in the Speaker's face .

Disraeli moved that he be reprimanded, but on the

suggestion of Lord Hartington agreed to adjourn the matter for a week to allow Plimsoll time for reflection . Eventually Plimsoll made an apology . The country, however, shared his view that the bill had been stifled by the pressure of the shipowners, and the popular agitation forced the government to pass a bill, which in the following year was amended into the Merchant Shipping Act . This gave stringent powers of inspection to the Board of Trade . The mark that indicates the limit to which a ship may be loaded is generally known as Plimsoll's mark . Plimsoll was re-elected for Derby at the general election of 188o by a great majority, butgave up his seat to Sir W . Harcourt, in the belief that the latter, as home secretary, could advance the sailors' interests more effectively than any private member . Though offered a seat by some thirty constituencies, he did not re-enter the house, and subsequently became estranged from the Liberal leaders by what he regarded as their breach of faith in neglecting the question of shipping reform . He held for some years the presidency of the Sailors' and Firemen's Union, raised a further agitation, marred by obvious exaggeration, about the horrors of the cattle-ships . Later he visited the United States with the object, in which he did good service, of securing the adoption of a less bitter tone towards England in the historical textbooks used in American schools . He died at Folkestone on the 3rd of June 18g8 .