Character Witness

A former convict told Henry Morley about his debt to Thomas Wright, the prisoner’s friend.

1847

Queen Victoria 1837-1901

Introduction

Thomas Wright (1789-1875) was a foreman in a Manchester iron foundry and a father of nineteen, who never earned above £3 10s a week in his life. But he helped hundreds of ex-convicts back into society, using his own money to indemnify their employers against any relapse.

by Henry Morley 1822-1894

“FIVE years ago I was” owns a certain G. J. “in the New Bailey, convicted of felony and sentenced to four months’ imprisonment. When I was discharged from prison, I could get no employment. I went to my old employer to ask him to take me again.

“He said that I need not apply to him, for if he could get me transported he would; so I could get no work until I met with Mr Wright, who got me employed in a place where I remained some time, and have been in employment ever since.

“I am now engaged as a screw-cutter - a business I was obliged to learn - and am earning nineteen shillings and twopence a week. I have a wife and four children, and but for Mr Wright I should have been a lost man.”

by Henry Morley 1822-1894

As quoted in ‘Household Words’ Vol. 4, No. 102 (March 6th, 1852).

19s 2d in 1852 is roughly equal to £93.88 per week or £4,880 per annum today. At 33d (2s 9d) per day, this is a little short of the average male wage for the time as calculated by Gregory Clark of the University of California, Davis, for Measuring Worth (.pdf file). Mr Wright’s wage as a foreman would be equivalent to around £15,000 a year now.

Précis

A former prisoner known only by his initials ‘G. J.’ recounted how Thomas Wright had helped him back into work when, following a spell of four months in jail, his old boss had angrily refused to take him back. He attributed his unblemished employment record since, and his happy family life, to Wright’s kindness.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

Why did GJ lose his job?

Suggestion

He was sentenced to four months imprisonment.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

GJ served four months in jail. Then he asked his old boss for a job. His boss said no.