leave home when he had no better prospect than that of being a farmservant and make his own way in the world. He was apprenticed at Wigton to a draper, and was immediately surrounded by the worst influences. His master drank to excess, and it was part of the apprentice's duty to give a glass of spirits and water to all good customers.' Besides these temptations-enough surely for any lad-his step-mother, with a carelessness which speaks badly for her character, arranged that he should take his meals at a publichouse. In such a position it was to be expected that young Moore would learn some of the bad habits of his companions. He does not, however, seem to have given way to drunkenness, but the passion for acquiring money, which distinguished him throughout life, led him to gambling. 'I played at cards,' he says, 'almost every night. I went to the publichouses and played with men for high stakes....I sometimes played the whole night through. Gambling was my passion, and it might have been my ruin. I was, however, saved by the following circumstance...My master having heard some strange reports as to my winnings and losings at cards, and fearing that it might at last end in some disaster to himself, determined to put a stop to my gambling pursuits. One night, after I had gone out with my cards, he nailed down the window through which I usually got entrance to the house, and when I returned and wished to get in, lo! the window was firmly closed against me. It was five o'clock in the morning of Christmas Day.

That morning proved the turning-point in my life." By clambering on to the roof he managed to get in at his bed-room window and went to bed. 'Soon after Messenger [his master] came up to look after me, and found me apparently asleep. I managed to keep up the appearance

I

so long as he remained there. heard him murmuring and threatening that the moment I got up he would turn me out of the place. This only served to harden me. But in the morning the waits came round, playing the Christmas carols. Strangely better thoughts came over me with the sweet music. I awoke to the sense of my wrong-doing. F felt overwhelmed with remorse and penitence. I thought of my dear father, and thought that I might break his heart and bring his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. For twenty-four hours he lay in bed, no one offering him food or coming near him. At length he got up and went to the good woman at the HalfMoon Inn, through whose intercession his master was induced to pardon him.

Soon after the close of his apprenticeship George resolved to go to London. Messenger was growing worse and worse, and rapidly ruining both himself and his business. John Moore, of Mealsgate, came to bid his son farewell and to bring thirty pounds to pay his expenses. They parted with many tears. That night George Moore slept in Carlisle at the Grey Goat Inn, where more than half a century later he was to sleep the last sleep.

He reached London on the day before Good Friday, 1825, and being too tired to look for employment on the day of his arrival, was obliged to wait till the Saturday. Good Friday he spent at the annual wrestling match of Cumberland men at Chelsea. Here he won the third prize; and here, too, gained a number of undesirable acquaintances, who introduced him at once to his old temptations of drinking and gambling. But the memory of his trouble at Wigton and the thought of those at home saved him; and much to the chagrin of his new friends, he left their company.

The next morning the weary search

for work began, and day after day he sought in vain. No one was willing to engage the raw country lad, whose Cumberland dialect many professed not to understand. 'After beating about London for a week,' he says, I began to think myself not a very marketable commodity in the great city.' Another week passed with no greater success, and in despair he resolved to go to America. But help was near. Calling to tell an acquaintance that he was about to take his passage, he learnt that Mr. Ray, of Flint, Ray and Co., Soho Square, had been enquiring for him. He went at once to Mr. Ray and was engaged at a salary of thirty pounds a year.

In his new situation he soon began to realize his educational deficiencies, and with characteristic energy set himself to the work of self-improvement. The first thing I did to remedy my defects was to put myself to school at night after the hours of employment were over; and many an hour have I borrowed from sleep in order to employ it on the improvement of my mind.'

When he had been about six months with Mr. Ray the romance of his life began. 'He one day observed a bright little girl come tripping into the warehouse, accompanied by her mother. "Who are they?" he asked of one of those standing near. "Why, don't you know?" said he; "that's the guv'nor's wife and daughter!" Well," said George, "if ever

I

marry, that girl shall be my wife." This romantic affection was the good influence which guided him through many years of hard and almost ceaseless toil, and relieved, in some measure, the ignoble pursuit of wealth for its own sake.'**

Mr. Moore soon tired of the retail trade, and in 1826, through Mr.

Ray's influence, obtained a situation in the wholesale house of Fisher, Stroud and Robinson, Watling Street. Here his country habits exposed him to many sneers from Mr. Fisher, who declared that he had had many blockheads from Cumberland, but George was the most stupid of all. This was so frequently repeated that at length he believed that every word was true.' He says: The conceit was thus entirely taken out of me—a very good riddance for a lad of nineteen.' He prosecuted his studies with even greater diligence, and often sat up studying till the small hours of the morning. Years afterwards he said: "I often think of those nights as the most usefully spent hours of my life.'

Meantime, George had urged his father to give his younger brother William a better education than he had himself enjoyed, and after awhile he induced Mr. Ray to take him as an apprentice. Here we catch a glimpse of the gentler side of Mr. Moore's character, which pleasantly relieves the constant, eager pursuit of money, which for many years was his absorbing passion. William was too delicate for his place, and suffered much from fatigue as he carried heavy parcels of goods to the customers. His brother at once went to his help. As the hours of the wholesale houses are much shorter than those of the retail shops, George, when his day's work was over, put on an old coat and went from the City to the West end to deliver his brother's parcels; thus literally bearing his brother's

burdens.

About this time an amusing incident occurred which shows the adventurous spirit of the Cumberland lad. His own account of the matter is this:

'After I had been about two years in

London, I had a great and anxious desire to see the House of Commons. I got a half-holiday for the purpose: I did not think of getting an order from an M.P. Indeed, I had not the slightest doubt of getting into the House. I first tried to get into the Strangers' Gallery, but failed. I then hung about the entrance to see whether I could find some opportunity. I saw three or four members hurrying in, and I hurried in with them. The doorkeepers had not noticed me. I walked into the middle of the House. When I got in I almost fainted with fear lest I should be discovered. I first got into a seat with the name of "Canning" written upon it. I then proceeded to a seat behind, and sat there all the evening.'

This was the only occasion on which George Moore ever had the honour of a seat in the House, although in later years he was frequently invited to represent large and influential constituencies, e.g., the City of London, Nottingham, the County of Middlesex and Mid-Surrey.

His

At the end of his first year in Mr. Fisher's service he was appointed town traveller for the firm. early slowness and stupidity had vanished, and we find him at once a hard-working, pushing and not overscrupulous commercial.' His training at Wigton was not lost the glass of spirits and water for all good customers' formed an important part of his business tactics. One of his friends sums up what appears to have been Mr. Moore's usual style of doing business thus: 'The lunch was eaten, the drink was drunk and a good parcel was invariably made.' Mr. Smiles acknowledges that this was not a very elevating life;' yet he seems to look upon it as absolutely necessary, and commends his hero for

following it 'faithfully and zealously.' For our own part, we should have thought George Moore a greater man had he been less faithful and zealous in such a life, even though he had made and given away many thousands of pounds less than he did. Indeed, the next few years

of Mr. Moore's life are not very

edifying. He worked early and late, Sunday and week-day, risked madly health and life itself, and seemed willing to stake his soul if he might gain the world. We will not follow him through the years of unbroken success which followed his partnership in the firm of Groucock and Copestake. For the details of his business life we must refer our readers to Mr. Smiles.

Ever since he had first seen Miss Ray in her father's warehouse, he had been firm in his attachment to her. When he first proposed to her, his offer was declined, but five years later he was accepted, and in 1840 was married; having 'served for her,' he says, 'with an aching heart longer than Jacob served for Rachel.'

Soon after his marriage, Mr. Moore partially gave up travelling and took a share in the office-work of the firm; but the change did not suit him, and the long strain of over-work began to tell upon him. Mr. (afterwards Sir) William Lawrence, whom he consulted as to his health, told him that he was suffering from 'the City disease-working his brain too much and his body too little.' In compliance with the doctor's advice, he took to hunting for the first time since his boyish days. Almost to the end of his life he was an enthusiastic hunter, and his exploits in the field were often chronicled in the sporting papers. But even hunting did not cure him so he was advised to take a sea voyage. He resolved to go to America, but characteristically announced his intention to his wife

only the evening before he started.

soon to become as important to him as his business itself. True to his native county, his first efforts were made on behalf of the Cumberland Benevolent Society, in which he ever took the deepest interest. The Commercial Travellers' Schools also naturally shared largely in his benevolence. The disgraceful state of the Cumberland schools, too, touched him deeply, and he spent much time and money in raising them to a more efficient condition. He instituted an annual public examination for children selected from all the schools in the neighbourhood, and large numbers of prizes were distributed amongst the candidates. It is, however, out of the question even to mention the names of the philanthropic enterprises which shared in Mr. Moore's princely generosity and earnest labours-for he gave time and thought as well as money to all who established a claim on his aid. Philanthropy had become a branch of his business life, and he would not allow anything to interfere with his charitable undertakings. Every year he wrote in his pocket-book, as the motto for his life, the old epitaph :

'What I spent, I had;
What I saved, I lost;
What I gave, I have.'

of Mr.

We have said little Moore's religious life up to this time, for in truth he seems to have had little. Unlike so many of our great business men, he began at the wrong end. Men like Samuel Budgett and Walter Powell sought 'first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,' and their faith in God was the foundation of their fortunes; but George Moore thought little of his soul until he had reached a very high point of prosperity. Like Sir Titus Salt, it was at the height of his successes that he felt his life had been a failure. He had prospered in business, but he had not found rest to his soul.

And in the quieter life he was now living he began to realize that he was weary and unsatisfied. In 1850 his health seemed failing, and his brotherin-law died suddenly. About the same time his partner, Mr. Groucock, suddenly broke down, and in a few years he also died. These solemn events produced a deep impression upon him, and he was also greatly influenced for good by the preaching of the Rev. Daniel Moore and by the religious conversation of Mr. Hitchcock, of St. Paul's Churchyard, Mr. George Moggridge ('Old Humphrey') and other friends. Speaking of his life in the past, he said: 'I only enjoyed a moderate share of worldly religion. My works were greater than my faith, and I had no peace and little happiness save in excitement. I had never felt any gratitude to God for my prosperity, nor for my many worldly blessings.' For two years he sought the Lord, sometimes in such distress of soul that he could not sleep at night, but was compelled to rise and pray; and at length the rich man found his Saviour, and entered in by the strait gate into the narrow way, and could say with humble joy: 'I believe the Gospel, I love the Lord Jesus Christ, I receive with confidence the promise that "he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."

Mr. Moore proved the genuineness of his conversion by at once seeking to lead others to the Saviour. The young people at his establishment in Bow Churchyard claimed his first attention. He made arrangements for daily family worship at the ware house before business began, and he secured as Chaplain the Rev. Thomas Richardson (now Vicar of St. Benet'sin-the-East), who had been an employé of Mr. Moore's. In many other ways he sought to promote the moral

and spiritual welfare of those engaged in his service.

Yet occupied as he was with his large business and extensive charitable enterprises, Mr. Moore found time for many a happy holiday in his native county. Before he acquired an estate there he would frequently hire the whole of an hotel; and, accompanied by a party of friends, take possession of it as the head-quarters from which excursions of pleasure or philanthropy were made. Great was the astonishment and alarm of his elder brother Thomas, the 'statesman,' as he saw the vast expenses his brother incurred, and he protested that it could only end in one way. George is sure to brek,' he said, 'and then he maun come on the parish!

In 1858 Mr. Moore carried out a long-cherished scheme by purchasing the estate attached to the old Border Tower of Whitehall. An immense amount of labour and money was required to render the old place fit for a modern residence, and it was not till 1861 that it was ready. The purchase had hardly been completed when his wife, for whose sake he had especially desired to possess Whitehall as a summer home, was called away to the everlasting mansions of the Father's house. Her life had been gentle and saintly; her long affliction sanctified by faith in God. To George Moore the blow was terrible: he often lamented his utter loneliness amid the splendours of his town and country houses. In 1863, however, he married Agnes, daughter of the late Richard Breeks, of Warcop, in Cumberland. She still survives.

Charity continued to be Mr. Moore's business and pleasure. No engagements were allowed to interfere with his benevolence. Again and again he declined urgent requests to contest various counties

and boroughs. After refusing to stand for Nottingham, he writes: My objections are-1. That my education is not equal to the position; and I have a great dislike of public speaking. 2. That I can do much more good in other directions than by representing Nottingham in Parliament. 3. That it would keep me more and more from serving God and reading my Bible.' Nevertheless, he took much interest in politics, and was especially active in promoting the return of Lord John Russell for the City of London in 1860. Yet Mr. Moore was by no means a blind partisan. On one occasion, after recording the indignation of his political friends, who assailed him as a 'turncoat,' he exclaims, 'Thank God I have a conscience left!'

In 1871 Mr. Moore, in company with Colonel Wortley, went to Paris to distribute the gifts received by the Lord Mayor of London on behalf of the citizens of Paris who had suffered so horribly during the siege. The commissioners took with them seventy tons of food and five thousand pounds in money. By dint of great firmness and perseverance they succeeded in reaching the city before any others bent on a like errand of mercy. Mr. Moore afterwards said, 'I think I should have died had I not been first in Paris.' The warehouse of Copestake, Moore and Co. was at once turned into the central depôt for the distribution of relief. The scenes of misery and horror beggar description. Day and night immense crowds of starving men and women, of all grades of society, waited for food. About a fortnight after his arrival Mr. Moore writes: "The crowds at the warehouse increase. This we keep exclusively for women. There is a queue of ten or fifteen thousand waiting there to-day. They have waited all through last night. It was one of the wildest nights of sleet