oposer or seconder of the Reform candidates, at the
elections. Few political meetings of any kind, were held at which he
was not only present, but took an active part; and even when old age
had bent his frame and weakened the tones of his once trumpet-like
voice, he would occasionally make the walls of the Town Hall ring, as
he denounced oppression, or called upon his fellow-townsmen to rise
to vindicate a right. His spoken addresses were singularly clear and
forcible in their construction. His language was very simple, and was
nearly pure Saxon, and his enunciation of every syllable of each
word distinct and perfect. He was a born politician, and a bold and
fearless leader. He had a very genial disposition, and a charitable
heart; but was impulsive, and was very strong in his resentments.
He was what Dr. Johnson might call "a good hater." He combined the
fierceness of the lion with the gentleness and docility of the lamb.

Hitherto, I have spoken of Mr. Edmonds chiefly in reference to his
professional career and his political activity. I now turn to a phase
of his character which is little known, but which is not in any way
less remarkable. As a scholar and a philologian he had rare abilities,
and a rarer industry. Having, somewhat early in life, possessed
himself of a copy of the works of Dr. Wilkins, who was a bishop in
the reign of Charles II., he became impressed with the thought that a
universal language was within the bounds of human possibility, and he
set himself diligently to work out the problem. During the whole of
his busy political life; all through his active professional career;
amid the strife and the worry, the turmoil, and the rancour, of the
controversy in which he was so prominent; it was his habit to rise
from his bed at three or four o'clock in the morning to endeavour to
master this intricate task. In the failures of others who had essayed
this gigantic work, he saw only incentives to fresh exertions. Nothing
daunted him. Failing to find in ordinary type, as used by printers,
the necessary symbols to embody his thoughts, he, at enormous expense,
had an entirely new fount, from his own designs, made expressly for
the book which was to be the crowning monument of his life. Finding
no printing-office willing to undertake a work of so unaccustomed a
nature, he fitted up a room in his house in Whittall Street, and here,
by his own hands, the whole of the type was set. Mr. Massey, of Friday
Bridge, inf