or a time, partly, no doubt, with a view to
Jeffrey's cheques. Almost his last article (in January 1813) was
devoted to the Lancasterian controversy, in which Mill, as we shall
directly see, was in alliance with the Whigs. But the Edinburgh
Reviewers were too distinctly of the Whig persuasion to be congenial
company for a determined Radical. They would give him no more than a
secondary position, and would then take good care to avoid the
insertion of any suspicious doctrine. Mill wrote no more after the
summer of 1813.

Meanwhile he was finding more sympathetic allies. First among them was
William Allen (1770-1843), chemist, of Plough Court. Allen was a
Quaker; a man of considerable scientific tastes; successful in
business, and ardently devoted throughout his life to many
philanthropic schemes. He took, in particular, an active part in the
agitation against slavery. He was, as we have seen, one of the
partners who bought Owen's establishment at New Lanark; and his
religious scruples were afterwards the cause of Owen's retirement.
These, however, were only a part of his multifarious schemes. He was
perhaps something of a busybody; his head may have been a little
turned by the attentions which he received on all hands; he managed
the affairs of the duke of Kent; was visited by the Emperor Alexander
in 1814; and interviewed royal personages on the Continent, in order
to obtain their support in attacking the slave-trade, and introducing
good schools and prisons. But, though he may have shared some of the
weaknesses of popular philanthropists, he is mentioned with respect
even by observers such as Owen and Place, who had many prejudices
against his principles. He undoubtedly deserves a place among the
active and useful social reformers of his time.

I have already noticed the importance of the Quaker share in the
various philanthropic movements of the time. The Quaker shared many of
the views upon practical questions which were favoured by the
freethinker. Both were hostile to slavery, in favour of spreading
education, opposed to all religious tests and restrictions, and
advocates of reform in prisons, and in the harsh criminal law. The
fundamental differences of theological belief were not so productive
of discord in dealing with the Quakers as with other sects; for it was
the very essence of the old Quaker spirit to look rather to the spirit
than to the letter. Allen, therefore, was only acting in the spirit of
his soc