2-982-341 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Statue of the Late Mr. Joseph Brotherton, erected in Peel Park, Manchester, 1858. British politician, Nonconformist minister and pioneering vegetarian. 'The statue is of bronze, by Mr. M. Noble...Mr. Brotherton is represented in modern costume, and in an easy attitude, as if speaking...The statue is of colossal proportions, being ten feet high, and weighing about five tons. The pedestal is of Aberdeen granite...[and] bears inscriptions on three sides: "Joseph Brotherton, Esquire, the first, and for twenty-four successive years (from 1832 to 1857), the faithful, representative of the borough of Salford in the House of Commons"...Though not connected by birth or education with the operative class, Mr. Brotherton had laboured for a considerable portion of his life in their behalf; he had learned to estimate their situation, to sympathise with their feelings, to understand their privations; and he devoted himself as an ardent, practical missionary in their cause. He had endeavoured to shorten the hours of labour; and he had always been most active in the promotion of parks and places of public recreation which would give the working classes the opportunity of turning their leisure to the best account'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.