3-021-578 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Mr. William Ewart, M.P., 1869. Engraving from a photograph by John Watkins of the '... M.P. for the Dumfries Boroughs...While Lord Melbourne's Ministry was in power he used to bring forward annually a motion for the equalisation of the duties on East and West Indian sugar; he also strenuously and unremittingly urged, at a time when he stood almost alone, the mitigation of our criminal code by the abolition of capital punishment for horse and cattle stealing, &c. ; and, with a laudable zeal on behalf of the working classes and the population of our large and crowded cities, he advocated the opening of our public museums and galleries, and other repositories of works of art, as free from every restriction as possible...Mr. Ewart will be remembered as having introduced into Parliament the measure known as the "Prisoners' Counsel Act," and also the Free Public Libraries Act of 1850, which is in extensive and useful operation, especially in our great northern centres of commercial industry. Mr. Ewart, who was a magistrate for Wiltshire, and was formerly one of the Council of the London University, married, in 1829, his cousin, Mary Anne, daughter of Mr. G. A. Lee, of Manchester, but was left a widower several years ago'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.