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PLIMSOLL, SAMUEL (1824-1898)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 841 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PLIMSOLL, See also:SAMUEL (1824-1898) , See also:British politician and social reformer, was See also:born at See also:Bristol on the loth of See also:February 1824. Leaving school at an See also:early See also:age, he became a clerk, and See also:rose to be manager of a brewery in See also:Yorkshire. In 1853 he endeavoured to set up a business of his own in See also:London as a See also:coal See also:merchant. The venture proved a failure, and Plimsoll was reduced to destitution. He has himself related how for a See also:time he lived in a See also:common lodging-See also:house on 7s. g d. a See also:week. Through this experience he learnt to sympathize with the struggles of the poor; and when the success of his enterprise placed him in See also:possession of a competence, he resolved to devote his leisure to the amelioration of their See also:lot. His efforts were directed more especially against what were known as " See also:coffin-See also:ships "—unseaworthy and overloaded vessels, often heavily insured, in which unscrupulous owners were allowed by the See also:law to See also:risk the lives of their crews. Plimsoll entered See also:parliament as Liberal member for See also:Derby in 1868, and endeavoured in vain to pass a See also:bill dealing with the subject. In 1872 he published a See also:work entitled Our See also:Seamen, which made a See also:great impression throughout the See also:country. Accordingly, on Plimsoll's See also:motion in 1873, a royal See also:commission was appointed, and in 1875 a See also:government bill was introduced, which Plimsoll, though regarding it as inadequate, resolved to accept. On the 22nd of See also:July, the premier, Disraeli, announced that the bill would be dropped. Plimsoll lost his self-See also:control, applied the See also:term " villains " to members of the house, and shook his fist in the See also:Speaker's See also:face.

Disraeli moved that he be reprimanded, but on the See also:

suggestion of See also:Lord Hartington agreed to adjourn the See also:matter for a week to allow Plimsoll time for reflection. Eventually Plimsoll made an See also:apology. The country, however, shared his view that the bill had been stifled by the pressure of the shipowners, and the popular agitation forced the government to pass a bill, which in the following See also:year was amended into the Merchant See also:Shipping See also:Act. This gave stringent See also:powers of inspection to the See also:Board of See also:Trade. The See also:mark that indicates the limit to which a See also:ship may be loaded is generally known as Plimsoll's mark. Plimsoll was re-elected for Derby at the See also:general See also:election of 188o by a great See also:majority, butgave up his seat to See also:Sir W. See also:Harcourt, in the belief that the latter, as See also:home secretary, could advance the sailors' interests more effectively than any private member. Though offered a seat by some See also:thirty constituencies, he did not re-enter the house, and subsequently became estranged from the Liberal leaders by what he regarded as their See also:breach of faith in neglecting the question of shipping reform. He held for some years the See also:presidency of the Sailors' and Firemen's See also:Union, raised a further agitation, marred by obvious exaggeration, about the horrors of the See also:cattle-ships. Later he visited the See also:United States with the See also:object, in which he did See also:good service, of securing the See also:adoption of a less See also:bitter See also:tone towards See also:England in the See also:historical textbooks used in See also:American See also:schools. He died at See also:Folkestone on the 3rd of See also:June 18g8.

End of Article: PLIMSOLL, SAMUEL (1824-1898)

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