Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1875 — The Second John Hampden. [ARTICLE]

The Second John Hampden.

That there should be two John Hampdens, two centuries apart, both of whom have been subjected to martyrdom for opinion’s sake, is a strange coincidence indeed. But there is one slight difference between the John Hampden of 1640 and him of 1875. The gallant Colonel of Cromwell’s army was somewhat in advance of his <age; while his well-to-do but eccentricmafuesake of the Victorian era is at least 300 years behind the times. The living John Hampden, in short, has just been cast into a vulgar modern prison, for exactly the opposite reason from that which prompted Galileo’s incarceratjon, at just about the period when the earlier Hampden was beginning to make a stir in the world. Galileo was persecuted for declaring that the earth is round; John Hampden the second is persecuted for as stoutly maintaining that the world is flat. So convinced of this is he that he recently made a wager of £SOO with a man of science that no perceptible curvature in the surface of six miles of water could be demonstrated. An umpire was chosen and the observations were made. It may not be necessary to say that the curvature was found, the umpire satisfied, and Mr. John Hampden relieved of his pounds sterling. The modern Ptolemy, however, could not rest content under his discomfiture. He began to shower pamphlets and letters upon his luckless adversary and the narrow-minded umpire; and the result was that he speedily found himself brought up short in court on a criminal charge of libel. Four times he was subjected to indictments. The first and second times he got off with graceful apologies. The third time he was sentenced to two years, but the sentence was remitted on his giving bonds for good behavior. The fourth time he has finally been cast into prison for a year. If such is the pertinacity with which absurdities can be argued to the point of self-sacri-fice what ought not human energy to do when encountering perils in causes that are Jme and just Appleton's Journal.