of him, erected by public subscription in recognition of his services and gifts, was unveiled at the east end of Broad Street, Reading.
[Reading Observer, 21 and 28 Aug. 1897; private information.]
PARKES, Sir HENRY (1815–1896), Australian statesman, was born on 27 May 1815 on Lord Leigh's Stoneleigh estate, Warwickshire, where his father, Thomas Parkes, was a small tenant farmer. Parkes received his early education at village schools in the neighbourhood. Owing to the misfortunes of his parents he was compelled to earn his own living as a child of eight. Yet by assiduous self-culture in after years Parkes became one of the most widely read of Australian public men, and a devoted lover of English literature. In very early manhood Parkes migrated from Stoneleigh to Birmingham, where he was apprenticed, and became an ivory turner. On 11 July 1836 he married, at the parish church, Edgbaston, Clarinda, daughter of Robert Varney of Birmingham. The father of the bride, a well-to-do man, promptly disowned her. They married without any provision for their wedded life except the work they could obtain from day to day, and went back from Edgbaston to live in the little room at Birmingham where she had lodged when alone' (An Emigrant's Home Letters, p. 10).
After losing two children and passing through many hardships, Parkes and his wife went to London preparatory to emigrating to Australia. They remained in the metropolis, suffering much privation, from November 1838 to March 1839, when they sailed as 'bounty emigrants' to Sydney, arriving on 25 July 1839. The young wife gave birth to a child a few days before landing, and they reached Sydney without a friend to greet them or a letter of introduction to 'unlock a door.'
Parkes's first experiences in Australia were disappointing. 'For fully twelve months I could not muster sufficient fortitude to write to my friends in England of the prospect before us. Finding nothing better, I accepted service as a farm labourer at 30l. a year, and a ration and a half, largely made up of rice. Under this engagement I worked for six months on the Regentsville estate of Sir John Jamison, about thirty-six miles from Sydney, assisting to wash sheep in the Nepean, joining the reapers in the wheat field, and performing other manual labour on the property' (Fifty Years of Australian History, p. 4).
Returning to Sydney, Parkes found various humble employments: he worked in an ironmonger's store, and then in an iron foundry, and was for a while a tide-waiter in the customs. At last he fell back on his own trade and opened a shop as an ivory and bone turner, adding the sale of toys and fancy goods. In this historic shop in Hunter Street began Parkes's career as a public man. Here he was wont to write amatory verses for the 'Atlas,' edited by Robert Lowe (afterwards Viscount Sherbrooke) [q. v.], and, reverting to an earlier sympathy with chartism in England, became known as a powerful working-class agitator. From Hunter Street he issued a manifesto in favour of Lowe's candidature for Sydney, which resulted in his election in 1848 (Life and Letters of Lord Sherbrooke}.
The great question then agitating the Australian public was the transportation of criminals. On 8 June 1848 the convict ship Hashemy entered Port Jackson, when a monster demonstration to oppose the landing of the criminals took place, at which Lowe was the principal speaker. On this occasion, speaking from the standpoint of a working-class colonist, Henry Parkes made his first public oration to an audience of some eight thousand enthusiastic citizens. Henceforth he was recognised as a leader of the anti-transportation movement which finally triumphed against the forces of English and colonial officialism.
In 1849 Parkes founded the 'Empire' newspaper as the organ of liberalism in New South Wales. The first number appeared on 28 Dec. 1850, and Parkes was editor and chief proprietor of the journal throughout its stormy career until its death in 1857. His account of his journalistic struggles (Fifty Years of Australian History, chap, iv.) is perhaps the most interesting passage in prose from his pen. The truth is that Parkes lacked not only money, but prudence, experience, and foresight, so that his ambitious enterprise, despite his own great abilities and untiring energy, was foredoomed to financial failure.
During this troubled period Parkes was returned to the legislative council by a two to one majority for Sydney. Referring to his labours on the 'Empire,' and his activity in the legislative council, he himself characteristically remarks: 'I at once entered into the work with an astonishing amount of zeal. Sitting up all night was a recreation to me. I did not know what weariness could mean. I would leave the council when it adjourned and go to the "Empire" office, where I would remain until daylight. Day and night I was at work. Very often
