Among the most regular attendants at the Great Queen Street Wesleyan
Chapel was Mr. George Powell, who himself alone constituted and
comprised the eminent legal firm known throughout Lincoln's Inn Fields,
New Court, the Temple, Broad Street, and Great George Street, as
'Powells.' It is not easy, whatever may be said to the contrary, to
reconcile the exigencies of the modern solicitor's profession with the
exigencies of active Wesleyan Methodism; but Mr. George Powell succeeded
in the difficult attempt, and his fame was, perhaps, due mainly to this
success. All Wesleyan solicitors in large practice achieve renown,
whether they desire it or not; Wesleyans cannot help talking about them,
as one talks about an apparent defiance of natural laws. Most of them
are forced into Parliament, and compelled against their wills to accept
the honour of knighthood. Mr. George Powell, however, had so far escaped
both Parliament and the prefix--a fact which served only to increase his
fame. In fine, Mr. George Powell, within the frontiers of Wesleyan
Methodism, was a lion of immense magnitude, and even beyond the
frontiers, in the vast unregenerate earth, he was no mean figure. Now,
when Mr. Powell heard of the death of Henry Knight, whom he said he had
always respected as an upright tradesman and a sincere Christian, and of
the shorthand speed medal of Henry Shakspere Knight, he benevolently
offered the young Henry a situation in his office at twenty-five
shillings a week, rising to thirty.
Young Henry's fortune was made. He was in Powells, and under the
protecting aegis of the principal. He shared in the lustre of Powells.
When people mentioned him, they also mentioned Powells, as if that
settled the matter--whatever the matter was. Mr. Powell invested Mrs.
Knight's two thousand pounds on mortgage or freehold security at five
per cent., and upon this interest, with Henry's salary and Aunt Annie's
income, the three lived in comfort at Dawes Road. Nay, they saved, and
Henry travelled second-class between Walham Green and the Temple. The
youth was serious, industrious, and trustworthy, and in shorthand
incomparable. No one acquainted with the facts was surprised when, after
three years, Mr. Powell raised him to the position of his confidential
clerk, and his salary to fifty-two shillings and sixpence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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