Carlo Pellegrini Gallery

The Nonconformist, 1871. Artist: Carlo Pellegrini

The Nonconformist, 1871. Edward Miall, MP (1809-1881), British Liberal politician. Miall was a nonconformist and an advocate of the disestablishment of the Church of England. He was the author of The British Churches in Relation to the British People (1849), a book which was highly critical of the Church of England, accusing it of a lack of relevance to the lives of the great mass of British working people. In it he described three-quarters of ministers as ignorant and schooled in corruption and worldliness. He A print from Vanity Fair, 29 July 1971

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Lyon Playfair, Scottish chemist, politician and administrator, 1875. Artist: Carlo Pellegrini

Lyon Playfair, Scottish chemist, politician and administrator, 1875. Playfair (1819-18980 rose from being a chemist in the Geological Survey in 1845, to become Secretary for Science and Art in 1855 and president of the Chemical Society in 1857. He discovered the nitroprussides class of salts and took part in organising the Great Exhibition of 1851. He was Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh University from 1858 to 1896. Playfair entered politics in 1868, in 1873 became Postmaster General and was Chairman of the Ways and Means committee and Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons from 1880-1883, when he was knighted. Cartoon from Vanity Fair, London, 20 February 1875

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