FRIENDS IN COUNCIL (First Series)
BY SIR ARTHUR HELPS.




INTRODUCTION BY HENRY MORLEY.



Arthur Helps was born at Streatham on the 10th of July, 1813. He
went at the age of sixteen to Eton, thence to Trinity College,
Cambridge. Having graduated B.A. in 1835, he became private
secretary to the Hon. T. Spring Rice, who was Chancellor of the
Exchequer in Lord Melbourne's Cabinet, formed in April, 1835. This
was his position at the beginning of the present reign in June,
1837.

In 1839--in which year he graduated M.A.--Arthur Helps was
transferred to the service of Lord Morpeth, who was Irish Secretary
in the same ministry. Lord Melbourne's Ministry was succeeded by
that of Sir Robert Peel in September, 1841, and Helps then was
appointed a Commissioner of French, Danish, and Spanish Claims. In
1841 he published "Essays Written in the Intervals of Business."
Their quiet thoughtfulness was in accord with the spirit that had
given value to his services as private secretary to two ministers of
State. In 1844 that little book was followed by another on "The
Claims of Labour," dealing with the relations of employers to
employed. There was the same scholarly simplicity and grace of
style, the same interest in things worth serious attention. "We