Editing Rayner Stephens (section)

==Later life==
[[File:Stephens Memorial, Stamford Park, Stalybridge - geograph.org.uk - 50129.jpg|thumb|Stephens Memorial, Stamford Park, Stalybridge]]
Heavy sureties had to be given for his good behaviour for the next five years, and he did not resume public speaking until participating in a campaign for better enforcement of the Ten Hours' Act, the [[Factory Act 1833]] ([[3 & 4 Will. 4]]. c. 103) (i.e. against the relay system) in 1849, explicitly holding non-compliance and non-enforcement to be responsible for social unrest and the more extreme forms that manifested itself in:  "It is the practice of injustice towards the poor which estranges them from the institutions of their country, and leads them into many wild and unreasoning projects to obtain deliverance from the intolerable yoke that has been fastened upon them"<ref>{{cite news|title=The Ten Hours' Act Broken in Yorkshire - Public Meeting at Hebden Bridge|work=Kentish Gazette|date=4 September 1849}}</ref>   He supported opposition to the 'Compromise Act', the [[Factories Act 1850]] ([[13 & 14 Vict.]] c. 54), and took part in abortive campaigns for legislation for a true ten-hour day enforced by stoppage of machinery.  In 1857, he looked back on his agitational heyday 
<blockquote>History would do justice to the memory of the benevolent and heroic men who had first devoted themselves to this great work  (''factory reform''). Nothing gave him so much satisfaction in the retrospect, as the humble part he had been permitted to take in this good cause.  That he, with them, had been misunderstood, misrepresented, and maligned, was only what was to be expected in the nature of things.  It was a hard battle, and he had fought it; hard things had to be said and he had said them. It was no kid glove work they had to do, but work that required roughish handling. He had been impelled by a stern sense of duty in all he had done, and whilst doing it had never stayed to sigh over the sorrow, or quail before the opposition he had encountered.  He was too busy and too proud to turn aside to enter into explanations and defence, knowing well that if he died in harness his motives would receive posthumous vindication; that if he lived the battle out, he should live misrepresentation and prejudice down. And so it had proved<ref>{{cite news|title=Inauguration of Christ College Stalybridge, and Presentation of the Portrait of its Founder the Rev J R Stephens|work=Ashton Weekly Reporter, and Stalybridge and Dukinfield Chronicle|date=7 March 1857}}</ref></blockquote>
He campaigned on the inadequacy and mal-distribution of relief during the [[Cotton Famine]]; attention was drawn to this and to Stephens' past history when there were riots on the relief issue in [[Stalybridge]].  In 1868 he lectured against disestablishment of the [[Church of Ireland|Irish Church]].<ref>{{cite news|title=The Irish Church - Lecture at Dewsbury|work=Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer|date=21 April 1868}}</ref>   
Stephens is buried in [[St John's Church, Dukinfield]] and commemorated by a blue plaque placed on the remains of the former [[Stalybridge Town Hall]] and an obelisk monument in Stamford Park. [[Rayner Stephens High School]] in Dukinfield is named after him.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.raynerstephens.org.uk/about/welcome|title=Welcome :: Rayner Stephens High School|website=www.raynerstephens.org.uk}}</ref>