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regarding localised handicrafts necessarily takes a very limited view of the industry of this country. It is not within the purpose of this book to record facts that lie beyond the range of my own experience. In 1828, I saw some of the grander workings of Capital and Labour in the great manufacturing towns which I then visited, and I have indicated several of their most striking aspects in my second volume. Nor is it within my present purpose to enter upon a consideration of the necessity of a more enlarged education of the operative classes, when we still hear language repeated which was heard on every side in 1859, when the leaders that drove forward the ruinous strike of the Builders, exclaimed, "If Political Economy is against us, then we are against Political Economy." Birkbeck Schools, admirable as they are, have naturally no very marked influence upon the general opinions of the great masses of the industrial population; and yet some of the unreflecting opposition of working men to receiving into their minds the elementary truths which in themselves are so simple, but yet involve such great results, seems to be yielding to kind and patient endeavours to interest as well as instruct. Mr. Solly, whose labours in the establishment of Working Men's Clubs appear to be as successful as they have been arduous, in recommending the formation of Discussion Classes upon topics not political or sectarian in their nature, says, "If there was a discussion on strikes, or capital and labour, some of the members would, gradually perhaps, be induced to attend a regular class for instruction in political economy; whereas, if they were asked at the outset to join such a class, they would never consent; but if they

once attended such classes, they would discover that political economists were not striving to enforce laws of their own or of anybody's making, but simply seeking to interpret the laws of God." In the Birkbeck Schools, the instruction is of such a nature that the individual scholar is gradually gathering a course of practical lessons for his conduct as a member of a large community. He goes forth into the world, and although his opportunities of making converts amongst the improvident and the dissipated may not be very large, his conversation and his example gradually produce a good beyond what he has derived from his own education. Writing of these Schools in 1859, I said, "Propose to an uneducated youth to inform him on the theories which are held to regulate 'The Wealth of Nations,' and you appear to be leading him to a knowledge which, like a knowledge of Law, is for him to respect and obey rather than to learn and practise. But propose to him that he should obtain, by your teaching, a mastery of facts and principles which are the true foundation of his personal good in the industrial relations of life, and he will quickly come to perceive that in the proportion in which all have a knowledge of Political Economy, as units of society, will also result that welfare of millions, which we term 'the Wealth of Nations.” ”

CHAPTER XI.

HE material and social aspects of London, in its wondrous growth during the reign of the present Queen, are constantly changing,

presenting new combinations of form and colour, like the fragments of the kaleidoscope shaken together into new figures. At the London of 1844 I gave a few rapid glances (Vol. II. Chapter 13). There were remarkable opportunities for observing the London of 1862, and of deriving from the observations of strangers from our own country districts, and of foreigners of every nation, those impressions which familiarity is too apt to veil from our notice. That was the year of the Second Great Industrial Exhibition, when the Metropolis was alive not only with unwonted gatherings of our own population from the most distant parts of the three kingdoms; with dwellers in every region of our Colonial Empire; but with men of commerce from all lands, who came to compare our industrial labours with their own. Foreign workmen were with us in unusual numbers, and to those, especially, from France, our Prime Minister desired that it might be said that there ought to be emulation, but no jealousy, between the productive industries of both countries. But there was a class of foreign visitors, who, if they were less numerous than the foreign capitalists and operatives, had far more influence in forming the judgment of the world

upon what they saw in England. The Men of Letters came here to criticise and to teach. The French Journalists, whose mission was to describe the Exhibition of 1862, have left some curious and not uninstructive observations upon our outer life, of which they might correctly note the salient points, and of our inner life, of which they could really know little or nothing. Let me endeavour to note something of the general characteristics of the various classes of visitors who were filling our streets and our public places, from the 1st of May till the 1st of November, in the year when Queen Victoria completed a quarter of a century of her reign. It was a remarkable year. A year of mourning and a year of banquets. A year in which Europe was at peace, whilst America was drunk with the excitement of Civil War. A year in which the wonders of International Industry were spread forth for universal admiration, whilst the machines of the greatest industrial district of the world were lying idle, and the workmen of the now silent factories were starving for lack of the material upon which to work.

In the "Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science" for 1862, it is stated that at the Metropolitan Meeting held in the Guildhall of the City a larger number of members was present than on any previous occasion, and that the attendance of foreigners was numerous. These Transactions record that on Saturday, June 7th, a Soirée of the Members of the Association and their friends was held in the Palace at Westminster, when "Westminster Hall, St. Stephen's Hall, the Central Hall, the Houses of Lords and Commons, and the corridors were thrown open, and a spectacle was pre

sented, more especially in the great Hall, illuminated for the occasion, which will probably never be forgotten by any who witnessed it." Certainly the spectacle was one which I cannot readily forget. The sober record of the Transactions of the Association may justify the higher colouring with which I described it a few months afterwards. To see Westminster Hall lighted up more brilliantly than at the Coronation of George the Fourth-to be able to trace, as clearly as if it were in the glory of a noonday sun, every carving of that matchless roof— to move amidst hundreds of fair women without impediment from train or crinoline-to hear some blooming student of her country's history ask, Is this the place where King Charles was tried? Was Richard the Second here deposed? Then to wander through the gorgeous corridors of Parliament-to touch the Speaker's chair in the House of Commons -to gaze upon the throne in the House of Lordsthis spectacle was a surprise to many a visitor, and not without its lessons to all. The genius of the Constitution was here enshrined; and Public Opinion, all powerful though irresponsible, held high festival in the seats where the spirit of Feudality once reigned absolute, to be succeeded by the more unclean spirit of Party-both finally to be vanquished when the popular voice could be fairly heard, and the welfare of the many should triumph over the interests of the few."

On this occasion, I was conversing in the Hall with Mr. Thoms-known to Peers as their Deputy Librarian, and to Men of Letters as the learned and ingenious Editor of "Notes and Queries"-when I heard a well-known voice behind me, and almost

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