good was not effected through the platform speeches, or even the countenance, of persons of local or national influence. There came to reside at Birmingham, at the period of the greatest depression of the stocking manufacture, an intelligent "stockinger' of the name of Brooks, who had been so steeped to the lips in poverty that he was glad to accept the means of living, as many others were, by labouring upon the public roads and bye-ways. At Birmingham his zeal and intelligence secured him friends amongst the sect to which he belonged, and he soon came to be employed in the establishment of "A Ministry to the Poor." A society, in connection with. various Sunday-schools, was formed for the purpose of giving some instruction to the very poorest and most destitute children. But what I have called a real working man's club was engrafted upon this sort of ragged school. I passed some profitable and pleasant hours in the society of Mr. Brooks, who knew more of the habits of the poorer classes, even of the mendicants, than any one whom I have ever met with. He took me to his "People's Instruction Society." I there saw men diligently occupied in reading-not the seditious miscellanies, nor the demoralizing penny novels, which were then in vogue, but the best newspapers without any party distinctions, and even the higher periodicals, such as the Quarterly Review. There was a room, if I recollect rightly, for chess playing, and another where the men might smoke, but without the stimulus of alcoholic drink. A brief account of this institution was given in the second volume of "The Land we Live in," which thus concludes:-"Let those who would wish to do much with little means, see what

earnestness of purpose can accomplish. This 'Ministry to the Poor' seems to have but small funds at its command, yet it has set on foot a People's Instruction Society, Sunday-schools, a Provident Institution, Day-schools for children, Evening-schools for adults, and District-visitings to those whom small contributions in money, food, or raiment might really serve. In short it is an attempt to penetrate down to those classes which Mechanics' Institutions and Benefit Societies have never yet reached. All honour to such an attempt!"

CHAPTER V.

HE dreaded tenth of April, 1848, had passed over without harm. Not a drop of blood had been shed. A soldier had not been seen in the thoroughfares of London, but two hundred thousand of its inhabitants, from the peer to the coal-whipper, had patroled the streets, to maintain the supremacy of Law and Order. A self-styled National Convention had interrupted the usual course of industrious occupation by an attempted display of brute force, which they believed to be all-powerful, as they affirmed, "to defy the Parliament, to overawe the Government." The impostors and fanatics who constituted this Convention called themselves "The People." They had taken up the notion, so industriously propagated in the French Revolution of 1848, that the noncapitalist portion of the industrious classes were exclusively the People. There were many delusions connected with this dominant idea, not only of Chartists, but of moderate and sensible Reformers. In the endeavour to combat them by argument, I set up a Weekly Journal, "The Voice of the People."

In this undertaking I had the assistance of writers who, like myself, were not politicians in the ordinary sense of the word; who were not anti-reformers whilst they combated the abuse of the democratic principle. But we were too moderate to produce

any impression in times of great excitement; we were too honest to be abusive. Our Journal commenced on the 22d of April; it came to an end on the 13th of May. Miss Martineau, who had assisted me most ably and strenuously, wrote to me when she expected that our " Voice" would no longer be heard, "Well!—you have done what you could; and you are, at all events, free from the 'night-mare' feeling of having omitted to try what you could do, in these times."

Without dwelling too much upon the characteristics of this little publication, of which there is probably no perfect copy in existence, I may mention one or two particulars that may have something of an abiding interest, especially when they refer to the condition of society as it existed about the tenth year of our present Queen. The first Article, written by myself, is entitled "What is "The People?"" M. Michelet had recently produced two works which had a great reputation in France, and were popular in this country by their translations,-the one, " Priests, Women, and Families," the other, "The People." In one of these he says, "Next to the conversation of men of genius and profound erudition, that of the people is certainly the most instructive." He then defines what is the People, by asking, "What is to be learned from the middle class?" adding, "as to the salons, I never left them without finding my heart shrunk and chilled." The question then arises, Are the middle classes and the wealthy classes to be no longer a part of the People? The complicated state of Society, which we call the British People, was, at this period, made up of various elements, which I will briefly notice.

The most numerous division was that of the Agricultural Labourers, amounting to about twelve hundred thousand. The farmers and others (exclusive of labourers), amounted to four hundred thousand. I asked, "Are they not all workers? Is not each class in its several capacities, promoting the prosperity of the country? There is inequality of condition, no doubt, between the one-fourth who exchange wages for labour, and the three-fourths who exchange labour for wages. There are inequalities which might be mitigated; and inequalities which no wisdom could remove, nor should attempt to remove." The second great class was that of all persons engaged in manufactures, amounting to about twelve hundred thousand. The miners, and others of the labouring class, not agricultural or manufacturing, amounted to nearly eight hundred thousand. The employers in manufacturing and mining industry were not separated in the Population Returns from the employed. One of the first acts of the Provisional Government of France, which had undertaken to guarantee employment to all citizens, was to expel from France English artisans and railroad-workers. It was the French fashion to look with the most profound contempt upon the English workman. "He excels not as man, but as a useful and powerful thing as an excellent tool," says M. Michelet. He despises the living tool who is not diverted from his work—who employs all the resources of meat and drink to execute quickly and earnestly the task imposed upon him. "The manufacturer and the enterpriser of every kind prefer this man-machine. The Frenchman must not attempt to offer himself in competition. He is a man, and