The Claims of Labour Part 11

When considering in what spirit our remedies should be attempted, one of the most important things to be urged is, that it should be in a spirit of hopefulness.

In one of Dr. Arnold's letters there is the following pa.s.sage. "'Too late,' however, are the words which I should be inclined to affix to every plan for reforming society in England; we are ingulfed, I believe, inevitably, and must go down the cataract; although ourselves, i.e. you and I, may be in Hezekiah's case, and not live to see the catastrophe."

Similar forebodings were uttered on other occasions by this eminently good man in the latter years of his life. I quote the pa.s.sage to show how deep must have been the apprehension of danger and distress which could so depress him; and, more especially, for the purpose of protesting against any similar despondency which I fear to be very prevalent in these times. It mainly arises, as it seems to me, from a confusion between the term of our own life and that of the state. We see a cloud which overshadows our own generation, and we exclaim that the heavens and earth are coming together. How often, in reading history, does a similar feeling occur to us. We think, how can the people we are reading of revive after this whirlwind of destruction! Imagine how much more they themselves must have felt despondency. A Northumbrian looking upon William the Conqueror's devastations-a monk considering the state of things around him in the exterminating contest of Stephen and Matilda, or the wars of the Roses-the remaining one of a family swept off by some of those giant epidemics which desolated our towns in the fourteenth century-a member of the defeated party in the struggles of the Reformation, the Rebellion, or the Revolution-what would any such person have prophesied as to the fate of his country? How little would he have foreseen the present plethoric, steam-driving, world-conquering England!

So with us. We too have evils, perhaps of as large dimension, though in some respects of a totally different character from those which our forefathers endured-and did not sink under. Nothing is to be shunned more than Despair. How profound is the wisdom which has placed Hope in the front rank of Christian virtues. For is it not the parent of endeavour? And in this particular matter, the improvement of our social condition, the more we examine it, the more we shall discover cause for hope. The evils are so linked together that a shock given to any one would electrify the whole ma.s.s of evil. Take an instance. Suppose that those who have the means bestir themselves to improve the houses of the poor. See what good will flow from that. Physical suffering is diminished; but that is, perhaps, the least thing. Cleanly and economical habits are formed; domestic occupations are increased; more persons live through the working period of life; and a cla.s.s is formed low down in the body politic who are attached to something, for a man who has the tenancy of a good house to lose, is not altogether dest.i.tute.

And under what circ.u.mstances is all this done? By the more influential cla.s.ses taking a kindly concern in a matter in which all are deeply interested. This is not the least part of the good. Indeed, without it, all the rest, however excellent in itself, would lack its most engaging features. Seeing then in one instance how much good may be done even with slight efforts, we may determine to resist despondency. To yield to it, even but a little, is to help in building up the trophy for the other side.

Although we must not listen to despondency, we must not, on the other hand, attempt to conceal from ourselves that this subject, the "condition of England question" as it has been called, is oppressively large; or suppose that it can be dealt with otherwise than by ever-growing vigour.

At the present moment public attention is unusually fixed upon it. But this may be of brief duration. The public soon becomes satiated with any subject. Some foreign war, or political contest, may all at once turn its looks in far other directions. But the social remedies that we have been talking of, are not things to be finished by a single stroke. We cannot expect to complete them just while the daylight of public opinion is with us. The evil to be struggled against is a thing entwined with every fibre of the body politic. It is enough to occupy the whole mind of the age; and demands the best energies of the best minds. It should be a "Thirty years' war" against sloth and neglect. It requires men who will persevere through public favour or disfavour, who can subdue their own fastidiousness, be indifferent to ingrat.i.tude, tolerant of folly, who can endure the extreme vexation of seeing their most highly prized endeavours thwarted by well intentioned friends, and who are not dependent for reward upon those things which are addressed to vanity or to ambition.

After a long fit of distress which, for the poorer cla.s.ses, may almost be called a seven years' famine, we are now apparently entering upon one of our periodic times of prosperity. You hear of thousands of additional "hands" being wanted, of new mills rising up, and at last of a revival of the home trade. It is one of those "breathing s.p.a.ces" in which we can look back with less despondency, and forward with some deliberation.

Each man's apprehensions for his own fortunes need no longer absorb his whole attention. Yet one cannot observe all this clashing and whizzing of machinery, this crowding on our quays, this contention of railway projects, and the general life and hum of renewed activity, without a profound fear and sadness lest such things should pa.s.s on, as their predecessors have pa.s.sed, leaving only an increased bulk of unhandy materials to be dealt with. It is one of those periods upon which the historian, armed with all that wisdom which a knowledge of the result can furnish him, may thus dilate in measured sentences. "A time of nearly seven years of steady distress had now elapsed; nor can it be said, that this distress had been lightly regarded by thoughtful minds, or that its salutary process had not commenced. The question of the condition of the labouring cla.s.ses had in a measure become prominent. The Essayist moralized about it after his fashion; the lover of statistics arrayed his fearful lists of figures to show its nature and extent; the writer of fiction wove it into his tale; the journalist found it a topic not easily to be exhausted: old men shook their heads over it; and the young, to the astonishment of the world, began to talk of it as a matter of pressing interest to them. Now was the time when Great Britain might have looked into this question. But a return of prosperity, which we must almost call insidious, lulled attention. Sickness and adversity are soon forgotten. And this nation awoke as from a bad dream which it was by no means desirous of recalling in its daylight reminiscences." My friends, let us not give an opportunity to the historian to moralize upon us in this manner. If we are employers of labour, let us bethink ourselves that now is the time for persuading our men to do something for themselves; now is the time for getting improvements made in our town and neighbourhood, the public being in a cheerful mood; now, too, we can ourselves adventure something for the good of those around us. Do not let us be anxious to drain the cup of prosperity to its last drop, holding it up so that we see nothing but it. Let us carry ourselves forward in imagination, and then look backward on what we are doing now.

That is the way to master the present, for the best part of foresight is in the reflex. What matter is it how many thousands of pounds we make, compared to how we make them?

"Yes," some one will reply, "the imaginary historian deserves to be heard. This is the time for the nation to do something. Really a Government with a surplus should put all things to rights." Oh, these unhappy collective nouns, what have they not to answer for! This word "nation," for instance: we subst.i.tute it instead of writing down some millions of names, a convenience not altogether to be despised. But yours, my friend, is there. The word nation is not an abstract idea; but means an aggregate of human beings. No individual man is eliminated by this process of abbreviation. Your being one of a nation is to enrich you with duties, not to deprive you of them. But these large words often soothe us into obliviousness. It puts one in mind of long algebraical operations in which the student has wholly lost sight of reality, and is driving on his symbols, quite unable to grasp their significance. This may be well enough for him, for eventually some result comes out which can be verified. But if we, in active life, play with general terms, we do not come to such distinct results, but only get into profound confusion, as it will be in this case, if we expect great things to happen from some combined effort in their corporate capacity of those who, as individuals, are looking on.

Before we leave off, let us look at the subject in its full scope. A large portion of our fellow countrymen are living, not in a pa.s.sive state of distress, but in one which manufactures rapidly disease, and poverty, and crime. I think it has been shown that it is in the power of other cla.s.ses to raise this condition. At any rate it is in their power to make the attempt. There is no occasion for waiting-each of us can do something to-day in this matter. Now consider what would be the effect of success in these endeavours. Let us not take the other result as probable; or, even in hypothesis, draw any picture that might make despondency plausible. Suppose, then, the success of individual, or united efforts, in raising the condition of the labouring cla.s.ses. What an undivided good it is. Has any man some particular reform at heart, some especial hopes for his race? Where can he look for such a basis to rest upon as in the improved condition of the largest layer of the people? What a field it opens for science, literature, and art. What freedom may it not give to the highest ranges of thought.

I cannot think the destinies of our race an unimproving matter of contemplation, and that it savours of presumption, or of needless forelooking, to reflect on these things. A notable portion of the great human family utters every day a prayer in which the individual supplicant asks, not for himself alone, even those blessings which he can individually enjoy, but also, and first, implores those general blessings which include the welfare of his own race at least. What is the meaning of this, if we are to take no interest in the general welfare, or not, by every means in our power, to aid in it?

In the better order of men there is a desire for social improvement totally independent of all thought of personal gain. Bishop Butler saw in the fact, that there were persons who devoted themselves to a pursuit so remote from worldly ends as astronomy, a wonderful instance of the innate consciousness in man of his high origin and destiny. But an earnest and unselfish love of social progress, is a far more satisfying sign that the impress of good is not altogether effaced, and that men are not wholly isolated by worldliness from the future and the past.

"Hence, in a season of calm weather, Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us. .h.i.ther, Can in a moment travel thither, And see the Children sport upon the sh.o.r.e, And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore."

FINIS.

APPENDIX.

The following table shows the progressive decrease in the sum of vitality in the three cla.s.ses of the inhabitants of Preston. The calculations are founded on the ages at death for the six years ending June 30, 1843:-

1. Gentry. 2. Tradesmen. 3. Operatives.

Born 100 100 100

Remaining at 90.8 79.6 68.2 the end of 1st year

2nd year 87.6 73.5 57.5

5th year 82.4 61.8 44.6

10th year 81.1 56.6 38.8

20th year 76.3 51.6 31.5

30th year 72.3 45.9 25.2

40th year 63.4 37.5 20.4

50th year 56. 28.1 15.6

60th year 45.1 20.5 11.2

70th year 25.4 13.3 6.1

80th year 8. 4.5 2.1

90th year 1.3 .8 .2

100th year . . . . .03

Terminates in Terminates in Terminates in the 92nd year. the 96th year. the 103rd year.

_Evidence of Rev. J. Clay_. _Health of Towns Report_, _page_ 174.

The following table shows the progressive decrease in the vitality of the three cla.s.ses from the age of 21 years:-

Gentry, &c. Tradesmen, &c. Operatives.

21 years old 100 100 100

Remaining at 30 94.7 89.4 79.7 years old

40 years old 83.2 73.2 63.7

50 years old 73.4 55.0 48.9

60 years old 59.1 40.4 34.6

70 years old 33.4 26.5 18.9

80 years old 10.8 9.6 7.1

90 years old 1.6 1.5 1.1

100 years old . . . . 0.6

Terminates at Terminates at Terminates at 92 years. 96 years. 103 years.

_Evidence of Rev. J. Clay_. _Health of Towns Report_, _page_ 175.

1. Saving by one-third of the actual number of Deaths. 1,240 The expense of each being estimated at 2_l._ 10_s._