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of intemperance in Scotland, said,-" I know opium is used to a certain extent, but I think whiskey there supersedes everything. In short, I may mention one fact to the committee which will illustrate the extent to which the use of whiskey is carried: in London, the proportion of public-houses to other houses is as one to fifty-six ; in Glasgow, it is as one to ten; every tenth house in Glasgow is a spirit shop. I should say, as far as my statistical researches have gone, that the proportion of whiskey drunk in Glasgow is twice or thrice as much as in any similar population upon the face of the globe." Being asked whether the proportion of spirit-shops mentioned was greater than it was fifteen or twenty years ago, Mr. Alison stated that it was considerably increasing; that in 1824 every fourteenth house was a public-house, and that the proportions since and at different times ascertained, have been one in twelve, one in eleven, and (as already stated) in 1838, one in ten. Mr. Alison gives a deplorable account of the moral condition of the people of Glasgow. He says, "I think that in Glasgow there are 80,000 people (the whole 'population is 257,000) who have hardly any moral or religious education at all; they have hardly any education in worldly matters; and though they can most of them read and write, they are, practically speaking, uneducated." It would be indeed surprising if, under those circumstances, the population of Glasgow were to exhibit any but the lowest state of morals; and the various particulars given by Mr. Alison of their coarseness and brutality seem to follow as a necessary consequence from the neglect of which they are thus the victims.

It is at once a consequence of the comparative sobriety of the age, and a help to its continuance, that great numbers of houses have been opened for the sale of cups of coffee and tea at low prices. It is said that there are from 1600 to 1800 of these coffee-houses in the metropolis alone, and that they are established and rapidly increasing all over the country; about thirty years ago there were not above a dozen of those houses to be found in London, and in these the prices charged for the refreshment they afforded were such as to limit to a very few the number of their customers. Some interesting information concerning these establishments was given before the Committee of 1840, which was appointed to inquire concerning the operation of the several duties levied on imports, and popularly known as "the Import Duties Committee."

The charge made at these houses for a cup of excellent coffee, with sugar and milk, varies from one penny up to threepence. There are many houses where the lowest of these charges is made, and which are each frequented by 700 to 800 persons daily. One house in Sherrardstreet, Haymarket, is mentioned where the charge is three halfpence, and the daily customers average from 1500 to 1600 persons of "all classes, from hackney coachmen and porters to the most respectable classes," including many foreigners. The house opens at half-past five

in the morning and closes at half-past ten at night. The temptation to frequent these houses is not confined to the coffee or tea that is provided, but the frequenters are furnished with a variety of newspapers and periodical publications. In the coffee-house just mentioned there are taken forty-three London daily papers (including several copies of the leading journals), seven country papers, six foreign papers, twenty-four monthly magazines, four quarterly reviews, and eleven weekly periodicals. The proprietor of another house stated to the committee that he had paid 4007. a year for newspapers, magazines, and binding. He said, "I have upon the average 400 to 450 persons that frequent my house daily; they are mostly lawyers' clerks and commercial men; some of them are managing clerks; and there are many solicitors, likewise highly respectable gentlemen, who take coffee in the middle of the day in preference to a more stimulating drink. I have often asked myself the question where all that number of persons could possibly have got their refreshments prior to opening my house. There were taverns in the neighbourhood, but no coffee-house, nor anything that afforded any accommodation of the nature I now give them; and I | found that a place of business like mine was so sought for by the public, that shortly after I opened it I was obliged to increase my premises in every way I could; and at the present moment, besides a great number of newspapers every day, I am compelled to take in the highest class of periodicals. For instance, we have eight or nine quarterly publications, costing from four to six shillings each, and we are constantly asked for every new work that has come out. I find there is an increasing taste for a better class of reading. When I first went into business, many of my customers were content with the lower-priced periodicals; but I find, as time progresses, that the taste is improving, and they look out now for a better class of literature." Another of these parties stated :—“ I believe we may trace the teetotal societies and those societies that advocate temperance for working men entirely to the establishment of coffee-houses, because a few years ago it used to be almost a matter of ridicule amongst working men to drink coffee; now they are held up to emulate each other. I believe that not one-third of my customers ever go into a public-house at all. I have never heard an indecent expression, and, with two exceptions, have never seen a drunken man in my house."

In some of these coffee-houses chops are cooked, and cold meat and ham may be had at a moderate charge, but not any intoxicating drink is to be bought.

The improvement visible in the habits of the working people of England, as respects intoxication, is accompanied, as might be expected, by an abatement of coarseness in their general deportment, and by a weaning from some of the pursuits which, having been part of the

favourite pastimes of their and our immediate predecessors, are now looked upon as evidences of a brutal temper. The practice of prizefighting, if it have not ceased, is certainly most importantly diminished in frequency. A great many years have not elapsed since in every newspaper was to be seen a circumstantial account of those gladiatorial displays, with all their disgusting details, and now there is not a respectable daily or weekly journal that will prostitute its columns by the insertion. This is in itself a proof of altered manners on the part of readers, i. e., of society at large but the evidence of this fact is strikingly illustrated by the following paragraph, which appeared on the 28th of February, 1838, in the Morning Advertiser,' a very well-conducted and respectable London journal, which circulates principally mong publicans, and is in fact the property of a part of that body:"We beg to deny the truth of a paragraph inserted in Bell's Life in London' on Sunday last, to the effect that a deposit of 21. aside is to be made at Harry England's, Old Kent-road, on Thursday next, for a match between Delhunt and Mortlock. The paragraph is an utter fabrication. Mr. England is a most respectable man, and the false charge, implicating him in so disreputable a transaction without his sanction, is an injury as well as a scandalous piece of impertinence. It is monstrous that the feelings of honourable men are to be hurt by such unwarrantable statements."

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We here see the landlord of a public-house indignantly denying not only any participation in, but any countenance of, an act as disreputable, which only a few years before would have been openly abetted, not by publicans only, but by men of the highest rank and station in the kingdom.

It is in itself a proof, of no slight significance, as to the general refinement of manners, that in a work of this nature there would be found an impropriety in describing scenes that were of every-day occurrence formerly, and without which description it is yet impossible adequately to measure the advance that has been made. Enough has been said, however, to bear out the assertion, that as regards personal morals there is at least a greater amount of decency than formerlythat profligacy does not stalk abroad in the face of day as shamelessly as it was wont to do, and that brutality has, in a very great degree, ceased to obtain the countenance of the educated classes. There is, it is true, much yet to be done in this direction, while in the higher branches of morals we have almost everything to learn. With the self-denying doctrines of Christianity upon our lips, we present a practical denial of them in our lives, which are given up in a greater degree than ever to self-aggrandizement, in the pursuit of which we have seemingly lost all proper appreciation of our duties as citizens, until patriotism has become a byword and a scoff, and national honour a thing of small account.

CHAPTER IV.

EDUCATION.

Neglect of Public Provision for Education in England-Consequent Social Evils– Duty of Government to provide for Instructing the people; enforced by Exertions of Individuals -Remedy for Inconveniences of increasing Population-Absence of Crime in wellinstructed Communities of Nova Scotia and Iceland-Joseph Lancaster, his early Difficulties and subsequent Success-His Exertions and Sacrifices-Committee of Council for Education-Opposition to the Scheme in both Houses of Parliament-Number of Children without Instruction - Recent Progress of Public Opinion on the Subject of National Education-Educational Statistics-Imperfect manner in which the Instruction of the Poor has been conducted - Statistical Societies of Manchester and London Normal School at Battersea-Proportion of Marriage Registers signed with Crosses in different parts of England and Wales-Education in Scotland, 1825 and 1837-National Schools of Ireland established in 1831-Nature of opposition offered to the SystemFormer Plans; their Insufficiency-Charter Schools-Kildare Street Society-Children taught in National Schools of Ireland, 1834 to 1849-Social Benefits of the System to Ireland.

THIS United Kingdom, which boasts itself to be at the head of civilization, has been among the last of European nations to make any public provision for the instruction of the people. This neglect is all the more extraordinary from the fact, that of all civilized countries this is the one in which ignorance on the part of the people brings with it the greatest amount of danger. From their number, and the manner in which they are brought together in our large manufacturing and trading towns, the labouring classes have become a most important power for good or for evil, and exercise, without its being acknowledged, a very powerful influence over the deliberations of the Senate and the acts of the Government. Their situation is besides widely different from that of the labouring classes in every other country, where the great majority depend upon agricultural labour for their support, and are but little liable under any circumstances to be thrown out of employment. In England, on the contrary, as already shown, the great and rapid increase in the population is all of it thrown for the means of earning subsistence upon pursuits other than agricultural. A change of fashion, or—what is to the full as likely to occur where the legislature takes upon itself to interfere on all occasions by "protections" and restrictions with the course of industry—a change of policy, may in a moment, and without warning,

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throw tens of thousands out of employment, while, as we have sometimes. witnessed, a succession of deficient harvests is sure to bring upon the whole class the severest privations.

How necessary then it is that these masses, so greatly, so increasingly influential, should not be suffered to remain in ignorance of their true interests! They are not idiots that they cannot be led to see wherein those true interests lie, nor to admit that they consist in upholding the laws and respecting the institutions of their country. Neither are they knaves, who, to secure a passing advantage, would wantonly invade the rights of their richer fellow-citizens. But they are ignorant; and in this condition all manner of fallacies may be made to pass with them for truth. To what but to ignorance are we to ascribe the hostility of our operative manufacturers to machinery, and their lawless crusades against it? How, unless means for teaching them are adopted, can they be expected to see the ultimate consequences to them of a machine the introduction of which into use has the present effect of throwing some among them out of their accustomed employment?

The great bulk of the people, they whose sole dependence for their daily bread must be upon their daily toil, are most of all interested in the maintenance of order, under which alone they can have any assurance of demand for their labour. This truth, which they should be taught to recoguise, does not lie upon the surface; and the unlearned may well be excused for not embracing it when they see men who have had the advantages of instruction denied to themselves, advocating doctrines irreconcileable with it. It is a fact, recognised by all who have investigated the subject, and demonstrable to all, that the introduction of machinery for simplifying manufacturing processes has had the effect not alone of increasing the comforts of the great body-the consumers— but also of multiplying manifold the demand for labour even in the ticular branches to which the machinery is applied: and yet how common is it to hear men of educated minds, but who have not allowed themselves to consider this class of facts, inveighing against the introduction of a new machine as an interference with the rights of labour! From such a doctrine, as well as from others equally false and equally pernicious, there are no means of preserving the people but by educating them.

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It is evident that the kind of knowledge which will preserve from such fallacies will not be the result of instruction in the mere elements of learning; and this is rendered equally clear by the fact, that men whose education has been carried far beyond the elementary degree have failed to acquire right views concerning points which the general safety requires should meet the practical assent of all; but this presents no difficulty. The educated man fails to recognise the truth because he is but partially educated, and has been left in ignorance with regard to

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