Brown, the Oxford shoemaker, was of opinion that "a good mechanic is the
most independent man in the world." At least he ought to be such. He has
always a market for his skill; and if he be ordinarily diligent, sober,
and intelligent, he may be useful, healthy, and happy. With a thrifty
use of his means, he may, if he earns from thirty to forty shillings a
week, dress well, live well, and educate his children creditably.

Hugh Miller never had more than twenty-four shillings a week while
working as a journeyman stonemason, and here is the result of his
fifteen years' experience:--

"Let me state, for it seems to be very much the fashion to draw dolorous
pictures of the condition of the labouring classes, that from the close
of the first year in which I worked as a journeyman until I took final
leave of the mallet and chisel, I never knew what it was to want a
shilling; that my two uncles, my grandfather, and the mason with whom I
served my apprenticeship--all working men--had had a similar experience;
and that it was the experience of my father also. I cannot doubt that
deserving mechanics may, in exceptional cases, be exposed to want; but I
can as little doubt that the cases _are_ exceptional, and that much of
the suffering of the class is a consequence either of improvidence on
the part of the competently skilled, or of a course of trifling during
the term of apprenticeship, quite as common as trifling at school, that
always lands those who indulge in it in the hapless position of the
inferior workman."

It is most disheartening to find that so many of the highest paid
workmen in the kingdom should spend so large a portion of their earnings
in their own personal and sensual gratification. Many spend a third, and
others half their entire earnings, in drink. It would be considered
monstrous, on the part of any man whose lot has been cast among the
educated classes to exhibit such a degree of selfish indulgence; and to
spend even one-fourth of his income upon objects in which his wife and
children have no share.

Mr. Roolmck recently asked, at a public meeting,[1] "Why should the mail
who makes ВЈ200 or ВЈ300 a year by his mechanical labour, be a rude,
coarse, brutal fellow? There is no reason why he should be so.

[Footnote 1: Meeting of the Mechanics' Institutes at Dewsbury,
Yorkshire.]

Why should he not be like a gentleman? Why should not his house be like
my house? When I go home from my labour, what do I find? I find a
cheerful wife--I find an elegant, educated woman. I have a daughter; she
is the same. Why should not you find the same happy influences at home?
I want to know, when the working man comes from his daily labour to his
home, why he should not find his table spread as mine is spread; why he
should not find his wife well dressed, cleanly, loving, kind, and his
daughter the same?... We all know that many working men, earning good
wages, spend their money in the beerhouse and in drunkenness, instead of
in clothing their wives and families. Why should not these men spend
their wages as I spend my small stipend, in intellectual pleasures, in
joining with my family in intellectual pursuits? Why should not working
men, after enjoying their dinners and thanking God for what they have
got, turn their attention to intellectual enjoyments, instead of going
out to get drunk in the nearest pothouse! Depend on it these things
ought to go to the heart of a working man; and he is not a friend to the
working man who talks to him and makes him believe that he is a great
man in the State, and who don't tell him what are the duties of his
position."

It is difficult to account for the waste and extravagance of working
people. It must be the hereditary remnant of the original savage. It
must be a survival. The savage feasts and drinks until everything is
gone; and then he hunts or goes to war. Or it may be the survival of
slavery in the State. Slavery was one of the first of human
institutions. The strong man made the weak man work for him. The warlike
race subdued the less warlike race, and made them their slaves. Thus
slavery existed from the earliest times. In Greece and Rome the righting
was done by freemen, the labour by helots and bondsmen. But slavery also
existed in the family. The wife was the slave of her husband as much as
the slave whom he bought in the public market.

Slavery long existed among ourselves. It existed when Caesar lauded. It
existed in Saxon times, when the household work was done by slaves. The
Saxons were notorious slave-dealers, and the Irish were their best
customers. The principal mart was at Bristol, from whence the Saxons
exported large numbers of slaves into Ireland so that, according to
Irish historians, there was scarcely a house in Ireland without a
British slave in it.

When the Normans took possession of England, they continued slavery.
They made slaves of the Saxons themselves whom they decreed villeins and
bondsmen. Domesday Book shows that the toll of the market at Lewes in
Sussex was a penny for a cow, and fourpence for a slave--not a serf
(_adscriptus glebae_), but an unconditional bondsman. From that time
slavery continued in various forms. It is recorded of "the good old
times," that it was not till the reign of Henry IV. (1320--1413) that
villeins, farmers, and mechanics were permitted by law to put their
children to school; and long after that, they dared not educate a son
for the Church without a licence from the lord.[1] The Kings of England,
in their contests with the feudal aristocracy, gradually relaxed the
slave laws. They granted charters founding Royal Burghs; and when the
slaves fled into them, and were able to conceal themselves for a year
and a day, they then became freemen of the burgh, and were declared by
law to be free.

[Footnote 1: _Henry's History of England_, Book v., chap. 4]

The last serfs in England were emancipated in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth; but the last serfs in Scotland, were not emancipated until
the reign of George III, at the end of last century. Before then, the
colliers and salters belonged to the soil. They were bought and sold
with it. They had no power to determine what their wages should be. Like
the slaves in the Southern States of America, they merely accepted such
sustenance as was sufficient to maintain their muscles and sinews in
working order.

They were never required to save for any purpose, for they had no right
to their own savings. They did not need to provide for to-morrow; their
masters provided for them. The habit of improvidence was thus formed;
and it still continues. The Scotch colliers, who were recently earning
from ten to fourteen shillings a day, are the grandsons of men who were
slaves down to the end of last century. The preamble of an Act passed in
1799 (39th Geo. III., c. 56), runs as follows: "Whereas, before the
passing of an Act of the fifteenth of his present Majesty, many
colliers, coal-bearers, and salters _were bound for life to, and
transferable with, the collieries and salt-works where they worked_, but
by the said Act their bondage was taken off and they were declared to be
free, notwithstanding which many colliers and coalbearers and salters
still continue in a state of bondage from not having complied with the
provisions, or from having become subject to the penalties of that Act,"
etc. The new Act then proceeds to declare them free from servitude. The
slaves formerly earned only enough to keep them, and laid by nothing
whatever for the future. Hence we say that the improvidence of the
colliers, as of the iron-workers, is but a survival of the system of
slavery in our political constitution.

Matters have now become entirely different. The workman, no matter what
his trade, is comparatively free. The only slavery from which he
suffers, is his passion for drink. In this respect he still resembles
the Esquimaux and the North American Indians. Would he be really free?
Then he must exercise the powers of a free, responsible man. He must
exercise self-control and self-constraint,--and sacrifice present
personal gratifications for prospective enjoyments of a much higher
kind. It is only by self-respect and self-control that the position of
the workman can be really elevated.

The working man is now more of a citizen than he ever was before. He is
a recognized power, and has been admitted within the pale of the
constitution. For him mechanics' institutes, newspapers, benefit
societies, and all the modern agencies of civilization, exist in
abundance. He is admitted to the domain of intellect; and, from time to
time, great thinkers, artists, engineers, philosophers, and poets, rise
up from his order, to proclaim that intellect is of no rank, and
nobility of no exclusive order. The influences of civilization are
rousing society to its depths; and daily evidences are furnished of the
rise of the industrious classes to a position of social power.
Discontent may, and does, exhibit itself; but discontent is only the
necessary condition of improvement; for a man will not be stimulated to
rise up into a higher condition unless he be first made dissatisfied
with the lower condition out of which he has to rise. To be satisfied is
to repose; while, to be rationally dissatisfied, is to contrive, to
work, and to act, with an eye to future advancement.

The working classes very much under-estimate themselves. Though they
receive salaries or wages beyond the average earnings of professional
men, yet many of them have no other thought than that of living in mean
houses, and spending their surplus time and money in drink. They seem
wanting in respect for themselves as well as for their class. They
encourage the notion that there is something degrading in labour,--than
which nothing can be more false. Labour of all kinds is dignifying and
honourable; it is the idler, above all others, who is undignified and
dishonourable.

"Let the working man," says Mr. Sterling, "try to connect his daily
task, however mean, with the highest thoughts he can apprehend, and he
thereby secures the rightfulness of his lot, and is raising his
existence to his utmost good. It is because the working man has failed
to do this, and because others have failed to help him as they ought,
that the lot of labour has hitherto been associated with what is mean
and degrading."

With respect to remuneration, the average of skilled mechanics and
artisans, as we have already said, are better paid than the average of
working curates. The working engineer is better paid than the ensign in
a marching regiment. The foreman in any of our large engineering
establishments is better paid than an army surgeon. The rail-roller
receives over a guinea a day, while an assistant navy surgeon receives
fourteen shillings, and after three years' service, twenty-one
shillings, with rations. The majority of dissenting ministers are much
worse paid than the better classes of skilled mechanics and artizans;
and the average of clerks employed in counting-houses and warehouses
receive wages very much lower.

Skilled workmen might--and, if they had the will, they would--occupy a
social position as high as the educated classes we refer to. What
prevents them rising? Merely because they will not use their leisure to
cultivate their minds. They have sufficient money; it is culture that
they want. They ought to know that the position of men in society does
not depend so much upon their earnings, as upon their character and
intelligence. And it is because they neglect their abundant
opportunities,--because they are thriftless and spend their earnings in
animal enjoyments,--because they refuse to cultivate the highest parts
of their nature,--that they are excluded, or rather self-excluded, from
those social and other privileges in which they are entitled to take
part.

Notwithstanding their high wages, they for the most part cling to the
dress, the language, and the manners of their class. They appear, during
their leisure hours, in filthy dresses, and unwashed hands. No matter
how skilled the workman may be, he is ready to sink his mind and
character to the lowest level of his co-workers. Even the extra money
which he earns by his greater skill, often contributes to demoralize and
degrade him. And yet he might dress as well, live as well, and be
surrounded by the physical comforts and intellectual luxuries of
professional men. But no! From week to week his earnings are wasted. He
does not save a farthing; he is a public-house victim; and when work
becomes slack, and his body becomes diseased, his only refuge is the
workhouse.

How are these enormous evils to be cured? Some say by better education;
others by moral and religious instruction; others by better homes, and
better wives and mothers. All these influences will doubtless contribute
much towards the improvement of the people. One thing is perfectly
clear, that an immense amount of ignorance prevails, and that such
ignorance must be dissipated before the lower classes can be elevated.
Their whole character must be changed, and they must be taught in early
life habits of forecast and self-control.

We often hear that "Knowledge is Power;" but we never hear that
Ignorance is Power. And yet Ignorance has always had more power in the
world than Knowledge. Ignorance dominates. It is because of the evil
propensities of men that the costly repressive institutions of modern
governments exist.

Ignorance arms men against each other; provides gaols and
penitentiaries; police and constabulary. All the physical force of the
State is provided by Ignorance; is required by Ignorance; is very often
wielded by Ignorance. We may well avow, then, that Ignorance is Power.

Ignorance is powerful, because Knowledge, as yet, has obtained access
only to the minds of the few. Let Knowledge become more generally
diffused; let the multitude become educated, thoughtful, and wise; and
then Knowledge may obtain the ascendancy over Ignorance. But that time
has not yet arrived.

Look into the records of crime, and you will find that, for one man
possessed of wisdom or knowledge who commits a crime, there are a
hundred ignorant. Or, into the statistics of drunkenness and
improvidence of all sorts; still Ignorance is predominant. Or, into the
annals of pauperism; there, again, Ignorance is Power.

The principal causes of anxiety in this country, are the social
suffering and disease which proceed from Ignorance. To mitigate these,
we form associations, organize societies, spend money, and labour in
committees. But the power of Ignorance is too great for us. We almost
despair while we work. We feel that much of our effort is wasted. We are
often ready to give up in dismay, and recoil from our encounter with the
powers of evil.

"How forcible are right words!" exclaimed Job. Yes! But, with equal
justice, he might have said, "How forcible are wrong words!" The wrong
words have more power with ignorant minds than the right words. They fit
themselves into wrong heads, and prejudiced heads, and empty heads; and
have power over them. The right words have often no meaning for them,
any more than if they were the words of some dead language. The wise
man's thoughts do not reach the multitude, but fly over their heads.
Only the few as yet apprehend them.

The physiologist may discuss the laws of health, and the Board of Health
may write tracts for circulation among the people; but half the people
cannot so much as read; and of the remaining half, but a very small
proportion are in the habit of _thinking_. Thus the laws of health are
disregarded; and when fever comes, it finds a wide field to work upon:
in undrained and filthy streets and back-yards,--noisome, pestilential
districts,--foul, uncleansed dwellings,--large populations ill-supplied
with clean water and with pure air. There death makes fell havoc; many
destitute widows and children have to be maintained out of the
poor's-rates; and then we reluctantly confess to ourselves that
Ignorance is Power.

The only method of abating this power of Ignorance, is by increasing
that of Knowledge. As the sun goes up the sky, the darkness disappears;
and the owl, the bat, and the beasts of prey, slink out of sight. Give
the people knowledge,--give them better education,--and thus, crime will
be abated,--drunkenness, improvidence, lawlessness, and all the powers
of evil, will, to a certain extent, disappear.[1]

[Footnote 1: The recent reports of Mr. Tremenheere to the Secretary of
State for the Home Department, with respect to the condition of the
population in the iron and coal districts, show that he places
considerable reliance upon the effect of Education. The evidence which
he brought together from all parts of the country, shows that the
increase of immorality with the increase of wages was attributed to the
low tastes and desires of the people.--that the obstinate refusal of the
men to exert more than two-thirds of their fair powers of work, by which
the cost of production is largely enhanced, capital crippled, and the
public mulcted, was due to the same cause,--that their readiness to
become the prey of unionists and agitators is traceable to their want of
the most elementary principles of thought,--that most of the accidents,
which are of weekly occurrence, are occasioned by their stupidity and
ignorance,--that wherever they have advanced in intelligence, they have
become more skilful, more subordinate, and more industrious. These facts
have convinced the more thoughtful and far-sighted masters, that the
only sure means of maintaining their ground under increasing foreign
competition, and averting a social crisis, is to reform the character of
the rising generation of operatives by _education_,]

It must, however, be admitted that education is not enough. The clever
man may be a clever rogue; and the cleverer he is, the cleverer rogue he
will be. Education, therefore, must be based upon religion and morality;
for education by itself will not eradicate vicious propensities. Culture
of intellect has but little effect upon moral conduct. You may see
clever, educated, literary men, with no conduct whatever,--wasteful,
improvident, drunken, and vicious. It follows, therefore, that education
must be based upon the principles of religion and morality.

Nor has the poverty of the people so much to do with their social
degradation as is commonly supposed. The question is essentially a moral
one. If the income of the labouring community could be suddenly doubled,
their happiness will not necessarily be increased; for happiness does
not consist in money. In fact, the increased wages might probably prove
a curse instead of a blessing. In the case of many, there would be an
increased consumption of drink, with the usual results,--an increase of
drunken violence, and probably an increase of crime.

The late Mr. Clay, chaplain of the Preston House of Correction, after
characterizing drunkenness as the GREAT SIN, proceeds: "It still rises
in savage hostility, against everything allied to order and religion; it
still barricades every avenue by which truth and peace seek to enter the
poor man's home and heart.... Whatever may be the predominant cause of
crime, it is very clear that ignorance, religious ignorance, is the
chief ingredient in the character of the criminal. This combines with
the passion for liquor, and offences numberless are engendered by the
union."

The late Sir Arthur Helps, when speaking of high and low wages, and of
the means of getting and spending money, thus expresses himself on the
subject, in his "Friends in Council":"My own conviction is, that
throughout England every year there is sufficient wages given, even at
the present low rate, to make the condition of the labouring poor quite
different from what it is. But then these wages must be well spent. I do
not mean that the poor could of themselves alone effect this change; but
were they seconded by the advice, the instruction, and the aid (not
given in money, or only in money lent to produce the current interest of
the day) of the classes above them, the rest the poor might accomplish
for themselves. And, indeed, all that the rich could do to elevate the
poor could hardly equal the advantage that would be gained by the poor
themselves, if they could thoroughly subdue that one vice of
drunkenness, the most wasteful of all the vices.

"In the living of the poor (as indeed of all of us) there are two things
to be considered; how to get money, and how to spend it. Now, I believe,
the experience of employers will bear me out in saying, that it is
frequently found that the man with 20s. a week does not live more
comfortably, or save more, than the man with 14s.,--the families of the
two men being the same in number and general circumstances. It is
probable that unless he have a good deal of prudence and thought, the
man who gets at all more than the average of his class does not know
what to do with it, or only finds in it a means superior to that which
his fellows possess of satisfying his appetite for drinking."

Notwithstanding, however, the discouraging circumstances to which we
have referred, we must believe that in course of time, as men's nature
becomes improved by education--secular, moral, and religious--they may
be induced to make a better use of their means, by considerations of
prudence, forethought, and parental responsibility. A German writer
speaks of the education given to a child as _a capital_--equivalent to a
store of money--placed at its disposal by the parent. The child, when
grown to manhood, may employ the education, as he might employ the
money, badly; but that is no argument against the possession of either.
Of course, the value of education, as of money, chiefly consists in its
proper use. And one of the advantages of knowledge is, that the very
acquisition of it tends to increase the capability of using it aright;
which is certainly not the case with the accumulation of money.

Education, however obtained, is always an advantage to a man. Even as a
means of material advancement, it is worthy of being sought after,--not
to speak of its moral uses as an elevator of character and intelligence.
And if, as Dr. Lyon Playfair insists, the composition between industrial
nations must before long become a competition mainly of intelligence, it
is obvious that England must make better provision for the education of
its industrial classes, or be prepared to fall behind in the industrial
progress of nations.

"It would be of little avail," said Dr. Brewster of Edinburgh, "to the
peace and happiness of society, if the great truths of the material
world were confined to the educated and the wise. The organization of
science thus limited would cease to be a blessing. Knowledge secular,
and knowledge divine, the double current of the intellectual life-blood
of man, must not merely descend through the great arteries of the social
frame; it must be taken up by the minutest capillaries before it can
nourish and purify society. Knowledge is at once the manna and the
medicine of our moral being. Where crime is the bane, knowledge is the
antidote. Society may escape from the pestilence and may survive the
famine; but the demon of ignorance, with his grim adjutants of vice and
riot, will pursue her into her most peaceful haunts, destroying our
institutions, and converting into a wilderness the paradise of social
and domestic life. The State has, therefore, a great duty to perform. As
it punishes crime, it is bound to prevent it. As it subjects us to laws,
it must teach us to read them; and while it thus teaches, it must teach
also the ennobling truths which display the power and the wisdom of the
great Lawgiver, thus diffusing knowledge while it is extending
education; and thus making men contented, and happy, and humble, while
it makes them quiet and obedient subjects."

A beginning has already been made with public school education. Much
still remains to be done to establish the system throughout the empire.
At present we are unable to judge of the effects of what has been done.
But if general education accomplish as much for England as it has
already accomplished for Germany, the character of this country will be
immensely improved during the next twenty years. Education has almost
banished drunkenness from Germany; and had England no drunkenness, no
thriftlessness, no reckless multiplication, our social miseries would be
comparatively trivial.

We must therefore believe that as intelligence extends amongst the
working class, and as a better moral tone pervades them, there will be a
rapid improvement in their sober, thrifty and provident habits; for
these form the firmest and surest foundations for social advancement.
There is a growing desire, on the part of the more advanced minds in
society, to see the working men take up their right position. They who
do society's work,--who produce, under the direction of the most
intelligent of their number, the wealth of the nation,--are entitled to
a much higher place than they have yet assumed. We believe in this "good
time coming," for working men and women,--when an atmosphere of
intelligence shall pervade them--when they will prove themselves as
enlightened, polite, and independent as the other classes of society;
and, as the first and surest step towards this consummation, we counsel
them to PROVIDE--to provide for the future as well as for the
present--to provide, in times of youth and plenty, against the times of
adversity, misfortune, and old age.

"If any one intends to improve his condition," said the late William
Felkin, Mayor of Nottingham, himself originally a working man, "he must
earn all he can, spend as little as he can, and make what he does spend,
bring him and his family all the real enjoyment he can. The first saving
which a working man makes out of his earnings is the first step,--and
because it is the first, the most important step towards true
independence. Now independence is as practicable in the case of an
industrious and economic, though originally poor, workman, as in that of
the tradesman or merchant,--and is as great and estimable a blessing.
The same process must be attended to,--that is, the entire expenditure
being kept below the clear income, all contingent claims being carefully
considered and provided for, and the surplus held sacred, to be employed
for those purposes, and those only, which duty or conscience may point
out as important or desirable. This requires a course of laborious
exertion and strict economy, a little foresight, and possibly some
privation. But this is only what is common to all desirable objects. And
inasmuch as I know what it is to labour with the hands long hours, and
for small wages, as well as any workman to whom I address myself, and to
practise self-denial withal, I am emboldened to declare from experience
that the gain of independence, or rather self-dependence, for which I
plead, is worth infinitely more than all the cost of its attainment;
and, moreover, that to attain it in a greater or less degree, according
to circumstances, is within the power of by far the greater number of
skilled workmen engaged in our manufactories."




CHAPTER V.

EXAMPLES OF THRIFT.


"Examples demonstrate the possibility of success."--_Cotton._


_"The force of his own merit, makes his way."--_Shakespeare._

"Reader, attend, whether thy soul
Soars Fancy's flight beyond the Pole,
Or darkling grubs this earthly hole
                       In low pursuit--
Know, prudent, cautious self-control,
                       Is wisdom's root."--_Burns._

"In the family, as in the State, the best source of wealth is
Economy."--_Cicero._

"Right action is the result of right faith; but a true and right faith
cannot be sustained, deepened, extended, save in a course of right
action."--_M'Combie._


Thrift is the spirit of order applied to domestic management and
organization. Its object is to manage frugally the resources of the
family; to prevent waste; and avoid useless expenditure. Thrift is under
the influence of reason and forethought, and never works by chance or by
fits. It endeavours to make the most and the best of everything. It does
not save money for saving's sake. It makes cheerful sacrifices for the
present benefit of others; or it submits to voluntary privation for some
future good.

Mrs. Inchbald, author of the "Simple Story," was, by dint of thrift,
able to set apart the half of her small income for the benefit of her
infirm sister. There was thus about two pounds a week for the
maintenance of each. "Many times," she says, "during the winter, when I
was crying with cold, have I said to myself, 'Thank God, my dear sister
need not leave her chamber; she will find her fire ready for her each
morning; for she is now far less able than I am to endure privation.'"
Mrs. Inchbald's family were, for the most part very poor; and she felt
it right to support them during their numerous afflictions. There is one
thing that may be say of Benevolence,--that it has never ruined anyone;
though selfishness and dissipation have ruined thousands.

The words "Waste not, want not," carved in stone over Sir Walter Scott's
kitchen fireplace at Abbotsford, expresses in a few words the secret of
Order in the midst of abundance. Order is most useful in the management
of everything,--of a household, of a business, of a manufactory, of an
army. Its maxim is--A place for everything, and everything in its place.
Order is wealth; for, whoever properly regulates the use of his income,
almost doubles his resources. Disorderly persons are rarely rich; and
orderly persons are rarely poor.

Order is the best manager of time; for unless work is properly arranged,
Time is lost; and, once lost, it is gone for ever. Order illustrates
many important subjects. Thus, obedience to the moral and natural law,
is order. Respect for ourselves and our neighbours, is order. Regard for
the rights and obligations of all, is order. Virtue is order. The world
began with order. Chaos prevailed, before the establishment of order.

Thrift is the spirit of order in human life. It is the prime agent in
private economy. It preserves the happiness of many a household. And as
it is usually woman who regulates the order of the household, it is
mainly upon her that the well-doing of society depends. It is therefore
all the more necessary that she should early be educated in the habit
and the virtue of orderliness.

The peer, the merchant, the clerk, the artizan, and the labourer, are
all of the same nature, born with the same propensities and subject to
similar influences. They are, it is true, born in different positions,
but it rests with themselves whether they shall live their lives nobly
or vilely. They may not have their choice of riches or poverty; but they
have their choice of being good or evil,--of being worthy or worthless.


People of the highest position, in point of culture and education, have
often as great privations to endure as the average of working people.
They have often to make their incomes go much further. They have to keep
up a social standing. They have to dress better; and live sufficiently
well for the purpose of health. Though their income may be less than
that of colliers and iron-workers, they are under the moral necessity of
educating their sons and bringing them up as gentlemen, so that they may
take their fair share of the world's work.

Thus, the tenth Earl of Buchan brought up a numerous family of children,
one of whom afterwards rose to be Lord Chancellor of England, upon an
income not exceeding two hundred a year. It is not the amount of income,
so much as the good use of it, that marks the true man; and viewed in
this light, good sense, good taste, and sound mental culture, are among
the best of all economists.

The late Dr. Aiton said that his father brought up a still larger family
on only half the income of the Earl of Buchan. The following dedication,
prefixed to his work on "Clerical Economics," is worthy of being
remembered: "This work is respectfully dedicated to a Father, now in the
eighty-third year of his age, who, on an income which never exceeded a
hundred pounds yearly, educated, out of a family of twelve children,
four sons to liberal professions, and who has often sent his last
shilling to each of them, in their turn, when they were at college."

The author might even cite his own case as an illustration of the
advantages of thrift. His mother was left a widow, when her youngest
child--the youngest of eleven--was only three weeks old. Notwithstanding
a considerable debt on account of a suretyship, which was paid, she
bravely met the difficulties of her position, and perseveringly overcame
them. Though her income was less than that of many highly paid working
men, she educated her children well, and brought them up religiously and
virtuously. She put her sons in the way of doing well, and if they have
not done so, it was through no fault of hers.

Hume, the historian, was a man of good family; but being a younger
brother, his means were very small. His father died while he was an
infant; he was brought up by his mother, who devoted herself entirely to
the rearing and educating of her children. At twenty-three, young Hume
went to France to prosecute his studies. "There," says he, in his
Autobiography, "I laid down that plan of life which I have steadily and
successfully pursued. I resolved to make a very rigid frugality supply
my deficiency of fortune, to maintain unimpaired my independency, and to
regard every object as contemptible, except the improvement of my
talents in literature." The first book he published was a complete
failure. But he went on again; composed and published another book,
which was a success. But he made no money by it. He became secretary to
the military embassy at Vienna and Turin; and at thirty-six he thought
himself rich. These are his own words: "My appointments, with my
frugality, had made me reach a fortune which I called independent,
though most of my friends were inclined to smile when I said so: in
short, I was now master of near a thousand pounds." Every one knows that
a thousand pounds, at five per cent., means fifty pounds a year; and
Hume considered himself independent with that income. His friend Adam
Smith said of him: "Even in the lowest state of his fortune, his great
and necessary frugality never hindered him from exercising, upon proper
occasions, acts both of charity and generosity. It was a frugality
founded not on avarice, but upon the love of independency."

But one of the most remarkable illustrations of Thrift is to be found in
the history of the Rev. Robert Walker--the _Wonderful_ Robert Walker, as
he is still called in the district of Cumberland where he resided. He
was curate of Leathwaite during the greater part of last century. The
income of the curacy, at the time of his appointment (1735), was only
five pounds a year. His wife brought him a fortune of forty pounds. Is
it possible that he could contrive to live upon his five pounds a year,
the interest of his wife's fortune, and the result of his labours as a
clergyman? Yes, he contrived to do all this; and he not only lived well,
though plainly, but he saved money, which he left for the benefit of his
family. He accomplished all this by means of industry, frugality, and
temperance.

First, about his industry. He thoroughly did the work connected with his
curacy. The Sabbath was in all respects regarded by him as a holy day.
After morning and evening service, he devoted the evening to reading the
Scriptures and family prayer. On weekdays, he taught the children of the
parish, charging nothing for the education, but only taking so much as
the people chose to give him. The parish church was his school; and
while the children were repeating their lessons by his side, he was,
like Shenstone's schoolmistress, engaged in spinning wool. He had the
right of pasturage upon the mountains for a few sheep and a couple of
cows, which required his attendance. With this pastoral occupation he
joined the labours of husbandry, for he rented two or three acres of
land in addition to his own acre of glebe, and he also possessed a
garden,--the whole of which was tilled by his own hand. The fuel of the
house consisted of peat, procured by his labour from the neighbouring
mosses. He also assisted his parishioners in haymaking and shearing
their flocks,--in which latter art he was eminently dexterous. In
return, the neighbours would present him with a haycock, or a fleece, as
a general acknowledgment of his services.

After officiating as curate of Leathwaite for about twenty years, the
annual value of the living was increased to seventeen pounds ten
shillings. His character being already well known and highly
appreciated, the Bishop of Carlisle offered Mr. Walker the appointment
of the adjoining curacy of Ulpha; but he conscientiously refused it, on
the ground that the annexation "would be apt to cause a general
discontent among the inhabitants of both places, by either thinking
themselves slighted, being only served alternately, or neglected in the
duty, or attributing it to covetousness in me; all which occasions of
murmuring I would willingly avoid." Yet at this time Mr. Walker had a
family of eight children. He afterwards maintained one of his sons at
Trinity College Dublin, until he was ready for taking Holy Orders.

The parish pastor was, of course, a most economical man. Yet no act of
his life savoured in the least degree of meanness or avarice. On the
other hand, his conduct throughout life displayed the greatest
disinterestedness and generosity. He knew very little of luxuries, and
he cared less. Tea was only used in his house for visitors. The family
used milk, which was indeed far better. Excepting milk, the only other
drink used in the house was water--clear water drawn from the mountain
spring. The clothing of the family was comely and decent; but it was all
home-made: it was simple, like their diet. Occasionally one of the
mountain sheep was killed for purposes of food; and towards the end of
the year, a cow was killed and salted down for provision during winter.
The hide was tanned, and the leather furnished shoes for the family. By
these and other means, this venerable clergyman reared his numerous
family; not only preserving them, as he so affectingly says, "from
wanting the necessaries of life," but affording them "an unstinted
education, and the means of raising themselves in society."[1]

Many men, in order to advance themselves in the world, and to raise
themselves in society, have "scorned delights and lived laborious days."
They have lived humbly and frugally, in order to accomplish greater
things. They have supported themselves by their hand labour, until they
could support themselves by their head labour. Some may allege that this
is not justifiable--that it is a sin against the proletariat to attempt
to rise in the world,--that "once a cobbler always a cobbler." But,
until a better system has been established, the self-application of
individuals is the only method by which science and knowledge can be
conquered, and the world permanently advanced.

Goethe says, "It is perfectly indifferent within what circle an honest
man acts, provided he do but know how to understand and completely fill
out that circle;" and again, "An honest and vigorous will could make
itself a path and employ its activity to advantage under every form of
society." "What is the best government?" he asks: "That which teaches us
to govern ourselves!" All that we need, in his opinion, is individual
liberty, and self-culture. "Let every one," he says, "only do the right
in his place, without troubling himself about the turmoil of the world."

[Footnote 1: The best account of Mr. Walker is to be found in the
Appendix to the Poems of Wordsworth. The poet greatly appreciated the
clergyman's character, and noticed him in his "Excursion," as well as in
the Notes to the Sonnets entitled "The River Duddon."]

At all events, it is not by socialism, but by individualism, that
anything has been done towards the achievement of knowledge, and the
advancement of society. It is the will and determination of individual
men that impels the world forward in art, in science, and in all the
means and methods of civilization.

Individual men are willing to deny themselves, but associated
communities will not. The masses are too selfish, and fear that
advantage will be taken of any sacrifices which they may be called upon
to make. Hence it is amongst the noble band of resolute spirits that we
look for those who raise and elevate the world, as well as themselves.
The recollection of what they have done, acts as a stimulus to others.
It braces the mind of man, reanimates his will, and encourages him to
further exertions.

When Lord Elcho addressed the East Lothian colliers, he named several
men who had raised themselves from the coalpit; and first of all he
referred to Mr. Macdonald, member for Stafford. "The beginning of my
acquaintance with Mr. Macdonald," he said, "was, when I was told that a
miner wanted to see me in the lobby of the House of Commons. I went out
and saw Mr. Macdonald, who gave me a petition from this district, which
he asked me to present. I entered into conversation with him, and was
much struck by his intelligence. He told me that he had begun life as a
boy in the pit in Lanarkshire, and that the money he saved as a youth in
the summer, he spent at Glasgow University in the winter; and that is
where he got whatever book-learning or power of writing he possesses. I
say that is an instance that does honour to the miners of Scotland.
Another instance was that of Dr. Hogg, who began as a pitman in this
county; worked in the morning, attended school in the afternoon; then
went to the University for four years and to the Theological Hall for
five years; and afterwards, in consequence of his health failing, he
went abroad, and is now engaged as a missionary in Upper Egypt. Or take
the case of Mr. (now Sir George) Elliot, member for North Durham, who
has spoken up for the miners all the better, for having had practical
knowledge of their work. He began as a miner in the pit, and he worked
his way up till he has in his employment many thousand men. He has risen
to his great wealth and station from the humblest position; as every man
who now hears me is capable of doing, to a greater or less degree, if he
will only be thrifty and industrious."

Lord Elcho might also have mentioned Dr. Hutton, the geologist, a man of
a much higher order of genius; who was the son of a coal-viewer. Bewick,
the wood engraver, is also said to have been the son of a coal-miner.
Dr. Campbell was the son of a Loanhead collier: he was the forerunner of
Moffat and Livingstone, in their missionary journeys among the Bechuanas
in South Africa. Allan Ramsay, the poet, was also the son of a miner.

George Stephenson worked his way from the pithead to the highest
position as an engineer. George began his life with industry, and when
he had saved a little money, he spent it in getting a little learning.
What a happy man he was, when his wages were increased to twelve
shillings a week. He declared upon that occasion that he was "made a man
for life!" He was not only enabled to maintain himself upon his
earnings, but to help his poor parents, and to pay for his own
education. When his skill had increased, and his wages were advanced to
a pound a week, he immediately began, like a thoughtful, intelligent
workman, to lay by his surplus money; and when he had saved his first
guinea, he proudly declared to one of his colleagues that he "was now a
rich man!"

And he was right. For the man who, after satisfying his wants, has
something to spare, is no longer poor. It is certain that from that day
Stephenson never looked back; his advance as a self-improving man was as
steady as the light of sunrise. A person of large experience has indeed
stated that he never knew, amongst working people, a single instance of
a man having out of his small earnings laid by a pound, who had in the
end become a pauper.

When Stephenson proposed to erect his first locomotive, he had not
sufficient means to defray its cost. But in the course of his life as a
workman, he had established a character. He was trusted. He was
faithful. He was a man who could be depended on. Accordingly, when the
Earl of Havensworth was informed of Stephenson's desire to erect a
locomotive, he at once furnished him with the means for enabling him to
carry his wishes into effect.

Watt, also, when inventing the condensing steam-engine, maintained
himself by making and selling mathematical instruments. He made flutes,
organs, compasses,--anything that would maintain him, until he had
completed his invention. At the same time he was perfecting his own
education--learning French, German, mathematics, and the principles of
natural philosophy. This lasted for many years; and by the time that
Watt developed his steam-engine and discovered Mathew Boulton, he had,
by his own efforts, become an accomplished and scientific man.

These great workers did not feel ashamed of labouring with their hands
for a living; but they also felt within themselves the power of doing
head-work as well as hand-work. And while thus labouring with their
hands, they went on with their inventions, the perfecting of which has
proved of so much advantage to the world. Hugh Miller furnished, in his
own life, an excellent instance of that practical common sense in the
business of life which he so strongly recommended to others. When he
began to write poetry, and felt within him the growing powers of a
literary man, he diligently continued his labour as a stone-cutter.

Horace Walpole has said that Queen Caroline's patronage of Stephen Duck,
the thresher poet, ruined twenty men, who all turned poets. It was not
so with the early success of Hugh Miller. "There is no more fatal
error," he says, "into which a working man of a literary turn can fall,
than the mistake of deeming himself too good for his humble employments;
and yet it is a mistake as common as it is fatal. I had already seen
several poor wrecked mechanics, who, believing themselves to be poets,
and regarding the manual occupation by which they could alone live in
independence as beneath them, and become in consequence little better
than mendicants,--too good to work for their bread, but not too good
virtually to beg it; and looking upon them as beacons of warning, I
determined that, with God's help, I should give their error a wide
offing, and never associate the idea of meanness with an honest calling,
or deem myself too good to be independent."

At the same time, a man who feels that he has some good work in him,
which study and labour might yet bring out, is fully justified in
denying himself, and in applying his energies to the culture of his
intellect. And it is astonishing how much carefulness, thrift, the
reading of books, and diligent application, will help such men onward.

The author in his boyhood knew three men who worked in an agricultural
implement maker's shop. They worked in wood and iron, and made carts,
ploughs, harrows, drilling-machines, and such-like articles. Somehow or
other, the idea got into their heads that they might be able to do
something better than making carts and harrows. They did not despise the
lot of hand-labour, but they desired to use it as a step towards
something better. Their wages at that time could not have exceeded from
eighteen to twenty shillings a week.

Two of the young men, who worked at the same bench, contrived to save
enough money to enable them to attend college during the winter. At the
end of each session they went back to their hand-labour, and earned
enough wages during the summer to enable them to return to their classes
during the winter. The third did not adopt this course. He joined a
mechanics' institute which had just been started in the town in which he
lived. By attending the lectures and reading the books in the library,
he acquired some knowledge of chemistry, of the principles of mechanics,
and of natural philosophy. He applied himself closely, studied hard in
his evening hours, and became an accomplished man.

It is not necessary to trace their history; but what they eventually
arrived at, may be mentioned. Of the first two, one became the teacher
and proprietor of a large public school; the other became a well-known
dissenting minister; while the third, working his way strenuously and
bravely, became the principal engineer and manager of the largest
steamship company in the world.

Although mechanics' institutes are old institutions, they have scarcely
been supported by working men. The public-house is more attractive and
more frequented. And yet mechanics' institutes--even though they are
scarcely known south of Yorkshire and Lancashire--have been the means of
doing a great deal of good. By placing sound mechanical knowledge within
the reach of even the few persons who have been disposed to take
advantage of them, they have elevated many persons into positions of
great social influence. "We have heard a distinguished man say publicly,
that a mechanics' institution had _made him_; that but for the access
which it had afforded him to knowledge of all kinds, he would have
occupied a very different position. In short, the mechanics' institution
had elevated him from the position of a licensed victualler to that of
an engineer.

We have referred to the wise practice of men in humble position
maintaining themselves by their trade until they saw a way towards
maintaining themselves by a higher calling. Thus Herschell maintained
himself by music, while pursuing his discoveries in astronomy. When
playing the oboe in the pump-room at Bath, he would retire while the
dancers were lounging round the room, go out and take a peep at the
heavens through his telescope, and quietly return to his instrument. It
was while he was thus maintaining himself by music, that he discovered
the Georgium Sidus. When the Royal Society recognized his discovery, the
oboe-player suddenly found himself famous.