Never was the moral influence of the parish clergyman more wisely employed than in this case. Not many of those whom Mr. Queckett thus laboured to serve were amongst the church-going class; but by helping them to be frugal, and improving their physical condition, he was enabled gradually to elevate their social tastes, and to awaken in them a religious life to which the greater number of them had before been strangers.

A powerful influence was next given to the movement by Mr. Charles W. Sikes, cashier of the Huddersfield Banking Company, who advocated their establishment in connection with the extensive organization of mechanics' institutes. It appeared to him that to train working people when young in habits of economy, was of more practical value to themselves, and of greater importance to society, than to fill their minds with the contents of many books. He pointed to the perverted use of money by the working class as one of the greatest practical evils of the time. "In many cases," he said, "the higher the workmen's wages, the poorer are their families; and these are they who really form the discontented and the dangerous classes. How can such persons take any interest in pure and elevating knowledge?"

To show the thriftlessness of the people, Mr. Sikes mentioned the following instance. "An eminent employer in the West Riding," he said, "whose mills for a quarter of a century have scarcely run short time for a single week, has within a few days examined the rate of wages now paid to his men, and compared it with that of a few years ago. He had the pleasure of finding that improvements in machinery had led to improvement in wages. His spinners and weavers are making about twenty-seven shillings a week. In many instances some of their children work at the same mill, and in a few instances their wives, and often the family income reaches from a hundred to a hundred and fifty pounds per annum. Visiting the homes of some of these men, he has seen with feelings of disappointment the air of utter discomfort and squalor with which many are pervaded. Increase of income has led only to increase of improvidence. The savings bank and the building society are equally neglected, although at the same mill there are some with no higher wages, whose homes have every comfort, and who have quite a little competency laid by. In Bradford, I believe, a munificent employer on one occasion opened seven hundred accounts with the savings bank for his operatives, paying in a small deposit for each. The result was not encouraging. Rapidly was a small portion of the sums drawn out, and very few remained as the nucleus of further deposits."[1]

[Footnote 1: From Mr. Sikes's excellent little handbook entitled "Good Times, or the Savings Bank and the Fireside."]

Mr. Sikes suggested that each mechanics' institute should appoint a preliminary savings bank committee, to attend once a week for the purpose of receiving deposits from the members and others.

"If a committee at each institution," he said, "were to adopt this course, taking an interest in their humble circumstances, and in a sympathizing and kindly spirit, to suggest, invite, nay win them over, not only by reading the lesson, but forming the habit of true economy and self-reliance (the noblest lessons for which classes could be formed), how cheering would be the results! Once established in better habits, their feet firmly set in the path of self-reliance, how generally would young men grow up with the practical conviction that to their own advancing intelligence and virtues must they mainly look to work out their own social welfare!"

This admirable advice was not lost. One institution after another embraced the plan, and preliminary savings banks were, shortly established in connection with the principal mechanics' institutes throughout Yorkshire. Those established at Huddersfield, Halifax, Bradford, Leeds, and York, were exceedingly successful. The Penny Banks established at Halifax consisted of a central bank and seven subordinate branches. The number of members, and the average amount of the sums deposited with them, continued to increase from year to year. Fourteen Penny Banks were established at Bradford; and after the depositors had formed the habit of saving in the smaller banks, they transferred them in bulk to the ordinary Savings Bank.

Thirty-six Penny Banks were established in and around Glasgow. The committee, in their Report, stated they were calculated "to check that reckless expenditure of little sums which so often leads to a confirmed habit of wastefulness and improvidence;" and they urged the support of the Penny Banks as the best means of extending the usefulness of the savings banks. The Penny Bank established at the small country town of Farnham is estimated to have contributed within a few years a hundred and fifty regular depositors to the savings bank of the same place. The fact that as large a proportion as two-thirds of the whole amount deposited is drawn out within the year, shows that Penny Banks are principally used as places of safe deposit for very small sums of money, until they are wanted for some special object, such as rent, clothes, furniture, the doctor's bill, and such-like purposes.

Thus the Penny Bank is emphatically the poor man's purse. The great mass of the deposits are paid in sums not exceeding sixpence, and the average of the whole does not exceed a shilling. The depositors consist of the very humblest members of the working class, and by far the greatest number of them have never before been accustomed to lay by any portion of their earnings. The Rev. Mr. Clarke, of Derby, who took an active interest in the extension of these useful institutions, has stated that one-tenth of the whole amount received by the Derby Penny Bank was deposited in copper money, and a large portion of the remainder in threepenny and fourpenny pieces.

It is clear, therefore, that the Penny Bank reaches a class of persons of very small means, whose ability to save is much less than that of the highly-paid workman, and who, if the money were left in their pockets, would in most cases spend it in the nearest public-house. Hence, when a Penny Bank was established at Putney, and the deposits were added up at the end of the first year, a brewer, who was on the committee, made the remark, "Well, that represents thirty thousand pints of beer not drunk."

At one of the Penny Banks in Yorkshire, an old man in receipt of parish outdoor relief was found using the Penny Bank as a place of deposit for his pennies until he had accumulated enough to buy a coat. Others save, to buy an eight-day clock, or a musical instrument, or for a railway trip.

But the principal supporters of the Penny Banks are boys, and this is their most hopeful feature; for it is out of boys that men are made. At Huddersfield many of the lads go in bands from the mills to the Penny Banks; emulation as well as example urging them on. They save for various purposes—one to buy a chest of tools, another a watch, a third a grammar or a dictionary.

One evening a boy presented himself to draw Ll 10. According to the rules of the Penny Bank a week's notice must be given before any sum exceeding 20s. can be withdrawn, and the cashier demurred to making the payment. "Well," said the boy, "the reason's this—mother can't pay her rent; I'm goin' to pay it, for, as long as I have owt, she shall hev' it." In another case, a youth drew L20 to buy off his brother who had enlisted. "Mother frets so," said the lad, "that, she'll break her heart if he isn't bought off, and I cannot bear that."

Thus these institutions give help and strength in many ways, and, besides enabling young people to keep out of debt and honestly to pay their way, furnish them with the means of performing kindly and generous acts in times of family trial and emergency. It is an admirable feature of the Ragged Schools that almost every one of them has a Penny Bank connected with it for the purpose of training the scholars in good habits, which they most need; and it is a remarkable fact that in one year not less than L8,880 were deposited, in 25,637 sums, by the scholars connected with the Ragged School Union. And when, this can be done by the poor boys of the ragged schools, what might not be accomplished by the highly-paid operatives and mechanics of England?

But another capital feature in the working of Penny Banks, as regards the cultivation of prudent habits among the people, is the circumstance that the example of boys and girls depositing their spare weekly pennies, has often the effect of drawing their parents after them. A boy goes on for weeks paying his pence, and taking home his pass-book. The book shows that he has a "leger folio" at the bank expressly devoted to him—that his pennies are all duly entered, together with the respective dates of their deposits—that these savings are not lying idle, but bear interest at 2-1/2 per cent. per annum—and that he can have them restored to him at any time,—if under 20s., without notice; and it above 20s., then after a week's notice has been given.

The book is a little history in itself, and cannot fail to be interesting to the boy's brothers and sisters, as well as to his parents. They call him "good lad," and they see he is a well-conducted lad. The father, if he be a sensible man, naturally bethinks him that, if his boy can do so creditable a thing, worthy of praise, so might he himself. Accordingly, on the next Saturday night, when the boy goes to deposit his threepence at the Penny Bank, the father often sends his shilling.

Thus a good beginning is often made, and a habit initiated, which, if persevered in, very shortly exercises a most salutary influence on the entire domestic condition of the family. The observant mother is quick to observe the effects of this new practice upon the happiness of the home, and in course of time, as the younger children grow up and earn money, she encourages them to follow the elder boy's example. She herself takes them by the hand, leads them to the Penny Bank, and accustoms them to invest their savings there. Women have even more influence in such matters than men, and where they do exercise it, the beneficial effects are much more lasting.

One evening a strong, muscular mechanic appeared at the Bradford savings bank in his working dress, bringing with him three children, one of them in his arms. He placed on the counter their deposit books, which his wife had previously been accustomed to present, together with ten shillings, to be equally apportioned amongst the three. Pressing to his bosom the child in his arms, the man said, "Poor things! they have lost their mother since they were here last; but I must do the best I can for them." And he continued the good lesson to his children which his wife had begun, bringing them with him each time to see their little deposits made.

There is an old English proverb which says, "He that would thrive must first ask his wife;" but the wife must not only let her husband thrive, but help him, otherwise she is not the "help meet" which is as needful for the domestic comfort and satisfaction of the working man, as of every other man who undertakes the responsibility of a family. Women form the moral atmosphere in which we grow when children, and they have a great deal to do with the life we lead when we become men. It is true that the men may hold the reins; but it is generally the women who tell them which way to drive. What Rousseau said is very near the truth—"Men will always be what women make them."

Not long ago, Mr. Sikes encountered, in a second-class carriage, a well-dressed workman travelling from Sheffield to Glasgow, during holiday times, to see his mother. "I am glad," said Mr. Sikes, "to find a workman travelling so great a distance, for a purpose like that." "Yes," said the man, "and I am glad to say that I can afford to do it." "And do many of the workmen employed in your workshop save money?" asked Mr. Sikes. "No," said the other, "not more than about two in the hundred. The spare earnings of the others go, not to the savings banks, but to the drink-shops." "And when did you begin to save?" "When I was no bigger than that," indicating the height of a little boy: "the first money I saved was in a Penny Bank, and I have gone on saving ever since."

Such being the influence of early practice and example, we are glad to find that Economy is now being taught at public schools. The Rev. Mr. Crallan, of the Sussex County Asylum, has long taught lessons of thrift to poor boys and girls. He urges the establishment of Penny Banks in connection with Savings Banks, in all elementary schools. He wisely contends that simple lessons on money, its nature, its value, and its uses, together with the various duties of giving, spending, and saving, would have a vast influence on the rising generation.

The practice of teaching children provident habits has been adopted for about eight years in the National Schools of Belgium. The School Board of Ghent is convinced of the favourable influence that saving has upon the moral and material well-being of the working classes, and believes that the best means of causing the spirit of economy to penetrate their habits is to teach it to the children under tuition, and to make them practise it.

It is always very difficult to teach anything new to adults,—and especially lessons of thrift to men who are thriftless. Their method of living is fixed. Traditional and inveterate habits of expenditure exist among them. With men, it is the drinking-shop; with women, it is dress. They spend what they earn, and think nothing of to-morrow. When reduced to a state of distress, they feel no shame in begging; for the feeling of human dignity has not yet been sufficiently developed in them.

With children it is very different. They have no inveterate habits to get rid of. They will, for the most part, do as they are taught. And they can be taught economy, just as they can be taught arithmetic. They can, at all events, be inspired by a clever teacher with habits of economy and thrift. Every child has a few pence at times. The master may induce them to save these for some worthy purpose. At Ghent, a savings bank has been introduced in every school, and the children deposit their pennies there. It is introduced into the paying schools as well as the free schools; for habits of thrift are as useful to men and women of the richer as of the poorer classes. The results of the lessons on Economy have been highly satisfactory.[1] The children belonging to the schools of Ghent have accumulated eighteen thousand pounds, which is deposited in the State Savings Bank at three per cent. interest. This system is spreading into Holland, France, and Italy. It has also, to a certain extent, been adopted in this country. Thus Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Great Ilford, and the London Orphan Asylum, all show specimens of School Banks; and we trust that, before long, they will be established in every school throughout the kingdom.

[Footnote 1: A pamphlet published at Ghent says of the paying schools: "The spirit of economy is introduced there under the form of charity. The young girls buy with their pocket money, firstly materials, say cotton or linen, of which they afterwards make articles of dress during the hours set aside for manual work: afterwards the shirts, stockings, dresses, handkerchiefs, or aprons, are distributed to the poorer children of the free schools. The distribution Becomes the object of a little holiday: we know of nothing that can be more touching. The poor children are assembled in the Collier school; our young ladies go were also; one of them says a few words feelingly to her sisters in the poorer classes; one of the girls of the free schools replies. Then the pretty and useful things which have been made during the last year are distributed. It is the donors themselves who present the fruits of their labour to the poorest among the poor. The distribution is intermingled with singing. Need we reiterate the blessings of this blessed economy?"]

It will be obvious, from what has been said, that the practice of economy depends very much upon the facilities provided for the laying by of small sums of money. Let a convenient savings bank be provided, and deposits gradually flow into it. Let a military savings bank be established, and private soldiers contrive to save something out of their small pay. Let penny banks be opened, and crowds of depositors immediately present themselves; even the boys of the ragged schools being able to put into them considerable sums of money. It is the same with school banks, as we have seen from the example of the school-children of Ghent.

Now, fifteen years ago, this country was very insufficiently provided with savings banks for the people. There were then many large towns and villages altogether unprovided with them. Lancashire had only thirty savings banks for upwards of two millions of people. The East Riding of Yorkshire had only four savings banks. There were fifteen counties in the United Kingdom which had not a single savings bank. There were only about six hundred savings banks for about thirty millions of people. These were open only for two or three hours in the week; some were open for only four hours in the month. The workman who had money to save, had to carry his spare shillings in his pocket for some time before he could lay them by; and in the meantime he might be exposed to constant temptations to spend them. To keep his shillings safe, he must have acquired the habit of saving, which it was the object of savings banks to train and establish.

Dr. Guthrie, in his book on Ragged Schools, published in 1860, said: "How are our manufacturing and handicraft youth situated? By public-houses and spirit-shops they are surrounded with innumerable temptations; while to many of them savings banks are hardly known by name. Dissipation has her nets drawn across every street. In many of our towns, sobriety has to run the gauntlet of half-a-dozen spirit-shops in the space of a bow-shot. These are near at hand—open by day, and blazing by night, both on Sabbath and Saturday. Drunkenness finds immediate gratification; while economy has to travel a mile, it may be, for her savings bank; and that opens its door to thrift but once or twice a week."[1]

[Footnote 1: Seed-Time and Harvest of Ragged Schools, or a Third Plea, with new editions of the First and Second Plea, p. 99.]

Many suggestions had been made by friends of the poorer classes, whether it might not be possible to establish a more extended system of savings banks throughout the country. As long ago as 1807, Mr. Whitbread introduced a Bill into Parliament for the purpose of enabling small deposits to be made at an office to be established in London; the money to be remitted by the postmasters of the districts in which the deposits were made. The Bill further contemplated the establishment of a National Assurance Society, by means of which working people were to be enabled to effect assurances to an extent not exceeding two hundred pounds, and to secure annuities to an amount not exceeding twenty pounds. Mr. Whitbread's bill was rejected, and nothing came of his suggestions.

The exertions of Sir Rowland Hill having given great vitality to the Post Office system, and extended its usefulness as a public institution in all directions, it was next suggested that the money-order offices (which were established in 1838) might be applied for the purpose of depositing as well as for transmitting money. Professor Hancock published a pamphlet on the subject in 1852. In November, 1856, Mr. John Bullar, the eminent counsel—whose attention had been directed to the subject by the working of the Putney Penny Bank—suggested to the Post Office authorities the employment of money-order offices as a means of extending the savings-bank system; but his suggestion did not meet with approval at the time, and nothing came of it. Similar suggestions were made by other gentlemen—by Mr. Hume, by Mr. M'Corquodale, by Captain Strong, by Mr. Ray Smee, and others.

But it was not until Mr. Sikes, of Huddersfield, took up the question, that these various suggestions became embodied in facts. Suggestions are always useful. They arouse thinking. The most valuable are never lost, but at length work themselves into facts. Most inventions are the result of original suggestions. Some one attempts to apply the idea. Failures occur at first; but with greater knowledge, greater experience, and greater determination, the suggestion at last succeeds.

Post Office Savings Banks owe their success, in the first place, to the numerous suggestions made by Mr. Whitbread and others; next to Sir Rowland Hill who by establishing the Branch Post Offices for the transmission of money, made the suggestions practicable; next to Mr. Sikes, who took up the question in 1850, pushed it, persevered with it, and brought it under the notice of successive Chancellors of the Exchequer; and lastly to Mr. Gladstone, who, having clearly foreseen the immense benefits of Post Office Savings Banks, brought in a Bill and carried it through Parliament in 1861.

The money-order department of the Post Office had suggested to Mr. Sikes, as it had already done to other observers, that the organization already existed for making Post Office Savings Banks practicable throughout the kingdom. Wherever the local inspector found that as many as five money-orders were required in a week, the practice was to make that branch of the Post Office a money-order office. It was estimated that such an office was established on an average within three miles of every working man's door in the kingdom. The offices were open daily. They received money from all comers, and gave vouchers for the amounts transmitted through them. They held the money until it was drawn, and paid it out on a proper voucher being presented. The Post Office was, in fact, a bank for the transmission of money, holding it for periods of from twenty-four hours to weeks and months. By enabling it to receive more money from more depositors, and by increasing the time of holding it, allowing the usual interest, it became to all intents and purposes a National bank of deposit.

The results of the Post Office Savings Banks Act have proved entirely satisfactory. The money-order offices have been largely extended. They are now about four thousand in number; consequently the facilities for saving have been nearly doubled since the banks were established. The number in the London district is now about four hundred and sixty, so that from any point in the thickly populated parts of the metropolis, a Savings Bank may be found within a distance of a few hundred yards. The number of the depositors at the end of 1873 amounted to more than a million and a half; while the amount of deposits reached over twenty-one millions sterling.[1] At the same time the amount deposited with the original Savings Banks remained about the same.

[Footnote 1: The amount reached L23,157,469 at the end of 1874.]

Post Office Savings Banks possess several great advantages which ought to be generally known. The banks are very widely diffused, and are open from nine in the morning until six in the evening, and on Saturdays until nine at night. Persons may make a deposit of a shilling, or of any number of shillings, provided more than thirty pounds is not deposited in any one year. The Post Office officers furnish the book in which the several deposits are entered. The book also contains the regulations of the Post Office Savings Banks. Interest is allowed at the rate of two pounds ten shillings per cent, per annum.

Another most important point is, the Security. Government is responsible for the full amount paid in; so that the money deposited with the Post Office Savings Bank is as safe as if it were in the Bank of England. The money saved may also be transferred from place to place, without expense, and may be easily paid to the depositor when required, no matter where it was originally deposited. All that is done, is done in perfect secrecy between the depositor and the postmaster, who is forbidden to disclose the names of the depositors.

We have frequently alluded to Mr. Charles William Sikes in connection with Penny Banks and Post Office Savings Banks. His name must always hold a distinguished place in connection with those valuable institutions. He is the son of a private banker in Huddersfield. When at school he was presented, as a prize, with a copy of Dr. Franklin's Essays and Letters. He perused the book with avidity. It implanted in his mind the germs of many useful thoughts, and exercised a powerful influence in giving a practical character to his life. Huddersfield is a busy manufacturing town. Although workmen were well paid for their labour, there were many ups and downs in their business. When trade became slack, and they had spent all that they had earned, numbers of them were accustomed to apply for charity in the streets or by the wayside. Young Sikes often wondered whether these people had ever heard of Dr. Franklin, and of his method of avoiding beggary or bad times by saving their money when trade was brisk and they were well off.

Early in 1833, Mr. Sikes entered the service of the Huddersfield Banking Company. It was the second joint stock bank that had been established in England. The prudence and success with which the Scotch banking companies had been conducted induced the directors to select a Scotch manager. One of the first resolutions the directors adopted, was to give deposit receipts for sums of ten pounds and upwards, for the purpose of encouraging the working classes in habits of providence and thrift. Mr. Sikes, being somewhat of a favourite with the manager, often heard from his lips most interesting accounts of the provident habits of the Scotch peasantry, and was informed by him of the fact that one of the banks at Perth paid not less than twenty thousand pounds a year as interest on deposits varying from ten to two hundred pounds each.

In 1837, Mr. Sikes became one of the cashiers of the company. This brought him into direct contact and intercourse with the very class which, from the direction his mind was taking, he so much wished to understand,—namely, the thrifty portion of the industrious classes. A considerable number of them had sums lying at interest. As years rolled on, Mr. Sikes often witnessed the depositor commencing with ten or twenty pounds, then make permanent additions to his little store, until at length the amount would reach one, two, or, in a few instances, even three hundred pounds. Mr. Sikes would often imagine the marvellous improvement that would be effected on the condition of the working classes, if every one of them became influenced by the same frugality and forethought, which induced these exceptional operatives to deposit their savings at his bank.

About that time, trade was in a wretched condition. The handloom weavers were almost entirely without employment. Privation and suffering prevailed on every side, and these were often borne with silent and noble heroism. Various remedies were proposed for the existing evils. Socialism, chartism, and free trade, were the favourites. Theories of the wildest and most impracticable character abounded, and yet even in those dark days there were instances of men who had to some degree made the future predominate over the present, who could fall back upon their reserve in the Joint Stock or Savings Bank to tide them over into better times. Believing in the beneficent results of free trade, Mr. Sikes was equally convinced that national prosperity, as well as national adversity, might be attended with great evils, unless the masses were endowed with habits of providence and thrift, and prepared by previous education for the "good time coming" so eloquently predicted by the orators of the League.

Many discussions with working men, in his homeward evening walks, convinced Mr. Sikes that there were social problems with which legislation would be almost powerless to grapple, and of these the thriftlessness of the masses of the people was one. An employer of five hundred handloom weavers had told Mr. Sikes that in a previous period of prosperity, when work was abundant and wages were very high, he could not, had he begged on bended knee, have induced his men to save a single penny, or to lay by anything for a rainy day. The fancy waistcoating trade had uniformly had its cycles of alternate briskness and depression; but experience, however stern its teachings, could not teach unwilling learners. It was at this period that Mr. Sikes was reading the late Archbishop Sumner's "Records of Creation," and met with the following passage: "The only true secret of assisting the poor, is to make them agents in bettering their own condition."

Simple as are the words, they shed light into Mr. Sikes's mind, and became the keynote and the test to which he brought the various views and theories which he had previously met with. Doles and charities, though founded frequently on the most benevolent motives, were too often deteriorating to their recipients. On the other hand, if self-reliance and self-help—the columns of true majesty in man—could only be made characteristics of the working classes generally, nothing could retard their onward and upward progress. Mr. Sikes observed that until the working classes had more of the money power in their hands, they would still be periodically in poverty and distress. He saw that if provident habits could only he generally pursued by them, the face of society would immediately be transformed; and he resolved, in so far as lay in his power, to give every aid to this good work.

In 1850, Savings Banks were only open a very few hours in each week. In Huddersfield, where more than L400,000 a year was paid in wages, the savings bank, after having been established over thirty years, had only accumulated L74,332. In 1850, Mr. Sikes addressed an anonymous letter to the editors of the Leeds Mercury, to which, by their request, he afterwards attached his name. In that letter he recommended the formation of Penny Savings Banks in connection with Mechanics' and similar institutes. In simple words, but with many telling facts, he showed how the young men and the young women of the working classes were growing up deprived of almost every opportunity of forming habits of thrift, and of becoming depositors in savings hanks.

The letter was received with general approbation. The committee of the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' Institutes gave their cordial sanction to it; and Penny Banks were established in connection with nearly every Mechanics' Institute in Yorkshire. Mr. Sikes personally conducted one at Huddersfield; and down to the present time, it has received and repaid about thirty thousand pounds. In fact, the working people of Huddersfield, doubtless owing in a great measure to the practical example of Mr. Sikes,—have become most provident and thrifty,—the deposits in their savings bank having increased from seventy-four thousand pounds in 1850, to three hundred and thirty thousand pounds in 1874.

In 1854, Mr. Sikes published his excellent pamphlet on "Good Times, or the Savings Bank and the Fireside," to which we have already referred. The success which it met with induced him to give his attention to the subject of savings banks generally. He was surprised to find that they were so utterly inadequate to meet the requirements of the country. He sought an interview with Sir Cornewall Lewis, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and brought the subject under his consideration. The Chancellor requested Mr. Sikes to embody his views in a letter, and in the course of a few months there appeared a pamphlet addressed to Sir Cornewall Lewis, entitled "Savings Banks Reforms." Mr. Sikes insisted on the Government guarantee being given for deposits made in Savings Banks; but this was refused.

Mr. Sikes next proceeded to ventilate the question of Post Office Savings Banks. He was disappointed that no measure for the improvement of Savings Banks had been adopted by Parliament. The day appeared very distant when his cherished wish would be realized,—that the Savings Bank should really become the Bank of the People. But the darkest hour precedes the dawn. When he had almost given up the notion of improving the existing Savings Banks, the idea suddenly struck him that in the money-order office there was the very organization which might be made the basis of a popular Savings Bank.

He communicated his plan in a letter to his friend Mr. Baines, then member for Leeds. The plan was submitted to Sir Rowland Hill, who approved of the suggestions, and considered the scheme "practicable so far as the Post Office was concerned." The plan was then brought under the notice of Mr. Gladstone, who afterwards carried the Bill through Parliament for the establishment of Post Office Savings Banks throughout the country.

To use the words of Mr. Sikes himself,—when predicting at the Social Science Association the success of the Post Office Savings Banks,—"Should the plan be carried out, it will soon be doing a glorious work. Wherever a Bank is opened and deposits received, self-reliance will to some extent be aroused, and, with many, a nobler life will be begun. They will gradually discern how ruthless an enemy is improvidence to working men; and how truly his friends are economy and forethought. Under their guidance, household purchases could be made on the most favourable terms—for cash; any wished-for house taken at the lowest rent for punctual payment; and the home enriched with comforts until it is enjoyed and prized by all. From such firesides go forth those inheriting the right spirit,—loving industry, loving thrift, and loving home. Emulous of a good example, they in their day and generation would nobly endeavour to lay by a portion of their income. Many a hard winter and many a slack time would be comfortably got over by drawing on the little fund, to be again replenished in better days. And if the plan were adopted, remembering that it would virtually bring the Savings Bank within less than an hour's walk of the fireside of every working man in the United Kingdom, I trust that it is not taking too sanguine a view to anticipate that it would render aid in ultimately winning over the rank and file of the industrial classes of the kingdom to those habits of forethought and self-denial which bring enduring reward to the individual, and materially add to the safety of the State."

The working classes have not yet, however, taken full advantage of the facilities for saving afforded them by the Post Office Savings Banks. Take Birmingham for instance, where the artizans are among the best-paid workmen of the town. In the list of depositors in the Post Office Savings Banks, we find that the artizans rank after the domestic servants, after the married and unmarried women, and after the miners. They only constitute about one-tenth of the entire depositors, though it is possible that they may deposit their savings in some other investments.

Then take the returns for the entire United Kingdom. Out of every ten thousand depositors in the Post Office Savings Banks, we find that the domestic servants are again the first; next, the women, married and single; next, persons of "no occupation" and "occupations not given;" next, the artizans, and after them, the labourers, miners, tradesmen, soldiers and sailors, clerks, milliners and dressmakers, professional men, and public officials, in the order stated. We must, however, regard the institution as still too young to have fully taken root. We believe that the living generation must pass away before the full fruits of the Post Office Savings Banks can be gathered in.

The inhabitants of Preston have exhibited a strong disposition to save their earnings during the last few years,—more especially since the conclusion of the last great strike. There is no town in England, excepting perhaps Huddersfield, where the people have proved themselves so provident and so thrifty. Fifty years ago, only one person in thirty of the population of Preston deposited money in the Savings Bank; twenty years ago, the depositors increased to one in eleven; and last year they had increased to one in five. In 1834, the sum of a hundred and sixty-five thousand pounds had been accumulated in the Savings Bank by 5,942 depositors; and in 1874, four hundred and seventy-two thousand pounds had been accumulated by 14,792 depositors, out of a total population of 85,428. Is there any other town or city that can show a more satisfactory result of the teaching, the experience, and the prosperity of the last twenty years?



CHAPTER IX.

LITTLE THINGS.

"The sober comfort, all the peace which springs From the large aggregate of little things; On these small cares of daughter, wife, or friend, The almost sacred joys of Home depend."—Hannah More.

"Know when to spend and when to spare, And when to buy, and thou shalt ne'er be bare."

"He that despiseth little things, shall perish by little and little."—Ecclesiasticus.

Neglect of small things is the rock on which the great majority of the human race have split. Human life consists of a succession of small events, each of which is comparatively unimportant, and yet the happiness and success of every man depends upon the manner in which these small events are dealt with. Character is built up on little things,—little things well and honourably transacted. The success of a man in business depends on his attention to little things. The comfort of a household is the result of small things well arranged and duly provided for. Good government can only be accomplished in the same way,—by well-regulated provisions for the doing of little things.

Accumulations of knowledge and experience of the most valuable kind are the result of little bits of knowledge and experience carefully treasured up. Those who learn nothing or accumulate nothing in life, are set down as failures,—because they have neglected little things. They may themselves consider that the world has gone against them; but in fact they have been their own enemies. There has long been a popular belief in "good luck;" but, like many other popular notions, it is gradually giving way. The conviction is extending that diligence is the mother of good luck; in other words, that a man's success in life will be proportionate to his efforts, to his industry, to his attention to small things. Your negligent, shiftless, loose fellows never meet with luck; because the results of industry are denied to those who will not use the proper efforts to secure them.

It is not luck, but labour, that makes men. Luck, says an American writer, is ever waiting for something to turn up; Labour, with keen eye and strong will, always turns up something. Luck lies in bed and wishes the postman would bring him news of a legacy; Labour turns out at six, and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the foundation of a competence. Luck whines; Labour whistles. Luck relies on chance; Labour on character. Luck slips downwards to self-indulgence; Labour strides upward, and aspires to independence.

There are many little things in the household, attention to which is indispensable to health and happiness. Cleanliness consists in attention to a number of apparent trifles—the scrubbing of a floor, the dusting of a chair, the cleansing of a teacup,—but the general result of the whole is an atmosphere of moral and physical well-being,—a condition favourable to the highest growth of human character. The kind of air which circulates in a house may seem a small matter,—for we cannot see the air, and few people know anything about it. Yet if we do not provide a regular supply of pure air within our houses, we shall inevitably suffer for our neglect. A few specks of dirt may seem neither here nor there, and a closed door or window would appear to make little difference; but it may make the difference of a life destroyed by fever; and therefore the little dirt and the little bad air are really very serious matters. The whole of the household regulations are, taken by themselves, trifles—but trifles tending to an important result.

A pin is a very little thing in an article of dress, but the way in which it is put into the dress often reveals to you the character of the wearer. A shrewd fellow was once looking out for a wife, and was on a visit to a family of daughters with this object. The fair one, of whom he was partially enamoured, one day entered the room in which he was seated with her dress partially unpinned, and her hair untidy: he never went back. You may say, such a fellow was "not worth a pin;" but he was really a shrewd fellow, and afterwards made a good husband. He judged of women as of men—by little things; and he was right.

A druggist advertised for an assistant, and he had applications from a score of young man. He invited them all to come to his shop at the same time, and set them each to make up a pennyworth of salts into a packet. He selected the one that did this little thing in the neatest and most expert manner. He inferred their general practical ability from their performance of this smallest bit of business.

Neglect of little things has ruined many fortunes and marred the best of enterprises. The ship which bore home the merchant's treasure was lost because it was allowed to leave the port from which it sailed with a very little hole in the bottom. For want of a nail the shoe of the aide-de-camp's horse was lost; for want of the shoe, the horse was lost; for want of the horse, the aide-de-camp himself was lost, for the enemy took him and killed him; and for want of the aide-de camp's intelligence, the army of his general was lost: and all because a little nail had not been properly fixed in a horse's shoe!

"It will do!" is the common phrase of those who neglect little things. "It will do!" has blighted many a character, blasted many a fortune, sunk many a ship, burnt down many a house, and irretrievably ruined thousands of hopeful projects of human good. It always means stopping short of the right thing. It is a makeshift. It is a failure and defeat. Not what "will do," but what is the best possible thing to do,—is the point to be aimed at! Let a man once adopt the maxim of "It will do," and he is given over to the enemy,—he is on the side of incompetency and defeat,—and we give him up as a hopeless subject!

M. Say, the French political economist, has related the following illustration of the neglect of little things. Once, at a farm in the country, there was a gate enclosing the cattle and poultry, which was constantly swinging open for want of a proper latch. The expenditure of a penny or two, and a few minutes' time, would have made all right. It was on the swing every time a person went out, and not being in a state to shut readily, many of the poultry were from time to time lost. One day a fine young porker made his escape, and the whole family, with the gardener, cook, and milkmaid, turned out in quest of the fugitive. The gardener was the first to discover the pig, and in leaping a ditch to cut off his escape, got a sprain that kept him to his bed for a fortnight. The cook, on her return to the farm-house, found the linen burnt that she had hung up before the fire to dry; and the milkmaid, having forgotten in her haste to tie up the cattle in the cow-house, one of the loose cows had broken the leg of a colt that happened to be kept in the same shed. The linen burnt and the gardener's work lost were worth full five pounds, and the colt worth nearly double that money: so that here was a loss in a few minutes of a large sum, purely for want of a little latch which might have been supplied for a few halfpence. Life is full of illustrations of a similar kind. When small things are habitually neglected, ruin is not far off. It is the hand of the diligent that maketh rich; and the diligent man or woman is attentive to small things as well as great. The things may appear very little and insignificant, yet attention to them is as necessary as to matters of greater moment.

Take, for instance, the humblest of coins—a penny. What is the use of that little piece of copper—a solitary penny? What can it buy? Of what use is it? It is half the price of a glass of beer. It is the price of a box of matches. It is only fit for giving to a beggar. And yet how much of human happiness depends upon the spending of the penny well.

A man may work hard, and earn high wages; but if he allows the pennies, which are the result of hard work, to slip out of his fingers—some going to the beershop, some this way, and some that,—he will find that his life of hard work is little raised above a life of animal drudgery. On the other hand, if he take care of the pennies—putting some weekly into a benefit society or an insurance fund, others into a savings bank, and confides the rest to his wife to be carefully laid out, with a view to the comfortable maintenance and culture of his family,—he will soon find that his attention to small matters will abundantly repay him, in increasing means, in comfort at home, and in a mind comparatively free from fears as to the future.

All savings are made up of little things. "Many a little makes a mickle." Many a penny makes a pound. A penny saved is the seed of pounds saved. And pounds saved mean comfort, plenty, wealth, and independence. But the penny must be earned honestly. It is said that a penny earned honestly is better than a shilling given. A Scotch proverb says, "The gear that is gifted is never sae sweet as the gear that is won." What though the penny be black? "The smith and his penny are both black." But the penny earned by the smith is an honest one.

If a man does not know how to save his pennies or his pounds, his nose will always be kept to the grindstone. Want may come upon him any day, "like an armed man." Careful saving acts like magic: once begun, it grows into habit. It gives a man a feeling of satisfaction, of strength, of security. The pennies he has put aside in his savings box, or in the savings bank, give him an assurance of comfort in sickness, or of rest in old age. The man who saves has something to weather-fend him against want; while the man who saves not has nothing between him and bitter, biting poverty.

A man may be disposed to save money, and lay it by for sickness or for other purposes; but he cannot do this unless his wife lets him, or helps him. A prudent, frugal, thrifty woman is a crown of glory to her husband. She helps him in all his good resolutions; she may, by quiet and gentle encouragement, bring out his better qualities; and by her example she may implant in him noble principles, which are the seeds of the highest practical virtues.

The Rev. Mr. Owen, formerly of Bilston,—a good friend and adviser of working people,—used to tell a story of a man who was not an economist, but was enabled to become so by the example of his wife. The man was a calico-printer at Manchester, and he was persuaded by his wife, on their wedding-day, to allow her two half-pints of ale a day, as her share. He rather winced at the bargain, for, though a drinker himself, he would have preferred a perfectly sober wife. They both worked hard; and he, poor man, was seldom out of the public-house as soon as the factory was closed.

She had her daily pint, and he, perhaps, had his two or three quarts, and neither interfered with the other? except that, at odd times, she succeeded, by dint of one little gentle artifice or another, to win him home an hour or two earlier at night; and now and then to spend an entire evening in his own house. They had been married a year, and on the morning of their wedding anniversary, the husband looked askance at her neat and comely person, with some shade of remorse, as he said, "Mary, we've had no holiday since we were wed; and, only that I have not a penny in the world, we'd take a jaunt down to the village, to see thee mother."

"Would'st like to go, John? "said she, softly,between a smile and a tear, so glad to hear him speak so kindly,—so like old times. "If thee'd like to go, John, I'll stand treat."

"Thou stand treat!" said he, with half a sneer: "Has't got a fortun', wench?"

"Nay," said she, "but I've gotten the pint o' ale."

"Gotten what?" said he.

"The pint o' ale!" said she.

John still didn't understand her, till the faithful creature reached down an old stocking from under a loose brick up the chimney, and counted out her daily pint of ale in the shape of three hundred and sixty-five threepences, i.e., L4 11s. 3d., and put them into his hand, exclaiming, "Thou shalt have thee holiday, John!"

John was ashamed, astonished, conscience-stricken, charmed, and wouldn't touch it. "Hasn't thee had thy share? Then I'll ha' no more! "he said. He kept his word. They kept their wedding-day with mother,—and the wife's little capital was the nucleus of a series of frugal investments, that ultimately swelled out into a shop, a factory, warehouses, a country seat, carriage, and, perhaps, a Liverpool Mayor.

In the same way, a workman of even the humblest sort, whose prosperity and regularity of conduct show to his fellow-workmen what industry, temperance, manly tenderness, and superiority to low and sensual temptation can effect, in endearing a home which is bright even amidst the gloom of poverty—such a man does good as well as the most eloquent writer that ever wrote. If there were a few patriarchs of the people such as this, their beneficial influence would soon be sensibly felt by society at large. A life well spent is worth any number of speeches. For example is a language far more eloquent than words: it is instruction in action—wisdom at work.

A man's daily life is the best test of his moral and social state. Take two men, for instance, both working at the same trade and earning the same money; yet how different they may be as respects their actual condition. The one looks a free man; the other a slave. The one lives in a snug cottage; the other in a mud hovel. The one has always a decent coat to his back; the other is in rags. The children of the one are clean, well dressed, and at school; the children of the other are dirty, filthy, and often in the gutter. The one possesses the ordinary comforts of life, as well as many of its pleasures and conveniences—perhaps a well-chosen library; the other has few of the comforts of life, certainly no pleasures, enjoyments, nor books. And yet these two men earn the same wages. What is the cause of the difference between them?

It is in this. The one man is intelligent and prudent; the other is the reverse. The one denies himself for the benefit of his wife, his family, and his home; the other denies himself nothing, but lives under the tyranny of evil habits. The one is a sober man, and takes pleasure in making his home attractive and his family comfortable; the other cares nothing for his home and family, but spends the greater part of his earnings in the gin-shop or the public-house. The one man looks up; the other looks down. The standard of enjoyment of the one is high; and of the other low. The one man likes books, which instruct and elevate his mind; the other likes drink, which tends to lower and brutalize him. The one saves his money; the other wastes it.

"I say, mate," said one workman to another, as they went home one evening from their work, "will you tell me how it is that you contrive to get on? how it is that you manage to feed and clothe your family as you do, and put money in the Penny Bank besides; whilst I, who have as good wages as you, and fewer children, can barely make the ends meet?"

"Well, I will tell you; it only consists in this—in taking care of the pennies!"

"What! Is that all, Ransom?"

"Yes, and a good 'all' too. Not one in fifty knows the secret. For instance, Jack, you don't."

"How! I? Let's see how you make that out."

"Now you have asked my secret, I'll tell you all about it. But you must not be offended if I speak plain. First, I pay nothing for my drink."

"Nothing? Then you don't pay your shot, but sponge upon your neighbours."

"Never! I drink water, which costs nothing. Drunken days have all their to-morrows, as the old proverb says. I spare myself sore heads and shaky hands, and save my pennies. Drinking water neither makes a man sick nor in debt, nor his wife a widow. And that, let me tell you, makes a considerable difference in our out-go. It may amount to about half-a-crown a week, or seven pounds a year. That seven pounds will clothe myself and children, while you are out at elbows and your children go barefoot."

"Come, come, that's going too far. I don't drink at that rate. I may take an odd half-pint now and then; but half-a-crown a week! Pooh! pooh!"

"Well, then, how much did you spend on drink last Saturday night? Out with it."

"Let me see: I had a pint with Jones; I think I had another with Davis, who is just going to Australia; and then I went to the lodge."

"Well, how many glasses had you there?"

"How can I tell? I forget. But it's all stuff and nonsense, Bill!"

"Oh, you can't tell: you don't know what you spent? I believe you. But that's the way your pennies go, my lad."

"And that's all your secret?"

"Yes; take care of the penny—that's all. Because I save, I have, when you want. It's very simple, isn't it?"

"Simple, oh yes; but there's nothing in it."

"Yes! there's this in it,—that it has made you ask me the question, how I manage to keep my family so comfortably, and put money in the Penny Bank, while you, with the same wages, can barely make the ends meet. Money is independence, and money is made by putting pennies together. Besides, I work so hard for mine,—and so do you,—that I can't find it in my heart to waste a penny on drink, when I can put it beside a few other hard-earned pennies in the bank. It's something for a sore foot or a rainy day. There's that in it, Jack; and there's comfort also in the thought that, whatever may happen to me, I needn't beg nor go to the workhouse. The saving of the penny makes me feel a free man. The man always in debt, or without a penny beforehand, is little better than a slave."

"But if we had our rights, the poor would not be so hardly dealt with as they now are."

"Why, Jack, if you had your rights to-morrow, would they put your money back into your pocket after you had spent it?—would your rights give your children shoes and stockings when you had chosen to waste on beer what would have bought them? Would your rights make you or your wife, thriftier, or your hearthstone cleaner? Would rights wash your children's faces, and mend the holes in your clothes? No, no, friend! Give us our rights by all means, but rights are not habits, and it's habits we want—good habits. With these we can be free men and independent men now, if we but determine to be so. Good night, Jack, and mind my secret,—it's nothing but taking care of the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves."

"Good-night!" And Jack turned off at the lane-end towards his humble and dirty cottage in Main's Court. I might introduce you to his home,—but "home" it could scarcely be called. It was full of squalor and untidiness, confusion and dirty children, where a slattern-looking woman was scolding. Ransom's cottage, On the contrary, was a home. It was snug, trig, and neat; the hearthstone was fresh sanded; the wife, though her hands were full of work, was clean and tidy; and her husband, his day's work over, could sit down with his children about him, in peace and comfort.

The chief secret was now revealed. Ransom's secret, about the penny, was a very good one, so far as it went. But he had not really told the whole truth. He could not venture to tell his less fortunate comrade that the root of all domestic prosperity, the mainstay of all domestic comfort, is the wife; and Ransom's wife was all that a working man could desire. There can be no thrift, nor economy, nor comfort at home, unless the wife helps;—and a working man's wife, more than any other man's; for she is wife, Housekeeper, nurse, and servant, all in one. If she be thriftless, putting money into her hands is like pouring water through a sieve. Let her be frugal, and she will make her home a place of comfort, and she will also make her husband's life happy,—if she do not lay the foundation of his prosperity and fortune.

One would scarcely expect that for a penny a day it would be possible to obtain anything valuable. And yet it may be easily shown how much a penny a day, carefully expended, might do towards securing a man's independence, and providing his wife and family against the future pressure of poverty and want.

Take up a prospectus and tables of a Provident Society, intended for the use of those classes who have a penny a day to spend,—that is, nearly all the working classes of the country. It is not necessary to specify any particular society, because the best all proceed upon the same data,—the results of extensive observations and experience of health and sickness;—and their tables of rates, certified by public actuaries, are very nearly the same. Now, looking at the tables of these Life and Sickness Assurance Societies, let us see what a penny a day can do.

1. For a penny a day, a man or woman of twenty-six years of age may secure the sum of ten shillings a week payable during the time of sickness, for the whole of life.

2. For a penny a day (payments ceasing at sixty years of age), a man or woman of thirty-one years of age may secure the sum of L50 payable at death, whenever that event may happen, even though it should be during the week or the month after the assurance has been effected.

3. For a penny a day, a young man or woman of fifteen may secure a sum of L100, the payment of the penny a day continuing during the whole of life, but the L100 being payable whenever death may occur.

4. For a penny a day, a young man or woman of twenty may secure an annuity of L26 per annum, or of 10s. per week for the whole of life, after reaching the age of sixty-five.

5. For a penny a day,—the payment commencing from the birth of any child,—a parent may secure the sum of L20, payable on such child reaching the age of fourteen years.

6. For a penny a day, continued until the child readies the age of twenty-one years, the sum of L45 may be secured, to enable him or her to begin business, or start housekeeping.

7. For a penny a day, a young man or woman of twenty-four may secure the sum of L100, payable on reaching the age of sixty, with the right of withdrawing four-fifths of the amount paid in, at any time; the whole of the payments being paid back in event of death occurring before the age of sixty.

Such is the power of a penny a day! Who would have thought it? Yet it is true, as any one can prove by looking at the tables of the best assurance offices. Put the penny a day in the bank, and it accumulates slowly. Even there, however, it is very useful. But with the assurance office it immediately assumes a vast power. A penny a day paid in by the man of thirty-one, is worth L60 to his wife and family, in the event of his dying next month or next year! It is the combining of small savings for purposes of mutual assurance, by a large number of persons, that gives to the penny its enormous power.

The effecting of a life assurance by a working man, for the benefit of his wife and children, is an eminently unselfish act. It is a moral as well as a religious transaction. It is "providing for those of his own household." It is taking the right step towards securing the independence of his family, after he, the bread-winner, has been called away. This right investment of the pennies is the best proof of practical virtue, and of the honest forethought and integrity of a true man.

The late Joseph Baxendale was the constant friend of the working people who co-operated with him in the labours of his life. He was a man of strong common sense, and might have been styled the Franklin of Business. He was full of proverbial wisdom, and also full of practical help. He was constantly urging his servants to lay by something for a rainy day, or for their support in old age. He also used to pension off his old servants after they had ceased to be able to work.

He posted up Texts along his warehouses, so that those who ran might read. "Never despair," "Nothing without labour," "He who spends all he gets, is on the way to beggary," "Time lost cannot be regained," "Let industry, temperance, and economy be the habits of your lives." These texts were printed in large type, so that every passer-by might read them; while many were able to lay them to heart, and to practise the advices which they enjoined.

On other occasions Mr. Baxendale would distribute amongst his workpeople, or desire to be set up in his warehouses and places of business, longer and more general maxims. He would desire these printed documents to be put up in the offices of the clerks, or in places where men are disposed to linger, or to take their meals, or to assemble preparatory to work. They were always full of valuable advice. We copy one of them, on the Importance of Punctuality:—

"Method is the hinge of business; and there is no method without Punctuality. Punctuality is important, because it subserves the Peace and Good Temper of a family. The want of it not only infringes on necessary Duty, but sometimes excludes this duty. The calmness of mind which it produces is another advantage of Punctuality. A disorderly man is always in a hurry. He has no time to speak to you, because he is going elsewhere; and when he gets there, he is too late for his business, or he must hurry away to another before he can finish it. Punctuality gives weight to character. 'Such a man has made an appointment; then I know he will keep it.' And this generates Punctuality in you; for, like other virtues, it propagates itself. Servants and children must be punctual, when their Leader is so. Appointments, indeed, become debts. I owe you Punctuality, if I have made an appointment with you, and have no right to throw away your time, if I do my own."

Some may inquire, "Who was Joseph Baxendale?" He was, in fact, Pickford and Co., the name of a firm known all over England, as well as throughout the Continent. Mr. Baxendale was the son of a physician at Lancaster. He received a good education, went into the cotton trade, and came up to London to represent the firm with which he was connected. A period of commercial pressure having occurred, he desired to leave the cotton trade and to enter upon some other business. Mr. Pickford had already begun the business of a Carrier, but he was hampered by want of money. Mr. Baxendale helped him with capital, and for a time remained a sleeping partner; but finding that the business made no progress, principally for want of management, he eventually determined to take the active part in working and managing the concern.

He threw his whole energies into the firm of Pickford and Co. He reorganized the agencies, and extended them throughout the kingdom. He put flying vans upon the road, equal to our express trains; and slow vans, equal to our goods trains. He utilized the canals to a large extent, putting on flying boats between all the larger towns. Indeed the roads of the country were then so bad, that in certain seasons it was almost impossible to convey merchandize from one part of the country to another.

The carrying on of such an important and extensive business required much capital, great energy, and first-rate business management. The horses necessary to carry on the traffic were increased from about fifty, which they were in the time of Pickford, to more than a thousand; for relays of horses were necessary at all the stopping-places on the line of traffic, between London and Manchester, between London and Exeter, and between London and Edinburgh. A ship-building yard was established, where all the boats, flying and slow, required to carry on the business, were constructed at Mr. Baxendale's expense.

The carrying business required a great deal of personal supervision. Only a man of determined spirit and indomitable energy could have done it. He had a flying boat in which he rapidly passed along the canals, seeing that the men were at their posts, that the agents were at work, and the traffic duly provided for. He did this by night as well as by day. At other times, he would fly along the roads in his special travelling carriage,—always paying the highest prices to the innkeepers, in order that he might secure the best horses, and avoid delay and loss of time. He would overtake his vans, and see that his men were sober, and that they were well forward at the stations along the road; that their blunderbusses were loaded (for highway robbery was then one of the risks of travelling by road), that the agents were doing their duty, and that everything was in proper order.

Besides overtaking the vans, he would sometimes travel by a by-road—for he knew nearly every road in the country—push on, and then double back upon his drivers, who never knew whether he was before or behind them; and thus general vigilance became the rule of all. By these and various other means the business of the concern was admirably done, and the carrying trade of the country was brought to as high a state of perfection as was compatible with the then state of the roads and canals.

When all this had been accomplished, the disturbing influence of railways began. "I see mischief in these confounded iron roads," said the Duke of Bridgewater. But the time for railways had arrived, and they could not be postponed. The first railroads were used for the conveyance of coals from the pits to the seaside, where they were shipped for London. Then it was proposed that they should be laid for the conveyance of goods from town to town; and the largest traffic being in Lancashire, one of the first railways was constructed between Liverpool and Manchester, from which towns they were afterwards constructed in all directions throughout the country.

Had Mr. Baxendale resisted the new means of conveyance, he would, before long, have been driven off the road. But he clearly foresaw the ultimate triumph of the railway system; and he went with it, instead of against it. He relieved the Liverpool and Manchester Company of a great deal of trouble, by undertaking to manage their goods' traffic and by collecting and delivering it at both towns. Then, when the railways from Warrington to Birmingham and from Birmingham to London were projected, he gave evidence before the committees of Parliament, in proof of the estimated traffic. And when the lines were made, he transferred the goods from his carrying vans to the railway. He thus became a great railway carrier, collecting and delivering goods in all the cities and towns served by the railways which had by that time become established.

He also became a large shareholder in railways. His status in the South-Eastern line was so great, that he was invited to become chairman of the company. He was instrumental, in conjunction with the late Sir William Cubitt, in pushing on the line to Dover. But the Dover Harbour Board being found too stingy in giving accommodation to the traffic, and too grasping in their charges for harbour dues, Mr. Baxendale at once proceeded, on his own responsibility, to purchase Folkestone Harbour as the port of the South-Eastern Company. He next proceeded to get up the Boulogne and Amiens Railway, which was for the most part constructed with English capital; and the direct line from London to Paris was thus completed.

His arduous labours in connection with his own business, as well as with railway extension, having thrown him into ill-health, he went abroad for repose. While absent, a faction was got up in Liverpool for the purpose of appointing another chairman in his stead; and though he was unseated by a trick, he himself accepted his dismissal with pleasure. His sons were now able to help him in the conduct of his business, though he continued to the close of his life to take an interest in everything that was going on. He was never weary of well-doing; he never rested in giving his good advice, the results of his large experience, to the assistants, clerks, and working men employed in his various offices. We conclude our brief notice of his life by giving another of his "Run-and-Read Sermons," which he distributed plentifully among his employes, and had affixed in various portions of his warehouses. It was entitled "Good Maxims and Advice."

"An old servant of the concern observed, a short time ago, that he began life in the employ of Pickford, upon low wages, and that by frugality and industry he had gained a competency. His maxim was, never to spend more than ninepence out of every shilling. Although this may appear a trifle, recollect that it is five shillings in twenty, ten pounds in forty.

"Suppose a young man to pursue this system: Let him obtain the first twenty pounds, add each year ten pounds, he will at the end of six years be possessed of upwards of one hundred pounds. If in early life the opportunity is suffered to pass, it rarely happens that one can save money when more advanced in years.

"The concern in which we are engaged has been defrauded by those who have for thirty years received salaries, the savings from which, had they followed the plan that is recommended, would have placed them in situations of comparative affluence; and we should now have seen them respectable members of society.

"Upon industry and frugality our well-doing depends. It is not great talents, but steady application, that is required. There are none of us that may not obtain stations of respectability. 'God helps them that help themselves.' 'He that follows pleasure instead of business will shortly have no business to follow.'

"I frequently complain of what may be called trifles, but from these arising frequently, we are at length lost. Let each attend to his respective duties; keep the appointed hours; and never defer till to-morrow what may be done to-day.

"If business is more pressing than usual, give additional time, that your own accounts may not fall into confusion, and that you may not be the means of causing delay and trouble to others. It often happens that the negligence of individuals throws additional labour upon those who are anxious for regularity.

"Hiding or screening the faults or errors of others, is a system that has prevailed and caused much loss and injury,—frequently to the offending party, always to the employer.

"Late occurrences lead me to draw your attention to this subject: it is important in every sense, both as regards your public and private stations. There is nothing more worthy of a man than truth: nothing makes him feel himself so despicable as a lie. Recollect that men act lies without speaking them, and that all false appearances are lies. "He, therefore, who, seeing his employer injured, neglects to make it known, is equally guilty—with this addition, that he is practising a lie. Want of punctuality is a lie.

"Speak and act openly on all occasions. Errors will be fewer, and labour will be decreased.

"It seldom happens that we can do any important services, but small services are always in use. Take, therefore, every opportunity of assisting each other,—you are then most effectually serving your employers, as well as keeping up a spirit of cordiality and goodwill amongst yourselves.

"A good Christian must be a good servant. Whatever your lot in life may be above all things remember that 'The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.'"



CHAPTER X.

MASTERS AND MEN.

"The sweat of industry would dry, and die, But for the end it workrt to." Shakspeare.

"Man is a shop of rules, a well-trussed pack, Whose every parcel underwrites a law,"—George Herbert.

"Care preserves what Industry gains. He who attends to his business diligently but not carefully, throws away with one hand what he gathers with the other."—Colton.

"The acquisition of property, the accumulation of capital, is already in the power of the better-paid working class; and legislation has but few further facilities to give, or obstacles to remove. Their savings are now so large that only soberer habits and rounder sense are needed to make them independent capitalists in less than half a lifetime."—W.R. Greg.

Employers can do a great deal towards promoting habits of thrift, prudence, and sobriety amongst their workpeople. Though the working man does not like to be patronized, he has no objections to be helped. We have already seen that individuals can do much; they can cultivate habits of economy, and lay by a certain portion of their earnings for help in time of need. But they want encouragement and assistance. They want sympathy; they want help.

If masters fully understood the immense amount of influence which they possess, they would extend their sympathy and confidence to their workmen,—which Would cost them so very little, and profit them so very much. We know of no instance where an employer has displayed a concern for the social well-being and improvement of his workmen, in which he has not been repaid by their increased respect and zeal on his behalf. He may, for instance, arrange that wages shall not be paid so as to drive them into the market late on Saturday nights, when they are often under the necessity of making their weekly purchases at a great disadvantage. Of course, workmen who possess a little store of savings, might make their purchases at greater advantage at any other time. The employer might also avoid paying wages in public-houses, and thus keep his workmen out of the way of incurring an expenditure upon drink, that might prove so hurtful.

But masters can do more than this. They can actively aid their workmen in the formation of prudent habits, by establishing savings banks for men and women, and penny banks for boys and girls; by encouraging the formation of provident clubs and building societies, of provision and clothing clubs, and in many other ways. They might also distribute among them, without any officious interference, good counsel as to the manner in which they might make the best use of their wages. Many large employers have already accomplished much practical good, by encouraging the formation of provident institutions,—in which they have never failed to secure the respect, and generally the co-operation, of their workmen.

At the same time there is much want of sympathy between masters and men. In fact, want of sympathy pervades all classes—the poorer, the working, the middle, and the upper classes. There are many social gaps between them, which cannot yet be crossed, which cannot yet be united. "If I were to be asked," said Judge Talfourd, on whom Death was at the moment laying his hand, "what is the great want of English society—to mingle class with class—I would say, in one word, the want is the want of sympathy." A great truth, but not yet appreciated. It is the old truth, on which Christianity is based, of "Love one another"—simple saying, but containing within it a gospel sufficient to renovate the world. But where men are so split and divided into classes, and are so far removed that they can scarcely be said to know one another, they cannot have a due social regard and consideration, much less a genuine sympathy and affection, for each other?

Charity cannot remedy the evil. Giving money, blankets, coals, and such-like, to the poor—where the spirit of sympathy is wanting,—does not amount to much. The charity of most of the Lord and Lady Bountifuls begins with money, and ends there. The fellow-feeling is absent. The poor are not dealt with as if they belonged to the same common family of man, or as if the same human heart beat in their breasts.

Masters and servants live in the same unsympathetic state. "Each for himself" is their motto. "I don't care who sinks, so that I swim." A man at an inn was roused from his slumber; "There is a fire at the bottom of the street," said the waiter. "Don't disturb me" said the traveller, "until the next house is burning." An employer said to his hands, "You try to get all you can out of me; and I try to get all I can out of you." But this will never do. The man who has any sympathy in him cannot allow such considerations to overrule his better nature. He must see the brighter side of humanity ever turned towards him. "Always to think the worst," said Lord Bolingbroke, "I have ever found the mark of a mean spirit and a base soul."

On the other hand, the operative class consider their interests to be quite distinct from those of the master class. They want to get as much for their labour as possible. They want labour to be dear that they may secure high wages. Thus, there being no mutual sympathy nor friendly feeling between the two classes,—but only money considerations,—collisions are frequent, and strikes occur. Both classes—backed by their fellows determined to "fight it out," and hence we have such destructive strikes as those of Preston, Newcastle, London, and South Wales.

The great end of both is gain, worldly gain, which sometimes involves a terrible final loss. A general suspicion of each other spreads, and society becomes cankered to the core. The remedy is only to be found in the cherishment of a larger Christian sympathy and more genuine benevolence. Thus only can the breath of society be sweetened and purified. Money gifts avail nothing, as between rich and poor. Unless there is a soul of goodness, and a real human fellowship between them, the mischief and the curse which the excellent Judge Talfourd lamented with his dying breath will never be overcome.

Some allege that this want of sympathy arises, for the most part, from the evils of Competition. It is "heartless," "selfish," "mischievous," "ruinous," and so on. It is said to produce misery and poverty to the million. It is charged with lowering prices, or almost in the same breath with raising them. Competition has a broad back, and can bear any amount of burdens.

And yet there is something to be said for competition, as well as against it. It is a struggle,—that must be admitted. All life is a struggle. Amongst workmen, competition is a struggle to advance towards higher wages. Amongst masters, to make the highest profits. Amongst writers, preachers, and politicians, it is a straggle to succeed,—to gain glory, reputation, or income. Like everything human, it has a mixture of evil in it. If one man prospers more than others, or if some classes of men prosper more than others, they leave other classes of men behind them. Not that they leave those others worse, but that they themselves advance.

Put a stop to competition, and you merely check the progress of individuals and of classes. You preserve a dead uniform level. You stereotype society, and its several orders and conditions. The motive for emulation is taken away, and Caste, with all its mischiefs, is perpetuated. Stop competition, and you stop the struggle of individualism. You also stop the advancement of individualism, and through that of society at large.

Under competition, the lazy man is put under the necessity of exerting himself; and if he will not exert himself, he must fall behind. If he do not work, neither shall he eat. My lazy friend, you must not look to me to do my share of the world's work, and yours too! You must do your own fair share of work, save your own money, and not look to me and to others to keep you out of the poor-house. There is enough for all; but do your own share of work you must.

Success grows out of struggles to overcome difficulties. If there were no difficulties, there would be no success. If there were nothing to struggle or compete for, there would be nothing achieved. It is well, therefore, that men should be under the necessity of exerting themselves. In this necessity for exertion, we find the chief source of human advancement—the advancement of individuals as of nations. It has led to most of the splendid mechanical inventions and improvements of the age. It has stimulated the shipbuilder, the merchant, the manufacturer, the machinist, the tradesman, the skilled workman. In all departments of productive industry, it has been the moving power. Is has developed the resources of this and of other countries,—the resources of the soil, and the character and qualities of the men who dwell upon it. It seems to be absolutely necessary for the purpose of stimulating the growth and culture of every individual. It is deeply rooted in man, leading him ever to seek after, and endeavour to realize, something better and higher than he has yet attained.

Of course, man is much more than a competing being. That is only one of his characteristics, and not the highest or noblest. He has sensibilities, sympathies, and aspirations, which should induce him to unite and cooperate with others in works for the common good. With unfettered individualism, there may, and there ought to be, beneficent cooperation for the general happiness. Men may unite to labour, to produce, and to share with each other the fruits of their corporate industry. But under any circumstances, there will be the instinct of competition, the opportunities for competition, and, though mixed with necessary evil, there will be the ultimate advantages of competition.

One of the results of industry and thrift is the accumulation of Capital. Capital represents the self-denial, the providence, and the enterprise of the past. The most successful accumulators of capital have in all times risen from the ranks of labour itself; they are working men who have shot ahead of their fellows, and who now give employment instead of receiving it. These persons,—who are not the less working men because they have ceased to be manual labourers,—by creating and extending the sphere of productive industry, must be regarded as amongst the most effective benefactors of the people, as they unquestionably are among the principal sources of the power and wealth of any nation. Without the capital accumulated by their thrift during many generations, the lot of the artizan would be most precarious.

There is not a mechanic but has the use of the money of the master who employs him. When the unskilled labourer lays down his spade, he leaves idle a capital worth eighteen-pence; but when a skilled artizan or mechanic leaves his mill or his workshop, he leaves idle a capital of from a hundred to two hundred pounds per man. Nor does the skilled workman run any risk whatever as regards the sums invested, though he virtually shares the profits in the shape of the wages paid for his labour. The profit which remains is the master's return for his management and his risks. It is well known, however, that the risks are not always covered, as the Gazette in bad times abundantly demonstrates.

The workman in good employment is not liable to losses by bad debts; he has no obsolete machinery from time to time left useless on his hands; and he has no anxiety about finding a market for his goods, nor fears respecting fluctuations in the price of the raw material. These are important advantages in his favour, which he does not usually take into account. It is true he suffers if trade is bad, but he earns high wages if it be good: he can then save money if he chooses to do so. He may be said to participate in the adversity or prosperity of his firm, but without incurring any of the liabilities of partnership.

Mr. Carlyle has given a curious account of the great English manufacturer. "Plugson, of St. Dolly Undershot, buccaneer-like, says to his men, 'Noble spinners, this is the hundred thousand we have gained, wherein I mean to dwell and plant my vineyards. The hundred thousand is mine, the three-and-sixpence daily was yours. Adieu, noble spinners! drink my health with this groat each, which I give you over and above!'"

This account of the manufacturing buccaneer is a picture drawn by a man of genius from his imagination. There are probably many readers who believe the picture to be drawn from fact. There may, of course, be masters who are buccaneers; but there are also masters who are not buccaneers. There are dishonest manufacturers, as there are dishonest literary men, dishonest publicans, dishonest tradesmen. But we must believe that in all occupations honesty is the rule, and dishonesty the exception. At all events, it is better that we should know what the manufacturers really are,—from fact rather than from fiction.

Let us first take a large manufacturing firm, or rather series of firms, well known in South Lancashire. We mean the cotton-spinning mills of the Messrs. Ashworth at Egerton and New Eagley. They have been in existence for more than seventy years. They have been repeatedly enlarged, and increasing numbers of workpeople have been employed at the uniform wages paid throughout the district. Workmen earn from seventeen shillings to two pounds a week. Women-weavers can earn as much as twenty-one shillings a week. Where the parents have children, the united earnings of families amount to as much as from L150 to L200 a year.

Then, as to what the Ashworths have done for the benefit of their workpeople. Schooling, by means of mutual instruction classes, was in operation from the first; but about the year 1825, when the works were greatly enlarged, and the population was considerably increased, a day school was opened for children, which was used as an evening school for young men, as well as for a Sunday-school. The continued extension of the works led to an enlargement of the school accommodation; and while this was being provided, arrangements were made for a news-room, library, and for the performance of divine worship on Sundays. A cricket-ground was also provided for the use of young people.

Misgivings were not unfrequently expressed that the zeal and expenditure incurred by the Messrs. Ashworth might one day be turned against them, to their annoyance and pecuniary loss. The prediction was realized in only a single instance. A young man of considerable talent, who when a child had been removed to the factory from a neighbouring workhouse, made very rapid progress at school, especially in arithmetic; and when a strike of the workpeople occurred in 1830, one of the great strike years, he became very officious as a leader. The strike was defeated by the employment of new hands, and it was attributed to the influence of this young man that the employed were brutally assailed by an infuriated mob, and that the windows of the schoolroom were smashed, and other works of destruction committed.

The employers, nevertheless, pursued their original design. They repaired the school-house, and endeavoured to increase the efficacy of the teaching. They believed that nothing was better calculated to remove ignorant infatuation than increased schooling. In a great many instances, the heads of the families had previously been engaged as hand-loom weavers, or in some pastoral pursuit; and it became evident that in course of time the exercise of their minds in the details of a new pursuit awakened their intelligence, and their general demeanour indicated marks of a higher cultivation.

The New Eagley Mills being situated in a narrow valley, several miles from Bolton, and the property being in the possession of the owners, they forbade the opening of any tavern or beerhouse on the estate; so that the district became distinguished for the order and sobriety of the inhabitants. A man of intemperate habits has little chance of remaining in the Ashworth villages. He is expelled, not by the employers, but by the men themselves. He must conform to the sober habits of the place, or decamp to some larger town, where his vices may be hidden in the crowd. Many of the parents have expressed how much gratification they have felt, that by reason of the isolated situation they enjoyed as a community, they had become so completely separated from the corrupt influences of music saloons and drink-shops.

The masters have added to their other obligations to the workpeople, the erection of comfortable cottages for their accommodation. They are built of stone, and are two-storied; some have two upper bedrooms, and others have three. On the ground floor there is a sitting-room, a living-room, and a scullery, with a walled courtyard enclosing the whole premises. The proprietor pays the poor-rates and other local charges, and the rentals of the houses vary from 2s. 4d. to 4s. 3d. a week.

The regularity of their employment, accompanied with the payment of wages on Friday night, doubtless promoted their local attachment to the place. Many of the descendants of the first comers remain on the spot; their social relations have been promoted; intermarriages have been frequent; and during the whole period there has not been a single prosecution for theft. The working people have also thriven as well as their masters. Great numbers of them are known to possess reserved funds in savings banks and other depositories for savings; and there are others of them who have invested their money in cottage buildings, and in various other ways.

But have not the men risen above their lot of labouring spinners? They have. Such of them as possessed skill, ability, and the faculty of organization, have been promoted from the ranks of labourers, and have become mill managers. "About thirty of these," says Mr. Henry Ashworth, "have been reckoned on the spur of the moment, and ten of them have become business partners or proprietors of mills.... Many manufacturers," adds Mr. Ashworth, "are to be found who have done a great deal to ameliorate the condition of those they have employed; and no one will doubt that they have been prompted, not by hopes of gain, but by emotions of goodwill."[1]

[Footnote 1: The greater part of the above information is contained in the statement by Mr. Henry Ashworth, in the Reports on the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867, vol. vi., pp. 161-163.]

Manufacturers such as these do not, like Plugson of St. Dolly Undershot, gather up their fortunes and run away, leaving a groat each to their workpeople to drink their healths. They remain with them from generation to generation. The best and the noblest amongst them—the Ashworths of Turton, the Strutts of Derby, the Marshalls of Leeds, the Akroyds of Halifax, the Brooks of Huddersfield, and many others,—have continued to superintend their works for several generations. The Strutts were the partners of Arkwright, who was almost the beginner of English manufacture. In fact, it is only since Arkwright took out his patent for the spinning machine, and Watt took out his patent for the steam engine, that England has become a manufacturing country.

Where would England have been now, but for the energy, enterprise, and public spirit of our manufacturers? Could agriculture have supported the continuous increase of population? Is it not more probable that this country would have become overrun by beggars,—or that property would have been assailed and the constitution upset, as was the case in France,—but for the extensive and remunerative employment afforded to the labouring classes in the manufacturing districts? The steam engine has indeed proved the safety-valve of England. It enabled the kingdom to hold its ground firmly during the continental wars; and but for it, and the industries which it has established, England would probably by this time have sunk to the condition of a third or fourth-rate power.

It is true, the great manufacturers have become wealthy. But it would certainly have been singular if, with their industry, energy, and powers of organization, they had become poor! Men of the stamp of the Strutts, Ashworths, Marshalls, and others, do not work for wealth merely, though wealth comes to them. They have not become great because they were rich, but they have become rich because they were great. Accumulations of wealth are the result of exceptional industry, organization, and thrift, rather than of exceptional gain. Adam Smith has said: "It seldom happens that great fortunes are made by any one regularly-established and well-known branch of business, but in consequence of a long life of industry, frugality, and attention."

But it is not always so. For instance, Mr. Lister, of Bradford, after inventing the combing machine,—or at least combining the inventions of others into a complete combing machine of his own,—proceeded to invent a machine for using up silk waste (then cast away as useless), spinning it into silk of the finest kind, and by means of the power-loom to weave it into velvet of the best quality. The attempt had never before been made by any inventor; and it seemed to be of insuperable difficulty. Mr. Lister had already made a fortune by the success of his combing machine, such as to enable him to retire from business, and live in comfort for the rest of his life. But, urged by the irrepressible spirit of the inventor, he went onward with his silk machine. As he himself said, at a recent meeting at Bradford,[1]—"They might judge how hard he had worked to conquer the difficulties which beset him, when he told them that for twenty years he had never been in bed at half-past five in the morning; in fact, he did not think there was a man in England who had worked harder than he had." The most remarkable thing was, that he threw away an immense fortune before there was any probability of his succeeding. "He had almost brought himself to ruin, for he was L360,000 out of pocket before he even made a shilling by his machine; indeed, he wrote off a quarter of a million as entirely lost, before he began to make up his books again. Since then, his patent for the manufacture of silk had turned out one of the most successful of the day."

[Footnote 1: The meeting was held to receive the transfer of Mr. Lister's fine Park at Manningham, which he had presented to the Corporation of Bradford, "to be a People's Park for ever."]

In the Park presented by Mr. Lister to the people of Bradford, a statue was recently erected by public subscription. It was unveiled by the Right Hon. W.E. Forster, who, in closing his speech, observed: "I doubt, after all, whether we are come here to do honour to Mr. Lister, so much as to do honour to ourselves. We wish to do honour to those working faculties which have made our country of England a practical, and therefore a great and prosperous, and a powerful country. It is this untiring, unresting industry which Mr. Lister possesses, this practical understanding, this determination to carry out any object which he is convinced ought to be carried out, and his determination to fear no opposition and to care for no obstacle—it is these practical faculties that have made England what she is. What is it especially that we are honouring? It is the pluck which this man has shown; it is the feeling that, having to do with the worsted trade, he said to himself, 'Here is something which ought to be done; I will not rest until I have found out how it can be done; and having found out how it can be done, where is the man who shall stop my doing it?' Now it was upon that principle that he fought his long struggle; and so when we read the story of his struggles, ever since 1842, in those two great inventions, we raise this statue to the man who has successfully fought the battle, and hope that our sons and the sons of all, rich and poor together, will come in after-days to admire it, not merely because it gives them the form and features of a rich and successful man, but because it gives them the form and features of a man who was endowed with industry, with intellect, with energy, with courage, with perseverance,—who spared himself no pains in first ascertaining the conditions of the problems he had to solve,—and then whose heart never fainted, whose will never relaxed, in determining to carry out those conditions."

Great men are wise savers and wise spenders. Montesquieu has said of Alexander: "He found the first means of his prosperity and power in the greatness of his genius; the second, in his frugality and private economy; and the third, in his immense liberality to accomplish great objects. He spent but little on himself; but for public purposes his hand was always open." It was also said of the first Napoleon, that he was economical like Charlemagne, because he was great like Charlemagne. Napoleon was by no means a spendthrift, except in war; but he spent largely in accomplishing great public undertakings. In cases such as these, economy and generosity are well combined. And so it is in the cases of all men possessed of energy, industry, and great powers of organization.