NOTES OF A LECTURE Delivered at Hurstper-point, in 1851, to the Members of a Working Man's Reading Room. I AM here to-night through the invitation of your kind friends, with no right but that of unfeigned interest in every institution like yours. The subject I had proposed was the Progress of Society. I changed it for that of the Working Classes. But even this is too full of pretension. Nevertheless, the mere fact of my standing here to-night is full of significance. More so than railways or electric telegraphs. That so many of the Working Classes should come here after a hard day's work is very significant. It proves the growing victory of the spirit over the animal: That the lower life of toil and animal indulgence is getting to be reckoned as not the all of man. It shows, too, that the Working Classes are becoming conscious of their own destinies. Any Society is in an advanced state when it begins to contemplate itself, and asks, "Whither do we tend?" Three thousand years ago, the centre of the World's civilization was in Eastern Africa. The monuments of this civilization still remain. The Pyramids. They are the wonder of travellers, whose report of their measurements excites, in turn, our astonishment and surprise. But to one considering the progress of the race, these Pyramids tell a different tale. They were built by the Working Classes, under coercion. They were built for Royal ostentation. Herodotus speaks of hundreds of thousands degraded into serfs. In the Metropolis of the World's present civilization, a structure stood this year almost as marvellous as these pyramids. Remarkable not for gigantic massiveness.But for punctuality and order. Built, too, under Royal auspices, and built by the Labouring Classes. But not built, like the pyramids, for Royal splendour. It was built for the exhibition of the works of Labouring Men. You could not go through that building without feeling that Royalty itself was second there, not first. One feeling I had was-There is nothing here that I can make. I belong to the non-producing classes. New era. The dignity of Labour.—The sinking of the Individual in the Society. Another truth typified by that bearing on the destinies of the Working Classes. of an age of Peace. Falaise. The approach -Guizot. Assume, then, the fact of the growing importance of the Working Classes. There are two ways of treating this fact, just as there are two ways of treating an heir just entering on a noble patrimony. One is, that of the sycophant, to tell him how great he is. Another way is, that of wise friends, who tell him that as he has become great, therefore he has duties; because he has become rich, therefore he has responsibilities. There are two ways of treating the Working Classes. One, to tell them how enlightened they are. How powerful. That Vox populi vox Dei, &c. Another, that of reminding them that because free, they should fit themselves for freedom; because destined to play a great part on the stage |