by employers to raise the morals, the manners, and the intellectual condition of those over whom the accidents of life have given them such powerful influence.

All honour to the few who have acknowledged and fulfilled the duties towards their servants which remain to be discharged after all pecuniary claims have been satisfied. This is a topic on which I can only dwell for a moment, and therefore I must pass over in silence establishments, in and near my native town, to which it would give me great pleasure to direct the attention of the reader, pausing only to speak of one which stands confessedly at the head of all where the duties which I have indicated have been observed. I refer to Price's Candle Company, a joint-stock association for the manufacture of candles of a superior kind. This company has five large establishments, one in Lambeth, another at Birkenhead, and three elsewhere. They employ about 2300 persons, of whom 300 are females, chiefly girls; a considerable proportion of the remainder being boys. The company was founded by Mr. William Wilson and his sons, James Pillans Wilson and George Ferguson Wilson. The sons are now the managing directors of the company. These gentlemen, with the consent and hearty approbation of the shareholders, have attached to their manufactories schools for the children, mechanics' institutions for adults, playgrounds for all ages, and refreshment rooms. Chapels have also been provided, with chaplains who devote their whole time to the pastoral care of the workpeople. The comforts of the sick are not forgotten, and they are sent to the sea-side when occasion requires.

Above all, these gentlemen personally associate with the objects of their care and affection on terms of genuine cordiality. In short, the Candle Works form a great plebeian university, in some respects better deserving the name than more exalted institutions, where the culture of the heart and the moral principles are not included in the curriculum of the studies, and where the connexion between the alma mater and the alumni begins at a later period of life, and for educational purposes quickly arrives at its termination. That the workpeople cannot enjoy these advantages without large pecuniary contributions on the part of the company is self-evident. Of their amount I am not competent to speak, but I know

that the contributors regard them not in the light of sacrifices, but as the purchase-money of benefits to themselves; candidly avowing that, even in a pecuniary sense, they are repaid by the high moral tone which has been created, and the devoted attachment of the employed to their employers, which is resulting from the expenditure thus made for their welfare.

No doubt every relation of life which brings different classes into intercommunication ought to be used by the higher and better educated for the purpose of raising, as far as possible, their inferiors in the moral and intellectual scale. But, in our age and country, by far the most important in this point of view is that of employer and employed; and it is of growing importance. Assemblies of working people are becoming larger and larger, and these incorporations of augmented numbers, while they afford additional facilities for the work of benevolence, call for more copious emanations of its spirit. For these large aggregations, while they admit of more being done for the people by their employers, and by the people for themselves, are liable to suffer with greater severity from moral neglect, and to run into wilder disorders than can ever happen where the community is composed only of a few individuals. It is here, as elsewhere, in the progress of civilization. The farther we advance the more potent become the influences of society both for good and for evil.

There are two advantages flowing from this union of education with profitable employment which cannot fail to strike the reflecting reader as of the highest moment. The first is, that this intermingling of instruction and training with the affairs of a concern carried on for profit, especially where, as in the instance of the Candle Company, the pecuniary consequences of such an alliance are satisfactory to the employer, subtracts, pro tanto, the education of the lower classes from the sum of charitable undertakings, and thereby not only relieves our charitable funds of a heavy burden, but places education itself on a sounder basis, unendangered by those fluctuations which belong to voluntary institutions, founded simply on the principle of benevolence. The second is, that it disposes, so far as it comes into operation, of the two great difficulties which impede our educational progress; that which arises out of diversities in religious opinion, and that which arises from the desire of parents prematurely to put their children into a position of aiding in the

support of the family to which they belong. There would be no law, no committee, no body of subscribers to interfere with the employer on the subject of religion, while on the other hand he would have the strongest motive not to offend his workpeople by setting at nought their feelings on the subject. Then, as regards the wages of the child, they would begin early, and advance, pari passu, with his education; and even if they were not quite equal to what he would gain at first, supposing education to be altogether abandoned, yet the prospect of an ultimate addition to his power of earning would reconcile many a parent to the immediate sacrifice. Not that I feel at all certain that any sacrifice would be necessary, the value of every person, young or old, as an instrument of profit to his employer, being at once augmented by a wellconducted system of moral and mental training. Moreover, a usage is now in commencement, which will probably more and more prevail every year-that of masters applying an educational test to candidates for employment. In the Candle Company there is a preparatory school for such candidates, the reward of proficiency being admission into the works.

It is not, however, given to us all to sway the destinies of large bodies of our fellow-creatures; yet every reader of this book probably is or will become the master or mistress of domestic servants. Let him give due thought to the responsibility which attaches to the headship of a family. The members of a household are united in a relation which may be turned to much good or to much evil, and in which direction that relation shall operate mainly depends upon those who fill the highest positions, and form the governing powers of this little commonwealth. Taking the word 'home' in its genuine sense, as comprehending all who live under the same rooftree, it may be safely conceded that charity ought to begin there; and the philanthropist who dispenses his bounty, whether of money or labour, abroad, while the education of his servants is neglected, their health and comfort uncared for, their hearts chilled by haughtiness, excessive or untimely displays of anger, or contempt of the courtesies which every human being owes to every other, is, to say the least of him, a very inconsistent character, and one whose conduct casts a doubt on the purity of his motives.

The need for recreations is at last beginning to be felt among us. Provide harmless amusements, wholesome for the body, the intellect, and the affections, and the young, at all events, may be reasonably expected to choose them in preference to debasing pleasures. Relaxation from toil, whether of body or of mind, is a necessity of our nature. It will be snatched where it is not conceded, and where time for enjoyment is stinted, a strong temptation is offered to make up by intensity what is lost in duration. Hence the resort to stimulants. 'Pleasures of some sort are necessary,' (says Johnson) to the intellectual as to the corporeal health; and those who resist gaiety will be likely for the most part to fall a sacrifice to appetite; for the solicitations of sense are always at hand, and a dram to a vacant and solitary person is a speedy and seducing relief.* I believe we ought to place recreation upon the same footing as food, clothing, rest, and instruction, and not permit any curtailment of the leisure appropriated to amusement, under the notion that we are calling for only a slight and unimportant sacrifice.

Much valuable training, which is but too frequently neglected, may be carried forward on the playground. The conduct of lads among themselves is often grossly unjust on the one side, and is met on the other with unbridled anger, not infrequently settling down into hatred, and prompting acts of revenge. A steady, good-tempered, well-mannered, and judicious superintendent of a public playground, when such a privilege shall be granted to that important body, the boys in the street, would do much for the moral training of youths. While checking a querulous tone in the weak, he would restrain the more powerful from oppression. Where statements were conflicting, he might select a jury of youngsters, and, presiding as judge, act upon their verdict. It would be his duty to preserve order and decorum both in language and action, and to cultivate that attention to the courtesies of life wherein we islanders, especially the younger sort, are so deficient.

I have often thought that a digest of the rules which govern the various games in which boys engage might have a salutary effect on their temper and even on their morals.

* Piozzi's Anecdotes, p. 81.

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At present these rules or laws are imperfectly known, ill-defined, and some of them constructed in a spirit of chicanery. Thus I remember when a schoolboy myself there were rules at the game of marbles which gave advantage, not to the best player, but to the one who could first utter certain formulæ. The consequence was that an employment sought for the sake of pleasure became a source of irritation to those engaged in it, annoyance to bystanders, and concern to the reflective teacher who saw that the play-hour was wasted, indeed worse than wasted, in a training to ill temper, bad language, and litigious habits. A little code of laws, not departing without clear necessity from those handed down by tradition, but framed with a view to promote skill and prevent disputes, would be appreciated by young people as a valuable gift.

All who have made themselves acquainted with the tastes and habits of our lowest class, and especially those of its younger members, know how passionate is their love of dramatic entertainments. The penny theatre is the most seductive temptation by which they are beset. They steal to obtain the means of entering these pestiferous dens, and what they hear and see there contaminates even the minds of thieves. But every passion is a power, and may be turned to good purpose. I doubt whether a philanthropist could be better employed than by furnishing dramatic entertainments of a suitable kind to a juvenile audience of the lower classes.

It would require some prudence on his part to prevent abuse, but the attraction would be so great, that the candidates for admittance would submit to almost any conditions rather than be excluded; such as cleanliness of person, and neatness of dress, perfect order while present, and soforth. Tickets might be given to the conductors of Ragged Schools; subscribers to the expense of the undertaking might also distribute tickets to those on whom they thought such encouragement would be well bestowed. Ever since the days of the Puritans-a body of men for whom I have great respect, but who have done a vast amount of mischief as well as of good-we have been trying the 'putting down' principle of action. The few dictating the relaxations of the many. It has failed, and ever will fail. Instead, then, of confiscating the pleasures of the poor and ignorant, let us try the effect of a well-devised system of barter.