The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-11-02 00:00:00

THE HON. CHICHESTER FORTESCUE.

On Monday evening the Hon. Chichester Forteseue
delivered the inaugural address for the opening season
of the Radstock Working Men's Hall, to a crowded
audience. In the course of his address, which was
listened to with great attention, the right hon. gentle-
man said

To ralz al.out education now-a-days is something like talk-
Mg about the weather. Talking about the weather is not a
cheerful topic, but profitable sometimes—when at sea, for
instance, or nn a farm .51 so, under presept circumstances,
it is appropriate to speak of education; therefore I will say
few wordfi on the Sybieck Suppece, wo dro the vrord
" education for a ropinont, and Pieter; to o.:rielves the
object of an institution like t'c pro-eat somewhat in this
way '—lt iy a Particniar means and instrument, however
hunvde, o, cultivating the intelligence of the people,
fed especially of those who have not had the onpertrlnt-
ties of improving therriselvel, and vrho were net so
fortanate as thel irturugs fear of this ibis insti!n-
Mon provide. then the means of cultivating their
intelle2h,o, with all its pl-asures, profit, and power.
Depend npon it that of all things in the world the gift
least cultivated, anal in which we have hitherto done the
least in comparison with what we could and ought to do, and
I believe shall do. lithe human intelligence of man. I should
like to ptit this to, artisans and other inthillgent *4lung
men, tote If One tliing the world is More certain than
another it is this, that the general cultivation of the intelli-
gence of working men tells in a, thousand ways upon, every
pursuit that a man may follow, even upon the humblest par.
suits of manual Inl1oo; on" terely ed eh, Outfits to
whili I allude ant not 05 the humblest knoll by any means,
hut e.mire skill and intelligence. I have been very much
struck lately in reading a hot, which I think is valuable in
Its way, and which I shall have great pleasure in adding to
your library. I refer th a work on Work and Wage,s The
writer gives his own experience and the enormous experience
of his lather, the greatest and ablest of those men who con-
structed meny of the railways of this and other countries.
In this hook are to he found some most remarkable facia as
to the value—the absolute money Value, of. gener4 intelli-
gence in the wotklng, Mau, d9wii WYen , M 1011415114
claim el Matinal Ithen"eii. There wei a flee thing
tied the °diet day uy Lord Salisbury when he protested
against the idea of education standing in the way of
honest waem.eal labotir - itgalnrl Opinion that it
would make iron ashamed of or Unfitted for labour.
In this sense the experience which, as I say, is (mind in
the book i have mentioned, and which is we!) known
to all who hake largelS to do with lahenr, strongly tends.
Mr. Praiitet SlieWs how those einployers Vino are fortu-
nate ettongh to had intelligent mem, worthy ,of high wadws,
an who have had sense and hibeyauty ta birch wagsso
hang Wind it ,econorek.al so, because intelligent
working e•eh ea.(' found to be much more valuable than
the unintelligent one. Brassey gives a comparison of
railway labour in India, when railways were bsing madwin
the country, showing Use oomrhqathee aimarlarify end Intel-
ligence of Engitsh thrl l. a mod t masterly way.
Bs said th4t b owl Milian navvies 6d. a day, whereaa he
1-said English navvies ten times as much, in many mesas
much as 65. a day ; and yet he found that the cost per nille
was as murk as it chid him in England, and he explained
it very easily lie found that the unintelligent labourer
required much more constant supervision over his work
than the working ism of our country, and that this alone
accounted for fully 20 per cent. of the dirlerenee,

•
And now, hi ennnection with this point, let me say One
word, appropriate to the present time, as to the prospects
of the artisan and working men's class among us. In our
day, evidently, the tourney of things Is to raise the con-
dition of that great Mid valitable rims if they will only co-
operate themselves and lend their Intelligence. The tee
dewy of things is to raise their wages and to increase their
leisure, to shorten their working hours, and to increase their
time at their own disposal. The great question is, still the
working class make good use of the opportunities and ad-
vantages which we think and which they think have been
partly reaped already. It must be admitted that this change
Lao come upon them somewhat unexpectedly, and has found
them In many places unprepared for it, so that a great deal
of ,he leisure time thus gained by working men is given up
to the lower class of amusement, and, I am sorry to add,.
great ,Leal to the pnbhchouses.

Now, ha connection with this subject, I was realline the
other day in one of oiw ablest periodicals, I refer to Etc,,.
Magazine, an article upon this subject of luxury. It com-
menced with • very stern criticism upon the luxuries of the
rich, but this was followed by another chapter with the title,
'The Luxuries f the poor," and there was a most reniark-
able statement as to the enormous sums of money spent by
the working claims of this country upon their luxuries—that