The Express.
London, England, 1863-10-30 00:00:00

BRITANNIA.

Talk EVERMO. THE DAYS OF XV. Ws. S. Los.
—THE GREAT OHM EFFECT. lltoars. Reynolds and Cooke :
11,11ns. Cranford sad Yaroold. —Singing by ',am Collins, Mr. Ran-
dall, and Mane. litroa.—And THE HUN of. it OF THE HOUSE.

NIGH WATU AT LONDON DAMON
TED DAT —Manta& Na ....Afteranos. 4h. Ilia
To440•10112104AOS. 4L .Allmam 46 44,a.

LONDON, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30.

Wr have recently given a detailed amount of
the labours of the " Working Men's Club and In.
" stitute Union" in London and its neighbourhood,
and those who read the series of papers which have
appeared in our columns on this interesting subject
will probably be at once surprised at the extent of
the movement, and impressed with its thoroughly
practical and useful character. Working Men's
Clubs of the type proposed by the Union are
now established in every part of the me-
tropolis, and some of the moat flourish-
ing are in what have hitherto been justly
accounted the most miserable, destitute,
and vicious districts. In Duck-lane, for example,
where the admission fee is only a halfpenny a week,
the Club already numbers nearly 500 members,
and is in admirable working order. This remark-
able success of the recently-formed Union in a do-
pes ;,ment of social reform where so many prc-
vions attempts have failed, is, however, due to
very intelligible causes, and may be easily ex-
plained. The Union is redly the first elbow's:
ever made to meet working men on their own
level, to asee-fain their actual wants and wishes,
and put them in the way o' meeting them in a
sensible, simple, and economical way. The Clubs or
Institutes established on the plan suggested by
the Union are intended to combine the main
attractions of the public-house, the bowling-alley,
and discussion forum, with most of the special
advantages the old mechanics' institutes were esta-
blished to secure. When his day's labour is over
the working man naturally wishes for a little rest, '
enjoyment, and social recreation. Hitherto the
public-house has been practically the only &CCM-
aible place where he could obtain them at a small
outlay. But wherever a Working Men's Club is
establ;shed they are at once secured under far more
favourable circumstances than at any public house.
If he wants a quiet pipe and a friendly chat with
his fellow-workmen, there is the smoking-room of
the Club; if he prefesi a game, there are chess,
draughts, bagatelle, and solitaire at hand ; or if
he likes outdoor amusement better, there are in the
summer months such games as football, quoits,
and the like, and at all seasons the skittle-alley.
If he wishes to see the news, there is the reading-
room ; or if, being of a more reflective turn, he
inclines to study some branch of science or litera-
ture, them are the library and the evening classes
connected with the Institute. And at all times
refreshments of good quality are t> be had on the
Club premises at the lowest price. In these Clubs
a working man may thus command for a peony a
week ample and varied means of social intercourse
and amusement, of healthful recreation and mental
improvement. There is another incidental advan-
tage connected with these institutions, the value
of which cannot well be over-rated. The majority
of them are managed, in whole or in part, by the
working men themselves, and this managing their
own affairs for the general good is a very useful
training in business habits as well as in organized ac-
tion for a common end. These Clubs are in this way
schools, not only of sobriety and thrift, of frank
intercourse and mutual courtesy, but of the higher
elements of manly character included under self-
reliance, self-government, and self-respect. In a
word, they meet and satisfy the primary wants of
the industrial classes in a way which directly tends
to raise their individual character and improve
their social position.
It is gratifying to find that a movement in all
respects so useful and so full of promise is spread-
ing rapidly in the provinces as well as in London.
The " Club and Institute Union," so far from con-
fining its operations to the metropolis, has, during
the past year, been in active correspondence with
the leaden and representatives of the working
dames in most of the large towns in the Midland
and Northern Counties, as well as with several in
the South and West. In towns where clubs of some
sort already existed they have been remodelled by
the help of the Union on the broader, more com-
plete and satisfactory basis it lays down ;
and in others where none previously existed they
have been formed under the guidance and with
the assistance of the Central Association. The
concluding paper on " Working Men's Clubs,"
which appeared in our columns yesterday, specified
seven or eight of these, some of which—such as
the one at Leeds—number upwards of two thou-
sand members. During the last month, moreover,
important public meetings in aid of the movement
have been held in North Shields, Newcastle,
Bradford, and other large towns in the North.
Them meetings were attended by Mr. H. Sour,
the able and zealous Secretary of the Union,
for the double purpose of giving some account of
the Clubs formed in other parts of the kingdom,
and offering suggestions for the improvement and
extension of the local Institute. At New-
castle, Sir WILLIAM Alarms° attended to ex-
press his admiration of the general scheme of the
Union, his desire for its extended success, and his
willingness to assist its action in his own
locality. At the Bradford meeting, perhaps the
most crowded and important of the series, Mr.
Postern presided, and in his opening address threw
out a suggestion which is certainly worthy of consi-
deration, and will probably hereafter be extensively
adopted. In attempting to give the members of
the local Institute an idea of what a London Club,
such es he himself belonged to, was like,
Mr. Fosurrsa said, " they managed by paying
" entrance fees and half-yearly subscriptions to
" obtain a good building, in which they had a
" comfortable reading-room, library, and rooms
" for social intercourse, together with what be ,
" would call a co-operative lade! ; the advantage

' " the members of the Club gained by co-operating ;
" together being to secure all these conveniences at
" • much lower rata than they possibly could do
" by themselves." Mr. Fosses& went on to suggest
that there was no reason why working men should
not enjoy the same privileges as others, taking the
difference of their requirements into consideration.
He specially recommended the establishment, in
connexion with these local Clubs, of a kind of co-
operative hotel. " They seemed to have no idea
" yet of establishing an hotel in connexion w;th
" the Working Men's Institute, but he thought it
" might be managed in this way. They might
" establish in Bradford a concern like those
" which were being started in many other
" places—a public kitchen for the work-
" ing classes. Such an establishment might
" play into the hands of a club like theirs. Their
" large room might be a kitchen during the day,
" and a reading-room at nig:it." Mr. Soul sup-
ported this suggestion, stating that while effective
provision for social intercourse, recreation, smok-
ing, and refreshment was essential to every
institution of the kind, he saw no reason why the
" dining-room " should not be included as a regu-
lar feature of the scheme. The Bradford Club
conta;ns upwards of • thousand members, who r'l
belong to the working classes, and is managed by
a committee of its own members. The same is true
of the clubs and instittGions established in other
large towns, such as Bolton, Preston, Birkenhead,
and Manchester. Nothing, indeed, shows more
clearly the lom of the plan adopted by the
Union than the fact of its having so completely
reached in its local action the class for whose
benefit it was formed. During the last year, which
was also the first you of its establishment, the
Union has been instrumental in establishing no
less than thirty-two of these most useful
institutions, and we gather from the Secretary's re-
port that the only check on its still wider useful-
ness arises from the comparative narrowness of the
means at its disposal. We cannot help believing
that the existence of such an obstacle only requires
to be known to be promptly removed. Few asso-
ciations are doing a greater amount of real good in
a, quiet, unobtrusive way, and few, therefore,
have a stronger claim to public support. The
principle of the Un'on, it is true, is that the local
institntioss should be made self-supporting ; and
this is gradually being realised in practice. But
there is a considerable outlay connected with the
starting of these iostitutions, and one great
object of the Un'on is to meet this at the outset,
not only by its advice and guidance, but by direct
contributions in money and material, such as gram
of books, apparatus, diagrams, and the like. To do
t'tid, however, it requires funds, and we feel cer -
Ulu that it will not be allowed to appeal for help
in vain.

THE FXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 30, 1863.

Affairs has in consequence requested the prefecta of the
Seioe, Gironde, and 13eMeaferieure to adopt such massive.
us will enable the lisitir agents to accomplish the duty en-
treated t I them.