Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-01 00:00:00

A POPULAR

HISTORY OF THE. WORKING
CLASSES.

THEIR RISE AND PROGRESS-SOCIAL

AND POLITICAL ;

FROM THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD DOWN TO TiiL4

PRESENT DAY.

(Addressed to the Working Classes themselves.)

PART FIRST.
INTRODUCTORY•

WHEN a man rises in the world, as it is phrased
—when he displays some kind of power which,
either for good or evil, cannot be indifferent to
society —there grows up an irresistible desire to
know who he is, whence he came, from whom ,he
springs,—in a word, the circumstances of his past
history, as a key to the circumstances of his pre-
sent history.

The same thing may be said of classes. Classes
rise in the world just as individuals do. There
are periods in history when they do not exist—
periods when they are barely visible, and too
insignificant to be otherwise than incidentally and
accidentally alluded to : other periodS when they
begin to become distinct, and to be eared for with
a rode protection : then to pass on to a state where
self-protection begins to act, and they demand, as
of right, a more precise and formal protection :
then to think not only of protection, but of rights :
and at length to be acknowledged as a distinct and
important body in the State.
Having reached this period, we naturally desire
to know whence they spring —under what condi-
tions they have existed—the obstructions they
have had to encounter, and the causes which
have favoured their actual development.
Retrospects of this kind are not- matters of
mere intellectual curiosity or literary research•
They are, or ought to be, profound. Investigations,
pregnant with great results. They carry us back
into the past, in which we find the levers and
leverage which have produced the present. They
account to us not only for that which is, but by
giving ,a correct appreciation of the process by
which it became what it is, they may furnish us
with no unimportant clue to that which will be.

" In the past," as has been well observed by a
Germa,n. writer, " hangs the prophet's glass." It
is there we read the foreshadowings of things to
come. It is there we see the vast array of human
actions and opinions ; aud, ever and anon, of
human motives marshalled, and on the march;
that we mix with the councils, and force ourselves
into the confidence of its leaders; that we mingle
with the different ranks, learn to comprehend
their signals and watchwords ; to measure the
unity or diversity of their views; to detect the
causes'of their actual, or eventful digorganisation;;
and thus, by a survey and deep insight into the
past, to be enabled to calculate, slightly, it may
be but approximately, the future com'Anations, or
dislocations, of the mighty, wavering, unsteady,
but ever moving and progressive mass. Yes, it is
,only by reviewing the interval between the
present, and any given point of the past, that we
•can see Ideas and Actions on the march ; that we
can measure their advance, and get an insight, if
insight be possible, into the laws and discipline,
.and probable operation and capacity of that
progress, which is the Divinest characteristic of
social man.

In attempting to write a History of the Working
'Classes, I serve a purpose of this kind, but,
unhappily, must serve it in a very inefficient
manner. For the history of this class, though it
extends back to a very remote date, yet _extends
back so dimly and irregularly, is the result of such
mere partial, incomplete, and fortuitous allusions,
in laws and records, that nothing but the most
meagre outlines and scanty details can be supplied.
Nevertheless, enough can be collected to give the
-subject some interest, and some value, as
illustrating that law of development which is
ever at work, and encouraging what all of us
should possess, an implicit faith in the trans-
forming power of time.