The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-13 00:00:00

daily in.creasiu g, the standard-bearers of enlightened
improeasment as regards their relation to their
workmen. It is impossible to overstate the import-
ance of this fact. Nothing can be more ele6rly proved
by a long experience than the nature ,e that com-
mercial power, energy, and enterp ise which Pro-
vidence has imparted to the British nation, be it
for good or be it for evil. But I hold it is for good.
The people of this country have already become,
and are in all likelihood destined yet more exten-
sively to beccme, workers for the world at large. At
this moment, if we are truly informed by the best
authorities, of every two loaves of bread that are
consumed in this country one is the product of a
foreign soil; and perhaps we might venture to say,
not with precise accuracy, but for the sake of esta-
blishing the parallel I am giving the substantial
truth, we might venture to assert that for every
two yards of cotton consumed throughout the globe
one yard is of British manufacture ; if that be so,
we must look to the factory system as a system
destined for a still further extension, and we might
ask ourselves whether we are prepared or mean to
recognise it as legitimate—nay, I will venture now
to say an honourable and distinguished portion—of
the economical and social arrangements of the
country. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is not easy
and I am sure you will agree with the sentiment,
to make acquaintance with perhaps 30,000 people
in the course of a couple of hours—(laughter)—and
yet, with a certain allowance and indulgence to the
necessities of public speaking, I might almost ven-
ture to say that I have made acquaintance, through
the medium of the demeanour and through the
countenances, with the population in the course of
this morning of certainly not far short of the num-
ber I have mentioned. No man could see the faces
of that population without being aware that, in
point at any rate of general intelligence he had no
reason to suppose that they were likely to be un-
worthy of the noble British nation to which they
loyalty and the factory system did not go well to-
gether. I should like to know what has become of
that idea. When her Majesty, in days brighter for
her than now, traversed the streets of Manchester,
was it possible anything could exceed the manifes-
tation of loyalty and love that she received from the
highest to the lowest of the population ? Words
themselves would fail me if I were to attempt
before you to describe the affectionate attachment
which pervaded this entire community as between
the people and the occupier of the throne. (Cheers.)
Iv ell, but intelligence is a great thing, and loyalty
is a great thing, but there are other things which
enter the happiness and wellbeing of the community
at large. Now, there has been in former times an
impression abroad that the effect of the factory sys-
tem was to weaken or dissolve the sacred ties of the
family ; that it introduced disobedience to nestle like
a serpent in the very hearth of the family; that the
relations of the young child and the parent and the
parent and the child were vitiated and destroyed by
the premature independence of your youthful las
bourers. Now that is a fair description not, thank
God, of the state of things, but of the impression
which once prevailed with regard to the state of
things. Well now, I think it may be said that, with
respect also to this great and vital question, the ex-
perience of the last few years has not failed to throw
upon it a flood of light. I think it has completely
exploded the idea that less attachment is felt by
the parent for the child, or less attachment felt by
the children for their parents, in the heart of the
manufacturing districts than in any other portion of
the community. I should humbly presume to say,
having had some opportunity of forming a judg-
ment, that I have been astonished to see the strength,
the warmth, the unconquerable tenacity of domestic
affection among the people of Lancashire employ( d
in manufactories. All these points upon which I
may say that the factory system may very well
afford to stand or fall, but I cannot help thinking
that there are many things connected with it that
may be taken as an example by other classes; take
the spirit of order and discipline which pervades our
factories, not the mere restraint which is imposed
on the labourer while he is within the walls of the
fee ory itself, on the contrary, it is the formation of
a habit, and if you ask why it is that tens of thou
sands and hundreds of thousands can be simply self-
governed and self-arranged without outrage, with-
out difficulty, without disorder, without the appear-
ance in almost a single instance of the authority
even of the police, it is in a great degree on account
of that habit, cf order, and discipline, which is to
be found within the walls of these establishments.
But take a point of still greater importance. If we
are to judge rightly the operation of that system,
it has this effect—it brings the people together, and
they acquire an interest in one another, a public
opinion, so to speak, forms itself among them, and
that public opinion is favourable to morality and
good conduct, and the person who goes astray is
felt to have committed an offence ag iinst the cha-
racter of those with whom he or she may be associ-
ated in working ; but it is not possible to conceive
a principle more truthful or more valuable for the
real adv,.ncement and improvement of the working
classes than that opinion should thus spontaneously,
naturally, and healthfully be engendered among
them, according to which the order of working men
and working women may become, as it were, effec-
tual ministers of virtue, and vice and mischief will
be discouraged iu their first beginning. (Hear.)l
I will now turn to another matter, with regard to
which the factory system may not perhaps stand so
well. It may be said with truth that indoor occu-
pation has not a very favourable operation on the
development of the people. We must speak our
minds in an assembly of Englishmen such as this,
and it was at one time too true of the factory system
that, from defective ventilation and other causes, it
was anything but wholesome as regards the bodily
health of the population. Now the bodily health
of the people is a matter of vital consequence. (Hear,
hear.) When God Almighty made man to be a corn.
posite being of body and soul, he intended the wel-
fare of the two to go together, and you could not
have in operation a system which shoald give you
a stunted and enfeebled people without finding
before very long that the evil effects of that system
were likewise leaving their mark on its mental
character ; but here, also, I trust we may say that
a vast improvement has been effected. (Hear, hear.)
There is no reason—at least, so I am given to under-
stand, and confidently hope—there is no reason in
the, nature of things why factory labour should be
less favourable to health, when due care is taken,
than other indoor labour. lam now at a point
when I think we can see the benefit of the munifi-
cent endowment which Mr Barnes has presented to
the community of Farnworth. In-door labour is not
of necessity unhealthy, but yet it cannot be denied
that it requires the counterpoise of out-door recrea-
tion. IL is desirable that those who spend the great
bulk of their time indoors, whether in factories, in
toolsheps, or in any of the other great establish-
ments of industry, should have the means when their
labour is done of innocent, healthful, and useful re-
creation. It is monstrous to suppose that it can be
the natural condition of society that one portion
should live as if they had nothing at all to do except
to seek for amusement from morning to night, and
that the other portion of society should find itself
shut out from recreation altogether. Such a state of
things can neither be pleasing to God nor beneficial
and acceptable in the sight of man, nor can it con-
duce to the prosperity of the country and the sta-
bility of its institutions. (Hear.) Here is the great
f.ict, recognised by such acts as we aro endeavouring
to carry out and to place in commemoration to-day.
Hare we have before us a scene in which, -s we hope,
from generation to generation, the young and old of
Farnwortla will seek for.health and refreshment after
the hours of honest labour have come to a close; but
it is not only bodily health which is interested in this
question, mental health demands that communion
with nature should not be renounced. This is one
of the truths which it has been the obligation and
necessity, but likewise the honour and duty, of the
present generation to bring forth from darkness
into light, I dare say it is a fact that we do not
even yet fuel that as we ought to do, or give it that
effectual application in practice which it requires;
but it is profoundly associated with the well-being
of mankind. Communion with nature : why, the
phrase, if used perhaps so recently as a century ago,
would have sounded almost like the accents of an
unknown tongue. At any rate, it would have been