The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-21 00:00:00

Working Men's Clubs

Yesteiday a public meeting was held at the Lon-
don Tavern in support of an association the object
of which is to promote and aid in the organisation of
clubs for the working classes. Mr. Goschen, M.P.,
occupied the chair. There were also present—The
Bishop of London, Lord Lyttelton, Sir John Pa-
kington, M.P., Mr. R. W. Crawford, M.P., Mr.
John Abel Smith, M.P., Sir R. W. Carden, Rev.
Mr. Abdy, Rev. Mr. Rowsell, Rev. Mr. Hibbs, Mr.
Samuel Morley, Mr. John Lubbock, &c. Letters
of apology for non-attendance were read from the
Earl of Shaftesbury, Right llon. W. Cowper, M.P.,
Sir F. Kelly, M.P., Mr. Samuel Gurney, M.P., and
several other philanthropic friends of the working
classes.

The CHAIR.3IAN, in opening the proceedings, said
it would not be necessary for him to indulge in very
many remarks in reference to the motion in further-
ance of which the meeting had been assembled, as
he was to be followed by several noblemen and gen-
tlemen who were more competent than himself to
explain its operations and scope. That special qbject,
so far as he understood it, was, not to create any
particular club, but to assist in the formation of
workmen's clubs, and it was therefore one worthy
of general support. (Hear.) It created and fostered
an interest in such institutions, and when in the
spread of that interest a desire sprang up in any
locality for the establishment of a club, the institu-
tion stepped in and supplemented the endeavours of
the workmen themselves. It gave them the benefit
of its advice, and, where necessary, pecuniary aid in
the providing of suitable club-rooms, furniture, and
books. It thus contributed to their comfort and
social well-being, and made them, as it were,
assistants in working out the problem of their own
civilisation. It was not, under these cir-
cumstances, to be wondered at that the
managers of the institution should seek sup-
port from the rich and wealthy citizens of the
city of London, especially as there were lying on its
eastern outskirts such districts as Bethnal-green and
St. George's-in-the-East, where the poverty was so
great that the people could do very little for them-
selves.

Lord LYTTELTON said the holding of the present
meeting in the city of London, which was as it were
the heart and the kernel of the nation, would give
a national sanction to the institution. The main
objects had been so accurately defined by the chair-
man that it was unnecessary for him to travel over
the same ground. It would indeed be a piece of
presumption on their part if they in any way at-
tempted to force those institutions upon the working
classes of this country, who knew their own wants
just as well as any other clam in the community
knew theirs, but it was because the people
themselves were crying out for these reunions, and
expected them to work the same change in their
social life which the West-end clubs had produced
among the higher classes. They were, too, founded
in a friendly, unsectarian spirit, so that no matter
what might be the creed or what night be the
politics of the people, they-could meet in those clubs,
share in the rational amusements which they afforded,
and enjoy all the benefits and advantages both-of
conversation and of the reading-room. His lordship
concluded by moving a resolution to the effect that
the meeting, bearing in view the narrow range of
the domestic comforts of the working classes and
the deficiency of their early education, approved of
the labours of the institution.

Mr. Jorm ABEL SMITH, M.P., seconded the motion,
and said he was one of those who regarded the in-
stitution as one of the means—he might say the chief
means—under Divine Providence of bringing down
to the humbler classes those improved moral and
social habits which distinguish the upper classes of
the present day as compared with those of 100 years
since. These institutions were eminently calculated
to lift them out of a life of sin, misery, bad health,
and moral corruption, and he therefore welcomed
them with unqualified delight.

The Rev. 111 r. HIBBS thought that in the present
inclement weather something ought to be done for
the relief of the starving poor.

The CHAIRMAN said that doubtless the sufferings
of the poor were such as to enlist the sympathies
of all, but then this institution was not a charitable
one.

The motion was then unanimously adopted.

The Bishop of LONDON moved the next resolu-
tion, to the effect that the meeting regarded the
institution as worthy of support as a means of
simultaneously improving the faculties of the
labouring 'classes—social, moral, and intellectual.
His lordship said that he considered the resolution
which was entrusted to him to propose met the
views of Mr. Hibbs, for although they knew that
poverty could never leave the land, yet it was a
well-known fact that the more improved the people
became socially, morally, and intellectually, the
better qualified they became to earn a respectable
livelihood, and so lift themselves beyond the. reach
of poverty. It had been said that those institutions
would separate the workmen from their homes, and
so infringe upon the comforts of their domestic
life ; but the experience derived from their working
hitherto went to show that they had a tendency en-
tirely in the opposite direction ; for it was found
that the men who through the means of them had
been initiated into improved habits of action and
thought, had acted on that principle at home, and
introduced into their own dwellings all the adjuncts
to comfort with which the club-room supplied them.
These clubs would, he was persuaded, create a
healthy sympathy between rich and poor, and would
therefore meet with the hearty co-operation of the
clergy of the Church of England, than whom, there
were no men more anxious to promote the social and
intellectual well-being of the working classes.
Sir JOHN PAKINGTON, M.P., seconded the motion,

and said that at the outset he wished to observe that
he had not the presumption to suppose that, in
coming at the request of some of his friends to ad-
dress them, anything he could say would the effect
of stimulating the liberality of the city of London,
which was as justly famed for its generosity and
noble charities as for its vast commerce and bound-
less wealth. He had two motives in attending the
meeting. In the first place, he had been a close
watcher of the society from its very commencement,
and was therefore anxious to bear his testimony to
the good effects it had produced ; and still more did
he desire to express the great satisfaction which he
felt at the fact that the vast weight of the high name
and character of the Bishop of London would be
henceforth recorded among the supports of the in-
stitution. The main object was to raise the social
position and moral character of the working men of
England. From the success of that object would
spring a twofold benefit ; first, the individual wel-
fare of the workman, and, secondly, an additional
security for the prosperity and welfare of the coun-
try. There was another object of little less impor-
tance, rnd that was the great object of their intel-
lectual improvement. They all knew the early age
at which th 6 children of the labouring classes had to
give up the benefits of a school education, and there-
fore it became an object of immense importance to
induce them at these clubs to renew and continue
to cultivate their intellectual faculties. The other
day, when reading the report of the Committee of
Council he had been much struck with a passage
from the report of Mr. Kennedy, inspector of sch.odo:s
in the Lancashire district. That gentleman stai
" After more than 15 years' experience I
doinsoworth
per-
sonally know a mere evening school
there is
being kept up. I decidedly limit this
evening schools, because
what I call ' mere '
qshire especially
a new institution taking rootin Lane< ,
whichss ertion to
and . Liverpool, called
a room for study
in Preston, Manchester,
which
' Working Men's Clubs,' with
and learning is and
institutions make
always connected, the unofficial
visits which I have paid to these
•
me sanguine that by connecting instruction of an
evening with comfort and social life, even those
whose nervous energy has been exhausted in the
day's labour, may be enabled and induced to begin
or carry on the work of their own education." lie
thought that expression of
Mr. Kennedy's experi-
ence would do more to promote the object for which
they were assembled, than anything he could state
from his own authority. Ile entirely concurred in
that gentleman's views, and had no doubt these
clubs would be of great benefit to the working classes
in improving their social bearing, and equally so in

affording an opportunity for self-cultivation, so that
they would become an extension of that educational
movement to which the public were indebted for the
establishment of the Mechanics' Institutions. If he
had had any fear at all of them it was lest the culti-
vationof the social qualities should be more attended
to than that of the intellectual faculties, but the ex-
perience of their working was a conclusive proof
that such would not be the case.

After a few words from Mr. JOHN LUBBOCK, the
resolution was unanimously agreed to.

Mr. W. CRAWFORD, M.P., moved the next reso-
lution, regarding the want of such an institution and
the desirability that its income should be augmented
by subscriptions from all classes in the City of
London.

Mr. S. MORLEY seconded the motion. From his
own experience he could bear testimony to the fact
that these clubs were altogether unsectarian. He
found the workmen in them discussing great social
problems, such as " Strikes ;" " 'What constitutes a
fair day's wage for a fair day's work ;" " Do the la-
bouring classes participate to a sufficient extent in
the general riches of the country." These were all
matters which it was desirable that the working
classes should fully consider and thoroughly discuss,
so that they might form for themselves a correct
judgment upon them.
The motion having been unanimously agreed to,
a vote of thanks was, on the motion of Sir H. W.
CARDEN, passed to the chairman, and the proceed-
ing,s terminated.

Manchester Art Workmen's Exhibition.

Yesterday afternoon ing was held at the
meet
Royal Institution, Manchester, for the purpose of
opening an exhibition of works of art contributed
by working men, intended as a modest and inte-
resting effort to show what the working people of
the district can do in matters of taste and ornament.
The meeting was held in the Lecture-hall, which
was well filled with people taking an interest in the
scheme. Sir J. Kay-Shuttleworth presided, and
there were present the Mayors of Manchester and
Salford, the Duke of Manchester, and other influ-
ential inhabitants. The chairman, in his opening
remarks, contrasted the personal liberty implied in
an exhibition like this with the feeling which had
too often actuated working men, and produced com-
binations and strikes: The meeting was also ad-
dressed by Mr. Alderman Heywood and the Dean
of Manchester. The company afterwards proceeded
to take a view of the exhibition. In this exhibition
there are shown some surprising examples of apti-
tude and excellence in workmen, to whom it opens,
probably for the first time, an avenue to fame in
their own calling. A few may be mentioned. There
are some carvings of fruit and flowers in Caen stone
by Mr. Green, a Manchester sculptor, which no one
with an eye for what is beautiful could pass without
attention. Of artistic wood carving there is a clever
piece by Mr. W. Fasana, called " The Invader"—a
serpent whose stealthy approach has caused the ut-
most excitement in the domestic circle of a bird's
nest. A beautiful carving of a dead canary in box-
wood is by a workman employed by Mr. Cowan.
There is merit also in a statuette, by an apprentice,
carved in boxwood, of Whittington listening to Bow
bells, and in limewoodof a group of shrews. Alady's
gilded worktable, among contributions by-Mr. J. H.
Moore, is noticeable for elegant workmanship and
enrichments, a novelty in it being an idea of making
an ever-open album, by inlaying the round
top with a glazed circle of portraits, or other picto-
rial subjects, in the shape of photographic cartes, or
copies. There are some fine carvings in ivory, some
small models of steam engines and machinery, some
architectural models of buildings in cardwood, and
other substances. Among the cardboard structures
is a very picturesque representation of a miller's
rustic abode somewhere in Westmoreland, appa-
rently with minute attention to local colouring and
circumstances, and a representation of Shakspere's
house at Stratford, weather-stained and poverty-
stricken, as it used to be before the restoration.
Photographers claim a place in the ranks of art
workmen, and some of the best of them are repre-
sented in the exhibition by a tolerably large number
of portraits and views. There is a small oil paint-
ing to be distinguished as the work of an operative
spindlemaker, 55 years of --age, who had never
handled a pencil till the cotton famine threw him
out of employment, but who in a year or two made
so much progress in the cultivation of a latent talent
as to illustrate how late in life a man may discover
what might have been his true vocation. There is a
sewing machine constructed by a boy who has no
mechanical teaching but that of his own ingenuity.
Many other things are worthy of notice, but the
few here given will show the nature of the exhibi-
tion. The name of the workmen is attached to each
production, and this rule is followed even where the
employer is the exhibitor.