The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-17 00:00:00

The Hand and Hands.

On Saturday evening the introductory lecture to
the students attending the evening classcs lately
established in the East end of London was delivered
by the Rev. Lord S. G. Osborne, at the School-
house, Byron-street, St. Leonard's-road, Bromley.
The subject of the lecture was "The Hand and
Hands." There was a large attendance of students
and others, and the class-room was tastefully deco-
rated. The Rev. C. R. Holmes, M.A., incumbent
of the district, having introduced the lecturer to
the audience,
The Rev. Lord S. G. OSBORNE began by saying
that there had been a good deal of discussion
lately as to how those who spoke at mechanics'
institutes should designate their hearers. If they
called them working men, the qu.estion was put—
who was not a working man ? He hardly knew who
was not ; for even the idlest man had to work very
hard indeed to get through his day. (A laugh.)
He might address them by a name used a great deal
in the north, viz. " the hands." That he thought an
honourable as applied to working men, and when
the large millowner who employed a great number
of people talked of his " hands," he might fairly be
asked what he could possibly do without them. Now
he wished to show to those who knew so much not
only about the use of particulartools and implements,
but about the wonderful machinery which they were
employed in constructing, that of all the -wonderful
machines, taken either as a whole or in the admir-
able adjustment of its various parts, there was no-
thing equal to one of themselves. If they rightly
studied the human frame, they would find that, in
its marvellous construction and adaptation to the
ends for which it was designed, it infinitely trans-
cended every creation of human ingenuity. They
heard a great deal of tools being supplanted by ma-
chinery, and of machinery, in fact, taking the place
of the hands of the workman ; and certainly when
they watched the operation of, for instance, Mr. Whit-
worth's tool-making machine, it seemed, from the re-
gularity and precision of its movements, almost as if
inspired by some rational power of action. Still, who
made that machine, who conceived it, who planned it,
who executed it ? Was it not, in its every part,
after all simply the creation of man's brain wrought
out by the skill of man's hand? The lecturer then
proceeded, by the aid of diagrams and a skeleton
arm, to explain in detail the structure, adaptation,
and functions of the various joints, muscles, ten-
dons, and ligaments of that human limb, pointing
out that every joint displayed as much contrivance,
tnd was as directly fashioned for the purpose of
performing the movements requisite for earning
the worlonan's bread, as though a scientific engineer

had constructed it. Mr. Whitworth's tool-mak-
ing machine required to be constantly supplied
with oil from an external source in order to avoid
friction in its working ; but the great Mechanic who
made man had placed within His machine itself the
means of keeping every joint not merely free from
friction, but in a state which enabled it to execute
every movement with the most marvellous ease. For
every joint there were certain glands which secreted
a proper supply of lubricating fluid, so that no joint
should ever stop from the want of that indispensable
material ; and for one human limb, arm, or finger
that was ever out of order and prevented from ful-
filling its work, he believed there must be many
hundred machines of man's creation laid by, because
all our science and skill could not enable us to make
them both answer their object and keep them in pro-
per repair and efficiency. The human body was so
planned by Divine Providence that out of the food
we ate the blood was formed, which worked, as it
were, a constant miracle, running its daily and
nightly course through every part of the frame, fur-
nishing nourishment wherever nourishment was re-
quired, repairing waste where waste had occurred,
not leaving cartilage where flesh was wanted, nor
flesh where cartilage was wanted, but depositing the
right thing in right the place at the right moment,
and maintaining the whole machine in its proper
balance and harmonious working, without our
scarcely being aware of the marvellous operations
going on within us. Reverting to the structure and
functions of the hand and arm, the lecturer said he
had no doubt there were many mechanics pre-
sent who could out of brass, guttapercha, and
other materials, make a machine which could
act like that limb ; but the question came—what
put the arm in motion ? They were told it was

nervous power, and so it was. The muscles were
acted upon by certain nerves ; those nerves passed
to particular portions of the spine; the spine, being
connected with the brain, took its orders from it,
issued them, and the work was done. By our voli-
tion we could bend the arm or turn the hand ; but
whence came that wonderful power of command ?
He wished with all his heart that he could tell them.
He could tell them where it might be traced ; but
beymul that all his reading and study did not en-
able him to go. He knew that if they divided a
nerve as it passed from the spine they might render
the arm powerless, and that from a string of nerves
there went no end of small nerves embracing every
part of the hand and arm, some giving us pain when
touched, some giving us pleasure, and all intended

to act according to our will or for our wellbeing,

But of what material the brain was made, or how it
did its work, he was not philosopher enough to be
able to say. Many and wonderful were the uses to

which the human hand could be applied. It was
said that the Nasmyth hammer could not only crush
a solid body beneath its pressure, but its force could
be so exquisitely regulated as to crack the shell of a
nut without injuring the kernel. And so, too, the
anchor forger's brawny arm, whose blows would
carry death to any person, was often employed,
after the hard's day's toil, in lifting the tender babe
from its cradle to fondle and caress it with all the
gentleness of a mother. He was told there was no
nation among whom the action of fear did not almost
involuntarily cause the hands to be clasped. The
little child clasped its hands. together when first
taught to pray, and man and woman in their hour
of sorrow and agony instinctively clasped theirs and
raised their eyes to Heaven when imploring Divine
aid. Let their hands, then, be used day by day, not
only in gaining for them the bread that perisheth,
but in asking from their Heavenly Father the sus-
tenance of the immortal soul. Thus, go where they
would, they carried with them, in their own persons,
a lesson teaching them that nature, after all, was
but the great workshop of the great Constructor of
all, the world's Engineer, He whose diploma dated
from eternity, He who created the mechanism of the
heavens as well as of the smallest creature that
breathed. Science was said in our day to be
piercing the very secrets of nature. The astronomer
with his telescope scanned the heavens and learnt
the earth to be but a speck in the universe ; while the
microscopist, with his instrument, found a world in
an atom. But who constructed the telescope and
the microscope ? Who worked out the philosophy
of the problems that gave us the marvellous instru-
ments by which we achieved so much ? Trace the
matter to its source, and they would find that after
all it was the hands. Whether they liked to be
called the hands of their fellowmen or not, they
were all in one sense the hands of the great Master
of the world's workshop, who gave them the mate-
rial with which they worked and the inteliigence they
exercised upon it, and who had framed their bodies
for the mastery of the tools which their brains in-
vented. In the great system of the division of
labour, every honest share worked out with industry
and to the best of one's powers dignified the man.
The miner who, sweating beneath the deepest coal
pit, with his pickaxe struck from its vaulted roof
coal used to smelt the iron wrought by his fellow-
workman, bore as honourable a part as he who, with
the most complete machine before him, accomplished
the most wonderful ends for which human science
was ever striving. Taking the case of one of our
noblest iron ships, and tracing it from its first be-
ginning in the engineer's or draughtsman's office
down to the lowest artificer's contribution to her
co
construction, he said, all honour to every living soul
who had lent a hand in her mpletion. Speaking
to those
whose bread was earned by the skill of their
intelligence of their reason,
he entreated themy no the
t
hands, directed b
to hold
hold that reason so lightly
as to use it
as mere
certain time,machines,and then toset in motion for a
organs had one by One lost their
cease
ch' after the physi-
calfor ever. They
.must have seen instances in
which,
faculties of intelligence still power, the
survived. Where, then

was the spot in the human frame to which we could
point and say that when death laid its hand on it
reason died too ? If there was one thing more pain-
ful than another it was to see the intellect which
they, as a class, so clearly possessed, so often and so
fearfully abused. But if there was one thing more
cheering than another, it was the fact that a far better
and wiser spirit was now working its way through-
out the whole class—that they were, in fact, becom-
ing a thinking as well as an acting class ; that their
minds were no longer bound within the walls of the
shop in which they laboured, or of the home perhaps
to which they returned so tired, seeming to care for
little else but rest and refreshment. They who
understood the many niceties of the remarkable
things they made, and knew so well what acted to

their injury and what to your success, should look
around them, and wherever they saw a fellow-
workman abusing the faculties with which his Maker
had endowed him, treading the drunkard's path, and
becoming, as all drunkards did,. a blasphemer, let
them not wait for parson, preacher, or missionary,
but bring their own homely common sense to bear
upon that man's life, proving to him what they
themselves had gained by their industry, sobriety,
honesty, and respectability, contrusting with that
his own miserable career of slavish indulgence ;
showing them how he was degrading them as a
member.of their class ; pointing out what a curse
his vices were to himself and his family ; what foul
language he spoke in the presence of his own
daughters, what a terrible example he set to his
own sons. The beastly passion for drink was, he
believed, the greatest curse which Satan, with all
his ingenuity, had laid upon the working class.
Had they but the good sense to revolutionise them-
selves as a class in that respect, casting down the
tyrant Drink, and freeing themselves from its
debasing power, he had often said to himself, not
simply what capital, would these men accumu-
late, what a powerful body would they become, but
with the cool sober honest intellects that knew how
to use that power without abusing it, the men who
had thus raised for themselves a stake in the country
would become more loyal as they learnt the value of
our free constitution, and saw how it protected their
property, as well as that of the richest in the land.
If he had one hope in his heart it was that the work-
ing
men should themselves act with the Church and
for the Church, with God and for God, by example,
by precept, by perseverance, by urgency, to rescue
their fellows from aught that could debase them as
individuals or bring the slightest slur upon their
order. They were, under God, the very hands of
the nation. The nation's intellect might be said per-
haps to be chiefly represented by those who had
power to obtain that learning which they were de-
nied. But what would all that learning, all that in-
telligence, all that science be without the working
class to work out their plans and conceptions ? The
skilful designer or inventor might be the brain of
the social system, but helpless would he be without
the hands. This he said without meaning in any de-
gree to flatter them. It was one of the greatest evils
of a day which he hoped was quickly passing from
us that lecturers were too much in the habit of flatter-
ing and speaking only the things they knew would
please those whom they addressed. That never had
been and never would be his practice. He was one of

those who had spoken strongly for the workman's
rights, but he had spoken with equal strength, as
far as his power went, of the workman's duty.
As a Christian and a gentleman he could not be the
advocate of any particular class. No land could be
so blessed as that in which each class, knowing its
duty towards the others, endeavoured to do it firmly
and faithfully in the presence of God, the All-just.
And if they would but remember who that God was
he thought they would act in a kinder spirit towards
each other—the master with honesty and firmness
to his men, the men with equal honesty and firm-
ness to the master ; but both bearing in mind that
each was but human, and subject to the like infir-
mities, would be slow to think that either
would seek to oppress the other. Each would
rather strive, knowing their value in combina-
tion, to find the means of so adjusting their
mutual interests that, working in harmony, the mas-
ter might respect the independence of his workman,
and the workman love and respect the justice and
kindness of his employer,
The address was listened to with marked atten-
tion throughout, and warmly applauded.

The North London Industrial Exhibition•

The ceremony of distributing to the successft

exhibitors in the above exhibition of industrial art j
the prizes which had been awarded by the adjudica-
tors took place last evening at Exeter-hall. The :
Earl of Shaftesbury presided, and with him on the
platform were Mr. Bodkin, the Assistant-Judge ;
Mr. Payne, the Deputy Assistant-Judge ; Mr.
Samuel Morley, and other gentlemen interested in
the progress of the labouring classes. A large
choir, under the direction of Mr. Sarl, sang " All
People that on Earth" and other pieces, after which
Mr. Smithers, Mr. Payne, and Mr. Samuel Morley
spoke on the elevating influence of such an exhibi-
tion as that of which this meeting was the close.
His Lordship then distributed the prizes, the chief
of which were very handsome certificates, framed.
Some of the prize receivers were of the gentler sex,
and their appearance on the platform was in every
instance the signal for loud applause. Every exhi-
bitor who chose to present himself, whether a prize
winner or not, received a handsome " memorial
volume," and from the crowds who presented them-
selves before the noble earl, it was estimated that
nearly all the 934 exhibitors availed themselves of
the privilege. Among those who were thus brought
before the public were postmen and soldiers, and one
representative of the Fire Brigade service, and so
eagerly did this class of exhibitors crowd the plat-
form that one was thrust over, and fell among the
astonished reporters below. The Chairman, who
on coming forward to address the meeting was
warmly applauded, said he should on this occasion
look upon himself as representing the public, and
on the part of the public he tendered to the exhi-
bitors the decided expression of pleasure and hope
which had been derived from the exhibition. All the
great hopes held out by Lord Russell on the open-
ing ceremony were announced by the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, on closing it, to be fulfilled, and
more than fulfilled. Never were rewards more
justly earned, and honours better deserved or more
freely given, than those which had that evening been
distributed. (Cheers.) The working men and work-
ing women had conic forward not for the purpose
of establishing some rival business in the hope of
gain or profit, but they had come forward with the
most generous motives and aspirations, namely,
that an impulse might be given to the genius of the
people, and that good might thence arise to the
whole British empire. The public had accepted the
exhibition in the spirit in which it had been offered,
and he on their part now told the exhibitors that
great things were educed from it in the advance-
ment of the people. One remarkable feature was
that a large proportion of the things exhibited were
made by men whose daily occupations were of an
opposite nature to their productions. Nothing, in
fact, could be more remarkable than the hodge-
podge of articles exhibited, and produced by men
whose trades were not likely to lead them to pro-
duce such things ; and did this fact prove nothing ?
It brought to his mind the craving which existed in
the minds of workers for some mental occupation
after their toil was over, and this diversity of toil
doubled the faculties of man, and gave him who was
engaged in a monotonous employment, when he
turned to something else, a new existence. And
this had been the case with men eminent in name
and rank. Sir Matthew Hale, after being for
hours engaged in judgment in intricate cases which
came before him, found recreation in solving the most
abstruse questions in algebra. Then Southey was ano-
ther example of the value to be attached to diverse
labours, for by having six desks for as many tasks, he,
by changing his employment at intervals, was
enabled first to write a passage of history, then an
article for the Quarterly, and afterwards some stanzas,
and all this without feeling his mental powers dis-
tressed. But for this change he would have broken
down, and the country would not have had those
great efforts of his mind. It was delightful to see
how the energies and the genius of the people had
been brought out in matters of refinement by these
exhibitions-, and their elevation in refinement would

advance them morally and socially, and would tend
to raise them in the political scale. (Cheers.) The
noble earl went on to say that he had heard it whis-
pered that in future exhibitions the working men
were to be confined to the exhibition of articles in
their own trades, and to this he expressed himself as
greatly opposed. He asked how it would be pos-
sible to confine the clergyman, the lawyer, and the
statesman for recreation to the duties of their daily
life, and if the world would have had those flowing
periods of Mr. Gladstone or those sparklei of debate
from Lord Derby if they had been cut off from the
charms of poetry and the study of the beauties in

Homer's " Iliad." He dwelt upon the advance which
the working classes would make through these exhi-
bitions, and concluded with saying that the social
elevation which would come to the people would
cheer their homes in this life, and would make them
worthy of that other home where the " wicked cease
from troubling and the weary are at rest."

The ASSISTANT JUDGE proposed a vote of thanks
to the chairman, which was seconded by Mr. Har-
vey, of Islington, and carried by acclamation.
The proceedings closed with the singing of the
" Old Hundredth" Psalm.