The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-05 00:00:00

Lord Stanley on Workmen's Halls•

The Birkenhead Workmen's Hall and Clubhouse
was opened on Thursday evening. Mr. B. J.
Chandler presided, and among those present were
the Right Hon. Lord Stanley, M.P., Earl Grosve-
nor, M.P., Lord Richard Grosvenor, Mr. J. Laird,
M.P., and other gentlemen. Aftet some remarks
by the Chairman, _
The Right lion. Lord STANLEY, who was received
with prolonged applause, said—La
dies and gentle-
men, friends and neighbours, I thank you most sin-
cerely for the kindness of this reception,but,although
I feel it very deeply, yet I cannot help feeling also
that I have not much right to stand upon this plat-
form. It is hardly the part of those who have taken
no share in the battle to come forward most promi-
nently in celebrating the victory. But, however
that may be, I have come here with great pleasure
to be present at the opening of this hall, to take
part in the successful conclusion of an undertaking
of which the plans, as I believe, have been formed
for several years, although the actual laying of the
first stone did not take place until little more than
a twelvemonth ago. Gentlemen, lam sure youwill
agree with me that it is quite time that some under-
taking of this kind was set on foot in Birkenhead.
Wherever a new city grows up rapidly, wherever al
vast population gathers itself in a few years round
some new industrial centre, then it will inevitably
happen that many social wants will, for a time, re-
main unprovided for. Men feel about a place of
this kind as if it were to them rather an inn, or an
encampment, than a home. Employers look forward
to the time when they shall be able to leave off
business. Working men have not the leisure, and
in many cases have not the means,to provide in as-
sisting what is required. Now, that is a case more
or less in all such towns as this, and it is peculiarly
likely to be the case here, because I don't flatter you
in saying that there is nothing in England—and
there is hardly anything in America, or in the colo-
nies—more remarkable than the progress of this
community of Birkenhead. (Applause.) When I
hear that the rateable property of this township has
doubled in the last ten years, still more when I
learn that only 44 years ago—in the year 1821—
Birkenhead contained a population of no more than
200 ; that between 1821 and 1841 that population
multiplied itself just forty-fold—from 200 to 8,000 ;
and when I learn, further, that in less than the
quarter of a century that has elapsed between the
year 1841 and the present time these numbers have
again multiplied five-fold, and that for 8,000 then
you have nearly 40,000 now,—when I hear all these
things (and I have my figures upon what I believe
to be good and undoubted authority), I am re-
minded, not so much of anything which we are ac-
customed to see in Europe, as of those new cities
which grow up on the edge of the Western prairie,
where, with the traffic, with the crowded streets, and
along with every luxury and convenience of life, you
see here and there, in corners and byways, the
stumps still sticking out of the ground to mark the
remains of that old primeval forest that has hardly
yet been cleared away. And, gentlemen, I think
your progress is, upon the whole, more extraor-
dinary than that to which I allude ; because these
things to which I have referred take place in
the new country, where, as you have grown up in
a country which is very old, nobody is astonished
if the schoolboy whom you have not seen for a
year or two has grown a couple of inches in
height since you parted, but it is a very remarkable
phenomenon if he has become a grown man. Yet,
after all,, when one comes to think of it, that growth
is not so extraordinary as it appears at first sight.
We are in the habit of talking about Old England,
and no doubt as far as our laws, as our customs, as
our institutions, and our history are concerned, we
are a very old country. But when one comes to
look at those things which are the characteristic fea-
tures of England at the present day, when one comes
to look at our Indian empire, it is almost startling,
to see the rapid growth of these things, and how
much of what has made England what she is among
the nations of the world is really the work of only
three or four generations. (Applause.) That must
be a digressiCm, but it is one to which both the place
in which I am speaking and the subject naturally
lead us. Now, to come to what is more immediately
before us. I understand the primary object of this
building in which we are meeting to-night to be a
club—a place of meeting, that is, either for busi-
ness, refreshment, or for society, for the use
of all those who choose to avail themselves of it
among that vast population of mechanics and
artisans who inhabit this shore of the Mersey.
And I will tell you why I, who am not very
fond of making speeches without any practical
object, and who think that in this part of the world
we are perhaps rather too much given to make a great
display about inaugurations and openings of build-
ings, and laying of the first stones, and ceremonies of
that kind—why I, holding that opinion, nevertheless
think that the opening of this building is an event
which deserves to be celebrated in a public and for-
mal manner. It is because buildings of this kind are
at present very rare, and because they ought to be
very common. (Applause.) Now, I, am not going
to say one word on the old hackneyed subject
of keeping men away from the publichouse. Arti-
sans are not children, and if they, working hard and
earning largely, choose to spend their money in that
way, they have as much right to do it as anybody
else has to do a thing which is simply foolish. (Ap-
plause.) It is a question between their families and
themselves, and I think we may leave them to the
conjugal eloquence which is very likely to be exerted
on such occasions. (Laughter and applause.) I have
always thought that it was not for those who live
more luxuriously to speak of them harshly in that
matter. It is their business more than ours. But
what we have a right to say is this, that no man
ought to be driven to the publichouse for want of
any other place to go to. (Applause.) He ought not
to be forced to go there because his club meets there
and he does not like to miss a club meeting, or be-
cause there is no other convenient place where he
can enjoy friendly talk and a fire on a cold wintry
night, or simply because he has nowhere else to go.
Of course it may be asked, why cannot people stay
at home ? Well, my answer to that is, that men in
the higher classes, having a great deal more time at
their disposal, and having materials for making far
more comfortable homes, do not make it a universal
rule to pass their evenings with their wives and
children. (Laughter.) I say nothing of that class—
I am bound to speak of them as an unfortunate class
—whose home is a lodging, and wbo shelter their
families -whenever they put on their hats(laughter),
but I say this, that social intercourse—free, friendly
easy talk—ia as necessary to men as food, or sleep,
or fresh air. (Cheers.) A man does not live a healthy
life without it, and therefore whatever enables him
to enjoy that kind of intercourse in a comfortable
and civilised manner, is not only a pleasure to him,
but it is a benefit to him intellectually and morally.
(Loud cheers.) And I think, therefore, that places
of meeting like this, whichare meantto be realelubs,
or places where clubs may meet--not schools in dis-
guise not institutes, although institutes are very
goods in their way ; not lecture-rooms, although
this room will no doubt serve that Purpose
admirably well if it be required ; but places
where talk, and newspapers, and refreshments may
be had with a security against disturbance from
drunken or rough and disorderly persons,—l say
that places of this kind ought to exist, and I believe
they shortly will exist in every great town in Eng-
land, and in many of the little towns also. (Ap-
plause.) At present there arc only a few here and
there, but fashions spread fast—it is only the first
step that gives trouble, and I think there are several
good reasons why we, on the banks of the Mersey,
should be among the first to set the example. In
the first place, it is not our Lancashire habit—l
really beg pardon, I had forgotten I was in Cheshire,
but living on the other side of the Mersey I can
assure you that we Liverpool people believe that we
annexed Birkenhead long ago. (Laughter and
cheers.) At any rate, it isnot our habit in these
districts to lay behind when anything useful is
doing. (Cheers.) That is one reason. Well, then,
I believe that we have in theSe parts more money—

mpecially in the artisan and working classes—than
is to be found anywhere else, except, perhaps, in
Manchester and in London. That is another reason;
and there is a third, which is least flattering to our-