follows out the dictates of a correct appreciation of human nature,
which requires every man, by personal exertion, and according to his own
choice, to work out his own happiness; which prevents his valuing, nay,
even his feeling satisfaction at, the prosperity which others have made
for him. It is founded upon a right principle, because it endeavours to
trace out a plan according to which, by providence, by present
self-denial and perseverance, not only will the servant be raised in his
physical and moral condition, but the master also will be taught how to
direct his efforts in aiding the servant in his labour to secure to
himself resources in cases of sickness, old age, and want of employment.
It is founded on a right principle, because in its financial scheme
there is no temptation held out to the servant by the prospect of
possible extravagant advantages, which tend to transform his providence
into a species of gambling; by convivial meetings, which lead him to
ulterior expense; or by the privilege of balloting for the few prizes,
which draws him into all the waste of time and excitement of an
electioneering contest.
Such are the characteristics of several institutions, upon which
servants and many of our other industrial classes place their reliance.
And what can be more heartrending than to witness the breaking of banks,
and the failure of such institutions, which not only mar the prospects
of these unhappy people, and plunge them into sudden destitution, but
destroy in others all confidence in the honesty or sagacity of those who
preach to them the advantages of providence?
Let them well consider that, if they must embark in financial
speculations, if they like to have convivial meetings, if they claim the
right of governing the concerns of their own body, they must not risk
for this, in one stake, their whole future existence, the whole
prosperity of their families. Let them always bear in mind, that their
savings are capital, that capital will only return a certain interest,
and that any advantage offered beyond that interest has to be purchased
at a commensurate risk of the capital itself.
The financial advantages which this Society holds out to servants rest
upon the credit of the country at large, upon the faith of the
Government, and are regulated by an Act of Parliament, called “the
Deferred Annuities Act.” They are shortly these: “According to published
tables, which I have before me, persons, whose fixed income is below
150_l._ per annum, can, by small instalments, purchase annuities
deferred not less than ten years, but beyond that limit to commence at
any period the depositor may name. One annuity cannot be more than
30_l._, but he may purchase distinct annuities for his wife, or for his
children on having attained to their fifteenth year. Should he at any
time wish to withdraw his deposits before the annuity has commenced,
they will be returned to him; should he die before that period, the
deposits will be returned to the heirs. In such cases the only loss will
be the interest upon the money deposited.”
Although this wise and benevolent measure has been enacted so long ago
as the third year of the reign of King William IV., I find, to my deep
regret, that, during that whole time, only about 600 persons have
availed themselves of its provisions. I can discover no other reason for
this inadequate success, but that the existence of the Act is not
generally known, or that people are afraid of law and Acts of
Parliament, which they cannot understand on account of their complicated
technical wording. I have heard another reason stated, to which,
however, I give little credit, namely, that servants fear lest a
knowledge that they are able to purchase annuities by savings from their
wages might induce their masters to reduce them. I have a better opinion
of the disposition of employers generally, and am convinced that, on the
contrary, nothing counteracts more the liberality of masters than the
idea, not wholly unfounded, that an increase of means, instead of
prompting to saving, leads to extravagance.
It is one of the main objects of this meeting to draw public attention
to this “Deferred Annuities Act,” and the main object of this Society is
to form a medium by which servants may acquire the benefits proffered by
it free from risk, cost, or trouble.
The other objects are: to provide a home for female servants out of
place, the usefulness of which hardly requires a word of commendation;
to provide respectable lodgings for men-servants not lodged by their
masters; and to establish a Registry for domestic servants generally,
which will form as well a place of advertisement for their services, as
a record of their characters, from which they can be obtained upon
application.
Any one who is acquainted with the annoyances and inconveniences
connected with the present system of “characters to servants,” will at
once see the importance of the introduction of a system by which the
servant will be protected from that ruin which the caprice of a single
master (with whom he may even have lived for a short time only) may
inflict upon him, and the master from the risk to which a character
wrung from a former weak master, by the importunities of an undeserving
servant, may expose him. Nor is it a small benefit to be conferred upon
the servant, to enable him, by appealing to a long record of former
services, to redeem the disqualification which a single fault might
bring upon him.
Should we only succeed in inducing the public at large to consider all
these points, we shall have the satisfaction of having furthered the
interests of a class which we find recorded in the Report of the last
Census as the most numerous in the British population.
I shall now call upon the Secretary to lay before you more in detail the
points which I have slightly touched upon.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AT THE ENTERTAINMENT GIVEN BY
THE MERCHANT TAILORS’ COMPANY.
[JUNE 11TH, 1849.]
-------
GENTLEMEN,—
I thank you sincerely for your expressions of kindness and cordiality
towards me.
Although I have on former occasions met you in this room, it has always
been for some charitable purpose, witnessing with delight the readiness
with which this, and indeed all the great corporations of London, open
the doors of their magnificent Halls at the call of charity. To-day I am
here as a Brother Freeman of your Corporation, fulfilling a promise made
from the time that you received me into your body. I am ashamed to own
how long ago. I beg you not to measure, by the tardiness of my
appearance, the value which I attach to the honour which you then
conferred upon me, by electing me a Freeman of the Merchant Tailors’
Company.
I remember well with what regret, when, shortly after I came of age, the
Companies of the Goldsmiths and of the Fishmongers offered me their
freedom, I found myself compelled to decline this honour, being informed
that, identified as they were by historical tradition, and still
representing two opposite political parties, I could make a choice only
of one of them, and, fully sensible that, like the Sovereign to whom I
had just been united, and to devote my whole existence to whom it had
become my privilege, I could belong only to the nation at large, free
from the trammels and above the dissensions of political parties.
I well remember, too, how much pleased I was when the two Companies,
waiving some of their statutes, finally agreed both to receive me
amongst them; and my satisfaction is heightened when I consider that I
owe to that decision the advantage of finding myself associated with you
also.
Anybody may indeed feel proud to be enrolled a member of a Company which
can boast of uninterrupted usefulness and beneficence during four
centuries, and holds to this day the same honourable position in the
estimation of the country which it did in the time of its first
formation, although the progress of civilization and wealth has so
vastly raised the community around it, exemplifying the possibility, in
this happy country, of combining the general progress of mankind with a
due reverence for the institutions, and even forms, which have been
bequeathed to us by the piety and wisdom of our forefathers.
Let us join in the hope that this Corporation may continue in its
charitable functions to be equally an object of respect to our children
and children’s children, and so drink “Prosperity to the Merchant
Tailors’ Company.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ON PRESENTING COLOURS TO THE
23RD REGIMENT, ROYAL WELSH FUSILIERS.
[JULY 12TH, 1849.]
-------
SOLDIERS OF THE ROYAL WELSH FUSILIERS,
The ceremony which we are performing this day is a most important, and,
to every soldier, a sacred one. It is the transmission to your care and
keeping of the Colours which are henceforth to be borne before you,
which will be the symbol of your honour, the rallying point in all
moments of danger.
I feel most proud to be the person who is to transmit these Colours to a
Regiment so renowned for its valour, fortitude, steadiness, and
discipline.
In looking over the records of your services, I could not refrain from
extracting a few, which show your deeds to have been intimately
connected with all the great periods in our history. The Regiment was
raised in 1688. Its existence therefore began with the settlement of the
liberties of the country. It fought at the Boyne under Schomberg;
captured Namur in Flanders in 1693; formed part of the great
Marlborough’s legions at Blenheim and Oudenarde; fought in 1742 at
Dettingen and Fontenoy; decided the battle of Minden in 1751, for which
the name of _Minden_ is inscribed on the colours; showed examples of
valour and perseverance in America in 1773, at Boston, Charlestown,
Brandywine, and Edgehill; accompanied the Duke of York to Holland; was
amongst the first to land in Egypt, under the brave Abercrombie, and,
later, the last to embark at Corunna; but between these two important
services fought at Copenhagen, and at the taking of Martinique. _Egypt,
Martinique, and Corunna_ are waving in these Colours. In the Peninsula
the Regiment won for their Colours, under the Duke, the names of
_Albuera, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelles, Orthes, and
Toulouse_. The deeds performed at Albuera are familiar to everybody who
has read Napier’s inimitable description of that action. The Regiment
was victorious for the last time over a powerful enemy at the Duke’s
last great victory at Waterloo.
Although you were all of course well acquainted with these glorious
records, I have thought it right to refer to them as a proof that they
have not been forgotten by others, and as the best mode of appealing to
you to show yourselves at all times worthy of the name you bear.
Take these Colours, one emphatically called the Queen’s (let it be a
pledge of your loyalty to your Sovereign, and of obedience to the laws
of your country); the other, more especially the Regimental one, let
that be a pledge of your determination to maintain the honour of your
Regiment. In looking at the one, you will think of your Sovereign—in
looking at the other, you will think of those who have fought, bled, and
conquered before you.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AT THE BANQUET GIVEN BY
THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD MAYOR,
THOMAS FARNCOMBE,
TO HER MAJESTY’S MINISTERS,
FOREIGN AMBASSADORS,
ROYAL COMMISSIONERS OF THE EXHIBITION OF 1851,
AND THE
MAYORS OF ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY TOWNS,
AT THE MANSION HOUSE.
[MARCH 21ST, 1850.]
-------
MY LORD MAYOR,—
I am sincerely grateful for the kindness with which you have proposed my
health, and to you, gentlemen, for the cordiality with which you have
received this proposal.
It must indeed be most gratifying to me to find that a suggestion which
I had thrown out, as appearing to me of importance at this time, should
have met with such universal concurrence and approbation; for this has
proved to me that the view I took of the peculiar character and claims
of the time we live in was in accordance with the feelings and opinions
of the country.
Gentlemen—I conceive it to be the duty of every educated person closely
to watch and study the time in which he lives, and, as far as in him
lies, to add his humble mite of individual exertion to further the
accomplishment of what he believes Providence to have ordained.
Nobody, however, who has paid any attention to the peculiar features of
our present era, will doubt for a moment that we are living at a period
of most wonderful transition, which tends rapidly to accomplish that
great end, to which, indeed, all history points—_the realization of the
unity of mankind_. Not a unity which breaks down the limits and levels
the peculiar characteristics of the different nations of the earth, but
rather a unity, the _result and product_ of those very national
varieties and antagonistic qualities.
The distances which separated the different nations and parts of the
globe are rapidly vanishing before the achievements of modern invention,
and we can traverse them with incredible ease; the languages of all
nations are known, and their acquirement placed within the reach of
everybody; thought is communicated with the rapidity, and even by the
power, of lightning. On the other hand, the _great principle of division
of labour_, which may be called the moving power of civilization, is
being extended to all branches of science, industry, and art.
Whilst formerly the greatest mental energies strove at universal
knowledge, and that knowledge was confined to the few, now they are
directed on specialities, and in these, again, even to the minutest
points; but the knowledge acquired becomes at once the property of the
community at large; for, whilst formerly discovery was wrapped in
secrecy, the publicity of the present day causes that no sooner is a
discovery or invention made than it is already improved upon and
surpassed by competing efforts. The products of all quarters of the
globe are placed at our disposal, and we have only to choose which is
the best and the cheapest for our purposes, and the powers of production
are intrusted to the stimulus of _competition and capital_.
So man is approaching a more complete fulfilment of that great and
sacred mission which he has to perform in this world. His reason being
created after the image of God, he has to use it to discover the laws by
which the Almighty governs His creation, and, by making these laws his
standard of action, to conquer nature to his use; himself a divine
instrument.
Science discovers these laws of power, motion, and transformation;
industry applies them to the raw matter, which the earth yields us in
abundance, but which becomes valuable only by knowledge. Art teaches us
the immutable laws of beauty and symmetry, and gives to our productions
forms in accordance to them.
Gentlemen—the Exhibition of 1851 is to give us a true test and a living
picture of the point of development at which the whole of mankind has
arrived in this great task, and a new starting-point from which all
nations will be able to direct their further exertions.
I confidently hope that the first impression which the view of this vast
collection will produce upon the spectator will be that of deep
thankfulness to the Almighty for the blessings which He has bestowed
upon us already here below; and the second, the conviction that they can
only be realized in proportion to the help which we are prepared to
render each other; therefore, only by peace, love, and ready assistance,
not only between individuals, but between the nations of the earth.
This being _my_ conviction, I must be highly gratified to see here
assembled the magistrates of all the important towns of this realm,
sinking all their local and possibly political differences, the
representatives of the different political opinions of the country, and
the representatives of the different Foreign Nations—to-day representing
only _one interest_!
Gentlemen—my original plan had been to carry out this undertaking with
the help of the Society of Arts of London, which had long and usefully
laboured in this direction, and by the means of private capital and
enterprise. You have wished it otherwise, and declared that it was a
work which the British people as a whole ought to undertake. I at once
yielded to your wishes, feeling that it proceeded from a patriotic,
noble, and generous spirit. On _your_ courage, perseverance, and
liberality, the undertaking now entirely depends. I feel the strongest
confidence in these qualities of the British people, and I am sure that
they will repose confidence in themselves—confidence that they will
honourably sustain the contest of emulation, and that they will nobly
carry out their proffered hospitality to their foreign competitors.
We, Her Majesty’s Commissioners, are quite alive to the innumerable
difficulties which we shall have to overcome in carrying out the scheme;
but, having confidence in you and in our own zeal and perseverance, at
least, we require only _your confidence in us_ to make us contemplate
the result without any apprehension.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AT THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION STONE
OF THE
NATIONAL GALLERY AT EDINBURGH.
[AUGUST 30TH, 1850.]
-------
GENTLEMEN,—
Now that this ceremony is concluded, you must allow me to express to you
how much satisfaction it has given me to have had it in my power to
comply with your invitation, and to lay the foundation stone of this
important National institution, and that this should have coincided with
the moment when Her Majesty the Queen has come among you, and has given
you a further proof of her attachment to this country, by taking up her
abode, if for a short time only, in the ancient palace of her ancestors
in this capital, where she has been received with such unequivocal
demonstrations of loyalty and affection.
The building, of which we have just begun the foundation, is a temple to
be erected to the Fine Arts; the Fine Arts which have so important an
influence upon the development of the mind and feeling of a people, and
which are so generally taken as the type of the degree and character of
that development, that it is on the fragments of works of art, come down
to us from bygone nations, that we are wont to form our estimate of the
state of their civilization, manners, customs, and religion.
Let us hope that the impulse given to the culture of the Fine Arts in
this country, and the daily increasing attention bestowed upon it by the
people at large, will not only tend to refine and elevate the national
tastes, but will also lead to the production of works which, if left
behind us as memorials of our age, will give to after generations an
adequate idea of our advanced state of civilization.
It must be an additional source of gratification to me to find, that
part of the funds rendered available for the support of this undertaking
should be the ancient grant which, at the union of the two kingdoms, was
secured towards the encouragement of the fisheries and manufactures of
Scotland, as it affords a most pleasing proof that those important
branches of industry have arrived at that stage of manhood and
prosperity when, no longer requiring the aid of a fostering Government,
they can maintain themselves independently, relying upon their own
vigour and activity, and can now in their turn lend assistance and
support to their younger and weaker sisters, the Fine Arts.
Gentlemen, the history of this grant exhibits to us the picture of a
most healthy national progress: the ruder arts connected with the
necessaries of life _first_ gaining strength; then education and science
supervening and directing further exertions; and lastly, the arts which
only adorn life becoming longed for by a prosperous and educated people.
May nothing disturb this progress, and may, by God’s blessing, that
peace and prosperity be preserved to the nation, which will insure to it
a long continuance of moral and intellectual enjoyment!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AT THE BANQUET GIVEN BY
THE LORD MAYOR OF YORK,
AND THE MAYORS OF THE CHIEF CITIES AND TOWNS
OF THE UNITED KINGDOM,
TO THE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON.
[OCTOBER 25TH, 1850.]
MY LORD MAYOR,—
I am very sensible of your kindness in proposing my health, and I beg
you, gentlemen, to believe that I feel very deeply your demonstrations
of good will and cordiality towards myself. I can assure you that I
fully reciprocate these sentiments, and that it has given me sincere
pleasure to meet you, the representatives of all the important towns of
the kingdom, again assembled at a festive board, in token of the unity
and harmony of feeling which prevails amongst those whom you represent,
and on which, I am persuaded, the happiness and well-being of the
country so materially depends.
It was an idea honourable at once to the liberality and the discernment
of the Lord Mayor of London to invite you to assemble under his
hospitable roof before you started in the important undertaking upon
which you were going to enter; and when, according to ancient custom,
the loving-cup went round, it was a pledge you gave each other, that,
whatever the rivalries of your different localities might be, you would,
in the approaching contest, all act and appear _as one_, representing
your country at the gathering of the products of the nations of the
earth.
I see by your anxiety to return, before your terms of office shall have
expired, the compliment which London has paid you, that you personally
appreciate, to its full extent, the intention of its chief magistrate;
and you could not have selected a better place for your meeting than
this venerable city, which is so much connected with the recollections
and the history of the empire, and is now pre-eminent as the centre of a
district in which a high state of agriculture is blended with a most
extensive production of manufactures.
But I see, likewise, in your anxiety to meet us, Her Majesty’s
Commissioners, again, a proof of your earnest and continued zeal in the
cause of the approaching Exhibition. It could not be by the impetus of a
momentary enthusiasm, but only by a steady perseverance and sustained
effort, that you could hope to carry out your great undertaking, and
ensure for yourselves and the nation an honourable position in the
comparison which you have invited.
If, to cheer you on in your labours, by no means terminated, you should
require an assurance that that spirit of activity and perseverance _is_
abroad in the country, I can give you that assurance on the ground of
the information which reaches us from all quarters, and I can add to it
our personal conviction, that the works in preparation will be such as
to dispel any apprehension for the position which British industry will
maintain.
From abroad, also, all the accounts which we receive lead us to expect
that the works which are to be sent will be numerous and of a superior
character.
Although we perceive, in some countries, a fear that the advantages to
be derived from the Exhibition will be mainly reaped by England, and a
consequent distrust in the effects of our scheme upon their own
interests, we must at the same time freely and gratefully acknowledge
that our invitation has been received by all nations, with whom
communication was possible, in that spirit of liberality and friendship
in which it was tendered, and that they are making great exertions and
incurring great expenses in order to meet our plans.
Of our own doings at the Commission I should have preferred to remain
silent; but I cannot let this opportunity pass without telling you how
much benefit we have derived, in our difficult labours, from your
uninterrupted confidence in the intentions, at least, which guided our
decisions, and that there has been no difference of opinion on any one
subject, between us and the different local Committees, which has not,
upon personal consultation, and after open explanation and discussion,
vanished, and given way to agreement and identity of purpose.