o-called middle
classes. One is, indeed, tempted to declare, after considering the
energy with which they enter on all questions, that this class of
educated mechanics forms in reality the protoplasm, or living
matter, out of which modern society is evolved. The great and
well-supplied reading-room of the Mechanics' Institute is always
full of readers; the library, now an extensive one, is constantly in
use. Where one book is read in agricultural districts, fifty are
read in the vicinity of the factory. Social questions of marriage,
of religion, of politics, sanitary science, are for ever on the
simmer among these men. It would almost seem as if the hammer, the
lathe, and the drill would one day bring forth a creed of its own. A
characteristic of all classes of these workmen is their demand for
meat, of which great quantities are consumed. Nor do they stay at
meat alone, but revel in fish and other luxuries at times, though
the champagne of the miner is not known here. Notwithstanding the
number of public-houses, it is a remarkable fact that there is very
little drunkenness in proportion to the population, few crimes of
violence, and, what is more singular still, and has been often
remarked, very little immorality. Where there are some hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of young uneducated girls, without work to occupy
their time, there must of course exist a certain amount of lax
conduct; but never, or extremely rarely, does a girl apply to the
magistrates for an affiliation order, while from agricultural
parishes such applications are common. The number of absolutely
immoral women openly practising infamy is also remarkably small.
There was a time when the workmen at this factory enjoyed an
unpleasant notoriety for mischief and drunkenness, but that time has
passed away, a most marked improvement having taken place in the
last few years.

There appears, however, to be very little prudence amongst them. The
man who receives some extra money for extra work simply spends it on
unusual luxuries in food or drink; or, if it be summer, takes his
wife and children a drive in a hired conveyance. To this latter
there can be no objection; but still, the fact remains prominent
that men in the receipt of good wages do not save. They do not put
by money; this is, of course, speaking of the majority. It would
almost seem to be a characteristic of human nature that those who
receive wages for work done, so much per week or fortnight, do