LABOUR AND KNOWLEDGE, AND

THE WORKING CLASSES;

BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOSEPH NAPIER, LL.D., M.P. for Dublin University.

[Delivered at the Mechanics' Institution, Keswick.]

On the present occasion. I must be content to remind you of old truths, which I have the satisfaction to believe are not new acquaintances; for it is safer if not wiser to learn thoroughly the lessons of standard truth, rather than to grope about for some new path of progress, whilst known paths are neglected. We meet to-night not to lounge away a listless or leisure hour in mere unprofitable amusement, but as thoughtful and intelligent citizens of a great community, to consider the condition, and cheer the hearts of that section of our people, which is exclusively, but perhaps somewhat inaccurately, designated by the title of the Working Class; for this would seem to imply that they, and they only, were habitually occupied in active duties. Who can look upon the millions, commonly so called, of our ever busy fellow-citizens, without being stirred in his inmost soul, without a throbbing impulse to do them good as far as in his power?

It is recorded of Xerxes, the Persian monarch, when he surveyed his mighty army collected together in its extended encampment, the thought that in less than 100 years, not one of them should be left-that all should have passed away; this so overpowered

him that he burst into a flood of tears.

This gush of emotion came from the very depths of human sympathy, which belongs to the high mysteries of our being. How then shall we, in a great Christtian community, regard the working classes? As men or as animals-as things or as persons? Are they to be isolated as beings doomed to a life of toil and hopeless ignorance? Is labour to be the special burden of some, and idleness the proper business of others? Or, on the other hand, is activity, and is diligence in the various departments of labour, under its many aspects-is this a law binding on all classes of society? Are all equally entitled to a Sabbath rest and reasonable recreation? Should all be invited to partake of the benefits of knowledge which is increased daily-should these not be as freely shared as the greater blessings of revealed Religion? An all-wise Creator deals with man without respect of persons, and has ordained the discipline and duty of human life as an institution for eternity. Whether we look to the working classes in their higher or humbler relations, we must regard them in a moral not less than social aspect. Now it is a vital truth that there are laws stereotyped in the moral government of the world, by which the course of human life, with its lights and shadows, its seasons of progress or decline, is divinely regulated; and it is our wisdom to discover these laws, as it is our duty and our interest to conform to their re quirements, by which prosperity is generally to be secured. Here are laws by which nature is governed, which palpably operate on the social condition of the human family; these also are constant and dis coverable, because they are discernible by observation and comparison of phenomena extending far and wide. The study of these, belongs to what is called economic science, and takes its proper place-not in the centre, but in the circumference of the circle of useful knowledge. To give a habit of thoughtful reflection; a well regulated appetite for plain and

wholesome knowledge; a spirit of contentment, combined with providence and self respect, with a hopeful desire of gradually rising to a higher platform in society, by the self-elevating agency of industry, intelligence, and virtue, this is a work well worthy of the purest philanthropy, but a work not to be accomplished otherwise than by patient perseverance. We are not allowed in any department of the divine economy, to sow with one hand and reap with the other. The workman is greater than his work; mind is nobler than matter; science and skill are superior to bodily toil; and the faculties which God has given to man to be trained by the discipline of daily life, cannot be left uncultivated, without incurring the penalties which the laws of divine wisdom have righteously imposed; the cultivation of these faculties thus comes before us with all the claims of à sacred duty. Labour is first to be regarded as a primeval law, and the attainment of suitable knowledge a consequent duty; for all experience demonstrates the fixed and essential opposition of sloth and ignorance to the well-being and the progress of

mankind.

By labour it may have been intended that man should, in some degree, be enabled to reconquer a lost dominion over the material world, and also to discipline his immortal spirit, for a higher and nobler sphere of active being. Now, observe that I do not here speak of labour in any one departmentthis is a common error. The merchant is not less a labourer than a mechanic; nor a professional man than the merchant. The highest and purest occupation of life is described as the work of faith and labour of love." Labour is thus dignified in its union with knowledge and association with faith-a union which ought ever to be preserved indissoluble.

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The action of knowledge on labour and the importance of connecting these together, has, in our own day, been most happily exhibited; and I would invite your attention to a few striking illustrations.

The average produce of wheat by the acre has been about 24 imperial bushels-this has been increased nearly fourfold. The produce of oats has been trebled; potatoes, fivefold; turnips, nearly sixfold : and all this has been brought about by the discoveries of science, skilfully applied in the improvement of agricultural industry. Chemistry has disclosed to us, for instance, that wheat is composed of elements principally obtained from the atmosphere, and from the dews and rains which seasonably descend upon our earth. Of 1640lbs., produced by an acre of wheat, upwards of 1500lbs. are derived from these common natural sources; 89 out of every 100 from the air above; the soil simply acts as the receiver and storehouse of ripples taken from the elements, and given out, as occasion requires, to the growing plant. The preparation of the soil, for thus receiving and distributing the bounty of Providence, is therefore a principal object of intelligent labour, and in truth constitutes "the tillage of the land," which the divine word faithfully assures us will "satisfy with bread." Wheat is composed of oxygen and carbon in nearly equal quantities, which constitute about nine-tenths of the whole; it also consists of hydrogen, nitrogen, and inorganic matter. These elements are found in charcoal, air, and water. Water supplies oxygen and hydrogen; air supplies nitrogen-which is absorbed from it by the soil; and when combined with hydrogen forms ammonia, which is so valuable in manure; for the application of manure which yields ammonia, enables the plant to take in a much greater quantity from the air, than it could do without this artificial stimulus.

Again, it is found that porous bodies, such as charcoal and cellular earth, attract and contain certain gaseous matter many times their own size. Charcoal will retain 90 times its own size of ammonia, so that the seasonable supplies of vegetation may be stored in the soil, and by the action of heat given out to the plant. In the profitable use of manures, the

The

aid of science is absolutely indispensable. part of manure which is most valuable, is what is soluble in water, and what may be evaporated by heat, a significant hint to those who collect manure within view of the cottage, and expose it to the action of the sun and rain, in the dung heap or the cesspool-polluting the pure air and wasting the useful portion of the manure itself, by what really and truly turns out to be the extravagant folly of indolent and uninstructed improvidence.

Ignorance may thus waste, in abridging health and comfort, what cheap and common knowledge would require to be used, for the increased production of wholesome food,-a striking illustration of the harmony which subsists in the laws by which industry is governed, in its application to the common purposes of life, and the laws which regulate the comforts, the decencies, and the duties of the humblest rank of society; all are, in fact, most graciously bound up together. The careful pulverizing of the soil, to make and keep it porous and cellular; the regular removal of weeds, which would steal the supples of what are the lawful property of the growing grain or vegetable; the seasonable application of manures, at the proper stages of growth, and according to the exigencies of the soil-these are but samples of the many channels into which knowledge is the profitable conductor of labour, and from which ignorance is content to be excluded.

The process of draining, by which a change of temperature equal to the warmth of summer, may be produced, has been but recently made available to any great extent. In truth, the good providence of God has bestowed most bountifully, an abundant supply of wholesome food, intended to be made available for our use by knowledge and labour. Labour, so needed for man's discipline; knowledge, so capable of promoting man's happiness; each and both prefer their claims upon us, and promise us an abundant recompense.