side. Having this strong conviction, which, indeed,
I imagine must be that of every person who has ever
thought seriously about these great problems, I have
ventured to put it before you in this bare and almost
cynical fashion because it will justify the strong
appeal, which I make to all concerned in this work
of promoting industrial education, to have a care,
at the same time, that the conditions of industrial
life remain those in which the physical energies of
the population may be maintained at a proper level;
in which their moral state may be cared for; in which
there may be some rays of hope and pleasure in their
lives; and in which the sole prospect of a life of
labour may not be an old age of penury.
These are the chief suggestions I have to offer to
you, though I have omitted much that I should like
to have said, had time permitted. It may be that
some of you feel inclined to look upon them as the
Utopian dreams of a student. If there be such,
let me tell you that there are, to my knowledge, manufacturing
towns in this country, not one-tenth the size, or
boasting one-hundredth part of the wealth, of Manchester,
in which I do not say that the programme that I have
put before you is completely carried out, but in which,
at any rate, a wise and intelligent effort had been
made to realise it, and in which the main parts of
the programme are in course of being worked out.
This is not the first time that I have had the privilege
and pleasure of addressing a Manchester audience.
I have often enough, before now, thrown myself with
entire confidence upon the hard-headed intelligence
and the very soft-hearted kindness of Manchester people,
when I have had a difficult and complicated scientific
argument to put before them. If, after the considerations
which I have put before you—and which, pray
be it understood, I by no means claim particularly
for myself, for I presume they must be in the minds
of a large number of people who have thought about
this matter—if it be that these ideas commend
themselves to your mature reflection, then I am perfectly
certain that my appeal to you to carry them into practice,
with that abundant energy and will which have led
you to take a foremost part in the great social movements
of our country many a time beforehand, will not be
made in vain. I therefore confidently appeal
to you to let those impulses once more have full sway,
and not to rest until you have done something better
and greater than has yet been done in this country
in the direction in which we are now going. I
heartily thank you for the attention which you have
been kind enough to bestow upon me. The practice
of public speaking is one I must soon think of leaving
off, and I count it a special and peculiar honour
to have had the opportunity of speaking to you on this
subject to-day.
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