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that may be said in reference to the evils of society, it cannot be denied that the tide is onward in the direction of peace, and enlightenment, and moral culture. Take the mightiest public organs, irrespective of politics, and what is the spectacle presented? Is not the greatest public organ, the Times, distinguished by battling for the great cause of humanity, for which your Lordship and Mr. Wakley have been struggling? And take again that little man, with his little stick, Punch-a production which never excites a laugh against religion a production that is doing more perhaps practically for the cause of humanity than any other, employing the powers of sarcasm, and banter, and wit, and historical fable alike in its service. This publication speaks to the English heart: it speaks to the English manhood that breathes in all our bosoms; and while that manhood makes such a ready response to the appeals that are made to it, the cause of British humanity is not in danger, and cannot be lost-(cheers.) I am well aware of objections which have been referred to this evening. Two objections have been urged. The first is this, "Give the young men time, and they will be sure to abuse it by running into sin." Mr. Wakley enumerated a certain class of officers who were set free at 4 or 5 o'clock; I suppose because those who govern them have perfect confidence in the parties liberated-(hear, hear, and laughter.) Can be, my Lord, on the same or a similar ground that your House sits at night-(laughter)—that the only place where work is done in connexion with the legislature, under the shades of night and during the hours of darkness, is the House to which you belong? Can it be on this account that that is made an exception to the general rule pointed out by Mr. Wakley? So far as I know the young men concerned in question, of this I am confident, that if they get their liberty, they will not abuse it-(cheers.) Every man must know, that in proportion as the body is worn down and jaded with over-exertion, the pleasure to which it resorts must be more exciting. Give the young men the evening to themselves after 7 o'clock, and they will sit down to improve their minds; let them out for half an hour at 10 or half-past 10, and their bodies being exhausted, they will fly to some pestiferous thing by which a momentary relief and enjoyment may be obtained-(hear, hear.) On the simple ground of philosophy and of reason, it appears that the longer that period of the evening which they have to themselves, and the less their exhaustion, the more moderate, the more moral, the more Christian will be their enjoyments; and, conversely, that the more they are exhausted, and the longer they are kept to business, the greater will be the danger of their having recourse to those stimulants which will give them a momentary gratification. But I can say for myself that the objection appears to be utterly groundless-a downright misrepresentation. If I may be allowed to speak of myself, I would say that for years I have had a class of young men whom I have instructed in the evening in reference to the history and the physiology of man; and when spring came, and brought with it the cycle of fashion, it was their grief, a source of pain, that they could not come to hear what I had to say. But if they did to a certain extent abuse their privilege, are we to expect all the virtues of the freeborn man in the newly-emancipated slave? Are we to condemn the man who is brought out of the darkness in which he has been for years, because he cannot clearly discern all objects at once? Rather are we not to school and train these parties to the proper use of their privileges? But another class of objectors say, “Admitting that you get all your young men to be reading and thoughtful young men, what will be the result? Why, that you will have a class of persons who are inflated with vanity, and thus will you have destroyed the social balance." One word in reply to this objection. People will think whether we desire them to do so or not; young men will inquire whether we like it or not; and I, as a Christian minister, declare that if I had the power of stopping thought, I would not use it, and especially not in the case of young men (cheers.) My Lord, there is a noble work for the Christian ministry to perform; it is not to arrest the tide of intelligence, not to clip the pinions of eager thought, but to direct thought in its impulse to the great source of all intelligence, where it shall be completely satisfied-(cheers.) Such, then, my Lord, is our aim, and in that aim we are sure to succeed. Difficulties may exist, perils may arise, but we shall succeed(cheers); and if we should be able to rescue a single section of society from the oppression of social tyranny, in which masters, I believe, are just as unwilling agents as we ourselves, we shall have done more for society, more for the world, and more for ourselves, than if we had heaped up the riches of a railway-king, or had obtained a mighty and glorious triumph, not of liberty or independence, but of empire-(cheers.) And if we fail, which I cannot believe possible, we shall have the satisfaction of knowing that we have failed in a good cause; and it is better to perish, were that a possibility, beneath the ruins of the temple of virtue, with the light of heaven still lingering among the fragments, than to stand within the walls of a palace of mammon built on the ruins of virtue, generosity, benevolence, and truth-(cheers). I know well that good results have sprung out of this moveI attended last week a meeting at Radley's Hotel for the formation of a Christian Association in connexion with these houses; and this is a movement the germ of which will expand and produce the best results. Now what do we propose to do? I shall dispose

ment.

of this question very rapidly. We believe, first, that the remedy for the evil is in the hands of the people, and that if they take it in hand the object is accomplished; secondly, we believe that the proper mode of carrying out the object is not by coercion, not by shutting the shops and saying that customers shall not come into them, but by reasoning with the people calmly, temperately, Christianly, and upon sound principles. Let light once dawn upon the London women's hearts, and on the spirits and understandings of persons in this metropolis generally, and the whole question is for ever settled. Now we must have money-(hear, hear.) Mr. Wakley says that even a clergyman must have money. Very true; and the surgeon will not give the use of the Lancet without the fee-(laughter). Every man requires and is entitled to live by his profession. We cannot get on in this work without such an agency as that which has existed hitherto; and that agency cannot be maintained without the sinews of war. How are we to get them? In this way. Let each individual do something. There is a man drowning, and we are stretching out our hands to save him. I I am standing in the middle; and if I give way just as he was going to be saved, 1 go home and feel that it was the withdrawment of my single arm which caused his death. Had I been but firm, energetic, and manly, he might have been rescued from the grasp of the destroyer. Again, we must not only strive individually, but also collectively. We must not content ourselves with abstracted and desultory efforts, but all must combine. The motto in this work, as in every other good undertaking, should be, "Each for all, and all for the common good;" and especially in this case, the motto of employer and employed should be, "The man for his master, and the master for his man." We must all do what is in our power, only remembering that we are not to get in debt and not to rob others in order to carry out our object. Acting in this manner, and upon these principles, the work will be well and nobly done. Young men, in your hands, next to those of the public, is placed the success of this effort. If you use the liberty that you obtain well; if you are industrious, kind, sober, active, and compassionate; if, in a single word, you try to realize the character of a British tradesman, "not more civil than industrious, and not more industrious than honest, and living by the honest sweat of his brow or his brain;" if you seek to realize rights that character, and to act on that principle, your cause is safe-your interests, and your (for I hold them to be rights), and your moral liberty and improvement will advance hand in hand-(cheers.)

A Gentleman was then rising, without being called upon by the Chairman, to address the meeting, stating that he wished to move an amendment. He was interrupted, however, by calls for Mr. Owen, and loud cries of "chair, chair." He stated himself to be Mr. Nunn, a draper, of Regent-street, and alleged that his object was to speak to a point on which he conceived the Chairman was in error.

The Chairman decided that the resolution under consideration should first be disposed of, and the Gentleman would then be at liberty to propose an amendment.

Mr. OWEN, of Great Coram-street, on rising to support the resolution, said,-My Friends, I know the value of every moment that you have now to spare in this hall; and knowing the old motto that "the end crowns the work," I am anxious that the work in which we are engaged this evening should be crowned well indeed, that not one person should leave this room without a practical proof and expression that he is indeed and in truth attached to this cause. You have had all that eloquence can give you to show you your responsibilities; and I will, in a few moments, give you what I think will confirm your feelings, the example of some kind friends who are now on the platform. The first name which I have the pleasure of announcing to you is that of Mr. Lund, a donation of 5.; Mr. Grainger, a guinea; Mr. Baker, 17.; our very kind friend, to whom I am sure we all feel greatly indebted, Thomas Wakley, Esq., Member for Finsbury, 107. 10s.-(loud cheers). And now, my fellow-masters, with a great deal of unfeigned delight, I am going to introduce to you another name. I say with unfeigned delight, because this Gentleman's whole character accords with what he is now going to do. If he had asked me to present this donation to you to-night, and I did not know what I do of him, I would not distinguish his name; but when there are numbers present who can testify that every single act of his life as a master, within the last few years, has borne testimony in his favour, it is with delight that I come forward to mention the name of Mr. Hitchcock in connexion with a subscription of 100l.—(loud cheers). I should tell you that when he gave me permission to make over this 100., he wished me to present it in any name rather than his own. Although all whom I see cannot give 100%, and it would not be right for them to do so, I hope that not a gentleman will arise from this platform without giving us some taken of his good will-(cheers).

The collection was then made; and during its progress the following additional subscriptions were announced :-Mr. Bennock, of Wood-street, 5/.; the Assistants of Lambeth House, male and female, 101. 10s.; Mr. Redmayne, 101.; Mr. Parton, of Pimlico, 1. 18.; Charles Cochrane, Esq.. 51. 5s.; Mr. Owen, the amount of the prize for the essay for distribution, &c. &c.

The CHAIRMAN then put the resolution, which was carried unanimously. CHARLES COCHRANE, Esq., said,-Ladies and Gentlemen, I am certainly taken by surprise in being called upon to perform the pleasing duty of submitting to your consideration the propriety of returning to our noble and excellent Chairman a vote of thanks on the present occasion. But when I bear in mind that this is a duty which neither requires talent on the part of the speaker nor distinction in his position, the proposition itself being so good that it needs no recommendation from me, difficult as I might otherwise find the task, I anticipate your unanimous approval. We should all bear in mind, that however good a cause may be, however popular in the breasts of the public, yet, in order to have a numerous assembly, it is not the least important part of the preparations for a public meeting that there should be selected a good and popular Chairman; and I must confess that in my humble opinion-an opinion which will I expect be most cordially approved-had the whole world been searched, a more fitting Chairman could not possibly have been found. We have all, I am convinced, received intense gratification this evening-a gratification arising not only from the numerous and able speeches which we have heard in support of the object for which the meeting was convened, but from the vastness of the assembly and the unanimity by which it has been characterized. Ladies and Gentlemen, I will do no more than now submit to your consideration, or rather put to you for your unanimous approval, a vote of thanks to the noble Chairman for his very able presidency on this occasion.

Several donations were here announced, which will be found in the subscription-list. Mr. REDMAYNE, on rising to second the resolution, said,-Before I speak to the resolution, let me express a hope that every man, according to his means, will contribute to our cause. In one morning I obtained for the Dressmakers' Association 400l. If you all employ your best eloquence-the eloquence, not of the tongue, but of the heart, in the gentle spirit recommended by the noble Lord, there will be no difficulty in obtaining funds. I have very great pleasure in seconding the resolution. We have had this evening a Chairman who is worthy of the post he has occupied ; and I hope you will all simultaneously, with one heart and voice, render to him the expression of your thanks.

The resolution was carried by vociferous acclamation, the whole meeting standing. The CHAIRMAN said,-Ladies and Gentlemen, I beg to thank you most sincerely, and from my heart, for the kind expression of feeling to which you have this moment given vent. I trust that in all that I do, in my public as well as my private conduct, I am directed by my own conscience; but I am not so little human as to be insensible to such an expression of approval by so vast and respectable an assembly. That, Gentlemen, must constitute the reward of every public man; and little as I may have deserved it, it is, I assure you, most grateful to my mind. It would be quite unpardonable were I at this late hour, having already trespassed at such great length on your patience, to say one word more on the general subject. I will merely add, that if I was delighted at being invited to take part in this meeting, I am still more so at having taken part in it; for I confess that, after the speeches which have been made, and the judgments which have been delivered, I look upon the triumph of this cause as much nearer than I had before thought it possible that it could be (cheers).

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THE LATE-HOUR QUESTION.

INTELLIGENCE.

THE grand feature of the early-closing movement during the past month has been, of course, the great Public Meeting of the Metropolitan Drapers' Association, held in Exeter Hall, on Tuesday evening, November 11th, in aid of the £5000 Fund. A full report of the interesting proceedings on that occasion appears in another part of our pages, and the space it necessarily occupies compels us to defer some portion of our intelligence, and compress the rest into as small a compass as possible. We lay before our readers, however, the principal topics of interest which have received attention in the

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CENTRAL BOARD.

October 29th.-Resolved, "That 10,000 copies of a hand-bill for the Tottenhamcourt-road District be printed."

"That it be an instruction to the Visiting Sub-committee to take the necessary steps for getting up the public meetings of assistants in the various districts in aid of the £5000 Fund."

November 5th.-The Report of the Select Committee appointed to reorganize the various Standing Sub-committees was adopted. One of its recommendations was, that a Council be formed for the more efficient conduct of the affairs of the Association. It was accordingly resolved, "That a council be appointed, to consist of the chairmen of the nine Standing Sub-comImittees, and four other members of the Central Board."

This new feature in the organization of the Association is now in active operation, and meets weekly.

Nov. 12th.-Arrangements for holding a General District Meeting in the Eastern Institution, Commercial-road, were brought under the consideration of the Central Board. The meeting will take place on Tuesday evening, December 2nd, G. F. Young, Esq., will take the chair; and Mr. Under-sheriff Wire and other influential gentlemen will address the meeting.

Resolved, "That the Statistics Subcommittee be appointed to take the necessary steps for procuring members to the Linendrapers, &c., Institution, to be given in at their annual dinner."

A meeting of the assistants of Waterloo House was recently held, for the purpose of electing eight representatives in the District-Committee, at which the majority of the assistants were present, and a spirit of activity was evinced in the cause far greater than on any preceding occasion. The duty of all assistants to aid the Committee in carrying out their projects was strongly enforced, in addresses from the chairman and other gentlemen present; and the numerous attendance at the meeting, with the increased and ready payment of the quarterly subscription, create a hope that the young men of Waterloo House will soon become as distinguished for their advocacy of early-closing as their employers have long been for their practical acknowledgment of its beneficial influence.

Other important meetings have been held in several of the districts, but space will not permit us to refer to them in detail.

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Mr. W. Owen announced as his subscription, the amount to be offered for the Prize Address.

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