sermon on social justice. From imitations of
Ethiopian Serenaders, to imitations of Prince's
coats and waistcoats, you will find the original
model in St. James's Parish. When the
Serenaders become tiresome, trace them beyond the
Black Country; when the coats and waistcoats
become insupportable, refer them to their source
in the Upper Toady Regions.

Gentlemen's clubs were once maintained for
purposes of savage party warfare; working
men's clubs of the same day assumed the same
character. Gentlemen's clubs became places
of quiet inoffensive recreation; working men's
clubs began to follow suit. If working men
have seemed rather slow to appreciate
advantages of combination which have saved the
pockets of gentlemen, and enhanced their
comforts, it is because working men could scarcely,
for want of capital, originate such combinations
without help; and because help has not
been separable from that great impertinence,
Patronage. The instinctive revolt of his spirit
against patronage, is a quality much to be
respected in the English working man. It is the
base of the base of his best qualities. Nor is
it surprising that he should be unduly suspicious
of patronage, and sometimes resentful of it even
where it is not, seeing what a flood of washy
talk has been let loose on his devoted head, or
with what complacent condescension the same
devoted head has been smoothed and patted.
It is a proof to me of his self-control that he
never strikes out pugilistically, right and left,
when addressed as one of "My friends," or
"My assembled friends"; that he does not
become inappeasable, and run amuck like a Malay,
whenever he sees a biped in broadcloth getting
on a platform to talk to him; that any pretence
of improving his mind, does not instantly drive
him out of his mind, and cause him to toss his
obliging patron like a mad bull.

For, how often have I heard the unfortunate
working man lectured, as if he were a little
charity-child, humid as to his nasal development,
strictly literal as to his Catechism, and called by
Providence to walk all his days in a station in life
represented on festive occasions by a mug of warm
milk-and-water and a bun! What popguns of
jokes have these ears tingled to hear let off at
him, what asinine sentiments, what impotent
conclusions, what spelling-book moralities, what
adaptations of the orator's insufferable
tediousness to the assumed level of his understanding!
If his sledge-hammers, his spades and
pickaxes, his saws and chisels, his paint-pots
and brushes, his forges furnaces and engines,
the horses that he drove at his work, and the
machines that drove him at his work, were all
toys in one little paper box, and he the baby
who played with them, he could not have been
discoursed to, more impertinently and absurdly
than I have heard him discoursed to, times
innumerable. Consequently, not being a fool or
a fawner, he has come to acknowledge his
patronage by virtually saying: "Let me alone.
If you understand me no better than that, sir
and madam, let me alone. You mean very well,
I dare say, but I don't like it, and I won't come
here again to have any more of it."

Whatever is done for the comfort and
advancement of the working man must be so far
done by himself as that it is maintained by
himself. And there must be in it no touch of
condescension, no shadow of patronage. In
the great working districts, this truth is studied
and understood. When the American civil
war rendered it necessary, first in Glasgow,
and afterwards in Manchester, that the working
people should be shown how to avail themselves
of the advantages derivable from system, and
from the combination of numbers, in the
purchase and the cooking of their food, this truth
was above all things borne in mind. The quick
consequence was, that suspicion and reluctance
were vanquished, and that the effort resulted in
an astonishing and a complete success.

Such thoughts passed through my mind on
a July morning of this summer, as I walked
towards Commercial-street (not Uncommercial-
street), Whitechapel. The Glasgow and
Manchester system had been lately set a-going there,
by certain gentlemen who felt an interest in its
diffusion, and I had been attracted by the
following hand-bill, printed on rose-coloured
paper:
                  SELF-SUPPORTING
                     COOKING DEPOT
          FOR THE WORKING CLASSES,
          Commercial-street, Whitechapel,
Where Accommodation is provided for Dining
          comfortably 300 Persons at a time.
            Open from 7 A.M. till 7 P.M.

                        PRICES.
    All Articles of the BEST QUALITY.

          The above Articles always ready.

Besides the above may be had, from 12 to 3 o'clock,

As the Economy of Cooking depends greatly upon
the simplicity of the arrangements with which a
great number of persons can be served at one time,
the Upper Room of this Establishment will be
especially set apart for a
            PUBLIC DINNER EVERY DAY
                 From 12 till 3 o'clock.
          Consisting of the following Dishes:
               Bowl of Broth, or Soup,
               Plate of Cold Beef or Ham,
               Plate of Potatoes,
               Plum Pudding, or Rice,
                 FIXED CHARGE 4½d.
          THE DAILY PAPERS PROVIDED.