brought under public notice, and their dangers and their wants kept before the eye of the Church of Christ, until, in 1844, an effort was made to grapple with the subject in the formation of our own Young Men's Christian Association.

During the ten preceding years, England had passed through a series of changes, political and otherwise, which followed one another in rapid succession, and materially affected the moral and social condition of our commercial population.

The system of representation of the people in Parliament had been re-constructed, the elective franchise enlarged, and municipal rights extended to a large number of the smaller tradesmen and householders, who had previously been excluded from the electoral privilege.

A gradual but progressive change had been made in the laws regulating our foreign commerce, which had developed that commerce to an unprecedented extent.

The various systems of popular education which had been at work from about the commencement of the century, had received a fresh stimulus from a plan adopted by the Legislature, by which it was designed to aid, by regular pecuniary support, the development of each, and the consequent increase of knowledge among the people, without interference with the methods of instruction pursued.

Another organization had been in operation throughout the country for then twenty years, with various measures of success, whose very incidents of failure served to point the necessity, and prepare the way for the introduction of some such agency as that of the Association-the Mechanics' and Literary and Scientific Institutions. These, in their earlier type, 66 were designed to impart instruction to workmen in those rules and principles which lie at the basis of the arts they practise ;" but as it was found that the class of mechanics failed to use the Institutes for this end, to the extent contemplated, their basis was enlarged, and efforts were made to adapt them to the

wants of general society by the introduction of periodical literature, and the provision of news-rooms, libraries, and popular lectures on science and history, with classes for the study of languages and the practice of vocal music. Here, too, they failed in the accomplishment of their direct object. But they did much to awaken a desire for information on the part of the working and trading classes; they furnished the platform of observation and experiment for others; they brought together men of different grades and sections of society, and of different views and feelings; and they revealed those conditions of social life which, as the result of vicious commercial arrangements, stood in the way of any effort either for the moral or the intellectual advancement of the people.

The protracted hours of labour in various departments of business called into existence the two great movements which have tended, by their mutual and relative influence, to achieve for young men the opportunities of Christian union and service which they now enjoy. In the manufacturing districts, the movement involved nice and difficult questions of political economy. The time devoted to labour was regulated by the demand in the market for the article fabricated, and it was held that if any check were imposed upon the production of goods, a blow would be struck at our commercial system which would be felt in every department of trade throughout the empire. On the other side it was urged, that the social evils entailed by the existing practice were so great that it was doubtful if any greater would possibly arise under any circumstances; that the question, though assumed as one of production, was to a large extent one of distribution merely, and would right itself in time; but inasmuch as "that which is morally wrong, can never be politically right," it was due to the poor and overtasked artisans, especially the women and children, that they should be protected from the immediate evils under which they groaned; and that it should be left to circumstances to prove

VOL. I.

whether any counter provision were needed for the protection of commercial interests. A struggle of twenty years against the most powerful political party in the State, ended in the adoption of the principle of the limitation of labour. No factory operative need work more than 10 hours per diem; his home may be, and has become, in many thousands of cases, one of health, comfort, and comparative refinement; his children may be, and many are, regularly instructed; and the general and manifest benefit accruing to all classes of society affected by the measure, has compelled its most strenuous opponents to acknowledge the fallacy of their arguments, and the wisdom of the provisions they had so much feared.1

In the metropolis, during the same period, frequent efforts had been made to limit the hours of business in the wholesale and retail trades. Some of them proved abortive, but, in October 1843, a few young men, employed in the drapery

1 It may be permitted to one who watched the progress of the movement with intense anxiety, to record here an incident of interest to those who study the characters of our public men. On the day on which Lord Ashley's (Earl of Shaftesbury) Ten Hours' Bill was last discussed in the House of Commons, the most effective speech in its favour was delivered by the late Mr. Joseph Brotherton, M.P. for Salford, who, in language of great force and feeling, described his own early career, and bore witness to the sufferings inflicted on the people by the then existing law. His speech was replied to by Sir James Graham, who, though bearing graceful testimony to the character and motives of Mr. Brotherton, proceeded on grounds of political economy to argue against the measure. The Bill passed notwithstanding, and was carried into the Upper House, where, introduced by the Earl of Ellesmere (better known as Lord Francis Egerton), and ably sustained by the Bishop of Oxford, and others of the Episcopal Bench, it was immediately passed into law.

Years after, when time and domestic bereavement and personal suffering, and, may we not be permitted to hope, the higher principles which Sir James Graham had learned at his mother's knee, and which, throughout his life, he always dealt with reverently if not believingly, had wrought their influence upon the astute statesman, but now broken and enfeebled man, he met Lord Shaftesbury in Westminster Hall, and said, “I feel as if, before I go, I should like the memory of all old strifes to pass away, and I want to tell you how entirely I feel I was wrong and you were right in the matter of the Ten Hours' Factory Bill."

trade in Chelsea, commenced an organization, since bearing the name of the Metropolitan Early Closing Association, which, in the best possible spirit, has sought to combine the interests of the employers of labour with those of their assistants in the arrangements made to reduce the pressure of toil on a very large and important section of the population. This movement has been well sustained until the present time, and is working now with increasing vigour and usefulness; each year adding materially to the benefits conferred, not merely on young tradesmen, but on general society in London, by its existence and influence. Seeing that this movement immediately preceded the formation of the Young Men's Christian Association, and has wrought side by side with it in all its efforts for the improvement of the mental and spiritual condition of young men, it is pleasant to record here the names of Mr. John Lilwall, the originator, and long the able and devoted hon. secretary of the Society; the Venerable Archdeacon Kitton, of the Cape of Good Hope; and Mr. James Rennie, now one of the general superintendents of the London City Mission-the little band by which the work was commenced of Sir James Emerson Tennent, then M.P. for Belfast, the first public man who lent his countenance and support to their efforts; of Mr. W. D. Owen, the first and very liberal treasurer; and of the Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel, M.A., its first public advocate, and constant friend.

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Work for the religious good of young men, more especially directed to the circulation of missionary intelligence, and the promotion of a missionary spirit amongst the junior members of the Church of England, was commenced, about the end of 1842, by two little bodies which met respectively in the east and west of London, and were subsequently united and greatly developed under the title of "The Church of England Young Men's Society for aiding Missions at Home and Abroad." With an abbreviated name, and more general objects, it exists to-day; has several branches in the metropolis, and more in the pro

vinces; has worked always for the best objects, in an earnest spirit, and with many very blessed results. Numbers of its members have filled, and are filling, important posts as ministers or missionaries connected with the National Church.

Such are a few of the features of the period in which "The Young Men's Christian Association" had its birth. We proceed to show what was then the condition of young men. There were probably about 150,000 in London in the early part of 1844. These were either clerks in banks, countinghouses, or in the offices of professional men; or assistants in the various departments of wholesale and retail trade. The former class, residing for the most part with their families or in lodgings, had opportunities of society, of instruction, and of religious improvement not much behind those of any other section of the community; but in the latter case, that of assistants in shops and warehouses, by far the larger number lived in the houses of business in which they were employed. They commenced their labour from seven to nine in the morning, and closed it from nine to eleven in the evening in the more favourable seasons and neighbourhoods, while in some the toil of the day did not end till long after midnight, and the duties of the following day were resumed by six o'clock. The intervals allowed for meals seldom amounted to an hour during the whole day, and the food provided was often both coarse and scanty. The domestic arrangements were of the worst description. In very few houses was there any sittingroom for the young men but the place of refreshment, and that was not unfrequently the kitchen of the servants. The sleeping apartments were small, and badly ventilated. Several slept in the same room; and, of the juniors, some occupied the same bed. Confined thus in arduous duties during the day, and having no suitable rooms for study, social intercourse, or recreation in their places of abode, the majority sought their enjoyment in the tavern, and found in the society of boon