[Footnote 1:  Address on Economy and Free Trade.  By Edwin Chadwick, C.B., at the Association for the Promotion of Social Science at York, 1861.]

An annual report is furnished to the Government, by our foreign consuls, with reference to the character and condition of the working classes in most parts of the civilized world.  Mr. Walter, M.P., in a recent address to an assembly of workmen, referred to one of these reports.  He said, “There is one remark, in particular, that occurs with lamentable frequency throughout the report,—­that, with few exceptions, the foreign workman does not appear ‘to take pride in his work,’ nor (to use a significant expression) to ‘put his character into it.’  A remarkable instance of this is mentioned of a country which generally constitutes an honourable exception to this unhappy rule.  Switzerland is a country famous for its education and its watches; yet the following passage from the report will show that neither knowledge nor skill will suffice without the exercise of that higher quality on which I have been dwelling.  ‘As a rule,’ it says, ’Swiss workmen are competent in their several trades, and take an interest in their work; for, thanks to their superior education, they fully appreciate the pecuniary advantages to their masters, and indirectly to themselves, of adhering strictly to this course.  A striking instance of the impolicy of acting otherwise has lately happened at St. Imier, in the Bernese Jura, and produced a deep impression.  In this district, for some years past, a great falling off in the quality of the watches manufactured has taken place, owing to the inhabitants finding it much more profitable to increase the production at the cost of the workmanship than to abide by the old rules of the trade.  They prospered beyond all expectation for a considerable time, but finally their watches got such a bad name that they became unsaleable, and the result is a general bankruptcy of nearly all the watchmakers of this particular district.”

One thing, however, remains to be said of foreign workmen generally.  Although they do not work so hard as the English, they take much better care of their earnings.  They are exceedingly frugal and economical.  Frenchmen are much soberer than Englishmen, and much better mannered.  They are, on the whole, greatly more provident than English workmen.  Mr. Brassey states that when the Paris and Rouen Railway works were commenced, the contractors endeavoured to introduce a system by which the workmen were to be paid once a fortnight; but very soon after the operations had begun, the Frenchmen requested that the pay might take place only once a month.

Mr. Reid, managing director of the line, told the House of Commons Committee on Railway Labourers, that a French labourer is a much more independent person than an Englishman, and much more respectable.  He stated, in support of his opinion, this remarkable circumstance, that whereas a French labourer desired to be paid only once a month, the English labourer desired to be paid every Saturday night,—­and by the following Wednesday he wanted something on account of the week’s work.  “Nothing could be a greater test,” said Mr. Reid, “of the respectability of a working man than being able to go without his pay for a month."[1]