With respect to remuneration, the average of skilled mechanics and artisans, as we have already said, are better paid than the average of working curates.  The working engineer is better paid than the ensign in a marching regiment.  The foreman in any of our large engineering establishments is better paid than an army surgeon.  The rail-roller receives over a guinea a day, while an assistant navy surgeon receives fourteen shillings, and after three years’ service, twenty-one shillings, with rations.  The majority of dissenting ministers are much worse paid than the better classes of skilled mechanics and artizans; and the average of clerks employed in counting-houses and warehouses receive wages very much lower.

Skilled workmen might—­and, if they had the will, they would—­occupy a social position as high as the educated classes we refer to.  What prevents them rising?  Merely because they will not use their leisure to cultivate their minds.  They have sufficient money; it is culture that they want.  They ought to know that the position of men in society does not depend so much upon their earnings, as upon their character and intelligence.  And it is because they neglect their abundant opportunities,—­because they are thriftless and spend their earnings in animal enjoyments,—­because they refuse to cultivate the highest parts of their nature,—­that they are excluded, or rather self-excluded, from those social and other privileges in which they are entitled to take part.

Notwithstanding their high wages, they for the most part cling to the dress, the language, and the manners of their class.  They appear, during their leisure hours, in filthy dresses, and unwashed hands.  No matter how skilled the workman may be, he is ready to sink his mind and character to the lowest level of his co-workers.  Even the extra money which he earns by his greater skill, often contributes to demoralize and degrade him.  And yet he might dress as well, live as well, and be surrounded by the physical comforts and intellectual luxuries of professional men.  But no!  From week to week his earnings are wasted.  He does not save a farthing; he is a public-house victim; and when work becomes slack, and his body becomes diseased, his only refuge is the workhouse.

How are these enormous evils to be cured?  Some say by better education; others by moral and religious instruction; others by better homes, and better wives and mothers.  All these influences will doubtless contribute much towards the improvement of the people.  One thing is perfectly clear, that an immense amount of ignorance prevails, and that such ignorance must be dissipated before the lower classes can be elevated.  Their whole character must be changed, and they must be taught in early life habits of forecast and self-control.

We often hear that “Knowledge is Power;” but we never hear that Ignorance is Power.  And yet Ignorance has always had more power in the world than Knowledge.  Ignorance dominates.  It is because of the evil propensities of men that the costly repressive institutions of modern governments exist.