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EDUCATION OF THE WORKING CLASSES. 



Being tke tubstance of a Lecture delivered at the Hull Mechanics' TnstUuU, 

 February l$t, 1844. 



BT MR. WILLIAM DEN180N. 



The consideration of the subject announced, namely, " The 

 Education of the Working Classes" — to say nothing of its peculiar 

 claims to our attention as members of mechanics' institutions,— 

 must be to all who wish for the onward march aftd universal spread 

 of civilization highly acceptable. That this is the case, and must of 

 necessity be so at this period of our history, it will not, I think, require 

 any large expenditure of time to prove. To that class who may be 

 justly termed the pioneers oi every work, having for its object the 

 improvement in the mental culture and condition of all, those I 

 mean who make the bible their rule of action, however their atten- 

 tion may have been called to the facts which it is partly the design 

 of this address to bring before them, the investigation of a subject 

 of this nature at any time, inseparably connected as it is with the 

 truths they are desirous of establishing, must under any form meet 

 with a gp*acious reception ; for the more the mind is made acquainted 

 and familiarised with the ignorance and vice at present found to 

 exist, the more firmly will this truth be established, that it is in vain 

 to look forward for any great diminution of crime, or a steady and 

 systematic pursuance of morality and virtue, by which peace to the 

 country and a strict adherence to truth will be established, unless the 

 mind shall in early years have become fully alive to the misery 

 consequent upon the one coiu'se, and the blessings necessarily attend- 

 ant upon the other. 



To that numerous class who, it is hoped, in addition to the higher 

 motive just alluded to, are eager that the mass of the people should 

 possess a true knowledge of their political condition, must look upoa 

 an extension of educational means- as the only lever by whose power 

 the mountain mass of ignorance, at present existing, can be removed 



