85 



trade and labour here makes it possible for all who are able and 

 willing to work to earn their bread. We have no large class who 

 have to spend life in cruel toil, for a pittance which means nothing 

 but slow starvation. Burnley however has its elements and aspects 

 of misery. It has its proportion of unhappy humanity resulting 

 from vices which are in their turn the effect of causes common to 

 every town where the staple industry requires masses of people 

 to spend life amidst what Froude calls "the eternal clank of 

 machinery." 



Happy is it for those who find relief in wholesome enjoyments ; 

 in books, music, science, art, domestic amenities, elevating social 

 fellowship, invigorating recreations, communion with nature. 

 Many however have no taste for such rational felicity, but give 

 way to vicious indulgences which end in social ruin. All the 

 dark aspects of our social life however, are not confined to the 

 " slums." John Bright once said that rowdyism was not the 

 monopoly of a class, but was to be found amongst the nobility 

 and gentry as well as amongst the sans-culottes ; just as according 

 to Thackeray, snobbishness is sometimes seen under crowns and 

 coronets as well as under sou'westers and billy-cocks. That 

 doctrine is true. Some of the ugliest intellectual and moral 

 types may be seen in the gilded saloons of what is called " high 

 life." But all vice is not above-board and defiant. Many a 

 family has its exterior bathed in sunshine while there is deep 

 cruel unknown gloom within. Often the unknown becomes 

 known. We need no demon's wand to unroof the privacy of 

 Society. Society unroofs itself. The newspaper is our Asmodeus, 

 and turns our homes inside out. The law-courts explore every 

 mousehole. Lawyers, doctors and clergymen have the equivocal 

 privilege of being the confidants of their fellow-citizens and are 

 thus in the way of seeing the shadows that darken many a 

 seemingly sunny life. They see the iinhappiness of the happy, 

 the vices of the virtuous, the sins of saints, the follies of wise 

 men. Now if the view of the shady side of social life is apt to 

 strike us with a panic of pessimism, the shock will be mitigated 

 by a consideration of what lies on the other side of the hedge. 

 There are many signs around us of happy import and augury. 

 One of them is the universal readiness to discirss with unfettered 

 freedom — freedom not fettered by either tradition, prescription, 

 fear or self-interest, all questions bearing on social well-being. 

 Certain men, as we know, are bent upon the total destruction of 

 society as it stands. Such bear the varying names of Nihilism, 

 Anarchism, Socialism. Discussion now must be unrestrained. 

 The ultimate effect of such freedom may be calculated. Abuses, 

 errors, fallacies, superstitions, tjTannies of cant and custom, un- 

 fair advantages and privileges will be swej)t away. Amongst 

 other things, the reciprocal obligations of wealth and poverty. 



