HENRY DEACON 155 



for hand labour, and so popular education not 

 only was not promoted, but it was absolutely 

 condemned as a project of unpractical men, 

 schemers, and Radicals. As soon as the 

 children of the lower classes were strong 

 enough to work, aye, and often long before, 

 they were sent to the factory, the forge, the 

 mine, to labour out long, weary days, and to 

 grow up acquainted only with what they 

 could learn in following their daily toil. This 

 ignorance of the poorer classes had its effect 

 on those above them ; a prolonged school life 

 was looked upon as the heritage and the 

 prerogative of the rich, it was presumptuous 

 for the tradesman or the farmer to give his 

 boys and girls a good "schooling," and so it 

 was the common thing for children to be 

 taken early from school. This was the lot of 

 Henry Deacon. 



The boy had shown a taste and talent for 

 mechanical subjects, and had given such 

 indications of character that his parents were 

 enabled to discern his vocation, and appren- 

 ticed him to the well-known engineering firm 

 of Messrs. Galloway and Sons, of London. 

 At 14 years of age he stood at the foot of the 

 ladder which was to conduct him to the 

 position of an accomplished mechanic. 



