Sf/t WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 265 



iron trade of this country is, perhaps, not only the largest in- 

 dustry in the kingdom, but in the whole world, and therefore if a 

 frrling of good fellowship can be established in such a trade, 

 amongst those who devote lifelong toil and energy to the advance- 

 ment of that trade, I am quite certain a vast amount of good will 

 be done ; and more than the value of the actual money paid will be 

 the feeling that will be engrafted in the breast of the man who, 

 perhaps, seeing an increasing family about him, and feeling his 

 health failing, and the knowledge that, although his own efforts 

 are insufficient to provide amply for the widow and children who 

 will be left by him, there is a fund like that in connection with this 

 Society, which will come to the assistance of the widow in the time 

 of bereavement, that feeling alone, I say, will keep a man up, 

 and make him a more useful worker than would be the case if his 

 heart had sunk. Gentlemen, it is charity, or love, like this that 

 is productive of a great amount of good, in fact, anything that will 

 keep a man from that final abomination, the workhouse, is a great 

 benefit. I hope the time will come when the union workhouse 

 will no longer exist, and when no man will need to go there. It is 

 by mutual support between those who ought to have a fellow- 

 feeling towards one another that such a result can be brought 

 about, and that great happiness will result. This fund has already 

 produced most beneficial results. It distributes every year more 

 than 3,000 in pensions to those most deserving of it ; but con- 

 sidering the vast proportions of this trade a much larger sphere of 

 action is possible, and should be aimed at. Our object needs only 

 to be known to be more widely patronised and better supported. 

 It is now my pleasurable duty to support the efforts made by those 

 who have led this movement for nearly 40 years, and to urge you 

 to come forward and make the amount of the benefit bestowed by 

 this Society an ever-increasing one, so that those who are the 

 recipients may be even more in number, and made more glad on 

 account of the great benefits you bestow on them. Gentlemen, 

 I need not add many more words. You all understand what our 

 object is, you all approve of it, and you all see the necessity for 

 active support ; therefore I now call upon you to drink success to 

 the Iron, Hardware, and Metal Trades Pension Society, with all 

 due honours. 



