THE JOURNEYMAN ENGINEER ON IILS OWN CLASS.*
THE titles which the Journeyman Engineer has selected for his first and his latest published book, aptly characterize their differ- ence. In Some Habits and Customs of the Working Classes nothing more was intended than a series of sketches from working-class life. "Saint Monday," "Working Men's Sundays," "Teetotal Advocates and Advocacy," and other topics, selected apparently for their picturesqueness, brought into prominence certain characteristics of working men, and of the lives which they lead. But the work was necessarily partial, although a working man writing partially on subjects of his own experience could not fail to imply much more and say incidentally many things which made his book fuller in information than its form promised. In the present volume, however, the whole subject—the Great Unwashed— is avowedly grappled with ; and there is in fact more completeness of treatment, in spite of a strong tendency to sketchiness. There are special chapters on the various types of working men, on their homes and wives, on their views of politics and especially of Trade Union- ism, and on their position with regard to the Church; and a "second part" appears to describe pretty completely the round of life. Under the titles of "Pay Day," "A Workman's Morning Call" (that is, the workman's daily summons to his work), " On the Night Shift," "Saturday Trading," we have sketches illustrative of every-day existence ; while "My Club House" shows the social side of Unions. "Easter with the Unwashed" is an account of how holidays are spent, and the chapters "Out of Collar," "Tramps and Tramping," and "In the Big Shop," deal most fully with the workman as he is out of work. The descriptions of "Our Court" and "Very Cheap Literature " are more special sketches, showing in what buildings some artisans have to live, and one way of supplying themselves with cheap books, viz., from peripatetic sales- men, who dispose of their wares by a kind of Dutch auction. Several chapters from the old volume, such as that on "Saint Monday," might have figured well in this, and generally the one book supple- ments the other, but with all omissions the present volume can stand very well by itself. To have described it as we have done is, we think, to show its value. The "Journeyman Engineer" is somewhat pompous, and given to circumlocution, and a little fond of slang, the latter fault contracted, perhaps, from his associates, who have a whole vocabulary of phrases like "out of collar ;" but be is thoroughly readable and perspicuous, and these are qualities for which much may be forgiven a man who has something new to report. 1Ve may consider ourselves very fortunate in having a real live working-man able to describe his class like the present writer,—not a man of great talent taking him wholly out of his class, nor a man of genius, whose wide sympathy could make up • Tie Great Unteashed. By the Journeyman Engineer, Author of Some Ilabils and Custom of 15e Working Classes, &e. London: Tinsley Brothers. 1808.
for partial experience ; but a half-educated, average sort of man, with literary tastes, whose work may be all the more trusted for a certain dullness and narrowness of imagination, which strictly confines him to a record of personal experience. His sketches may be false, through his not seeing wide enough about him ; but every line shows that he could not if lie would draw a fancy sketch, or meddle with fictitious detail.
What are working men, or rather artisans, as thus painted by one of themselves? This is the question suggested by the book, and to get a complete ansiver we recommend every one to read it ; but we may, nevertheless, draw attention to one or two of our own inferences. What forces itself on us is the great likeness of the people described to the ordinary middle class in their general view of society. The artisans whom the Journeyman Engineer has associated with manifestly accept the doctrine of competition in the business of life. Socialistic or communistic theories may be held by a few, but they have not made way, and are hardly even alluded to by our author. It is generally recognized that there is no supreme hardship in the rule which makes working for the capitalist a condition of living, and grumbling at the lion's share of the capitalist does not breed an active revolutionary spirit. It is as practical men doing the best for themselves under the rule of competition that the workmen associate to keep up wages, or insure themselves by benefit societies and yard clubs against accidents and dull times. The more intelligent look to " Co- Operation " and "Boards of Conciliation" as means of improving themselves yet more and preventing dreaded strikes, but as Inen of the world they have no dire quarrel with the order of timings; it is mainly to their own efforts that they look for the improve- ment of a state which they admit to be worth white making the best of. The whole feeling of the chapters on "Pay Day," "My Club House," and "Saturday Trading" is that of a class which, on the whole, is conscious of snaking things better. In truth, the account of what is bought in Saturday trading, as well as the description of the Sunday's dinner in the former volume, show no inconsiderable command of the means of enjoyment, quite sufficient to account for the lack of a revolutionary temper. Socially, too, we may gather from the present volume that the artisans are above the lower middle class. They "look down" on shopmen and clerks, and are successful competitors with them in love and matrimony. No doubt the life of artisans is a few degrees harder than that of the middle classes. The middle-class fear of sinking is tinged in the artisan class with the fear of absolute pauperism. The out-of- work phase plays a very important and disagreeable part in their domestic history. But we must say that the impression of the present volume is that the artizan's danger of pauperism is really very slight. Nothing is more striking than the success of the associations for helping those who are "out of collar," or "on tramp," or "in the big shop ;" while we are not sure but that the working classes make up in the kindliness and brotherliness which the sense of a great common danger calls forth for the compara- tively greater safety of the middle classes and its accompanying isolation and independence. It is a significant fact that the prac- tice of early and improvident marriages is beginning—though only beginning—to be less general among the class than it has been. According to our author, an artisan, while lie is yet young enough to marry, "may, by the exercise of ordinary prudence and industry, furnish a home, have a few pounds in the bank, be an established member of his trade union and a benefit society, and be in employment which, so far as he can judge, is likely to be regular." If only as much could be said for the masses of English labourers !
What is said on the material aspect of the artizan's life is the most important part of the book. But even here, apparently from being of that life himself, the author misses many things which would strike au outside observer. A picture of a working-man's home,—how it is furnished, and occupied, and ornamented, what food is eaten at various meals, what tastes are indulged in by the occupiers,—could hardly be too pre-Raphaelite. There was some- thing of this in the last volume, but not enough, and there is hardly anything here. The only sketch of an interior we have is that of a dwelling in "our court," a squalid habitation to which an artisan is supposed to have been driven by metropolitan improvements. Artisans are not the classes who specially suffer by these improvements, as the writer implicitly admits. We should have liked to see an account of the real homes they build up in more favourable conditions. There is reason to expect that the middle classes are here again closely approached, there being only more coarseness and a still greater want of taste and culture, as is natural in a community which has been well to do for barely a
generation ; but a Journeyman Engineer could have spoken with some authority.
We are still less satisfied with the account of working men them- selves, and their views on politics and religion. The chapters devoted to these matters no doubt contain much that is valuable. The defence of Trade Unionism against the scribblers who would identify it with Sheffield atrocities is excellent ; the Journeyman Engineer cannot help showing, as well as saying, how remote is the ordinary work of Unions from the violence and evil spirit and local ruffianism which were all requisitelo the Sheffield caricature. The chapter on the Church, again, gives some external reasons for working men's abstinence from church-going. In politics we learn that the working men attach much importance to the question of house accommodation, punishment of adulterating tradesmen, reduction of taxation, and equalization of poor-rates ; while the opinions are stated that Trade Unions will not be used for political purposes except on trade questions, that the election of working- class members to Parliament is not much thought of, and that the lodger clause of the Reform Bill still excludes many of the best of the artizan class—the young journeymen—because the 4s. per week rent is too high a figure. But all this is plainly inadequate. 1Ve should like an ampler picture of those working men who are only glanced at, who study special sciences ; and of the "intelli- gent few," with whom the author classes himself, who are well read and informed, and who are a growing class, evidently rather pooh-poohing the active politicians and leaders whom the world hears most of. More important still, a description of the positive religion of working men—not a mere vindication of their reasons for not going to church—was worth some pains. The writer says they are religious, but what are their general conceptions of life, especially of those whom neither dissent on the one hand nor formal secularism on the other counts among its adherents ? Where there is little or no hold of a distinct theology influencing life, there may yet be a sort of religion to describe, as George Eliot in the Mill on Me Floss describes the religion of Maggie Tulliver's aunts. The account of politics, again, omits to tell us what the artisans think of education, and half a hundred other questions. This may be an oversight or the result of the form of the essay, which is not so much descriptive of the politics of working men as the statement of the author's own view of what their politics should be, but the defect is really very serious.
The author's general notion is perhaps a sound one—that before artizans can exert very much political power they must learn a good deal more of politics. 1Ve suspect his own tastes are more literary than political, and if artisans are like him they certainly do stand much in need of political education. For instance, he talks of the lower paid but less heavily taxed "foreign workman,"—which is simply a mode of stating that he knows nothing of the subject, and nothing especially of foreign taxation, say of France, or Germany, or Italy, or the United States. No doubt the statisticians are much to blame for this by their comparisons of the amount yielded by taxa- tion per head, as if the yield and the rates of taxation must corre- spond, but we should have thought that inquisitive working men, able to compare notes with their foreign neighbours as to the pressure of taxes on their every-day life, might have had some informed opinion of their own. It is a demonstrable fact that in no great country in the world are the taxes so light as in England. We find, too, a complaint that "there are no reliable public accounts accessible to, and understandable by, the general body of the people,"—which is surely as groundless a complaint as could well be conceived. %Vent of simplicity and intelligibility is certainly not the sin of English budgets. The same ignorance is shown in the treatment of the topic of the equalization of poor- rates. The writer does not seem even to have heard of the reason for localizing the rates for local expenditure—viz., to enforce economy by making the people who wish a certain advantage pay for it as directly as possible. Yet this is the real difficulty of equalization, and makes some who admit the necessity of partial equalization, over the metropolitan area for instance, regard with no little alarm the danger of an extension of the principle. We believe that as much ignorance as this will be found among many educated litte'rateurs who are not politicians, but its existence none the leas disqualifies the writer for discoursing on working men's politics ; the political ignorance of the class may not be so great as he, through his own ignorance, represents. As to the necessity of more political education, however, we can all agree, for what class in England is educated enough on the subject-matter of political questions?
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