Moses Grimshaw. A story of Lancashire life

Preface

. Although this book may be properly regarded as a novel it is founded on real facts of life, and therefore may be designated ' a realistic novel,' if that term did not suggest a contradiction. Many of the novels of our time are entirely products of imagination, and pay little regard to the realities of life. They are evolved from the inner consciousness of their writers, and are not always in harmony with actual life and experience. A novel cannot be the literal history of any individual, but it may, and it should, be the description of a possible life. It should be the product of imagination within the limits of those laws that determine life and its relations. The qualities expounded may be those of the ideal man ; but they must be kept within the limits of what is possible to human nature.

When imagination is let loose, and produces characters that are outside the probabilities of human life, reason is violated, and lessons of practical value cannot be imparted to the ordinary reader. The form of a novel must be imaginative, but it should rest on possible facts or a substratum of reality. Art, to be genuine, ought to be an imitation of Nature. The features may not correspond precisely with PREFA CE IV any one concrete object in Nature ; but they should harmonize with natural features, as these are spread over the domain of Nature. Art, which sets Nature at defiance, must be a monstrosity. The same thing applies, more or less, to novels which are artistic productions of the imagination finding expression in book form. To be of any service to humanity these should be the incarnations of natural qualities, within the bounds of Nature and possible experience.

Hence, a genuine novel should have a lesson, or a moral, and should not merely minister to the amusement of the reader. In this book the author attempts to find expression for this principle. The facts recorded have come mostly under his own observation. The combination of qualities in the story of this one life is part of the author's design. He would describe what a man ought to be, and what many Lancashire men have become. The intention of the writer has been to show how important to a successful life is the principle of ' self-reliance.' There is a tendency in the present day to under-estimate this principle, by giving to it the name of individualism. The power of law is magnified, and the functions of government are extended, far beyond what formely was deemed legitimate, or even possible.

This tendency, in its many applications, is expressed by the word Collectivism, as distinguished from Individualism. By many writers, speakers, and preachers, the one system is ridiculed as selfish and oppressive, and the other is glorified as the highest form of Christianity — the social

PREFACE.

V Gospel, as discovered and propounded by the new lights of modern thought in Church and State. The difficulty in dealing with these questions arises, in part, from the ambiguity of the terms that are used in relation to them. There probably never was an individualism, in civilized and Christian countries, such as modern theorists describe, and then denounce. No individual can be absolutely independent of others, and no one can be justified in following a selfish course of life. What has been intended by the word is not selfishness, which is the abuse of the principle, but the development of the individual powers as the basis of prosperity. Self-reliance, in the sense of self development, prudence, industry, thrift, intelligence, activity, must be the basis of a useful and prosperous career.

A building is strong and good only when its materials are good ; and no structure can be sound that consists of bad materials. The social system may be benefited by im proved legislation, but if the individuals that compose it be evil the system must be rotten. The truth is to be found in the happy mean of these two systems. There is, in ethics, a great difference between self-love and selfishness, as has often been shown by moral philo sophers. The one is legitimate and commendable, the other is a vice and a sin. Without self-love no man will do anything for the welfare of himself, or his family, or any body else. When this self-love is allowed to interfere with the welfare and happiness of others it becomes selfishness, and that is the abuse of the other principle. The welfare of society is promoted by a true self-love, which becomes PREFA CE VI the basis of a true benevolence.

A person who has no regard for self-development will be of no use to others. The medium between extremes is the true principle of wisdom, virtue, and social welfare. In describing Lancashire life, the author has not at tempted, except in one or two instances, to imitate the peculiar dialect of Lancashire which, under the influence of education, is gradually passing away. He doubts the wisdom of filling a volume with terms and expressions which are ungrammatical, and may even be regarded as vulgar. He has been content to give the thoughts and the principles of the persons described in ordinary English, expressed in his own style. His main purpose has been to illustrate the principle of 'self-reliance,' in practical life, in politics, and in religion, as being absolutely essential to a successful and noble career. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Page

The birth of Moses Grimshaw ; his parents ; their position and character ; Lancashire as a sphere for industrial activity ; its population and trades, coal-mines and shipping ; cotton trade ; Church and Nonconformity - - - - I

Chapter V

Happy life ; woman's rights ; housekeeping ; no debts ; economy; business prosperous ; the American Civil War and Lancashire ; church and chapel ; worship ; a liturgy ; Apostolical succession ; discussion ; clergymen and ministers ; usefulness dependent on character and talent, and not on authority - CONTENTS VIII PAGE

Chapter VI

After the American war ; steadiness in business ; avoiding speculation ; good employers ; the Board of Guardians ; welfare of the poor ; a magistrate ; religion ; discussion on baptismal regeneration ; Socialism ; Robert Owen ; Secularism ; Holyoake ; doubt among working men ; discussion - - 93

Chapter XI

Retirement from business ; religion ; Christianity ; discussion ; changes in opinion, in form, and in substance ; Deism ; the supernatural ; Darwinism ; Modern Criticism ; Church of England and Nonconformists ; discussion : the Social Gospel ; the classes ; religion personal ; Individualism and Collectivism 199

Chapter XII

Changes in cotton trade ; machinery ; condition of workmen now and formerly ; better wages and shorter hours ; Lord Shaftesbury ; women and children ; wages in former times and now ; conclusion, lessons, self-reliance - - -

Chapter I

Moses Grimshaw, whose prosperous career in life is to be described in the following pages, was born in the year 1827, in one of those groups of buildings on the north, or rather north-western, side of Manchester, which were regarded as villages in the early part of this century. Through the extraordinary development of the cotton trade these have gained the proportions of populous towns. Moses was one of a large family; nearly all his brothers and sisters grew up to manhood or woman hood, and lived useful and successful lives, though none of them reached the same measure of success as Moses. His parents, Thomas and Mary Grimshaw, were poor, but respectable people. They were not capitalists, they had no large balance at their bankers', and prob ably they had no banking account at all. They did not live in a large house, and did not move in what is called ' genteel society.' They dwelt in a cottage of small dimensions, but it was clean and comfortable, and quite suitable to their wants and to their position in social life.

They earned their livelihood by honest industry, and had everything that was necessary in order to meet their own requirements and those of their children. They were tem perate, frugal, honest and industrious ; they were also moral and religious, and sought to train their children so that they might become honourable and virtuous citizens. The honest head of the house endeavoured to keep free from debt, and to this end he paid for everything that he needed with ready money. The consequence was, that the family was kept free from anxiety, and was happier than many families around them which had larger means, and made a much greater show. Through the persistent industry and the good moral life of the father, and through the orderly and economical management of the mother, the household affairs were always kept in a healthy and prosperous con dition.

The first half of the nineteenth century was a remarkable period in the history of Lancashire, because of the number of men who rose almost suddenly into riches and greatness at that time. The same may indeed be said to some extent of England generally, but in a very marked way it is true of Lancashire. It was not scientific, philosophical, or literary greatness, but the development of skill in public life and relations, and in aptitude for business affairs. These powers directly affected the material pro gress and the social improvement of the people. John Dalton, however, spent most of his illustrious life in Manchester, and there propounded and established the Atomic theory which will ever be associated with his name. The power of mind which was displayed in the invention of the machines through which the cotton in dustry has gained the first rank among manufacturing interests must have been very great.

Machinery, in the form of the steam-engine, the railway, and the spinning jenny, has made Lancashire what it is to-day. A remarkable number of Lancashire men, by their natural abilities, rose from the ranks to positions of emi nence and power during this century, and especially during its first half. Anyone who is acquainted with the charac teristics of Lancashire industrial and social life cannot fail to have observed this. The men who raised the county to its greatness and prosperity for the most part commenced life in humble positions. Some few, no doubt, had early advantages in the possession of property and the opportunities of education ; and some of the territorial lords used their means and their talents to aid the progressive development ; but the marked feature of Lancashire in dustrial life in this century has been the rise of great men in large numbers from the humblest positions.

The formation of the Anti-Corn Law League in 1838, which led to one of the most important political and industrial changes in the history of this country, was an illustration of the practical genius of the Lancashire mind. The names of Richard Cobden and John Bright must ever be associated with that great organization, and with its ulti mate and far-reaching influences. Cobden and Bright were not working-men in the. usual sense of that term. They were not rich men in the commencement of their career, nor did they ever become such ; but they were the leaders in a movement that has changed the character of the political and social life of England in general, and of Lancashire in particular. The many men in this county who rose to industrial and commercial greatness for the most part started from small beginnings, and by sheer force of character pushed themselves into positions of influence and power.

It is not, however, necessary to assert that everything can be explained by the native energy of the population ; due account must be taken of the external and material advantages which they enjoyed. Some philosophical historians have contended that certain men in every age make the age and determine its character ; that their individual energy moulds and fashions the times in which they live ; their personal impress is left on their generation. These leaders are generally few, followed by a crowd of inferior men; but they are the heroes of their times — the dominating spirits of an epoch, the moral forces by whose agency the age has been lifted to an altogether higher level of mental and social attainment. Others have argued with equal persistency that the indi viduals are the products of the age, the result of social, material, and political forces which have preceded them, and of which they and the conditions around them are the expression.

In this view the individual is no more than a particular illustration of the characteristics of the age, which, like a machine, unfolds its products with mechanical accuracy, and provides no scope for the free influence of distinctive human personalities. These theories are both one-sided and extreme repre sentations of what really are two very different aspects of the complex phenomena of society. Great men do arise at different times and in different departments of life, and such men do exercise a mighty power in leading other men, and in moulding the form and the spirit of their generation. It is also equally evident that the external circumstances of an age do afford unusual advantages and opportunities for the development of individual powers. Both these two factors in the making of a period existed in the first half of this century in Lancashire.

And in order that the reader may understand the progress which the County Palatine has made, it may be desirable to describe somewhat fully the conditions of industrial life in this period. The cotton trade has made Lancashire what it is to-day — the most influential and the most populous county in Eng land. There are, and there have been developed, other industries of great importance, without which the chief trade would not have prospered as it has done. There is the mining industry, both in Lancashire itself and in the adjoining counties of York, Cheshire, and Derbyshire. The cotton districts extend beyond Lancashire proper, and in clude portions of Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire ; but the centre of the industry is, and always has been, the County Palatine. The coal trade is a very large one, and has greatly aided the development of the cotton trade.

The abundance of the coal found in these districts has given the cotton factory system its unusual advantages. Trade in modern times is largely promoted by the steam engine, and the steam-engine is dependent upon coal. We find that Lancashire is one of the most important centres for the construction of steam-engines and machinery of every description. The silk trade once flourished in this county, but now it is declining. The hat trade has become a very large business, and in some places competes for supremacy with cotton. The shipping trade is also very large, and Liverpool is one of the most important commercial ports of the world. All these magnificent industries are bound together, the one dependent on the other ; but cotton continues to be the king, and without it Lancashire could neither commercially prosper nor sustain its vast population.

The condition of the county in the last decade of the century is a marvellous contrast to its condition when the century opened, or even when our hero, Moses Grimshaw, was born. During the Middle Ages Lancashire was one of the poorest English counties, and it continued to be so for many generations. In the eighteenth century there was a considerable awakening to a knowledge of its resources and capabilities, and the immense development of the nineteenth century really began in the latter part of the eighteenth. The increase of the population may be regarded as an indication of the capabilities and resources of a county, or of a country. In the beginning of the eighteenth century the inhabitants of Lancashire were estimated at 166,200. In 1750 the number had increased to nearly 300,000. In the first year of the nineteenth century the inhabitants were 695,100; since then there has been a rapid increase.

In 1821 there were more than a million (1,052,859). In 1831, soon after the birth of Moses Grimshaw, the population had risen to 1,336,854; in 1841 it was 1,667,054; in 1851 it was over two millions, and the census of 1891 shows about four millions, or, precisely, 3,926,798, and this is still in creasing at the rate of about 50,000 per annum. The rapid increase in the population has been character istic of nearly every part of the county. Small villages have gradually become towns of large size, and the towns have become centres of dense populations and of the most active industries. Liverpool is a conspicuous instance. In the beginning of the eighteenth century the population was only 5,000 — not equal to that of many of the modern villages of the county. In 1780 the inhabitants had increased to about 40,000.

In 185 1 they numbered 376,065, and in 1891, the time of the last census, they were 517,951- The surround ing districts, which are largely dependent on the industries of Liverpool, have grown in similar proportions. Birken head, divided from Liverpool by the estuary of the Mersey, was a small place fifty years ago, but now it has a population of about 100,000. St. Helen's, a few miles off, which is devoted to mining and chemical industries, has grown to be a town of over 71,000 inhabitants. Manchester is another conspicuous illustration. In 1801 its population was 75,275; in 1831 it was 187,022 ; in 185 1 it was 316,213, and in 1891 it was 505,343. The borough of Salford is separated from the city of Manchester by the narrow and dirty river of the Irwell, but its inhabitants are engaged in the same industries.

In 1831 the population of Salford was 52,366, but in 1891 it had increased to nearly 200,000. The towns of Boston and Oldham are but a few miles from Manchester. The population of the former was, in 1891, no less than 115,000, and of the latter, 131,463. There are other neighbouring towns which are very populous — Ashton, with 47,323, and Stalybridge, with 44,135. Manchester is now the centre of a district of but a few miles in area, which contains over a million of inhabitants. These immense populations have been gathered, and are sustained, by the varied industrial enterprises of the county, but more especially by the enormous and rapid development of the cotton trade. In the year 1830 the raw cotton imported into this country was 871,000 bales, each containing 300 lb. weight of cotton. In 1892 the quantity amounted to 3,574,700 bales, each containing 481 lb.

The improved method of packing by machinery enabled the exporters to press into the same space 181 lb. more. Thus the imports of 1892 were four times more than in 1832 in the number of bales, and nearly six times in weight. Much of the quantity imported is exported to other countries, but more than 3,100,000 bales were retained in 1892 for home consumption, and this is equal to 60,200 bales per week. The greater part, nearly five-sixths of the whole, of this cotton came from the United States of America. The extent of this trade may be realized, if attention is given to these facts : that we pay for raw cotton something like £30,000,000 per annum, and after supplying the kingdom with its own demands for cotton clothing, we export cotton yarns and manufactures to the value of over £70,000,000 per annum.

In 1891 the amount was £75,000,000. These figures indicate the magnitude ofthe cotton industry. Although, as has already been stated, there are other great trades in Lancashire which contribute to the wealth of the county and to the prosperity of the people, cotton is the chief, and other industries are largely related to it, much as are the coal and the shipping trades. By means of this industry nearly four millions of persons are sustained. In 1892 the gross rental of the county ex ceeded £22,000,000, and the number of paupers was only 72,198, or about one in 55 inhabitants — less than two per cent, of the population. This is the smallest proportion of paupers in any county in England. The immense development of the cotton trade during the nineteenth century has not been altogether due to the native industry of the inhabitants ; it has also followed on the extraordinary inventions and developments of machinery.

The mechanical genius of Wyatt, Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, Kelly, Sharp, Roberts, and others, has trans formed the simple hand-working of the eighteenth century, and the early part of the nineteenth, into a system in which machinery, propelled by steam as the motive-power, does everything. By means of the improved machinery of modern times production has been multiplied three-hundred-fold, and cotton goods have become so cheap that their distribu tion over the greater part of the world has been secured. In the gradual extension of these industries great scope was given to individual energies, and abundant opportunities were afforded for the enterprise of individuals. In no other part of the kingdom have there been presented so great possibilities of advancement in life. Industry, frugality, temperance and intelligence have had their opportunities ; and nowhere else in the United Kingdom have the working classes made more successful use of the possibilities that opened before them.

A generation of men possessing the necessary qualities sprang at once into existence, recognised the signs of the times, and worked out the practical problems of the age in such a way as to secure the advantage of their country, and their own personal enrichment. Families whose forefathers were in very humble positions in life have been established in wealth and in mercantile greatness. Some have both risen and fallen, owing, in some cases, to misfortune, in other cases to unwise speculation, and in others to the misconduct of degenerate descendants. The continuance of prosperity cannot be absolutely secured either against natural calamities or against misconduct in social and in moral life. When this remarkable change was in its earlier stages Moses Grimshaw was born, and in due time entered upon his active and successful life of honest industry and prudent conduct.

When Moses was a boy there were but few elementary schools that were under any kind of inspection. The system of popular education with which we are familar in the last decade of the nineteenth century had not then come into existence. In these days the children of the poorest may obtain the best elementary education gratuitously, and it will be the fault of parents, or of the children themselves, if the young people now enter upon the responsible duties of life without being properly equipped for the positions which they may have to occupy. When Moses Grimshaw was a boy there were a few National or British schools, and these were attended by a limited number of children, for whom moderately high fees had to be paid, and these for an education which was altogether inferior to that which is now given in the elementary schools of the kingdom.

The consequence was, that the great majority of children had to pick up in the best way they could scraps of knowledge from evening or private adventure schools. Some young people, being bent on securing personal improvement and advancement in life, managed to gain a good deal of knowledge, and to secure a fair amount of education in the primary elements of English education — reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and geography. Indeed, those who were determined to get on made greater progress than the majority do in these days with so much greater advantages. They continued their studies after they left the schools which they had attended, and with the help of the Mechanics' Institutions, and of classes connected with the Sunday-schools, they succeeded in gaining further knowledge — often literary, practical, and scientific — which enabled them to exert an important influ ence on the social and industrial progress of their times.

Where there is a will there will be usually found a way. Where there is force of character there will always be found due opportunities for its development. ' Labor omnia vincit.' The Sunday-schools of the country have played an im portant part in the intellectual education and in the moral training of the young people. Notwithstanding their manifest deficiencies, arising mainly from the want of competent and trained teachers — a want which was inevitable in the early days of the Sunday-school movement, because of the educational condition of the general mass of the population — these schools have exerted a most powerful and beneficial influence on British society. This was particularly the case in Lancashire, whose Sunday-schools have long been more numerous and more crowded than in any other part of the kingdom.

In the northern counties the influence of Sunday schools in moulding the character and improving the condition of the people has been most marked. Where elementary day-schools were few, or even non-existent, Sunday-schools had become the agencies for imparting to many children the little secular knowledge which they ever received. During this period Sunday-schools, though aiming mainly at the religious instruction of the young, were compelled to devote themselves largely to the business of secular instruction — all of them arranged for teaching the children the art of reading, beginning with the alphabet, advancing to spelling, then to mechanical reading of the Scriptures, and, finally, to the teaching of Scripture truths. Some Sunday-schools even undertook the task of teaching the art of writing, using Scriptural passages as copies, and thus combining religious instruction with secular knowledge.

It is easy for ' superior men ' in these days to depreciate the agency of Sunday schools in the past ; but those who understand the past, either from personal experience, or from reliable testimony, or from study, know that, in Lancashire particularly, they have been the most potent force in the education of the masses of the people, and in counteracting those materialistic tendencies which, in the opinion of some competent judges, would have produced a semi-barbaric condition of society, if there had not been some such counteracting agency. Many of the men and the women of the past generation owed to Sunday - schools and Mechanics' Institutions nearly all the education, both secular and religious, which they possessed, and through which, combined with good, steady, moral conduct, they have prospered and risen in social and commercial status.

Most of the men in Lancashire who during this century rose from humble positions to wealth and industrial greatness derived a great part of their mental training from these institutions. They never became ' scholars ' in the ordinary sense of the term, and were not even what would now be called educated men, especially in the early part of the century. They were, however, men of sagacity, of natural ability, and good common-sense, and they did much to improve their minds by acquiring a certain measure of knowledge, and by the mental discipline which enabled them to transact business on a large scale, and to move in a circle of society which was in advance of their early associations. Moses Grimshaw grew up from a child in the midst of such social conditions, having to share in both the ad vantages and the disadvantages of the period.

His parents were religious people, and belonged to one of the Noncon formist denominations. They were plain, sincere, and earnest Christians ; they regarded the Christian religion in its practical, much more than in its theoretical or doc trinal, aspects. They did not ignore doctrine, or despise it. Indeed, the preaching of the day was so doctrinal in character that they could not be wholly indifferent to it. They took an intelligent interest even in the controversial questions of the times, which were discussed in the pulpit They heard much conversation in private and public circles on the mysterious things that are involved in Calvinism and Arminianism, which were at that time very freely discussed. But they were essentially practical and experimental Chris tians, and were satisfied with devoting themselves to the ordinary duties of the Christian life, and to the culture of a life of internal piety and external morality.

They were not what may be called ' political Dissenters.' They had their political opinions, and these were of the Moderate Liberal type, and Mr. Grimshaw always voted for the Liberal candi dates. In those days Dissenters distinguished sharply between the political and the religious spheres of life. On this dis tinction they based their objections to the general principle of an Established Church, or of the Union of Church and State. The State, they maintained, had no legitimate function in the Church. Its sole office was to secure liberty for individual citizens to obey the dictates of their own consciences in the worship and service of religion. The Church, as they represented it, is a voluntary associa tion of divinely-renewed men, and such an association is invested by Christ with the power of self-government.

To them the State is society as organized for political purposes and the ordinary relations of citizenship. It is based essentially and ultimately on physical force. Church and State are not contradictory, or antagonistic, but they are so different in nature and in function that they cannot be wisely or successfully united in operation. The State cannot interfere with the Church without injury to both itself and the Church; and the Church cannot interfere with the State with out employing its powers in work for which they are alto gether unfitted. The two spheres of life must therefore be kept separate — the Church, or religion, is founded on moral suasion, the State is founded on a recognised ex ternal authority. This was the prevailing Nonconformist theory when Moses Grimshaw was a boy, and he received these early impressions, which were matured by the thoughts and studies of later years.