and nine weekly London and provincial newspapers, and sixteen monthly and weekly periodicals are placed on the tables, whilst provision is made for fourteen games in the halls and skittle-grounds. There are class-rooms and places for letter-writing. Public readings, recitations, and singing take place every Wednesday, when the members take their wives and families, whilst a trade register is kept for the benefit of persons seeking employment. This last is a great boon, and tends to destroy the infamous and demoralising public-house system. The subscription is one penny per week, but a single payment secures admission to either of the three halls.
Perhaps the oldest club of the kind is the Stormant House Working Men’s Association, established in 1853, at Notting Hill. Its rooms are open every evening; and, besides weekly lectures and concerts, there are classes for elementary instruction; a reading room, well supplied with newspapers and periodicals; and a library of 400 volumes. Refreshments may be had by members; intoxicating drinks, however, as well as smoking—committees indeed appear to set their faces steadily against intoxicating liquors—are altogether prohibited. This association differs from the others we have mentioned, in being formed on a strictly religious basis. There is, indeed, no actual test of membership, but care is taken that the instruction imparted shall be in entire accordance with, and shall imply the acceptance of, the truths of Christianity. To preserve this principle from being infringed, the trustees reserve to themselves the power of vetoing the resolutions that may be passed, either by the committee or the members. This regulation has had a decidedly blighting effect upon the institution; for whereas the others have flourished, and continue to flourish, the Stormant House Association has exhibited great fluctuations during its career.
Seeing the good these institutions are likely to achieve, and the avidity with which they are welcomed, it is gratifying to know that nearly every county in England and Wales enjoys one or more of them. It is to be hoped moreover that the time is not far distant when every city, town, and village will be able to boast of its Working Men’s Club, or Workmen’s Hall. In the metropolis they will be found especially useful, not only as rivals of the gin-palace and beer-shop, but as places where the members may obtain real rest and real recreation, stimulating the mental faculties, while refreshing the physical energies. Already much has been done in London in this excellent work. The Tower Hamlets possesses four clubs: there is the Albert Institution in Southwark; a Workman’s Institute in Wellclose Square; a second in Portugal Street, Lincoln’s Inn; a third in the Kensington Potteries a fourth in Duck Lane, Westminster; and a fifth in Clare Market. We are not certain that we have enumerated all, but we have enumerated enough to show that the promoters of these admirable institutions are labouring with zeal and energy, and that their labour is being not unattended with success. It is a curious circumstance, and one that should be recorded in letters of gold, as it redounds to the credit of the fair sex, that most of these clubs owe their origin to the sympathetic exertions of ladies. By their benevolent and enterprising efforts, the Working Men’s Halls of Southampton, as well as the clubs at Notting Hill, Westminster, and Portugal Street, have been founded. It is to this female influence, felt rather than seen—we are proud to say—that these institutions owe so much of their quiet comfort and orderly arrangement.
The aim and purpose of the founders of these clubs, it is scarcely necessary to observe, is to aid the working classes towards obtaining the benefits of “social life.” By social life is meant pleasant company. But not this merely. Pleasant, agreeable company may, perhaps, be obtained in the parlours of taverns. There is abundance of company in a billiard-room or a bowling-alley. The Frenchman finds agreeable company in his cabarets; the Italian in his trattoria; the Turk in his café. This, however, is not the social life it is intended to introduce the working classes to. By social life in this sense is meant “the feelings, the habits, and all the various forms of activity appropriate to the whole class of working men, or at least of all those who have realised their actual position of living together as fellow workers, as neighbours, as citizens, and as men.” The object is to make these clubs and institutes something more than mere places where men can come to get a little amusement, a little instruction, a cup of coffee or a pleasant chat. Although these things are not overlooked, although they form a principal feature, more is added to them. They are intended to furnish, besides this, something better—something that appeals to feelings higher than the gratification of simply selfish instincts. “They must be societies,” says one of their warmest advocates, “the members of which should be led to feel an interest in one another’s well-being, as well as a desire to promote the common good; there is no fear of the sociability of the club-room being spoiled by the studies of the class-room; the two are supplementary the one to the other,—the one inspires the general social sentiments, the other is the best guarantee for substantial knowledge, steady habits, personal effort, and a sense of duty,—conditions without which any mere sentiment evaporates, without which no society can long hold together. The club will be most honoured, most loved, most enjoyed by those who have found an opportunity within its walls alone or together with others to put forth their efforts for the good of all. Thus by various means each must be encouraged to do what he can for the general success of the enterprise, and for the individual comfort and welfare of his brother members. In proportion as this corporate brotherly spirit is evoked and cherished the club will not only be securing the best chance of permanence, but will be sure to do far greater good while it lasts than could have been effected by the most lavish expenditure of money or by any accumulation of mere teaching appliances.
Excellent are these principles, and happy the institution based on them. Where the spirit of union thus indicated pervades the whole body, there can be no doubt but these clubs must be