QP 
 301 
 K58s 
 
 KING 
 
 SYSTEM OF LATE HOURS 
 IN BUSINESS: ITS EVILS, 
 ITS CAUSES, AND ITS 
 CURE
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE SYSTEM 
 
 OF 
 
 LATE HOURS IN BUSINESS 
 
 ITS EVILS, ITS CAUSES, 
 
 AND 
 
 ITS CURE. 
 
 ARTHUR J. KING. 
 
 Is not the life more than meat, and the body thau raiment?" 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 WILLIAM AYLOTT, 128, CHANCERY LANE; 
 
 WILLIAM WHYTE & CO., EDINBURGH; 
 
 M. OGLE AND SON, GLASGOW; 
 
 T. WALESBY, NORTHAMPTON. 
 
 MDCCC'XLIII.
 
 QP 
 
 THE SYSTEM 
 
 LATE HOURS IN BUSINESS, 
 
 IF a being belonging to a world, to whose inhabitants our 
 race is unknown, were to have explained to him MAN, in his 
 nature, position, and destiny, if he were to receive correct 
 information as to human capacity and the principles of human 
 happiness, and from these data were required to draw a pic- 
 ture of what he should suppose to be the manner of life in 
 our world, the picture would be, I think, very unlike the 
 reality amongst us. 
 
 And if, after having depicted our characters, from the 
 view his own imagination had given him, he were allowed to 
 visit our world, to see men, and to observe them in their 
 occupations, and practices ; with what wonder would his 
 mind be filled as he regarded the customs and characters of 
 mankind ! 
 
 Passing by the savages in their ignorance and barbarity, 
 the heathen in their rites and worship, their sacrifices and 
 cruel oblations, and the various systems of fanaticism and 
 superstition by which men are enthralled ; passing by the 
 different forms of tyranny and despotism which have been, 
 and which still exist ; passing by the thoughtlessness of man 
 individually, as to the nature and object of his being, and 
 the many other strange things by which our visitor would be 
 puzzled and confounded, we may mention a practice which 
 prevails among civilized men and the better portion of man- 
 kind, which could not fail to excite his deep surprise. The 
 practice to which I refer is that of devoting almost all of a
 
 man's life, not consumed by sleep, to the sale of articles of 
 food, furniture, fancy, or convenience. Coming to us with 
 a mind not reconciled by custom either to the barbarous 
 practices of unenlightened heathen, nor to the more refined 
 follies of civilized men, our friend would be capable of judg- 
 ing of things according to their real merit, and would be, I 
 think, exceedingly surprised at some of the practices preva- 
 lent in our world ; and, amongst them, not a little at this 
 appropriation of a man's life, by which sleep and business 
 divide 19-20ths between them. Knowing man's life in this 
 world to be the commencement of a being never to be extin- 
 guished, knowing too the relation which subsists between the 
 transient present and the eternal future, understanding man 
 in all his parts, with the principles of his happiness, and re- 
 membering that it is the nature of every creature to seek its 
 own happiness, our visitor would certainly have ground for 
 astonishment in contemplating the practice under considera- 
 tion. 
 
 For, what is man, and what is business, and in what re- 
 lation do they stand to each other? 
 
 Man is the product of God's hand, made for eternity, and 
 endowed with powers of heart and mind, which mark him as 
 different from all other beings of the earth. The nature of 
 man is compound. He has a body ; and, if commencing his 
 existence with health, he continue to nourish his body dis- 
 creetly, with what the Creator has been pleased to make es- 
 sential to its well being, viz. : food, air, exercise, &c., he 
 will enjoy the blessing of health. If he neglect either of 
 these particulars, his health will suffer in proportion to the 
 extent of his neglect. By cutting himself off from the atmos- 
 phere for a few minutes, he would die ; by abstaining from 
 food for a few days, he would starve ; and by habitually 
 breathing an air not containing the right proportion of its 
 constituent elements, or by the habitual neglect of exercise, 
 he will lose the bloom and vivacity of health. No effort of 
 mind is required to appreciate the difference between the 
 cheerfulness and hilarity of sound health, and the pain and 
 absence of enjoyment accompanying disease. All are con- 
 scious of the desirableness of health, that it is a source of
 
 happiness. But for the preservation of it observance must 
 be paid to the natural conditions, under which alone it can 
 be enjoyed ; among which are exercise and purity of air. 
 Time is required for this purpose. 
 
 Man has also an intellect, which may be cultivated or neg- 
 lected, used or abused, and which in its well-being is like- 
 wise a source of happiness. 
 
 All men do not appreciate the happiness derivable from 
 this source. With some it is regarded as a thing theoretic 
 and unintelligible; nevertheless, it is a fact, and not mere 
 theory, that there is a pleasure derivable from the intellect, 
 when cultivated and exercised, analagous to that attendant 
 upon the healthful state of the body. The latter the beasts 
 of the field know, the former is the prerogative of man; and 
 it is his duty and his glory to cultivate his mind. Time is 
 required for this. 
 
 Then there is a capacity as distinct from the mere intellect 
 as it is from that which is animal. There is the soul, whose 
 province it is to look upward, to know God the maker of all, 
 and to regard Him with reverence and affection ; to study 
 His revelation, and to obey his precepts, to live to God. 
 What so obvious a duty in a creature as to seek its Creator ? 
 What so becoming the recipient of kindness as to search after 
 his benefactor? What so appropriate then to man as to 
 study his own nature, of what kind it is, whence he came, 
 who his Maker, for what does he live, and how long is 
 he to continue? God is man's benefactor ; HE made man, 
 has placed him in this fair and beautiful world, and has given 
 him all things richly to enjoy. What so incumbent upon 
 him then as thankfulness, and the study of the character and 
 wishes of his benefactor ? Herein is another and a greater 
 source of happiness, and time is necessary for the cultivation 
 of this. 
 
 Man is not an isolated being. His capacities are given 
 him not for himself alone. He is associated with others from 
 the cradle to the grave, and has duties to perform towards 
 others. In infancy, he has the love of his mother to receive 
 and reflect, the kindness of his father to kindle his emotions, 
 and the affections of his brothers and sisters to reciprocate.
 
 6 
 
 This is his nature ; in this way he is developed. If his home 
 be a workhouse, and there be no mother to regard him, no 
 smile to shine upon his infancy, and no kindness shewn to 
 him, his nature is stunted ; his affections find no object; the 
 child is reared unnaturally, and in a manner prejudicial to 
 his happiness. So throughout life, there are endowments 
 within us, which can be brought into exercise only by inter- 
 course with, and the performance of duties towards, others. 
 A man's family claims his attention. He is a member of 
 society, a citizen, and a citizen of the world. In all these 
 capacities there are duties incumbent upon him, the perform- 
 ance of which constitutes a source of enjoyment. For the 
 accomplishment of this, as well as for all other purposes of 
 our being, time is necessary. And life is the time given for 
 it, for the employment of the whole man, in all the powers 
 and endowments of his nature. And when life has passed 
 away, man ceases not ; he has lived but the infancy of his 
 being ; it is only the germ, the seed of his life ; the nature of 
 which, whether good or bad, is here determined and irrevoca- 
 bly fixed, and eternity is to witness it in its efflorescence and 
 development. This, then, is man ; and these the principles 
 of his happiness. What is business ? 
 
 The business of which we are here speaking may be said 
 to consist of all those transactions which are involved in the 
 supply of our wants and in the gratification of our desires. 
 It is not the end and object of life, but it has (or should 
 have) life, comfort, and enjoyment as its end and object. " Is 
 not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" 
 But in the general length of the hours of business, men seem 
 to have made a grand mistake. They have converted that, 
 the province of which is to administer to comfort and conve- 
 nience, into an instrument of discomfort and unhappiness. 
 They have degraded the master, and exalted the servant into 
 his place. Man is the master whom business should serve ; 
 business is the master whom man does serve. For, time is ne- 
 cessary to the fulfilment of all the duties and to the enjoy- 
 ment of all the privileges of life, and that which demands 
 and receives a man's whole time, is indeed master, and one 
 whose service is at variance in every sense with the welfare of
 
 his subjects. Such, however, is the relation in which busi- 
 ness and men stand to each other. For the practice of trade 
 is to keep open shops from 7 and 8 in the morning, till 8, 9, 
 10, and 11 at night; for there is great variety in the extent 
 of attendance ; and there is perhaps as much in the irksome- 
 ness and evil effects of the confinement imposed. In some 
 shops, assistants have occasion to go out and take exercise ; 
 in some, as far as personal comfort goes, they are almost as 
 much at home as if in their own parlour; comfortable as to 
 the shop itself, and allowed to sit down, and to appropriate to 
 themselves the time not actually required by business. Such 
 cases, however, it is to be feared, are the exception ; the rule 
 is rather this, or approaching somewhat near it " You must 
 be in the shop from rising till bed-time ; you must stand dur- 
 ing all that time, and the intervals of business you may not 
 apply to yourselves, but must expend in some manner about 
 the shop, keeping up the appearance of business." There 
 are masters who are kind-hearted, who view those under 
 their authority, not in the light of goods bought, and the ab- 
 solute property of the buyer, who can sympathize with 
 young people, suffer them to go out occasionally, and endea- 
 vour to make their dwellings their homes, who make no 
 strict unnecessary rules, unalterable as the laws of the Medes 
 and Persians, that beneath the flimsy veil of the " rules of 
 the house," they may hide the unkindness of their own dis- 
 positions. And there are cases of an opposite character; 
 cases in which sleep, when man slumbers in unconsciousness 
 and non-existence as it were, is looked forward to as the 
 happiest part of life ! Taking the most moderate portion of 
 the trading community, it may be affirmed that there is still 
 room for improvement with respect to the hours of business ; 
 taking the whole body of tradesmen as a class, their habit of 
 life is most pernicious and injurious to their own interests 
 and welfare. 
 
 The practice sets at defiance two fundamental conditions 
 of health ; the first of which is that the blood should be pro- 
 perly oxygenated by the due reception into the lungs of pure 
 air, which the learned inform us, contains 21 per cent, of oxy- 
 gen and 79 per cent, of nitrogen gas. These, we are told, are
 
 8 
 
 the proper proportions of the constituent elements of the at- 
 mosphere on entering the lungs. When, however, the air has 
 performed its office and is expelled, it is in an altered state. 
 Two-fifths of the oxygen have disappeared, and the deficiency 
 is supplied by carbonic-acid gas. If provision be not made for 
 the renewal of the air, (especially where there are many lights,) 
 that which has been used will mix with the rest, and be breathed 
 again in which case it does not contain its due proportions. 
 If the carbonic acid amount to 10 per cent, of the whole, the 
 air, we are informed, is then incapable of sustaining life, and 
 as it approaches that point it becomes proportionally injuri- 
 ous, and the difficulty of breathing, flushed cheeks, languor, 
 and head-ache which then ensue are warnings. Pain is the 
 guardian angel of life and health, inasmuch as it points out 
 the place and the extent of danger ; would that its friendly 
 admonitions were more generally heeded when it does but 
 whisper ! Multitudes of tradesmen are confined in warehouses 
 and shops for many hours in the evening ; where the air is 
 being rapidly vitiated by respiration and by gas-lights, with 
 no adequate provision made for its renovation ; and I appeal to 
 those thus circumstanced whether they do not experience the 
 flushed and heated sensation which indicates the impurity of 
 the air, and its unsuitableness for the purposes of respiration. 
 
 A deficiency of exercise is another evil occasioned by the 
 length of the hours of business. At a public meeting held 
 in Wolverhampton, a case was mentioned of a young man in 
 a chemist's shop in Lancashire, who had crossed the thres- 
 hold of the shop but once in three weeks, and then on an 
 errand of business. Undoubtedly this is an extreme case, 
 nevertheless with tradesmen in general there is very little 
 opportunity for exercise in the open air, and the want of it 
 occasions comparative debility, and, it appears, often induces 
 serious disorders, which are imputed to other causes. 
 
 A celebrated physician, in writing upon this subject, 
 says, " In noticing the want of exercise as a cause of scro- 
 fula, Mr. Carmichael mentions that in St. Thomas' Parochial 
 Schools, Dublin, seven out of twenty-four girls were affected 
 with that disease, owing to their exercise having been entirely 
 interrupted, first by the flooding of the play-grounds by
 
 heavy rains, and subsequently by the mistress having re- 
 ceived orders to keep the children perpetually within doors 
 at their school-books. In a very short time after this cruel 
 and impolitic injunction was acted upon, scrofula began to 
 make its appearance, and afterwards affected nearly one third 
 of their number, although none of them had the disease when 
 admitted, and there was no fault of diet, or other cause to 
 which it could be ascribed. Mr. Carmichael adds, that in 
 the Bethesda School of the same city, six out of thirty girls, 
 fed in the best manner possible, were badly affected with it 
 during the same summer, owing to there being no play- 
 ground." 
 
 But because no sudden and glaring evil follows these vio- 
 lations of the laws of health, men think they are sustaining 
 no injury ; but, (as the same author remarks,) " as the 
 breach of the law is limited in extent and becomes serious 
 only by the frequency of its repetition, so is the punishment 
 gradual in its infliction and slow in manifesting its accumu- 
 lating effect ; and this very gradation and the distance of 
 time at which the full effect is produced, are the reasons why 
 man in his ignorance so often fails to trace the connection be- 
 tween his conduct in life and his broken health. But the 
 connection subsists though he does not regard it, and the ac- 
 cumulated consequences come upon him when he least 
 expects them." 
 
 ' If tradesmen's conduct in this respect be not productive 
 of injured health and premature decay, to what, I ask, is to 
 be attributed the disparity which exists in the duration of 
 life between the inhabitants of towns and those of the country? 
 Why does the rustic live on the average seventeen years longer 
 than the townsman ? Why do we townsmen lose one third 
 of our lives ? The enquiry is worthy of consideration. Is 
 the reason to be found in the difference of locality, in the one 
 being to the north or to the west of the other ? Obviously 
 not. Neither is it to be accounted for by the fact of men's 
 coming together to live near each other. There is surely no 
 inherent contagion in men, which, as soon as they congre- 
 gate in sufficient numbers, develops itself in injuring the 
 health and shortening the lives of the community. No ; the
 
 10 
 
 cause of this disparity, the reason why a townsman lives a 
 shorter life by 30 per cent, than the countryman, is to be 
 found chiefly in the difference of their respective habits of life. 
 Towns are for the most part inhabited by men engaged in 
 trade and manufacture, who habitually pay little attention 
 to these essentials to health pure air and exercise : whereas 
 in rural places, men have purity of air and freedom of exer- 
 cise. A suicidal system is this of late hours of business. If 
 man will not curtail the hours of business, they must curtail 
 the years of life, and its comforts and enjoyments too. 
 
 But as the corporeal nature is not the whole of man, so the 
 evil tendency of the practice under consideration is not limited 
 to the injury it inflicts upon the physical health, but extends 
 to all the interests and relations of life. 
 
 It behoves a man to use his mind, and to bring into acti- 
 vity all the powers with which he is endowed. It becomes 
 a man to bear in mind that he holds a post in society, for the 
 performance of the duties of which he is responsible. 
 
 To what an extent men are indebted to their fellow-men, 
 what benefits do they receive at each other's hands ! If all 
 men had regarded themselves as owing no duties to others, 
 if all had lived only to themselves, and had forgotten that 
 they were members of society, in what a state would the 
 world now be ! Nations now enlightened, would then be 
 still lying in the darkness of heathenism and uncultivated 
 nature. Indeed, how dark a picture would the whole world* 
 present. And, on the other hand, if men in general had 
 paid a little more attention to their " neighbour," and under- 
 stood and appreciated the relation which each holds to all, 
 and all to each ; if men generally had endeavoured to break off 
 the fetters by which their fellow-creatures were bound, the 
 fetters of ignorance, prejudice and custom, the millennium 
 had surely arrived ere this. 
 
 It is right too that a man should be able to enjoy his 
 family, that he should see to the training of his children ; it 
 is but proper that natural affection should meet its objects, 
 that his home should be something more than his dormitory. 
 But all this requires time. For a man to cultivate his own 
 nature, to do his duty to God and to man, it is necessary he
 
 11 
 
 should have time. Nothing can be performed, nothing en- 
 joyed, without time. " Time is money" time is life. 
 
 But what time is allowed for these things by the system 
 of late hours of business ? In some cases absolutely none, 
 in general very little indeed, quite insufficient for the fulfil- 
 ment of the duties, and the enjoyment of the birthright, of a 
 man. Indeed, it is the avowed object of some to extend the 
 hours of business as long as nature will hold out. It was the 
 declaration of an alderman of London, that he thought bed 
 was the best place for assistants after business. And can a 
 man neglect his mind, and all the better parts of his nature 
 with impunity ? Can he squander away life, which is given 
 for some purpose, and not suffer for it ? Assuredly not. A 
 man's state is his reward or his punishment : his character is 
 his happiness or the contrary : 
 
 " The mind is its own place, and in itself 
 Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." 
 
 And men who are so sacrificed to buying and selling, as to 
 spend the whole of their waking existence behind the counter, 
 pay for their folly and their sin in the unthinking, sensual, 
 animal, character they gradually sink into ; a state charac- 
 terized by Mr. Me Neile as a " mixture of mechanism in 
 business, and animal indulgence in enjoyment." They lose at 
 once the opportunity and the relish for almost all that is 
 ennobling and pure ; their thoughts and delights are confined 
 to the counter ; and if it were not for the institution of the 
 Sabbath, whereby their shop-existence is broken in upon once 
 in seven days, and things of another nature presented to their 
 minds, their state would, I think, be bad indeed. 
 
 If retrospection be an employment among men now, if 
 now they are wont to look back upon their school-days, and 
 the various circumstances through which they have passed, 
 if, in the present life, they ruminate and ponder, reflect and 
 regret, as the remembrance of the past comes up before the 
 mind, we may suppose that they will do so in the future 
 world. And of all the epochs in a man's history through 
 eternity, the present life one would imagine to be the most 
 interesting, and the one to which his mind would often re-
 
 12 
 
 vert, as to that which fixed his destiny. And what will be 
 his feelings, when, awakened to the appreciation of things 
 according to their real value, and liberated from the trammels 
 of custom, he looks back upon the scenes of his terrestrial 
 days, thinks of the habits and character he formed, and re- 
 members the way in which he spent his precious life ? How 
 insignificant will business then appear, how foolish to have 
 made it his all ! 
 
 The regret of a man in the evening of his days, when he 
 remembers his mis-spent school-hours, and the misappropria- 
 tion of his early life, and sees the line of after life thereby 
 chalked out for him, must surely be greatly surpassed by the 
 regret of him, who, looking back from eternity upon the 
 transactions of time, shall remember the two great items, 
 which made up the sum of his being, to have been business 
 and sleep. 
 
 I do not mean to say that the expenditure of so much 
 time in shops is necessarily thus connected. But of this I am 
 fully convinced, that where there is little or no interval between 
 business and bed (as is generally the case"), and where every 
 employment not partaking of business is interdicted, the 
 tendency of the practice is degrading to the character, and 
 opposed to the well-being of man. We sometimes hear of 
 persons procuring a holiday and returning before the time has 
 expired, or of retiring from business and buying it back 
 again at a great cost, for " they don't know what to do with 
 themselves," are quite out of their element, and have no en- 
 joyment. A symptom, I think, of their having no resources 
 within, of their having been so absorbed in business as to 
 have neglected everything else, of their having so lived in 
 and to the shop, that when out of it, they are (to use their 
 own expression) " like a fish out of water." 
 
 There is yet another point of view in which the system 
 of late hours is detrimental, and that is in its effect upon 
 trade. 
 
 Taking tradesmen as a class, it may be affirmed, not only 
 that they are not benefited, but that they are actually losers, 
 by the practice. There is a time and season for everything 
 under the sun. Time is necessary for sleep, but if more than
 
 13 
 
 sufficient be consumed therein, the surplus benefits not, but 
 injures. Food is necessary to health, but if men are glut- 
 tonous and eat to excess, the superabundance contributes not 
 to the healthfulness and vigor of the body, but to the con- 
 trary. So time is necessary for business; but if more than is 
 requisite be expended therein, (to the inevitable cost of other 
 duties) the surplus enriches not, but rather impoverishes, the 
 especial object of its favor. And three particulars may be 
 named, wherein tradesmen are injured even in money matters, 
 by the unnatural amount of time devoted to business. 
 
 (1). The business of tradesmen consists in the wants of 
 society. Anything which diminishes the demand, diminishes 
 business. It is clear that a person in a perpetual trance, or 
 confined from morning till night in an apartment and kept 
 from applying any part of his time to himself, cannot have 
 the wants a person reasonably employing his time would 
 have. The late hour custom confines no small proportion of 
 the community in shops during the whole (or very nearly the 
 whole) of their waking existence ; consequently it diminishes 
 the wants of society, and thereby diminishes business. 
 
 (2). A great evil under which tradesmen are suffering in 
 the present day is the cutting system of underselling. 
 
 There is a disposition, too prevalent amongst tradesmen, 
 to regard each other in the light of rivals and enemies, and 
 to endeavour to promote each his own interests by detracting 
 from his neighbour's ; which disposition, being mutual, in- 
 jures both parties. If tradesmen, instead of being so entirely 
 and exclusively a number of individuals, partook rather more 
 of the character of the various members of one body, having 
 a oneness of interest ; if this body were united in its mem- 
 bers and able to concert and carry out measures for the main- 
 tenance of the general good, it would be much better for 
 tradesmen as respects their monied interests. But as long as 
 the present length of attendance exists, no such union can 
 be expected, for there is no time for the intercourse of its 
 members with each other. If business were confined within 
 the reasonable limits of ten hours, tradesmen might then 
 meet each other in places of common resort, a friendly spirit 
 would be engendered, and the strength of union and concen-
 
 14 
 
 tration would be obtained, whereby the interests of trade at 
 large might be upheld against the attacks of unprincipled 
 individuals. 
 
 (3). By the present practice tradesmen are put to a con- 
 siderable expense by the necessity which is laid upon them 
 for lighting their shops. If then the hours of business were 
 abridged, on this head a saving would be effected. 
 
 And of course whatever argument may be used on behalf 
 of the employed for an abridgment, applies with equal force 
 to the employer, so that the latter would be especially bene- 
 fited by the discontinuance of the custom objected to. 
 
 It may be enquired, " If then this practice be so perni- 
 cious, and if it is also a losing concern with the masters, 
 how do you account for its existence ?" 
 
 We will consider then the causes of the practice, and see 
 how it is to be accounted for, that from an accurate con- 
 ception of its causes, we may be the better qualified to sug- 
 gest a remedy. 
 
 The parent of the evil is covetousness. The practice is 
 not as old as man, nor as ancient as cities. But in the 
 exercise of avarice one man keeps open his shop till a late 
 hour ; his neighbour, viewing the innovation with a jealous 
 eye, determines not to be outdone, and therefore keeps open 
 too. And it is easy to see how natural to human covetous- 
 ness is the descent to the establishment of late hours of busi- 
 ness. The system, however, when established takes up arms 
 against the principle to which it owes its being, and being at 
 enmity with the parent, might perhaps perish for lack of 
 sustenance, were it not for the fostering care of another prin- 
 ciple, viz. : The reluctance of individual members of a com- 
 munity to interfere and endeavour to suppress evils which affect 
 the whole body. The individual members of a large body, in 
 contemplating the mass, are apt to lose sight of the unit. 
 They talk of the " people," and wonder that such and such 
 a thing is tolerated by them, not considering that the 
 " people" are but a multitude of individuals, and that they 
 themselves individually do each constitute as large a part of 
 it as any other person. 
 
 This consideration unravels many extraordinary things
 
 15 
 
 we meet with in the history of the world. It were otherwise 
 perfectly unaccountable for how long a time large masses of 
 men have, in various ages, submitted themselves to tyranny 
 and oppression by a few. This inactivity and passiveness of 
 the people is not to be supposed to arise from insensibility 
 or indifference to their wrongs, but from the feeling I have 
 mentioned, viz. : the backwardness which obtains among 
 members of a community to take steps for the general good. 
 Each member forgetting his relation to the whole, exempts 
 himself from action, and looks upon the body (thus made a 
 nonentity) to vindicate the public interest. To these two 
 evils covetousness, and the want of individual appreciation 
 of individual influence and responsibility, we are indebted 
 for many evils, and amongst them, for late hours of business. 
 Bearing in mind then the prominent causes of the practice, 
 we will consider what steps should be taken towards its 
 removal. 
 
 First, then, as a stroke against the second cause men- 
 tioned, an association should be formed for the purpose of 
 bringing about an abridgment of the hours of business. And 
 the same reasons which would call such an association into 
 being, would invest it with a permanent character. For, 
 even supposing the diminution desired were obtained, yet 
 among so large a class there is always a tendency to return 
 to the same practice, and the probability of such a retur.n is 
 great, unless some opposing power be brought to bear upon 
 the evil, and to withstand it. The labors of the association 
 should be extended on behalf of trades generally, and not 
 confined to one only. And that for two reasons, (1), because 
 the evil is universal, and therefore the want of its removal is 
 universal, and (2), because the welfare of each trade is very 
 much affected by, if not involved in, the welfare of the 
 whole. For, as we have before said, covetousness is the root 
 of the evil, and the attempts made for its removal, to be 
 successful should strike at the root, so that avarice should be 
 gratified rather in the discontinuance, than in the retaining, 
 of the custom. But to this end the co-operation of the public 
 is necessary ; that the practice of evening shopping (where 
 it exists) should be discontinued, and a disposition be in-
 
 16 
 
 duced to encourage and promote the earlier closing of shops. 
 But no permanent and practical sympathy of the public is to 
 be expected on behalf of one trade only. And those persons 
 who are in the habit of purchasing late (and are therefore the 
 chief barrier to the accomplishment of our efforts) can be ex- 
 pected to change their habit only by a movement on general 
 principles, and to continue in the avoidance of the practice 
 only by being continually kept in mind of the cruelties they 
 are guilty of in retaining it. 
 
 I would press this upon the consideration of the Metro- 
 politan Linen-drapers' Committee, and of all individuals in 
 trade who are endeavouring to obtain a mitigation of the evils 
 under which they are suffering by the exclusive and unassisted 
 efforts of their own individual trades respectively. Beware of 
 the rock upon which so many attempts have been shipwrecked. 
 Your permanent success is bound up in the general success, 
 therefore do not move in one trade only. Excitement may 
 be occasioned, and in the heat of it, agreements may be 
 extensively signed, but amongst such a mass of men, there 
 are various characters, and in a short time the agreement 
 will be broken by some, then others will do so in self-defence, 
 until a general return is made to the old practice, unless the 
 permanent public feeling be strongly against it. 
 
 It was only last year that Wolverhampton was the scene 
 of an attempt to abridge the hours of business. Great in- 
 terest was excited, a meeting was convened, and very nume- 
 rously and respectably attended, and there were only four 
 dissentients among the masters from the proposal to close at 
 an earlier hour. Yet they are now nearly as badly off as 
 ever. The linen-drapers of the metropolis made efforts a few 
 years ago for closing at 8 o'clock ; and though they met with 
 some success at first, it was not lasting. Chemists made 
 efforts to close on Sundays, but there are very few now whose 
 shops are not open on that day. 
 
 The managers of all these movements, not appreciating 
 the two great causes of the practice, did not take proper 
 steps for its abolition. Instead of forming some permanent 
 organizations, and thereby retaining and enlarging upon their 
 conquests, they have dispersed their committees, and aban-
 
 17 
 
 doned the cause to progress as it might. And left unpro- 
 tected to the assaults of individual avarice, no wonder that 
 it perished. 
 
 Liverpool, however, presents us with an example of a 
 different kind. Here, too, it was endeavoured to abridge the 
 hours of business. And although they had a harder task to 
 perform than the people of Wolverharnpton (inasmuch as the 
 object was to close at 7 in Liverpool, and at 8 in Wolver- 
 harnpton, and the latter is not nearly so large a town as the 
 former), yet while Wolverhampton has failed, Liverpool has 
 met with considerable success. To what is the comparative 
 success of Liverpool to be attributed, when Wolverhamp- 
 ton, more likely apparently to succeed, has failed ? 
 
 Liverpool has a permanent society, consisting of sub- 
 scribers of 5s. per annum, without respect to any particular 
 trade. The members of the society elect a committee to serve 
 for one year, to whom is entrusted the charge of advocating 
 the shopman's cause by all available means. Being convinced 
 that no permanent change will be realized through the mere 
 agreement of the shopkeepers, and that it is by the aid of 
 the public alone that redress is to be obtained, the committee 
 are engaged in keeping the subject constantly before the 
 public mind. They labour to induce buyers to avoid pur- 
 chasing in the evening, by pressing upon them the knowledge 
 that they are thereby perpetrating an actual wrong. And by 
 diminishing or removing the temptation to keep open, they 
 induce men to close. The list of tradesmen closing at 7 
 o'clock, which they advertise, has gradually increased. Many 
 too close at half-past 7 and 8, and few keep open after half- 
 past 8 o'clock. 
 
 But the first class only (those that close at 7) do they 
 notice in their reports and advertisements, which" are a re- 
 commendation of tradesmen to right-minded men and to one 
 another. 
 
 From these facts then we are confirmed in our conviction 
 of the necessity of some permanent society, whose especial 
 business it shall be to watch over the interests of men em- 
 ployed in trade with reference to their time, that this, which 
 is their life, should not be wholly, needlessly, and cruelly
 
 18 
 
 sacrificed to barter : to use all means at their command, by 
 propagating information,- by the publication of tracts, by 
 exciting the public sympathy, and by engaging the co-ope- 
 ration of all philanthropists, to overcome the opposition of 
 prejudice and habit, till the hours of business shall come 
 within the precincts of reason and justice, and all men al- 
 lowed the free enjoyment of the gift of God life, with all 
 that it contains. As soon as adequate success should have 
 attended the labors of the association, they might, and no 
 doubt would, extend their efforts towards the provision of 
 lecture-rooms, and suitable means of recreation for trades- 
 men during the evening. 
 
 But while I would enforce the necessity of some permanent 
 organization of this kind, I would not lose sight of the fact 
 that men have immense power individually. 
 
 Tradesmen are the public to every trade but their own 
 respectively; and if all those in trade who wish for a curtail- 
 ment of the hours would, in purchasing goods, instead of 
 observing " what fine weather we have," remark upon the 
 evils of late hours, and enquire into the practice of the house 
 as to the hour of closing, there is no doubt success would 
 be greatly accelerated and enhanced thereby. 
 
 Tradesmen are not wont to dispute points with their cus- 
 tomers, much less to defend a cause which would argue 
 selfishness and injustice on their part towards others. When 
 we consider this point, it may be affirmed that the remedy is 
 within the reach of those who desire it. For so large is the 
 number of those interested in an abridgment, and so import- 
 ant a part do they, with their families, compose of a trades- 
 man's business, that even supposing the circumstance of one 
 man keeping open two or three hours after his neighbour, the 
 exercise of discriminating support on the part of the trading 
 public alone, would be abundantly sufficient to equalize the 
 apparently unequal circumstances of the two tradesmen. 
 For even now there is exceedingly little business done gene- 
 rally after 6 o'clock. 
 
 But I would urge this upon the attention not only of 
 tradesmen, but of all classes, and of all men who would 
 ameliorate the condition of the shopman. In such a case as
 
 19 
 
 this, the man who expresses his opinion, is of more value than 
 a hundred who think, but say nothing about it. The indi- 
 vidual who adopts the practice of speaking seasonably and 
 judiciously on this subject when purchasing, renders an im- 
 portant service to society ; and if all who desire the change 
 would observe the same practice, the desideratum would not 
 be long withheld. I say, " renders an important service to 
 society ;" for I conceive that it is a narrow and incorrect view 
 of the case to suppose that the present is a mere question 
 between the employer and the employed, and that the evils 
 of this long confinement are spent and exhausted upon the 
 immediate subjects of it. If one member suffer, all the mem- 
 bers suffer with it. 
 
 Every individual of a community is interested in the ge- 
 neral character of the community to which he belongs. For 
 the laws, customs, and usages are the reflection of the cha- 
 racters of the aggregate. A man may travel throughout the 
 world, and reside among all the peoples under heaven. He 
 may go to Botany Bay and dwell there ; he may take up 
 his abode with the savages of the Pacific, he may live with 
 the dark natives of Africa, he may travel among the nations 
 of Europe, and mix himself up with people of every grade of 
 civilization and of character, and he will then find how 
 much his own happiness is affected by the general character 
 of the people among whom he dwells. He is a member of a 
 great body : the same blood, to a certain extent, runs through 
 his veins, and he is therefore interested in the health of the 
 body at large. 
 
 If everything is to stand at the bar of public opinion, and 
 be acquitted or condemned according to the popular verdict, 
 then every one who is interested in the verdict must be inte- 
 rested in the character, judgment, and intelligence of the jury 
 giving it. 
 
 If there are duties which all men owe to society, then 
 society at large must be interested in the character of all its 
 members. If it is to the advantage of a country to produce 
 great men ; if the people at large participate in the benefits of 
 their labours, then it must follow that it is to the advantage 
 
 B2
 
 20 
 
 of the people at large to give opportunity for, and encourage- 
 ment to, study. 
 
 Therefore, on these and other grounds, we say that the 
 liberation or extreme confinement of so large a proportion of 
 the community, is a question which affects not only those 
 immediately and directly concerned in it, but society at 
 large. 
 
 I can easily conceive that the expression, " discriminating- 
 support," will be objected to on the ground of compulsion 
 being implied. But let us examine the subject, and not be 
 led astray by words. What compulsion can be used ? Evi- 
 dently not physical compulsion. Men have (and I presume 
 ever will have) the legal right of keeping open their shops as 
 long as they please. And in an equal degree buyers have, 
 and will exercise, the right of purchasing of whom they 
 please, by whatever name we may designate the use of their 
 judgment and choice. And if, in the exercise of this right, 
 some men, who are proof against all other attacks, are sub- 
 dued by the force of self-interest to acquiesce in the general 
 good, I see no reason to regret or disclaim the coercion em- 
 ployed. For, against whom, and on whose behalf, is it used Y 
 It is not a confederation of young men against the masters. 
 But it is the bulk of the masters, the assistants, and society, 
 against a small number of men, who persist in their adherence 
 to an old and iniquitous custom, to the imminent danger (if 
 not thus guarded against) of perpetuating the yoke upon all 
 the rest of their fellows. Coercion is a thing neither good 
 nor bad in itself, but receives its character from the circum- 
 stances connected with it. Law is coercion, for it forcibly 
 restrains a man from injuring his neighbour ; and they who 
 would object to what has been stated on the ground of force 
 being implied, might with equal justice object to the law of 
 the land, and to the laws of society. For they exercise coer- 
 cion, they restrain and punish the bad for the due protection 
 of the good. There is this difference however between the 
 cases. Law uses positive, the " discriminating support" only 
 negative, violence : the former inflicts absolute punishment, 
 the latter only such as is involved in upholding honourable
 
 21 
 
 men. But after all, the question is, not whether coercion 
 shall, or shall not, be used ; but on which side it shall be 
 employed : whether the majority, who are in the just path, 
 shall succumb to the minority who are in the wrong, or the 
 latter be forced (not physically, but by motives of self-interest) 
 to yield to the former. The few have too often prevailed. 
 When there were but four dissentients in a large town to an 
 abridgment proposal, the whole of their brethren were shortly 
 obliged to yield to the four. But if the majority had acted 
 judiciously, if they had made use of the strength their num- 
 bers afforded them, the four dissentients might have been 
 forty, and they should have enjoyed their eminence and dis- 
 tinguished honors in their select circle to this day, instead of 
 having nothing but the retrospection of them. But this, 
 people say, is better 'than nothing. Let the strength then 
 which is in the numbers of the majority be employed in sup- 
 porting each other. This they have a right, they are bound, 
 to do. Let individuals, too, if they please, stand out and 
 refuse to accede to reason, to justice, and the general wishes ; 
 they have a legal right to do so. But if by the majority sup- 
 porting itself, the minority shall find it to their interest, and 
 therefore be compelled, to give in, so much the better ; it is 
 a wholesome coercion and need not be regretted. 
 
 There is an objection frequently made to an abridg- 
 ment of the hours of business, which ought to be noticed. 
 It is this ; that to let loose the young men of the shops of 
 London at an earlier hour, would be an ill-judged and per- 
 nicious step, and injurious to themselves in particular, as 
 they would be led to ruin by the various temptations with 
 which the metropolis abounds. It has been asserted that the 
 best place for a young man after business is bed. But only 
 consider what is implied in the objection. Is it not rather 
 strange and paradoxical, that man, who is made for some 
 purpose and placed in this world for some object, should be 
 obliged to be strait-waistcoated as to his whole nature, lest 
 he should run into mischief and inflict harm upon himself or 
 upon others ? According to the rules of many houses of 
 business, it is no exaggeration to say, men are strait-waist- 
 coated as to every other exercise than muscular.
 
 22 
 
 Strange that sleep and business unconsciousness and 
 mechanical performances should be the only lawful engage- 
 ments for a man ! Can it be so ? But suppose it to be even 
 so; surely it must be a bad class of men that needs such 
 restraint. If a school-master were to say, " My boys are of 
 so bad a disposition, that they cannot be entrusted with play- 
 hours, they must remain in the school-room from morning 
 till night;" it might be justly replied to him, "Then the 
 fault must be your own. One may be vicious, but if the 
 whole troop under your care is bad, your credit as a school- 
 master is lost." With much greater force may it be said 
 with reference to late hours of business, that if the large 
 class of men engaged in trade is so bad that they cannot be 
 entrusted with the ordinary " play-hours," the system of late 
 hours receives no honour thereby, if there be truth in the 
 objection, it is one of the most powerful arguments that can 
 be adduced against the practice. 
 
 But setting this aside, I should like to know what right 
 any man has to make such an assertion, that if the men em- 
 ployed in shops were liberated at an earlier hour they would 
 abuse their time. The ground on which the assertion is 
 made, is the present character of the persons so engaged ; 
 the cause of this character is not the abundance, but the want 
 of time ; therefore there need be no apprehensions of evil 
 arising from their having more. But predictions of this kind 
 have been made at almost all changes by some men, inte- 
 rested (either in reality or in supposition) in the continuance 
 of the evil. The abolition of slavery was opposed. The 
 blacks, if liberated, it was said, would abuse their freedom. 
 They would rise against their former masters and avenge their 
 former wrongs. Experience has proved this accusation to 
 have been false. 
 
 Education was supposed to be a thing which should not 
 be generally promulgated. Ignorance was the fittest con- 
 dition for the people to be in. Knowledge would incapa- 
 citate them for the performance of their duties. This charge 
 has been proved to be false. 
 
 " Ominous predictions of ruin were made by manufac- 
 turers when contending against legislative interference with
 
 23 
 
 the hours of labor of factory children. These predictions 
 have been falsified, and according to the testimony of Mr. 
 Homer, most of the manufacturers are satisfied that the law 
 has been beneficial even to themselves." 
 
 Religion, too, has been opposed by the prophets of the 
 same school. What difficulties Hannah Moore had to con- 
 tend with in the establishment of the Cheddar Schools. It 
 was begged that " she would not think of bringing any reli- 
 gion into the country; it was the worst thing in the world 
 for the poor, for it made them lazy and useless." "Many of 
 the opulent farmers patriotically opposed the innovation ; one 
 of them observing, that the country into which the ladies 
 were introducing their disturbance, had never prospered since 
 religion had been brought into it by the monks of Glas- 
 tonbury." * 
 
 In short, opposition and predictions of evil we may expect ; 
 for it is quite in accordance with the history of the world, 
 that we should meet with them. Almost all reformation has 
 been carried in the face of opposition, and accompanied with 
 predictions of impracticability and disaster, which predic- 
 tions, time has shewn to have been foolish and false. 
 
 But this plea is put forward by some persons again and 
 again, after the fallacy of it has been clearly exposed. And 
 when this is the case, it is impossible to give the objector 
 credit for benevolence and tender consideration for young 
 men : the motive by which he would have it believed he is 
 actuated. The first consideration with some men is, how 
 they may benefit themselves ; and the second, how they may 
 do so with the appearance of benefiting others. And those 
 who persist in withstanding attempts to abridge the hours of 
 business on the ground of good wishes towards young men, 
 must be classed among these. It is not for the young men 
 they care, but for their own inclinations, prejudices, and 
 habits : or perhaps, they are rather sceptical as to profit and 
 loss, and prefer being on the safe side. They resist attempts 
 to gain reasonable liberty, under the pretence of solicitude 
 for the welfare of the young men ; and hide their own avarice 
 beneath the cloak of benevolence. " Dionysius the tyrant 
 stripped the statue of Jupiter Olympus of a robe of massy
 
 24 
 
 gold, and substituted a cloak of wool, saying, ' Gold is too 
 cold in winter, and too heavy in summer. It behoves us to 
 take care of Jupiter/" Demetrius, too, was very zealous 
 for the deity, but it was because his craft was endangered, 
 and his money involved in the worship of Diana. 
 
 There are some persons who think that all attempts made 
 towards a diminution are vain, as the thing is impraticable. 
 Different grounds of impracticability are alleged. Some few 
 affirm that business cannot be properly transacted in less time 
 than at present. To such I would oppose the testimony of 
 reason, and of the great bulk of tradesmen. There certainly 
 may be, and no doubt are, cases in which a curtailment is 
 impossible. It is clear that if a house has business enough 
 to employ twenty men, and employs only fifteen, or is under 
 mis-management, then of course late" hours are necessary. 
 If, too, the practicability is to be estimated in exact accord- 
 ance with existing circumstances and habits, there may be 
 cases in which a diminution is impossible. But it must be 
 borne in mind that nothing is isolated. That in the habits of 
 society, as well as in the creation, there is a connection and 
 relation of things to each other, which subsists universally. 
 There can be no general practice, without a number of others 
 arising out of it, and being connected with it. So the system 
 of late hours occasions late orders ; houses must wait for the 
 late post and send off parcels by the late train, and so forth. 
 It is obvious that all these matters arise out of the practice 
 objected to, and that if that were altered, all others connected 
 with it, would be altered also. This however does not apply 
 to trade in general, but almost exclusively to wholesale houses 
 of business. 
 
 But it is really idle to say that business requires the 
 amount of time expended upon it. How is it that bazaars 
 are closed at 5 ; markets at 12 at noon ; shops in one town 
 closing at 7, in another at 10; in one neighbourhood at 8, 
 in another at 11 ? How is it that book shops in Edinburgh 
 are closed at 5 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, while in other 
 places they are kept open an hour later on that day than on 
 any other? How is it that in England men close their shops 
 during the whole of Sunday, while in France they keep
 
 25 
 
 them open for the most part during the forenoon ? Why 
 this variety ? Not because business in each of these cases 
 requires the exact amount of time appropriated to it, but 
 simply because men have accustomed themselves to those 
 hours of business. 
 
 But the majority of those who say that no diminution 
 will be realized, are of that opinion, not on account of any 
 absolute impossibility or difficulty as far as business is con- 
 cerned; but simply because, as they say, " You will never get 
 people to do it. A^nid such a host there are diverse opinions 
 and characters. Some would shut, and some will not ; una- 
 nimity is necessary, and unanimity will never be obtained." 
 
 No doubt, it never will be obtained. And if complete 
 unanimity be necessary, it is a waste of time to attempt the 
 change. Linen-drapers', withhold your subscriptions, dissolve 
 your committees. Mr. Gumming, say no more about it, for 
 the thing is hopeless. But complete unanimity is not neces- 
 sary. There are thousands of shops open every Sunday in 
 London, yet that does not interfere with the general practice 
 of suspending business on that day. The general practice 
 sustains itself. And if one half, or one third of the masters 
 were to resolve to keep open shops for ten hours only, and 
 with their dependents to support each other in so doing, there 
 can be little doubt that the success of the early-closing people 
 would be such as speedily to induce the general adoption of 
 the same hours. For so little business is generally done after 
 6 o'clock, that the loss of it would be amply repaid by the 
 saving of gas, and by the custom of those brought to the 
 shop by its adoption of reasonable hours. And therefore as 
 universal consent is not absolutely indispensable, as those 
 who wish to abridge the hours have within their own number 
 the elements of success, I see no reason to despond. And 
 when the two sides of the case are considered ; when we 
 remember that tradesmen are the public to every trade but 
 their own respectively, and that by regard to purchase as 
 well as to sale, they have success in their own hands if they 
 will but grasp it, when these considerations come before the 
 mind, I see abundant reason to be hopeful. 
 
 Masters in business, I appeal to you. I should be sorry
 
 26 
 
 to accuse you as a body, of unkindness towards those under 
 your authority and care, or of being the willing causes of 
 this monopoly of a man's being. I know that many of you 
 suffer as much as the assistants, that you regret the preva- 
 lence of the custom, and the necessity you suppose yourselves 
 to be under to conform to it. In the various movements 
 which have been made at different places, you have, as a 
 body, acquiesced in the proposal to diminish the confinement 
 imposed by the practice. Still it must be allowed that you 
 are the powerful and responsible party *in the transaction. 
 It is at your mandate that the shutters are put up. 
 
 Such of you as have not given any candid attention to 
 this subject, I would request to do so. You must see clearly 
 that people would have at least as many f^ants to satisfy with 
 shops open for ten hours, as they woi/i'd though the shops re- 
 mained unintermittingly open, day and night. So that you 
 need be under no apprehension of decreasing the amount of 
 your business by diminishing the length of attendance upon 
 it. You must also be conscious of some other desires and 
 dispositions, than can be gratified behind your counters. 
 Other sources of enjoyment are open to you. The creation, 
 society with all that it affords, the writings of wise men, and 
 all the sources of happiness which exist, were not made 
 
 "to bloom unseen, 
 And waste their sweetness on the desert air." 
 
 They were made to be used, and enjoyed freely by all. If 
 you are one of those individuals who are sensible of the ex- 
 istence of nothing but their shop, if all your ideas and enjoy- 
 ments are confined within your ledger, you are to be com- 
 miserated. You may have lived many years in the world, 
 you may boast yourself upon your experience as a man of 
 business ; but you know very little by experience of what life 
 is. An arm bandaged down to the side perpetually, will 
 become like that of a skeleton; it will lose its vigor and vi- 
 tality, until the power to raise it will be lost. And if you are 
 in this dilemma, if you are paralyzed and dormant as to the 
 chief capacities of your nature, it is an indication that you 
 have abused your life, and not rightly exercised your being. 
 But I turn from the case, and address myself to tradesmen
 
 27 
 
 as a class. Will you not, for your own sakes, accede to that, 
 by which you may obtain time for the discharge of other 
 duties and the enjoyment of other pleasures, than are con- 
 tained in shop business? Do not place your judgment at the 
 footstool of fashion and antiquity, but be bold enough to 
 think for yourself; and do not acquiesce in an evil because it 
 boasts antiquity ; age imparts no lustre to an abuse. 
 
 I appeal to you also on behalf of those entrusted to your care. 
 Shall they continue to be the subjects of this evil, and are you 
 content with the responsibility of their so continuing ? The 
 rising generation are deeply interested in the question ; and 
 when they shall be gathered to their fathers, another genera- 
 tion will occupy their places, inherit their practices, and 
 receive of their influence. The influence of your habits will 
 extend to generations 'i<,o come, and your actions will give a 
 colouring to the character of men yet unborn. If then you 
 would shew kindness to your young men, if you would be 
 just to them, if you would do good to society, if you 
 would bequeath a blessing to future generations, exert your- 
 selves on behalf of this cause. Do not content yourself 
 with verbal acquiescence, but begin at once with your own 
 shop. Put a notice in your window that you now close at 
 7 or 8, as the case may be ; and continue to do so for three 
 months, just to try the experiment. 
 
 To young men I address myself. Appreciate time, and 
 labour to obtain sufficient of it to answer the purposes of 
 your being. Form your committees, or, if formed, support 
 them heartily. Let your attempts continue to be, as hitherto, 
 characterized by temperate and respectful behaviour. 
 
 Let not the hope of victory be abandoned because the 
 task may seem to be encompassed with difficulty. Almost, 
 if not, all reformations have encountered opposition. But 
 truth is great and will prevail. 
 
 To the public I appeal. Is it right that such a system 
 should exist ? We glory in the extinction of slavery abroad, 
 while it exists in our own streets. For the man whose whole 
 time is the property of another is surely a slave. 
 
 Is it in accordance with the feelings of humanity that 
 men should be confined standing in shops for 14 and 15
 
 28 
 
 hours a day? a confinement the more wearisome, because 
 according to the usages of trade generally (at least of the 
 linen-drapers generally) the time not required by business, 
 may not be appropriated to the individual's use, but must be 
 positively expended in sham work, that the appearance of 
 business may be sustained. Now as business cannot occupy 
 its attendants during the whole of the long time appropriated 
 to it, men are reduced to the alternative, either of fumbling 
 about busy, doing nothing; or else of standing still like 
 cab-horses in the street, waiting till somebody hires them. 
 It were bad enough to be confined in perpetual employment, 
 with the conviction that there was absolute necessity for it, 
 that one's services were required, and could not be dispensed 
 with ; but to be thus perpetually imprisoned when there is 
 wo occasion for it, and to be compelle^jd 4fo squander away life 
 in pulling down parcels in order to lie them up again, this 
 must surely be sore enough to the feelings of him who has 
 any idea of the value and purposes of life. 
 
 Let me engage your sympathy on the ground of domestic 
 endearments. Have^ou any happiness in your home ? Think 
 then of others. Shopmen have hearts as well as you. They 
 have wives and children, fathers and mothers, brothers and 
 sisters, and natural affection too. But of many shopmen it 
 may be affirmed, that they see their children awake on 
 Sundays only. If, then, you have any feeling for others, 
 if you lament the existence of suffering, and would relieve 
 it, shall I tell you how intimately you are connected with the 
 practice before us, that you may know that by your conduct 
 you contribute to the perpetuation of this system, or else to its 
 overthrow. The obstacle to a general diminution of the 
 hours of business, is the fact that there are individuals who 
 purchase things in the evening and at night ; and those mas- 
 ters who refuse to abridge the hours, for the most part do so 
 under the impression that by abridging them they would be 
 sustaining some loss as to their evening customers. Every 
 person who enters a shop of an evening is adduced as a proof 
 of the necessity of keeping open, and of the loss that would have 
 been sustained had the shop been closed. If then you would 
 not assist in binding the chain upon inmates of shops, if you
 
 29 
 
 would be clean of all guilt in the transaction, never enter a 
 shop after 6 o'clock. Not only so, but let your opinion on the 
 subject be known to g those of whom you purchase, and wher- 
 ever your influence extends endeavour to secure the same 
 habit. By so doing, you will be rendering a kindness to 
 many thousands of your fellow-creatures. 
 
 To Christian ministers, to the press, and to all who have 
 commanding influence, we appeal. Great instruments for the 
 reformation of the world, your assistance we crave. To you 
 no reason need be assigned for the discontinuance of this 
 system, for you already appreciate the subject. 
 
 To all classes, and to all trades, we say, see what can be 
 done. Beware of that common error of exempting one's self, 
 and of looking upc/^ "the public," "the young men," "the 
 masters," to act. Wh9 is the public, who are the young 
 men, who the masters, but a number of individuals of whom 
 you are one ? 
 
 The avarice of a few individuals may overpower us by 
 taking us one by one. But let us unite, and by one vigor- 
 ous, simultaneous, and energetic movement, as with one 
 arm, let us pull the rope, and the fabric of evil shall come 
 tumbling to the ground. 
 
 P.S. I have much pleasure in stating that an Association' 
 for bringing about an Abridgment of the Hours of Business, 
 has recently been established in London. The object and 
 plan of the Association may be gathered from the following 
 extract from the Prospectus. 
 
 The Association " purposes publishing and distributing 
 short tracts, addressed to various classes, convening public 
 meetings, &c. , and, in short, using all the means which pru- 
 dence may suggest, and the support of subscribers maintain, 
 to bring home to the trading community and to the public at
 
 30 
 
 large, the conviction of the many evils, and the utter inutility 
 of late hours of business, and so to prepare the way for their 
 general diminution. 
 
 " A subscriber of 5s. per Annum will be considered a 
 member of the Association : and, in conclusion, the Committee 
 have to call upon all those who are either suffering them- 
 selves under the evils of late hours, or who have any sym- 
 pathy with those so circumstanced, immediately to give in 
 their names as members of the Association. 
 
 "Subscriptions and Donations received by Mr. Aylott, 
 128, Chancery Lane." 
 
 This Association is quite in its infancy, and I recommend 
 it to the generosity and support of the reader. 
 
 Printed by Walton # Mitchell, 24, llardow*ttreef, Oxford street .
 
 ISg ttje same &utfiot: 
 
 A FEW WORDS to TRADESMEN dnd the PUBLIC on the 
 Desirableness and Practicability of ABRIDGING THE NUMBER OF 
 THE HOURS OF BUSINESS. Price 3d. 
 
 In the Pres. Vd shortly will be Published : 
 
 TEN LECTURES by Ten various Ministers, delivered during 
 the Months of March, April, and May, in the National Scotch Church, 
 Regent Square, for the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
 among the Jews. 12mo. cloth lettered. 
 
 Just Published: 
 THE UNION VERSION of the WHOLE BOOK of PSALMS, 
 
 in various Metres, adapted for the Family Altar. 32mo. 2s. bound. 
 
 THE YOUNG CHRISTIAN'S COMPANION to SCRIPTURE 
 KNOWLEDGE ; adapted for the Family Circle and Retirement of the 
 Closet, Explanatory of the General History and Leading Subjects of the 
 Old and New Testament; with useful Selections for Family Reading. 
 12mo. cloth boards. 3s. 6d. 
 
 WILLIAM AYLOTT, 128, Chancery Lane.
 
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