the members, during the preceding year, three
thousand readings at their own fireside.

Over this Reading-room and Library, it is a
fundamental rule, that no man shall exert an
influence by holding office or by voting, unless
he be a man dependent upon weekly wages
for support.

It is also a rule, that any member capable
of getting and of doing work, shall be expelled
if he leave his contribution for a month unpaid;
but in the manly spirit which has guided
the whole management of this society, it is
made also a fundamental law, that any member
who is out of work, through real inability to
get it, or to do it, shall be entitled to continue
in the enjoyment of the privileges of the
institution, without payment and without
responsibility.

Finally, to save the property of the society
from all risk of dispersion, it is vested in the
Corporation of Carlisle.

When this society had been in existence for
about a year, and its members felt able to
take safely one step farther in advance
towards their own improvement, they determined
to connect a school with the establishment
for the benefit of such among themselves
as were deficient in reading, writing, and
arithmetic, and also for the education of their
children. Able men undertook to teach, and
a committee of five was appointed to attend
when required, and arrange the general business
of the school. The result of this effort is
thus stated in a report published by the young
society:—

"The attendance of the members and their
sons soon became so numerous that not
more than one-half could be accommodated;
and it is gratifying to us to notice the fact,
that many of the adults walked out of the
schools in order that boys might be admitted,
whilst those boys who could not by any means
secure seats, were heard to whisper that they
would be there an hour sooner on the following
night to get a seat. In consequence of
this pressure, it was resolved to establish a
second school, and though the fitting-up of it,
together with that of the former one, cost a
considerable amount of money, the members
of the institution voted it freely. * * The
scholars pay a penny per week each; and
with the view of procuring them school-books
and slates as cheap as possible, the committee
have purchased a large stock, which they
retail at prime cost, to be paid for at the rate
of a penny per week. The quantity thus disposed
of is as follows:— Testaments, forty-eight
at fourpence each; Arithmetics, sixty
at seven-pence each; Slates, seventy-two at
fourpence and seven-pence each; Grammars,
eight at nine-pence each. The attendances
have averaged fifty each night since the opening
of the schools."

While speaking of schools, we may add a
notice of another school in Carlisle, established
by adult working men for the education of
themselves, and connected with a little library.
The Duke Street Adult Evening and Sunday
School was established in March, 1845. Each
member pays a weekly penny, and finds his
own materials for writing and arithmetic. The
school is entirely under the control of a
committee of its members (pupils), elected or
re-elected every three months. The male
pupils must not be younger than twenty-one,
the females not younger than sixteen. There
are seventy men and forty-nine women in
attendance. The men attend on two evenings
in the week for instruction, the women on
two other evenings; on the other three evenings
the rooms are open for the use of the
young men who go thither to read. Upwards
of fifty applicants for admission to this school
are now on the list waiting for their turn.
The little library contains one hundred and
fifty volumes, of which one hundred are in
constant circulation; three London weekly
papers, and the local prints, are also taken in.

This is what working men can do; and
there is no duke who can be made, by virtue
of his title, more noble than the labourer who
thus strives in his own behalf. He need not
mind the good old gentleman who informs
him that he ought to touch his hat and be
respectful to his betters. The good old
gentleman who has let the world outrun him,
and made little effort to keep pace therewith,
might much more properly uncover the head
to him. The best minds claim him as their
kindred, and the help of others ever presses
upon him who helps himself.

Two or three men, however poor, if they
will have faith in the force of a right heart
and a stout will, may gather to their council
other poor mechanics like themselves; and
there is no town in which, according to its
size, one or a dozen true Mechanics' Institutions
may not rise to occupy the place which
Dr. Birkbeck's institutes were meant to fill,
but which they have insensibly vacated. The
combined labour of men scattered through
the country, working each with firm
determination in his little corner, is sufficient to
produce a whole result larger than we dare
picture in the present day. The elevation of
a whole class, by its own inherent, well-
directed energy, is, in this case, a work so
grand and so impressive, that we are half
afraid to hope, and yet so simple that we are
ashamed to fear, in looking forward to its
execution. Let it, however, be distinctly
impressed upon the minds of all who may wish
to take part in the establishment of these
Libraries and Schools, that working men must
found them for themselves, and be exclusively
the managers. Aid from others will be
wanted generally—small subscriptions, little
gifts of books. Such aid, however, must be
given or received at the price of no imposed
patronage of no condition. Dr. Elliott, of
Carlisle, the most active and judicious helper
of the working men's Library in that town,
lays just stress upon this, and has illustrated
his argument with the case of a working-