This speaker, who was well received, stated the difficulties of the men, and gave matured advice as to the means of their removal. Referring to a conversation he had held with a director of the company, he stated that this gentleman admitted that the men were cruelly overworked, and that they were, with few exceptions, deprived of their natural and scriptural right to the Sabbath rest; but that the evil resulted from the increase of the Sunday riding public, and from faults with the men themselves which riveted their fetters. These faults were faithfully stated, and passages from the Book of God were repeated and pressed upon their attention, which, if believed from the heart, would lead them to their God and Saviour, and so break these and the heavier fetters of the soul, making them happy as the freedmen of Christ.
Dr. Manning, of the Tract Society, Lord Aberdeen, and Canon Fleming, then made pointed and telling speeches, after which the noble chairman wound up the meeting by telling the men that it was right that their grievance of constant toil—long hours without Sabbath rest—should thus be made known, that a healthy public opinion might be formed on their behalf. From his long experience in effort to reduce the hours of labour he gave them valuable advice, and concluded with the words:—
"I cannot find language strong enough to express all I feel at constant labour being forced on men, not excepting the Lord's day. It is abominable, and sufficient to call down the vengeance of God on the country. The rest of the Lord's day is a great necessity, and to deny you men the enjoyment and repose of that day is not only a very great cruelty, but an abominable sin (cheers). I want to remind you of this, that this work which we are commencing cannot be done by us alone; it must be done in cooperation with you. You must support the effort by strong appeals to your employers, and still stronger appeals to the public, and by unceasing prayer to Almighty God. You must press on all the rights you have, and which by God's grace you are determined to enforce. Your sole reliance must be in the blessing of the Almighty. To Him you must direct your thoughts and prayers, and draw down His blessing upon the effort, and take to your consideration these words which fell from the lips of many Protestant martyrs in their great sufferings,—
"'Although the day be never so long,
"At last it ringeth to evensong.'"
Great cheering followed, and after singing a hymn, the meeting, to which additional hundreds of omnibus men had flocked, separated at two o'clock in the morning.
But what good has resulted from this effort and meeting?
Well, much. Employers are granting their Sunday slaves concessions, slight indeed, but hopeful as to the future. Many persons who used these vehicles on the Lord's day have discontinued the practice. Some drivers and conductors have left on Sabbath principles; and, best of all, many of the men have already received spiritual good.
This was certainly the case with old Ben, who had driven to the Bank many thousand times, and who for thirty-two years had never attended Divine worship. He, indeed, held religion and religious people in derision. The Missionary secured his attention, and one day soon after the meeting, old Ben observed to him, "I read the tracts now, sir, and a bit of the Bible, and mean soon to get another Sunday off." He succeeded, and in the morning, the first time for so many years, attended Divine worship. In the evening his wife went, and he remained at home reading the Scriptures. He retired to rest unusually happy, but to sleep the long sleep, as in the silence of the night watches his immortal spirit was summoned to the presence of God.
It is indeed well that at length these men should have spiritual care, and that the "feet of those who carry glad tidings" should make their way to those who are in like condemnation. Now it so occurred that about the same time that Christian attention was directed to the neglect and wants of the men who labour upon our noisy highways, the roads,—that a like attention was called to those who pass life quietly on our silent highways, the canals. These water ways of the metropolis extend for several hundred miles through and about the City and its suburbs, and connect and bring into communication other great cities of the country. They are traversed continually by barges, which besides much merchandise contain a large floating population. Whole families inhabit the small cabins, and they have been described in the British Parliament as the most ignorant and debased of the people. It was therefore decided by the rulers of the mission to select a suitable man from the ranks, and bid him to make known the Gospel in the cabins, and on the towing paths.
The surprise at the lock of the Grand Junction Canal was great indeed when a stranger boarded each of their vessels, and addressed them as though they were old acquaintance. It was evident at first that they did not take kindly to the new friend. There were suspicious looks, and such hints as, "There bees them as says we are awful bad, and as puts us down in them papers as is in the publics." The zeal of the good man was also a matter of jest with them; as when they saw the agility with which he sprang from the tow-path to the barge, and from boat to boat, one man said to the other, "he's a jumping Jack, he is." The readings from the Bible, appeals to conscience, and the gift of Testaments and illustrated publications, soon won a way to their hearts, and in the course of five months their "Tract Man" became a popular personage, and this is how the fact was discovered. Mr. Atkinson, late Mayor of Hull, who superintends the work, gave a tea to as many boatmen and their wives as happened upon a certain evening to be at the Brentford Junction, and two hundred and fifty, direct from their boats, assembled, and a rough company they appeared.