[170] Hansard, vol. clxi. p. 2190; and Times, 1861.
[171] That this was the case appears further from the circular which Mr. Sikes addressed to every member of the House before the second reading, in which he expressed his cordial approval of the bill, and craved the support of members in carrying it through Parliament.
[172] Hansard, vol. clxii. 1861.
[173] Hansard, vol. clxii. p. 880; and Times, April 23, 1861.
[174] The phrase “working classes,” applied to the industrial population, seems as inaccurate as the phrase “lower orders,” applied generally fifty years ago, is obnoxious. The distinction does not lie in this class being “working” while others are “idle” people. Something very different indeed is the fact. The tendency of late years has been that professional people should work harder, and “working” people less, and very few men who live by their profession work fewer hours than the handicraftsmen of our towns. Lord Stanley might have gone even further in his comments on the earnings of the industrial classes. Even putting aside the important consideration of how much the professional man spends of time and money in preparing himself to work at all, a great and ever increasing number of the wage-receiving class have now as good incomes as many hundreds of the less successful classes above them, while their expected or necessary expenditure is in almost all cases very much smaller.
[175] News of this able nobleman's death has just reached us; but, though bearing in mind the spirit of the well-known maxim, we see no reason to alter our text.
[176] See Appendix (F.)]
CHAPTER IX.
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANK SYSTEM.