press" and "the education of the rising generation," the latter of which, and especially the determination with which it was pressed upon the attention of the public by the Association, awards to this little group of artisans a not unworthy place amongst the pioneers of English education. The methods adopted are as follows:
To collect every kind of information appertaining to the interests of the working classes in particular and to society in general, especially statistics regarding the wages of labour, the habits and condition of the labourer, and all those causes that mainly contribute to the present state of things: to meet and communicate with each other for the purpose of digesting the information acquired.
The views and opinions based upon this were to be published in the hope of creating "a reflecting public opinion" which would lead to a gradual improvement of the working classes "without commotion or violence." The formation of a library and the provision of a proper place of meeting close a programme of agitation as laudable in its objects as it is sound in its methods.
Conceiving its purposes in this serious spirit, the Association was naturally correspondingly careful in its choice of members. It rigidly excluded all but genuine working men, though it admitted to honorary membership members of the middle class, "being convinced from experience that the division of interests in the various classes in the present state of things is too often destructive of that union of sentiment which is essential to the prosecution of any great object."[1] Thus several radical members of Parliament were elected honorary members. Francis Place, James O'Brien, John Black of the Morning Chronicle, Feargus O'Connor, Robert Owen, W. J. Fox, later member for Oldiam, and Dr. Wade, Vicar of Warwick, a jovial, eccentric doctor of divinity weighing some twenty stones, and an enthusiastic Owenite, all were similarly honoured by admission to the Association.[2]
Even genuine members of the labouring classes were not admitted without careful inquiry. Proposals for admission were frequently rejected or put back for further investigation. It was preferred to keep the Association small rather than depreciate the quality of its membership, or to run the risk of faction and disunion. These precautions were very necessary in view of the difficulties previously experienced in keeping
