PREFATORY ADDRESS.

The Editor to his Agents and Readers.

DEAR FRIENDS,—

Next year we commence, if the Lord permit, our Twelfth Volume of this humble, but, we hope, useful little periodical.

Of its merits we say nothing. But in another part of this, the last number for the year, we have permitted others to express their opinion. If your opinion of the work, and its tendency to benefit the working classes, agrees with theirs, we shall have your attention to the following suggestions for its wider circulation, and your active aid in carrying them out successfully.

First, however, listen to this; for it is to us of vital importance. Look at any single number of the Pioneer, and see how much we give for one halfpenny, and then take into consideration the expenses of publishing, reducing what we receive for it to nearly one farthing, and you will see in a moment that we must have a large circulation or it will never pay. If the Editor did not reckon nothing for his work, it could not live. Had we to pay an Editor it must die.

We do not believe it is your wish that it should die, or that we should be unremunerated for our time and trouble. So we state these things plainly, having no wish to conceal the facts.

Will you, then, all of you, readers and agents, give us your willing and hearty help? What we ask you to do is no heavy task; it is only to shew the Pioneer to any friends or neighbours, and get them to take a copy. This is all. Will you do it, and do it at once?

More, we hope, we need not say to persuade you; and so we leave the matter in your hands, trusting you will not forget or fail.

But to encourage you, we wish to say that several friends have sent us some valuable suggestions for the improvement of

CONTENTS.

the work, which we intend to carry out, and we shall be able to do so, if by increasing our sales you place the means for doing so within our reach.

And here we return our best thanks to those kind friends who have long and constantly sent us original or selected matter, adapted to our pages, and we solicit their further valuable aid.

We have several very interesting papers yet in hand, which we shall introduce as opportunities offer.

Finally, all the help any of you can give, either in obtaining new subscribers, or in forwarding suitable papers for insertion, will be appreciated thankfully, by your willing servant for Christ's sake,

Jerusalem

55

The Roman Mother

89

Remarkable Special Providence 77 Pages-14, 26, 38, 50, 62, 75,

86, 98, 110, 122, 134

WORKING MEN'S HINDRANCES.

SET FORTH BY A WORKING MAN.

AMONG the good signs of the times, none are more pleasing and hopeful than the interest that is now taken by many in the well-being of the hard-working classes. Even the rich and the noble are giving a helping hand. The Earl of Shaftesbury and Sir Morton Peto have done great good in this way, both for their temporal and eternal welfare.

And yet the good work of improvement will never go on and succeed as it ought to do until the working classes know how to help themselves, and set about it in good earnest. They can do more for themselves than any one else can do for them. To guide such in their efforts, Jarrold & Sons* have lately published a number of excellent twopenny pamphlets, among which is one with the above title, from which we now give a few paragraphs. This "Working man" says:

6

"O for the good old times!' said Thomas Harris to John Wilson, as the two men were intently gazing at a print-seller's window, upon a representation of one of the merry May-pole gatherings of what are called The golden days of good Queen Bess.'

Now it would be hard work for the advocates of such backward progress to fix upon the exact time to which they would have us return. Should it be the Anglo-Saxon period, when the workman was the mere thrall or personal slave of his master, who reaped the whole produce of his labour?—or would they select the Norman dynasty, when the workman's "castle," as he now proudly calls his house, would have been swept away to enlarge the hunting domain of his monarch, or of his baron-master, whose battles he was expected to fight? -or would they prefer to come down to a much later date, --that which our mistaken friend, Harris, sighed for-but when the letters of the alphabet were still a set of mystic marks to the operative, and the bull-bait was his darling pastime; and when refusing to work for such wages as were commonly given, was an offence which rendered the envied May-pole dancer liable to branding, whipping, transportation, and death. No; fellow-workers, let men say what they will, our own times are better than those were.

* St. Paul's Church-yard, London. To be had from any Bookseller.
† Statutes of the 5th, 14th, and 39th of Elizabeth.

WORKING MEN'S HINDRANCES.

One thing is certain-never before was the working-man so thoroughly recognized as a man. Admitting that at one period of the olden time' he was sure of meat and drink at his master's table; and at another, that he was certain to be kept in good fighting trim for his master's battles; yet, in each case, the principle which led him to be cared for, was the same which led his owner's pig to be cared for, that he might be fit for use when wanted. There was no recognition of the common brotherhood of all men; this has been left for later times; and let us rejoice that in such times we live.

Now as there happens to be manifested, on the part of others, a strong desire for our general advancement, ought not that desire to be rather more apparent amongst ourselves than it really is? Other classes organise plans for our welfare; but too often these are hindered of success by our indifference, and, in some cases, our direct hostility. This is strange; but sadly true!

Let us, then, strive to ascertain what are the practical bindrances to our progress. Those which rest mainly with ourselves! Do not let us gloss them over, or blame others for what we are, and then be willing to remain as we are. Let us search out in what we are wrong, that we may set ourselves right; and make thorough work of it, when once about it.

Foremost among the impediments to our advancement must be placed the "Beer Shop" and the " Gin Palace."

We cannot deny this; facts stare us too stubbornly in the face. If we had devoted only a tenth part of the money to our social elevation that we have spent in our debasement, we should, as a class, have cut a very different figure. How does the case really stand? We have more than 100,000 houses for the sale of intoxicating drink; and, on the average, £600 a-year is spent in each. Every thirty families support one of these houses; and, as if to render it an indisputable fact that intemperance is a leading characteristic of our class, such houses flourish in proportion to the poverty and wretchedness of a district. In one London gin palace, in the parish of Shadwell, 885 persons were seen to enter in one hour and a quarter on a Saturday night; of these, 339 were women, and 49 children, apparently under twelve years of age. There are some

cities and towns which appear to have obtained an unenviable notoriety for their number of houses for the sale of intoxicating