The Life & Experiences of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI WORK IN MANCHESTER, 1862--1872 Cotton Famine Recreative Evenings--Penny Science Lectures--Marriage--Public Lectures in London--Faraday--Herschel--Vanadium and other Researches--Oxford Professorship--Literary Work--Macmillan. In the winter of 1862 the Cotton Famine was at its height in Lancashire, and thousands of mill-hands, both male and female, were thrown out of work through no fault of their own. It was felt by some friends and myself that whilst the behaviour of the people in these most trying circumstances was in the highest degree creditable to them, yet there was some danger of a depression of spirits occurring, which might lead to serious results if the attention of the unemployed was not turned in some new direction. Hence a committee, of which my late friend Dr. John Morgan and myself were the secretaries, was formed with the object of providing recreation in the evenings for these unemployed operatives. We hired some disused mills and other large rooms and started a series of entertainments of various kinds. I see from a circular which we issued that during the four winter months of the above year more than one hundred recreation evenings were given to audiences averaging upwards of 4,000 a week. The attention and demeanour of the operatives were throughout in the highest degree satisfactory. These evenings included musical, scientific, geographical and other subjects, and the cost of them amounted only to. 55 for the winter. I find in the Manchester Examiner and Times for March 31st, 1863, this report of the last of the lectures which I gave to the unemployed: --Mr. Hewitt, the master of the school (the Guardian schools Gaythorn, where the lecture was given), having addressed a few words to the men, and a vote of thanks to Prof..