On Equal Terms
An aristocratic statesman was choked with emotion as he reflected on Britain’s creative social mobility.
1859
An aristocratic statesman was choked with emotion as he reflected on Britain’s creative social mobility.
1859
The Industrial Revolution increased social mobility beyond all measure. Some shook their heads, but for most people, from ordinary working men to aristocratic statesmen, it was a matter of celebration and pride.
WHEN the late Joseph Brotherton,* member for Salford, in the course of the discussion on the Ten Hours Bill,** detailed with true pathos the hardships and fatigues to which he had been subjected when working as a factory boy in a cotton mill, and described the resolution which he had then formed, that if ever it was in his power he would endeavour to ameliorate the condition of that class, Sir James Graham rose immediately after him,*** and declared, amidst the cheers of the House, that he did not before know that Mr. Brotherton’s origin had been so humble, but that it rendered him more proud than he had ever before been of the House of Commons, to think that a person risen from that condition should be able to sit side by side, on equal terms, with the hereditary gentry of the land.
Joseph Brotherton MP (1783-1857) was an active campaigner against both slavery and the death penalty. His father, originally a tax collector from Derbyshire, took a chance and opened a cotton mill in Manchester, unsentimentally putting his boy to work alongside the rest of the workforce from the age of fifteen. For more information, see the website dedicated to him at Joseph Brotherton M.P. (‘Mr Salford’). Joseph’s wife Martha published the first vegetarian cookery book in 1812.
The Ten Hours Act of 1847, which was however poorly drafted and had to be renewed in 1874, was designed to ensure that industrial and agricultural employers did not overwork their employees.
Sir James Graham MP (1792-1861) was a baronet and a Cabinet minister in the government of Robert Peel. Born in Cumberland, his mother was the daughter of the Earl of Galloway. He was a radical Liberal, vigorously opposed to the Corn Laws and committed to free markets.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
How did Sir James find out about Joseph Brotherton’s background?
Brotherton mentioned it in a Commons speech.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Joseph Brotherton described his background to the Commons. It was humble. Sir James Graham was surprised.