Self Help | Page 7

of Division, and Marshal, he declared that the post
of sergeant was the step which of all others had cost him the most
labour to win. Similar promotions from the ranks, in the French army,
have continued down to our own day. Changarnier entered the King's
bodyguard as a private in 1815. Marshal Bugeaud served four years in
the ranks, after which he was made an officer. Marshal Randon, the
present French Minister of War, began his military career as a drummer
boy; and in the portrait of him in the gallery at Versailles, his hand rests
upon a drum-head, the picture being thus painted at his own request.
Instances such as these inspire French soldiers with enthusiasm for
their service, as each private feels that he may possibly carry the baton
of a marshal in his knapsack.
The instances of men, in this and other countries, who, by dint of
persevering application and energy, have raised themselves from the
humblest ranks of industry to eminent positions of usefulness and
influence in society, are indeed so numerous that they have long ceased
to be regarded as exceptional. Looking at some of the more remarkable,
it might almost be said that early encounter with difficulty and adverse
circumstances was the necessary and indispensable condition of
success. The British House of Commons has always contained a
considerable number of such self-raised men- -fitting representatives of
the industrial character of the people; and it is to the credit of our
Legislature that they have been welcomed and honoured there. 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.
The late Mr. Fox, member for Oldham, was accustomed to introduce
his recollections of past times with the words, "when I was working as
a weaver boy at Norwich;" and there are other members of parliament,
still living, whose origin has been equally humble. Mr. Lindsay, the
well-known ship owner, until recently member for Sunderland, once
told the simple story of his life to the electors of Weymouth, in answer
to an attack made upon him by his political opponents. He had been left
an orphan at fourteen, and when he left Glasgow for Liverpool to push
his way in the world, not being able to pay the usual fare, the captain of
the steamer agreed to take his labour in exchange, and the boy worked
his passage by trimming the coals in the coal hole. At Liverpool he
remained for seven weeks before he could obtain employment, during
which time he lived in sheds and fared hardly; until at last he found
shelter on board a West Indiaman. He entered as a boy, and before he
was nineteen, by steady good conduct he had risen to the command of a
ship. At twenty-three he retired from the sea, and settled on shore, after
which his progress was rapid "he had prospered," he said, "by steady
industry, by constant work, and by ever keeping in view the great
principle of doing to others as you would be done by."
The career of Mr. William Jackson, of Birkenhead, the present member
for North Derbyshire, bears considerable resemblance to that of Mr.
Lindsay. His father, a surgeon at Lancaster, died, leaving a family of
eleven children, of whom William Jackson was the seventh son. The
elder boys had been well educated while the father lived, but at his
death the younger members had to shift for themselves. William, when
under twelve years old, was taken from school, and put to hard work at
a ship's side from six in the morning till nine at night. His master
falling ill, the boy was taken into the counting-house, where he had
more leisure. This gave him an opportunity of reading, and having
obtained access to a set of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' he read the
volumes through from A to Z, partly by day, but chiefly at night. He
afterwards put himself to a trade, was diligent, and succeeded in it.
Now he has ships sailing