¹ The best surveys are Frank Bechofer and Brian Elliott, ‘Persistence and change: the petite bourgeoisie in industrial society’, Archives Européennes de Sociologie, xvII (1976), 74–99, and G. Crossick, ‘La petite bourgeoisie britannique au XIX^e siècle’, Mouvement Social, no. 108 (1979), 21–61.

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¹⁴ This view originated in the degradation of the concept which had taken place by the 1890s. In Mugsborough, Owen found among the prizes given away in the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Association,‘“Self-help” by Smiles, and other books suitable for perusal by persons suffering from almost complete obliteration of the mental faculties. broken spirited poor wretches who contentedly resigned themselves to a life of miserable toil and poverty’: Robert Tressell, Ragged trousered philanthropist (London, Panther edition 1965), p. 453. The corruption and then decline of Self-Help is documented by T. H. E. Travers, ‘Samuel Smiles and the Victorian work ethic: the rise and decline of (Yale Ph.D., 1970), pp. 233 ff.

¹⁵ E.J., Hobsbawm, The age of revolution, 1789–1848 (London, 1962), pp. 222–3Google Scholar; Perkin, H. J., The origins of modern English society, 1780–1880 (London, 1969), p. 225.Google Scholar

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¹⁹ Tholfsen, Radicalism, p. 205.

²⁰ E.g. Leeds Times (LT) 26 Jan. 1839, quoting Southwood Smith, and LT 30 March 1839, reviewing Bowring's edition of Bentham, The book of fallacies.

²¹ LT 10 Aug. 1839.

²² LT 26 Jan. 1839.

²³ LT 10 Aug. 1839.

²⁴ LT 23 Feb. 1839.

²⁵ LT 11 May 1839.

²⁶ Samuel Smiles, The diffusion of political knowledge among the working classes, an address delivered before the Bradford United Reform Club, February 14, 1842 (Leeds, 1842) (hereafter Smiles, 1842), pp. 2 and 8.

²⁷ Smiles, 1842, p. 14.

²⁸ Smiles, 1842, pp. 8 and 15.

²⁹ LT 26 Jan. 1839.

³⁰ LT 26 Jan. 1839.

³¹ LT 15 June 1839.

³² LT 3 Aug. 1839.

³³ LT 26 Jan. 1838; Hollis, P., The pauper press, a study of working class radicalism of the 1830s (Oxford, 1970), pp. 203–306Google Scholar; Hollis, P., Class and class conflict in 19th century England, 1815–1850 (London, 1973), pp. 3–18Google Scholar; Morris, R. J., Class and class consciousness in the Industrial Revolution, 1780–1850 (London, 1979), pp. 18–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁴ Smiles, 1842, p. 15.

³⁵ LT 2 Feb. 1839 and 1 June 1839.

³⁶ Smiles, 1842, p. 5.

³⁷ Wilson collection, Newcastle upon Tyne Central Library, vol. 2, fo. 581; Black Dwarf, 10 July 1821; T. W. Mason, ‘Nineteenth century Cromwell’, Past and Present, no. 40 (July 1968), 187–91.

³⁸ LT 2 7 July 1839.

³⁹ LT 9 Feb. 1839.

⁴⁰ Tail's Edinburgh Magazine, VI-IX (1839–42); Christian Reformer, VI-IX (1839–42).

⁴¹ Channing, W. E., The complete works (London, 1881), pp. 10–30; Tail's Edinburgh Magazine, VI (1839), 479, from which the quotation comes. Smiles, 1842, p. 19.Google Scholar

⁴² LT 15 Oct. 1842; A. Tyrell, ‘The origins of a Victorian best seller-an unacknowledged debt’, Notes and Queries, new series, XVII (Sept. 1970), 347–9.

⁴³ List of names registered for pew rents, Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds, 1830–48 (my thanks to Mr B. L. Goddard, the minister, and the trustees of the chapel for letting me see these); R. V. Holt, The Unitarian contribution to social progress in England (London, 1938); Smiles, 1842, p. 19.

⁴⁴ Samuel and Janet Smiles to Samuel Smiles junior, Haddington, 17 Oct. 1829, Leeds City Archives, SS/A III/1: ‘Dear Son, You are now about to leave us, permit us to give you an advice, the place in which dwelling for a time where much depravity and wickedness is prevelant now when you are away from our parental eye, think of the Prayer, thou God seith me…your conduct from this time forward will either be a joy or sorrow to your affectionate father and mother and be assured if you do as becometh a son who venerates their parents nothing shall be wanting on our part for your good, you will be provided with the meins of making you respectable in the world, you will also have our prayers and affectionately esteemed by us; if you act contrary to your own disgrace, and our shame, your now fair prospects will be forever blasted, we will withhold our support, and give it to another if more deserving. God in his adorable providence often turns blessings into curses for disobedience. My son think on these few hints and by attending to them will prove for your own comfort and will gladden the hearts of your loving and affectionate father and mother…’

⁴⁵ List of names registered for pew rents, Mill Hill Chapel, 1830–1848, loc cit; J. F. C. Harrison, ‘James Hole and Social Reform in Leeds’, Publications of the Thoresby Society, monograph III (Leeds, 1954); R.J. Morris, ‘The rise of James Kitson: trade union and mechanics institution, Leeds 1826–1851’, Publications of the Thoresby Society, miscellany 15, part 3 (1972), pp. 179–200.

⁴⁶ J. G. Marshall reported in Leeds Mercury (LM) 5 Sept. 1840.

⁴⁷ D. Fraser, Urban politics, pp. 26–61.

⁴⁸ This network has been reconstructed from reports in the Leeds Times and Leeds Mercury for 1840–2; see especially the account of the founding meeting LM 5 Sept. 1840. The exact amount of cross-membership between Mill Hill and the L.P.R.A. is in doubt because of the problems of linking common names: see R. J. Morris, ‘In search of the urban middle class: record linkage and methodology, Leeds 1832’, Urban History Yearbook (Leicester, 1976), pp. 15–20.

⁴⁹ LM 19 Nov. 1842; Henry, Richard, Memoirs of Joseph Sturge (London, 1864), pp. 269–322.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Tail's Edinburgh Magazine, VII (1840), 679.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Edward Baines, junior, Household suffrage and equal electoral districts…in letters to Hamar Stansfeld, Esq. (Leeds, 1841).Google Scholar

⁵² LT 11 Sept. 1841.

⁵³ LM 28 Dec. 1839.

⁵⁴ LT 23 Oct. 1841; James, Rattray, Round and round in the world (Glasgow, 1870).Google Scholar

⁵⁵ LT 13 and 20 Feb. 1841.

⁵⁶ LM 29 Jan. 1842.

⁵⁷ LT 1 Jan. 1842.

⁵⁸ LT 5 Feb. 1842.

⁵⁹ LT 3 Aug. 1839.

⁶⁰ LT 5 Jan 1839.

⁶¹ LT 20 April 1839.

⁶² LT 16 April 1842.

⁶³ Smiles, S., The autobiography of Samuel Smiles (ed. Thomas, Mackay) (London, 1905), p. 126.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Hollis, The pauper press and Class and conflict, pp. 87–315; D. Thompson, The early chartists, pp. 1–30; LT 19 Jan. 1839.

⁶⁵ Smiles, 1842, p. 15.

⁶⁶ Williams, J., Directory of the Borough of Leeds (Leeds, 1845), p. 209.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Harrison, J. F. C., ‘James, Hole’; Hudson, J. W., The history of adult education (London, 1851).Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Gosden, P. H. J. H., The friendly societies in England, 1815–1875 (Manchester, 1961); Howitt's Journal, 13 March 1847, p. 22.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ LT 30 March 1839.

⁷⁰ LM 10 Sept. 1842 and 1 April 1843; Morris, R. J., ‘Leeds and the Crystal Palace’, Victorian Studies, XIII (1970), 283–300.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Minutes of the general committee of the Leeds Mechanics Institute, 16 May, 1843. My thanks to Professor J. F. C. Harrison for this reference.

⁷² Smiles, 1842, pp. 17–18; these sentiments were repeated in People's Journal, 1 (1846), 22.

⁷³ Samuel Smiles, Self-Help (London, first edition 1859); S. Smiles, ‘What is doing for the people of Leeds’, People's Journal, 1 (1846), pp. 136–8.

⁷⁴ Tyrell, , Journal of British Studies (1970), p. 120.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Samuel, Smiles, Self-Help, introduction to first edition (London, 1859)Google Scholar; the same account appears in his Autobiography and in People's Journal (1846).Google Scholar

⁷⁶ J. W. Hudson, Adult education, pp. 94–5.

⁷⁷ R.J., Morris, ‘The history of self help’, New Society, 3 Dec. 1970 and One for sorrow, two for joy (ed. Paul, Barker) (London, 1972), pp. 354–65.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Thomas, Baines, Yorkshire past and present (London, 1871), pp. 209–10Google Scholar; Asa, Briggs, Victorian cities (London, 1963), pp. 139–83 for a similar view of the Leeds Town Hall building.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Leeds Temperance Society, first minute book, 9 June 1831 and 18 Sept. 1843: Leeds City Archives.

⁸⁰ Hudson, Adult education, pp. 94 and 234; LM 25 March and 4 Nov. 1848.

⁸¹ Winskell, P. T., The temperance movement and its workers (2 vols., London, 1892), 1, 196; Conveyance in trust of the buildings and property of the Woodhouse Temperance Hall and Mechanics Institution, 24 June 1861. (My thanks to Mr John Morrish for showing me the papers of the Woodhouse Temperance Hall and Mechanics Institution in the care of Morrish and Co., solicitors of Leeds.)Google Scholar

⁸² Eleventh annual report of the Woodhouse Temperance Hall and Mechanics Institution, December (1861), from the papers in the care of Morrish and Co.

⁸³ LM 4 Jan. 1851.

⁸⁴ P. T. Winskell, Temperance, 1, 117 quoting from a pamphlet Lucas wrote about 1851; the Eleventh annual report and the account given me in 1970 by Mr.Hartney, the caretaker of the Hall, also carry this tradition and the consciousness of independence.

⁸⁵ Subscription book of the Woodhouse Temperance Society, kindly shown me by the present treasurer of the Society.

⁸⁶ The Conveyance, see footnote 81.

⁸⁷ Annals of the Zion School, New Wortley’, MS by B. A. Kilburn, in the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, MS 116/2. (My thanks to the university librarian for permission to see these papers.)

⁸⁸ LT 23 Feb. 1839. This was a review of J. F. Bray, Labour's wrongs and Labour's remedies.

⁸⁹ ‘What is doing for the people of Leeds’, loc. cit. n. 73.

⁹⁰ Ibid. p. 137.

⁹¹ Howitt's Journal (1847), P. 7; LM 9 Jan. 1847.

⁹² Fifth annual report of the Leeds Redemption Society; J. F. C. Harrison, ‘James Hole’.

⁹³ Samuel, Smiles, Self-Help (2nd edn, London, 1866), p. 1.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ He clearly felt uncomfortable in this role and told his brother, ‘I do not feel that to be my mission…’: S. Smiles to R. W. Smiles, 17 Oct. 1850, Manchester City Archives Mi/136/2; D. K.Jones, ‘Socialization and social science: Manchester Model Secular School 1854–1861’, in P. McCann (ed.), Popular education and socialization in the 19th century (London, 1977), pp. 111–39.

⁹⁶ LM 20 April 1850.

⁹⁷ Smiles, S., The education of the working classes; an address delivered to the members and friends of the Leeds Mutual Improvement Society, March 19th, 1845 (Leeds, 1845) (hereafter Smiles, 1845).Google Scholar

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⁹⁸ S. Smiles to R. W. Smiles, 16 April 1850, M/136/23/3050; Select committee on public libraries (Parl. Papers, 1849, XVII) QQ,. 1949–2020. He quoted with approval the report of the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics Institutions, ‘We want the interest in these matters which local management alone permits, and we want the efficiency which a central and controlling power alone confers’ (Q. 2014).

⁹⁹ LT 27 April 1839.

¹⁰⁰ Smiles, 1845, p. 4.

¹⁰¹ Smiles, 1845, pp. 6–10.

¹⁰² Smiles, Self-Help, 1866, p. 21.

¹⁰³ LM 25 Jan. 1850.

¹⁰⁴ Vincent, J., Liberal Parly; I. Bradley, The optimists: themes and personalities in Victorian Liberalism (London, 1980).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ My thanks to Geoff Crossick, Ken Fielden and Nick Phillipson for critical comments on an earlier draft of this paper.