What did you mean by active intermediate study? if a man is working every day of the week until Saturday afternoon, how could that take place?--I think that you could not at all provide lectures once or twice a week at the institutions throughout the kingdom. By intermediate study, I mean merely that a man should have about him, when he came into the room, things that shall tempt him to look at them, and get interested in, say in one bird, or in one plant. While the lecture was going on?--No, that might be given once a fortnight, or once a month, but that this intermediate attention should be just that which a man is delighted to give to a single plant which he cultivates in his own garden, or a single bird which he may happen to have obtained; the best of all modes of study. 154. You are in favor of the Early Closing Association?--I will not say that I am, because I have not examined their principles. I want to have our labor regulated, so that it shall be impossible for men to be so entirely crushed in mind and in body as they are by the system of competition. You stated that you would wish the hours during which they would be able to enjoy the institutions to be as early as possible?--Yes, certainly. But it would be impossible to have them earlier than they are now, on account of the organization of labor in the country.--I do not know what is possible. I do not know what the number of hours necessary for labor will ultimately be found to be. Still you are of opinion that, if there was a half-holiday on the Saturday, it would be an advantage to the working classes, and enable them to visit and enjoy these institutions?--Certainly. 155. You observed, I think, that there was a thirsty desire on the part of the working classes for improvement?--Certainly. And you also stated that there was a desire on their part to rise in that class, but not out of it?--I did not say that they wanted to rise in that class; they wish to emerge from it; they wish to become something better than workmen, and I want to keep them in that class; I want to teach every man to rest contented in his station, and I want all people, in all stations, to better and help each other as much as they can. But you never saw a man, did you, who was contented?--Yes, I have seen several; nearly all the very good workmen are contented; I find that it is only the second-rate workmen who are discontented. 156. Surely competition with foreigners is a great advantage to the working classes of this country?--No. It has been stated that competition is an immense advantage in the extension of artistic knowledge among the people of this country, who are rapidly stepping on the heels of foreigners?--An acquaintance with what foreign nations have accomplished may be very useful to our workmen, but a spirit of competition with foreign nations is useful to no one.