The Progress of the Age. This Essay is Dedicated to the Operatives, By their sincere Friend, Veritas. Manchester, July 6th., 1854

First edition. Small octavo. Self-wrappers. Two quires with stab holes, but never stitched partially unopened. 15pp. Dust-soiling, light creases, small edge chips, very good. "Veritas" writes in the mid-19th century of the difficulties of the English mechanics, i.e. the "operatives" of labor-intensive Manchester to establish a foothold in a successful curriculum of education. The author confesses that the reformation of the working classes will be a Herculean task and proposes a rotary system of education. He also writes of the opposition to the progress of Mechanics Institutions. The working class are ignorant, the tools of management, and surrounded by scenes of temptations. In part: "The great barrier to the progress of Mechanics Institutions lies in the disorderly degraded, and baneful influence of the cotton and other mills, together with the contaminating influences of the workshop of every branch. . Before the operative will ever play the part of a man and regard his social duties as a sacred duty which he owes to himself and his neighbour, his home and his workshop must be cleansed of their baneful influences." (4-5). Not in *OCLC* or *COPAC*. We can identify only one item published in the 1840's by this firm (Ref. OCLC 27835288); none in the 1850's, and subsequent decades apparently under the imprint of Forsyth Bros. While this imprint is clearly from Manchester, England, we are intrigued by the contemporary and also-pseudonymous writings of a "Veritas" of Manchester, New Hampshire who contributed pro-labor articles for *The Voice of Industry*. Veritas comments were also within the context of the textile industry, an industry that thrived in both New Hampshire and England at this time period. [Reference *Aspirations and Anxieties: New England Workers and the Mechanized Factory System, 1815-1850*. (1992) p. 160.].…