HOW TO GET ON.

Southland Times, Issue 1218, 4 March 1870, Page 3

HOW TO GET ON.

The present Lord Mayor of London, the Bight Hon. Eobert Besley, typefounder, was lately presented with an address by the men of Devonshire residing in London, congratulating him, a Devonshire man, on his accession to office. In reply to this address, the Lord Mayor gave a little of his autobiography, and some advice to the young men of London * — Gentlemen, I came to London as one of the many thousands that arrive here year after year, to be absorbed as it were into London life. It is that absorption of vitality from the country which enables London to maintain its commercial superiority. I had no patronage to back me, I came to London with no other source of patronage but that of indomitable energy, and with perfect self-reliance upon integrity and uprightness. Gentlemen, in order that I may encourage the hundreds of young, men who are now filling the same groove which I filled, I may say it appears to me that the great defect in the ordinary life of these young men is absolute indifferentism. Depend upon it, indifPerentism will never succeed. The man that does not work with a will, that does not play with a will, will do nothing. This want of a will to work is a constant source of failure. To make a successful man, work is the only recipe ; it is the only sure path. Talking won't do it. You will find men the most glib .in their language-— and : whose sentences drop most smoothly — talk themselves into a position up to the age of forty-four, and at the end of that time they are fairly talked out — a laugh — and it ends in nothing. (Eenewed laughter.) Gentlemen, sharp practice won't do it, for men very soon get to be marked as sharp practitioners. My recipe for success is — work, work, constant work ! and always keeping in mind the language of that old Book, " Whatever your hand findeth to do, do it with all your might." (Hear, hear.)