OF THE
NATION.
SECOND EDITION
6s.
BRITISH
AND
FOREIGN
MARYLEBONES
.
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​
46.
VERSITY OF MI
THE
· LIBRARIES ·
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:
THE PERILS OF THE NATION.
SECOND EDITION: REVISED.
M. M. Jolliffe

Second Edition:Revised.
Seeley, Robert Benton

MOHE PERILS OF THE NATIOH.
An Appeal to the LEGISLATVRE,
THE CLERGY, AND THE HIGHER
AND MIDDLE CLASSESD
Seeley, Burnside and Seeley.
Fleet Street, London. MDCCCXLII.
;
HN
388
545
1843b
GL
GIFT
8-1489
583-5185
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS .
I.—GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO SUB-
JECTS
II.-POWER AND WEAKNESS
ENGLAND'S WEALTH AND EMPIRE ADMITT-
ED, (11) YET IN IMMINENT PERil, (9) from
CONDITION OF HER POOR, (12).
III.—MANUFACTURING POOR
EMPLOYMENT UNHEALTHY, (18) AND TOO
LONG, (19) VICE AND DEMORALIZATION, (22)
INFANTICIDE AND MORTALITY, (25).
IV.-MINING POOR
RECENT DISCLOSURES ADVERTED TO, (29)
LABOUR OF MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN,
WITH PORTION AND HARDSHIPS OF EACH,
(36) STATE OF MORALS, (44) APPRENTICE-
SHIP CRUELTIES, (47).
a
PAGE
i
1
9
18
29
ii
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
V. THE WORKSHOP LABOURERS
IRON MANUFACTURES (50) EMPLOYMENT OF
FEMALES (51) PERSONAL CRUELTIES (52)
STARVATION (60) LOSS OF MORAL PERCEP-
TION (62) DEPRAVITY (66.)
VI.-COMMERCIAL POOR
GENERAL DESCRIPTION, (68) UNDERSELLING:
COMPETITION AND LOW REMUNERATION IN
THEIR EFFECTS-WITH EXAMPLES, (72).
VII.-AGRICULTURAL POOR
IMPORTANCE OF THIS CLASS, (79) YET THEY
ARE MUCH DISTRESSED AND OPPRESSED, (80)
THEIR COTTAGES DEMOLISHED, (81) WHICH
SHOULD BE REBUILT, AND LAND ALLOTTED,
(84).
VIII. THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE
THE ROOT OF THE EVILS, (93) FAIR DEAL-
ING ABANDONed, (94) conseQUENT OPPRES-
SION OF THE POOR IN WAGES, &c. (98)
EVERY ONE FOR HIMSELF," AN EVIL
MAXIM, AS SHEWN, (108).
PAGE
• 50
68
. 79
93
IX.-WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS 122
DESTRUCTION of poor man's HEALTH, (122)
WHICH IS HIS "ALL," (123) CONTAGIOUS
DISEASES IN TOWNS-FROM SOURCES EXTE-
RIOR OF THEIR dwellings, (127) FROM IN-
TERIOR, (131) EFFECTUAL RELIEF BEYOND
THEIR OWN POWER, (131) CONTAGIOUS DIS
EASES IN RURAL DISTRICTS—CAUSES AND
REMEDIES, (138)
CONTENTS.
ili
CHAP.
X.-ERRORS OF THE DAY
CC
•
TAKE CARE OF number one," (146) RE-
DUNDANT POPULATION, (147) OPINIONS
OF DR. CHALMERS-COL. THOMPSON-MISS
MARTINEAU-MRS. MARCET, &c. COMBATEd,
(148) OPPOSED TO DIVINE POLITY AS SHEWN
IN THE BIBLE HISTORY OF THE JEWS,
(159) MAGNITUDE OF EXISTING EVILS, (166)
PAGE
. 146
XI.-PAUPERISM
CAUSES, (169) INADEQUATE RELIEF Under
THE POOR LAW, (174) SUPERIOR MODE AT
BERLIN, (180) CONTRAST-AND
TO THE WORD of God, (183).
APPEAL
. 169
•
190
XII.-EDUCATION
FAILURE OF GOOD FROM LACK OF MORAL
TRAINING SHEWN IN GIVEN CASES, (190)
WHAT IS GOOD EDUCATION FOR THE POOR,
(194) need of PARLIAMENTARY AID, (196)
EXTENT OF WANT OF INSTRUCTION, (198)
FITNESS OF TEACHERS ESSENTIAL, (205).
XIII. SUBDIVISION OF PARISHES
REQUIRED FOR MORE EFFICIENT PASTORAL
CARE—CHURCH ACCOMMODATION, &c. (225)
CONSEQUENT PARLIAMENTARY AID, (230)
PREFERENCE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND,
(232)
. 225
1
-1
▲ 2
iv
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
XIV.-PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE
INDISPENSABLE, (236) CASES ESPECIALLY
REQUIRING IT, (243) INDIVIDUAL RESPONSI-
BILITY AND INFLUENCE of Lords AND COM-
MONS GREAT, (248) AND QUESTION WITH
EACH SHOULD NOT BE SO MUCH
66
CC
WHAT
CAN WE DO," as WHAT CAN I Do,” (249)
URGENT SUBJECTS-POOR LAWS-EDUCATION
—CURRENCY-REVENUE, (251.)
PAGE
236
XV.-ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS OF
THE CROWN
THE FIRST OF SEVERAL CLASSES TO BE AD-
DRESSED, (267) THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO
god, (268) as aDVISERS OF THE sovereign,
(269) IN APPOINTMENTS TO PUBLIC OFFICES,
(271) in reveNUE MATTERS, (274) in fo-
REIGN POLICY, (276) IN PROTECTING THE
OPPRESSED, (277) IN CHURCH PATRONAGE,
(279.)
. 267
XVI. TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH 284
SOLEMNITY OF THEIR OFFICE, (284) MOTIVES
FOR UNDERTAKING IT, (286) PLEDGES AT
CONSECRATION TO INSTRUCT THE PEOPLE IN
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, (286) To EXPEL
ERROR, (290) TO BE MERCIFUL TO THE POOR
(293) TO BE CAREFUL IN ADMISSION TO HOLY
ORDERS, (295) TO REFUSE UNWORTHY PRE-
SENTEES TO LIVINGS, (297) EXERCISE OF
THEIR PATRONAGE, (298) INFLUENCE AS
PEERS, (302).
CONTENTS
СНАР.
XVII. TO THE CLERGY
THEIR MORAL INFLUENCE AND SPIRITUAL
OFFICE, (307) THEIR POWER TO PROMOTE
TEMPORAL COMFORT AND WELFARE OF THE
POOR, (313) THE WORK OF NATIONAL EDU-
CATION MUCH IN THEIR HANDS, (315).
XVIII. TO MAGISTRATES
THEIR SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY, (318) THEIR
DUTY AS ARBITRATORS BETWEEN MASTER
AND SERVANT, (321) as GUARDIANS OF PUB-
LIC MORALS, (322) AND SPECIAL PROTEC-
TORS OF FEMALE MODESTY, (325).
PAGE
. 307
XIX.-THE LEGAL AND MEDICAL PRO-
FESSIONS
THE JUDGES, (330) THE BAR, (334) THE
MEDICAL PROFESSION, (337).
XX.-FEMALE INFLUENCE
MIGHTY FOR GOOD OR EVIL, (345) AS TO
DOMESTIC SERVANTS, (346)
(346) INTEREST IN
CHARITY SCHOOLS AND THEIR PROPER MA-
NAGEMENT, (348) HOUSEHOLD ARRANGE-
MENTS, (353) SHOPPING-TRANSACTIONS,(358)
EMPLOYMENT OF MILLINERS, (359).
}
XXI.-CONCLUDING REMARKS
MUCH LEFT UNTOLD OF NATIONAL EVILS,
WHICH PROVOKE DIVINE VENGEANCE (364)
PUBLIC CRIMES UNREPRESSED-BLASPHE-
my, (365) staTE OF OUR THEatres, (369).
318
330
345
364
1
}
"THE danger is wider, deeper, fiercer," said Lord
Ashley in a late debate in the House of Commons,
"and no one who has heard these statements, and
believes them, can hope that twenty years more
will pass without some mighty convulsion, some
displacement of the whole system of society."*
These words had, indeed, a peculiar application
to the existing want of education among the la-
bouring classes; but no one would be less dis-
posed than their noble author, to limit his view to
a single point, when contemplating the whole con-
dition of the country. None would be less likely
than Lord Ashley, to commit the error of imagi-
ning that any one remedy could terminate a state
of things so fearful; or that by a single Act of
Parliament, the labouring population could be
raised from their present misery to a state of com-
fort and happiness.
But this fearful state of things was not only
distinctly declared by his Lordship,-it was ad-
* Debate: House of Commons, Feb. 28, 1843.
viii
mitted by the silent assent of the whole body of
the Representatives of the people. Neither the
leaders of the Government, who would doubtless
have eagerly denied the truth of the representation
if it could have been denied,-nor the heads of
any of the great interests, landed, commercial, or
manufacturing, no one of all these ventured to
stand up in his place, and contest the appalling
statements of the noble Lord. On the contrary,
every speaker, of whatever party or section of the
House, explicitly admitted the case to be as it
had been represented, and divers of them even
added strength to the statements by allusions to
facts which had come within their own knowledge.
A single point, adverted to by Mr. Gladstone, in
another night's debate, casts a fearful light over
the whole subject,—a light which illustrates, while
it renders the picture even still more appalling.
He observed, that "It was one of the most me-
lancholy features in the social state of the country,
-that while there was a decrease in the consuming
powers of the people, and an increase in the pri-
vations and distress of the labouring and operative
classes; there was at the same time a constant
accumulation of wealth in the upper classes, and
a constant increase of capital.”* This testi-
mony is most true, and the fact is a startling one.
From the opposite side of the house the same
* House of Commons, Feb. 14, 1843.
ix
--
language is heard. "We see extreme destitution
throughout the industrious classes, and at the
same time, incontestible evidences of vast wealth
rapidly augmenting."* Nothing could possibly
show with more clearness, the existence of some
great disease, pervading the whole body politic;
and turning growth into plethora, and increasing
wealth into increasing danger.
But how shall we detect the real character of
the malady, without which detection all propo-
sitions of a remedy must be so many guesses in
the dark? Can there be a more obvious or rea-
sonable course, than to follow the line of thought
suggested by Mr. Gladstone; who points to the
notorious and undeniable fact, that while the opu-
lence of the wealthy shows a constant and visible
growth and increase; that advancement, so far
from being shared by the labouring classes, is ac-
companied by a manifest depression of their con-
dition; and an "increase in their privations and
distress."
If we are struck and penetrated by this fact as
we ought to be, we shall not be able to avoid
asking, in the next moment, whether some cause
for this lamentable contrast cannot be discovered.
Causes, indeed, in abundance, are daily being
adduced; but chiefly by heated partizans of this
or that interest. Swarms of writers on the one
* Mr. C. Buller, House of Commons, April 7. 1843.
1
A 5
X
side are strenuously insisting that the whole blame
rests with the landed aristocracy; while the friends
of the agricultural interest are equally certain that
the rise of an overgrown manufacturing system
has been the chief cause of our present perilous
condition. There is no doubt that on each side
there is a certain quantum of truth; for mere,
naked, unmixed falsehood would scarcely be tole-
rated. But both parties seem to forget, that
half the truth is a lie ;" and that the supposition
that some thousands of Englishmen, merely from
having invested their property in land, (or in fac-
tories, as the case may be) have thereby become
of a different character from all other Englishmen,
is one intrinsically unreasonable.
We must not, therefore, if we wish to arrive at
truth in this important enquiry, we must not
hastily adopt the views of either of the "great
interests" in this matter; or fancy, that upon the
landed aristocracy, alone or chiefly, or upon the
mill-owners, in any sole or principal degree,-lies
the whole burden of the guilt of our present state
and its attendant perils.
But if we repudiate the idea of discovering the
cause of our alarming circumstances, in any one
corner of the realm, or in any one class among
the people, is it likely that we shall be able to fix
upon any large or more generally-operating prin-
ciple, which has thus extensively disorganized the
fabric of society among us?
xi
We do not think that there will be any consid-
erable difficulty in thus detecting the root of the
evil. Mr. Gladstone's own language furnishes us
with a very obvious clue. "While the privations
and distress of the labouring classes have in-
creased, the wealth of the upper classes has been
constantly accumulating, and the CAPITAL of those
classes, constantly augmenting." How has this
happened?
How has it happened?" Stranger! that such
a question should be asked! The answer lies upon
the surface; it is open to every man's view ;
though, in this as in other cases, the answer which
is most obvious is often the last that is thought
of: It has happened, because we have been la-
bouring that it should happen. The wealth of the
wealthy has accumulated; because all legislation
has made this its chief object. CAPITAL has in-
creased; because statesmen and legislators and
public writers have all imagined, that the increase
of capital was the summum bonum of human exis-
tence. The poor have not advanced, along with
the rich, because no one has thought it desirable
that they should. Desirable, we mean, politically
speaking; for many of those who have discoun-
tenanced all legislation in behalf of the poor, have
been personally humane, and have afforded them
many good wishes, and even many charitable dona-
tions. But the prevalent doctrine has been, that
CAPITAL was the object to be chiefly desiderated;
xi ·
and that the wiser course with "POPULATION,"
(meaning thereby, the labouring poor,) was to
employ "the preventive check." Encouragement
for 66
Capital;" prevention for "Population;"
these have been the two leading ideas with states-
men and legislators for the last thirty years. They
have now succeeded in their object. They have
immensely increased the growth of Capital; and
pari passu, the growth of misery and distress also.
And the end of their success is a public acknow-
ledgment, that if some stop be not put to the
existing mischiefs, a few years more must land us
in a bloody revolution!
Have we misrepresented this fatal system? On
the contrary, a single quotation will prove the
truth of the above representation. One of the
most eminent and popular of modern writers on
these subjects,-one whose labours have been
held to entitle her to a provision from the public
treasury, we mean Miss Martineau,-calmly puts
the sentiment we have been describing into the
lips of her beau ideal of a wise and benevolent
manufacturer.
"We (the manufacturers) do what we can for
you, in increasing the capital on which you are
to subsist; and you must do the rest, by propor-
tioning your numbers to the means of subsistence."*
Here the two grand objects are distinctly and
* The Manchester Strike: By H. Martineau, p. 101.
xiii
66
we
frankly described. The great duty of the masters,
-the beginning and ending of their active bene-
volence, is to be, the increase of their own capital.
In doing this, says the kind factory-owner,
are doing all we can for you." Then the great
duty of the labourers, on the other hand, is to
practise the Preventive Check; i. e. not to have
children! Such are the leading maxims inculca-
ted by the highest authorities in political economy,
and honoured and rewarded by statesmen of all
classes; and that which we are now reaping, in
peril and in suffering, is nothing else than the
fair, legitimate result of these maxims and these
practices.
The reply, then, to the demand, how comes all
this misery and all this alarm? is one easily given,
and given on grounds which cannot be disputed.
It attaches the blame to no one great interest in
the state,-landed, commercial, or manufacturing,
but shares the guilt among them all; and not
among them only, for it includes all in authority,
legislators, statemen, and divines; only making,
in justice, a few honourable exceptions in every
class.
The great cause of the whole evil is to be found
in the general adoption of false principles; incul-
cated, it is true, in the first instance, by men of
talent and apparent skill, but eagerly seized upon,
and their promulgation rewarded, by men of in-
fluence and consideration among all classes.
,
i
1
1
|
xiv
L
i
t
:
The nature of the master-error was discernible,
fifty years ago, in the erroneous drift and object
of Adam Smith's great work; which treated of
"the wealth of nations," when "the happiness of
nations would have been the wiser and more
Christian topic of investigation.* The distinction
is all-important; and the error branches forth into
a thousand departments of evil. Take a single
instance. A century back, England was full of
small farms. A thousand acres would then be par-
celled out into twelve tenancies, of various extent;
and among the twelve, fifty-eight labourers would
be employed. But in comes the Political Econ-
omist, and argues that large farms conduce most
to "the wealth of nations," meaning thereby,
the growth of capital. Accordingly, the twelve
little cultivators are gradually dispossessed, and
one great farmer monopolizes the 1000 acres, em-
ploying only fifteen labourers, where before there
were fifty-eight. Thus forty-three working men
are driven away from their cottages, and forced
into the towns to seek for employment ;-but then
a larger surplus is obtained, and thus " CAPITAL "
is augmented.
So works the poison in every department.
Through every class the false principle is incul-
* This remark, often made by the late Michael Thomas Sadler in
his conversations in literary circles, was adopted and elaborated into
an article in the Quarterly Review, Vol. xlvi. pp. 46–54.
+ Labourer's Friend Magazine, Jan. 1842, p. 3.
XV
cated,—that the heaping together capital is not
only the chief duty, but that it includes and sums
up in itself every other duty.
The following out this principle in every depart-
ment has just made England one vast mass of su-
perficial splendour, covering a body of festering
misery and discontent. "Side by side appear, in
fearful and unnatural contrast, the greatest amount
of opulence, and the most appalling mass of mi-
sery."* Yet what a country is it to be cast into
such circumstances! How simple seems the way,
to the immediate banishment of poverty, and dis-
content, and crime. While some men, for their
own selfish purposes, are representing the land as
unable to feed its people, Mr. Alison, who is not
usually considered an ignoramus, has demonstrated
that "on the most moderate calculation, Great
Britain and Ireland are capable of maintaining,
in ease and affluence, one hundred and twenty
millions of inhabitants." To this statement,
startling as it may seem, no one has yet offered an
objection. If any one, however, notwithstanding
the respectability of Mr. Alison's name, should be
inclined to look upon the fact as quite incredible,
-let him ponder over a single case, published
in the Labourer's Friend Magazine, with name,
place, and every needful particular :—
* Speech of Mr. Buller, April 6, 1843.
+ Alison's Principles of Population, Vol. I. p. 51.
I
i
<!
!
E
xvi
i
"Samuel Bridge, of Stock-green, near Feck-
enham, in the county of Worcester, has occupied
four acres of very inferior stiff clay land, on the
Blue Lias, for twenty-seven years. He grows
two acres of wheat, and two acres of potatoes,
every year, and sells all his produce-even his
wheat-straw. The stubble from the wheat, and the
tops from the potatoes, serve to bed down his pigs;
and the manure from this source, and from his
privy, is all that he gets for the use of his farm.
"The crops obtained are not at all extraor-
dinary for the result of spade-husbandry; but it
is very extraordinary that such crops with so little
manure, and from bad land, could have been ob-
tained for a quarter of a century together; and,
coupling the duration of the operation with the
quality of the land, it must be admitted that no-
thing more is needed to prove the superiority of
the spade system over the plough system; for,
although the same crops are obtainable by the
plough on good land, it is quite certain that the
plough would fail to compete with the spade on
equal qualities of soil.
"The produce obtained on the average of a
quarter of a century, by this exemplary man, is
twelve tons of potatoes per acre, and forty bushels
of wheat per acre, and the following account may
be taken as a close approximation to the truth.
1
xvii
፣
Sold annually,
24 Tons of Potatoes, at 27. 10s. per ton
80 Bushels of Wheat, at 7s
4 Tons Wheat Straw, 50s.
£. s. d.
60
0 0
28
0 0
10
0 0
98 0 0
£. s. d.
17
5 4
5 00
- 1 10 0
23 15 4
£74 4 8
Deduct as under,
Manual wages, at 47. 6s. 4d. per acre, per
annum
Seed Potatoes for two acres
4 Bushels Seed Wheat (being dibbed)
at 7s. 6d.
Subject to Rent and Parochial Payments
"It may be safely stated that the average of all
the land in England, under cultivation, does not
yield 57. per acre gross produce, and also that 20s.
per acre per annum, is more than is paid in man-
ual wages: whereas in this case, off very inferior
land, above 281. per acre gross produce is obtained,
and 41. 6s. 4d. per acre per annum paid in manual
wages; or, in other words, you get by the spade,
on small allotments, near six times as much pro-
duce, and employ four times as many people, as
by the plough."*
There is not the slightest difficulty, then, in
drawing from the land of England, three or four
times as much good solid food, as its present pop-
ulation could consume. If this would be abun-
dance, (and if not, what is the meaning of the
* Labourers' Friend Magazine, 1842, p. 183.
:


xviii
i.
!
term?)-then abundance, in the fullest sense of
the word, is within our reach.
Yet, notwithstanding this, we keep at the
present moment, a very large proportion of our
labouring poor in abject poverty and misery, and
very naturally, in rankling discontent!
One class of writers will instantly reply, "Yes,
that is one of the consequences of our deplorable
manufacturing system.'
But may we not trace the evil somewhat higher ?
How comes it that our great factory-towns grow
to such frightful size? Manchester and Glasgow,
with their vice and their disease, cannot keep up
their own population. Cut off supplies of fresh
labourers from without, and these towns, in sixty
years, would be without inhabitants. They are
fed and swollen up to their present enormous size,
and filled with an excessive number of labourers,
depressing each other's wages, by the constant im-
migration of the villagers. But how come the
villagers to leave their green fields and purer air,
to immure themselves in the foetid lanes of factory-
towns? Simply because, in the villages, they are
reckoned "surplus," are half-starved, are dri-
ven about from farmer to overseer, and from their
miserable huts to union-workhouses, until life is
rendered a burden to them, and they crowd into
the towns, to embrace a kind of labour to which
they are quite unaccustomed, merely because it
seems to promise some sort of shelter and food for
xix
!
their offspring-while thus to "get rid" of them,
is reckoned a matter of rejoicing-aye of actual
rejoicing! on the part of the gentry and farmers
among whom they have dwelt! We have often
overheard, with silent horror, long contentions
between adjoining parishes, touching which of
them a hearty, sober, well-conducted labourer
"belonged to;" and when, at some expense for
lawyers, one of the parishes had “saddled” him
upon the other, great was the joy at having
got rid of him." We have listened to these conten-
tions, and we have said to ourselves, "How can
England ever be aught but wretched and discon-
tented, in such a state of things?"
66
Augment your capital: prevent your popu-
lation; those are the two main principles on
which all modern doctors and statesmen have found-
ed their system and their practice. They have
carried them far enough to fill the island with
wretchedness; and yet they dare not carry them
fully out.
Is not improvidence a fault?—they ask,—can it
be right in a man who is scarcely able to feed
himself, to marry, and to expose himself to the
probability of having six or eight other mouths to
feed, upon six or eight shillings per week?
We admit the lamentable nature of the case;
--but we ask our mentors to test their own prin-
ciples by carrying them boldly into practice.
It is wrong, you say, in a poor labourer,
-1
XX
who can scarcely feed and clothe himself, to
marry. If it be wrong—clearly wrong; we know
not why it should not be made penal by law.
You reply, that this you would gladly see done;
but lack courage to propose it; and therefore are
driven to rely chiefly upon little tracts and books,
teaching "the principles of population."* This
however, you will not attempt to deny that you
would be glad if, either by law, or by the influ-
ence of instruction, all "improvident marriages"
could be put an end to: and you would certainly
reckon it improvident in an agricultural labourer,
only earning six, seven, or eight shillings a week,
to expose himself to the probability of having
half-a-dozen children.
We ask, then, the very obvious and plain
question,―Would you wish all the young men
now growing up to manhood in our agricultural
districts, to remain unmarried? for most of these
are quite unable to earn more than this poor pit-
tance! And were your wish obeyed, what sort
of a state do you imagine that England would be
in, in point of morals, at the end of seven years?
You have been preaching against marriage, and
discountenancing marriage, for the last thirty
years; and already you have filled our villages
* Such as John Hopkins' Notions: Cousin Marshall, &c. Mr.
McCulloch, in his evidence before à Parliamentary Committee,
advised “the introduction into parish schools, of books teaching the
elementary principles of population and wages."
99
xxi
with bastardy and child-murder; but were you to
carry your principles thoroughly and honestly out,
do you imagine that the country could be lived in,
by any decent people?
This one question ought to satisfy any reason-
able man, that the whole system which has been
so long in fashion, is founded in error, and that
our only course is to adopt a totally different one.
We have seen that the land can with ease produce
abundance for every person in the realm :-why
then are want and wretchedness so predominant
among the industrious classes?
The false principles so long prevalent have led,
in practice, to the striking away all the lower
rounds of the ladder. The little farmer, the
happy cotter, are systematically cast out of the
system; and nothing is left, and nothing is desi-
derated, by the advocates of this system, but the
farmer of 1000 acres, and the day-labourer, left
wholly to his mercy.
It is both touching and instructive, to remark
the misgivings of a kind-hearted man, even when
embarked in the prevalent system, and assuming
that system to be the best that can be devised.
Mr. Twisleton, one of the commissioners whose
report is given in the recent "Sanitary Enquiry,"
thus writes:
"It is difficult, regarding the paucity of small
farms from another point of view, not to give way
to a feeling of regret. The English agricultural

xxii
..
F
E
1
labourer, even if he has transcendant abilities,
has scarcely any prospect of rising in the world,
and of becoming a small farmer. He commences
his career as a weekly labourer, and the probabi-
lity is, whatever his talents and industry, that as
a weekly labourer he will end his days. If he
cherishes the ambition of becoming a small farmer,
his wisest course is to emigrate to Canada or New
South Wales, or some other of the colonies, where
alone he can put forth all his energies for the
attainment of that object with a reasonable pros-
pect of success."*
Does not this complete the picture? The doc-
trine of the criminality of "improvident" mar-
riages, if it were possible to bring it into force,
would condemn seven-eighths of the young men of
our agricultural districts to hopeless celibacy for
life. And then comes the Commissioner, and
with a sigh of natural feeling, admits that whe-
ther married or unmarried, life affords no ray of
hope for them. Ploughing and harrowing machines
they are, and nothing else can they ever be.
No matter how "transcendant their abilities"
may be; no matter what their "talents or indus-
try;" the sum total of human existence, for them,
consists in something less of enjoyment and more
of care, than marks the life of one of the horses
with which they plough the fields. Toil, regular,
* Sanitary Enquiry: Local Reports, p. 142.
xxiii
unceasing toil; food, poor in quality and defici-
ent in quantity; scarcely clothes enough to cover
them; and but a miserable hut to shelter them
thus must pass some sixty years of the labourer's
life, and then, when capable of enduring such a
life no longer, there remains,
"in age the workhouse :
A parish shell at last, and the little bell,
Tolled hastily for a pauper's funeral.'
Such is the state, and such the prospects, to
which the modern system of political economy
would deliberately consign the great body of our
agricultural poor. To expect that men above the
rank of idiots should quietly and peaceably settle
down in such a condition, would be a degree of
folly not lightly to be imputed to any man. The
fact is, as a glance at the state of the country
will shew,—that the pressure of this system drives
thousands out of the villages into the manufac-
turing towns; throngs these with unemployed
hands, and thus artifically and most injuriously
depresses wages. Meantime, of those which
remain, multitudes, wretched, hopeless, and reck-
less, indulge in poaching, smuggling, and often,
in their blind revenge, in rick-burning. Such is
the natural result of striving to place the farm-
labourer in a lower rank than any other class in
the whole community,—a rank to which marriage
1
:
1
!
xxiv
is forbidden, as "improvident,"-a rank to which
'Hope never comes, that comes to all.'
But why need we thus stifle the best feelings
of our nature, and "grind the faces of the poor"
upon principle and upon system? All the evi-
dence that can be obtained, goes to prove, that
little more is wanted, but the restoration of the
lower rounds of the ladder, to cure the whole
mischief of which we have been speaking. In-
stances might be adduced, not by scores, but by
thousands, in which the farm-labourers of a dis-
trict have been rapidly up-raised from misery and
vice to good conduct and happiness, by the mere
return to the dictates of common sense and com-
mon humanity. Take the poor helpless, hope-
less day-labourer, just subsisting on his seven
shillings per week; and offer him a quarter, or a
half acre of land, at a moderate rent. Even this
first step instantly changes the whole man. To
gain and to retain this simple and uncostly boon;
he will become at once sober, frugal, and most
industrious. You have rekindled hope in his
bosom: once more some little advance appears
possible. And how rapidly this hope is realized,
might be shown by a variety of instances:-we
shall quote only one or two,
"One of my old tenants," says a correspondent
of the Labourers' Friend Magazine, "called upon
me to tell me how he got on. I had let him a
XXV
quarter of an acre of land. He was always an
industrious man, and he got on first to five acres ;
then to ten; and then he stopped for some time.
His industry and prudence were attended with
success, and having the opportunity, he took a
farm of thirty acres, to which twenty more were
afterward added; so that when I last saw him, he
had fifty acres of land, well-stocked and well
cultivated; and was, in every respect, a thriving,
respectable farmer, who had risen by industry,
honesty, prudence, and perseverance, from an
allotment-tenant of a quarter of an acre."
""*
The case of Samuel Bridge has been already
quoted. He at first rented "four acres of very
inferior land." The advocates of the modern
system would say, that it was impossible for him
to do any good with such a piece of land as this.
But what was the fact? Beginning as a tenant,
he soon saved enough from the profits of his four
acres, to buy the freehold. "He has also built
himself a comfortable cottage and outbuildings
thereon, and is the owner of considerable pro-
perty besides."† And all this, out of an allot-
ment of four acres of inferior land. In the same
spirit, a poor labourer, who, from his large fami-
ly, and frequent want of work, was a great burden
to a parish in Buckinghamshire,-recently an-
swered some of the authorities who were reproach-
* Labourers' Friend Magazine, p. 61.
b
+ Ibid. p. 165.
xxvi
ing him with the expence his family had been,
Only let me have six acres of land at the rent
which the farmers pay for it, and neither I nor
any of my family will ever ask the parish for
another penny!"
The main thing which our labouring poor re-
quire, to restore them to their ancient happiness
and good character, is hope; a hope founded on
a reasonable prospect of advancement. No other
class in the community is denied this privilege.
The labourer in trade or manufactures, if he
possess abilities, talents and industry, knows that
he may look forward to a moment when his foot
may be placed in the next round of the ladder;
and sees around him instances not a few, of men
who have raised themselves from the very lowest
rank, to wealth, and honour, and influence. It
is only the poor agricultural labourer of whom
it can be said, that "whatever his talents and
industry," nay, however "transcendent his
abilities," "a weekly labourer he began, and
a weekly labourer he will end his days." It
is only of the poor husbandman that the rule
holds good, that "improvident marriages are
criminal," and that with him marriage can never
be any thing else than improvident !
It is with this class, therefore, that we ought
to begin. Until some large and efficient change
takes place here, the general condition of the
country must remain one of disorganization and
xxvii
peril. The perspicacious mind of Sadler at once
discerned this; and he had no sooner laid before
Parliament his demand for Poor-laws for Ireland,
and his claim for protection for the poor factory-
children, than he immediately followed these pro-
positions by a third, for the amelioration of the
condition of the agricultural poor.
All these three measures stood intimately con-
nected, and each was commended to the Legisla-
ture on the same two-fold ground. Each might
be claimed on the score of humanity; and each
was based on a clear economical necessity. How
could the labouring poor of England prosper, or
hope to gain a fair remuneration for their labour,
while vast crowds of unemployed and starving la-
bourers from a neighbouring island, the soil of
which acknowledged no obligation to support them,
were constantly flooding the market for labour?
Or how could our factory-towns be in a healthy
state, while the masters persisted in compelling,
even in the case of children, every six labourers
to do the work of ten? The inevitable force of
these arguments has been in some degree felt; and
the land of Ireland has been rendered liable to
the support of its own poor; while some check
has been imposed on the cupidity of the mill-
owners. The third measure, however, was always
felt by Mr. Sadler to be of at least equal value
with the former two. How can over-production
in our manufacturing districts be checked,-how
1
b 2
xxviii
1
་
can the labour-market be restored to a healthy
state, so long as the owners and occupiers of land
persist in rendering the life of the agricultural la-
bourer one scene of misery and wretchedness,
without consolation and without hope? So long
as they continue to tear down the cottages, and
to drive the people into the towns, rejoicing
when they have "got rid" of them, so long must
England remain in an unhealthy and perilous
condition.
And what a prodigious class of our people is it,
whom we thus condemn to hopeless misery! The
cultivators of the soil are, after all, our main po-
pulation. They cover the whole country, filling all
our villages, and supporting more than half our
towns. They not only greatly exceed in number
the labourers in mines, or the work-people in fac-
tories, or the artisans in shops, but they are far more
numerous than all these classes taken together.
It is with the largest section of our population that
we are dealing, when we quietly tell them, to use
Mr. Twisleton's words, that "if they cherish the
ambition" of ever rising above the rank of a day-
labourer of seven or eight shillings per week, their
"wisest course is to emigrate to Canada or New
South Wales," for that in England no hope rests
upon their lot!
We have dwelt more than we intended, on this
single point; believing, indeed, that it lays at the
basis of all sound legislation for the improvement
XXIX
!
of our people. But we by no means wish to re-
present this, any more than any other single
point, as comprising all that is wrong, or its rectifi-
cation as implying that all will in future be right.
We only say, that wherever else we turn, this
mischief is sure to follow and to meet us. In a va-
riety of ways, the employer has, at this moment,
the power (and too often most remorselessly uses
that power,) of tyrannizing over those whom he
employs. But the grand secret of his power lies
in the pressure on the labour-market; and this
pressure is chiefly caused by the circumstances we
have indicated. A master exacts cruel terms of
his workmen. How gains he the power so to do?
From the knowledge the workman has, that if he
resists, and leaves his employment, crowds of
unemployed hands are ready to contend for his
place; and that thus, while a quarrel may reduce
him to starvation, it can hardly expose his master
even to inconvenience. But these crowds of can-
didates for employment are chiefly composed of
men expelled from the rural districts,-men of
whom the farmers and landowners are delighted to
have "got rid; " not because they are vicious,
but because they choose to imagine them "sur-
plus."
We place this matter then at the basis of all
necessary legislation. But upon it must be reared
a superstructure of many parts. The false notion
of the necessity of protecting capital, and of fa-
b 3
XXX
vouring its accumulation, must be abandoned;
and we must learn that it is industry, not wealth,
that needs protection; and that capital requires
rather to be restrained from tyrannizing over in-
dustry, than encouraged in its arbitrary course.
The whole course of modern science tends to
make this restraint more and more needful. The
vast and almost boundless improvements in machi-
nery, all give power to the capitalist, and render
the workmen more and more helpless and depen-
dant. These, among other reasons, should satisfy
us on which side the legislator is bound to interfere.
The only answer to these questions which has
ever been given, is the cant (there is no other
phrase so applicable,) of "non-interference be-
tween labourer and employer." This plea, be it
observed, is always advanced by the very parties
whose misdeeds call for coercion. Very many
employers of work-people have seats in Parliament;
and with one consent these are always found to
rise in their places, and to denounce the idea of
interfering" between the master and his work-
66
men.
Their objections are learnedly expressed, and
profess to deal with "general principles." But
the whole plea is the most illegitimate possible.
It amounts to this. We, by the power of our
capital, have got a great and almost despotic au-
thority over our workmen. Do not deprive us of
it. We like power, (as who does not,) especially
xxxi
99
the power of getting money. Therefore we con-
tend, that it is most improper for the Legislature
to interfere between us and our workmen.' Such
is the argument, or rather the outcry, on one side;
the other side,—that of the workmen, is unheard
in Parliament, except by a few petitions. The
wealthy masters have power and influence; the
poor workmen have neither the one nor the other.
Hitherto, capital, being the favourite of the
legislature, has enjoyed all the protection, influence,
and authority, that the law could give it. Many,
perhaps most of those, who thus leant to the side
of the strongest, believed that they were consulting
the general weal in what they did. There was
also the inner motive, which they doubtless tried
to conceal from themselves,-that they were con-
sulting their own interest. We need not, however,
trouble ourselves with men's motives: our leading
assertion, and the motive for the present volume,
is, that however capital may have prospered, the
nation, in a most important point, has declined
and decayed. Once more, to cite Mr. Gladstone,
-there has been "an accumulation of wealth;
but there has also been "an increase of the pri-
vations and distress of the labouring classes." We
place this before the eyes of our countrymen;—
we repeat it in their ears again and again. And
we add also, what, indeed, seems almost self-evi-
dent,—that there must be some great fundamental
change; the adoption of some other system of
xxxii
legislation than that which has borne sway for
some years past,-before the country can be re-
stored to internal peace, or blessed with settled
tranquillity.
To what practical result, then, do our observa-
tions tend?
To the inculcation, as a general principle, of a
totally different set of ideas from those which have
long borne sway among us.
Instead of yielding
undue sway to capital, we would watch its motions
with jealousy, and rather fetter it by restrictions,
than yield it an arbitrary and irresponsible power.
To industry, on the other hand, we would hold
out a helping hand. Here, protection is often
needed. Go where we will, whether to the mine,
the factory, the milliner's workshop, or the large
farm, we are sure to find capital tyrannizing over
it. Everywhere excessive labour is prescribed,
or a reduction of wages enforced,-there being
always the simple alternative, "These are my
terms; comply with them, or starve !”
In a variety of ways, then, legislation may, and
ought to interfere. It ought to say to the fac-
tory-owner, You shall not work little children
fourteen or fifteen hours per day. It ought to
say to the coal-owner, You shall not send girls
and boys of five years old into the coal-pit. It
ought, and it has, said this. But in a multitude
of other departments, capital requires to be fol-
xxxiii
lowed, and watched, and threatened with penal
consequences. There ought to be no shrinking,-
no holding back from this duty. Recently, fresh
Reports of the Commissioners of Enquiry have
brought to light fresh enormities. But of what
avail will be the knowledge, if practical relief is
not immediately afforded?
Legislation, however, can only deal in generals,
and it is slow in its movements. Out of the above
named principles, a variety of practical and
personal obligations arise. The leading idea,
that labouring industry, in these days, always
needs protection, while capital,-i. e. wealth,-
needs none, but rather requires restraint; will
guide us to the solution of a multitude of ques-
tions. In the first place, however, let us strive to
make it thoroughly understood, that in England
we have the two great requisites,-plenty of
fertile land, and millions of willing labourers ;-
and that if only these two could be brought
together, the result might be that which is record-
ed of the chosen people of God, of whom it is
said, that "Judah and Israel were many, as the
sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating, and
drinking, and making merry." (1 Kings iv. 20.)
Why should not this be said of the people of
England? The chief obstacle in the way is, the
prevalence of false principles; hindering the
owners and occupiers of the soil from seeing
and understanding their real interest and their
xxxiv
:
L
bounden duty. Within ten miles of the metropolis
in which these pages are published, there may be
seen thousands of acres of fertile land, which
scarcely afford to the peasantry of the vicinity,
any employment whatever. It is constantly
limited to the production of mere grass, and that
grass is converted into hay, every spring, by the
hands of migratory labourers from Ireland. It
seems never to occur to those who draw large
revenues from this land, that they have any
obligation whatever to remember the poor who
dwell upon the soil which they call their own.
Or if the miseries of the cottager sometimes force
their way to the proprietor's ear, the gift of a
little money quiets the conscience, and all remains.
as before. If the general want of employment
be lamented, he talks of "surplus population;"
and recommends colonization. He will even sub-
scribe to help the poor cottager to transport him-
self twelve thousand miles from his native soil,
in search of "a bit of land; " but the idea of
letting him have an acre adjoining his own cot,
seems never to enter his head; or if it does, it is
dismissed by some miserable doubts as to "how
he is to get manure:" or "whether it will not
interfere with his duty to his employer." And
thus that one remedy which to a bystander seems
the simplest of all things, and which really is so,—
is just the last thing to be resorted to. Land we
have, capable of producing four times the food it
XXXV
+
at present yields and labourers we have, anxious
to cultivate it. But we prefer to let it remain,
often producing nothing better than grass, and to
see our half-starved labourers burn the ricks which
the mowers from Tipperary have reared, rather
than take the trouble to do that simplest of all
things,-permit our poor to cultivate our fields!
Doubtless, many of those who repose at ease,
amidst surrounding troubles, will exclaim, "Why
all this alarm? our rents flow in as heretofore;
and as for the poor, there never was a time when
they were not unhappy and discontented." But
the note of alarm that we are sounding, goes not
beyond that which is heard in the House of Com-
mons itself. Daily are such sentiments as these
heard in that assembly, and from the lips of men
of acknowledged judgment.
"I greatly fear that among those who subsist
by their labour, there is a feeling of discontent
which is growing daily. I believe that the only
remedy for this state of things is to be found in
measures of practical improvement; and if the
condition of the people is not made better, I
doubt if any existing power can stop the demand
for organic change." *
And again, "If humanity does not induce us
to do our utmost for this object, a mere politic
view of our own interests should compel us: for
Speech of Sir J. Hanmer, in the House of Commons, March
30, 1843.
xxxvi
!
depend upon it the people of this country will not
bear what they used to bear; and every one of
these periods of distress is fraught with increas-
ingly dangerous effects on the popular temper,
and with increasing peril to the interests of pro-
perty and order. If you mean to keep govern-
ment or society together in this country, you must
do something to render the condition of the people
less uneasy and precarious than it now is." *
Speech of Mr. C. Buller, April 6, 1843.
THE PERILS OF THE NATION.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
THIS material world did not, by any chance-med-
ley, spring into existence. Nations do not grow
up like vegetables, obliged by an immutable law
to progress towards maturity, flourish for an as-
signed space, droop, decay, perish, and make room
for others. From these simple propositions if any
dissent, we despair of coming to a right under-
standing with them; for we proceed on the as-
sumption that all visible things were created by
an invisible Almighty Being, great in counsel, and
wonderful in operation; who spake and it was
done; who commanded and it stood fast. Man,
the crowning work of this creative miracle, was
placed in authority over all inferior things, and
commanded to bear rule, according to the will of
his Creator. What that will might be, he was
not left to discover, groping his way, by some la-
borious process of deduction, from mysterious
premises to an uncertain conclusion: a revelation
B
1
2
INTRODUCTION.
was vouchsafed, affording him every needful help :
and, to leave him without excuse if he should
presume to seek out inventions, independent of
the rules thus laid down, it pleased God to become
in an especial manner the King of a peculiar
people among the families of the earth, whom he
formed into a nation, and placed under a theo-
cracy, working out for them the details of a faultless
government, the leading principles of which are
recorded for the instruction of such as may be
appointed to rule in the nations of the earth.
But man is a proud creature: nothing is more
distasteful to him than to walk in a way ready
traced out, even though infinite wisdom, guided
by infinite love, have prepared that perfect path.
When man had but one commandment to keep,
he, of wilful rebellion, broke it: he left a road of
sunshine and of flowers, leading to eternal life, to
strike into one strewed with thorns, over-canopied
with tempests, and issuing in everlasting death.
What marvel that as laws multiplied upon him,
the hydra-formed spirit of disobedience should re-
duplicate every head subjected to the stroke of
the Law-giver?-that every " You shall," from
the mouth of the Creator, should be responded to
by a stubborn 'I will not,' from the presumptuous
lip of the creature!
From the day that sin entered into the world,
peril, visible and invisible, temporal and eternal,
has been man's comrade through the whole course
INTRODUCTION.
3
of his pilgrimage. He loves to talk of security,
to dream of prosperity and triumph; in adverse
seasons to assure himself that the calamity is but
for a moment, and in prosperous hours to vaunt
that "tomorrow shall be as to-day, and yet more
abundant." This propensity is developed in the
national, no less than in the individual character,
and perhaps among nations nowhere does there
exist a more inveterate determination to persist in
saying, "Peace and safety," than in England.
C
A few months ago, what would have been the gen-
eral reply to a hint that peril of formidable aspect
impended over our favoured land? England in
peril! Is not all within her peace? Her foreign re-
lations those of unbroken amity? The sound of war
comes but from the extremities of the earth, where
her forces wage it against enemies who, if even able
to defend their own territories, cannot menace her's.
Her empire is gigantic, her power unresisted,
her wealth enormous; increasing luxury among
the mercantile classes bears witness to continually-
augmenting opulence. Mark her metropolis, per-
petually extending itself over the surrounding ham
lets, and swallowing up all intervening space in its
huge sea of brick and mortar; while beyond these,
every available spot is appropriated for the erec-
tion of handsome dwelling-houses. Nor in London
alone, but throughout the land this feature prevails
so extensively, that the inhabitant of any consid-
erable town, who has left for a year or two his
!
B 2
4
INTRODUCTION.
!
place of abode, returning, is perplexed by the
rapidity of these changes, altering the face of the
country. The meadow where he roamed to gather
wild flowers, or to angle in the quiet stream, is
become a pleasure-ground, attached to some showy
mansion, closed to his approach: the waste green,
where cricket-matches were wont to be decided,
is studded with handsome tenements, and lotted
out into gardens; intersected too perhaps by some
railway, the unceasing traffic on which yields.
further testimony, that while with one class
business is sufficiently brisk to keep them con-
stantly in motion, with others money is plentiful
enough to send them in perpetual quest of the
gratifications that change of place supplies. The
general aspect of society, thus glanced on, is that of
a people dwelling every man under the shadow of
his own home-tree, and none making them afraid.'
But, correct as this description might be, the
peril existed; and an outburst of popular violence,
sufficient to send a thrill of terror through the
remotest corners of the land, silenced for a time
the vaunt of security. It was quelled by military
prowess; the incursive waves were stayed, and slowly
and sullenly they rolled back into the abyss, where
popular discontent works darkly, far beneath the
quiet surface.
Thence, may they not again emerge, and rein-
forced by multitudes, overbear resistance, and
rend the beautiful framework of society into
:
INTRODUCTION.
5
LO
fragments? We know not what a day may bring
forth; and surely it behoves us, when contempla-
ting a mighty, an unremoved, unmitigated peril,
to cast about for adequate means of encountering
its possible advance into the very sanctuary of our
domestic circles.
:
We are not alarmists: certainly not of that
class who have, from time to time, loudly pro-
claimed their conviction, that the country was
ruined—their despair of discovering any remedy
save in the accession of their own party to political
power. That accession once accomplished, their
fears instantaneously vanish, and the cry of over-
hanging destruction is caught up by their displaced
opponents. Evil, the prolific root of peril, has
always existed it always must exist while the
Spirit of darkness works in the children of disobe-
dience; and where he finds so vast a multitude to
work in, peril also will abound: but of this we do
not now speak; having something more defined,
more tangible to grapple with: something that in-
creases upon us with a steady growth, not to be
even temporarily checked by any such change of
policy as has been found to follow on changes of
men, or modification of measures: an evil that
cannot be remedied by the multiplication of legis-
lative enactments; an evil which requires a si-
multaneous effort on the part of all in any ways
concerned with the administration of affairs among
their fellow-men: and this class of co-operators
6
INTRODUCTION.
embraces alike the highest responsible adviser of
the crown, and the humblest overlooker in the
lowest department of manual labour: alike the
primate of all England, and the obscure assistant
of a village school;-alike the illustrious lady,
who, on earth, owns no superior, and the jour-
ney-woman sempstress, who doles out to each
pale-faced apprentice her allotted portion of needle-
work, in a milliner's back parlour.
For all these exercise authority, and against
authority, in every form, is the spirit rampant
that menaces our overthrow. Not wilful turbu-
lence alone, impatient. of wholesome restraint, but
the very nature of man, in some of its most blame-
less developements, is struggling around us. We
glance over the long lines of building, rising, as if
by magic, on every side: but follow not to their
homes the artizans who reared those walls. We
whirl along the railroad: but inquire not concern-
ing the men whose nervous sinews excavated the
hill, heaped up the embankment, wrought out the
iron terrace, or brought from the bowels of the
earth the fuel that feeds that locomotive furnace.
We approve the texture of the thousand variegated
draperies that adorn our countrywomen; but ask
not how fares it with the hundreds of thousands
who spun those delicate threads, arranged them
on the loom, and applied the many-tinted pattern.
We behold a field, rich with waves of corn, ripen-
ing to the sickle, or spreading its fragrant ridges
INTRODUCTION.
7
of hay to the sunbeam; and we perhaps revolve
some patriotic strain, some poetic reverie of how
those teeming harvests
Breathe their still song into the reaper's heart,
As home he goes beneath the joyous moon:
but we rarely tax our fancy to picture the reaper
himself, with a half-clad wife, and squalid hungry
children, watching his movements as he tells forth on
the cottage table the sum of his weekly earnings, the
gloom on his brow bespeaking a mental calculation
of their united insufficiency for keeping absolute
famine and nakedness a little longer from the door.
Prosperity smiles upon the few; but they are
the many, on whom its beams never fall; and on
whom the former class depend not only for the
supply of all that is held to constitute prosperity,
but for an exemption from what the active hos-
tility of those hardy millions may ere long inflict
on them. The varying grades of society are or-
dered by Him who has told us, that the poor shall
never cease out of the land; and no less the
stability than the beauty of a commonwealth is
involved in a due adjustment of those gradations.
If it be true that the ignorant populace are neces-
sarily incompetent to guide the state, and to
legislate for an empire, no less certain is it that
the educated gentlemen of England would make
but sorry hands at tilling the soil, working the
mines, manning the ships, and tending the looms;
1
i
8
INTRODUCTION.
¡
while yet, without a competent supply of efficient
operations in those departments, the vaunted re-
sources of the land must quickly become a dream.
A diseased joint, even in one of the least and
lowest limbs, neglected because despised, may
ripen to a gangrene that shall suddenly prostrate
the whole frame; and not one whit less dependent
on the well-being of its humbler members, is the
body politic than the body natural.
The impression daily grows and diffuses itself,
-that "something is fundamentally wrong:
"Where once was sociable and merry England,
we have care and caution in the countenance of
the rich man, in the working man discontent, in
the poor man misery and depression. Hospitality
is well nigh forgotten. Education is extended,
and political knowledge;-but classes are more
separated and distinct from one another; men
are more solitary, selfish, and individualized;
and chartists and socialists and pantheists rise up
to deny the principles of society and humanity;
and the only excuse we have for it, is, that we must
go through great struggles and evils before we can
arrive at the happy consummation. The struggles
continue, but the end does not appear in sight."
CHAPTER II.
POWER AND WEAKNESS.
Two facts scarcely reconcilable the one with the
other, yet unquestionably co-existent at this time,
force themselves on our notice.
England is the most wealthy and powerful
empire that the world ever saw :—
There is, nevertheless, in England, such a
dreadful amount of misery and oppression, as to
render the very maintenance of social order within
its boundaries, a matter of doubt and difficulty.
The first point will, we suppose, be generally
conceded: friend and foe alike admit it. Though
in itself one of the least among the nations, we
find the empire of England dotting, dappling, and
interlacing the whole habitable globe. She has
planted herself amid the fastnesses of North
America, to an extent compared with which her
native territory is utterly insignificant, and carries
out a lengthened belt of valuable possessions even
to the waters of the Pacific Ocean: thence sweep-
1
i
B 5
10
POWER AND WEAKNESS.
མོས་
ing northward, she terminates not her course until
a rampart of everlasting ice forbids its further
progress. To the south of that vast continent,
she occupies many island thrones, here and there
grasping possessions on the main land. In the
eastern hemisphere she holds her way, manning
the rocky fortress of Gibraltar, and securing a
post among the islands of the Mediterranean.
Touching on the western coast of Africa, she
plants the standard of freedom, builds a refuge
for the liberated slave, and proceeds to assert an
increasing sovereignty at the Cape of Storms.
She then wrests from the native princes of Hin-
dostan nearly the half of their gorgeous posses-
sions, and ends by establishing her authority
almost at the southernmost point of the known he-
misphere. It is wonderful to glance over the
world's map, and after tracing these outgoings of
power and enterprise, through every clime, to
revert to the mere speck whence it all originates;
the diminutive head to which these giant limbs
are placed in subjection, obeying its dictates, and
ministering to its requirements. To calculate the
amount of wealth expended, of wakeful energy
imperiously demanded, for the maintenance of such
supremacy in the remotest corners of the globe ;
above all, the weight of responsibility incurred by
a nation professing to square its doings by the
standard of God's word, and therefore pledged to
administer justice, and to promote piety, peace,
POWER AND WEAKNESS.
11
and good-will among so many millions of human
beings; is calculated to strike the mind with awe.
Assuredly no country upon earth ever occupied
such ground. None ever prospered to such an
extent in governing a far more limited territory,
though under the advantages of that consolida-
tion, that support derived by each part from the
whole, which results from a compact form, placing
the entire substance as it were beneath the eye,
and within the grasp of its rulers.
Yet, wealthy as she is, and powerful and pros-
perous as she is, England's position is one of im-
minent peril. The sin of oppression, receiving
daily aggravation from the heartlessness which
looks with unmoved eye upon the sufferings it
produces, cries aloud for judgment; and tokens
are not wanting, that the cry has entered into the
ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth. A tremor is
felt, even where it is not acknowledged; and ad-
mitted where its cause is but imperfectly under-
stood. Men have some general impression that all
is not right; that reforms never yet approached
by the legislature, and others glanced at only to
be rejected as impracticable, are called for in a
voice whose entreaty is mingled with ominous
warning. They would gladly see something done
to increase the stability of the times; but from
never having had their attention called to a plain
statement of facts, they grope their way in dark-
ness and doubt, ending with a consolatory hope,
1
12
POWER AND WEAKNESS.
:
that as they do not clearly distinguish any object
of terror, the danger has been exaggerated, and
will quickly pass away. Or if not, that it is of
too intangible, too irresistible a character to be
repelled. They regard the signs around them as
indications of a gathering storm: the clouds wear
a threatening aspect: but a favourable wind may
rise, and scatter them, ere yet they are ready for
the outburst; if not, what avails man's puny
might to grapple with the power of elemental
fury? He can but submit, and wait the issue.
Now we purpose laying before these, and all
other classes of thinking men, a few leading
particulars of what is, as an index of what must
be, unless remedial measures be very promptly
resorted to. We have brought against the land
of freedom and of faith the great charge of op-
pressive cruelty, carried to such an excess, as to
arm against us the hand of man and of God; so
that alike from human and divine justice, we must
look for a terrible retribution. If we can prove
this allegation, nothing will remain but to inquire
how shall such wickedness be put away from us,
and its natural consequences averted? We there-
fore proceed to the proof.
God has not seen fit to place every man on an
equality with his brother. Some are rich in this
world's goods, having store laid up, either by
their predecessors or themselves, to furnish a sup-
ply, not only for their natural, but also for their
POWER AND WEAKNESS.
13
I:
artificial wants; and to indulge their most wanton
appetites for luxury and display. Others, again,
not only must eat their bread by the sweat of
their face, in labour and in sorrow, but they often
have not opportunity afforded them of earning
the morsel that is needful to sustain life: often
they are disabled by bodily infirmity or disease,
from availing themselves of the possession where
attainable; and these are the poor, concerning
whom it was said, even under the glorious Theo-
cracy that governed the chosen nation of Israel,
"The poor shall never cease out of the land :
and this dispensation, mysterious to our finite
reason, was confirmed by the lip of the incarnate
LORD: "The poor ye have always with you; and
whensoever ye will, ye may do them good.'
Between these two extremes, the profusely rich,
and the abjectly impoverished, many gradations
exist; but go where we will, we shall find com-
petence expanding on the one hand into overgrown
wealth, and shrinking on the other into helpless
pauperism.
Wealth is power. The rich man can so em-
ploy his capital, as to diffuse comfort and pros-
perity to the limits of a sphere regulated by
the amount of his possessions; or he can SO
employ it, as to multiply guilt to himself and
doubly to aggravate the sufferings of his fel-
low-creatures he cannot indeed in this country
purchase the brother of his nature, and, using him
:
14
POWER AND WEAKNESS.
as a beast of burden, wring from him the daily
labour of his sinews, and make a clear profit of
all his service over and above the price paid for
him, and the food he eats: but he can serve him-
self of his poor neighbour as a hireling, oppres-
sing him in his wages, and grasping all but the
wretched pittance that the law compels him to
allow, and which is, in fact, the purchase-money
of the toil-worn sufferer's life-blood. By with-
holding from him all other aid, he can compel him
to work on his own terms, or to perish for lack of
necessary sustenance; and thus he wields, in his
wealth, an engine of oppression quite as effectual, as
the sceptre of the most despotic eastern monarch.
Poverty, on the other hand, is weakness. The
man who has not bread to satisfy his own hunger,
or that of his children, and who is restrained by
law or by principle from robbing his wealthy
brother, must submit to whatsoever hard terms
this latter may choose to impose on him. He has
a choice indeed; but it is a choice between op-
pression and starvation. He may not, if he could,
stretch forth his hand to grasp of the superfluity
of the other, so much as would purchase a crust
of bread; nor may he appropriate to appease the
cravings of intolerable hunger, what the rich man
has assigned to feed his dogs. Nothing then re-
mains for him, but to crave the liberty of making
merchandize of such bodily strength, or skill, as
he may possess; and it is not his to dictate terms:
POWER AND WEAKNESS.
15
the labourer who has a little, may, on the strength
of that little, refuse to work for less than a fair
remuneration; but he who has nothing, must
procure, at any price of personal suffering, the
morsel without which he cannot survive until the
morrow.
Before proceding to classify this dependent order
of men, let us just ask whether, if revelation
were even wholly silent on the subject, there is
not in man's bosom a secret attestation, that to
oppress and grind the faces of these helpless poor,
is a crime calling for retribution?
In England, the population compelled to labour
for daily bread, may be arranged, generally, under
the following heads; manufacturing, mining,
commercial, and agricultural. In all these de-
partments, many hands must necessarily be em-
ployed; and were labourers scarce, labour would
be at a high premium. The over-supply of hands,
however, the~' surplus population' of which we
hear so much,-puts it in the employer's power
to offer such miserable remuneration for time and
toil, as only they who are ready to perish will avail
themselves of; and they must do so or starve.
Hence the enormous increase of pauperism; an
ever-growing accession to the ranks of abject mi-
sery: from this root, rampant selfishness, spring
all the evils under which the suffering classes
groan; while to apply an adequate remedy, or even
to devise one, without reversing the present order
4
16
POWER AND WEakness.
of things, passes the wit of man. The fact is
too obvious to be insisted on: it needs but to be
plainly stated. Five hundred men, we will say, are
dependent on employment, in a quarter where
just as much as would afford each of them a fair
day's work is to be had. But the master of the
establishment requires every man to toil so long
and so closely for the wages he is to receive, that
one fifth more than what is just, is demanded of
him, therefore four hundred men can do the work;
and the additional hundred become 'surplus,'
and are thrown, with perhaps some four hundred
women and children dependent on them, into pau-
perism. Thus two portions of the general body are
wronged by one act; those who must labour, for
a scanty support, beyond what nature can well
sustain; and those who are by this over-exaction
of their comrades' toil, rendered supernumerary,
and left without even the privilege of earning
a subsistence.
The nature, extent, and consequences of this
system, operating as it does on the different classes
of working-men whom we have enumerated, shall
now be laid before the reader, collected from
sources alike unexceptionable, and established
beyond the reach of contradiction. If it produce
no other effect, it must at least silence some com-
fident boasting on the subject of England's righ-
teousness as a nation: it must show how fearfully
rotten is the foundation on which too many build
POWER AND WEAKNESS.
17
their prognostics of increased prosperity; and it
will help to vindicate the justice of God; if, wea-
ried by our aggravated provocations, He should at
length deal with us after our sins, and reward us
after our iniquities; by applying the scourge that
our own hands are twisting, for the purposes of
severe chastisement.
CHAPTER III.
MANUFACTURING POOR.
ANY detailed statements of the oppressive grie-
vances under which our poorer brethren groan, in
this department only, would occupy more space
than we propose assigning to the entire sketch of
existing hardships. A very brief summary shall
be given of testimony which has been carefully
collected for the use of the House of Commons,
and which remains to this day unquestioned.
I. The employment, in nearly all its branches,
is unhealthy, wearisome, and irksome: the con-
finement severe, and the numbers crowded into a
given space, such as to impregnate both the phy-
sical and moral atmosphere with poisonous quali-
ties. This is, in a measure, unavoidable; "in
the sweat of his face" man is doomed to eat bread;
and we cannot expect that the sphere of industry
in towns should be other than it is in the quality
of its disadvantages; but in the amount of suffer-
ing and of sin, accumulated upon the hapless la-
bourers, how fearfully they are aggravated by
MANUFACTURING POOR.
19
man's refusal to be his brother's keeper, we shall
presently see.
II. The number of hours out of each diurnal
revolution, during which the labourer is compulso-
rily confined in this polluted atmosphere, and tied
to this exhausting routine of toil, enormously
exceeds what the human constitution, in its prime
of strength, can sustain without serious injury.
Twelve hours in the twenty-four is the minimum
for young persons, in the mills and factories
which constitute a main department of this branch,
and no precise limit is set to the toil of adults;
night-work is frequently provided for such as
through extreme necessity are willing to earn a
trifling addition to the day's pay, by robbing their
wretched limbs of their nightly repose: and sui-
cide in this shape is unchecked, yea, encouraged;
while the hand that to the same end grasped a
knife, or knotted a rope, would be struck down
and confined. Indeed, the ordinary day's labour,
in these employments, with the time required
for going and returning, occupies fourteen or
fifteen hours out of each four and twenty. And
the master who hires the factory-labourer, includes
in the bargain the full right to appropriate and dis-
pose of, every faculty of his bodily being, every in-
spiration of his vital breath, during the long day for
which he has agreed to remunerate his toil. His,
do we say! her toil, its toil; for women and children
form the larger portion of those who are so employ-
20
MANUFACTURING POOR.
ed; and neither the delicacy of the woman, nor the
fragility of the child, may establish a plea for ex-
emption, or demand an extra half-hour's rest.
Long before daylight dawns, during the greater
part of the year, and long after it has withdrawn
its last gleam, the continuous task claims its
victim, wholly, unreservedly! God looks down
from heaven upon the children of men, whose frame
he well knows, and whom he never willingly afflicts
or grieves; each one of whom he sent into the world
naked and helpless, and each one of whom in na-
kedness and helplessness must stand before him at
the great day; and what a spectacle does he behold!
Not among savage and barbarous nations, who never
heard of the great Creator and his laws, of the
blessed Redeemer and his love; not among a peo-
ple kept in comparative ignorance of both, by the
substitution of the commandments of men for the
doctrines of revelation,-but in a country where
the knowledge of his will in all things is attainable
by every human being who enquires concerning
it, does this system exist. Here, in England, the
Queen of nations,
The dread and envy of them all,
here, where the Bible is every man's book, and
freedom is every man's birthright, do we find for
the partial aggrandisement of a very few, for their
indulgence in luxurious living, and the rivalry of
display, multitudes chained by the strong fetter of
MANUFACTURING POOR.
21
extreme poverty, to a thraldom that leaves them
absolutely unable to acquaint themselves with
what is no less essential to the pauper than to the
peer; what the latter may indeed neglect, and at
his own peril choke with the riches and pleasures
of this life, but which no man may withhold from
another without braving the extremest wrath of
God. What distinction can be drawn between
the forcible wresting away of a poor man's Bible,
and the exhaustion of his bodily powers to such
a degree, that the very little time allowed him for
rest scarcely suffices to recruit them, and leaves
him neither leisure nor ability for intellectual or
spiritual improvement? All must have expe-
rienced the enfeebling effect produced by physical
over-exertion on the mental faculties; and when
that exertion is merely mechanical,—the recur-
rence of one monotonous, dull routine of almost
stationary labour within the four walls of a building,
in a stagnant atmosphere of heat, dust, and suffo-
cating smells-the grievance of cruelly-protracted
hours becomes more weighty than we are accus-
tomed to consider it, while looking at the bare
fact of lengthened toil: it includes the prostration
of the mind with that of the body; it not only
destroys the health, but slays the soul. Employers
are habituated to talk of men as of machines, and
political economists readily adopt their language;
while balancing their nice calculations, they
generally omit one item in the account-the poor
!
22
MANUFACTURING POOR.
man's soul: discussing the question of surplus
population, they rarely touch upon the momen-
tuous point, of whether the tens of thousands,
yea millions, upon whose fate they are deciding,
shall people heaven or hell. Not that a more
equitable portioning out of time would in itself
lead to the right appropriation of any fraction of
that time on the part of the gainer-experience
too plainly shows the contrary; but to place a
barrier between our fellow man and his highest
duties, is an offence in no wise palliated by the
probability, that if we did not block up the way,
he would still neglect to use his freedom of ap-
proach. We note this down as one of the crying
sins of the nation; and that it is the ground-work
of one of its worst perils, no thinking man who is
not an infidel (and what is infidelity but an aggra-
vated species of wilful idiotcy?) can deny.
III. Vice and demoralization reign unchecked
in these establishments. No rule is abolished by
a few exceptions: we concede that such exist, but
we fearlessly challenge inspection of the mills and
factories throughout the land on this point. There
are masters who take an interest in the well-being
of their servants; who promote virtue and dis-
countenance vice; who adopt a system of watch-
ful surveillance, either in their own persons or by
agents preferred for their moral and spiritual quali-
fications; who repress obscene language, spread a
shield over female modesty, and silence the voice
MANUFACTURING POOR.
23
of blasphemous guilt. Masters, who desire not
only to exclude what is evil, but to inculcate what
is good; and who, because in their estimation the
increase of worldly wealth weighs as a feather
against "the wrath that is revealed against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of man," would
not for cent per cent profit on every shilling they
lay out, meet the woe denounced on such as make
haste to be rich at the expence of the poor, in
temporal things, much less in eternal. Of these
we can but say,
"Their work is with the Lord,
and their reward with their God:" but what pro-
portion do they bear to the bulk of their brethren?
Is it as one to twenty? one to fifty? one to a hun-
dred? We fear it is not.
This, then, is the all-but-universal character of
a factory-the labourers consist of persons of
both sexes and of all ages, from the hoary
transgressor, whose experience in the craft com-
pensates in the employer's sight for the diminution
of his bodily strength, and whose long experience
in iniquity renders him no less effectual in Satan's
service,-down to the little child that cannot yet
attach a meaning to the foul expressions which its
ears drink in. These persons, contributing each
some share to the common stock of evil communi-
cation, with feelings narrowed by perpetual im-
prisonment; soured by contrasting their own
wretched lot with that of the classes for whom they
toil; clouded by exclusion from all with which
24
MANUFACTURING POOR.
God has beautified the face of nature, and gifted
with power at once to refresh, expands, often and
brighten man's mind; irritated by the compulsory
proximity of some who are feared, hated, envied
or despised, where evil passions, like fire, will
rage more fiercely in proportion as they are pent
in by a narrow boundary; and hardened by habi-
tual striving against the dictates of natural con-
science, and the little, the very little they know
of God's holy law, -these people, from the element
in which they live,—an ocean of reckless, raging
profligacy, are prepared to overpower and engulph
every new victim cast upon the surface of its bot-
tomless abyss. Among them marriages are formed
despite the universal licentiousness that seems to
set the sacred tie at defiance; and the young wife
enters upon her domestic duties wholly unac-
quainted with, and unfitted for, their performance.
Her morals may have escaped the practical pol-
lution of the mass, her mind cannot have contin-
ued undefiled in the daily hearing and seeing of
such abominations: and she becomes, if the in-
juries sustained by the crippling nature of her em-
ployment have not incapacitated her from child-
bearing, the mother of infants whom she knows
not to train otherwise than upon factory principles;
who are probably doomed, as soon as their little
limbs shall have gained sufficient strength for the
lightest description of labour, to be driven to the
same shambles, and sacrificed to the same golden
MANUFACTURING POOR.
25
The man, meanwhile,
idol as their parents were.
finding no household fireside rendered pleasant in
its poverty by female neatness and good manage-
ment, cheerfulness and love, betakes himself to
the beer-shop, or the chartist meeting, to be
wrought up by fiery potations and fiery harangues,
to the pitch necessary for whatsoever evil work lies
before him; whether it be in the dens of grovelling
sensuality, or in scenes where the murderer
whets his weapon, and the incendiary trims his
torch. To what better issue can daily attendance
in a school of unrepressed vice be expected to
tend? If all arrive not at this point, to the re-
straining mercy of a long-suffering God be the
praise!
IV. It involves, indirectly, but inevitably, a
fearful amount of infanticide. We do not here
allude to the shortening of youthful life by the
premature labour and unnatural restraint of boys
and girls, but to the mortality of infants, in towns
where large manufacturing populations are located.
More than half of those so born die under the age
of five years. The poor babes must necessarily
inherit many ills through the weakened constitu-
tions of their parents, injured by unremitting toil,
if not by criminal excesses; and just when the
mother's continued care is most essential to the
little one's progress, that mother is absent earning
the scanty subsistence on which her family depends.
The child is left to strangers; or to other children
C
1
26
MANUFACTURING POOR.
a little older than itself. Its infantile wants are
not understood, or not regarded; its cries of help-
less distress are more frequently punished by im-
patient severity than soothed by the tenderness
that a baby's sorrows naturally call forth: its hun-
ger is unappeased, its thirst unassuaged, its chilled
limbs uncherished by warmth, and it dies. Ay,
but it lives elsewhere. Jesus said, "Take heed
that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I
say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always
behold the face of my Father which is in Heaven."
The neglected babe, whose little shell is covered
with a spade-full of earth, and its short existence
forgotten, lives; myriads,-aye, millions of them
live, to bear a fearful witness against the cruel
system that consigned them to the grave.
Added to all this, there is a new and dreadful
feature of the manufacturing system, which of
itself is sufficient to justify the deepest alarm.
We allude to the substitution now rapidly and
extensively taking place, in many great branches
of factory-labour,-of female workers in lieu of
males.
A letter received last summer from a large town
in Yorkshire, said, 'Three years ago at the open-
ing of the morning, you might have seen flocking
into our town, from the hamlets adjacent, more
than seven hundred men who were regularly em-
ployed in the factories of the place. You would
now see them no longer; but in their room you
MANUFACTURING Poor.
27
would see seven hundred women, leaving their
husbands unemployed, and their infants without
female care, and all thronging in to do that very
work which formerly gave occupation and a main-
tenance to their husbands. I need not explain,
that the wages they receive are far lower, the con-
dition of their familes far more miserable, and
that the saving thus effected by their employers,
is the sole cause of this deplorable change.'
From Birmingham one of the most energetic
and well-informed of the clergy writes to the same
effect. Even in the heavy and laborious metallic
works of that place, female labour is rapidly su-
perseding that of the men. The cause is quite
obvious. A woman may be offered ten or even seven
shillings a week, when a male artisan would
expect twenty or twenty-four. Hence vast num-
bers of the men have, within the last two or three
years, been dismissed, and their wives taken on,
to do the same work at lower wages. *
The opera-
tion of the change is deplorable. The man re-
mains bound to the spot, because it is there that
his wife is earning a poor subsistence for himself
and the children. Yet he,-there being hundreds
in the same circumstances, finds it quite impossible
to get any employment. He lounges about the
*"The wages of a woman in Dudley for manufacturing 1200
round-headed hobnails, is 5ąd. These are made with a hammer
weighing one pound and a quarter. Each nail receives twelve-blows.
Consequently the poor woman has to lift 18,000lb. to earn that small
sum." Birmingham Advertiser. July 13, 1843.
C 2
28
MANUFACTURING POOR.
streets, or at the door of the beer-shop, or tries
in vain to supply a mother's place to the mise-
rable and crying children; till exhausted in the
vain attempt, he is driven forth into the streets, a
fit instrument for Chartist or Socialist agitators.
Meanwhile the woman becomes brutalized by her
toil, and by workshop-society, and cares only,
when she returns home at night, for the recruiting
her exhausted strength and spirits by such means
as her poor earnings will afford.
CHAPTER IV.
MINING POOR.
THE horrors of this department have, like their
sable treasuries, being long hidden from the light
of day. Now, drawn from the depths, they
have kindled a twofold fire; on the one part of
vehement indignation, on the other of angry
resentment; aloof from both of which stands a
third party, who, having no immediate interest at
stake, or being imperfectly informed on the
subject, is neither shocked at the disclosures, nor
angry with those who have made them.
recent legislative enactments, some of the worst
features of the system will be removed within a
short time; but, looking at things as they have
been for a long series of years, and as at this day
they still are, we cannot speak prospectively. The
intended removal of females from this sphere of
labour is a matter of great thankfulness; and we
shall best excite that thankful feeling, by giving a
true, though brief and feeble sketch of what is,
By
30
MINING POOR.
;
at this time, still in full operation underground,
and against the possible continuance of which it
behoves the country most vigilantly to guard. It
is no new page in our history that we are about to
consider, though newly opened to the public eye;
and truly it is a page that needs all the authen-
tication we can give it, to vindicate it from the
character of a horrible and a libellous romance.
I. The position of a miner is inevitably one of
unnatural gloom, discomfort, and imminent peril.
The interior of a coal-mine, as described by those
who, without any other object in view than the
gratification of natural or scientific curiosity, have
explored one, is a region of darkness and fear,
sufficient to daunt the boldest spirit, and to sadden
the most mirthful. The usual descent is by a per-
pendicular shaft, varying of course in depth, but
from the bottom of which the wide mouth, with
daylight above it, is described as resembling in size
the palm of a man's hand. The manner of des-
cending shall, by-and-by, be noticed; at present,
we speak only of the place itself. At certain
depths, passages, or galleries, branch off, inter-
secting each other like streets in a city, but often
exceedingly low-roofed, hewn out in the solid bed,
of which immense masses are here and there left,
like huge misshapen pillars, to support the roof,
which would otherwise be liable to break in and
ruin the whole work. Connected with these main
and permanent thoroughfares are others,-excava-
MINING POOR.
31
tions from whence the coal is taken, for convey-
ance to the surface; and these vary in size
according to the thickness of the seam; but if
they be very narrow and low, it is evident that
the acts of detaching and of carrying the coal,
must be performed in positions painfully cramping
and unnatural. Some of these seams are ten yards
in thickness: others ten inches; and in many of
the mines now working, the roads or passages do
not exceed eighteen inches in height!
The closeness of the place would speedily pro-
duce suffocation, were it not ventilated from
above this can only be done effectually by the
sinking of two shafts, a large fire being kept
burning at the foot of one, and the air which des-
cends the other being by this means constantly
borne upwards, after traversing the various pas-
sages-through which it is forced, by means of a
suitable arrangement of doors and partitions—a
supply of fresh atmospheric air is ensured; depen-
dent of course on the pains bestowed in construc-
ting, and the care taken in working, the necessary
apparatus. The heat of these subterranean work-
shops varies so considerably, that the difference of
temperature, in the main road and in the workings,
often ranges to twenty degrees; the latter being
of course the highest. If the ventilation be im-
perfect, the heat in the workings becomes most
offensive; and the character of the gases combined,
the moisture, where the drainage is not very
U
7

32
MINING POOR.
complete, and animal effluvia, render it the most
noisome,-most horrible atmosphere that man's
lungs can inhale. The drainage of a coal-mine
is, indeed, only secondary in immediate impor-
tance to its ventilation; and when it is considered
that not only the ground beneath the feet, but the
roof overhead, frequently assumes the character
of a wet sponge, and that the almost naked bodies
toiling therein are constantly bathed in the pers-
piration which severe muscular exertion and a
close-pent passage of heated air combine to pro-
duce, we may form some estimate of the sufferings
undergone from these continual risings and drip-
pings of a damp the most chill and sepulchral
that can be conceived. Even the horses are
sometimes covered with waxed cloths, to protect
them from the descending streams, while the
water, thickened with coal-dust, often rises so high,
that except the labourers employed, all who pass
are obliged to use a carriage, drawn through this
compound to the depth of a man's knee. Such,
in very brief outline, is for the most part the scene
of a miner's labour; with the addition of all being
wrapped in primeval darkness, save as the glimmer
of candles, and the still more contracted gleam of
the lantern, serve to make that darkness visible:
no ray of natural light, no breath of unfettered air,
no sound from among the many that gladden man's
heart, as he mingles in the daylight haunts of his
fellow man, or crosses the sunshiny meadow, ever
MINING POOR.
33
visit the miner's place of work; but perils fearful
to contemplate impend over him, requiring above
almost any other predicament of human life, that
his way amid the bowels of the earth should be
cleared of all unavoidable enticements to trans-
gression, and the solemn truth allowed to bear
with full force upon his conscience, that "there is
but a step between him and death." The more
common dangers to which they all are generally
exposed are, precipitation down the shaft, to a
depth, perhaps, of some hundred feet, by the
breaking of a rope, or other damage to machinery
employed in the descent and ascent, or from a
false step, giddiness, or overbalancing; being
drawn over the pulley, through carelessness in the
hand employed to turn it, and so flung back into
the shaft; crushing, by the fall of stones, or other
heavy material, down the shafts or in the mines;
drowning in the pits of water; explosions of
gas or of gunpowder, from which no degree of
precaution can always guard the miner; suffoca-
tion by choke-damp, always apt to accumulate;
and being run down by the team-waggons in their
rapid descent, with a load of coal sufficient to
crush the human frame to a jelly. Of these it
would naturally be supposed that the latter class of
perils, the explosions, damps, and crushings,-
were more generally destructive; but the returns
show that a greater extent of mortality results
from the unguarded state of the pit's mouth, and
:
i
C 5
34
MINING POOR.
utter recklessness of those who superintend the
pulleys, and from the neglect of drainage below,
than from any other cause. So little do the lives
of our fellow-creatures sometimes weigh in the
balance against the procurement of some extra
indulgence brought within reach by the augment-
ed produce of their toil, that few are found to
expend in fencing the mouth of a coal-pit, or
paying an adult for attending to the apparatus
usually committed to a young child, the sum
available for modernizing after the newest pattern,
the furniture of a boudoir; or to care for the per-
fect drainage of a damp mine, in preference to
the immediate beautifying of a domain, the pur-
chase of its sable wealth. How far this neglect
operates, we shall see under another head. Hitherto
we have spoken principally of coal-mines: there
are others, namely, iron-stone, tin, copper, lead,
and zinc. The iron-stone mines nearly resemble
the coal, being worked in a very similar manner;
with this difference, that the beds are rarely more
than three feet in thickness, consequently the
space for the movements of the workers is more
painfully confined; and neither horses nor asses
can assist in bringing the iron-stone to the foot
of the shaft. Its great weight renders the car-
riage exceedingly laborious; and these mines
being usually much more wet and cold than the
coal-mines, neither can they be so effectually
ventilated. The other mines are worked in a
MINING POOR.
35
F
dissimilar manner, their productions being princi-
pally embedded in solid rock; and the veins of
metal not lying in horizontal beds, their course
must be followed by boring, and by continual
blasting with gunpowder. It is also obvious, that
due ventilation cannot be supplied through such
shafts and galleries as compose these works; in
fact, after the first blasting in the morning, they
are generally filled with smoke for the day, so
dense, that sometimes the miner can scarcely see
his hand. Steam-engines, and various kinds of
machinery, are requisite for removing the broken
rocks, and raising the continual gushes of water
to the surface. There are instances, as in Alston
Moor, where the labourer's place of work is at
the end of a passage five miles in length from the
level by which he entered; no atmospheric air
reaching him, but such as slowly winds its way,
unassisted by any current, to that distance. In
such instances, the expense of sinking an extra
shaft, or otherwise forming a current, is often
considered more than the mine is worth: the pro-
prietor would rather abandon it; but men and
boys are found so pressed by hunger, as to sub-
ject themselves to every extremity of suffering
inseparable from such fearful exclusion of the
vital element, to earn a morsel of food. Falls
and explosions are the principal causes of injury
in these mines: the descent and ascent are gene-
rally by ladders; a very toilsome exertion where
36
MINING POOR.
the depth is great. Having thus briefly noticed
the points of variation between different descrip-
tions of mines, we will return to those, (the coal-
mines,) by far the most numerous and extensive,
with which we set out, and which open a scene to
the eye of man, from which the eye of God is never
withdrawn though into all the abominations that
are naked and open to Him, we cannot enter. The
work would be liable to a prosecution by the So-
ciety for discountenancing vice, that should only
touch upon certain features of those pandemoniums,
to which some of the noblest and wealthiest of the
land have long consigned the wives and daughters of
their brethren, for the sake of the few paltry
trinkets which may for a season sparkle on their
own.
II. The nature of the ordinary employment in
coal-mines, is to the stout heart of man appalling,
to his vigorous intellect debilitating, to his sinewy
frame in its full maturity exhausting. But of
man we will not now speak, except to individualize
one, the head of a family, which he is bound to
provide with the necessaries of life: we will fix
our gaze on the only means left within his reach
for so providing them, in a mining district; where
what he, by the utmost efforts of willing labour,
can earn, is often utterly insufficient: whence it
follows that ere his wife and babes can eat, they must
be immersed in the untold horrors of those sub-
terranean hells: ere they can be so clad as to meet
MINING POOR.
37
either the breeze of heaven, or the daylight-gaze,
they must labour almost naked in those abodes of
darkness and of the shadow of death. Or, yet worse
than from necessity, men whose natural selfish-
ness has been fostered in this school of hardening
profligacy, and their blunted feelings brought to
crave the perpetual excitement of strong drink
and other gross indulgencies, avail themselves of
the inducements held out to barter there the
health, the morals, the lives, the souls of their
wretched partners and offspring, that they may
themselves revel above ground on the wages of
their cruel sufferings below. Even where humane
proprietors, made acquainted for the first time
with the extent of these atrocities, desire to abate
them, and would willingly alter the system; an
obstacle exists in the interested cruelty of such
men, on whom nothing short of a compulsory law
will operate, to rescue their helpless dependents
from the slavery of the coal-pits.
The coal having been broken off by men, who
are often obliged to lie along on their backs, and
in that position to knock it away, it must be col-
lected and carried to the bottom of the shafts.
To get the skips or vehicles along, various plans
are adopted, where the narrowness of the seam,
or road, renders it impracticable to introduce any
four-footed beast of burden; and, among these, the
girdle and chain prevail, the former being fasten-
ed round the loins; the latter, attached to it,
i
વ
:
!
38
MINING POOR.
passed between the legs, and hooked on the car-
riage, or corve, which is thus drawn along; the
woman, girl, or boy, going on all-fours, .in a posi-
tion of which it is hard to say, whether the pain
or the degradation is the greater. A loaded corve,
perhaps above eight hundred weight, is usually
drawn on an average from three to nine miles a
day: that is to say, twenty journeys are taken upon
a line, it may be of 150, it may be of 400 yards in
length, of which some portion is generally very
much inclined: how terrible the exertion must be
to a delicate girl, or to a woman, often compelled to
continue her toil till within a few hours of giving
birth to a child, may be partially conceived; but the
reality can be understood only by such as suffer it.
And this in darkness, in damp, in extreme cold
and extreme heat alternating, under the control
of men whose discontent and discomfort can vent
themselves in any measure of cruelty on the
poor harnessed slave who works at their beck!
A variety is sometimes introduced in the mode
of working, particularly when it is uphill: instead
of dragging the corve, the guide, or hurrier,
pushes it forward by great force, resting the head
and hand against it; while either upon the car-
riage, or in the front of the hurrier's cap, a bit
of candle is stuck, to light the otherwise rayless
path. It is no unusual thing for a girl of fifteen
or less to lift a single coal of an hundred weight
from the ground to the top of a corve, three feet
MINING POOR.
39
1
high, preparatory to moving on with her burden.
The dress of these young labourers of both sexes
is the same: from seven or eight years of age to
twenty and upwards they may be seen, naked to
to the waist, and having a loose pair of ragged trow-
sers, frequently worn to tatters by the constant
friction of the chain. When the passage is suffi-
ciently high to admit of it, the hurrier faces the
front of the corve, and, by violent effort, pulls it
along, proceeding backwards. In some mines,
there are rails laid down, and long narrow wag-
gons, placed on small wheels, convey the coal;
two or three children are required to move them
at the customary speed; one with girdle and
chain drags on all-fours; two others, with their
heads and the palms of their hands pressed against
the back, thrust it forward, their bodies being
very nearly horizontal, the roof very low, and the
velocity of the waggon rendering it necessary :
for, if not bent to within a few inches of the
ground, their heads would be smashed against the
rugged surface above.
One of the carriages used is an oblong tub,
without wheels, containing three hundred weight
of coals, which is dragged by a woman on a rough
ground, frequently over a considerable ascent.
Where this road is very steep, they usually have
a rope lying loosely on the ground, to cling to,
the position being a very painful stoop, and the
whole weight drawn on by means of a chain pass-
40
MINING POOR.
ing between the legs. A candle, stuck upon the
black wall, here and there, by a bit of wet clay,
throws a sickly glimmer on the drawer's path, and
a young boy or girl, called a thrutcher, pushes
along the tub.
Coal-bearing is another branch of labour assign-
ed to women, girls, and boys, and practised where
no carriage could ascend. This is so very pecu-
liar an exercise, that it deserves a little closer
description. A female is provided with a basket,
shaped somewhat like a cockle-shell, filled with
coals, and which a man can sometimes scarcely
lift to her back, where it is fastened by passing
two straps across her forehead, while she bends
her body as nearly to a semicircular form as possi-
ble. Large pieces of coal are then heaped about
the top of the basket, till the weight, in the case
of a stout girl, has reached a hundred, or a hun-
dred and a half; when she hangs her bit of candle
to the cloth that crosses her head, and begins her
journey. She first has to walk on level ground
eighty-four feet, then to ascend a ladder eighteen
feet high; then to proceed along a road, or pas-
sage, between three feet and a half, and four feet
and a half high: then another ladder, another
road, and so on, till she has traversed a distance
equal to the height of St. Paul's Cathedral.
There she casts her load into the tub, and returns
for another. This work is continued, in the case
referred to, from two in the morning to one or two

MINING poor.
41
in the afternoon. In the east of Scotland the Com-
missioner found one little girl, a beautiful child of
only six years old, whose daily task was to carry
loads of half a cwt. of coal, making with such a
load, fourteen of these long journeys per day!
It frequently happens that the large pieces of
coal heaped loosely upon the bearer's neck, fall
off; and occasionally the band across the forehead
breaks; in either case the falling weight descends
upon the person next behind. Sometimes, in
trying to save or recover the burden, the bearer
loses her footing, and slips from the ladder into
the depth below. The bearing, hurrying, and
drawing, are practised by girls, young women,
and the mothers of large families, up to the very
hour when they find it necessary to hasten home
to give birth to a child, probably dead, through
the mother's previous sufferings; and within the
week after, or at latest in ten or twelve days, they
are again hurried to their post of slavery, and its
subterranean horrors.
But one more branch of the mining occupation
remains to be noticed: it has been stated that the
ventilation of mines is effected by judiciously
arranging passages, and closing them up at proper
points, to prevent a current sweeping along the
narrow roads, to the exclusion of branches that
require an equal supply. Through these doors it
is necessary that the laden carriages, corves, wag-
gons, tubs, &c. should pass, but they must be
1
4.2
MINING POOR.
-
E
instantly closed again. A string is therefore fixed
to the door, and a helper, called a trapper, placed
behind it; who, on hearing the vehicle approach,
pulls the string, holds the door open while the
carriage goes through, and lets it close again di-
rectly. For this work little creatures of eight,
five, yea, four years are chosen, whose fathers
carry them down to the pit even in their night-
gowns, as the evidence has shown, place each
poor babe behind a door, and leave it, crying with
cold and terror, in total darkness for twelve or
fourteen hours; with no one variation of its wretch-
ed employment, so long as a corve is at work in
the mine. This is the practice in England, Wales,
Scotland, (not in Ireland, to the eternal honour
of her race be it recorded:) this, in the land of
infant education, the land of light and liberty!
This has been done by Christian parents, with
the complaisant acquiescence of Christian gentle-
men, noblemen, legislators, and in fact of the
whole country, and we challenge the universe to
outdo it in point of cold-blooded barbarity! It was
shown on evidence, that if the poor babe, ex-
hausted by fretting, and pining for the rest so
absolutely needful for infancy, should fall asleep
in the still darkness of its frightful prison, a beat-
ing would be the consequence; and a little expe-
rience of the weight of a man's fist soon teaches
the trembling creatures to devise means for re-
maining awake. Sometimes they beg a small
MINING POOR.
43
!
end of candle from a compassionate hurrier as he
passes, and that gives them a few moments of
comparative cheerfulness. Some of the older
children, who may have learned their letters, will
take a little book, perhaps; but it is only when a
few drops of tallow are bestowed, that it can be
looked into. A little girl said to the Commis-
sioners, I have to trap without a light, and I'm
scared. I go at four, and sometimes half-past
three in the morning, and come out at five and
half-past. I never go to sleep. Sometimes I sing
when I've light, but not in the dark; I dare not
sing then.' In the Cumberland colleries, the
expenditure is submitted to of providing a small
candle for the poor little trapper at his monoton-
ous post; but this is not the case in other quarters:
and it is enough to appal man's spirit, to think on
the impartial eye that beholds without an inter-
vening obstruction, the poor man's solitary child
immured in ebon darkness, suffering what the
hardened felon in his cell is not condemned to
endure; and the blaze of light that falls on the
jewelled assembly, luxuriating in the drawing-
room of that poor child's enriched employer.
That such things should have been laid before the
British public, printed by order of Parliament, and
made known, through our public press, in every
corner of the civilized globe, is a humiliating
thought; and when viewed in connexion with our
high privileges of light and knowledge, and the pro-
44
MINING POOR.
fession of a pure faith, it becomes the more alarm-
ing; because we cannot expect that He who ruleth
over all, will permit such deeds to come before the
world as though they consisted with that religion,
of which the golden rule is, "Whatsoever ye
would that men should do unto you, that do ye
likewise unto them.'
III. But we have now to enquire into the moral
state of the mining population, necessarily re-
sulting from their mode of life; and here a scene of
deepened gloom opens upon us, but faintly cheered
by approaching amelioration: for the evil has ex-
isted so long and so widely in full vigour, that a
generation must pass away ere the frightfully
demoralizing effects of what may be discontinued,
but cannot be recalled, can cease to operate. In-
deed, the transfer to the surface, of a body of
females so utterly hardened in the gross depravities
of the mines, must, for a time, spead contamina-
tion on all sides. This is the deadly consequence
of sin it produces its own punishment, as na-
turally as the tree bears its own fruit. We may
cease to connive at the fearful oppression that has,
in this department, ground down our female poor;
but we cannot remove the sable stain from their
minds, by ceasing to smear their bodies with the
filth of our coal-pits; nor remove the fetter of sin
from their souls, while unloosing from their loins
the degrading chain that yokes them to the corve.
Individual repentance alone can stay this flood of
:
MINING POOR.
45
iniquity, thus to be turned into a different channel;
and only national repentance can avert the issue,
as regards the reckless desperation of tens of
thousands, steeled in habitual guilt, loving the
wages of iniquity, and exasperated by the with-
drawal at once of the gains acquired by the un-
natural toil of their own female dependants, and
the criminal gratifications constantly afforded them
by the presence of their neighbours' wives and
daughters in this pandemonium of licentiousness.
It is easy to corrupt a people; but to restore to
the way of righteousness such as have utterly
fallen from it, or to bring into the good paths
those whom we have prevented from seeking them
early, and led or driven into the very midst of the
strongest temptations, is hard indeed!
In reference to this distressing branch of the
subject, we have shown that the persons em-
ployed are of both sexes and all ages; that a great
proportion of them work almost entirely naked,
the one ragged garment they wear not being avail-
able even for purposes of decency; and that the
place of their labour is of wide extent, divided
into low narrow passages and cells; all utterly dark,
save where a candle at long intervals glimmers
against the black walls, or is attached to their own
head-gear, or to the carriage they draw. The
coal-getters, and some other classes of workers
must be men; a large proportion of the hurriers,
drawers, and bearers, who wait on them, are fe-
46
MINING POOR.
males; and these again are promiscuously mixed
in their field of labour with lads and youths. No
circumstances can possibly be conceived more
inevitably tending to general profligacy; and that
the most abandoned vice does reign in the mines,
transforming the female character into something
so depraved that their language and conduct are
described as being far worse than the men's, is but
too well attested. No visitor can pass among them,
without being shocked by the obscenity of their
discourse, and the indecency of their appearance;
and even the men, whose worst passions are con-
tinually excited and gratified by their presence,
are often known, in sober moments, to express a
wish that females were excluded from the pits.
Added to the powerful influence of constant per-
suasion to sin, is the total absence of all restraining
principle. Commencing in infancy the miner's
career, they cannot have enjoyed even a glimpse
of decent education. Many are carried down
before they can speak plainly, and not a few have
passed years without seeing daylight except on the
sabbath. In some districts, no doubt, Sunday
and Adult Schools are provided; but even if com-
pelled to attend them, what degree of application
to the dull contents of a spelling-book, can be
expected from persons to whom the very light that
streams through the window is a dazzling novelty,
and every passing object seen under its beam a
rare attraction? The testimony of all engaged
MINING POOR.
47
in the enquiry, goes to establish the fact, that
wretchedness in some of its most degrading forms
characterizes the mining population; and a harvest
must be reaped from what is already sown, before
we can prepare the ground to yield a different crop.
IV. In reference to the effects on children, of
mining occupations, there are a few points which re-
main to be noticed. The Act recently passed pro-
vides for the rescue of all girls, and of boys under ten
years old. But at that age the latter may be appren-
ticed, and for eight years; and the fate to which
the greater part of them are doomed is dreadful
indeed. They are principally taken from the most
helpless and pitiable class, the orphan or deserted
pauper-children, sheltered in workhouses; who
have not, upon earth, a friend to defend their
cause, or to succour them when oppressed. These
are bound to the men permanently employed in
mines, and whatever the selfish indolence, caprice
or savage ill-temper of their owners may see fit
to inflict upon them, that they must bear. Fright-
ful outrages are common, where these defenceless
boys are found unequal to the stretch of laborious
exertion required of them. A very common mode
of punishment is by flinging a large coal at the of
fender, the weight of which, and its sharp, jagged,
angular edges, may inflict at one blow bruises and
cuts sufficient to torture him for many a day;
the latter especially, being irritated by the per-
petual admission of coal-dust into the wounds.
48
MINING POOR.
Extreme barbarity is a too frequent feature in the
dispositions of those who, having outgrown alike
their own turn of similar suffering, and every
kindly impulse cherished beneath the light of day,
and in the social circle, have only two propensities
to satisfy in those dreary dens of midnight gloom
-the rage of licentiousness and the rage of
tyranny. It may be expected, that the removal
of what now gratifies the one, will render the
other more pitiless in its exactions; and many a
gust of fury must the poor little fellows encounter.
Common humanity pleads their cause within our
bosoms; but there is a voice much nearer to us
all, even that of self-preservation, which demands
attention to their case: for the God of heaven is
bound, by His own immutable word, to show
Himself the avenger of such. No being, however
obscure or insignificant, is hidden from His view;
"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?" said
the Lord Jesus, "and one of them shall not fall
to the ground without your Father." How much
more valuable than many sparrows, must be an
heir of immortality, in the sight of Him who
breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life! If
there be to Him any difference between the infant
cradled in down and pillowed on satin, and the
babe that moans out its unheeded wants from a
truss of mouldy straw, it surely arises from the
tender compassion with which He, who shed his
own blood for the sin of the world, regards the
MINING POOR.
4.9
inheritor alike of Adam's iniquity, and of the
original doom pronounced upon the culprit-one
who must eat bread in the sweat of his face, in
labour also and in sorrow all the days of his life.
There is a perpetual testimony against us going
up from this neglected and afflicted class of suff-
erers: a class which might be trained to become
a social and national blessing; who, having no
acknowledged ties to divide their affection, would
attach themselves closely to the benevolent guides
and guardians of their helpless years; and, on
that principle, would prove loyal, faithful subjects;
instead of growing up, as now they do, the most
degraded of slaves, to become the most reckless.
of insurgents, and the fiercest of tyrants.
We have done with this department; not that
the subject is exhausted, for in truth we have not
fairly entered into it; but because, unhappily, a
multitude of rival topics press upon us. As in
the case of the manufacturing poor, it is freely ad-
mitted that there are exceptions to the account
we have given; nay, that whole counties are com-
paratively free from some of the worst features of
the system. Still, the picture we have drawn is
faithfully copied from the official reports of the
government commissioners; and the abuses we
have detailed have both a real and a very extensive
existence.
D
:
CHAPTER V.
THE WORKSHOP LABOURERS.
We have already spoken of the employment in
Mills and Factories; and in the Mines. There
is another branch or division, which embraces those
many thousands of the people who are employed
in workshops. This term includes many trades;-
hardware, earthenware, paper, tobacco, &c. &c.
In these branches of trade the continual in-
crease of competition presses with constantly in-
creasing weight on the poor labourers. In the iron
manufactures especially, the children are put to
the vice as early as seven years of age,' and 'I met
with one little boy,' says the Sub-Commissioner,
'who had been put to chain-making at four years
of age.'* And the workmen, on whom these
infants attend, 'stand filing at the vice sometimes
from four or five in the morning till eleven or twelve
at night.' 'One, even of the more respectable em-
* Second Report of the Commission, p. 7.
THE WORKSHOP LABOURERS.
51
ployers, admits in his return that he has carried
on his works sometimes for nineteen or twenty
hours a day, boys as well as men..'*
It is in some of these laborious employments that
the employment of females in lieu of males, has lat-
terly become so general. In screw manufactories,
the female constitute from 80 to 90 per cent. of
the whole number employed. Mr. James James,
screw-manufacturer, employs about 60 men, and
300 females. In Stourbridge and its vicinity
great numbers of girls are occupied in chain-
making, as well as in nailing.'*
The worst part of the case, however, is, the
brutal treatment to which these poor children,
(girls and boys) are subjected. On this point the
fairest course will be, simply to reprint one con-
secutive passage from the Commissioner's Report.
It runs thus :—
❝***,
***, aged eleven :- Works at keys; is an
in-door apprentice; has not enough to eat some-
times goes without his breakfast, because he has
too much work to do before breakfast, and he
can't do it; often goes without his dinner for the
same reason; his master often beats him with a
cane on his hand. ' * * *, aged twelve: Works
at latches; has not enough to eat;
C
his master is a
once knocked
cursing at him every day of his life;
him down with his fist; catched him a blow
across the face, and kicked him when he was
* Second Report, p. 51.
+ Ibid, p. 16.
D 2
52
WORKSHOP LABOUrers.
6
down; knocked his head against the wooden
stump, so that he didn't know where he was for
a few minutes, when he came to himself his
master began to curse at him, and swore at him,
his eyes and limbs, and all manner of that.'
*** aged twelve: 'His master beats him with a
seat-rod-a stick as thick as a finger-every week,
very much. It's for not working as hard as usual
sometimes; and this happens to him because he often
has a bad head-ache and stomach-ache-very bad.'
***, aged thirteen: Does not have enough to
eat; his mistress does not give him enough; if he
asked her for more, his master would beat him.
His master often beats him with a whip with four
lashes to it, and tied in knots; his master beats
him for not doing enough work, and he could not
do more-not able to do more. His master often
gets drunk; does not beat him when he is drunk,
but goes to bed.' ***, aged sixteen: 'His
master stints him from six in the morning till ten
and sometimes eleven at night, as much as ever
he can do; and if he don't do it, his master gives
him no supper, and gives him a good hiding, some-
times with a big strap, sometimes with a big stick.
His master has cut his head open five times-once
with a key and twice with a lock; knocked the
corner of a lock into his head twice-once with
an iron bolt, and once with an iron shut-a thing
that runs into the staple. His master's name is
of Little London. There is another
WORKSHOP LABOUrers.
53
apprentice besides him, who is treated just as bad.'
* * *, aged fifteen : • Works at knob-locks with
Is a fellow-apprentice with-
Lives in the house of his master. Is beaten by his
master, who hits him sometimes with his fists, and
sometimes with the file-haft, and sometimes with a
stick—it's no matter what, when he's a bit cross:
sometimes hits him with the locks; has cut his head
open four or five times; so he has his fellow-appren-
tice's head. Once when he cut his head open with a
key, thinks half a pint of blood run off him.' ***
aged fourteen: 'Has been an in-door apprentice
three years. Has no wages; nobody gets any wages
for him. Has to serve till he is twenty-one. His
master behaves very bad. His mistress behaves
worst, like a devil; she beats him; knocks his
head against the wall. His master goes out a-
drinking, and when he comes back, if anything's
gone wrong that he (the boy) knows nothing
about, he is beat all the same. ***, aged six-
teen: 'Works at brass padlocks. Lives with his
master. His master beats him, sometimes with
one thing, sometimes with another; sometimes
with a small hammer-handle, sometimes with a
stick; says he'll clam his guts to fiddle-strings if
he does not do more work, work as hard as he can ;
says he'll cut his eyes out; he is always threaten-
ing to do some unlawful thing, please your Wor-
ship; and does not clothe me properly. On
Friday last his master set about him with a stick,
because he did not do his work to please him:
*
54
WORKSHOP LABOUrers.
"
it was not his fault; it was because he did not do
more in a short time; and he could not do more,
work as hard as he could. Has no wages. His master
never gives him a farthing. There are three other
apprentices; treats all alike, except the oldest,
who is nearly out of his time.' ***, aged six-
teen: His master sometimes hits him with his
fist, sometimes kicks him; gave him the black eye
he has got beat him in bed while he was asleep,
at five in the morning, because he was not up to
work. He came up stairs, and set about him-set
about him with his fist. Has been over to the
public office, Brummagem, to complain; took a
note with him, which was written for him; his
brother gave it to the Public Office there, but they
would not attend to it; they said they could
do no good, and gave the note back. He had been
beaten at that time with a whip-handle-it made
wales all down his arms and back and all; every
body he showed it to said it was scandalous.
Wishes he could be released from his master, who's
never easy but when he's a-beating of me. Never
has enough to eat at no time; ax him for more,
he won't gie it me.'
"***, aged seventeen :
ther to take his part.
'Has no father or mo-
His master once cut his
head open with a flat file-haft, and used to pull his
ears nearly off; they bled so he was obliged to go
into the house to wipe them with a cloth.' ***,
aged fifteen: The neighbours who live agen the
6
WORKSHOP LABOURERS.
55
"
shop will say how his master beats him; beats him
with a strap, and sometimes a nut-stick; sometimes
the wales remain upon him for a week; his mas-
ter once cut his eyelid open, cut a hole in it, and
it bled all over his files that he was working
with.'***, aged eighteen: His master once
ran at him with a hammer, and drove the iron-
head of the hammer into his side-he felt it for
weeks; his master often knocks him down on the
shop-floor; he can't tell what it's all for, no more
you can; don't know what it can be for un-
less it's this, his master thinks he don't do enough
work for him. When he is beaten, his master
does not lay it on very heavy as some masters do,
only beats him for about five minutes at a time;
should think that was enough, though.' ***,
aged fifteen: 'Every day his master is cursing of
him, never satisfied. Once had a warrant against
his master, and three or four for his son, who
used to beat him. Fetched the summonses him-
self from Wolverhampton, and gave them to Mr.
than you can
C
the constable, who never served them. Is
ill-treated by all the family; can never please
them, though he tries to do it; they make a slave
of him.' ***, aged seventeen nearly: Works
at rim-locks; is beaten nearly every other day;
last time his master gave it him he went up the
garden and fetched two sticks down, and when he
once begins he hardly ever knows when to leave
off; he brought two sticks to use, one when the
56
WORKSHOP LABOURERS.
other wore out with beating him; the sticks are
ashen plant, and twist round the body when they
hit, and there's knots in them half an inch long;
he mostly brings two sticks at a time, and threat-
ens to bring half a dozen. This is because he
does not do his work so well as he should do some-
times, but his master has no patience with a lad to
learn; he does his work as well as he can, and he
can't do it no better. His master once cut a piece
stick.'
out of his arm with a
"Thomas Lyons, aged twenty: His master hit
him on the head with a hammer because he was
not getting on fast enough; the blow cut his head
open, and he fainted away; when he recovered,
the blood had been stopped by his master with
some fur off his hat; he had to go on immediately
with his work; his master said he should do his stint,
if he worked till twelve o'clock at night. A day or
two after his master turned him out of doors; no
words had occurred between them after the blow
with the hammer; not any words at all; he had
never used any bad language to his master, nor
had refused to do work; he was turned out because
his master's brother's wife who lived with them
did not like to have the trouble of him in the
house, to wash his things and make the bed and
things, so his master turned him out of doors,
telling him if he came there again he would beat
him out with the besom-staff, or kill him, or send
him to Stafford gaol for the rest of his time.'
WORKSHOP LABOUrers.
57
و
"***, aged fifty-six: 'Is a gridiron and cha-
fing-dish maker; has lived in Willenhall more than
44 years; knows one of the apprentices of Robert
——, locksmith; thinks that the boy is often
half-starved; has seen him without stockings, and
his shoes large enough for his master, with all his
toes hanging out besides; the boy begged of wit-
ness three times for something to eat; the boy
was always in a wretched condition; has heard
him say that his mistress boils grey peas for their
dinner without any bacon, and they had the water
the peas were boiled in next morning for break-
fast:
has heard that his master, Mr.
had his house searched when he lived at Dar-
laston, on suspicion of having murdered one of
his apprentices, and buried him in the cellar;
"knows that the apprentices of Robert
are very hardly used.'
C
""
***, aged thirty-
four: Believes from the appearance of the boys
that they are very badly used; hardly a shoe
on their feet in the winter; has seen the marks
on the head of one of the boys [George Hine]
after a beating; the boy told him that his mistress
had beaten him with a pair of tongs; can take
his oath that there was a scab on the boy's head
two inches long; the boy's head was so sore, he
said, he dared not comb his hair. Last Sunday
the same boy came to school with a black eye,
and swelled quite bad across the forehead—it was
last Sunday as ever was. The boy last winter told
D 5
58
WORKSHOP LABOURERS.
him that once he was warming himself by the fire
after coming out of the cold air (not properly
clothed to turn out), and his mistress seized him
and dashed him down flat on the bricks; his head
struck upon the bricks, and the boy told him he
did not come to himself for five or ten minutes.'
"
"
"***, aged twenty-nine :- Worked as ajour-
neyman at Robert, locksmith, about three
months ago; Robert used his apprentices
shamefully; they are often half starved; such
victuals as they have pigs wouldn't eat-not unless
something was put to sweeten it. They have the
water that grey peas have been boiled in, for
breakfast, with a small bit of bread after, but not
half enough; the boys are always clammed' [not
enough to eat]; the boys have often been to his
house to ask for a bit of pudding. Has seen Ro-
bertbeat the boys dreadful; generally beat
them with a stick; sometimes give them punches
in the face with his fist till they bleed shameful.
Good boys they were to work, too, as ever he
saw: never impudent to the master; never turned
out a word amiss to their master; the boys dare
not tell anybody. The wife and all, Mrs.
is just as bad as the master; she would lay hold
of the hair of the boys before breakfast, and lug
them as long as she could stand over them; she
also punched them in the face with her fist, like
a man fighting with another man; the boys never
turned again; were always ready to go down on
WORKSHOP LABOURERS.
59
their knees to beg pardon, so frightened; the
more they begged, the worse they were beat.
The boys have often shown him wounds and black
flesh; they have always black flesh on 'em ; yes,
and cuts too, on their arms; these wounds have
been shown him the next morning. He wanted
the boys to go to a constable then, he said he
would be their friend, and speak for them, but
the boys daredn't. He left's workshop
because he could not bear to see him leather the
boys in that way; and told him so. (Signed.) ***’
The Sub-commissioner remarks, As this
witness uttered the last words, it seemed as if
the recollection of what he had seen made him
turn sick and faint. He turned quite pale. He
was a very decent journeyman, now in the employ
of
"***, aged thirty-nine; parent: 'Believes the
boys have not enough to eat; believes that they
are shamefully beaten; one of them once turned
up his trowsers and showed his flesh where he had
been beaten, and she saw from the heel to the
hip it was as black as that grate; it was the
colour of the iron grate, with the beating. She
could hardly help crying to look at it; it's shame-
ful the hours they work-the ragged clothes they
wear; and is sure they want proper food the
boys told her with their own mouth that they did
not know what it was to have butcher's meat above
once a-week, and that often a red-herring was
60
WORKSHOP LABOURers,
divided between two for dinner; her children like-
wise saw the black marks of the beating."*
Dreadful, also, are the sufferings of these poor
children, from the mere want of food.
The state-
ments of the Report are such as these:-
"The children employed in some of the trades
of Birmingham are stated to be in a deplorable
condition as to food and clothing. On questi-
oning them,' says the Sub-commissioner, I found
that they seldom if ever had enough to eat, and
many of them were in rags. This appears to be
more particularly the case with the pin-makers.
'About half of the headers,' says one of the wit-
nesses, 'appear to have enough to eat, and are
pretty well clothed: the other half don't ever
know what it is to have enough to eat; some
often come without breakfast. Has seen some
bring a pennyworth of bread with nothing to it
to last the whole day. If Mr. Field did not lend
the children a trifle of money, as a penny, they
often would have no food.'
*** Often comes
without his breakfast; he and his brother had none
yesterday or the day before, because his mother
had none in the house; got nothing to eat till one
o'clock.' *** Has not had more than two or
three meals this week; never gets enough to eat.'
'Cases have occurred of children staying from
eight in the morning till seven at night without
having food.'- Knows that sometimes these
* Second Report, p. 81–83.
WORKSHOP LABOURERS.
61
:
:
children get no breakfast, and have nothing till
dinner-time; if the men did not sometimes help
them by giving them part of their own dinners,
they would have scarcely anything to eat; believes
this is the same in any manufactory in the general
way of trade.'-' Has made attempts to improve
the condition of the children, by giving them
aprons and cotton dresses. but found that imme-
diately some of the children left, and believes
that most of their things were taken by the
parents and pawned.'-' They are generally badly
clothed, the best part in this shop have neither
shoes nor stockings, winter nor summer. Their
body clothes, which are very slight and insufficient,
are often ragged.'-' Witness thinks, from the
pallid countenances of the headers, from their long
confinement and work, from their want of suffi-
cient food and clothing, that they are in an un-
healthy and weakly state. Headers occasion-
ally are away from illness, more so than other
children in the manufactory. Has not known any
case of deformity from this work. Headers have
often the appearance of being stinted in their
growth; the generality of them are short and
weakly; they are badly clothed and "the poorest
of the people." Thinks they have not sufficient
food. They often come in winter without shoes
or stockings, and very slight garments, indeed
scarcely to cover their nakedness. Many of the
children,' says the Sub-Commissioner, 'whom I
62
WORKSHOP LABOURERS.
:
examined, were very pale and weakly in appear-
ance; in many cases this depended more on the
want of sufficient food and other necessaries than
on the nature of the employment.'*
The inevitable consequence of this utter dis-
regard of all the obligations of parent or employer,
is seen in the fearful depravity which prevails
among these poor creatures. Are not the following
statements quite appalling?-
•
"Of the moral condition of the youthful popula-
tion in the Wolverhampton district, Commissioner
Horne says, Putting together all I elicited from
various witnesses and conversations with working
people, abroad and at home, and all that fell under
my own observation, I am obliged to come to the
conclusion that the moral virtues of the great
majority of the children are as few in number
and as feeble in practice as can well be conceived
of those who are born in a civilized country,
surrounded by religious and educational institu-
tions, and by individuals anxious for the improve-
ment of the condition of the working classes.'
He adds, of Willenhall, 'A lower condition of
morals, in the fullest sense of the term, could not
I think, be found. I do not mean by this that
there are many more prominent vices among them,
but that moral feelings and sentiments do not
exist among them. They have no morals.'
'In general the children and young persons
* Second Report, p. 100.
WORKSHOP LABOURERS.
63
'
•
who came under his notice and examination are
stated to have but little sense of moral duty
towards their parents, and little affection for them.
I attribute this,' he says, 'in a great measure to
the children being sent out to work at such early
ages, and with so little consideration or care for
anything but their weekly earnings. The child
instinctively feels that it is used as a mere bit of
machinery. Its affections towards the authors of
its being are soon weaned and worked out.
Brothers and sisters are separated at an early
age-go to different kinds of work-and soon lose
all mutual affection or interest, if any had existed.
They often appear to know very little of each
other, scarcely having had time to become ac-
quainted since the period of infancy."
(C
Many of these poor children are so oppressed
by the circumstances in which they are placed,
that they are even sunk below the consciousness
of the misery of their condition. The uncom-
plaining nature of the evidence taken from so
many children and young persons in painful
circumstances, I can but consider,' observes
Mr. Horne, is in itself an evidence of the
poverty of their spirit and moral nature. Many
of these poor children, deposing that they work-
ed from twelve to fourteen hours a-day for 1s. 6d.
or 2s 6d. a-week, not a penny of which they had
for their own use, and often without any regular
hours for their meals (as in some of the founde-
64
WORKSHOP LABOUrers.
"
ries); who were clothed in rags; who acknowledged
that they often felt sick or otherwise ill, and that
they had not enough to eat; who were sometimes
'beaten badly,' but who 'only felt it for a day or
two,'-have still replied that they liked their
work,'-' were well treated,'-' were only punish-
ed when they deserved it,' &c. They evidently
knew of nothing else but to wake and go to work
from day to day, and to continue working until
permitted to leave off. Such a question as Do
you feel tired?' had never before been asked
them, and they did not understand it, or only
comprehended its purport in some vague sense.
It will be requisite, therefore, to distinguish
between those whose evidence shows nothing to
complain of, and those whose evidence shows much
wretchedness, but who uttered no complaint.
•
"In all the Sheffield trades employing large num-
bers of children, it is stated that there is a much
closer intermixture of the younger children with
the elder youths, and with the men, than is usual
in the cotton, woollen, and flax manufactories; and
that the conversations to which the children are
compelled to listen would debase their minds and
blunt their moral feelings, even if they had been
carefully and virtuously educated; but that of
course this result takes place more rapidly and
completely in the case of those who have had little
or no religious culture, and little but bad example
before their eyes, from their cradle upwards. It
WORKSHOP LABOUrers.
65
is also the general practice in the trades of this
town for the parents to let out their children to
individual workmen at an unusually early age, so
that during the period intervening between child-
hood and manhood these children become inde-
pendent of parental control, being, in fact,
'throughout the whole of this industrial commu-
nity, entirely their own masters as to habits, hours,
education, and religious instruction, before they
are fourteen years of age.'
"Thus left wholly to themselves, before they are
capable of self-government, very few of these
young people attend a place of worship on Sun-
day. On the contrary, it is the common practice
not only for the elder youths, but even for the
younger children, to spend this day in gambling
for halfpence in the streets and outskirts of the
town. 'One Sunday,' says Mr. Symons, 'at
about one o'clock, I counted 205 children loiter-
ing or playing as I walked along one street in
Sheffield, which is about 500 yards in length. I
counted those who were near enough in the streets
which ran out of it; but I counted none who
were apparently passing along, but only those who
were playing or lounging about. On my return
in the evening I counted 228. The streets are a
common resort on Sundays, and the contamina-
tion hence arising is deplorable. Dog-fighting is
also a common Sunday recreation.'
"The clergymen and other witnesses concur in
ง
66
WORKSHOP LABOURERS.
giving the same testimony. On Sundays,' they
say, and especially on Sunday afternoons, it is
impossible to pass along the highways or to walk
in the more retired paths, beyond the police
boundaries, without encountering numerous groups
of boys, from twelve years and upwards, engross-
ed in what is locally termed 'pinching,' i. e.,
gaming for copper coin.' 'Insubordination to
parental authority, leading to insubordination to
all authority,' is stated to be very general.
6
·
Habits of drinking are formed at a very early
age, malt liquor being generally introduced into
the workshops, of which the youngest children
are encouraged to partake. Very many,' say
the police officers, frequent beer-shops, where
they play at dominos, bagatelle, &c., for money
or drink.' Early intemperance is assigned by the
medical men as one cause of the great mortality
of Sheffield. There are beer-houses,' says the
Rev. Mr. Farish, attended by youths exclu-
sively, for the men will not have them in the same
houses with themselves. In these beer-houses the
youth of both sexes are encouraged to meet, and
scenes destructive of every vestige of virtue or
morality ensue."*
"
"Some of the witnesses state that the passen-
gers in the street are sometimes grossly insulted
and pelted with dirt by these young people.'
'On the eve of Saint Monday they shoulder the
* Second Report, p. 177, 178.
WORKSHOP LABOURERS.
67
white cravats from the causey, or extend a leg to
throw down the passer-by, to the disgust and
astonishment of foreigners. Their horrid words,
their ferocious gestures, their hideous laughter,
their brutal, bloated, mindless faces, appal and
amaze the stranger.'
9 99
We cannot quit any part of this dreadful
subject, especially one in which the details are
so revolting, without constantly repeating our
ready admission, that in every branch some
honorable exceptions may be found. But it will
be obvious that these exceptions, by proving the
absence of all necessity for the existence of these
evils, go to make the more clear and certain the
guilt of the great mass. It is but too true, that
a conscientious recollection of the obligations of
an employer, is but rarely found: the condemna-
tion of the great majority will be this, that neither
the comfort or the morals, the temporal or the
eternal welfare of their work-people, is allowed
to occupy any share in their thoughts.
CHAPTER VI.
COMMERCIAL CLASSES.
THIS branch takes a wider range. Viewed in re-
ference to the working-classes, it embraces a va-
riety of callings and employments, impossible to
specify. The number is very large of those who
live by receiving an article in its raw or unformed
state and returning it fit for the market. Some
do it independently, at their own dwellings; others
assemble under the eye of their employer, and
work in a body. Others, again, purchase the ar
ticle, and make what profit they can by selling it
at an advance, either as they received it, or with
additions, the result of their own labour or inge-
nuity. This kind of subsistence is more uncertain
and precarious than that of a hired workman; but
it also savours more of liberty and respectability
in the estimation of its pursuers, which leads al-
most every one with a little money at hand to
embark in some commercial speculation, however
humble. It is, indeed, quite the genius of the
English, their earliest habits of thought leading
COMMERCIAL CLASSES.
69
them in that direction; and it would be well for
the country if a greater share of humane obser-
vation was fixed on these poor people, and encou-
ragement always given to their laudable struggles
to rise above want. How severe those struggles
are, and how bitter the privations endured, a little
examination will soon show. We will divide
them under two heads
I. Those who, at the outset, have a small capital
with which to trade.
II. Those who can only calculate on the pro-
duce of to-day's industry for means to carry on
business tomorrow: their whole support depending
on the surplus gain, after deducting that necessary
expenditure.
Petty shopkeepers, pedlars, and hucksters of all
kinds, belong to the former division. Those also
who deal in ready-made articles, the raw material
of which is principally vended by the former. It
does not often, perhaps, occur to persons who
proudly contemplate the rising column of Eng-
land's commercial greatness, that the poor emaci-
ated creature who presses on them, as she crosses
their path, her pincushions and kettle-holders for
sale, is a legitimate member of the order for which
they entertain so just a respect. She has become
possessed of a few shreds by purchase, or through
the bounty perhaps of some compassionate maid-
servant, and having exerted the best of her judg-
ment and skill in fashioning them, she brings
.. فقد خان
70
COMMERCIAL CLASSES.
i
them into the market; with a far greater stake
depending on the success of her speculation, than
the most princely merchant on 'change, perhaps,
ever risked. This is, certainly, going low in the
scale of commercial enterprize, when a few rem-
nants of printed calico, or shreds of faded silk
form the staple; but it affects the sustenance, very
likely, of some half-dozen hungry children and
their parents, Britons born, heirs of a liberty
that none can curtail; and among other things.
too often, the liberty to starve in the midst of
golden abundance, because their wares are too
homely and their persons too humble to attract
attention.
But we must take a higher class to illustrate
the mischievous principle now at work. A young
man opens a small shop-we will say of linen-
drapery, in a neighbourhood where an establish-
ment of the kind already exists: in former times,
what would have been his plan? He must have
commenced in a modest way, according to his
means, and by sound goods, fair prices, and steady
attention, endeavoured to establish a character
that should enlarge his custom, yielding him an
increasing profit, and in the end building up a bus-
iness. Patience, assiduity, and integrity, he would
have regarded as the elements of his future pros-
perity; and whatever his private wishes may be,
he would indignantly disclaim any purpose of seek-
ing to rise by a neighbour's ruin. Such times, are
1
.:
COMMERCIAL CLASSES.
71
unhappily, at an end; a new system is in opera-
tion; and the young tradesman's first care will be
to advertize that he will undersell all others in
the same line. He rests on the chance of thus
drawing away the customers of some long-esta-
blished and perhaps fair-dealing fellow tradesman;
he expends a large proportion of his limited capi-
tal in showy embellishments, to make it appear
that he can afford a superfluous outlay, and to en-
trap such as are caught by external display. He
procures goods on the same principle; flimsy,
gaudy, and perishable; which he arranges accord-
ing to the most attractive plan that he can devise,
to catch the passenger's eye. He has, of course,
two prices: but at the commencement he allows
everything to go off below its proper value, and
unless the neighbouring tradesman lowers his
terms, at a considerable present loss, and at great
hazard as to the future, crushing in its birth this
attempt at competition, it is probable he may suc-
ceed in securing a pretty large custom, and go on
for a time with every prospect of realizing his ex-
pectations. But bye-and-bye, a new comer, at-
tracted by his apparent success, opens a second
opposition-shop, promising to undersell both the
former. Then begins the strife; the grand
struggle to keep up appearances, and by a further
sacrifice of just profit, to drive away the intruder.
A young man who has laid out his small capital
in this way, cannot long contend against present
72
COMMERCIAL CLASSES.
loss, decreasing custom, and the feverish anxiety
inseparable from so exciting a conflict. He, per-
haps, becomes more reckless in his dealings, and
by the discovery of unequivocal frauds, is over-
whelmed with disgrace; or, if really forced,
against conscience and inclination, to adopt a sys-
tem now become general, he droops under what
he cannot remedy, and soon falls a victim. What
his future lot may be, no one can predict: but the
ranks of our army, the walls of our workhouses,
and alas! the hulks of our convict-ships could ex-
hibit many a living illustration of this statement,
many a man who would cheerfully have entered
on, and steadily pursued, the good old slow-coach
method of establishing an honest business; but
who has been, by the altered habits and circum-
stances of the times, borne on the railway of ar-
tificial locomotion to the terminus of hopeless
ruin.
There is, besides, another class, most extensive,
and intimately connected with the foregoing, not
however, employed en masse, or hired by the day,
as in factories, mines, and farms: they form the
operative section of the commercial world, gene-
rally working at their homes, and paid, not accord-
ing to the number of hours, but the amount of
work done by them. Of course, their employ-
ment is very uncertain; and the same pernicious
system of competition by underselling each other's
labour makes havoc among them. We will in-
COMMERCIAL CLASSES.
73
stance a few trades, with some particulars that
will point out the evils under which they suffer.
To begin with stationary: envelopes, now a ne-
cessary luxury, are usually made by poor girls, in
their own homes, whose regular payment was, and
still should be, two-pence per hundred; and a mis-
erable subsistence could they earn out of that,
though still it is something towards paying for a
morsel to eat, and a corner to sleep in. We now
find envelopes advertised by some establishments
at the west-end of the town at six-pence per thou-
sand! According to the regular rate of payment,
a thousand envelopes would cost above thrice that
sum for the making only, exclusive of the paper;
and we ask, to what must the wretched wages of
these poor girls be reduced, in order to afford them
at sixpence the thousand, materials included?
Has some newly-invented machinery superseded
the movements of their willing fingers, and thrown
these forlorn young creatures upon the town? or
has a reduction, the amount of which we should
be ashamed to calculate, enabled the epistolary
world to save a farthing on every dozen billets
they dispatch, at the trifling cost of driving to
starvation, prostitution, or some summary mode of
self-destruction, the succourless young females
whose bread is thus wrested away
7?
Another equally trifling article, but now of
universal use, and therefore of vast consumption,
is the box of lucifer matches. Poor little boys.
E
74
COMMERCIAL CLASSES.
pence
and girls now hawk these about the streets, and if
they cannot obtain a penny for a box, are glad to
accept a halfpenny. The truth is, that the
manufacturers sell them to these hawkers at three-
for a dozen boxes! Now let us consider what
is thus given for three-pence. There is, first, a
heap of matches, consisting of from six hundred
to twelve hundred; all cut to a certain length and
thickness; and all pointed with two different
combustible substances. There are, next, twelve
boxes, and twelve covers or lids to these boxes.
These are covered with coloured paper, with a bit
of sand-paper at the bottom, and a printed label
on the top, each requiring the employment of a
distinct set of tradesmen. Such are the materials,
which, even without the labour, must cost some-
thing. That labour, too, is almost unassisted by
machinery. How many thousand movements of
those little fingers must take place, to shape and
dip those hundreds of matches, and to prepare
and finish those boxes and their covers! Allow,
then, for the materials, and allow for the master's
profit, and what, out of the sum of three-pence,
will remain for the poor boy who has made these
dozen boxes?
C
A variety of similar cases might be adduced:
We observed, the other day, in a smart shop-
window, a label, Excellent tooth-brushes, 24d
each.' But it is impossible to walk down Regent-
street or the Strand, without being astonished by
COMMERCIAL CLASSES.
75
the prices affixed to a multitude of articles,-
prices which imply one of two things; either that
the articles are not what they are made to appear:
or that the workman has been "defrauded of his
wages," in the frantic struggle for cheapness.
Again: bookbinding formerly supported, a
large number of very respectable people: a clever
artisan was able to earn, when in full work, about
forty shillings a week, in London. High wages
indeed, compared with some others; but to keep
a wife and children in comfort in the metropolis,
two pounds per week is not a very large income.
However, 'Cheap Bibles' are loudly called for,
and the principal binders have recently offered to
pay their men six shillings for the labour of bind-
ing one hundred pocket Bibles. A man, skilful in
the business, by working early and late, can man-
age to bind three hundred in a week; and thus to
earn eighteen shillings in lieu of forty. It is
with sorrow of heart that we link the name of that
sacred book with instances of oppression like this;
but such is the fact, and with facts, as we find
them, we profess to deal. The payment tendered
to the bookbinder, and which. of course he may
refuse, if he prefer total destitution, is just equiv-
alent to the wages of a bricklayer's labourer; and
the elaborate decorations which some look on with
complacency, supposing they have augmented the
gains of an honest artisan, feed, not the poor
workman's hungry children, but the hot strife of
:
E 2
76
COMMERCIAL CLASSES.
covetous competition among rival dealers in lite-
rary ware.
The folding and stitching part of the work is
usually done by poor females; and while the work-
men are curtailed of one half of their wages, the
wages of the females, of course, are reduced to a
mere nothing. Decent clothing is beyond their
reach; the want of which alone is often the occasion
of throwing young girls who have been heretofore
virtuous and respectable, upon the streets.
These specimens would suffice to render intelli-
gible the subject-matter of our heavy complaint;
but another instance we cannot forbear mention-
ing: fifty years ago, it would have been treated as
an enormous fiction, passing the bounds of credi-
bility, whether as regarded the amount of work
done, or the scale of remuneration adopted and
submitted to.
The two daughters of a Major in the army
were thrown upon their own unaided exertions for
support: and though doing the utmost they could,
in the only line of business affording them employ-
ment, their destitution was so extreme, that one
of them, to preserve her sick sister from starving,
was compelled to make it known. Yet these
ladies were in full employ, at the usual price paid
for the species of needlework placed in their hands.
They were shirt-makers, and for every shirt fur-
nished to the tradesman, they received THREE
HALFPENCE! By working incessantly for ten
COMMERCIAL CLASSES.
hours at the utmost stretch of speed, and under
every advantage, the lady could earn fourpence
halfpenny; out of which she had to provide her-
self with needles, thread, and the candlelight ne-
cessary for her employment; to feed and clothe
herself, and to pay rent. Happily for them, and
for thousands besides, they were ladies—educated,
accomplished ladies, the sole surviving children of
a deserving officer; and through the magistrate, the
police and the press, public sympathy was largely
excited on their behalf: some gentlemen also un-
dertook to investigate the condition of the miser-
able sempstresses of no pretension to gentility,
with no recognized claims on public feeling, no
hope of private justice or humanity, and heard a
simple statement from a number of them, who
gladly attended the summons, to state their case;
and who said that if, in consideration of their hav-
ing to purchase needles and thread, the trade would
raise their remuneration to TWOPENCE, it would
be a very great boon. This is a case that defies
comment; it tells the tale of grinding oppression,
and female labour doing its very utmost to earn
honestly a crust of bread, more touchingly than
any advocate could do it. When we consider that
while the three halfpence (deducting the value of
materials,) is being earned, an infant, perhaps,
hangs at the breast, and others surround the knee
of the sempstress, watching her progress towards
the attainment of the penny roll that is to be
78
COMMERCIAL CLASSES.
:
shared among them, we shall be better able to
judge of the perils that impend over the nation,
while He looks on, to Whom all things are known,
from Whom all good things do come, and Who
has attached a solemn responsibility to the posses-
sion of superfluities.
Of these classes of the poor the number is very
large; and their condition, generally speaking, is
more dependent on the private character of the
master-tradesman, than on fluctuations in national
prosperity. They furnish goods for home con-
sumption, the export-trade being in other hands,
and principally carried on by means of large esta-
blishments of hired operatives employed on the pre-
mises in union with machinery. The little that we
have said, may suffice to give an insight into their
situation, compelled to take whatever an employer
may be disposed to give, or silently and unob-
served to drop the unproductive employment and
die.
CHAPTER VII.
AGRICULTURAL POOR.
IT
appears extraordinary, that in a country like
England, the agriculturist should stand in the po-
sition which at present he certainly seems to
occupy," his hand against every man, and every
man's hand against him." Scripture, reason, ex-
perience, all tell us that in the self-support of a
land resides its chief strength, and the country of
which the soil cannot maintain its population, is
always liable to become a prey. This is peculiarly
the case in an insulated corner of the globe, whose
independent intercourse with other nations rests
on the stability of its proper strength, its naval
and military prowess, and the rank which it holds
in foreign estimation. Deprived of these, every
inlet to the isle may become a point for hostile
menace; no egress for her wares, no ingress for
the supplies that her inhabitants require. British
I
1
80
AGRICULTURAL POOR.
i
feeling revolts from the supposition; but so long
as the Most High ruleth over the kingdoms of
men, we must acknowledge that he is able to
abase the proudest, and to make the most pow-
erful subject to the vile. The natural abundance
with which we are blessed, is assuredly our main
defensive strength, and that to which we owe our
national ascent to an elevation from which we are
now apt to look down upon the steps that led us
thither for in fact, agriculture has ceased to be
numbered among the sources of our national pros-
perity: whatever tends to protect the landholder,
is regarded with something akin to jealous resent-
ment by other classes, as an infraction of their
superior claims; and even the entire agricultural
class seems in danger of being treated as the
common enemy.
Yet they suffer equally with any other class of
our poor, and in some respects their common pri-
vations are even aggravated. Their situation
and mode of life give them sharper appetites, and
hunger is sooner and more severely felt by the
out-door labourer, than by him whose blood is
vitiated, and his stomach debilitated, by the sick-
ening fumes of a close-pent building, or the
confined, polluted air of a densely-peopled neigh-
bourhood. Their dwellings, rarely so good as
those of the townspeople, are far more exposed to
severities of weather, while medical attendance
and neighbourly sympathy are often beyond reach
AGRICULTURAL POOR.
81
in the hour of greatest need. Whatever advan-
tages the rural district may possess, they are fairly
balanced by peculiar disadvantages, and ought not
to shut out the field-labourer from fully sharing
our commiseration with his fellow-sufferers in dif-
ferent localities. The miseries of the poor, like
the luxuries of the rich, differ rather in fashion
than in degree, and change according to the town
or country residence of those ranks to whom they
respectively belong.
The distress existing among the agricultural
poor is great; it is also increasing. Enormous
accumulations of property, blending in one whole
what was parcelled out among many occupants,
give the landholder a dangerous power over the
earnings, and thereby over the comforts-the very
lives, of the poor on his property. As tenants,
the peasantry are greatly held in check by the con-
sciousness, that if ejected from their present
tenements, they must probably, to use a familiar
expression, go farther and fare worse. As la-
bourers, they cannot hire themselves out for other
wages than their landlord is pleased to offer;
hands being so plentiful, employment so scarce;
and the example of a great man affords sufficient
warrant for a more humble farmer to fall even
below his rate of remuneration. The labourer,
thus reduced to work at such wages as may be of-
fered to him, has nothing to fall back upon: no
other means of eking out his scanty subsistence,
E 5
82
AGRICULTURAL POOR.
རྩྭ
or paying his year's rent: for the accumulating
plan includes an evil that strikes at the very root
of any independence, any resource, he might
otherwise possess. The demolition of cottages
is a part of the system: so soon as a poor tenant
can be got rid of, his humble dwelling, in which,
perhaps, for generations past, his fathers have
been born and died, is forthwith levelled; his
garden of herbs, and patch of pasture and barley,
or potato-ground,—all that appertained to it, is
swallowed up in the general sweep; and a golden
harvest now ripens for the rich man's sickle, where
the poor man's spade formerly turned up a portion
of his family's slender subsistence. We will
adduce an instance by way of illustration, to show
the operation of this plan. In a district con-
taining fifteen parishes, with a population of
5852, no fewer than a hundred and seventy-five
cottages, having land attached to them, were de-
molished between 1770 and 1830; and in the
same number of years only twelve new ones were
built. In some instances the buildings may have
been left standing, but wholly divested of their
allotment of land. And, very naturally, the
increase of poor and county rates in the fifteen
parishes, up to the year 1830, has been, (omitting
fractions) to the following frightful extent.*
*
The Causes of Pauperism and distress. By the Rev. E. Dawson,
Vicar of Alford.

AGRICULTURal poor.
83
Parish
Cottages
demolished
Built
Rates
Increased
to
I.
16
4
£169
£835
II.
8
0
147
769
III.
12
3
138
663
IV.
20
0
95
511
V.
10
1
96
586
VI.
11
0
101
1047
VII.
11
0
166
393
VIII.
9
2
37
156
IX.
9
1
25
282
X.
13
1
36
101
XI.
15
0
46
465
XII.
10
0
121
467
XIII.
6
0
12
60
ཀཱ
XIV.
11
0
36
354
XV.
5
19
120
The large proportion of this increase belonging
to the county-rates, shows that under this system
crime has increased along with pauperism: in
other words, that the morals of the people have
suffered together with their temporal circum-
stances. Indeed the utter absence of any
powerful motive to honest labour, resulting from
the fact that nothing to which he puts his hand is
or can be his own,-that what he sows, a stranger
will reap, what he cultivates, a stranger will enjoy,
—is enough to cramp the energies and deaden the
feelings of any man. He feels himself a super-
numerary on the earth's surface; he has no pro-
prietorship in any thing, save perhaps in a helpless
family whose hunger he knows not how he can
appease. The most careful management will

84
AGRICULTURAL POOR.
scarcely eke out the wages of his weekly toil to
meet that week's indispensable outlay; and even
if he could, by seeking it, obtain extra work for
later and earlier hours than his neighbours de-
vote to toil, which is next to an impossibility,
-the unsatisfied mouths of his household are so
many that he could not calculate on any more en-
during advantage from his self-devotion than the
hearing, perhaps, of fewer complaints; and no
other interest can he take in his employment, no
other refreshment can it impart to his mind, than
the consciousness that he is sacrificing to those
whom he loves, the moments which his fellows
devote to relaxation and repose.
Such efforts, if the man finds an opportunity
of making them, are rarely long sustained, his
mind sinks under its burdens, and in a moment of
despondency he gives over the attempt; if he does
not yield to the seductions of the beer-shop, and
lose in the intoxicating cup at once the earnings
of his hand, and the recollection of those for whom
he earned them. He becomes a reckless, if not a
demoralized being; and the contrast which he
cannot but draw between his own condition and
that of the landed proprietor whose soil he tills,
engenders feelings of envy, hatred, and a dispo-
sition to violence, of which many are eager to
take advantage. He does his utmost, but still
finds himself a beggar, either resorting or expec-
ting to resort to parish relief, reluctantly given
AGRICULTURAL POOR.
85
!
and thanklessly received. Under a different order
of things, such as his forefathers saw, while the
principle was yet understood and valued, which
induced Elizabeth's legislators to forbid, under a
penalty, the erection in country parishes of any
cottage with less than four acres of land attached
to it, (except in some few peculiar cases,) the
poor labourer might indeed have learned to covet
the boon of long summer-hours to cultivate his
little plot of ground, his own possession, from
which he might hope to extract a valuable addition
to his regular pay; and in the interest which a
man cannot help taking in what belongs to himself,
he might almost forget the many drawbacks on his
comfort, and labour cheerily to increase the pro-
ductiveness of what he should himself profit by:
but in looking abroad over the face of the country
how rarely are we gladdened by such a spectacle
as a cottage standing in the midst of its own little
domain! In a parish where, instead of pecuniary
relief, the vestry lets out to a day-labourer a single
rood of land, this is the usual result: he pays for rent
ten shillings, for his tithe two shillings more, and for
seed-potatoes eight. The ground yields him three
hundred pecks of potatoes, which he sells at four-
pence the peck; and this, deducting the pound he
has laid out, adds four pounds to his yearly income.
With what a feeling of self-respect the poor
Englishman places this sum, or even the half of
such a sum, among his items of honest gains, is
ད་ད"་"
86
AGRICULTURAL POOR.
best known to those who have most deeply studied
the national character; and very little knowledge
of human nature will suffice to convince us that
the country and its institutions possess a hold on
that man's affections perfectly unknown to his
more abjectly dependant neighbour, who, like a
beast of burden, just earns by his daily toil the
provender he must eat, and the roof over his head.
The labourer who has gathered in his own little
crop, may sit down and consider what he shall
cultivate for the ensuing harvest; and an hour of
such cogitation will more effectually draw out a
man's energies, will sooner bring his best feelings
into play, than any other method we could devise
to benefit him. Privations he must endure, dis-
appointments he will meet, unfavourable seasons
will affect him, and his innumerable anxieties may
know little if any diminution; still he is a gainer;
he has an attraction to his home, a source of re-
spectability that he before perhaps enjoyed not,
and, if he be at all of an enterprising character, he
will be busied with schemes, which if they be not
eminently beneficial to himself or others, are at
least innocent, and far unlike what he would be
called on to discuss at the pot-house.
Now, it is the absence of these legitimate ad-
vantages that constitutes the main grievance of
our agricultural poor. They are wholly and
hopelessly dependent on what they can gain by
toiling for others: they dwell in hovels, single or
AGRICULTURal poor.
87
clustered, destitute of comfort, cramping the body
and depressing the mind. They lose every particle
of independent feeling, such as no native Briton
is wholly without, and learn to regard themselves
as strangers in the land of their birth; or still
worse, as exiles unjustly thrust out of their fair
portion in that land. They feel a readiness to be-
come the recipients of public charity, which, was,
not many years ago, reckoned a disgrace-the very
last resort of the destitute-by our noble peasan-
try; and thus, as among the other working classes,
personal respectability becomes a chimera: they
follow the lowest instincts and impulses of animal
life, and are perfectly prepared to become the
scourges of those orders in society who have
trampled them down to so wretched a level. We
shall have occasion hereafter to show more of the
practical working of these mischievous elements;
we will close this section by a statement that speaks
volumes to the point. Last summer the insurance
offices found they had lost so much by insuring
agricultural property, that they instructed their
agents not only to take as little business as possi-
ble in that department, but also to institute careful
enquiries into the characters of persons wishing
to make agricultural insurances, and into the
feelings entertained towards them by the people;
to ascertain whether they were considered harsh
masters, &c. The Sun Fire office issued a circular
to this effect, and others acted on the same pre-
88
AGRICULTURAL Poor.
:
!
cautionary principle.
What but a conviction that
discontent exists to a wide extent, and hostile in-
tentions also, among the agricultural labourers,
could induce so unusual a mode of procedure?
The fact of some London offices declining to in-
sure the lives of Protestant clergymen in Ireland,
during the anti-tithe ferment, was regarded among
us as fearful beyond precedent; and surely such
a symptom as the foregoing, in the bosom of our
own peaceful country, is not to be passed over as
of small moment.
We will close this chapter by an extract from
a letter addressed to one of the late Commissioners
of Inquiry, by the Hon. and Rev. S. Godolphin
Osborne, Rector of Bryanston, Dorset. This
gentleman says:-
• Whilst I trace the immorality of the labouring
classes to defective education, the want of means
to preserve decency in their families, and the
temptations to intemperance which are to be
found in the manner in which the beer-shop
keepers, unchecked by legal interference, offer
at every hour of the day, and almost every hour
of the night, all the inducements likely to draw
the labourer from home, and to fix him in a love
of drink and bad company, I trace much of the
crime he commits to absolute want. I am satis-
fied that the law should, under any and every cir-
cumstance, be enforced against offenders when
detected, and that every means should be used
AGRICULTURAL POOR.
89
for their detection; but is it not the bounden.
duty of the higher and middling classes of society
to endeavour at any cost to place the labourer,
as far as possible, in such a condition as shall
afford him the option of acquiring for himself and
children right principles of action towards his
fellow-men, and the means of obtaining by his
own industry all that is necessary for his own and
his children's support? The law must be held in
respect; but who shall justify us in placing any
of our fellow-creatures in a position in which,
whilst they have little encouragement to do right,
they have every temptation to do wrong.
'With regard to the general condition of the
agricultural labourer, I believe the public to be
less informed, or worse informed, than about that
of
any other class of society. His most common
vices are, it is true, pretty well known, for they
have been exposed with no hesitating pens, have
been officially proclaimed throughout the length
and breadth of the land; but the hardships of his
life at the best, its temptations, the hindrances to
its improvement, the scanty remuneration afforded
for his hardest labour, the ingenious methods used
to hold him in thraldom, permitting him neither
to work where he likes, at the wages he could
obtain, or to spend those he does obtain where he
chooses; the manner in which he often sees the
welfare of the beast he drives more valued than
his own, and his own welfare often sacrificed to
!
90
AGRICULTURAL POOR.
some caprice of his employer-threatened with
the "Union House" if he refuses them, his wages
are settled by the combined interest or opinion of
the employers around him; forced to pay an ex-
orbitant rent for a dwelling in which he cannot
decently rear his family: if he is single, he is to
receive less for the sweat of his brow than if he
was married; if he does marry, every ingenuity
is used to make him feel that he is regarded as
one about to increase the burdens of the parish,
to say nothing of the ingenuity used to shift him
into some other parish,-these are parts of his
condition on which the public are not so well in-
formed, or at least of which they seem to act in
perfect ignorance. Let the charitable do what
they will to increase the comforts and elevate the
character of the poor of a parish, alas! but too
often because parish A is thus more favoured than
parish B, it is made the pretext for raising the
rent of the labourer's dwelling, and diminishing
the amount of his wages.
'I do, Sir, sincerely hope that this your present
commission may be but the forerunner of one that
shall thoroughly investigate the condition of the
labourer-his moral, social, and physical condition.
'Let the public have bona fide evidence of the
labourer's condition, and I feel confident the won-
der will be,-not that this class of the community
have from time to time shown a disaffected spirit,
—not that evidence of their immorality, dishonesty,
AGRICULTURAL Poor.
91
and extravagance abounded,—not that they are
daily becoming more and more burdensome upon
the poor-rates, but that they have borne so long
the hardships of their condition, have not been
urged to greater crimes-that any of them can at
all, at the prices they have to pay rent, for fuel, and
food, honestly support their families out of the
wages they receive. I cannot say that their wives
and children are subject to any physical injury
from the nature of the employments in agriculture
in which they engage, but I do assert, of the agri-
cultural labourers as a class, that they have found
fewer friends of any weight to contend for their
rights in high places, and more enemies to their
moral and physical improvement at their own doors,
than any other class of society. Attachment to
their superiors, respect for their employers, loyalty
to their rulers, is fast passing away; they have
found themselves made the subjects of experiments,
the smart of which they have felt, but the intention
of which they could not understand. Their educa-
tion has occupied the mind of the public chiefly
as a scene for party strife; their relief in age or
sickness has been discussed in a philosophical tone,
of which the most forbidding features were the only
ones they could appreciate. Pamphetts on cottage
husbandry, plans for cottage-buildings, tracts on
morality, treatises on economy, have been sent
forth with no sparing hand; but in nine villages
out of ten the cottage is still nothing but a slightly
92
AGRICULTURAL POOR.
improved hovel, morality is borne down by the
pressure of temptation on minds unfortified by
education in good principles, and the wages of
the stoutest and most industrious scarce find the
coarsest food, the smallest sufficiency of fuel. In
my opinion, unless those above them soon deter-
mine to give up some of their own luxuries, that
they may give to the labourer such wages as shall
enable him to rear his family in comfort in a dwell-
ing in which decency can be preserved, and within
reach of a school and a church, in which he and
his may be taught the learning fitted for their
station here, and tending to place them in the way
to heaven hereafter-unless some great effort is
made to obtain these objects, our peasantry will
become, not the support they should be to the
country, but a pregnant source of all that can tend
to subvert its best institutions.'
i
1
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
AND now to go to the root of the matter, to show
why it is and how it is that these four classes, and
every labouring class in every branch of employ-
ment, suffer from indigence in the degree to which
we know they do: All centres in this point-the
disregard of fair dealing that is sure to grow,
however insensibly, in the mind of a man who is
resolved to be rich. The word of God cannot be
broken that word declares that "the love of
:
money is the root of all evil," and that "" they
that will be rich fall into a snare." The very
word, snare, shows it to be something of which
the individual is not conscious: let no man, there-
fore, place himself on the defensive, pleading his
freedom from sordid views, and indignantly spurn-
ing the supposed imputation of deliberate unfair-
His purposes may be the most laudable:
he may simply desire to uphold the respectability
belonging to his station in society; to educate his
ness.
94
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
children usefully, and perhaps with the surplus of
his lawful gains to build hospitals, or endow
churches, to promote the interests of science and
learning, or to enrich the funds of missionary en-
terprize. He may be purposing, yea, actually
proceeding to bestow upon the poor whatever re-
mains after supplying his own moderate wants;
still we must repeat, that the very design of money-
getting does expose man to a snare; and the point
in which he is liable to trangress the rules of fair-
dealing is as follows:—
Fair-dealing, whether in merchant or shop-
keeper, whether in ship-loads or barrow-loads, re-
quires first, that the dealer should pay an equitable
price, both for the materials and for the labour
expended on the article in preparing it for com-
merce; and secondly, that he should exact a fair
profit for himself in the transaction. It would be
invidous to select any one department of commerce
for an illustration: the evil ranges through all; but
as a specific instance may be demanded, we will
ask whether the merchant has not been known to
freight a ship for some foreign port, with instruc-
tions to sell the goods-sell at any price,-at any
present loss,-in order to drive away competitors,
and secure the market to yourself.'
This is not fair dealing: take it for granted that
as much was given for the raw material as it was
justly worth that all engaged in preparing it for
exportation were paid as liberally as they ought to
:
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
95
be, and that the goods were of the best quality
that could be furnished; still this under-selling
speculation, this plan to secure a monopoly, this
courting of present loss with an eye to more abun-
dant profit in the end, however sanctioned by ex-
ample and universality of practice, is part of a
system radically wrong: an effort in the strug-
gle by which each man seeks to overreach his
brother; an operation of the principle of selfish-
ness; sure in its prospective action so to influ-
ence the dealer, that calculating the probable
loss on his merchandize, he will find, in his own
bosom, a plausible plea for expending the least
possible outlay in its preparation; and this same
fact being present also to the apprehension of the
party who supplies it, will affect the wages paid
to the poor drudges whose manual labour brings
it from the bowels of the earth, or, whether at the
anvil or the loom, works it into form by me-
chanical operation. We say nothing of the wrong
inflicted on any brother-merchant, who, scrupling
at, or unable to afford such a mode of doing
business, has his exports returned upon his hands,
instead of, at least, partially disposing of them
in a fairly-competed market.
At home, there is scarcely a branch of trade
where the same mischievous and wrongful plan
is not occasionally pursued. We are always hear-
ing of prodigious bargains on sale, some article.
offered for less than it could possibly be sold at,
96
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
:
unless in some other article a profit equivalent
to this loss is to be made and if only equivalent,
who would be at the trouble, and incur the risk of
such a venturous game? We may point to large
establishments, not "selling off," but in thriving
business, undertaking to supply some small mat-
ter in very general use, at fifty or a hundred per
cent. less than the very preparation, exclusive of
the material, must cost them, if the poor crea-
tures who fashion it are paid with any regard to
common honesty or decency in the transaction.
How can this be, unless purchasers, tempted by
such a lure to frequent the establishment, are enor-
mously overcharged,-in plain English defrauded,
-in somewhat else? We cannot exonerate the
buyers of these bargains; they must know, if they
put their reasoning faculties to the use for which
they were given, that a man who is trying to make
a fortune by his shop, will not yield to an impulse
of such romantic generosity as not only to offer
the public in general a very expensive present at
his own proper cost, but also to lay out a good
round sum in advertising his very benevolent and
very preposterous intentions. Somebody, they
may be assured, must suffer: the tradesman will
take care that he shall not be the losing party, and
the bargain-hunter may go, perfectly resolved not
to be imposed on-to purchase the thing offered
so marvellously below its value, and nothing else;
but with what satisfaction can he (or she, for
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
97
ladies are the principal objects of these tempting
lures) pocket the contemptible saving, under a
conviction, that either the starving artificer must
lose a portion of the daily pittance with which a
few potatoes are purchased, or some open-hearted
customer be subjected to imposition, to bring the
balance even again? We know of few charac-
ters more truly deserving the name of public be-
nefactors than those-and some such there are-
who make it a rule never to buy anything under
its real, obvious value: if offered in the way of
every-day trade, they reject it, and shun the shop;
if by some poor creature in evident distress, whose
hunger cannot look beyond the loaf that its sale,
at any loss, may procure, they take it, and give
the full value. In fact, this sort of competition is
now so general, that it rests with the class who
buy, rather than with the class who sell, to put a
stop to it.
There is in London a shop, where, not long ago,
we purchased a tolerably good-looking umbrella at
something less than the trade price, simply be-
cause a single, respectable-looking placard an-
nounced that the stock must be all sold off in two
days. Showing it to a friend, he remarked, 'It
is an inferior article;' and on being told where it
was bought, he laughed outright, saying, 'I have
passed the shop daily for some four or five years
and never remember to have seen it without that
announcement.' To this species of direct lying
F
98
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
none can resort who have not divested themselves
as well of decent shame as of common honesty;
yet it is practised in almost every street of Lon-
don; and sometimes a whole district appears to
be selling off simultaneously at such fearful losses
that it becomes an enigma how they can possibly
possess themselves of manufactured goods at such
prices, putting any sort of profit, any renumera-
tion for time, trouble, and house-room, wholly
out of the question. The mystery is only to be
elucidated by tracing these articles backwards
through all the stages of preparation; calculating
for how little of necessary sustenance the long
day's toil could be wrung from the children of
poverty, until the eye rests on the solution of the
problem in the union-workhouse, and the pauper's
premature grave.
This is a crying sin: a sin that cries to God
no less eloquently than did the blood of Abel:
for though we assume not that the victims were
righteous, would we might dare to hope so, but
we cannot,—still that they are the victims, body
and soul, of this unnatural selfishness, this utter
forgetfulness of the means by which our cheap
bargains are provided, is beyond controversy; and
seeing that for no offence of theirs against society
are they thus immolated, we must account them
innocent victims. This brings alarmingly near
to us a declaration uttered by the Most High in
reference to Jerusalem in the day of her godless
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
99
prosperity and approaching fall,-" In her skirts
was found the blood of the poor innocents."
Equally open and general too is the participation
in these fruits of destructive opposition. "I have
not found it by secret search, but upon all these.
And is not the exhortation addressed to this of-
fending city appropriate to ourselves? "O Jeru-
salem, wash thine heart from wickedness!" "Wash
you, make
you clean put away the evil of your
doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil,
learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve the op-
pressed; judge the fatherless; plead for the
widow." The heart of the nation must be made
clean, and set in a right path: this mist of selfish-
ness that obscures and distorts every object, must
be cleared away. We must see our true position
before God and towards man: and then will follow
the act of reparation, the unloosing of the heavy
burden; the feeding of the hungry, covering the
naked, and sheltering the homeless. One taste of
the pure delight resulting from a deed of self-
denying charity, having reference less to an indi-
vidual case than to an oppressed class, would give
a new turn to our thoughts, feelings, and pursuits ;
we should find indeed that
The proper study of mankind is man,
but not as an abstract science, aiming to make
acquaintance with a series of physical and intellec-
F 2
100
THE SELFISH PRINciple.
tual phenomena, nor even the higher range of spi-
ritual investigations: but a practical studying of
the best means by which at once to elevate the
national character, and ensure the national stability,
by such a following out of the greatest happiness-
system as Jeremy Bentham never dreamed of.
Scripture tells us of a "woe unto them that join
house to house, that lay field to field, till there be
no place, that they may be placed alone in the
midst of the earth," or land. This is the case
with many who read or hear the words, without
suspecting that they come under the classification.
If men bounded their desires after this world's
goods, by what they might fairly acquire without
approximating to the verge of another woe,
proclaimed against him "that useth his neigh-
bour's service without wages, and giveth him not
for his work;" or who gives so little it is next akin
to nothing; there would be a manifest check put
to the augmentation of estates, the embellishment
of dwelling-houses, and the countless etcetera of
personal emulation and display. Waste land
would not be enclosed as now it everywhere is;
the village common would still pasture the poor
man's cow, and afford picking to his little stock of
poultry, instead of being made to bear grain for
the wealthy farmer, or to form an addition to the
nobleman's preserve. The frame of woman would
not be bowed under such burdens as ought not
even to be laid on the more robust structure of
1
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
101
man, nor would her mind be inevitably vitiated by
compulsory admixture with labourers of the other
sex, at such times, in such places, and under such
circumstances as render mental contamination at
least a matter of course. Children would not be
immured throughout the live-long day in gloomy
buildings, and their exhausting efforts protracted
to thirteen, fourteen, fifteen hours of labour, to
the utter exclusion of every hope that instruc-
tion, even on the most vital subjects, can reach
them. The common sense of mankind assents to
what inspiration declares, "Man goeth forth to
his work and to his labour until the evening."
Twelve hours is the limit prescribed by universal
consent for the work of adults; yet under the
influence of this money-getting mania, we find
employers pertinaciously refusing to bring the
daily service even of their juvenile operatives
within that limit. No other excuse is or can be
advanced: the market, say they, must be supplied,
and whatever advantage we sacrifice, others will
seize. It may be so; but the policy is very short-
sighted that looks no farther than the duration of
this demand; this unhealthy, feverish craving for
a supply only to be obtained by means pregnant
with destruction alike to the markets, the goods,
and those who bring them there. The least taste
of licentious liberty, such as our working popula-
tion recently obtained a snatch of, is perilous in
the extreme to those who know no medium be-
ར
102
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
:
I
tween it and the most heart-sickening drudgery,
combined with imprisonment; and the constant
spectacle of luxury, in another class, that seems to
mock their privations, and to count them but as
the beasts that perish.
That branch of the system which consists in
biting and devouring each other, on the part of
the employers, presents a spectacle that would
sometimes be ludicrous, if it were not a flagrant
violation of the rule laid down by our Lord, as
that which should regulate our dealings one towards
another. A specimen given at full length may
best exhibit the unseemly features of this rage for
exclusive profit: we extract it from a provincial
paper:
IMPORTANT INTELLIGENCE.
"Notwithstanding the reductions which have
taken place of late years in the finer sorts of Saxon
wool, and also in the cost of manufacturing, it is
a well-known fact that the price of West-of-Eng-
land cloth, to the consumer, has met with no cor-
responding reduction; and those who profess to
reform the tailor's bills, do so only by substitut-
ing a Yorkshire cloth, by which they obtain a
still greater profit; both these causes are detri-
mental to the interest of the West-of-England
manufacturers, by introducing for economy, those
deceptive, counterfeit, and badly-wearing fabrics,
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
103
made from a mixture of what is called Shoddy,*
which gentlemen would never use if cloth of ster-
ling quality could be procured at a moderate price.
But so enormous are the profits required by the
retailers of cloth, and the trade is confined to so
few hands, that this desirable object can only be
obtained by having the cloth direct from the manu-
facturer. In order to give this system a trial, we
have lately supplied our private friends with
single coat-cloths at exactly the same price we
sell wholesale to the London factors; and the con-
sequence has been that, from the difference in
cost to them, we have had such a steady increas-
ing demand from private recommendation, that
we have determined to give the public the benefit
of so advantageous a system.
"We have confined our operations to black
cloth only, and we have two qualities of fineness;
the cost of our best Saxony broad cloth (of which
· A prac-
*Copied from the Morning Chronicle of Feb. 25, 1842;
tice now prevails among most of the Yorkshire Woollen Cloth Manu-
facturers, of purchasing old woollen rags from the collectors of such
articles; which they tear to pieces, so as to make the corrupt mass
wear the appearance of short wool; this they mix with longer wool,
spin, weave, and dress up, so that the cloth appears to the eye and
hand as glossy, close, and fine, as a genuine article, but the wear is
quite another question. The imposition upon the public is one of at
least twenty-five per cent. This practice is worthy of the attention
of the Legislature, if it be not already illegal; for the public are
cheated, the consumption of wool is lessened, and the prices pulled
down. Very recently a gentleman of this city witnessed the delivery
of about twenty packs of the article alluded to, to a manufacturer
near Leeds.'
104
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
it takes one yard and three-quarters to make a
dress coat two yards for a frock coat, or for a
dress coat and waistcoat) is 16s. 6d. per yard.
This a is splendid cloth, of the best manufacture,
and one which we most confidently recommend
for its superior texture, and the beauty of its finish.
The price of our Fine Saxony cloth (requiring the
same quantities for the above purposes) is only
12s. 6d. per yard. This article is far superior to
the cloths generally used, and is particularly re-
commended where substance and durability are
desired. The cost of a coat made in the best
style from the Fine Saxony cloth will not exceed
£2, and a coat of the Best Saxony will be obtain-
ed at less than 50s.; the difference between these
prices and those paid by the public, constitutes
the enormous profits of the wholesale and retail
dealers.
"We also offer black cassimeres for Trousers
at equally low prices; two yards and six nails is
the usual length required; our Best Saxony is
only 6s. 9d., and our Fine Saxony 5s. 9d. per
yard. These cloths are double-milled, and war-
ranted of the best colour, and not to spot, or
shrink, or wear rough. Any other length requir-
ed will be supplied.
"It is evident therefore, that in family mourn-
ing, and to professional gentlemen, the saving
will be very considerable; and as black is un-
doubtedly the most respectable, so it may now be-
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
105
come the cheapest wear; and, in order to prevent
the possibility of imposition, every parcel, how-
ever small, is marked as follows: the Best Saxony
broad cloths and cassimeres are all sealed with
blue wax, and labelled with a bill of parcels print-
ed in blue ink. The Fine Saxony broad-cloths
and cassimeres are all sealed with red wax, and
labelled with a bill of parcels printed in red ink.
By this distinction any person, although he may
be no judge of cloth, will be able to know the
quality at first sight.
"The facilities afforded by the introduction of
the penny postage, and by the remittance of small
amounts by money orders, to be procured at any
post-office, at a charge of 3d. if under £2: or
from £2 to £5 only 6d., will give the public the
first opportunity they have ever had of obtaining
real West-of-England cloth direct from the manu-
facturer, of such superior quality, and at such a
moderate price as cannot fail to give the greatest
satisfaction.
"I feel confident that the system needs but
one trial to merit and insure a continuance of
your approbation and your recommendation. I
shall esteem the favour of your commands, and
remain, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
Near Stroud, Gloucestershire. July 14, 1842.
少
​;
F 5
106
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
What a picture does this present of the state of
things in trade! First, it is alleged, perhaps with
truth, that fraud is very common: then it is urged,
that because of these frauds people should leave
off dealing with all woollen-drapers and tailors,
condemning two great classes to absolute ruin,
and should send all their orders to the mill of Mr.
-, at Stroud, in Gloucestershire. This is a
sample of what is going on universally; men who
ought to make their way by industry, assiduity,
and fair dealing, now, in almost every department
of business, rush before the public, charging
every one but themselves with dishonesty, and
offering to sell at half the prices usually demanded.
All good feeling, all neighbourly consideration,
amity, and sympathy, must thus be necessarily de-
stroyed; and already we see one token of coming
destruction among our mercantile host, "Every
man's hand against his brother." Neighbours, in
every sense of the word, and with no reasonable
inducement to act an unneighbourly part, men in
trade are transformed into enemies to each other.
It is not through the operation of any hostile im-
pulse, but the gradual evolving of a new, and
surely a pernicious principle, the growth of which
we may possibly trace by selecting one trade, and
observing what has occurred within the memory
of man to change its aspect.
In the bookselling business-we take it as a
sample of the rest-at the beginning of the pre-
"
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
107
sent century, each wholesale house had its own
connexion; and if the business was properly done,
that connexion remained unbroken. For exam-
ple, if a country bookseller left Rivington's, and
sent his order to Longman's, then Longman would
go to Rivington, and ask the reason of such
change; not wishing to interfere with his con-
nexion.'
But about thirty years since, the wholesale
houses, not content with legitimate business, first
began to send out travellers; whose object, how-
ever, at first was merely to visit their own cus-
tomers, solicit orders, and collect monies. So
far all was right and fair: but after a while these
travellers overpassed their bounds; they began to
go into every open shop, and to solicit orders with-
out any regard to the connexion already subsisting
between those retail tradesmen and others. This
effected an entire change; for competition imme-
diately began, and those who stuck to the old
system lost all their business; while those who
seized upon it, forthwith commenced preying on
each other. With these facts before us, it is not
difficult to account for what we now witness and
deplore. To such an extent does this specula-
tion proceed, that whereas the expenses of travell-
ing have always been estimated as amounting to
ten per cent, a house in the stationary business
lately commenced running for two and a half per
cent. profits. Utter disorganization is the result:
108
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
for a time, the most reckless succeeds the best-
then he fails, and his creditors are plundered.
This brief sketch, taken from one conspicuous
trade, is a specimen of what is going on in the
buying and selling concerns of the whole com-
munity.
The wrongs sustained in every department of
the commercial world through the pernicious
maxim, 'Every one for himself,' are inconceiva-
ble. Deception is looked for as a thing of course;
the more wary guard themselves, and take it for
granted that others do the same: if there be a
fraudulent intent, the loss must fall somewhere ;
and each seems to consider his duty fulfilled when
he has taken all due care that it shall not fall on
him. We are adducing illustrations, and will yet
add another, much in point, and taken from ano-
ther trade connected with literature.
Within the last few weeks, the principal type-
founders have issued circulars, of which the follow-
ing is a sample :-
"I beg to submit to you the enclosed reduced
List of the Prices of Printing Types, which will,
I hope, supersede a system which has lately be-
come prevalent, of charging the nominal prices
subject to a varying discount, and of making al-
most every transaction of any magnitude the sub-
ject of a separate bargain: a practice which is evi-
dently injurious to the fair trader, and which pre-
sents the appearance of fraud and extortion upon
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
109
!
those who pay the fixed and regular price. The
new List of Prices will, I trust, restore the Trade
to its former state of immediate transactions be-
tween the Printers and Letter Founders, and ren-
der an adherence to the prices practicable by those
who wish to conduct business upon candid and
honourable principles."
""
Here is the same complaint, a complaint now
becoming universal,-of selfishness inducing un-
worthy tricks and manoeuvres to obtain custom.
To appeal to that old-fashioned characteristic of
the Englishman, love of country, against the in-
dulgence of this ruinous propensity, would be
more likely to excite a smile of derision in the
cheek, than to awaken a responsive note in the
hearts of those who are enslaved to it: but some
there are who deeply feel the national stigma af-
fixed to us, by the free circulation of facts or ad-
missions sufficient to blast our character for com-
mon honesty; to say nothing of the highly honour-
able principle for which we were once famed. It
was recently declared in Parliament, that several
of our chief articles of staple manufacture, particu-
larly woollen cloths, have been nearly excluded
from the markets of Germany by the scandalous
tricks played by our manufacturers and merchants.
And it would seem that those who have gone from
hence to our colonies, are not slow in practising
similar manœuvres on those whom they have left
behind. The trade of cheating is indeed endless
1
110
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
!
in its varieties; nor are our public journals back-
ward in supplying illustrations. One man lately
confessed in the Court of Bankruptcy to having
ordered and received a parcel of goods from France,
of large value, he being insolvent at the time,
and handing the goods over immediately to a third
party, who gave him cash for about two-thirds of
their value, which cash was never entered in his
accounts!
Another eminent dealer acknowledged that he
had given a man who owed him £19,000, a good
character for solvency to a third party, in order
that the debtor might get goods largely from that
third party, and send them in to him, for the
reduction of his debt!
But it is in the management of public com-
panies that such manoeuvres are sometimes most
glaringly exhibited. In October 1841, the man-
aging directors of the Bank of Manchester met
the proprietors, and declared in the most solemn,
emphatic manner, that the capital of the company
-£900,000—was all safe; and that there was a
surplus of £17,000. In October 1842, these
directors had again to meet the proprietors, and
were obliged to confess that the whole of this large
capital was gone, and that £100,000 more must
be subscribed and paid, in order to close the ac-
count. Of course, the statement of 1841 was
utterly false: Why then was it made, unless the
managing directors, or those at least who took
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
111
i
any active part in the management, were then
helping themselves or their connexions to the
money of the company, and meant to do so as
long as any of it remained?
It is fearful to see the extent of crime into
which this indulged habit of selfishness will lead,
when gain is the object. We have not forgotten
the appalling disclosures made about two years
since, when a judicial investigation took place on
the subject. A mercantile house had been set up
in London, with no other view than to send out
rotten old ships, laden with supposititious bales of
goods, for the sole purpose of being wrecked, and
in that way to plunder the insurance offices. The
lives sacrificed in this horrible speculation led to
a general outcry, when, by some accidental, or
rather providential circumstance, the thing was
discovered; but the sensation soon died away.
We copy the following instances from a volume
recently published.
In former times, the East India Company
could have returned a chest of tea from Eng-
land, and got it received back in China, upon
their assertion that it was delivered in an inferior
condition; and their goods in like manner would
pass up to Pekin under the seal of the company,
without being examined; because their credit was
unimpeachable. The British merchant had in
general a nearly equal reputation all over the
world. A single act of dishonesty in any one of
i
112
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
them, would have been resented as a dishonour
done to their whole body, and an impeachment
of their high credit and character. Now, honour
and good faith are held cheap, and are little to
be reckoned upon, even among the higher class of
merchants and manufacturers. Personal charac-
ter still weighs in some instances, between those
who are personally acquainted and have had many
dealings together, though this is declining with
the rest, and losing its influence and more value
is attributed to the evidences of a contract, and
to the supposed money ability, which cannot be
known for certain, than to the character and per-
sonal habit and conduct, which may be more
nearly ascertained;-but little or no faith is now
attached to a man as an admitted member of a
highly honourable class of men, and because he
is a British merchant. A consignment of English
goods would be as closely inspected by the pur-
chaser, before parting with the price of them, in
a home or a foreign market, as those of another
nation.
'The following evidence was given before a com-
mittee of the House of Commons in the year
1840:*
""Mr. Charles Warwick, is partner in the house
of Ovington, Warwick & Co. in the city, who
* Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, ap-
pointed 7th. Feb. 1840, to enquire into the expediency of extending
copyright of designs. From Mechan. Mag. No. 894, p. 341.
THE SELFISH PRINciple.
113
have a branch of their business at Glasgow. They
are extensively engaged in the printing of woven
fabricks, generally mixed fabricks, such as silk
and wool, cotton and wool, challis, cashmeres,
mousselaine-de-laines, &c. The original designs
for these fabricks, made by their house, cost last
year exceeding 20007. *** In the years 1836
and 1837, their mousselaine-de-laines were copied
almost as soon as produced, but it was by persons
of no eminence, and their articles were of such
inferior quality that it did not interfere much
with them. In 1838 a circumstance occurred
which induced them to seek more earnestly for
protection. During the winter months he had
been endeavouring to get an article of superior
fabric, and, as was their usual custom, they were
to make their first spring deliveries on the 20th of
February. On the 12th of February, Mr. Tho-
mas, a buyer from the house of Messrs. Morrison
and Co., requested to be allowed to have twenty-
seven dresses which he had selected. To this the
witness said he had the most decided objection:
That he would not do for Messrs. Morrison what
he would not do for any one else. That it was
imperative upon him to have a delivery-day, and
not to give a preference. Mr. Thomas replied,
'Oh! I have looked these dresses out, no soul
shall see them ; we are just packing a case now,
and they will be shipped this afternoon for the
foreign market." *** Having done business
114
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
with Morrison's to a great extent for some years,
he put faith in their representative. The conse-
quence was he ordered the dresses to go. There
were twenty-seven dresses, containing eight pat-
terns, but different colours. On the 19th, ac-
cording to his usual custom, witness wrote a few
notes to the principal buyers, stating that his
house would be ready on Wednesday the 20th, to
deliver their new goods. On that day, two of
his own customers, with whom he expected to
make large parcels, called, and showed him a note
from Mr. Thomas, stating, 'Before you buy
Ovington's goods give me a look in.' One of the
gentlemen said to witness, I do not understand
the meaning of it myself; can you explain it to
me.' Witness said he could not; and wished them
to go down and see what it did mean. The gen-
tlemen accordingly went to Fore-street on Wed-
nesday, the 20th, and was shown those dresses,
that had been obtained under the false pretence
of shipping, and was told, 'those are Ovington's
goods at 22s.; now on Saturday, the 23rd, we
make our delivery of those eight patterns in all
the various colours; we shall bring them out
at 15s.' That was the first time witness ever
had a patron for piracy; the piracies generally
before that were of the most mean, contemptible,
shabby description. People were ashamed to be
seen in the street who had been guilty of piracy
in London, except in very low trades indeed.
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
115
This was the first instance in which their property
had been assailed by any one of any consequence; it
perfectly paralyzed their trade altogether. Wit-
ness was enabled to trace his goods, and found
that the copies were produced at Glasgow. Other
houses followed the example of Messrs. Morrison,
to such an extent as to paralyze the witness's
trade; one set of designs being frequently copied
by three or four houses; and this tended to work
a most astonishing change as regarded the pirates
themselves."
'This is only one example of what is becoming
too general in all branches of commerce and manu-
factures. A man does not scruple supplanting
his rival and competitor by whatever means, and
at whatever sacrifice of honour and good faith.
Brookman and Langdon, the celebrated pencil-
makers, showed their machines to a manufacturer
in another branch of trade. This man forthwith
set up a pencil-manufactory, with similar machi-
nery. The return of the corn averages for the
last week in July, 1842, was rejected by govern-
ment, as having been studiously falsified in the prin-
cipal market, for the sake of adding some profits to
the corn-factors. Recent discovery has been made
of extensive frauds upon the Custom House, prac-
tised habitually, and for a long time, by certain
large houses, especially in the silk-trade. Good
faith is no longer to be looked to as a sufficient
security either between merchant and merchant,
116
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
15.
or between manufacturer and customer; but we
must look for the protection of law, and to legal
obligations and securities. The use of bills of
exchange was formerly for foreign commerce; but
now bills and promissory notes are used for assu-
rances between persons living in the same town,
and in adjoining streets. This is a state of things
which we cannot go back from. When a disease
of this kind has once got possession of us, there
is no recovery from it; it must necessarily grow
One successful act of dishonesty is sure
to lead to others, and to meet with a crowd of
imitators; like a successful speculation. The ex-
ample first given shows how one great name is
sufficient to give countenance and a warrant to the
most evil practices, and to spread them like a
pestilence. 'Diseases are catching; but health,
you know, is not contagious.'
worse.
'The condition of the retail tradesmen is even
worse than that of the merchants and manufactu-
rers. Competition is so increased, and profits are
so much lowered, that there is no facility of sup-
porting a family by regular trade, and of provi-
ding for them by the moderate savings of twenty
years of business. While profits are continually
becoming lower, and more and more insufficient,
the expectation of amassing a fortune in a short
time is constantly increasing. There exist at once
a growing impatience to make large fortunes ra-
pidly, and a growing insufficiency of profits to
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
117
make it easy for tradesmen to make any fortune
at all, or even to maintain themselves.
'The consequence is, that tradesmen struggle to
live, and endeavour to thrive by ruining one ano-
ther. It is not a proper competition, and en-
deavour to excel one another by the perfection of
their articles; but it is a plot to attract custom,
and to monopolize a whole trade, to the ruin of
others engaged in the same line,—not by quality,
but by cheapness, and by lowering prices below
what can be remunerating with only a fair share
of custom,—and by every species of attraction,
through outward appearance and advertisement,
and other means of establishing, not a character,
but a fashion.
'We are all acquainted with this system in some
of the more public transactions of business; as
the stage-coaches and steam-boats. We know
that they carry passengers for a time at unremu-
nerating prices, in order to try which shall first
be ruined; and so to obtain a monopoly of the
custom and traffic. This system enters equally
into other branches of trade, according to the op-
portunity. Tradesmen sell at prices which never
could support them, and by which no one could
live, if each shopkeeper in the trade were to have
his proper share of custom. That is, they live
by ruining one another. Some firms have made
a practice of watching for the tenders of more
respectable firms, and then offering for every
i
118
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
work, at five per cent. under their lowest price.
Some persons who had pursued this system, have
been lately gazetted as bankrupts, in the Russian
trade. A shoemaker, in Tottenham Court Road,
established a large custom by underselling all
the other shoemakers in the neighbourhood.
He confessed that he could not live upon such
small profits as he made, except by the im-
mense number of shoes which he sold ;-and other
shops in the neighbourhood were ruined by him.
Honest and affluent persons ought not to deal
with such shops; or to pay prices for articles which
must be unremunerating to the trade in general.
'If,' says Sir Roger de Coverly, 'a man offers me
an article for less than it is worth, I kick him
down stairs for a thief; for I know that either he
must be cheating me, or he must have come im-
properly by it.'
' Advertisement is one chief means by which a
custom is obtained which will enable a shopkeeper
to thrive by such monopolizing prices :—the mono-
poly of cheapness; which is worse and more dis-
honest, and more injurious to trade, than the
monopoly of a charter or a patent, or a protecting
duty, or the favour of government.
"There is no profit made upon silver forks and
spoons, by an ordinary silversmith. The silver is
5s. 1d. an ounce, the making is 6d., the duty is
1s. 6d. The price of the silver forks and spoons
is 7s. 2d. per ounce. The ostensible profit there-
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
119
fore is 1d. per ounce.
the making is 11d. per ounce! the price is 7s. 8d.
The profit is 2d. This lowness of profit is pro-
duced by advertisements of cheap prices; which
attract a monopoly custom, and remunerate the
advertisers, through the losses of other tradesmen.
But other silversmiths, who maintain a custom by
character and connection, not by advertisement,
and by the terms upon which they stand with
their regular customers, cannot send in their bill
and require payment on delivery, lest they should
give offence; and so this small amount of profit
is soon swallowed up in the interest of the first
cost of the silver, and of the duty which has been
paid in advance, between the time of the first
purchase of the metal and the ultimate payment.
In dessert spoons and forks,
'Nothing is left towards the payment of rent, or
of the skill and superintendance and risk of the
master, which ought to maintain his family; and
so the whole of his business is an expense and
loss, so far as regards those articles of manu-
facture.
'The small expected profit on the vast and beau-
tiful conservatory in the Horticultural Gardens,
was entirely swallowed up by the occurrence of a
few wet days during its erection; which inter-
rupted the workmen, and made their labour more
expensive.
'This extreme lowness of profits exists in other
articles; especially those which are of the simplest
120
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
and most necessary kind: as sugar, tea, bread,
and other plain articles of food.
'Trade cannot go on upon this system. Yet we
can hardly go back from it. It is evident that
these things are becoming worse.
The very sys-
tem itself arises from the difficulties of trade and
the diminution of profits; and the remedies which
people apply, each in their own case, only increase
the evil, and bring down profits lower; till, in the
end, more losses than profit will be made, and
trade will cease to be profitable.
'There is a strange opinion now-a-days abroad
among politicians, that public riches and prosperity
can consist with private misery and ruin. When
the trading world are making as a body hardly
any profits, we boast of the vast increase of nati-
onal wealth and public prosperity. Are we to
learn that the public happiness and wealth is the
sum of the private? Are we to be told that the
nation is happy, when the countenance of every
rich man we meet is care,-of every poor man is
agony? Are we to be told that the nation is rich
and prosperous, when five-sixths of the trading
world are struggling against difficulties and debts,
and the threats of prospective ruin; and of the
rest, a half only are able to maintain their station
respectably and comfortably?
All this is irrespective of the growth and in-
crease of machinery; which has swallowed up
and destroyed the fine trade and manufacture of
THE SELFISH PRINCIPLE.
121
:
India, and reduced a population more vast than
our own manufacturing population to misery.
This it has done in like manner in other places.
And this it must do all over the world; till it shall
swallow up and monopolize trade and handicraft
over the whole face of the globe;-and then it
shall swallow up itself.'
'Selfishness and self-love, instead of leading us,
as we are taught, to our best interests, can only lead
us to turn every man his hand against his brother,
and afterwards against himself. Self-love and
avarice will blind us to our own true interests:
will lead and impel us to turn our hands, first
against each other, and then against our own
throats.'
9
* From Principia; By S. R. Bosanquet, Esq; -a work which
we cordially recommend to the notice of every reader.
Ꮐ
CHAPTER IX.
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
THE evils that we are endeavouring to search out
are so multifarious, so diverse, and deeply rooted,
that nothing short of a settled determination to
discover what is right, in order to do it, will carry
a man through the investigation. Some would
appear to have held by the old adage, that when
things come to the worst, they will mend; and
seeing that matters could not be much worse than
they are in reference to the poor of our land,
solaced themselves with the speedy approach of
such amendment. To us it appears no doubtful
issue, that if we do not adopt very speedy and
efficient means for ameliorating the condition of
our suffering population, they will proceed to
help themselves at a greater cost than we are pre-
pared to pay; but we would rather urge as a
solemn Christian duty the application of remedial
measures, than enforce it by pointing out the
menacing posture of events. To us it ought to
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS. 123
be enough that God has commanded us to care
for the poor; that a blessing is promised to him
who considereth them: and as we would shrink
from being found guilty at once of rejecting the
Lord's commands and despising his promises, we
must be able to adopt Job's language, "The
cause that I knew not I searched out." We now
proceed to exhibit, without distinction of classes,
the general disadvantages under which the poor,
in their own homes, are placed as regards those
fundamental points of well-being and well-doing,
-health, and morals.
The poor man's health is his all. Against the
pressure of poverty he may bear up to-day, hoping
for some favourable turn of events to bring him
employment on the morrow, and conscious of
power to undertake it; but let sickness assail him,
and with what heart-breaking aggravations does it
come! We all know something of the depression
of mind consequent on organic derangement; the
dimness of mental vision, interposing where the
prospect is otherwise bright, and the threefold
gloom enveloping one already sombre. Yet we
have many solacing resources; not only the supply
of our various bodily wants, but also sympathizing
friends, cheerful converse, engaging books, and
free access to the inspired word of God; to which
none ever sought for consolation in vain. In the
great bulk of cases, where sickness enters the poor
man's hovel, the reverse of all this is his lot. Such
1
G 2
124
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
friends as he has can only add their lamentations
over the present, and sad forebodings of the fu-
ture, to his. It is well known to all who have
visited the sick poor, that the remarks made in
their hearing, as to their sufferings, danger, priva-
tions, and the distresses accruing to their families,
are such as would never be permitted to reach the
ear of an invalid among ourselves: Then, of books
to amuse or to elevate the mind, what can they
know? their sorrows are too real, too weighty, to
be beguiled by fiction: And what can philosophy
do for them? her air-spun theories would become
a mock, if offered to the writhing sufferer, who,
prostrate under the hand of disease, hears his chil-
dren crying for bread. Even the balm that ought
to trickle into every habitation on British ground,
the divine cordial that God has freely given, the pro-
mise of the all-sufficient Comforter, the sweet fore-
taste of an incorruptible, eternal inheritance, even
this is checked in its course, by the uninstructed
ignorance, the unremoved enmity, of the natural
mind and heart; and dwell as we may on all its
desolate features, the most vivid picture our fancy
can draw of the diseased pauper, in the wretched-
ness, the filth, the helplessness, the hopelessness
of his lot, leaves us far short of the reality. Disease
not necessarily infectious frequently becomes so by
the impure exhalations with which it loads an already
vitiated atmosphere, deficient in all that might
neutralize the hostile effluvia; those exposed to it
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
125
being equally destitute of means to invigorate the
frame, and so to assist the efforts that nature
makes to repel a noxious influence. Thus, a com-
mon sore throat, or other trifling ailment, brought
by an individual into his own court or alley, may
decimate the neighbourhood. A merciful pro-
vision to thin a redundant population,'-say some
calculating theorists; but let the pestilence extend
to their precincts, and the messenger of death cross.
their own thresholds, we shall soon find, in their
eager recourse to every available means for baffling
the enemy, that they consider he has exceeded his
commission: that God is a respecter of persons;
and that the sword of the destroying angel was
whetted only to slay the poor. We address not
ourselves to such as are past feeling; but to those
who would gladly alleviate, if it were possible, the
sufferings, and improve the lot of their fellow-
men: and who, admitting the truth of our state-
ment, which is, indeed, undeniable, are ready to
enquire, How can these things be obviated? What
mode of prevention would you suggest? Can po-
verty be banished out of the land, or can sickness
be excluded from its abodes, or the natural results
of their combination averted?
Assuredly not: but there are predisposing
causes in full operation throughout the country,
engendering evils which, but for their baneful
presence, would not exist; and aggravating a
thousand-fold such as would, even in their ab-
I
126 WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
:
sence, arise. It is to the counteraction of these
pernicious tendencies that we address ourselves;
and however hopeless the task, we will not shrink
from demonstrating to the comparatively rich at
how moderate a sacrifice of time, and thought,
and means, they might achieve a work that ap-
pears impracticable only because we are accustomed
to consider it so: because the evil is very general,
of long standing, and daily on the increase: it is
like a vast flood, coming in upon the land, certain
to sweep away the existing embankments, and ul-
timately to overwhelm us. Shall we therefore sit
still, and yield to its gush; or shall we bestir our-
selves, here to raise a bulwark, and there to shape
a channel, until what now menaces speedy des-
truction, may become not only innoxious but a
blessing? In itself, the element ministers to
many valuable uses; it is an ordinance of God
that the poor should labour, and by their labour
the land is enriched; but that the poor should
groan under accumulated miseries, that their lot
should be one of unmitigated suffering, their lives
counted as nothing, and their natural propagation,
ordained as it is, and commanded too by God him-
self, be restricted to suit the accommodation of the
wealthy-that man should dare to say to his fel-
low-men, "Ye shall not be fruitful, ye shall not
multiply, ye shall not replenish the earth,"-what
is this, but impiously to fly in the face of the
Most High, to provoke him to jealousy, and to
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
127
expose ourselves to the withering consequences of
that threat, "For the oppression of the poor, for
the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith
the Lord I will set him in safety from him that
puffeth at him."
:
We proceed then to exhibit, as briefly as may
be, such particulars touching the prevalence of
disease among the poor, as can be shown to result
from the neglect or misconduct of those with whom
the duty of prevention rests; together with the
obvious remedy. We shall follow into their dwel-
lings the same classes that we have already glanced
at in their various occupations, and in the same
order; noticing first cities and towns, the usual
localities of manufacturing and commercial poor;
secondly, rural districts, inhabited by miners and
agricultural labourers.
It is shown by tabular returns, duly authenti-
cated, that if the deaths caused during one year
in England and Wales alone by epidemic, endemic,
and contagious diseases, of a character, the great-
est proportion of which are proved to be curable, be
computed, it is as if the whole county of Westmore-
land or of Huntingdon, or any other equivalent
district, were annually depopulated; and the race
swept away, replaced by the growth of a new and
feeble population, living under the fears of a simi-
lar visitation. The annual slaughter in England
and Wales, from preventible causes of typhus
alone, among persons in the vigour of life, appears
128
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
to be double the amount of what was suffered by
the allied armies in the battle of Waterloo. These
diseases, within the experience of living persons,
prevailed more extensively at sea than they do on
land; and the deaths from them in ships of war
doubled the number of those slain in battle. San-
itary regulations have lately rescued our seamen
from this scourge; and similar means would be
just as efficacious on land.
Four things are indispensable to the prevention
of fatal diseases in towns; paved streets, covered
sewers, ventilation, and a supply of water. Let
any person residing within reach of a street, or
district, or neighbourhood, where fever is often
prevalent, examine its condition in these four par-
ticulars, and he will find some marked instance of
omission in one or more of them; unless, indeed,
any collection of noxious matter should exist in
the vicinity, not to be obviated under either of the
foregoing heads. Slaughter-houses, repositories
for manure, and accumulations of water, required
for manufacturing or other purposes, may furnish
extraordinary sources of contagion; but with-
out such occasional nuisances, a district, how-
ever poor, that is kept dry, thoroughly cleansed,
exposed to the free action of atmospheric air,
and adequately supplied with pure water, will
not be found to generate or to spread disor-
ders of a malignant type. It is, however, notor-
ious, that the quarters inhabited by the poor are
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
129
.
generally found to be characterized by the absence
of these advantages. Large open drains, ditches,
and gutters; uncovered cess-pools, and unremoved
heaps of animal and vegetable matter in a state
of decomposition, are common in the lanes, and
courts, and suburban waste-grounds inhabited by
the poor, while they would be considered a por-
tentous anomaly in the stately squares of London.
In such places also there is almost invariably a
defective, broken pavement, in the holes of which
rain and other water accumulates, until each be-
comes a miniature pool, exuding its own malaria,
to the destruction of the poor children who sport
around it. Frequently the ground is unpaved;
and then it possesses the properties of a sponge,
continually kept moist with a deleterious element,
to be drawn forth and dispersed in vapours preg-
nant with death. Again, the position of these
tenements, erected only with a view to the
amount of rent that a given space of ground may
be made to produce, forbids a free passage to the
breeze; no strong current of air sweeping through
the region, which for lack of such merciful pro-
vision, holds the nauseous effluvia so suspended
in a stagnant atmosphere, that, though a portion
of the blue arch of heaven may be visible far
above, an unseen canopy of death intervenes ;
and to the wretched inmate of the blighted spot
that bright promise of health is but a phantom;
the intangible phantom of disease a tremendous
G 5
130
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
reality. How often do we hear, when a young
person asks permission to make some visit of cha-
rity to a poor afflicted object, the reply of parental
caution, 'I dare not let you venture into so un-
wholesome a neighbourhood.' The fact is not a
thing to be searched out; it is notorious, prover-
vial, the great public nuisance in every town; and
the best mansion that could be built in such a lo-
cality might stand untenanted for years, ere it
could find occupants among the class to whom it
was adapted.
The supply, too, of fresh water is an indispen-
sable requisite to health. In its foul state, the
element is not only pernicious as a beverage, but
ineffectual, of course, to cleanse either linen or
any other substance; and thrown out, as it always
will be, by the squalid inhabitants, reckless of
health and cleanliness, and incorporated with other
filth, it emits a noisome smell, deleterious as all
putrid smells are. In the heart of towns, where
pure water can only be fetched from a distance,
or supplied to order by a trading company, the
privation is found to exist in a frightful degreė
through the want of inclination, or of strength
or leisure to go so far for a pailful of it, and of
means to pay for the regular supply. The poor
creatures, living in the midst of every impurity,
become assimilated to their disgusting element:
they have no desire after cleanliness, no wish to
shake off the contaminating influences surrounding
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
131
them, even when an effort of their own might
partially do so; and while their richer brethren
content themselves with keeping at a safe distance
from the danger, and sparing their feelings the
shock of witnessing what they do not intend to
remedy, death may gather in his annual harvest
from the reeking soil. No individual holds
himself singly responsible for the consequences of
general neglect: if they perish, they perish.
So far, the removable causes of fatal disease
are external to the habitations of the poor: we
must now look into their dwellings. These, of
course, vary in different places, but generally
they may be said to consist of tenements two or
three stories high; the first, or keeping room,
opening into the street, with a bed-room over it,
and another above that. Sometimes the houses
are double; and sometimes they rise to a greater
height; but in most cases, where the nature of
the soil will admit of it, they have a cellar, un-
connected with the interior of the house, entered
from the street by a flight of steps-which also
affords the only mode of ingress for light and
air—rented out, either by the landlord or the oc-
cupier of the dwelling, to some family, a grade
lower in destitution. From this abode of misery
there constantly arises a steam of exhalations-of
coal and tobacco-smoke, the fumes of spirituous
liquors, and every description of animal effluvia.
Very rarely are these dens paved; the ground in
132 WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
!
its natural state is their floor; and soaking up in-
numerable liquids thrown upon it, sends them
back in fœtid damps to saturate the bedding, hang
upon the walls, and slowly struggle out at the
narrow opening which, at night, necessarily in-
closes, as in a box, the heterogeneous contents of
the cellar; including fever and asthma; con-
sumption, measles, and small-pox! the lying-in
woman and the drunken man, just as chance may
order the assemblage for the night. These cellars
are almost always open to temporary lodgers, the
price demanded varying from twopence a night to
fourpence; and it is a common thing to find as
many as twelve or fourteen human beings, generally
strangers to each other, stowed in three or four
wretched beds, or on trusses of straw; and not
unfrequently a corpse among them. The rooms
above certainly enjoy an advantage in point of
ventilation, such as it is; but they receive, as
well through the broken flooring as by the door
and window, a full share of all that ascends from
the subterranean apartment. The intense heat en-
gendered by the crowding together of so many
human beings, together with the process of cook-
ing for them, as in summer it tends to produce the
worst kind of fevers, so in winter it renders the
abrupt transition of the half-clad lodgers, from such
a temperature into the cold rain or biting frost of
the streets, the prolific source of ague, of rheu-
matic affections, and consumption. Be it also re-
7
!
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
133
membered, that it is no matter of choice to the
wayfaring man, whether he will take up his tem-
porary abode in such pest-houses; or if there be
an alternative, it lies between this and the open
air, where he would be seized as a vagrant; for
it is made penal to prefer the clear vault of heaven
to the low ceiling of a crowded cellar. The poor
wretch who has not the means of paying for better
accommodation, must avail himself of this; and
very often, particularly among the most necessi-
tous of all poor, the Irish, a shelter is gratuitously
afforded to him who has nothing wherewith to pay.
The penniless stranger, who would not be per-
mitted to rest for a moment on the step of a rich
man's door, is received by those whose daily bread
depends on what they can get for their wretched
accommodations, invited to share their scanty
meal, and to repose, rent-free, in the corner that
a more profitable tenant might occupy. Muni-
ficence like this is frequently practised, in the
dreariest dens of misery and often does the poor
traveller communicate to, or bear away from, the
hospitable cellar, the seeds of some contagious
disease, to ravage many a home ere its deadly
progress be stayed. We saw the Asiatic Cholera
introduced into a healthy rural district, through
the gratuitous harbouring, in a very humble cot-
tage, by some of his own country people, of a
poor creature who had slept the preceding night
in an infected cellar. He died in a few hours,
134
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
i
and the neighbourhood lay for some weeks under
the visitation, with great loss of life.
Another constant generator of disease in the
houses of the labouring poor is their bedding.
Any thing better than a straw palliase is rarely
met with, and this is a luxury.
luxury. Loose straw,
damp, mouldy, decomposed and swarming with
vermin, is the general substitute for a bed, with
very rarely a blanket to hold it together; for blan-
kets are convertible into money, and many wants
more urgent than that of a warm covering at night
press for its sacrifice. It has been ascertained that
multitudes make the ground their bed, with no-
thing under them or over them except the clothing
worn throughout the day, which is not laid aside
at night. We are no levellers; we would guard
with jealous care the distinction of ranks that God
has evidently established; we would not take from
the man of property his lands, tenements, or pos-
sessions of any kind; but we must say that after
dwelling for a while on this faint picture of re-
alities that we have often contemplated in the
centre of London, and in many towns and villages
of the land, we regard as somewhat worse than
mere wanton luxuries, the down beds, the damask
hangings, the gilded cornices, the sparkling lus-
tres, the costly services, and jewelled apparel of
another class. The impartial eye of God looks
down on both: at the same moment lie open before
Him-the crowded saloon of the noble, the lux-
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
135
urious board of the wealthy citizen, the expensive
elegancies of more retired life, and the loathsome
dens where unchecked vice riots in all its grossness,
unalleviated disease gnaws the gaunt frame of
poverty, and starvation itself looks out from the
straining eyeballs of those who, either on a happy
or a horrible equality, must be throughout eternity
the companions of their now unapproachable
brethren. He sees it all.
But we must not digress; we supply data to
those who desire to investigate the evil, that they
may devise a remedy, or at least attempt an ame-
lioration of it. We have pourtrayed the more
prominent features, external and internal, that
characterize the spots where our labouring poor
congregate in towns. It is obvious that relief
does not, cannot lie within the reach of the suffer-
ers. They have neither the means nor the
authority to pave streets, construct sewers, open
thoroughfares, or rebuild the houses they live in.
Supposing them even anxious to carry away from
their doors the various kinds of filth now cast
before them, no receptacle is appointed into which
it might be emptied; and with the necessary
blessing, the natural luxury, of pure water, they
often cannot provide themselves. The individual
who is old enough and strong enough to carry a
full pail repeatedly, the distance of a quarter of a
mile, is competent to earn the price of a morsel
of food by regular labour; and such as are too
**
136
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
ness.
idle so to satisfy their own hunger, will hardly
exert themselves to procure the means of cleanli-
In fact, destitution is so enervating; rags,
filth, ignorance, vice, and disease, induce such
habitual disregard and disrelish for external
purity, that it amounts to a physical incapacity
for the effort; and as to paying a rate for the regu-
lar supply, they cannot look forward to the
necessary means for satisfying their landlord's
weekly or monthly demand, unless some extraor-
dinary concurrence of favourable events place a
few shillings in their hands. Accordingly they
must be left in the cultivation of that one commo-
dity which is always rife among them-disease-
and to form a nucleus of pestilence to extend
throughout the neighbourhood, whenever it pleas-
es God to send a sickly season! or else the matter
must be taken up by a different class, prepared
to stand in a battle where few may be with, many
will be against them. The legislature must
interfere, both vesting new powers in the local
authorities, and making the due exercise of those
powers compulsory under severe penalties; so
that a foreigner may walk through the length and
the breadth of our towns without having just cause
to say, England appoints her poor as sheep to the
slaughter; she provides magnificent fever-hospi-
tals, it is true, but renders them insufficient, almost
valueless, through the multitude whom she aban-
dons to sure disease, rather than incur the cost of

WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
137
covering a cess-pool. She exhausts a quarry in
erecting monuments to a few favourite names
in one quarter of the town, while in another
her bravest sons are dying by dozens for lack of
a cart-load of paving-stones before their doors.
We will not further pursue the degrading contrast.
The air of cities is never wholly free from con-
tamination; the freshest breeze that gushes
through its broadest streets lacks somewhat of
the health-giving purity that renders its sweep
upon the hill-side, or along the open fields, so
exquisitely reviving. This deterioration must of
course exist in proportion as the channels which
it finds are choked and blocked up by buildings.
The entrance into a square or open street exposed
to the same breeze that blows into a narrow lane,
intersected by alleys, and studded with courts,
receives tenfold benefit from it, compared with
the latter, even though their respective atmos-
pheres were alike untainted; but when to the
material obstructions we add the invisible though
equally real presence of heavy sluggish air, clogged
with unwholesome matter, which has to be dis-
placed without the aid of a regular current, or
with a single narrow current that bears the fresh
breeze rapidly past the transverse openings where
its entrance is especially needful, we must per-
ceive the imperative necessity of artificial aids to
render efficacious the most indispensable operation
of nature in such regions. Yet, open as you may
j
1
i
1
138 WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
the ventilation, if the pure element so admitted
has to gather up in its progress the filthy exhala-
tions from such receptacles as we have before
spoken of, it becomes an active, wide distributor
of the poison that before hung stagnant over its
peculiar haunt. Thus are the very blessings of
God, by man's cruel neglect, tainted with a curse
ere they reach the poor man's dwelling.
This leads us to the other division of our inquiry,
the predisposing causes of disease in rural districts,
villages and townlets, favourably situated, and
largely intermixed with garden or meadow land.
Such are found conducive to health among the
population generally; often resorted to by the
inhabitants of cities, for the advantages of pure
air and refreshment: still the visitations of fever
in its most destructive forms are frequent even
there in localities occupied by the poor; and what-
ever epidemic may make its appearance in other
parts of the neighbourhood, is sure to assume in
that quarter a more active, malignant, and endur-
ing character. In order to supply at once the
most accurate and best authenticated description
of what prevails, we will now quote verbatim
from the Report of the Poor Law Commis-
sioners, presented to Parliament only a few months
since.
Mr. John Fox, medical officer of the union of
Cerne, in Dorsetshire, gives the following descrip-
tion : 'It is somewhat singular that seven cases
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
139
of typhus occurred in our village, heretofore famed
for the health and general cleanliness of its in-
habitants and cottages. The first five cases
occurred in one family, in a detached house on
high and dry ground, and free from accumulations
of vegetable or animal matter. The cottage was
originally built for a school-room, and consists of
one room only, about eighteen feet by ten, and
nine high. About one-third part was partitioned
off by boards reaching to within three feet of the
roof, and in this small space were three beds, in
which six persons slept; had there been two bed-
rooms attached to this one day-room, these cases
of typhus would not have occurred. The fatal
case of typhus occurred in a very small village,
containing about sixty inhabitants, and from its
locality it appears favourable to the production of
typhus, synochus, and acute rheumatism. It
stands between two hills, with a river running
through it, and is occasionally flooded. It has
extensive water-meadows, both above and below,
and a farm-yard in the centre, where there is always
a large quantity of vegetable matter undergoing
decomposition. Most of the cases of syno-
chus occurred under circumstances favourable
to its production; the cottages being of the
worst description, some mere mud hovels, and
situated in low and damp places, with cess-pools
or accumulations of filth close to the doors. The
mud floors of many are much below the level of
140
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
:
the road, and in wet seasons are little better than
so much clay.'
This, it may be said, is a selected case; we
will then turn to another. It is contained in a
letter from the clerk of a midland county Union,
and is taken at random.
family of William
Parish of Leighton Buzzard :- Several of the
worst of the cottages are disposed of, and it is
supposed will be pulled down next spring; but
there are several now occupied that are wholly
unfit for dwelling-houses: having no bedrooms,
families are living and sleeping in the same apart-
ment, some of which are without any other
flooring but the bare ground, and consequently
cannot possibly be cleaned. One cottage in par-
ticular, now occupied by the
Smith. (Smith himself being in the workhouse,
afflicted with a disorder that requires cleanliness,
which it is in vain to hope for in the wretched hole
his family are in.) The room, if so it can be called,
is about ten feet long by six wide; one end of it
is formed by part of the boarding of a large barn,
very much out of repair, through the holes of which
any one having access to the barn can see the
family at any time; there is no back door nor
privy, all the filth being thrown out close to the front
door. The poor woman's confinement is ap-
proaching, which may occur in the night, when the
four children are in the bed with her, who having
no other place to go to, must of course remain.
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
141
.
I
'In the parish of Ellesborough, the poor have
been for some time past permitted to build hovels
in the waste, and, although some of these are
much better than others, the whole of them, with
the exception of one built by a wheeler, are with-
out upstair rooms. In some instances these places
are formed by being excavated in the banks, over
which a lean-to roof is placed; these are necessa-
rily extremely damp. It is feared that a poor
woman of the name of Room, who has three chil-
dren, is at this time suffering from consumption.
'In the hamlet of Egginston, there are twelve
tenements belonging to a charity, formed origin-
ally out of two barns; these are always inhabited
by paupers of the lowest grade, and who, in their
present condition, would find a difficulty in obtain-
ing any decent cottage, as tenants to a private
individual they are generally the resort of persons
who are turned out of their houses for non-pay-
ment of rent, &c. Two only of the tenements
have a room up-stairs, and all, except those two,
have dirt floors: the other ten tenements consist of
one room each. In two or three instances this
room is divided by a sort of partition, put up by
the inmates. The largest number of persons oc-
cupying one of these tenements is eight, viz., a
man, his wife, and six children; the eldest child
aged sixteen, the youngest an infant. There is
no bed in the house, the whole family sleeping
on two heaps of straw confined in two corners of
142 WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
·
the room by stakes driven into the ground; none
of the tenements are ceiled; there are no back
doors, nor windows for ventilation; the filth is
thrown out into stagnant pools in front of the
tenement; the stench is at all times great, and in
hot weather it is of course proportionably increas-
ed. With the exception of one, the rest of the
tenements are occupied by families with children
of all ages. The number of persons in the whole
is 55.'
We will now travel north, and examine the
dwelling of a Border peasant. Dr. Gilly of Dur-
ham thus describes the cottages of the hinds,-
They are built of rubble, or unhewn stone
loosely cemented; and from age, or from badness
of the materials, the walls look as if they would
scarcely hold together. The chinks gape in so
many places, as to admit blasts of wind: the
chimnies have lost half their original height, and
lean on the roof with fearful gravitation; the
rafters are evidently rotten and displaced; and the
thatch yawning to admit the wind and wet in some
parts, and in all parts utterly unfit for its original
purpose of giving protection from the weather,
looks more the top of a dunghill than a cottage.
Such is the exterior; and when the hind comes
to take possession, he finds it no better than a
shed. The wet, if it happens to rain, is making
a puddle on the earth floor, (this earth floor, by
the bye, is one of the causes to which Erasmus
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
143
ascribed the frequent recurrence of epidemic sick-
ness among the cotters of England more than
three hundred years ago: it is not only cold and
wet, but contains the aggregate filth of years,
from the time of its first being used; the refuse
and dropping of meals, decayed animal and vege-
table matter of all kinds, which has been cast
upon it from the mouth and stomach, these all mix
together and exude from it.) Window-frame there
is none. There is neither oven, nor copper, nor
grate, nor shelf, nor fixture of any kind; all these
things he has to bring with him, besides his ordi-
nary articles of furniture. Imagine the trouble,
the inconvenience and the expense which the
poor
fellow and his wife have to encounter before they
can put this shell of a hut into anything like a
habitable form.' And we must also imagine what
will be the consequence if the parties be too indo-
lent to take a vast deal of trouble about it, or too
poor to bear the burden of such expense.
From these descriptions, applicable to most
parts of the kingdom, we draw the inference that
cases of the worst disease must be of constant
occurrence, even in the most healthful situations
among the poor, clearly preventable by the doing
away with such disgraceful dens and pest-houses;
all the evils of which the half-starved people.
readily encounter for the sake of such a rent as
leaves them a trifle more to expend on necessary
food. That Englishmen are found to let out such
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WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
styes to their fellow-countrymen, and pocket the
price of their residence in them, we believe, just be-
cause we see it: otherwise it were scarcely credible.
It will be observed that the hovels of Egginston,
constructed out of two old barns, afford shelter to
certain defaulters who, being unable, probably
through sickness or want of work, to pay the rent
of their original dwellings, (often, no doubt, much
on a par with those above described,) were ejected
to make room for more solvent victims. We say
victims, because the man who, for the money it
brings, keeps such a tenement standing, does for
that same sum sell his brother man's life, and the
lives of his family; and he will find it so when
the hour shall come that must cite him to appear
in a court where neither the technicalities of law
nor the plausibilities of self-deception will avail:
where the Judge who shall try him has been pre-
sent at all his secret calculations of gain, has di-
rected the occasional plea of better feeling, pointed
the unwelcome sting of conscience, and most in-
timately knows all the workings of his mind, from
the first successful repression of rising conviction,
to the last bootless struggle against death and
judgment: where the sentence once pronounced
will be irreversible; and the penalty to be paid
eternal. We do say that to cast out the poor for
profit, and to leave him houseless because he can-
not at the present time pay for a shelter, is a sin to
be repented of without reserve, and without delay.
WANT OF SANITARY REGULATIONS.
145
But selfishness tells a different tale, and as yet
no voice is heard sufficiently powerful to drown its
exclamations: nothing short of compulsion will
deter covetous men from pursuing a lucrative
course, however sinful; and to mulct every man
who rents out a hut unfit for human habitation
in a penalty exceeding the profit, might be an
effectual remedy, but one not very easily applied.
CHAPTER X.
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
THE adage so much in favour with our ancestors,
'Live, and let live,' has given place to another
equally familiar, but wofully different in its origin
and tendency: Take care of number one.' This
is the key-note of our harmony: its recurrence is
the main character of the piece, and all others are
regulated in subordination to it. We have painfully
proceeded through a mass of evidence, shewing, that
"because of oppression the land mourneth." We
have exhibited the different classes of industrious
poor toiling along a path of heart-sickening distress,
seldom brightened by a gleam of hope, as regards
either this world or the next, and have endeavoured
to display the root of the evils that spring up on
every side. Happy would it be for us all, if the
remedy could be in like manner discovered; or
if men in general were as ready to apply themselves
to the removal of an evil, as they are to admit its
existence. Various devices have been framed for
the public good; and foremost among them stands
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
147
"C
one which we cannot pass by. It professes to deal
with what it considers the main cause of all our
troubles, past, present, and to come; namely, a
redundant population. To drain off the existing
surplus by distant colonization, and to apply a
preventive check" to the natural progress of
increase, is the grand panacea. It comes recom-
mended by names of note, in language at once
authoritative and persuasive; and if we could dis-
cover in it any promise of beneficial operation, any
actual relief for the country or its inhabitants from
the pressure that bears them down, we should, of
course, gladly entertain it, after bringing it to the
great test of that law which man may not abrogate.
We are bound, however, to say, that being weighed
in the balance it is found wanting. Theoretically,
it stands opposed to God and man: practically, it
would establish and extend the dominion of him
who is man's enemy and God's.
What is our object? To lighten the burden of
national distress, to raise the tone of national mo-
rality, to bring the country into the state described
by the Psalmist, who says, "Happy is the people
that are in such a case; yea, blessed are the
people whose God is the Lord.” In fact the
last is primary in importance; because public
piety is the only sure groundwork of public
morality and prosperity. The Creator and up-
holder of the world is surely its rightful governor ;
and man's suggestions are only admissible as they
H 2
148
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
harmonize with the laws that He has laid down,
Unto Christ all power is given both in heaven and
on earth from him, therefore, all inferior au-
thority is derived; all temporal dominion is exer-
cised on his behalf. This being admitted, our
way is cleared of numberless difficulties; for we
have before us, every man in his own home, the
perfect standard of right, by which to measure
the projects submitted to us.
Neither is the re-
velation of God's will dark or obscure: our Lord
went up to a mountain, the sides of which were
thronged with multitudes, chiefly the humble, the
poor, the ignorant, the afflicted, and He sat down
and taught them. He dealt not in parables then,
but simply, plainly, laid down a code of laws, a
system of ethics no less complete than perspicuous;
and what he there declared is the sum and sub-
stance of the whole Bible.
We shall merely cite two or three samples of the
doctrine that is now pressed upon us, as peculiarly
suited to the emergency of the times, by those
who recommend the 'preventive' method: and to
begin with an extract from the celebrated Colonel
P. Thomson, to which Dr. Chalmers has admir-
ingly called attention, giving it entire in his elabo-
rate work on Political Economy. The Doctor,
advocating the selfish principle in man, thus intro-
duces his quotation :-
'Mr. T. Perronet Thomson, in his able tract
on the "True theory of Rent," has stated the

ERRORS OF THE DAY.
149
effect of this difference with laconic felicity and
force. “A labourer in Ireland will live and bring
up a family on potatoes: a labourer in England
will see the world unpeopled first." "Englishmen
have the physical capability of living on potatoes
as much as other men, but fortunately they have
not the habit: and though it might be wrong to say
they would starve first in their own proper persons,
they will utterly refuse to multiply upon such diet;
the effect of which on population is ultimately the
same." "The Englishman will not live and
bring up a family on potatoes; because, though
he may consent to live on them, when he can
positively procure nothing else,-habit, custom,
the opinion of the world around him, have made
it in his eyes contemptible, irrational, absurd, for
a man to be living on potatoes when he has the
opportunity of getting any thing better. In his
hours of prosperity, therefore, he will, to a cer-
tainty solace himself with bacon, and most proba-
bly venture upon BEEF!!! and as this absorbs a
greater portion of his income in what he views as
necessary to his individual existence, it proportion-
ably reduces his disposition to burden himself with
new mouths. If the Irishman had the prospect of
all this bacon and beef, he would view it as con-
vertible into potatoes for a family like a patriarch's.
The Englishman thinks it but decency to swallow
all, and omits the family.'
Now, we should scarcely have considered it fair
150
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
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:.
C
to select such a paragraph as the preceding, when
seeking an epitome of the doctrine in question.
The coarseness, the flippancy, the loathsome spirit
of gluttony, and the scandalous libel on the Eng-
lish character that it contains, would have induced
us to discard it, as a mere caricature of the ex-
treme notions of his party; but when Dr. Chal-
mers fixes upon it, as best suited by its felicity
and force' to express his own views, we meet him
on the ground he has selected, and marvel. The
tenor of the thing is to eulogize the man who
shall most insolently fly in the face of his Creator:
the man who, having before him God's command,
"Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and having within him the law of nature,
bearing concurrent testimony that such is one end
of his existence, shall dare to answer, 'I will not,
unless means be given me beforehand to insure
my never being left for a day dependent on the
truth and faithfulness of God for the indulgence
of my own and my children's appetites. No, I
will eat my morsel alone, I will have it in my
power to add drunkenness to thirst; I will live in
adultery, fornication, and all uncleanness, the
natural result of pampered flesh, but I will not
marry. I will see the world unpeopled first; whe-
ther through the sterility consequent on universal
prostitution, or the murder of my bastard offspring,
and those of my bacon and beef-eating brethren,
by their despairing mothers, who now thanks to
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
151
the New Poor-law, must rise from childbed to earn
by their labour (if any one will employ them) the
morsel that shall enable them to give suck. "Tis
no affair of mine: whether strangled or starved, it
comes to the same thing: the effect on population
is ultimately the same.'
And does that worthy Scotchman, Dr. Chal-
mers, really believe that this is a 'felicitous' por-
traiture of the Englishman? God forbid! We
hurl the foul aspersion back on its author and
abettor, and point to the scenes faintly pourtrayed
in our preceding pages to show, that the peasantry
of England, amid all their wants, their woes, their
ignorance, their vices, hold dear and sacred the
tie of wedlock, and share with their offspring the
scanty produce of their ill-paid toil. We do not
deny the offence imputed to the still poorer Irish-
man: we believe that if on the one hand bacon
and beef ad libitum, were brought to his cabin-
door, with an imposed condition that he should
gormandize, in single blessedness, upon the sa-
voury bits; and on the other hand a sufficiency
of potatoes to satisfy the cravings of a family, with
liberty to dispense to every hungry traveller who
passed that door; we do not deny, nay, we stren-
uously insist upon it, that out of every thousand
poor Irish cottagers, nine hundred and ninety-nine
would clutch the potatoes, and laugh the beef-
eating celibate to scorn.
'A family like a patriarch's!' Mr. Perronet
ĺ
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ERRORS OF THE DAY.
Thomson doubtless thanks his stars that he did
not live in patriarchal days: but does he believe
that the God of the patriarchs is also the God of
Englishmen, unchangeably the same? Does he
know that in the immutable word of this un-
changeable God it is written, "Lo, children are
an heritage of the LORD, and the fruit of the womb
is his reward:" and again, "Whoso findeth a wife
findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the
Lord." The preventive check, of which so much
is talked, is no check upon licentiousness: quite
the reverse: the abuse of God's gifts so 'felicit-
ously and forcibly' advocated by Mr. Thomson,
would speedily issue as did the like spirit of selfish
gluttony of old—" When I had fed them to the
full, they then committed adultery, and assembled
themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They
were as fed horses in the morning: every one
neighed after his neighbour's wife." The words
that immediately follow are striking indeed:
"Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord:
and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation
as this?"
The unmasked, unmitigated selfishness that
forms the soul of this particular system, is abso-
lutely revolting. It is, in fact, the carrying out
of the same principle that gives rise to all op-
pression. The land is productive enough to sup-
port its population, though that population were
doubled, and to leave the higher orders too in
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
153
possession of abundant wealth; but it will not
admit of the sudden accumulation of enormous
riches by one particular class, without impoverish-
ing others; and it is almost incredible how broadly,
how unblushingly the principle of which we speak
is avowed, yea, gloried in, by the class in question.
At Manchester, a short time ago, a contributor
to the Corn-law Abolition-fund openly said,
'I will give £100, in the belief that if the object
be attained, I shall profit ten times £100 by the
increase of my trade.' Another observed, 'It is
simply a question whether the land-owners shall
ride us down with their long purses, or whether
we shall ride them down with ours.'
•
The one idea that has taken possession of men's
minds appears to be, How may I sell more
goods than I do now?' Accordingly, tell them
that by changing any particular line of national
policy this object may be attained, and they stop
not to enquire how such change may or must affect
millions of their countrymen, or how ruinously it
may operate on the very existence of the empire;
the ignis fatuus of present gain dances before
their eyes, and on they rush in hot pursuit. Tell
them, for instance, that though all duties on im-
ported corn were abolished, they have not the least
ground for believing that the Germans would
cease to protect their own manufactures by retain-
ing heavy duties on our goods; the suggestion,
however obviously reasonable, is unpalatable, and
H 5
154
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
2
לי
they give no heed. Represent to them that the
creation of a new trade with foreigners, by taking
their corn for example, would be, not an additi-
onal trade, but simply a change of customers;
and that five or ten millions annually spent by
England with the agriculturists of the continent
would only be five or ten millions less bartered
with the tillers of her own soil; they turn a deaf
ear to your self-evident proposition, carried away
by the excitement, the competition, the new field of
daring speculation, that the opening of a foreign
market brings before their view. They are making
haste to be rich, and into the snare they will fall;
drawing with them, if they can, the whole country.
We are not solicitous to pursue this subject far,
as it does not, in its details, come within the
scope of our plan; but it cannot be wholly passed
by, standing, as the theory does, on a foundation
opposed alike to the known will of God, and to
the obvious interests of the nation at large. We
are told, "The prudent man foreseeth the evil,"
but this is short-sightedness indeed! Work may
become plentiful, hands innumerable may be em-
ployed that are now idle; every mill going, every
lane and alley, garret and cellar, crowded to suf-
focation by labourers in full work; and even the
agricultural poor, thrown out of employ by the
abundance of imported produce, may find occu-
pation in the towns; but for how long is this to
endure? A rupture with any of the nations on
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
155
the fertility of whose lands, rather than on that
with which God has blessed our own, we had
chosen to throw ourselves for daily bread, would
answer the query. An over-worked, a demoral-
ized, a destitute population suddenly cast out of
employ, with no resource but the hoarded sub-
stance of their late employers on which to lay
their hands, would start into violence around us;
and the wealth, the pomp, the glory, and the
beauty of England would descend together into
the pit of destruction.
We would avert this: we would search and
try our ways, and return unto the Lord, while
yet the path is open. We would put far from us
the cold suggestions of hard-hearted selfishness,
and in place of the grasping, monopolizing, expa-
triating system that grudges the poor man so
much of his native soil as he may rest his foot
upon, we would rather restore the ancient land-
marks, which have been in evil hour taken away
by those who forgot the emphatic injunction,
"Remove not the old landmark; and enter not
into the fields of the fatherless; for their Redeem-
er is mighty, he shall plead their cause with thee.”
"Rob not the poor because he is poor; neither
oppress the afflicted in the gate; for the LORd
will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those
that spoiled them."
We would not encourage English ladies to step
forward and write little fictions for the guidance of
•
. .. .. ...نقتل المدن
:
156
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
the simple; putting into the mouths of honest
poor men such disgusting language as this, ad-
dressed to their wives: "If you had not had such
a swarm of brats, we should all have fared better;'
or teaching a father thus to speak to a daughter,
in reference to her approaching marriage: Bar-
ton is able to support you; ay, and as many brats
as you may chance to have. He has neither kith
nor kin; and his father has left him the shop, and
all the stock in trade, and a good lot of money
beside ; so there is no harm can come of your
marrying him. Quite the reverse, you see, deary,
for you are a burthen upon us, who have so many
of your brothers and sisters to maintain;' or when
plotting to send a young girl out of the way be-
cause his son had a notion of marrying her, to
make the same worthy economist remark to his
wife: 'I think it a sin and a shame to bring child-
ren into the world just to suffer, and send them
out of it. First a cradle, and then a coffin; and
little else between than fretting. But let us have
no grandchildren born to die off in that way:
we must live and learn, or we shall live to little
purpose. So get Betsy Bloomfield a service as
soon as you can.'* Whatever Miss Martineau or
Mrs. Marcet may consider our village poor ought
to say on the subject, we do not believe that, apart
from their instructions, such language would often
be heard among them. It is a sort of practical
* Mrs. Marcet's "John Hopkins.”
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
157
atheism that may be acquired, but it does not
come naturally. The humble folk have a saying :
'Where God sends mouths he will send meat;'
and it will be an evil day for England when that
homely saying, expressive as it is of confidence in
the providential care of Him who "feedeth the
young ravens that call upon him," is exchanged
for the infidel cant, the brutalizing selfishness,
and savage reproaches against wife and child, con-
tained in the foregoing extracts. Ladies, no doubt
have a peculiar liberty of speech, and a compara-
tive immunity from harsh reprisals, when they ex-
press in their own persons the opinions they may
have imbibed: but when a lady creates a village
ruffian to be the mouthpiece of most revolting
principles, we cannot extend over him the shield
that covers his fair inventress: however we may and
do lament the perversion of a female mind to aid
in so bad, so unfeminine a cause. The most horri-
fying abominations of Socialism are avowedly rear-
ed on the foundation laid down in these pernicious
little books, which prepared the gross minds of the
most ignorant classes for any practical application
of the system that Satan might suggest. Very
far, we are sure, from the purpose of the writers
was it to pave the way for such hideous enormi-
ties; but when the bright lamp of truth is wilfully
hidden, and man's shallow reasonings substituted
for the infinite wisdom of God, who shall tell
where it may end?
158
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
*
'
Mr. Perronet Thomson, as again quoted by
Dr. Chalmers, is exceedingly edifying upon the
why and the wherefore of the 'preventive check.'
He argues, says the doctor, with his accustomed
shrewdness;' and 'felicitously remarks,' on 'the
standard of enjoyment in the middle classes of
society,' which Dr. Chalmers treats of, page 92
of his Essay: 'Public opinion and custom require
for example, that a shopkeeper shall have a good
coat-shall drink at all times malt liquor, and
sometimes wine, and give them to his neighbours ;
that his wife and daughters, if he has any, shall
wear clean linen, and moreover not wash it them-
selves; and that when they travel it shall be by
the stage-coach, and not by the waggon. Though
do without some or other of these things
in a certain degree when necessity presses, he
cannot and will not do without them in the main.
If, therefore, he is a man of foresight, he will at
all events defer adding to the population of shop-
keepers, till he sees a fair prospect of supporting
a family in the way which public opinion pro-
nounces to be respectable.' By this of course,
the small shop-keeper is to understand that he
must secure the good coat, the malt liquor, and
wine; and do without' the wife and daughters.
This will operate beneficially in another respect,
as it may prevent the necessity for some poor man
having a wife or daughters to get up the linen of
the shopkeeper's family. But to proceed; Mr.
he
may
(
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
159
Thomson is explaining how 'bankruptcy is the
check to the indefinite multiplication of traders,
as the evils arising from diminished food are the
check to the indefinite multiplication of the lower
classes of labourers.' He then shows the only
plan by which the higher order of traders might
afford to remit something of their own rate of
profits; i. e. allow the lower classes of their la-
bourers a sufficiency of food to live upon. If a
great brewer for example, would drive his family
to the two-shilling gallery in one of his own drays,
-there would be some chance of the thing being
brought to pass.' Where was Dr. Chalmers'
wisdom, where was his BIBLE, when he set the
imprimatur of his honoured name to such trash
as this? Gladly do we turn from it to the testi-
mony that can never mislead: the wisdom that
can never err.
The extent of territory occupied by Judah and
Israel in David's days, did not quite double that
of our own principality of Wales. The king took a
census, and the returns showed the population to
be about seven millions. In the peaceful, pros-
perous reign of Solomon, they must be supposed
to have increased yet more, and so we find it, for
the language employed concerning them is: "Ju-
dah and Israel were many, as the sand which is
by the sea-shore for multitude, eating and drink-
ing, and making merry."
Here, then, was a small country, most densely
1
160
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
!
peopled, yet rejoicing in abundance, filled with
food and gladness, neither knowing nor fearing
distress. To what shall we attribute it? Cer-
tainly not to a long course of prosperity, for when
David commenced his reign, the land was overrun
by the Philistines, who devoured its increase, op-
pressing and slaying the people; and nearly up to
the time of their numbering, internal wars had
perpetually interrupted the current of national
prosperity. Moreover, the testimony to their vast
increase, their plenty and joyfulness, is given very
early in the reign of his successor; before the
natural effects of those protracted disturbances
could have ceased to operate. We must look else-
where for the root of this marvellous prosperity.
Colonies they had none: they were themselves
a colony-a single family multiplied almost beyond
computation, but confined within the limits of that
land, the especial inheritance assigned them of
God. Commerce was almost unknown to them
until Solomon's time, and then we hear of no ex-
ports. They do not appear to have had manufac-
tures sufficient for their own consumption, their
first commercial dealing of any note being the
importation of linen, &c. from Egypt. Conse-
quently their wealth did not spring from this source;
nor was their internal happiness the result of pro-
fitable speculations in any one of those branches
to which we are accustomed to refer the origin of
a nation's blessings. Israel and Judah owed all
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
161
to the due administration of a system of laws, not
devised by the wit of man, but dictated by the un-
erring wisdom of God, who deigned to legislate
for a people chosen from among all the nations of
the earth to show forth his praise; and while, as
in the reigns of David and Solomon, the designs
of the Almighty Lawgiver were carefully worked
out, his blessing visibly rested on the people,
rendering their possessions immense, and them-
selves invincible. "Surplus population" would
have sounded strangely in the ears of an Israelite!
One of the main blessings promised to their
obedience was, that there should be neither male
nor female barren among them. The man who
feared the Lord, was told that his wife should be 'as
the fruitful vine;' children were counted, without
any distinction of classes, as olive-branches around
the table; as arrows in the hand of a giant; and
he was pronounced happy who had his quiver full
of them. Circumscribed as was the territory,
each family being restricted to its own lot, and
prodigiously rapid as was the increase of popula-
tion, the man who had ventured to talk of a
preventive check would have stood a better chance
of being stoned to death than eulogized.
The number of men capable of bearing arms,
or,-which is something more,-the number of
men between the ages of 20 and 60, in Wales in
1831, was 186,064. Had the population of Israel
and Judah been only of equal density in David's

162
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
1.
1
reign, the number of men among them "that drew
the sword," might have been 300,000. But it
amounted to 1,300,000, shewing that the density of
the population of Palestine, at that moment,
was more than four times that of Wales in 1831.
Doubtless, had any one desired, for king
William, in 1831, even a doubling of the num-
bers of his people, a political economist would
have been ready to exclaim,-" What! would you
wish to drive the people to feed upon each
other !-do not you see that the land is already
burdened with an excessive population." But
how different was the feeling of David's great
commander; whose reply was, "Now the Lord
thy God add unto the people an hundred-fold, and
that the eyes of my lord the king may see it!"
The language is hyperbolical and exaggerated;
but what we would call attention to is this: Joab
was a sagacious statesmen, a man of much worldly
wisdom and he must have been well acquainted
with the state of the country. The people could
not have been crowded together, or suffering from
lack of food, without his being aware of it. Yet,
with a population of four times in density of
that of Wales in our own time, it does not seem
to have even occurred either to him, or to the
King, or to the sacred penman, that a vast further
increase could be anything else than a great
blessing! We should exceedingly like to hear
Dr. Chalmers' comments on these words of Joab.
:
:
.
+
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
163
Two things alone secured that favoured nation
from the approach of want or the apprehension of
want:-" the land brought forth her increase;" and
"God, even their own God, gave them his blessing."
There were among them rich and poor, in all the
various grades, from great possessions down to
absolute destitution; but for the poor a com-
pulsory provision was made, rendered, by a beau-
tiful paradox, perfectly voluntary too; for the
Lord forbade his wealthy servant to grudge what
was set apart for a needy brother; and a glance at
the scale of liberality fixed by divine appointment,
may well make us blush at the niggardly aid which
we grumble to yield from our comparative abun-
dance, to rescue our neighbours, our fellow-Chris-
tians, from starvation; not to speak of withholding
the just wages of their toil.
Considering what has been noticed, that the
land was subdivided, after being parted among the
tribes, into portions assigned to the heads of their
different families, we must believe that as the po-
pulation multiplied, a large number remained with-
out any inheritance, save that which was awarded
to them under the general title of the poor;' of
whom it was said, they should "never cease out of
the land." The principle of beneficence, inculca-
ted and enforced as it was by their Almighty Law-
giver, formed a part of every Israelite's personal
religion. How impressive is that injunction given
in the book of Deuteronomy:-" If there be
164
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
among you a poor man, of one of thy brethren
within any of thy gates, in the land which the Lord
thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine
heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:
but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and
shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that
which he wanteth. Beware that there be not a
thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh
year, the year of release is at hand; and thine eye
be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest
him nought; and he cry unto the Lord against
thee, and it be sin unto thee: thou shalt surely
give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when
thou givest unto him: because that for this thing
the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works,
and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. For
the poor shall never cease out of the land: there-
fore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open
thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor,
and to thy needy in the land." These feeling in-
junctions were superadded to the actual law, which
commanded that the tithe of every third year's
produce should be stored for the poor; a sixtieth
part of every annual crop set apart for them, and
a share of the whole land's production in the
seventh year given to them. These, with minor
beneficent provisions, and a crowning prohibition
against the taking of usury on any loan, form the
model furnished by the Lord God Almighty for
nourishing the poor of a land; and let none pro-
+
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
165
nounce it impracticable in our day; none object to
it as unsuitable, until, on however small a scale,
the experiment has been tried, and has failed.
It is not, however, in any man's power to re-
model our existing institutions on this divinely-
appointed pattern: we can only protest against
the adoption of a principle diametrically opposed
to a system of the Lord's devising; walking con-
trary to him at every step. For, excessive and
continuous accumulation, the parent of our great-
est difficulties, was by this plan utterly precluded;
yet excessive and interminable accumulation is the
avowed object of almost every man among us who
embarks in any course of life where indefinite
profit is of possible attainment. In reading the
recently-published memoir of a late truly estimable
and pious physician, we were painfully struck by
an instance of this, related as a matter of com-
mendation too, that he began his professional ca-
reer with the expectation and determination of
very speedily making £4000. per annum by it. A
little experience led him to despair of realizing
this golden dream; but he carefully kept the
grand professional secret' of its hopelessness from
young students whom he heard luxuriating in the
same prognostics. Yet before he attained the age
of forty he was making that very sum of £4000.
a year by his practice-at forty he died. We do
not cite this instance as casting a slur upon the
memory of a man respected by all who knew him;
j
166
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
1
but simply to show how universally this mammon-
hunting spirit is diffused among us; and that,
however applicable to our need would be the en-
forcement of a preventive check on surplus accu-
mulation rather than on surplus population, we
cannot hope to see the principle established by the
Divine framer of Israel's code adopted among our-
selves. We are so little disposed by nature to
make the law of love the standard of our dealings
with those below us, that we often hear the very
principle of a compulsory provision for the poor
hotly contested, and by men who do not appear to
think that it would be incumbent on them to make
any great voluntary sacrifice, to attain the same
ends. Yet if the subject received the considera-
tion that it ought to receive at the hands of every
Christian man, in how many ways, and at how
small a sacrifice might the poor be enabled to eat!
It is true, the magnitude of the existing evil
naturally discourages individual effort. What I
can do, says the benevolent man, is but a drop in
the bucket: it will effect no perceptible deduction
from the enormous amount of suffering. This is,
however, a fallacious mode of reasoning: the
bucket is filled with such drops: and even if it be
so that a noble example fails to win public atten-
tion, or to induce general imitation, still be it re-
membered, that as individuals, the poor suffer and
perish; as individuals must both they and we stand
before the judgment-seat of God: that no man
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
167
will be called to account for more than his own
personal share, by commission or omission, in the
general transgression against the poor; and that
on him who considers the poor and needy, the
blessing is pronounced without any reference to
the narrow space within which his actual means
may confine his compassionate deeds-to him,
who, for the sake of Christ, shows substantial
kindness to a poor member of the Christian body
the acknowledgment is sure, "Forasmuch as thou
didst it unto one of the least of these my breth-
ren, thou didst it unto me "-the servant who hav-
ing only two talents faithfully devotes those two
to the service of God,—and what service more ac-
ceptable to God than tender care for His poor ?-
is certain to receive, no less than his fellow-servant
who has in like manner traded with ten, the tes-
timony that forms his public introduction into the
glories of eternity: "Well done, good and faith-
ful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
It is easy to smile at all this; easy to argue
against it; but as impossible to disprove it as to
justify the desolating policy that at present prevails.
It is marvellous how many of the most accomplished
theologians manage to steer clear of the Bible
when entering upon the arena of political econo-
my. "To the law and the testimony," is all their
appeal on other subjects; but God's law is irrele-
vant, and God's testimony is too hostile to be ad-
mitted, when this point comes under consideration.
168
ERRORS OF THE DAY.
Does not this indicate something wrong? Ought
it not to induce them to pause ere they lend
themselves to a system that virtually tells the
Ruler of the universe, He has no business to in-
terfere in its details? We put the query to those
who receive the Bible as a revelation from God,
and who believe that it contains the words which
shall judge them at the last day we beseech
them to ponder it well; remembering that a mis-
take made through wilful prejudice and neglect of
the divine command, if not discovered and recti-
fied now, may be discovered too late and unavail-
ingly mourned over for ever.
:
CHAPTER XI.
PAUPERISM.
In the course of last year, one million eight hun-
dred thousand persons received the relief of pau-
pers in this kingdom; and there are towns with
ten, twenty, and thirty thousand people in a state
bordering on starvation. If such a fact were
stated to us concerning a country of which we
knew nothing, the natural inquiry would be, 'Does
it arise from the unproductiveness of the land it-
self, and the want of means to purchase the sur-
plus produce of other countries?' No; must be
the reply; the soil cannot be unproductive where
hundreds of thousands of quarters of corn are
known to be stored up in two or three towns for
many months together; nor can that country lack
wealth to which all others flock, to beg or to bor-
row, and never seek in vain.
Whence then comes it that so large a part of
the whole population should have been compelled
I
-
170
PAUPERISM.
to show, that neither by inheritance, by hoarding,
or by the present labour of their hands, could they
procure sufficient to avert that heavy blow to the
poor Englishman's feeling of native independence
-an appeal to charity? We have shown the
nature and results of labour, as generally engaged
in by our industrious classes. We have followed
them to their dwellings, and exhibited the struggle
there sustained to bear up against difficulty, pri-
vation, and disease; we have also noticed the cruel
practice of exceedingly overworking a few, to the
rejection of many among whom the same amount
of labour ought in fairness to be divided; and now
we must show to man what he does not like to look
upon, a scene of abject suffering which he would
fain persuade himself is no way chargeable upon
him; but of which, if he make no effort towards
procuring relief, he must endure a portion of the
responsibility: for the word is as stedfast as any
other word of God, which declares "To him that
knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is
sin."
A man applies for work, and cannot obtain it;
or he is too much enfeebled by sickness or priva-
tion for any labour that comes within his reach.
He has, we will say, a wife and two children,
which is far below the average number. It is ad-
mitted that these four individuals must, in a
climate like this, have a shelter over their heads,
and some covering for their bodies, and certainly
PAUPERISM.
171
they must have food to eat. To keep a house,
even the poorest cottage, is out of the question,
unless they find a landlord who allows the poor to
live-rent free on his estate: and such a landlord
would rarely have a vacant tenement at his dis-
posal. We will therefore conclude that the poor
man has already given up his cottage, and sold
whatever disposable article he had, and has shel-
tered his little party in a single room, at the lowest
possible rent ever asked for such accommodation;
and that they never taste meat, butter, tea, or
sugar, but eat the coarsest bread, sometimes sof-
tened in a little skimmed milk, sometimes dry, or
with a cup of water, and now and then a hot po-
tato, if they are plentiful, and sufficient fuel can
be procured to boil them : we ask, supposing these
four persons could thus live on one shilling per
week each, how are those four shillings to be pro-
cured, or one-fourth of the four? The man goes
to a farmer, or tradesman, and asks to be em-
ployed for whatever he may be pleased to give ;
they have the full number of hands already at
work, and cannot pay supernumeraries: the
woman is willing to wash, to scour, to nurse, to
perform any menial office even for her equals, on
the same miserable terms, but for one who can
afford a penny in remuneration she finds twenty
eager, like herself, to earn that penny; and pro-
bably with twice or thrice the number of clamo-
rous children to satisfy. The little ones would go
I 2
172
PAUPERISM.
on a message, if big enough, or put their hands
to anything within their power to do; but the
poor, half-naked creatures have no better chance
than their parents; and if the weather be chilly,
must either run about or huddle together to keep
a little warmth in their shivering bodies, which,
for lack of sustenance within and clothing without,
have lost their natural glow. To this strait the
unemployed labouring man must come; and having
fallen so far, several courses are open to him.
In the country, he may, if courageous and un-
troubled by qualms of conscience, become a
poacher, a sheep-stealer, or a highwayman: in
towns, a petty thief, pickpocket, or burglar.
The vigilance of the police-force, now distributed
throughout the land, renders these callings ex-
ceedingly difficult and hazardous; and the man
who could bring himself to commit daring crime
rather than see his wife and little ones actually
starve, often lacks nerve to contemplate the con-
sequences to them of his death or transportation.
He finds that expense is not spared to guard the
preserves of his rich neighbour from the irruptions
that his unrelieved wretchedness might tempt
him to make; and half-a-dozen well-fed game-
keepers contribute to throw some scores of
starving paupers on the parish. Not that we
would leave temptation in the poor man's way;
God forbid! but the idea of a well-stocked, well-
fenced preserve, with all the outlay of money and
PAUPERISM.
173
risk of murder connected with it, that a few gen-
tlemen may enjoy the gratification of a battu,
presents a grievous contrast to the reality of the
picture which we are so faintly sketching.
To the parish, therefore, the destitute family
must go; for the rigid enforcement of the va-
grancy act puts public begging out of the ques-
tion; and the rural police are now not less efficient
in protecting the country-gentleman's door from
such as would ask an alms, than their brethren in
the metropolis are in defending street-passengers
from a similar appeal. Under such a system of
guardianship against the cry of distress, blind Bar-
timeus might have sat by the road-side in vain.
Yet no; for Bartimeus appealed to Him to whose
ear the stifled, yea, the UNUTTERED cry will force
its way; who, when Israel as yet knew him not,
nor looked unto him for relief, but only sighed by
season of the bondage, could say, "I have surely
seen the affliction of my people which are in
Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their
task-masters; for I know their sorrows." And
as surely as he knew the sorrows of Israel's poor,
he knows the sorrows of England's poor; and the
very ignorance in which they are left of his power,
his willingness to save the destitution of their
souls-is among the heaviest of the burdens that
oppression lays upon them. We not only silence
their appeal to man, but bar their approach to
God, while we leave untouched the barrier that
174
PAUPERISM.
natural sin and ignorance place between man and
his Redeemer.
So far we have described a general supposititious
case: we will now relate one out of the thousands
of actual recent occurrences that might be ad-
duced. The scene is within some fifteen miles of
London, and the circumstances as common as they
are distressing. In a hamlet, wholly agricultural,
the farmers lately discharged a dozen labourers
belonging to the parish, who, of course, found
themselves in the plight above described, altogether
without resource. The parish has become part of
a Union, under the New Poor Law, the Board of
Guardians being located in a small town, just five
miles off. One poor man, having a wife and three
children, went to lay their miserable case before
the board, and to request admittance into the
workhouse. Without a morsel to eat, he started
early in the day to walk these five miles; after
long waiting among a crowd of applicants, amid
the press of business attending a board-day, he
was listened to, and his case taken into considera-
tion. It was computed that if admitted to the
workhouse, these five individuals would cost the
parish fifteen shillings per week; and the man
being able-bodied, and willing to labour, the Board
ordered the relieving-officer to 'find him work.'
Accordingly, this officer appointed him to break
stones and mend the roads, the wages being one shil-
ling a day. The poor man, therefore, throughout
PAUPERISM.
175
this winter, has had to leave his miserable fireless
home at early morning; to walk five miles; pass the
day in a laborious, out-door occupation, and final-
ly to retrace the five miles at night; taking home
with him for his own food, fire, and clothing, and
the support of his wife and three little ones, one
shilling.
Without attempting to discuss the merits of the
New Poor Law seriatim, we cannot quit the
subject without remarking, that within the last
ten years a most sad and dangerous change has
been effected,-partly by the immediate operation
of that law, and partly by the language used by
its defenders,-in the tone and temper in which
poverty is dealt with.
A dozen years back, the
feeling with which the helpless and necessitous poor
were regarded, was a kind and sympathizing one.
No one doubted that among them many vicious and
undeserving individuals might be found ;-but the
principle of British law was kept in view, that "it
were better for a hundred criminals to escape
punishment, than for one innocent person to
suffer." Hence, on the great holidays, such as
Easter, Christmas, the Queen's birth-day, &c.,
some share in the general festivity would be con-
ceded even to the inmates of the workhouse; and
we can well remember the pleasure we felt, on
being taken by the parish officers of our neigh-
bourhood, more than once, to witness the com-
fortable fare provided for sixty poor old women,
176
PAUPERISM.
on Christmas day, not one fourth of whom could
be charged with having brought themselves to a
state of pauperism by their own misconduct.
But the whole spirit of those who at first
framed, and have since carried out and defended,
the New Poor Law, was at variance with this
view of the matter. The comfort observable in
many workhouses, was placed in the very front of
the array of "abuses," which the new law was
intended to eradicate. In the Report laid before
Parliament, and on which the statute of 1834
was founded, details of the "excellent bread,"
and "capital table-beer," found in some work-
houses, were given with great emphasis, and
alluded to with marked censure. But let us now
see whither the opposite system has conducted us.
In the year 1833 the present secretary of the
Poor-Law Commission, visited Reading, and his
reports of what he saw there, of the mal-adminis-
tration of parochial affairs, were laid before Par-
liament, and largely dwelt upon. He visited the
workhouse in that town, and asked what the diet
was. The master replied, 'good wholesome vic-
tuals as anybody would wish to taste. We give
them all meat three times a week.' The reporter
added, 'everything appeared remarkably cleanly
and in good order.'
Some persons would have considered this a fa-
vourable acccount; but that Mr. Chadwick meant
it quite otherwise is apparent from the language
PAUPERISM.
177
of a letter which he appends to his Report. In this
letter the writer says,- The workhouse should be
a place of hardship; of coarse fare, of degrada-
tion and humility; it should be administered with
strictness, and with severity. It should be as re-
pulsive as is consistent with humanity.'
This system of 'hardship,' of 'repulsion,' of
severity,' has been introduced under Mr. Chad-
wick's own direction, and it is very clear that it
has effected a great change in the spirit manifested
towards the poor.
A single instance will give
some idea of the fearful nature and extent of the
change.
The place in which Mr. Chadwick was shocked
with the sight of good bread,' 'excellent table-
beer,' and 'meat three times every seven days,'
was Reading. Within sight, almost, of Reading,
is the Amersham Union in Buckinghamshire, and
in that Union, at Chesham, the following occur-
rence has happened within the last few weeks:-
"An Inquest was held at Chesham last week,
on the body of Mary Jones, a widow of 70 years
of age. It appeared from the evidence of Rachel
Luckett, that the deceased had been lodging with
her for some weeks, and that her allowance from
the Amersham Union was one shilling per week,
and a loaf, out of which she had to pay sixpence
for her lodging. Her usual living was bread, salt
and water. The day previous to her death wit-
ness gave her some potatoes, and on the morning
1 5
178
PAUPERISM.
of her death, witness went to a friend and begged
two-pence, with which she purchased a chop and
made a little broth. Deceased partook of a little
and died in a few minutes. The medical atten-
dant who was called in to see the deceased after
her death, gave it as his opinion that she died of
exhaustion."
""*
Such is the working of the "strict and severe,"
the "repulsive" system! It gives a poor woman
of 70, who of course is quite unable to earn her
own living by labour, "one shilling per week, and
a loaf,”—to provide her with lodging, food and
clothing! At an age when some few comforts
are especially necessary, this poor old woman is
reduced to mere bread and water, and of that,
receives not quite enough to preserve life! Such
is the natural result of decrying and condemning
a kind and liberal treatment of the poor; and of re-
commending that poverty shall, in general, be
treated as a prima facie proof of criminality, and
the condition of the supposed criminal rendered
as "degrading" and "repulsive" as possible!
Insufficient as any system hitherto known must
prove, to meet the dreadful exigencies of daily in-
creasing pauperism throughout the country, it is
certain that the poor man had once a reliance on
the commiseration of those who hold the relieving
power, which now he has not. When every appli-
cant was more or less personally known to the
* Aylesbury News. July 22, 1843.
PAUPERISM.
179
dispenser of public relief for his district, a mea-
sure of feeling, call it neighbourly, or what you
will, might be expected to exist in the bosom of
the officer, which is wholly out of the question
under an organization of aggregation. Give a
man the supervision of distressed families within
an easy walk of his own house, he will know, and
if he be a humane man, he will care for them all:
but mass together the heaps of poverty scattered
about for miles in every direction, and in places.
where he is absolutely a stranger; give him coad-
jutors between whom and himself as little sympa-
thy exists as between either him or them and the
poor; pay him a salary to deal with all this misery
as summarily and as savingly as he can; and you
make him a mere machine: you seal up every
channel of kindly feeling, rendering it impossible
for the strivings of humanity on behalf of dis-
tressed outcasts to prevail, among the distracting
multiplicity of duties imposed on him by an au-
thority so absolute, as to visit the slightest devia-
tion from its arbitrary rules, the smallest concession
of general expediency to the heart-rending pecu-
liarities of some extraordinary case, with dismissal
from his office. The free, voluntary services of
respectable inhabitants, formerly rendered in their
own parishes, and the discretionary power lodged
in hands well versed in the affairs of the neigh-
bourhood, was one of the fairest features in our
national polity as regards the poor: the hardships
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180
PAUPERISM.
inflicted on them under the amended system, can
only be estimated by taking in detail the miseries
of an extensive Union.
A remarkable illustration of the advantages
attendant on subdivision of duties, in relieving
the poor, is afforded in Berlin, which, with a popu-
lation of 300,000, including as large a proportion
of the necessitous as Edinburgh or Glasgow, is
kept free from beggars, and from the appearance
of extreme want in any part, solely by the judi-
cious working of a plan the farthest removed from
centralization that can well be conceived. We
will give some particulars of this rare piece of
mechanism, from which our readers may draw
their own conclusions, as to its natural results:
quoting from the notes of a recent traveller, whose
intelligence and veracity cannot be impeached. In
1821, the management of the Prussian poor in
large towns was given over by the government-
commissioners to the municipalities, who appointed
poor-directors, among whom the magistrates and
town-deputies act ex officio only, and are therefore
changeable; the rest are permanently elected.
After trying on a single police-district the plan
they had conceived, they extended it over the
whole city of Berlin, which they divided into fifty-
six districts, each under its own commissioners,
generally from five to nine in number, according
to the amount of pauperism within their circuit;
and each containing, if possible, its own physician,
PAUPERISM.
181
surgeon, oculist, and apothecary, all of whom are
paid monthly for their services. The poor-com-
missioners are benevolent persons, who act gra-
tuituously; selected from all callings, save the
clerical and legal professions, by the poor-directors,
at whose request they accept the office. They
meet at the end of every month, to make a report,
and settle all business. The routine of their
duties among the poor is as follows: we give it in
Mr. Laing's words, without curtailment.
'If a pauper desires relief, he must apply to
the president of the poor-commission of the dis-
trict in which he resides; who receives the appli-
cation, inquires into the grounds of it, into the
situation, family connections, and other cir-
cumstances of the applicant; and if it be not
so utterly groundless as to be summarily dis-
missed, refers it to the poor commissioner in
whose section of the district the pauper is
living. He sends another poor-commissioner
from another section of the district, to make
inquiry also in the neighbourhood, and at the
last place of residence in the city. These
commissioners inquire of the landlord, the neigh-
bours, the last employer; and in the monthly
meeting of the whole commissioners of the dis-
trict, a report of the result of the enquiry is made
and the case decided. In urgent cases, any one
of the poor-commissioners of the district may,
with consent of the president, grant an immediate
་
182
PAUPERISM.
relief, but this must be reported at the first
monthly meeting of the whole. If the pauper
has applied for relief, and the president of the
poor-commission finds that, provided the pauper's
statements be correct, it should be granted, he
takes an examination-book with him in which there
are twenty-five printed questions, which the appli-
cant is bound to answer, concerning his age, state
of health, capability of work, former trade or
occupation, causes of its not supporting him now,
number, age and capability of work of the mem-
bers of the family, situation of the relations who
by law are obliged to support him, and, if there
be any children in the family, whether they have
been vaccinated, confirmed, sent to school, &c.
This examination-book is handed to the two com-
missioners appointed to examine into the case,
who have also their printed questions in it, to be
replied to by the result of their inquiries concern-
ing the applicant; and if sickness, or physical
inability is stated by the pauper, the physician of
the commission writes his testimony also in the
book; and lastly the determination of the district
poor-commission upon the case, as to granting or
denying relief of a permanent kind, is written in
this examination-book and carried into effect by
the commissioners. This examination-book is the
ground-work of a standing personal document or
certificate of the case of each individual pauper,
or alms-receiver, by which every circumstance re-
PAUPERISM.
183
i
lative to his pauperism is known. If he changes
his abode, and applies to the president of the new
district poor-commission for relief, as being a pau-
per from another district, the examination-book
is sent for, but the president proceeds entirely as
if it were a new case, and only takes the former
as subsidiary to the inquiries instituted by their
own commissioners; and as each commission sees
with its own eyes, it may happen that the decision
of the new district-commission may differ from
the former. The examination-book follows the
pauper wherever he goes as pauper; and his case,
after repeated examinations, can scarcely be one
not entitled to relief.
'In cases of medical assistance being required,
the applicant, to save delay, gets a note from the
poor-commissioner of the section in which he lives,
and takes or sends it to the president to be coun-
tersigned, which is done after a summary inquiry
into the poverty of the sick pauper; and it is a
sufficient order for the medical officers of the
district for attendance and the necessary medicines.
'One of the peculiarities of this system of relief
is, that orders or money for firing are often given,
not to the single pauper, but to his landlord, to
keep the house regularly warm. The poor com-
mission also specially see to the school attendance
of the children of the poor.'
Now contrast such a plan as this, involving a
great deal of close scrutiny, and requiring much
1
I
1
184
PAUPERISM.
ļ
careful attention, yet so dividing the labour, and
bringing each man's appointed work so near to his
own door, with the pleasing consciousness attached
that he is showing mercy to the poor, and volun-
tarily doing an act well-pleasing in the sight of
God; -contrast it with the confused mass of ill-
defined business, through which our Poor Law
officials are paid to toil as well as they can; and
the conclusion must be an acknowledgment of vast
superiority on the side of the former. It is mo-
rally impossible that every case occurring within
the sweeping extent of a union of overgrown
parishes, should fairly be sifted out, or even pro-
perly understood, by the board of strangers before
whom it must come: and as frequently the most
deserving are the least able and willing to put
forth their claims prominently, where such a
struggle is going on, and so little encouragement
to address any official man on the grounds of per-
sonal knowledge or Christian commiseration; it
cannot be doubted that noisy mendacity frequently
obtains what ought to be bestowed on the more
modest, less clamorous sufferer. The fearful
amount of pauperism among us would call for a
wider extension, and perhaps a more minute di-
vision of the Prussian plan; and doubts may exist
whether a sufficient number of respectable indi-
viduals would be found prepared to incur so much
trouble apart from all remuneration. The money-
getting mania is certainly very strong upon us:
PAUPERISM.
185
Į
'Every man for himself' is a maxim unfavourable
to the claims of the poor; while to rise up early,
and late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness,
seems to be the self-inflicted doom of every man
of business, until he shall have placed himself and
his family above the common vicissitudes of life.
But if this be counted a valid objection to that
care for our own poor which is one of the appoin-
ted tenures by which we hold our own more abun-
dant portion of God's gifts, it presents a frightful
picture of national selfishness, avarice, and con-
tempt of the divine commands. The author from
whom we have borrowed our sketch of the Prussian
plan, remarks, 'To the actual efficiency of the
system, in the two great points of relieving fully,
humanely, and economically, all real distress,-
and in the suppression of all street-begging, and
much vice and idleness, the most hasty traveller
who enquires at all into the state of the poor, or
who even contents himself with his personal ob-
servation as a stranger walking about the town,
must bear the fullest testimony.' That no such
results are arrived at by our own system is ac-
knowledged on all sides; while the heavy tax
levied on the pockets of those whose sensitiveness
in that quarter is usually proportioned to their
apathy in what concerns the fate of the destitute,
is a source of constant irritation. We know of
nothing better calculated to reconcile a man of
ordinary humanity to the payment of what the
186
PAUPERISM.
+
law demands on their behalf, than a frequent op-
portunity of witnessing their bitter privations, and
the relief administered through funds that he
assists to provide. On the other hand, the best.
feelings of the impoverished class are sure to be
drawn forth by the spectacle of their richer bre-
thren really exerting themselves to apply in the
most effectual manner such relief as they can
afford them; while the frigid demeanour of men
who dare not permit themselves to feel, and who
dole out what cannot be withheld under a con-
scious apprehension of being deemed too prodigal,
and thereby hazarding the emoluments of office,
dependent as it is on the arbitary will of certain
distant functionaries, secure in their calm abstrac-
tion from all visible, audible sources of compunc-
tious visitation. Tenderness for the poor is not
among the spontaneous impulses of man's evil
heart; if it were so, we should not find line upon
line and precept upon precept, enjoining it in the
word of God; we should not find men in the un-
reclaimed barbarism of their natural state, ridding
society of supernumerary mouths and helpless
members, by habitual infanticide, parricide, and
human sacrifices. Selfishness is the governing
principle of our race, kept in check, either by the
implanting of an antagonist principle from above,
or by the coercive power of legal enactments,
which, visiting the offence with a higher degree of
suffering than that which might be avoided by the
PAUPERISM.
187
A
!
commission of such offence, restrains the self-
loving instinct by an appeal to itself. On this
point, God has a perpetual controversy with his
creatures; with those especially who, being told
by revelation what great things the Lord hath
done for them, receive together with the glad
tidings, this touching injunction, "A new com-
mandment I give unto you, that ye love one
another, as I loved you, that ye also love one
another." The Apostle reiterates it: "Beloved,
if God so loved us, we ought also to love one
another" and again, "Whoso hath this world's
good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth
up his bowels of compassion from him, how
dwelleth the love of God in him?" These are
words of deep import: they were spoken and dic-
tated by Him who does nothing in vain; and in
legislating for the relief of the poor, it behoves us
to see that we do our utmost, not merely to provide
for the distribution of the relief without which
they must perish, but also that such mode is
adopted as shall tend to keep alive that feeling of
brotherly love towards the "
poor neighbour,”
which God requires as the groundwork of our
almsgiving. This seems to be wholly overlooked,
utterly contemned by the great bulk of those who
legislate for the poor; and who seem never for a
moment to revert to such a principle, when shaping
out the course to be pursued by the administrators
of their laws. They make that an impossibility
188
PAUPERISM.
which God has constituted an imperative duty;
and behind such impossibility their agents natu-
rally shelter themselves, under a breach of the
divine commandment. As the framework of so-
ciety stood, in its most perfect form, ordained and
regulated in its minutest particular, by God him-
self, the poor man was, even in the least extended,
most colloquial sense of the word, neighbour unto
him who relieved his wants; and the injunction
of a neighbourly regard for him, met no other bar
to its fulfilment than the natural hardness and
selfishness of the human heart. The admirable
arrangement of the relief system in Berlin, owes
its excellency to the simple feature of consonancy
to the divine plan; and its undeniable efficiency
to the attendant blessing. But take the most ex-
perienced, most successful, most humane of all its
many directors, place him on the list of our com-
missioners or assistant-commissioners, make him
either a guardian or a relieving-officer, or master
of a workhouse under the existing system here,
we should see him, apart from all foreign habits,
prejudices, and predilections, so deplorably out of
his element, so fettered in every movement of
heart or hand, that he must either retire in disgust,
or be quickly steeled into such a shutting-up of
the bowels of his compassion from the poor, as
would, according to the Apostolic rule, render the
indwelling of the love of God in him a problem
of very difficult solution.
The true secret of political economy, on a
PAUPERISM.
189
Christian basis, is not to war against the poor
man's natural increase, but against his poverty:
not to calculcate on how much, or how little rather,
he may be kept from perishing with hunger, but
by what means he may attain to a hope of elevation
above the level of pauperism. But a man of any
discernment, entering on this enquiry, soon per-
ceives, that the great bar to such improvement
resides in the enormous capital acquired by the
minority, which naturally presses on the majority,
through all its grades, forcing the smaller capitalist
downward, despite of all his efforts to rise; and
bearing with a perpetually-increasing weight on
every rank beneath him, until the very poor are
trodden down as the mire of the streets. Again,
he believes that such overgrown capital tends to
augment the political and commercial greatness of
the country, far beyond any natural results of a
more equalized distribution of property; and he
shrinks from following up a scheme, one obvious
effect of which would be to lower that greatness
But this is a fallacy,
in which he prides himself.
inasmuch as it flatly contradicts the word of truth,
which declares that it is "righteousness" which
"exalteth a nation." God has said it: man doubts,
and virtually denies it: he has found out another
way of exalting his nation, necessarily involving
a fearful amount of injustice and oppression-the
worst of unrighteousness—and that way he will
pursue. He will be wiser than God: can he hope
to prosper?
CHAPTER XII.
"
EDUCATION.
THE late Earl of Leicester was even proverbially,
a kind and liberal landlord; exceedingly solicitous
that his fine agricultural property in Norfolk
should boast a race of labouring tenants conspic-
uous for every comfort and advantage consistent
with their position in society that could be con-
fered on them. 'Some of the cottages of the
Earl of Leicester, at Holkham,' say the Poor-law
Commissioners, are, perhaps, the most substantial
and comfortable which are to be seen in any part
of England; and if all the English peasantry
could be lodged in similar ones, it would be the
realization of an Utopia.' They are of brick,
roofed with tiles: each has a front room, seventeen
feet by twelve in width, and seven to seven and a
half in height; a back kitchen and pantry; three
good-sized bedrooms; and at a convenient distance
behind, every cottage has a wash-house, a dirt-bin,
a privy, and a pig-cot; with about twenty rods of
EDUCATION.
191
i
garden-ground; the rent, altogether, being £3. 3s.
a year. The water is good, the drainage excellent,
and no instance of fever or epidemic has been
known to occur among the families inhabiting
them. Another benevolent individual, the Rev.
E. Benyon, has done as much in every respect for
his poor tenantry at Culford; excepting that the
apartments are not quite so large, and there are
only two bedrooms in each. In point of healthi-
ness they are equally favoured.
But now follows a painful fact; one of such
vital importance, that to overlook it would be to
regard man as a mere animal, and to concert
plans for his advantage on no higher principle
than should influence us in the fit construction of
a stable or a dog-kennel. The tenants of these
admirable cottages, the well-employed, well-paid,
healthy peasantry thus beneficially cared for, are,
on the showing of those best qualified to judge
and report, DISCONTENTED and DEMORALIzed.
The temptations to which they are exposed, keep
pace with their increased advantages, and though
the labourers of Holkham are a fine race of men,
their moral condition is not superior to that of the
inmates of a filthy hovel. At Culford, a public-
house being near at hand, and the men having
plenty of wages to spend, the consequence is de-
plorable; and the conclusion at which Mr. Twis-
leton arrives, after a minute investigation, is irre-
fragable; No external and mechanical benefits
192
EDUCATION.
can supply the place of good moral training; and
I should say, as a corollary, that at the same time
that you build first-rate cottages, you should esta-
blish first-rate schools.'
We happen, within our own experience, to
know a case in which a wealthy and benevolent
man, on coming into possession of considerable
landed property, with a tenantry of labouring
poor, wretchedly lodged, and suffering all the
concomitants of poverty already referred to, com-
menced his rule by building a complete village in
the heart of his estate, consisting of cottages,
well-planned, supplied with every advantage; each
having its little garden, and all being in perfect
order when the tenants were transferred to them
from their miserable hovels. To ensure better
habits among them, the landlord introduced a
clause into their agreement, making the continued
possession of these dwellings conditional: the
occupier was to keep his cottage properly white-
washed and in good external repair; the garden
neat, and the premises free from accumulations of
filth, or other unwholesome matter. The rent
was low, wages high, leisure abundant, while
frequent personal inspection on the part of the be-
nevolent landlord and his family completed the
encouragement to do well. But, after a little
while, when the novelty had worn off, attention
to these particulars relaxed, and at the end of a
year scarcely one of his pretty cottages would
!
EDUCATION.
193
stand even a cursory outside review, to say
nothing of the scene within; while sobriety was
almost as unusual as neatness. To rouse the rest
he put into effect the punitive clause against a few
of the most incorrigible offenders, and ejected
them; but this only produced a great clamour on
the score of oppression, among the remainder,
who, moreover, showed no signs of amendment.
He saw at once the origin of the evil, and while
still using, so far as he could, influence, authority
and example, to enforce right conduct, he relied
little on either apart from higher means. He
opened an adult evening-school, together with a
day school for the children, in both of which
scriptural instruction was given as the basis of all
moral good; and upon it a corresponding super-
structure was raised. Many discouragements,
from the obduracy of some, the heedlessness of
others, and the lurking discontent of almost all,
beset his path-but he persevered; and though it
always was and always must be a struggle of no
common severity to be stedfast, unmoveable, in
the work of doing good to those who seldom rightly
understand their own real interests, still the experi-
ence of twenty years showed how vast a change
might be wrought on a population which saw that,
while their own bodily comforts were duly attend-
ed to, their children were brought up to walk
in a better path than they themselves had early
entered upon while the means of intellectual
K
194
EDUCATION.
and spiritual profit were placed within their own
reach.
In all plans for improving the condition of the
poor, this is an indispensable ingredient. Educa-
tion, scriptural education, is not less needful to
the mind than food and clothing to the body.
Without it, you do but adorn a corpse, while the
natural corruption that all your decorations cannot
arrest in its progress, is actively at work, to render
the object of your bootless cares loathsome even
to yourself. You whiten a sepulchre; soon to
be defaced, and rendered dangerous to all who
approach it, by the putrescent exhalations from
within. But then, the building of a handsome
row of cottages, draining the land around them,
and supplying all needful conveniences, may be
accomplished, through an honest, intelligent agent,
by a check on your banker; whereas the cultiva-
tion of an intellectual waste,-a moral soil, not
simply lying fallow to your hand, but filled with
stones, overrun with prolific, self-sowing weeds,
and in every way repugnant to improvement, is
a work of such difficulty, time, and expenditure
of patience (of which few among us possess any
great capital) that you shrink from the under-
taking. You point to the failure of experiments
on so princely a scale as that of the munificent
Coke of Holkham, and say, 'If he could not
render his tenants sober, industrious, thankful,
or even decently moral and contented, what can I
EDUCATION.
195
expect to do? You point out certain local and
physical causes, as the root of those evils that
debase, demoralize, and destroy our labouring
population; you call on me to remove them; and
then present me with sufficient evidence that the
same, or an equally formidable class of evils, will
be brought on themselves, by the people so
benefited, through sheer perverseness, and obsti-
nate self-destruction." We admit the general
truth of this: but remember, we are pleading
especially for those for whom, alas! nature itself
too often pleads in vain in the hearts of their
parents. As matters now stand, abject poverty,
and the inevitable results of habitual indecency,
form a barrier between the children of the poor,
and any good we may desire to see conferred on
them. Better the condition of the adults, you
so far improve that of the children too; but
deeply-rooted habits on the one hand, and on the
other, increased means of gratification, will keep
alive, yea in full activity, the bad principle of the
former class, exposing their offspring to as much
vicious contamination as before. In this we must
act as wise physicians, who, seeing a disease mak-
ing havoc in a family, and fearing it may have
gone too far for counteraction among the confirm-
ed cases, apply with double diligence all means
of prevention on behalf of those who are daily
exposed to, but not yet actually seized by, the
perilous infection. Not that we would abandon,
j
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196
EDUCATION.
!
!
!
ร
as past reclamation, the most hardened transgres-
sor under heaven. No; to each and to all we
would proclaim, "Let the wicked forsake his
way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and
let him return unto the Lord, for He will have
mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will
abundantly pardon ;" but then the very impor-
tant and abundantly-promising duty, to "train
up a child in the way he should go "—to the non-
performance of which on the part of others our
demoralized adults mainly owe their depraved con-
dition that duty claims our diligent care; and we
do say, that any pains or cost bestowed on accom-
plishing it, any annoyances from present opposi-
tion, or prospective disappointment,-will rather
stimulate than dishearten a Christian, who knows
that the Apostle spoke by the inspiration of God
when he said, "Let us not be weary in well-doing;
for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.'
Voluntary contributions for the establishment
and support of schools, are excellent things, and
in many instances have wrought wonderful
changes; but they are in their nature subject to
such fluctuations, that none can calculate upon
them as a secure fund. The best of people are
liable to act impulsively rather than from deep
and settled conviction: novelty, a new channel
for their bounty, presented with all the fascina-
tions of eloquent appeal, is apt to divert the
stream from its wonted course; and just in pro-
EDUCATION.
197
portion as claimants for the blessing of education
throng an opened door, is the closing of that door
endangered; not, perhaps, from any flagging of
the fire of zeal in original supporters, but from
their having to satisfy other demands. The fact
is notorious, that wherever a school is opened for
the children of the poor, they flock to it in num-
bers surpassing the most enlarged calculation of
its projectors; and though often irregular in their
attendance, a falling-off of scholars is as rare an
occurrence as the falling-off of funds is unhappily a
common one. Pro tempore, every one who loves his
country ought to support such schools as are
already in operation, or may be set on foot within
his reach; but the grand object must be to obtain
from the legislature a far more extensive and
efficient system of national education than has
ever yet been proposed. The call for it is urgent,
the necessity imperative, the omission must be
ruinous. We want for the rising generation of
England, not the power to read obscene books,
and to pen seditious placards, but instruction in
those Holy Scriptures which are able to make
them wise unto salvation through faith which is in
Christ Jesus; the divine precepts of which they
may be the means of bringing into the cottages of
their parents; and shedding around their desolate
walls a light that not only illumines the dark
mind, but also guides the wandering feet into the
way of peace.
198
EDUCATION.
!
Individual character has vast power in deciding
the temporal lot of a whole household. Where
settled principles are wanting, we have seen how
insufficient are the most enlarged efforts to raise
the moral standard of a population; and many
cases might be brought forward where the right-
minded occupier of a mud hovel invests even it
and its starving inmates with respectability. The
commissioner already quoted says, after exhibiting
instances of the wretchedness consequent on im-
providence and sloth; "On the other hand, some
of the dwellings of paupers with small allowances
are exquisitely clean and neat. 'Sir,' said a
pauper of this class to me, while I was praising
her for the neatness of her cottage, if I have
not a morsel of bread to eat, as long as I can
move about I will keep my house sweet and
clean.' To implant and foster even such a feel-
ing as this in the mind of a poor girl, destined
probably to tread the same path of privation, who
would grudge the cost of a little schooling? The
woman, her husband, her children, the whole
neighbourhood are advantaged by it. Cleanliness
is a great promoter of cheerfulness; external
neatness and order have a charm for man, and
many a one do they keep from the beer-shop:
the children are sure at least to be more healthful
than those who wallow in dirt; and, besides the
example, which is often powerful for good, one
dwelling preserved from infectious tendencies is,
EDUCATION.
199
to say the very least of it, an unit subtracted
from the amount of public evils.
But we would not speak of our poorer brethren
as though they were merely the beings of a day.
They have souls, and if they know not their value,
it is the more incumbent on us who do, to instruct
them. The vice that now renders them dangerous
members of the community, will, if persisted in,
sink them to everlasting ruin; and what are the
miseries of this mortal span, even when heaped in
the most appalling accumulation, compared with
the torments of the damned? We learn from
His own word that "The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrigh-
teousness of men," and what do the wretched
beings know of the terrors of that wrath, who
never utter or hear His holy name, but in an im-
precation or a jest? This ignorance prevails to
an extent scarcely conceivable, and it is only by
means of schools that we can let in a little of the
light of truth upon the children, and through
them probably on their parents also, in the present
defective state of religious instruction;-the un-
avoidable consequence of increased population in
districts where the means of grace provided for
comparatively a very few have not proportionably
increased. This last forms a subject for separate
consideration; but in speaking of schools we can-
not overlook the imperative call arising from such
deficiency of clerical superintendance. No man
200
EDUCATION.
who has read human nature even by its own un-
steady light, will say that he has found it inclined
to seek after God, to inquire the way of truth,
and walk in the paths of righteousness. The
very reverse is manifested all the world over; but
were it even so, what means have our distressed
population of attaining such knowledge? Church
accommodation there is not, if all were disposed
to avail themselves of it: Bibles, if they grew in
the hedges, would be useless to the illiterate, un-
acquainted with the art of reading; and equally
so to those who, having obtained some little know-
ledge, have been supplied by the industrious emis-
saries of evil, the agents of socialism and sedition,
with antidotes to that sacred volume, cautions
against being led by its precepts, and bold asser-
tions that the holy book itself is a forgery, and a
deception.
The plain fact, as regards the want of education
among the children of those classes who have not
means of supplying them with it, is as follows.
There are, on the most moderate computation,
somewhat more than one million of these children
wholly destitute of instruction, even such as the
very humblest parish or dame-school might afford:
-somewhat more than one million of immortal
beings growing up in this Christian country,
without an effort made to rescue them from the
power of that vice which so fearfully prevails among
their older associates: more than one million bap-
EDUCATION.
201
tized infidels, whose ignorant and depraved connex-
ions have, as a means of getting their births regis-
tered, promised on their behalf that they should
renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil, and
continue Christ's faithful servants and soldiers to
their lives' end; but to whom probably the ministers
who thus admitted them within the pale of the vi-
sible Church, have not the means of conveying that
instruction without which they will not even be
made aware of the nature of their solemn engage-
ment, or brought to know the name of HIM in whose
service they are enlisted. The efforts made by godly
ministers, both in the establishment and out of it,
to feed the lambs scattered over the world's poi-
soned pastures, the difficulties which they over-
come, the good which they effect, the blessing
which they secure, are little understood, and less
appreciated; but when they have accomplished all
that zeal and devotion in a good cause can possibly
achieve, at the greatest sacrifice of self, and under
the most favourable circumstances; when the be-
nevolence of private individuals has been drawn
forth to its utmost limit, not only money but per-
sonal labour also being contributed to aid the good
work; when the State has come forward with its
measure of help, and done all that it deemed
fitting to do in furtherance of the cause; we are
compelled to stretch forth the appealing hand, and,
pointing to the one million wholly unprovided for,
K 5
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202
EDUCATION.
to ask, Is it the will of your heavenly Father that
these little ones should perish?
The gross number of children in the ranks of
life referred to, throughout England and Wales,
is 1,858,819: of these it is found that 844,626,
between the ages of three and thirteen, are re-
ceiving daily instruction in some form or other;
so that the actual amount of the untaught mass
is 1,014,193;* Let us, however, look a little more
narrowly into the degree and quality of infor-
mation acquired by those in schools, and we shall
find a lamentable deficiency in both. The child-
ren, on an average, remain but for a year and
half in any school, except in the rural districts,
where they continue perhaps two or three years;
and this short interval, very rarely marked by any
regularity of attendance, is all they enjoy for the
purposes of good instruction; while to neutralize
its effects, they are surrounded by sights and
sounds of evil, from the first dawn of reason to
the commencement of this work, and during its
necessary pauses; and, in a far greater measure,
when the short term of schooling has expired, and
they are prematurely thrown into the crowded
field of labour, among a demoralized adult popu-
lation.
This transient duration of the benefit partaken of,
renders it doubly important that the quality of in-
struction given should be of the best description ;
* For larger details, see Lord Ashley's Speech, Feb. 28, 1843.
EDUCATION.
203
f
the most adapted to their present disadvantages
and future temptations. Among those who receive
the Bible as a revelation from God, there can be
no question as to its being the appointed ground-
work of all teaching, the rule and standard alike
of faith and of practice, because the Lord himself
therein declares so. Not only is it plainly an-
nounced that "The fear of the Lord is the BE-
GINNING of wisdom:"* but also that the Holy
Scriptures "are able to make us wise unto salva-
tion, through faith which is in Christ Jesus: "+
and again, that this "faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God;" and "All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness."§ These passa-
ges, if they were not, as they are, abundantly
illustrated and confirmed by hundreds of similar
import, would suffice to establish the point, on
authority which cannot be questioned by man;
and accordingly we find the English nation unan-
imously rejecting every system where this one
grand principle is not expressly admitted, and
fairly carried out: but an opposite error very ex-
tensively prevails among those who, knowing that
the entrance of God's word giveth light, imagine
that by storing a child's memory with abundance
of Scripture texts, and making him verbally ac-
* Prov. ix. 10.
+ 2 Tim. iii. 15.
§ 2 Tim. iii. 6.
Rom. x. 17.
204
EDUCATION.
quainted with the main doctrines and principal
historical outlines of the Bible, they are effecting
that entrance of the divine word to enlighten a
dark mind. Whereas to be instructed in it, as
Timothy in childhood was, our youthful scholars
require a course of patient, individual teaching;
an appeal to the understanding rather than the
memory, and to the heart before either; such as
on the present limited and imperfect plan of na-
tional education, it is vain to expect. We have
known instances, and such of our readers as are
well acquainted with the interior economy of the
thing, may doubtless have known similar cases,
where the master of a national or parochial school,
while perfectly intelligent, well-informed, and in
all matters pertaining to the ordinary school-rou-
tine, not only unexceptionable, but remarkably
adapted to his office, has been in politics a de-
magogue; in morals a companion of, if not a par-
taker with idle profligates; and in religion never
known to open in his own dwelling the book which
he professes to teach and to recommend at school.
Even if of a far higher cast of private character,
still he is often, indeed generally, little qualified to
do more than administer the external, mechanical
branch of training to which his own education
was probably confined; and if he does indeed
look upon each individual under his charge as a
being whose course through time and eternity will
probably be shaped according to the use made of
EDUCATION.
205
the brief period they may pass together, still his
acquirements may come so far short of his sense
of responsibility and desire to be useful, as to ren-
der the latter nugatory. One of the first steps
towards an efficient education for the poor, is to
send their schoolmasters to school. This good
work has commenced on a small scale; still we
want a great increase of helpers answerable to the
immense demand.
But what, it may be asked, is your drift? are
you bent on providing a supply of commercial and
classical academies for the pauper children of the
land? No: we only wish to give them a religious
and useful course of instruction suited to their
station in life, with the same regard to fitness in
the choice of a teacher, as you would exercise in
the selection of a gardener. You would not com-
mit your flower-beds into the hands of a man who
could not discern between clay and gravel and
sandy loam; who would indiscriminately apply
hot compost and cold; who would leave the ten-
der plant to struggle for its existence under cold
blasts and burning rays, and undertake to graft
or to bud without knowing the nature either of
stock or shoot. It is not the mere random exhi-
bition of Scripture phraseology to the eye, nor
the indiscriminate heaping of scriptural facts and
precepts upon the memory, that will accomplish
what we require: it is a careful selection, adap-
tation, and incorporation; a seasonable planting
206
EDUCATION.
!
and judicious watering, in dependance on the in-
crease that must come from God—a skilful graft-
ing of well-selected shoots, each on the stock best
suited to receive it; with an after-care that the
junction be not rudely-broken. To drop the
metaphor, we would have individual character
studied, and each dealt with according to the re-
sult of that study; so that the less heedful scholar
might engage a double share of the teacher's
attention, and learning by rote be counted for no
more than it is worth. A little close questioning
somewhat out of the common routine, in almost
any class of almost any school, would serve to
illustrate our meaning; which is no less applicable
to the secular than to the spiritual branch of
tuition. In every case, it should be borne in
mind that words are useless except as they repre-
sent things or embody ideas; and that he who,
with the readiest loquacity, runs through a set of
phrases, or answers questions from mere memory,
is often the lad to forget the soonest what he has
learned with little toil, and to banish the subject-
matter from his thoughts whenever he leaves the
bench where he conned the lesson.
Education is a mere nominal good, not unfre-
quently a positive evil, if the head alone be in-
structed, the mind and affections left as they
were. Many an apt schoolboy may distinguish
himself above his fellows, as Toby the learned pig
undoubtedly did among his; but Toby with all his
+
EDUCATION.
207
acquirements would, if freed from restraint, have
returned to his wallowing in the mire, with as
much zest as any of his brethren whose accom-
plishments never extended beyond routing in the
gutter; and so alas! do too many of our most
promising pupils, after delighting their instructors
by a quick eye and retentive memory, go forth to
plunge into the lowest debauchery of their domes-
tic associates, losing all that they had gained,
simply because, in the enlarged sense of the word,
they never understood or valued it. The change
of heart, the true reformation of life, is God's
work alone; and man's part in it is wholly subor-
dinate, dependant on an influence which he can
only ask, having no power to command it; but a
comparatively high tone of moral feeling, a sense
of propriety, a love of decency, and that self-re-
spect which always tends to admitted respec-
tability, may and will result from judicious culture
even in very unpromising soils. We would gladly
have every man a devoted Christian, and do all in
our power to promote so happy a consummation;
but that being confessedly beyond our ability to
accomplish, let us at least so instruct the boy that
we may expect the man to be a loyal subject, a
peaceable neighbour, and a decent industrious
member of society, disposed to seek higher gra-
tifications than those in which the very brutes find
their chief happiness. There is nothing Utopian
in this a million of public money is often ap-
:
!
208
EDUCATION.
plied to uses that will not bear a moment's com-
parison with what it would effect by supplying the
existing deficiency of school-houses: and a yearly
grant of a hundred thousand pounds, what states-
man would grudge, if assured that thereby
A virtuous populace should rise the while
To stand, a wall of fire, around their much-beloved isle.
There is no middle course: things cannot remain as
they are. The population is increasing, pauperism is
increasing, vice and turbulence are increasing. You
have one hold on the poor man, and that a powerful
one: be in very deed, the benefactors of his children,
-let him see you really care for them; let him
trace in their improved feeling and amended man-
ners the kind guidance of your hand, and hear
from their lips the valuable truths from which he
has long been excluded-self excluded perhaps,
but still an alien from the true commonwealth. If
you neglect this duty, these children will prove
formidable auxiliaries to his worst designs; for it
is well known they are among the most expert in-
cendiaries, and most pitiless butchers, when once
the tide of anarchy sets in. Enlist them on God's
side, and you will find them, in every sense, a
shield; not only will individual gratitude be ready
to interpose between you and danger, but even
that danger may itself be averted by the gracious
interposition of Him who has said, "Blessed are
the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
EDUCATION.
209
Since the first edition of this work appeared,
this momentous question has been brought under
the notice of the Legislature; and, we grieve to
say, has been pushed aside in a disgraceful scuffle
for party advantages. With how great a force of
evidence it was pressed upon the conscience of the
House of Commons, can only be appreciated by
the help of a few extracts from Lord Ashley's
speech. We shall give them without comment:
we wish we could afford room to give them with-
out abridgment.
Lord Ashley exhibited the greatness of the
danger, arising from a want of education, by a re-
ference to the Reports of the Commissioners of en-
quiry, recently printed for the use of Parliament.
He supplied a condensed view of their general re-
sults from which we copy the following passages:-
"I will next take the town of Leeds; and
there it will be seen that the police details would
be very similar in character, though differing in
number, to those of Manchester and Birmingham
the report of the state of Leeds for 1838, is to
this effect: It appears that the early periods of
life furnish the greatest portion of criminals.
Children of seven, eight, and nine years of age
are not unfrequently brought before magistrates;
a very large portion under 14 years. The parents
are, it is to be feared in many instances, the direct
causes of their crime." "The spirit of lawless in-
subordination (says Mr. Symons the sub-commissio-
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210
EDUCATION.
I
ner) which prevails at Leeds among the children
is very manifest: it is matter for painful appre-
hension." James Child, an inspector of police,
states that which is well worthy of the attention
of the House: He says there is "a great deal of
drunkenness, especially among the young people.
I have seen children very little higher than the
table at these shops." John Stubbs, of the police
force, confirms the above testimony. "We have,"
he says,
a deal of girls on the town under 15,
and boys who live by thieving. There are half a
dozen beer-shops where none but young ones go
at all. They support these houses."
"I will now turn to Sheffield:-The Rev. Mr.
Livesey, the minister of St. Philip's, having a
population of 24,000, consisting almost exclusive-
ly of the labouring classes, gives in evidence,-
"Moral condition of children.
in numerous
On Sunday
instances most deplorable
afternoons it is impossible to pass along the high-
ways, &c. beyond the police boundaries, without
encountering numerous groups of boys, from 12
years and upwards, gaming for copper coin.
the boys are early initiated into habits of drinking.
But the most revolting feature of juvenile depra-
vity is early contamination from the association of
the sexes. The Rev. Mr. Farish states, "There
are beer-houses attended by youths exclusively,
for the men will not have them in the same houses
with themselves." Hugh Parker, Esq. a justice
""
i
EDUCATION.
211
i
•
of the peace, remarks, "A great proportion of
the working classes are ignorant and profligate
. . . the morals of their children exceedingly
depraved and corrupt. . . . given, at a very early
age, to petty theft, swearing and lying; during
minority to drunkenness, debauchery, idleness,
profanation of the Sabbath; dog, and prize-fight-
ing." Mr. Rayner, the superintendent of police,
deposes, that "Lads from twelve to fourteen years
of age constantly frequent beer-houses, and have,
even at that age, their girls with them, who often
incite them to commit petty thiefts
ren...
vices
of every description at a very early age
great number of vagrant children prowling about
the streets... these corrupt the working child-
The habits of the adults confirm the
children in their vices." George Messon, a police
officer, adds, "There are many beer-shops which
are frequented by boys only
as early as
thirteen years of age. The girls are many of them
loose in their conduct, and accompany the boys.
I remember the Chartist attack on Shef-
field last winter. I am certain that a great number
of young lads were among them-some as young
as fifteen: they generally act as men." All this
was confirmed by Daniel Astwood, also a police
officer; by Mr. George Crossland, registrar and
vestry clerk to the board of guardians; by Mr.
Ashley, master of the Lancasterian school; by
Dr. Knight, and by Mr. Carr, a surgeon. Mr.
212
EDUCATION.
Abraham, the inventor of the magnetic guard,
remarks, "There is most vice and levity and
mischief in the class who are between sixteen and
nineteen. You see more lads between seventeen
and nineteen with dogs at their heels and other
evidences of dissolute habits." Mr. James Hall
and others of the working people say, the "morals
of the children are tenfold worse than formerly
. . . There are beer-shops frequented by boys
from nine to fifteen years old, to play for money
and liquor." Charlotte Kirkman, a poor woman
of the operative class, aged 60, observes-and I
much wish here to draw the attention of the House,
because it is extremely desirable that they should
know in what light, the best and most decent of
the working people regard these things-"I think
morals are getting much worse, which I attribute
in a great measure to the beer-shops.
were no such girls in my time as there are now.
When I was four or five and twenty, my mother
would have knocked me down if I had spoken im-
properly to her. . Many have children
at 15. I think bastardy almost as common now
as a woman being in the family-way by her
husband.. Now it's nothing thought about."
"The evidence (says the sub-commissioner), with
very few exceptions, attests a melancholy amount
of immorality among the children of the working
classes in Sheffield, and especially among young
persons. Within a year of the time of my visit,
There
EDUCATION.
213
he continues," the town was preserved from an
organized scheme to fire and plunder it, merely
by the information of one man, and the conse-
quent readiness of the troops. A large body of
men and boys marched on it in the dead of the
night; and a very large quantity of crowsfeet to
lame horses, pikes, and combustibles were found
on them, at their houses, and left on the road.
Several were pledged to fire their own houses.
I name this, as a further illustration of the peri-
lous ignorance and vice prevailing among that
young class between boys and full-grown men,
who were known to be among the chief actors in
these scenes.
99
"Mr. Symons—and I shall the more effectively
quote his opinions, because he is most strongly
opposed to the political views which I venture to
hold-further says, and it is right that I should
state it in justice to so excellent a body of men:
"If vice increases in Sheffield, the blame assur-
edly rests not on the clergy; few towns are blessed
with so pious or active a ministry. It is not for
want of exertion on their parts, if the churches
and chapels are unfilled, and the schools scantily
attended; and this remark applies also to part of
the Wesleyan and some other religious denomi-
nations."
"I shall now proceed to another district, to
Wolverhampton, and there I find Mr. Horne giving
the following description :-" Among all the child-
↓
1
214
EDUCATION.
ren and young persons I examined, I found, with
very few exceptions, that their minds were as
stunted as their bodies; their moral feelings stag-
The children and young persons
nant.
possess but little sense of moral duty towards their
parents, and have little affection for them.
One child believed that Pontius Pilate and Go-
liath were apostles; another, fourteen or fifteen
years of age, did not know how many two and
two made. In my evidence taken in this town
alone, as many as five children and young persons
had never heard even the name of Jesus Christ....
You will find boys who have never heard of such
a place as London, and of Willenhall, (only three
miles distant,); who have never heard of the name
of the Queen, or of such names as Wellington,
Nelson, Bonaparte, or King George." "But,'
(adds the commissioner) "while of scripture
names I could not, in general, obtain any rational
account, many of the most sacred names never
having even been heard, there was a general
knowledge of the lives of Dick Turpin and Jack
Sheppard, not to mention the preposterous epi-
demic of a hybrid negro song."-This we may
suppose is an elegant periphrasis for the popular
song of "Jim Crow."-Mr. Horne goes on to say
""
"The master of the British School deposes,
'I have resided, as a teacher, for the last six
years, during which I have observed that the cha-
racter and habits of the numerous labouring poor
EDUCATION.
215
are of the lowest order.' The master of the Na-
tional School says besotted to the last degree.'
-Sir, there are many things of an extremely
horrid description to be detailed concerning the
physical condition of the children in these parts,
but I forbear to touch them at present, being en-
gaged only on their moral deficiency.
"I now go to Willenhall, and there it is said,—
"A lower condition of morals cannot, I think, be
found-they sink some degrees (when that is
possible) below the worst classes of children and
young persons in Wolverhampton; they do not
display the remotest sign of comprehension as to
what is meant by the term of morals." Next, of
Wednesfield, it is said the population are "much
addicted to drinking; many besotted in the ex-
treme; poor dejected men, with hardly a rag to
their backs, are often seen drunk two or three days
in the week, and even when they have large
families." The same profligacy and ignorance at
Darlaston, where we have the evidence of three
parties, an overseer, a collector, and a relieving
officer, to a very curious fact; I quote this to
shew the utter recklessness and intellectual apathy
in which these people live, caring little but for
existence and the immediate physical wants of the
passing hour; they state, "that there are as many
as 1,000 men in Darlaston who do not know their
own names, only their nicknames." But it is said,
that in Bilston things are much better. It is
216
EDUCATION.
remarked that the "moral condition of children
and young persons on the whole was very superior
to that in Wolverhampton; "he excepts, however,
"the bank-girls, and those who work at the screw-
manufactories." Among them, "great numbers
of bastards; "the bank-girls drive coal-carts, ride
astride upon horses, drink, swear, fight, smoke,
whistle, sing, and care for no body." Here I must
observe, if things are better in Bilston, it is owing
to the dawn of education, "to the great exertions
of the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, and the Rev. Mr.
Owen, in the church; and Mr. Robert Bew,
(chemist) and Mr. Dimmock, (ironmerchant,)
among the dissenters." Next, as to Sedgeley.
"children and young persons," says the rector,
66
grow up in irreligion, immorality, and ignorance.
The number of girls at nailing considerably ex-
ceeds that of the boys; it may be termed the
district of female blacksmiths; constantly associa-
ting with depraved adults, and young persons of
the opposte sex, they naturally fall into all their
ways; and drink, smoke, swear, &c. &c. and be-
come as bad as men. The men and boys are
usually naked, except a pair of trowsers; the
women and girls have only a thin ragged petticoat,
and an open shirt without sleeves."-Look to
Warrington; the Honourable and Reverend Horace
Powys, the rector, says, and there is no man more
capable, from talent and character, of giving an
opinion," My conviction is-and it is founded
EDUCATION.
217
on the observation of some years-that the general
condition of the children employed in labour in
this town is alarmingly degraded, both religiously
morally, and intellectually." And here, too, is
the evidence of the Rev. John Molyneux, a Ro-
man Catholic priest, who began by stating his
peculiar qualifications to give testimony, having
a congregation of three thousand persons, and.
chiefly among the poorer classes. "Children in
pin-works," he said, "are very immoral-they
sit close together, and encourage each other in
cursing and swearing, and loose conversation,
which I grant you they do not understand,”—a
conclusion in which I cannot agree:
"but it
renders them" he adds "prone to adopt the acts of
immorality on which they converse."-" Those
girls who from very early labour at pins go to the
factories, do not ever make good housekeepers;
they have no idea of it; neither of economy, nor
cooking, nor mending their clothes."
"Next, Sir, I will examine the Potteries. Mr.
Scriven, the sub-commissioner, uses these express-
ions:-"I almost tremble, however, when I con-
template the fearful deficiency of knowledge ex-
isting throughout the district, and the consequences
likely to result to this increased and increasing
population. . . . . It will appear," he adds, "by
the evidence from Cobridge and Burslem, that
more than three-fourths of the persons therein
named can neither read nor write.
L
It is
218
EDUCATION.
not from my own knowledge," he continues "that
I proclaim their utter, their absolute ignorance.
I would respectfully refer you to the evidence of
their own pastors and masters, and it will appear
that as one man, they acknowledge and lament
their low and degraded condition." Mr. Lowndes,
clerk to the board of guardians of the Burslem
union, says: "It is with pain that I have witnessed
the demoralizing effects of the system, as it has
hitherto existed.
It appears to me fraught
with incalculable evils, both physical and moral."
Mr. Grainger, a sub-commissioner, in his report
respecting Nottingham, writes: "All parties,
clergy, police, manufacturers, workpeople, and
parents, agree that the present system is a most
fertile source of immorality. . . The natural
results. have contributed in no slight de-
gree, to the immorality which, according to the
opinion universally expressed, prevails to a most
awful extent in Nottingham. Much of the ex-
isting evil is to be traced to the vicious habits of
parents, many of whom are utterly indifferent to
the moral and physical welfare of their offspring."
"Education of the girls more neglected even than
that of boys. . Vast majority of females
utterly ignorant. Impossible to overstate
evils which result from this deplorable ignorance.'
"I must now remark, that this condition of
things prevails, more or less, throughout the whole
of England, but particularly in the manufacturing
99
EDUCATION.
219
1
and trading districts. The evil is not partial, it
is almost universally diffused over the surface of
the country. The time I might be allowed to
occupy would be insufficient for me to travel
through the whole of the details; but the House
will find, in the second report of the Children's
Employment Commission, which is devoted to the
statement of their moral condition, the proof that
it everywhere afflicts the country, and is nearly
universal throughout the whole of the coal and
iron-fields of Great Britain and Wales. -Look
to the east of Scotland;-one clergyman says,—
"The condition of the lower classes is daily be-
coming worse in regard to education; and it is
telling every day upon the moral and economic
condition of the adult population." Another
clergyman remarks:-"The country will be in-
evitably ruined, unless some steps are taken by
the Legislature to secure education to the children
of the working-classes." Of North Wales we see
it stated:" Not one collier-boy in ten can read,
so as to comprehend what he reads:" while of
South Wales it is observed:-" Many are almost
in a state of barbarism. Religious and moral
training is out of the question. I should certainly
be within bounds in saying that not one grown
male or female in fifty can read." In the west
of Scotland I find the same class of persons de-
scribed as follows:-"A large portion of the
colliery and ironwork hands are living in an utterly
4
L 2
220
EDUCATION.
:
狰
​depraved state, a moral degradation, which is en-
tailing misery and disease on themselves, and dis-
order on the community." There is an equally
lamentable state of things existing in Yorkshire,
Durham, Lancashire, North Staffordshire and
Cumberland. The replies of many of the children
who were questioned by the commissioners, shewed
a state of things utterly disgraceful to the charac-
ter of a Christian country. One of the children
replied to questions put to him: "I never heard
of France; I never heard of Scotland or Ireland;
I do not know what America is." James Taylor
a boy eleven years old, said that he
"has never
heard of Jesus Christ; has never heard of God,
but has heard the men in the pit say God damn
them;' never heard of London." A girl eighteen
years old, said, "I never heard of Christ at all."
This indeed, the commissioner adds, is very common
among children and young persons. She proceeded
to say,
"I never go to church or chapel ;" again, “I
don't know who God is." The sub-commissioner
who visited Halifax, has recorded this sentence:
"You have expressed surprise," says an employer,
"at Thomas Mitchell's not having heard of God; I
judge there are very few colliers here about that
have."
·
We must add a few lines from the close of Lord
Ashley's speech, concerning the general prospects
of the nation under these circumstances:
"Observe, too, that our very multitude op-
EDUCATION.
221
presses us; and oppresses us, too, with all the
fearful weight of a blessing converted into a curse.
The king's strength ought to be in the multitude
of his people; and so it is; not, however, such a
people as we must shortly have; but in a people
happy, healthy, and virtuous; "Sacra Deûm,
sanctique patres." Is that our condition of pre-
sent comfort or prospective safety? You have
seen in how many instances the intellect is impair-
ed, and even destroyed by the opinions and
practices of our moral world; honest industry
will decline, energy will be blunted, and what-
ever shall remain of zeal be perverted to the worst
and most perilous uses. An evil state of morals
engenders and diffuses a ferocious spirit; the mind
of man is as much affected by moral epidemics,
as his body by disorders; thence arise murders,
blasphemies, seditions, every thing that can tear
prosperity from nations, and peace from indivi-
duals. See, Sir, the ferocity of disposition that
your records disclose; look at the savage treat-
ment of children and apprentices; and imagine
the awful results, if such a spirit were let loose
upon society. Is the character of your females
nothing?—and yet hear the language of an eye-
witness, and one long and deeply conversant with
their character; "They are becoming similar to
the female followers of an army, wearing the
garb of women, but actuated by the worst passions
of men in every riot or outbreak in the manu-
222
EDUCATION.
facturing districts the women are the leaders and
exciters of the young men to violence. The
language they indulge in is of the most horrid
description-in short, while they are demoralised
themselves, they demoralise all that come within
their reach." People will often times attempt
to administer consolation by urging that a mob
of Englishmen will never be disgraced by the atro-
cities of the Continent. Now, apart from the
fact that one hundredth part of "the reign of
terror" is sufficient to annihilate all virtue and all
peace in society, we have never, except in 1780,
and a few years ago at Bristol and Nottingham,
seen a mob of our countrymen in triumphant
possession. Conflagration then and plunder de-
vastated the scene; nor were they forgotten in the
riots of last year, when, during the short-lived
anarchy of an hour, they fired I know not how
many houses within the district of the Potteries.
"Consider, too, the rapid progress of time. In
ten years from this hour-no long period in the
history of a nation—all who are nine years of age
will have reached the age of nineteen years; a
period in which, with the few years that follow,
there is the least sense of responsibility, the power
of the liveliest action, and the greatest disregard
of human suffering and human life. The early
ages are of incalculable value; an idle reprobate
of fourteen is almost irreclaimable; every year of
delay abstracts from us thousands of useful fellow-
EDUCATION.
223
citizens; nay, rather it adds them to the ranks of
viciousness, of misery, and of disorder. So long,
Sir, as this plague-spot is festering among our
people, all our labours will be in vain; our recent
triumphs will avail us nothing: to no purpose,
while we are rotten at heart, shall we toil to im-
prove our finances, to expend our commerce, and
explore the hidden sources of our difficulty and
alarm. We feel that all is wrong, we grope at
noon-day as though it were night, disregarding the
lessons of history and the word of God, that
there is neither hope nor strength, nor comfort,
nor peace, but in a virtuous, a "wise, and an
understanding people."
Is it not lamentable to be obliged to remember
that after all these fearful details had produced
their natural effect on the House of Commons;
after the government had been impelled by its
own consciousness of duty, and by the public
voice, to attempt the application of a remedy, at
least to some portion of the diseased sections of
society, all was frustrated by a miserable squab-
ble about "the appointment of trustees," and
some other matters of detail, in which the dissenters
conceived that some undue advantage was given to
the Church! Surely, if even an inspired apostle,
whose claims to deference, and even to submis-
sion, were wholly and beyond all comparison above
those of all other men,-if he could "rejoice" at
224
EDUCATION.
sectarian teaching, and say, Some preach Christ
of envy and strife,-nevertheless every way Christ
is preached, and therein I do rejoice, yea, and will
rejoice ;"—it must have been some spirit far removed
from the primitive and apostolic one, which roused
itself to oppose and withstand an effort to supply
education to the people, merely from a fear that
some rival religious body might be the gainer by
the improvement. Can it be, that a feeling so
low, so petty, so disgraceful, can long endure in
English minds? Must we not hope that a few
months of calmer reflection will moderate if not
entirely remove these petty jealousies, and permit
that which concerns all, to take precedence of
that which only concerns this or that sect?
CHAPTER XIII.
SUBDIVISION OF PARISHES.
NEXT after Education, comes a point of pressing
urgency; that of parochial subdivision. Under
the New Poor Law we find the responsible officers,
among their gigantic powers, possess that of unit-
ing, dividing, and remodelling districts to any ex-
tent, for the furtherance of their operations in the
workhouse department; because the increased
population, and yet more, the increased pauperism
of the country rendered some fresh arrangements
absolutely necessary. All we want is the recog-
nition of the same principle in spiritual matters,
and action equally prompt as has been that of the
commissioners. When we look at the duties of a
clergyman, according to the solemn injunction laid
on him, and the pledge given by him, at his ordi-
nation, we find they include, not only the public
ministrations of the Church, which must be stated-
ly performed, and the Gospel diligently preached
to the congregation, but also to teach and pre-
L 5
226
SUBDIVISION OF PARISHES.
monish, to feed and provide for the Lord's family;
to seek for Christ's sheep that are dispersed
abroad, and for his children who are in the midst
of this naughty world: With all faithful dili-
gence to banish and drive away all erroneous and
strange doctrines, contrary to God's word: and
to use both public and private monitions and ex-
hortations, as well to the sick as to the whole :'
'To be diligent in prayers and in reading of the
Holy Scriptures, and in such studies as help in the
knowledge of the same.' It never could be in the
contemplation of those who framed this compen-
dium of necessary duties,-making it incumbent
on the minister to see that every person under his
charge is duly attended to in spiritual things,-to
burden any one man with a parish of such geo-
graphical or numerical extent as to render the
performance of his vow a manifest impossibility.
Yet that it is so no one thinks of denying, and
nothing but the subdivision of which we speak
will remedy this serious evil. It is a mere mock,
to enrol the people in parishes, and place them
nominally under the pastoral charge of a man who
cannot, by any effort of mortal zeal and perse-
verance, rightly fulfil his duty towards one tenth
or one twentieth part of them; either publicly in
the church, which, if they all attended in rotation
so as to fill it every Sunday, would only admit
each person to take his turn perhaps once in
several months; or privately, where to visit the
and tim
•
SUBDIVISION OF PARISHES.
227
!
:
sick, to instruct the ignorant, and to admonish the
refractory with anything like equal care, would
hardly leave him leisure for eating and sleeping.
No clergyman ought, under any circumstances, to
be burdened with more than three thousand
people; seldom should his charge exceed two
thousand.
The benefits resulting from such a change in
parochial arrangements are so obvious, that they
need not be enlarged upon. The present system
is the parent of half the misery that we have been
describing for in many places the only effective
control exercised over a population is that of the
minister; and he alone is able to represent their
actual sufferings in quarters whence relief may
come; he alone has authority to interfere in mat-
ters whereof the law of man takes no direct cog-
nizance, but where the expounder of God's law
cannot be silent. The clergyman is the natural
guardian and adviser of the poor; his wife and
family their natural friends and comforters, in
those thousand little perplexities and sorrows that
beset their thorny path, and where a few discreet
words of kind sympathy and judicious counsel
might often avert acts, the fruits of reckless des-
pair, which would call for punishment at the
hands of justice; a punishment more frequently
hardening than reclaiming the transgressor. Were
his allotted task in some measure proportioned to
his strength, how much would the devoted clergy-
228
SUBDIVISION OF PARISHES.
man's happiness, together with his usefulness,
be increased; and what an effectual moral force
would be brought to bear, if the poor of the land
were severally dealt with as rational and immortal
beings; each having to give account of himself at
the bar of the omniscient Judge; each liable to
the wages of sin, and each invited to seek the gift
of God, even eternal life!
As the matter now stands, the poor man knows
that a very large majority of the people for
whom the church-bells chime out their invitation
must stay away, and he resolves to be of the
number; leaving it to those who are better dress-
ed, or better taught, or have more leisure during
the week, than himself, to go. There is little fear
of his miserable home being visited, and his non-
attendance on the means of grace reproved.
The
clergyman's time is engrossed by those who have
invited his visits, or to whom he knows they will
be acceptable; he is not likely to neglect such for
the doubtful reception that an irreligious stranger
might give. Indeed, where the work is so far
beyond one man's ability, it seems a duty to pro-
vide first for the household of faith: and no time
is left for following the straying sheep. Thus the
parent's misconduct dooms the children to ignor-
ance of God; and early vice soon hardens the
heart against any appeal that may cross the path
of the sinner. Such things exist, in many a
place where the appointed minister is really de-
SUBDIVISION OF PARISHES.
229
voted to his work; he is shunned, and his message
of mercy never reaches their ears. Surely this
is a matter requiring prompt attention: "Evil
communications corrupt good manners;" such
characters as we have described always seek to
bring others to their own level; and unhappily
they have a very large mass around them to infect
with the poisonous leaven. The hours that ought
to be spent in public worship are too often passed
where sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion
are concocted: they who will not join in the
praises of God, become familiar with the song of
the drunkard! and the result is too frequently an
active hatred of everything good: "The wicked
seeth the righteous, and seeketh occasion to
slay him."
We do not say that the multiplication of
churches, and increase of working clergymen would
inevitably and immediately change the aspect of
society in its worst features: matters have gone
on so long in their present ruinous train, that some-
thing more is required than the mere opportunity
of obtaining a knowledge for which the vitiated
multitudes have no relish; nor may we under any
circumstances exalt the means of grace into the
office and efficacy of grace itself. They are means
appointed of God, and as such they may be used
with a good hope that a blessing will follow; and
certainly without their adoption we have no war-
rant to look for any thing but an aggravated curse.
1
230
SUBDIVISION OF PARISHES.
SO
The parishes being subdivided and formed into
districts, or rather new parishes, in the next
place each must have its church. This is the case
already in many places, through the recent pro-
gress of church-extension, zealously promoted
by some of our bishops, and wealthier laymen.
But to meet the actual necessity, a fund must be
provided, from which every new district
formed, and having no church of its own, shall
be empowered to draw half the cost of erecting
one, whenever the other half is provided by the in-
habitants. Plain, substantial buildings, free from
architectural fripperies, and suited for the accom-
modation of a humble flock, would not be found
very expensive, nor unattainable in the poorest
neighbourhoods; while the advantages attending
their establishment, and the proclamation of the
pure Gospel, as enforced by our scriptural Church
on all who undertake to minister in her commu-
nion, must bring forth some fruit: for thus saith
the Lord: "As the rain cometh down, and the
snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but
watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and
bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread
to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth out
of
my mouth it shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and
it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it."
Another fund will be necessary, out of which
to furnish a suitable provision for the minister of
SUBDIVISION OF PARISHES.
231
each new Church; and less than £100 a year
should not even be contemplated as a beginning in
every case. Of this a portion might be required
to be guaranteed by the people themselves. The
public encouragement given would act as a sti-
mulus to the liberality of individuals: no thinking
man could question the desirableness of such a
change in his own vicinity: no benevolent man
but must rejoice in the prospect of seeing a kind
and careful superintendence exercised over a long
destitute and neglected population; nor could any
pious Christian do otherwise than labour zealous-
ly to promote the means for bringing back a
multitude of wanderers into the fold of the good
Shepherd. Upon the better order too, it would
operate most favourably: the well-conducted
members of society would find their respectability
and the weight of their example increased in the
sight of their dissolute neighbours: the influence
of the gentry would be drawn out, their interest
excited, and their efforts concentrated in their
immediate neighbourhood; and instead of closing
up the sluices of beneficence through utter uncer-
tainty as to where the stream should be directed,
-fearing to encourage idleness and imposture by
indiscriminate bounty, and doubtful as to the
comparative merits of rival plans,-they would
have a field opened under their immediate inspec-
tion, with every facility of inquiry into private
characters, and the means of examining into, and of
232
SUBDIVISION OF PARISHES.
!
assisting to direct, the details of such schools, and
other benevolent parochial institutions, as will
always spring up where a good minister is put in
charge of a flock. The benefit to be conferred
by well-regulated district-visiting, and the relief
of the sick, where a little temporary help to one
member may avert the necessity of sending a
whole family to the work-house, together with
the gratitude and respectful regard that such kind-
ness from their superiors will excite in the bosoms
of the poor:-these and many similar results
would overpay many-fold the pecuniary sacrifice
made to achieve so desirable an object-so bene-
ficial to man, so acceptable to God.
There is an advantage attached to the service of
the Church of England which can never be too
highly estimated. No man can answer for another,
or for himself, that he will always preach sound
doctrine, and rightly divide the word of truth;
but whosoever attends the worship of God in one
of our churches, will hear the glad tidings of
salvation in the very words in which it was con-
veyed to man. The large proportion of Scripture
interwoven in the daily form of prayer, is the
most conspicuous excellence of the Established
Church. The lessons, the psalms, epistle, and
gospel, are so many incitements to the hearer to
study the Bible at home: he becomes familiarized
with the language, the imagery of holy writ; and
surely if David could say, "the entrance of thy
SUBDIVISION OF PARISHES.
233
word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the
simple," we are authorized to believe, and expe-
rience verifies it, that the frequent hearing of
what our beloved Church so liberally supplies to
her worshipping members, will shed a light on
the poor man's mind, give understanding where
all before was dark and cloudy, and if it do not
lead to the actual conversion of his soul to God
it will yet impart a decency to his outward de-
portment, and so far check him in his intercourse
with others, as to confer a very decided negative
advantage on many, whom his shameless wicked-
ness would otherwise encourage in setting at
nought all restraint on their own evil propensities.
The influence of example is powerful, especially
when one who has heretofore followed the paths
of sin, turns from his evil ways, and seeks to do
right; and when such change is obviously con-
nected with, or dated from, attendance on the
means of grace.
The Church is established by law, and fostered,
protected, and recognized by the State, in order
that the people of the land may be trained up in
the ways of righteousness, loyalty, and peace.
Unless the Church be maintained in a state of effi-
ciency for the work, what is all this but a solemn
mockery of God and man? We stigmatize as
schismatics men who, moved at the spiritual desti-
tution of so many millions, and aware that by no
possible effort on the part of the established clergy
234
SUBDIVISION OF PARISHES.
can they be brought under the teaching of the Gos-
pel, separate from the Church, and become preach-
ers, without episcopal ordination; but surely the
root of such alleged schism is to be sought in the
utter inadequacy of which we complain; and the
first step towards unity must necessarily be to
afford sufficient room, and sufficient instruction,
for the multitudes whom we desire to gather into
one harmonious congregation of worshippers,
according to the rites and formularies of the Na-
tional Church.
Since the publication of the first edition of this
work, a step, -a most important step, has been
taken by the government and the legislature, in
the matter we have been discussing in the present
chapter. An act of parliament has been passed,
for the providing additional ministers in populous
parishes, which not only affords means of endow-
ment for a large number of new curates in such
districts, but also expressly points out the sub-
division of parishes as a leading step to be taken.
We desire to be grateful, not only to Him who
hath put it into the hearts of our rulers thus to ad-
vance in the right course, but also to the govern-
ment itself for this important benefit. And it is
not in a critical or ungracious spirit, that we
would remark, that this new provision is but a step
in the right direction. It renders an important
good practicable, in a certain not very large
number of cases. What is still needed, is a
SUBDIVISION OF PARISHES.
235
more general and more positive change. Such an
one, for instance, as took place in the application
of the New Poor Law. There seems no more
difficulty in enacting, in the present case, that all
parishes exceeding 3000 in population, shall be
(not may be) divided into two or more parishes
for the future, than there was, in 1834, in or-
dering all the parishes of England to be formed
into groups or "unions," for the better manage-
ment of the poor.
CHAPTER XIV.
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
MORAL and spiritual improvement on a large scale
on a scale commensurate with the extent of
moral perversion and spiritual destitution, must be
aimed at, and accomplished too, ere the peril that
impends over the nation can be so diminished as
to leave us in the peaceful enjoyment of our many
privileges. We have endeavoured to prove, how-
ever, that evils of a character not to be reached
by any mode or measure of mere instruction, must
be removed; simultaneously with, if not even
before, such effort for general improvement.
"To do justice and love mercy " is what the Lord
has pointed out as the acceptable service that he
requires; and by such means only can the load
of national responsibility be upborne. The man
who walks by this rule will not "make haste to
be rich;" knowing that he can only do so at
the expense of his poorer brethren, who must,
in some way, suffer loss to augment his gain.
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
237
He will not oppress the hireling in his wages,
because he knows that it is only by the providen-
tial dealing of God with him, individually, that
he is not himself seeking a scanty subsistence by
the labour of his hands; and seeing that he might
have been born to occupy that poor hireling's place,
he will do by him what he feels conscious he
would, in his circumstances, have desired others
should do to himself. He will not lay house to
house, and field to field, that he may be left alone
in the land, with a certain number like himself,
to the expatriation, or death by accumulated suf-
fering, of many others, for whose maintenance
God has assigned it no less than for his own; and
whom he has no right to thrust out that he may
seize their lawful portion of the common blessings.
Until this principle of action is recognised and
fairly carried out, the legislature must supply, by
firmly enforcing the laws that exist, and pro-
viding new enactments where required, what the
sense of individual responsibility fails to accom-
plish.
Among those who are interested in upholding
the present state of things, we often hear of an
infringement of constitutional liberty, if Parlia-
ment shall presume to interfere. On the
On the assump-
tion, that in this country a man may do whatsoever
he will with his own, some would uphold the
English husband's right to condemn his wife to the
drudgery of a beast of burden, to probable pros-
238
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
titution, and no less probable death ;-an English
father's right to cripple and destroy his infants by
selling them to such toil as their tender bodies are
utterly incapable of enduring, and to shut out
from their minds every ray of knowledge human
or divine ;-an English master's right to use his
hired servants with a cruelty more withering than
that beneath which the African slave formerly
groaned; binding them under the yoke, by ex-
hibiting as the penalty of their refusing to earn
a scanty meal at so grinding a price, the certainty
of imprisonment in a union workhouse, divorced
from every natural tie, unless they prefer starving
in the midst of their famishing family. Of such
rights as these, the persons in question are very
tenacious; and extremely sensitive of the least
approach to infringement on chartered liberties;
but the legislature has a higher duty to perform,
than sanctioning this licentious abuse of our na-
tional birthright, freedom.
The House of Commons consists of a certain
number of gentlemen, sent thither by their res-
pective constituencies, as being in their judgment
best qualified to represent them. Their duty is
to take a comprehensive view of all national
matters, and so to apply legal checks, encourage-
ments, and regulations, as shall, in the view of
the majority, best conduce to the well-being of
the people. They are sworn to the right discharge
of these and other well-defined duties; and the
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERence.
239
conscientious performance of their oath is the pa-
ramount obligation. To maintain the integrity
of the constitution, they must trim the balance
fairly when any undue preponderance is detected;
and where oppression is found to have sprung up
from causes not existing at the earlier period for
which our laws were framed, they are bound to
meet those new exigencies with restraints equally
No restricting statutes that they might
agree to pass, could be more repugnant to the
spirit of English liberty, than are the abuses that
call for those statutes.
new.
In fact, one portion of the community has been
encroaching on another, until the latter have not
means to live, and scarcely room to die. To mask
the true source of the anomalous evil, a cry is
raised of surplus population,' and this surplus is
always, by some fatality, found to exist among
the poor. In the peerage, we may find instances
of a dozen or fifteen children, and nobody ventures
to call them 'surplus'; they are rightly and scrip-
turally regarded as a blessing: but let a labouring
man admit the fact of having half as many
mouths to satisfy, and they are all surplus:
preventing checks, and moral restraints (the latter
being the most glaring abuse of language that ever
was perpetrated) are talked of; the swarm of
children' is at once pointed out as the origin of
all evil; and the honest poor couple who have
obeyed the direct command of God, "To avoid
·
240
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
fornication, let every man have his own wife, and
every woman her own husband," are goaded on to
misapply another scriptural text, appropriate only
to far different times and circumstances: "Blessed
are the wombs that never bare, and the paps which
never gave suck!" We repeat, that to lighten
this merciless pressure of the rich upon the poor,
is part of the sworn duty of a British legislator;
the neglect of which gives rise to that dan-
gerous cry, that under the present mode of
representation, one class alone is represented: that
because the poor man has no voice in the polling-
booth, therefore his cause has no appointed advo-
cate in the senate. The mischief wrought
throughout the community by such assertions, is
pretty well known to us all.
De Lolme correctly asserts of the deputies
elected by the various constituencies of England,
that 'when they are once admitted, they represent
THE WHOLE BODY OF THE NATION.' The mem-
ber returned to serve in Parliament for a county
abounding in mines, for example, does indeed in
an especial manner stand pledged to guard the
rights and maintain the cause of those who, in
misery and darkness, toil beneath its surface; the
representative who takes a seat for Lancashire,
appears no doubt in the senate under a paramount
obligation to plead for the immense majority of
its population who labour in the mill and at the
loom; and in like manner, each in the represen-
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
241
tative assembly may point to some class, as form-
ing the bulk of the people in the place whence he
is deputed, who have a twofold claim on him,
arising from their numbers and their helpless-
ness; but still each member of the House of Eng-
land represents all England's commonalty: he is
bound in every vote that he gives to keep
in view the national, equally with the individual
advantage; and to favour no body of men, local
or associated, at the public expense.
But he is bound by an oath; and in the act of
taking that oath he solemnly acknowledges the
being, the sovereignty, the omniscience, and the
justice of God. He is sworn on the Holy Scrip-
tures, and thereby implies his full assent to their
inspired character, as the supernatural revelation
of God's will to man. This involves a duty even
paramount to the former; for God, the universal
King, demands his first allegiance, and the divine-
ly-appointed law, which He has miraculously con-
veyed to man, is that by which all other laws
must be tested, abolished, amended, or framed.
If he finds upon the statute-book any enactment
opposed to the known will of the Most High, he
must labour for its erasure; if he perceives a
system of wrong and robbery in operation for
want of some new law, strictly in accordance with
the divine legislation, to repress it, he must use
his utmost endeavour to supply the defect. We
see not at what point of these assertions any
M
242
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFErence.
christian man, rightly versed in the spirit of the
British constitution, can meet us with a denial:
direct verbal contradiction few would care to give;
but the silent contradiction of an adverse line of
conduct, perpetually crossing the path of any one
who proclaims that such are the right springs of
legislatorial action, too plainly proves how little is
the blessing appropriated which declares, "If ye
know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."
Nevertheless, duty remains unchanged in its
character and obligation: and in the hope that
some who have hitherto overlooked the subject,
may be led to reflect upon it as a matter of no
small moment to themselves, and to the nation at
large, we will proceed to point out some examples
of what we desire to enforce. We would not
willingly believe concerning any man that he held
the future judgment of God so light a thing as to
be braved for a little present gain, or other mo-
mentary advantage; that he would betray the
cause of the poor who have no elective privilege,
in deference to the interests of oppressive supe-
riors, who can aid in his return to Parliament;
and for what purpose? just to heap fresh con-
demnation on his own guilty head, by a comprehen-
sive sort of treason which subverts alike the mon-
arch's throne, the subject's birthright, the nation's
peace, and the authority of God's most holy law.
Glancing over the heads of our preceding state-
ment, it appears, that a very large number of
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERence.
243
the most helpless beings in the community,-mere
infants,—are not only deprived of the blessings of
education, and debarred from the common pri-
vileges of their age, in healthful exercise, and
harmless recreation, essential to their very growth,
but are also most cruelly imprisoned and over-
worked; and that for such protracted periods as
few adult frames and constitutions could long
bear up under that the grasping cupidity of
employers, seconded either by the covetousness or
the poverty of parents, has established this dis-
graceful system beyond the reach of any interpo-
sition, save that of legislatorial enactment; while
the preponderance of wealth and political influence
has hitherto enabled the aggressive party success-
fully to resist all attempts at a due regulation of
the hours of labour, and other branches of the
system, affecting the personal safety of the unhappy
sufferers. Ameliorations, nominal rather than
real, have, from time to time, been conceded, few
and far between; but generally with some neutra-
lizing clause, which rendered each succeeding
concession more inoperative than its predecessor.
The grievance is very great, as regards adult
labourers; but on the poor children it presses
with intolerable severity, calling for such remedial
measures as it is quite clear will never be volun-
tarily adopted by the men whose coffers it fills.
The state must legislate for the factories: pity,
reason, justice, common prudence all demand it.
!
-
1
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244
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
While wrongs so crying as these remain unre-
dressed, there is little prospect that others, less
glaringly cruel, will be heeded; and signs are
thickening round us, that if man will not yield
relief, God will inflict retribution. The public
safety is jeoparded by acts which enrich but a small
section of the upper classes; public humanity is
outraged, that a paltry per-centage may be wrung
from the aching sinews of half-clad little children ;
public responsibility is incurred to an extent not
sufficiently understood by those who forget that
the deputy sent by them to Parliament is, empha-
tically, their representative! the vote that he
gives is but an aggregate of their votes: and while
he obstinately withholds his hand from a good
work, they cannot innocently remain neuter in
the matter.
The mining population have fared better than
their poor neighbours in the mills, so far as
legislation has gone. A burst of real English
feeling was elicited, when the noble Lord, whose
indefatigable labours in the cause of humanity
cannot be overrated, laid before the House of
Commons the frightful picture of female and
infant suffering in those regions of darkness; and
the relief that he prayed was forthwith promised,-
we would that we could say, granted. We need
not follow the bill through its vicissitudes: every
one knows how near it was to being strangled in
the Upper House, and with what maimed propor-
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
245
tions it came forth at length, established as law.
It has not yet come into operation, however;
and already we hear the note of preparation
announcing an attempt at repeal.* It cannot be
that the English Parliament should retrograde in
such a path: universal execration would pursue
the recreants, branding their names with a re-
proach never to be wiped off. Still it behoves
every man to be at his post; alert, and prepared
for the contest; and it also behoves them to un-
loose this heavy burden more extensively than
they have yet done. The case of boys, appren-
ticed too soon by several years, and hopelessly
subjected to ignorant, unfeeling men, who may
abuse to almost any extent their power over the
forlorn children; either shortening their wretched
lives, or hardening them into tyrants trained to
torture another generation of slaves-this case is
one of great urgency; as is also that of the whole
body of workers where the proprietor has neglect-
ed to drain, ventilate, and guard the pit with due
concern for their safety. It may reasonably be
hoped that the avowal on the part of some
owners, of a determination to oppose even the
rescue of women and babes from the horrors of
the coal-pit, will both strengthen and augment
* This attempt has since been made, and has failed. But while
self-interest continues to supply motives for further efforts of the same
kind, we may look for fresh endeavours, in future sessions, to get rid
of this humane enactment.
246
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
.
the ranks of those who are resolved to protect
the defenceless. It proves how completely the
lust of gold has taken possession of some men's
hearts, to the exclusion of all that is not sub-
ordinate to this ruling passion; and that the reso-
lute voice of law must command, where justice
remonstrates and humanity pleads in vain.
Yet again, to make good laws will not suffice;
an efficient machinery must be provided for work-
ing them out. If the realization of a measure be
left in the hands of the very men who most
strenuously opposed its adoption, and to whose
interests it is, as they conceive, decidedly hostile,
it can hardly be doubted that some evasions will
follow. A searching inquiry into the various
modes by which the main purposes of a statute are
successfully defeated; wrongs that it was framed
to redress not only unmitigated but multiplied;
and the most atrocious acts of deliberate fraud
committed upon the poor labourers, who know
that resistance would be followed by instant dis-
missal, would lay open a scene, the recital of
which, unaccompanied by legal proofs, might be
deemed libellous. The truck system, ostensibly
renounced, is carried on in full vigour in many
places, by means of some immediate connexion,
or trusty agent, who resorts to practices which
the honest tradesman would scorn, and which a
prudent one would fear to venture on. Instead
of money for wages, a paper is given, containing
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
247
:
an order on this truckster for goods to the amount;
which, alike in quantity, quality, and value, are
sure to be far below the worst bargain the la-
bourer could make elsewhere; even if, as is often
not the case, the article itself were what he wished
for. Payments of this nature are of a mixed
character; they combine the impudence of a
highway-robbery with the meanness of petty
larceny: added to which their victim is one who,
through sheer poverty, generally escapes all other
gangs of depredators. We claim from the legis-
lature a guard over the poor man's hard-earned
wages. A starving wretch cannot pilfer a turnip
from a green-grocer's stall, but the law interposes
with redress for the loser, and incarceration for
the thief: where is the boasted impartiality of
this same English law, when a man of property
may filch from the labourer's pocket a large portion
of the wages he has acquired by lengthened hours
of toil, and doom his victim to starvation if he but
dare to complain of the theft?
But, "skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath
will he give for his life;" and compared with some
injuries resulting from the same indurating prin-
ciple of covetousness, this is of small amount.
The pits, and other places connected especially
with coal and ironworks, are often in a frightful
state, through neglect of the most ordinary pre-
cautions against casualties that may daily be looked
for. A poor fellow, eager to earn a few shillings
248
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
per week, and perhaps unacquainted with all save
his own particular branch of the business, will
engage himself, and commence his labour where,
as the proprietor very well knows, an experienced
eye would detect most imminent peril at every
step; through the absence of, perhaps, a little
wood to shore up a dangerous opening, or from
some other wretched saving. The consequence
is, the frequent recurrence of calamities attended
with loss of life: so frequent indeed, that the
survivors scarcely notice the event, beyond as-
certaining who is killed; and in some instances
the widows of the slain, with their little ones, have
to vacate their dwellings immediately, for the
accommodation of the dead man's successor; and
are turned out to starve with as little compunction
as the deceased husband and father was sent down
to a more violent death.
Commercial and agricultural evils it is not so
easy to meet by legislation. Having pointed out
some of the fruits which bespeak the existence of a
root of bitterness, we would rather suggest to
those who meet to deliberate on matters of public
interest, how far they may individually work to
counteract the progress of what they cannot but
deplore. Who can look upon the splendid assem-
blage of England's aristocracy on the one hand,
and on the other her independent gentlemen,
convened for the dispatch of public business,
without being forcibly struck by the enormous
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERence.
249
amount of INFLUENCE possessed by them, apart
from their senatorial functions? Who can doubt
that if each among them resolved to exert his
portion of that influence, comprising wealth, au-
thority, talent, eloquence, and example; to stem
the tide of demoralization, and to lighten the
pressure of distress, and to elevate the national
character, just so far as the self-same influence
could reach around him, the introduction of so
vast a portion of wholesome leaven, in so many
quarters, would rapidly work for the transfor-
mation of the whole mass? 'What shall we do?'
is a question easily asked, but exceedingly difficult
to answer, when men look abroad on the chaos of
conflicting grievances and wrongs; with so much to
amend, so much to unravel, so much to add, that
they really do not see where or how to begin, nor
can conceive where or how they can possibly end :
but when each sets out by honestly enquiring 'What
can I do?' confines his regards to the spot within
his own reach, and heartily sets about doing his best
there, all will gradually become acquainted with
the details of what, as a whole, was hopelessly
perplexing, and thus be enabled to meet in a
combined effort for the general good. Be it un-
derstood, however, that in so engaging to serve
their country, all must proceed according to one.
chart, guided by the true pole-star, the word of
God. The man who refuses to recognize this
rule, may beat about in his own narrow channel,
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but he will effect nothing towards the grand object;
he will never reach the place of rendezvous, and
his isolated, unblest efforts will end in disappoint-
ment. He may be a very Solon, but England is
not Sparta where God has shed the beams of
the Gospel, He will have men, public or private,
to walk in the brightness of those beams. Ebony,
under a high polish, may indeed shine; but oh,
how unlike to the living lustre of the diamond,
where light meets light, and flashes forth the ra-
diating brilliancy that nothing can quench, is the
cold, dull reflection of the daybeam on an opaque
body, the very beauty of which consists in the
increased visibility of its own darkness! The first
step to be taken by any man who desires to show
mercy to his suffering fellow-men, is to embrace
the mercy of Christ, freely offered to himself;
and then to proceed upon the heaven-taught prin-
ciple already referred to, "If God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another." Thus guided,
our representatives will assemble prepared to de-
liberate, not how they shall thwart each other's
proposed measures for the furtherance of party
ends, but how they may lighten the pressure of
public suffering, and avert the increase of public
danger. They will find means to check the ag-
gressive progress of overbearing capital, and to
throw a protective shield over humble labour; they
will look with pity on the fallen state of the na-
tive peasant, and devise plans to raise him again
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERence.
251
towards his former standing in the scale of comfort
and respectability: some provision will be made
for the allotment to the poor man of a little plot
of ground, from which he may extract a portion
of subsistence for his family; the grinding oppres-
sion of wealthy task-masters, on whose scanty
remuneration alone he now depends for a morsel
of bread, will find a limit over which it cannot
pass; and the desperate speculations of commer-
cial gamblers will be somewhat impeded in their
ruinous effects on thousands of families, wholly
innocent of any participation in acts of which
they are the victims. The universal cry for pro-
tection will not ascend in vain from the myriads
who, if they be the lowest, are also the nearest
to the foundation of the social structure; and
whose violent uprise from an oppressed recum-
bency would prostrate the whole mass in undis-
tinguished ruin.
That the Poor-laws form a most difficult branch
of legislatorial inquiry, is freely admitted; but it
is one also of the most imperative necessity. We
have entered on this point in a previous chapter,
and have only to repeat that the plan of dele-
gating all authority, and thereby, in appearance,
shifting all responsibility, to a triumvirate of the
very best and very wisest of mortal men, is equally
impolitic as unjust; and both in a high degree.
It may be a short cut to the desired point, but it
is one of exceeding peril to all parties. A large
252
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
remuneration will tempt many to overrate their
own powers, mental and corporeal; their judg-
ment, temper, firmness, benevolence, may be
truly admirable, and yet fall immeasurably short
of the vast requirement. They may under-
take the office with the fullest determination to
discharge its duties as in the sight of God, and
never to spare themselves, to regard their own
ease, or to taste the sweets of luxury, brought
within their grasp by the liberal emolument as-
signed to them; they may appoint assistants in the
same spirit, and those assistants may be men like-
minded, most zealously devoted to their work; and
judging by some of their published reports, we con-
scientiously believe some of them to be so; these,
again, may make choice of such as they deem the
most unexceptionable persons to fill the numerous
local situations, and to work out in its details the
system prescribed; still the whole proceeds on an
assumption not borne out by any reasonable con-
clusions drawn from facts or experience; both of
which bear ample testimony to the universal appli-
cability of God's legislation, and the futility of
any fancied improvements upon His all-wise ordi-
nances; and it places in the hands of a few fallible
men, invested with power more unlimited than
the British monarch enjoys, the destinies of a
class of whom God has declared that they are His
especial care; who become a national burden
because they are neglected; who in proportion to
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
253
their burdensome increase are murmured against,
and oppressed; and finally, as we shall surely ere
long experience, through the guilt incurred by
their oppressors, become a national curse. Surely
these are things that it behoves our senators ma-
turely to consider :-surely it must be their duty
to deal in some more careful manner, with a class
so helpless, and so important,-than by a sweep-
ing reference of the whole matter to the discretion
of three persons; no matter how respectable or how
intelligent.
Again, as respects education: public money is
a sacred charge in the hands of those who hold it,
and they are inexcusable if to the best of their
judgment, it is not so expended as most to pro-
mote the public advantage. Now, God requires
of every parent that he should train up his children
in the way they should go; and without such
training we have no warrant for expecting any
blessing, temporal or eternal.
Without it, ig-
norant children grow up into ungodly men, and
depraved women; who become the means of mis-
leading not only their own offspring, but many
others into the ways of transgression; which are
now peculiarly the ways of rebellion against man's
authority, as delegated by the King of kings. It
appears that a multitude of English parents are in
this position, themselves ignorant and evil, wholly
incapable of instructing their children, and not
caring to make any sacrifice to acquire for them
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PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
advantages of which they do not know the value;
while a still greater number are utterly unable,
through extreme poverty, to do what they most
gladly would see done for their offspring. It is
generally conceded that education of some sort
must be granted to the rising generation, even of
the poorest among us, but some doubt the neces-
sity of further parliamentary interference; while
others consider that demands of more pressing
urgency exist in other quarters, on the limited
revenue of the country. It does not seem to occur
to the majority of legislators that "the blessing
of the Lord maketh rich;" and that to a nation
the word of promise is as sure as to an individual,
"He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto
the Lord; and look, what he layeth out, it shall
be paid him again: " But apart from this pledge
of repayment (and all such loans to the Almighty
One bear an enormous interest) a much greater
amount of expenditure is required to overawe by
military and other coercive means, a populace
yearly increasing in numbers, in discontent, and
seditious tendencies, than would suffice to educate
in Christian knowledge and Christian precept,
every poor child in the land.
Let each member of the House of Commons,
then, view this subject as it bears on the present
and future well-being, not only of the country,
but in an especial manner of that section of it
which he has been chosen to represent; let him
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
255
call to mind the wretchedness, the viciousness, the
struggling spirit of insubordination which he has
witnessed, or knows to exist, in some classes loca-
ted among his own constituency; and present to
himself the happy results of an altered feeling,
improved habits, and sound, settled principles in
that quarter. He will surely feel, that to promote
so desirable a change is part of his pledged duty
to those who have given him their suffrages, and
who cannot but be injuriously affected by the pre-
valence of so much evil around their habitations;
even if none of them are to be found among the
misguided class. There is little apprehension
of the Upper House entertaining with distrust such
a proposition as should tend to the improvement
of the humblest ranks in life; since to those who
looked no higher, the increased security of here-
ditary possessions would furnish a prevailing argu-
ment. We have already stated the gross number
of children for whom no educational means are
provided, and have pleaded, to the best of our
ability, their cause; we have shewn some of the
principal hindrances to their improvement of such
means as may be placed within their reach; and
we would earnestly impress upon every member
of Parliament who accedes to the general truth of
our remarks, the obligation that lies on him openly
to declare his convictions, and cheerfully to engage
in an answerable line of conduct.
There is yet another subject, not to be passed
256
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFEREnce,
over, though confessedly one of intricate and per-
plexing character; we mean the currency. That
some change is required in our present monetary
system, or rather the adoption of a precise system,
where none of a definite character now exists,
will be conceded by many; but among them, who
shall put his shoulder to the wheel, and apply the
first impetus to this gigantic, this inert piece of
mechanism, over which politicians have long and
idly mused? We want both words and deeds:
we require from some enlightened legislator a
statement in detail of his well-digested plans for
supplying this serious national desideratum: fol-
lowed up by a series of resolute efforts for bring-
ing it, with such improvements as the combined
wisdom of parliament may suggest, into speedy
operation. The subject is habitually overlooked
by the many; and by the few too generally glanced
at as a thing with which they fear to intermeddle,
seeing in how many intricacies it is involved.
Yet, until this difficulty is fairly grappled with,
we cannot calculate on the continuance of any
prosperous moment that may for a season relieve
the present gloom. Such must, in its very nature,
be evanescent; dependent on contingencies ever
shifting according to the features of the time; and
not only so, but it has been bitterly felt, by re-
cent experience, that such gleamings of prosperity
may be as deceitful as transient, and leave behind
them a long train of evils, real, abiding, tending
to moral and political dissolution.
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
257
1
The government that would deserve well of the
country, by fixing on a firm basis its commercial
security and advance, must begin by taking the
currency under its immediate control; and placing
it under such regulations as shall render it inde-
pendent of the money-making or money-extract-
ing speculations of interested individuals, com-
bined for purposes of personal profit, and using
the wealth of the nation as a mere tool to subserve
their own unfeeling ends; by scattering abroad a
vast supply of paper-money, giving a sudden im-
petus to trade and commercial enterprise in every
form, glutting the labour-market with hands, and
every port throughout the world with goods, until
no purchasers can be found for the latter, and the
former are flung back, in an overpowering stream
of pauperism, to deluge the land. Traced to
their origin, how many of the evils which in these
pages we deploringly enumerate, would be found
rising directly from this one root of misgovernment,
or rather of non-government, in reference to the
currency ! Fluctuations scarcely felt, scarcely
recognized by one portion of the community, act
with fearful effect on another, and by far the more
numerous section; now raising them aloft in a
proud swell of perhaps unlooked-for prosperity;
anon plunging them deep into the lowest gulph of
destruction. We cannot concede to any member
of the legislature the character of a consistent
patriot, who overlooks, or puts by, this vitally
<
258
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
important question. Public confidence is placed
in him; it ought not to be abused; nor can he
stand clear of the charge of such abuse, who
leaves the national purse at the mercy of every
bubble-blowing speculator, desirous of working
something for his own advantage out of the
defenceless, and perhaps too credulous, because
generally honourable, community. Habitual neg-
lect has doubtless invested the subject with many
embarassing adjuncts; but of these the greater
part would vanish before a minister resolved on
accomplishing the object in view; and such reso-
lution any minister might be expected to form,
on ascertaining that the sense of the House was
with him. Like all other important revolutions,
this must have a beginning; but it is assuredly a
duty so obvious, that any man embarking in it
would have every encouragement to strengthen
himself in his God for an acceptable work of jus-
tice, and benevolence, and one so conducive to the
public weal.
To object against legislative interference on such
points as we have adverted to, is the obvious inter-
est of men who live and thrive on these abuses ;
but such is not the voice of the English people;
far less is it the voice of God. To refrain from
interfering is to incur an awful amount of respon-
sibility; to be hereafter inquired into, when each
must answer for himself, and where none can de-
liver his brother. To interfere otherwise than
..
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
259
with a set purpose of using their delegated powers
for the advantage of those who most need their
protection, would be to accumulate condemnation
on the guilty heads of such unfaithful stewards.
But, on all these subjects, there is a cry ever
ready to be raised, by a small section of doctrin-
aires;-the Laissez faire school. Therefore, to
those who, with humane and honest intentions,
still harbour some misgivings as to the fitness and
utility of legislative interposition, in matters of
trade, manufactures, and commerce, we would offer,
in conclusion, one or two recorded and undeniable
facts, the mere reading of which ought to decide
the question.
In the Second report of the Children's Employ-
ment Commission, the following circumstance is
given, on the authority of one of the first surgeons
in this great metropolis.
"Frederick Tyrrell, Esq. surgeon to St. Thomas's
Hospital, deposed, that 'A fair and delicate girl,
about seventeen years of age, was brought to him,
in consequence of total loss of vision. On ex-
amination, both eyes were found disorganized,
and recovery therefore was hopeless. She had
been an apprentice as a dress-maker at the west
end of the town: and some time before her vision
became affected, her general health had been ma-
terially deranged from too close confinement and
excessive work. The immediate cause of the
disease in the eyes was excessive and continued
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PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
application to making mourning. She stated that
she had been compelled to remain without changing
her dress for nine days and nights consecutively;
that during this period she had been permitted
only occasionally to rest on a mattress placed on
the floor for an hour or two at a time; and that
her meals were placed at her side, cut up, so that
as little time as possible should be spent in their
consumption." And thus in this, as in other cases
adduced in the same report, the hopes and happi-
ness of a poor girl's life were deliberately sacrificed,
in the cold-blooded determination to exact from
one labourer what should have been allotted to two.
Now in this case there is no visible ground
whatever for supposing that any peculiar or un-
usual cruelty was inflicted on the poor girl.
What she has endured, hundreds, perhaps thou-
sands of others have suffered also. The evidence
of other witnesses, on the same topic, shews, that
this unfeeling treatment of the work-people in this
department, is of common, and even of general, oc-
currence. The issue in this one case, happened
to be blindness, and consequently beggary, for life.
In many-very many others, it has been, prema-
ture death. And what, but legislative interfe-
rence, can adequately meet the evil? A number
of benevolent ladies have recently associated them-
selves together, and have formed an Association
for the relief of these poor girls. Their purpose
is most admirable, and great good will, in all pro-
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFerence.
261
I
1
bability, result from their efforts. But mitigation,
however desirable, is not prevention. They may
succeed in saving many lives, and in relieving many
sufferers from a cruel bondage; and in so doing
they will be well repaid for all their exertions:
but they can never, by the mere use of influence,
absolutely stop the course of cruelty to which
many employers have for years been accustomed.
Some will brave their utmost endeavours; others
will promise fairly, but in secret will continue to
extort all that over-work which seems to them de-
sirable. Hence the only really effectual check
which can be imposed, must be that of positive
law, enforced by pains and penalties. Nor need
there be the least difficulty either in devising, or
in enacting such a law. We may be content with
protecting those who, being in the eye of the law
infants, have an acknowledged claim on the laws
protection. Apprentices in general are already
protected from violent usage ;-why should pro-
longed cruelty, merely because it strikes no blows,
escape notice? Had the mistress of Mr. Tyrrell's
unhappy patient deprived the poor girl of the sight
of one of her eyes by a blow struck in momentary
anger, the law would have interposed, and would
have inflicted punishment. And is it reasonable,
that in cool blood, by relentless and hard-hearted
oppression, the poor creature should lose both her
eyes, and be turned helpless and hopeless upon
the world, and her mistress pass without even a
་
i
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PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
rebuke? Where is the difficulty in declaring that
labour for more than twelve hours per diem, (in-
cluding meal-times) whether for the child in a
factory, or for the young person in a work-shop,
is an act of cruelty and oppression, and shall be
punished as such?
We will cite another case, which appeared in
all the Lancashire papers of December, 1840:-
"The following accident occurred on Tuesday
afternoon, in the factories of Mess. Cartwright,
of Whalley Banks, Blackburn. A young girl
named Isabella Gibly, about 14 years of age,
who was employed in the Mill in question, was
standing near an upright shaft in one of the rooms,
when a part of her dress was caught thereby, and
she was carried round and round by the quick
revolutions of the machinery, until her whole
body was mangled in the most awful manner.
course the poor creature was perfectly dead when
extricated from her dreadful situation;-indeed,
her head was smashed to atoms; both her legs
were actually torn from her body; and nearly
every bone was broken almost to piecemeal.
more horrible spectacle than her remains present-
ed, it is impossible to conceive: they were collect-
ed together and placed in a box, and it was thought
advisable not to attempt to remove them therefrom,
but to bury them without placing them in a
coffin." *
* Bolton Free Press. Dec. 5, 1840.
Of
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
263
Now here again, we are not adducing any
strange or remarkable event, but a mere every-
day occurrence. One or two points of detail,
indeed, may in this instance, add a further horror
to the picture, such as the tearing this poor girl's
legs from her body, and the scattering her remains
in such a multitude of fragments that they were
obliged to be "collected together" and put into
a box;-but in the main facts,-a young girl
murdered in broad daylight by machinery,-the
case is of so ordinary and common occurence, that
the Lancashire papers of that single week had to
report three inquests on the bodies of young
persons so killed, and all within a circle of a few
miles. And the week preceding, the same paper
from which we have copied this case, reported the
death of another poor girl who, while merely
combing her hair, had that hair suddenly seized
by the machinery, and in one minute was whirled
round and round, till her brains were scattered in
every direction!
Now the atrocity of all this consists in the fact,
that in nearly every such case, (and they must
amount, in all the manufacturing districts, to hun-
dreds in each succeeding year,) the sacrifice of
life and limb might be entirely guarded against
by a very small outlay,-often at the cost of a few
shillings. A little cheap wood-work, the mere
boxing off the machinery," guards against the
whole; and would obviate, not merely this but-
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264
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
•
chery, but the still more common circumstance of
merely tearing off a girl's arm or hand, or smashing
a boy's foot, and so rendering the poor creatures
cripples and beggars for life. We are entitled,
therefore, to assert, that all this sacrifice of life
and limb, is entirely unnecessary, and if so, deeply
criminal.
Why, then, is it not denounced by law? Why
cannot some simple enactment compel every mill-
owner, to do that which every thoughtful and hu-
mane man among their number, has already done?
Strange to say, this obvious remedy was recom-
mended to Government by their own Factory
Inspectors, more than three years since; and yet
such is the dislike to "Parliamentary interference,"
and such the obstacles thrown in its way, that up
to this moment no such proviso has become law.
It was, we believe, as long since as 1839 or 1840
that a requirement of this kind, compelling the
mill-owners, by enactment and penalties, to enclose
their machinery in a safe and proper manner, was
specifically and earnestly pointed out, in the Re-
ports of the Inspectors, as absolutely and urgently
needed. A Bill was drawn up, upon that Report,
embodying this and other recommendations. And
this Bill, first laid upon the table of the House
by the Government itself, in 1840, stood over
that session, perhaps excusably, for want of time
to discuss it. The next year the Government
again pleaded "want of time." A third year,
PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
265
1842, we were still put off with the same excuse.
In the present year, 1843, the Bill was actually
introduced, and at an early period of the session;
but then a variety of new and valuable clauses had
been introduced, providing for the education of
the children. These occupied the public attention
during the whole spring. When the session had
considerably advanced, they were withdrawn. It
was then promised that the Bill should pass
without them. But in July the Government
again discovered that "there was no time left for
its proper discussion," and so, for a fourth year,
the measure was once more postponed !
This lamentable "want of time," in a matter in
which the safety, and often the very lives, of tens
of thousands of poor children are concerned, forces
upon our recollection the remark of the facetious
prebendary of St. Paul's, on railway accidents.
and railway regulations. He observed-
We have been, up to this point, very careless
of our railway regulations. The first person of
rank who is killed will put every thing in order, and
produce a code of the most careful rules. I hope
it will not be one of the bench of bishops; but
should it be so destined, let the burnt bishop-
the unwilling Latimer-remember that, however
painful gradual concoction by fire may be, his death
will produce unspeakable benefit to the public.
Even Sodor and Man will be better than nothing
From that moment the bad effects of the monopoly
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266 PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE.
are destroyed; no more fatal deference to the
Directors; no despotic incarceration; no barbarous
inattention to the anatomy and physiology of the
human body; no commitment to locomotive prisons
without warrant.'
The topic we are upon, -more serious than that
of "railway accidents," both because more deaths
are caused by unguarded machinery in factories in
a single year, than have been caused by railway
travelling since the first railway was opened ;-
and because this loss of life in factories might be
wholly avoided,—this topic will not bear the touch
of pleasantry. But we must be allowed to express
in sober sadness, our conviction, that had any one
person of higher, or even of middling rank, been sud-
denly seized by unguarded machinery, in the year
1840, and torn limb from limb upon the spot, like
the poor girl, Isabella Gibly,-four years would not
have elapsed, nor yet four months,-before some
very stringent enactment would have passed both
houses, rendering all such recklessness of human
life, on the part of factory-owners, highly penal.
CHAPTER XV.
ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS OF THE CROWN.
THE evils of which a dim outline has in the pre-
ceding pages been supplied, and the perils that
must inevitably arise from such a state of things,
concern the whole nation. There is not a class of
persons, from the highest to the lowest among us,
who may not do something towards the removal
of what, if long suffered to exist unchecked,
threatens all equally with destruction. The in-
efficiency of appeals to public attention may often
be attributed to the generalizing tone adopted by
those who make them. Each perhaps, as he
proceeds, acquiesces in the fidelity of the state-
ment, but protests his own utter inability to
discern any means of providing a remedy. We
have already proceeded on the supposition that
we address men willing to be shown how they,
each in his own proper sphere, may co-operate
in stemming the tide of mischief: we will now
classify our probable readers, and address to each
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268
ADDRESS TO THE
a few of the considerations that may, or at least
ought to weigh with himself, as being placed by
the providence of God in the position which he
holds, and accountable for the right use of oppor-
tunities and advantages peculiar to that position.
The uses of this individualizing process are im-
portant. Rightly applied, it insures a due
performance of man's three-fold duty-to God,
his neighbour, and himself. In fact, it is the
forgetfulness of this first great principle of action
on the part of individuals, that produces so vast an
aggregate of mischief and of suffering: and when
each man learns so to magnify his own peculiar
office, as to believe that a part of the remedy rests
with himself, one important step will be gained
towards public prosperity.
To those who in the providence of God are
called to exercise authority, as responsible min-
isters of the crown, and directors of the national
policy, foreign and domestic; who, for the time
being, may be said to wield at will the resources
of this mighty empire, we would first address
ourselves, and respectfully offer a few suggestions
under various heads. You need not to be told
that your position is one of high accountability:
men will judge you, but their estimate is often
incorrect, their opinions erroneous, their decisions
unjust. Towards them, you may and must en-
deavour to have a conscience void of offence; but
you cannot calculate on a right appreciation of
MINISTERS OF THE CROWN.
269
your labours and sacrifices. Public applause may
crown the most selfish hypocrite; public odium
may pursue the
the most disinterested patriot.
There is another tribunal to which you may be
less inclined to appeal, but before which you stand,
weighed in its perfect balances, and sure to be
dealt with according to its unerring decisions. By
whatever steps you attained your present emin-
ence, the hand that placed you on it was the hand
of God; and to Him must you render an account
of your mighty stewardship. For "the Most
High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it
to whomsoever He will." He has, for the time
being, committed a kingdom to your guidance,
and it is required of you, that you be found
faithful.
You are the advisers of the sovereign. Consti-
tuted as is the monarchical government of England,
no king, however experienced in worldly things,
or versed in state affairs, can act independently
of his cabinet. They must proffer advice, and
should their counsel not be acceptable, they must
retire. The throne is now occupied by a youth-
ful female, one whose years and sex add double
weight to your responsibility. In this, the morn-
ing of her days, and the commencement of her
reign, she must rest more confidingly on your
judgment than a man like yourselves might be
expected to do. Are you fully awake to the
onerous nature of this charge? Do you frequent
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270
ADDRESS TO THE
23
!
the council-chamber, and the royal presence,
under an abiding conviction that "He that ruleth
over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God,"
and on this principle so order your words that
the Queen may find her way cleared of all impe-
diments to walk in the right path of government,
so that her subjects may lead a quiet and peace-
able life in all godliness and honesty? Great
temptation must always exist, to flatter the pecu-
liar tastes and prejudices of a monarch, even when
they may oppose what you believe to be for the
public weal: do you, on such occasions, prefer
a conscience void of offence towards God, to
the comparative trifles of present place, power,
emolument, and courtly favour? Knowing, on
infallible authority, that "Righteousness exalteth
a nation, but sin is the reproach of any people,'
do you urge such measures as shall promote
the former and discourage the latter, and so place
your sovereign in the way of that blessing which
ensures prosperity? In a word, do you bear in
mind the inevitable event of your standing toge-
ther with her before the judgment-seat of Christ,
there to have your present conduct finally judged
by Him to whom all hearts are open, all desires
known, and from whom no secrets are hid? No
other principle, no other end will avail. An
absolute monarch may use his ministers as the
creatures of his will, and accumulate on his own
head the consequences of misgovernment: such
MINISTERS OF THE CROWN.
271
cannot be the case in England, while she holds
her present constitution. You are unable to
escape from a full share of responsibility, as regards
the exercise of the royal prerogatives, and your
holding this position is a token of mutual agree-
ment in your views and those of your sovereign :
of her Majesty's confidence in your wisdom, and
of your influence in her councils: while He who
seeth not as man seeth, takes note not only of
your official acts, but knows the things that come
into your mind, every one of them.
You hold the power of appointment to high
offices in every branch of the public service.
Here, your responsibilities accumulate beyond
computation. You place bishops over the Church,
judges over the courts of law, commanders over
both sea and land forces, governors over our fo-
reign possessions, commissioners and directors
over every department of home policy, and offi-
cials of some kind wherever the government of
the country extends. You appoint ambassadors
for the safe-keeping of England's honour and inte-
rests at the courts of other monarchs; consuls to
protect and advance her commercial privileges.
Your fiat is peace or war throughout the world;
and on your legislative propositions hangs the hap-
piness or misery of millions. By virtue of this
authority, you can adequately supply the people
with wholesome scriptural instruction, or abet the
designs of those who would subvert the laws of
272
ADDRESS TO THE
God, and undermine the faith of the Gospel. It
is marvellous that men should easily be found
willing to undertake so vast a charge; knowing
that "unto whom much is given, of them will
much be required;" and that in this official capa-
city they may, by a stroke of the pen, do more to
promote or to injure the interests of their fellow-
men, than in their private capacity, they could
effect by the labour of a life! To you who hold
the reigns of a government so vast, be you of
what party you may, we must address an earnest
entreaty to take heed what you do. There is no
individual so insignificant, within the wide limits
of British sovereignty, as to escape the conse-
quence of what you decide on in your
your offices.
Temporally and eternally your measures may, and
in some sort must, affect him; and nothing can
prevent your affecting him injuriously, but a con-
stant looking to God for help, a careful seeking in his
word for the directions laid down. Whenever
you
exalt the vicious-men whose principles and prac-
tices will not bear the test of that holy law which
you profess to recognize as divine-whenever you
give them authority or influence, whether over a
mighty province, or in the heart of an obscure
village, there the wicked will uplift themselves on
every side; there God will be dishonoured, man op-
pressed, and a terrible score run up against your
souls. You derive your power from one who derives
her's immediately from God; and whose authority is
MINISTERS OF THE CROWN.
273
1
made so far dependent on your co-operation, that,
in the language of the constitution, The Queen
can do no wrong;' because even if a desire to do
wrong existed in the chief ruler of the land, it
could not be carried into effect without a deli-
berate act of compliance, a positive accomplishing
of the design on your part: while you, on the
other hand, may mislead or deceive the royal
mind, and obtain, by virtue of the confidence
nobly reposed in your wisdom and integrity, full
power to commit injustice in the Queen's name.
This is plain speaking, certainly; but it is also plain
fact; and if you believe what you often admit before
God, that "the craft and subtlety of the devil
and man work evil among the people," then what
a call is here for circumspection on your part!
You have to deal with One who cannot be im-
posed upon, and who will not be trifled with: One
to whom all false ways are an abomination, and
whose most terrible judgments have ever fallen,
where authority was abused, true religion set at
nought, and the cause of the poor perverted.
Now, you cannot for yourselves oversee in detail
the working of that extensive machinery which
you are commissioned to impel; but you can, and
you must, nominate to posts next under your's in
power and influence, men of whom you have every
reason verily to believe that they will, in their
turn, use the like conscientious discrimination in
appointments devolving on them; and thus you
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274
ADDRESS TO THE
have the means, and at your peril you must use
those means, to ensure the promotion of peace and
happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety,
in the descending, but widely-radiating scale over
which you preside; looking down from an emi-
nence surrounding the throne of your sovereign,
under the immediate eye of God. Such is the
sure method of duly exercising your high func-
tions: so it is that "when the righteous are in
authority, the people rejoice."
You preside over the revenue. This gives you
a mighty hold on the prosperity of the people, to
raise or depress it according to your movements.
It is confessedly a most difficult department in all
governments; and situated as England is, the per-
plexities surrounding her finances are all but end-
less. It is the hardest task which devolves on a mi-
nistry; for the people must necessarily be taxed,
and to tax them to their own liking is a sheer im-
possibility. To view this painful duty as one
where a negative benefit may be made to accrue
to those classes who most require it, and with firm
equity to demand from the wealthy according to
their means, is a duty so obvious that none can
gainsay it; but too often the rich man grasps his
most wanton superfluity more tenaciously than the
poor man clings to his only blanket; and the loss
of parliamentary support from the former, which
cannot be regained, looks more formidable in the
eyes of a minister, than the insurrectionary vio-
MINISTERS OF THE CROWN.
275
lence of the latter, which may be put down by mili-
tary force. Thus, to arrange a really equitable
system of taxation is a matter of more difficulty
than to conduct a foreign war: and great are the
temptations that beset you to wring from the ne-
cessities of a struggling class what you may despair
of extracting from the enormous possessions of those
who would, if they could, add house to house,
and field to field, till they were left alone upon
the earth: yet here you must not falter: in such
a cause, greater is He that is for you than they
who are against you. The nation knows no peril
so imminent as that snare which the fear of man
brings; the aptitude of those high in place to
overlook, or lightly to regard, the interests of the
poor, to calculate on the loyalty and right prin-
ciples of some, on the weakness and apprehensive-
ness of others, for submission to unjust measures ;
and to secure at any price the adhesion of the
wealthy, the powerful, who immediately surround
them. How much of wrong, of oppression, of
extreme wretchedness endured by the million,
may be traced to the working of this pernicious
system in a government, is obvious to all. Let
but the individual whose interests more immedi-
ately clash with those of his poor neighbours get a
seat in Parliament, and you need not be told what
a temptation that man's vote will become to you.
Nothing short of a fixed resolve to rule in the fear
of the Lord will be found an adequate preservative.
276
ADDRESS TO THE
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You direct our foreign policy. Hitherto we have
not stretched our view beyond the bounds of this
empire-the British isles, and their actual depen-
dencies; but what an awful aspect does the matter
assume when we regard you as acting for England—
regulating the national proceedings of Great Britain
in the eyes of the whole world! Our circumstan-
ces are so peculiar that it is difficult to estimate
the importance of every, the slightest step taken
by us as a people. That peculiarity consists in
our religious institutions: the distinguishing badge
of our Church is the abundance of pure Scripture
embodied in her services: our land is the land of
Bibles: we are a spectacle to foreigners as regards
the comparative observance of the Sabbath-day,
presenting a striking contrast to the continental
nations. Societies formed and upheld by the hands
of the Church, (to say nothing of those which have
sprung from private, individual effort) send forth
teachers wherever the State plants a colony, whose
business it is to propagate the Gospel co-exten-
sively with the civilization of distant and barba-
rous tracts of country. In short, be individuals
what they may, the character of the English ge-
nerally is that of a religious people; and our re-
ligion professes to be founded on the pure, un-
mixed, unmutilated Word of Truth.
Now, whether you admit it or not, you are
under an obligation before God to honour His name,
thus inseparably connected with us, by a line of
MINISTERS OF THE CROWN.
277
conduct consistent with the faith professed. The
command that no man oppress his brother man;
that none cast a stumbling-block or occasion of
falling in another's way; that we do not covet or
desire another man's goods; and, in a word, that
we do unto all men as we would they should do
unto us, and love our neighbour as ourselves,-all
this is as binding upon England in her diplomatic
and other foreign relations, as it is upon any indi-
vidual in the realm. The reason is the same,
equally cogent in both cases; that a contrary pro-
ceeding is offensive to God, calculated to bring
dishonour on His name, and sure to expose the
offender to his wrath. Tried by this rule, how
fearfully do we come short of our duty! The
system of overreaching; of taking advantage where
the other party is weaker or more unwary than
ourselves; of conniving at idolatry and other
crimes for the sake of present gain; of wresting
by force, or winning by stratagem, what we have
no right to desire; of undermining the power of
rival nations, and making haste to be rich at the
expense of any who may stand between us and
the coveted object,-all these things are found
occasionally to pollute our foreign transactions
with the leaven of malice and wickedness; and
very rarely does a compunctious visiting appear
to qualify our satisfaction in the acquirement of
what may have been gained by means like these.
National, as well as personal pride, will repel the
278
ADDRESS TO THE
:
charge; but let those who have ever guided the
helm in this department, ask their own hearts, in
that secret communing when truth will make itself
heard, whether the picture be incorrect. Let them
call to mind how often the apprehension of dis-
honouring the religion of the Bible, or of incurring
the displeasure of the Most High, has operated to
deter them from seizing some inviting opportunity
for aggrandizing their country, or for arrogating
to themselves the merit of a shrewd and successful
stroke of policy. No stretch of imagination, no
deep research into the records of past years, is
required to shew us that the nation may be irre-
trievably committed to the prosecution of contests
so unjust in their origin, so murderous in their
progress, that while defeat would be ruin, success
is a stain; and in which the only solid satisfaction
that a conscientious man can find in the most ad-
vantageous peace, is derived from the fact, that it
has terminated a dishonourable war.
There is a maxim current among politicians,
the very mention of which, in a Christian country,
is disgraceful; that private vices are public bene-
fits. We do not pause to demonstrate the noto-
rious falsity of the proposition; but we must lament
that something like a practical adoption of it is
too often apparent among men who would probably
reject the avowed theory. That good faith which
a man would hold it infamous to lack, as a private
individual; that over-reaching which he would
MINISTERS OF THE CROWN.
279
scorn to practise upon a tradesman; that ungen-
erous advantage which he would blush to take of
a companion's inexperience or inadvertence; those
unjust means which nothing would tempt him to
use, to augment the patrimony of his own house,
-may lose their odious character when balanced
against the evil of omitting to advance what he
considers to be the interests of his country. So
the vices of covetousness, fraud, cruelty, extortion;
yea, the deadly sin of keeping souls in darkness,
promoting licentiousness, and patronizing idolatry,
wear the garb of public virtues, when, through
them, the territorial or financial possessions of the
empire may perchance derive stability or receive
an increase. On such measures can the divine
blessing rest?-and if any deem that they can dis-
pense with that blessing, let them at least manfully
acknowledge that they have cast off all dependence
on the Most High, and have undertaken to con-
duct the affairs of an empire not only apart from,
but in defiance of, the will of Him who governs
the earth which He has made.
The patronage of the Church is in your hands.
What is the Church? God's heritage; His pecu-
liar treasure, His Spouse, His Body. Human
imagination cannot reach a point of more awful
responsibility than that of appointing chief rulers
over the Church. It brings you, as it were, face
to face with the Most High, and if you give spiri-
tual authority to any man on another ground than
280
ADDRESS TO THE
this, that he is the best qualified man you can
find to "feed the Church of GOD which He hath
purchased with his own blood," you commit a
crime of the darkest, deepest dye that man can
perpetrate. We approach this subject with fear
and trembling, conscious that our words, however
weak they be, may hereafter rise up in judgment
against some who read them; but it is a duty not
to be evaded: we are bound to tell you, that it is
at the peril of your souls if you trade with that
costly talent, Church patronage, otherwise than
for your Lord's profit, that at his coming he may
receive his own with usury. + Number not this,
we beseech you, among the engines placed at your
disposal for the furtherance of any secular object:
it is a peculiar privilege, a high honour, and a
searching test of your personal allegiance to the
Lord God Almighty. We will not even hypo-
thetically speak of your regarding it otherwise;
seeing that we address educated and baptized
men, who ought not to be for an instant supposed
capable of so sacrilegious an abuse of their dele-
gated powers; but, still bearing in mind "those
evils that the craft and subtlety of the devil or
man worketh against us," which form the subject
of your deprecatory prayer in public worship, we
must remind you what treble vigilance is requisite
in this quarter, "lest haply you be found to fight
* Acts xx. 28.
Matt. xxv. 27.
t
MINISTERS OF THE CROWN.
281
against God," by vesting authority and influence
in the hands of any man who you do not con-
scientiously believe to answer the description given
by St. Paul of a ruler in the Church, in his two
Epistles addressed to Timothy, a Bishop in the
Church of Christ. You are mercifully furnished
with that model of what God requires in a chief
pastor: and surely, when you pore day and night
over whatsoever works of man may tend to shed
a light on the difficult maze of secular policy, you
will not grudge half an hour of prayerful inquiry
into the only Book that can guide you to the right
use of spiritual patronage. The very principle of
self-interest should work hitherto; for nothing
can establish your sway like having the Lord on
your side; and miserable helpers are they who
shall essay to uphold your power if He be against
you!
You can so legislate as to strengthen the hands of
Church authorities in their proper work; and to
induce a right exercise, by ecclesiastical and colle-
giate corporations, of the patronage invested in
them. Here again is another high privilege of
your office, in which you may especially serve
God, while regulating public affairs. This branch
of the matter properly includes the supply of an
ample provision for the moral and religious in-
struction of the whole community. You find the
country divided into parishes, and over each of
these is appointed a spiritual instructor; who, in
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ADDRESS TO THE
turn, engages the assistance of others, his brethren
in the work of the ministry. Now, our Lord's
parting injunction was, "Feed my sheep," "feed
my lambs." Assuredly, he who is appointed to
do the former should do the latter also; and every
parochial clergyman in England must be supplied
with the needful means to fulfil his Master's com-
mand. That a family of baptized Christians
should be without a Bible, or unable to read it if
they had one, merely through their poverty, or
utter ignorance of the faith into which they have
been so baptized, is a slur that ought not for one
moment to rest on a Christian government. We
speak not only of these isles, but of our territorial
possessions all over the world. Wherever England
has a colony, there she must and will have a
Church; and to leave that Church without the
means of pasturing the lambs of its fold, is a mon-
strous anomaly, unparalleled and unpardonable.
We earnestly press on you this solemn obligation;
and we assure you that such a seed-time now im-
proved, while the good grain is at your disposal,
will yield a harvest to gladden your eyes, and
satisfy your souls, when all that now glitters
around you shall have melted away into the no-
thingness from which all sublunary things emerged,
and to which they must return; while he, and he
only, who doeth the will of God, shall abide for
ever.
Of the just and proper use of merely secular pa-
MINISTERS OF THE CROWN.
283
tronage we shall hardly stop to speak, inasmuch as it
is both vastly inferior in importance to the matters
on which we have been dilating; and also because
we believe that a visible improvement is already
taking place in this branch of public duty. Yet
we cannot entirely omit some allusion to the lamen-
table dereliction which has unquestionably taken
place, in times which have scarcely yet passed over.
Public attention has recently been called to
certain fraudulent practices, which appear to
have been carried on, for a long period, and to a
vast extent, in the collection of the revenue de-
rivable from foreign imports. By these frauds
the unprincipled evader of the legal impost has
been enriched, while the fair and honest trader
has seen his business ruined. And to what cause
has it been owing, that in the very centre of Eng-
land's metropolis, and under the eye of an army
of paid functionaries, the revenue could be thus
enormously defrauded; and that with such auda-
city and impunity, that the fact was perfectly noto-
rious throughout the whole commercial community?
To what cause, we repeat, has this strange and
deplorable lack of energy or of faithfulness been
owing?
The answer is equally obvious and undeniable.
And yet it is one which involves so strange a
forgetfulness of clear and evident duty, as to make
it almost doubtful whether future ages will be
able to credit the fact. Will it not seem too ab-

284
THE MINISTERS OF THE CROWN.
i
surd to be believed,-that in the greatest empo-
rium of commerce which the world has ever seen,
the presiding and governing Board, constituted by
the Legislature and Executive for the management
of that department of commerce and finance, has
generally, indeed almost always consisted,—not of
merchants, or traders, or manufacturers, nor
of sailors, accountants, or lawyers, or, in short
of any sort or description of men who had any
knowledge of public business;-but of the younger
sons, or brothers, or dependents of the aristocracy;
-men who were most at home with a dog and a gun;
and who were placed over the commercial revenue,
not in any degree on the score of their fitness, but
solely to give an easy income to themselves, and
to requite the parliamentary support of their
friends and patrons! We have alluded to this
strange and lamentable fact, because it has no
party bearing, having been, we believe, the
practice of all parties, as they in their turn ob-
tained the power of thus rewarding their friends;
and we have named it with the less reluctance,
inasmuch as we hope and believe that the system
of thus preferring men to office, not on the score
of their fitness, but solely on the ground of
their wants, is now rapidly dying away.
CHAPTER XVI.
TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH.
"HE that desireth the office of a Bishop desireth
a good work: " but it is, even in the best of times,
a work so arduous, so beset with difficulties, and
overlaid with onerous responsibilities, that the
ablest of mitred men has cause to exclaim,
"Who
is sufficient for these things!" Authority, however,
has attractions for all: the power of doing good,
of benefiting the Church of Christ, of making
choice of fit persons duly to serve in the sacred
ministry, of guarding the spiritual interests of the
nation in the heart of the legislature, of advancing
the pious and discountenancing the profane among
the clergy, these and similar privileges may out-
weigh many objections on the part of an humble-
minded, devout man, in the acceptance of an
English bishopric; more particularly if his faith
can truly realize the only satisfactory reply to
the foregoing query, and say "Our sufficiency is
of Christ."
1
286
ADDRESS TO THE
We do not pause to investigate the inducements
presented to men of a different spirit. They
ought not to be named in connection with the
holy office of a Pastor in Christ's fold. Thirst of
power, lust of gold, pride of place, do, alas !
operate in leading some to heap on their own heads
the most fearful condemnation that man can bring
himself under; but with such anomalies we have
nothing to do. One thing is certain: by whatever
path an ecclesiastical ruler may have reached his
present eminence, an ample field lies before him
for the fitting exercise of his influence; and God,
who is rich in mercy unto all that call upon Him,
will not cast out the prayer that solicits pardon for
the past, and grace for the future. Let no man,
therefore, reject as inapplicable to himself, what
is addressed to faithful shepherds: the vows of such
are upon him, and according to the word which
shall judge them at the last day, must he also be
judged. We speak unto you, Bishops of the
English Church, as unto wise men: judge ye
what we say.
You have engaged to instruct the people com-
mitted to your charge. What manner of instruc-
tion they are to receive is very specifically set
forth. We quote the words of your engagement.
"Are you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures
contain sufficiently all doctrine required of neces-
sity for eternal salvation through Jesus Christ?
And are you determined out of the same Holy
BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH.
287
Scriptures to instruct the people committed to
your charge?" To which you replied, "I am so
persuaded, and determined by God's grace." This
duty of instructing all the people of his flock, no
Bishop can adequately perform in his own person;
he must have assistants in the work, men whom he
is empowered to ordain, and to set over the con-
gregations of his diocese. They are his auxiliary
eyes and mouths: he sees, by their help, into
every corner of his diocese, however extensive,
and by their means he fulfils in detail what is here
so largely undertaken. We therefore, under this
head, appeal to your faithfulness in carefully
examining into that of your appointed helpers in
the work, over whom, by public authority or by
personal influence, you certainly exercise sufficient
control, to enforce the due fulfilment of those
duties for which you stand voluntarily responsible.
True, you find many established at their posts,
when entering upon your charge, whom you
cannot remove, unless for some scandalous offence,
and who may yield little deference to your opinions
or wishes; but all these matters are fully known
to the Great Shepherd, by whom "it is accepted
according to that a man hath, and not according to
that he hath not." We ask whether, to the
utmost of your actual power, you are providing all
the people committed to your charge, with instruc-
tion purely scriptural? Whether, so far as your
authority or persuasion can reach, every pulpit is
288
ADDRESS TO THE
+
occupied by a fit teacher, and every parish provided
with a holy exemplar, as well in life as in doctrine ?
Your simple, straight-forward form of engage-
ment allows no saving clause of conformity to the
usages of refined society; leaves you no liberty to
sacrifice, at the shrine of worldly good-breeding,
what is wholly consecrated to the Lord. These
men, be they men of supreme learning, rank,
wealth, or what not, must not stand between you
and your people, except in one capacity: their
office, like yours, is clearly defined their pledge
was given in the very words quoted above; so that,
should the Bishop require of them any thing
contrary thereto, they are bound by a higher
obligation to refuse compliance: but in all that
accords with your mutual promise before God,
they are pledged, reverently to obey their Ordi-
nary, following with glad mind and will your
godly admonitions, and submitting themselves to
your godly judgments. If, therefore, it becomes
known to you that any clergyman within your
jurisdiction either neglects to instruct the people,
or instructs them otherwise than out of the
Scriptures; setting forth doctrines that cannot be
concluded and proved by the same Scriptures, do
you interpose the authority vested in you, calling
such teachers to a strict account, giving them
godly admonitions, and passing on them godly
judgments? Laws, civil and criminal, may be
enacted and rigidly enforced; every convicted
BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH.
289
offender may be visited with condign punishment,
and all possible recompense may be awarded to
such as do well; but all must be in vain, if the
people be "not rightly instructed out of the
Scriptures." To this end, the nation has recog-
nized and endowed a body of clergy, amongst
whom you form the highest order; and to you is
committed the oversight of that Church establish-
ment on which the welfare, the peace, the safety
of the nation mainly depend. A time is appointed
by you to meet all the clerical teachers under your
charge; to ascertain the state of the several
parishes and districts; to compare evidence as to
the way in which each has ordered the affairs of
his own cure, and, ex cathedra, to pronounce on
such matters as may especially concern the pros-
perity of your diocese. No machinery could be
better arranged for the due discharge of your
solemn functions, no greater facilities afforded for
maintaining godly discipline, and enforcing a
strict fulfilment of the pastoral office in all its
branches, where all is fully acted upon. Surely,
then, if the people be not taught, or if they be
taught amiss, you cannot evade the blame: you
must stand convicted of a breach of trust, how-
ever man may be unable or disinclined to take
cognizance of it; while He who commanded you
to "feed the Church which he purchased with
his own blood," will, sooner or later, demand a
full, a minute account of your stewardship.
290
ADDRESS TO THE
You are pledged not only to discourage but to
expel error. This may appear an impossibility,
and generally speaking it is so; for there are in
every diocese many who will not submit to the
authority of the Church established by law; and
who avail themselves of the tolerant character of
our religion and government to promulgate every
species of error. But here, also, to the extreme
limit of your power, you must earnestly contend
for the faith once delivered to the saints.
A very
important prefatory promise is annexed to this:
you were asked, "Will you faithfully exercise
yourself in the same Holy Scriptures, and call
upon God by prayer for the true understanding of
the same; so as you may be able by them, to
teach and exhort with wholesome doctrine, and
to withstand and convince the gainsayers?" You
answered, "I will do so by the help of God."
Then followed the test, "Are you ready, with all
faithful diligence to banish and drive away all
erroneous and strange doctrine, contrary to God's
word; and both privately and openly call upon
and encourage others to the same?" You gave
answer, "I am ready, the Lord being my helper !"
Now, of the Lord's readiness to help in such a
work there can be no question, since it is the
object for which the Christian ministry was insti-
tuted by Him: the point is, whether you indeed
faithfully exercise yourselves in the Holy Scrip-
tures, calling on God by prayer for the true
BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH.
291
understanding of the same, so as you may be
enabled by THEM to withstand and convince gain-
sayers; and not by mere human learning, systems
of divinity, opinions cherished by men of other
days, or theories started in the present times.
There is not under heaven any touchstone whereby
to detect error, or any weapon wherewith to drive
it away when discovered, apart from these two
means-Holy Scripture and prayer; and having
admitted this, by so answering the queries put
under circumstances as solemn as man can well be
placed in, it remains but to assure yourselves that
you are in the daily practice of these holy exer-
cises, and the effect cannot be doubted. Erroneous
and strange doctrines will then not be set forth
with impunity by any class of persons within your
several jurisdictions, and consequently not within
this realm. Every minister will be straitly enjoin-
ed to search out, in his own parish, such as im-
pugn the proper divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ,
an error utterly opposed to God's word; and such
as preach or teach infidelity, licentiousness, or
other perversions of the truth. Both privately
and openly you will call on your clerical brethren
to use all faithful diligence to banish and drive
away these things; and you will especially give
battle to the prevailing error of the day, by acting
fully up to the spirit, if you cannot enforce the
letter, of the sixty-sixth canon, which ordains
that 'Every minister being a preacher, and having
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292
ADDRESS TO THE
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any Popish Recusant or Recusants in his parish,
and thought fit by the bishop of the diocese, shall
labour diligently with them from time to time,
thereby to reclaim them from their errors;
setting forth also the plan to be adopted should
the officiating minister not be duly qualified,
in the Bishop's estimation, for this important
branch of his work. We all know, alike by
observation and bitter experience, how this god-
ly proviso has fallen into disuse; but no living
bishop has been consecrated, no priest ordained
in the Church of England, without giving before
God the promise that he will drive away ALL
erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to
God's word; which includes the substance of the
sixty-sixth canon, and holds him bound to oppose
not merely the spread but the existence of Po-
pery; and to labour for the recovery of every soul
enthralled by that fatal error. This is a solemn
thing: we know that in every instance the promise
was given; we scarcely know any instance among
our bishops where it is distinctly fulfilled, with
the faithful diligence enjoined. We see on every
side evidences of the vigorous advances made,
and the commanding positions taken up, by Po-
pery; and we tremble for the shepherds, who
seeing the wolf coming, appear to care so little for
the sheep, taken and torn before their eyes. We
must urge this point on your attention, and appeal
to the unequivocal pledge required by the Church,
BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH.
293
when placing you in an office of great trust and
authority; and which pledge you have unreser-
vedly given.
You have engaged to be merciful to the poor
and needy. This class of claimants is very large,
and mercy both to their souls and bodies is greatly
called for. To provide for the latter, while
leaving the former to perish, would outrage every
clause of your consecration vow. The thing re-
quired by them is deliverance from a two-fold
famine; a famine of bread, and a famine of
hearing the word of the Lord. Adequate means
were provided for giving our whole population the
advantages of a public ministry, at a time when
it did not amount to anything approaching what
it now is; and those means have scarcely been en-
larged, to meet such an enormous increase of de-
mand for the bread of life. Legislatorial inter-
ference is necessary here; but is all done that
ought to be done, and that might be done, by the
heads of the Church? While vice abounds, while
ignorance darkens the land, and violence threatens
it with destruction, are all available means used
to teach the people out of the Holy Scriptures?
Are there no funds from which, in the interim, a
more numerous body of faithful preachers might
be supplied, and temporary places of worship
provided, by hiring and licensing commodious
buildings until the architectural arrangements are
completed? We desire the multiplication of
294
ADDRESS TO THE
steeples and bells, but we would not defer till a
sufficiency of the former are erected, and of the
latter cast, the far more important multiplication
of Bibles and Prayer-books, and scriptural ser-
mons. It seems scarcely to have occurred to our
bishops that they have power to transform, pro
tempore, every barn in their dioceses into a church,
the owner assenting; and that it is not merciful
dealing with the poor, to starve their souls till a
particularly-formed dish is shaped out, in which to
serve up the meat that nourisheth unto eternal
life. The case is one of alarming urgency, and
we look to you for an effort answerable to the
demand. One certain consequence of bringing
our immense flocks in detail under the eyes of vi-
gilant pastors, would be, the amelioration of their
physical sufferings; for it is not in the nature of
man to look closely into the scenes of misery and
destitution that exist in the now unvisited nooks
of every parish, without being moved to energetic
efforts for their relief; and what the united ener-
gies of a vast body of godly, conscientious minis-
ters might do in rousing the human feelings of the
country, we cannot compute. At present, this
solemn duty of shewing mercy to the poor is de-
volved on paid lay-officials, men of whom each
has his own farm, his own merchandize to look
after; who are very rarely of a character to
trouble themselves about the spiritual condition of
their needy pensioners, and who, therefore, take
BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH.
295
!
no further interest in them than to hear their re-
presentations of distress; to decide whether they
come within the letter of their instructions; and
to dole out, as frugally as possible, the fractional
amount of that to which they are legally entitled.
Far different this from the mission of him who
comes in his Master's name, proclaiming pardon
for sin through His atoning blood, and showing
how God hath chosen the poor of this world, rich
in faith, to be heirs of the kingdom of heaven.
The man who does this is constantly reminded
of his own equality with the poor creature whom
he addresses; inasmuch as he too is a child of
Adam, a sinner by nature and practice; con-
demned by the same holy law to a like punishment,
and saved by the same grace that he teaches
others to seek. What avail the distinctions of a
day? The course of his own teaching perpetually
reminds him that he too came naked into the
world, and naked he must depart from it: the
sympathy thus engendered is the appointed means
of leading the rich to show mercy to the poor,
and where they are wanting, the omission cannot
be supplied, nor the pledge redeemed.
The rigid examination of candidates for holy
orders is an episcopal duty of infinite moment.
The classical attainments of a man, and his ac-
quaintance with theology as a system, are easily
ascertained; but a stricter, more individualized
process is needful to probe the depth of his scrip-
296
ADDRESS TO THE
tural knowledge, in those points that more espe-
cially influence a man's public and private minis-
trations. A divinity student may be able to cite
the word of God fluently and aptly in the course
of an examination; yet be lamentably ignorant of
the book, as the fountain of spiritual knowledge,
-the lamp that must guide his own feet while he
holds it up for the guidance of others. There is
a technical knowledge of the Bible, as of any other
class-book, unaccompanied with that appropria-
tion, without which it ranks in the learner's
estimation merely as a profound treatise on abstract
philosophy. He may fully admit, yea vehemently
contend for, and be able triumphantly to establish
its divine origin; yet the process by which he ar-
rives at such conviction, and defends such position,
may be similar in kind and effect to that by
which he would establish the origin and date of
the pyramids of Cheops; leaving him practically
as little influenced by the existence of the one as
of the other. Such a candidate should be re-
manded to his study for a time; the unpleasant-
ness of doing which must not outweigh the sacred
obligation that demands it. Views of christian doc-
trine seriously defective, apart from professional
formalities, and motives for desiring ordination,
little suspected perhaps, would be elicited by such
rigorous examination; and the certainty of
having to undergo it would operate to deter many
an unworthy aspirant from presenting himself
BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH.
297
before the bishop. He would seek out some more
suitable line of life; or with real purpose of heart
betake himself to the acquirement of those things
in which he feels defective. In either case, the
Church-that is to say, the whole Christian com-
munity-would be materially benefitted.
You possess the power of refusing to institute
unworthy presentees to livings. This is a power
that ought to be in constant, vigilant exercise.
The occasional abuses of patronage are admitted
on all hands. Political, personal, and other
motives, wholly apart from any concern for the
glory of God or the well-being of his church, will
influence worldly men in the disposal of clerical
preferment; and the check lodged with the dioce-
san is in many cases the only safeguard for the
poor flock against grievous wolves," to say
nothing of unthinking, uncareful shepherds.
How highly would it raise the episcopal office and
character, how perfectly vindicate their usefulness,
if every man possessing the gift of a living, assur-
edly knew that any person he might appoint would
undergo a searching, impartial inquiry, conducted
by the authorized overseer of that portion of the
Lord's fold, previous to the ratification of his ap-
pointment! Good men deplore the laxity of
church discipline as now administered, or rather
as now neglected; but if every bishop exercised
in his own see the authority vested in him, in
these points alone, we should presently behold
!
0 5
298
ADDRESS TO THE
!
the evil well nigh done away with. Unfit persons
and their patrons are alike encouraged by the
known disinclination of prelates to interfere; but
let inclination in a few cases be sacrificed to duty,
and the world with its worldlings will be more
cautious of attempting to profane the sanctuary
for secular objects. Unfitness for the office is as
legitimate a ground for the episcopal refusal of a
presentee, as immorality or want of learning; and
unfitness for a charge so weighty may certainly
consist with irreproachable morals, and undoubted
erudition. The principle is admitted and acted
upon in all ordinary callings; men are rejected
without any impeachment of their character, if
obviously unsuited for the appointment they so-
licit. It is a strange anomaly that the most
solemn and sacred of all undertakings is that which
a man notoriously defective in its fundamental re-
quirements may aspire to with the greatest cer-
tainty of success. If there be any doubtful point
in our legal code, rendering it possible that the
diocesan so objecting might be exposed to hostile
proceedings, let the laws be amended to meet the
difficulty, and no longer allow the bishop's
hands to be tied, where he is sure to be most fre-
quently and urgently called upon to stretch them
out in defence of the church.
Another important branch of this parochial su-
pervision should surely be brought before the
especial notice of your lordships. The right office
BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH.
299
of a deacon is very perspicuously set forth in the
Church, his province being that of an assistant to
the fully-ordained and responsible incumbent :
yet to deacons, to men too young for priest's
orders, we often find the sole care of a parish in-
trusted; and thus not only is their incompetency
to such a charge brought into public view, and the
ministry thereby into contempt; but a real griev-
ance is inflicted on the flock, who contributing their
full quota of temporal things, have a right to such
spiritual superintendance as every parish is sup-
posed to enjoy.
You hold a great public trust in the extensive
Church patronage vested in your hands. This
affords an especial occasion of conferring the high-
est benefits on the Church and nation; of pro-
moting, with a single eye, the glory of God, bring-
ing forward men whose earnest desire it is to spend
and be spent for the Gospel; who are every way
qualified for the work of the ministry, but who,
for lack of worldly wealth and influence, or from
the modesty that usually accompanies true merit,
and the humility inseparable from genuine piety, are
not found in the ranks of competitors, or conspic-
uous among the eager claimants who surround you.
The obligation so to do is clear and solemn : here is
no neutral ground: he that is not for Christ in this
matter, is against him, and he that gathereth not
with him, scattereth abroad. It is not to be endu-
red, that a bishop of the Church should advance
300
ADDRESS TO THE
man.
to its posts of usefulness men of qualifications in-
ferior to others whom they know where to find,
merely because the former can plead some tie of
kindred, or friendship, or enjoys the patronage of
some powerful friend. Such inducements may
assail the man ; but the bishop-the overseer of a
church whom God hath purchased with his own
blood, and commanded him to feed-must be in-
vulnerable to such assaults on his faithfulness.
Against his presentation there is no appeal: he
nominates, and he institutes. The possession of
such power should be the guarantee for its most
conscientious discharge in the sight of God and
It does not often happen that the fittest
men for advancement in the church of the Lord
are to be found among the connexions and private
friends of one individual: but it does too often
happen that from such privileged circle the selec-
tions are uniformly made: and we are thus com-
pelled to fear that the motive which ought to be
paramount, holds only a secondary place in the
mind of the patron. In this, as in all cases, we
see the necessity of constantly bearing in mind the
cogent persuasive to diligent prayer, as admitted
at your consecration. What was supernaturally
decided by lot at the nomination of an apostle,
will often be no less surely decided by some
providential indication of God's will, as to whom
He has chosen to fill vacancies in his Church, if the
prayer of faith be breathed for his divine guidance.
BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH.
301
But even among fitting and well-qualified men,
a wrong selection may be made. We will not
erect ourselves into judges, in a class of cases in
which the information we can obtain must neces-
sarily be imperfect; but we must warn our bishops
that disappointment is often felt and expressed,
even among the wisest and best of the laity. It is
ever and anon remarked, that when a comfortable
benefice becomes vacant, a good and respectable
man to fill it is oftener found among those who
do not need it, than among those that do. A
wealthy and highly-esteemed family has one of
its younger branches in the ministry; he is per-
haps an estimable and faithful parish priest; he
probably has already a private income of several
hundreds a year, but "to keep up the style of a
gentleman," with a rising family, he much desires
a few hundreds more. In the next village there
may be another minister, of equal talents, zeal and
usefulness, who has been toiling twice or thrice as
long in his Lord's vineyard as his richer neighbour,
and has struggled on, eking out a curate's stipend
by the drudgery of tuition. The two men are
equally deserving; but their wants are of a totally
different class. The one wishes for an addition to
his income "in order that he may keep the style
to which he has been accustomed,"-the other, to
rescue him from the danger of debt, and the sad
prospect of leaving his wife and daughters penniless.
The common feelings of mankind would confer the
302
ADDRESS TO THE
vacant living, without a moment's hesitation, on the
poorer expectant. But the access to the episcopal
ear is far easier to the "man of family," and in nine
cases out of ten, we fear we might say in nine-
teen out of twenty,-the request of "Sir Thomas"
prevails, and the poor curate droops in utter
despondency.
We have a case now full in
our recollection, in which a clergyman who had
filled a laborious post for more than twenty years,
receiving less than an ordinary curate's stipend,
and whose rising family of eight children brought
him into absolute danger of poverty, saw a benefice
of £500 a year given away by one of the best pre-
lates on the bench, to a gentleman whose services
and whose capabilities fell far short of his own,
and who had a private income of nearly the same
amount. We can make every allowance for the
constant influence which may be, and assuredly is,
brought to bear upon those largely possessed of
church patronage, and for the difficulty of resisting
the blandishments of valued friends, especially
when the person recommended is a worthy and a
faithful man; but we should desert our own duty
if we did not warn our bishops, that their pre-
ferring the richer rather than the poorer, of their
clergy, is an offence often gravely laid to their
charge.
We pass on to another class of duties.
You have a place and a voice in the highest
legislative assembly of the land. In virtue of this
BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH.
303
singular privilege you can stand forward, the
originators and promoters of whatsoever measures
you deem suitable, to extend the means of grace
throughout our whole population, and to remove
all positive obstructions to that extension. Sup-
posing this advantage not to exist, how greatly
would it be coveted by men, zealous for the pro-
motion of spiritual objects; yet finding no suitable
organs for the expression of their wants and wishes
among the laity! We may conceive a bishop,
saying, 'If I had a voice in the senate, such and
such a deficiency should not long exist, nor such
an obstruction stand in the way of the Church's
extension and the people's advantage:' but we
can scarcely realize the picture of a bishop sitting
silent and inactive, session after session, while
wants without number remain unsupplied, and
obstacles nearly as many unremoved. A cry of
neglected souls, of British subjects denied their
due participation in the spiritual abundance of
the land and church, ought to be heard without
ceasing, through their appointed mouth-pieces in
the senate; and very rarely would you plead in
vain; whether for our home population, or for the
millions of our fellow-subjects in India and other
distant colonies. There is every disposition, in the
upper house at least, to yield the most respectful
attention to whatever the heads of the Church
may say in reference to that body which they re-
present; and though the advantage of personally
304
ADDRESS TO THE
pleading before the Commons' house is not enjoyed,
and perhaps a spirit less friendly to the ecclesias-
tical body is visible there; still a fair measure of
zeal and diligence manifested by our episcopal
legislators on behalf of the Church, would be
dulce et decorum, even in the sight of men who,
caring for none of these things, still understand
the political importance of the subject in reference
to the great mass of the people; and who would
be ashamed to refuse what was required by
teachers so much better instructed than themselves
in the subjects under deliberation. Still, in the
sight of a Christian pastor, it ought to be a
small matter to be judged of man's judgment. He
that judgeth is the Lord; and He would surely
own and bless a vigorous effort for the removal of
many evils, and the multiplication of advantages
really within reach, if only a vigorous grasp was
laid upon them.
The connexion between Church and State
would not so aptly serve the purposes of those
who go about in quest of grievances wherewith to
bait their traps for the unwary and unlearned,
if it was visibly seen that thereby the spiritual
necessities of the people were regularly brought
before the rulers of the land, and fair provision
made on the ground of such representation. Re-
garding the convened peers as an assemblage of
those who enjoy, by hereditary succession, the
most extensive proprietorship in the soil, and who
•
1:
BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH.
305
1
are, therefore, the most nearly interested in the
stability of vested rights, it is very fit that among
them should be found some whose peculiar office
it is to remind them how insecure are legal re-
straints imposed on men's persons and actions,
while their minds are left unenlightened, and their
corrupt natures unchanged. A mitred partisan
contending in the arena of angry debate, on sub-
jects merely secular, is indeed a painful, a most
humiliating spectacle; but scarcely less is he mis-
placed who, with the consciousness that many
pressing wants on the part of his absent flock,
might be supplied through his interposition, by
the temporal power, remains inactive, as though
he took his place in that noble assembly, merely
as a badge of distinction, an honour not attainable
by any of inferior grade among his clerical bre-
thren; or as though his vote on secular questions
were the stipulated price of his advancement to
the bench. We would rouse to a far higher sense
of your privileges than the title which you bear,
the authority which you hold, or the emolument so
liberally attached to your pastoral supremacy, can
possibly convey. We would put into your mouths
the holy dignity of the Apostle's claim, when he
magnified his office, for the Church's sake, and
sought distinction as an ambassador for Christ. You
are, in fact, a representative body, wholly distinct
from every other branch of the legislature; retained
as advocates, to plead the highest interests of
306
BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH.
に
​اتی بینی به حدید
every human being within the realm, and to be
found faithful in such an office is the only am-
bition suited to you: an ambition as far elevated
above the low pursuits of earthly-minded men, as
are the heavens high above our earth; and out-
weighing the importance of worldly things, as the
vanishing baubles of this hour are outweighed by
the awful realities of a coming eternity.
CHAPTER XVII.
TO THE CLERGY.
"
'I STIR up your pure minds by way of remem-
brance,' said the Apostle Peter to his fellow-wor-
kers in the ministry; and trusting that your
minds, reverend brethren, are also purified by
faith, we would submit to your consideration a few
points very needful to be pondered upon at all
times, but especially so when darkness prevails to
the extent that we are doomed to witness in these
days; when the inspired injunction, fear thou
the Lord and the King, and meddle not with them
that are given to change,' is deliberately set at
nought in each of its particulars: when the sacred
office of the ministry is decried as a system of
priestcraft, suited only to bygone days of igno-
rance and superstition; and when, alike in refe-
rence to magisterial, ecclesiastical, monarchical,
and divine authority, the all-but-universal lan-
guage is, “Our lips are our own: who is lord
over us?"
منديل
308
ADDRESS
To stem this tide of moral and political disor-
ganization, is your office. The arm of the law is
strong, but it reaches not beyond the outer man:
it is not a discerner of the thoughts and intents
of the heart: it grapples not with imbred corrup-
tion, nor can it by any means provide the sinner
with a way of escape from the enemy who holds
him captive. It takes cognizance of past offen-
ces, as they affect the well-being of the commu-
nity at large, and exacts from the transgressor
such measure of atonement for the wrong done to
society, as its penal inflictions can command; but
in the mighty, the all-important transaction of
turning him from darkness to light, from the
power of Satan to God, it does not, because it
cannot, intermeddle. The law is stern and un-
forgiving and it is only when the sovereign at-
tribute of mercy interposes, not to administer,
but to set aside the actual law, that the criminal
may elude its grasp. Indispensably necessary to
the very existence of social order, these laws of
man assume not to do more than guard the public
safety; and just in proportion as men become
hardened in crime, confederate to do evil, their
power diminishes-their administrators are the
first to feel the vengeance of rampant rebellion.
Yours is a different position: to you is commit-
ted the ministry of reconciliation through an
atonement already offered: you proclaim an am-
nesty, wherein mercy rejoices against judgment;
TO THE CLERGY.
309
and although you cannot communicate the grace
of repentance, or confer upon any man the gift
of faith, or bestow a heart of flesh in place of that
stony heart which refuses to be impressed with the
transcript of God's perfect law, still you have un-
doubted authority to declare to every human being
that the grace, the gift, the blessing are his; if
he be but content to turn unto God, who waiteth
to be gracious, and who will in no wise cast out
any poor penitent, coming to Him by Christ. It
is by faithfully declaring this 'true saying and
worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners,' that you may con-
fidently hope to achieve what no merely human
legislation can even attempt; to reach the hidden
springs of action, and to render the fruit good by
making the tree so. We therefore most anxiously
and affectionately beseech you to bear constantly
in mind the vast importance of your holy office;
and in an especial manner to give yourselves to a
studious, prayerful, and laborious preparation,
for that very momentous branch of your sacred
ministrations, the ordinance of preaching.
Many among you are gifted with great facility
of composition, or a ready extemporaneous ut-
terance; and they are indeed valuable helps to
you: but when we consider the variety of cha-
racters, and the very unequal development of the
intellectual faculties, comprised in the usual
number of any ordinary congregation, and re-
•
310
ADDRESS
member that the teacher's office is rightly to di-
vide the word of truth, and to give to each
individual his portion in due season, the magnitude
of the burden laid upon him becomes more appa-
rent. He must labour to impress the most learned
with the importance of what he is declaring: at
the same time, he must not sacrifice to them the
equal spiritual right of the ignorant rustic who
sits shrouded in a distant niche, and claims his
portion too-the portion assigned by One who is no
respecter of persons. You must have experienced
the difficulty of clothing your thoughts in lan-
guage sufficiently comprehensible to this class; not
because such language does not readily occur,—
not because you have not, in the Holy Scriptures
themselves, a perfect model of the sublime sim-
plicity aimed at; but because a false criterion is
unhappily established, and the preacher who
adapts his discourse to the understanding of the
stable-boy, may perchance be judged incapable of
a higher style of composition, by the accomplished
gentlemen whose horses that stable-boy attends
upon. Such judgments are, indeed, often passed;
and a cruel wrong it is to the souls of the indigent,
a manifest snare of the devil, who dreads lest, by
the faithful preaching of the Gospel to the poor,
as Christ preached it, and enjoined its being done
by His servants, captives should be rescued from
his bonds, and his devices frustrated; as they ever
TO THE CLERGY.
311
will be where the word of God has free course
and is glorified.
By cultivating this rare grace of simplicity,-
a grace compatible, as the Bible proves, with the
utmost majesty of style,-you will convince
your poorer brethren that you honestly desire
their edification; and one certain effect will be to
attach them not only to your ministry, but to your
person. This will greatly smoothe the way to
that intercourse which every true pastor must ear-
nestly desire to establish between himself and his
flock-pastoral visits to humble families, where
counsels given in general terms from the pulpit,
may be enforced with especial reference to the in-
dividual characters and circumstances. He who
has on the Sabbath set forth Christ crucified, even
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
in the sight of the whole congregation, will seek,
in these week-day visits, occasions for persuading
each smitten soul to look unto Him and be saved.
Indeed, it is earnestly to be desired that you
should find the fields of your labour so apportioned
as to admit of a perfect course of domestic visita-
tion, at no very distant intervals; than which
nothing can be better adapted mutually to encou-
rage the minister and his people, the former to
exhibit, the latter to follow, a blameless example.
The unequal division of parishes, of which we
elsewhere complain, and its consequent impo-
sition on the minister, of more duty than he can
312
ADDRESS
possibly perform, is a grievous hindrance to you ;
especially to be lamented when we consider that
the healthiest frame often enshrouds the most dis-
eased soul; and that he who is laying up treasure
at will for himself, is frequently the least rich
towards God. The sick in body and the out-
wardly necessitous have a claim not to be disputed,
and few parochial clergymen would neglect them;
but the robust and the wealthy rarely receive their
due portion of clerical care out of the pulpit, and
such deprivation they ought not to suffer.
When the Apostle Paul taught from house to
house, he was making the best provision against
his people's neglect of assembling themselves to-
gether. Few things are so likely to turn the ba-
lance, in a mind wavering between the duty of
going to the house of God, and traitorous
inclination to stay away, as the expectation of
a friendly visit from the minister to enquire the
cause of absence. The regular habit of church-
going is a point that you cannot but desire to
enforce upon all classes: its want is at once dis-
couraging to yourselves, and indicative of an
evil tendency among your people. The formal,
punctual attendant on public worship may be
a worthless, an abandoned character at home:
but he who never worships in public at all cannot
be what he ought; nor is he in the way of hearing
what, by God's blessing, might convert him from
the error of his way.
TO THE CLERGY.
313
The temporal comfort and welfare of the poor
may be promoted by you to a surprising extent.
It is emphatically your business so to promote
them, seeing you bear the commission, and come
in the name of Him, who went about doing good.
You cannot, indeed, heal the sick, cleanse the
lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils, as the
first Apostles were enabled to do; but you bear
with you the record of their miracles, and can show
the blessed application of those acts to the state
of the spiritually sick,-souls stained with a moral
leprosy, dead in trespasses and sins, possessed
with the diabolical passions that rule in man's evil
heart of unbelief. You will be hailed as a mes-
senger of mercy and peace, even if you have only
sympathy to bestow in reference to their bodily
sufferings; and God will give you persuasive
power to open the hearts and purses of their richer
neighbours, when making a transition from the
huts of poverty to the mansions of opulence, or
at least the abode of easy competence. There is
one evil very prevalent in the cottages of the poor,
into which if you enquire you will be roused to
zealous efforts for its removal. It is, indeed,
most shocking in its nature, and appalling in its
frequent results. We allude to the want of de-
cent separation in the sleeping apartments of poor
families. Cases have been reported, too dreadful
to detail; but one or two of a less frightfully
revolting nature may serve as a clue to all the rest.
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314
ADDRESS
We shall give them in the words of the Commis-
sioners, who investigated and confirmed the facts.
'A man, his wife, and family, consisting in all
of eleven individuals, resided in a cottage contain-
ing only two rooms. The man, his wife, and
four children, sometimes five, slept in one of the
rooms, and in one bed, some at the foot, others
at the top, one a girl above fourteen, another a
boy above twelve, the rest younger. The other
part of the family slept in one bed in the keeping-
room; that is, the room in which their cooking,
washing, and eating were performed. How could
it be otherwise, with this family, than that they
should be sunk into a most deplorable state of
degradation and depravity? . . . . The eldest, a
female, has had a bastard child; and another,
younger, also a female, but grown up, has recent-
ly been sentenced to transportation for stealing in
a dwelling-house.'
'I visited a house in Wyebridge-lane, where
there was a case of fever; I found the man and a
daughter, about eighteen years old, in one bed;
a lodger, a young man about twenty, in another
bed, and all in one room up-stairs.'
'A single dormitory for a whole family, and not
unfrequently a single bed for both sexes, adults,
must lead to a state of horrid demoralization.'
"In the Hastings cottages, all the inmates
generally sleep in one room, though sometimes
the man and his wife have a separate apartment;
TO THE CLERGY.
315
but all the children, of both sexes, almost invari-
ably use the same sleeping-room. In Tunbridge
Wells, the poor have not often more than two
rooms for a family, in one of which the boys sleep,
and in the other the man, his wife, and the girls.
Sometimes four beds may be seen in a room,
divided by a curtain between each.'
We do not pursue these descriptions, confident
that to have your attention directed to the bare
existence, and unhappily the general existence
too, of so dreadful an evil, will produce the
desired effect. You will seek a welcome in these
wretched abodes, that you may on the one hand.
impress on their inmates the danger of thus
hardening their offspring in indecency, and on
the other, exert your influence with their landlords
to procure some improvement in the accommoda-
tions provided for the labouring poor.
Lastly, the great national work of education
rests mainly in your hands, as it is most desirable
that it should do. A vigilant superintendence of
this interesting portion of the Lord's vineyard,
need scarcely be enjoined on any of His labourers,
so great is the encouragement, so rich the pro-
mise annexed to the employment. Difficulties do
and will beset the path of those who are earnest
in it; for the enemy of souls understands, even
far better than we can do, the value of the sowing
season; and the world will also put in its claim
against God, by extolling the usefulness of such
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316
ADDRESS
knowledge as is the perfection of foolishness when
substituted for, or preferred before, the knowledge
that maketh wise unto salvation. To cultivate
intellect is the fashionable panacea for all moral
and political evil; but 'Intellect without God'
is the phrase aptly used by a distinguished living
poet to characterize Satan himself. That know-
ledge is power, has become the leading axiom of
the day but apart from the presiding, governing,
commanding influence of vital religion, what is it
but the power of a mighty steam-engine, self-
impelled, destitute of its appointed guide, and
carrying irresistible destruction wheresoever chance
may direct its wild and fierce career? We would
not that a poor man should be found, wheresoever
the British standard waves, who could put from
him the book of wisdom with the plea, I am not
learned;' but to make religion merely an adjunct,
a collateral branch of instruction, a matter of taste
and selection; to rank the Holy Bible as a class-
book, to be taken up in its turn, or subject to the
approval or rejection of those who send the child
to school, is an offence which we cannot for a
moment suppose any minister of the gospel
capable of conniving at. We name it only to
rouse your active and strenuous opposition to so
infidel a course, and to remind you on how false,
how ruinous a principle, the work is likely to be
conducted, if you withhold your hands from it,
or silently relinquish your primary claim to the

TO THE CLERGY.
317
F
supervision of what God has committed to your
charge: the feeding of the lambs; the training up
of children in the way they should go, the bring-
ing of them to Christ, in whom are hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Your office
is to combat the rage for unsanctified learning;
to place "the kingdom of God and his righteous-
ness" in the fore-front of all that his creatures
ought to seek; with spiritual weapons to "cast
down imaginations, and every high thing that
exalteth itself above Christ;" to elevate the law
and the testimony in the sight of all men; boldly
proclaiming that, "if they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them."
Whether or not the legislature shall think fit to
place in your hands the means requisite to provide
education for all,-you will always find a flock,
peculiarly your own, looking up to you for that
which it is your happy privilege to provide; and
though your faith may be tried, and your patience
tested for a season, through opposition, ingrati-
tude, indifference, and the many other difficulties
that you are called on to surmount, you may still
be assured that to no part of your arduous duties
can the word of promise be more confidently
applied than to this of education: "He that
goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed,
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing
his sheaves with him."
CHAPTER XVIII.
TO MAGISTRATES.
For he is the
But if thou do
THE magisterial office is beautifully described in
Scripture. "Rulers are not a terror to good
works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be
afraid of the power? do that which is good, and
thou shalt have praise of the same.
minister of God to thee for good.
that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not
the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God;
a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth
evil." To you then, the magisterial ministers of
God, appointed to judge the cause of your fellow-
men, to uphold right and to avenge wrong, to do
good to the upright and peaceable, and to execute
wrath upon evil-doers, we would now speak ;
honouring your office, for it is one of paramount
importance; indispensable to the very existence
of civil government.
Offences must come; the fallen nature of man,
the activity of his spiritual enemy, the constitu-
TO MAGISTRATES.
319-
!
If,
tion of society even in its best state, all conspire
to produce frequent transgression of the law, both
divine and human. Your part is to take cogniz-
ance of offences against the latter; while to the
former you must look for guidance in every
decision. Happily for us all, the laws of the land
are so framed that none can be compelled to
violate the commandments of God in duly admin-
istering them: you may oft be led to wish that
more extensive power rested in your hands, to
redress peculiar grievances, or to punish crimes
not strictly comprehended within the letter of the
statute-book; but in no case are you necessitated
to afflict the innocent or to reward the guilty.
through the imperfection inseparable from human
institutions, such anomaly were found to exist, it
would not stand through a single session of Par-
liament against a combined application of the
magistracy for its revision and correction. To do
justice, therefore, and to love mercy, are as
consistent with your official obligations as they are
consonant to the will of God; and you hold a
power the most extensively beneficial that man
can desire to wield. At the same time your diffi-
culties are great; the hindrances, discouragements,
disappointments, and disgust that a conscientious
magistrate must calculate on encountering, cannot
be computed; while the spectacle of human depra-
vity on which he is daily compelled to fix his eye,
would suffice to chill the glow of the most philan-
320
TO MAGISTRATES.
་
thropic bosom that ever felt the pulse of life.
Yet in the face of all this, your path is marked
out, and you must walk in it without turning to
the right hand or to the left.
You are God's vicegerents. He has declared
it; denouncing those who resist your power, as
resisting his ordinance, and exposed to his judg-
ment. He whom you thus represent is essentially
just and righteous, holy and true: He accepteth
no man's person; he cannot be bribed; he will
not be flattered; partiality is hateful to him. He
is especially a judge of the widow, a father to
the fatherless, and he avenges the poor. In all
these particulars you are required to resemble
him; otherwise you frustrate his design, falsify
his word, pervert his ordinance, and by causing
his way to be evil spoken of, you incur his most
wrathful indignation. If two quarrelsome parties
come before you, under circumstances legally ad-
mitting an amicable adjustment, you are there as
the minister of Him who is the Author of peace.
If a case of aggression is presented, where
poverty seeks protection or redress, you appear
for One who delivereth the poor when he crieth ;
the needy also, and him that hath no helper. The
statute book may be misinterpreted, judgment
wrested, privilege abused, and the very enactment
that sustains our rights made an instrument of
wrong; but in all this your proceedings are regis-
tered, with every secret spring that moved the
TO MAGISTRATES.
321
mind; from the positively corrupt motive, sacri-
ficing to self-interest the cause of justice, to the
momentary ill-humour that vents itself on any
present object, or the impatient weariness that
longs to escape from a disagreeable post. What
you regard as trivial, because perhaps the persons
concerned are poor and despised,-may involve
the destiny of all their after-years. Their little
all may hang on your thoughtless decision; and
more than life or death may be the issue. A day's
business is sometimes dispatched at a price that
you would not deliberately pay for years of indul-
gence.
You arbitrate between master and servant. This
is a more important matter than at the first glance
appears a disposition on the one hand to over-
strain lawful authority, and on the other to rebel
against it, is all but general; and to strike an even
balance is amongst the most difficult of all things.
There is a summary mode of settling such ques-
tions that leaves neither party any pretext for
seeking another tribunal, yet aggravates on both
sides the evil it ought to allay. Assuredly man's
natural bias is to uphold the privileges of his own
class in society, or political leanings may give a still
more powerful inclination in the opposite direction;
while the affair may not be deemed of sufficient
importance so to rouse the patriotic principle as to
induce an inquiry what decision will best promote
the public weal. And if neither this nor the
.:
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322
TO MAGISTRATES.
¡
i
known will of God is appealed to as the standard,
inferior motives will creep in, perverting or ob-
scuring the course of justice, and adding fuel to
a fire that threatens present destruction. The
only safeguard is to be found in a constant appli-
cation of the rule; that righteousness exalteth a
nation; and in an award that shall neither sanction
aggression from beneath or oppression from above;
neither to amerce the richer man because he can
afford to lose, nor to disgrace the poorer because
his good name may seem of inferior value: still
less to grind him down for the profit of his su-
perior.
You are the guardians of public morals. One
of the worst features of the daily press, is the
tone of levity in which police-reports are given.
This it may be beyond your power wholly to sup-
press, but you can do much, very much, towards
checking it. A few words strongly spoken by a
right-minded magistrate, will always place a mat-
ter in a point of light calculated to shame the un-
feeling jester; who is, perhaps, reckoning on the
credit he shall obtain by rendering the sins and
sufferings of his fellow-creatures, or at best their
infirmities and follies, as ludicrous as possible in
the public eye. This is a duty you cannot with a
good conscience neglect: for much of a contami-
nating character is always to be found in this de-
partment of the daily news; and whatever tends
to attract the giddy mind of youth in quest of
TO MAGISTRATES.
323
amusement, familiarizes it also with images of vice.
There are some who do not scruple to encourage
this profanation of a court of justice, even while
presiding overit; and they have much to answer for:
but it is extensively connived at, if not as a harmless
pleasanty, still as a necessary evil; whereas it is both
harmful in a high degree, and altogether unjustifia-
ble. The thought that an oath has been taken,—the
"great and terrible name" of God invoked, and
that justice, in all cases a most sacred thing, is the
object sought for,-ought to fence your seats of
judgment from the approach of such unseemly
mockings. The very things of which the Spirit
of God has declared that they shut men out from
the kingdom of heaven, seem to be selected as
affording the fittest subjects for laughter. "Forni-
cation, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife,
envyings, drunkenness, revellings,”—all these ap-
pear, decked with the gay trappings of wit and
drollery, and intermingled with the breach of the
third commandment, until the whole becomes an
outrage on morality that would not be tolerated,
if it had not too extensively pervaded with its own
profaneness, the framework of society.
You are called on to grant and renew licenses
to places which you know are set apart for purposes
utterly ruinous to the youth of both sexes, and
which thrive by promoting habits of drunkenness
among all classes. This is a grievous blot on the
statute-book, and must inflict pain on every man
324
TO MAGISTRATES.
who feels either as a father or as a member of soci-
ety, interested in its well-being; much more as one
who is solemnly bound to act for the punishment
of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do
well. You cannot refuse what the law grants
through you; but you have a discretionary power
extending, if you would vigorously apply it, almost
to the abatement of the nuisance. It never was
contemplated by the framers of our laws, that pub-
lic crimes should be legalized: and what greater
crime can be publicly committed against the plan
commands of God, than that men should be au-
thorized to open their houses for the avowed
purpose of inciting their neighbour to excess in
strong drink, and engaging him in such revellings
as must naturally lead to still darker guilt? We
call on you to go to the extremest length of the
letter and spirit of your commission, to lessen the
number, if you cannot extinguish the existence,
of these moral pest-houses. Your surveillance
exerted to the utmost, would render the worst of
them losing speculations, and so, on the principle
of man's selfishness, ultimately put them down.
They are enormous evils; crying sins, that pro-
voke God's vengeance; and the policy that con-
nives at their existence is directly opposed to his
sovereignity. Before affixing your signature to
such a document, ask your heart whether you
would do so if assured that your own trusted de-
pendents would be found among the frequenters
TO MAGISTRATES.
325
E
of that house. If not, you are using the ordinance
of God in the magistracy as an instrument for
extending the dominion of Satan: and far better for
you to relinquish a post held on trust for the pub-
lic weal, than occupy it at the price of encouraging
that which effectually undermines the country's
prosperity, by impoverishing, degrading, demorali-
zing, and destroying her children.
You are the protectors of female modesty. Let
but the women of a land become shameless, and
farewell to all that is worth preserving in it!
Public indecency is guarded against by enactments
which prove how high the grace of modesty is
estimated among us: but instances sometimes
occur wherein the magistrate appears to forget
that he is the living and acting soul of that body
of laws. Not to speak of the indifference with
which the announcement is in general received,
that some party before the bench, complainant or
defendant, belongs to the order of prostitutes,
there is a slowness to rebuke individuals, when the
circumstances involve a clear admission of having
offended against purity; and there is a tacit ac-
quiescence in the presumed fact, that profligacy
must needs abound. But cases often occur wherein
one of your number has the opportunity of
directly commending, if not rewarding indications
of virtuous principle, and of shaming if he cannot
punish the reverse. We would ask, are you
equally sensitive on behalf of the modesty of a
{
326
TO MAGISTRATES.
:
poor friendless girl, as of that of your own female
connexions? The just judge cannot be a respec-
ter of persons; and practices that must be very
grievous to a chaste mind, prevail within your
jurisdiction, in many instances, where, if you in-
terfered, they must be laid aside, or at least miti-
gated. Scarcely any scene of labour, where
numbers are employed, is free from this stain; a
little enquiry would show it; and by interfering,
you would confer a boon, not only on the aggrieved
individuals, but on the whole community. The
mind is gradually reconciled to grossness; then
hardened in it; and so led on to look at vice itself
complacently, until it becomes wholly vitiated.
Modesty is a truly British plant, but we seem to be
losing our appreciation of it. An instance of what
a magistrate can do to root it up, will go further
than many speculations as to how he may promote
its growth. The case is a glaring one, and, it is
to be hoped, not often paralleled: but it does not
stand alone in kind, even if it does in degree. ‘A
servant girl, named Mary Morgan, was brought
before the Cheltenham magistrates for running
away from service. She had been hired at Ciren-
cester for a year certain on the 17th of October,
and went away two days after. Her excuse was,
that she did not like the ways of the house.
Why?' said the magistrate's clerk. After some
coyness, she said, 'Because I had to go through
the man's bedroom to my room. The magistrate
TO MAGISTRATES.
327
replied, "This is a common thing in farm-houses!
and the girl was sent to Northleach gaol for four-
teen days!'
We adduce this flagrant case, as a specimen of
the power vested in the magistracy, not of their
general disposition in the exercise of that power.
Universal indignation marked the public sense of
this tyrannical outrage. That the charge should
have been dismissed, a severe reprimand bestowed
on the complainant, and every means used to
shame the heads of families out of so indecent
and cruel an arrangement of their dormitories,
none seemed to question; yet there stood the na-
ked fact, bearing fearful testimony to the existence
of evil at the very fountain-head of local dominion.
Recent legislation has practically relieved men from
the burden of supporting their illegitimate progeny,
and laid it on the wretched victims of their seduc-
tions; who, in giving birth to the child are excluded
from the pale of respectability, and become dis-
qualified for service. A poor young creature is
led to make what she considers an advantageous
agreement in a decent family, and finds the in-
terior of the dwelling so ordered that she cannot
by any possibility escape incessant importunities.
She knows that in some unguarded hour she may
yield; ruin, temporal and eternal, is before her
on the one hand, on the other a breach of contract.
We marvel what would have been the result of
an appeal from her, in this stage of the business,
328
TO MAGISTRATES.
to the seat of justice: probably the too common
reply, 'I have no power to interfere-the law
does not provide for your case: you must fulfil
your engagement:' But though this might have
been the official answer, sure we are that a magis-
trate who feared God and loved his neighbour, and
rightly regarded his own responsibilities, would
have interfered in his private character; would
have remonstrated with the parties, who thus
cruelly pandered to the worst passions of their
dependants, wantonly leading them into tempta-
tion; and would finally have used this clue to dis-
cover similar instances of demoralizing arrange-
ments, that he might to the utmost of his power
check them. The female poor have a great claim
on you; their position is always unsafe, and if the
shield of magisterial protection was more generally
thrown over them, if they were encouraged to
make known their need of it, and to calculate on
its ready help, what a mass of crime, usually termi-
nating in infanticide or suicide, would be averted!
This work of mercy may not be specified in your
commission, but God requires it at your hands,
and your consciences must bear secret testimony
that it is a reasonable service and a bounden duty.
To fulfil a charge according to the strictness of
the letter, and to go no further, may satisfy man's
legal demand, and silence the clamours of natural
conscience; but it will yield the mind no solid
satisfaction, confer no benefit on our country, nor
TO MAGISTRATES.
329
abide the strict judgment of God. No form of words
can fully set forth what is necessarily implied in a
faithful discharge of duty; and the higher the
office, the more complicated must those influential
duties become. If undertaken for distinction's
sake, or as a gainful speculation, a man's conduct
cannot be expected to rise above the level of his
unworthy motives; but let such remember that
they have dared to make sordid merchandize of
things most sacred in the sight of God: the seat
of justice, the sword of vengeance, the righteous-
ness of a nation, and the cause of the poor.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE LEGAL AND MEDICAL PROFESSIONS.
In addressing the Bar, we would include not only
those who are at this time engaged in the practice
to which the term is usually confined, but such
also as have already attained what every individual
in the profession is supposed to aim at. In all its
stages, from the perusal of the first brief, to the
assumption of the highest legal rank and authority
in the realm, the calling is one that requires a
more than ordinary share of divine assistance; for
the temptations inseparable from it are among the
most insidious that man can encounter; and its
responsibilities, when a higher office is reached,
are tremendously great. The Judge has before
him a fellow-man, an heir of immortality, probably
in the bloom of life, full of health, vigour, and
the natural prospect of many lengthened years.
He hears the testimony brought forward to crimi-
nate that man, and the defence set up, either in
contradiction of such testimony, or in palliation
THE LEGAL PROFESSION.
331
1
of the offence which cannot be disproved. It is
his to record, to weigh, to decide on the merits
of this conflicting evidence, with all but the cer-
tainty that his decision will direct the Jury in their
verdict; and that if they pronounce the wretched
being guilty, he must, before leaving that seat
pass on him the sentence of condemnation, in-
volving but too probably the horrors of an undone
eternity. He knows that they who now face each
other, in characters so widely opposite, must stand
side by side before the tribunal of an unerring
Judge; and that among the deeds done in the
body of which he must then give account, the
transaction of that day will bear a prominent part.
The heart that does not quake under circumstances
so solemn, must be strong indeed, and the pre-
sumption would be, that it was hard also, if in
its own might alone it stood the ordeal; but there
is a promise always found, by those who seek it to,
be faithful and sure, that strength shall be given
according to the day, and wisdom according to the
need, of the humble inquirer.
It is, however, to one part of the Judge's office
that we would particularly address ourselves: the
terms in which a convicted criminal is usually ex-
horted to prepare himself for the death that
awaits him. Instead of offering any comment of
our own, we will quote, at length, a speech of
the late Judge Foster, delivered ten years since,
when passing sentence on a murderer whom he
1
332
THE LEGAL Profession.
was compelled to leave for execution.
After re-
marking on the nature of his crime, and the evi-
dence by which it was established, he thus pro-
ceeded :-
'Unhappy your man, remaining hours on earth
are now but few; let me implore of you to employ
them in seeking for mercy in another world. In this
world there is no mercy for you. Reflect that
ere two short days shall pass, all this apparatus of
human justice, which now fills you with terror,
shall have passed away. This court-house-the
prison-the world itself will have fallen from be-
neath your feet, and you will stand unsupported
and alone-not as now, at the bar of a fellow-sinner,
but in the presence of Almighty God, to answer for
your crime; and not for this crime alone, but for the
offences of your whole life; a God "who is of purer
eyes than to behold iniquity," and in whose sight
the angels themselves are not free from charge.
'How then in his presence is the blood-stained
murderer to appear? Well may he "call upon
the rocks to fall upon him, and the hills to cover
him."
But though you must tremble, you need
not despair. Praised be God, it is my duty and
my privilege to assure you, that there is forgive-
ness with God even for such a criminal as yourself.
If the joyful intelligence has not already reached
your ears, receive from me the assurance that the
word of God declares, that Jesus Christ came
not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance;"
THE LEGAL PROFESSION.
333
and that He "came to seek and to save that which
was lost;" and that "his blood cleanses from all
sins," and not, as has by some been vainly taught,
from small sins only.
"6
'The same blessed word assures us that though
our sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as
snow," that "
as far as the east is from the west,
so far hath he set our sins from us;" and He has
himself, in his own words, solemnly assured us,
that "whosoever cometh to him he will in no
wise cast out." This expression, "whosoever,”
including the vilest of wretches; and the words
"in nowise" assuring us of the impossibility of
rejection.
'He died upon the cross for this your murder,-
if you will turn to him in faith, and repose your
guilt with confidence upon his sacrifice; but faith
in him for this purpose is the indispensable and
sole condition of your acceptance-a faith that
will reject the hope of every other ground of
pardon,―of everything that you can do for your-
self,—of everything that any fellow-sinner can do
for you, and that will rely solely on your Saviour,
as having shed his blood for you, and died, "the
just for the unjust, that he might bring even you
to God."
' And say not to yourself, your time is too short
for reconciliation. If the magnitude of your
crimes need not plunge you into despair, neither
need the shortness of the time. No time is too
334
THE LEGAL PROFESSION.
short for returning to Him. Even in the mo-
ment when our Lord was taken "by wicked hands
and crucified and slain," a malefactor who, like
yourself, was dying a victim to public justice, and
who carried his madness and his blasphemy down
almost to the last hour of his existence, reviling
his Saviour even at the very moment when he was
himself hanging by his side, suddenly became
touched by Divine grace; turned to him, a sup-
pliant for salvation; confessed the justice of his
own punishment; and prayed to be remembered
by his Lord in a future state of being; and he was
answered by our Lord with an assurance that on
that very day he should be with him in Paradise!
Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, to-day, and
for ever;" and you may believe, and you may hope,
and you may rely on it that that same mercy and
forgiveness which was extended to the dying thief,
will not be refused to the dying murderer, if you
that murderer, in equal penitence and equal faith,
shall now be found to implore it.'
This can need no comment from us : -the lead-
ing thought to which it gives rise, is the question,
-Are such truths often delivered from that eleva-
ted seat? May the example be deemed worthy,
as indeed it is, of general imitation, by all who are
called to fulfil the like awful duty!
But we would say a few words to the members
of the bar, now pressing onward to the desired
possession of higher rank and privileges. These
THE LEGAL PROFESSION.
335
are legitimate objects of your ambition; but bear
in mind the snares that are spread in your path,
and the miserable nature of the bargain made, if
you purchase all that your largest desires can
grasp, at the cost of your integrity. The necessity
sometimes laid upon you of putting the best
aspect on a cause which you know to be unjust,—
as when you are called to plead on behalf of some
offender to whom the justice of the country accords
the benefit of counsel,-must often be painful to
an honourable mind; but voluntarily, deliberately,
to undertake, for gain or applause, the conduct
of an unjust suit, or a dishonest defence, is to
sell yourselves cheap indeed to the father of lies!
Neither custom, nor any imaginary necessity, can
divest of its odious features, or screen from its
future penalty, so grievous an offence against
truth and justice. Your refusal so to prostitute
the talents with which your God has intrusted
you, accompanied by a plain statement of your
reason for such refusal, would at once relieve your
own conscience from a burden, the weight of
which will press heaviest when your failing heart
and flesh can least support it; and hold forth an
example whose spreading influence will work
more 'reforms in Chancery' and in all other
courts, than the most laborious legislation can
ever accomplish. We do not despair of seeing a
band of men stand forth, whose numbers would
rapidly increase, adopting for their rallying cry
336
THE LEGAL PROFESSION.
the old chivalrous proclamation, "God preserve
the right;" making it distinctly known to their
legal brethren in a subordinate branch of the pro-
fession, that no brief would be accepted in a cause
where the loop-holes of law were calculated upon
as means of escape from the pursuit of even-
handed justice; and that the learning, experience,
eloquence, and other talents by them enjoyed,
were held in trust, to be guarded from the con-
tamination now unhappily so general, just because
it is considered inseparable from the practice of
the courts. The poor and oppressed, the widow
and the fatherless, the simple and the ignorant,
would then know where to appeal; and though
fees might be neither so rife, nor briefs so plenti-
ful as those of their less conscientious brethren,
the blessing of uprightness would be found to
outweigh many treasures of the unjust; and it
would be found too, that godliness is profitable
for all things; having the promise of this life, as
well as of that which is to come.
We know that there are such men even now at
the bar, and prospering there: we say to them,
Show yourselves: avow your principles, and form
a nucleus, the ultimate extension of which no man
can foresee, but which may be estimated by the
fulness of the promise of God to his favoured
nation: "I will make thine officers peace; and
thine exactors righteousness."
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
337
We now turn to the Medical profession; a class
second to none in the amount of good or evil
lying within the sphere of its influence. And
first, in reference to their practice among the poor,
we would suggest an enquiry to be answered
within the recesses of their own bosoms: whether
the poverty of a patient never serves as an excuse
for gross neglect, or marks him out as the subject
of dangerous or cruel experiments, which would
not be attempted on one of a higher degree. That
such things do occur is notoriously true; but each
must examine the record of his own conscience
for particulars. There are many, yea, very many
in the profession, whose tender compassion for the
poor sheds a halo round their characters; who will
sit beside the straw pallet of the expiring beggar,
and use all their laboriously-acquired art to alle-
viate pangs they cannot remove; who remember
that "in the image of God made He man," and
that to trifle with the life of a human being is a
crime of the deepest dye, in the sight of Him who
will bring to light all the hidden things of dark-
ness. Still there is room for self-examination
among the bulk of our professional men on this
fearful point; for, next to inculcating a false reli-
gion, certainly the abuse of means ostensibly
applied to relieve bodily ills, is the most iniquitous
form of treachery and wrong. The inadequate
remuneration doled out to parochial surgeons and
assistants, with the great sacrifice of time, and
Q
338
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
often of lucrative practice, required of them, is a
crying grievance as regards both classes of suffer-
ers—the doctors and their patients: we admit the
frequent impossibility of one man's traversing the
extent of country, and paying due attention to
the scattered individuals included within his dis-
trict, even though he should suffer an interloper
to supplant him among the wealthy, and leave him
little besides his Union to attend to. The surgeon
may do his utmost, yet have to charge himself
with partial neglect, in reality chargeable upon
others. We pass no censure on such a man; but
if the interior of our hospitals, and surgeries,
and the hovels of the sick destitute poor, were
laid open to the eye of man, as they lie open
beneath the eye of God, a remonstrance, a cry
for mercy, would burst from many a lip, now
silent, only because bereft of hope. The bung-
ling operations of inexperienced youths, the un-
restrained ebullitions of impatience or ill-humour,
elsewhere excited, the temptation to try novel,
hazardous, and often most terrific experiments,
the success of which may exalt the inventor to
eminence in his profession;-all these things
give rise to a sickening amount of untold tortures,
which none but the forlorn poor are subjected to.
It is an item in the outstanding debt of justice
before God that must be looked into when the
Books are opened, and each individual has to
answer for himself; but it touches us nationally
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
339
also, for it is well known to those who could, if
they were so minded, enforce better regulations,
that much is habitually done to familiarize the
minds of medical students with wanton cruelty;
and that with a few noble exceptions, the course
of their public instruction runs very much in the
direction of avowed infidelity. Here, too, we
must make our appeal to men's consciences; to
their past and present experience; and ask them
whether they are prepared to stand accountable
for the consequences of their neglect, if they
plead guilty to nothing more? A young man
entering college to pursue this line, is destined to
become a healer or a tormentor, a preserver or a
manslayer, a blessing or a curse to society, accor-
ding as the better or the worse dispositions of his
nature are drawn out and fostered. What is the
plan usually pursued by the more advanced in
medical science towards a newly-admitted fellow-
student? is it not too often to extinguish every
spark of human tenderness, to laugh down every
manifestation of lingering delicacy, and to bring
from the most fearfully and wonderfully made of
all God's stupendous works, arguments against
the very existence of the Almighty Creator? If
it be so, surely the evil must have a permanent
abode in these halls of science, to taint, as it does,
those who breath their air, generally in proportion
to the length of their sojourn.
The spectacle of that mysterious transition by
Q 2
340
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
which the soul abandons its earthly tenement, and
leaves it to corruption and dissolution, is one of
overpowering solemnity. None ever looked for
the first time upon death, without a secret thrill
of awe, if not of fear; and the impulse of our
nature is to support and to soothe the dying in that
moment of mortal conflict. The frequent repetiti-
on of such scenes must blunt the sensibility; and the
necessity of watching the physical phenomena for
professional purposes, will divert the thoughts from
what is spiritual to what is visible; yet it is much
to be lamented, that no provision is made for in-
struction suited to the emergency; for a course of
teaching that should keep before the minds of
these young men, the solemn reality of what they
mainly overlook,-the continued existence of the
departed soul, its entrance upon a new stage, not
upon a new state of being; and its passage into
one of those two great divisions between which a
gulf is fixed, never to be crossed. Such consi-
derations, habitually suggested, not as now re-
pressed, would place all their fellow-men more on
an equality in their sight; with a specially sof-
tening reference to those who have "in this life
received their evil things," whether only as the
beginnings of eternal misery brought on them-
selves by impenitent sin, or as the prelude to a
glorious change of circumstances. We plead
against national transgression, whether it be
against God immediately, or through our breth-
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
341
ren; and this is an instance of the latter not to
be overlooked.
Language would fail to set forth the extent of
the blessing conferred, when he who ministers to
the diseased body cares also for the soul of his
patient. If any class of men are specially fitted
to supply the lack of clerical attendance where it
is most imperatively called for, that class is found
in the medical profession. The doctor has con-
stant access, even to the last gasp of his patient's
breath he is looked to with confidence, with re-
verence, with gratitude, if it be but apparent that
he has done what he could to stay the progress of
the malady. He knows when the faculties are in
due exercise, and the feelings sufficiently awake,
yet not too morbidly excited, to admit of an
appeal to reason, conscience, judgment, such as
the Gospel makes; and let those testify who have
experienced it, for they alone know, what is the
joy of him who has been instrumental in leading
a soul to cast itself on One mighty to save: to
take refuge in that strong tower, the name of the
Lord Jesus, while the king of terrors was poising
the dart that no hand could arrest in its fatal
course. No marvel that the power of Satan is
brought to bear upon this branch of human science,
with all the effect he can command; that doubts
of the soul's separate existence are among the
first thoughts suggested by his diabolical craft,
when the astonishing mechanism of the body, and
342
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
the analogies traceable between every order of
animal life, are laid open to the youthful enquirer.
If the barb of unbelief can be but fixed in the
mind of one man thus occupied, it not only
wounds his soul, but obliterates from his thought
all concern for his fellow-men. He pursues his
course, as one devoted, not to a noble work of
pure philanthropy, but to a curious science, the
successful practice of which will bring fame, emol-
ument, and self-gratulation. It becomes his in-
terest that his neighbours should be afflicted: a
clean bill of health would be to him as a fiat of
bankruptcy; and having overcome the apprehen-
sion inseparable from a sense of future respon-
sibility, looking upon his brethren of the dust as
creatures of a day, to whom death is annihilation
-a final deliverance from all suffering-he argues
himself into a species of stoicism that makes him
utterly reckless of the havoc he commits: under-
mining sound constitutions among the wealthy,
by the prolonged use of drugs, of which the only
effect is, to keep them still on his list; and sacri-
ficing the poor in hecatombs by alternate neglect
and cruelty. This is the character of a practi-
tioner who has broken away from his allegiance to
God, and set up the idol self as the alone object
of his service. The number of physicians and
surgeons practising or preparing to practise in this
empire is immense; and to each of these is com-
mitted the charge of many poor: indeed, there is
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
343
not one among our sixteen millions whose life may
not at any moment be placed at their disposal, so
far as man holds power of life and death; and
can we omit to specify among national sins and
national perils, the neglect of Christian instruction
as a branch of medical education ?
Still let no man flatter himself that on the
omission of another he may finally lay the guilt of
his own ruin. The Bible is open to every one;
the church-door is open, and in this land no man
can be ignorant that it is his duty to avail himself
of both. Yet to how many is the word of God
a sealed book, through their wilful neglect of its
truths; and the Sabbath chime an unmeaning
sound, no more regarded than the stroke of the
parish clock! That a body of men whose every-
day duty it is, even literally to stand between the
living and the dead, should be, to all appearance,
so reckless of eternal realities, is most strange.
We admit that, of late years, a striking improve-
ment is visible, and that the number of truly
pious practitioners is progressively increasing ;
but to a very large majority we are constrained to
apply the foregoing remarks; and to remind them
of the beautiful order of those graces, the exer-
cise of which we so earnestly desire to see cul-
tivated among them. "We love God, because he
first loved us :" "This is the love of God, that we
keep his commandments." And this command-
ment have we from him, that he who loveth God
344
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
love his brother also." Under this constraining
principle, what a benefactor to his kind, and on
how vast a scale of beneficence, is the Christian
Physician qualified to become!
A
N
CHAPTER XX.
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
Ir is much to be wished that the mighty engine
of female influence were more efficiently directed.
The ladies of England are famed for tenderness
of feeling, for decision of mind, for firmness of
purpose, and promptitude of action. Their posi-
tion in society is more commanding than that of
any other females throughout the world: they
comprehend our political or commercial objects,
share our anxieties, and assist us by their intelli-
gent counsel, to an extent which renders their
power, for good or for evil, almost irresistible;
and, contrasted with the insignificance of women in
foreign lands, truly marvellous. No human
beings, perhaps, are so quick at detecting in-
justice, resenting oppression, relieving the neces-
sitous, and soothing the unhappy. Witness their
efforts in the cause of negro freedom, at a time
when it may be said all the female chivalry of
England was up and striving; nor did they once
Q 5
346
FEMALE INFLUEnce.
relax their hold of the driver's whip, till they aad
fairly wrested it out of his hand. In all our great
national crises, has the feminine mind appeared
clad with masculine energy, and evinced a for-
titude, an endurance most admirable.
If, then, any man desires to advance the cause
of justice and righteousness among us, but feels
that his individual efforts can do little towards
moving the unwieldy mass of prejudices and wrong
principles encumbering our way, let him at least
make it his business to bring before his female
friends the leading points of our appeal; and
impress on them the importance of aiding in a
work wherein they will find more to do, to undo,
to alter and amend, than they are perhaps aware
of. Setting aside their natural offices and res-
ponsibilities in the conjugal and maternal relation-
ships, let us look at some of the duties springing
out of their relative position in society. We
shall find them either directly or indirectly exerci-
sing the chief control over two exceedingly nu-
merous and important classes: household servants,
and the majority of tradesmen.
The first, our domestics, are so intimately con-
nected with and affected by the prosperity,
morality, and godliness of the country, that they
may be said to form the universal cement of the
whole fabric of society, so constantly present, so
indispensably needful in every part. Usually
taken from among the poorest classes (we do not
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
347
+ !
here speak of gentlemen's gentlemen, or of ladies'
own women) they bring into their new situations
the ignorance, the prejudices, the evil habits of
some whose fearful disadvantages we have been
pourtraying; and upon these they are sure,
through the natural proneness of our kind to evil,
to engraft whatever is easiest of acquisition in the
faulty habits of their employers. Discharged from
service, they perhaps, but not often, return to
their former habitation, with these additions to
the disqualifications originally carried thence; and
so to service again, with less probability of doing
well than before. Too frequently, however, they
yield to a natural repugnance against returning in
the character of unsuccessful adventurers to the
miseries of a poverty-stricken home; and in that
case they go to a cheap lodging, with what wages
they have in hand, reckless, vain, improvident,
and a ready prey to any temptation. From this
point their progress is either to lower depths of
vice than they can ever again emerge from into
respectability; or else back to another service,
perfectly qualified to mislead the more innocent,
and to outdo the utmost stretch of their former
misconduct.
We are here speaking of bad servants; of those
who form the inexhaustible theme of domestic
complaint and vituperation. The class certainly
increases, to judge by the increase of such com-
plaints; and there are others who add to their
348
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
want of principle, so much duplicity and plausi-
bility, that the mistress of a family will discharge
a score of servants as incorrigible, keeping only
one treasure of a creature always in her place,
who is in reality the sole cause of her being unable
to retain any body else. There are some whose
conduct is the reverse of this; faithful, honest,
diligent servants, who repudiate needless change,
and would fain continue fixtures in the house.
There would be very many such, if the ladies
betook themselves to the work of more judiciously
preparing, or more perseveringly reclaiming and
improving the young people.
The first step towards service is generally a
school, parochial, national, or otherwise charitable.
Here the girls are instructed in needlework and
spelling, and great pains are often taken to fit
them for future usefulness; but one or two evils
have crept into the general system, which lead to
much after mischief.
The first is emulation: children are pushed
forward, commended and rewarded according to the
readiness of their wit, which is often the worst
qualification in a domestic servant; so not a little
of the pert self-sufficiency so annoying to their
equals, and offensive to superiors, might be traced
to a sort of preeminency attained at school, as a
child of quick parts, clever and bright. The
smile of applause bestowed on the most forward
scholar often casts a cloud of abiding dulness over
FEMALE INFLUEnce.
349
one of far more sterling character, and fosters in
the former å spirit of vain assumption. Besides,
these advantages or advancements are gained at
the expense of others: the successful candidate
who, perhaps by chance, spells a word rightly
which the preceding pupil had spelled wrong,
takes the defaulter's place; and secretly, if not
openly, exults over a mortified rival. A day is
probably devoted to scrawling out in the copy-
book that edifying jingle, 'Emulation is a noble
passion,' and this emulation is perfectly under-
stood to mean a strife for the first place in the
class. Thus are sown the seeds of pride, envy,
and ambition; to produce in after-life the cap-
tiousness, discontent, love of change, that cha-
racterize our domestics; and worse things too:
for those who want cleverness to surpass, generally
have cunning enough to undermine their fellows.
Hence, lying, slandering, backbiting, recrimina-
tion: the unutterable nuisance of kitchen-squab-
bles, which by their perpetual annoyance, create
in the parlour an utter disgust of the whole class
to whom the belligerents belong; chilling the be-
nevolent heart; paralizing the beneficent hand.
Let such emulations' in schools fall into their as-
signed place, in the midst of "hatred, variance,
wrath, strife, seditions," and we shall speedily reap
a benefit from the scriptural classification.
Another injudicious feature of school-manage-
ment, is the practice of exhibiting the pupils,
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particularly girls, to visitors. To both sexes there
is danger, on the ground already noticed; the
master will, for his own credit's sake, and that of
the establishment, bring out for approval, not the
best boy but the best scholar and many a ring-
leader of the seditious in these days, owes his
pernicious influence to the encouragement given
by teachers, and the applause bestowed by exa-
miners, when a good caning would have been the
more appropriate recompense of his juvenile
doings. A boy of slow parts, who to the fear of
God adds a reverential regard for the powers that
be, who would neither pilfer nor lie, and who, if
fair pains were taken, might in after-life prove a
blessing to hundreds, is left at the bottom of the
class, put out of public view, or dubbed a dunce,
and made a butt and a foil; while some bold, bad
spirit, intelligent and active, finds himself the
theme of encomium whenever an inspection takes
place. True, he may be frequently punished, and
justly reproached, both by master and pupils ;
but that is among themselves; it hinders not his
shining before those of a higher rank, and
throwing into the shade his more deserving com-
peers. These are the exact materials for a noisy,
vulgar, blustering demagogue; wise and coura-
geous to do evil; to do good equally unfit as dis-
inclined.
But it is with the girls' schools chiefly we have
now to deal, though female influence extends
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
351
almost equally over both. Among these, personal
appearance goes a great way; and a very lovely
dunce will catch more admiring looks, even from
superiors of her own sex, than the best and cle-
verest of ugly damsels. It is thus the great enemy
fashions his snares; men, to do extensive mis-
chief, must be master-spirits, bright, bold, and
commanding women for the same purpose must
be attractive and insinuating; and for both, the
system of which we complain is alike fruitful in
evil. With girls, appearance is every thing: she
who has not beautiful features, may exhibit a fine
form, a graceful manner, or so much taste in ad-
justing even the uniform of a public school, or
the bits of finery bestowed on her, as to elicit ad-
miring commendation. It is not every lady whose
discretion is sufficiently awake at all times to
refrain from audibly expressing her thoughts; but
looks are still less guarded; and the snare into
which poor girls are most liable to fall and be fa-
tally entangled, is absolutely woven for them by
their first, best friends. The murmured expres-
sion, 'What a lovely little creature!' from the
lip of a kind lady-visitor, has often led a child's
mind into a track far remote from the path by
which it is desired she should seek approval. She
lies in wait for flattering remarks; she peers
oftener into a bit of glass than into her book: she
studies to set off her pretty face and figure; and
when in service, her main object is to fascinate
352
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
the footman, or attract the baker's lad; too often
she aims still higher; and the master's son, if not
the master himself, is inveigled; the downhill step
is taken, and after contributing her full share to
the vice and wretchedness and ruin of the age,
she perishes.
But this is not all; girls ought never to be ac-
customed to endure the public gaze. Female
modesty is the surest of safeguards; it is also the
most evanescent. Observe how the Apostle links
shamefacedness with modest apparel, sobriety,
godliness, and good works. He not only com-
mends, but commands its cultivation, as a necessary
adornment of women: but who can expect shame-
facedness long to survive the frequent stare of
strangers, the premium constantly held out for a
forwardness in speaking, and exhibiting, and
striving for the pre-eminence among many com-
petitors? We have enough of complainings from
the managing mistresses of families, generally
proportioned in loudness and frequency to the ex-
tent of their establishment; we see that the com-
plaint is, in most cases, well founded; we are
persuaded that our grandfathers heard far less on
the subject than we do; therefore that the aug-
mented evil is of comparatively recent growth;
and casting about for the cause, we cannot but be
struck with the tendency of our prevailing school-
systems to branch out into just such luxuriant
weeds as entangle the domestic paths of our fe-
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
353
:
male friends. We might say a word too on the
position of the exhibitors, as well as of the exhibi-
ted, on these occasions; but the foregoing will
suffice in the way of a hint, to be followed up as
each person's good sense may dictate.
So much for the training: what is past cannot
be undone; and what now is, will probably yet
continue to prevail. We must therefore suppose
that in general young servants enter on their
sphere of duty with impressions and habits na-
turally resulting. What an epoch in the history
of an immortal being! What a noble field for
holy benevolence to expatiate in, and what food for
unavailing self-reproach if the opportunity be
thrown away! It is not our province, nor is it
our wish, to enter into the details of domes-
tic management, or to intrude where it may be
taken for granted that the lady best knows her
own duties; but a few general remarks may be
permitted, on a subject nearly affecting the well-
being of all society.
'The vices of the lower orders' is a phrase in
every body's mouth: that they are vicious in pro-
portion to their ignorance is usually conceded;
but it appears questionable whether among the
class under consideration, misdirected learning is
not the more fruitful parent of incorrigible wicked-
ness. The labours of infidelity, particularly in
its most hellish form, socialism, have been vast
and effective. Atrocities for which language af-
354
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
fords no name-new discoveries in the foulest
branch of crime-have teemed from the press
and overspread the land. Perhaps no class of
persons in the country is so exposed to the demo-
ralizing system as livery-servants in London and
other large towns. Their life is one of unmanly
indolence; their principal employment is to lounge
in the streets, at the door of the fashionable shop,
the private mansion, the theatre, the assembly-
room, the club, the gaming-house; on Sundays, if
their employers happen to frequent a church,
these neglected menials attend them to the door,
and are in waiting with the carriage to take them
up again; who shall say how the intermediate
hours are passed? Not a day comes and goes in
which they are not placed in the way of evil sedu-
Their profanity, profligacy, and insolence,
as a body, form one of our greatest public nui-
sances; as any street passenger can testify, and as
the police reports bear frequent witness. In the
presence of their employers they must, of course,
preserve a different deportment; but what must
be the position of a young girl, coming with all
the coquetry of her sex and age, into the constant
companionship of such fellows; glossed over as
their repulsive characters usually are with a sort
of second-hand polish, reflected from the surface
of the society in which they move as adjuncts;
and distinguished by smart apparel, supplied and
devised by their superiors, purposely to set them
cers.
FEMALE INFLUENce.
355
off to the best advantage? Surely no mistress
who exposes her female domestics to such contact,
without using any adequate means of protection
on their behalf, without personal superintendance,
which scarcely any lady now thinks of, and with-
out kind cautions that need daily repetition in the
midst of daily allurements, can justly complain of
progressive demoralization among the defenceless
class. Rather may she fear, lest in the day of
the revelation of all things, there be found an un-
answerable charge against her, of not rendering
unto her servants that which was just and equal-
of throwing them into situations of extreme dan-
ger, and providing no safeguard-forgetful that she
also has a Master in heaven, who will one day
call upon each of us to give an account of our
stewardship.
Instead, then, of receiving a new servant as a
necessary evil, and probable torment, to be borne
with while she may, and then turned adrift, let
the mistress regard her as a fellow-creature, de-
stined to an eternity of blessedness or woe; very
likely to have been brought up in a way wherein
she should not go, but affording an opportunity
of doing her, and through her, perhaps, hundreds
of others, a most important, enduring service.
Nothing can be more gratifying, nothing more
softening to the feelings of a poor girl, than to
find the mistress whom she is bound to serve
taking personal interest in her comfort and wel-
356
FEMALE INFLUENce.
fare. If the example set be a right one, the
notice taken judicious, the counsel given kind and
timely, there are very few even among those who
may have gone far astray, upon whom an impress-
ion will not be made; and if the poor menial be
addressed as one who may by divine mercy be
made rich in faith, and an heir of the kingdom of
heaven, if the efforts made are according to God's
word, and attended by secret prayer, we do say
that the lady whose handmaidens are taught thus
to look to her as a guardian and a guide, is one
whom many shall call blessed. She stands be-
tween the dead and the living to stay a consuming
plague; she may fail, in some instances, of her
generous object: yet she shall not fail of what
God hath promised to them that consider the
poor, to them that do justice, and love mercy.
There are ladies, and not a few, among the
most accomplished, the most delicate in the land,
who do this, habitually, constantly: they would
not knowingly admit into their households a man
such as we have described, or a female who was
not virtuous and modest; but, aware of the de-
ception practised, they are ever on their guard,
and guarding those under their charge, lest any
hypocrite should have crept in unawares to poison
the minds of the rest. They neglect no means for
the suppression of evil and promotion of its con-
trary; they commence the day by placing them-
selves and their assembled household under the
་
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
357
protection of the Almighty, who alone knows
what that day may bring forth; who alone sees
every snare, and can send deliverance from all.
Where this first duty towards their own Master
is neglected by the heads of the family, no marvel
if they entertain little hope of inducing the do-
mestics to render faithful service to them. Such
omission lies at the root of all mischief, private
and public; nor can any success be reasonably
looked for, where an office is undertaken without
any reference to Him from whom all holy desires,
all just counsels, and all good works do proceed.
We should therefore have set out by urging on
every lady the necessity of accomplishing the
great preparatory step-family prayer; but there
are cases where the mistress of the house is baffled
by a superior authority, in her endeavour to bring
this about; and in the consciousnesss of desiring
and striving after it, she must proceed without
such important auxiliary. Of the too general
custom of commencing the day's employments,
and rushing into the world's temptations, without
any recognition of the Creator, Saviour, Governor
of men, we can only say that it amounts to vir-
tually discharging our servants from their alle-
giance to us, by shewing them that we have cast
off our own to our heavenly sovereign.
The mistress of the family should enquire into
the character of the books in use among her de-
pendents, and be careful to supply them with
358
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
I
reading at once pleasing and profitable. A faith-
ful housekeeper is no doubt a great treasure where
such intermediate authority is required; but one
who is herself a salaried assistant can never exer-
cise over the inferior domestics the moral influence
belonging to the mistress herself; neither can she
so effectually fulfil this part of a duty which is not
properly transferable. We do not say that in
every house the servants would be benefitted in
proportion as their mistress came under their per-
sonal observation; the reverse is sometimes the
case, unhappily for both parties: but this ought
not to be; and a more universal intercourse be-
tween the drawing-room and the servant's hall,
however incongruous such expression may sound
in ears polite, would operate as an insensible check
on the pride, the passion, the indolence and sel-
fishness of the superior, at the same time drawing
out her better qualities. We quit this subject,
only remarking that the emphatic solemnity of the
repeated injunctions given to the heads of fam-
ilies, in reference to their servants, throughout the
Scriptures, leaves no room for any, however in-
disposed to these duties, to hope that their neglect
of them shall escape the searching judgment of God.
In shopping transactions, including every thing
connected with barter, a wide range of usefulness
is opened to our countrywomen: and very many
are the oppressive wrongs which a little circum-
spection on their part might materially restrain.
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
359
The pernicious system of bargaining, to which the
highest often condescend, and of excelling in
which the wealthiest boast, is a great encourage-
ment both to fraud and to cruelty. The tradesman
who feels that he must either sell his goods below
the price that would yield him a fair profit, or
hazard the loss of a customer, and through her,
perhaps, of many more, is tempted to compromise
the matter by overcharging, probably some other
person, ill able to afford any loss; or to reduce
yet farther the miserable remuneration of the
poor labourers connected with his business. It
certainly induces many to price their goods beyond
what is just, that they may the better afford to be
beaten down by bargaining purchasers, to the
actual robbery of such as would scorn to offer a
tradesman less than he says the article is worth.
It is a tax levied, not upon the pocket of the
seller, but his honesty: the pecuniary loss falls on
other buyers, or on the very poorest of the toiling
poor.
And this call for interposition is especially
urgent in a department principally under female
patronage and control; one, where almost every
lady in the land has power to interfere, at least
negatively, by withdrawing her custom, and stating
the reason of her so doing, where the offence is
committed. Dress-making and millinery are, with
few exceptions, carried on in establishments, and
by means of young females, either apprenticed to
360
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
:
learn the business, or employed on hire. It is
utterly impossible to describe what this class of
operatives undergo: physically, morally, and
spiritually, their condition is heart-rending. The
usual time of commencing work is six in the
morning what a walk through drizzling rain, or
piercing cold at that hour is, few of our fair
friends have probably learned by experience;
much less what is then the state of the atmosphere
in the localities where these poor girls usually have
their dormitories, when the damp, heavy mist is
surcharged with exhalations from every species of
nocturnal and other uncleanness with which the
neighbourhood abounds. They take their seats in
a pent-up apartment, and there they remain, for
at least sixteen hours, sometimes for forty, with
scarcely a change of position, and, in general,
only three quarters of an hour allowed for the
comfortless meals, whether one or three, that they
may take during the day: and when any press of
work requires their continued labour through the
night, a novel, or other exciting book, is read
aloud to them to counteract the otherwise irresis-
tible tendency to sleep over their work. Let it
be borne in mind what is the position of these
poor young creatures: seated, bending forward,
their eyes constantly fixed on one object, their
lungs inhaling an element vitiated in the extreme
by the close confinement for so many hours of
human beings within its narrow limits, steaming
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
361
infected with the
that derangement
inseparable from
with heat, and more or less
foetor of breath consequent on
of the digestive organs which is
protracted sedentary occupation. To which may
be added the very frequent instances of girls
continuing to work in these departments even to
the very last stage of consumption; as, indeed,
they must do, in order to provide themselves with
the common necessaries of food, clothing, and
shelter. All this, with the subtle, imperceptible
dust, the flue and floss ravelled off from the ma-
terials in use, steeped as they have often been in
poisonous dyes, render the air of a dress-maker's
working-room noxious beyond conception during
the best hours of day. What it becomes when
the fumes of gas or of oil take place of the small
portion of circulating atmospheric air, now shut
out by the closing of windows and doors, may be
partly conceived. Yet in this genteel pest-house
is the poor young creature cooped up, often
without the intervention of a day of rest for weeks
together. Ladies give their orders, enforcing a
punctual delivery of the article within a given
time, frequently so limited as to preclude all pos-
sibility of Sabbath observance on the part of those
engaged. Some employers do, indeed, clear their
premises of the working-party on Sunday, resolved
to secure their own holiday; but each poor slave
takes home a portion of work, which she must
complete by Monday morning, or forfeit the pri-
Ꭱ
362
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
f
!
vilege of earning her bread. It is a crying wrong;
a most murderous outrage, alike on the bodies
and the souls of the sufferers: and we are per-
suaded that many ladies would recoil with horror
from their habitual line of conduct in this respect,
could they but see at how fearful a price the
punctuality which they enforce is secured.
The remedy for this, the liberation of thousands
of slaves from a bondage which no English female
ought to connive at, or to tolerate for one moment,
lies in the hands of those whom we at present
address through their male friends; and their line
of duty is so easy that we should be sorry to think
it required more than a simple direction of their
notice to the point. Announcing their determina-
tion to deal with such employers only as will give
a pledge not to impose on their work-women tasks
beyond their natural strength, or such as can
encroach on the appointed day of rest,—they must
also be prepared to give a fair price for what they
require, enabling the dress-maker or milliner to
employ more hands, with adequate renumera-
tion for their toil. Care must also be taken to
allow a sufficient time for the completion of the
work. We know some ladies who effectually avoid
giving any pretext for the sabbath-breaking system,
by invariably issuing their orders early in the week,
so as to insure their fulfilment before its expiration.
This will go far in relieving such individuals from
the fearful responsibility incurred by others; but
FEMALE INFLUENCE.
363
...
what we would demand is a combined effort for
the amelioration of ills under which their country-
women groan. The same selfish rapacity which
lies at the root of all our national sins and dangers,
gives rise to this abuse. To force the greatest
possible amount of labour from the least possible
number of labourers, is the one governing maxim;
and how would the fashionable lady loathe the
costume that she most delights in, were the tears,
the life-blood of the poverty-stricken sempstress
employed by her artiste in the details of its em-
broidery, and in the combination of its shapely
proportions, made visible upon its surface: or, far
more, could she there read the tale of ruin, tem-
poral and eternal, to which the miserable sister of
her nature is doomed, to swell the gains of a
calculating directress! These things ARE: to be
wilfully ignorant of them, or to know that they
exist, and to take no decided step towards putting
them away from before the eyes of the Lord God
of Sabaoth, is a matter between the English lady
and Him to whom she must give account, when
all these glittering vanities have passed away, and
nothing remain of them, but what is recorded
in those books out of which the dead shall be
judged.
R 2
CHAPTER XXI.
CONCLUDING REMARks.
ON glancing over what has been written, we are
most painfully conscious of having left unsaid more
than one half of what in duty we were bound to say,
if the limits of the work would have admitted of it.
We have not penetrated beyond the surface; we
have not filled out one department of the naked
outline of our subject. With a heavy heart we
commenced, and with an aggravated weight of
sorrowful despondency we conclude this volume:
for truly we have been met at every point by the
appalling invitation addressed to the prophet,
"Turn again, son of man, and thou shalt see
greater abominations than these." We might
have entered more into detail; we might have
brought powerful arguments to bear on the various
bodies of our countrymen who have passed under
brief review; but we felt that to lay open the
general features of the whole case under the public
eye, leaving each reader to follow up, as best
accorded with his own opportunities, the branch
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
365
concerning himself, would be better than to con-
fine ourselves to a more limited range, even with
the advantage of accurately surveying the whole
of such selected ground. The graces of composi-
tion we have not aimed at have not bestowed
a thought on the matter. Our patriotism is not
of that cast which could tune a fiddle while the
surrounding country is bursting into flames. Our
warning note may be rough, and unmusical,-let
it but startle the hearer, and we are content.
Among the many topics necessarily passed over,
yet intimately connected with the perilous state
of the land, because especially calculated to
provoke divine vengeance, we will briefly allude
to two or three, of very obvious character;
showing how inefficient are existing laws, or at
least how ineffectually administered, for the sup-
pression of enormous public crimes. And first,
the impunity with which blasphemy and obscenity
exhibit their hateful forms in our open thorough-
fares. Not long since, a young English gentle-
man was constrained to commit a breach of the
peace for common decency's sake, and to vindi-
cate the insulted majesty of God. For this he
was, duly and necessarily, conducted to the bar
of a public office, found guilty of the misde-
meanor, mulcted by the magistrate, according to
law, in the amount of damage done, and by
that same magistrate publicly applauded and
thanked for the deed; while every man, woman,
1
1
!
:
366
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
and child in England, not wholly enlisted in the
service of the devil, was bound to echo that com-
mendation, and to join in those thanks.
An ano-
maly like this could not for an hour be allowed to
endure, if legislation were conducted, and its
provisions enforced, as they ought to be. The
horrors that day after day, and from month to
month, sickened men's eyes, and polluted their
minds with involuntary contamination, at the
window of a literary hell in the very heart of the
metropolis, after they had been reported to the
Secretary of State for the Home Department,
and his interference earnestly implored, were too
much for this young man's endurance. He armed
himself with a walking-stick, smashed the pane
of glass, tore out the diabolical offence, and de-
clared that if he could have found the owner of
the shop he would have committed a further breach
of the law by assaulting him; which declaration
he calmly repeated in the magistrate's presence,
to the undisguised delight of all who heard him.
Professing to deal in facts, we advert to this, and
ask, is the nation so strong as to cast off all de-
pendance upon God, and connive at such insults
against Him as must and will rouse His venge-
ance? Are we reduced to such a pass as to make
it desirable to see a body of men associated for
the purpose of smashing windows, destroying
private property, and assaulting their fellow-sub-
jects? Yet so it is; England contains not a man
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
367
1
worthy of the name, who would not cheerfully
abide all the pains and penalties of her violated
laws, to remove from before the eyes of a profes-
sedly Christian people, from before the eye of
Him whom they profess to worship, such loath-
some abominations. We tremble at this branch
of our multifarious subject, more than at any
other; for amid all our provocations, which is
immediately levelled at the very person of JEHO-
VAH but this? Which of all the sins that laid
His own chosen and beloved people under a curse
of nearly two thousand years' duration, approach-
ed it in turpitude? So long as any man can with
impunity exhibit blasphemous and obscene pub-
lications in our streets-so long as he can, with
the knowledge of the powers that be, vend them
even in the darkest recesses of his den,-so long
the magistrate beareth the sword in vain, and
the national profession of religion is an impious
farce.
"Be not deceived, God is not mocked." There
are other witnesses besides ourselves to these
things; and when such a studied scoff at the Most
High as this becomes inevitably known to the
whole population by means of the public press,
then it is that He will vindicate His outraged
honour in the midst of us. Of all the cruelties
that oppression can practise, the greatest is that
of conniving at the moral and spiritual destruction
of the young, the ignorant, the unguarded. The
1
368
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
E.
liberty that leaves a man free to administer a
deadly poison to the soul of his neighbour, is pre-
cisely of a piece with that which should sanction
him in the shedding of his blood; though we do
not say that in kind it is not far more ruinous.
The wretch who was known to carry a knife for
the purpose of promiscuous slaughter, would soon
fall a victim to the instinctive self-preservation of
those around him, if no law existed to disarm and
punish him. But here, the son of a family
who perhaps have carefully trained him in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord, goes forth
on his daily business, or for harmless relaxation,
and is brought into contact with such defiling pitch,
that the mind which it has once touched can
never regain its purity; the thought that has been,
unawares, led to contemplate but for a moment,
the frightful juxta-position of things most awfully
sacred and holy with the filthiest abominations of
some mind altogether given up to the possession
of a legion of unclean devils, is thenceforward
haunted by horrible temptations to entertain ima-
ginations the very struggle against which is agony
-the wilful entertainment of them death ever-
lasting. Yet it is a trade, a regular traffic syste-
matically carried on thoughout the land; every
man knows it, and no man has yet arisen to say
'It shall be so no longer: the iron shall not thus
enter into the soul of the simple; the labour of
the careful father, the pious mother, the zealous
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
369
pastor shall not thus be rendered vain; the only
legitimate source of all obedience shall not be
closed up against the poor man's access, and the
floodgates of all anarchy opened upon him, to
bear him away on its irresistible current.' "There
is no power but of God: the powers that be
are ordained of God: whosoever therefore resist-
eth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and
they that resist shall receive to themselves dam-
nation." So says the Scripture; and what can
follow, when the very being of the Supreme is
called in question, His power, therefore, made a
nonentity, His ordinances a lie, and damnation
a jest? What but a raging impatience of all
control, and an eager appeal to physical force,
whenever it is found preponderating against con-
stituted authorities. The liberty of the subject is
not secured but sacrificed, by the laxity of our
laws in this respect. It is liberty conceded to a
few, the very refuse and scum of society, wretches,
hateful to God and man, to insult, aggrieve, and
destroy the bulk of our population. In lieu of
protecting them in their nefarious traffic, why not
protect the country from the defilement they
spread over it, and its inhabitants from the sure
vengeance of Him whose Holy Name is every
where blasphemed, and His laws trampled under
foot, by means of this intoxicating poison?
Another of the most frightful features of the
age, one that cannot be palliated by any species of
L
R 5
370
CONCLUDING REMARKS..
sophistry when taken in connection, we will not
say with the profession of national Christianity,
but, with an ordinary regard to such public mor-
ality as heathens may be expected to enforce, is
the system now prevailing at the theatres. Ad-
mitting that such performances could be, in
themselves, unexceptionable that they in-
volved no breach of God's laws, no trifling with
his Holy Name, nothing inimical to right princi-
ples, nor offensive to modesty; and that the
characters who tread the stage found in their
occupation no particular snare, but were equally
respectable and virtuous in all their grades, as any
other class of persons who live by their own exer-
tions: (how far these points are admissible let the
play-going community judge) still we have before
us a spectacle of such moral turpitude as can
scarcely be elsewhere equalled.
The great theatres of London are understood
to be the most notorious brothels in the metropolis.
However highly patronized and munificently sup-
ported by the regular contributions of those who
frequent them, merely as places of amusement,
and who may not be aware of the fact, their profits
mainly depend on the success of a comparatively
secret branch of the establishment-i. e. the
saloons, to which the male part of the audience
are allured by prostitutes, decked out for that
purpose, and for that purpose provided with free
admission. The scenery, dresses, and decorations,
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
371
the music, dancing, and histrionic art, may com-
bine their attractions, and assemble many, who
come and go, unconscious of the iniquities referr-
ed to; but, with perhaps a single exception, it
is as marts of prostitution, and mainly on the
profits derived from this foul attraction, that our
theatres are maintained. It is not merely
the opportunity afforded for making appointments
with intentions of criminal indulgence; it is the
deliberate plan; the studied arrangement, the ac-
commodation provided for carrying into effect
every sinful purpose without leaving the premises,
that renders the outrage so appalling; and that
cries for vengeance as signal as is the provocation.
In vain has the scene of depravity been repeatedly
wrapped in consuming flames, and the whole
fabric reduced to a heap of smoking ruins: still
have we beheld the temple of obscenity again.
rearing its head, with extended facilities for guilt,
and an outlay of increased amount ventured on to
render the wages of shame more indispensable
towards its re-imbursement. If a moral man,
ignorant as some men really are, of these practices
in the bosom of refined English society, were to
hear the thing described, in connection with some
heathen people in the uttermost parts of the earth,
he would call for missionaries to proceed thither
and enlighten the wretched inhabitants, by sup-
plying them with the purifying knowledge of
Christianity. But tell him that the place is Lon-
372
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
don, the responsible parties gentlemen who per-
haps roll by in their carriages to share the
hospitality of some nobleman high in power; that
the chief agents are those haggard girls, not yet
adorned for the decoy, who sicken him as they
cross his path; and their intended paramours the
young men, ay, and the old men too, who now
pass them heedless or scornfully by-the father
with the son, the husband with the brothers, of
those virtuous females who either do not know,
or will not consider to what they expose their
male companions, when encouraging them to
venture within the poisoned atmosphere of the
theatre-tell him all this, and what must be his
dismay!
The whole system of histrionic entertainment is
vitally objectionable; the waste of time, which cer-
tainly was not given to be so squandered; the waste
of health, through hours of continuous excitement,
protracted far beyond the period when nature de-
mands repose, and in the close, heated, contaminated
atmosphere of a thronged, gas-lit building; the waste
of feeling, taught to realize and to weep at fictitious
woes, while many a mother shivers over her famish-
ing babe, and many a daughter becomes a vile,
a loathsome, and polluted thing in the streets
around, for lack of what they are squandering on
the tinselled heroes of the stage. To this we may
add the inevitable searing of the conscience; since
the thing they take delight in is a studied lie:
4
CONCLUDING REMarks.
373
A
and the language to which they listen is almost
invariably interlarded with unreal invocations
of the name of the Most Holy, with mock
prayers, or indelicate jests; and a perpetual
making light of the filial or conjugal duties. The
immodest apparel, frequently including the ex-
hibition of the female in man's attire; the loose
discourse, and familiar endearments carried on
between persons of different sexes, and uncon-
nected by any sanctioning tie; with the known
fact, that many of the most conspicuous and ad-
mired females live in a state of adultery or
fornication, while the male performers, in general,
are notorious libertines; all this must tend to
deaden the moral perception, and familiarize the
mind to images of a description utterly opposed to
all that ought to be cultivated in the character of
a British maiden or matron.
Yet, in lifting our voice against the theatre, we
incur the hazard of creating a prejudice against
every other section of our book. We regret this,
but we cannot avoid it. A statement of facts
must ever be unpalatable to some party; and
when we bring forward an instance where multi-
tudes join hand in hand to go astray, multitudes
will take offence. The plain test to which we
desire every assertion made in this volume to be
brought, is this: Is it true? and if true, is it
consistent with the word of God? Beguile our-
selves as we may on our journey through life, yet
374
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
at the journey's end one rule will be found im-
perative on all: and that rule is plainly before
us in every stage of our course: Jesus said, "The
word that I have spoken, the same shall judge
him in the last day." We may refuse now
to plead before that strict tribunal; we may open-
ly declare, or covertly imply, that "We will not
have this man to rule over us;" but this is decep-
tion, puerile, miserable self-deception. Who,
among us, asserting a householder's authority,
would brook that certain domestics in his establish-
ment should decide against submitting to that
authority; should frame rules for themselves
directly opposed to his commandments; should
respond a dogged 'I will not,' or turn a deaf
ear, when he distinctly says 'Do this,' or Abstain
from doing that;' and labour to seduce from
their obedience a whole family, by example, if
not by persuasion? Dismissal, instant and pe-
remptory, would be the penalty; an extrusion
of the offender, and strong reprobation of his evil
course: And though not always instant,-though
the long-suffering of Divine mercy bears with us,
as no one among us can bear with his fellow,-
yet who can doubt that the sentence will at last
be uttered; and "Depart from me!" seal the
offender's doom.
6
Again, we would adduce another cause of
offence, the weight of which is felt by many, and
often complained of. The position in which a
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
375
F]
1.
conscientious man finds himself placed when called
to serve on a coroner's inquest, is painful and pe-
rilous almost beyond conception. A fellow-crea-
ture has fallen by his own hand, under feelings
of nervous excitement, perhaps induced by the
enervating effects of a vicious life, perhaps by
jealousy; perhaps by the pressure of the appre-
hension of actual want; perhaps by disappoint-
ment in some matter on which he has set his heart.
The solemn oath is taken; and the verdict must
be given according to its provision, or the guilt of
perjury incurred. If the case be returned as one
of deliberate suicide, felo de se, the remains of
the victim are, of course, and most properly, de-
nied the accompaniment of that consolatory reli-
gious service which is provided for the interment
of such as die in the Christian faith; the body
will be buried in unconsecrated ground, and the
effects of the departed will be forfeited, to the
punishment of his innocent survivors; on whom
also must fall the shame of consanguinity with
one who has been publicly stigmatized as a felon
of the worst description. These considerations,
added to the piteous spectacle of the poor breath-
less corpse, the immortal tenant of which has gone
to answer at the bar of God for a sin on which
men really cannot inflict punishment, will weigh
powerfully against the strongest conviction of the
deliberate purpose with which the act was commit-
ted: and in every such case there are some ready
**
376
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
1
to propose a verdict of temporary insanity. To
justify this, it is pleaded that no man in his senses
would rush into the presence of God stained with
self-murder; and whatever is found to have led to
the desperate deed is charitably concluded to have
first overpowered his reason. But now, a man who
regards the awful sanctity of an oath may be led to
ask himself whether, if the blow aimed by the indi-
vidual against his own life had been levelled with
like murderous purpose at the life of another,
and with the same success, he should have felt
himself justified in pronouncing a verdict of ac-
quittal on the same plea of insanity? Whether
the irritation of nerve, the jealousy, the disap-
pointment, would have rendered the criminal un-
accountable to the law of the land as a wilful mur-
derer; or whether the same pressure of distress
leading to a highway robbery might have pur-
chased for him the same immunity? If the reply
be a decided negative; if he feel that no such
excuse would have availed in a criminal court to
avert punishment, then how shall he reconcile with
his solemn oath a decision that he feels to be
fallacious, and only arrived at through a desire
to spare the feelings of others a cruel pang, or to
save their property from confiscation? Still he
will be pressed on all sides; some attach such vast
importance to the burial service that they would
deem it a fearful wrong to deprive a fellow-creature
of what is, in truth, a boon to the living, not the
.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
377
dead; others plead the cruel injustice of adding
loss and disgrace to the anguish of the survivors;
and in short, we find a majority always able to
carry the verdict in the form that softens down a
deed of the darkest guilt into one of pitiable in-
firmity; and the man who planned the act with
deliberate coolness, and perhaps wrote letters that
only a sane mind could dictate, apprizing his
friends of what he was about to do, is declared on
the oath of twelve men to have acted under the
influence of mental aberration, and pronounced
guiltless in the face of the clearest evidence. This
is a terrible perversion of a law framed for the
best of purposes; and a perilous temptation in
the path of those who are compulsorily summoned
to administer it: we do not assume to suggest a
remedy; but we must remind those who may
have power to amend this law, that false swearing
is repeatedly named in Holy Scripture among the
things against which God will be "a swift wit-
ness," by taking very sudden and very terrible
public vengeance.
Once more, what a frightful feature in our pre-
sent position is the actual amount and the univer-
sal tolerance of prostitution! We are not about
to enter into the revolting subject, or to trace the
natural operation of certain popular theories in
producing an enormous increase of this crime.
We are not inclined to exhibit even a glimpse of
the infernal dens where female innocence, yea,
378
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
female infancy is daily entrapped, and destroyed
with the full knowledge, and therefore, we say it
boldly, with the guilty participation of public
authorities. We just point to the squalid spec-
tres haunting our streets, lately bright in the
bloom of healthful life, now rapidly sinking, the
prey of premature corruption, such as the tomb
alone should know, into the pit :-we cannot
point, though the finger of God can and does, to
the myriads of unmarked graves where the worm
has finished his repast on the loathsome remains
of their predecessors—and we ask, "Who slew all
these?" They were all slain, these dead; and the
dying, and those yet fresh in the horrible trade,
are all doomed in a slaughter, violent, untimely,
and doubly murderous. Where does the guilt rest?
A large portion, undoubtedly, upon those who by
oppressing the hirelings in their wages leave them
no other resource: but this is not all. We should
ill discharge ourselves of a solemn obligation if we
failed to demand attention to a point of such ex-
ceeding urgency as this: always bearing in mind
that England takes up her position as a country
most emphatically Christian.
Disregard for the well-being of others is the
main cause of every national offence committed
among us and no marvel, for it is the deliberate
rejection of that one principle laid down in the
word of God, as of paramount importance in
man's dealings with man. "Love worketh no ill
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
379
to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling
of the law." We cannot set aside the evidence
perpetually forced on our conviction, of a syste-
matic departure from such rule on the part of
employers in almost every existing branch of la-
bour, of enterprize, and speculation. The pro-
prietor, whether of land, of the mill, the mine,
the ship, or in whatever department capital is in-
vested, the master-tradesman, the journeyman
overlooker, the purchaser in every variety and de-
gree, appear to be instigated by one desire ;
namely, that of gain. Whenever a man begins
to accumulate, be it by shillings or be it by thou-
sands of pounds, the mania attacks him; growing
with the growth of his prosperity, and strengthening
with the strength of his efforts. All, indeed, do
not hoard their gains; some freely spend, and
some liberally give of their abundance; but in all
business transactions this fatal tendency prepon-
derates, so that a man who should be known to
act upon the Apostolic precept, Why do ye not
rather take wrong; why do ye not suffer your-
selves to be defrauded?" would be universally
set down as a fool whom anybody would be justi-
fied in punishing for his folly, by overreaching
him. The only persons beyond the reach of this
temptation are the very poor, who have not, per-
haps, even a surplus crust to put by from to-day's
meal, that tomorrow may not find them wholly
destitute of such a thing. On these the burden
380
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
I
falls: the dilapidated hovel, stripped of its little
plot of garden, the long hours of work, the redu-
ced wages, the parish pittance pared down to the
utmost, and reluctantly doled forth, the studied
cruelty of workhouse regulations, all that embitters
his cup of poverty, all that leaves his soul to its
natural darkness, and the heart to its inbred cor-
ruptions, result from this. But because almost
all orders of thinking and reading and writing
men, are in some measure implicated in it, we
find them all agreed in assigning some other cause
however contradictory in the result of their en-
quiries after it. One class finds it in the Corn
Laws; another in surplus population; a third in
free-trade: some trace it in the position of the
Church; others in the policy of the administra-
tion; while the stalwart masses who neither write
books nor read them, feelingly convinced that, be
the cause what it may, starvation is the effect,
stand ready to place their enormous physical force
at the disposal of any one who may persuade
them that his panacea will operate to their per-
manent advantage.
Yet let us not wrong them; their patient en-
durance of unparalleled privations has been won-
derful; and the reasonableness of their present
demand, no honest man can deny. Give us, say
they, a fair day's wages for a fair day's work, and
we will labour cheerfully in the lowly station
where God has placed us. This is not to be; the
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
381
employer, surrounded with the luxuries that his
successful speculations has brought within his
grasp, pleads inability to remunerate the drudge,
whose demand extends not beyond what God and
man pronounce to be just. Machinery, multiplying
and improving on every side, daily encroaches
farther on human industry; and with this exas-
perating spectacle before his eyes, the poor man
knows that his demand is less likely to be listened
to, as the proprietor becomes more independant
of his services, through the active operation of
wheels and pullies. If we could be assured that
our starving millions had resolved quietly to lie
down and die, there would be nothing to dread,
save the slumbering bolt of divine vengeance, re-
garded probably as a flight of poetical fancy,
rather than an annihilating reality to be manifested
hereafter; but no such determination has yet been
announced by the sufferers, and divine retribution
assumes some tangibility of shape, when we see
human instruments ready prepared to the work.
The subject will doubtless engross much of the
attention of the legislature during the coming
session; and that their consultations may be directed
to the advancement of God's glory, the good of
his Church, and the safety, honour, and welfare
of our Sovereign and her dominions, is a prayer
that ought to issue from the ground of every
heart. Meanwhile, this fact stares us in the face:
England is in imminent peril; she has within
382
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
herself abundant means for the removal of all
from which that peril springs, if each among her
well-informed classes will do his duty, first by
searching and trying his own ways, that he may
return to the Lord in whatsoever he has departed
from Him,-secondly, by using the full amount
of his influence to disseminate right principles
where they are obviously needed, through igno-
rance of truths which he can impart; and thirdly,
by openly combining with such as are like-minded,
to bring about improvements which we see to be
essential to the permanent establishment on a
right basis of what now stands, tottering to its
fall, on one as unsubstantial as it is unsightly. In
all this, the word of God must be taken for a
guide it is vain to place confidence in any other.
The season of sunshine and of calm is too pal-
pably past the rain is about to descend; the
floods to swell, and the winds to blow: they will
beat upon our house, and that house must fall,
unless it prove to be indeed founded upon a rock.
:
THE END.
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•
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The Pilgrim's Progress.
With
Coloured Illustrations. 2s. 6d.
The History Scrap Book:
Soldier and Patriot (George Wash-
ington).
The Young Man in the Battle of
Life. By the Rev. Dr. Landels.
The True Glory of Woman. By the
Rev. Dr. Landels.
At the South Pole.
of Standard Tales, &c.
Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. each.
All Illus-
Krilof and his Fables. By W. R. S.
Ralston, M.A.
Fairy Tales. By Prof. Morley..
The Old Fairy Tales. With Original
Illustrations. Boards, 18.; cl., 18. 6d.
My Diary. With 12 Coloured Plates
and 366 Woodcuts. 18.
With
The Sunday Scrap Book.
nearly 1,000 Engravings: 58.;
cloth, 78. 6d.
With
One Thousand Scripture Pictures.
Boards, 5s.; cloth, 78. 6d.
Cassell & Company's Complete Catalogue will be sent post
free on application to
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited, Ludgate Hill, London.
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