PLEA, 
 
 TO POWER AND PARLIAMENT, 
 
 WORKING CLASSES. 
 
 R. A. 3LANEY, ESQ. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS, 
 
 J. RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY; 
 
 AND HATCHARD & SON, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1847. 
 

 London : 
 
 Spottiswoode and Shaw, 
 N'pw-street-Square. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Having, for some years past, viewed with 
 sorrow the depressed state of large bodies of 
 the working classes, and having examined with 
 some labour and attention into the causes of 
 their sufferings, I have ventured to submit 
 the results to the Public. 
 
 I earnestly hope this statement (which has 
 no reference to party differences) may assist in 
 leading to gradual improvement in the condi¬ 
 tion of many industrious men. 
 
 R, A. S. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Comparison of advance of comfort of dilferent classes 
 in England — Great improvements in the state of the 
 upper and middle classes - - Page 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 State of working classes — Divided into country and 
 town labourers - - - - - 5 
 
 CHAPTER IH. 
 
 Agricultural labourers not improved in proportion to 
 the classes above them — Their state since 1800 — 
 Abuses of the Poor Laws —Reports of 1817, 1819, 
 1824, 1828, and 1832 — Humber of paupers increased 
 from 1 in 12 to 1 in 6 — Forethought and industry 
 injured — Considerable improvement under Hew Poor 
 Law — Its severity - - - - 7 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 State of the working classes in towns not improved 
 in proportion to upper classes — Proofs — Reports 
 on state of the East of London by Dr. Arnot and 
 Dr. S. Smith — Report on State of Great Towns by 
 Committee of House of Commons, 1840 - - 16 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Report on State of Working Classes in England and 
 Scotland by SR. Chadwick, from the Poor Law Com¬ 
 mission — Additional Reports — Destitute and de- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 graded state — Report of the Royal Commission on 
 the Health of Towns, 1844 — Second Report ditto, 
 on Remedial Measures, 1845 — Abject state of many 
 in towns — Injury to health, property, and morals 
 
 Page 31 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Reports on Factories — Inspectors’ Reports — Reports 
 on Low State of Hand-loom Weavers — Reports on 
 the State of Workmen in Coal and Iron Mines — 
 Low scale of comfort—Often hardly and unjustly 
 used - - - - - - 40 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 Report of Children’s Employment Commission, 1844 — 
 Neglect of education—Want of protection for the 
 children — Melancholy conclusion of Commissioners 
 53 
 
 CHAPTER VHI. 
 
 Want of education for poor — Evidence — Report of 
 Committee of 1838 — Report of Inspectors of Prisons 
 — Inspectors to Committee of Council - - CO 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Effect of neglect of the working classes: Discontent, 
 disease, and increased mortality - - 66 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Fearful increase of criminals — Increased consumption 
 of spirits — Both much beyond increase of popula¬ 
 tion .78 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Cost of crime, of disease, and ignorance, equal to whole 
 interest of the national debt — Vast saving to be gra¬ 
 dually effected — Calculation - - - 82 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XH. 
 
 Increased security, comfort, and happiness - Page 91 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Practicable remedies — Good sanatory measures recom¬ 
 mended unanimously by Commission of Health: 
 Draining, cleansing, supply of water — Enforced by 
 authority — System of proper inspection - 95 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Good education for the working classes to be afforded 
 —Enforced by the State — Learning not enough — 
 Dispositions and conduct to be improved — Self- 
 control and kindness inculcated —Deficiency of pre¬ 
 sent state of Instruction — Reports of Committee — 
 Ditto of inspectors — Committee of Council - 102 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Societies for insurance against illness and want of work 
 — Reasons for them — Report of Committee on 
 Manufacturers—Employment—Injustice of combina¬ 
 tion laws — Good working of regulated societies 115 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Means of exercise and occasional amusement for the 
 working classes — Few opportunities of exercise with 
 their families — Public walks and parks — Railway 
 excursions ----- 129 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Policy of establishing a Commission or Board to watch 
 over the welfare of the working classes — To consider 
 and digest remedies for evils affecting them—To look 
 forward and provide before the evils become extensive 
 and severe — To report from time to time on the con¬ 
 dition of the working classes — Constitution of Board 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 to be free from party motives — JTot changed with 
 every ministry—General functions—Beneficial effects 
 Page 141 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Principles which regulate the welfare of the working 
 classes — Proportion of capital to population — Laws 
 which regulate increase of capital —Government 
 should not interfere with the increase, direction, or 
 investment of capital — Should remove obstacles in 
 bad laws, regulations, or usages — Government 
 should not attempt to check, encourage, or regulate 
 population — Should afford protection and real edu¬ 
 cation to working classes, and thus they will regulate 
 themselves best — Indirect power by these means for 
 a wise Government and the governing classes to adjust 
 numbers to capital; thereby wages will be good and 
 the people well off 149 
 
A PLEA 
 
 THE WORKING CLASSES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ADVANCE IN COMFORT OF DIFFERENT CLASSES. 
 
 Since the beginning of the century no one can 
 doubt that Great Britain has made rapid pro¬ 
 gress in power, wealth, and improvement. 
 
 The produce of our lands have been greatly 
 increased, our manufactures are vastly aug¬ 
 mented, our commerce is extended, and our 
 exports and imports almost exceed belief. As¬ 
 tonishing improvements have been made in our 
 roads, canals, railways, and modes of convey- 
 ; ance. Public buildings of great utility and extent, 
 and costing immense sums, have been erected. 
 Private buildings, comprising dwellings of every 
 
ADVANCE IN COMFORT 
 
 description in the metropolis, provincial towns, 
 and the country, have risen up in the same 
 period in a most astonishing manner. Within 
 the last half century London has been extended 
 on all sides, and excellent houses of various 
 sizes and descriptions now occupy large spaces 
 in place of fields and gardens, which formerly 
 surrounded the capital. Innumerable villas, 
 mansions, and suburban cottages are seen on 
 every side. Something like the same rapid 
 progress of improvement seem to have taken 
 place in and about almost all our larger towns, 
 and many others.* Besides the immense in¬ 
 crease in wealth and population of our principal 
 manufacturing and sea-port towns, our old 
 country towns have many improved dwellings, 
 added to their suburbs, or ornamenting the 
 country near them. Inland watering-places, 
 and sea-bathing towns filled with the upper or 
 middle classes, have multiplied and extended 
 during the same period; and from the mouth 
 of the Thames to the Bristol Channel the coast 
 
 * “ In nothing is improvement more apparent then in 
 the condition of the dwellings of the middle classes.” 
 The improvement has not been extended in equal de¬ 
 gree to the dwellings of the working classes. Those in 
 the large towns are still for the most part comfortless, 
 ill furnished, unwholesome, and ill kept.” — Porter, Pro¬ 
 gress of the'Nation, p. 533. 2d edit. 
 
OF DIFFERENT CLASSES. 
 
 is studded with thousands of dwellings, in¬ 
 habited by persons in easy circumstances. If 
 we traverse the country in any direction we 
 shall find the mansions of the nobility, gentry, 
 and proprietors rebuilt or greatly improved 
 since the beginning of the century. Many ad¬ 
 ditional country-houses have been erected, each 
 the centre of a little circle of comfort to those 
 around it. 
 
 In like manner, in many districts, we shall 
 find new farmhouses, and in almost every 
 rural village and hamlet some snug homestead, 
 sometimes with a little shop annexed to it, cal¬ 
 culated for a small tradesman or dealer. 
 
 It is impossible for us to contemplate these 
 things in every part of the realm throughout 
 the length and breadth of our country, without 
 feelings of complacency, often of pride, some¬ 
 times we hope of gratitude. 
 
 As we view these wonderful improvements 
 which half a century has brought forth, we 
 attribute them, perhaps with pardonable com¬ 
 placency, to the freedom and excellence of our 
 government, to the energy of our national cha¬ 
 racter, to the untiring industry of our workmen. 
 
 Perhaps we may feel a desire to know what 
 is the condition of those workmen to whom we 
 owe so much. What is the state of comfort of 
 those manufacturers and labourers whose eon- 
 
4 COMFORT OF DIFFERENT CLASSES. 
 
 stant toil has formed and fashioned the noble 
 works we admire; whose perseverance has raised 
 or adorned and furnished those edifices which 
 stand around us, and whose industry has cre¬ 
 ated the capital supplying the means for these 
 mighty changes!* 
 
 * Mr. Porter, in his work on the Progress of the 
 Nation, happily describes “ the improvements which 
 have taken place in the habitations and comforts of the 
 middle classes” (p. 532.). It would be easy to support 
 his statements by official returns of various kinds hear¬ 
 ing on the question. We hope and believe with him 
 “that the elements of social improvement have been 
 and are producing an increased amount of comfort to 
 the great bulk of the people.” We fear it will be found, 
 however, that the working people, especially vast bodies 
 of unskilled labourers, have not had secured to them 
 their due and reasonable proportion in this advance of 
 social improvement. 
 
STATE OP THE LABOURING CLASSES. 5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 STATE OP.THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
 
 The question will recur to every thinkino- 
 mincl — Have the labouring classes (those 
 whose hands created the vast amount of 
 wealth about us) received their fair share? 
 Is their condition improved in proportion to 
 that of others ? Have the laws, customs, and 
 regulations of the country watched over the 
 welfare of these multitudes of humble work¬ 
 ing men, who stand most in. need of pro¬ 
 tection, and to whom we are so deeply in¬ 
 debted? Have they had provided for them, 
 such fair opportunities of improving their moral 
 and physical condition as they ought to have ? 
 Have they had the means of enjoying the 
 decencies and comforts of life placed within 
 their reach ? for these greatly assist in forming 
 the minds and manners of men. Has their 
 health, and strength, and power to labour 
 (their sole possessions) been protected by the 
 laws of the country? Have they been pro¬ 
 vided with the means of instruction for their 
 
6 STATE OF THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
 
 children, and any sufficient facilities for attend¬ 
 ing religious worship themselves ? Has any 
 adequate effort been made to enable or induce 
 them to provide beforehand for those fluctu¬ 
 ations in the demand for, and wages of, labour, 
 which experience shows are frequently occur¬ 
 ring? Lastly, Has any provision been made 
 to enable the working people to enjoy occa¬ 
 sional holidays (as a relaxation from their toil) 
 in comfort and with families ? Have any fa¬ 
 cilities been given for their breathing the fresh 
 air, and being enabled to partake of any amuse¬ 
 ments, duly regulated, on these leisure days ? 
 
 These are questions of deep interest to every 
 one, well worth a little trouble to investigate. 
 
.AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 
 
 The labouring people of Great Britain are 
 divided into two large classes, viz. 1st. Agri¬ 
 cultural labourers residing chiefly in the coun¬ 
 try; 2d. Workmen residing in towns and 
 populous districts, comprising manufacturers, 
 miners, artizans, mechanics, and others work¬ 
 ing in cities and their vicinity. 
 
 With respect to agricultural labourers, we 
 would only make a few short and cursory re¬ 
 marks on their condition. They have the ad¬ 
 vantages of fresh air and constant exercise, 
 and hence have better health and longer life 
 (as shown by the returns of mortality) than 
 workmen in towns. In some places, and on 
 the estates of considerate and benevolent land- 
 owners, their condition has been much im¬ 
 proved ; and many efforts have lately been 
 made by societies and individuals to add to 
 their comforts. As a body, however, and look¬ 
 ing generally throughout the kingdom, we 
 shall be obliged to confess that their welfare 
 has been greatly neglected, and that they have 
 received from the legislature little of that care 
 
AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 
 
 and protection which should have been ex¬ 
 tended to them. 
 
 Successive reports of Committees of the 
 House of Commons show, that the benevolent 
 provisions of the Poor Law had been permitted 
 to degenerate into gross abuses. That these 
 abuses (arising in great measure from the neg¬ 
 lect and mistakes of magistrates and overseers) 
 prevailed extensively in twenty-six of the 
 southern counties of England, and more or less 
 tainted portions of the rest. 
 
 Illegal practices had been introduced of 
 making up wages, paying cottage rents, and 
 fixed allowances for children, and other such 
 payments, from the poor-rate. Thus the con¬ 
 dition of the industrious labourer had been 
 injured, the independence of the class was 
 undermined, and a premium to improvidence 
 and profligacy given. * 
 
 The extensive evils arising from these causes 
 were pointed out by many writers, and at length 
 were examined and reported upon by Com- 
 
 * Report of Committee of House of Commons on the 
 Poor Laws, 1817; chairman, the Hon. Stourges Bourne. 
 Report do. 1819; chairman, the Hon. Stourges Bourne. 
 Report do. 1824, on Labourers’"Wages; chairman, Lord 
 John Russell. Report do. 1828, on the Employment of 
 able-bodied poor from the Poor Rates; chairman, Mr. 
 Slaney. Report do. 1834, of Commission of Inquiry 
 into the Poor Laws, &c. 
 
AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 
 
 \ mittees of tlie House of Commons, and exten- 
 i sive alterations recommended, 
 j Any real improvement was however long 
 \ delayed. In the meantime, the discontent and 
 | misery, arising from these and other sources, 
 | broke into a kind of rural rebellion in some of 
 : the southern districts, and incendiary fires 
 : were seen from time to time in the stackyards 
 and villages in almost all the counties along the 
 coast from Suffolk and Essex to Somersetshire, 
 and as far inland as Oxfordshire, Buckingham- 
 i shire and Bedfordshire. * 
 
 At length the act of 4 & 5 William IV. c. 75., 
 commonly called the “ Hew Poor Law Act,” 
 was passed. This act put an end to many of 
 the abuses of the law which before existed; re¬ 
 fused aid to able-bodied applicants, unless they 
 entered the Union House, made use of other 
 tests to detect impostors, introduced an im¬ 
 proved arrangement and separation of different 
 classes of paupers, and other useful improve- 
 
 * The abuses described were shown to exist more or 
 less in twenty-six counties south of a line drawn from 
 Gloucester to Stamford. In 1831 evidence was given 
 before a Committee of the House of Lords on the Poor 
 Law, to show that in eight northern counties, where 
 there were few abuses, with a population exceeding two 
 millions, the rate was 754,0001, and in eight southern 
 counties (with abuses), and where there were also about 
 two millions in population, the poor rate was 1,510,000/., 
 or double the others. 
 
10 
 
 AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 
 
 ments and checks on wasteful and illegal ex¬ 
 penditure. 
 
 The amount annually expended in relief, or 
 support of the poor was thus gradually lessened 
 from 6,3l7,000i in 1834, to 4,460,000/. in 
 1837, which however is since increased to up- 
 . wards of 5,000,000/. in 1845. * 
 
 We may hope that by this means, combined 
 with greater attention to the state of the work¬ 
 ing classes in rural districts, considerable im¬ 
 provement may gradually be worked in their 
 condition, and that they will become more pro¬ 
 vident, industrious, and independent. On the 
 other hand, no one can expect that such a 
 change can take place except in the course of 
 years, or can hope that the degradation and 
 discontent consequent on the prevalence of the 
 abuses of the Poor Law system can be eradi¬ 
 cated in this generation, f • ; 
 
 Whilst we may acknowledge the necessity j 
 for a sterner administration of the law than j 
 before existed, we cannot but lament, that some j 
 of its provisions are of a very harsh nature, and ■ 
 * Report of Poor Law Commissioners for 1846. j 
 
 f In 1828, returns showed that in twenty parishes of ; 
 Suffolk, 2490 persons received from the poor-rate, of | 
 whom 607, or one-fourth, were able-bodied men. In j 
 Essex, of 3030 relieved in certain parishes, 979, or nearly | 
 one-third , were able-bodied men. In Herts, of 2437, \ 
 877, or above one-third, were able-bodied men. A truly \ 
 lamentable state of things! 
 
AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 
 
 11 
 
 [that the mode of carrying out its provisions 
 .have in some cases caused much suffering. 
 /Though these abuses are removed, and con¬ 
 siderable improvement in the state of the pea¬ 
 santry has taken place, especially where the 
 [proprietors take a kindly interest in their 
 jwelfare, yet we are compelled to come to the 
 .'conclusion, that viewing their general condition, 
 jand as a class, the agricultural and rural 
 (labourers of England have by no means kept 
 pace in improvement* with the middle and 
 I higher classes; and that they have not secured 
 jto them, as they ought to have, their fair 
 'share of the general increase of wealth and 
 : comfort, which they do so much to procure for 
 I others. 
 
 | It will be found that the wages of agricultural 
 ! labour have not kept pace with the cost of the 
 [ necessaries of life; but measured by the price 
 ■ of wheat is diminished rather than increased, f ■ 
 
 1 * Thus it was shown, in 1828, that the proportion of 
 
 persons receiving parish relief and their families had 
 ! increased from 1 in 12, in 1790, to 1 in 9 on the popula¬ 
 tion in 1801, to 1 in 8 in 1811, and in 1827 to 1 in 7. 
 In several counties to a much larger proportion, and in 
 Sussex where the cost was 11. per head on the whole po¬ 
 pulation of the county, one year the numbers receiving 
 relief and their families amounted to every third person 
 in many parishes. 
 
 f If then wages he measured in pints of wheat, it will 
 
12 • AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 
 
 If we ourselves examine the dwellings of the 
 peasantry who are not favoured by some espe¬ 
 cial advantage, we shall find how often they are 
 destitute of the comforts and decencies of life. 
 
 If we turn over the pages of the able report 
 of the Commissioners of the Poor Law in 1832, 
 or of the Poor Law Commissioners on the 
 sanatory condition of the labouring population 
 of Great Britain, and of the local reports f, 
 what a melancholy account shall we find of the 
 state of the peasantry in most of the counties 
 of England! 
 
 Whether we look to accounts of the western 
 counties, or of the eastern districts, of the 
 midland provinces, or of the labouring classes 
 in the north, we shall find much to lament and 
 to regret; and ample cause for sorrow and some 
 self-reproach, that the earlier attention of the 
 legislature and the public has not been turned 
 to serious efforts to remove or lessen the ex¬ 
 tensive evils described, which appear incom¬ 
 patible with comfort and contentment, or good 
 
 be found in fifty years they have considerably diminished; 
 great suffering has arisen from the constant fluctuations 
 in price of this first necessary of life, increased by mis¬ 
 taken interference and changes of currency, and varying 
 in the greatest degree from 50s. per quarter to 120s. 
 
 f Presented to both Houses of Parliament, by com¬ 
 mand of her Majesty, July, 1842. 
 
AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 
 
 13 
 
 moral habits, amid a large class of our popu¬ 
 lation ! 
 
 ; Amid these reports we find some accounts of 
 ! a gratifying nature, showing great improve- 
 jment in the dwellings and condition of their 
 cottage-tenants, carried out by benevolent pro¬ 
 prietors ; yet, on the whole, we find in these 
 valuable reports, as in other works on the 
 same subject, ample proof that the agricultural 
 labourers of England have not improved in 
 condition in proportion to other classes above 
 them*; and that they have not had seemed to 
 
 * The evidence of this we find in various reports of 
 Parliament of undoubted authority, a few extracts of 
 which are subjoined; the causes, especially as regards all 
 the southern counties of England, we believe to have 
 been chiefly abuses in the poor law, continued for many 
 years without any efficient check by the legislature or 
 the educated classes. Thus, in the Report of the House 
 of Commons on the Poor Laws of 1817, it is said — 
 “ The result appears to have been highly prejudicial to 
 the moral habits and happiness of a great body of the 
 peopleand that report throughout lays down the true 
 principles of poor law administration, and describes in 
 strong terms the evils arising from the abuses shown. In 
 the Report of 1819, the Committee speak of “ the cala¬ 
 mities to the kingdom which must attend the continued 
 progress of this evil.” They lay down the true principles 
 which regulate the demand and supply of labour (p. 7.), 
 and point out “how the evil of the present system may 
 be arrested, and its prejudicial effect in a moral, politi¬ 
 cal, and economical view be gradually and materially 
 
, 14 AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 
 
 them, by the vigilance of the legislature and the 
 public, that fair share of increasing comfort to 
 
 corrected” (p. 10.). But nothing effectual icas done. 
 The committee of 1824, on the practice of paying wages 
 from the poor rates, say, “ The evil of this practice 
 augments itself; and the steady, hard-working labourer 
 is converted into the degraded and inefficient pensioner 
 of the parish.” The mischiefs that follow are then ably 
 described, and it is truly said, “ By far the worst con¬ 
 sequences of the system is the degradation of the cha¬ 
 racter of the labouring classes” (p. 4.). In Suffolk, 
 Sussex, Beds, Bucks, Dorset, and Wilts, paying lvages 
 from poor rates has been carried to the greatest extent; 
 Norfolk, Kent, Huntingdon, and Devonshire are like¬ 
 wise affected by it” (p. 5.). “ A scale of allowance is 
 drawn up by the magistrates in many counties.” “ On 
 this allowance, whether idle or industrious, the labourer 
 relies as a right” (p. 7.). Nothing of consequence 
 was altered. The Report of 1828 on Poor Laws refers 
 to and 'confirms the statements of the former committees, 
 and states the abuses described “ As most injurious to the 
 industrious habits and permanent happiness of the poorer 
 classes;” says “that no material improvement has taken 
 place in the counties (above - ) alluded to in this respect, 
 and that the same system has been acted on in parts of 
 Kent, Herts, Surrey, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Middlesex, 
 Berks, and Oxfordshire” (p. 4.). They add, “These 
 abuses involve the depression and degradation of a nu¬ 
 merous and valuable class, who have the strongest title 
 to the protection of the legislature.” They then sug¬ 
 gest remedies, and a return to the directions of the law 
 and the practice of the North of England. But nothing 
 was done till 1833, when a Commission of Inquiry was 
 issued: its able report appeared in 1834, detailing in a 
 
AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 
 
 15 
 
 which they are entitled, and which they see 
 others enjoying around them. 
 
 most convincing way the “ enormous evils ” arising from 
 the abuses of the poor laws, and recommending reme¬ 
 dies which were afterwards carried out by law in the 
 Poor Law Act, 4 & 5 Wm. 4. c. 76. 
 
 Those acquainted with the general condition of agri¬ 
 cultural labourers well know and lament that the peasant 
 or his widow, when past work, have seldom any resource 
 in old age hut the parish; that in case of the illness of 
 his family, the doctor’s bill, against which he has usually 
 no way of providing, almost ruins him; and that, how¬ 
 ever orderly and frugal during long years of industry, 
 he has little chance of permanently improving his position 
 in life, or of even attaining the great object of his am¬ 
 bition—in keeping a cow! 
 
16 
 
 STATE OP THE 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 STATE OP THE WORKING CLASSES IN TOWNS, ETC. 
 
 Let us now turn to see what is the condition 
 of the other great division of our working 
 people, viz. labourers residing in towns and 
 populous districts, comprising manufacturers, 
 miners, artizans, mechanics, and others occupied 
 in cities or their vicinities. 
 
 The numbers and importance of this class 
 have increased in a surprising manner during 
 the last half century. “In 1790 the number 
 of manufacturers and workmen living in and 
 about towns was to the labourers in the 
 country districts as one to two. In 1840 the 
 proportions became completely reversed, and 
 the numbers of the former were to the latter 
 class as two to one. In forty years from 1800, 
 agricultural labourers increased from 40 to 45 
 per cent.; whilst workmen in towns and manu¬ 
 facturing districts augmented 120 per cent., 
 and in great towns much more.” 
 
 We might have supposed that the increasing 
 numbers and importance of the working classes 
 dwelling in great towns and populous districts, 
 
WORKING CLASSES IN TOWNS. 
 
 ’ would have attracted the attention and gained 
 ! the protection of the legislature, and that 
 j timely precautions would have been taken to 
 shield them from unnecessary suffering, and to 
 remedy or lessen, as far as practicable, the evils 
 inseparable in some measure from their situations 
 ; and employments. 
 
 It will be found, however, that this is not 
 the case. Some of the more intelligent and 
 skilled labourers of this class have indeed much 
 ; amended then- position; but in an honest view 
 i of the moral and physical condition of the great 
 ; mass of these poor persons and their families, 
 
 ; we shall find ample ground for confessing that 
 ; these industrious multitudes have not im¬ 
 proved in comfort, in any thing like a fair pro- 
 I portion to the middle and higher classes, and 
 ! that they have not had afforded to them hi- 
 itherto by the legislature that provident at¬ 
 tention which might have much added to their 
 health, happiness, and contentment. 
 
 Proofs. — We find ample proofs of this 
 statement in works of authority, which may be 
 briefly noticed, comprising accounts of the 
 .condition of the working classes in the metro¬ 
 polis, and the large towns and populous districts 
 jof the country. 
 
 I In a Report on physical causes of fever in 
 
18 
 
 STATE OE THE 
 
 the metropolis, removable by proper sanatory 
 measures, by Neil Arnott, M.D., and James 
 Phillips Kay, M. D.; and in a Report on the 
 condition of the Bethnal Green and White¬ 
 chapel Districts, by Southwood Smith, M. D.*; 
 and in a Report, by the same gentleman, on the 
 prevalence of fever in twenty metropolitan 
 parishes! — in these works we shall find a 
 melancholy account of the sufferings of many of 
 the working classes in London, from causes 
 removable by due legislative regulation. 
 
 In March 1840, a select Committee of the 
 House of Commons was appointed “to inquire 
 into the circumstances affecting the health of 
 the inhabitants of large towns and populous 
 districts, with a view to improved sanatory 
 regulations for their benefit.” 
 
 This Committee examined much evidence on 
 the subject, and reported to the House in June 
 following. | 
 
 * Fourth Annual Report of the Poor Law Commis¬ 
 sioners, 1838. Appendix, A, B. 1. 
 
 f Fifth Annual Keport of Poor Law Commissioners, 
 1839. Appendix C. No. 2. These reports were also 
 printed separately in 1839, as Reports on the Sanatory 
 State of the Labouring Classes as affected by the situa¬ 
 tion and construction of their dwellings in and about the 
 metropolis. 
 
 | Report from the Select Committee on the Health of 
 Towns, ordered to be printed, 17th June, 1840. 
 
■WORKING CLASSES IN TOWNS. 
 
 19 
 
 In their report we find the following passages: 
 
 — “Your Committee have inquired carefully 
 into the matters submitted to them, and find that 
 sanatory regulations in many of the principal 
 towns of the realm are most imperfect and 
 neglected, and that hence result great evils, 
 suffering, and expense to large bodies of the 
 community.” 
 
 The Eeport proceeds to state that “the in¬ 
 crease of population of England and Wales, 
 in 30 years, from 1801 to 1831, has been some¬ 
 thing more than 47 per cent; ” whilst the actual 
 increase of numbers in five of our most important 
 provincial towns has been, on an average, double 
 that amount in the same period, viz.: Man¬ 
 chester, 109 per cent.; Glasgow, 108 ; Bir¬ 
 mingham, 73 ; Leeds, 99; Liverpool, 100 *; 
 giving an average increase of almost 98 per 
 cent, in five cities, whose united population 
 in 1831 amounted to 844,700. “The larger 
 portion of this vast body of persons are engaged 
 constantly in occupations connected with manu¬ 
 factures and commerce.” 
 
 * The rapid increase in these great towns has con¬ 
 tinued in even an augmented ratio to 1841, the period 
 of the last census; Birmingham reaching in 1841 to 
 181,000 people; Manchester and Salford to 353,290, 
 from 94,000 in 1801, being an increase of 272 per cent. 
 
 — Porter's Progress, p. 26. 
 
20 
 
 STATE OP THE 
 
 After, some statements showing the past in¬ 
 crease in the population of great towns within 
 the present century, the Committee say—“ They 
 have confined their investigation to the con¬ 
 dition of certain populous towns, which might 
 he considered as samples of others similarly 
 situated. They have especially directed their 
 attention to localities in which the working and 
 poorer' classes chiefly reside, with a view, if evils 
 are found to exist there, within reach of legis¬ 
 lative remedy, to make such suggestions of 
 improvement as may appear practicable.” 
 
 They state that on a comparison of different 
 districts, that, cateris paribus , the mortality in¬ 
 creases as the density of the population increases; 
 and “ where the density and the population are 
 the same, that the rate of mortality depends 
 upon the efficiency of the ventilation and of 
 the means which are employed for the removal 
 of impurities.” * 
 
 The Eeport continues : “ Your Committee 
 have made inquiries into the state of the dwell¬ 
 ings of the poorer classes in various parts of 
 the metropolis, in Dublin, Glasgow, Liverpool, 
 Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Hull, Birming- 
 
 * Vide First Keport, Registrar General, on Births, 
 Deaths, &c. 
 
WORKING CLASSES . IN TOWNS. 21 
 
 ham, Coventry, and several other large towns; 
 and though there is a great difference in many 
 of the cases examined, they would state, as 
 a general result, that evils of a most extensive 
 and afflicting nature are found to prevail affecting 
 the health and comfort of vast bodies of their 
 fellow-subjects, and which might be removed or 
 much lessened by proper sanatory regulations.” 
 
 After saying, “that evidence has been laid 
 before them, depicting the miserably neglected 
 condition of the abodes of multitudes of the 
 working classes in the eastern parts of London,” 
 they add “ The same remarks apply, though 
 with somewhat diminished force, in various 
 other parts of London inhabited by the poorer 
 classes.” 
 
 In another part of the Report it is said, 
 “Evidence of undoubted credit and of the most 
 melancholy description has been laid before 
 your Committee, showing the neglected and 
 imperfect state of the sewerage, cleansing, and 
 paving in many parts of London inhabited 
 chiefly by the worhing classes; and similar evi¬ 
 dence applies with more or less force to many 
 other great towns, the state of which has been 
 investigated, as Dublin, Glasgow, Liverpool, 
 Manchester, Leeds, Bradford,” &c. 
 
 “Your Committee (continues the Report) 
 
22 
 
 STATE OF THE 
 
 do not wish to go into details as to the miser¬ 
 able and neglected stateof the dwellings of the 
 poorer classes in various districts of the metro¬ 
 polis and other large towns, but refer to the 
 evidence for that purpose, in which statements 
 of the most melancholy and appalling nature 
 will be found.* It will there be seen that the 
 sewerage, drainage, and cleansing is (in many 
 places inhabited by dense masses of the working 
 classes) greatly neglected; that the most neces¬ 
 sary precautions to preserve their health in 
 many cases appear.to have been forgotten; 
 that in consequence fevers and other disorders 
 of a contagious and fatal character are shown 
 to prevail to a very alarming extent, causing 
 wide-spread misery among the families of the 
 sufferers, often entailing weakness and prostra¬ 
 tion of strength among the survivors, and be¬ 
 coming the source of great expense to the 
 parishes and more opulent classes.” 
 
 They add (referring to the evidence of various 
 persons), “ many details will be found exempli¬ 
 fying the severe and extensive evils borne by the 
 humbler classes, from neglect of proper sanatory 
 regulations and precautions.” The wretched and 
 neglected state of a large portion of London 
 inhabited by the poorer classes is then ex- 
 
 Vide the evidence annexed to the Report. 
 
WORKING CLASSES IN TOWNS. 23 
 
 hibited, and tlie constant ravages of fever thence 
 arising. “ The Report states that in Liverpool 
 there were 7800 inhabited cellars, occupied by 
 upwards of 39,000 persons, being one-fifth of 
 all the working classes in that great town; and 
 that the great proportion of these inhabited 
 cellars were dark, damp, confined, ill-ventilated, 
 and dirty.” In addition to these, it is stated 
 that 80,000 of the working classes reside in 2400 
 courts in Liverpool; most of which are close 
 and unhealthy, being built up at the sides and 
 end, and the entrance under a narrow archway. 
 The state of these courts is described as almost 
 utterly neglected, with no underground sewers, 
 and no attention to cleansing. “In Man¬ 
 chester, nearly 15,000 persons, being 12 per 
 cent, of the working classes, live in cellars, and 
 in the adjacent town of Salford 3300. In 
 Leeds, with a population of above 80,000 per¬ 
 sons, the state of the streets, courts, and dwell¬ 
 ings inhabited by the working classes, appears 
 greatly neglected.” After referring to many 
 other populous places -where similar evils exist*, 
 the Report describes the state of Glasgow, 
 where the rate of mortality has increased most 
 rapidly, being in 1821 one in thirty-nine, and 
 
 * Vide evidence as to Bolton, population 50,000; Ash¬ 
 ton, Stayley, and Duckingfield, 60,000; Bradford, 90,000, 
 &c. &c. 
 
■ -!24 
 
 STATE OF THE 
 
 in 1838 one in twenty-six; showing the fright¬ 
 ful increase from one in thirty-nine to one in 
 twenty-six in seventeen years.* After advert¬ 
 ing to the state of other places where these 
 evils prevail, they proceed to say — “ Your 
 Committee have thus laid before the House 
 an imperfect abstract of the facts proved before 
 them in evidence, showing the neglect of due 
 sanatory regulations applicable to improve the 
 health and increase the comfort of great 
 bodies of the poorer classes.” After alluding 
 to the wide-spread moral evils arising from 
 these causes, and to the great cost cast on the 
 country by the illness of numbers, the Com¬ 
 mittee proceed to suggest remedies and to 
 recommend improvements in the law and re¬ 
 gulations relating to these subjects, tvhich are 
 detailed in the report, and conclude, “by most 
 •earnestly recommending all those who by for¬ 
 tune, station, or trust are placed in a situation 
 to carry out these views, to exert themselves to 
 the utmost and without delay, in aiding the 
 improvements suggested in these several towns 
 and neighbourhoods.’^ 
 
 * Dr. Cowan’s Vital Statistics. 
 
 f Vide Report, &c. Upwards of forty witnesses from 
 different towns were examined before this Committee, 
 which sat between two and three ;months. 
 
■WORKING CLASSES IN TOWNS. 25 
 
 General Report on the Sanatory Condition of the 
 
 Labouring Classes. By Mr. Chadwick, Se¬ 
 cretary to the Poor Law Commission, 1842. 
 
 In July, 1842, was laid before Parliament 
 and printed, the General Beport on the Sa¬ 
 natory Condition of the Labouring Population 
 of Great Britain, by Mr. Chadwick, Secretary 
 to the Poor Law Commission.* This excel¬ 
 lent work did the greatest credit to the ability, 
 perseverance, and intelligence of its benevolent 
 author. It awakened, by the clearness and 
 force of its statements, great public interest in 
 favour of the large bodies of the working 
 classes, who were shown to be suffering most 
 severely from the want of sanatory laws and 
 regulations for their benefit. It would be 
 useless to give long extracts from a work hap¬ 
 pily so well known, widely dispersed, of un¬ 
 doubted authority, and great interest. But it 
 may be well to give in a few lines an account 
 of the principal deductions to be drawn from 
 
 * This Report was drawn up in compliance with the 
 request of a letter by Lord John Russell (then Secretary 
 of State for the Home Department) to the Poor Law 
 Commissioners, dated August, 1839, desiring inquiry to 
 be made as to the extent to which causes of disease, 
 (stated in Appendix A and Appendix C of these 4th 
 and 5th Reports) may be found to prevail among the 
 labouring classes. 
 
26 
 
 STATE OP THE 
 
 it. The Eeport is very well arranged, and has 
 a good table of contents. It contains a mas¬ 
 terly account of 
 
 1. The general condition of the residences 
 of the labouring classes, where disease is found 
 to be most prevalent. 
 
 2. Public arrangements, external to the re¬ 
 sidences, by which the sanatory condition of 
 the labouring classes is affected. 
 
 3. Circumstances chiefly in the internal 
 economy and bad ventilation of places of work, 
 workmen’s lodging-houses, and dwellings, and 
 the domestic habits affecting the health of the 
 labouring classes. 
 
 4. Comparative chances of life in different 
 classes of the community. 
 
 5. Pecuniary burdens created by the neglect 
 of sanatory measures. It then proceeds to, 
 
 6. Evidence of the effects of preventive 
 measures in raising the standard of health in 
 the chances of life; and concludes with a con¬ 
 sideration of, 
 
 7- The principles of legislation and the state 
 of the existing law for the protection of public 
 health,, and suggestions for various remedial 
 measures to lessen the evils so ably described. 
 
 ■ The evidence on which the Eeport rests is 
 drawn from the personal observation of the 
 the author, together with abstracts and extracts 
 
WORKING CLASSES IN TOWNS. 27 
 
 from the accounts given by different poor law 
 commissioners, medical men, relieving and 
 parish officers, and others well acquainted with 
 the state of the working classes in towns and 
 the country. It comprises an account of the 
 condition of the labouring population in most 
 of our counties and many of our largest towns, 
 and extends to Scotland. It was followed by 
 two volumes, the first containing twenty-six 
 Reports by different assistant poor law com¬ 
 missioners, physicians, and others, on the sana¬ 
 tory condition of various counties, districts, and 
 large towns in England. The second contained 
 seventeen reports of a like nature relating to 
 Scotland. 
 
 In these works will be found matters of deep 
 interest to all those who are desirous to improve 
 the condition, or do justice to the working 
 classes of this country. There will be seen 
 ample details, comprising and extending greatly 
 the evidence given before the Committee on 
 Health of Towns, of the House of Commons in 
 1840, before adverted to. 
 
 Throughout these volumes will be found the 
 clearest proofs' that the labouring population, 
 especially those (now so greatly increased) liv¬ 
 ing in towns and populous districts, have not 
 increased in comfort in proportion to the middle 
 and higher classes, and that they have not had 
 
STATE OP THE 
 
 afforded to them hitherto, by the legislature,; 
 .that provident attention which might have 
 added to their health, happiness, and con¬ 
 tentment. 
 
 The summary, or conclusions, from Mr. j 
 Chadwick’s excellent work are given nearly in 
 the following terms*: 
 
 “ That the various forms of disease caused,: 
 aggravated, or propagated, chiefly among the 
 labouring classes, by atmospheric impurities, 
 produced by decomposing animal and vegetable 
 substances, by damp and filth and close dwell¬ 
 ings, prevail amongst the population in every 
 part of the kingdom, as they have been found 
 to prevail in the lowest districts of the me¬ 
 tropolis. 
 
 “ That where those circumstances are re¬ 
 moved by drainage, cleansing, better ventila¬ 
 tion, and other means of diminishing atmo¬ 
 spheric impurity, the frequency and intensity 
 of such disease is abated. 
 
 “ That high prosperity in respect to em¬ 
 ployment, wages, and food, have afforded the 
 labouring classes no exemptions from attacks of 
 epidemic disease. 
 
 “ That the formation of all habits of clean¬ 
 liness is obstructed by defective supplies of 
 water. ! 
 
 * Vide Chap. IX. p. 369. Recapitulation. j 
 
WORKING CLASSES IN TOWNS. 
 
 29 
 
 1 “ That the annual loss of life from filth and 
 bad ventilation are greater than the loss from 
 death or wounds in any wars in which the 
 Country has been engaged in modern times. 
 
 | “ That of the 43,000 cases of widowhood, 
 jand 112,000 cases of destitute orphanage, re¬ 
 lieved from the poor rate in England and Wales 
 | alone, it appears that the greatest proportion of 
 •.deaths of the heads of families occurred from 
 \ the above specified and other removeable 
 : causes. That their ages were thirteen years 
 ! below the natural probabilities of life, &c. 
 
 ■ “ That the ravages of epidemics, and other 
 
 I diseases, do not diminish, but tend to increase 
 : the pressure of population. 
 
 • “ That the younger population, bred up 
 j under noxious physical agencies, is inferior in 
 ' physical organisation and general health; and 
 | that the population so exposed is less susccp- 
 
 tible of moral influences, and the effects of cdu- 
 ? cation are more transient than with a healthy 
 ■I population. 
 
 ] “ That these adverse circumstances tend to 
 
 • produce an adult population short-lived, im- 
 I provident, reckless, and intemperate, and with 
 I habitual avidity for sensual gratifications. 
 
 i “ That the existing law for the protection of 
 | the public health, and the constitutional ma¬ 
 chinery for reclaiming its execution, such as 
 
30' STATE OP THE WORKING CLASSES. 
 
 courts leet, have fallen into desuetude, and are! 
 in the state indicated by the prevalence of the! 
 evils they were intended to prevent. 
 
 “ That the primary and most important 
 measures, ,and, at the same time, the most prac¬ 
 ticable, and within the recognised province of 
 public administration, are drainage, the removal 
 of all refuse of habitations, streets, and roads, 
 and the improvement of the supplies of water.” * 
 
 It is grievous and humiliating to think that 
 these matters, so important to the welfare of 
 multitudes, have been almost entirely neglected 
 by the legislature and the influential classes 
 during the last half century, whilst the popu¬ 
 lation has so rapidly increased, and other classes 
 have so much advanced in the scale of social 
 comforts. 
 
 * The Report proceeds to show how these recommen¬ 
 dations may he effected with ultimately great pecuniary 
 savings to the public, and immediate extensive advan¬ 
 tages to the community. 
 
HEALTH OP TOWNS} ETC. 
 
 31 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 COMMISSION ON THE HEALTII OP TOWNS, ETC., 1843. 
 
 In May 1843, a commission was issued by 
 Her Majesty to the Duke of Buccleugh, Lord 
 Lincoln, and eleven other Commissioners 
 therein named, to inquire “into the present 
 state of large towns in populous districts in 
 England and Wales, with reference to the 
 causes of disease among the inhabitants, and 
 into the best means of promoting and securing 
 the public health under the operation of the 
 laws and regulations at present in force, and 
 the usages at present prevailing with regard to 
 the drainage of lands; the erection, drainage, 
 and ventilation of buildings; and the supply of 
 water in such towns and districts, whether for 
 purposes of health, or for the better protection 
 of property from fire; and how far the public 
 health and the condition of the poorer classes 
 of the people of this realm, and the salubrity 
 and safety of their dwellings, may be promoted 
 by the amendment of such laws, regulations, 
 and usages.” 
 
 Full powers were given to the Commissioners 
 
32 
 
 , COMMISSION ON THE 
 
 to inquire into the matters referred to them, to 
 call before them and examine (on oath when 
 requisite) such persons as they judged likely to 
 afford information, and they were directed to 
 report their proceedings under the commission 
 from time to time. 
 
 First Report of the Commission, June 1844. 
 
 The members of this commission began to 
 examine witnesses early in June, 1843; between 
 that period and the 13th of June, in the fol¬ 
 lowing year, they followed up sedulously their 
 inquiries, examining sixty-five witnesses (whose 
 evidence is given); and in the end of June, 
 1844, the commission agreed to their first Re¬ 
 port, which was forthwith laid before Parlia¬ 
 ment, together with the evidence, and an 
 appendix containing valuable reports by me¬ 
 dical men, clergymen, and others, on the sa¬ 
 natory state of Liverpool, Preston, Chorlton- 
 on-Medlock, Ashton-under-Lyne, York, and 
 Nottingham, together with tables showing the 
 different rates of mortality among various classes 
 in Sheffield and Huddersfield, and in drained 
 and undrained streets in Leicester. There is 
 also given a set of questions issued by' the 
 Commission on the sanatory state of populous 
 towns and districts, and a table, showing the 
 deaths of persons in 1841, and the excess of 
 
HEALTH OE TOWNS. 
 
 deaths above 2 per cent, for the years 1840, 
 
 , 1841, and 1842. This table is calculated, and 
 ■ the popidation and result given for thirty-nine 
 I large towns or districts where a high mortality 
 prevails. A circular letter accompanied these 
 questions, stating that the average mortality of 
 all England is 2-2 per cent., and in many parts 
 of the country not 2 per cent., whereas the 
 annual mortality appears to be 3’5 per cent, for 
 Liverpool, 3'2 for Manchester, 3T for Bristol, 
 3 per cent, for Hull, and in many other great 
 towns to vary from 2'6 to 2-8 per cent.* 
 
 “ The Beport itself states the course of pro¬ 
 ceeding; that the questions referred to were 
 transmitted to fifty towns, v, here the mortality, 
 with few exceptions, was the highest. They in¬ 
 clude the largest manufacturing towns and the 
 principal ports, after London, and contain a po¬ 
 pulation of more than three millions of persons. 
 Each of these towns (it proceeds) was after¬ 
 wards visited by one of the Commissioners, 
 who examined on the spot the general condition 
 of the town, and of the most crowded and un¬ 
 healthy districts; making personal inquiries of 
 
 * The registers of mortality for these towns often take 
 in a part of the adjacent country, thereby diluting the 
 apparent mortality of the town itself. If the returns 
 were given for the working classes alone, the mortality 
 would be much more severe. 
 
34 
 
 COMMISSION ON THE 
 
 the inhabitants, and hearing such statements as 
 were made by them, or respecting them, by 
 medical or other officers.” The Eeport then 
 refers to and analyses the evidence and sup¬ 
 plementary reports, which show the general 
 neglect that has prevailed in almost all these 
 populous towns, of due regulations for the 
 health and comfort of the working classes, 
 and the severe and extensive evils suffered by 
 them in consequence. The want of necessary 
 legislative provisions for this purpose is shown, 
 the differences in local regulations, and the 
 total absence of any superintending power to 
 watch over and promote measures for the public 
 health. The moral evils arising from these 
 causes are pointed out, and the great pecuniary 
 loss to the country from such neglect is de¬ 
 monstrated in the increased burdens thrown 
 on poor rates, and other contributions of the 
 richer classes, to support the widows, orphans, 
 and families of those prematurely cut of by 
 preventable disease. * 
 
 * Mr. Porter in speaking on this subject says, “ it 
 must be owned that our multiplied abodes of want, of 
 wretchedness, and crime — our town populations huddled 
 together in ill ventilated and undrained courts and cel¬ 
 lars— our numerous'workhouses filled to overflowing ! 
 with the children of want — and our prisons (scarcely j 
 less numerous) overloaded with the votaries of crime, do j 
 indeed but too sadly and too strongly attest, that all is I 
 
HEALTH OF TOWNS. 
 
 35 
 
 The Beport concludes with saying, “That 
 ,the information already elicited offers the 
 treasonable prospect that great improvements 
 |may be made to the general comfort of all, 
 \espedally the poorer, classes of your Majesty’s 
 | subjects.” 
 
 S Second Report of the Commission, February 1845. 
 
 The Second Beport of the Commission was 
 ‘concluded in February 1845. It was much 
 /more comprehensive in its character than the 
 i first, having appended to it, or immediately 
 |following it, besides much additional evidence, 
 : ;a table showing the increase and decrease of 
 •'population in various large towns and counties 
 ;jfrom 1831 to 1841 *; and also the reports drawn 
 
 ',nol as it should he as regards this most important branch 
 '/of human progress.” —Progress of the Nation, Sect. 7. 
 jp. 172. 1st edit. 
 
 j * All the largest provincial towns except Bristol, and 
 falmost all the manufacturing towns, increased upwards 
 lof 20 percent, in those 10 years, varying, however, from 
 |70 to 20 per cent. In the metropolis the increase was 
 j14-8 per cent., in Liverpool 39'0 per cent., Manchester 
 :30 per cent, Birmingham 29’6. 
 
 In the counties the increase varied from 36'9 per cent, 
 fin a manufacturing county, to only 2’4 per cent., in one 
 |purely agricultural, the average of all these counties 
 jbeing 14’5 per cent. 
 
36 
 
 COMMISSION ON THE 
 
 up by'the different Commissioners on the state 
 of the fifty large towns, which they had per¬ 
 sonally visited. This Second Report of the 
 Commission was signed, like the first, by j 
 all the Commissioners, and extended to 138 
 octavo pages. 
 
 It referred to replies from the towns and to 
 the local reports, as showing the existence of 
 evils varying slightly in character, and pre¬ 
 vailing with different degrees of intensity, in the 
 several towns visited, but generally pressing 
 with most severity on the poorer classes. We 
 believe they may be taken as correct indica¬ 
 tions of the prevailing condition of other towns 
 and populous districts in this part of the united 
 kingdom. 
 
 “ It appears from the replies above alluded 
 to, that there are only eight of the fifty towns 
 visited, in which even a tolerably favourable 
 report could be given in respect to drainage 
 and cleansing; and as regards the supply of 
 water, the returns, especially in the districts 
 inhabited by the poorer classes , are still more 
 unfavourable 
 
 “The general prevalence of the evils demon¬ 
 strated affords direct evidence of an equal neglect 
 of the preventive and corrective remedies, and of 
 the absence of the requisite regulations for ensur- 
 
HEALTH OE TOWNS. 
 
 37 
 
 i ing the adoption of such measures as have been 
 [ enacted.” 
 
 ; It continues:—“Until the publication of the 
 ‘Reports made to the Poor Law Commissioners 
 in 1839,'upon the condition of the poorer classes 
 in certain parts of the metropolis, followed by 
 the Report of a Select Committee of the House 
 of Commons in the year 1840, on the health of 
 I large towns and populous districts. The extensive 
 | injury to the public health now proved to arise 
 | from causes capable of removal , appears to have 
 | escaped general observation. After referring to 
 i the increased mortality arising from the neglect 
 | of any sanatory regulations the Report says — 
 i “ These causes of disease are most common and 
 i virulent in the neglected districts and dwellings 
 I of the poor, but necessarily connected with their 
 I condition in life, but capable of being removed 
 ! by efficient drainage, cleansing, improvements 
 I of building, ventilation, and a sufficient supply 
 ' of water.” 
 
 : The Report then points out the moral evils 
 i arising from these causes, and states “ That a 
 | large class of crimes, arising from intemperance 
 and the indulgence of vicious propensities, is 
 much fostered by the low state of physical com¬ 
 forts, &c. In addition to other causes of disease 
 generally prevalent among the poorer classes in 
 large towns, the almost universal scarcity of 
 
COMMISSION ON THE 
 
 water for domestic use has been urged on our ; 
 attention, as contributing in a very great degree 
 to increase the evils under which they labour.” 
 The great moral results consequent on an in- 
 crease in the “means of cleanliness, have not j 
 yet, we fear, received the attention which their ; 
 importance merits; the domestic comforts of a 
 poor man’s abode and his oion self-respect are 
 mainly dependent on this. We are convinced 
 that their neglected condition is by no means 
 the result of choice, although it may be the 
 result of habit, produced by an unfortunate ; 
 necessity.” The considerations which we have J 
 adduced show that the absence of sanatory ; 
 regulations in the various cities and towns in . 
 this kingdom render it necessary that measures, ' 
 more decided and effectual than those now in 
 force, should be adopted to improve and pre¬ 
 serve the health of Her Majesty’s subjects.” 
 The Report then proceeds to detail remedial 
 measures which are stated in thirty recom¬ 
 mendations with the reasons for each appended. 
 This Report, the evidence given, and the 
 Supplementary Reports on the fifty large towns 
 inspected prove, in the clearest manner, “ That 
 the working classes have not improved in com¬ 
 fort in proportion to the middle and richer 
 classes; and that they have not had afforded to 
 them hitherto by the legislature that provident 
 
HEALTH OP TOWNS. 
 
 39 
 
 attention which might have added to their 
 health, happiness, and contentment. 
 
 In stating the melancholy result to which we 
 have arrived, we have endeavoured to avoid 
 all idle declamation on the subject, and omit 
 any thing which might excite party or factious 
 feelings relating to so grave a matter. Yet 
 we cannot help coming to the conclusion, that 
 hitherto, from whatever cause, the forms of our 
 constitution, (perhaps from the want of a per¬ 
 manent administrative body, bound to watch 
 over the interests of the poor,) however well 
 they have worked for the higher and middle 
 classes, have not afforded due and reasonable 
 protection to the great mass of the working 
 people, and that hence extensive evils have 
 arisen, which, if neglected, will be the cause of 
 great suffering to multitudes, of danger to the 
 peace of the country and to the property of its 
 inhabitants. It may be well, however, to sup¬ 
 port these views by reference to some more 
 evidence on the subject, before we consider the 
 cause of these evils, and humbly endeavour to 
 suggest remedies to lessen or remove them. 
 
 Besides the Report and Evidence before re¬ 
 ferred to, bearing on the condition of the great 
 mass of the working and poorer classes, there 
 are various reports which have from time to 
 
40 
 
 REPORTS ON FACTORIES. 
 
 time been' laid before Parliament, showing the 
 neglected and miserable state of particular 
 bodies of workmen, or of those inhabiting par¬ 
 ticular districts. Among these we will men¬ 
 tion some which can be referred to, and cite a 
 few statements from them. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 REPORTS ON FACTORIES, nAND-LOOII WEAVERS, 
 COAX. AND IRON MINES. 
 
 Let us look at the accounts given of the state 
 of three very different and numerous classes. 
 1st. Those employed in our great factories. 
 2d. Those occupied in various .parts of the 
 country in hand-loom weaving. 
 
 3d. Those working in and about our coal 
 and iron mines. 
 
 In the Reports of Committee on Factory 
 Children, and in the various Reports of the 
 Factory Commissioners, (appointed to super¬ 
 intend the benevolent law regulating the hours 
 for children,) we shall find ample and repeated 
 accounts, showing the neglected state of vast 
 numbers of those employed in factories, more 
 
REPORTS ON FACTORIES. 
 
 41 
 
 i especially children, and young persons. The 
 ? hardships many of them suffer, their low moral 
 t condition, from the want of education or ex- 
 | ample, are there set forth in fearful contrast 
 l to the improved state of the middle and richer 
 5 classes, which we see on all sides around us. 
 | These accounts and returns extend to those 
 ! employed in cotton, woollen, and silk factories; 
 
 ; three of our most important manufactures, and 
 ! giving occupation to no less than above two 
 : millions of persons — a population most rapidly 
 : increasing, and which may be said (in round 
 f numbers) to have augmented 135 per cent. 
 
 ; since the century began, increasing, as shown 
 ' by the population returns, about 30 per cent. 
 
 ; every ten years."' 
 
 ; The condition of these factory labourers, 
 
 ; especially the younger part of them, is, it is 
 . true, much improved by the laws limiting the 
 ' period of infant labour, and providing some 
 education for these neglected children. Many 
 kind and benevolent employers have also had 
 their attention awakened to the low social con¬ 
 dition of many of their workmen, and have 
 endeavoured to improve their state ; yet with 
 every allowance for these changes, there can be 
 
 * Vide Reports from 1831 to 1841 of Select Commit¬ 
 tees on Factories; also First, Second, and Supplemen¬ 
 tary Reports of Commissioners, 
 
42 
 
 REPORTS ON CHILDREN’S 
 
 no doubt whatever that the great mass of these 
 industrious multitudes have not advanced in 
 comfort, happiness, or physical and moral im¬ 
 provement in any thing like their due propor¬ 
 tion to that of the middle and higher classes. 
 Neither must we forget, that the improvements 
 which have taken place, (chiefly as respects 
 youthful or infant labourers, have all begun but 
 recently, after long years of neglect and suffer¬ 
 ing, and originated, not in any efforts of the 
 Government, or the higher and influential 
 classes generally, but in the persevering efforts 
 and patient labour of a. few benevolent persons, 
 branded at first as impracticable enthusiasts ! 
 
 Commission on Children's Employment. 
 
 In 1840 a commission was issued by Her 
 Majesty, “for inquiring into the employment of 
 the children of the poorer classes in mines and 
 collieries, and the various branches of trade and 
 manufacture, in which numbers of children 
 
 Report ofH. J. Saunders on Establishment of Schools 
 in Factory Districts, 1842. 
 
 Reports from each of the Four Factory Inspectors on 
 Educational Provisions under the Factory Act; also, 
 their joint Report, 1839. 
 
 Reports by Inspectors of Factories to Government, 
 1835 to 1845. 
 
EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 43 
 
 work together, and as to the effect of such em¬ 
 ployment, both with regard to their morals and 
 ■ bodily health.” 
 
 ; The Report of this commission (in 1842) ex¬ 
 tended to various towns and districts in England, 
 Wales, and' Scotland, and open to us a melan¬ 
 choly account of the numerous evils, especially 
 in the moral condition of the children, arising 
 from former neglect of proper provisions for 
 their protection, guidance, and instruction.* - 
 
 It would be tedious to make many extracts 
 from this Report, but as it bears on the condition 
 of multitudes around us, and pourtrays extensive 
 evils and sufferings which are remediable by 
 benevolent regulation and wise legislation, 
 we give a few passages with respect to coal 
 mines. It is said, “That in some districts 
 children remain in solitude and darkness during 
 the whole time they are in the pit, and that 
 many never see the light in winter for weeks 
 together, except on Sundays. That in the dis¬ 
 tricts in which females work in mines, all 
 witnesses bear testimony to the. demoralising 
 effect of this employment. 
 
 “ That in many mines the conduct of the 
 
 * Vide Report, 1842. Also, the Physical and Moral 
 Condition of Children in Mines and Manufactories, 
 illustrated hy extracts from the Reports. Parker, 
 West Strand, 1843. 
 
44 REPORTS ON FACTORIES. 
 
 adult colliers to the children is harsh and cruel, 
 the persons in authority never interfering to 
 prevent them. 
 
 “ That in the great majority of trades and 
 manufactures the youngest children, as well as 
 the young persons, are paid by the workmen, 
 and are entirely under their control, the em¬ 
 ployers exercising no sort of superintendence 
 over them. 
 
 “•That a large proportion of apprentices 
 consist of orphans, or the children of widows, or 
 belong to the very poorest families. 
 
 “ That the term of servitude is often passed 
 under circumstances of great hardship and ill 
 usage. 
 
 “ That in the great majority of instances, the 
 places of work are very defective in drainage, 
 ventilation, and the due regulation of tempera¬ 
 ture, whilst little or no regard is paid to 
 cleanliness. 
 
 “That in many establishments for dress¬ 
 making during the season, the hours of work for 
 the young women are unlimited, they never 
 getting more then six, often not more than four, 
 sometimes only three, and occasionally not more 
 then two hours, rest and sleep out of the twenty- 
 four, and very frequently they work all night. 
 
 “ That in the great majority of trades and 
 manufactures where the children are paid by 
 
REPORTS ON FACTORIES. 45 
 
 the workmen, the work of such children is 
 always the longest, and performed under the 
 I most oppressive circumstances. 
 
 ; “ That little or nothing is done to afford the 
 
 children or young persons the means of enjoying 
 innocent amusement and healthful recreation 
 in the interval of their labours. 
 
 “ That where the children are the servants 
 of the workmen, or under their control (shown 
 to be the great majority), they are almost 
 always roughly, very often harshly, and sometimes 
 cruelly used. 
 
 “ These are indeed melancholy statements in 
 a country boasting of its noble institutions. 
 The conclusion arrived at is, “ That in many 
 of these trades and manufactures the children 
 have not good and sufficient food, nor warm 
 and decent clothing, and it is a general com¬ 
 plaint that they are prevented by want of proper 
 clothing from going to the Sunday School, or to 
 a place of public worship. 
 
 “ That in the great majority of the children 
 (from tlie causes stated), their bodily health “is 
 seriously injured, they are for the most part 
 stunted in growth, their aspect being pale, 
 delicate, and sickly.”* 
 
 * Second Report, p. 198. 
 
EEPOETS ON FACTOEIES. 
 
 The moral condition of these multitudes of 
 neglected children corresponds with the little 
 care taken of them. 
 
 South Staffordshire Mines. 
 
 The statements of the Commissioners from 
 almost all these populous districts and great 
 towns and marts of labour are the same (can 
 we read them without regret and shame?)— 
 “ that great numbers of the children employed 
 attend no school at all, nor any place of worship, 
 and that the neglect of the moral and religious 
 training of the large portion of the population 
 is disgraceful to a Christian country ” 
 
 With little variation, the same or similar ac¬ 
 counts are given with regard to almost all the 
 coal fields throughout the kingdom. 
 
 Thus, in the West Biding, near Bradford and 
 Leeds, near Halifax, near Oldham,- throughout 
 Lancashire, South Durham, North Durham and 
 Northumberland, West and East Scotland, 
 North and South Wales, and elsewhere, the 
 same tale is told of neglect on the one hand, 
 and misery and ignorance and guilt on the other. 
 
 The attendance in church or any place of 
 worship is shown to be rare, and the want of 
 any religious or moral principle in these neg¬ 
 lected children, throughout all these districts, is 
 stated from every quarter. 
 
REPORTS ON FACTORIES. 
 
 47 
 
 To repeat these sad details from the evidence 
 would be useless: the conclusions of the Com¬ 
 missioners from the whole, with regard to the 
 moral condition of the children and young per¬ 
 sons working together in numbers in collieries, 
 mines, or trades and manufactures, are—“That 
 there are few of whom a large proportion are not 
 in a lamentably low moral condition.'” 
 
 “ That this low moral condition is evinced by 
 a general ignorance of moral duties, and sanc¬ 
 tions, by an absence of moral and religious 
 restraint, shown in some classes by coarseness 
 of manners, the use of profane and indecent 
 language; in others, by the practice of gross 
 immorality, which is prevalent to a great ex¬ 
 tent in both sexes at very early ages.” 
 
 “ That the absence of restraint is the result 
 of a general want of moral and religious train¬ 
 ing,”. &c. &c. 
 
 Other valuable statements of great interest 
 are condensed in the other conclusions printed 
 in the Report. We will only quote a few lines 
 more, viz. 
 
 “ 30. That all classes of witnesses universally 
 state that the best educated men are the most 
 valuable workmen, the most regular in their 
 habits, the most trustworthy, the most prompt 
 to understand and execute any directions given 
 them; that they are more accessible to reason 
 
48 
 
 REPORTS ON FACTORIES. 
 
 in any dispute or discussion respecting wages, 
 or any other matter; that they are invariably 
 more respectful in their behaviour, and better 
 disposed to their superiors. 
 
 “ 35. In conclusion: That from the whole 
 body of evidence it appears, that there are at 
 present in existence no means adequate to affect 
 any material and general improvement in the 
 physical and moral condition of the children 
 and young persons employed in labour. 
 
 “ This information (say the Commissioners 
 at the end of their. Report) we have now col¬ 
 lected; and the picture which, in the faithful 
 performance of this duty, we have been obliged 
 to present of the physical and moral condition 
 of a large portion of the morldng classes appears 
 to us to require the serious consideration of 
 your Majesty’s government and of the legis¬ 
 lature.”— January, 1843. 
 
 Let us now look to the accounts of the state 
 of hand-loom weavers and then- families. These 
 perhaps comprise a greater number of the la¬ 
 bouring population, spread through different 
 parts cf the kingdom, than any one other em¬ 
 ployment except agricultural labourers. 
 
 In 1838 a commission was opened to inquire 
 into their condition and devise measures for 
 then- relief. Assistant Commissioners were 
 employed, and a full investigation of the state 
 
REPORTS ON FACTORIES. 
 
 49 
 
 of this numerous class of the people took 
 place. 
 
 The Report of the Commissioners was pre¬ 
 sented to parliament and printed in 1841. It 
 gives a melancholy account of the sufferings, 
 ignorance, and degradation of vast numbers.* 
 
 We will give but a few extracts, and state 
 results given, referring to the Report itself for 
 details. Speaking of one large class in the 
 villages near Coventry, the Assistant Commis¬ 
 sioner says,—“ In the neighbourhood of Nun¬ 
 eaton, Bulkington, and Folishill, the usual 
 condition of a number of journey-hand families 
 is that of the greatest dirt and misery; some¬ 
 times with no bedsteads, but beds of wrappers 
 stuffed with straw, and without any linen to 
 them.” (p. 7.) 
 
 Again : “ I did not at first credit the state¬ 
 ments made to me of the moral debasement which 
 prevails among the country weavers; but the 
 overwhelming evidence on every side at length 
 compelled me to recognise a grossness and 
 immorality, which are the more painful to 
 ; contemplate, since I cannot but apprehend that 
 they prevail throughout the other large por¬ 
 tions of our population similarly circumstanced.” 
 Other parts of the Report show accounts of 
 
50 
 
 REPORTS ON FACTORIES. 
 
 numbers in distressed circumstances, yet far 
 better off than those just described. 
 
 Yet, as a general result, “ On a view of the 
 condition of the numerous and diversified classes 
 comprehended under the general name of hand- 
 loom weavers ,” the Report says, — “We have 
 shown that, with the exception of those em¬ 
 ployed on the coarse manufactures for domestic 
 use, their condition is a painful one —distressing 
 where wages are low, and subject to frequent 
 vicissitudes where they are high.” * And again: 
 “The general result.of our inquiries as to the 
 condition of the hand-loom weavers and its 
 causes, may be thus summed up: we have 
 shown that, though there are many differences 
 in the respective conditions of different branches 
 of handloom Aveavers, yet as a body they are 
 in a state of distress; and that the great cause 
 of this distress is a disproportion between the 
 supply of hand-loom labour and the demand for 
 it: the demand being in many cases deficient, 
 in some cases decreasing, and in still more 
 irregular, whilst the supply is in many branches 
 excessive; in almost all has a tendency to in¬ 
 crease, and does not appear in any to haA'e a 
 tendency to adapt itself to the irregularities of 
 
 * Report, p. 22. Also, Report by Mr. Fletcher, on the 
 Hand-loom Weavers of the Midland District. 
 
EEPOETS ON FACTOEIES. 
 
 51 
 
 the demand.”* The Report adds,—“A mere 
 'increase in the demand for the labour, unaccom¬ 
 panied by measures for diminishing the number 
 of hand-loom weavers, or at least for preventing 
 its increase, could produce merely a temporary 
 benefit, to be followed by distress, differing from 
 that which now exists only by being more xoidely 
 diffused.” f After discussing other remedies 
 suggested to amend permanently the state of 
 this numerous and suffering class, the Commis¬ 
 sioners say, “ There remains, therefore, only 
 one mode by which the number of hand-loom 
 weavers can be proportioned to the demand for 
 their labour; and that is, the great means to 
 be resorted to in every decreasing or even sta¬ 
 tionary trade, namely, the conduct of the weavers 
 themselves, i On their activity and intelligence 
 in seeking other employments for themselves 
 and their families, and in pursuing those em¬ 
 ployments when found; on the self-denial of 
 the married, in placing their children in occu¬ 
 pations less immediately productive than the 
 loom; and of the unmarried, in abstaining from 
 incurring the responsibility of a family where 
 then- own wages are scarcely equal to their 
 own support: on their conduct in these respects 
 
 * Report, 1841, p. 48. 
 
 f Report, p. 49. J Report, p. 121. 
 
59 REPORTS ON FACTORIES. 
 
 must mainly depend the proportion of their 
 numbers to the demand for their labour. But 
 activity, intelligence, self-denial, and prudence 
 are the results of good education ; and we lament 
 to say, that few of the labouring classes in the 
 British Islands have received or are receiving a 
 good education, or have the means of obtainimj 
 it.”* 
 
 Having referred to Reports, showing the 
 depressed and neglected state of large numbers 
 of the people employed in factories, and as 
 hand-loom weavers, we had proposed to give 
 some extracts from Reports stating the abject 
 condition of numbers occupied in and about 
 mines and mineral works. This would be, how¬ 
 ever, but to repeat the same sad tale of misery 
 as respects great bodies of sufferers that we 
 have before seen; we will, therefore, only refer 
 to the accounts laid before Parliament, and 
 which our daily observation would confirm. 
 
 * Report, 1841, p. 120, 121. 
 
children’s employment commission. 53 
 
 CHAPTER VIT. 
 
 report of children’s employment com¬ 
 mission, 1842. 
 
 In the First Report of the Children’s Employ- 
 j inent Commission*, from which we have already 
 - quoted, a lamentable account is given of the 
 moral and physical condition of large numbers 
 of children employed in and about coal, iron, 
 and other mines. Yet it is a consolation to 
 find such employments, as far “ as regards coal 
 mines, are capable of being rendered, as a place 
 of work, more agreeable than many kinds of 
 labour above ground.”! Still the conclusions 
 come to by the commissioners are of a very 
 melancholy nature; showing children from four, 
 five, six, seven, and eight years old, constantly 
 employed in coal mines. “ In many districts, 
 female children working in mines at the same 
 early age as males. Young children, called 
 trappers, excluded from light in the mine, with¬ 
 out companions, for long hours together, in a 
 sort of solitary confinement of the worst order f; 
 
 * 1842. f Conclusions, p. 258. 
 
 1 Conclusions, Report, p. 255. ' 
 e 3 
 
54 
 
 REPOET OP CHILDREN’S 
 
 females taken down into the coal mines, a 
 practice attended with grievous evils; night 
 work, a part of the system most injurious to 
 the physical and moral condition of the people, 
 especially the children and young persons.” * 
 
 The report of Mr. Tancred, of the Midland 
 Mining Commission, in 1S43 f, gives a melan¬ 
 choly statement of the ignorance, sufferings, 
 and low moral and physical condition of large 
 bodies of persons employed in the great South 
 Staffordshire coal field. It describes the evils 
 of the truck system, the grievances of miners, 
 which the Commissioner shows are extensive , 
 irritating, and very cruel and unjust; and yet 
 which appear to be greatly neglected by their 
 employers, and all persons in authority.! It 
 appears that the workmen are frequently cheated 
 of their fair wages by sub-contractors, under 
 one pretence or other, and that a discontented 
 feeling is excited by the privations arising from 
 usages which ought long ago to have been 
 
 * These evils are partially lessened, but the effects of 
 our neglect will long remain, in a low scale of moral 
 feeling among the people. 
 
 f Presented to Parliament in 1843. 
 
 j The details of the evils arising from the abuses 
 stated, are described in a clear and forcible manner, and 
 depict the low condition of multitudes in that large arena 
 of unceasing labour. 
 
EMPLOYMENT COMMISSION. 
 
 55 
 
 abolished. The want of any adequate provi¬ 
 sion for education for the children in this 
 populous and increasing district is shown by 
 numerous examples ; the want of any opportu¬ 
 nities for attendance at religious worship is 
 demonstrated. The consequences are . briefly 
 summed up by these striking sentences quoted 
 from the Seventh Report of the Lichfield Church 
 Extension Society:—“From Michaelmas, 1840, 
 to Michaelmas, 1841, there were no less than 
 1 in 207 of the entire population of the county of 
 Stafford committed to the county gaol; whereas, 
 in the neighbouring county of "Warwick, in¬ 
 cluding Birmingham, the proportion of offenders 
 to the population is 1 in 561; whilst in the 
 mining county of Cornwall it is only 1 in 
 .1406.” * 
 
 Another commissioner (Mr. Scriven), report¬ 
 ing on the state of the children employed in 
 “the potteries in North Staffordshire, (com¬ 
 prising 75,000 souls, chiefly of the working- 
 classes,)” uses these words : ■— “I almost trem¬ 
 ble when I contemplate the fearful deficiency 
 of knowledge existing throughout this district, 
 and the consequences likely to result to this 
 increased and increasing population. On an 
 examination of the minutes of evidence from 
 Cobridge, Burslem, &c., it will appear, 
 * Report, p. 143. 
 
56 
 
 REPORT OE CHILDREN’S 
 
 more than three-fourths of the persons named 
 can neither read nor write. I would refer you 
 to the evidence of their own pastors and 
 masters, and it will appear, as one man, they 
 acknowledge and lament their low and degraded 
 condition.”* And yet it appears that this is 
 not owing to want of exertion on the part of 
 the community themselves, for the commissioner 
 says, — “ The subjoined return of the weekly 
 sabbath and infant schools and number of places 
 of worship, shows no efforts are spared, on the 
 part of the wealthy classes, to afford opportu¬ 
 nities to the younger branches of the community 
 of acquiring moral and religious education.” f 
 The improvidence and recklessness of many 
 of the workmen is described and lamented, their 
 ignorance and improvidence set forth, and the 
 sufferings of many of the children shown; one 
 class are spoken of as, “ by the nature of their 
 work, pale, diminutive, and unhealthy, labour¬ 
 ing from half-past five in the morning to six 
 at night, and often to eight, nine, and ten, in 
 an atmosphere from 100 to 120 degrees; all 
 these extra hours being occasioned nine times 
 out of ten by the selfishness or irregularities of 
 their umoorthy task-masters. After working 
 
 * Report to the Commissioners, by J. Scriven, Esq., 
 Burslem, 1841, c. 10. 
 
 f Report, c. 8. 
 
EMPLOYMENT COMMISSION. 
 
 57 
 
 near a stove so heated as to raise the tempera¬ 
 ture to 130 degrees, I have seen the boys run¬ 
 ning on errands, or to their dinners, without 
 stockings, shoes, or jackets, with the perspira¬ 
 tion on their foreheads, after labouring like 
 little slaves, and with the mercury 20 degrees 
 below freezing.” (p. 7. c. 6.) — “ Yet the 
 principal manufacturers are highly spoken of 
 as sympathising with those in distress, contri¬ 
 buting, as much as possible, to their happiness.” 
 (c. 2.) 
 
 We have now shown, from evidence of un¬ 
 doubted authority, the neglected and degraded 
 condition of vast multitudes of our working 
 classes in various employments, in different 
 districts, spread throughout the length and 
 . breadth of the realm; and we think, to any 
 candid inquirer and any humane and con¬ 
 siderate man, we have made out clearly—that 
 our working population not only have not 
 improved in position in proportion to other 
 classes, but that very many of them are worse 
 off than in former years. 
 
 We ought not then to wonder if discontent, 
 misery, and crime, the natural consequences of 
 suffering and ignorance, have increased among us. 
 
 Do not let us cast the blame on demagogues 
 who deceive the people, nor on the wretched 
 who give way to temptations; but on ourselves , 
 
58 
 
 REPORT OP CHILDREN’S 
 
 who ought, long since, to have looked into 
 these things, and devised and carried out 
 gradual but extensive remedies. 
 
 Before, however, we cast a rapid glance over 
 the consequences and the just penalties of our 
 own neglect, and that of our government, in 
 the threats of discontent and disturbance, and 
 the fearful cost of crime, let us look for a 
 moment at the state of a body of labourers 
 lately called into notice and permanent action 
 by a modern discovery, greatly adding to the 
 wealth and convenience of all classes. 
 
 The state of the railway labourers was brought 
 forward in an able work by Mr. Chadwick, to 
 whose admirable efforts in the cause of humanity 
 we have already alluded; in consequence, in 
 April 1846, a Committee of the House of Com¬ 
 mons, was appointed to inquire into the con¬ 
 dition of railway labourers. Their report states* 
 “ That the railway system, in mere construction, 
 gives employment to not much less than 200,000 
 of the effective population of the country.! 
 That your Committee cannot but conclude, on 
 the evidence received from various parts of the 
 country, that the circumstances under which 
 
 * Report on Railway Labourers, 28th July, 1846. 
 
 t If half of these men are married, and have each, on 
 an average, three children, the whole number of persons 
 directly dependent on this occupation will be 600,000. 
 
EMPLOYMENT COMMISSION. 
 
 59 
 
 their labour is carried on are too generally of' 
 a deteriorating kind; they are crowded into 
 unwholesome dwellings, whilst scarcely any 
 provision is made for their comfort and decency 
 of living; they are released from the useful in¬ 
 fluence of domestic ties, they are hard-worked, 
 they are exposed to great risk of life and limb, 
 they arc too often hardly treated, and many 
 inducements are offered to them to be thought¬ 
 less, thriftless, and improvident.” 
 
 The report then goes on to state the 
 numerous evils which arise from the present 
 neglect of all provisions for the benefit of these 
 poor men, and suggests several regulations for 
 their advantage. 
 
 We thus see that this class, who may be 
 denominated the youngest sons of labour, and 
 have been called as it were into existence but 
 recently, are (as regards legislative protection 
 and guidance enforced by a paternal and provi¬ 
 dent government) as destitute and neglected 
 as the numbers, otherwise employed, whose 
 situation has before been described and 
 
 * As connected with the health and welfare of the work¬ 
 ing classes, we would refer to Mr. Chadwick’s able work 
 on the evils arising from burying grounds in the midst of 
 towns, to the excessive charges on the poorer people for 
 interments, and other mischiefs from these causes. 
 
• WANT OF EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAPTER VIH. 
 
 WANT OF EDUCATION. 
 
 Though we have already had demonstrated 
 to us in various reports the neglected and 
 depressed condition of vast multitudes of the 
 working classes, and their children; and must 
 thence infer that any adequate and efficient 
 education for the latter is wanting; yet it may 
 be well to adduce, shortly, some direct testimony 
 to this important point. In all the reports 
 which have been quoted, especially the different 
 reports of the Commissioners on the Health of 
 Towns, and the reports of the Commission on 
 Children’s Employment, this want of effectual 
 useful education, or the means of obtaining it, 
 is shown. Dr. Lyon Playfair, in his description 
 of the schools in the great towns of Lanca¬ 
 shire, states in the strongest terms the evils 
 arising from this neglect; more especially as 
 regards the defective structural arrangement of 
 the schools, and their want of ventilation.* The 
 * Report on the Large Towns of Lancashire, by Dr. 
 L. Playfair, 1845. — In the Reports of various Inspectors 
 of Schools to the Committee of Council from 1840 to the 
 present time, we find constant proof of the deficiency of 
 education among the working classes throughout the 
 country and the towns. — See also the Reports and the 
 Manchester and Birmingham Statistical Societies, as to 
 
WANT OF EDUCATION. 
 
 61 
 
 same kind of testimony will be found, as regards 
 the other great towns visited and examined, in 
 the reports of the other Commissioners. 
 
 In 1838, the last Committee of the House of 
 Commons, “ on Education of the Children of the 
 Poorer Classes in large Towns,” was appointed 
 and reported. They heard much evidence on 
 the subject, and their Report was printed in the 
 middle of July, 1838. This Report states, “ that 
 in this matter, important as it is to the welfare of 
 all classes, there seem to exist no sources of in¬ 
 formation in any department of government.” * 
 
 The conclusion of the Committee is stated, 
 “That it was desirable to provide efficient daily 
 school education in all populous towns for one 
 eighth of the population .” 
 
 The Report goes on to give the calculations 
 and evidence laid before them; and after all 
 due allowances, the conclusion they arrive at is, 
 “ That in one populous parish of the east of 
 London, less then one in twenty have educa¬ 
 tion, instead of one in eight,” and that they 
 have ample grounds for stating that throughout 
 this vast metropolis, the means of useful daily 
 instruction are lamentably deficient. A table 
 is given with the calculation for seven London 
 parishes with a population of 178,000, in which 
 
 the want of education in Birmingham, Manchester, Liver¬ 
 pool, Salford, and Bury. 
 
 * This defect is now partially remedied. 
 
62 
 
 WANT OF EDUCATION. 
 
 the average of daily tolerable instruction is 
 only one in twenty-seven of the population. 
 
 The Committee say, “That in the large 
 manufacturing and sea-port towns, where the 
 population has rapidly increased within the pre¬ 
 sent century, they refer for particular's to the 
 evidence taken before them, which appears to 
 bear out the following results: 
 
 “ 1st. •— That the kind of education given to 
 the children of the working classes is lament¬ 
 ably deficient. 
 
 “2nd. — That it extends (bad as it is) to 
 but a small proportion of those who ought to 
 receive it. 
 
 “3rd.— That without some strenuous and 
 persevering efforts be made on the part of go¬ 
 vernment, the greatest evils to all classes may 
 follow from this neglect.”* 
 
 A table is then given of the state of educa¬ 
 tion in sixteen of the largest provincial towns, 
 with a population of about one million two 
 hundred thousand persons. It is stated as the 
 
 * By returns to Parliament it appears that So per cent, 
 of the criminals committed could not read and write, or 
 could only read or write imperfectly. “In the group of 
 the gi'eatest manufacturing districts, with least education, 
 the excess of crime over the average of the country is 
 24 - 8 per cent.,” or nearly one-fourth. — Nelson, Statis¬ 
 tics of Crime. 
 
 “In the same kind of districts, with better education, 
 crime is 7 per cent, below the average.”— Idem, 1847. 
 
WANT OF EDUCATION. 
 
 general result, that only one in twenty-four re¬ 
 ceive an education likely to be useful. 
 
 In Leeds, only - 1 in 41, 
 
 In Birmingham, - 1 in 38, 
 
 In Manchester, - 1 in 35*, 
 
 instead of one in eight, as is requisite. 
 
 Since the period of this Report some addition 
 has been made to the government grant for 
 education, and some attention has been paid to 
 the subject, but no systematic or extensive im¬ 
 provement has been effected; and when we bear 
 in mind the rapid increase in population among 
 the poorer classes in these crowded communi¬ 
 ties, and learn from the other Reports quoted 
 their low physical and moral state, we are 
 obliged to arrive (as regards these populous 
 districts) at the sad conclusion, stated so forcibly 
 in the words of the Report on Children’s Em¬ 
 ployment f, and which can hardly be read without 
 grief and shame.—“ That few of these labouring 
 classes in the British Islands have received or 
 are receiving a good education, or have the 
 means of obtaining it.” £ 
 
 * A calculation is given in the evidence, with the facts 
 on which it rests, showing that the very best education 
 for all the children in want of it might be afforded for a 
 less sum than is now paid by half the number for a very 
 bad education. — See Dr. Kay’s Evidence. 
 
 f Report, 1841. 
 
 1 By the returns of Mr. Horner as to the operation of 
 the education clauses of the Factory Acts, with respect 
 
64 
 
 WANT OP EDUCATION. 
 
 Mr. Porter, in lamenting tlie great increase 
 of crime among our juvenile population, says, 
 “ this evil never should or could have arisen, 
 but for the neglect of the Legislature to furnish 
 means for imparting to all, that degree of moral 
 training which it is the duty of the state to 
 provide for the well-ordering of the com¬ 
 munity. ”* 
 
 Want of Church Room for the Working Classes. 
 
 Great neglect has hitherto been shown in 
 affording to working classes in our populous 
 districts, the means of attaining religious in¬ 
 struction or attending public worship. Though 
 considerable exertions have lately been made on 
 this point, yet how destitute in this respect are 
 multitudes of the poor, who are yet crowded 
 
 to children under fourteen, it appeared, as regards boys, 
 49 per cent, could not read, 67 per cent, could not write 
 their names. Of girls, 57 per cent, could not read, 88 
 per cent, could not write their names. The same kind of 
 statement will he found throughout the Reports of the 
 Prison Inspectors; and constant proofs of the want of an 
 improved system of education, in the interesting Reports 
 of the Inspectors of Schools to the Committee of Council. 
 
 * Progress of the Nation, sect. vii. p. 200. Second 
 edition. “ It is found in every instance that an increase 
 of'crime is associated with a low state of education, hut 
 where a better state of education prevails there is always 
 found a less amount of crime.” — Neison, Statistics oj 
 Crime, 1847. 
 
EFFECTS OF NEGLECT. 
 
 65 
 
 together in large masses, and exposed to evil 
 temptations and examples! 
 
 In London and all our great towns, rapidly 
 increased in population, there is not church ac¬ 
 commodation for a quarter of the numbers of the 
 humble classes who require it. They who cannot 
 fay for places want them most. There are 
 multitudes, borne down with affliction, who 
 stand as it were in darkness and the shadow of 
 death, who never are enabled to enter a church, 
 or “rejoice when a Sabbath appears.” 
 
 In Lancashire there are thirty-eight districts, 
 containing 816,000 persons, with church room 
 only for one-eighth. In the diocese of York, 
 twenty districts containing 420,000, and church 
 room for only one-ninth; and so in other places. 
 
 What is the consequence of this neglect ? — 
 In three Lancashire towns, filled with the 
 working classes*, of 12,000 heads of families 
 and lodgers, upwards of 4300 made no religious 
 profession at all. In the parishes of St. John and 
 St. Margaret, Westminster, out of 4780 heads 
 of families of the working classes, whose opinions 
 were ascertained, 1180, or nearly one-fourth, 
 professed not to belong to any religious denomi¬ 
 nation. f 
 
 * State of the Working Classes in a Manufacturing 
 District, 1838. Kidgway. 
 
 f Statistics of Westminster. Transactions of London 
 Statistical Society. 
 
EFFECTS OF NEGLECT. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EFFECTS OF NEGLECT — DISCONTENT, DISEASE, 
 MORTALITY. 
 
 "We have seen in Reports of Government Com¬ 
 missioners, Parliamentary Commissions, and 
 other evidence of undoubted credit, the neg¬ 
 lected condition of vast bodies of the people, 
 and that this state of things has been continuing 
 for many years, whilst the population and 
 wealth of the country have been rapidly in¬ 
 creasing, and whilst all the enjoyments and 
 comforts of life have greatly increased to the 
 richer and middle classes. Let us now take a 
 rapid survey of the effects hence produced in 
 three particulars, each of which is of great 
 consequence to the community. 
 
 1st. —In discontent. 
 
 2nd. — In disease and suffering. 
 
 3rd. •— In crime. 
 
 The result of the whole being a vast increase 
 of cost to the country. All of these, we believe, 
 may in great measure be clearly traced to, the 
 neglected physical and moral condition of the 
 humbler classes, as clearly as crops to the seeds 
 sown and the culture given. 
 
EFFECTS OF NEGLECT. 
 
 67 
 
 In the course of many visits to the crowded 
 districts, inhabited by the poorer classes in dif¬ 
 ferent portions of London, in many of our great 
 cities and populous places, we have found 
 Discontent — a prevalent discontent at their 
 neglected state; often, a feeling of irritation 
 against their employers, or of suspicion of the 
 higher classes, which, combined with their ig¬ 
 norance, made them the ready dupes of any 
 designing and crafty person, desirous of sowing- 
 dissatisfaction among them. In spite of that 
 strong adhesion to things as they are, which 
 seems inherent in the human mind, especially 
 (and perhaps fortunately) among the uneducated 
 and unreflecting, we do not think that among 
 the masses alluded to (from whom we would 
 except shilled workmen and those of superior 
 intelligence) there is a strong, if any, attach¬ 
 ment to the institutions of the country, the 
 government under which they live, or, generally, 
 towards the higher classes, whom they often 
 regard as their oppressors, and look upon with 
 suspicion; yet, when well treated, we have found 
 them responsive to hindness and full of grati¬ 
 tude and good feeling, more especially where 
 benefit is done to their children. 
 
 The spirit of discontent we have spoken of— 
 the source of great suffering and evil —pervades, 
 we believe (more or less), the great mass of 
 
EFFECTS OF NEGLECT. 
 
 those whose condition we have described; and 
 if these accounts are true (and who can dispute 
 them?), we ought not to be surprised at it. 
 These discontents take various forms; some¬ 
 times only showing themselves in dogged man¬ 
 ners, and surly tones, or general coarseness of 
 demeanour; sometimes, in abusive language, 
 where fear does not repress it; sometimes, in 
 the various forms of strikes' for wages, and com¬ 
 binations against employers ; and occasionally 
 in political combinations and movements, by 
 which they are taught to hope to improve their 
 condition. Sometimes this spirit breaks out in 
 riots, and public disturbances; as recently in 
 Bristol, Birmingham, and South Wales; much 
 more frequently it remains constantly acting, 
 but concealed from observation, and tainting 
 with discomfort the great under-current of life 
 in this teeming country. 
 
 A few instances can only be noted from the 
 period past, indicatory of the spirit described 
 
 In 1812, disturbances by discontented work¬ 
 men, calling themselves Luddites,- prevailed 
 in parts of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, 
 and Nottinghamshire. They burned several 
 factories, plundered houses, and caused great 
 alarm. In 1815, disputes between employers 
 and colliers on the Tyne and Wear were carried 
 on with great virulence and violence. Discon- 
 
EFFECTS OF NEGLECT. 
 
 69 
 
 tents connected with changes in machinery, fluc¬ 
 tuation in wages and employment have occurred 
 from time to time in most of our manufacturing 
 and populous districts: political objects have 
 sometimes been connected with them, and often 
 one cause of excitement leads to another. 
 
 After the peace, several years of distress 
 among manufacturers, increased by the bad har¬ 
 vest of 1816, produced a ferment, which took a 
 [political course. Then occurred the unfortunate 
 affray and loss of life at Manchester. In 1821, 
 some misguided men broke out into open re¬ 
 sistance to the laws in Derbyshire; several were 
 executed for high treason. From 1816 to 1829 
 there were strikes in almost every branch of 
 the less skilled trades of a very formidable 
 description. Among the most remarkable and 
 injurious in their effects, were those in Glou¬ 
 cestershire and at Kidderminster in 1828 and 
 1829.* In 1827 there was an active meeting 
 of trades; in 1828, a general meeting of dele¬ 
 gates in the Isle of Man; in 1830, trade 
 agitation for a time merged in political views 
 and discussions about the Reform Bill. After 
 that measure, many fell back to Trades Unions, 
 and large strikes were attempted, as the tailors 
 
 * Previously there were many benefit clubs; since then 
 they have been dissolved.—W. A. Miles’s Hand-loom 
 Weavers’ Report, p. 533. 
 
 r 3 
 
70 
 
 EFFECTS OF NEGLECT. 
 
 in London, and the silkmen in Derby; then 
 took place a vast procession of 40,000 workmen 
 to Whitehall. 
 
 Unable to accomplish the improvement in 
 their condition they expected by Trades 
 Unions, many again turned to political views, 
 and in 1836 the Working Trades Association 
 was set on foot, to discuss the principles of a 
 proposed Charter. In 1838, this Charter as¬ 
 sumed a definite form, and became a rallying 
 point for those discontented with their condition. 
 This national petition (as it was called) was 
 carried to Scotland and the Uorth, very nu¬ 
 merously signed, and was in 1839 presented to 
 the House of Commons. 
 
 In the same year took place in London the 
 Convention, as it was called, of Delegates from 
 many populous districts, and resolutions were 
 passed, tending to the excitement of the work¬ 
 ing classes. Since then there have been dis¬ 
 turbances among the manufacturers in Mont¬ 
 gomeryshire, discontents in Wiltshire, outrages 
 and a revolt in South Wales, a serious outbreak 
 attempted at Sheffield, and elsewhere symptoms 
 of great discontent. 
 
 We can all recollect the disturbances in 
 Bristol, and the pillage and fire of houses at 
 Birmingham and. the Staffordshire Potteries. 
 The Bebecca riots in South Wales, and the 
 
EFFECTS OF NEGLECT. 
 
 Commission issued in consequence, are yet fresli 
 in our memories. We must not forget tlie in¬ 
 cendiary fires which, from time to time afflicted 
 various of the southern counties of England 
 but a short time ago, nor the rural insurrec¬ 
 tion and outbreak in some of those counties, re¬ 
 quiring a special commission for trial of the 
 offenders. 
 
 What is the practical lesson we should draw 
 from these symptoms, showing themselves from 
 year to year? It is, that there is something 
 wrong in the social state of many of these per¬ 
 sons i they desire changes because they believe 
 such changes will improve their condition. 
 We have seen that the condition of many of 
 them is greatly susceptible of improvement. 
 
 We believe the destruction of machinery, 
 attempts at intimidation of employers, and 
 great political changes advocated by many of 
 these misguided men, can only end in suffering 
 and sorrow; but we do not the less pity 
 those who, smarting under fancied oppression, 
 many real grievances, and much neglect, rush 
 into courses injurious to themselves, and often 
 dangerous to the country. Nay, but let us try 
 to help them, to concede to them that con¬ 
 sideration their real claims deserve, and thus 
 safely and securely win them to the side 
 
72 
 
 EFFECTS OF NEGLECT. 
 
 of order—“by only doing our duty towards 
 them.” 
 
 Disease and Mortality .—We now propose 
 ' to look very briefly at the increase of disease 
 and suffering caused by the neglected state of 
 vast numbers of the working classes. 
 
 As many may be incredulous as to the 
 amount of disease, and therefore suffering, in any 
 spot, and may assert the healthiness of one 
 district rather than another, “it is of great 
 advantage to have a standard of authority as to 
 the health of any place which shall be above 
 suspicion, to which we can refer.” Such we 
 are fortunate enough to possess in the returns of 
 mortality made annually by the different local 
 officers, called registrars, to the registrar general 
 in London. Abstracts of these forms are 
 printed in a tabular form for reference, and are 
 of the greatest use for comparing the state of 
 public health in different towns and districts, 
 By these returns we are enabled to see what 
 is the number of deaths annually in propor¬ 
 tion to the population in any of our great towns. 
 The number of the people being taken every 
 ten years, and the last return being in 1841, 
 we can by the published table* compare the 
 
 * Although, as compared with former years, there is 
 on the whole population a considerable diminution in the 
 rate of mortality, yet if we calculated only the working 
 
EFFECTS OF NEGLECT. 
 
 number of deaths in the year with the popula¬ 
 tion of that period: the table cited gives ns 
 this proportion for all our principal cities, and 
 another for each of the different parishes in the 
 metropolis. By these returns it appears that 
 the greatest difference exists on this point, so 
 important as affording (after reasonable allow¬ 
 ance for disturbing causes) a clear index of the 
 comparative mortality, and therefore public 
 health, in different towns and districts. 
 
 Thus it appears that the average mortality of 
 all England is but 2‘2 per cent, and in many 
 parts of the country, the mortality is not 2 per 
 cent, in the population. In Halifax and Ox¬ 
 ford it is 2T per cent., whilst in 
 Wolverhampton - - 2’8 per cent. 
 
 . Exeter - - - - 2-7 
 
 Nottingham - - - 2 ’8 
 
 Leicester - - - 3' 
 
 Bristol - - - - 3T 
 
 Liverpool* - - - 3'5 
 
 That is, in Halifax and Oxford rather more 
 
 or poorer classes in many of our large towns, this would 
 not he the case. Neither is long life, in the neglected 
 and miserable condition ciepicteci in the Reports of the 
 Health of Towns’ Commissioners, to he considered a 
 blessing. 
 
 * It is capable of being rendered as healthy as any 
 town, says an intelligent witness .—Health of Towns 
 Report, p. 271. 
 
74 
 
 EFFECTS OF NEGLECT. 
 
 than four persons die in every two years out of 
 one hundred; and in Liverpool, in the same time 
 and out of the same number, seven die, the 
 deaths being thus seven to four. So, in some 
 neglected eastern London parishes the deaths 
 are nearly double those of others to the west 
 better attended to. * 
 
 We may consider the disease, misery, suffer¬ 
 ing, and sorrow, in nearly the same proportions. 
 These proportions hold good for a whole parish; 
 but if we were to compare the number of deaths, 
 and consequent, disease and suffering, in one 
 neglected street, court, or alley, with a like 
 population better situated, we should find the 
 case much worse, and instead of the deaths 
 being annually one in twenty-five, they would 
 often amount to a death annually in twenty or 
 sixteen; and that, instead of two to one, the 
 deaths would be three to one compared with 
 those of the same number in a more favoured 
 situation. Every where we shall find around 
 us a mass of suffering, within our power to di- 
 
 * The deaths during one year, in England and Wales, 
 by epidemic and contagious diseases, including fever, 
 typhus, &e., the great proportion of which are preventalle, 
 amount to above 56,000, which is the same as if .the 
 whole county of Westmoreland or Huntingdon were de¬ 
 populated annually. — Chadwick’s General Report on 
 Sanatory Condition, p. 3. 
 
EFFECTS OF NEGLECT. 
 
 75 
 
 mulish, and the effort will eventually be a mea¬ 
 sure of economy as well as humanity. * 
 
 We shall thus have it often proved to us, by 
 facts resting on returns of undoubted credit, 
 that the deaths in these neglected places are 
 nearly three times as great as in others, and 
 often twice as great as they should be were 
 due caution and necessary improvements car¬ 
 ried out. The deduction is also clear, “that the 
 disease, mendicancy, increase of poor-rates, and 
 of expense for medicine and support to widows 
 and orphans, to those disabled from labour, sup¬ 
 porting others, is double what it ought or might 
 be if such improvements were effected. There 
 will be twice as many deaths, twice as many 
 funerals, double the suffering, double the grief 
 of parting friends, double the sorrow of sad 
 survivors. There will be twice as many 
 widows, and twice as many orphans. In the 
 one case, where the mortality is low, death 
 arrives gradually, in almost its natural course, 
 when the years are told out, and the task of life 
 is nearly over: in the other, it suddenly seizes 
 its victims in their opening youth, in the 
 
 * “ The annual slaughter in England and Wales from 
 preventable causes of typhus fever, which attacks persons 
 in the vigour of life, appears to he double the amount of 
 what was suffered by the allied armies at the battle of 
 Waterloo.”— Chadwich, Report on Sanatory Condition. 
 
EFFECTS OF NEGLECT. 
 
 strength of their days, or wastes them down 
 to nothingness by varied forms of pestilence — 
 the offspring of neglect.* What are the conse¬ 
 quences of this difference ? We shall find the 
 rate of mortality one great criterion of comfort, 
 therefore of contentment, of good conduct, of 
 moral habits, of intelligence, docility, usefulness, 
 and value.” In the one case we shall find a 
 population having little to complain of, ready 
 to attend to advice, having had time to learn 
 and to think, having experience from lengthened 
 life, and being valuable subjects, docile and in¬ 
 dustrious, possessing that chief safeguard against 
 tumults and disorders, “ the hope of improving 
 their condition: ” in the other will be found a 
 body consisting in great measure of the young 
 who cannot repay their support; a large pro¬ 
 portion of the rest will be inexperienced, un¬ 
 taught, untried, having had no time to learn or 
 to think. Their maxim will be the heathen 
 maxim of old, “ Eat and drink, for to-morrow 
 we die.” Forced by their necessities to labour, 
 experience and docility will be wanting; they 
 will not husband their wages, but seek for ex¬ 
 citement in intemperance or low sensual indul¬ 
 gences; then - consumption of spirits will be 
 
 * Report on Birmingham and other Towns, p. 37.1845. 
 — Supplement to Second Report of Health of Towns 
 Commission, 1845. 
 
EFFECTS OF NEGLECT. 
 
 77 
 
 ten times that of the happier class; illicit con¬ 
 nections will be formed; early, ill-assorted 
 marriages will take place, without any chance 
 of a provision for offspring; thence will arise 
 multitudes of sickly and neglected children, 
 pressing into the places of those early victims 
 just departed, and to be cut off by the same 
 melancholy process: and thus the scene revolves. 
 “This class will eagerly join in riots and disturb¬ 
 ances, partly for the sake of excitement, and 
 because they have not that best security for 
 good conduct—-the hope of improving their 
 condition. To one or other of these classes, or 
 to some gradations between them, the great 
 mass of our labouring people, c in populous 
 cities pent,’ belong. From the concurrent testi¬ 
 mony of all thinking persons, it is now known 
 that the circumstances which chiefly influence, 
 in these points, c their weal or woe,’ are within 
 reach of well-devised legislation, duly enforced 
 by benevolent superintendence.” 
 
78 
 
 INCREASE OF CRIMINALS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 INCREASE OF CRIMINALS — CONSUMPTION OF SPIRITS. 
 
 Hating seen the amount of disease and suffer¬ 
 ing, and the rate of mortality, arising in great 
 measure from the neglected physical and moral 
 condition of the working classes, let us now 
 view the fearful progress of crime, fostered and 
 stimulated by the same causes. * 
 
 The numbers of criminals committed in Eng¬ 
 land, and Wales, in 1805, were 4600; 1815, 
 7800; 1821, 16,500; 1831, 19,600; 1841, 
 27,740; 1842, 31,300; 1843, 29,5011; 1844, 
 25,500; 1845, 24,300.1 
 We shall find the increase of criminals has 
 
 * It will be found, says Mr. Porter, that in England 
 and Wales, the number of persons committed for trial is 
 now five times as great as it was at the begining of the 
 century. — Sect. 7. p. 172. , 
 
 f Returns to Home Office. “In 1837, above 20,000 
 were tried for offences, to obtain money chiefly by 
 larceny, or in inodes which import habitual depredation .” 
 — Constabulary Force Report , p. 18. 
 
 J This slight improvement was owing to improved 
 employment and food, and a better constabulary force. 
 
CONSUMPTION OP SPIPJTS. 
 
 79 
 
 . been above six-fold, whilst the population has 
 increased 60 -per cent, in about forty years; or, 
 in other words, the criminal commitments have 
 augmented ten times as fast as the people. 
 
 In the able Eeport of the Constabulary Com¬ 
 missioners, lately presented to the House of 
 Commons, it appears the number of depre¬ 
 dators and suspected persons at that time within 
 the district of the 
 
 Metropolitan police, was 17,000, or 1 in89 
 Hull - - 937, or 1 in 64 
 
 Liverpool - - 4700, or 1 in 45 
 
 Bristol - - 3481, or 1 in 31 
 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne 2114, or 1 in 27 
 The Report continues, “that the number of 
 commitments to our jails may be stated in round 
 numbers, as 100,000 annually, consisting of 
 from 12,000 to 20,000 persons coming again 
 and again before the courts of justice;” that 
 the average length of the career of a London 
 thief was about six years, and that of a depre¬ 
 dator in the country twice as long, living all 
 the time on the public. 
 
 * See the neglected and abject condition of large num¬ 
 bers of the working classes in these four great towns, as de¬ 
 tailed respectively by the Commissioners on the Health of 
 Towns in their several local Reports .—Appendix to 
 First and Second Reports of the Commission, October, 
 1845. 
 
80 
 
 INCREASE OE CRIMINALS. 
 
 As an accompaniment to the augmentation of 
 criminals, has been the additional consumption 
 of ardent spirits, alternately a cause and effect 
 of vice and wretchedness.”* * * § The consumption 
 in Great Britain, in 1817, was 9,200,000 gal¬ 
 lons; in 1827, 18,200,000, gallons; in 1837, 
 29,200,000 gallons, f 
 
 Thus we see the quantity of spirits used, 
 trebled in twenty years, from 1817 to 1837, whilst 
 the population increased about one third. It 
 was calculated, by an accurate authority, that 
 ten years before, every person above twelve years 
 of age consumed, on an average, one gallon of 
 spirits per annum; but then, one gallon and 
 a half. % 
 
 Mr. Porter, in his excellent work on the 
 Progress of the Nation §, gives some able cal¬ 
 culations and clear tables showing the fearful 
 increase of crime; but his statements show that 
 that increase is (in twenty agricultural counties 
 
 * Report on Sanatory State of Labouring Classes, p. 27. 
 
 t In 1839, the consumption was 29,214,000 gallons, 
 slightly diminished in 1845 to 26,672,477 gallons: most of 
 this diminution, slight as it is, is to be traced to the efforts 
 of one man in the Temperance movement in Ireland. 
 — Vide Return of spirits, &c., House of Common, 20th 
 January, 1847. 
 
 % Colonel Sykes, Transactions of Statistical Society of 
 London, 1847. 
 
 § Sect. 7. p. 196. and 199. 
 
CONSUMPTION OF SPIRITS. 
 
 81 
 
 from 1806 to 1841, with an increase of popula¬ 
 tion of 55 per cent.) nearly the same as in twenty 
 more manufacturing counties, with an increase 
 of 92 per cent. These tables show such con¬ 
 stant and rapid additions to the ranks of ju¬ 
 venile offenders, as is calculated to awaken the 
 deepest interest. 
 
 We have now seen described, on evidence of 
 undoubted veracity, the moral and physical con¬ 
 dition of multitudes of the working classes and 
 their children; we have seen the neglected 
 state of their dwellings, and the afflicting evils 
 many of them suffer from causes which are, we 
 are assured, preventable, by proper social regula¬ 
 tion for their benefit. We have seen the desti¬ 
 tute and degraded condition of vast numbers of 
 theh children, and their want of extensive and 
 effectual education, to shield them from evil, 
 and lead them to. good. 
 
 The effect of this state of things we have seen 
 exemplified— 
 
 1st. — In discontents and disturbances con¬ 
 stantly showing themselves in one. form or 
 other. 
 
 2nd. — In increased mortality, numerous 
 deaths, wide-spread diseases, great sufferings and 
 misery among vast numbers. 
 
 .. 3rd.—In an alarming augmentation of cri¬ 
 minals, far out-running their former proportion. 
 
82 
 
 COST TO THE COUNTRY 
 
 to the population, and an immense additional 
 consumption of spirits among our people. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 COST TO THE COUNTRY OP CRIME, DISEASE, AND 
 IGNORANCE. 
 
 We will now view, briefly, the expense and 
 annual cost and waste to the country of these 
 effects, from causes principally within our owi 
 power to remove. 
 
 The uniform opinion of all the most intelligem 
 witnesses shows that the habitual use of ardem 
 spirits is the resource of the degraded, the dis 
 solute, the ignorant, and the miserable. The 
 annual consumption of spirits in Great Britaii 
 and Ireland is now upwards of thirty millions o 
 gallons.* Of this vast quantity suppose fivi 
 millions of gallons to be used by the richer am 
 middle classes, and for medical purposes, wi 
 have then twenty-five millions of gallons, costing 
 
 * In 1838; reduced, it is true, to about 26,300,001 
 gallons in 1845; but this only irom tbe diminution ii 
 Ireland, resting on temporary causes. 
 
OP CRIME AND DISEASE. 
 
 83 
 
 at retail prices which they pay*, an annual sum of 
 not less than twelve millions and a half sterling 
 to the great body of the poorer class. <c Add 
 to this the sum expended by them in intoxica¬ 
 tion with malt liquors (allowing besides liberally 
 for comfort and reasonable conviviality), which 
 cannot be less than two millions and a half 
 sterling, f We have then a sum of fifteen millions 
 per annum, the different direction of which, con¬ 
 sequent on the improved intelligence and situa¬ 
 tion of these parties, would alone be a vast 
 saving to the country, and work the greatest 
 benefit. It would be a complete shifting of this 
 mighty power from the side of evil to that of 
 good; it would be as if fifteen millions, before 
 expended for the destruction of the bodies and 
 souls of men, were turned to their comfort and 
 preservation.! Who can calculate the cost, and 
 loss of time and health, arising from this de¬ 
 grading vice, alternately the offspring and the 
 source of misery, the constant cause of discontent 
 and disease. We shall find our infirmaries, 
 * The retail cost, in small quantities, will be about 10s. 
 per gallon on the average for the whole kingdom. 
 
 f The average annual consumption of malt in the 
 united kingdom for three years, 1843, 1844, and 1845, is 
 . about thirty-six millions of bushels; the cost, at 6s. 8 d. per 
 bushel, would be twelve millions, besides hops, vessels, 
 labour, &c., making at least fourteen millions. 
 
 ! State of Towns, p. 58. 
 
84 
 
 COST TO THE COUNTRY 
 
 our hospitals* our poorhouses crowded with its 
 victims.”* 
 
 We have shown by a short calculation the 
 vast sum annually abstracted from the earnings 
 of the poorer classes, owing to causes we be¬ 
 lieve chiefly, if not entirely, remediable by 
 enlightened legislative provisions and facili¬ 
 ties, duly carried out aud followed up by the 
 generous and persevering efforts of the higher 
 and middle classes. We hope hereafter to show 
 that such efforts, besides being a noble Christian 
 duty, due from those who owe so much, would 
 be remunerative to the parties themselves, highly 
 advantageous to their common country, and a 
 source of interesting and happy employment to 
 thousands in want of due occupation, or wasting 
 them time and powers, in days and years of 
 listlessness, or strenuous idleness f, which they 
 can hereafter only review with regret and 
 dismay. 
 
 This annual cost to the country we have es¬ 
 timated at fifteen millions sterling. Let ua 
 turn to other sources of cost arising from the 
 same removable causes. 
 
 * The sum expended for the relief of the poor in 
 1845 exceeded five millions sterling in England, and 
 Wales only. 
 
 f In the constant occupations of sporting, travelling, 
 or exchanging visits ; or other diligent methods for 
 destroying tedious time, in objectless pursuits. 
 
OF CRIME AND DISEASE. 
 
 85 
 
 The sum annually paid for the relief of the 
 poor in England and Wales, raised by rate, 
 amounts to above five millions. 
 
 Can any one, acquainted with the working of 
 the poor law, and cognisant of the general cha¬ 
 racter of paupers, and the causes which lead to 
 pauperism, doubt that one half of this vast sum 
 might be saved by judicious measures preven¬ 
 tive of the evils described. Let us bear in mind, 
 “that of the 43,000 cases of widowhood, and 
 112,000 cases of destitute orphanage relieved 
 from the poor rates in England and Wales 
 alone, it appears that the greatest proportion of 
 the deaths of heads of families occurred from 
 the above described and other removable causes *; 
 that their ages were under 45 years, that is, 
 18 years below the natural probabilities of life, 
 &c.: that these adverse circumstances tend to 
 produce an adult population, short-lived, impro¬ 
 vident, reckless, and intemperate.” Let us re¬ 
 member the vast number annually cut off by 
 preventable cases of typhus fever, which attacks 
 persons in the vigour of life, f 
 
 If to those numbers reduced to pauperism by 
 
 * General Report on tlie Sanatory Condition of the 
 Labouring Classes in 1842, p. 309. — Conclusion. 
 
 ...f Dr. S. Smith’s Evidence, Health of Towns Com¬ 
 mission, Oct. 1844. 
 
COST TO THE COUNTRY - 
 
 preventable causes, affecting their health and 
 strength and physical condition, let us add the 
 innumerable victims of intemperance, improvi¬ 
 dence, ignorance, and idleness, who fell for want 
 of education, instruction, and example, we shall 
 then find that at least half the cost of pauperism 
 might be saved. Thus would a pecuniary ad¬ 
 vantage, equal to two and a half millions, accrue.* 
 But we have another vast fund to go to; another 
 immense saving to be effected by enlightened 
 measures of improvement in the social con¬ 
 dition of the people. 
 
 What is the cost of crime to the country ?— 
 crime, the offspring of neglect and ignorance, 
 which is one of the most costly commodities in 
 the world. The report of the Constabulary 
 Commission (p. 4.) states, that the cost of 4700 
 vicious characters of both sexes residing in 
 
 * To this should be added the sum now expended 
 in infirmaries, hospitals, and various other charities 
 public and private, for the relief of illness and indigene; 
 arising from the causes described; which cannot hi 
 estimated for England at less than five millions sterling, 
 being the same amount as the poor rate, of which, wi 
 think, half might be saved by preventive measures. Thi 
 income of the endowed charities of the metropolis alom 
 (excluding education charities, and those supported hj 
 subscriptions and donations ) exceed ,£250,000 per an- 
 
OP CRIME AND DISEASE. 
 
 87 
 
 Liverpool alone was (independent of the ex¬ 
 pense of police) 700,000?. per annum.* 
 
 If we follow up this calculation to the other 
 great towns and populous districts throughout 
 the country, whose neglected state we have seen, 
 we shall find the annual cost of vice and crime 
 not less than ten millions per annum. 
 
 Vast as is this sum, we believe it to be much 
 underrated. Let us remember the relative 
 proportion of the population and wealth of 
 Liverpool to the metropolis (with near 17,000 
 such persons) and other large towns and popu¬ 
 lous districts of the kingdom. Also this calcu¬ 
 lation was made in 1836, when the number of 
 commitments was scarcely 20,000, whereas 
 since that time it has reached to a much larger 
 amount.f On the whole we feel assured the 
 cost of crime, is above ten millions sterling, and 
 at least half that amount (five millions) arises 
 from preventable causes; and that this vast 
 saving would eventually take place, if such im¬ 
 provements be carried out in the social con¬ 
 dition of the working classes. 
 
 We have hitherto chiefly considered the in- 
 
 * Report 1839, p. 18. “ The Suh-Committee, who ex¬ 
 amined the details of this Report, state that, immense as 
 this sum is, it is not exaggerated, but much understated 
 — so also the Statistical Society of Liverpool. 
 
 ’ t 1843,- 29,500; 1844, 25,500. 
 
COST TO THE COUNTRY' 
 
 direct cost of crime; but the direct expendi¬ 
 ture for the purpose of repressing criminals is 
 very great, and we have seen that they con¬ 
 tinue to increase in spite of all our efforts. 
 Let us then “ change our battery, and instead 
 of working by force and strong hand on the full 
 grown and hardened criminal, let us betake 
 ourselves to sap, by gentle but more effectual 
 methods, the foundations of the evil.” 
 
 The annual direct outlay for repressing 
 crime in England alone is upwards of a million 
 and a half sterling.* If we make a short sum¬ 
 mary of these enormous expenses, arising from 
 the causes described, we shall find they amount 
 annually to a sum exceeding the interest of the 
 whole national debt — a prize for exertion, a 
 reward for improvements, a direct and munifi¬ 
 cent incentive to us to do our duty, and to 
 improve, by every means in our power, the phy- 
 
 * Estimated costs of constabulary force - ,£450,000 
 “ for the metropolis - 260,000 
 
 “ for London - - 40,000 
 
 750,000 
 
 Paid from county rates for prosecutions, 
 gaols, and other matters connected with crime 352,000 
 
 Prom the consolidated fund, transports, 
 penitentiaries, convicts, &c. ... 460,000 
 
 1,562.000 
 
OF CRIME AND DISEASE. 
 
 89 
 
 sical and moral condition of the working classes 
 of these realms. 
 
 A summary of these sources of cost to be 
 saved will be— 
 
 Millions sterling. 
 
 Annual outlay in spirits, and in¬ 
 toxication by malt liquor - 15 
 
 In poor rate (half) . - - 21 
 
 In crime (two-thirds) 71 
 
 Direct cost of police (two-thirds) 1 
 
 Hospitals, infirmaries, and other 
 endowed and voluntary cha¬ 
 rities, to relieve illness and 
 indigence (one-half) 2{ 7 
 
 Annually 28| 
 
 • Vast as this sum is, we believe it is below 
 the truth. Let us remember the cost of crimi¬ 
 nals to the country is only calculated for Eng¬ 
 land. The poor-rates and cost of the poor is 
 only for England. The expenditure for police 
 and the punishment and prevention of crime is 
 only for England. All ought to he largely 
 added to for Ireland and Scotland. 
 
 Nothing is set down for the cost to almost 
 every family of some one of its members or 
 relatives, wholly or partially cast upon it for 
 j support (owing to some of the removable 
 
90 COST OF CRIME AND DISEASE. 
 
 causes described), by so much lessening the in¬ 
 come of such family, and thereby the aggregate 
 wealth of the country. 
 
 We have then a sum annually equalling the 
 interest of the whole national debt, to be saved 
 by enlightened and persevering measures to 
 remove suffering, prevent disease, educate igno¬ 
 rance, and lead from crime. Such is the vast 
 premium offered for no painful and difficult 
 sacrifice, but for the first Christian duty, 
 “ doing to others as we would be done by.” 
 
 It has been stated that in this most opulent 
 and powerful country of the world, the dis¬ 
 posable capital of the kingdom increases at the 
 rate of a million sterling per week, or fifty-two 
 millions per. annum. An additional sum, more 
 than equal to half this immense fund, may be 
 saved to our people, may be directed to their 
 lasting welfare, by steadily improving the con¬ 
 dition of multitudes now ignorant, neglected, 
 and depressed.* 
 
 * No one can suppose we are sanguine enougli to an¬ 
 ticipate such an immense pecuniary benefit in the 
 course of a very few years ; but gradually and securely 
 we believe it would follow energetic and enlightened 
 measures for social improvement. 
 
INCREASED SECURITY, ETC. 91 
 
 CHAPTER XU. 
 
 INCREASED SECURITY, COMFORT, AND HAPPINESS. 
 
 Hitherto we have been only calculating the 
 pecuniary saving, from measures calculated to 
 do justice to the working classes, and perma¬ 
 nently to improve their condition. But here 
 we have brought to mind the words of the 
 lamented Mr. Sydney Smith.* “There are 
 principles (I am quite serious in what I say) 
 above cash, superior to cotton, higher than 
 currency—principles without which it is better 
 to die than live, which every servant of God, 
 over every sea and in all lands, should cherish.” 
 Such principles would teach us that indepen¬ 
 dent of all calculations of profit, and if it would 
 be a pecuniary loss, instead of a great and in¬ 
 creasing gam. It is the first duty of every 
 Government to protect the most numerous and 
 defenceless portion of its subjects from such 
 extensive and grievous evils, as are proved to 
 exist among us. 
 
 Besides, however, enlightened justice and 
 provident mercy, being the cheapest measures 
 
 His Letter on American Debts, p. 18. 
 
92 
 
 INCREASED SECURITY, 
 
 which a government can have recourse to, 
 saving (even on the beggarly balance of pounds 
 and pence) millions, which are lost for ever by a 
 niggardly, ignorant and short-sighted economy, 
 there are other and inestimable advantages to 
 be counted on the side of such improvements. 
 
 1st. — We should have far greater security 
 for life and property — fewer disturbances and 
 riots, less apprehension of political outbreaks, 
 or of trade strikes and combinations, which 
 have, heretofore, continually occurred from 
 time to time. 
 
 2nd.—We should have more intelligent, 
 contented, docile, and industrious workmen, 
 labourers and servants—more attached to their 
 employers and masters, bound by ties of grati¬ 
 tude to the institutions of our common country! 
 
 3rd.—We should greatly increase our own 
 comfort and happiness; we (the richer classes) 
 should not have to come in contact almost con¬ 
 stantly with those whose minds, feelings and 
 manners, have been hardened and rendered 
 coarse or callous by neglect, disease, ignorance 
 and suffering; we should not have to witness 
 in our populous cities, and many of our remote 
 rural districts, such scenes of sorrow, as now 
 exist; and above all we could not upbraid our¬ 
 selves with those extensive evils, arising from 
 our own indolence and indifference. - 
 
COMFORT AND HAPPINESS. 
 
 4th.—-We should, by 'well-considered and 
 energetic measures, for removing or lessening 
 the extensive evils described, create and add to 
 the sources of happiness for this most numerous 
 class of the community. Such a motive will 
 not be lightly put aside in a country where we 
 have ourselves so much to be grateful for, and 
 where mutual Christian obligations are, or 
 appear to be, respected. 
 
 Let us bear in mind, that the main sources 
 of happiness for the working classes (perhaps 
 of all classes) ought to consist in the social 
 affections; in the kind feelings that ought to 
 exist between husbands and wives, parents and 
 children, brothers and sisters, relatives, friends, 
 or neighbours. These true and lasting sources 
 of happiness are placed by Nature equally within 
 reach of the poor as of the rich, unless they are 
 destroyed or tainted by the evils described. 
 How harsh and hard, how cruel and unjust it 
 is then, by our neglect or the neglect of our 
 government, to deprive the humbler classes of 
 these purest sources of happiness which alone 
 they can call their own ! 
 
 Let no one for a moment suppose that the 
 rude labourer or mechanic has not feeling sus¬ 
 ceptible of these social affections, and the last¬ 
 ing pleasures which spring from them. The 
 uniform experience of all those acquainted with 
 
94 INCREASED. SECURITY, ETC. 
 
 these humble persons will testify in their favour. 
 In many cases, even now, their attachment to 
 their children, their parents, and their conduct 
 as husbands and wives is exemplary, under all 
 disadvantages. But how is it possible for the 
 domestic virtues or the social affections to 
 flourish, scarcely to exist, amidst the extensive 
 moral and physical evils which have been 
 shown to weigh down the spirits and destroy 
 the health and strength of vast multitudes of 
 our working people ? 
 
 We have again and again visited many of 
 those neglected and wretched places described 
 in the authorities quoted, and have ourselves 
 watched and witnessed the slow but sure and sad 
 process going on, by which hearts are hardened, 
 minds corrupted, the health of the soul and 
 body destroyed, and all by circumstances over 
 which the poor sufferers have little or no con¬ 
 trol, but which are preventable or removable 
 if the legislature and the richer classes do their 
 duty. 
 
 Many will be ready to denounce such views 
 as the dreams of some enthusiast: numbers will 
 be found to echo the cry, and to deny the possi¬ 
 bility of any such changes, but are they right ? 
 Can the facts be denied we have brought for¬ 
 ward ? Are not the fifty great towns examined 
 in the neglected state described ? Has not a 
 
PRACTICAL REMEDIES. 
 
 95 
 
 great change taken place within the last half 
 century in the employments and situations of 
 the working classes, calling for corresponding 
 changes in social regulations for their benefit ? 
 We do not for an instant contend that the vast 
 advantages we promise and predict from large 
 and liberal measures of improvement can take 
 place suddenly, or that the neglect of half a 
 century can he remedied by the brief efforts of 
 a few years; but we, nevertheless, feel confident 
 in the happy result of enlightened perseverance, 
 and that there is no other course left for the 
 honour and safety of our noble country. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PRACTICAL REMEDIES — SANATORY MEASURES. ■ 
 
 What, then, do we propose ? Only what has 
 been recommended—advocated—enforced by 
 all those who have taken a deep interest in the 
 welfare of their fellow-men for long years past. 
 That the legislature and the powerful classes 
 should do justice—enlightened justice—to 
 multitudes who toil and labour for them. We 
 
96 
 
 PRACTICAL REMEDIES, 
 
 do not ask for an extension of democratic privi¬ 
 leges, for any invasion or change of property, 
 b.ut only for the trial on a large scale of those 
 measures which have been found effectual for 
 good, when tried in a confined district, or ap¬ 
 plied to a particular set of persons. We do not 
 propose to enter into the details of any such re¬ 
 medial measures, but, 1st, to state the principle 
 on which we think they should be based. 
 
 2nd. To enumerate them very briefly. 
 
 3rd. To suggest a mode by which we think 
 and hope they might be gradually brought 
 about. 
 
 Hitherto the principle on which our legisla¬ 
 ture has generally acted with respect to the 
 working classes has been to do nothing , until 
 great evils were found to exist; then to inter¬ 
 fere with stern enactments against the glaring 
 elfects of neglected causes. Paupers and beg¬ 
 gars appear; they are rebuked, imprisoned, 
 and prosecuted. 
 
 Criminals multiply; vast jails and penitenti¬ 
 aries are erected, and a powerful and numerous 
 constabulary force is organised in our towns 
 and counties. 
 
 Disease and sickness widely prevails among 
 our labourers in populous districts; hospitals, 
 dispensaries, and all kinds of relieving charities 
 are' erected'; but the causes of all these in- 
 
SANATORY MEASURES. 
 
 97 
 
 creasing evils remain untouched and unheeded 
 by our legislature. 
 
 Discontent widely prevails, sometimes taking 
 the form of political movements, or trade 
 comhinations, sometimes of anti-machinery or 
 anti-property riots; these are put down. by¬ 
 laws of summary and perhaps necessary rigour, 
 but the sources of this dissatisfaction and dis¬ 
 turbances remain unexamined and unaltered. 
 
 In order to enable the working classes to take 
 advantage of education, and to prevent that 
 education being neutralized or rendered ineffec¬ 
 tual by the physical evils which beset many of 
 them, it appears necessary to amend their 
 condition, increase their comfort, and protect 
 their health. 
 
 Much would be done towards these desirable 
 objects if the recommendations of the Health 
 of Towns Commission are carried into effect by 
 the Government.* 
 
 The next great practical measure for the 
 benefit of the working classes, and that which is 
 the root of all permanent improvement, is a 
 good education afforded to all, and enforced or 
 provided for all, under the inspection of Govern¬ 
 ment. The Government and the legislature have 
 
 * A measure founded on these recommendations was 
 brought into parliament by Lord Lincoln in 1845, and one 
 of the same nature is now in the hands of Government. 
 
PRACTICAL REMEDIES, 
 
 hitherto, as regards .the great masses of the 
 working classes, acted on the principle of .doing 
 nothing, of non-interferenee, of leaving them 
 to the care of voluntary assistance.and,direction, 
 or with no assistance and direction at all. 
 
 To act thus is to abandon the first duty of 
 -Government—the duty of protecting the weak 
 against the strong—of watching over the wel¬ 
 fare of the many—of repressing crime and vice 
 by eradicating ignorance, the fruitful source of 
 both. What then should be done ? It is the 
 firm .belief of many of. the most intelligent and 
 benevolent persons, confirmed by the increasing 
 opinion of the people, that a great .arrear of 
 legislative care and protection are due to these 
 neglected multitudes, and that the Government 
 should immediately alter its course and take 
 upon itself those duties it has hitherto for¬ 
 gotten. 
 
 Measures of Social Improvement. 
 
 We.will now enumerate briefly the measures 
 of social improvement applicable to the work¬ 
 ing people, which we firmly believe should be 
 undertaken and carried out gradually or assisted 
 by the government of the country, or local 
 authorities, for the ultimate benefit of all classes, 
 
 Most of these measures have from time tc 
 time been suggested and recommended b} 
 
SANATORY MEASURES. 
 
 those who have given most attention to these 
 subjects, and the increasing weight of public 
 opinion is every year and hour gathering in 
 their favour. 
 
 1st. — GENERAL SANATORY MEASURES EOR THE 
 PREVENTION OF DISEASE AND SUFFERING, AND 
 THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE HEALTH AND COM¬ 
 FORT OF OUR WORKING CLASSES. 
 
 These measures, with the reasons for them, 
 and the state of things requiring them, are 
 detailed in the Reports of the Health of Towns 
 Commission, from which we have made several 
 extracts, and which are more and more engaging 
 the attention of parliament and the public. 
 The provisions and regulations of such sanatory 
 laws should extend to all parts of the United 
 Kingdom, and be gradually introduced into 
 such of our colonies as may require them. 
 
 These sanatory regulations should be so 
 devised or varied, as to extend their benefit to 
 our smaller towns and villages, and groups of 
 cottages, and every dwelling where poor men 
 five.* 
 
 * If proper legislative facilities were given, by one 
 general Act, it 'is believed that supplies of water, one of 
 the first necessaries for health and cleanliness, would be 
 supplied by companies or private enterprise at a very 
 low rate to all towns, and yet so as to yield an ample 
 
100 
 
 PRACTICAL REMEDIES, 
 
 • The working man’s health and strength to 
 labour is his only property, and ought in justice 
 and policy to be protected by. law, with the 
 property of the other classes. If such sanatory 
 regulations be judiciously carried out, it is our 
 firm belief, that (besides incalculable advan¬ 
 tages to the health and comfort of vast multi¬ 
 tudes) they will remove legal difficulties to 
 improvement, and give great inducement to 
 beneficial and profitable investment for capital at 
 home —of inestimable consequence to the 
 country! It seems, also, almost certain that 
 such regulations and facilities for improvement 
 will call forth in every town and district 
 numerous intelligent and benevolent volunteers 
 and assistants, anxious to assist and co-operate 
 with the efforts of the legislature; and who 
 have only waited for light and leading, and 
 wanted direction and guidance. 
 
 The generous and benevolent feelings of our 
 Christian country have never been wanting 
 where extensive evils and wide-spread suffering 
 have been shown to exist, and where any effectual 
 plan for removal and prevention have been 
 brought forward. Hitherto the legislature 
 has given little or no countenance or aid to any 
 measures to prevent evil, but been contented 
 with petty attempts at some doubtful palliation 
 or relief in particular cases of glaring or grievous 
 
SANATORY MEASURES. 
 
 101 
 
 calamity. The principal recommendations of 
 the Health of Towns Commission are for 
 enforcing, in all towns and populous places, a 
 good system of drainage and cleansing, an 
 adequate and cheap supply of water, rules for 
 the proper construction of workmens dwellings, 
 improved ventilation, the regulation of low 
 lodging houses and periodical inspection of the 
 sanatory condition of towns. These recommen¬ 
 dations are thirty in number, and the reasons 
 are given for each.* Great pains were taken 
 in the inquiry instituted in 1845, enormous 
 evils and abuses were found to exist, capable of 
 gradual removal by legislative and social im¬ 
 provements ; the remedies stated in the resolu¬ 
 tions referred to were repeatedly and carefully 
 considered by the members of the Commission, 
 and unanimously agreed to. 
 
 * Second Report of Commission, 1S45. Bills have 
 since been brought in to carry out these recommenda¬ 
 tions, and others are spoken of to fulfil them. 
 
102 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 The next great measure necessary for the 
 welfare of the working classes is, that good 
 education, either afforded or ascertained and 
 enforced by the Government, should be brought 
 within reach of every one. It is the recorded 
 opinion of the ablest and best men that most 
 of the grievous evils, errors, and crimes, whose 
 consequences we have seen faintly depicted, in 
 former parts of this outline, arise from igno¬ 
 rance, which shows itself in various forms. A 
 good education will go to the root and founda¬ 
 tion of the mischief; it will, if rightly conducted, 
 have its effect on every act of each year of life, 
 of all under its influence, from the cradle to the 
 grave. 
 
 All things which have power over the human 
 mind, for good or for evil, are parts of education; 
 example, instruction, and eveiy circumstance 
 early felt, which sways the soul to right or 
 wrong. It is the duty of the Government to 
 take care that the pliant dispositions of the 
 young, especially of the working and defenceless 
 classes, are protected from moral poison, and 
 have placed within their reach such assistance 
 
EDUCATION 
 
 I0S 
 
 and guidance as may lead tliem to virtue. It 
 ■ will be of little comparative use to give instruc¬ 
 tion in schools to children^ if all the advantages 
 given are destroyed out of school , by the 
 impressions and example they receive at home 
 or abroadif vice and profligacy, or dirt and 
 wretchedness blunt all their feelings of de¬ 
 cency and self-respect. This is an important 
 ■part of their education; from the tainting con¬ 
 tact of these evils they ought, as far as possible,, 
 to be shielded, by those who hold the power of 
 protection.* 
 
 The health and strength, and therefore the 
 spirits and happiness, of these young ones, 
 should be cared for, not only by the sanatory 
 measures respecting their homes, but by pro¬ 
 viding proper, play-grounds and places of exer¬ 
 cise within their reach, and by the authorities 
 enforcing sufficient hours for relaxation. These 
 things are very insufficiently attended to in 
 most of the schools for the working classes 
 throughout our large towns and populous 
 districts. "We have seen how entirely deficient 
 these schools are in number and capacity for 
 the children who ought to be afforded instruc- 
 
 * Hence effective measures for sanatory improvements 
 in our towns and populous districts are so essential; 
 promoting thereby habits of decency, cleanliness, and 
 sobriety. 
 
104 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 tion.- But the instruction given is, besides, often 
 of a very useless and indifferent kind. The 
 children are constantly taught to repeat by 
 rote what they do not understand; when ex¬ 
 planation is given, it is frequently more puz¬ 
 zling than the matter explained. Books are 
 used which have nothing in them of the least 
 interest to the scholars. The Scriptures are 
 continually used as a common class-book, out 
 of which the children are taught to read and 
 repeat verse after verse, without interest or 
 reverence. Thus they early imbibe dislike 
 and disgust to what ought to be the consolation 
 and comfort of their future lives. 
 
 Lessons on. objects and oral lessons, which 
 might be made of great interest and amusement 
 to the pupils, are very rarely used.* 
 
 Even in those schools which are the best 
 managed, as in the Improved National and 
 British Schools, the object sought after is to 
 impart information and give habits of quickness 
 in thought. In some of these schools (showing 
 astonishing superiority over others) great suc¬ 
 cess is attained in these points, and not unfre- 
 quently great readiness in calculation is shown, 
 and considerable proficiency in a knowledge of 
 
 * Kev. Mr. Dawe’s interesting account of a self-sup¬ 
 porting school in Hampshire, where such lessons are used. 
 1847. Groombridge. 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 105 
 
 sacred history and geography. Yet even in 
 these schools (the few from many, the scarcest 
 and the best) the most important of all culture, 
 the culture of the dispositions and tempers of these 
 young creatures, is almost forgotten. Self- 
 control, self-denial, gentleness, kindness, the 
 social affections; the Christian virtues which, 
 if practised, -would so much increase the hap¬ 
 piness of all, but especially of the humble and 
 lowly; these are seldom attended to, and little 
 regarded. Yet these are, as regards the com¬ 
 fort and welfare of the working classes them¬ 
 selves, and the peace and prosperity of the 
 whole community, of far more consequence 
 than all other learning and knowledge. * 
 
 We do not propose here to detail or discuss 
 the method by which such desirable ends might 
 he obtained. We are, however, fully persuaded 
 that they may be, and ought to be, accom¬ 
 plished ; and that if the legislature and richer 
 classes do their duty in this most important 
 point, they will reap a lasting and glorious 
 reward. 
 
 Those, however, who are most earnest in 
 favour of improving the working classes, and 
 most convinced of the general benefits arising 
 from a really good education afforded to these 
 
 * In some few Infant Schools, these views have been 
 followed out with success. Mr. Wilderspin's hook on 
 this subject may be read with interest. 
 
106 
 
 EDUCATION. ' 
 
 children, will be least sanguine of any sudden 
 and immediate, results from a process which 
 must, from its nature, be gradual in its effects 
 and spread over many years. Those also who 
 have turned their serious and anxious attention 
 to the subject of education, well know the great 
 difficulties and prejudices which any government 
 has to contend with who takes this great 
 matter in hand. 
 
 . Hitherto these obstacles have defeated all 
 the endeavours which have been made by both 
 the great parties in the. state. These difficulties 
 are not on account of the cost which education 
 provided for the poor would require.* We 
 are able to show that no measure could be more 
 economical, or more truly a saving of present 
 expense and outlay, than such a measure. It 
 can also be demonstrated that in very many of 
 our large towns, the humble classes now pay 
 for a miserably deficient education, afforded to 
 one-fourth the children who require instruction, 
 a sum which is enough to defray the cost of an 
 
 ■* The cost of an adequate system of education for all 
 the working classes has been variously calculated; we 
 think it might be accomplished for a sum not exceeding 
 one penny in the pound on the poor rate, and such a 
 measure would, ,we think, eventually reduce the poor 
 rate many times that amount. — See calculations on 
 this subject in an able statement, showing the danger of 
 englect, and adducing statistical returns, by Kev. Mr. 
 Bennet, 1846. ' ' 
 
•EDUCATION. 
 
 107 
 
 excellent course of instruction for all who want 
 it*, provided such course be established on a 
 good and cheap system under proper super¬ 
 vision. 
 
 The main difficulties in the way of establish¬ 
 ing any general system of education for the 
 working classes is the jealousy arising from party 
 feeling and religious differences. 
 
 Many persons will be found who are much 
 more anxious about forms, and small points on 
 which Protestants of various creeds differ, than 
 about those important and practical matters on 
 which they are agreed. 
 
 We do not cast any blame on persons sin¬ 
 cerely entertaining such opinions, but merely 
 point out the great difficulties in the way of 
 providing any general system of good education 
 for the working classes. 
 
 We must bear in mind the education we are 
 now considering is for the working classes ; and 
 of those classes, in many towns and populous 
 places, and in some parts of the country f, the 
 large majority belong to various denominations 
 of Protestant Dissenters. In the Keport of 
 the Committee of the House of Commons on 
 
 * Evidence of Mr. Kay Shuttleworth; Committee on 
 Education, 1838. The Report of the Committee of Coun¬ 
 cil of 1845 will he read with pleasure by all who take 
 an interest in this subject. 
 
 f These accounts rest on returns sent from the 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 Education in 1838, a table is given of the num¬ 
 bers of children attending Sunday schools in 
 some of tbe large towns, whence useful deduc¬ 
 tions may be drawn, after proper allowances.* 
 
 When we find that in some of our largest 
 towns nearly double the number of children of 
 the humbler classes attend Sunday schools con¬ 
 nected with Dissenting congregations compared 
 with those attending Church schools we must 
 be led to the conclusion that it is totally im¬ 
 practicable to establish any general system to 
 exclude the former, as some have desired. 
 
 The principal daily instruction (at all worthy 
 
 National and British Schools in each place, which sub¬ 
 stantially, though not exactly, agree as to the numbers 
 of Children. ’ 
 
 Children in Sunday School. 
 
 Place. 
 
 Established 
 
 Church. 
 
 Dissenters. 
 
 Catholics. 
 
 Manchester 
 Liverpool - 
 Birmingham 
 
 Bristol 
 
 Brighton - 
 Sheffield - 
 Leeds 
 
 Wakefield - 
 Exeter 
 
 York 
 
 10,284 
 
 6,318 
 
 4,500 
 
 2,631 
 
 870 
 
 2,687 
 
 4,130 
 
 500 
 
 2,470 
 
 1,708 
 
 19,032 
 
 8,350 
 
 11,830 
 
 8,477 
 
 1,820 
 
 8,705 
 
 11,886 
 
 1,384 
 
 1,193 
 
 1,655 
 
 
 Videnote, p. 105., ante. 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 109 
 
 the'name of instruction) now afforded to the 
 poorer classes in populous towns is given 
 through the means,' and according to the re¬ 
 spective systems, of two great and excellent 
 societies long established and well known. One 
 called the National Society, giving religious in¬ 
 struction according to the Established Church, 
 and the other, the British and Foreign School 
 Society, using the Scriptures, and giving reli¬ 
 gious instruction drawn from the Scriptures of a 
 general nature, but such as not to he of an ex¬ 
 clusive form, or to be so brought out as to give 
 cause of objection to Protestant Dissenters. 
 
 The British and Foreign School Society is 
 supported by many persons belonging to the 
 Church, and by the great body of Protestant 
 Dissenters; and the schools are attended by 
 a considerable number of children whose 
 parents belong to the Church, and a vast num¬ 
 ber of different denominations of Dissenters. 
 The system of instruction in other points, in 
 both these schools, is not essentially different 
 where well carried out, by either if these socie¬ 
 ties ; it brings the children very forward in useful 
 knowledge, and is of great benefit to them, but 
 seldom extends sufficiently to form their tem¬ 
 pers and dispositions, or to implant and foster 
 those Christian principles of self-control and 
 hindness to others, which are the foundation of 
 
110 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 the social affections, and which. add so much to 
 the happiness of all. 
 
 These two great societies have done ines¬ 
 timable good to the working classes, but do not 
 extend their benefits to a quarter of those who 
 stand in need of instruction. In many cases 
 also there is a good deal of rivalry, and indeed 
 jealousy, between the respective conductors and 
 supporters of these schools. Both are chiefly 
 supported by voluntary subscriptions, though 
 some bequests and endowments by will have been 
 made to each. As the nobility and great ma¬ 
 jority of the gentry and opulent classes belong 
 to the Church, the National Society is generally 
 much more rich in subscriptions for its support 
 than the British and Foreign. 
 
 Both are recognized and assisted by the 
 government and legislature, and receive portions 
 of the annual grants made by Parliament to 
 support and extend the education of the poor.* 
 The children educated in many cases contribute 
 a small weekly payment towards the expenses. 
 
 Besides the schools connected with these 
 great societies, there are various others, varying 
 much in the sort of instruction communicated; 
 some charity schools are endowed by bequests, 
 or supported by subscriptions, of corporate 
 
 * Annual Reports. 
 
■EDUCATION. 
 
 Ill 
 
 bodies or benevolent persons; almost all are 
 exceedingly imperfect in the system they adopt, 
 generally are much inferior to the schools of 
 the societies described, and have no system of 
 periodical inspection, or regular superintending 
 authority to enforce improvement. Besides 
 these, there are many day and dame schools *, 
 paid for by the poor scholars, and generally of 
 a very indifferent description. The Report of 
 the Statistical Society of London, quoted by 
 the late Committee on Education, says, “ The 
 information acquired in these schools cannot be 
 said to amount to education; it can have but 
 little effect in expanding the minds of the 
 scholars, in teaching them to observe or reflect; 
 it can exercise but little influence in forming 
 their moral character,” &c. f 
 On the whole, we shall come to the same 
 conclusion now, as was arrived at by the Com¬ 
 mittee in 1838. 
 
 * Of education in that sense of the word that includes 
 training, and the endeavour to perfect the faculties of the 
 entire man, there is none.— Rev. Mr. Allen’s Report, 
 1840. 
 
 t Were not the subject we are considering of a grave 
 nature, we could adduce many striking and ludicrous 
 statements to show the ignorance, unsufficiency, and self- 
 conceit of many of the conductors of these schools; also 
 to prove how dirty, close, ill ventilated and unhealthy 
 these places are. 
 
.112 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 1st.,—That the kind of education given to 
 the children of the working classes is lament¬ 
 ably deficient. 
 
 2nd.—That it extends (bad as it is) to but a 
 small proportion of those who ought to receive 
 it. , 
 
 3rd.—That, without some strenuous and 
 persevering efforts be made on the part of 
 Government, the greatest evils to all classes 
 may follow from this neglect.* 
 
 Under the great difficulties which surround 
 this most important question, it may appear pre¬ 
 sumptuous in any private person to give sugges¬ 
 tions as to the nature of the measures required. 
 One who considers this matter of the first and 
 the last consequence to the welfare of his 
 fellow-men will not be deterred, however, from 
 offering with humility his opinion, j 
 
 It appears to us that the Government should 
 not, for the sake of apparent uniformity and 
 completeness, or even for the sake of carrying, 
 eventually, a more perfect measure of education 
 
 * Returns to parliament show that 85 per cent, of the 
 criminals committed could not read and write, or only- 
 very imperfectly. 1845. 
 
 f The author, having moved for, and acted as Chair¬ 
 man of the Committe of the House of Commons on Edu¬ 
 cation in 1838, may perhaps be forgiven, as every day's 
 experience since that time has strengthened his conviction 
 on this point. 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 113 
 
 for the working classes, hazard its defeat or 
 postponement for a considerable period; but 
 this must be the case if they were to propose 
 to abrogate or melt down into one uniform 
 system the varied elements and forms of in¬ 
 struction now existing for the poor. By such 
 an attempt they would probably enlist in 
 opposition to them many conscientious and ex¬ 
 cellent persons, who have worked hard and long 
 to bring to a certain degree of perfectness the 
 schools or systems they have aided, and who 
 feel some natural pride in the benevolent work 
 of their minds and hands. Even if this 
 opposition should not succeed, the Government 
 would lose the great advantage of having, as 
 willing, zealous, and active coadjutors, some of 
 the most powerful and best voluntary assistants 
 they can desire. 
 
 If, on the contrary, the Government esta¬ 
 blishes a sort of pattern system, to which a cer¬ 
 tain gradual though not exact conformity is 
 desired and induced,—inviting aid from all 
 quarters, offering aid to all who will avail them¬ 
 selves of such improvements as are necessary 
 (and may be introduced by degrees, as the 
 country, and managers, and masters become 
 convinced of their benefit),—then such hostility 
 would be neutralised, or changed into support. 
 
114 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 The Government might enforce the system 
 or the necessary part of the system they adopt, 
 in every new district assisted by the State; and 
 thus all essential improvements would gradually 
 make then- way and be extended in practice.* 
 Wherever a reasonable sufficiency of edu¬ 
 cation according to the numbers did not exist, 
 Government might, under certain regulations 
 laid down by Parliament, take the initiative; 
 or send down or appoint an assistant or inspec¬ 
 tor, at the request of a certain number of rated 
 inhabitants, to assist and aid them in carrying 
 out such a system of instruction as might be 
 requisite. In all cases the Government should 
 reserve the right of periodical inspection and 
 examination of the schools assisted, and periodi¬ 
 cal reports of their state and requisites should 
 be published from time to time, f We think, 
 
 * Most extensive and incalculable benefits have arisen 
 from the attention paid by the Committee of Council to 
 the subject of education; the establishment of a perma¬ 
 nent secretary, indefatigable in his efforts in this cause, 
 and the system of periodical inspection, to report as to 
 the state of schools, has been of the greatest advantage. — 
 In the Reports of the Committee of Council, and in other 
 forms of information from that Olhce. much valuable 
 knowledge is constantly brought before the public. ' 
 
 f An abstract of such Reports digested into a concise 
 form, with a table of comparison with former years, might 
 be useful. 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 115 
 
 also, where, after such reports, the system 
 adopted continued grossly deficient in amount 
 or defective in its nature, the Government, after 
 due notice, should be empowered to establish a 
 pattern school of its own. We doubt not that 
 thus, without any collision with existing schools, 
 or school societies, or patrons, vast improve¬ 
 ments would gradually and yet speedily be 
 worked out for the benefit of all. If the old 
 and imperfect systems continued without alter¬ 
 ations and essential improvements, then scholars 
 would soon desert them to take advantage of 
 better and cheaper schools. Thus the patrons 
 of imperfect and defective places of education 
 would be brought to reason by conviction 
 forced upon them, without any direct inter¬ 
 ference with them. 
 
 The mode in -which the funds should be 
 raised, whether by grant, rate, voluntary con¬ 
 tribution, payment of children, endowment, or 
 any of these .combined, would be matter of 
 deep consideration, on which we do not pre¬ 
 sume here to put forth suggestions. Neither 
 would we enter upon any plan for the equi¬ 
 table distribution or apportionment of public 
 aid among different schools or systems of edu¬ 
 cation, claiming aid within any particular dis¬ 
 trict. Difficulties on these and other points 
 
116 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 there will doubtless be, but no difficulties which 
 may not be overcome by an honest and deter¬ 
 mined Government, anxious to work out the 
 greatest of all blessings for the greatest number 
 of its hitherto neglected subjects. These bum¬ 
 ble suggestions were written before the measures 
 recommended by the Committee of Council 
 were promulgated by Government in February, 
 1847. Those measures, especially an extended 
 and improved system of inspection of exist¬ 
 ing schools, and the encouragement of school¬ 
 masters and their pupils or apprentices, will do 
 much towards the desired end, but are greatly 
 inadequate to furnish education to multitudes 
 in need of it: perhaps at present this is all that 
 can be expected. There seems, however, no 
 reason why a large extension of the grant of 
 public money for education should not be made 
 to each of the two great school societies (the 
 National and British and Foreign), under due 
 regulations, both agreeing to periodical inspec¬ 
 tion by approved persons. Thus would the 
 most pressing wants of the most crowded cities 
 (where both societies are found) be met. The 
 assistance proposed to be given by Government 
 to the establishment of industrial schools for 
 the children at union houses will be a great ad¬ 
 vantage, and, if well carried out, serve as models 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 117 
 
 for others throughout, the country. Whoever 
 has seen the School of Industry at Norwood 
 must wish to see that example followed. * 
 
 * Vide Report of E. C. Tufnell, Esq., and S. Tremen- 
 bere, Esq., on the Schools of Industry at Norwood, Liver¬ 
 pool, and Manchester.— Minutes of Committee of Council, 
 1845, p. 2S7. October. 
 
118 
 
 SOCIETIES EOK INSURANCE 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SOCIETIES FOR INSURANCE AGAINST ILLNESS OK 
 WANT OP EMPLOTMENT. 
 
 The third great measure, which we think should 
 he taken up by Government, assisted by the 
 richer classes, should be an improved system 
 or plan for Improved Benefit Societies in each 
 county, with branches in each town and popu¬ 
 lous district, and each parish, where necessary. 
 The security of such societies should be gua¬ 
 ranteed by government; the officers in trust 
 should give ample security; the rules and regu¬ 
 lations should be well digested, simple, and easy 
 of comprehension and practice, and so drawn 
 out as to be fitted to insure the working classes 
 at any age, on proportional payments, a good 
 allowance in case of illness or other natural 
 contingencies to which they are liable. Such 
 societies should also grant and pay annuities, 
 deferred or immediate, at reasonable prices, on 
 government security. They should give the 
 easy means of purchasing and securing small 
 annuities for widows, and perhaps of insuring 
 lives under certain circumstances, so as to bring 
 
AGAINST ILLNESS, ETC. 119 
 
 down within the knowledge and easy reach of 
 the working classes those means of providing 
 against illness and other natural contingencies 
 which experience shows are of such incalculable 
 advantage to all. Such societies should insure 
 to the families or parties contributing, the 
 attendance of a medical man and medical assist¬ 
 ance, without any additional charge, and thus 
 often prevent great evils coming. The rules 
 should be so framed as to present a strong 
 inducement to the working classes to join them. 
 Experience shows the richer classes are often 
 willing to contribute liberally to such purposes, 
 
 ' but they know not how to begin such societies, 
 how to frame the rules, or how to carry them 
 out. 
 
 The existing Benefit Societies, imperfect as 
 they are in many respects, have done great and 
 extensive good.* They do not, however, em¬ 
 brace many points of great consequence in such 
 institutions; many of them are so framed as 
 
 * The sums deposited in savings hanks by individuals 
 and provident clubs have increased from 328,0002. in 
 1818, to a million and upwards in 1820; in 1831, to 
 13,700,0002.; 1841, to 24,400,0002.; and in 1845, to 
 30,748,8682.: showing the willingness of the industrious 
 classes to embrace opportunities for saving within their 
 reach; yet many in rural districts do not yet under¬ 
 stand these advantages. 
 
120 
 
 SOCIETIES FOE INSURANCE 
 
 to contain within them the seeds of certain and 
 speedy dissolution; many are connected with 
 public-houses, and under the management of 
 interested or ignorant parties, who frequently 
 break up the society and divide the funds, 
 cheating the older members. 
 
 The establishment of such improved societies, 
 aided and guaranteed by government, would be 
 much assisted by intelligence spread among the 
 working classes, through extended education 
 and improved sanatory measures. 
 
 We would here suggest, also, that in intro¬ 
 ducing such provident societies, care should be 
 taken not to injure such well-constituted clubs 
 as now exist, but to allow them to join or be 
 incorporated with the improved ones, on favour¬ 
 able terms, so as to induce them to take steps 
 clearly for their own benefit.* 
 
 It must be quite needless to insist on the 
 large advantages to the community of the esta¬ 
 blishment, extension, and improvement of benefit 
 societies, or such clubs of this nature, because 
 they have long been recognized, approved, and 
 to a small extent assisted by the appointment 
 of an officer to draw up their rules, and by other 
 
 * Some such county clubs, guaranteed and guided 
 by the more educated and wealthy classes, have been 
 already established in Wilts and some other counties. 
 
AGAINST ILLNESS, ETC. 
 
 121 
 
 facilities ancl advantages afforded by govern¬ 
 ment, under the Benefit Societies and Saving 
 Banks Acts. 
 
 If the Government ivere only to publish an ap¬ 
 proved plan, with rules, calculations, and printed 
 forms, properly prepared under an Act giving- 
 facilities, securities, and inducements for their 
 idoption, it would be found that often influ¬ 
 ential local parties of wealth and intelligence 
 would take up and establish such improved and 
 safe societies. * If, however, within a certain 
 period, in any county, town, or place, this was 
 not done, the Government might, on the request 
 of a certain number of inhabitants, or, if neces¬ 
 sary, without, send down some experienced and 
 
 * Instructions for the establishment of parochial 
 societies for granting government annuities, with tables, 
 pursuant to stat. W. 1Y. c. 14., have lately been printed 
 by authority, and sent to any parties desirous of in¬ 
 formation ; but many know nothing of such instructions. 
 In many places there is no one able or willing to take 
 the trouble; and we believe the measure recommended 
 would he useful, if some officer were authorised by Go¬ 
 vernment, or the local authorities, to suggest and assist 
 in the establishment of provident societies for the working 
 classes in every place where they were wanted. He 
 might make a circuit through a convenient district, 
 arranging and checking the accounts of cadi society, 
 with their consent; hereby preventing abuses, and saving 
 much trouble and cost, by using an approved form. 
 
122 
 
 SOCIETIES FOR INSURANCE 
 
 authorised person to endeavour to establish sucli 
 a society. Its introduction, if judiciously un¬ 
 dertaken and properly constituted, would be 
 hailed as a lasting benefit to all classes. 
 
 This measure, with those before spoken of, 
 viz. sanatory reforms and education, would be 
 the most pressing required at present in the 
 rural districts, where employment is tolerably 
 regular, and wages seldom vary much or very 
 suddenly. 
 
 In manufacturing and mining districts, how¬ 
 ever, and in some other large towns, great 
 variation occurs in the demand for labour, and 
 in the amount of wages, consequent on fluctua¬ 
 tions in foreign or home demand, in fashion, 
 new inventions in machinery, and other causes, 
 too long to enumerate. These fluctuations 
 sometimes induce strikes of the workmen, 
 which often cause great suffering, and result 
 frequently in the injury or ruin of a district. 
 Combinations of various kinds are entered 
 into to keep up wages by those who are ig¬ 
 norant of the true causes of such fluctuations; 
 and often riots, and discontent, and disturbances 
 succeed. We have seen these evils existing 
 and increasing, from year to year, as a greater 
 proportion of our population is rapidly ab¬ 
 sorbed in manufacturing and mining employ- 
 
AGAINST ILLNESS, ETC. 123 
 
 nents.* Yet, has the legislature, or the educated 
 ind powerful classes, ever yet endeavoured to 
 ipply a practical remedy, or to do any thing 
 o lessen an evil constantly recurring? “ Any 
 cmslative or magisterial interference as to 
 lie amount of wages is clearly impracticable; 
 mt it is not impracticable to give facility and 
 ducement to the industrious workmen to 
 irovide and insure themselves against these 
 Aanges,— and we have never done it.”' 
 
 In the principal manufacturing employments 
 if the kingdom, the earnings, if only spread 
 iver a period of several years , are amply suf- 
 icient for the comforts and decencies of life.f 
 But no means have been afforded by which 
 bodies of workmen could, from high wages at 
 one time, insure themselves an allowance to 
 lid low wages or want of work at another. 
 
 Our benefit societies are all confined to what 
 were called in the terms of the act, “ natural 
 :ontingencies.” 
 
 * The families of hand-loom weavers alone, most of 
 idiom depend on fluctuating employment, amount to no 
 less than S00,000 persons. Vide Proportions, ante; 
 tnd Hand-loom Weavers’ Report, 1834. 
 
 f Pieport of Committee of the House of Commons on 
 Manufacturers’ Employment, July, 1S30. This Com¬ 
 mittee was constantly attended by the late excellent 
 Earl Spencer, then Lord Althorpe. 
 
124 
 
 SOCIETIES EOE INSURANCE 
 
 It is but quite recently that legal facility 
 have been afforded to the formation of society 
 to insure their members an allowance when oul 
 of work, and for other such purposes.* Undei 
 its enactments any body of workmen may join 
 in a society or club for any purpose not il¬ 
 legal ; their funds may be placed in a saving! 
 bank; they are protected against fraud, and 
 may make rules and manage their own affairs, 
 
 Under this act, some clubs to insure against 
 the loss of cows, &c., and others for fishermen to 
 insure their boats, nets, &c., in storms, have 
 been established. 
 
 We find, from Mr. Tidd Pratt, the barrister 
 who certifies the legality of the rules (which 
 is a check for the safety of the depositors), that 
 the manufacturers and mechanics in some dis¬ 
 tricts are beginning to avail themselves of the 
 provisions of this recent act to insure them¬ 
 selves an allowance wdien out of work, or when 
 in short work.f This practice, if extended, 
 
 * 4&5W.IV. e.40. 
 
 f We regret, however, to find that the facilities given 
 to the formation of societies for enabling parties to in¬ 
 sure themselves an allowance when out of work, under 
 4 & 5 W. IV. c. 40., ai'e curtailed by the recent act of 
 9 & 10 Viet. c. 27., which, whilst it contains many good 
 provisions, throws great obstacles against such societies, 
 requiring, “ That the purpose shall be certified to be 
 
AGAINST ILLNESS, ETC. 
 
 125 
 
 would, we believe, be of the greatest benefit to 
 employers and employed: though some of each 
 might at first view it with suspicion. 
 
 We do not here propose to suggest or con¬ 
 sider those rules or checks against abuse, which 
 it might be necessary for the certifying bar¬ 
 rister or the Government to lay down ; but we 
 feel confident that they might be so devised as 
 to meet the approbation and confidence of in¬ 
 telligent workmen and benevolent employers; 
 and that such societies, aided, guaranteed, 
 and countenanced by Government, would gra¬ 
 dually lessen, and in great measure prevent, 
 one of the greatest causes of suffering and 
 discontent which afflicts, from time to time, 
 the manufacturing community. 
 
 Different classes and amounts of contribu¬ 
 tions, and proportionate allowances, might 
 easily be devised, either for different branches 
 of the same trade or employment, or for dif¬ 
 ferent employments. The principle of self- 
 
 lcgal by her Majesty’s Attorney or Solicitor General, 
 (which costs much trouble, and 21. lO.s.) and which shall 
 be allowed by one of her Majesty’s Secretaries of State 
 as a purpose to which the powers and facilities of the 
 
 Acts ought to be extended.”-This creates great 
 
 difficulties. There ought to he an approved printed 
 form of rules for such societies, and every assistance 
 afforded them, when Iona fde instituted for provision 
 "'ben out of work. 
 
126 SOCIETIES FOR INSURANCE 
 
 insurance against want of wort, or short work, 
 would reach to changes of season or weather, 
 if necessary. Government, or private sub- 
 scribers or supporters of such new provided 
 societies, might, by some slight premium oi 
 advantage given at first, easily induce intel¬ 
 ligent workmen to join and contribute; and 
 when once the benefits were felt, such premium 
 might be gradually withdrawn. 
 
 We firmly believe that Trades Unions, by 
 which different trades contribute, form a 
 general fund, created from their own pay¬ 
 ments, to support or assist those of theii 
 members out of work, are, if properly ref¬ 
 lated, of great advantage to all parties. 
 
 “ It may be thought they will sometimes be 
 used unfairly against the employers, by com¬ 
 binations of workmen. This may sometimes 
 be the case, till the men (aided by better edu¬ 
 cation) have intelligence enough to see through 
 the selfish designs which often actuate a few 
 discontented spirits.” 
 
 We must remember also that the fund will 
 be large or small in proportion to former pru¬ 
 dence, and the same prudence is likely to prevent 
 the fund being used for bad purposes. 
 
 Strikes among workmen about wages are 
 continually occurring, often attended with great 
 violence, frequently permanently injuring the 
 
AGAINST ILLNESS, ETC. 
 
 127 
 
 trade of tlie place where they occur; as was 
 the case at Sheffield, in Gloucestershire, at 
 Kidderminster, and elsewhere*; acts of vio¬ 
 lence, preceded often by great suffering of the 
 workmen, occur on almost every diminution of 
 employment or attempt to lower wages, among 
 those who may be called unskilled workmen, or 
 who are unprovided with a fund to fall back 
 upon.t 
 
 As much prejudice exists on this subject, and 
 the matter is of great practical importance, let 
 us see how different the operation of a strike is, 
 where such a fund is provided, and where it is 
 not. In the first case, the workmen, thinking 
 themselves ill used (which may or may not be 
 the case), refuse to accept the lower wages 
 offered; but, having a fund to go to, they receive 
 an allowance from the club, which, though only- 
 half their usual wages, saves them from actual 
 suffering, and, with what little they can pick up 
 or make, supports them for a time, according to 
 the amount of their former prudence and provi¬ 
 sion : presently, however, the demand for their 
 
 * Account of Strikes in the Potteries in 1836, where a 
 loss was incurred to the workmen of 15o,000Z.— 1st vol. 
 Statistical Society, London. 
 
 f Account of Effects of a Strike for Wages at Notting¬ 
 ham, by Mr. Pitkin. At Norwich, and elsewhere. — 
 Report of Constabulary Force Commission, 1839. 
 
128 
 
 SOCIETIES FOE INSUKANCE 
 
 labour increases (the goods they made being 
 worked off), and they are taken into employ¬ 
 ment again, or it may he the slackness of 
 employment continues; but their fund gradu¬ 
 ally diminishes, their allowance is shortened, 
 and they are duly admonished by these circum¬ 
 stances that they must he obliged to take the 
 diminished wages, or to work short hours, or a 
 smaller number at the same rate of wages, with 
 a small allowance from their fund. But then 
 time has been given for consideration; time has 
 been allowed for negotiation between the mas¬ 
 ters and men, and to adjust differences. They 
 will have been able to learn whether the attempts 
 to drop their earnings arose from an unfair 
 desire of gain among the masters (as the men 
 generally think at first), or from a real diminu¬ 
 tion in demand for the article they manufacture, 
 which, if so, can only be sustained in price by 
 a less supply. 
 
 Whatever the result, however, it will be ac¬ 
 complished with much less irritation, violence, 
 and misery, than would otherwise have arisen. 
 
 Now let us take the case of a strike where 
 no such provident society exists; the workmen 
 have no provision to fall back upon, their 
 humble means are soon exhausted, they pawn 
 their clothes and furniture, perhaps beg, or 
 their children get some parish aid, and with a 
 
AGAINST ILLNESS, ETC. 129 
 
 fresh sense of injustice done them, they are im¬ 
 mediately Irought to want. Hence they have 
 recourse frequently in such cases to violence, 
 threats, and riot*; they have had no time foi- 
 negotiation, or to learn the real cause of the 
 diminution of wages, and in all such cases their 
 sufferings and those of their families are very 
 great. 
 
 Before any facilities were given for such 
 provident societies, trade clubs, intended to keep 
 up wages, and give an allowance when out of 
 work, existed in several of the best paid and 
 skilful trades, as among the brushmakers, tailors, 
 coachmakers, hatters, &c.; and in these trades 
 we shall find, whatever the fluctuation of wages, 
 there seldom were any riots and disturbances, 
 and the sufferings of their families were much 
 less, f 
 
 It is true they often acted unjustly; they 
 were ignorant of the true causes of fluctuation 
 (for who has ever afforded them the means of 
 hiowledge ?); yet, nevertheless, on the whole, 
 there was great advantage to the community 
 
 * The evil effects to both masters and men are shown 
 in many striking examples in the Report of the Con¬ 
 stabulary Force Commissioners, p. 140, &c. 
 
 t Report to the House of Commons on Manufacturers’ 
 Employment. 1830. 
 
130 SOCIETIES POE INSUEANCE 
 
 and themselves in these provident trade socie¬ 
 ties. 
 
 For a long time these were forbidden by 
 the unjust Combination Laws*, which are 
 now repealed, and since the character of the 
 clubs has improved; and they ought to be 
 extended, assisted, and encouraged under pro-pit 
 regulations. An additional reason for some such 
 provision is the fact stated by the Hand-loom 
 Weavers’ Commissioners, that the introduction 
 of the power-loom into cotton fabrics has, dur¬ 
 ing its gradual introduction, caused much suffer¬ 
 ing to the destitute hand-loom weavers, and 
 that the same process will assuredly take place, 
 sooner or later, with respect to hand-loom 
 weavers employed in silks, linens, and woollens, 
 It must indeed be evident, from reflection and 
 experience, that great fluctuations in the de¬ 
 mand for labour must be expected to arise 
 from time to time, among the masses of our 
 people occupied as artisans or manufacturers. 
 That such fluctuations, unless duly provided for, 
 must be the cause of wide-spread misery and 
 evil, and that it is one of the first duties of an 
 intelligent and benevolent government to in¬ 
 duce, assist, and encourage the working classes 
 themselves to provide against calamities, con- 
 
 * Report on Combinations; House of Commons, 1836. 
 
AGAINST ILLNESS, ETC. 
 
 131 
 
 stantly recurring, and the prevention of which 
 is beyond the power of man. 
 
 The extent of any such provision against 
 fluctuation in employment (or against any other 
 evil incident to the poor man’s life), whether 
 by societies or individuals, will be just in pro¬ 
 portion to his intelligence and forethought, and 
 therefore to the instruction afforded him. Hence 
 we see the paramount necessity of a real edu¬ 
 cation being given to every working man, and 
 tlie obvious duty of the state to enforce or 
 provide it. 
 
132 EXERCISE AND . AMUSEMENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 EXERCISE AND OCCASIONAL AMUSEMENTS FOR THE 
 LABOURING PEOPLE. 
 
 Another measure necessary for the welfare 
 of the working' class (especially those in large 
 towns and populous districts) is the means of 
 occasional and harmless relaxation from their 
 constant toil — the power to enjoy in innocent 
 comfort with their families their few holydays 
 from many days of labour. At present, in 
 many districts and most great manufacturing 
 towns, their only place of refuge and short¬ 
 lived enjoyment is a public-house, or place 
 connected with some drinking shop; and yet 
 we too often reproach and punish them for 
 inebriety, the natural consequence of our own 
 neglect! 
 
 Since the beginning of the century the po¬ 
 pulation has vastly increased, and every space 
 in the suburbs of many of our towns has been 
 built over, and till quite recently no provision 
 whatever has been made to reserve or form 
 public walks or open spaces in the vicinity of 
 
FOE THE LABOUEING PEOPLE. 133 
 
 such populous districts, where the middle and 
 humbler classes might take some exercise, and 
 breathe fresh air on their Sundays or holydays. 
 
 We remember when the first proposal for 
 Committee on Public Walks in the Vicinity of 
 Large Towns was brought forward in 1837 in 
 the House of Commons, the proposer was 
 considered by many as an impracticable and 
 troublesome person, and scarcely heard with 
 patience. 
 
 The subject, however, afterwards received 
 more attention; the Report of the Committee 
 obtained, gradually made its way; and several 
 of its recommendations have been followed, 
 though a very lamentable deficiency of public 
 walks still prevails in the vicinity of most of our 
 populous towns. Although some noble exer¬ 
 tions have been made by government for afford¬ 
 ing additional open spaces for the people in the 
 neighbourhood of London*, and a small grant 
 lias been made to assist local exertions in pro¬ 
 vincial towns; yet what has hitherto been done 
 
 * The Victoria Park to the east of London, and Prim¬ 
 rose Hill to the north, both places recommended in 
 the Report, have been obtained, and great improvements 
 made elsewhere. Near Manchester, three fine public 
 parks or walks, purchased by subscription, aided by a 
 small grant from government, were opened to the public 
 in the last year. 
 
134 EXERCISE AND AMUSEMENTS 
 
 is utterly inadequate to the just wants of mil- 
 lions of workmen who contributed by their 
 constant industry to the increasing wealth ol 
 the country.*' 
 
 The importance of this subject has been duly 
 insisted on by the Commissioners on the Health 
 of Towns, &c. in their recent Report and recom¬ 
 mendation. 
 
 It is not, however, so much by grants or 
 gifts of public money that Government might 
 
 * There is another point of view worthy consideration, 
 showing the advantages derived from such public park 
 or walks—viz. their tendency to increase a desire for 
 good clothes and neat apparel, and to stimulate the in¬ 
 dustry necessary to obtain them. It would be quite 
 useless to show that men (and still less the gentler sex) 
 among the richer and middle classes do not wear clothes 
 merely to cover them and shield them from cold; but 
 partly to display their taste, and themselves and their 
 children, in what they think an advantageous way. To 
 do this in the vicinity of large towns, public parks and 
 walks are essential; and the same motives, according to 
 their different stations and means, should be allowed to 
 act on the working classes also. Thus would their inno¬ 
 cent enjoyments be increased; propriety and neatness of 
 appearance kept up, and a reasonable desire for artificial 
 necessaries assisted, — thereby manufactures are encou¬ 
 raged, and a great help to the progress of civilization 
 given: nor will any enlightened statesman or benevolent 
 man condemn or despise the consideration of such motives, 
 which act beneficially on every other class of society. 
 
FOB THE LABOURING PEOPLE. 135 
 
 advance this object (and this, we think, they 
 ought to do within reasonable limits), as by 
 (riving facilities, removing difficulties, and 
 affording judicious assistance and information, 
 in an accessible form, to enable the people to 
 help themselves. 
 
 Lands or funds, dedicated to such purposes, 
 should be free from rates and taxes, and if by 
 donation or subscription a certain amount were 
 raised for a public walk or park, there should 
 be a power to raise the remainder by loan, 
 redeemable from the rates, on the consent of a 
 certain proportion of rate-payers. 
 
 Other suggestions to facilitate these objects 
 might easily be made, and should be con¬ 
 sidered, and, if approved, carried out by Govern¬ 
 ment or the local authorities. 
 
 The formation of parks or public walks in 
 the vicinity of our large towns would un¬ 
 doubtedly contribute greatly to the health, 
 comfort, and enjoyment of the working classes; 
 but would not afford them opportunity for 
 occasional relaxation and amusement, to which 
 they are fully entitled, and which all other 
 classes at one time or other enjoy. 
 
 The labouring people in towns are now cut¬ 
 off, by the change of circumstances and in¬ 
 closure of all neighbouring lands, from par- 
 
136 EXERCISE AND AMUSEMENTS 
 
 taking in or even beholding those athletic 
 exercises and sports, in which their forefathers 
 took great delight. 
 
 We do not know if it be possible to restore 
 to them, by some benevolent arrangements, 
 these opportunities of occasional amusement. 
 At present, however, they are driven to their 
 only remaining opportunity of congregating 
 for out of doors amusement or excitement. 
 They frequent in great numbers those races, 
 fairs, wakes, and periodical merry-makings, 
 which still are kept up in the vicinity of 
 London and our great towns. 
 
 Yet many benevolent persons, who have 
 visited these scenes, will have had great cause 
 in very many cases to lament the supinencss 
 and almost culpable indifference of the local 
 authorities or ruling powers, whoever they he, 
 to. all those regulations most essential to the 
 welfare, comfort, and happiness of the honest, 
 moral, and industrious of the working classes 
 there assembled. 
 
 In many cases, and especially in the near 
 vicinity of London, it seems to have been the 
 desired object to neglect all proper regula¬ 
 tions, so that the disorders and evils arising 
 from an uncontrolled assemblage of many of 
 the worst characters, should give a pretext for 
 putting down the meeting altogether. An 
 
FOR THE LABOURING PEOPLE. 137 
 
 effectual and judicious system of police would 
 protect the well-conducted families of our 
 respectable workmen and artisans from 'the 
 contamination of crowds of pickpockets and 
 shameless prostitutes. A stop would then be 
 put to gambling; a discreet check used against 
 intoxication, and other disorders often inci¬ 
 dent to such meetings. 
 
 Some judicious caution would perhaps be 
 required as to the character or conduct of 
 persons allowed to exhibit shows and booths; 
 proper rules, as to the hours of closing the 
 meeting would be enforced, and such regula¬ 
 tions carried out as were deemed necessary. 
 
 When convinced that such provisions were 
 intended for their benefit, we are assured that 
 the vast majority of our industrious classes 
 would give them their ready and constant sup¬ 
 port, more especially where the constables or 
 police are chosen, maintained, and controlled 
 by the rate-payers of the district, or those 
 whom they have elected for the purpose. 
 
 We may all remember how well the varied 
 population of London behaved at her Majesty’s 
 Coronation, when Hyde Park was thrown 
 open for three days and nights. Shows, 
 booths, and exhibitions were displayed within 
 the inclosure, and multitudes (well conducted 
 and well behaved multitudes) of all classes, 
 
138 EXERCISE AND AMUSEMENTS 
 
 crowded to the Fancy Fair (as it was termed) 
 held within its precincts. 
 
 We cannot believe it to he below the dignity 
 of a paternal Government, nor unworthy the 
 benevolent attention of the richer and more 
 powerful classes, to take order for permitting, 
 promoting, assisting, and providing, if necessary, 
 opportunities for occasional amusement, relax¬ 
 ation, and some innocent excitement, to relieve 
 the unvaried toil of those workmen and labourers 
 to whom they owe so much. Such objects 
 were not considered unworthy the freest and 
 most enlightened nations of ancient days, and 
 we believe them equally required by en¬ 
 lightened policy and just benevolence.* 
 
 We feel assured that if the means for enjoy¬ 
 ing regulated relaxation were duly afforded to 
 
 * Laying aside, for a moment, the grounds of Hu¬ 
 manity, some regulated occasional amusements should 
 surely be provided within reach of our increasing 
 multitudes, of workmen as a matter of policy. It is as 
 natural and needful for them to seek some amusement 
 and excitement as for the other classes to do so ; and if 
 not assisted and guided by the Government or the rick, 
 they will fly to demagogues and dangerous courses. 
 Mr. Burke said wisely, “ Contested elections were the 
 safety valves of the Constitution.” It is alike wise pnd 
 benevolent to provide, in regulated amusements for the 
 many, safety valves for their buoyant spirits and eager 
 energies when let loose from the bonds of labour. 
 
FOR THE LABOURING PEOPLE. 139 
 
 those now condemned to constant toil, they 
 would well repay our kindness by renewed 
 and refreshed industry, improved habits, and 
 those kindly feelings between different classes, 
 now too often wanting. 
 
 In such a cause we shall not fear a little 
 ridicule or misrepresentation; such experiments 
 have not often been tried among us yet; where 
 they have been tried, with reasonable prepara¬ 
 tion and caution, they have been found success¬ 
 ful, though only having to rest on the efforts of 
 individuals, or, at most, of a few persons of the 
 same vicinity. Thus, the benevolent efforts of 
 the Earl of Ellesmere in Lancashire, of Lord 
 Dartmouth near West Bromwich, and of some 
 others, to provide regulated amusements for the 
 working classes in their respective neighbour¬ 
 hoods, have been received with gratitude and 
 crowned with success.* 
 
 But we have a great arrear to make up in 
 this respect towards these neglected classes; 
 we feel confident that if an effort be made by 
 Government and the richer classes to supply 
 this defect in our present state, it will be a 
 
 * In Scotland, at tlie Highland meeting, prizes are 
 given by the gentry for feats in athletic exercises, run¬ 
 ning, &c. The whole is admirably regulated, and alfords 
 us a useful example. 
 
140 EXERCISE AND AMUSEMENTS 
 
 source of true economy instead of expense. If 
 proper regulations, facilities, and countenance 
 be given by the legislature and the rich to pro¬ 
 vide such occasional sources of amusement, we 
 feel certain the working people will be willing 
 to defray all the cost incurred by a small pay¬ 
 ment on admission, or some other form of slight 
 contribution. This would be infinitely cheaper 
 to them than the extortion now suffered to 
 attain any kind of amusement within their 
 reach, and they would be withdrawn from con¬ 
 stant temptation to drunkenness and vice, and 
 their wives and families would be enabled 
 to accompany them and share their harmless 
 holyday.* 
 
 We cannot presume here to enter upon the 
 details necessary to be carefully considered, for 
 carrying out successfully this object on a large 
 scale; such would form fit matters for the 
 deliberation of those in earnest in the cause. 
 Legal facilities, inducement, and encouragement 
 
 * It must be quite needless to show the necessity for 
 occasional relaxation from labour among the working 
 classes. We have been assured by an intelligent master, 
 who had worked his way to fortune and independence, 
 that, when a journeyman, there were times when after 
 long toil and confinement he found It as an absolute 
 necessity of life, to rest and refresh himself for a day or 
 two, by relaxation and amusement. 
 
FOE THE LABOUKING PEOPLE. 341 
 
 would be required at first; but if light and 
 leading were afforded by the Government, the 
 generous and good feelings of the richer classes 
 would require little stimulus to urge them to 
 come forward in their respective vicinities to 
 promote the happiness and welfare of their 
 humbler neighbours, and thereby to increase 
 and ensure their own. 
 
 In such occupations and employments, in 
 aiding the Government to carry out any of 
 these various measures for the welfare of the 
 working people, we think those born to power 
 and fortune might derive lasting sources of 
 enjoyment and interest. 
 
 Thus would many of them be rescued from 
 the bitter pains of laborious idleness, or the 
 tedium of doing nothing, the languor of listless¬ 
 ness and ennui. To such efforts they would 
 he able to look back, in the evening of their 
 lives, with something more of satisfaction than 
 to mere days of hunting or visiting, and nights 
 of feasting; or even to the more refined and 
 polished apology for vacancy, which those 
 exhibit, who spend their time in the perusal of 
 that light literature which leads to nothing. 
 
 If, by means of sanatory measures and social 
 improvements, we raise the condition of working 
 men; if, by education, we increase their intelli¬ 
 gence, and, by proper relaxation, reward their 
 
142 EXERCISE AND AMUSEMENTS 
 
 toil; is it not reasonable to suppose they will 
 work better and with greater steadiness anti 
 cheerfulness ? Now, they labour to support ex¬ 
 istence : then, they will work to enjoy it. Is it 
 not found that industry constantly improves as 
 it is repaid and rewarded ? But the working 
 classes form nine tenths of the whole community. 
 May we not, then, from their increased activity, 
 energy, and exertion, expect a vast augmenta¬ 
 tion of the wealth of the country, when their 
 strong and willing sinews are strung to labour, 
 when hope cheers them at their toil, and points 
 to their just reward ? 
 
 Such men, fresh with renewed vigour, and 
 again fast bound in attachment to the institu¬ 
 tions of their protecting country, we should then 
 see, not by hundreds or thousands, but by mil¬ 
 lions, working around us. Their welfare would 
 be our wealth, them health would be our strength, 
 then- contentment our security. As they im¬ 
 proved in the scale of comforts, they would be 
 every day more able and willing contributors to 
 the revenue and capital of the kingdom; neither 
 of which can increase as they ought to do if the 
 most numerous and industrious of all classes 
 is degraded, depressed, and dissatisfied. 
 
 We believe most firmly that if enlightened 
 justice be done to these multitudes by social 
 regulations for their benefit, and real education 
 
FOR THE LABOURING PEOPLE. 143 
 
 for themselves and their children *, ive should 
 see an astonishing augmentation in the revenue 
 (mutually take place, and a diminution of the 
 proportionate burthen of taxation. 
 
 We should find in such measures a mine of 
 wealth among ourselves, exceeding in its bene¬ 
 ficial products what the most sanguine specu¬ 
 lators in the golden ore of the New World could 
 ever expect. 
 
 ■ * Including, in that wide word, all good influences on 
 the mind and conduct of man from childhood to old age; 
 derived from good government, and the aid and example 
 due from the higher classes. 
 
144 COMMISSHMTFOR WORKING CLASSES. 
 
 CHAPTER XYII. 
 
 POLICY OF ESTABLISHING A BOARD OR COMMISSION 
 . TO WATCH OVER THE WELFARE OF THE WORK¬ 
 ING CLASSES. 
 
 With a faint outline and feeble pen, we have 
 thus endeavoured to sketch out some of those 
 measures, for the permanent improvement of 
 the condition of the working classes, which seem 
 necessary to advance then - comfort and happi¬ 
 ness, and to insure our own safety and pros¬ 
 perity. 
 
 Most or all of these suggestions have been 
 brought forward before, and urged by other 
 and abler persons; but the time seems now ripe 
 for action, and we feel strong and undoubting 
 persuasion that longer delay is dangerous, 
 Many other suggestions on other points, but of 
 the same nature and tending to the same end, 
 might easily be made; and will occur to those 
 who earnestly and honestly address themselves 
 to this great matter. * 
 
 * Some method of lessening the cost of the title and 
 conveyances of small portions of land: at present the 
 expense hears most unfairly an humble purchasers, and 
 generally prevents their having “ a stake in the hedge.” 
 
FOE THE WOKKING CLASSES. 145 
 
 We have seen in the former parts of this 
 humble work, the neglected, miserable, and de¬ 
 graded state of large bodies of our working 
 classes; and the “enormous and increasing evils” 
 thence resulting. These descriptions are taken 
 from no idle declamations of discontented men, 
 but are fearful statements of Commission¬ 
 ers, selected by successive Governments, or 
 Committees appointed and approved by parlia¬ 
 ment. The earnest attention of the country 
 is now beginning to be directed to practical 
 remedies to prevent dangers, which every year 
 become more threatening. 
 
 Some of these remedies we have ventured to 
 enlarge upon; others might easily be added; 
 but no reasonable man, who has considered the 
 extent of the subject, the inveteracy and long 
 standing of the mischief to be removed, and 
 the difficulties to be encountered, can come to 
 any other conclusion, than that the remedial 
 process, even if taken in hand earnestly and 
 immediately, must be a work of time and of 
 detail, and requiring great patience and perse¬ 
 verance. 
 
 We will add our deep conviction, — founded 
 on long observation of the slow progress of 
 remedial measures for social evils, unconnected 
 with party feelings, and some experience in 
 parliament, — that the functions of the usual 
 
146 • -BOARD OR COMMISSION 
 
 offices of Government, or tlie means afforded 
 by-' Parliament * under' existing circumstances, 
 and the great press of ordinary business, are 
 inadequate to arranging, digesting, and shaping 
 into form, in any reasonable time, such prin- 
 
 * The truth is, that measures to promote social im¬ 
 provements and benefit large bodies of the working 
 classes, unless linked with some political or party ques¬ 
 tion, excite very little interest in parliament. It is not 
 easy on such subjects to obtain a hearing, very difficult 
 to work out a Report, and next to impossible to carry 
 through the legislature any remedial measure; however 
 strong the case, and clearly justice may require it; 
 ■unless the subject be taken up by the ministers of the 
 day. They have generally their hands full of matters 
 .pressing on their .attention, or are occupied with some 
 plan of party contest where all are excited by party 
 interests. Sometimes, indeed, social evils among the 
 masses become so glaring as to be costly and dangerous 
 to the rich, when Committees are appointed and large 
 Reports produced; but if the danger passes away, the 
 remedies are neglected and the evils forgotten. Occa¬ 
 sionally, indeed, an earnest man (he is called a bene¬ 
 volent Enthusiast) almost unaided, with firm persever- 
 ■'ance, year-after year, brings forward some subject in 
 parliament connected with improvement of large masses 
 of his humbler fellow subjects; and at length obtains a 
 hearing.; and perhaps at last, popular attention being 
 drawn to the matter, or it becoming dangerous longer 
 to neglect it, ministers carry out some remedy. Much 
 more often, wearied with disappointment and worn out 
 with delays, he gives up the fruitless effort. 
 
EOR THE WORKING CLASSES. 147 
 
 clples and details of remedies, as seem abso- 
 hitely'necessary. Sucli measures, when worked 
 out and approved, might be carried through the 
 legislature by the ministers of the Crown. At 
 present' the constant occupations of ministers, 
 and the distracting duties of government, give 
 them no sufficient leisure for duly weighing 
 and considering the various points to which we 
 have referred. 
 
 Besides those matters adverted to, there are 
 now constantly arising fresh subjects of con¬ 
 sideration, and new suggestions and proposals, 
 bearing on the welfare of vast bodies of our 
 working people. All these require constant and 
 careful attention, and to be reported on by com¬ 
 petent parties somewhat experienced as to the 
 views to which they relate, and having leisure 
 to weigh carefully the propositions submitted 
 to them. We feel assured that the only satis¬ 
 factory way to meet these difficulties, would be 
 by the appointment by Government of a per¬ 
 manent Board or Commission of fit persons, 
 interested and experienced in these subjects, to 
 whom these matters would be referred, and 
 who would, without delay, employ themselves 
 in devising, and as far as possible perfecting, 
 remedial measures applicable to the most press¬ 
 ing of the evils described. Such a Board or 
 Commission would act of course under the 
 
148 • BOARD OR COMMISSION 
 
 authority and control of the Government, 
 with whom they could consult on all points of 
 difficulty. 
 
 The Government would thus be relieved from 
 a great mass of labour, as to inquiries into 
 facts, discussions as to different remedies pro¬ 
 posed, and numerous details as to legislative 
 alterations, which would devolve on the Board. 
 Thus the work desired would be perfected 
 much sooner and better than could be possible 
 in the ordinary mode. 
 
 We believe several parties qualified to sit 
 on such a Commission might be found, quite 
 willing to act, if permitted, without salary; and 
 ■if the Commission was constituted (as we sub¬ 
 mit it ought to be, to obtain the confidence of 
 the country) of competent experienced persons, 
 without reference to political opinions, and be 
 independent of the change of ministers, we 
 think such would certainly be the case. How¬ 
 ever this be, we feel confident that the moderate 
 cost of such a standing Commission for the 
 consideration of matters beneficial to the working 
 classes would be repaid over and over by 
 the benefit derived and the satisfaction given. 
 Their reports, if properly drawn, would give 
 •a valuable abstract of the facts and reason¬ 
 ing bearing- on every extensive evil capable of 
 removal affecting large bodies of the people. 
 
FOR THE WORKING CLASSES. 149 
 
 i Such reports would be storehouses for argu¬ 
 ments in favour of well-considered legislative 
 measures; they would suggest the most ap¬ 
 proved methods by which the rich and liberal 
 could really and permanently improve the con¬ 
 dition of their humbler fellow subjects, witliout 
 impairing their independence or weakening their 
 spirit for future exertion ; and they would by 
 clear statements, and lucid reasoning, serve to 
 dispel prejudice, and remove unfounded opi¬ 
 nions on many topics of great consequence to the 
 welfare of the whole community. 
 
 The functions of such a Commission would 
 be untainted by party feelings or differences. 
 Their object would be quite distinct from those 
 of the Poor Law Commission, the one being 
 to regulate the relief of miseiy, the other to 
 devise measures for preventing it.* Their 
 duties would chiefly be confined to devising 
 practical remedies for great social evils, which 
 lapse of time and change of circumstances 
 (unheeded by the legislature of the country) 
 have cast upon large bodies of the people. 
 Such a Commission ought moreover to look a 
 
 * Neither would the proposed Board or Commission 
 have power to lay down any regulations until sanctioned 
 by parliament, or to do more than inquire into facts and 
 to digest remedies to he submitted to the Government. 
 
150 ■ BOARD OR COMMISSION 
 
 little beyondthe present hour, to watch “ events 
 which east their'shadows before,”-r-to prepare 
 with benevolent forethought remedies to lessen 
 approaching mischiefs, without waiting till they 
 assume a fearful and threatening aspect. If we 
 had had such a Commission, duly constituted, 
 in existence thirty or forty years ago (with 
 the watch of public opinion kept on its pro¬ 
 ceedings), is it possible we could have had such 
 extensive and lamentable evils (preventable 
 evils) pressing down large bodies of the people, 
 as we have seen exist among us ? 
 
 The establishment of such a Commission for 
 the benefit of the working classes would, we 
 believe, be hailed with gratitude by all the 
 intelligent among them. When its objects were 
 properly understood, we doubt not, that much 
 valuable information, and many useful sug¬ 
 gestions for practical improvements, would 
 emanate from the more educated and intelli¬ 
 gent among the workmen, and be communi¬ 
 cated to their Commission. 
 
 In the gradual progress and advancement 
 of the varied and wonderful machinery to assist 
 human labour, now carried to such an astonish¬ 
 ing perfection in our country, it has been 
 remarked that many, if not most, of the suc¬ 
 cessive suggestions of improvement have been 
 
POE THE WORKING CLASSES. 151 
 
 made by the working classes themselves , who 
 directed or superintended the machinery. 
 
 In like manner we believe, if these same 
 classes have fair play, —if their confidence be 
 won, and they are convinced we are really 
 acting for their permanent benefit,—that we 
 shall often find among their ranks many able 
 coadjutors in the cause of improvement, and 
 efficient assistants for preserving order. 
 
 Prejudices are to be overcome, ignorance 
 dispelled, and, doubtless, time and perseverance 
 will be requisite in this, as in any great under¬ 
 taking, to accomplish what we desire; but we 
 must never forget the noble object we are 
 aiming at. It is to improve permanently the 
 condition of millions of our fellow men, now 
 suffering and neglected. 
 
 In the varied inquiries and gradual improve¬ 
 ments which it would be necessary to make 
 for these purposes, we feel certain that the 
 greatest assistance would be given to Govern¬ 
 ment, and any Commission they might nomi¬ 
 nate, by benevolent and intelligent persons 
 of the higher and middle ranks, in various 
 parts of the country.* These would find a 
 
 * The benefit derived from such parties in the pro¬ 
 tracted and painful inquiries of the Commission on 
 Health of Towns was very great, especially from the 
 clergy and the medical profession. 
 
152 
 
 • CONCLUSION. 
 
 constant source of increasing interest in em¬ 
 ployments arising out of' such proposed 
 improvements, and to which they would often 
 devote a portion of their leisure as volunteers, 
 and thereby add greatly to their own happi¬ 
 ness; remembering that wise saying of an 
 able and benevolent man, now lost to us, 
 “ That property has its duties as well as its 
 privileges.” 
 
 Such pursuits, we are assured by the highest 
 authority, confirmed by experience, are the 
 true foundations of happiness; and are, to a 
 certain degree, within the reach of every hu¬ 
 man being: for every one may contribute, 
 more, or less, towards the welfare of some one 
 else. 
 
 If we wanted a few words of direction how 
 best to consult our own interest, they would he 
 comprised in a single line, commanding us 
 “ To do justice, and love mercy.” 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In concluding the “Plea” which we have 
 ventured to submit to- the public, we would 
 earnestly call attention to the principles which 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 153 
 
 regulate, in great measure, the welfare of the 
 working classes in all countries; and which, 
 though acknowledged in the abstract by the 
 most intelligent among us, but slowly make 
 their way into the business of life, and are 
 greatly neglected in legislation and practice. 
 
 It is on the due proportion between the 
 capital and the population of any country, 
 that the wages of labour, and therefore the 
 state of the working classes (if they be fairly 
 protected and educated), will chiefly depend. 
 
 The amount and increase of capital will de¬ 
 pend partly on the natural advantages of a 
 country,- partly on its acquired advantages; 
 among the first of which are freedom and se¬ 
 curity for property. 
 
 It is found by experience that capital in¬ 
 creases best where Government interferes least 
 in its direction, management, and investment. 
 
 It increases according to the care, intelli¬ 
 gence, and industry of those who manage it. 
 Their efforts will be proportioned to their pro¬ 
 spect of success, in the enjoyment of what they 
 may acquire, and in its secure investment at a 
 reasonable rate of profit. 
 
 An enlightened Government will not inter¬ 
 fere in such matters, except to remove all 
 obstacles from the full enjoyment of the.pro¬ 
 ceeds of industry, and all impediments to the 
 
154 CONCLUSION. 
 
 increase and investment of capital, owing to 
 impolitic laws, regulations, and usages.* 
 
 ' Capital may be increasing, as in England; 
 stationary as in Holland; or retrograde, as in 
 Spain; and, according to these varied, circum¬ 
 stances will the population, in ordinary cir¬ 
 cumstances, be also increasing, stationary, or 
 retrograde. 
 
 The increase of capital is, however, but one 
 element in the welfare of a country. It is the 
 due proportion between capital and numbers 
 that chiefly gauges the condition of the labourer. 
 Ought, then, a wise Government to attempt to 
 check, encourage, or regulate the increase of 
 population ? 
 
 Reason, experience, and observation show 
 that any such interference is impolitic and 
 mischievous. If the mass of the people are 
 only duly protected and educated to a know¬ 
 ledge of their real condition and prospects, 
 
 *.The necessity for a separate Act of Parliament for 
 every inclosure, exchange, road, canal, and railway, 
 and for town drainage, paving, cleansing, supply of 
 water, gas, &c., has much limited home investments: a 
 General Act for each, properly drawn, would, in most 
 cases, guard public and private interests, as now is,the 
 case for. inclosures. Our law of partnership, and the 
 costly and complex laws relating to titles and convey¬ 
 ances of land, have alike effect. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 155 
 
 Government may safely leave them, in this 
 respect, to themselves. 
 
 It is, however, the part of an enlightened 
 Government to afford to the mass of its sub¬ 
 jects (especially those of the humbler, and more 
 defenceless classes) due •protection and the 
 means of real education ! They should be pro¬ 
 tected from fraud, oppression, and all that can 
 destroy or injure their health, the strength 
 of their bodies, or the moral tone of their 
 minds, as far as this can be effected by ju¬ 
 dicious social laws and regulations. 
 
 In like manner, the means of real education 
 should in some way be insured to them, in¬ 
 spected and enforced by the State. ' 
 
 According as these duties have been fulfilled 
 or neglected by the Government and governing 
 classes, will be the forethought, moral feeling, 
 self-restraint, and virtue of the labouring body. 
 In the aggregate it will be found that accord¬ 
 ing to the possession and influence, or the 
 absence of these qualities (in ordinary times), 
 will’be the proportion of population to capital 
 more or less nicely adjusted. 
 
 But it is on this due proportion that the 
 welfare of the working classes must greatly 
 depend. When this proportion is not pre¬ 
 served, population presses very closely on the 
 
156 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 means of subsistence, and constant and severe 
 suffering ensues. 
 
 It is an important modern discovery, now 
 supported by constant observation and ex¬ 
 perience, that moral and physical degradation, 
 far from acting as a check to the increase of 
 numbers and the perpetrdty of the suffering 
 body, has the effect, by removing all forethought 
 and self-respect, of encouraging and stimulating 
 illicit engagements and improvident marriages, 
 and keeping up the numbers constantly press¬ 
 ing close on the means of subsistence.* 
 
 Thus have the Government and the influen¬ 
 tial classes (by means of due protection and 
 education) indirectly the power of assisting to 
 adjust population to capital, and thereby pro¬ 
 mote the happiness of all. 
 
 . The practical'effect, of such “enlightened 
 justice done,” as far as regards our manu¬ 
 facturing community, we shall find in a de¬ 
 scription of the state of the labouring classes 
 at Hyde, Cheshire'j — “ No paivn-shops ! — no 
 dram-shops—in every house the Scriptures.” 
 
 * Report on Health of Towns, 2d Report, vol. 185. 
 Mr. Chadwick’s Reports, &c. &c. Reports of separate 
 Commissioners on ■ Health of Towns, &c. in 1844 and 
 1845. 
 
 f By Mr. Pitkin.—Reports of Statistical Society of 
 London, 1838. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 157 
 
 The melancholy contrast to this exception 
 we may see in almost every one of our popu¬ 
 lous increasing cities throughout the realm! 
 
 If we would view the effects of these dif¬ 
 ferent systems in a wider field, we have only 
 to examine the improved portions of Scotland 
 or Switzerland, and compare them with the 
 west and south of Ireland. 
 
 We have not intended to cast blame on any 
 particular party in the State. We have en¬ 
 deavoured, without exaggeration, to depict 
 the depressed and degraded condition of vast 
 bodies of our workmen — the consequence, as 
 we think, of the neglect of social improvements 
 for their benefit, called for alike by justice, 
 humanity, and policy, at the hands of their 
 rulers. 
 
 The penalties of such neglect in the end 
 always fall on the community. We have ven¬ 
 tured to try to call attention to the subject, in 
 hopes some one of greater influence and talent 
 will take up the cause, rather than from a vain 
 expectation that much will yet be done. 
 
 Some years’ experience in parliament — a 
 few more in the busy world — and the lessons 
 of history, alike have taught us how little real 
 interest the bulk of mankind, or the great 
 majority of popular assemblies, take in the 
 
158 
 
 .CONCLUSION. 
 
 welfare of their humbler fellow subjects, unless 
 when excited by party motives. 
 
 Still we will hope for the best, and shall be 
 amply rewarded for our humble effort, if, in 
 some obscure suburb of some crowded city, or 
 the far hamlet of some distant parish, one of 
 these neglected ones is benefited through our 
 
 
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