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with applause. An Operative is next called upon; he addresses the meeting-he begins with many apologies for his own incapacity, but gradually becoming assured, he reconciles himself and his audience to the task, by the recollection, that whatever his own deficiencies, he is one of them; he is strengthened by the unanimity of their cause. "We Operatives," he says (and the audience shout forth their sympathy and approbation), “we are oppressed with taxes and unjust laws, but let us only be firm to each other, and we shall get redress at last. The people must help themselves—our rulers won't help us-Union is our watchword."

Such are the materials with which the orator works upon the sympathy of the audience; and as he progresses, he applies himself less to the small points than to the startling theories of politics. He touches little on party politics; much upon abstract principles; the necessity of knowledge, and the effects of education. What is the conclusion forced upon our stranger's mind? This: That where the one class was divided by small jealousies into a hundred coteries, the other class is consolidated into a powerful union; that where one class think little of the theories of politics, such speculations are ever present to the other-the staple matter of their meetings—the motive and the end of their association. Thus, fastening our attention to things below the surface, we perceive the true reason why Democratic Opinion must become more and more prevalent; -its espousers are united!—at each ensuing election they form a sturdy body, not to be detached from each other by isolated appeals-they must be gained by addressing the whole. If the manufacturers, therefore, desire to return a representative, they must choose a candidate professing such sentiments as are generally pleasing to this powerful body, viz., the class below them. Thus, unconsciously to themselves, they adopt the principles of their inferiors, whom they dread, and in returning what they call "their own member," return in reality the supporter of the doctrines of the operatives.*

*

It is absurd to suppose (yet it is the commonest of suppositions) that if you keep only gentlemen and noblemen's sons in parliament, parliament is therefore less democratic than if alloyed with Plebeians. It is the laws which are made, not the men who make them, that advance the democratic movement. If an earl's son pledge himself to certain measures, which act as a blow to the aristo

Two causes militate against the compact solidity of this democratic body; corruption is the first. But I apprehend that (even if the ballot be not obtained, which sooner or later it probably will be) with every succeeding election this cause will grow less and less powerful, in proportion as the truth forces itself on the mass, that each individual will gain more by the permanent reduction of taxes than by the temporary emolument of a bribe. By indisputable calculation, it can be shown that every working man is now taxed to the amount of one-third of his weekly wages; supposing the operative to obtain twelve shillings a week, he is taxed, therefore, to the amount of four shillings a week; at the end of six years (the supposed duration of parliament) he will, consequently, have contributed to the revenue, from his poor earnings, the almost incredible sum of 621. 8s. What is any bribe that can be offered to him, in comparison to the hope of materially diminishing this mighty and constant expenditure? You may say the hope is vain-perhaps it is so-but he will always cherish and endeavour to realize it.

Credula vitam

Spes fovet, et fore cras semper ait melius.

Thus, the distress of the lower orders, hitherto the source of corruption, may become its preventive.

Another cause of division among the operatives, may be that which superficial politicians have considered the most dangerous cementer of their power; viz., "the establishment of Political Unions." If we look to the generality of towns,* we shall find that it is a very small proportion of even the ultra liberal party that have enrolled themselves in these Associations. In fact, the Unions are regarded with jealousy; the men who originate them, the boldest and most officious of their class, are often considered by their equals as arrogant

cracy, what could a mechanic do more? Does it signify whether you break down a wall by a plain pickaxe, or one with a coronet carved on the handle? The Romans obtained the power to choose plebeians, they chose patricians;— but the patricians they chose, destroyed the aristocracy.

* Of course I do not here refer to the Unions in Birmingham and one or two other towns-There they are indeed powerful in point of numbers-but suspect they will fall by divisions among themselves.

pretenders, assuming a dictatorship, which the vanity of the body at large is unwilling to allow. Hence, instead of uniting the mass, they tend to introduce divisions. Another effect they produce is, from their paucity of numbers, to weaken the influence of the operatives, by showing a front of weakness, as well as an evidence of schism. The other classes are apt to judge of the strength of the party, by these its assumed host and army; and to estimate the numbers of persons professing the same opinions as Political Unions, by counting the names that these combinations have enrolled. A party to be strong should always appear strong; the show often wins the battle; as the sultans of the east, in order to defeat rebellion, have usually found it sufficient merely to levy an army. I conceive, therefore, however excusable or useful such associations may be in a conflux of fierce and agitated events, they are, in a state of ordinary peace, as prejudicial to the real power and solidity of the more popular party, as they are arrogant interferers with the proper functions of the government.* There is only one just, natural, and efficacious Political Union-and that is the STATE-a State that shall at once rule and content the People;―never yielding to their will, because always providing for their wants.

* Besides these consequences, their natural effect, if successful, would be the establishment of an oligarchy in every town. Two or three, not of the wisest men, but of the most active, and the most oratorical (the last quality is, in all popular assemblies, more dangerous than salutary-it has been ever so in Parliament), will gain possession of the assembly. In fact, these assemblies would operate by making in every town a machine for taking away the power of the many, and gratifying the ambition of the few. The greatest fear in an aristocratic country is, that the opposition of one aristocracy should be but the commencement of another. My principles are so generally known to be in favour of the people, that what I have said on this point will possibly have more weight than if I were a higher authority, but of a different party.

The Physical State of the inhabitants of Manufacturing Towns-Proportion of Deaths in a Manufacturing and Agricultural District no Standard of the Proportion of Disease-The Childhood of the Poor-Extract from Elia-Evidence on the Factory Bill-Progress to Manhood-Artificial Stimulus-Noble Traits of the Operatives, Desires better than their Condition-Immorality, two Causes, Physical and Moral-Excess of early Labour should be restricted -National Education promoted-Poor-laws are the History of the PoorIndisposition to work, not want of it, is the Cause of Pauperism-Evidence of the Truth of that Proposition-Fable of Eriel and Mephistopheles-The Aged worse off than the Able-bodied-Relief considered a Right-Pernicious Influence of the Aristocracy-The Clergy vindicated-Public Charities, how prejudicial-Present Poor-laws deaden natural Affections of Parent and Child -Cause of Licentiousness-Inundations of the Irish-Remedies, difficulty of them exaggerated-Governments should be really executive, not merely executional-Outline of a proposed Reform in the Poor-laws-Concluding

Remarks.

"MAN is born to walk erect, and look upon the heavens." So says the Poet. Man does not always fulfil the object of his birth; he goeth forth to his labour with a bending and despondent frame, and he lifts not his eyes from the soil whose mire hath entered into his soul. The physical condition of the Working Classes in Manufacturing Towns is more wretched than we can bear to consider. It is not that the of average deaths in manufacturing towns is greater than that in the agricultural districts. The labourers in the latter are subject to violent and sudden diseases, proceeding from acute inflammation; medical assistance is remote, and negligently administered; their robust frames feed the disease that attacks them; they are stricken down in the summer of their days, and die in the zenith of vigorous health. Not so with the Mechanic; he has medical aid at hand; acute disorders fall light on the yielding relaxation of his frame; it is not that he dies sooner than the labourer; he lives more painfully; he knows not

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what health is; his whole life is that of a man nourished on slow poisons; Disease sits at his heart, and gnaws at its cruel leisure. Dum vivat, moritur. The close and mephitic air, the incessant labour-in some manufactories the small deleterious particles that float upon the atmosphere,* engender painful and imbittering maladies, and afflict with curses, even more dread than are the heritage of literary application, the Student of the Loom. But it is not only the diseases that he entails upon himself to which the Operative is subject; he bears in the fibre of his nerves, and the marrow of his bones, the terrible bequeathments of hereditary Affliction. His parents married under age, unfit for the cares, inadequate to the labours which a rash and hasty connexion has forced upon them;-each perhaps having resort to ardent spirits in the short intervals of rest, -the mother engaged in the toil of a factory at the most advanced period of her pregnancy;—every hour she so employs adding the seeds of a new infirmity to her unborn offspring!—

Observe the young mother, how wan and worn her cheek; how squalid her attire; how mean her home; yet her wages and those of her partner are amply sufficient, perhaps, to smooth with decorous comforts the hours of Rest, and to provide for all the sudden necessities of toiling life. A thriftless and slattern waste converts what ought to be competence into poverty, and, amidst cheerless and unloving aspects, the young victim is ushered into light. The early years of the Poor have been drawn by the hand of a master. I quote the description not only as being wholly faithful to truth, but as one of the most touching (yet least generally known) examples of the highest order of pathetic eloquence which Modern Literature has produced.

"The innocent prattle of his children takes out the sting of a man's poverty. But the children of the very poor do not prattle! It is none of the least frightful features in that condition, that there is no childishness in its dwellings. Poor people, said a sensible old nurse to us once, do not bring up their children; they drag them up. The little careless darling of the wealthier nursery, in their hovel is transformed betimes into a

* I have held correspondence on this point with some inhabitant or other in most of our manufacturing towns, and it seems that nearly all manufactories engender their peculiar disease.