to result to the whole family of man, from the triumphs of
Art over Nature. All are bound cheerfully to concede to superiority in
virtue and intellect, those advantages which are the result of
virtuous and intellectual exertions; but, as common descendants of the
once-equal Britons, the lowest are warranted in claiming, as matter of
right, to be as well fed and as comfortably provided for, on
performing, or on evincing a willingness to perform, the duties of
their stations, as their equal ancestors among the Britons, or society
at large cannot be said to have profitted by our boasted civilization.
To adjust these intricate relations, so that all virtue may partake in
its sphere of the gifts of nature, augmented by the ingenuity of man,
is the arduous, but interesting, task of wise legislation. It would
not be reasonable to expect, that every case should be met, and every
exigency anticipated, by adequate arrangements; but it is the duty of
power, in whomsoever it is placed, to exert itself with unremitting
anxiety, so as in the arrangements of man to approximate to the
dispositions of nature, which are always marked by inexhaustible
abundance, by appropriate benevolence, and by means commensurate to
suitable and desirable ends.

Under the influence of such reasoning, I made a variety of enquiries
between Battersea and Wandsworth, relative to the condition of the
poor. I learnt with grief that the payment of day-labourers varies
from 2_s._ 6_d._ to 1_s._ 6_d._ per day, or on an average is not more
than 12_s._ per week; of women from 1_s._ 3_d._ to 1_s._ or about
6_s._ per week; and of children from 9_d._ to 6_d._ or 4_s._ per week;
though, for the two last classes there is sufficient employment for
only half the year. A poor man, who had a wife and three children to
maintain on 14_s._ per week, told me, that for many months he and his
family had been strangers to meat, cheese, butter, or beer--that
bread, potatoes, nettles, turnips, carrots, and onions, with a little
salt, constituted the whole of their food--that during the winter
months he was obliged to rely on the parish--that in case of sickness
he and his children had no resource besides the workhouse--and that,
though it had pleased God to take two of his children, it was better
they should go to heaven than continue in this wicked and troublesome
world. "But I don't think," said he, "the gentlefolk saves much by
running down we poor so nation hard, for we are obl