weekly dropping, and just work enough to hinder sheer
idleness; that sort of thing keeps the people in very humble trim. But
wait a bit, and when they have reached the starvation point I fancy we
shall hear a murmur."

"I remember our friend Morley in '39, when we returned from London, gave
me a very good character of the disposition of the people here," said
Hatton; "I hope it continues the same. He feared no outbreak then, and
the distress in '39 was severe."

"Well," said Gerard, "the wages have been dropping ever since. The
people exist, but you can scarcely say they live. But they are cowed I
fancy. An empty belly is sometimes as apt to dull the heart as inflame
the courage. And then they have lost their leaders, for I was away you
see, and have been quiet enough since I came out; and Warner is broken:
he has suffered more from his time than I did; which is strange, for he
had his pursuits; whereas I was restless enough, and that's the truth,
and had it not been for Sybil's daily visit I think, though I may never
be allowed to live in a castle, I should certainly have died in one."

"And how is Morley?"

"Right well; the same as you left him: I saw not a straw's change when I
came out. His paper spreads. He still preaches moral force, and
believes that we shall all end in living in communities. But as the only
community of which I have personal experience is a gaol, I am not much
more inclined to his theory than heretofore."

Book 6 Chapter 6

The reader may not have altogether forgotten Mr Nixon and his comates,
the miners and colliers of that district not very remote from Mowbray,
which Morley had visited at the commencement of this history, in order
to make fruitless researches after a gentleman whom he subsequently so
unexpectedly stumbled upon. Affairs were as little flourishing in that
region as at Mowbray itself, and the distress fell upon a population
less accustomed to suffering and whose spirit was not daunted by the
recent discomfiture and punishment of their leaders.

"It can't last," said Master Nixon as he took his pipe from his mouth at
the Rising Sun.

He was responded to by a general groan. "It comes to this," he
continued, "Natur has her laws, and this is one; a fair day's wage for a
fair day's work."

"I wish you may get it," said Juggins, "with a harder stint every week
and a shilling a day knocked off."

"And what's to come to-morrow?" said Waghorn. "The butty has given
n