welfare
of those whom they employ.

* * * * *

Some of my readers may think that I have spoken of the distress of the
labouring population in exaggerated terms. Let them only read the
details of it in the Report of 1842, on the Sanitary Condition of the
labouring population, or in the Report of last year, on the condition of
the children and young persons employed in mines and manufactures. I
scarcely know what extracts to give of these direful reports, that may
briefly convey the state of things to those who have not studied the
subject. Shall I tell them of children ignorant who Jesus Christ was; or
of others who know no more of the Lord's Prayer than the first words,
"Our Father:" and whose nightly prayers begin and end with those two
words? Shall I tell them of great towns in which one half at least of
the juvenile population is growing up without education of any kind
whatever? Shall I show that working people are often permitted to pass
their labour time, the half of their lives, in mines, workshops, and
manufactories, where an atmosphere of a deleterious kind prevails: and
this, too, not from any invincible evil in the nature of the employment,
but from a careless or penurious neglect on the part of their employers?
Shall I go into a lengthened description of the habitations of the poor
which will show that they are often worse housed than beasts of burden?
Or need I depict at large the dark stream of profligacy which overflows
and burns into those parts of the land where such Want and Ignorance
prevail?

How many of these evils might have been mitigated, if not fully removed,
had each generation of masters done but a small part of its duty in the
way of amelioration. But it was not of such things that they were
thinking. The thoughtless cruelty in the world almost outweighs the
rest.

"Why vex me with these things?" exclaims the general reader. "Have we
not enough of dismal stories? It oppresses us to hear them. Let us hope
that something will occur to prevent such things in future. But I am not
a redresser of grievances. Let those who live by the manufacturing
system cure the evils incident to it. Oh that there had never been such
a thing as a manufacturing system!" With thoughts vague, recriminatory,
and despondent, as the foregoing, does many a man push from him all
consideration on the subject. It is so easy to despair: and the
largeness of a calamity is so