absolutely requisite to protect, in the most
stringent manner, the interests of the children against the parents, who
are often anxious to employ their little ones most immaturely. Nay
more--it is notorious that working men will frequently omit to take even
the slightest precaution in matters connected with the preservation of
their own lives. If these poor men do not demand from you as Christians
something more than mere money wages, what do the injunctions about
charity mean? If those employed by you are not your neighbours, who are?

* * * * *

But, some great employer may exclaim: "It is hard that we the agents
between the consumer and the producer should have all the sacrifices to
make, should have all the labouring population thrown, as it were, on our
hands." In reply, I say that I have laid down no such doctrine. I have
urged the consumer to perform his duties, and tried to point out to him
what some of those duties are. As a citizen, he may employ himself in
understanding this subject, and in directing others rightly; he may, in
his capacity of voter, or in his fair influence on voters, urge upon the
state its duty, and show, that as an individual, he would gladly bear his
share of any increased burdens which that duty might entail upon the
state. He may prove in many ways, as a mere purchaser, his concern for
the interests of the producer. And there are, doubtless, occasions on
which you, the great employers of labour, may call upon him to make large
sacrifices of his money, his time, and his thoughts, for the welfare of
the labouring classes. His example and his encouragement may cheer you
on; and as a citizen, as an instructor, as a neighbour, in all the
capacities of life, he may act and speak in a way that may indirectly, if
not directly, support your more manifest endeavours in the same good
cause. It is to no one class that I speak. We are all bound to do
something towards this good work. If, hereafter, I go more into detail
as regards the especial methods of improving his work-people that a
manufacturer might employ, it is not that I wish to point out
manufacturers as a class especially deficient in right feelings towards
those under them. Far from it. Much of what I shall venture to suggest
has been learnt from what I have seen and heard, amongst the
manufacturers themselves.

CHAPTER II.
SOCIAL GOVERNMENT.

Supposing, reader, that whether you ar