benevolent exertion which I have endeavoured to recommend, have already
been carried into practice, and I trust may be frequently seen, in the
conduct towards their dependents, both of manufacturers and landed
proprietors.

I must also say how much I owe to the excellent Reports which of late
years have been presented to Parliament on subjects connected with the
welfare of the labouring classes. It is to be regretted that these
reports are not better known. I have made frequent use of them, and hope
that the quotations I have given may induce my readers to turn to the
original sources.

With regard to the subject generally, it appears to me that knowledge of
the duties of an employer is every day becoming more important. The
tendency of modern society is to draw the family circle within narrower
and narrower limits. Those amusements which used to be shared by all
classes are becoming less frequent: the great lord has put away his crowd
of retainers: the farmer, in most cases, does not live with his labouring
men: and the master has less sympathy and social intercourse with his
domestics. If this be so, if the family circle is thus becoming
narrower, the conduct of those in domestic authority, having a more
intense influence, has the more need of being regulated by the highest
sense of duty: and, with respect to society in general, if the old bonds
are loosened, other ties must be fostered in their place.

You will not be likely to mistake my meaning, and to suppose that I look
back with any fond regret at the departure of the feudal system, or that
I should wish to bring the present generation under its influence.
Mankind does not so retrace its steps. But still, though the course of
our race is onwards, the nature of man does not change. There is the
same need for protection and countenance on the one side, and for
reverence and attachment on the other, that there ever has been; and the
fact that society is in many respects more disconnected than it used to
be, renders it the more necessary to cultivate in the most watchful
manner every mode of strengthening the social intercourse between rich
and poor, between master and servant, between the employers and the
employed, in whatever rank they may be.

I am afraid it may be said with justice, that both this letter and the
following Essay are "sermoni propiora," according to Charles Lamb's
translation, "properer for a sermon:" but it is impossible to dwell long