er!

62. But, not only is the patient, in a hospital, thus so much more amply
fed than the working man; the _prisoners in the jails_; aye, even the
_convicted felons_, are fed better, and much better, than the working men
now are! Here is a fine "_Old England_;" that country of "roast beef and
plumb pudding:" that, as the tax-eaters say it is, "envy of surrounding
nations and admiration of the world." Aye; the country WAS all these; but,
it is now precisely the reverse of them all. We have just seen that the
_honest labouring man_ is allowed 2-5/7_d._ a day; and that will buy him
_a pound and a half of good bread a day_, and no more, not a single crumb
more. This is all he has. Well enough might the Hampshire Baronet, SIR
JOHN POLLEN, lately, at a meeting at Andover, call the labourers "_poor
devils_," and say, that they had "_scarcely a rag to cover them_!" A pound
and a half of bread a day, and nothing more, and that, too, _to work
upon_! Now, then, how fare the prisoners in the jails? Why, if they be
CONVICTED FELONS, they are, say the Berkshire jail-regulations, "to have
ONLY BREAD and water, _with vegetables_ occasionally from the garden."
Here, then, they are already better fed than the honest labouring man.
Aye, and this is not all; for, this is only the _week-day_ fare; for, they
are to have, "on Sundays, SOME MEAT _and broth_!" Good God! And the honest
working man can never, never smell the smell of meat! This is "envy of
surrounding nations" with the devil to it! This is a state of things for
Burdett to applaud.

63. But we are not even yet come to a sight of the depth of our
degradation. These Berkshire jail-regulations make provision for setting
the convicted prisoners, in certain cases, TO WORK, and, they say, "if the
surgeon think it necessary, the WORKING PRISONERS may be allowed MEAT AND
BROTH ON WEEK-DAYS;" and on Sundays, of course! There it is! There is the
"envy and admiration!" There is the state to which Mr. Prosperity and Mr.
Canning's best Parliament has brought us. There is the result of
"_victories_" and prize-money and battles of Waterloo and of English
ladies kissing, "Old Blucher." There is the fruit, the natural fruit, of
anti-jacobinism and battles on the Serpentine River and jubilees and
heaven-born ministers and sinking-funds and "public credit" and army and
navy contracts. There is the fruit, the natural, the nearly (but _not
quite_) ripe fruit of it all: the CONVICTED FELON is, if he d