o not work at
all, allowed, on week-days, some vegetables in addition to his bread, and,
on Sundays, both _meat and broth_; and, if the CONVICTED FELON work, if he
be a WORKING convicted felon, he is allowed _meat and broth all the week
round_; while, hear it Burdett, thou Berkshire magistrate! hear it, all ye
base miscreants who have persecuted men because they sought a reform! The
WORKING CONVICTED FELON is allowed _meat and broth every day in the year_,
while the WORKING HONEST MAN is allowed _nothing but dry bread_, and of
that not half a belly-full! And yet you see the people that seem
_surprised_ that _crimes_ increase! Very strange, to be sure; that men
should like to _work_ upon meat and broth better than they like to work
upon dry bread! No wonder that _new jails_ arise. No wonder that there are
now two or three or four or five jails to one county, and that as much is
now written upon "_prison discipline_" as upon almost any subject that is
going. But, why so good, so generous, to FELONS? The truth is, that they
are _not fed too well_; for, to be _starved_ is no part of their sentence;
and, here are SURGEONS who have something to say! They know very well that
a man may be _murdered_ by keeping necessary food from him. Felons are not
apt to lie down and _die quietly_ for want of food. The jails are in
_large towns_, where the news of any cruelty soon gets about. So that the
felons have many circumstances in their favour. It is in the villages, the
recluse villages, where the greatest cruelties are committed.

64. Here, then, in this contrast between the treatment of the WORKING
FELON and that of the WORKING HONEST MAN, we have a complete picture of
the present state of England; that horrible state, to which, by slow
degrees, this once happy country has been brought; and, I should now
proceed to show, as I proposed in the first paragraph of this present
Number, HOW THERE CAME TO BE SO MUCH POVERTY AND MISERY IN ENGLAND; for,
this is the main thing, it being clear, that, if we do not see the real
causes of our misery, we shall be very unlikely to adopt any effectual
remedy. But, before I enter on this part of my subject, let me _prove_,
beyond all possibility of doubt, that what I say relatively to the
situation of, and the allowances to, the labourers and their families, IS
TRUE. The _cause_ of such situation and allowances I shall show hereafter;
but let me first show, by a reference to indubitable facts, that the