ible pressure, and thinking minds which saw that good would
come out of this great evil; but such hearts and such minds were not
to be looked for among the suffering poor; and were not, perhaps,
often found even among those who were not poor or suffering. It was
very hard to be thus trusting and thoughtful while everything around
was full of awe and agony.

The people, however, were conscious of God's work, and were becoming
dull and apathetic. They clustered about the roads, working lazily
while their strength lasted them; and afterwards, when strength
failed them for this, they clustered more largely in the poor-houses.
And in every town--in every assemblage of houses which in England
would be called a village, there was a poor-house. Any big barrack of
a tenement that could be obtained at a moment's notice, whatever the
rent, became a poor-house in the course of twelve hours;--in twelve,
nay, in two hours. What was necessary but the bare walls, and a
supply of yellow meal? Bad provision this for all a man's wants,--as
was said often enough by irrational philanthropists; but better
provision than no shelter and no yellow meal! It was bad that men
should be locked up at night without any of the appliances of
decency; bad that they should be herded together for day after day
with no resource but the eating twice a day of enough unsavoury
food to keep life and soul together;--very bad, ye philanthropical
irrationalists! But is not a choice of evils all that is left to us
in many a contingency? Was not even this better than that life and
soul should be allowed to part, without any effort at preserving
their union?

And thus life and soul were kept together, the government of the day
having wisely seen what, at so short a notice, was possible for them
to do, and what was absolutely impossible. It is in such emergencies
as these that the watching and the wisdom of a government are
necessary; and I shall always think--as I did think then--that the
wisdom of its action and the wisdom of its abstinence from action
were very good. And now again the fields in Ireland are green,
and the markets are busy, and money is chucked to and fro like a
weathercock which the players do not wish to have abiding with them;
and the tardy speculator going over to look for a bit of land comes
back muttering angrily that fancy prices are demanded. "They'll run
you up to thirty-three years' purchase," says the tardy speculator,
thinking, as it