Accidents, 109, 143, 150, 164, 165, 294.
Adulteration, 67, _et seq_.
Apprentices, 169, 191, 197, _et seq_. 209.
Charter, 225, _et seq_. 280, 296.
Chartism, xiv., xix., 65, 123, 228, _et seq_. 275, 292.
Chartists, 135, 176, 199, 231, _et seq_. 253, 258.
Corn Laws, 113, 261, 268, 279, 280, 294.
League, 122, 231, 268, 280.
Repeal of, vi., 17, 231, 232, 275.
Cottage System, v., 182, 183, 251, 252, 256.
Crime--Form of Rebellion, 266, _et seq_. 274.
Increase of, 130, _et seq_.
Juvenile, 200, 204.
Result of Overcrowding, 65, 120, 121.
Diseases, Engendered by Dwellings, 201, 202.
Filth, 35, 40, 41, 64, 96, 97.
Occupation, 162-3, 177-8, 191-2, 206.
Overwork, 153, 155, _et seq_. 171, 245-6.
Want, 30, 73, 88, 108, 199, 210-11.
Education--Means of, 108, _et seq_. 195, 200, 201, 202, 238, 254.
Want of, 90, 91, 126, 129, 148, 149.
Employment of Children,
In Agriculture, 262, 263.
In Factories, 141, _et seq_. 167, 171, _et seq_. 193.
In House Industry, 191, _et seq_.
In Mines, 241, 244, _et seq_.
In the Night, 191, 207.
Employment of Women,
In Agriculture, 263.
In Factories, 141, _et seq_. 160, _et seq_. 175, 192.
In Mines, 241, 242, 248, 249.
In Sewing, 209, _et seq_.
Epidemics, vi., 37, 41, 61, 64, 98, 100, 110, 158.
Factory Acts, x., xi., 17, 134, 151, 168, 116, 176, 188.
Food--Adulteration of, 98.
Insufficiency of, 32, 74, 101, 102, 193, 208.
Quality of, 68, 71, 91, 140, 201.
Free Trade, vii., viii., _et seq_. 183, 234, 268.
Intemperance, 102, 127, 128.
Inventions. 1, 4, _et seq_. 42, 134, _et seq_. 223, 224.
Law--A Bourgeois Institution, 113, 130, 173, 176, 227, 281, 282, 288.
New Poor, 174, 175, 230, 235, 262, _et seq_. 269, 284, _et seq_.
Old Poor, 176, 284, 285.
Of Wages, xi., 77, _et seq_. 219.
Mortality, 100, 101, 104, _et seq_. 143, 150, 243.
Parliament, 17, 96, 111, 214, 228, 251, 283, 287.
Philanthropy, 27, 28, 88, 173, 212, 278.
Police, 132, 221, 225, 226, 281, 282.
Reform Bill, ix., 17, 214, 229, 285.
Reserve Army, 85, 90.
Schools--Day, 110, _et seq_. 173, 200, 207, 250.
Night, 110, 250.
Sunday, 111, 202, 250.
Socialism, vi., vii., xii., 122, 236, _et seq_. 275, 297.
Starvation, 25, 29, 73, 76, 88, 117, 167, 189, 285.
Strikes, ix., xiv., xv., 168, 215, 218, 223, 224, 231, 254, 256, 257.
Suicide, 115, 116.
Surplus Population, 81, _et seq_. 139, 263, 266, 280, 287.
Ten Hours' Bill, vii., 142, 172, 174, _et seq_. 230, 235, 284.
Truck System, vii., viii., 182-3, 185, 252, 253.
Ventilation of Dwellings, 36.
Mines, 249.
Towns, 27, 28, 36, 53, _et seq_. 63, 64, 96, _et seq_.
Workrooms, 155, 156, 158.
Workhouses, 287, _et seq_.
Footnotes.
{7} According to Porter's _Progress of the Nation_, London, 1836, vol.
i., 1838, vol. ii., 1843, vol. iii. (official data), and other sources
chiefly official.
{20} Compare on this point my "Outlines for a Critique of Political
Economy" in the _Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher_.
{23} This applies to the time of sailing vessels. The Thames now is a
dreary collection of ugly steamers.--F. E.
{32} _Times_, Oct. 12th, 1843.
{33} Quoted by Dr. W. P. Alison, F.R.S.E, Fellow and late President of
the Royal College of Physicians, etc. etc. "Observations on the
Management of the Poor in Scotland and its Effects on the Health of Great
Towns." Edinburgh, 1840. The author is a religious Tory, brother of the
historian, Archibald Alison.
{35a} "Report to the Home Secretary from the Poor-Law Commissioners on
an Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Classes in Great
Britain with Appendix." Presented to both Houses of Parliament in July
1842, 3 vols. Folio.
{35b} _The Artisan_, October, 1842.
{38} "Arts and Artisan at Home and Abroad," by J. C. Symonds, Edinburgh,
1839. The author, as it seems, himself a Scotchman, is a Liberal, and
consequently fanatically opposed to every independent movement of working-
men. The passages here cited are to be found p. 116 _et seq_.
{40a} It must be borne in mind that these cellars are not mere storing-
rooms for rubbish, but dwellings of human beings.
{40b} Compare Report of the Town Council in the Statistical Journal,
vol. 2, p. 404.
{49} "The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working-Classes Employed
in the Cotton Manufacture in Manchester." By James Ph. Kay, M.D. 2nd
Ed. 1832.
Dr. Kay confuses the working-class in general with the factory workers,
otherwise an excellent pamphlet.
{55} And yet an English Liberal wiseacre asserts, in the Report of the
Children's Employment Commission, that these courts are the masterpiece
of municipal architecture, because, like a multitude of little parks,
they improve ventilation, the circulation of air! Certainly, if each
court had two or four broad open entrances facing each other, through
which the air could pour; but they never have two, rarely one, and
usually only a narrow covered passage.
{63} Nassau W. Senior. "Letters on the Factory Act to the Rt. Hon. the
President of the Board of Trade" (Chas. Poulett Thompson, Esq.), London,
1837, p. 24.
{64} Kay, loc. cit., p. 32.
{65} P. Gaskell. "The Manufacturing Population of England: its Moral,
Social and Physical Condition, and the Changes which have arisen from the
Use of Steam Machinery; with an Examination of Infant Labour." "Fiat
Justitia," 1833.--Depicting chiefly the state of the working-class in
Lancashire. The author is a Liberal, but wrote at a time when it was not
a feature of Liberalism to chant the happiness of the workers. He is
therefore unprejudiced, and can afford to have eyes for the evils of the
present state of things, and especially for the factory system. On the
other hand, he wrote before the Factories Enquiry Commission, and adopts
from untrustworthy sources many assertions afterwards refuted by the
Report of the Commission. This work, although on the whole a valuable
one, can therefore only be used with discretion, especially as the
author, like Kay, confuses the whole working-class with the mill hands.
The history of the development of the proletariat contained in the
introduction to the present work, is chiefly taken from this work of
Gaskell's.
{67} Thomas Carlyle. "Chartism," London, 1840, p. 28.
{80} Adam Smith. "Wealth of Nations" I., McCulloch's edition in one
volume, sect. 8, p. 36: "The wear and tear of a slave, it has been said,
is at the expense of his master, but that of a free servant is at his own
expense. The wear and tear of the latter, however, is, in reality, as
much at the expense of his master as that of the former. The wages paid
to journeymen and servants of every kind, must be such as may enable
them, one with another, to continue the race of journeymen and servants,
according as the increasing, diminishing, or stationary demand of the
society may happen to require. But though the wear and tear of a free
servant be equally at the expense of his master, it generally costs him
much less than that of a slave. The fund for replacing or repairing, if
I may say so, the wear and tear of the slave, is commonly managed by a
negligent master or careless overseer."
{87} And it came in 1847.
{90a} Archibald Alison. "Principles of Population and their Connection
with Human Happiness," two vols., 1840. This Alison is the historian of
the French Revolution, and, like his brother, Dr. W. P. Alison, a
religious Tory.
{90b} "Chartism," pp. 28, 31, etc.
{95} When as here and elsewhere I speak of society as a responsible
whole, having rights and duties, I mean, of course, the ruling power of
society, the class which at present holds social and political control,
and bears, therefore, the responsibility for the condition of those to
whom it grants no share in such control. This ruling class in England,
as in all other civilised countries, is the bourgeoisie. But that this
society, and especially the bourgeoisie, is charged with the duty of
protecting every member of society, at least, in his life, to see to it,
for example, that no one starves, I need not now prove to my _German_
readers. If I were writing for the English bourgeoisie, the case would
be different. (And so it is now in Germany. Our German capitalists are
fully up to the English level, in this respect at least, in the year of
grace, 1886.)
{100a} Dr. Alison. "Management of the Poor in Scotland."
{100b} Alison. "Principles of Population," vol. ii.
{100c} Dr. Alison in an article read before the British Association for
the Advancement of Science. October, 1844, in York.
{104} "Manufacturing Population," ch 8.
{105a} Report of Commission of Inquiry into the Employment of Children
and Young Persons in Mines and Collieries and in the Trades and
Manufactures in which numbers of them work together, not being included
under the terms of the Factories' Regulation Act. First and Second
Reports, Grainger's Report. Second Report usually cited as "Children's
Employment Commission's Report." First Report, 1841; Second Report,
1843.
{105b} Fifth Annual Report of the Reg. Gen. of Births, Deaths, and
Marriages.
{106} Dr. Cowen. "Vital Statistics of Glasgow."
{107} Report of Commission of Inquiry into the State of Large Towns and
Populous Districts. First Report, 1844. Appendix.
{108a} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Reports, 3rd vol. Report of Dr.
Hawkins on Lancashire, in which Dr. Robertson is cited--the "Chief
Authority for Statistics in Manchester."
{108b} Quoted by Dr. Wade from the Report of the Parliamentary
Factories' Commission of 1832, in his "History of the Middle and Working-
Classes." London, 1835, 3rd ed.
{112a} Children's Employment Commission's Report. App. Part II. Q. 18,
No. 216, 217, 226, 233, etc. Horne.
{112b} _Ibid_. evidence, p. 9, 39; 133.
{113a} _Ibid_. p. 9, 36; 146.
{113b} _Ibid_. p. 34; 158.
{113c} Symonds' Rep. App. Part I., pp. E, 22, _et seq_.
{115a} "Arts and Artisans."
{115b} "Principles of Population," vol. ii. pp. 136, 197.
{116} We shall see later how the rebellion of the working-class against
the bourgeoisie in England is legalised by the right of coalition.
{117a} "Chartism," p. 34, _et seq_.
{117b} _Ibid_., p. 40.
{119} Shall I call bourgeois witnesses to bear testimony from me here,
too? I select one only, whom every one may read, namely, Adam Smith.
"Wealth of Nations" (McCulloch's four volume edition), vol. iii., book 5,
chap. 8, p. 297.
{120} "Principles of Population," vol. ii., p. 76, _et seq_. p. 82, p.
135.
{122} "Philosophy of Manufactures," London, 1835, p. 406, _et seq_. We
shall have occasion to refer further to this reputable work.
{125} "On the Present Condition of the Labouring Poor in Manchester,"
etc. By the Rev. Rd. Parkinson, Canon of Manchester, 3d Ed., London and
Manchester, 1841, Pamphlet.
{131a} "Manufacturing Population of England," chap. 10.
{131b} The total of population, about fifteen millions, divided by the
number of convicted criminals (22,733).
{134a} "The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain," by Dr. A. Ure, 1836.
{134b} "History of the Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain," by E.
Baines, Esq.
{135} "Stubborn Facts from the Factories by a Manchester Operative."
Published and dedicated to the working-classes, by Wm. Rashleigh, M.P.,
London, Ollivier, 1844, p. 28, _et seq_.
{136} Compare Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report.
{138} L. Symonds, in "Arts and Artisans."
{140} See Dr. Ure in the "Philosophy of Manufacture."
{141} Report of Factory Inspector, L. Homer, October, 1844: "The state
of things in the matter of wages is greatly perverted in certain branches
of cotton manufacture in Lancashire; there are hundreds of young men,
between twenty and thirty, employed as piecers and otherwise, who do not
get more than 8 or 9 shillings a week, while children under thirteen
years, working under the same roof, earn 5 shillings, and young girls,
from sixteen to twenty years, 10-12 shillings per week."
{143a} Report of Factories' Inquiry Commission. Testimony of Dr.
Hawkins, p. 3.
{143b} In 1843, among the accidents brought to the Infirmary in
Manchester, one hundred and eighty-nine were from burning.
{144} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, Power's Report on Leeds:
passim Tufnell Report on Manchester, p. 17. etc.
{145} This letter is re-translated from the German, no attempt being
made to re-produce either the spelling or the original Yorkshire dialect.
{147a} How numerous married women are in the factories is seen from
information furnished by a manufacturer: In 412 factories in Lancashire,
10,721 of them were employed; of the husbands of these women, but 5,314
were also employed in the factories, 3,927 were otherwise employed, 821
were unemployed, and information was wanting as to 659; or two, if not
three men for each factory, are supported by the work of their wives.
{147b} House of Commons, March 15th, 1844.
{147c} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, p. 4.
{148a} For further examples and information compare Factories' Inquiry
Commission's Report. Cowell Evidence, pp. 37, 38, 39, 72, 77, 59;
Tufnell Evidence, pp. 9, 15, 45, 54, etc.
{148b} Cowell Evidence, pp. 35, 37, and elsewhere.
{148c} Power Evidence, p. 8.
{149a} Cowell Evidence, p. 57
{149b} Cowell Evidence, p. 82.
{149c} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, p. 4, Hawkins.
{151} Stuart Evidence, p. 35.
{152a} Tufnell Evidence, p. 91.
{152b} Dr. Loudon Evidence, pp. 12, 13.
{153a} Dr. Loudon Evidence, p. 16.
{153b} Drinkwater Evidence, pp. 72, 80, 146, 148, 150 (two brothers); 69
(two brothers); 155, and many others.
Power Evidence, pp. 63, 66, 67 (two cases); 68 (three cases); 69 (two
cases); in Leeds, pp. 29, 31, 40, 43, 53, _et seq_.
Loudon Evidence, pp. 4, 7 (four cases); 8 (several cases), etc.
Sir D. Barry Evidence, pp. 6, 8, 13, 21, 22, 44, 55 (three cases), etc.
Tufnell Evidence, pp. 5, 6, 16, etc.
{154a} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, 1836, Sir D. Barry
Evidence, p. 21 (two cases).
{154b} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, 1836, Loudon Evidence,
pp. 13, 16, etc.
{155} In the spinning-room of a mill at Leeds, too, chairs had been
introduced. Drinkwater Evidence, p. 80.
{156} General report by Sir D. Barry.
{157a} Power Report, p. 74.
{157b} The surgeons in England are scientifically educated as well as
the physicians, and have, in general, medical as well as surgical
practice. They are in general, for various reasons, preferred to the
physicians.
{159a} This statement is not taken from the report.
{159b} Tufnell, p. 59.
{160a} Stuart Evidence, p. 101.
{160b} Tufnell Evidence, pp. 3, 9, 15.
{161} Hawkins Report, p. 4; Evidence, p. 14, etc. etc. Hawkins
Evidence, pp. 11, 13.
{162a} Cowell Evidence, p. 77.
{162b} Sir D. Barry Evidence, p. 44.
{162c} Cowell, p. 35.
{163a} Dr. Hawkins Evidence, p. 11; Dr. Loudon, p. 14, etc.; Sir D.
Barry, p. 5, etc.
{163b} Compare Stuart, pp. 13, 70, 101; Mackintosh, p. 24, etc.; Power
Report on Nottingham, on Leeds; Cowell, p. 33, etc.; Barry, p. 12; (five
cases in one factory), pp. 17, 44, 52, 60, etc.; Loudon, p. 13.
{167a} Stuart, p. 39.
{167b} "Philosophy of Manufactures," by Dr. Andrew Ure, p. 277, _et
seq_.
{168a} _Ibid_., 277.
{168b} _Ibid_., p. 298.
{168c} _Ibid_., p. 301.
{169} Dr. Andrew Ure. "Philosophy of Manufactures," pp. 405, 406, _et
seq_.
{174} Afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury, died 1885.
{176} It is notorious that the House of Commons made itself ridiculous a
second time in the same session in the same way on the Sugar Question,
when it first voted against the ministry and then for it, after an
application of the ministerial whip.
{178} Let us hear another competent judge: "If we consider the example
of the Irish in connection with the ceaseless toil of the cotton
operative class, we shall wonder less at their terrible demoralisation.
Continuous exhausting toil, day after day, year after year, is not
calculated to develop the intellectual and moral capabilities of the
human being. The wearisome routine of endless drudgery, in which the
same mechanical process is ever repeated, is like the torture of
Sisyphus; the burden of toil, like the rock, is ever falling back upon
the worn-out drudge. The mind attains neither knowledge nor the power of
thought from the eternal employment of the same muscles. The intellect
dozes off in dull indolence, but the coarser part of our nature reaches a
luxuriant development. To condemn a human being to such work is to
cultivate the animal quality in him. He grows indifferent, he scorns the
impulses and customs which distinguish his kind. He neglects the
conveniences and finer pleasures of life, lives in filthy poverty with
scanty nourishment, and squanders the rest of his earnings in
debauchery."--Dr. J. Kay.
{179a} _Manchester Guardian_, October 30th.
{179b} "Stubborn Facts," p. 9 _et seq_.
{181a} Drinkwater Evidence; p. 80.
{181b} "Stubborn Facts," pp. 13-17.
{184} _Sun_, a London daily; end of November, 1844.
{186} I have neither time nor space to deal in detail with the replies
of the manufacturers to the charges made against them for twelve years
past. These men will not learn because their supposed interest blinds
them. As, moreover, many of their objections have been met in the
foregoing, the following is all that it is necessary for me to add:
You come to Manchester, you wish to make yourself acquainted with the
state of affairs in England. You naturally have good introductions to
respectable people. You drop a remark or two as to the condition of the
workers. You are made acquainted with a couple of the first Liberal
manufacturers, Robert Hyde Greg, perhaps, Edmund Ashworth, Thomas Ashton,
or others. They are told of your wishes. The manufacturer understands
you, knows what he has to do. He accompanies you to his factory in the
country; Mr. Greg to Quarrybank in Cheshire, Mr. Ashworth to Turton near
Bolton, Mr. Ashton to Hyde. He leads you through a superb, admirably
arranged building, perhaps supplied with ventilators, he calls your
attention to the lofty, airy rooms, the fine machinery, here and there a
healthy-looking operative. He gives you an excellent lunch, and proposes
to you to visit the operatives' homes; he conducts you to the cottages,
which look new, clean and neat, and goes with you into this one and that
one, naturally only to overlookers, mechanics, etc., so that you may see
"families who live wholly from the factory." Among other families you
might find that only wife and children work, and the husband darns
stockings. The presence of the employer keeps you from asking indiscreet
questions; you find every one well-paid, comfortable, comparatively
healthy by reason of the country air; you begin to be converted from your
exaggerated ideas of misery and starvation. But, that the cottage system
makes slaves of the operatives, that there may be a truck shop in the
neighbourhood, that the people hate the manufacturer, this they do not
point out to you, because he is present. He has built a school, church,
reading-room, etc. That he uses the school to train children to
subordination, that he tolerates in the reading-room such prints only as
represent the interests of the bourgeoisie, that he dismisses his
employees if they read Chartist or Socialist papers or books, this is all
concealed from you. You see an easy, patriarchal relation, you see the
life of the overlookers, you see what the bourgeoisie _promises_ the
workers if they become its slaves, mentally and morally. This "country
manufacture" has always been what the employers like to show, because in
it the disadvantages of the factory system, especially from the point of
view of health, are, in part, done away with by the free air and
surroundings, and because the patriarchal servitude of the workers can
here be longest maintained. Dr. Ure sings a dithyramb upon the theme.
But woe to the operatives to whom it occurs to think for themselves and
become Chartists! For them the paternal affection of the manufacturer
comes to a sudden end. Further, if you should wish to be accompanied
through the working-people's quarters of Manchester, if you should desire
to see the development of the factory system in a factory town, you may
wait long before these rich bourgeoisie will help you! These gentlemen
do not know in what condition their employees are nor what they want, and
they dare not know things which would make them uneasy or even oblige
them to act in opposition to their own interests. But, fortunately, that
is of no consequence: what the working-men have to carry out, they carry
out for themselves.
{189} Grainger Report. Appendix, Part I., pp. 7, 15, _et seq_., 132-
142.
{192a} Grainger's whole Report.
{192b} Grainger Children's Employment Commission's Report.
{193} Burns, Children's Employment Commission's Report.
{194} Leach. "Stubborn Facts from the Factories," p. 47.
{196} Leach. "Stubborn Facts from the Factories," p. 33.
{197} Leach. "Stubborn Facts from the Factories," p. 37-40.
{199} Children's Employment Commission's Report.
{200a} See p. 112.
{200b} Grainger Report and Evidence.
{202} Horne Report and Evidence.
{203} Dr. Knight, Sheffield.
{205} Symonds Report and Evidence.
{207} Scriven Report and Evidence.
{208} Leifchild Report Append., Part II., p. L 2, ss. 11,12; Franks
Report Append., Part II., p. K 7, s. 48, Tancred Evid. Append., Part II.,
p. I 76, etc.--Children's Employment Commission's Rep't.
{210} See _Weekly Dispatch_, March 16th, 1844.
{211} Thomas Hood, the most talented of all the English humorists now
living, and, like all humorists, full of human feeling, but wanting in
mental energy, published at the beginning of 1844 a beautiful poem, "The
Song of the Shirt," which drew sympathetic but unavailing tears from the
eyes of the daughters of the bourgeoisie. Originally published in
_Punch_, it made the round of all the papers. As discussions of the
condition of the sewing-women filled all the papers at the time, special
extracts are needless.
{214} "Arts and Artisans," p. 137, _et seq_.
{221a} So called from the East Indian tribe, whose only trade is the
murder of all the strangers who fall into its hands.
{221b} "What kind of wild justice must it be in the hearts of these men
that prompts them, with cold deliberation, in conclave assembled, to doom
their brother workman, as the deserter of his order and his order's
cause, to die a traitor's and a deserter's death, have him executed, in
default of any public judge and hangman, then by a secret one; like your
old Chivalry Fehmgericht and Secret Tribunal, suddenly revived in this
strange guise; suddenly rising once more on the astonished eye, dressed
not now in mail shirts, but in fustian jackets, meeting not in
Westphalian forests, but in the paved Gallowgate of Glasgow! Such a
temper must be widespread virulent among the many when, even in its worst
acme, it can take such form in the few."--Carlyle. "Chartism," p. 40.
{222a} Dr. Ure, "Philosophy of Manufacture," p. 282.
{222b} _Ibid_., p. 282.
{223a} Dr. Ure, "Philosophy of Manufacture," p. 367.
{223b} _Ibid_., p. 366, _et seq_.
{232} Compare Report of Chambers of Commerce of Manchester and Leeds at
the end of July and beginning of August.
{235} See Introduction.
{241} According to the census of 1841, the number of working-men
employed in mines in Great Britain, without Ireland, was:
Men over Men under Women over Women under Together
20 years 20 years 20 years 20 Years
Coal mines 83,408 32,475 1,185 1,165 118,233
Copper mines 9,866 3,428 913 1,200 15,407
Lead mines 9,427 1,932 40 20 11,419
Iron mines 7,733 2,679 424 73 10,949
Tin mines 4,602 1,349 68 82 6,101
Various, the
mineral not
specified 24,162 6,591 472 491 31,616
Total 137,398 48,454 3,102 3,031 193,725
As the coal and iron mines are usually worked by the same people, a part
of the miners attributed to the coal mines, and a very considerable part
of those mentioned under the last heading, are to be attributed to the
iron mines.
{242} Also found in the Children's Employment Commission's Report:
Commissioner Mitchell's Report.
{259} The coal miners have at this moment, 1886, six of their body
sitting in the House of Commons.
{264} E. G. Wakefield, M.P. "Swing Unmasked; or, The Cause of Rural
Incendiarism." London, 1831. Pamphlet. The foregoing extracts may be
found pp. 9-13, the passages dealing in the original with the then still
existing Old Poor Law being here omitted.
{268} This has been literally fulfilled. After a period of unexampled
extension of trade, Free Trade has landed England in a crisis, which
began in 1878, and is still increasing in energy in 1886.
{269} The agricultural labourers have now a Trade's Union; their most
energetic representative, Joseph Arch, was elected M.P. in 1885.
{272a} Report of the Poor Law Commission upon Ireland.
{272b} "Principles of Population," vol. ii.
{273} "The State of Ireland." London, 1807; 2nd Ed., 1821. Pamphlet.
{276} Carlyle gives in his "Past and Present" (London, 1843) a splendid
description of the English bourgeoisie and its disgusting money greed.
{286} Extracts from Information received from the Poor Law
Commissioners. Published by authority. London, 1833.
{293} To prevent misconstructions and consequent objections, I would
observe that I have spoken of the bourgeoisie as a _class_, and that all
such facts as refer to individuals serve merely as evidence of the way of
thinking and acting of a _class_. Hence I have not entered upon the
distinctions between the divers sections, subdivisions and parties of the
bourgeoisie, which have a mere historical and theoretical significance.
And I can, for the same reason, mention but casually the few members of
the bourgeoisie who have shown themselves honourable exceptions. These
are, on the one hand, the pronounced Radicals, who are almost Chartists,
such as a few members of the House of Commons, the manufacturers Hindly
of Ashton, and Fielden of Todmordon (Lancashire), and, on the other hand,
the philanthropic Tories, who have recently constituted themselves "Young
England," among whom are the members of Parliament, D'Israeli, Borthwick,
Ferrand, Lord John Manners, etc. Lord Ashley, too, is in sympathy with
them. The hope of Young England is a restoration of the old "Merry
England" with its brilliant features and its romantic feudalism. This
object is of course unattainable and ridiculous, a satire upon all
historic development; but the good intention, the courage to resist the
existing state of things and prevalent prejudices, and to recognise the
vileness of our present condition, is worth something anyhow. Wholly
isolated is the half-German Englishman, Thomas Carlyle, who, originally a
Tory, goes beyond all those hitherto mentioned. He has sounded the
social disorder more deeply than any other English bourgeois, and demands
the organisation of labour.
{296} And it did.