BOOK THE SIXTH-Glances at the Suffering and Crime, the Ignorance and Degradation, caused by the Op- PAGE. BOOK THE SIXTH. (The same subject continued.) EMBRACING GLANCES AT THE SUFFERING AND CRIME-THE IGNORANCE AND DEGRADATION, CAUSED BY THE OPPRESSIVE BURDENS LAID UPON THE BRITISH PEOPLE. When I meet some wretched wreck of humanity, drizzling with wet, shivering with cold, half drunk, half starved, half idiot, screaming with shrill tremulous voice some woeful ballad; can I help asking why it is so? the image of the Almighty-a thing of shreds and patches-was this of his own seeking?—An Operative's Letter to Sir Robert Peel. There is no doubt more misery and acute suffering among the mass of the people of England than there is in any kingdom of the world; but then, they are the great unwashed, dirty, disagreeable, importunate persons. There are thousands houseless, breadless, friendless, without shelter, raiment, or hope in the world; millions uneducated, only half fed, driven to crime, and every species of vice which ignorance and destitution bring in their train, to an extent utterly unknown to the less enlightened, the less free, the less favoured, and the less powerful kingdoms of Europe.-Sidney Smith. |