On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
, * If the cases could be resolved into persona , and otherwise accuratel y analyzed , two results would be made apparent : — 4 1 . That the number is not , when compared with the population , a large one . * 2 . That the number of really working men is a small one /
The worst of the moral sensibility of the English public is that it is so irregularly and partially excited , that it penetrates so little below the surface , and that it so very often diverts attention and exertion from the root and trunk of national immorality to some petty branch or quivering twig . No doubt the sight of a tipsy mechanic or two , reeling through the streets , must be a nuisance
to respectable tradesmen , with their wives and children , on their way to church or chapel . No doubt it is very desirable that the nuisance should be abated . But this will never be done by crusading against beer-shops and gin-shops , and attempting to imprison the poor in their own wretched abodes , with no leave of absence but a day-rule for divine worship . Such attempts only
deal with the symptoms of the disease , and if successful in repressing them , merely drive that inward , and render it more virulent . The working classes cannot , any more than other classes , exist without occasional excitement . They have , in fact , more need of it than any other class . If they be deprived of it in one direction , it ought to be provided for them in another . If
their drudgery be hard , it is the business of society to ensure its mitigation . If their pleasures be few , it is the business of society to multiply them . If their pleasures be gross , it is the business of society to refine their tastes . If their relaxation be mischievous , it is the business of society to cater for wholesome enjoyments . Any thing rather than condemn them to ' all work and no play / which can only wear out soul and body , and deprave heart and mind . Hear our author
again—* Very few , indeed , are they among even the most ignorant of the working people who do not understand their own situation . The most unthinking , the least intelligent , with vexy few exceptions , feel acutely at times : they never reflect on their condition without a perfect con-BciousneBS , amounting to absolute certainty , that their mortal career
will terminate in the most abject poverty and misery , and this has a marked effect upon them : few , indeed , are they who can at all times escape from depressing thoughts , and still fewer who can at all times bear up against them ; few , indeed , have the courag e even to contemplate , for ever so abort a period , their adverse
circumstances . ' What can such men do , so limited in their means of enjoyment , so utterly incapable of filling up the leisure they Lave , in any rational pursuit ? —so impossible is it for them to find either employment or enjoyment for their intervals of idleness , like better instructed men ; and the only matter for surprise is , that they do not all become habitual drunkards and wholly callous to consequences . No one then need be aurpri * ed
Untitled Article
626 Improvement of the Working People .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1834, page 628, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2637/page/24/
-