Statistical Notices. 291 



restraint, in intemperate indulgence ; and all the long train of 

 vices and miseries to which the poor are liable, follows of 

 course. Nor are their prospects for the future often such as 

 to encourage hope or stimulate exertion. The habitual impro- 

 vidence of the poor is aggravated in their case by the danger- 

 ous fluctuation of their trade. Sometimes they are eagerly 

 courted with high wages, and lavish promises ; at others, no 

 employment is to be had, and not enough can be earned, even 

 by the most unnatural exertions, to sustain their families. 

 Nothing can be imagined more fatal to order, regularity, and 

 comfort, than these vicissitudes. Hence it commonly happens, 

 that, in the decline of life, these poor creatures are driven to 

 the sad resource of parish relief. It is moreover not one of 

 the least evils of the manufacturing system, that it has a ten- 

 dency, in prosperous times, to generate an excessive popula- 

 tion, which, on any great reverse, is suddenly thrown on the 

 community as a superfluous burden. The changes of a fashion, 

 the caprice of public taste, or the sudden interruption of a 

 foreign market, will reduce thousands to helpless and unex- 

 pected poverty. 



It must, however, be admitted, that the picture of rural life 

 has also its unfavourable aspect. Those who retire into the 

 country are apt to find themselves somewhat disappointed in 

 their expectations of rustic simplicity and pastoral innocence. 

 In situations where every breath of air, and every feature of 

 nature express nothing but peace and love, they are a little 

 surprised to see the selfish and malignant passions at work in 

 all their baneful activity ; to find, as in the purlieus of a court, 

 the symptoms of " envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitable- 

 ness." Still we shaU find that instances of utter depravity and 

 abandoned profligacy are of much rarer occurrence than in 

 great towns. In a village, every individual is known, and the 

 very consciousness of being conspicuous, creates a sense of 

 shame which is highly salutary. It has often been observed, 

 that men in a body will commit, and even justify, atrocities 

 which no individual amongst them would be capable of attempt- 

 ing, if not screened by the shelter of a crowd. We find, 

 nccordingly, in the annals of Wesley and Whitfield, that the 

 ^reat scenes of their operations are in collieries, factories, 



