THE PHILOSOPHY OF POVERTY.' 



IT is curious to reflect on the little influence the writings of moral 

 philosophers have had upon the lives and actions of the great bulk of 

 society. Their multiplied labours appear not to have been felt be- 

 yond the closet ; and mankind have gone on committing follies and 

 crimes, of every shade and character, much to their own injury, and 

 greatly to the perplexity of law-makers and law-administrators. Re- 

 ligion, too, with its hundred ways of touching and purifying the 

 human heart, seems to have been almost as little efficacious in check- 

 ing its baser impulses. At the present day, it is a favourite argu- 

 ment, that ignorance and an absence of literature are the grand 

 sources of the social evils which are acknowledged to be pressing 

 upon large masses of our population. It is urged by those who take 

 this view of the subject, that people cannot be expected either to be 

 wise or virtuous if they can neither read, nor write, nor cast up an 

 account. It would, perhaps, be as well to ask, what is read by the 

 lower classes of the community when they can read ? Now/ it hap- 

 pened, some fifteen or twenty years ago, that the government of the 

 day immortalized itself by encouraging a system of espionage alike 

 dishonourable and foolish. Compassion for a large, a misguided 

 body of men, led us to mingle occasionally amongst tjiem ; and we 

 have reason to believe that to some extent we were successful in 

 giving a better tone to their social and political feelings. In this par- 

 ticular instance, we were interested in knowing what writings were 

 chiefly circulated amongst the people ; and, with scarcely a single ex- 

 ception, we found that their text-book was Paine' s clever Treatise, 

 joined to two or three inflammatory and dangerous pamphlets. 

 Here was a good gift abused, and learning acting as a poison upon 

 some hundreds of families ! 



Has the diffussion of what is commonly called education benefitted 

 the poor ? This is the question and an important one it is ; be- 

 cause it is upon the soundness of this portion of the social union that 

 the safety of the whole state depends. The question admits, to a cer- 

 tain extent, of an answer. We have lying before us several works, 

 bearing the stamp of authenticity, and purporting to be accounts of 

 the existing moral and social conditions of several millions of our 

 fellow-citizens. We select the manufacturers for our present article ; 



* " Report of the Ministry to the Poor commenced in Manchester, 1833.'* 



" Analysis of the Evidence taken before the Factory Commissioners read 

 before the Manchester Statistical Society, 1834." 



" A.n Inquiry into the Manufacturing Population," &c. Ridgway, 1831. 



" Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes, employed in the 

 Cotton Manufactories in Manchester." Ridgway, 1832. 



" The Manufacturing Population of England its Moral, Social, and Physical 

 Conditions," &c. Baldwin and Cradock, 1883. 

 M.M. No. 1. G 



