42 THE PHILOSOPHY OF POVERTY 



because, as a body, they are universally acknowledged to be far more 

 intelligent than the agriculturists, and because less is generally 

 known about them. 



The " Report of the Ministry to the Poor in Manchester," is a very 

 curious, and a very valuable document. We know, too, that its 

 statements are strictly accurate ; and that the individual, who ably 

 discharges the arduous duties of minister, is incapable of misrepre- 

 senting or exaggerating the state of things with which he has become 

 acquainted. 



Our remarks and extracts must be prefaced by a statement shew- 

 ing that the manufacturers enjoy the means of education in abun- 

 dance, and that many of them are educated. From a very accurate 

 examination of Sunday-schools, and their average number of at- 

 tendants, it appears that at the present time upwards of forty thousand 

 children are receiving instruction in the Sunday-schools alone of Man- 

 chester. When it is considered that these children are chiefly those of 

 the lower orders of the inhabitants, it is obvious that the majority of 

 families amongst them must be more or less imbued with learning ; 

 that is, a capability of reading and writing. That this is the fact, 

 appears from a statement furnished by a Mr. Ashton, who reports 

 that above one-half of the people engaged in his mills can both read 

 and write. 



Such being the case, let us now examine what are the moral and 

 social conditions, or what is the philosophy of home amongst these 

 people. 



" I have been told," (says Mr. Ashworth, p. 14), "and I have heard 

 it with sorrow, that the cruel and barbarous sports of bear-bating, 

 dog-fighting, and other inhuman sports, are carried on in the vicinity 

 of the town ; and I have several times seen pitched battles between 

 man and man, when hundreds and thousands have been drawn from 

 their work to witness scenes of inhumanity and vice, which have 

 again led to drunkenness, fighting, obscenity, and misery. The wide 

 open fields at the outskirts of the town, and places in the town less 

 frequented by the walks of man, are on the Lord's day occupied by 

 herds of boys and young men, and even by men more advanced in 

 life, gaming. The dram-shops, tom-and-jerry shops, and public- 

 houses, swarm the Lord's day over (except an hour or two in ser- 

 vice time), and overflow at night by the addition of these gamblers, 

 and multitudes of females, lost to all sense of shame, and totally des- 

 titute of every virtue that makes woman lovely and respectable. If," 

 (he continues, page 6), " I were to form a judgment of the whole 

 town, from the families I have visited, I would say, divide the work- 

 ing classes into three parts. Two of these parts have the means of 

 making a comfortable living, their wages being sufficient to provide 

 them with plenty of food and clothing, and every thing needful to 

 make a family comfortable, if well laid out. But I am sorry to say, 

 that a large number of these are as destitute of clothes, furniture, 

 bedding, and occasionally of provisions, as the poorest families in the 

 town. They drink more money than would amply provide them 

 with every necessary for their families. So great," he concludes his 

 Report, " is the depravity of large numbers in Manchester, that it 



