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in the way, that they are " not worth preserving," that if half of 

 them were despatched it would be all the better for those who 

 remained. Any man who says that of anotlier is as much 

 entitled to have it said of himself; and if we all fostered such a 

 misanthropic mood, there would be nothing to choose between 

 England and Zululand. Here we all are like a crowd on board 

 a ship, and here we remain until we reach the port that we 

 happen to be booked for. If we are too many the ship-owners 

 are to blame, not the passengers ; but as we are actually on 

 board, the question presses equally upon us all — how can we 

 make the voyage pleasant and safe to one another ? Mr. Fronde 

 declaims against the evils whicli accompany the aggregation of 

 human beings in manufacturing towns. Healthy men and 

 women, he says, " sound in soul and limb can be bred and 

 reared only in the exercise of plough and spade, in the free ah 

 and sunshine, with country enjoyments and amusements, never 

 amidst foul drains and smoke-blacks and the eternal clank of 

 machinery." That may be true, but who could have kept the 

 country in such Ai'cadian simplicity and salubrity ? What could 

 have insiired that the population should have remained peasantry 

 for ever. Mr. Fronde proceeds to say " Here with no sight of a 

 green field, with no knowledge of flowers or forest, the blue 

 heavens themselves dirtied with soot, amidst objects all mean 

 and hideous, with no entertainment but the music-hall, no 

 pleasure but in the drink shop, huudi'eds of thousands of 

 English children are now growing up into men and women." 

 Fronde's remedy for these miseries is not massacre but emigra- 

 tion, but emigration will not perceptibly diminish social pressure. 

 The first necessity resting upon us is to recognise facts. To 

 complain is as useless as it is unphilosophical. The problem is 

 to live and let hve ; not merely to tolerate one another, but to 

 recognise one another's right to existence — to endure the inevit- 

 able jostling good humouredly, and to get all the comfort we 

 can out of the situation compatible with a fuU consideration for 

 the comfort of om comrades in travel. This problem has not 

 yet been solved. The shady side of the case is, that many do not 

 wish to solve it, and that many more are determined to solve it 

 in a selfish sense. Many amongst our own city crowds are pas- 

 sively or actively selfish ; many are indifferent ; many are recldess 

 and defiant. There are dismal localities in eveiy large town, 

 usually known as the " slums." Humanity is to be found there 

 in its grimmest aspects, and men and women hustle and trample 

 one another to death — mental death, social death, physical death. 

 There are " slums " in Burnley; not of course to the depth and 

 hideousness often reached in London, Livei-pool or Glasgow. 

 Drunkards, idlers, spendthrifts, and other social anarchists are to 

 be found in Burnley as elsewhere, but the present condition of 



