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must have been struck by continual exhibitions of 

 improvidence ; the want of cottage economy, the 

 voluntary relinquishment of certain employment, 

 by which they were able to support themselves 

 and their families decently and comfortably, for 

 uncertain employment and lower wages, and con- 

 sequently privations, which prudence and reflec- 

 tion would have warned them to avoid, such an 

 observer must continually have witnessed the ex- 

 penditure of earnings in dissipation which would 

 have placed them, not only above want, but in a 

 condition of comfort ; and though with the cer- 

 tainty before them that the continuance of such 

 habits, in their order of life, would lead to a work- 

 house or a gaol, they were not prudent enough to 

 forsake. During periods in which the manufac- 

 turing workmen were receiving high wages, it is 

 notorious that they consumed one-third of their 

 time, and a greater proportion of their wages, 

 in intemperance. Therefore, though " the bulk 

 of the people be miserable," as the author of 

 England and America states, it is misery, though 

 this author would not admit such to be the case, in 

 a great measure voluntarily induced, a conse- 

 quence of ignorance and depravity. Desirable 

 and important as it is to enlarge the field for their 

 employment, and thus enable them to obtain a 

 larger share of the necessaries and comforts of life, 

 whereby their present physical condition may be 

 improved, and all reasonable grounds for dissatis- 

 faction done away. But, when they are in more 



