PREFACE. XV 



the wishes of his employers and of retaining his 

 place, but by making the estate as productive as 

 possible at the present moment : the waste of hu- 

 man life, the torments and death of the slaves, was 

 a secondary consideration ; and the poor slave 

 could never see the real owner, and appeal to his 

 mercy, to his pity, to the common humanity of a 

 fellow-creature. So it is in many cotton-mills. 

 In addition to all this, the great heat, and mass of 

 deleterious particles continually breathed, make 

 those employed in these mills extremely unhealthy ; 

 and this unhealthiness is to such an extent, that 

 when the discontent and irritation in which such 

 a population must continually be is adverted to, 

 as a source of danger to the state, it is sometimes 

 urged in reply, that no real danger can arise 

 from a people reduced to such a state of moral 

 and physical decrepitude as they are who work 

 in cotton-mills, a most inhuman source of conso- 

 lation ! 



When labour is expended in agriculture, the 

 amount and quality of the produce are both in- 

 creased, and a corresponding increase of popula- 

 tion is a source of additional power to the country. 

 It is perhaps not too much to say, that the pro- 

 duce of Great Britain has been augmented one- 

 third within the last fifty years. This increase has 

 tended greatly to mitigate the evil arising from the 



