26 Social Environment 



populations in the textile industries, working 

 in their own homes at their handicraft occu- 

 pations. A measure of prosperity, or at least 

 of stability, had come to them when, crashing 

 through their humble markets, came the tor- 

 nado of the factory. Competition with the 

 machine was useless, so after a few outbursts 

 of irrational temper they begged employment 

 from their new lords. As to what followed, 

 we may well pass over the details in silence — 

 the poverty, the degradation, the women toil- 

 ing under the lash, the children consumed in 

 the process of cotton manufacture. We can 

 at any rate comfort ourselves with the assur- 

 ance that the victims were free to enter into 

 such contracts as they thought best. 



As the anticipated profits came in, the manu- 

 facturers and related commercial classes be- 

 came rich beyond all previously known limits. 

 Naturally, with such boundless prosperity they 

 acquired a due sense of importance that re- 

 sented any interference with their business 

 freedom. What warrant, they asked, had a 

 mere government to interfere with their sacred 

 liberties? for the nation under the control of 

 its older aristocracy was attempting from the 

 force of habit to keep up a semblance of sys- 



