Hitman Physiology. 2^ 



morality; the next is to educate and employ them. They can- 

 not do these things for themselves; philanthropic individuals 

 and societies can do but little. It is the work of the governing 

 classes of the nation of Parliament of the State. 



It may be said that, bad as our condition is, it has been 

 worse ; that there is progress and improvement, and promise 

 of still greater. I heartily rejoice in that promise. Historians 

 tell us that, in the reign of Henry VII I., mendicants wandered 

 about in crowds, extorting alms from terrified passengers. A 

 statute was passed to brand any beggar V on his breast, and 

 he was made to serve the informer two years with an iron ring 

 on his neck. If he ran away he was branded S on his cheek 

 or forehead, and became a slave for life. If he ran away again, 

 he was hanged. 



During the reign of Henry VIII., 72,000 persons were 

 hanged, the greater part of them for petty thefts, to which they 

 were bought by sheer want. 



In the reign of Edward VI., "poverty prevailed; inclosures 

 and rack-rents drove the people into the large towns ; the rich 

 were hard-hearted, frauds common ; criminals escaped punish- 

 ment by corruption ; church livings were given to laymen , 

 marriages were dissolved by private authority ; haunts ot sin 

 multiplied beyond measure." 



This state of things was owing to the changes in property 

 and other changes at the period of the Reformation, previous 

 to which there was no Poor Law, and much less suffering from 

 poverty than at any subsequent period. 



During the present century, there were thousands of women 

 and girls working almost naked, drawing loads like cattle, in 

 the coal mines, and living much worse than beasts of burden: 

 working in deep mines, as women and young children now 

 work in brickfields and labour-gangs in the light of day. Loads 

 of children were sent from the workhouses to the cotton mills, 

 and worse treated than the slaves that grew the cotton. They 



