Human Physiology. 35 



Save to the king and law. Hence they are resolute. 



Leading the van in every day of battle, 



As men who know the blessings they defend. 



Hence they are frank and generous in peace, 



As men who have their portion in its plenty. 



No other kingdom shows its worth and happiness, 



Veiled in such low estate.' Hallidon Hill, Act'^ Scene 2. 



There is a strong and general movement among the working 

 classes in England to diminish the hours of labour; and some- 

 thing is being done to lessen its severity and improve its 

 sanitary conditions. Slavery is a mild and inadequate term to 

 express what it has been, for the owners of slaves, as a rule, do 

 not destroy their health and shorten their lives. In the slavery 

 of wages there has been little care or scruple. It was but a 

 few months ago that Parliament was called upon to afford some 

 protection to one million four hundred thousand children, 

 working at various trades in England. I have seen little girls 

 from six to twelve years old huddled upon the steps of the 

 unopened doors of their workshops before daylight, fearful of 

 being too late, and so losing a day's employment. In some 

 trades men work eighteen or twenty hours at a stretch. Women 

 and girls work at forges and in brickfields. Children, boys and 

 girls of tender age, work day and night at nailmaking. A large 

 part of the manufacturing labour of England is done by children 

 who ought to be half their day-time in school and the other 

 half in the open air, either at play or engaged in some light, 

 varied, and healthful employment. A gentleman who has seen 

 the brickfields says of them : " Let the hardest heart that can 

 be found in England visit those spots, and if he be not moved, 

 he must at least be ashamed of his sex and of his country. 

 There the female seems to be brought to the lowest point of 

 servile ignorance and degradation. Hundreds of little girls, 

 from eight to eleven years of age, half naked, and so besmeared 

 with dirt as to be barely distinguishable from the soil they 

 stand on, are put to work in these abodes of oppression. 



