114 EMPLOYERS AND WORKMEN 



bulk of the working men were simply slaves. 

 In Russia they remained so until quite modern 

 times. 



A hundred years ago England had long been 

 a free country. Every man in England was then, 

 in a certain degree, a free man ; that is, he was 

 as free as it was possible for him to be under 

 the British laws of those days. The Poor Law 

 of the time ordered that any man quitting the 

 parish to which he belonged should be sent back 

 to that parish, to work if he could. A man thus 

 treated was not a free man, as we now understand 

 freedom 



Descriptions of the life and condition of British 

 workmen during the early part of last century 

 have been given by several writers ; among 

 whom were three whose writings are now 

 standard works. Strangely enough, these three 

 writers were women ; but they were women of 

 great capacity and powers of observation and 

 expression, and they wrote of matters they had 

 studied at the places where they dwelt. Mrs. 

 Gaskell did for Manchester what Charlotte Bronte 

 did for Yorkshire, and George Eliot for Middle 

 England. The pictures drawn by these writers 

 show employers standing apart, determined to 

 carry out their plans of business without inter- 

 ference from anybody, and not perhaps very 

 anxious about the welfare of those who had to 

 work for them ; and they show working men, 

 also standing apart, sometimes banded together, 

 sometimes disunited, generally in their hearts 

 rebellious, and always struggling against what 



