the contrary, lO.s'. a week would mean almost starvation; for 

 the same money wages represent far less real wages in Eng- 

 land than here. About 1850, or 40 years ago, the price of 

 wheat was 60s. per quarter in England and not more than 

 6s. a quarter in India. Now the price of wheat has heavily 

 fallen in England owing to extensive importations, stimu- 

 lated by the development of railways in America and the 

 cheapness of ocean freights, and is now between 80s, and 35s. 

 a quarter, while the price of wheat in India has risen to about 

 18s. a quarter, but still the price of wheat in England is nearly 

 double that of India. On the whole, there is greater uni- 

 formity of conditions as regards wealth, or rather poverty, 

 in India than in England, while, on the other hand, in the 

 latter country, in spite of its immense wealth, the intensity 

 of suffering and distress is greater among the lowest classes, 

 owing partly to the inclemency of the climate and partly 

 to the conditions of social and industrial life. In ordinary 

 seasons, as already stated, the poor in this country have no 

 diflBculty in finding a subsistence, and the infirm and old are 

 supported by relations or voluntary charity ; and deaths by 

 starvation are unknown; and in years of famine, nearly all 

 suffer alike and people die in thousands. In England, though 

 there is incomparably greater wealth, 1,800,000 or 6'3 per 

 cent, of the population receives State relief, and of the persons 

 above 65 years of age, nearly 40 per cent, are dependent for 

 subsistence on the State, having no provision to fall back upon 

 or relations able and willing to support them. "In England," 

 says Mr. Hobson in his Problem,^ of Poverty^ " the recorded 

 deaths from starvation are vastly more numerous than in 

 any other country. In 1880 the number for England is 

 given as 101. In 1879, the number for London alone is 27. 

 This is, of course, no adequate measure of the facts. For 

 every recorded case there will be a hundred unrecorded 

 cases where starvation is the practical, immediate cause of 

 death. The death-rate of children in the poorer districts of 

 London is found to be nearly three times that which obtains 

 in the richer neighbourhoods. Contemporary history has no 

 darker page than that which records not the death-rate of 

 children, but the conditions of child-life in our great cities. 

 In setting down such facts and figures as may assist readers 

 to adequately realize the nature and extent of poverty, it has 

 seemed best to deal exclusively with the material aspects of 

 poverty, which admit of some exactitude of measurement ; 

 the ugly and degrading surroundings of a life of poverty, the 

 brutalizing influences of the unceasing struggle for a bare 



