232 A Walk from 



reach and maintain. Two of these the Government, 

 or the landowners, or both, must take. They are 

 Improved Dwellings and Free and Accessible Educa- 

 tion. These the laborer cannot provide for himself 

 and family. It is utterly beyond his ability to do it. 

 The third, last, long step must depend entirely upon 

 himself; though he may be helped on by sympathy, 

 suggestion, and encouragement from those who know 

 how hard a thing it is for the fixed appetites to break 

 through the meshes of habit. He must make Drink 

 the cheapest of human necessities. He must exchange 

 Beer for Bread, for clothes, for books, or for things 

 that give permanent comfort and enjoyment. When 

 these three steps are accomplished, the British laborer 

 will stand before his country in the best position it 

 can give him. And I believe it will be a position 

 wliich will make him contented and happy, and be 

 satisfactory to all classes of the people. 



After all that can be done for them, the wages of 

 the agricultural laborers of Great Britain cannot be 

 expected to exceed, on an average, twelve shillings a 

 week, or about half the price of the same labor in 

 America. Their rent and clothes cost them perhaps 

 less than half the sum paid by our farm hands for the 

 same items of expenditure. Their food must also cost 

 only about half of what our men pay, who would think 



