No. 216.] 439 



tioned upon this subject, they are accustomed to reply that they do 

 drink, but not too much; yet the question, what quantity is too much, 

 is one upon which their opinion and mine would not agree. When 

 the visitors from the City Tract Society, with whom I am accustomed 

 to act, succeed in awakening in the minds of such persons a sense 

 of their degradation, their first care is to cut them off from the soci- 

 ety that misery loves. If, then, they can be induced to break off 

 from their debased habits and associations, and to keep themselves, 

 and the clothes they give them, clean — and especially, if they can be 

 induced to w^ork, then some hope is entertained that they will listen 

 with attention to religious instruction; but not till then. 



4th, 5th and 6th. As to the remedy proposed for these evils, I 

 think there can be no doubt that if the love of cleanlineess could 

 be instilled into their minds by moral means, all the good you sug- 

 gest would result from it, and real good would result if cleanliness 

 weie secured by any means; but I think it very problematical wheth- 

 er this could be obtained by coercion. Unless the will assents, there 

 must be constant evasion, and but little will be accomplished. There 

 is in the nature of man which will induce him to respect advice, if 

 it be given with evident kindness, respect, and disinterestedness, but 

 to reject real benefits if they be forced upon him against his will. 

 The poorer classes often imagine that they possess rights which they 

 do not, and no persons are more jealous of what they deem their 

 rights than those persons are, or more ready to resent and oppose 

 any infringement of them. I hold it to be a sound principle that no 

 one has a right to do wrong; but many would dispute this, or if 

 they admitted it, the question would arise, what is wrong? I regard 

 it as wrong for any family, by neglect of cleanliness, to surround 

 itself with a fetid atmosphere; but there are multitudes of the poor, 

 or rather that class of the poor particularly interested, who imagine 

 they have a right to do as they please in this matter, and that it 

 would be a wrong that should be resisted, if any one interfered with 

 this right. It seems therefore necessary, as a preliminary measure, 

 to correct the judgment, for it is not that which a man ought to be- 

 lieve, but that which he does believe, that regulates his conduct. If 

 this be not done, will he not regard what you propose, as a high- 

 handed measure of the rich for the oppression of the poor? And if 

 the poor man's shanty be visited more frequently than the rich man's 

 mansion, will he not regard the law as partial and unjust, and pro- 

 bably as unconstitutional? And if this estimation of the law pre- 

 vail, can it be carried into effect? It requires something more than 

 legislation to convince the judgment, and no legislation, though based 



