TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 157 
On the Progress of Turkey. By Dr. Hypr Crarxs, 
Agriculture has been favoured by emigration, but very little by machinery. 
The restoration of cotton culture, which had made great progress, under the 
encouragement of the Government, is checked by the fall of prices. There is an 
increase in the quantity and value of imports and exports, The increase in the 
reyenue has been regular, but notwithstanding this there has been an increase of 
expenditure, and the embarrassments of the Government are notorious. The rail- 
way system is producing only limited results, but the telegraph is producing a 
great effect throughout the empire, has a great effect on the provisional market, 
and stimulates enterprise to a remarkable degree. There is no ground to believe 
that any of the elements of the population are becoming extinct. The progress of 
schooling among all classes, and the development of political rights among the 
former subject-population, all attest the greater vigour and energy now diffused ; 
but the Government is still far in advance of its subjects, and real progress is 
dependent on the progress of general practical instruction. 
The Past, Present, and Future of the Wage-paid Classes, 
By F.S8. Corrance, M.P. 
After a review of the total, or partial failure to correct or cure, by modern legis- 
lation, the social evils of which we most complain, and bringing forward as in- 
stances the laws of settlement, poor laws, present and past, prisons, free labour, 
emigration, and even ow sanitary laws and regulations, the author stated his 
opinion that these unfortunate results had arisen both from an imperfect knowledge 
of antecedent circumstances, and the ulterior consequences arising out of them. 
Of the wage-paid class, even the records we possessed were defective and incor- 
rect ; and if we wished to form some idea of their social state, no better index could 
be found than a careful review of the enactments affecting their state. Beyond 
this our knowledge was confined to some great cataclysms, such as the Black 
Death in the 14th century, and the Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII. 
These enactments embraced laws of settlement and laws of wages and labour, 
the rate of which it was constantly attempted to fix; instances of this sort occurred 
under local jurisdiction, even up to the commencement of the present century. 
Both Lord Kaimes and Andrew Fletcher testify to this. 
Under such circumstances and popular conditions we found ourselves brought up 
to the great developments of the 19th century, when the repeal of most of these 
laws took place. Some however survived, like the Poor Law and Apprentice Acts, 
to be denounced by great men like Sir Matthew Hale, Locke, and Mr. Pitt, who 
foresaw some of the future evils they were calculated to produce. Their full de- 
velopment was nevertheless delayed to a later date. 
In the early part of this century a great change took place in the habits of the 
labouring class ; and under the impulse given to production by the introduction of 
steam power, they emigrated in vast numbers from the south. In Lancashire, 
which in 1801 had 692,731 inhabitants, there were in 1831 1,333,800; in York- 
shire, East Riding, 1801, 563,953, 1831, 976,400. Cottage industries were given 
up, and the mass of this population were swept into mills, and constituted a wage- 
paid class; 35,000 handloom weavers became a pauperized class. To meet this 
change, what were our legislators about? We had seen their activity at pre- 
vious periods. This was met by neglect, and a whole generation grew up in 
ignorance and vice. Yet we wondered at trades unions and strikes. 
Up to this time the old Poor Laws were still in force, and though constantly 
tinkered up, the evils did not fail to increase. A few distinguished men, besides 
those already named, appeared as reformers of the abuse. After Bentham, came 
Sidney Smith; and in 1834 some effective legislation took place. The following 
statistics of certain periods will show to what effect :— 
