512 
Jones — Chartism. 
break down prudence and virtue. Notwithstanding that money 
was unwisely given, the system set one parish against another 
and put each on the watch to shift its burdens as far as possible 
upon other parishes. This, together with strict laws of settle¬ 
ment, for a time prevented the free movement of labor. But 
by 1795 the strictness of the laws of settlement was relaxed 
and the England of the period we are considering was charac¬ 
terized by migrations of the lower strata of society. The Eng¬ 
lish poor laws were not reconstructed until 1834. During that 
year the total poor rate of England was £6,317,254, while in 
1836, under the new system, it was only £4,717,629. The old 
law took away some of the most necessary restraints upon the 
increase of population and was the instrument in building up 
an industrially superfluous class, composed of improvident per¬ 
sons, brought up with the utmost negligence, and left to prey 
upon society through one of two alternatives; pauperism or 
crime. 
It must be remembered in connection with these things 
that there seemed to be little or no hope of obtaining relief 
through government. Parliament was dominated by the landed 
aristocracy, which was not concerned with the troubles of 
the manufacturing population. At this time Parliament was 
probably more often thought of as a council to assist the King 
than as a body to represent and act for the people. The polit¬ 
ical situation abroad was also calculated to arouse uneasiness. 
The people of Europe were demanding constitutions on all sides 
and monarchs were constrained to protect themselves through 
the union which the Holy Alliance afforded. 
As to the church, “Parson Lot” (Chas. Kingsley) and, somewhat 
later, many others admitted that the Bible had been used “ as a 
mere opium-dose for keeping beasts of burden patient while 
they were being overloaded. ” The sufferings of England awakened 
Shelley, beyond the Alps, and impelled him to write in 1819, a 
most vigorous protest, though in rather poor verse, entitled 
“ The Masque of Anarchy. ” The poet demands that there shall 
be a great assemblage where the poor and their oppressors shall 
meet and the former shall triumph by the force of the majesty 
of their presence and the justice of their claims. This poetic 
