OF THE

MIDDLE AND WORKING CLASSES;

WITH A

POPULAR EXPOSITION

OF THE

ECONOMICAL AND POLITICAL PRINCIPLES

WHICH HAVE INFLUENCED THE

PAST AND PRESENT CONDITION

OF THE

INDUSTRIOUS ORDERS.

ALSO AN

APPENDIX

OF PRICES, RATES OF WAGES, POPULATION, POOR-RATES, MORTALITY,
MARRIAGES, CRIMES, SCHOOLS, EDUCATION, OCCUPATIONS, AND

OTHER STATISTICAL INFORMATION, ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE

FORMER AND PRESENT STATE OF SOCIETY AND OF THE
AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MANUFACTURING
CLASSES.

"Were the benefits of civilization to be partial, not universal, it would
be only a bitter mockery and cruel injustice."-Duchâtel.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY EFFINGHAM WILSON,

ROYAL EXCHANGE.

MDCCCXXXIII,

285.

INTRODUCTION.

To ROGER LEE, ESQ.,

MY DEAR SIR,

Clapham Common.

When travelling on the Continent you cannot have forgotten that we arrived at one general, though, perhaps, partial conclusion, namely, that in the command of the substantial elements of national happiness, in the accumulation of wealth, in the diffusion of intelligence, in moral feeling, and in the enjoyment of civil freedom, our own country might justly claim precedency over any European community. Notwithstanding this, we could not conceal from ourselves the fact, that in many respects England exhibited symptoms of a nation suffering under great internal disorders. To reconcile such apparently contradictory conclusions, formed a subject of perplexing inquiry; it might be that the very advantages we had achieved, were the source of our difficulties, or that they had been neutralized by some accompanying evils not yet discovered, or -insufficiently appreciated.

The most remarkable circumstance in our social progress, has been the rapid increase and ascendancy