him, now that she is cut off her charing, I shall be much obliged to you It isn't much; it's less than the loss of my wile's earnings, and nothing towards the expense.'—'Certainly not, Arch: your father can go to "the house," and you must pay one and sixpence towards his support.'—'Good morning, gentlemen. I'd sooner rot under a hedge than he should go there.' The old man lingered for ten months; and, during the last few weeks of his life, the parish, against Arch's will, but with the consent of his wife, allowed him one shilling and sixpence and a loaf! Then he died; and his son bought him a coffin, and hid him down in the earth, on whose broad, bountiful breast there seemed to be no room for him. Fifty years a worker, thirty j-ears a ratepayer, a life's saving of four shillings and sixpence, a choice between the workhouse and his son's poor cottage, eighteenpence and a loaf for two months,—this was the life-story of Arch, senior!"
Nor was this in ante-union days an isolated instance of hardship. On the contrary-, so far from being the exception, it was the rule. Work as hard and live as sparingly as one might, the inevitable goal was the workhouse. Wages would admit of no other result; and this in Christian Jingo England, with its "miraculous Premier" and its capacity for undertaking unlimited campaigns! The thought burns like a hot iron, and the warning word "Beware!" rises to indignant lips,—
"Lest, when our latest hope is fled,
Ye taste of our despair,
And learn by proof in some wild hour
How much the wretched dare."
It was not from his father, but from his mother, that
