Page:The Laboring Classes of England.djvu/151

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CONCLUSION.
145

sans gradually increased within the last quarter of a century? No! They have declined. Do the artisans live better? No! Many die, because they are not able to live. Do they clothe better? No! Thousands are confined at home on the Sabbath day for want of clothes. Have their dwellings become more comfortable? No! In some of the largest manufacturing towns, one seventh of the population live in cellars. Has the necessity for infant labor diminished with the accumulation of these riches? No! It has increased in successive years to such an alarming extent, that the legislature has been compelled to interfere, to arrest the sacrifice of the miserable infants. Are the artisans better educated? No! Two thirds cannot write their names, and the proportion that can read and write becomes less in each successive generation. Are they more moral? No! Crime has increased in a greater ratio than population. Has the average duration of life increased? No! It has greatly diminished. In one of the largest manufacturing towns in the kingdom, in 1822, 1 in 44 of the population died; but in 1837, 1 in 24½. The millocracy intrude on public consideration their importance as a wealthy class; they state in figures the immense capital which a small number can command; they also admit the misery, wretchedness, immorality, and degradation of the artisans.

One of the favorite axioms of the millocracy is, "that capital owes no allegiance to soil," and, consequently, if not petted, will take wings and depart. The man was shrewd who asked what posterity had done for him; and the masses with equal shrewdness, may ask the millocracy, "what has this capital done for us?" We perceive it in abundance in your hands, but there is none in ours. You are legislators as well as manufacturers—evidence that capital has served your end, but pray how are we benefited, either by your capital or legislation? You