ether from all parts of the country, shows that the
increase of immorality with the increase of wages was attributed to the
low tastes and desires of the people.--that the obstinate refusal of the
men to exert more than two-thirds of their fair powers of work, by which
the cost of production is largely enhanced, capital crippled, and the
public mulcted, was due to the same cause,--that their readiness to
become the prey of unionists and agitators is traceable to their want of
the most elementary principles of thought,--that most of the accidents,
which are of weekly occurrence, are occasioned by their stupidity and
ignorance,--that wherever they have advanced in intelligence, they have
become more skilful, more subordinate, and more industrious. These facts
have convinced the more thoughtful and far-sighted masters, that the
only sure means of maintaining their ground under increasing foreign
competition, and averting a social crisis, is to reform the character of
the rising generation of operatives by _education_,]

It must, however, be admitted that education is not enough. The clever
man may be a clever rogue; and the cleverer he is, the cleverer rogue he
will be. Education, therefore, must be based upon religion and morality;
for education by itself will not eradicate vicious propensities. Culture
of intellect has but little effect upon moral conduct. You may see
clever, educated, literary men, with no conduct whatever,--wasteful,
improvident, drunken, and vicious. It follows, therefore, that education
must be based upon the principles of religion and morality.

Nor has the poverty of the people so much to do with their social
degradation as is commonly supposed. The question is essentially a moral
one. If the income of the labouring community could be suddenly doubled,
their happiness will not necessarily be increased; for happiness does
not consist in money. In fact, the increased wages might probably prove
a curse instead of a blessing. In the case of many, there would be an
increased consumption of drink, with the usual results,--an increase of
drunken violence, and probably an increase of crime.

The late Mr. Clay, chaplain of the Preston House of Correction, after
characterizing drunkenness as the GREAT SIN, proceeds: "It still rises
in savage hostility, against everything allied to order and religion; it
still barricades every avenue by which truth and peace seek to enter the
poor man's home and heart.... Wh