ght degree,
restricted; if it points with pride to measures which, far from attacking
the root of the evil, do not by any means meet the demands of the
commonest sanitary policy, it cannot thus vindicate itself from the
accusation. The English bourgeoisie has but one choice, either to
continue its rule under the unanswerable charge of murder and in spite of
this charge, or to abdicate in favour of the labouring-class. Hitherto
it has chosen the former course.

Let us turn from the physical to the mental state of the workers. Since
the bourgeoisie vouchsafes them only so much of life as is absolutely
necessary, we need not wonder that it bestows upon them only so much
education as lies in the interest of the bourgeoisie; and that, in truth,
is not much. The means of education in England are restricted out of all
proportion to the population. The few day schools at the command of the
working-class are available only for the smallest minority, and are bad
besides. The teachers, worn-out workers, and other unsuitable persons
who only turn to teaching in order to live, are usually without the
indispensable elementary knowledge, without the moral discipline so
needful for the teacher, and relieved of all public supervision. Here,
too, free competition rules, and, as usual, the rich profit by it, and
the poor, for whom competition is _not_ free, who have not the knowledge
needed to enable them to form a correct judgment, have the evil
consequences to bear. Compulsory school attendance does not exist. In
the mills it is, as we shall see, purely nominal; and when in the session
of 1843 the Ministry was disposed to make this nominal compulsion
effective, the manufacturing bourgeoisie opposed the measure with all its
might, though the working-class was outspokenly in favour of compulsory
school attendance. Moreover, a mass of children work the whole week
through in the mills or at home, and therefore cannot attend school. The
evening schools, supposed to be attended by children who are employed
during the day, are almost abandoned or attended without benefit. It is
asking too much, that young workers who have been using themselves up
twelve hours in the day, should go to school from eight to ten at night.
And those who try it usually fall asleep, as is testified by hundreds of
witnesses in the Children's Employment Commission's Report. Sunday
schools have been founded, it is true, but they, too, are most scantily
supp