etariat, which is by far the more important for the
future of England.

Of the public character of the English working-man, as it finds
expression in associations and political principles, we shall have
occasion to speak later; let us here consider the results of the
influences cited above, as they affect the private character of the
worker. The workman is far more humane in ordinary life than the
bourgeois. I have already mentioned the fact that the beggars are
accustomed to turn almost exclusively to the workers, and that, in
general, more is done by the workers than by the bourgeoisie for the
maintenance of the poor. This fact, which any one may prove for himself
any day, is confirmed, among others, by Dr. Parkinson, Canon of
Manchester, who says: {125}

"The poor give one another more than the rich give the poor. I can
confirm my statement by the testimony of one of our eldest, most
skilful, most observant, and humane physicians, Dr. Bardsley, who has
often declared that the total sum which the poor yearly bestow upon
one another, surpasses that which the rich contribute in the same
time."

In other ways, too, the humanity of the workers is constantly manifesting
itself pleasantly. They have experienced hard times themselves, and can
therefore feel for those in trouble, whence they are more approachable,
friendlier, and less greedy for money, though they need it far more, than
the property-holding class. For them money is worth only what it will
buy, whereas for the bourgeois it has an especial inherent value, the
value of a god, and makes the bourgeois the mean, low money-grabber that
he is. The working-man who knows nothing of this feeling of reverence
for money is therefore less grasping than the bourgeois, whose whole
activity is for the purpose of gain, who sees in the accumulations of his
money-bags the end and aim of life. Hence the workman is much less
prejudiced, has a clearer eye for facts as they are than the bourgeois,
and does not look at everything through the spectacles of personal
selfishness. His faulty education saves him from religious
prepossessions, he does not understand religious questions, does not
trouble himself about them, knows nothing of the fanaticism that holds
the bourgeoisie bound; and if he chances to have any religion, he has it
only in name, not even in theory. Practically he lives for this world,
and strives to make himself at home in it. All the w