Each
branch, in large manufactories, is again divided. A youth selects a
branch, and by being engaged from day to day, in the same manipulation,
he acquires, in the course of years, an extraordinary degree of skill
and facility of execution. He works on, until the period of youth is
beginning to wane; and then his particular division, or branch, or
trade, is superseded. Is it not clear that the very habits he has
acquired, his very skill and facility in the now obsolete handicraft,
must incapacitate him for performing any other kind of labour, much less
competing with those who have acquired the same skill and facility in
those other branches or trades?

The most important preliminary inquiry connected with an improved and
extended form of out-door relief is, how can the mass of pauperism be
broken up and prepared for operation? We are told that the total number
of persons receiving relief in England and Wales is 1,470,970, of which
1,255,645 receive out-door relief. Without admitting the strict accuracy
of these figures, we may rest satisfied that they truly represent a
dense multitude. It is the duty of the relieving officers to make
themselves acquainted with the circumstances of each of these cases, and
to perform other duties involving severe labour. The number of relieving
officers is about 1310. This mass is broken up and distributed among
these officers, not in uniform numerical proportion, but in a manner
which would allow space and number to be taken into account. The officer
who is located in a thickly populated district, has to do with great
numbers; while the officer who resides in a rural district, has to do
with comparative smallness of numbers, but they are spread over a wide
extent of country. The total mass of pauperism is thus divided and
distributed; but division and distribution do not necessarily involve
classification, and they ought not to be regarded as substitutes for it.

To the general reader, the idea of the classification of the many
hundreds of thousands of paupers, and the uniform treatment of each
class according to definite rules, may appear chimerical. To him we may
say, Look at the enormous amount of business transacted with precision
in a public office, or by a "City firm" in a single day. All is done
without noise or bustle. There is no jolting of the machinery, or
running out of gear. There is that old house in the City. It has existed
more than a hundred years. And it has always