y may rejoice at the sight of the
shillings saved. But it will soon be found, that when work has been
offered indiscriminately, and after the lapse of time, that a large and
yearly increasing number of labourers of various classes will accept the
relief and do the work. This fact indicates with accuracy that the moral
feelings of the labouring population are in process of deterioration.
Then how unjust it is! Here is a stout, broad-shouldered, hard-handed,
weather-tanned railway navigator, who would perform the hardest task
with the greatest case and indifference; but it is a very different
matter to the sedentary Liliputian workman of a manufacturing town. We
can understand why the smooth-fingered silk-weavers of Spitalfields
complained of being set to break stones. It is still presumed that the
great object is to diminish pauperism. It is not a question of this day
or this year, or of a parish or union; but of the age and nation. This
being so, we have to ascertain which of two modes is the preferable one:
should labour be offered to all comers, or should the right to make the
performance of labour a condition of receiving relief, be reserved as a
right, and used with caution and discrimination? Let us inquire. Among
the higher classes of society, the gradations of rank are distinctly
marked. Among the middle classes, the gradations and varieties of social
position are more numerous, less distinctly marked, and therefore fenced
round with a world of form and ceremony. And as we descend, and enter
the lower ranks, and approach the lowest, the distinctions and grades
multiply. To the common observer, these distinctions may be unworthy of
regard; but to the parties themselves, they are of importance. The
higher grades among the poor have attained their position by the
exercise of tact and talent, and by hard labour. Not that the accident
of birth, or the position of the parents, are circumstances destitute of
force--the son often follows the employment of the father, and the
eldest son in many trades is permitted to do so, without the sacrifice
of expense and time involved in an apprenticeship. There is a broad line
of demarcation drawn between the skilled and unskilled trades. There are
lines, equally as distinct, drawn between skilled trades, which
correspond with the ancient guilds of cities. And in the present day,
when the several ancient trades are so minutely divided, and subdivided,
there are grades of workmen corr