and
men, as representing capital and labour, but also between ancient
and modern civilizations. The South is agricultural, easy-going,
idyllic; the North is stern, rude, and full of a consuming energy
and passion for work. These are the two Englands of Mrs Gaskell's
time.

The ways of the manufacturing districts, which seem unpleasing to
those who do not really know them, are described with a faithful yet
kindly pen, and we see that each life has its trials and its
temptations.

In the South all is not sunshine, and the life of the labourer can
be very hard--"a young person can stand it; but an old man gets racked
with rheumatism, and bent and withered before his time; yet he must
work on the same, or else go to the workhouse."

In the North men are often at enmity with their masters, and fight
them by means of the strike. "State o' trade! That's just a piece
of masters' humbug. It's rate o' wages I was talking of. Th' masters
keep th' state o' trade in their own hands, and just walk it forward
like a black bug-a-boo, to frighten naughty children with into being
good. I'll tell yo' it's their part--their cue, as some folks call
it--to beat us down, to swell their fortunes; and it's ours to stand
up and fight hard--not for ourselves alone, but for them round about
us--for justice and fair play. We help to make their profits, and
we ought to help spend 'em. It's not that we want their brass so much
this time, as we've done many a time afore. We'n getten money laid
by; and we're resolved to stand and fall together; not a man on us
will go in for less wage than th' Union says is our due. So I say,
'Hooray for the strike.'"

The story appeared in _Household Words_, a new magazine of which
Charles Dickens was the editor. He expressed especial admiration for
the fairness with which Mrs Gaskell had spoken of both sides.
Nicholas Higgins, whose words are quoted above, is a type of the best
Lancashire workman, who holds out for the good of the cause, even
though it might mean ruin and poverty to himself--"That's what folk
call fine and honourable in a soldier, and why not in a poor
weaver-chap?"

Dickens himself wrote _Hard Times_, dealing with the same subject.
This appeared about the same time, and the two books should be read
and compared, for, although _Hard Times_ is not equal in any way to
_North and South_, it is interesting. As Ruskin said of Dickens'
stories, "Allowing for the manner of telling them, the things