kind, they were jealous and niggardly of the pay of those who were principally instrumental in making them succeed, and what was ordered by a Committee one week or month was too frequently undone the next. There was no permanency or persistency. If their affairs were of other kinds they fell out among themselves, and could not long be kept together. The worst feature of ignorance is intolerance, and the worst of the working classes is that they cannot agree to differ. They are for the utmost freedom of thought and liberty of opinion, but denounce as knave or fool every one who does not think as they think. They are too generally suspicious of each others' motives, and find it very difficult to rise to the comprehension of a disinterested feeling. I have heard a philanthropist defined as a person who acts from no motives at all. I have heard the most damning denunciations of government pay and patronage, of aristocrats helping themselves and their relations out of the public purse; but I have known the same persons order a larger quantity of tea and sugar for a tea-drinking than could possibly be used, that they might divide it among themselves at half price afterwards. Of course there are many and glorious exceptions. During the last 20 years I have witnessed great improvement in the condition of the working classes; year by year the state of a large number is permanently improved, and if the present peaceful and prosperous state of the country should continue this must rapidly increase. From the small number of producers and the unequal mode of distribution there is ample room to improve the physical condition of the operatives, and although I have lost all faith in any single remedy for all their ills, I have an increasing conviction that no effort is thrown away, but that all

measures for their improvement are working together for their good; gradually and slowly bringing about a time in which all may enjoy what hitherto has been the exclusive privilege of the favoured few. I say slowly, because conduct depends more upon individual organisation than upon opinion, however enlightened, and the organisations have yet to be grown.

MEASURES PROPOSED FOR THE AMELIORATION OF THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. We cannot now complain that the interests and condition of the people are neglected ; but an immense amount of philanthropy is thrown away from being misdirected. The evils we have pointed out are now forcing themselves into general recognition, and all parties have their pet schemes for their amelioration, in Political or Social Reforms, in Emigration, and Education.

POLITICAL REFORM. The people have lost their faith in Reformed Parliaments, and there is a very general feeling that Government can do little more than it has done, and that the people must take their affairs into their own hands. They see that in all countries the condition of the great body of people-of the working classes-is, with slight differences, the same. In all, the wages of labour are-relatively to what each produces, and to what such wages will purchase-equally low and yet some of the countries to which we have before alluded possess all for which politicians of the Liberal school are contending. If wages are higher in America than in the old world, it is owing, not to their liberal institutions, or to anything in which their Government may differ from ours, but to the scarcity of labour in proportion to the vast tracts of half-cultivated and uncultivated land. But the lower wages in England

will purchase there more of all that is best worth living for than the higher wages of America will in that country. Our political agitators and first-class workmen are quite aware of this, and refuse to go.

CHARTISM. Consequently, we hear very little now of the Charter. The late Union, however, of the working men for the purpose of obtaining what is called the Charter, the chief object of which is an extended suffrage, demonstrated how utterly incapable this class was of undertaking the management of its own affairs. Whatever may be the opinion with respect to the desirableness of placing political power in the hands of the majority, it cannot be doubted, that in the hands of a majority such as our working classes in their present condition constitute, it would tend more to their injury than benefit. Whatever exception may be made in favour of some few amongst them who have far outstripped their brethren in reason and intelligence, it may be asserted that, as a class, they have no knowledge of the foundations upon which society is built; of the steps by which we have arrived at our present stage in civilization; of the original necessity to the advancement of the race of that which now strikes them as a glaring abuse; of the mutual sacrifice of our natural liberty which is hourly called for, to ensure to us the advantages of living in society at all. They have no knowledge of the causes of the evils that oppress them, and where, therefore, the remedy should be sought. Scarcely any two among them agree as to what should be done, had they the necessary power. It is quite impossible, as society is now constituted, that they, with their limited means of acquiring information, and the incessent toil to which they are subjected, can acquire

sufficient knowlege for their own governance, or perhaps even to choose those who are qualified. Legislation requires more knowledge than any other profession. A legislator ought to be intimately acquainted with the constitution of human nature; the constitution of society; the history of civilization; with the particular character of the people, and of the institutions of the country for which he would legislate. This is a knowledge to be acquired only by long and arduous study, the time for which is denied to the multitude. Universal suffrage, including all that can make that suffrage available, will be excellent and necessary, when the people know how to use it; but a great improvement in their physical condition must take place before this can be the case. Changes brought about by the representa tives of the people in ignorance of the causes of oppression, would only make things worse, by affecting the order, tranquillity, and security necessary to the spread of knowledge, and to the improvement which can be based only upon such knowledge.

EXTENSION OF THE SUFFRAGE. A judicious extension of the suffrage is certainly called for, and would make the legislating class more dependent upon the people and therefore more solicitous to educate them and to attend to their interests; but this extension ought by no means to be overwhelming in its influence, swamping all other classes in mere numbers, or ignorance and prejudice would rule instead of knowledge.

Is not this, therefore, evidence of some fallacy in the views of this party, if indeed the object of their measures be to raise the condition of the people? In questioning, however, whether the measures of what is called a liberal and enlightened policy do often or always conduce to this end, and in endeavouring to show their

exact bearing upon the condition of the people, we would not wish to appear to condemn such measures, or to represent them as containing no good. It is impossible not to be aware of, and to appreciate, the benefits that have been and will be conferred by them upon all possessing property; it is obvious also that increased production must reflectively, and in a minor degree, benefit those who have no property, but who live by the wages of labour; and that it will raise many of the latter class into the former; but that such policy will not materially ameliorate the condition of the majority, may, we think, be demonstrated.

TAXATION. First among the remedies of this class to which the people are taught to look for relief, is the lessening of Taxation, Cheap Government, and the taking off the duties on everything that the working man finds necessary for the support of his family. The national debt and our heavy taxation, it is said, press down our people into the dust. But in those countries where there is no national debt, and where taxation is light, is the condition of the people better? It appears a hard thing that the working man should have to pay 3s. 6d. of every pound that he earns, in direct or indirect taxation, and out of an income of £50, to pay £8 towards the government of his country, and the interest of its national debt; and yet, supposing the same rate of taxation to affect the capitalist, and that his income is £1,000 a-year, he pays only £166, leaving in the one instance £42 a-year, and in the other £834; thus reducing one party to the point of starvation, and leaving the other with every means of luxury. But were the working classes relieved from all taxation, and were those who are much better able to bear the burden made so to do, how would it affect the former? At first,