not attend day-schools can read or write; but as it is certain that they are less instructed by at least one-half, I have every reason to believe that, out of the total 16,500 working class children, not above 6,500 can read fairly. Among the older youths there is still less education, for they have had more time to forget the little they were formerly taught. This estimate is so thoroughly corroborated by the most trustworthy evidence I have received, that I entertain the belief that two-thirds of the working class children and young persons are growing up in a state of ignorance, and are unable to read. On the books of the Sunday-schools there were during the last year 2258, of which the average attendance was only 1708. From this it appears that 24.40 per cent. or nearly a quarter, are absent of the whole number on the books of the Sunday-schools. (Report: App. Pt. I. pp. E 18 et seq. ss. 136, 138, 144–148, 150, 151.)
In the returns from the Warrington district it is stated that nearly three-fourths of the children can read; but the Sub-Commissioner reports that of this number nine-tenths can only give the sound of a few monosyllables; that they have just acquired so much knowledge in the Sunday-schools, and that they will probably attain to little more during their lives. (Austin, Report: App. Pt. II. p. M 19, ss. 125 et seq.)
Report on the Physical and Moral Condition of the Children and young Persons employed in Mines and Manufactures.
II. AN ESSAY ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE HEALTH AND INCREASING THE COMFORT OF THE LABOURING CLASSES.
This Essay is chiefly based on evidence respecting the condition of the labouring classes in towns. It is not, however, necessary, on that account, to consider the subject as applying to those classes only. There is good reason to believe that the state of the agricultural labourers does not differ much, at least in kind, from that of the working people in towns. The remedies for the evils in both are of the same nature; and whatever results are arrived at with respect to the health of towns may generally be adapted, without much difficulty, to the wants of the rural population.
London,
Feb. 6, 1845.
CHAP. I.
Distress amongst the labouring Classes.
Knowing that there is an element of decay in any over-statement, I was very anxious, in the former Essay, to avoid even the least exaggeration in describing the distressed state of the labouring people. This anxiety was, in that case, needless. An elaborate Report has since been published by the Health of Towns Commission; and the evidence there given more than bears out the statements which I then made.
Indeed, the condition of a large part of the labouring classes, as seen in this Report, is evidently one which endangers the existence amongst them of economy, decency, or morality. You may there see how more than savage is savage life led in a great city. Dr. Southwood Smith in his evidence says,
“The experiment has been long tried on a large scale with a dreadful success, affording the demonstration that if, from early infancy, you allow human beings to live like brutes, you can degrade them down to their level, leaving them scarcely more intellect, and no feelings and affections proper to human minds and hearts.”