ABSTRACT
THE wide-spread physical and moral degradation of the labouring classes, which is such a lamentable feature, not only in Manchester, but in all the great manufacturing towns, is a fact which engages in an especial manner, the anxious solicitude of benevolent minds in England. They feel that it is a reproach upon the public conscience, and that in a country like England, where evils of such magnitude are permitted to exist, the men who have the direction of public affairs, cannot escape from all responsibility. Whatever may be the form of its political institutions, whether aristocratic or democratic, it governs itself, and belongs entirely to itself. Its destinies are not in the hands of any foreign power; and no artificial influences constrain or limit public opinion. The middle classes, which the natural progress of society has elevated to political power, exercise that power freely; and they are accountable to Providence, as well as to the world, not only for the evil which they have not prevented, but for the good which they have not effected.
