ABSTRACT

From them I went to the outside of the town, near Water-lane, where I saw a number of men breaking stones for the roads, and others standing with their hands in their pockets looking on. I was very much surprised to see the immense quantity of stones these men had broken; there was a heap containing many thousand cart-loads, and the incessant rap, rap, rap, of the numerous hammers, gave tokens of its being likely to be increased to a much greater extent. They are generally men who have been thrown out of employment by the introduction of machinery, according to their own account, and are now employed, like those sweeping streets, at Is. per day.