ABSTRACT
The aim and end of foresight or providence is to make that constant which is naturally precarious-to give to the affairs of tomorrow the same stability as those of today. At present the knowledge of this great truth has percolated only down to the middle classes-the working men have yet to be made acquainted with its wisdom. Hence, in those callings where the labour and the income are the most uncertain of all - there, from the total absence of providence among the class, we not only find the greatest want, but the greatest extravagance, together with the large family of vices and crimes which come of privations and intemperance. If, therefore, we wish to benefit a particular class of labourers, following some precarious calling, we must endeavour either to give a greater regularity to the labour, or to introduce habits of economy and temperance among them, so that the occasional abundance may be transformed into permanent competence. As I said before, however, where there is irregularity of work or income, we cannot expect habits of industry or moderation to be formed, because industry is merely a habit of working regularly, and moderation a habit of living in the same manner. It follows, then, that if we would improve the condition of the dock labourer, our principal aim must be to make dock labour more uniform in its character. How this is to be done I do not pretend to say. My vocation, as I said before, is to point out the evil; it is for others to discover the remedy. But, as long as matters are so arranged that it is possible for a continuance of easterly winds to deprive 20,000 individuals of a living, and to abstract, in three weeks, as much as £60,000 from the ordinary earnings of the class, why, just so long must the neighbourhood of the docks swarm with the vice and crime that at present infest them.
