ABSTRACT
Lower-class England during the second half of the century was much transformed by the power of the Agrarian and Industrial Revolutions. In some respects its circumstances were bettered, in others depressed, but there was as yet no radical change, and few of the things Dr. Johnson saw would have startled Jonathan Swift. However much England might pride itself on its form of government, its penal code was the most vicious and sanguinary in Europe. On many parts of the Continent prison reform was already under way, but even in the most backward places, such as Russia, though torture might still be frequently inflicted, the general situation was unlikely to be so bad. The widespread opinion — implying that labourers squandered their money in taverns and worked only when they had to — was promulgated by so observant a writer as Daniel Defoe.
