I shall be reminded of all that has been done, and done
well too, for the poor during the last generation, and bidden not to
calumniate my countrymen. True, much has been done; and done well. And
true also it is that no effort to make the rich and poor meet together,
to bring the different classes of society into contact with each other,
but has succeeded--has sown good seed--which I trust may bring forth good
fruit in the day when every tree shall be judged by its fruit. The
events of 1830, startling and warning, and those of 1848, more pregnant,
if possible, with warning than the former, awakened a spirit of humanity
in England, which was also a spirit of prudence and of common sense.
But I cannot conceal from myself, or you, that the earnestness which was
awakened in those days is dying out in these. The richer classes of
every country are tempted from time to time to fits of laziness--fits of
frivolity and luxury, surfeits, in which men say, with a shrug and a
yawn--"Why be very much in earnest? Why take so much trouble? Somebody
must always be rich, why should not I? Somebody must enjoy the money,
why should not I? At all events, things will last my time.
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