Yes, while science
and industry are making such marvellous progress, it is a
necessity, unless civilization's centre of gravity should
suddenly change, that the intelligence and comfort of the
proletariat be diminished; while the lives of the well-to-do
classes grow longer and easier, it is inevitable that those of
the needy should grow harder and shorter. This is established in
the writings of the best--I mean, the most optimistic--thinkers.
According to M. de Morogues, 7,500,000 men in France have only
ninety- one francs a year to spend, 25 centimes a day. Cinq
sous! cinq sous! (Five cents! five cents!). There is something
prophetic, then, in this odious refrain.
In England (not including Scotland and Ireland) the poor-rate
was:
1801.--L 4,078,891 for a population of. . . . .8,872,980
1818.--L 7,870,801 " " " " . . . .11,978,875
1833.--L 8,000,000 " " " " . . . .14,000,000
The progress of poverty, then, has been more rapid than that of
population; in face of this fact, what becomes of the hypotheses
of Malthus? And yet it is indisputable that during the same
period the average comfort increased: what, then, do statistics
signify?
The death-rate for the first arrondissement of Paris is one to
every fifty-two inhabitants, and for the twelfth one to every
twenty-six.
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