. . . . Instructed by
this fatal example, yielding partly to necessity, the working
classes have lost that laudable pride which led them to furnish
their houses properly and to multiply about them the decent
conveniences which contribute to happiness."
I have never read anything more afflicting and more stupid. And
what would you have these workingmen do? The Irish came: should
they have been massacred? Wages were reduced: should death have
been accepted in their stead? Necessity commanded, as you say
yourselves. Then followed the interminable hours, disease,
deformity, degradation, debasement, and all the signs of
industrial slavery: all these calamities are born of monopoly and
its sad predecessors,--competition, machinery, and the division
of labor: and you blame the Irish!
At other times the workingmen blame their luck, and exhort
themselves to patience: this is the counterpart of the thanks
which they address to Providence, when labor is abundant and
wages are sufficient.
I find in an article published by M.
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