life from all relations, and deprived of the aid which even in their destitute situation they might derive from friends."
He describes this as "repugnant to humanity, and a practice that had been suffered to exist by the negligence of the legislature."
In referring to the results of this inhuman practice, he says,
"It has been known that with a bankrupt's effects, a gang (if he might use the term) of these children had been put up for sale, and were advertised publicly as a part of the property. A most atrocious instance had come before the King's Bench, in which a number of these children, apprenticed by a parish in London to one manufacturer, had been transferred to another, and had been found by some benevolent persons in a state of absolute famine. Another case, more horrible, had come to his knowledge, while on a committee of the house; that an agreement had been made between a London parish and a Lancashire manufacturer, by which it was stipulated that with every twenty sound children, one idiot should be taken."
I will conclude this letter by making an extract from the speech of Sir Robert Peel, late prime minister, in Parliament. The speech does great credit to Sir Robert. He says:
"I am one of those who have derived our fortunes from the industry of the operative classes, and I trust that others who owe their prosperity to the same cause will feel as I do, that it is our duty to relieve the public, by taking on ourselves the charge of a just requital to those classes from whom our prosperity has sprung."
I have thought it necessary, in order to convince the reader of the truth of what I have stated, (the facts being of such a nature as to require the strongest testimony) to make the above extracts. I have taken them from the writings of men of the highest standing in society, and
