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On the Condition of Workhouses
53

fore all arguments about the low character of our workhouse population, only go to prove the truth of what is now so strongly and earnestly urged upon the attention of all enlightened and benevolent men, who will not turn a deaf ear to the wants and sorrows, and, I may add, rights of the poor and destitute, and of him who hath no helper.

Political Economists and Poor-Law Commissioners call it "meddling" when any voice is raised in behalf of this neglected class, and we are told that we know nothing of the matter. But it remains to be seen if such is the general feeling of Englishmen, and Englishwomen, many of whom probably know as much of the poor, and their needs and habits, as a few gentlemen of the upper classes who have had little or no personal intercourse with them. In such a cause truth and love will prevail; and while taking every care to train our youth of both sexes in the strictest principles of economy and prudence, we may at the same time believe that as long as the world lasts, there will ever be the unavoidable cases of poverty and suffering, and old age, which may claim a tenderer treatment from a Christian nation than they at present receive.