The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States/Section II
SECTION II.
DIVISION OF THE PEOPLE INTO TWO ORDERS.
If a native of North America were to come to some European nation, he would probably, after having informed himself of the different states and conditions of the people in this society, be most struck with the great profusion and splendour of some among them, and the penury and obscurity of all the others; and, in this, it would appear to him, that this civilised people differed most from those of his own country, where the condition of all is the same. He would naturally, therefore, divide the people, whose situation he had so observed, into two orders, viz. the rich and the poor. We shall make the same division; and, as the different conditions of the people are among the greatest effects of civilisation, shall inquire into the situation of each of these orders separately.
We often hear of inquiries into the state of nations being made in legislative assemblies; but such inquiries are of a very confined nature. If made by a minister of state, nothing is understood further than the financial state of a kingdom, the supplies and expenditure: if by a secretary at War, the state of the army is the object of inquiry: if by a merchant, the state of trade and commerce. But it seems that there is a subject of much more importance than any of these to a nation, that never enters into the thoughts of any one to make inquiries about;[1] namely, the state and condition of the great mass of the people: how they are fed; how they are clothed; what kind of houses they live in; how they are supplied with fuel; how they are instructed; in short, what advantages, corporeal, mental, and even spiritual, they enjoy or are deprived of. To know these particulars with regard to the poor, that is, the great mass of the people, is truly to know the state of a nation.
The people in a civilised state may be divided into many different orders; but, for the purpose of investigating the manner in which they enjoy or are deprived of the requisites to support the health of their bodies and minds, they need only be divided into two classes, viz., the rich and the poor, as we have before done: for, people in the same circumstances as to property enjoy the same advantages in those respects, whether the means of placing them in those circumstances are derived from landed estates, benefices of the church, the practice of the law, or any other profession or trade.
- ↑ Since this work was written, some attention has been evinced in regard to these subjects, as in the case of the Labourer's Friend Society, &c.—Ed.