The Sun.
London, England, 1833-07-29 00:00:00

it ; noting and sympathizing with its progress ;
and ever ready when it shows symptoms of flag-
ging, to lend it an arm and help it forward.
We rise from the perusal of " England and the
English" impressed with a higher sense than
ever of the moral and intellectual deserts of Mr.
13ulwer—an Aristocrat (so far as appears from
his present vols.) without intolerance—a scholar
without pedantry—a man of the world without
selfishness.

The MANUFACTURING POPULATIONof
ENGLAND. By P. GAsrELL.
The importance of this work will only
he fully appreciated by the future historian
%vim desires to have the account of a con-
temporary of the change effected in the cha-
racter of the manufacturing population by the
introduction of machinery. Upon every point on
which Mr. Gaskell's personal experience is
brought to bear, he is clear, full, and satisfactozy.
We cannot, however, concur in many of the prin-
ciples he lays down as he advances. We
marked the first half dozen of fal-
lacies we came to ; but the number ac-
cumulated upon us so rapidly, that we were
obliged to give up our intention of reporting
them. Putting aside, then, the conclusions at
which Mr. Gaskell has arrived, we do not think
we do the country a greater service than by
spreading a true idea of the domestic state of
the manufacturing population. We are pre-
sented in the work before us with many pictures
which we should like to be enabled to think are
overcharged, but they have received too strong
confirmation from other quarters to allow us to
doubt of their truth. The following extracts
will give a fair idea of the nature of Mr. Gas-
kell's work, as far as the statement of facts is

concerned :
" The small sum devoted to household purposes by the
narrative, may be determined with some accuracy, and it
affords considerable information as to his habits. A family
consisting of five persons may serve as an example, that
being about the average number. This family will pay
for lent, which includes taxes, 3s. a week for a cottage
containing two rooms ; and the different items of their
expenditure will be somewhere as follows :—tea, quarter
of a pound, Is. 2d. ; coffee, half a pound, 10d. ; bread,
3e. ; coals and candles, is. ; animal food, 2s. ; butter,
soap, salt, and cheese, 2s. 6d. ; potatoes, Is. ; sugar,
Is. 6i ; milk, 3d. ;—total, 16s. 3d. The allowance of
the above articles is liberal, and certainly more than what
the generality of families use. Against this must he placed
the amount of their earnings, which, when taken at the
average rate of wages paid to manufacturing labourers,
will be 10s. 6d. per head—total of wages, 21. 12s. 6d. ;
thus leaving a surplus of 1/. 16s. 3d. for dress and other
purposes.
" Though the general appearance of the operative is
squalid, and the majority of the middle aged badly dressed,
the young women and girls expend considerable sums upon
their persons. They exhibit in the style of dress a very
striking contrast with the inhabitants of the rural districts,
a distinction always observable between town and country
girls. A taste for showy clothing has been no doubt given
by the extreme cheapness of printed calicoes and muslins,
and indeed by the lowness of price in all manufactured
articles of middling quality; and the factory girl, with
her p:tle face and languid expression, offers, when decked
out in her Sunday and holyday apparel, a strange anomaly
with the dirty, unfurnished, and miserable house from
which she issues.
" The females employed in silk mills go a step still far-
ther as to dress than the cotton spinner or weaver. Many
of these are really well and handsomely clad, and present
an appearance of outward respectability, equal, if not
superior, to that of hundreds in the middle walks of life.
•
" The system of factory labour has, however, gone far
towards annihilating this great and beautiful principle in
woman's moral organization. Necessity, or rather impro-
vidence, has driven her to have recourse to labour ; and
that labour being continued throughout the whole day has
torn asunder those links of affection which, under almost
all other circumstances, has bound her mother to her off-
spring ; and in doing this it has deprived the mother of
that moral character istic, the most influential in rendering
her a loveable and loving being.
" Compelled to rise early—no opportunity given for
visiting home, during the day, but at the scanty and hur-
ried mealtimes—her mind and body alike enthralled by
her occupation—her social affections destroyed—her frame
little calculated to furnish her child with support, she be-
comes inaccessible to its appeals to her tenderness—leaves
it to the care of a hireling, or young person, a mere in-
fant—suffers it to he filthy and half starved, and, as its
faculties develop, takes no interest in keeping it from the
contagion of vice and grossness.
•

"If a mother's love is thus injured—a love springing
as it d. es from the very groundwork of her moral nature,
no wonder can be excited that the relations of husband
and wife are perverted, and, in place of presenting a pic-
ture of what love and domestic felicity should be, deve-
loping a scene of indecency—wanting every thing which
should render home a place for put e and chaste pleasures.
The chastity of marriage is but little known or exercised ;
husband and wife sin equally, and an habitual indifference
to sexual rights is generated, which adds one other item to
assist in the destruwion of domestic habits.

" The delicacy of comportment, which is the p illadium
of married love, has no existence; separated during the
whole of the day, exposed to vicious example, surrounded
by a stimulant yet enervating atmosphere, the intercourse
of man and wife loses its protecting influence upon the
animal appetites, and ceases to become a bar to licentious-
ness and sexual profligacy. After their day's labour, they
meet at night, not as those who love and have been sepa-
rated, not to indulge in the endearments proper to their
condition, but to drink and to quarrel ; to behave inde-
cently, or to taunt each other in terms of beastiali►y. The
fountains of domestic purity being thus poisoned, the
sanctity of marriage rites thus profaned, social virtue is
driven from her last strong hold, and leaves them a prey
to obscenity, coarseness, selfishness, and everything per-
nicious and abominable.
♦

" N:ither is the conduct of parent to child, and of child
to parent, a whit more engaging, but is as remote as
possible from the just observance of filial and parental
duties. Insubordination on the part of the child, cruelty
and oppression on that of the }went; quarrelling, fighting
—a total alienation of affection ; and, finally, a separation
from home, at an age when parental control and proper
domestic discipline are essential to the future wellbeing of
the child.

" The instances of proper feelings between parents and
children are very uncommon : those offices which should
be mutually rendered are neglected; an utter disregard for
the well or evil doing of either party is exhibited. If
they still live together, held by mutual interests, the morals
of his children form no part of the anxiety of the parent,
so hang as they bring their usual weekly allowance to the
fund for their support. It is no unusual thing to hear a
mother detail a course of wickedness and licentiousness on
the part of her son, bewailing his neglected time and lost
money, without once adverting to the moral criminality of
his career, or the evil of his example upon the rest of her
family; or a father telling a tale of his daughter's disho-
nour, and cursing her for the neglect of her work, without
even hinting at her depravity, or expressing sorrow for
her moral declension."
These are facts which deserve the attention of
every humane man, and we doubt not they will
receive it.

CHARACTER; OR,JEW AND GENTILE.
2 VOLS. LONDON, 1833.
An amusing tale, but not clever enough to
justify the fair authoress (Mrs. Leman Grim-
stone) in adopting such an ambitious title.

EXPEDITION TO PORTUGAL IN 1532

2 VOLS. LOY DON, 1833.

This work is from the pen of Colonel Hodges,
and has been carefully and elaborately drawn
up. The interest, however, of the subject—at
least of the first English expedition to Oporto,
with its frequent attendant failures—is now in a
great degree gone by. The most readable
chapter in Colonel Hodges' book is that entitled
" Convert Stories and Accommodations."