The spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1840-1844, 1842-07-29
From The Boston Post.
spLENDOUR AND wRETCHEDNEss.

found glowing account COPIED from the Court
Circular) of the bal! recently given by The Queen
of England to her nobility. The writer tells us
that even to an eye familiar with the pomP and
pageant Of a court, the magnifcence and dazzling
briancy of this ball was almost ovcrpowerlng,"
and we can readily credit him, for the mere des-
crplon of it has almost surfeiled US. If any Of
our republican readers find, as we did, their eyes
dazzled, and their imagnations bewdered by the
costly robes, the jewelled crowns, The "most mag
nifcent display gold plate" the flashing da-
monds, and brilliant candelabras, which intro
duced in such prciusion, we know Of no way III
which they can be restored so soon TO the perfect
use of their senses as by giving glance at the
condition the laboring classes of England They
will see that while the Queen and Lords and La
dies of her court were squandering thousands up
on this display Of useless magnilcence. the mil
lions of Britain, whose sweat and groans had filled
those beaufets with plate and covered the robes Of
velvet with ermine and jewels, were starring in
horels' To provide the costly wines and viands
upon which the company Toasted, thousands oftoil
worn laborers that same night went hungry TO their
straw! and to enable 'the chvalry Of England" to
appear in the" costume of their race" surrounded
by "lhe most exquisite works of art" The children
of Engshmen were consigned to hopeless slavery
and brualizing ignorance!
These are strong assertions bnt melancholy facts.
Our European correspondents, in examining the
= l. n Il. Ill r
England in relation to matters closely concerning
the honor and interest Of this country, have from
time to time given our readers sketches of the
wrelched condition of the peasanlry of Ireland.-
These were not fancy pictures, but were in every
instance drawn from the evidence furnished by the
official documents of the government itself Tia
papers received by the Columbia bring to us reve-
lalions of the shame of England, which bear direct
ly on the same subject. Commissioners were not
long since appointed to investigate the situation of
the people employed in the English collerics, Ga
very numerous class) and in their report which has
just been made is filled with the most heart-rend-
ing details. We are told by the commissioners
that children of both sexes are placed in the coal
mines at the age of six years; they are employed
in dragging coal through passages often not more
than eighteen or twenty inches high, so that they
are obliged to crawl on their hands and knees in
the mud; and even at the tender age named, they
are worked from elc,e en- to fourteen hours day
They are excluded from the light, and were it not
for the passing and repassng of coal carriages,
they would be, to use the language of the report,
" in solitary confinement of the worst order. In
some districts they remain in solitude and darkness
during the whole time they are in the pit, and &C
cordins to their own account, many of them never
see the light ofday for weeks together during the
greater part Of the winter season, excepting those
days in the week when the work is not going on,
and on Sundays" Their labor requires the unre-
hitting cxer,ion of all their ply steal powers. We
are told that in the districts where the females
are taken down into the coal mines, both sexes are
employed in precisely the same kind of labor, and
work for the same number of hours the girls and
boys, and the young men and young women, and
even married women, and women with child, COM
monty work almost naked, and men in many mines
quite Naked and all classes Of witnesses bear cs-
imony to the dcmoralizing influence of the en-
ployment Of females under ground.
Our readers may readily suppose that where la
Dor is carried on so unrcmtingly and under such
circumstances, there is no opportunity for mental
ovements-that where the bodies OF children
are not cared for their minds are totally neglected
on this head the report makes the most painful de-
vclopements The Commissioners examined large
numbers of the young people, taken indiscrminate.
ly, for the purpose Of asceriaining the extent of
their religious and other knowledge, and the an
swers which are quoted below afford fair sample |
of all that are given in the report:
Elisabeth Day "a girl of ~" don't go to
Sunday school. The truth is, we are confined bad
enough on week days, and want to walk about on
Sundays cant read at all. Jesus Christ was
Adams son and they nailed him on tree; but |
don't rightly understand these things"
William bearer (aged l6)-" The Lord made
the world. lie sent Adam and Eve on earth to |
save sinners. have heard Of the savior; he was
II good man but he did not die here. think Ire
land is large town as large as Barnsley, where
there is plenty of potatoes and lots of bullocks."
Ann Eggiey Jagged 1871 have heard of
Christ performing miraces,but don't know what
sort of things they were. lie died by their pouring
fire and birthstone down his throat think that
once did hear that he was nailed TO a cross Three
times ten make twenty. There are fourteen
months in year, but don't know how many
weeks there are.'
Bessy Baiiey Jagged I5)-"Jesus Christ died for
bis son to be saw ed. don't know who the apos-
lies were. don't know what Ire land is, whe,h-
er it is a country or a town.
Elisabeth Eggiey Gagged l6)--W cannot read.