The Southern journal., 1846-03-21
ENGLAND Real Condition.

hINoiu'bS W 'hSoS WI s''"S 'o0No
very well on the surface, but the real
condition of the country lies below il.
The traveller yhs would study Eng
land must leavethe highways and Nc
Adamized roads, sf& travel along her
lanes and hs>eAbs SO he who would
learn hersktpal fehdition must lay
aside the leading political papers, and
read The more obscure provincial
sheets.
We think that there is at this mo-
ment more III suffering in Great Bri-
tain, than in any other quarter Of the
| globe-absolute physical suffering ari-
sing from the want Of bread. In the
single town Of FALSELY, there are 100
persons subsisting on charity--they
are allowed three cents per day! In
Nottingham and Bolton thousands
sleep on piles Of straw, or on banks of
mafure, without covering, fire or
food. Professions of ragged, and
starved creatures are constantly tra-
versing the streets, carry boards on
which are painted in large letters:
"Distressed, hungry, and oA cfworh.''
A single parish workhouse has 5000
applicants for admission, whose pray
ers have TO be rejected because 900
inmates are already crammed within
its walls. Wretchedness, penury and
gaunt famine, every where stare you
in the face. Trade is dead. Agri-
culture languishes. Vice and misery
have the mastery. Beneath the lus.
ire of her throne, and the gil1ed pala.
ces other aristocracy, millions mourn
in unutterable and hopeless destitution.
Ignorance among the masses is univer.
sal and deplorable; less money is
spent for the diffusion Of knowledge
among them, than it expends on the
termigaot Queen and her pauper hus.
band; and at this moment the miners
of Cornwall and the laborers of York
shire, are little more enlightened, and
far more impoverished, than when the
curfew of the Conqueror summoned
them 10 their beds.
In the town OF Bedford, once so
flourishing, one house in every eight
is vacant, and the bellman is constant
ly crying ''houses TO rent at zuenty-fve
cents week." but even at such price
gets no bidders. The same state of
distress pervades the kingdom. In
Scotland and Wales it is but little bet.
ter. In Ireland far worse.
Yet England has a BANK, the grea-
test in the world. England has high,
inexorable protective Tariff, regula-
ting not only the descriptions of food
her living multitude shall eat, and the
degree of light they may enjoy, but
even the cloth with which they shroud
the putrid carcases of the dead!
England has more ships, more com.
merce, and more colonies than any
power in the world. She has more
railroads and canals; more machinery;
the best cultivated soil; the most opu-
lent landlords; the proudest church;
the largest city: the greatest capital
isis; the severest laws and the best
paid administrators ofjustice; the old.
est and richest universities; and yet,
zuhere is there so much wrctchedness,
poverty, crime, irreligion and igno.
rance? Not Rome 10 her worst days
surpassed the depravity of London.
The records Of Athens, at the period
of her greatest corruption, may be
searched in vain, for parallel to the
vcnality of the British parliament.
The orgies OF the Egyptian priesthood
and the annals Of the Vatican, furnish
no more striking instances ofprohiga-
cy, than may be found in that Eslab-
lished Faith, supported 5y arbitrary
and oppressive taxes, one halfo whose
ministers are known to be secret scep-
tics or open scoffers of the doctrines
they preach! She styles her Sover-
eign "Defender Of the Faith" and her