Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-06-15
ENGLIsH ARoLIr1oNIsrs.

LIE RURAL POPULATION OF ENGLAND
The reporters of the sanitory condition Of the
rural population in Bedfordshire, England
give q deplorable account of the people they
visited. They say that the houses of the la
borers consist at most of two rooms; the day.
room contains the cooking utensils, the wash
ing apparatus, the agricultural implements and
the dirty clothes. The windows, in most cases,
are broken and stuffed with dirty RACES. In
the sleeping apartment, parents and children,
boys and girls, are Unfortunately mixed, and
frequently lodger sleeps in the same room,
which generally has no window, while the open
ings in the halfthatched roof admit the light
and expose the family to the vicisstudes of the
weather, and consequently to disease. The
husband having no comfort at home, seeks the
beer-shop; the children grow up without any
idea of decency or selfrestraint; the boys en-
ter into situations in rags, without particle Of
instruction; and as to the girls, alas, their fate
is worst of ALL Z"
The paragraph above is taken from the abo-
lition Tribune of New York 1t shows the con-
dition Of the tenants of the Duchess of Suther-
land and other noble English philanthropists.
Could the intense sel6shness of English aristo-
cratic philanthropy be more completely mani
tested than by this statement? In the midst
and under the especial guardianship of every
nobleman in England are the people whose
condition is but very partially described in the
above paragraph. With the stencil of moral
and physical leprosy and degradation ascend
ing hourly to their nostrils, they are insensible
to all appeals to their charity for relief and for
restoration to health, while the condition Of the
distant negro arouses to commissions their sym.
pathies.
We can assert with literal truth, that the
horses, aye, and the dogs, of the Duchess Of
Sutherland and all her allies in abolition, are a
thousand.fold more cared for, better fed, better
lodged, and in every respect better treated than
the poor people under them, whose sweating
labors ELL their Golfers.
We feel very curious to learn whether the
Duchess of Sutherland took the pious Mrs.
Stowe to see the above-described picture, on
her several princely estates, in order that Mrs.
Stowe might, on her return, inform the Ameri
cans how English noble philanthropists deal
with their dependent laborers. If she did, Mrs.
Stowe has kept this treasure Of information for
herself The Duchess of Sutherland is repre-.
scented as being lady not only Of high family
and accomplished, but amiable also and well
entitled to the respect and consideration she
receives. And yet this lady cannot but zee
that she is censuring people whose conduct
to their dependents is UNNECESSARILY more
kind and considerate than her own. If she
would visit the tenants Of her own fields and
then the negroes whose lot she SO piteously
mourns, she would have occasion to strike her
breast and cry out, miserable sinner that am,
to overlook my own imperative duties and find
fault with others who discharge theirs SO much
DETER than ] do. In every physical and moral
advantage, the condition of the southern ne
gro Is vastly superior to that of the whites nm
der the protection Of the duchess and her abo-
lition allies. II such be the condition of free
whites in England, what would be the condi.
ton OF the inferior free negro in England? IF
these whites were the slaves Of the duchess.
they would stand some chance Of being mt