, 1876-05-31
A LEA
FROM Mr.. P~LIMsoLL's RECENTLY PUB
LIsHED Book "OUR SEAMEN,
AN APPEAL"

en- their behalf. IF the lives of nearly a
thousand of our ministers Of religion, of
our LAWYERS, of our doctors, or of our
public men were sacrificed every year to
what a Government officer calls q 'homi-
what would be said ? All England would
ring with Indignation at the outrage yet
/ venture to say-and [ say it conscien-
tiously, believing it to be true-that any
thousand of what are called { the working
classes are as worthy of respect and Of
lection as any Of these. If honesty, if
strong aversion to idleness, if tenderness to
wife and children, if generosity to one
another in adversely, and if splendid cour-
age are claims to respect, [ an not sure
that, taking them as q whole, you can
find these moral qualities in equal degree
in any other class.
you may doubt this. I should once
have done so myself but | have shared
their lot. l have lived with them. For
months and months | lived in one Of the
model lodging-houses established mainly
by the efforts of Lord Shattesbury.
"Thore is one in Fetter-lane, another in
Hatton-garden, and, indeed they are scat
tered all over London. | went there sim
plv because | could not afford a better
lodging. | have had to make Is. ed.
(3s, of which l paid for my lodging) last
me q whole week, and | did it. 1t is
astonishing how little you can live on when
YOU divest yourself Of all fancied needs.
/ had plenty OF good wheaton bread to
eat all the week, and the half Of o herring
for a relish Oess will do if you can't afford
halt, for it is a splendid ish), and good
coffee to drink and l know how much,
or rather how little, roast mutton you
can get for twopence for your Sundays
dinner. Don't suppose went there from
choice | went Of strong necessity (and
this was promotion, too), and | went with
strong shrinking, with a sense of suffering
great humiliation, regarding my being
there as a thing to be carefully kept
secret from all my old friends. In a word,
I consider it only less degrading than
sponging upon friends, or borrowing what
I saw no chance of ever being able to
pay.
"Now, what did I see there2 I found
the workmen considerate for each other.
/ found they would 60 out, those who
were out of employment, day after day,
and patiently trudge miles and miles seek
ing employment, returning night after
night unsuccessful and dispirited, only,
however, to sally out the following morn
ing with renewed determination. They
would walk incredibly long distances to
places where they heard of a job of work;
and this not for a few days, but for many,
many days. And l have seen such a man
sit down YEARLY by the fire 1--WE had a
common room for sitting, and cooking, and
everything), with a hungry. respondent
look, He had not tasted food all day, and
he was accosted by another, scarcely less
poor than himself, with Here mate, get
this into thee,' handing him at the same
time, a piece of bread and some cold meat,
and after wards some coffee /; and adding,
i'aBetter luck tomorrow |! Keep up your
'peekert' And all this without any. idea
that they were practising the most splen-
did PATIENCE fortitade, courage, and gene
rosity I had ever seen. You would hear
them talk of absent wife and children