Lord Derby at Manchester on Monday made a speech about
the value of Industrial homes. He had an idea that we had in England much more than our fair share of " roughs and Arabs," men and boys who lived in idleness, and obtained nothing from civilisation except dislike to its restraints. He believed the only cure for such persons was to teach them a trade, as is done in the Manchester Home, where every boy earns his own living, or at all events contributes to it, the surplus being put by for his benefit. If he does not earn enough, the difference is recorded against him as a debt, and though there is no legal compulsion to pay, it is " almost always cheerfully discharged" before the boy quits the home. We should doubt if the proportion of idlers is much greater in England than elsewhere, than in New York, for instance, but the national habit of work makes idleness so discreditable, that the idler loses all self-respect, and becomes in self-defence a violent brute.
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