THE HELPLESS CLASSES.
AcTs of Parliament are not the only means of doing any thing, nor can every thing be done by them; yet, from the helpless way in which people call upon Parliament in every difficulty, you might suppose that illustrious assemblage to have the power of dispensing vice or virtue, adversity or prosperity, good or ill will, by its votes. Though it has scarcely ever done any thing in the way of social re- forms, and almost uniformly failed in such attempts, it is spoken of as if it were, ex officio, the great moral reformer. Laws can only secure to us certain general conditions for the several contracts, express or implied, of civil life ; but all that constitutes the heart and soul of every bargain between man and man must depend upon the moral culture and disposition of the individuals. Reduce us to the laws that regulate the intercourse of neighbour and neighbour, friend and friend, parent and child, husband and wife, lover and mistress, and what a moral pauperism would be left to us! In all those relations, the whole body and value of existence consists in something more than law. The mischief is, that in too many cases we do wait upon the demands of the law, instead of obeying the dictates of conscience and kind-heartedness. The Ten-hours Bill is an instance. The notion of its agitators seems to be, that the factory-people are the worst-used class in the country, and that nothing is to be done in their behalf, or any other, without an act of Parliament. Now the truth is, that the factory- people enjoy many advantages not possessed by other classes ; not the least of which is that they have great personal freedom. They may complain of "tyranny " and "oppression," and call themselves "white slaves"; but one has only to see their demeanour towards their masters to discover that they have attained a degree of per- sonal independence almost unknown to any other employed class. The peculiarity of their condition is, that the great hardships which they endure are inflicted in the sight of numbers—publicly—so that all the world knows what factory-people suffer. Pass along one of the gayest streets in Loudon, and you shall not know the misery from which the house-wall divides you on either side. A very little inquiry, however, will detect enough to show that the factory- people have not a monopoly of wo ; and many classes have already been mentioned as competing with them in the dreadful trade of selling health and welfare for scant wages. The toil, the privation, and the debasement of the rural labouring class, have been con- trasted with the more comfortable state of the town-workers. The pains and intolerable hardships of a sailor's life, frequent toil strain- ing human endurance till it yields, are known in their reality to few on shore. Scarcely a handicraft trade in any town but has its odious troubles. Among shopmen, from whom a confinement, an alacrity, and a servility are exacted, that a factory-hand would con- sider an immeasurably lower deep of debasement than his own, linenclrapere assistants already call for help ; which is as much due to thousands of others. The case of milliners is clamorous ; that of shirtmakers still more so. A fashionable journal lately asserted the condition of domestic servants to be eminently comfortable. As to mere feeding, perhaps they are better off' than many ; though even in that respect they arc subject to a close contrast with the feeding of others, which must gall and mortify. They suffer a con- finement known to few, and a personal subjection of the most irk- some kind. They are treated as "necessary evils," and allowed to see that they are so treated. It is a principle with many em- ployers, that servants can only be driven along by the goad of scolding: think of the days and years of suppressed mortification implied in that ! They are immured from the sight of their friends, called " followers "; the most trifling acts—little tricks of speech, dress, small bursts of gayety—even the snatch of a song, or too hearty laughter—are obnoxious to peremptory interference. Masters
and mistresses may be more or less kind: they would pick up a servant that fell in an area from cleaning windows ; they will give their menials leavings of finery or dainties; they may be " affable " to them, but as a distinct race, unworthy of friendly intercourse, or such respect as is shown to others. The common humanity of the servant-maid is scarcely recognized except by the "young master"— when he seduces her. And in many of these respects one class of servants is worse off' than any—governesses.
There are various societies to help the unfortunate, and especially to provide them with money on occasion ; but what they can do is a drop in the ocean.
Now, need we wait for legislation to mend these evils, or could we not begin at once? Even with the factory-people, a Ten-hours Bill might be anticipated. Some of Lord ASHLEY'S adherents among the manufacturers talk with all the earnestness of martyrs : why do they not at once set the example of doing what they want others to do ? The worst that they could incur would only be "ruin "—not the fagot and the stake; but there is even a chance that they might be scatheless. In one point, the linendrapers go the right way to work, by endeavouring to persuade customers to purchase at reasonable hours ; though we do not know to what channels of persuasion they have resorted. At the dinner of the Governesses Benevolent Institution, the other day, Mr. CHARLES DICKENS truly said, that the association would do little good if they did not seek to elevate the social position of governesses. A more harmless class can scarcely be named, or one more deserving of sympathy and consideration. Will the promoters and subscribers of the society follow out Mr. DICKENS'S idea ? Will any one of them remunerate the governess in his own family, not by the measure of what the lady can get in the market—and probably her " virtue " would be worth much more to sell than to keep, reckoned in money—but will he pay her what he thinks the smallest allow- ance suitable to a lady in his family ? Will he behave to her with deference, courtesy, and friendship ? will he cease to make bee prisoner in her own room, and let her share, as a recognized com- panion, the social pleasures for which she is to prepare her pupils ? will he himself cherish and protect her as a sister or a daughter ? —or will he only send his five guineas to be set down in the sub- scription-list of the society ? In no instance would it be more easy to act up to principle than in this. But we can all do something. We may all treat the fellow-creatures with whom we come in contact as fellow-creatures : we may grant indulgences that we exact—a just rule : we may cease to consider alone the cheapness of the labour we employ, and remunerate according to our own honour and dignity, according to our power and our sense of fitness : we may shape our arrangements with some consideration for others, and go to make our shop-purchases at seasonable times: and we may remember that every thoughtful kindness which we do, or procure to be done, helps forward a greater and more stable work than any Ten-hours Bill in the world.
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