8 the annual deposits, from 1855 to 1861, “ had risen from <£18,118 to <£49,943, or more than <£30,000.” But what was that sum to the working classes who had lost since August, 1861, at least <£350,000 in wages, “and that amount is now being increased at the rate of £12,000 per week.” During six months, down to last May, the withdrawals from the banks were £10,000 in excess of the usual amount. These savings have been all swallowed up by this time. “ A lass, thinly clad, but bearing evidence of better days, saw a dog with a bone. She tried to take it away. The dog snarled—would not give it up ; and she stood foiled, in hungry attitude. A tradesman seeing her said, ‘ What did you want with that bone ? ’ ‘I could have swapped it for salt,’ she replied, ‘ and the salt I might have swapped for a bit of bread.’ As she said this she burst into tears.” In the midst of this distress, the painful and touching instances of which need not be repeated, the Boards of Guardians in many places have established what is called the “ Labor Test,” to protect the parish funds from the poaching of professional paupers and vagabonds. They commence an excavation, or provide work in stone-yards and on the roads, where every unemployed man must do his chore in order to draw his relief. These honest and unfortunate operatives are reduced to labor at these aimless tasks by the side of vagrants, ragamuffins, gamblers, “ and corrupt old hucksters,” to get a miserable dole of parish bread. What a poisoned mess is this which the proud old monarchy tosses jealously to her plain, straightforward children, who have woven, spun, carded, drawn and pieced her million bales of goods, which stock the markets of the world ! The resort to Indian cotton, which is carelessly gathered and imperfectly cleaned, appears only to have aggravated the prevailing wretchedness. Overseers and “ managers report the most harrowing scenes in the factories, owing to the exhaustion of the patience of the men and the women who ‘ cannot go on with their work, owing to constant breakages.’ The machines which they tend stand idle, whilst innumerable threads break from sheer rottenness, and almost before the wheels are again in motion the work is again required to be suspended, from a cause which had but the moment before been remedied. The
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