HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AND WORKING CLASSES; WITH A POPULAR EXPOSITION OF THE ECONOMICAL AND POLITICAL PRINCIPLES WHICH HAVE INFLUENCED THE PAST AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE INDUSTRIOUS ORDERS. ALSO AN APPENDIX OF PRICES, RATES OF WAGES, POPULATION, POOR-RATES, MORTALITY, AND PRESENT STATE OF THE AGRICULTURAL, COM- BY JOHN WADE. THIRD EDITION. "Were the benefits of civilization to be partial, not universal, it would be only a bitter mockery and cruel injustice."-Duchátel. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY EFFINGHAM WILSON, W. F.WAKEMAN, DUBLIN; WAUGH AND INNES, EDINBURGH, MDCCCXXXV. 12/16152 INTRODUCTION. MY DEAR SIR, To ROGER LEE, Esq. When travelling on the Continent you cannot have forgotten that we arrived at one general, though, perhaps, partial conclusion, namely, that in the command of the substantial elements of national happiness, in the accumulation of wealth, in the diffusion of intelligence, in moral feeling, and in the enjoyment of civil freedom, our own country might justly claim precedency over any European community. Notwithstanding this, we could not conceal from ourselves the fact, that in many respects England exhibited symptoms of a nation suffering under great internal disorders. To reconcile such apparently contradictory conclusions, formed a subject of perplexing inquiry; it might be that the very advantages we had achieved, were the source of our difficulties, or that they had been neutralized by some accompanying evils not yet discovered, or insufficiently appreciated. The most remarkable circumstance in our social progress, has been the rapid increase and ascendancy of manufacturing wealth and population. This is the distinguishing feature of society, and to it, I doubt not, may be traced much of the good and evil incidental to our condition-the growth of an |