THE CAUSES

OF

THE PRESENT CONDITION

OF THE

LABOURING CLASSES

IN THE

. SOUTH OF ENGLAND.

WITH

A FEW HINTS

AS TO THE MANNER OF PERMANENTLY BETTERING IT,
AND GENERALLY AMELIORATING THE STATE

OF THE COUNTRY AT LARGE.

Bring to your enquiries a mind covetous of truth, that seeks after
that impartially, and embraces it—how poor, how contemptible, how
unfashionable soever it may seem."-LOCKE.

SAUNDERS AND BENNING, LAW-BOOKSELLERS,
(SUCCESSORS TO J. BUTTERWORTH AND SON,)
43, FLEET STREET.

AND SOLD BY J. V. HALL, MAIDSTONE.

560v

4900

-700.

LONDON:

Printed by Littlewood and Co. Old Bailey.

720773

C

4330

PREFACE.

As it is the possession of property and the per-
ception of the comforts which it ensures that make
a man desirous of preserving peace and order in
society. It follows as a consequence, that the
solidity of the foundation upon which a society is
built, is according to the proportion of those who
have property to those who have not. If the great
mass of the population of a country are in the
possession of so much as will ensure them the
comforts of life, and the non-possession of it be
only a consequence of idleness and imprudence-
if the possession of a sufficiency be within the
power of every man's exertions to ensure, social
order, from having so great a majority necessarily
enlisted in its defence, must be immoveable. But
if the labouring classes, who constitute the great