mangeurs d'hommes--exploiteurs d'hommes--to get their wealth by means of
the poverty, their comfort by means of the misery of their fellow-men;
and so long will they be exposed to that mere envy and hatred which
pursues always the more prosperous, till, in some national crisis, when
the rich and poor meet together, both parties will be but too apt to
behave, through mutual fear and hate, as if not God, but the devil, was
the maker of them all.

These words are strong. How can they be too strong, in face of what is
now passing in a neighbouring land? Not too strong, either, in view of
the actual state of vast masses of the poor in London itself, and indeed
of any one of our great cities.

That matter has been reported on, preached on, spoken on, till all other
civilized countries reproach Britain with the unique contrast between the
exceeding wealth of some classes and the exceeding poverty of others;
till we, instead of being startled by the reproach, take the present
state of things as a matter of course, a physical necessity, a law of
nature and society, that there should be, in the back streets of every
great city, hordes of, must I say, savages? neither decently civilized
nor decently Christianized, uncertain, most of them, of regular
livelihood, and therefore shiftless and reckless, extravagant in
prosperity, and in adversity falling at once into want and pauperism.
You may ask any clergyman, any minister of religion of any denomination,
whether the thing is not so. Or if you want to read the latest news
about the degradation of your fellow-subjects, read a little book called
"East and West," and judge for yourselves, whether such a population,
numbered by hundreds of thousands, are in a state pleasing to God, or
safe for those classes of whom they only know that they pay them wages,
and that these wages are as small as they can be forced to take. Read