frightful depth of hoplessness, misery, and utter moral degradation,
that even mothers forget their affection for their helpless little
offspring, and kill them, as a butcher does his lambs, in order to
make money by the murder, and therewith to lessen their pauperism and
misery?"--P. 446.

How rapid is the progress of demoralization may be seen from the fact
that in the thirty years from 1821 to 1851, the consumption of British
spirits increased from 4,125,616 to 9,595,368 gallons, or in a ratio
more than double that of the population. The use of opium is also
increasing with rapidity.[137] Intemperance and improvidence go hand
in hand with each other, and hence arises a necessity for burial clubs
for the disposal of the children and the maintenance of the parents.

A recent English journal states that--

"It is estimated that in Manchester there are 1500 'unfortunate
females;' that they lead to an annual expenditure of £470,000; and
that some 250 of them die, in horror and despair, yearly. In England
it is calculated that there are 40,000 houses of ill-fame, and
280,000 prostitutes; and, further, that not less than £8,000,000 are
spent annually in these places."

This may, or may not, be exaggerated, but the condition to which are
reduced so many of the weaker sex would warrant us in expecting a
great decay of morality. When severe labour cannot command a
sufficiency of food, can we be surprised that women find themselves
forced to resort to prostitution as a means of support?

A committee of gentlemen who had investigated the condition of the