Look at it in another light, as depriving the poor man of the ability to toil. Health is the working man’s all—his capital—his stock-in-trade. Deprived of it, his means of subsistence are gone—his independence is destroyed. His sole possessions are his skill and industry. It is considered unjust to deprive him of free markets and fair play. Is it not cruel to surround him by such circumstances as greatly increase the chances of sickness? Have we never known a sober, industrious man stricken down by an attack of fever, and rising from his bed of sickness to look upon a prospect of poverty and want? His means have become exhausted—he has run into debt, and that debt clogs his future energies. Perhaps the fever leaves him in broken health and infirmity. He struggles awhile with all these adverse circumstances; seeks parish relief, and declines into pauper habits. The workman has a right, by every law divine and human, to eat his daily bread by his daily toil. Is it not a mockery to allow him this, if the conditions of health are withheld? Is it not worse? Is it not injustice to leave him in a condition inferior to the criminal? The man who has offended the laws can enjoy all the luxuries of good air, good water, and live in a palace, as compared with the wretched hovels in which thousands of our working men, with their wives and families, are placed. Are we always to go on discussing plans of prison discipline, and the efficacy of various kinds of treatment for paupers? Are we never to learn that _the true philosophy is to inquire by what means we can prevent those who are not yet paupers or criminals from becoming so_? Sanitary reform is only one means, but it is one of primary importance. How can we expect to cultivate habits of temperance and industry—how can we hope to diffuse the blessings of education, so indispensable to the elevation of the people in morals and happiness, so long as they are left physically degraded and wretched? The soil is unfavourable to the reception of religious counsel and consolation. This lesson must be learnt before we can hope to legislate wisely. All practical remedies must begin by a due care for the material wants of the population.