To those who have never reflected on the subject, it may seem like exaggeration to say, that, as a general fact, at least nine-tenths of the lower orders suffer physically, morally, and intellectually, from being over-worked and under-fed; and yet I am convinced that the more the subject shall be investigated, the more deeply shall we become impressed with the truth and importance of the statement. It is true that very few persons die from actual want of food; but it is not less certain that thousands upon thousands are annually cut off, whose lives have been greatly shortened by excess of labour and deficiency of nourishment. It is a rare thing for a hard-working artizan to arrive at a good old age. They almost all become prematurely old, and die off long before the natural term of life. It is in this way that, as remarked by Dr Southwood Smith, the mortality of a country may be considered as an accurate indication of the misery of its inhabitants. According to Villermé, the rate of mortality among the poor is sometimes double that among the rich. Thus it is found, he says, that in a poor district in France one hundred die, while in a rich department only fifty are carried off; and that, on taking into account the whole population of France, a child born to parents in easy circumstances has the chance of living forty-two and a half years, while one born of poor parents can look for no more than thirty.[47] These are striking facts, and their truth is confirmed by every day’s experience in Britain as well as in France. Many causes concur to produce this melancholy result, but among the principal is unquestionably the disproportion so generally existing between toil and nutrition. In the army the operation of the same principle has long been recognised in the inferior strength and health of the privates compared with the officers. The officers, being better fed, better clothed, and better lodged than the common soldiers, bear up successfully against fatigue and temporary privations by which the latter are overwhelmed. During epidemics, too, the poor, from their impaired stamina, almost invariably become victims in a proportion far exceeding that of the more wealthy classes. This is, no doubt, partly owing to their greater intemperance and want of cleanliness; but even these vices often derive their origin from the same root--the want of adequate repose and comfortable sustenance.