The White Slaves of England

Name: The White Slaves of England
Author: Cobden, John C.

Cobden, John C.

Working class -- England

"The public records, my own eyes, a piercing wail of wo
     throughout the land—all testify to the vast extent of the
     evictions at the present time. Sixteen thousand and odd persons
     unhoused in the Union of Kilrush before the month of June in
     the present year; seventy-one thousand one hundred and thirty
     holdings done away in Ireland, and nearly as many houses
     destroyed, in 1848; two hundred and fifty-four thousand holdings
     of more than one acre and less than five acres, put an end to
     between 1841 and 1848: six-tenths, in fact, of the lowest class
     of tenantry driven from their now roofless or annihilated cabins
     and houses, makes up the general description of that desolation
     of which Tullig and Mooven are examples. The ruin is great and
     complete. The blow that effected it was irresistible. It came in
     the guise of charity and benevolence; it assumed the character
     of the last and best friend of the peasantry, and it has struck
     them to the heart. They are prostrate and helpless. The once
     frolicksome people—even the saucy beggars—have disappeared,
     and given place to wan and haggard objects, who are so resigned
     to their doom that they no longer expect relief. One beholds
     only shrunken frames, scarcely covered with flesh—crawling
     skeletons, who appear to have risen from their graves, and are
     ready to return frightened to that abode. They have little other
     covering than that nature has bestowed on the human body—a
     poor protection against inclement weather; and, now that the
     only hand from which they expected help is turned against them,
     even hope is departed, and they are filled with despair. Than
     the present Earl of Carlisle there is not a more humane nor a
     kinder-hearted nobleman in the kingdom; he is of high honour and
     unsullied reputation; yet the poor-law he was mainly the means of
     establishing for Ireland, with the best intentions, has been one
     of the chief causes of the people being at this time turned out
     of their homes, and forced to burrow in holes, and share, till
     they are discovered, the ditches and the bogs with otters and
     snipes.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The White Slaves of EnglandCobden, John C.

History

The White Slaves of England

Cobden, John C.

Working class -- England

"The public records, my own eyes, a piercing wail of wo
     throughout the land—all testify to the vast extent of the
     evictions at the present time. Sixteen thousand and odd persons
     unhoused in the Union of Kilrush before the month of June in
     the present year; seventy-one thousand one hundred and thirty
     holdings done away in Ireland, and nearly as many houses
     destroyed, in 1848; two hundred and fifty-four thousand holdings
     of more than one acre and less than five acres, put an end to
     between 1841 and 1848: six-tenths, in fact, of the lowest class
     of tenantry driven from their now roofless or annihilated cabins
     and houses, makes up the general description of that desolation
     of which Tullig and Mooven are examples. The ruin is great and
     complete. The blow that effected it was irresistible. It came in
     the guise of charity and benevolence; it assumed the character
     of the last and best friend of the peasantry, and it has struck
     them to the heart. They are prostrate and helpless. The once
     frolicksome people—even the saucy beggars—have disappeared,
     and given place to wan and haggard objects, who are so resigned
     to their doom that they no longer expect relief. One beholds
     only shrunken frames, scarcely covered with flesh—crawling
     skeletons, who appear to have risen from their graves, and are
     ready to return frightened to that abode. They have little other
     covering than that nature has bestowed on the human body—a
     poor protection against inclement weather; and, now that the
     only hand from which they expected help is turned against them,
     even hope is departed, and they are filled with despair. Than
     the present Earl of Carlisle there is not a more humane nor a
     kinder-hearted nobleman in the kingdom; he is of high honour and
     unsullied reputation; yet the poor-law he was mainly the means of
     establishing for Ireland, with the best intentions, has been one
     of the chief causes of the people being at this time turned out
     of their homes, and forced to burrow in holes, and share, till
     they are discovered, the ditches and the bogs with otters and
     snipes.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The White Slaves of England

The White Slaves of England

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