PREFACE. 
It has never been sought more strongly than 
at present to impregnate the minds of our 
working classes with the idea that the improve 
ment of their condition is to be effected by 
means apart from themselves. I have therefore 
deemed this a fit time to publish in one treatise 
several articles written at different times, the 
main purport of which is to show that, whatever 
aid may be derived from legislative enactment 
or outside philanthropic effort (and I admit 
that there may be much), the improvement of 
their economic condition rests principally with 
themselves, and is mainly dependent upon their 
advancement in intelligence and, above all, 
morality. 
No one would view with more satisfaction 
than myself the realisation of the sanguine 
theories of many social reformers who write of 
the glorious future of the working classes, but