58. At the end of _twenty-four years_ from the date of ARTHUR YOUNG'S allowance, the poverty and degradation of the English people had made great strides. We were now in the year 1795, and a new war, and a new series of "_victories_ and _prizes_" had begun. But who it was that _suffered_ for these, out of whose blood and flesh and bones they came, the allowance now (in 1795) made to the poor labourers and their families will tell. There was, in that year, a TABLE, or SCALE, of allowance, framed by the Magistrates of Berkshire. This is, by no means, a _hard_ county; and therefore it is reasonable to suppose, that the _scale_ was as good a one for the poor as any in England. According to this scale, which was printed and published, and also acted upon for years, the weekly allowance, for _a man, his wife and three children_, was, according to present money-prices, 11_s._ 4_d._ Thus it had, in the space of twenty-four years, fell from 13_s._ 1_d._ to 11_s._ 4_d._ Thus were the people brought to the _pig-meat_! Food, fit for men, they could not have with 11_s._ 4_d._ a week for five persons.
59. One would have thought, that to make a human being _live_ upon 4_d._ _a day_, and find _fuel_, _clothing_, _rent_, _washing_, and _bedding_, out of the 4_d._, besides eating and drinking, was impossible; and one would have thought it impossible for any-thing not of hellish birth and breeding, to entertain a wish to make poor creatures, and our _neighbours_ too, exist in such a state of horrible misery and degradation as the labourers of England were condemned to by this scale of 1795. Alas! this was happiness and honour; this was famous living; this 11_s._ 4_d._ a week was _luxury_ and _feasting_, compared to what we NOW BEHOLD! For now the allowance, according to present money-prices, is 8_s._ a week for the man, his wife, and three children; that is to say 2-5/7 _d._ In words, TWO PENCE AND FIVE SEVENTHS OF ANOTHER PENNY, FOR A DAY! There, that is England now! That is what the base wretches, who are fattening upon the people's labour, call "the _envy_ of surrounding nations and the _admiration_ of the world." This is what SIR FRANCIS BURDETT applauds; and he applauds the mean and cruel and dastardly ruffians, whom he calls, "the _country gentlemen_ of England," and whose _generosity_ he cries up; while he well knows, _that it is they_ (and he amongst the rest) who are the real and only cause of this devil-like barbarity, which (and he well knows that too) could not possibly be practised without the constant existence and occasional employment of that species of force, which is so abhorrent to the laws of England, and of which this Burdett's son forms a part. The poor creatures, _if they complain_; if their hunger make them _cry out_, are either punished by even harder measures, or are _slapped into prison_. Alas! the jail is really become a place of _relief_, a scene of comparative _good living_: hence the invention of the _tread-mill_! What shall we see next? _Workhouses, badges, hundred-houses, select-vestries, tread-mills, gravel-carts, and harness!_ What shall we see next! And what should we see at last, if this infernal THING could continue for only a few years longer?