' 'This is the more
incumbent upon him, as it is little likely to be thought of or
demanded by his workmen. It is a topic on which his cultivated
intelligence is almost sure to place him far ahead of them; and out of
the superiority, as we have seen, springs the obligation.' Our
reviewer adds the remark, that, 'in the minor workshops, and
especially in the work-rooms of tailors and seamstresses, the
employers are still, for the most part, unawakened to the importance
and imperativeness of this class of obligations. The health of
thousands is sacrificed from pure ignorance and want of thought.'
One mode of serving those who work for him, which the circumstances
render appropriate, is to provide them with decent and comfortable
dwellings. Much has been done in this way. 'In almost all country
establishments, and in most of those in the smaller towns, the
employers have been careful to surround their mills with substantial
and well-built cottages, often with gardens attached to them,
containing four rooms--kitchen, scullery, and two bedrooms: cottages
which are let for rents which at once remunerate the owner and are
easy for the occupier.' Even in large towns, where there are great
local difficulties, something has been done by the building of Model
Lodging-houses, and by the efforts of Societies for improving the
Dwellings of the Poor. The writer specifies one of the greatest
difficulties as existing in the working-people themselves: when
provided with a variety of rooms for the separation of the various
members of their families, they are very apt to defeat the whole plan
by taking in lodgers, and contenting themselves with the filthy and
depraving huddlement out of which their benevolent superiors
endeavoured to rescue them.
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