not yours; it is that of the social Babel. The building is faulty, and

out of the perpendicular. One floor bears down the other. Listen, and I

will tell you what to do. Oh! as you are powerful, be brotherly; as you

are great, be tender. If you only knew what I have seen! Alas, what

gloom is there beneath! The people are in a dungeon. How many are

condemned who are innocent! No daylight, no air, no virtue! They are

without hope, and yet--there is the danger--they expect something.

Realize all this misery. There are beings who live in death. There are

little girls who at twelve begin by prostitution, and who end in old age

at twenty. As to the severities of the criminal code, they are fearful.

I speak somewhat at random, and do not pick my words. I say everything

that comes into my head. No later than yesterday I who stand here saw a

man lying in chains, naked, with stones piled on his chest, expire in

torture. Do you know of these things? No. If you knew what goes on, you

would not dare to be happy. Who of you have been to Newcastle-upon-Tyne?

There, in the mines, are men who chew coals to fill their stomachs and

deceive hunger. Look here! in Lancashire, Ribblechester has sunk, by

poverty, from a town to a village. I do not see that Prince George of

Denmark requires a hundred thousand pounds extra. I should prefer

receiving a poor sick man into the hospital, without compelling him to

pay his funeral expenses in advance. In Carnarvon, and at Strathmore, as

well as at Strathbickan, the exhaustion of the poor is horrible. At

Stratford they cannot drain the marsh for want of money. The

manufactories are shut up all over Lancashire. There is forced idleness

everywhere. Do you know that the herring fishers at Harlech eat grass

when the fishery fails? Do you know that at Burton-Lazars there are

still lepers confined, on whom they fire if they leave their tan houses!

853

The Man Who Laughs