The Life of Hannah More: A Lady of Two Centuries (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Life of Hannah More: A Lady of Two Centuries

Hardly one new church had been built. Schools there were none, save the grammar-schools Of Edward and Elizabeth. The rural peasantry, who were fast being reduced to pauperism by the abuse of the poor-laws, were left without moral or religious training of any sort. We saw but one Bible in the parish of Cheddar, said Hannah More later, and that was used to prop a flower-pot. Within the towns things were worse. There was no effective police; and in great out breaks the mob Of London or Birmingham burnt houses, flung Open prisons, and sacked and pillaged at their will. The criminal class gathered boldness and numbers in the face of ruthless laws which only testified to the terror Of society, laws which made it a capital crime to cut down a cherry-tree, and which hung up twenty young thieves Of a morning in front of Newgate; while the introduction of gin gave a new impetus to drunkenness. In the streets of London gin-shops invited every passer-by to get drunk for a penny, or dead drunk for twopence.'

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.