Last, not least, this aspect of poverty, by representing the condition of the poor to be chiefly "their own fault," lightens the sense of responsibility for the "well to do." It is decidedly the more comfortable view, for it at once flatters the pride of the rich by representing poverty as an evidence of incompetency, salves his conscience when pricked by the contrast of the misery around him, and assists him to secure his material interests by adopting an attitude of stern repression towards large industrial or political agitations in the interests of labour, on the ground that "these are wrong ways of tackling the question." Sec.2.

"Unemployment" and the Vices of the Poor .-- The question is this, Can the poor be moralized, and will that cure Poverty?
To discuss this question with the fullness it deserves is here impossible, but the following considerations will furnish some data for an answer-- In the first place, it is very difficult to ascertain to what extent drink, vice, idleness, and other personal defects are actually responsible for poverty in individual cases.

There is, however, reason to believe that the bulk of cases of extreme poverty and destitution cannot be traced to these personal vices, but, on the other hand, that they are attributable to industrial causes for which the sufferer is not responsible.

The following is the result of a careful analysis of 4000 cases of "very poor" undertaken by Mr.Charles Booth.

These are grouped as follows according to the apparent causes of distress-- 4 per cent, are "loafers." 14 " " are attributed to drink and thriftlessness.
27 " " are due to illness, large families, or other misfortunes.
55 " " are assigned to "questions of employment." Here, in the lowest class of city poor, moral defects are the direct cause of distress in only 18 per cent.