In the early nineteenth century they [the English] had an extremely high birthrate, and they also had an attitude towards children which now seems to us unbelievably callous. With very little public disapproval, children as young as six were sold into the mines and factories, and the death of a child, the most shocking event that modern people are able to imagine, was looked upon as a very minor tragedy.[1]
George Orwell,
The English People (1944)
[1] George Orwell, The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Vol. 3.
As I Please 1943-45 (Markham ON: Penguin, 1982), p. 48.
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