Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/195

 of cheap books were published for the instruction of the working classes.

2. London was greatly improved by the building, in some parts, of wide handsome streets, in the place of narrow, dirty, crowded ones, and the manners of the English were improved also, by their intercourse with foreign nations; for after the peace, people began to visit France, Italy, and other parts of Europe, while a great number of foreigners came here, and we adopted such of their customs as were superior to our own; for people may always improve from each other.

3. The French, German, and Italian languages began to be more generally studied in England: and the arts and sciences, especially painting and music, were more highly cultivated.

4. But I am sorry to say that, amid all these benefits, there was a great deal of distress among the laboring people, for the expenses of the war had been so heavy that it was some years before the blessings of peace could be felt; and thus all the necessaries of life continued to be very dear, and wages, in proportion, very low, which occasioned riots in many parts of the kingdom; for the poor people had expected that, as soon as there was peace, most of the taxes pressing on them would be taken off.