HENRY MAYHEW (1812-1887) AND

urlem." " which I argue are more adequately framed through Bakhh and Hobsbawm
"The Political Education of Herlry Mayhew", 'Ilxmpon's 1967 essay, was tk first Marxist
history to place Mayhew's texts within a larger political and histmcal context to ractify what
Thompson perceived as the imbalance in scholarly writings about Mayhew's wak Thompson
argues that Mayhew as a sociologist, by "'great face of comast",
tackled the "'ovewklmhg
problem of London poverty" as "'one of absolute insufficiency of wages." His thmy of exploitation
was simple: "ove~rc~k maLes umbpay" and "underpay makes oveawak" Thoqson believes
that Mayhew was "authentic", "meticulous", and 'kigaous" in his investigations of ''tk character
of orthocbx political efoaomy as it was seen fma the mdmi&" " Maykw's obsession with
urban London ad "tk problems of casual labour in ihe metropolis" " was a significant shift,
according to Thompson, from the previous decabe's preoccupation with the factory question.
Moreover, Thompson argues that although Mayhew was c axmd with "reconciliation ratha than
revolution, nevertheless he demanded a reconciliation so searching that it was profoundly
disturbing." " He was seized "imaginativeiy by the problems he was investigating" as much as he
himself seized the problems, and was dtimately censored as well as "Wuged with carespondence"
corraning "the! problems of urban demaalizatim"
83 Ibid., 21.
3 4
E.P. Thompson, 58.
86 Ibid.. 57. Thanpsm argued tha~ Mayhew's concept of poverty was not *he culture of povertf' but rather
an 1849-50s "middle-class consciousness of poverty" (Thompson, 43).
87
hid.. 47.
" Ibid Thompsm also ammented that ". . . these amstitute a moving record of the politid educatim of a
man whose quaiities place him. with Wilriam Cobbett, in a class apirrt, and who shares with him certain
qualities of responsiveness, independence of judgement, and an unerring ear fa significant anecdote."
(Ibid., 56).
89 hid. Imponantly, Thompsa, oaly touched peripherally m spatial issues that are crucial to chis
dissertation: by axnmenting UI Mayhew's editorial in the Morning Chronicle, Oaober 9, 1849 that "[tlhe