This book is about continuity and change in early nineteenth-century Britain. Against the background of an emerging industrial state, the popularization of liberal laissez-faire principles, and the rise of a class-based society, it examines the revival of traditional paternal ideals and considers their influence upon the development of social policy. Poor laws, social distress, child labor, and factory reform provide a focus for the analysis. The implications of the revival for the emergence of the collective or welfare state is an important theme.