Ha, Mr. Betteredge, the day is not far off when the poor will rise against the rich. I pray Heaven they may begin with him.

This quotation is spoken by Limping Lucy Yolland in Chapter XXIII of the First Period. The quotation refers to Lucy's dissatisfaction with class difference and the way members of the lower class are treated by the upper class (and specifically the way Rosanna Spearman was treated indifferently by Franklin Blake). Collins was somewhat known for addressing social problems in his fiction—Charles Dickens, in fact, expressed distaste for this habit of Collins's. Yet, the unfairness of class distinction is addressed only slightly and subtly in The Moonstone, with Lucy Yolland being its main mouthpiece.