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^^ T JH & la EAOE M. [No. 306, Saturday,
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jaaKKRlBW MARTINEAU'S PROUDIIONISM. uw<h...
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CANDIDATES AND CONSCIENCES: OR, A TALE O...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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now . The Court of Directors , however , took alarm at -what they designated the " demented * ambition of their servants , and forbade any further enlargement of their territories . This was in 1765 . A few years later , this same SooJAH-ooD-DowLAH hired an English brigade from Warren Hastings and his Coirncil , to enable him to execute liis schemes against the Rohillahs . In 1775 , he was sxicceeded by his son , Asoph-ood-Dowlah , the fourth of the family who held the viceroyalty , and the third to whom the vizierat had descended . The
Calcutta Council , however , made him pay for a renewal of the treaty with his father , and compelled him to cede Benares and Ghazeepore , and to raise the monthly subsidy from £ 21 , 000 to . £ 26 , 000 , as the price of their recognition of his accession . Twenty-three years later Saadut Ali was likewise obliged to purchase the protection of the Grovernor-General on yet more arduous terms . He had to cede the fortress of Allahabad , with . £ 80 , 000 for the repair of its works , "besides ¦
paying £ ! 50 , 000 on other pretexts , and to ra ^ se the annual subsidy to £ 760 , 000 for the maintenance of a force of 10 , 000 men . The IVEarqms of Welleslet , the next Governorgeneral , applied the screw with still greater severity . He not only insisted upon the disbandonment of a large portion of the Oude army , and the substitution of a strong British Contingent in its stead , but he also extorted the territorial cession of Rohilcund , in lieu of the payment of a subsidy ; these lands , even at
that time , yielding more than £ 1 , 350 , 000 per annum . This treaty was signed in 1801 , and rendered the Nawab little better than a cipher in Ms own dominions . Saadut Ali died in 1816 , and was succeeded by his son , Ghazeeood- ^ een-Hyjd ^ r , to the unbounded satisfaction of the ^ Resident , and also of the Calcutta G-oyernmejit . { Three years later , the Nawab was iiistigated by Lord Hastings to assume the title 6 fKmg , and to renounce even nominal allegiance to the wretched puppet who represented tlie
Great Mogul dynasty at Delhi . It was a childish policy , for the imperial power was long since effete , whereas under a really able ruler the kingdom of Oude might hare become a thorn in the side of the British possessions . However , each successive Icing has been weaker and worse 'than his predecessor , until at last the measure of their iniquities is full and overflowing . By the treaty of 1837
, the right was specifically ceded to us of taking into our own hands the management of every misgoverned district . But the entire country is misgoverned , the people universally oppressed . The kingdom of Oude , therefore , is justly forfeited . And yet to avoid an idle clamour , we hesitate to adopt a measure that will eventually become an inevitable necessity . "We have now assumed the reins of
Government . We have appointed a British officer as responsible minister . "We have taken all power out of the hands of the king , but we insult him with the semblance and insignia of royalty . Far more honest would it have been to have invited the people of Oude to elect for themselves , either to pass absolutely under British sway , or to bo left entirely to thornselves to settle their grievances with their own Sovereign in their own way . Half Erasures arc ever objectionable . They evince Weakness or vascillation , and require doublo the effort to complete them , which would have * M «» toe first instance .
^^ T Jh & La Eaoe M. [No. 306, Saturday,
^^ T JH & la EAOE M . [ No . 306 , Saturday ,
Jaakkrlbw Martineau's Proudiionism. Uw<H...
jaaKKRlBW MARTINEAU'S PROUDIIONISM . uw < hsla < exoS epeoially protects largo numbers who are collected . into factories . The moohxnory m the ** groat buildings mores with mime ^ e pci vrer wxd Tapidity , ho who puts tomeeM m tho way of it 8 beams is liable
Jaakkrlbw Martineau's Proudiionism. Uw<H...
to be crushed 0 or mauled , or killed * Factory owners have at times been reckless , either through cold-bloodedness or through penury ; people have been killed through the fault of their masters ; pity has "been excited , indignation aroused , Parliament invoked , and we have statutes to prevent mill-owners from letting their hands be killed . This led to the enforcement of the dormant Factory Acts of 1833 and 1844 , which remained unenforced for nine years . But in 1853 the factory inspectors brought under notice an " enormous amount" of accidents caused by contact with machinery , and hence a much more active intervention . Now
Miss Marttneaxt incontinently assails the facts and the conclusions . " The iacts , " she cries , are enormous" only in their exaggeration ; the conclusions are entirely fallacious , and The whole , number of accidents from maabinery , in three years , was reported to be 11 , 716 , of which 3 , 434 were of a serious character . The serious ones are all that require any notice , as the others are of so slight a natui'e that they would not he noticed anywhere but-in a special registration like that provided by the Factory Act . For instance , 700 are cases of cut fingers . Any worker who rubs off a bit of skin from finger or thumb , or sustains the slightest cut which interferes with the spinning process for a single
day , has the injury registered tinder the Acfc . Now , it should be observed that , of the whole number of accidents in three years , 128 tad occurred from shafts ; that is , about 42 in a year . Of the 128 , 35 resulted in death , or a fnaction above 11 in a year . In other words , the number of persons aflfected by the factory law beifag from 500 , 000 to . 600 , 000 , the proportion injured in any way by accident from fclais cause is ( assuming the lowest number of people ) about One in 12 , 000 ; and the proportion of deaths amemg them is about one in 45 , 000 . This is the proportion on the showing of the Inspectors ; and those who care to institute a comparison between the danger of this and other modes of occupation will find that in no other is the proportion of deaths so small .
The coroners' reports show that , in the factory districts , the fatal accidents from carts and other agencies concerned in labour were 79 to 29 in factories ; and of the factory accidents , not five per cent , are owing to machinery . In the year preceding that in which the Inspectors made their appeal to Lord . Palmerston , there were 12 deaths from , factory machinery in the whole kingdom ; whereas the deaths frona . other accidents , in Manchester alone , were 531 . By as near a computation as can be made in the imperfect state of our statistics , the number of fatal accidents in the United Kingdom averages about 5 , 000 , of which 12 are cases of mill accidents from all kinds of factory machinery . *
There might be some force in this argument if the counterfacts on which it is founded were not , as it now appears , utterly disproved and the figures " cooked ; " but we cannot take the case isolated from other questions that properly belong to the subject . It is true that when mills are well constructed , under the care of owners who have the conscientkmsness and the ' means for causing the
machinery to be well made , the danger is minimised , and such owners require no compulsion from the law . We are not to presume , however , that other owners , less conscientious or less in command of means , would keop their machinery up to the standard of efficiency and safety , if there were not some check more immediate and potent than their own intelligence and prudence , or the indignation of their workpeople .
There is , indeed , a much larger consideration . Miss Martinkau proposes to leave the settlement of injury between man and man . to the common law- —non-intervention . Tho principle is not to bo accepted without examination ; but at all events , if it is to be accepted , it must not bo on one side * " The Factory Controversy ; a wivmiug agnlnst meddling loginlation . By Harriet Marthxeau . Iaau < jd by tho National Association of Puobory Occupiers , 13 , Corporation-stroot , ManohoBtor . " —ThiB pamphlet is , in fuot , an article vory properly doolinod , on oooount of tho diatreasing violonco and vookloua abuao , tho miiliebrio impotentia of its tone , by tho WeUminstur Review . It has already z-oooivedl a crushing reply , written with admirable temper and oonoliiflivonosB , n \ Household Words .
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ M ^^^^ V ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ MI ^^ H ^ B ^^^^^^ only . If the law is not to interfere between millowner and worker for the sake of tie worker , neither must it interfere for the sake of the owner . Let us see how tlie factory hands are "brought into the factory . Some of them were in their own persons , or in the persons of their parents , brought up from the rural districts by the agents of the State , under tlie stringent operations of the New Poor Law . They were brought for
the purpose of reducing poor rates in the rural districts , wages in the factory districts ; They are lodged in . the middle of factor y labour by fate , and must accept that , mode of life which lies to their hand . They may be divided into four classes , — children , " young persons , " women , and men . The children are the slaves of their parents , they have no choice wh . etb . er they shall enter the factory or not ; they cannot leave it , if the machinery is unsafe for them . Their parents , whom the
State empowers to use them as slaves , in too many cases feel no conscientious dxity to look after their life ox limb . Children , then , are not free agents , and the State has interfered to place them where they are ; is it to leave them unprotected ? The " young persons " are in somewhat the same predicament ; though , in fact , not under such complete bondage . The law would compel them , to obey th _ eir parents , but fact permits them , to do otherwise ; they can leave a
mill where the machinery is unsafe , if they are prepared to throw themselves out of work , and to run . the risk of starvation . The women are almost as xnuch under bondage to their husbands as their children—they are not free agents . Even the men can only choose between such employment as the factories give , with circumstances as they are , or want of work , which is want of food . A man who is unemployed in this country is a vagrant ; he becomes amenable to the Poor-law : he can be
put m prison . None of these persons , then , are free agents . If we do not admit the necessity of interference to protect them against dangerous machinery , we ought to abolish interference which compels them to be there . We ought to leave the child its free will ; to recognise the emancipation of young persons ; to tell women that they shall not expose
themselves to the Juggernaut at the dictate of their husbands ; and with respect to the mt ; n , we ought to repeal those laws which restrain them from idleness , from combination , or from any other measures that they may take against the factory owner , short of directly invading liis life and property . If you invoke the doctrine of non-intervention , carry it out , and repeal ninety-nine hundredths of our statutes .
But tho same rule applies outside tho walls of the factory . Admit the doctrine of nonintervention , and how large a portion of our compulsory statutes would fall to the ground ? Admit that the dictates of conscience , " enlightened self-interest , " affection , und other instructive or intellectual influences would suffice , and you must cut up , root and branch , the larger portion of our moral and political system . There is something to be said lor that side of tho question .
Candidates And Consciences: Or, A Tale O...
CANDIDATES AND CONSCIENCES : OR , A TALE OB A THICK . The rival powers of Cork-street and Grout ( Joorgostrcet , the Sanitary Ryfomm's ami the Ku ^ incui's , represented respectively by Mr . V . O . Ward itnd Mk Robert Stepheuson , have hftd , during tlic ]> nst weelc , a lierco encounter , in which Great ( Jt !<> rf ?« - strcet luis won a numorical victory , wliile Mr . Ward and liis friends- have achieved a mornl triumph . The matter in dispute was the cnginccrship <> f the Metropolitan Board of Works ; and tine < uicstion on which it turned was a question not ol engineering alt ill , but of personal integrity . The pnv-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 2, 1856, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02021856/page/14/
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