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    966 ©ft* &*«>**? [Saturday ,

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    WHY THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IS NOT THE CHU...

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    L O N1) () N COAL. An Englishman's home ...

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    How To Live. Abandoned As Protection Avo...

    just return ; and to the consumer a sustained supply throughout the year , at moderate prices . . ' ? The practical operation of the system would , I conceive , be very simple . Let us take the probable working in any one market town , as a sample for all : —The county committee advertises and takes means to make generally known beforehand , that the lowest price any one is to take on the next marketday or series of market-days , is to be so muok for wheat * so much for barley , so much for oate , & c . "When the farmers come to market with their prodnce , if they find that the dealers will not give the m the price advertised , they take their corn home again it would more generally be sent into the market by sample even than is now the case , so avoiding the

    trouble of pitching and the expense of unnecessary carriage to and fro . The market avoids a glut , and things get no lower , at least that day . They try again the next market-day : things may , perhaps , be no better , and away they go again . But men are eating all this time ; the consumption is just the same ; and however firm the dealers may resolve to be , they must find supply somewhere to keep up their trade ; and after two or three market-days of no sales , the dealers , who , it must be borne in mind , according to my plan , have no other market to which they can resort , where they will not find precisely the same state of things , except , indeed , the foreign market the dealers , 1 say , will probably find themselves obliged to submit , and come up to the mark . "

    Funds would be formed by the members of the Association , and thus disposed of : — " The landlord members of the association must be tinder the obligation of not demanding payment of tlie rents that may have fallen due from their respective tenants , who had been , as yet , unable to effect sales of their produce at the regulation price . ***** One of the most important objects for the application of our funds , would be that of affording pecuniary aid , by temporary loans , to the various members of the association who might find themselves inconvenienced by suspension of payments of rent and non-sale of stock , in obedience to the orders and

    regulations of the society . * * * The committees might easily frame rules and precautionary measures by which , whilst they afforded efficient assistance to applicants , there might be reasonable assurance that the funds of the association would not be lost or misapplied . The association , in this branch of its functions , would , in fact , be neither more nor less than a loan or benefit society on a gigantic scale ; and I firmly believe it would be a society where prosperity would bear a just proportion to its magnitude . By aid of these , or by some such provisions as these , no person would be tempted or compelled to force his corn to market in violation of the regulation price ; but , on the contrary , there would be no one who would not have a powerful inducement to conformity . "

    The price of corn , says Mr . Dawson , might thus be effectually regulated , if the home growth were the only supply of the market ; and he would admit foreign corn on payment of a duty countervailing the burdens of English taxation and rates . We hope that we can show Mr . Dawson and Ins brother Agriculturists a mode of extending the organization , so as to provide for the case of foreign corn , without countervailing duty .

    One moment let us expend on this weak point both of Protection and of Free Trade . It is the weak point of Free Trade ; because the first object of industry in any community must be to secure subsistence to all ; and to give even cheap bread , if a large class be cut off from the enjoyment of the consequent prosperity , is neither practical justice nor sound oeconomy . It is the weak point of Protection , because the first object of sound oeconomy is abundance freely distributed among all ; and to secure that by cutting oil supplies from the consumer , without any equivalent to the consumer , is not sound ummomy , nor likely to be permitted by the consumer . The consumer insists on as full subsistence as be can

    get for his work ; the producer insists on full subsistence for bis work : the old kind of Protection denies that just right to the consumer ; Free Trade will not secure it to the producer ; Protection erred by commission , Free Trade makes exactly the name sin by omission . Now , leaving Free Trade and Protection aside , as superannuated geniuses that cannot fulfil the promises of their youth , both producer and consumer can attain their object in I _ -.. » 1 * . 1 .. __ ,. i * „ * A direct and simple of coming to

    . . . one way the way a mutual understanding . Mr . Dawson has pointed out the half of the way along which the producer is to advance ; lot us explain the other half , along which the consumer is to travel , that both may in «* in the midst . And to make it dearer , we will explain it in a concrete or tangible , not an abstract and ideal , form . , The People ' s mill at Leeds is the simple

    illustration we select . It belongs to a proprietary consisting of 3500 shareholders , each having subscribed £ 1 ; the business of distribution is effected by about thirty-five agents , who are virtually the retail dealers between the ( collective ) proprietary of the mill and the subscribers in their capacity of consumers . The management is effected by comrmittees ; all the money passes through a banker ' s hands : the proprietors and consumers can see the

    corn and the flour in every stage of grinding—and finer commodities cannot be found in any market or in the most luxurious of kitchens . In this concern we see , therefore , a large body of consumers supplied exactly with the article which they need at its real price—the cost of growing , carrying , and preparing it ; we see a class of retail dealers , the agents , whose trade is exactly and assuredly measured by the wants of their customers ; and we see a wholesale dealer whose transactions are

    conducted upon a basis of certainty . The consumer is released from the chances of adulteration ; the retail dealer from waste of time or stock ; the wholesale dealer from uncertainty of market . Now , in such an organization as this , the consumer comes half way to the Agriculturist—even as far as the corn market ; where he would be met by Mr . Dawson ' s organization . We have here established an unbroken chain between the corn grower and the consumer ; each able to state his wants and his resources exactly . But we have said

    enough for one week . Next week we will make out these two further points—how the consumer is to obtain his equivalent for giving a willing preference to the home grower ; how existing capital is to be made available by the process , in extending production and organization . Meanwhile let such of our readers as we have already found among agriculturists , ponder over the sketch of organization above—not as the plan of a complete system , but as illustrating what is possible in the organization of industry , so that all classes shall not only " Live and let live , " but help each other to live .

    966 ©Ft* &*«>**? [Saturday ,

    966 © ft * &*«>**? [ Saturday ,

    Why The Church Of England Is Not The Chu...

    WHY THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IS NOT THE CHURCH OF THE PEOPLE . From a Bishop , rich in the grace of the Apostolical Succession , with the anointing oil scarcely dry on his brow , with the solemn words of consecration yet ringing in his ear , we have the crushing confession , That " the Church of England is not the Church of the People . " The next question is—What then is the Church of the People ? because that Church ought , forthwith , to be " the Church of the England . "

    The Church has lapsed . Her mission of Holiness has degenerated into a corporation , highly respectable , but held together by pecuniary considerations . She is a " profession , " a " vested interest , " As a Church she has become one of the " things of this world " which passeth away and is nought . A Church of the People could not thus decay . No : the Church of the People of England is in abeyance—sunk within the hearts of some , dead in too many ; while sects are quarrelling over metaphysical niceties , and the Church of England , divided in itself , is estranged from the People and forgetful of the People .

    Truly the Church has a mission , but she has denied herself more times than St . Peter . It is hers to explain the laws of God in their temporal and practical interpretations as human statutes , and to see that the statutes accord with the higher law . It is hers to champion the defenceless and the poor , the resourceless and the disinherited . Else she is not worthy to be called a Church of God . She has not done these things , She has practically denied that she had temporal and political duties , except of the " money-changer " kind ; but it will not be safe for her to deny it longer . Thanks to the Bishop of Llandaff , the only questions now are , What is the Church of the People , and how the Church of the People can be really instituted as " the Church of England" i

    L O N1) () N Coal. An Englishman's Home ...

    L O N 1 ) () N COAL . An Englishman ' s home is hirf fireside , and a blazing hearth is the centre of hospitality . But if London houses were judged by the size of their fires , and their hospitality by the lieaf . of the hearth , our country homes would be apt to afford a very invidious comparison with those of the metropolis . The countryman laughs at the cockney , and feels starved before his diminutive fire . lie longs to poke it about , to make it . blaze , to do anything which promises to improve the little apology in the grate . But . the poking of the metropolitan fire is a sacred oflicc , intrusted only to the chief

    The Newcastle coal , with which domestic London is principally supplied , requires continual stirring to keep up a draught of air , without which it is cheerless , or goes out altogether . The inland coal , on the contrary , burns better when left to itself , and gives out considerable heat . In the districts we have mentioned , the price of coal is such as to form a very insignificant item in the expenditure of the household . From 5 s . to los . per ton is the usual cost , while in London it ranges f Idsto 22 and in the suburban

    members of the household . There are men wh ~ would never forgive an interference with their nr rogative in this particular . In the vicinity of th coalfields all this is reversed . The office of fir stoker is conferred upon the servant , who e 6 " tering at stated periods , rebuilds the fire' ami having banked the coal up to the chimney , plac a piece of " cannel " in the centre , and sweeps th hearth clean . In Cheshire , Warwickshire , W « rces tershire , and some parts of Gloucestershire , it i 8 * frequently a boast that the kitchen fire has not been out for years . The servant banks it up over night , and the mass is broken into a good fire when she arises in the morning .

    rom . s ., . districts , which are dependent on their supply from London the cost is raised to 28 s . and 30 s . These prices are one of the causes of the inhospitable fires to which we have referred . But it makes one shiver to think of the privations to which the poor are subject , with coals at such a price . To them fire is meat and drink : it becomes absolutely a substitute for aliment , in giving an increased circulation to the blood , and thus atoning , in some sort , for the paucity of food .

    Science , the great ameliorator , makes the capitalist benevolent , whether he knows it or not . The development of the railway system is bringing the blessing of cheap and plenteous fuel to the hearths of the poor , as well as cheering the fireside of the more opulent . The Great Northern , the Eastern Counties , and North-Western Railways have been occupied in the cajriage of coal , and are dividing with the coasting-trade the supply of this continually increasing capital .

    The Great Western is now destined to confer an even greater benefit on the metropolis , and the houses in the vicinity of the line . " The Great Western and Forest of Dean Coal Company " proposes to work the coalfields of the Forest of Dean , which have hitherto been worked to very little advantage to the public , though most profitably to the individuals connected with them . A branch

    of the Great Western Railway , now in course of construction , will pass through this coalfield , thus placing it in direct communication with the metropolis . In some of the towns referred to in the prospectus , we are aware that coal has been as hi"h as aos . per ton , and is seldom below 24 s . Such will now be supplied with coal of similar quality at about 14 s . per ton ; a charge which will even be further reduced , the railway

    companies expressing a hope that the present carriage of 2 s . per ton will be about Is ., when their plans are thoroughly developed . A company of this description will go far to break up a system , which , though a continual cause of complaint from the seventeenth centiuy , has reached its climax at the present time , wncn every scapegrace , like Mr . Micawber , " turns Jus attention to coals /* There are many lugn iy respectable firms engaged in the coal trade ; uul there are few businesses in which there is more trickery , or where well known knavery is s difficult of detection ; while precisely those

    persons are cheated who most need fair trading . For a coal company there is a ready ^ niarkel , t - munerative at a low price , where cap ital , inte igence , and labour may be applied with a certainly of success . ! Such a company is not a monopoly , but , while offering an excellent investment oi capital , gives employment to labour , confers - blessings of cheap fuel upon the peop le , ft " preserves the poor from shark-like advent"rii .-Much , of course , will depend , in the cliM . "

    future , on the fulfilment of this enterprise m oriinn . il spirit , llungcrford Market was expc «« - to break up the fish monopoly , and enable u London poor to feed on fish at the chcai > i . which roUit so easily be afforded ; but son *" fish is still a sort of luxury . We believe , ever , that a better knowledge has arisen u within these last two years , and that the '" , () j class is beginning to learn the safer tra i honestl y H . ipplying the broad mass < of the , J \ Assuredly no trade , conducted in that upmW ¦ be wafer or more inexhaustibly profitable tna " supply of fuel to thia vast capital .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 11, 1851, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11101851/page/10/