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    Sept. 15, 1860] The Saturday Analyst and...

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    THE POST-OFFICE AND THE LABOUR MARKET. r...

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    THE HIGH PRICE OF BREAD AND MEAT. LAST w...

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    Cleanliness And Godliness. Ry^He Truth O...

    shop . The workmen are no sooner let loose from _ the factory than they rush ., * ' a mass , to the cabaret , while a , crowd of weeping wives may be seen waiting for them , for weary hours , outside tho doors . . The apprentices , at . the early age of twelve , inay l > e seen drinking- the coarse brandy , which they very aptly call the " cruel , " As a body these workmen and their families arc feeble and sickly . They die at a terrible rate . " Drunkenness , " says M . iSiMO ^ f , "is the beginning and the end of French industrial life ; " and it is the offspring of squalid homes huddled together in , narrow ill-drained streets * . The homes of the French , artizans , in all the great manufacturing- towns , arc even more miserable tlian the very worst hovels of St . Giles ' s . We doubt if there is anything which can compare with , them for

    wretchedness in Manchester or Birmingham . The cellars and cowrettes of Lille , the farts of Boubaix , and the convents of St . Uiientin , are one and all foul , cramped , undrained holes , where men , and women , and children live , heaped pell-mell togetherapart from , the commonest decencies of life ^ In Rheims men and women lead miserable -lives in houses where the roof and walls are no protection either from the wind or the rain . At Tharni there are lodgings where a father and mother , a daughter and son-inlaw , with several children arc packed , the entrance frequently being through a pigsty . The consequence of this is the same in France as it is here , and as it must be everywhere—the early and complete demoralisation of the children of both sexes . The girls who work in the factories are the children of a drunken father ,

    and probably of a mother lost to the sense of shame which belongs to a woman " by nature . They mix with dissolute apprentices , and their ruin is almost a matter of course . French philanthropists and social reformers , like those of our own country , have exerted themselves to cut down this evil tree , but they have struck at the branches not at the root . The mayors , like our teetotalers and Maine Liquor Law advocates , have cried out , " Shut up the wine shops . " But says H . vSiaroif , most truly , the evil lies deeper than the art of a locksmith can reach . The root of it lies in tha absence of yirtuotis homes ^—comfortable homes—where a poor man ' s family can live harmoniously , cheerfully , and decently . We would most earnestly direct the attention , of those "who labour "with so much zeal and devotion in the cause of social improvement , to these facts . If they will enquire for themselves they will find that the testimony of M . SimoS \ applies to England as well as France , and that the squalid uncomfortable home is which

    the eaiise of all the evils of drunkenness and immorality oiir regenerators are vainly attempting to cure by means of the teetotal pledge , public libraries , drinking fountains , and religious tracts . If the improvement of the dwellings of the poor were necessarily a charitable movement , we would say to the religious community who subscribe such vast sums annually for promotinga variety of foreign missions , which yield no adequate result , give us the money which you subscribe to these objects , and we will show you some thousands of happy homes , where now there is nothing but misery squalor , and crime . We will show you not only "bodies saved from , degradation and disease , biit souls saved also __ Souls as precious , as much in need of salvation , as any in the Sandwich Islands or Timbuctoo . But there is no need of charit y The wretched hovels of which we have been speaking yield a profit of ten and fifteen per cent . Are there no philanthropic speculators in this country willing to build better houses and be content witli half the profit ?

    Sept. 15, 1860] The Saturday Analyst And...

    Sept . 15 , 1860 ] The Saturday Analyst and Leader . 799

    The Post-Office And The Labour Market. R...

    THE POST-OFFICE AND THE LABOUR MARKET . rFMIE overstocked condition of the labour-market ia exemplified in a X deplorable way by what the Times calls the " ohroaie disaffection of the Post-oflico employes . The over-crowded state , of the labourmarket must indeed be desperate , " when , " ( to use the language of the Times on Wednesday ) " we aro assured by Sir Rowland Hill in the last Post-odlce Roporfc , and by Mr . Tuck , at the Mansion-house , that hundreds of applicants are ready and anxious to aocept on the same terms , 10 s . a week , the situations of whioh . the remonstrants \ i . e , tlie dissatisfied employ 69 ] complain . " The public , " ; continues , limes , "ia as much entitled to the benefit of competition as any otheremployqn of labour , and whore XOa . a week is proved by oxponment to be a suffloioqt stipend , that amount is all that neod be given . With reference to tho " general question of pay and work , " the Times epitomises tho established doctrine of politioal economy , which , bears upon

    this point , in the following words : " it must of course bo acknowledged that tho same rules whioli apply to all other services , apply to tho servioo of the public . The value of a thing is what it will bring . If jwoi'lc can be hud for sixpence , it is folly to offer a shilling for it , and that economical axiom retains its foroo in St . Martin ' s-le-Grand us completely as olsowhoro . " ' J ? tie word " benefit ; " in tho above extract , wo have auarkod with italics ourselves . Siioh " benefits' to one party , are nothing short of dosti-uction to tho other . The lower the wages , tlu higher tho profit . And fcluB is the reason why employers like an overetooked labour market ( tho necessary consequence of . a relatively ovorcrowded population)—it brings down wages , and it proportionably raisos profits . •? The benefit of competition" in this x « espoot is olieap labour to tlio employer—tho result as regards tho employed ie starvation wages . Classes , and oven individuals , gonerally fancy themsolvos tlio nation , just as muoh aa Louis XIV ., when ho oxolaimod , "I am the State . " ' Henoo what the employing class calls' prosperity ,, may bp

    mtorprotocl to inoan utter ruin by tho oraployad . in tno present system , oc individual acquisition for individual cmoluinonfc . in which every ono from the landlord poor who Hvos on his rents down to tho unskilled labourer , has to livo by making as muoh out of others jn Jus dealings with thorn as ho can , and would ceauo to live at all , if lve followed any otUor course } the inexorable « law of supply and demand , " . Goiwpola men iu practice , whatever dootnno they way

    hold in theory , to adopt " that economical axiom" which the Times truly tells us " retains its force in St . Martin ' s-le-Grand as completely as elsewhere . " They may perhaps hold in theory , as some of our most advanced modem sociologists are said to hold , that the present system , of society is' founded upon 'radically wrong principles , that it amounts to a conspiracy in which " every man ' -s hand is against every other man , and every other mac ' s hand is against him , " that ifc is impossible to enrich oneself without impoverishing others , that its practical operation upon each individual is just as if the whole community , save him , were combined for the express purpose . preventing bis advancement in the world , that it is ageneral scramble in which the weakest devoured the weakest

    in mind or in purse are virtually run down and as of body would literally be among cannibals j that the results of this system are seen in the fact , that in this country , the wealthiest and most prosperous on . earth , one human being on the average , dies of -want every twenty-four hours , that tlie predatory class in London alone musters nearly 50 , 000 strong or three to every one policeman ; that there is a class , which we dare not name , consisting entirely of females , variously reckoned at from the same , to double the same number ; that it is computed that every morning that dawns there are to be found not far short of 200 , 000 persons with , no means of obtaining food through the day except by some chance job or crime , that instead of the direct immediate interest of eash member of the community being made

    antagonistic to that of every other member , by reason of each having to live by getting as much out of others as he can , society ought to be a vast system of mutual assurance , in which , self interest , and the benevolent sympathies would at once find their maximum gratification in the fact that the well being of each was secured by the reciprocal co-operation of all ; that individual acquisition for individual emolument shouM be replaced by joint aggregate production for joint aggregate benefit—by common exertion for the common good of all ; that the proposed system would offer the maximum of inducement ior the minium of exertion , instead of the , minimum of reward for the maximum of labour , inasmuch as there would be no idle class engrossing to itself ,-and it

    excluding the rest of the world from thousands of times as much as can consume or enjoy , while multitudes are famishing , houseless , and in ra" -s ; but the whole population , wisely regulated to be m proportion to the amount of food and work accessible for tlie time being , and trained under the best education and formative influences , would labour during shorter hours , at vocations divested as much as possible of whatever renders them repulsive , instead of the productive classes toiling as now from ten to sixteen hours a-day-for a mere pittance \ ot : the coarsest necessaries , without anything being , done to mitigate the ^ circumstances that make their work repugnant ; tkatinshort the value ^ of work ought iiot to be merely " what it will fetch , " but ought to be proportionate to the cbst of subsistence . There may be . p hilanthropic Employers , we admit , who hold these views ; bub the " rigorous operation of circumstances" utterly precludes their adopting any othercourse in practice than paying for labour as materials , ' just what it will fetch , " and no more ; and . were they to attempt adopting any ¦ o ther course they would soon find themselves bankrupt and insolvent .

    What then ia to become , it may naturally enough be asked ,, ot tho surplus labour in the market ? What are we to do with the multitudes trying out for work and finding none , and slipping slowly , but surely , over the precipice , into the yawning abyss of mendicancy , prostitution , . and crime ? To this the responses will be various . One answer is to the effect , that there are fifteen millions of cultivable land in the country , which would give employment , and yield food , sufficient ior a large proportion of our present population . We reply , the work and the food are not accessible . Will the landowners break up their parks and pleasure-grounds . Oan you induce them to do this i Ike proverb which , tells us , that while the provender is in course ot production the animal is starving , is not restricted to quadrupeds . Another oracle points to the colonies , and recommends emigration as its panacea , but as wo are increasing at the rate of near halt a million vearly , it would require a deportation to that , impossible extent , even to keep thinga no worse than tb-ey are ; moreover , this would be but a * ... \ i-e av A .. ^ i : « . « flic + oo < sl-iincr nt another school * tnia rnuoi ¦ ' —

    cemporurv . awuxumg w v »* v - --o ----- - . .,. - , sort of misery is very good , and just wha t it ought to be ; it will eettleitself ; eitlier it will reach a state in which the advent ot a baxl harvest will kill otf a few mUlions by famine , and make elbow and breathing room , as happened in Ireland , during the last dreadtul scarcity , or else there will be a revolution which will , for the time boing , turn everything topsy-turvy , but make everything better afterwards , just as the ground is kept in proper order by a turning up a new surface now and then ; on which remedy we have nothing to remark , except , that like the last , it would only afford a temporary relief . Some of tho ^ mosft onliffhtened of the modem political economists , as Mr , John Stuart Mill , are of opinion , that an improved intellectual and moral development is gradually producing a degree of providence and ioroo ^ t , which will have tho effect of checking , by wiae and benevolent weai . s , aeior uie

    tho too vapid increase of population . J 3 ut wo muse unvusawu of this subject for the present . Suflloe it to say now , that if thoi'o are 100 porsons , and only accessible food and work for 50 , not only will ww ? ob bo reduced to the starvation minimum by competition , but a So proportion of tho 100 will bo without food and work altogot ior and that to inoreaso the 100 to 110 is simply to mako a corresponding addition to the misery and destitution--to tho inondioanoy , puupeHBiu , and oriino that already exist .

    The High Price Of Bread And Meat. Last W...

    THE HIGH PRICE OF BREAD AND MEAT . LAST week our » record " allowed that tho poioo of moat ^ Jxtxd Mlon from 2 d . tp U , per stone , wlnlo wheat J « Mjg « w cheaper by from 28 . to 4 s . por quarter . The 9 ^^^^ - swu las Jertaiuly notte ^ a to raise the ffw Aj ^ ^ J » J modity . Yot by some strange V ™™»» 1 U tho ' Tn loarn doriyed dealui , tho oonaumer has not , as for as wo mix leauj , < W ? a ff P » as « ag 2

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 15, 1860, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15091860/page/7/