Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 19th October 1850, Edition Country of 1, Page 13

Page 13
Page 13
13 of 24

On this page

  • Text (5)
  • Transcript

    • 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.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Associated Homes. Miss Martinkau Has Sei...

      for the artizan class proves that such a speculation must succeed : we have known many instances in which it would have supplied a want .

      Oct. 19, 1850.] Ffifce Vlt&Tlt V* 709

      Oct . 19 , 1850 . ] ffifce VLt & tlt V * 709

      Lord Stanley's Recantation. Half-Fcadger...

      LORD STANLEY'S RECANTATION . HALF-fcadgered to death by Mr . George Frederick Young and his humdrum colleagues of " The National Association , " Lord Stanley has written a letter in which he declares that he has not surrendered a single jot of his Protectionist principles , but that he adheres most unequivocally to all the opinions he ever expressed in and out of Parliament on the free-trade

      question . After stating his surprise that any one should infer from his speech at Bury that he had changed his opinions on the subject of Protection , he tries to show why the farmers of Lancashire may profitably invest capital in the improvement of his father ' s estates , although such a course would be ruinous in any other part of England . His reasons for thinking that there was room for the profitable investment of capital in the district where he was speaking were

      " First , that it was not a corn-growing district , and little affected by the price ot corn ; next , that , not being even exclusively an agricultural district , it had the advantages of an inexhaustible market for its produce , and an unlimited supply of manure at its very doors ; and lastly , that a great portion of it being wholly undrained , and consequently full of water , the simple operation of draining , even if it cost . £ 12 the Cheshire acre ( nearly double the statute ) , would

      encrease the productiveness of the land to an ^ extent which would amply repay the outlay . The fact is , that the country round Bury is either in grass or under green crops for the supply of the great manufacturing towns , and , a portion of it lying high , is better fitted for rearing young stock in the summer than for any other purpose ; but a very small portion of it is suited for any description of corn , and a still smaller for wheat . It is , therefore , as far as the corn-laws are concerned , an entirely exceptional case—and I took care so to treat it . "

      So much for the advantages possessed by the farmers of Lancashire over those in other parts of the country . But did it never occur to the noble Lord that all these advantages have already been taken into account by landowners and their agents in fixing the amount of rent which a Lancashire farmer must pay ? Take a thousand acres of ordinary land belonging to the Earl of Derby , for example , and a thousand acres of equal fertility in any other county at a distance from a large town , and it will be found that all the advantages arising from the proximity of " inexhaustible market "

      and an unlimited supply of manure" in Lancashire have already been appropriated by the noble landowner in the shape of additional rent . Had Lord Stanley been addressing a number of men who cultivated their own estates his argument might have had some show of reason ; but to speak of farmers enjoying any advantage from their nearness to large towns is utterly absurd . This Lord Stanley may easily ascertain by comparing his father ' s rent roll in 1850 with what it was in 1800 , when the population of Lancashire was not more than half of what it is at present .

      Lord Stanley ought also to be aware that , while the dearness of land in Lancashire places it on a level with other counties as regards farming profits , the dearness of agricultural labour in the neighbourhood of the manufacturing towns renders Lancashire one of the worst counties in the kingdom for agricultural improvement . On this head we lately met with some very pertinent remarks in the Ayr Advertiser . An Ayrshire farmer , who had been paying a visit to England some weeks ago , gives his neighbours the result of his observation : —

      " The dearness of labour , and the scarcity of active , skilled farm-workers , must be a serious obstacle in the way of good arable farming in Lancashire . With us the thinning and hand-hoeing of turnips is all done by women and boys , at a wage of ninepence or tenpence per day ; in Lancashire , we see men , whose daily labour costs two shillings , stooping over the hoe and handling it in a very inexpert manner . So many females are employed in the mills that scarcely any can be got for field-work , save in hay time , when a few turn out at eighteenpence a-day . The difference in cost is thus very great . While we have turnips twice gone through and well cleaned for it much

      six shillings per statute acre , they cannot do under twenty shillings . The cost of every description of farm-work is greater than with us , though not in the same proportion . Heaping , which is here performed for from seven to eight shilling an acre , costs there from ten to twelve . And these matters cannot be much mended by hiring a number of young men , giving them victuals and lodging in the house . A Scotch farmer would sicken at the interminable cookery which would be necessary in such a case . Only think of Jive meals in the day ; and these prepared in a nicer manner than the Scottish labourer thinks of . We would not have the reader to in for from this that the English labourer cats a greater ( j . uuutity than the Scotch j but the greater frequency of

      his times of eating , and the more delicate manner in which his food must be prepared , cause a very different amount of work . The cookery in the kitchens of our farmers would appear to their English neighbours as very homely indeed . Our farmers possess a treasure in the frugal habits , the persevering industry , and the intelligent zeal for the interest of their employers which our cottars and other farm-labourers usually manifest . " The farmers of Ayrshire are not so well situated as those of Lancashire in regard to markets , but they have labour at a much lower rate . Wages in Lancashire are fifty per cent , higher than in Ayrshire , where the poor labourers are content with

      coarse and scanty fare . The result is that agricultural improvement proceeds at a much more rapid pace in Ayrshire than it does in Lancashire , to the great inflammation of rents , which are at least fifty per cent , higher in " the Land of Burns , " than in the county of power-looms and spindles . " The frugal habits , the persevering industry , and the intelligent zeal" of the Scottish labourers , instead of improving their condition , as they ought to do , have simply the effect of enabling the farmers to pay more rent . Such are the results of our present system of land tenure , and our imperfect organization of industry .

      Railway Passengers' Assurance Company. F...

      RAILWAY PASSENGERS' ASSURANCE COMPANY . For the year ending December 30 , 1849 , there were 53 passengers killed and 396 more or less injured ! a very small number considering how many millions travel by that mode of conveyance , but large enough to teach one the value of insurance against damage to life or limb . The public thinks so too : the Railway Passengers' Assurance Company is gradually extending its beneficial influence among railway travellers , nor can we believe that anything else than ignorance of its existence , or want of reflection should prevent any traveller from

      availing himself of the advantages it offers . For a single journey a first-class passenger can insure his life for £ 1000 by the payment of 3 d . ; a second-class passenger can effect the same for £ 500 on the payment of 2 d . ; and a third-class passenger , by paying Id ., can insure his life for £ 200 , for one journey , however long it may be . Commercial travellers and others , who are daily making use of the railway , can ensure their lives for £ 1000 for a whole year , by the payment of 20 s . ; and in the event of personal injury being sustained the Assurance Company grants liberal compensation to the person injured . We are aware that many people object to

      insuring their lives from something of the same superstitious feeling that causes the majority of persons to put off making their wills till they are at the point of death . A remarkable instance of this occurred the other day in the case of a traveller who lost his life on the Caledonian Railway . On starting from Carlisle , in good health and spirits , he was recommended to insure his life , but he laughed at the very notion . The same passenger , while entering the carriage at Lancaster , while the train was moving , lost his hold , and falling below the wheels , was killed instantly . Had he bought an insurance ticket at Carlisle , which would have cost him 2 d ., his relatives would have been entitled to receive £ 500 .

      Tub Highland Apollyon. Antique Times Had...

      TUB HIGHLAND APOLLYON . Antique times had their difficulties and perils , but our own may rival them . The wandering knight was forced to fight his " right of way " over the vanquished corpses of dragons , " gorgons , and chimaeras dire ; " and grim was the peril which beset poor Christian in his journey through that famous valley where Apollyon — also 11 without trousers , " you observe ! — would not suffer him to pass . But is the Christian student better off ? Read the account given by one " Cantabrigiensis , " how his peaceful path towards the Delectable Mountains was interrupted by a Northern Monster , who , deriding

      the decision of lawyers , swore lusty oaths that no amount of " horsehair verdicts " should make the path through Glen Tilt a peaceful one . This terrible Apollyon , hideous to the sight and foul in his diction , grappled fiercely with the intruding Christian , resolved to maintain his ground by the force of his own right arm ; but , finding his strength insufficient , and ignorant of chivalrous generosities , he called his attendant Apollyons to the rescue : four monsters rushed down—all with large moustachios and naked legs—and the appalled students were vanquished and led away . They had to await till the friendly darkness set the monsters snoring , and then they passed through the valley undisturbed .

      Now , is this a trifle ? We ask any reader of lively imagination what he thinks of the peril of meeting in a Scotch mist with a monster such as that ? If , indeed , the reader be a man of practical turn of mind—one who pays his taxes and attends to the parish — he will naturally pooh-pooh such terrors , and say , Why , sir , let any man wishing to pass through Glen Tilt get a policeman to accompany him , and if the monster appears let that guardian of the British subject smite the

      monster on his empty crown ; let him be treated , sir , as a drunken fool , and if uproarious , let the staff calm him .

      Social Reform. Epistolje Obscurorum Viro...

      SOCIAL REFORM . EPISTOLJE OBSCURORUM VIRORUM . XIII . —Communism—Its Principle . To Erasmus . October 17 , 1850 . " Concert in division of employments "—that , my dear Erasmus , I have explained to be the principle of Communism . But before I go to the application of the principle I will explain some of the terms by which the different sects of Communists are called . I am induced to do so by the very frequent question with which I am met—What is the distinction between Socialism and

      Communism — what is the distinction between Owenism and Christian Socialism—and so forth ? It is remarkable that the first propounder of the Associative principle in modern times , St . Simon , must be ranked as a Communist ; that is to say , as one who carried the principle of concerted labour out to its fullest conclusions . Some suppose that the principle of Association is nothing more than partnership ; and partnership of a very liberal and extended kind is the principle Fourier

      of Fourierism . The temporal part of ' s system—I do not pretend to understand the spiritual part in the slightest degree—consists in this . Several persons , of varying social station and means , to club their whole forces together in the production of a common property ; the property , however , to be divisible in such manner that more than one share may come to each person : one share is to be given to labour , one share to talent , and one to capital ; and the same person may take a share under each of these heads . The return

      may be made in the shape of dwelling accommodation , mere labour having less luxury than capital can claim . Each person has a right to withdraw from the common property the equivalent to that which he put into it . Do not understand this as a full explanation of Fourier ' s system ; that I hope we shall be able to give in the Leader at no distant day ; but at present I am only explaining the relation of the system to others . You will observe that it is no more than an extended partnership , maintaining , to a great degree , the separate interests and the existing rank distinctions of society as it now stands . Fourier is not a Communist at all .

      Owen ' s system consists of two parts—an ethnological theory and a plan of concerted labour . The ethnological theory is , that man is formed by the circumstances with which he is surrounded from the first moment of his existence , and even before his existence , in the shape of parentage ; and that , therefore , if we wish people to attain the happiness belonging to healthy and virtuous existence , we shall be able to do so by surrounding

      them with " superior circumstances" : vice , crime , and misery resulting from the " inferior circumstances" which prevail in existing society . I think that Owen altogether misconceives the relation of the stronger passions to the typical form of human nature ; he is not aware of their inherent tenure , their inextinguishable force , and still less of the sublime results which even the " lowest" of them have had . The ethnological theory , therefore , seems to me to be presumptive and fallacious .

      The principle of Owen ' s plan is the contribution of labour towards a common stock and common property . His ideas respecting marriage and religion have varied considerably , and appear to be not fundamentally settled . His plan has been called " Cooperation . " Socialism seems to be no more than the doctrine of Cooperation carried farther into systems for forming societies to work upon the principle of cooperation , such as Owen ' s own communities , Morgan ' s self-supporting villages , and the like . The associations of tailors and other

      workmen , and the cooperative stores now established in London , exemplify Cooperation ; the Rappite Community in America is a living exemplar of Socialism . The Communist holds that the principle of concerted labour—that is , of concert before the distribution of employments — implies these

      consequences . First , the distribution of the fruits must be on the same equality with the distribution of employments , so that whatever each labourer may produce—however inferior the produce in exchangeable value , or however his occupation may be one non-productive , though useful to the community , still , when the common stock has accrued , the share goes to him equally with all the rest ;

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 19, 1850, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19101850/page/13/