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    THE TRUE AGRICULTURAL BOAT. To raise wag...

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    TRANSPORTATION OF THE CONDEMNED WOOLCOMB...

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    Concert In Railway Administration When T...

    checks both the prosperity and the development of the railway system , depriving both public and railway proprietors of advantages that might otherwise be enjoyed . Although * Parliament has s anctioned the construction of railways to the extent of 12 , 317 miles , only 6890 miles have been opened ; 326 have been abandoned by authority of Parliament , and there is reason to believe that 3600 will not be completed . This abandonment is without a corresponding reduction of the

    capital authorized by Parliament . In England and Wales , during the year ended June , 1851 , the passenger traffic has increased by about twenty per cent . ; the goods traffic has increased at the rate of ten per cent . ; railway extension at four per cent . ; and the gross revenue has increased about eighteen per cent . There is no doubt that the increase of traffic and revenue is due to increase of conveniences ; yet extension and dividends do n ot advance correspondingly .

    If we seek an explanation of this anomalous conjunction of facts , we shall find it in the waste of capital to promote those futile extensions which haveIbeen abandoned , and in tbe general want of planwhichhas soplaced railways that they abstract traffic from each other , instead of distributing them to supply wants in places or in modes not supplied . If any one will survey the map of the country , he will find that the iron network is very irregular in its meshes , and that many places

    are neglected which would pay as well as many that are served . Again , if even on the existing network there were such a distribution of trains as combination could permit , the number of trains might be greatly increased without detriment , rather with gain to the public safety ; and by an increase of business employment would be found for that capital which is at present negatived or applied to waste , with a corresponding increase to dividends .

    Mere amalgamation , indeed , would not secure these beneficial results , since they would depend on the degree in which the true principle of Concert should be applied . Amalgamation might be nothing but one form , of monopoly—which is -the combination of persons in one branch of employment to promote their common interest , as separate from the interests of other classes , or even as opposed to those interests . The true principle of Concert includes the interests of all the parties

    to any transaction , the consumer as well as the producer . The prosperity of railways must , in the long run and to the largest extent , depend upon the degree to which they are made subservient to the convenience of the travelling public ; and a perception of that truth has already gained a hold among railway administrators . Amalgamation would help the further appreciation of it , since it would remove from the calculation all the disturbing influences of loss by competition , in construction , or working .

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    The True Agricultural Boat. To Raise Wag...

    THE TRUE AGRICULTURAL BOAT . To raise wages would hardly bo regarded by practical agriculturists as tho best mode of redeeming agriculture from its " distress : " andyefc , if wo arc to break the vicious circle of the ordinary agricultural system , perhaps there would not be a better place to begin . At least so we aro led to infer from tho lettor of "A Dorsetshire Landed Proprietor , " in tho Times . In the first instance , no doubt , his testimony is of a kind to be seized by free-traders . A few years ago , when wages were 7 s ., with Is . 6 d . a week deducted for

    rent of a wretched hovel , the same gentleman wrote to tho Times , insisting on tho necessity of a change in tho system—especially tho necessity of a healthy emigration , free-trade with our _coloni es , and measures to raiso the labourer out of Ins miserable condition . Subsequently there has been free-trade with our colonies , and with other countries besides ; there has been emigration , though not , we bolieve , to so great an extent troni Dorsetshire direct as from some other counties ; and there havo been , partiall y at least , measures to elevate tho condition of the labouring class . And tho " Landed Proprietor" reports ho result : —

    " Ninco the duty _Iiuh bocn taken oil' corn , in my _"uighliourluKKl , tiller tho second year renin recovered o their former standard . Wheat crops arc no longer <>«» Kcd upon us the boIo absorbing Houree- lor paying tho rent ... Oats , . , n () w _2 / | v ft -j _,,,-,. _^ _^ ] n _.-wj , hi _^ i _,,,,. tha ,, when tho duly wa , s on ; hay , M . to Ad ,. 10 . v . a load ; hutter in lQd . _, ill ,. ; poric By . a score ; while tho im-!»<> ycd KyHtcm of funning hat . ' led to u much larger production at tho munc cost than was formerly obtained ,

    The True Agricultural Boat. To Raise Wag...

    althongh the prices of wages are rapidly increasing . Labourers are not to be had to get in the crops ; 3 s . 6 d . a day , with a gallon of beer , are freely tendered , and lucky is the farmer who can find men sufficient to meet his present wants . Formerly the farmers only gave 6 s . an acre for turnip hoeing ; now they gladly give 10 * . For the last six weeks part of the work on my property has been at a stand-still for want of hands ; and there has not been , in mine or the . neighbouring _parches / a single man but what might have found _employment . How different from what it was I " Such _* re the fruits of free-trade , which abolishes restraints on production . But there is something more than free-trade in this casemore even than emigration : —

    " The course I have adopted to counteract the want of labour is to erect a certain number of comfortable dwellings , suitable to the wants of my estate , with an acre of land to each , so that the men when unemployed by myself or others may have resources of out-door occupation within themselves . This acre to a poor man is invaluable ; his wife and children can cultivate it principally . It was with a feeling of humble thankfulness to the Almighty that I noticed one of my labourers eating French beans and potatoes with his bacon and bread , who , a few years ago , I remember to have seen eating only bread and cheese for his dinner . "

    And the good landed proprietor had a right to thank his God for the result of the work in which he had aided . The fact is that Free-trade alone will not work . Trust to it alone , and there is nothing to prevent it from depopulating Paisley and Bradford to people either with iron machines ; or from setting man to compete with man , until farmers shall give enormous rents and get work done at wages too low for life . And then landlord or factory-lord may stalk about amid the misery

    he makes , and feel wretched , doubting for the safety of his property , and dreading bankruptcy itself in a system where production is directed chiefly to articles not necessary for life , and the machinery for exchange is enormously beyond proportion to the machinery for production . For such are the results of mere negative free trade . The really virtuous patriot knows that he must do more—that he must help to direct industry in a distribution of it which is _menst desirable—that he must , above all things , help to bring forth the natural resources of his native soil . Tne

    Dorsetshire Landed Proprietor has done so , and with what results we see . Landed proprietors often tell labourers that they , farmers and all , " must row in the same boat : " the saying is truer than mere Protectionists , from their actions , have seemed to think . If , like Felix Loyd , or this Dorsetshire Landed Proprietor , they will first secure a comfortable condition for the labourers , assuredly they will find prosperous farmers , flourishing landlords , and happy faces in all classes .

    Transportation Of The Condemned Woolcomb...

    TRANSPORTATION OF THE CONDEMNED WOOLCOMBERS AT BRADFORD . An emigration scheme is on foot at Bradford ; but it is of a kind to make us look rather to the dark motives that stir it than to the hopes which await it . Tho woolcombcrs are convicted of the crimo of poverty , and aro duly sentenced to transportation . The business of the wool comber is superseded by the " combing-macbine . " "Handloom weavers , combers , and other kindred artisans and craftsmen , must ; be content to tako their places with

    _shoebuckle-makers , leather-breeches-makers , pigtail-peruquiers , and other divers artists of a trade gone by ; " so says a local apostle of the cruel ceconomy school . To us , who regard human beings as the primary consideration , goods as a very secondary one , and machinery as a mere means for the convenience of human beings , it is not such an . obvious truism that men must be " content" to be mined and exiled because a new invention enables the few to make larger profits and to dispenso with the living machines . The

    few—the every few as compared with the numbers of the workpeople—now discover that " they do not want the men hero to comb the wool , but ' ( hut , they do want them to grow it in Australia ; " and , accordingly , the men must go . Whether they wish or not , Avhether tbey have affections that cling to their native soil or not—those are irrelevant questions : they must go . It is said . But that is not all . While they are summoned together for their departure , and to pay towards their own expatriation , they are reproached with tho past . They aro told that they ought to have

    Transportation Of The Condemned Woolcomb...

    " availed themselves of the good season" " to lay by money for emigration , as they might have done "—whereas they " contemned the counsel of their friends , and spent all their earnings in eating and drinking , as if there were no ' rainy day' to come ; " they became the " fatuous , unreasonable" " dupes of designing men , " who enlisted " the unreflecting sympathies of their victims on behalf of Utopian schemes of politics and

    social ceconomy . " Yes , it is woolcombers and handloom weavers who are the guzzlers of society —the feasters , the spendthrifts on luxury ; it is the politicians of that class that prostitute the pen and the tongue to mercenary purposes ; and when the woolcomber , in his pride of place , falls , no one pities him . Eor these reasons is the Bradford Observer justified in thus discussing the removal of the-live nuisance : —

    " The woolcombers of this town and district are a numerous body . They are a distressed , degraded , and naturally dissatisfied body . They increase our poorrates . Their physical misery , and morbific habits of life , imperil the health of the community . They are , politically speaking , our ' dangerous classes . ' From their ranks we naturally look for the reinforcement of sedition and tumult in troublous times . As they at present exist , they lower the tone of society : their example is contaminating ; the attendant influences of tbeir situations compromise us all . We have already

    admitted that much of the evil of their present lot is traceable to their own improvidence and indiscretion . But we have disposed of the cause;—we arc looking now at the effect , with a view to the application of a remedy . What is to be done ? Shall we allow this deadly leaven to permeate society ? The woolcombers cannot now redeem themselves;—shall we suffer them to remain , festering in wretchedness , and diffusing the contagion of their physical and moral disease ? # * * We hope ere long to record the departure of a large number of this class of our fellow toivnsmen ; and when they go , may good success attend them . "

    No wish for their success here ! No , they are a disgrace , a nuisance ; they lower the tone of society ; they recruit sedition and tumult ; they are " morbific ; " they contaminate , "they compromise us all ; " " they increase our poor rates . " Let us warn the woolcombers of Bradford who may consent to emigrate , that one more mortification may await them : if they seek the aid of the Emigration Commissioners , impoverished , morbific , degraded , enfeebled , it is highly probable that they- may be rejected as unfit to be

    emigrants ; just as candidates for emigration among the Paisley weavers and Kidderminster carpetmakers have been rejected . In that case , they must be content to go to tho union , or to sink into the grave—as quietly as they can . But wo ask the representatives of the employer-doctrine , whether , at such desperate times , these " dangerous classes" are not likely to remember thc language now levelled at them P Assuredly they will ; and we dare to tell tho Bradford Observer , that writing like that in its number for tho 19 th instant will not havo been recorded in vain .

    But suppose the men should go — " success attending them "—what will be the feeling with which they depart P Already our system is sending out hundreds of thousands annually to recruit the republic of the West with Irishmen who hate England . Already we havo letter upon letter from Australia , warning us of the democratic spirit , hating English domination , which is gaining ground , even in South Australia , tho most conservative of all the Australian colonics .

    Already Van Dieman ' _s Land and New South Wales are threatening " to stop the supplies . " Already the star-spangled banner of the Aust . _rulias has been seen in the Thames . Already , _grave merchants at Liverpool are echoing tho threat of the West , Indians , that they may " cut the painter , " and drift to the great American Union . And il ; is at such a time that emigrants aro to be sent out , with words of contumely and dislike ringing in their ears !

    Let us , however , make a confession for the men of Bradford which possibly Ihey will be slow to make for themselves . They havo been guilty of a serious mistake , common to the whole body of the working classes . On tiio one hand , the more active among them have concentrated all their enorgies on n specific measure which , at lho best , was but a Parliamentary ; " bill" ; and was therefore inmpablo of sustaining for itself tho enthusiasm of a whole people . In the second place , the vast bod y of the working classcH have consented to fall into the selfish policy of tho classes abovo them , and to bo apathetic except in

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1852, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28081852/page/13/