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586 THE liEADJB. {gA^fr^ I
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^ "" " POPULATION AND CAPITAL Population...
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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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R Nursing Sisterhoods. Sisters Of Charit...
We agree with this author in the following remarks : — But while we admire the institution of Sisters of Charity , and venerate the amiable and excellent women composing it , we acknowledge at once the impossibility of estab- _lishing any similar religious order in connexion with our Protestant churches . Still we do not despair of one day seeing enlisted in the service of the sick , countrywomen of our own equal in every respect to this admirable sisterhood . Miss Nightingale and her band of heroines have shown that this is no Utopian _idea-they have demonstrated * £ _^ 2 _^ _MJ _?* % _Zr _^^^^^ T _^ r _^^ _Sl conquered the applause of the public . They have broken through the trammels of conventional prudery , and achieved for themselves the esteem of all right-thinking people . Having overcome the scruples of a false delicacy , they have roused a noble rage for their philanthropic labours , and excited thousands of their countrywomen to emulate their heroic deeds . Henceforth , ' we venture to affirm , the nursing of the sick will be added to the list of female accomplishments . We cannot believe that the spirit which has animated these noble women will decline with the exigencies of the present war . We feel assured that the war has but kindled a spark which long lay smouldering in many a female bosom , and which will henceforth burn with a steady and useful _** am _^ , * _a _^ j . _-l . _j- c XT . . ... , ,. .. t _^ st _^ Y _^^ war broke out , we see that a lar _^ e number of women must necessarily for ever remain unmated ; for these no conjugal joys—ot sorrows—are in store , no husband shall ever engross their love , no little ones shall ever lisp to them the name of mother . Many of these can make themselves useful to their friends and relations ; many can chalk out for themselves other spheres of usefulness ; some are endowed with talents for the arts and sciences fitting them to shine in society , or to instruct the world . But how many have no such career of utility or amusement before them . Are they destined to fritter away their lives in wearisome aud profitless occupation ?—to yawn away the day over a novel?—to weave Penelope webs of Berlin wool representing unnatural flowers and monstrous animals ? -to draw unartistic landscapes and repulsive portraits ? -to write feeble verses , devoid of poetry ?—to strum long hours on the piano in hopes _df acquiring an ear for music r—to practice for months together m the expectation of getting _avrice ? Are they to be for ever debarred from employing their native talents in the most suitable manner , for ever condemned to labour in vain for the acquisition of accomplishments they never can excel in , and which can never be of the slightest use to themselves or their neighbours ? How many of them possess all those qualities which go to make the best of nurses ? How many have the cheerful patience , the exquisite sensibility and tenderness , the undefinable womanly tact that soothes , more than opiates , the feverish irritability of patients , and helps to banish the tedium of the sick-bed ? And are all these medicinal powers to be lost to the sick . because in England . alone , of all Christian countries ; society thinks it unproper for ladies to perform the Christian duty of visiting the sick in the way most advantageous for these sick ( ° Protestant Nursing Sisterhoods composed of volunteers might contain women of the lower classes as well as ladies ; but , probably , trained and paid nurses cannot for a long time be dispensed with advantageously in . our military hospitals . Mr . S . G . Osborne is emphatic in his praise of Miss Nig htingale and her associates—but a few words of qualification deserve to be quoted here , because , though to a certain extent prejudiced where ladies are concerned , Mr . Osborne is much less so than the generality of English gentlemen , and he has been to Scutari and seen the actual working of the Lady Nurses there . He says : — England , and the English army , will ever owe a deep debt of gratitude to the ladies who have devoted themselves to this first attempt to introduce the zeal and tender care of well-bred women into the economy of a military-hospital . When the war is over , and they return to us , from their experience may be gained the valuable information , how far all the work they had to do in this crisis was work that , in the sober moment of calm consideration at home , they would recommend as a field for the charitable exertion of English ladies . Mr . Osborne bears testimony to the high character and unsectarian spirit of those ladies of Miss Sellon ' s _sisterhood with whom he had to do , when * i u i _» j j . it . i -i . i t > i ii j . _~ l j taking chaplain s duty m the hospitals . There is really no rational ground of objection to a Nursing Sisterhood , any more than to a Dorcas Society , or a Ladies Committee of a Ladies College .
586 The Lieadjb. {Ga^Fr^ I
586 THE liEADJB . { gA _^ _fr _^ I
^ "" " Population And Capital Population...
_^ "" " POPULATION AND CAPITAL Population and Capital . By George K . Rickards , M . A . Longman and Co . We are pleased with this book for two . reasons : because it is a good book , _„ j u ... _^ 11 1 !• _„• ii , /» , , . and because it is a wanted book—conditions seldom to be found together in these d » ys of literary fecundity . Perhaps another recommendation lies in the "fact that its contents have already been submitted , in the form of lectures , to the criticism of a critical audience : for Mr . Rickards is _Tro- _„ p t > !• * ¦ _i _t- > t . . j . viv _. _ivu . 1 ua » a aiu lessor ot J . _olitical Ji , oonoiny at the University of Oxford , and this book contains nothing but a course of leotures dolivered by him in that capacity . Widening the sphere of his influence , the lecturer now offers the fruit of his Studies to all who feel an interest in the momentous subject of which he treats , and it is possible that in doing so he may accomplish some more solid good than cramming a class of students with sufficient Political Economy to ° . . . ° . _«« j _»» _u x _uiib _^ _ui _x-couwuiy lo enable . them to pass an examination . Although by far the larger portion of the volume _ie taken up with the subject'of population , we prefer to confine the few remarks which we are about to make chiefly to the subject of Capital , that beinor the topic upon which , as wo conceive , more popular errors exist , and as to which it is more , _» _,.,. . ' . . ill -i wi _. i n * ¦» «• , i o »« _w _* v . needful that correct opinions should prevail . Whether Mr . Malthus was or waainot logical when he produced ; his famous dogma tliat " population has a constant tendency to increase _bejondtho medns of subsistence _^ " it is quite certain that no _au _^ h _tendonqy is oporatiog to the disadvantage of this country . at the present day , nor seems likely to do for some time , _tor « _ome . _J ** - _W" _^ _outartpping Subsi » tOneo , H mu . t bo _-toWrf . _** _^ this _^ _resent moment , in apite of a depressed trade , no branch of industry is overgtookod with labour , whilst . the _diftittulty . of _obtaining xooruits . for _tho
naval and military arm prove to demonstration that the Queen has to f I rather than too many subjects upon her dominions . Those who feel W I interest in pursuing this question , and who wish to mingle a little I _^ I reasoning with the pleasant speculations upon the Census -which have _lntf 6 I appeared in Bluckwood , will do well to go carefully _through Mr _p- i _? I ards . s BUCCessful refutation of the Malthusian fallacy . Givin ° Maltiin « 2 " I f n dife f honest of purpose , ancl admitting that that well-abused _r ! v I _1-tl-pist is not reaTly to P _be _5 h « K _* with folly _S j impiety , as _hets _^ I _} lr- R _^ kards hi s , as we conceive , the exact truth when he e xplains that E increase ot population must be taken , not indeed as an absolute proof , but H as an indication of the prosperity of a nation . _ As the produce of a country H increases , as its commerce spreads , as its industrial arts demand fresh El supplies of labour , marriage ( the sure consequence of prosperity ) supplies if the demand , and proves the wealth which has called it into activit y . One H great excuse for Malthus's error lies in the fact that he never saw the fetters iff of protection removed from the food of the people , and it must be admitted m tlmt the spectacle of the law of population acting with natural freedom on H the one hand , and that of the provision of food actinor under unnarnrnl ES restraints on the other , was likel _£ to alarm a philosophical mind , _fief I existing conditions , however , we must avow our belief m the converse of If the Malthusian dogma , and discarding alike all faith in the efficacy of _M physical checks and moral checks upon the great law of nature , accept it for a §§ truth that the productive power of a community tends to increase more rapidl y M _tlian the number of the consumers . M The solitary lecture on Capital opens with a very intelligible definition of » -what Capital really is ; all the more necessary when we find such men as H Mr . Butt , and Sir Robert Kane , blundering upon the point : the former M speaking of waste lands , and the latter of labour , as Capital . Capital savs M _jftr _ Ri ( f kards is any thing whatever , the result of previous labour , which is I d _j h > k f _ioduc fcion » , In t ' bese words { t £ defined as the _^ J 3 I ,, _, , i _ ' . . . _, " _^ wuuwj i _^ i ot past labour saved from immediate consumption , and employed for the | purpose of producing something else . It is the reproductive power which i makes it Capital . This definition once clearly understood , there can be no f difficulty in at once determining what is Capital and what is not . The use 9 i alone makes Capital ; as the corn , which may be consumed as food , becomes 1 Capital by being laid by for seed . In quoting this instance of the corn , Mr . | Rickards draws a curious and ingenious analogy applicable to a great pro- 1 portion of what may be strictly called Capital ; namely , that in the process 3 of reproduction , the original Capital becomes depreciated before it yields 3 & a in _^ rease > This is f _> o with almost all raw materials , with the food % _i j . i _ _^ _xi . i i _ i • _i i , L \ and other necessaries otthe labourer , and is a curious gloss upon the text , j | "That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die . " M In drawing a very just distinction between productive and unproductive ffl consumption , Mr . llickards demolishes that revolting and dangerous fallacy , M that " private vices are public _benedts ; " a fallacy which has had some illus- M trious supporters , and which is the foundation of the popular favour with m which those who _" spend their money freely" are regarded . A modern French p writer , M . de Saint Chaumens , has succeeded , unintentionally , in reducing p this argument ad absurdum , by not only advocating luxurious living on | economical grounds , but maintaining that war and even great conflagrations | are advantageous , " on account of the extensive employment to which they | give rise . " Very little reflection will convince us that the man who accumu- | lates capital ( i . e . a fund for the employment of labour } is a greater public : | benefactor than he who spends a fortune upon luxury and self-indulgence ; I but this is not the popular belief , as the feeling towards spenthriita too i surely proves . The example by which M . Rickards illustrates his distinction ! is so good , that we cannot forbear quoting it : — f . , _. . .. . , . . _„ ... ? A expends a given sum of money , n a costly entertainment , B expends the same | sum in converting a piece of undramed morass into a potato-garden , linen gives * emplovment by _fhat One act of expenditure , to a certain amount of labour , and con- | tribute 3 to the maintenance of a certain number of families—belonging , indeed , in the 4 two ca 3 ea to a different class , but we will assume the benefit conferred in this respect i _£ to be equal . The value thus expended is in both instances consumed , but with how I different a result ! In the fonher case the viands are eaten , the music ceases , the ;| garlands fade , the guests have enjoyed their revel . Nothing beyond the pleasure of | the hour has been the result of that profitless expenditure . No fund survives for cm- ; : ploying a new series of wine-growers , serving-men , confectioners , and musicians . So _^ muoh valuo nas been irrevocably sunk and lost . To that extent A has become a j poorer man than he was before . On tlie other hand , 13 , the improver of the sou , u ! _jg not only a 3 rich aa he Wrt 9 before hia expenditure commenced , but richer . Ilia | potato-ground has returned a produce which not only replaces all that he has paid to | his la _^ _ourera in wages , together with the tithes and taxes , and a per-centage on his , | lix _f _« a _PJ ta 1 ' _^ _ovf _and _above _thefl _« - a P rofit on his outlay . The money which ho | sank in the soil has been replaced with usury . He has the . same fund in hand to . a expend over again in maintaining labourers and their families ; year after year the pro- j ccss _«> f reproductive consumption _maj' go on ; the same capital may be again and again | cm P loycd 7 consumed , and replaced , furnishing in each successive cycle maintenance i t 0 th _° ° UrCr nnd inC ° mC to th _° P itftll 8 t - . . ! Out of . this tlcfillition ° / productive Capital , a wider and even more im- | P ° ttant VIe T- _^^ f' ? f / ' U J ttt , umcver P rone the human mind _> _™/ _^ to become sordid and grovelling in the pursuit of wealth , the actual accuinuwtioilj production , and employment of wealth can act in no other way Unui to | J the benefit of society . Lot this be thoroughly understood , and the _fallacious Ivj doctrine of antagonism between Capital and Labour , which ag _itatoivi have I , so lon S *» kon as the text for their pernicious harangues , is at once demo- | _. _V _^ _S' _^^/^ ' f mi _^ bo ft hui ; d nia " ' _^ _i _" , he ma _V ? " ™« fy _^ " _^ _ffi ( 1 but Capital follows fixed laws , and must cither work to the benefit or _tm > || _workman , or it must disappear . I We cannot help thinking that if Mr . Rickards would reprint the locture If upon Capital in so cheap a form _« s to ronder it available for distribution H ' _« *« ong . the working-classes , ho would eflect a public service . There can II h ? n ? ° uht that _, _it _^ _011141 thoroughly bo understood and warmly appro- i _^ io _^^ _M _^ l _^^ J _^ C _^^^^" _^ . thousand dogmatic . pamphlets asserting , not proving , that the operativcifl l [ iavariably in the -wrong . 1
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1855, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/scld_16061855/page/10/
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