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Leader (1850-1860), 12th October 1850, Edition Country of 1, Page 683

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      Untitled Article

      Popular language makes a distinction between « agriculture" and "trade" ; quite rightly : the laws of the one do not govern the other , and cannot ; but our present ceconomical system , based entirely on trading laws , is torturing agriculture on the Procrustes bed of free trade . The spectacle is one of the most remarkable ever presented to the contemporary oeconomist—a great natural interest working out , in its own calamities and hopeless endeavo ' ur , the refutation of a great social dogma .

      The agriculturists have our sympathy and respect ; but most certainly a time will come , perhaps not far distant , when they will be obliged to revise their position , to compare notes with trade , and to insist upon being allowed a surer ground . They are improving agriculture , but they axe sliding down the hill of destruction , and , of course , that disastrous progress must be arrested .

      Untitled Article

      THE SWEATING SYSTEM—NICOLL VERSUS MOSES . " The town tourist , in his progress to the west end of the metropolis , cannot have failed to notice an extensive range of premises in course of erection at the corner of Hart-street , . Neit Oxford-street . The situation , extent , and character of these premises must , from the earliest stage of the undertaking , have impressed the public with the idea that such a project could be connected with no mean capitalists—no ordinary speculation . The gradual development of the building , and the ultimate display of the name of the proprietary , at once disclosed to the passer by the true character of the speculation , and thousands in that and other important localities have ever since been looking forward with anxious expectation to the OPENING of the West-end Branch of E . Moses and Son . " - -Advertisement in the l imes , October 5 .

      The object of Messrs . Moses and Son in moving westward is , as they state in the above advertisement , to accommodate a large portion of their wealthy customers who live in that quarter . As a proof of their anxiety to give every satisfaction to the rich who wish to buy cheap clothing , Moses and Son inform the nobility and gentry that there is " a separate private entrance * to the " bespoke " department , and call special attention to the fact that " Hart-street , which runs parallel with Oxfordstreet , being quiet and private , affords standing room for carriages—a circumstance worthy the attention of the gentry . " This reminds one of the side door which pawnbrokers and other occult

      dealers offer to customers that do not court publicity . It may be guessed that many of the aristocracy would like very well to buy cheap clothing if they could do so without being seen . With all their horror of cheap corn and cattle , the landowners will not object to a reduction of twenty-five per cent , in their tailors' bills , and Moses and Son actually offer a large portion of their stock " at prices less than those charged elsewhere by fifty per cent . " The only drawback on all these fine promises is that we cannot understand how any tradesman can build splendid showshops and sell his goods so marvellously cheap , unless by reducing the wages of his workmen to the starvation point .

      Many of our readers have , no doubt , seen the graphic description of " A Tailor ' s Hell " in one of those articles on " Labour and the Poor , " for which the public are so much indebted to the Morning Chronicle . A group of working men was there depicted busily employed in the manufacture of dress and frock coats , Chesterfields , paletots , monkey-jackets , beavers , shooting-jackets , trousers , vests , and every other variety of woollen garment which may be purchased in any of the slop-palaces in town . The Chronicle correspondent had previously introduced himself to one of the largest slonsellers at the East end , in order to

      glean some information respecting the prices that gentleman was in the habit of paying to his workmen ; but he might have spared his pains . Much as the slop-dealer might be inclined to boast of the extent of his business or the great bargains at his establishment , he did not choose to give any information touching the wages of his workpeople . From the men themselves , however , the indefatigable correspondent learned that the rate of wages was as low as it was possible for men to starve upon . From two shillings to two shillings and sixpence a-day appeared to be about the average amount , and even from that small sum several deductions were made . One man says : —

      " I've worked from seven in the morning till eleven at night , and my earnings will be 13 s . this week ; and deducting 4 s . out of that for lodging and tea morning and evening , and Is . 9 d . for triinmings , that will leave 7 s . 3 d . for my earnings all the week , Sunday included . It's very seldom that we have a Sunday walking out . We ' re obliged to work on Sunday all the s ime . We should lose our shop if we didn ' t . The average wages all t . l » o year throuyh is Ss . Out of this sum we have to deduct expenses of lodging , trimming , washing , and light , which comes to -5 s . 9 d . We can ' t get a coat to our backs . "

      Now , we do not know what large slopseller this man was working for . Nor do we say that the working men who make garments for Moses and Son are obliged to work seven days in the week for such starvation wages as this man appears to have earned . This , however , we do know , that , after the most careful examination of Moses and Son's advertisement , we have not been able to discover any trace of their paying higher wages than the rest of the slopdealers at the East end . If they really , can afford to pay good wages and sell so much cheaper than their neighbours , they ought to obtain one of the first prizes at the Exhibition of 1851 .

      Should Moses and Son object to the introduction of anything about wages in an advertisement , let them take an example from the Messrs . Nicoll , and throw open their establishment to the inspection of the Morning Chronicle correspondent , who will have much pleasure in giving an account of the number of men they employ , and the average rate of wages earned by them . From the report in the Chronicle we learn that there are altogether from 1000 to 1200 persons employed by Messrs . Nicoll , and that a considerable number of them are

      Continental refugees . The larger portion of their workmen are engaged in the making of readymade garments . These have constant employment , and their average earnings are fully thirty shillings a-week . " "Where two brothers were working together , with two boys as apprentices , the average earning of each man and boy amounted to £ 3 10 s . a-week . " If Moses and Son have many persons in their employment earning a similar high

      rate of wages it would be interesting were they to publish the fact , and thereby prove that they have solved the hard problem which has puzzled us so long . As regards needlewomen—that much oppressed class—we are told that in the Messrs . Nicolls' establishment " females are extensively employed , and their earnings average twenty shillings a-week , " which is five or six times the wages earned by most of those who are employed at the East-end of London .

      But , while we have much pleasure in publishing these facts relating to the liberal and humane conduct of the Messrs . Nicoll towards their workpeople , we must not shut our eyes to the fact that they are acting in direct opposition to the common doctrine , that labour , like any other commodity , ought always to be bought in the cheapest market . They seem to be of Carlyle ' s opinion , that " to be a noble Master arnonir noble Workers is the first

      ambition ; to be a rich Master only the second . With so many thousands of workmen unemployed , or working at starvation wages , it is clear that they could easily nett larger profits by grinding wages down to the lowest point compatible with good workmanship . That they have not done so is a proof that , even in London , there are Captains of Industry who think of something else , something higher , than mere supply-and-demand , when fixing the rate of wages which a man ought to have . But will the Messrs . Nicoll be able to carry on

      their honourable warfare in the great battle of competition which is going on around them ? " It is well known , " said the editor of the Morning Chronicle , a few months ago , "that the London tailoring business has , for some years past , been progressively sinking deeper and deeper towards that dreary level of hopeless misery at which the toil of weary days and sleepless nights ceases to yield any other return than the barest pittance on which existence can be maintained . " Is it possible for two or three honourable masters to arrest

      that downward progress ? Not unless they are well backed by the press , from which alone can we look for such an improvement in public feeling as will give labour the position in the social scale that it ought to hold . The Morning Chronicle says : — " Unless some change takes place—either in the temper of the public with regard to th <» pretentious establishments alluded to , or in the morale at the employers , or in the existing proportions of the supply of labmir to the demand , or in some other fundamental condition of the question—a very few jears will nee the whole tailoring trade of the metropolis conducted on the showshop , middleman , and starvation principle . "

      Thanks to the Morning Chronicle and to other journals , that "change in the temper of the public" has already begun . As for the connection between the supply of labour and the demand , some time , we fear , must elapse before any great improvement will take place . Meantime it is cheering to see the Messrs . Nicoll , in the face of slop-palace competition , and in defiance of thu hard maxims of political ceconomy , acting towards their workpeople in a manner so liberal , and—we are sorry to add—so uncommon .

      Untitled Article

      PARISH PROPRIETIES AND PAUPER PIETIES . While the provincial guardians of Sheffield and Cork are conducting truly wise and great expert ments with admirable success , especially in the singularly improved temper and discipline of the paupers , some metropolitan guardians are indulging in the most fantastic tricks of parish authority . In the royal parish of St . James the " governors " have driven , an unhappy girl mad by catting off her hair because she sang a song ascribed to Thomas Hood ! It must be remembered that the shearing of the hair gives to the shorn the aspect of a convict ; it is an infliction utterly unjustifiable in a temporary asylum ; and the natural , the justifiable resistance of the girl was overcome b y violence . The conduct caused 4 mutiny in the workhouse , which the police were summoned tp quell . It appears that the St . James ' s governors have not yet learned the art of wprkhpuse discipline ; the authorities at Somerset-house have prpr bably not given them much help in learning it ; hut if a St . James's governor could be sent to Sheffield or Cork he might learn better modes of making convicts orderly than twisting cloths round their necks or shaving their heads .

      The same enlightened governors , it appears , have recently revived a rigid order , obliging the aged outdoor paupers to wear a workhouse costume . Our poor-law can never work well while it eonfounds the unfortunate , the infirm , and the dissor lute vagrant in one penal law ; but administration such as this aggravates the mischief inherent in the . statute . The manifest object is tp disgrace and humiliate the poor ; such 18 the object with the high legislators who constructed the act of 1 ^ 34 , and still more of the middle class officials who ad * minister that statute in Westminster .

      After these malignant sallies , the pleasantness in the Marylebone Workhouse comes as a variety agreeable rather than otherwise . From a report in the Weekly Dispatch , we learn , on the authority of Mr . Walters , that , " during the late master ' s time the workhouse was a regular gambling place , where horse betting was carried to its greatest lengths .

      The master actually died with a racing and betting * book in his hand . " And he bequeathed a set of carrier pigeons that brought him early intelligence of vicissitudes on the turf . It is said to be bad political ceconomy to make a workhouse selfsupporting ; but , probably , to letitbe turf-supporting is quite consistent with doctrines of free trade and laissez-aller .

      Pigeons were the fancy in the late regime j in the existing regime the fancy is a little variety in the preachers . It seems that one Sunday lately , the chaplain , Mr . Moody , being absent , and his substitute not appearing , a pauper was ordered to don the surplice , which he did ; wholly unaware of pains and penalties named by such an act . In the parish of St . James they shave their paupers for singing songs ; in St . Mary ' s , they dress the paupers in canonicals , to say prayers . Paupers are not usually treated as reverend persons j but what does it matter in a workhouse ? It is not

      necessary that paupers should be better oft than ' * the independent labourer" : if he must have worse food , why not worse spiritual provision ; or the workhouse might be made " attractive . " Why should not the prayers , like the gruel , be of a workhouse savour ? Parish aid to poverty is the opprobrium of the official oeconoiny ; the workhouse is a communistic institution , of which your staunch oeconomist is heartily ashamed ; and he delights to make it as * ' repulsive" as possible . If the State

      should not make itself responsible for providing subsistence or labour , a fortiori it cannot undertake to provide spiritual sustenance . At least the regulation which keeps down the slices of bread and butter to an " unattractive" form , may dole out { slices of salvation with an equal parsimony . The poor ought not to be taught to regard the workhouse gates as one of the portals to Heaven ; quite the reverse . And if , by perverse chance , by some obstinate perseverance

      in destitution and divine service , the paupei should make his way by that unlikely channel , what need is there that he should ascend with more than a pauper provision for the journey—a robe of light cut according to the workhouse regulations ? It is clear , therefore , that Pauper Langrage is fitter mediator for pauper souls th , an the Reverend Mr . Moody ; for that preserves the due distinction between the independent soul and the parochial bouI ; otherwise the distinction might be lost in the sight of Heaven . Langrage says , " The congregation tittered as I was saying prayers ;"

      Untitled Article

      Oct . 12 , 1850 . ] 3 Cf ) £ & £ && **? 683

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 12, 1850, page 683, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1856/page/11/