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Leader (1850-1860), 8th February 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 126, Untitled Article

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      which Mr . Grantley Berkeley declared his intention to introduce a bill on the subject at an early period . We hope he will fulfil his promise in such a manner as to expose the mischievous laissez faire policy of Ministers on this , as on many other questions . Most people imagine that the cost of an article to the consumer consists merely of the expense of production , and the profits of the wholesale and retail dealers . This is a very great mistake . In

      addition to these various items , the buyer , if he want a genuine article , must pay for the cost of verifying the fact of its having that degree of goodness which he requires . Were shopkeeping generally conducted on fair and honourable principles , the cost of verification would not form a very large item in the cost of any article . But the universal custom among purchasers of making cheapness the first object , when they are utterly ignorant as to the goodness of the commodity , leaves the honest dealer with so few customers that he is forced to

      charge a much higher price for his wares than he would require were competition less desperate . This is signally the case with coffee . From a number of careful experiments made recently , and admirably related in the Lancet , it appears that a very large portion of the cheap stuff sold by dealers in coffee under the attractive titles oi " Parisian Coffee , " " Superb Coffee , " " Rich Drinking Coffee , " " Delicious Family Coffee , " and many other equally seductive labels , is almost all composed of chicory , roasted corn ,

      and burnt potatoes . In some cases " the Delicious Family Coffee / ' when subjected to analysis , was found to contain only one-fourth part of coffee ; the remaining three-fourths consisted of chicory or roasted corn . Out of thirty-four houses in London , from which samples were purchased for analysis , there were only two which sold unadulterated coffee . All the rest , from their wish to undersell , mixed other cheaper substances along 1 with the coffee , sometimes in the proportion of four parts of the spurious article to one of the

      genuine . When the coffee-adulteration question is brought before Parliament again , we shall , no doubt , be told by Sir Charles Wood that the matter lies wholly between the buyer and the seller , and tlmt Government cannot interfere . If any person chooses to buy burnt potatoes , decayed parsnips , roasted Leans , and chicory , with a slight mixture of coffee , for his matutinal beverage , no one can prevent him . And to this we should not object , if the dealers in those articles would honestly state what it is

      they are selling under the name of " Delicious Family Coffee . " There is no more harm in selling chicory , parsnips , or roasted potatoes than in celling Ceylon coffee . The crime consists in selling one article under the name of another , to the material damage of the stomachs and purses of those who are cheated . The right way to ]> ut down the dishonest trade in coffee and all other adulterated articles of food would be by tlie appointment of a public prosecutor in London , aided by several public chemists ,

      whose duty it should be to analyze such samples as were brought to them duly authenticated . Only let Government adopt this method , accompanying it with a prompt publication of the names of all who are found guilty of poisoning , or any way adulterating the goods they sell , and we . shall soon see an improvement in the health of the people . The- subject is well worth the attention of the sanitary reformers , for it is impossible tlmt the mass of the people can enjoy good health if the food they consume is more or less damaged by unwholesome and , in nome instances , poisonoiiH adulterations .

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      Till' : ROYAL VIEW AND TJIK RKAL VIU \ V . " Ifai'I'inicsh " sheds its golden light on Kngland and her winter kingdoms . Queen Victoria meets . Parliament with the most cheering reports : " The state of the commerce and manufactures of the United Kingdom , " says tin ; speed ) dictated by Ministers , " has been such as to aH ' ord general employment to the labouring cla . ises . " Hound by less reserve , but speaking with high and authentic inspiration , the movers and seconders of the address convey n yet more glowing picture . " The receipts of the revenue have far exceeded the most

      sanguine expectations , nays ; the Karl of Kflinghani , " and there can l > e no doubt that the (/ real body of the people are in the . enjoyment of all the comforts and necessaries of life . '' * Lord John Russell ulns the . destinies of England , and the result is described by Mr . Peto— " the working men

      of this country now dine as working men should dine , on edibles furnished by the butcher . " This is the royal picture of England—busy , thriving , happy , and dining on edibles furnished by the butcher . But are we looking at veritable England ? Is not " the season " beginning , with its picturesque and dramatic entertainments , its moving dioramas , theatre , opera , and Parliament ; and have we not here the Parliamentary proscenium before us ; with its gilding and red velvet , its state and happy choruses—happy , at least , to the front view ?

      But look behind—go home among the working classes ; follow the poor supernumeraries to their lodgings—if lodgings they have . Even the speech has a glimpse of this hinder question—a break in the golden atmosphere of its sun . " I have to lament , however , the difficulties which are still felt by that important body among my people who are owners and occupiers of land" —and " the labourers" ; but it is Lord Stanley that adds those words , not the authors of the speech . The speech says that the difficulty will pass away—and , perhaps , it will— " on a day not yet fixed . " It has lasted the life of some amongst us ; and bare free trade is dealing rather harshly with " slow " farmers just now , and with a few that are not slow .

      The farmers are taking their choice of evils—some are leaving the land , and going into the townsto crowd trades therej others are going to America ; others into the Gazette , or the workhouse , or bothfor both are impartially open . Some no doubt will remain to take their chance after the storm . Meanwhile , what are a still larger class doing?—what is the condition of the labourers ? They and their families number some 3 , 500 , 000 souls . Will the Earl of Effingham pretend to say that this " large body of the People" is " in the enjoyment of all the comforts and necessaries of life ? " If we may rely upon the information furnished by the Poor Law Commissioners , the . great mass of the agricultural labourers are forced to live on much coarser food

      than what is furnished to paupers . Surely Mr . Peto will not say that that is the way in which working men should live . He tells us that the number of cattle slaughtered in England last year was greater by 60 , 000 than the number slaughtered in 1849 . But the agricultural labourers have nothing to do with that . They seldom or never taste butcher ' s meat . Many of them cannot even get potatoes and bread enough for themselves and their families . And yet , notwithstanding all this suffering on the part of the great body of the people , the wealth of the nation is rapidly increasing . The total amount of incomes above £ 150 per annum , derived from trades and professions , has increased from

      £ 21 , 247 , 000 in 1812 , to £ 50 , 990 , 000 in 1850 . Among that class alone there has been nearly a threefold increase in those forty-eight years . They are not a very numerous class , and yet their aggregate income is now £ ' A 5 , 7 42 , 400 more than it was in 1812 . Now this is highly satisfactory as regards that prosperous class . But how has it been all the while with the poorer and larger sections of the community ? The total amount of wages paid to all the agricultural labourers in Great Britain , instead of double or treble , is not even equal to what it was in 1812 . If we take another large class of the community—the handloom weavers—we find that the total amount of wages paid to them is not onehalf of what it was in 1812 ! Or , worse than all

      if we take huge- and constantly-increasing town classes—needlewomen at starvation wages ; half employed and under-paid tailors and shoemakers ; artizans of all kinds out of work ; hordes of agricultural labourers driven from the soil by calculating landlords , parsimonious Poor-law Guardians , grasping and incapable , or unfortunate and needy farmers . Of this class , wo shall find probably not less than 100 , 000 ia London alone , many with families depending upon them . Are they all " in the enjoyment of the comforts and necessaries of life" ? ' Would Lord IMinghain or Mr . Peto like to see this host -because they might have « uch u review if they liked ; and " seeing is believing . "

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      WHAT Till-: GKKAT EXHIMTION WIL 1 DO FOR US . A connidkkaiii . ic quantity of confused talk is everywhere goin tf on ubout the grand effects tlmt tlio Great Exhibition is to produce . We very much Niispect that , if all thin talk were subjected to a rigorous analysis , with a view to ascertain what it is worth , a large : portion of it would be found to cons . st of mere fondness for repeating commonplaces . 1 Junking men , so for as we see , arc by no

      means disposed , like the newspapers , to go into ungovernable enthusiastics at the mere notion of the coming Exhibition . Their anticipations from the show are more moderate and less earnestlv stated . * For technical visitors—engineers , manufacturers and the like—the Exhibition will doubtless fulfil a most useful function . What a great cattle-show is to the cattle-breeder , this aggregation of

      illustrative specimens of the skill and industry of all nations will be to enterprizing men in the whole range of skilled British professions . This is a very distinct and appreciable aspect of the great coming Exhibition ; and we have not seen any extravagant exaggeration of it . Very probably , indeed , the state of the world ' s market , and the list of British manufactures will sustain changes of moment by the event which is about to take place .

      But this forms but a quiet and unobtrusive element in the general mass of speculation as to the effects of the Great Exhibition . It is as a show for the people of all nations that we hear it most frequently represented . Now , any one who has spent an hour or two in the Polytechnic Institution , in the British Museum , or in any other collection of miscellaneous articles of curiosity , must know how little of real pleasure or profit , and how much of positive weariness and bewilderment , shows of this kind are capable of affording to the untechnical and merely amusement-seeking mind .

      It is the fashion to go to such places ; public reports tell with satisfaction of the crowds that pass through the galleries of the Museum ; and dutiful papas and mammas take their children there because there is so much instruction to be got ; but the truth is , unless one goes with a specific object to such places , with a specific question , as it were , to ask , a visit to them is the reverse of a pleasure ; and to offer the British Museum or the Polytechnic to young masters and misses as a substitute at Christmas for the genuine fun of a pantomime or an extravaganza , is paternal sciolism and shabbiness in the extreme . And so with the Great Exhibition .

      In its very nature , we believe , this will not be the kind of show to regale or excite the popular imagination . The portions of it that shall bear a resemblance to Art-galleries , will , indeed , afford satisfaction , and so will those that illustrate curious processes of mechanism or manufacture—just as , in the British Museum , the Sculpture-rooms and the Egyptian-room , where the mummies lay hold of the popular heart , are best liked ; but we fear a great proportion of the twenty miles' circuit , which Mr . Paxton says the Exhibition is to consist of , will be devoted to a distracting miscellany of articles such as are huddled together in the Ethnographical-room of the British Museum ; and , to understand the effects of such an exhibition on

      the popular nerves and countenance , let any reader but go to the said room in the Museum and see how much pleasure he can get in it . The expression of face with which one leaves that room , after a conscientious survey of the cases , is positively suicidal . And if , as we expect , some miles of the Great Exhibition shall be but a colossal edition of the Ethnographical-room in the British Museum , we venture to say that , while the

      Exhibition lasts , the bad humour of London , and the number of scoldings indicted at dinner by husbands on wives , will be increased by a very appreciable percentage . Of course we do not find fault with Ethnographical-rooms , Polytechnic Institutions , and the like . They are capital things in tiieir way ; but , when we want pleasure , commend us to something else . And it is as a show got up for the pleasure of the People that we are here considering the Grand Exhibition .

      There is one safety for the Exhibition considered in this light—it will be the pretext for , and the convenient centre of , a great festival . Every means should be adopted for enhancing the importance of this aspect of the Exhibition . In the Polytechnic Institution whatever of real pleasure arises , results , we should say , from the festal disposition brought into the house by the visitorn themselves , who are usually making a holiday of it at any rate , as well us from the arrangements judiciously adopted in

      the Institution itself to coat over the dry with the interesting and festal . And were one allowed to romp in the Ethnographical-room of the British Museum , or to cat nuts in it und pop the shells at the most inviting noses within vision , one might do tolerabl y well even then ; . Now , hero the Great Inhibition will have such advantages tlmt , with with duo care , the whole thing may b « rendered unexceptionably pleasure-giving-. The beauty of the Park itself , if the weather is fine : the mere

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      126 Wbt UtabtV . [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 8, 1851, page 126, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1869/page/10/