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Leader (1850-1860), 12th July 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 657, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      REPRODUCTIVE LABOUR IN POOR LAW UNIONS . The official replies to Mr . Scully , and to his proposition for employing the able-bodied paupers m Ireland , in reproductive work , deserve notice only because they are official . They are mere parrotlike repetitions of old dogmatic assertions , out of the old ceconomy books ; and are there to be read in the form of statements as to what" would be , " if the dogmas were violated . And , pray , what is P The Irish famine , the displacement of agricultural labour , the manufacturing distress , the destitution of masses of paupers in England , the debased condition of larger masses of labourers in delusive employments—these are facts which your true old oeconomht brushes aside , as not affecting

      the argument . He thinks he settles the whole question when he simpers the assertion , that reproductive employment of paupers , " would" lower the rate of wages . That was one of the assertions repeated , from the old books , on Tuesday , by Sir William Somerville , Mr . Wilson , and Sir Charles Wood , and hinted by Mr . Labouchere .

      It is nonsense ; and a tyro in oeconomy , who was not blind to facts , could expose it . The pauper who is maintained in idleness , or in a non-productive activity , miscalled employment , must be maintained at the expense of society . In other words , the industrious classes must labour for the support of those paupers , as well as for the support of the actual workers , and of the idle classes of society . The labour withheld is a dead loss .

      This will become clearer in another view . The ceconomical welfare of a country depends on the ratio of production as compared to people—the more produce , the better off the People . But mere quantity of produce—especially as represented in mere money value—does not suffice . The People is best off which has in proportion to its numbers the largest quantity of produce of the kind needed for the vital necessities of lifeabundance of good food , good clothes , and good lodging ; and that abundance can only be brought about by the industry of the mass of the People . The more produce of that kind the better . It is

      not by the nominal amount of " wages" that the comfort of a people is measured , but by the amount of needful produce that they share among them . It is not by the amount of goods stored in warehouses , or the luxury of particular classes , that the welfare of a nation is governed ; but by the amount of good food , clothes , and lodging , diffused among the whole . Our system has failed to secure the needful diffusion , or the distribution of industry needful to cause it : and the best remedy for the defect is the most direct remedy—a power which will set more labour engaged in producing the needful commodities . Exactly what Mr- Scully proposed to do .

      And in the case of the able-bodied paupers you luive a remarkably simple conjunction of ihe want and the instrument . Here are a great number of persons suffering through that defective distribution of industry , wanting the commodities most vitally needful : and when you set them to produce such commodities , you meet the want in the most simple and truthful way . You supply the want precisely where it is felt . Mr . Wilson says that such plan has failed : the assertion is untrue—inadvertently , no doubt . It is a common impression that this question was

      examined by the Poor-law Commissioners of Inquiry , in 1833 , and settled negatively : but it was not ; it was neglected , other questions pressing more urgently . What evidence was incidentally taken , is to be found scattered through the earlier reports , showing successful use of reproductive pauper labour . In the Sheffield experiment , fettered as that is , Mr . Wilson may learn that reproductive employment does not make paupers , but nerves as an adult school in the art of obtaining " independent" labour ; and abundant evidence lies scattered , inviting examination , in the unions whose names arc ; familiar to our

      readers . Sir William Somerville wants all such business to be left to the Commissioners , for they will do all that is necessary ; and the Mouse has agreed so to leave it . Hut the Commissioners have not done all that is necessary . What information have they given us about the great and interesting experiment at . Cork ? What have they done to facilitate it ? Have they not systematically avoided the experiment at Sheffield , although speciall y invited P They have—they ure systematically shirking this great queHtion . But Mr . Scully cannot have been silenced by the vote of Tucaday night .

      Untitled Article

      THE SOUL OF GOOD IN THINGS EVIL . Mr . Rickman , in his preface to the Population Abstracts of 1831 , remarks that " An increasing population may be deemed a solid good or n dreadful evil , according to the circumstances of the nation in which it occurs . If a commensurate increase of food and raiment can be produced by agriculture and machinery , an accession of consumers in the home market cannot but be beneficial to all parties , and the increase of population in such eases may be deemed equally desirable in

      itself , and conducive to national strength and prosperity . " Applying this rule lo Ireland inversely , all parties will agree that the decrease of population in that island will be attended with great benefit to those who are left behind , and also to the population of Great Britain . For the last forty or fifty years this country has been the grand outlet for the pauper population of Ireland , and the

      melancholy results are visible iu all our large towns . " The Milesian , " KnyH Carlyle , in his Chartism , " is the sorest evil this country has to strive with . In his nigs and laughing savagery , he is there to undertake all work that can be done by mere strength of hand and back , for wages that will purchase him potatoes . He needs only salt for condiment ; lie lodges to liin mind in any pighutch , or dog-hutch ; roosts in outhouses ; mid wears u suit oi tattera , the getting off and on of

      which is said to be a difficult operation , transacted only in festivals , and the high tides of the calendar . " Suddenly the Milesian pauper-flood has taken another direction . The desperate competition for labour in England and Scotland having left fewer openings for them , the evicted Irish peasantry have begun to emigate to America , in such numbers as to upset all the population theories and calculations of the last half century . Three years ago , our political oeconomists could not conceive it

      possible that the number of emigrants from Ireland would ever go beyond 100 , 000 annually . Last year it was nearly a quarter of a million , and there is good reason to believe that it will go on increasing . But , even without any increase , there is quite enough in what is going on to cause serious alarm among the wealthy classes . Their first thought will be , that even if the population of Ireland should be reduced to three or four millions , the country would be all the better for it , and we agree with them on that head , although not precisely in the same sense as they do . They look to the reduction which would take place in the amount of poor ' s rates , but have they ever considered what an advance must inevitably take

      place in wages ? The Times of last Saturday makes some interesting remarks on the social and political consequences which are likely to flow from the probable extension of the emigration mania throughout the United Kingdom . Most people fancy that , if the condition of the working-classes were improved , the feeling in favour of emigration would speedily decline ; but the Times is not quite so clear as to that result— "We can conceive a great demand for labour , skilled or unskilled , increasing emigration , instead of repressing it . " Then follows a remarkable passage , in which the necessity of a large extension of the suffrage is clearly indicated : —

      ' If all depended on what is called the maiket of labour , as soon as the population had fallen to a certain level , labour would command such a price as would overpower all inducements to emigration . But besides the maiket of labour , there are some things not quite so self-adjusting , though quite as important to the interests of labour . The institutions of the country are adapted to the actual condition of the labourer , to the actual rate of his wages , the actual sphere of his expectations , the actual calibre of his intelligence , to his actual education , sympathies , and manners . But these institutions , the work of ages ,

      are not easiiy adjusted to a rapid change . Should the labourers of this country find that they were masters , and that the rate of wages depended no longer on the decision of the market table , and should the same discovery be made even quicker in our manufacturing towns , who does not see that a new element would be introduced , not only in our industrial , but also in our political calculations ? The Parliamentary , the judicial , and the ecclesiastical systems of the country might feel the unwonted presence of rude and newly conscious energies below the present Bmooth surface of things . Already we hehold a vast assimilation and mixing of peoples . The

      last ten years have done more to bring man and man together , and to destroy the political as well as the geographical barriers between Englishman , Irishman , American , Frenchman , and German , than any previous century in the history of the world . Such changes as these cannot fail to disengage the rising generation more from the ties of custom and place , and enable them to tight their way better in the battle of the world . When our masses are no longer either insulated by want of communication , or encumbered by their own numbers , how will they preserve that humility which is as convenient to their employe ™ us it . i « comfortable to themselves ? This is the time to

      consider these questions , for // the . working population of these islands is to acquire greater actual power , it is high time they should be prepared , and the . house put in order , for so great and perilous a change . "

      Untitled Article

      THi ; HKNCll AND TI 1 K 1 IAK AT HCHOOI ,. Tiik Bench i . s mulling decided advance in the knowledge of life . Wo remember when Lord Abingcr was caught tripping in the quotation of an expression familiar enough . As he was gravely summing up , the following colloquy arose : — " Lord Ahinger ( to the , jury ) : And then the defendant Hiiid he would play hell and Jemmy with him . " Mr . Serjeant lAnthwaitc : llell and Tommy , my Lord . " Lord Ahinger : Thank you , brother I . mHnvailo { Proceeding . ) And the defendant tmiri thai , he would pluy hell and Tommy with him . " But in our day it is the Ilrnch that correct * the liar . In the cane of Smith versus Jlrow .., " « have the foliow ,,, g interlocution : — ' Mr Montagu Chambers naid that there wuh no accounting for tuotea . ' Some like grancu and some onion * .

      Untitled Article

      ABD-EL-KADER , KOSSTJTH , AND BAKOONIN . Never will the Government of France be safe or happy while Abd-el-Kader remains a prisoner . Honour to Lord Londonderry and Lord Maidstone who have tried to procure his release ! The spirit which moves them is one which is most wanted in our day—the spirit of chivalry , or devotion to a good mission because it is good . Tbe excuse for non-interference advanced by the Times , in reply to a letter from Lord Maidstone , — that England who detained Napoleon , would not come into court with clean hands—does not apply . Napoleon was detained by George the Regent and his Tory Government ; whereas France is a Republic , and acts for herself . No stipulation was broken . Nor has Abd-el-Kader broken his parole , as Napoleon had done . The excuse of the Constitutionnel , that dangerous consequences might follow , is still weaker . France is under a pledge to release Abd-el-Kader ; and in

      accepting from the Monarchy an inheritance of broken faith , the Republic commits the crime over again . Nor is the argument of any force as a matter of mere policy : nothing is so dangerous for France , or for any honest government which it might have , as a disgrace to the national faith endured by the nation . Standing forth as the chivalrous champion of all that is noble , France might win the love and trust of the nations , and be the leader of Europe : as it is , she is the suspected tool of Russia , her Government low in the eyes of her own people . In default of France , England might do the

      good work , —not only on behalf of Abd-el-Kader , but of many others . Were England to proclaim her sympathy and succour for all wronged and helpless captives , suffering for freedom and humanity , she might seize the renown and power which France misses . Let her say that Turkey shall not , against her will , be forced to detain Kossuth and his fellow-captives , and then would Turkey and Hungary be allies of England by closer ties than treaty stipulations . Let her demand the release of the men languishing in the prisons of Austria and Naples , and Italy would soon settle every question of the Romish Church that vexes England . Let her demand freedom for the exiles of Siberia ,

      newly recruited by the oppressed Bakoonin , and many a Russian province , many a Russian family , would in its heart swear allegiance to England . What power , what easy victory , what glory would attend such a policy ! Would the true Republicans of France fail to imitate it ? And what hinders ? Oh ! prudent men of the

      middle class will cry , it might get us into a war , and that would be so expensive . The constituencies , cry Members , will be angry with us . There may be consequences , cry the Whig Ministers . It is against diplomatic rule { aside , and diplomatic interests ] , objects Lord Palmerston . So England remains bound to the car of diplomacy , which Absolutism is driving—to the Devil , or to 1852 , which is nearly as bad . And the People of England !—what does that say ? Nothing—at present .

      Untitled Article

      . July 12 , 1851 . ] ff& * & * && **? 657 - - ¦ - - _ j __ i _ - in i i T -r - i

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 12, 1851, page 657, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1891/page/13/