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adl cancer * , "b y -which ihe -whole curete of aieji cheat themselves , « id waste tfceirtebou » r < to nut refiise txrpoison imfco « aeh other e mouths ; jfoamg that which they realiy desired , and liaving that which they would pay to b © without Thereis the same adulteration in everything that constitutes the furniture © f life ; your clothing , your furniture , your house , ate adulterated- But what is worse ^ ihe very friendsjbhat stand around ^ ou , th e * -Parliament to which you appeal , equally share
the adulteration . There is no instant voice to put down the nuisance , because everybody has a present interest in it . It was so an July , 1854 , and it is so now-, the very same illustrations serve us . We then pointed to the case of Davidsojst , Oosdoit , and Co ., as showing the extent to which commerce itself , as rwell as the wares transferred in commercej is adulterated ; and we have Davidson and Q-obdon with us still , besides many a Co . that deserves but has not reached
the police courts ; to say nothing of that banking company winch has shown how far the very strong box of commerce is tainted by the adulteration . Nevertheless we are far from saying that we are exactly where we were then . We have at least made that important step which consists in knowing and confessing our disgrace . It was in July , 1854 , that the Leader pointed out the adulteration of society ; and it is in July , 1855 , that our mercantile eontemporary , the Economist , admits the worst part of the adulteration :
" Both buyer and seller are to blame , " says the Economist . "The seller , it is true , strives to screw a large profit by a lawful means , but the buyer is equally greedy of gaining an unlawful profit by paying an unfair price . An undue love of cheapness a gross and vulgar misapprehension of what cheapness means , is one of the most prevalent causes of adulteration . "
The buyer , hardened in ignorance , may know that chicory is a drug and that copperas has deadly qualities , for people tell him so ; but ignorant of physiology or of chemistry , he does not , in the sense of actually perceiving it , know what the poison causes , or survey the consequences to himself and to his children , perhaps to the third and fourth generation . It is low-minded ignorance to begin with . An adulteration of the buyer is an essential condition , without which the adulterations of the seller could not be .
But once instituted in commerce , the process of adulteration makes rapid advances . It is a trick easily learned ; and it is highly stimulated by our competition . The oldfashioned Italian dealer sells pickles for a certain price . His 'neighbour wishes to get the custom and sells them cheaper , but they must look as good or better , and the flavour is heightened with one drug , the colour brightened with another . Others outvie th © first adulterator . In the meanwhile the
old-fashioned dealer has continued to sell dear and to be genuine , but a genius in the firm discovers a new branch of adulteration It consists in selling the article in the oldfashioned house , at the old-fashioned price , on the strength of its being " genuine , " but resorting to exactl y the same devices as are used to get up the manufactured article ; and so the adulterator who has tried to beat
down price teaches the high-priced vendor to make a larger profit , by adulterating an ** old established genuine" reputation . The next step is to trade in " awful sacrifices , " and bankruptcy itself is subject to adulteration . TKe proceeds are lodged in a bank , whose manager is selling securities to those that purchase such commodities , and the very bank is adulterated . 1 Since we exposed the extent of the disease last year , however , we have had new proofs of its yet fuorther . extension . There is not a
cranny so small that it idoes not eniery not a place bo elevated that it does not reach . Not to look further back than iihe eradle ^ thoBgh . we might pursue the inquiry there— -the schoolboy begins . life under a schoolmaster whose teaching is adulterated with ignorance and with the devices to conceal ignorance If the child is sick , ' a medical man is called in , and the boy is not only treated with drugs that are adulterated , but the medical man himself is adulterated with ignorance
and with quackery to conceal his ignorance . As the child grows up , an artificially-adulterated form of life clouds his sense , cramps his body , and adulterates his very vitals . We have had more than one family anatomised before the public lately , but perhaps no exposure is more horrid than that occasioned by the suspicions in * he Wooibb , family * at Darlington . Mr . Wooxeb is a man of large property , giving excellent dinners ; his society has been muck courted .
He has , of course , been respected in his county—highly respected . The medical men , who may be said to have ascertained symptoms that indicated poison , were so adulterated in their conscience that evidently for a time they hushed up their own suspicions . One of them could not tell what to do . He thought that the nervous disturbance of removing the dying woman ' s attendants would
be -worse than a quiescence which permitted the process of poisoning to go on ! After death , the body is examined ; and here not only is arsenic found , but the signs of a fatal disease , brought on by our climate and aggravated by our mode of life ; and another kind of adulteration—the liver was pushed out of its place , probably by tight lacing . It is the anatomy of an English wife !
To -whom can the guilty and erring . apply but to the Church ; and yet that resort of the sinner is itself adulterated—throughout . It is a national Church not co-extensive with the nation . It is tenanted by opinions that it disclaims , denounces , aud curses . Many of its votaries pretend to be consecrated ministers when they are only anointed traders , in order to enjoy the pay or the social position ¦ which it confers . We have had in the Bast an army that was adulterated by the worst administration— a commissariat that was not
a commissariat ; officers that would serve to dress a parade at home , but disliked the opportunities for chivalrous destruction in the East ; soldiers supplied with guns that were antiquated curiosities , with clothes that did not shelter them from the weather ; with officers that betrayed them to death in greater numbers than fell by the enemy's sword . We have had members of the Cabinet affecting to join in " a vigorous prosecution of the
war , " and then retiring into opposition , with sneers at the war that they had pretended to promote , and tricks for tripping up colleagues who prosecuted a real war . To descend from great things to small , we have had witnesses before the Parliamentary committee denouncing the denouncers of adulteration—saying that they exaggerate through ignorance , affirming , in fact , that the exposers of adulteration are themselves adulterated .
The only thing wanted is for the committee to trim between the report that the adulteration exists , and that it is exaggerated ; the chairman following up with a bill with adulterated by clauses to render it ineffective . ¦ It is to be hoped that we are not to reach that bad end . Even a small beginning would be better than none ; and if . we could stop adulteration in food , < we might by degrees extend the purification to ; society , the church , the legislature , the administration , and all that concerns us in public and private life . Diet does wonders , and honest regimen and Bound nutriment might strengthen us to rise
« g « 4 nBt * he continued practice of adulterating ourselves individually « nd collectively . It anight teach us if we want to make a profit out of our own till , not to make' it out of our neighbour ^ till , leBt he return the comm itment . Want of concert makes fellow-labourers in industry become only thieves preying upon each other—near residents , who are not neighbours , thinking it wise , when robbery is no longer sale on the highway , to invent a new brigandage over the counter . A wholesome meal jnight clear our sight , renew our hearts , and warm ub to brotherhood .
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THE POLISH LEGION . The Wednesday meeting did not take place . At a moment when two or three thousand persons were expecting the doors to open the announcement was made that a demonstration , to whieh the public mind had been excited by mystic paragraphs and colossal placards , was to be postponed . A feeling of indescribable indignation took possession of the crowd . Polish sympathisers , who had
all day been talking of the evening ' s programme , were intensely disappointed . For the hour , Sir De IiAcV Evaks lost all his popularity , at least in the neighbourhood ot St . Martin ' s Hall . There were not wanting certain politicians , always ready to suspect , to insinuate a connexion between the breakdown of the meeting , and the scruples ot the Government . Somebody had been bribed —somebody had been intimidated ; " the people" had been victimised .
How much or how little of this spontaneous gossip was based on truth cannot be determined . In affairs of which nothing can be known , the quidnuncs of portentous liinis and rumours have their . own way . But it is undeniable that efforts had been made , for several days , to create a popular belief in some vague countenance afforded by Ministers to the projectors of the Wednesday meeting . Sir Pe Xiaoy Evans ' s speech wns to serve as a pilot-balloon , and a gorgeous
list of peers and courtiers flamed upon the placards in every street . It is not surprising , therefore , that as the Cabinet had been associated with the scheme of the demonstration , it should also be associated with ita failure , especially as something took place which has not been explained . The illness of the proposed chairman was far from a sufficient » renson for the contemptuous dismissal of that huge throng which on Wednesday evening blocked up the end of Long-acre , and which
had been attracted by the great publicity oi the announcements . The second assemblage , which arose out of the disappointment of tho first , could not bo regarded as more than a noisy ebullition of popular feeling . The Polish question , however , is not disposed of because the Long-acre Meeting was quashed . Tho elements of a great political exhibition were ready in the streets . Only the spokesmen failed . Indeed , the Whig organs have been coquetting with tho
subject , and have accused Ministers ot neglecting an important opportunity , by diwcouraging tho formation of a Polish Leg ion . Lord JPalmekstont , obviously , scarcely understands his own opinions on this point . Tho " standing menace" doea not terrify him , or any of his order , bo much as tho principles which , might be summoned to action by
raising in Europe the symbol of Poliwh nationality . Still less is the " standing menace " formidable to the Germany of Courts and Cabinets in comparison with tho dangers of removing it . Besides , the English nation comprehend no metaphysical distinctions . It they raise Poland against Buema , why not Hungary against Austria , and Italy against all tho alien . powers that oppress it r lievo-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 4, 1855, page 742, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2101/page/10/
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