On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    to know what the expression ' political economy' means . " And he then tells us that on this point " Mr . Ruskin is as ignorant as a Kaffir or a Bushman ; " but if his own knowledge on this point be greater than he allows to Mr . Buskin , he must certainly be largely endowed -witli " secretiveaess , " for he has succeeded in most effectually concealing it . " Political Economy" professes to g iro an account of how wealth is produced , accumulated , and distributed in the present system of soeiety . It takes the present system for granted ; it does not inquire whether it is good , bad , or indifferent ; and , truth to tell , most authors who have yet written upon it hare shown themselves most completely disqualified even to prosecute an investigation so utterly beyond the comprehension of their extremely narrow and shallow minds . Whether wealth could be better and more plentifully produced ,

    and better and more fairly distributed upon any other principle , they do . not trouble their heads to inquire . Whether wealth is more plentifully produced , and distributed more equitably and beneficially , upon the principle of individual acquisition for individual emolument , amounting to a general scramble , realising that " struggle for existence " which we see going on among the carnaria ; than it would be upon the coadjutive principle of mutual assurance and co-operation ; political economy aud political economists have taken no cognizance . Mr . J . S . "Mill , and writers of his stamp , are not mere political economists ; they are profound sociologists ; they do take cognizance of the question , and we know what their judgment upon it is . { Vide the chapters in Mr . J . S . Mill's " Political Economy , " on the working classes , and on property .. ) It is a logical consequence of a system of individual acquisition for individual emolument , in which each i 3 isolated , and has to live by getting as much as he can out of others in his dealings with

    them , that the destitute be left to perish outright , and can only be saved by the humane inconsistency and humiliating expedient of eleemosynary relief deemed so degrading to its acceptors . It is logically a monstrous anomaly , that in a system in which eachclass has to live by what he can make for himself , out of others in dealing with them ( whether the landlord-peer living on his rents , or the shoeblack on the produce of his labour ) , a person , because unable to make-anything , should look to others to -whom he has never given anything , to give him the ' means of subsistence ; but because' one- of the . logical consequences of the system , i . e ., letting the destitute die of want , is too horrible to .. be tolerated , we are driven to the practical rediictio ad absurdum , of poor laws , the social non seqiiiticr of alms . But in the coadjutive system of mutual assurance this paradox would not be found ; each member of the community would be trained up by the best education . and formative influences to contribute to the common-stock

    irt proportion , to his powers , arid would in return participate arid enjoy iii proportion to his l'equirements . Each would produce wealth for the good of others- —for the good of the whole community : — -while in health , and able to work , and would have earned a title to be supported out of the common stock in sickness , old age , or other disability Thus each would produce for all , and all for each . And it is this system which Mr . Buskin evidently has in view , however dimly ; and at which he is aiming . Into the merits of this system , compared with the present , we have not space to enter here , any further than summarizing them by saying , that whereas . in the present system in which untrained , men work from 10 to 16 hours a day afc the most repulsive employment , for a scanty pittance of the coarsest necessaries , thore is the minimum of inducement andreward for the maximum of labour and

    exertion ; whereas in the other system perfectly trained persons would ( there being no idle class , living upon the labour of others and all being employed ) work about » third or a fourth of that time at labour , as much as possible divested by scientific appliances of whatever renders it repulsive , ' thus realizing the maximum of inducement and reward for the minimum of exertion . It is to . this system that the suggetions of Mr . Buskin , in common with those of some of the greatest writers of the age , including Mr . Mill , evidently point ; they ore exploring branches of social science hitherto uninvestigated , and we anticipate tho most beneficial results from thoir disquisitions . That the co-adjutive system is what Mr . Buskin contemplates is evident from his ' own words , though he may not clearly see through it himsolf . Tho complaint of the writer in JFraser against him is that he contends that it is the of sooiet

    duty y " to maintain workmen in constant and regular employment , and enable them to live comfortably , whatever he the state of trade . " Tho oritio then adds ^ " How society or government is to contrive to do any of these things -Mr . Buskin has not explained . " He is right j Mr . Buskin hua not explained ; in the present system , suoh a thing is jnob merely a moral , but a physical impossibility . In tho ooadjufivo system , however , this result would , not pnly be attainable , it would be of tho very essence of tho system itself . Without a system of marine and fire insurances , tho owners of wrecked ships and burnt houses must boar the loss j but where the assurance system is established , they can indemnify themselves by means of a trifling payment . Verbwn sat . Happily tho science of nooiology is being elaborated , and by a class of intelloots very different from those hard and narr . ow minds , to which the superficial details of political economy wore all in all . Political oaonomy is a description of » port of the workings of tho present systom of

    society jusfe as Maohiavelli ' s treatise , " The Prince , " was a description of the procedures of stato-omft ; and like tho latter work , the censure and detestation duo to the thing dosoribed , has fallen upon the description . Tho writers on political ooonomy , indeed , are for tho most part ; without any titlo to tho praiso that has boon claimed for Maohiavelli . He did not believe in the systom he dosoribos , and desoribed it only to expose it . Bat that is a merit which tho majority , ab least , of political economists , do not possess . While their whole description ia the strongest condemnation possible of the thing described , tupy themselves appeal * perfootly ignorant of what they are about , and oannot soo tho plainest consoquonoes of their own teachings . They boliovo in tho ayatqm tho badness of which they aro exposing . Way , what would be incredible did wo nob soo it , they lanoy that their soionoe , as they call ib—that is , their more description of the mieopy-produoing worldngs of u bad system . —will turn this bad system , into a ( good one . Tho writer in M'asar toll us that ) , if political economy -were attended to there would bo no strikes , whom political economy has never even told us the oause pf Btrikos—strikoB being ono

    of the inevitable consequences of individual acquisition for individual emolument ; of a struggle between man and man , class and class ; of one class striving to take advantage of the other j all . which things are of the very essence of the present system , and can never be cui-ed by a verbal description of the workings of that system , which is all that political economy amounts to * . It is true , that in one way political economy tends to produce a remedy , inasmuch as b y thoroughly exposing the badness of tho present system it tends to bring about tho establishment of a better ; but this is not the remedy which its purblind professors contemplate . We have devoted considerable space to this topic , but the extent of an article should be in proportion to theimportance of its subject , not to the mere bulk of the reviewed work measured by avoirdupois weight .

    Dublin University Magazine . No . 335 . Dublin : W . Robertson . London : Hurst & Blackett ;—The Dublin opens this month with an article on " The Vice of our Current Literature , " which it considers to be an " ultra-realistic spirit , " which " taints nearly all the popular writing of our day . " Italy being the most prominent topic of the day , is , as might be supposed , the subject of a paper , in which its " seven ages" are discussed . We have part the first of a new " Tale of the-Civil Wars , " entitled , " A House Divided Against Itself . " Part the-11 th and last of ' . ' ¦ ' V onved , the Dane . " "The Work-a-Bay World of France " progresses to chapter 5 . There is an article on " Foreign and Domestic Politics , " in which important questions aro discussed , and there are several other articles of interest , including one on " The Cid , by Professor de Vericour , " " Sketches in the West Indies , " " A Self-Searcher , " " Tho Inauguration of Irish Chiefs , " " Antrim Castle , " and the customary " Notes of New Books . '

    Revue Britannigue . No . 10 . October , I 860 . Paris : 31 , Rue Neuvedes-Mathurins . In this " international review "the contents are conveniently indexed amder the heads " literature arid philosophy , " " geography and voyages , " " statistics and commerce , " &c . There aro articles on ' that iron-old sect the Stoics ; on the important subject of " acclamation ; " and some other interesting topics , with a resume of science , 'literature ., art , &c ' . The Art Jotirnal . No ; 71 . Nov ., I 860 . London and > . ew York : Virtue & Co . —This number opens with " West , the ¦ Monarch of Mediocrity , " by Walter Thornbury ; then we have " Rome , and her

    Works of ' Art , Part 10 , Raffaello , No . 5 , " illustrated by some appropriate engravings , including " The . .- Victory , of . Constantino over Maxentius , " and the " Defeat of Attila ; " " Leslie and his Contemporaries , " is another biographical notice . Mr . and Mrs . S . C . Hall's " Companipri G-uide in South Wales " reaches part 10 , and , with " Tho Hudson from the Wilderness to the Sea , " is well and profusely illustrated ; as is also " The Ampor Country , " an article on Mr . P . W . Atkinson ' s travels . There are several other good papers in the contents of the present number . The large engravings are Turner ' s " Country Blacksmith ; " Anthony ' s « ' Killarney , the Lower Lake -, and " Pauland

    Virginia , " from the group by J . Durham . Chambers' Encyclopcedia ; a Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for : the People . Parts 21 and 22 . London and . Edinburgh : ^ V . ancl R ,. Chambers . —If it bo true , as Lord Stanley has just remarked in his admirable speech on education , and , as wo suppose , no reasonable persondoubta , that social degeneracy and moral delinquency are in a great measure owing to popular ignorance , then society is indebted to the proprietors of this excellent Encyclopedia . Not only have they brought out , at prices within tho reach of the working classes , standard works previously inaccessible to them , by the best British and foreign writers , m the form of cheap reprints and translations ; not only huvo they brought out new works written expressly for publication by _ them , on ancl

    every branch of knowledge , remarkable alike for accuracy copiousness , and at tho same " popular prices ; " not only have thoy done this , but they are themselves authors of considerable eminence and repute , and the productions of their own pens are among tho most valuable contributions to our useful and instructive . literature . Wo miglit instauco two of the moat recent . —Mr . Robert Chambers' work on tho " Annals of Scotland , " and that of Mr . William Chainbei's on the " United States . " These works aro tho most accurate original , , impartial , and trustworthy that have yet appeared on tho subjects whroliaro unquestionably of tho highest hiatoriodl and social importance , in tho first edition of Chambers' Information for tho People , thoro w an admirable piooe of advioo to tho working olussos , ¦ wiiiwu is peculiarly applicablo jusb now , when wo see announced in tho iw » f * a volunteer proiect for " tho relief of distress " a grand scale , yx m to

    of the " institutions of the country , " whiph are totally inadequate uuv * the purpose for which thoy avo intended , and when , uocording to tno statisticB of mortality , tho average of deaths for want of necessaries is ono human being por 24 , hours , many of tho victims boing young oluldron , who porish for want of warmth and breast-milk . Tho writer , sponlcmg of tho evils of a surplus population , namely , the puupor , predatory , ana prostitute clasees ( who constitute tho surplus population ) , says Uia « tho moral check , in which lies tho only hope , consists in tlio horror wlvioii a man of good feeling must entertain at tho idea of bringing children into tho world to drag out an existence of starvation and orimo , or boom short by early misery . Ho will not multiply competitors for his owh and his neighbours labour , or do that whiah will subdivide a niorsei already too email , » nd niako all , himself included , tho moro wnetoftoa . Ho will not do this if he have good foolings and just viowe , but ho will uo it if ho want those cronb distinctive features of an estimable oharnotor .

    Thero is a provorbinl expression very gonorally used by t lio oo »» w " people in roforonoo to a too-rapidly inorenBing family , to tho client uiai no more mouths aro sent than tlioro is broad for . Thoro ooulcl not P »» « groator f « Haoy ; and if all nion wero to bring childron into the w ° " in tho same-spirit-of hoedlossnoss , an uuivorsal Htai-vation would vory soon tako place Wo earnestly oommond this odvioo-from lu « worit jnontioned " , to tho serious consideration of the publlo . To oomo , now , to tho publication at tho head of this notioo . Tho now ICnoyoloiiwain is formed on tho bueis of the' lutoefc edition of tho Gorman OonvorenUons lexicon , and is illuntratod with oxoollont engravings and maps , w tho opening pago of tho IWat of tho obovo . niontJpnod p «» 'lf > w " havo the autogvapli of Burns , ab tho conclusion of the biograpmoul ami literary notioe of tlio poet , tho words being , " Cfod bless you \ - ^ iw » Purne , " luthe sooond of bho pavta mentioned above 3 t )» oro is olso »

    Untitled Article

    91 . 6 . Tlie Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Nov . 3 , 1860

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 3, 1860, page 916, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2372/page/12/