Current:

Northern Star (1837-1852), 16th October 1852, Edition 2 of 2, Page 9

Page 9
Page 9
9 of 16

On this page

  • Departments (2)
    • Ar00900
    • Stor uf JFmlrum
  • Adverts (1)
  • Text (6)
  • 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.

      Ar00900

      Ortomt Rt.3 ^ ^ Tie Mi ^ Freedom. Ia

      OrtOMt rt . 3 ^ ^ TIE mi ^ FREEDOM . ia

      Ad00906

      " ~ " __ „ It , ' s opposed to the Laws of Nature . tf . r scssrik ^ ^ hat ^^ the Lams of Nature to the man who stands dazzled , and &¦ $ &&* wonder > us he contemplates tha splendid vision opened up to him by SL riucrrv . «" VCilth > h ? Jto * hc * ° f lightning , somewhat of the marveli Vtliiros «> at throng the infinite of Futurity ? Or rather , what does our -Hoe of the Laws of Nature amount , to !"

      Stor Uf Jfmlrum

      Stor uf JFmlrum

      Saturday, October 16, 1852

      SATURDAY , OCTOBER 16 , 1852

      Piggeries And Palaces. Free Trade Has Ac...

      PIGGERIES AND PALACES . Free Trade has achieved that which manager Bunn would denominate " a blaze of triumph . " In the north , additional capital to the extent of some millions sterling is in course of being invested in mills and machinery . New towns are springing into existence , and old towns are rapidly enlarging their boundaries . The wealth y are everv day exhibiting greater state and magnificence ; and tlie poor if not contented are quiescent , if not happy are apathetic : and by their indifterence to politics give countenance to those who are interested in assuming and proclaiming the reign of general

      contentment . The Telegraph reports—and Mister Buonaprte can vouch the telegraph never lies ' . —that" Her Majesty is everywhere received with ' " general acclamations . ' * " Reform" is at a discount , agitation is no more , and professional patriots are hard up , having « < rot no work to do . " Surely the millennium is at hand ! Amona ; other signs of " unexampled prosperity" must not be forgotten the growth of this great metropolis , this huge Babel of

      bricks , daily growing both in extent and statolmess . Year by year London ' s extremities elongate , north , south , east and west , absorbing towns , villages , and hamlets ; which but a few years ago were some miles in the country . " The " improvements" within keep corresponding pace to the great city s outward extension . Not to speak of public buildings such as the Exchange , the Museum , & c , which , with all their short-comings , do testify to the growth of abetter architectural taste than formerly existed ; there are

      other and not less valuable evidences of improvement . Timehonoured rookeries are disappearing , and spacious streets are taking the places of filthy lanes and courts the once classic ground of crime and pestilence . Undoubtedly , much yet remains to be done . Clerkenwell , Whitechapel , and other savoury localities still consist of or contain Augean Stables in presence of which Hercules himself might well recoil , but which it may be hoped will yet be purified by the besom of Sanitary Reform .

      But a painful question arises . What becomes of the poor who heretofore found shelter in the rookeries of St . Giles ' s , Southwark , & c , but who have been shovelled out to make way for « improvements ? " Weary on their Railways ! " remarked , a poor woman residing in Bermondsey , " hereabouts they ' re always pulling down poor peoples houses for them , and out you must go . I've heard people talk about compensation , but poor , tenants is never compento

      sated any way . " Improvements now commencing or about be commenced in various districts will involve the demolition of a number of courts and alleys , in their present state an eyesore and a nuisance . But what is to become of the wretched inhabitants ? It is plain that over-crowded abodes of misery must-yet become more over-crowded . The removal of the worst portion of St . Giles ' s has occasioned the swamping of streets previously decent , or comparatively " respectable , " in the neighbourhood of Dmiy-ane , it will be

      Gray ' s Inn Lane , & c . As it was with St . Giles ' s , so with other localities . The poor driven from their present abodes must find shelter somewhere ; and as they have not the means to pay a higher rent , as their lack of the necessary income and want of decent furniture forbids their ascent in the social scale , they must necessarily crowd in upon the denizens of the already overcrowded localities ; by their very numbers choking up every avenue to the diffusion of cleanliness and the propagation of health . This comes of erecting line shops , andbuilding spacious streets , altogether unfitted for , because out of the reach of , the poor . ht

      Scarcely a day passes but Lodging House keepers are broug before the Metropolitan magistrates , charged with over-crowding their habitations and otherwise violating the provisos of the Common Lod-w House Act . On Tuesday at the Southwark Pohce Office . Joana Adams , James Baxter , Cornelius Bryan , and Catherine Leary , common lodging house keepers in the Mint , Southwark . were summoned before Mr . A'Beckett . Serjeant Wright , inspector of lod ^ houses for the district , stated that , between two and three o ' cloc / onthe morning of the 2 nd instant he visited Adams house , Mint-street , and in No . 2 , bedroom saw five bedsteads , each containing two men , and for wlrjch foy paul 1 * W . a-week eack

      Piggeries And Palaces. Free Trade Has Ac...

      There were 10 men in this room , seven being the number allowed by the act . No . 3 bed room contained three beds ; the first bed had a , man and his wife and a lad in it ; the second bed contained two single young women ; and the third bed was occupied by a married couple . The sergeant added that there was no partition of any kind in the rooms so as to secure separation of the sexes . The sergeant stated that he next proceeded to Baxter ' s house , 31 . Mint-street , and in one room , in wliich there were three bedshe

      , found the firs > . \\ aA r »™ iir ^ rJ i % t . r . w *„„ .,:. „ i „—i . .... i i p - <« found the first bed occupied by a married couple and a boy of 13 years of age ; in the second bed there was a single woman ' and in the third there was a man . No . 5 room had two beds in it ; in the first bed a man and his wife were sleeping ; the second bed was occupied by a woman and a boy . He added that there was partition in the iMLuuvu

      no room . Similar evidence was snven against "Rrv-» " m me room , similar evidence was given against Bryant with the addition that the officer descended to an underground kitchen in which directions had been previousl y given not to admit lodgers , and he found Bryan and his wife and daughter sleeping upon the floor , with no covering over them but a rag ; they had no bed of any description . At a little distance from them another

      man and woman were also lying on the floor in the same condition . There was no partition . The like camplaint was made against Catherine Leary . The magistrate delivered himself of a homily on the " great credit" due to the police for their exertions in carrying out the Act , & c . " He then inflicted mitigated fines of 5 s ., together with 2 s . costs , on two of the defendants , and adjourned the cases of the other two for a week , to allow them an opportunity of complying with the regulations . "

      It may be that the strict enforcement of the Act of Parliament will compel the proprietors of the low lodging houses to adopt such regulations as will conduce to a show of decency if not of comfort in their establishments . But at the best the evil will be only slightly mitigated ; and these dens of squalor will be but little the

      better for the law ' s interference . That which is needed is house accommodation of a kind fitted for human beings , and to be had on terms within the reach of the humblest . The local improvements always going on are for the most part executed under Act of Parliament authority ; and Parliament in sanctioning the destruction of old streets and laying out of new , fails in its duty when

      it neglects to provide that either on ' the site of the old houses , or elsewhere , habitations shall be erected of a kind creditable to society and suitable to the requirements of the general public . The " Metropolitan Building ' s" in the parish of St . Pancras , present an example of what might be done for those who must live in the interior of large cities . These buildings , calculated to lodge several hundred persons , consist of sets of rooms , two rooms , three , and four , with the addition of a scullery , oven and boiler , and a number of domestic conveniences , including a cistern

      holdn" - ninety gallons of water daily , at the service of each tenant . There are washing houses , drying-grounds , and a playing ground for the children ; rents moderate . The health of the occupants has been very superior and presents a marked contrast to the unhealthy state of localities in the immediate neighbourhood—the narrow and dirty streets in Somers Town . The constructing of a number of habitations in one compact mass , but still admitting everv needful separation , though only just commenced in London

      is no novelty in Glasgow . Tlie last named city has a most unenviable reputation as regards its wynds and vennels exceeding in abominations of every description anything to be found eslewhere in Great Britain . But as the old city disappears and new streets arise , Glasgow presents an example of utility and stateliness combined , in the construction of its new houses , which the great metropolis would do well to imitate . There is no good reason why

      New Oxford Street instead of being filled with shops should not have had some two or three piles of building devoted to private residences . The said buildings might have combined all the architectural embellishments of the existing shops with the snug compactness of private dwellings , each separate though massed under one roof . And such buildings , palaces in convenience , comfort , and architectural beauty , might and should take the place of the mean and filthy streets where now congregate so many thousands of the

      metropolitan poor . . If our government existed for the pnrpose of guarding the public interests and promoting the public welfare , if the parliament represented the people and cared for that people ' s happiness , there would be no great difficulty , in at once providing comfortable houses for all . ° But the immense revenue at the command of the owerament , is recklessly squandered , and the national resources foully misused . ' As air example , strictly to the point , may be noted the shameful project of erecting a new palace for the Queen

      at Balmoral Vicioria is already possessed of Windsor Castle , Buckingham Palace , ( recently enlarged at a great expense ) , St . James ' s Palace , Osborne House , and the existing house or palace at Balmoral ; Not to speak of the palaces at Kensington , Kew , and Brighton , which she may occupy if so disposed , The public money squandered from first to last on these palaces amounts to an enormous hundred

      sum which it is now proposed to increase , by eighty or a thousand pounds , the estimated cost of erecting the proposed new nalace at Balmaral . But when did architects and builders abide L their estimates ? The sum for building , fitting up and subseauent alterations and embellishments , will most likely range from a quarter to half a million sterling . Contrast this abominable extrav a « ance with the scenes described by Sergeant Wright to Magistrate A'Beckett . It is monstrous , it is impious , that one family not content with half-a-dozen palaces , the abode of every oossible luxury and refinement , should have yet another erected , at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds ; while other families , thoug h ignorant and wretched , composed of the like flesh and ? ¦ _ -. *'•¦ * it '

      Piggeries And Palaces. Free Trade Has Ac...

      blood , are absolutely houseless , or finding only such sheltei as pigs might loathe , were they gifted with reason . ] f anything could justify thetaunt of "Swinish Multitude , " it would be that popular folly which permits the disgraceful anomaly of Piggeries and Palaces , the loathsome dens of Mint-street , " and the new palace at Balmoral " looming in the ( not distant ) future . " The selfishness of our rulers commands censure ; the slavish apathy of the ruled provokes indignation and contempt .

      Austria's New Cat's-Paw. We Have Had To ...

      AUSTRIA'S NEW CAT'S-PAW . We have had to record within the last few months so many instances of baseness and cowardice on the part of our government , that , whatever may be our indignation , we cannot feel surprised upon learning the occurrence of yet another insult to the British

      name . Were we a third-rate power such as Belgium—although meanness or cowardice can never be excused under any circumstances —pocketing an insult in presence of a pressing danger to our nationality , would , at all events , have the appearance of prudence , and be less shameful by reason of our inability to cope with the foe The state that has dared to insult us -to use mean and cowardly

      violence towards our subjects , is , so far from being our superior in point of strength , only a miserable , patched up , and bankrupt power , which a single blow struck by us could convert into a thing that has been . The national insults which we have lately received have invariably proceeded , directly or indirectly , from Austria . And how long could that tottering despotism hope to exist , if it had brought against it the military and naval force of Britain ?

      It may be urged that Russia backs up Austiia in these escapades , but if it really be so , what is the difference to us ? We know , and Nicholas of Russia knows also , that it would be madness for him to bring his Cossack hordes to be slain or "contaminated" by their introduction among the enlightened and revolutionary nations of western Europe . For it would assuredly be the nations of western Europe he would have to combat , if

      England but knew and did her duty . Strike a blow at the Austrian despotism , and at once a number of liberated nationalities shall rally around our banner . Then what fear we ? If aught , it is peace alone we have to dread , as that will enable the Czah to creep gradually over Europe , the subordinate despotisms preparing a path for him by disarming arid brutalising the peoples beneath their rule .

      Ihe case cf the treatment of Mr . Paget in Saxony , that has just turned up , serves to show the progress of despotism by the latter means . No doubt the Czar secretly applauds the Saxon outrage on Mr . Paget , committed at the instigation of Austria . And it is equally undoubtable that the Czar is highly satisfied by the manner in which Britain has received the additional insult . It would seem that no great opposition to the advance of despotism is to be apprehended from Britain , when she has not spirit enough to redress the wrongs inflicted by that despotism upon her own subjects .

      Mr . Paget , the latest victim of Austrian spite , is the author of an excellent work on Hungary and Transylvania . He resided several years in Hungary previous to the revolution , having married a lady , a native of that country . He adhered to the national cause in 1848 j but he never had any very lively sympathy with the real defenders of the people ' s rights . In fact , he never concealed his dislike of Kossuth and the more democratic partv in Hungary .

      This very fact of his «* moderation / ' which , by obstructing the only measures which could ensure victory to the Hungarians , contributed in no small measure to the unhappy issue of the struggle , and which could not but be well known to the Austrian government and police , shows only the more clearly that the late outrage upon Mr . Paget was dictated by feelings of hostility to England , and not as alleged , from suspicions of his being concerned in a revolutionary plot .

      It was on the 2 nd of September last that the outrage was committed . Five policemen entered Mr . Paget ' s house , and ordered i him to deliver up to them the keys of his writing desk , & c , , threatening to force them open if the keys were refused . They * then proceeded to examine every hole and corner of the house , , carrying on" every particle of writing they could find , the whole of if Mr . Paget ' s correspondence , and a number of printed books . ,. Mr . Pagkt immediately communicated the whole of the circum-1-stances to Mr . Forbes the British Minister to the Court of at

      Saxony , who entered into communication with M . de Beust , t , Minister for Foreign Affairs , on the subject . This personage pre- etended to know nothing at all about the matter , but said he would ild " enquire . " A similar request for an explanation was made byby Mr . Forbes to the Minister for the Home Department , and metiet : with the same response . It was only after numerous applica-cations that he was informed by M . de Beust that Mr . Pa q lt was ^ asi suspected of being the channel of communication between Kos-as « suth and the revolutionists ofVIungarv .

      The absurdity of this suspicion , if he was so suspected , is de-demonstrated by the whole public life of Paget , and by his welh'elH known sentiments , which have ever been utterly opposed tol toi Kossuth , to his opinions and his plans . Whether or not any such suspicion had existence , it is certaintaim that a few hours would have been sufficient to prove that it waswass unfounded , for a perusal of the letters that had been seized b > l b > y the police were convincing enough on that head . Neverthelesslessi it was not until the 25 th that Mr . Paget was summoned beforeforn the police , and his papers and books returned . And it was no ; no > for some time afterwards that he received any reply to bis re re *

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Oct. 16, 1852, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/ns2_16101852/page/9/