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    ¦" I ¦mm ' a^v^a^ *m *a am ^N-J M *W "*

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    LIFE AND LABOUR IN BAST

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  • 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.

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    Mr. Swinburne's New Volume*

    conceals art , and the result is a disastrous onefor the reader ' s attention is inevitably

    diverted , from the sense and centred upon the ^ marvellou ™ - ^ ¦ ^ " ~ *""~ i ™ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ° " ^»^» ¦ s ¦ workmanshi w » ^^^ ^ " ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ v ^^»^^ p ^ Bp ^ V ^^ p ^ B . p *^^ ^^^ ^^»^^™ p ^ P *^^ . ^ F ^ It ^ " ^™ ^^^ would ™ m ^^ " ^ ^™ ^^ ^^ not ¦ »™ ¦ ~~ be - —

    possible to devise measures more subtle or more wantonly difficult than those which are

    used , for instance , in * The Armada / * To a Seamew / and in ' Pan and Thalassius . ' The

    only satisfactory way in which these poems can be read is to go over them once for the

    music , and a second time for the disentanglement of the sense . ;

    To us the most attractive poems in the volume are the fine imitations of the old

    ballad . In these Mr . Swinburne's unfailing artistic instinct compels — j - — him to - simp ^ licity •/* , and

    in that his salvation ( lies . We cannot help wishing that he would give us a book of poems

    in which he should forswear alliteration and " eschew altogether the swinging and

    complicated measures in which his soul delights . Let him try for once the jtonic of the

    unadorned octrosyllabic and the masculine

    English heroic verse .

    ¦" I ¦Mm ' A^V^A^ *M *A Am ^N-J M *W "*

    ¦ " I ¦ mm ' a ^ v ^ a ^ * m * a am ^ N-J M * W "*

    524 ± he ^ Jru busk ers Uircul & r May 15 , 188 9

    Life And Labour In Bast

    LIFE AND LABOUR IN BAST

    LONDON . * At length a book has appeared which deals

    in a systematic and intelligible way with the actual condition of the people who congregate i

    so thickly in the streets j . a and . slums of t ^ East _ - London . Mr . Booth and seven other

    enthusiastic social reformers have for the last two years been exploring the whole districtand

    in 1 / a volume of nearl O y six hundred pages , , , which is crowded with statistics and facts

    of the utmost importance , they now give us the result of their useful and disinterested

    investigations . If London north of the Thames is regarded c ? as a semicircle __ , of __ which __ the City _ — ^

    is an enlarged centre , the part with which this volume deals may be said to form a quadrant

    having * B m for ^ h its a radii ^ k a a Kingsland ^^ p ™ ^^ B" a bbi . a Road «^^^^~ ^ running ^ , due north , / and the river Thames running ^^ due

    east . Mr . Booth brings the whole population of East London and Hackney under review

    comprising about 900 , 000 persons , and this , huge army of the conscripts of toil is classified

    by him according to the occupation and social status of the heads of families . For the

    purposes of comparison the whole population is divided into eight classes , which are formed as

    follows : — Class A . consists of what is sometimes

    mainl termed made the residuum of the of inmates the population of ~— the , lowest and is y ^^ P up p . — — — ™ ¦ ~¦ " — ¦ ¦ ™ ^*^ ^ fcr » » - ^^ - w ~^^ - - ^—

    sort of lodging-houses or streets ; men and women * cad — — — hk ing — — , in thieving fact ¦—¦ — , __ who bull ,-v ¦ - ~— — . p ick ing up —in a livelihood «» # . a ^ k but by

    by labour g ^ j , y . ' They w , _ are y _ to o « some — »• » any extent w way w w « , v w r ^ - ' an ^*» ** hereditary classand ¦ Whitechapel -- with its 1 nest r

    of lod - - ~ -- ging -houses — - , -- — - is their w r - _ ~^^~ ~^ f- ^_ favourite _^» - — V ^^^ r w-v ^ p ^^ ^^ ^ b ^ , ^^ haunt ~~ P ^^ ^^ 44 ^ fc ^ f ^^ P V ; they form 3 * 3 per cent , of the population

    of this parish , whilst in the whole district they form only 1 ' 2 per cent . Criminals and

    semi-criminals of all ages and both sexes , liiuit : * Life and unaries Labour nootn of the lAmaon People . Volume I . East London ,

    oa Dy . ( : Williams < fc JNorgate . )

    f together with occasional labourers , hawkers > and loafersalso abound in it . Casual

    daylabourers with , their wives and families con- ! stitute Class B . They are all in abject

    p 6 verty , for on an average many of them , who are dock labourerscannot obtain more

    than three days' work a , week . On the other handit must not be forgotten that there

    are thriftless , and idle people in these ranks who do not want more work than three or four

    days a week , who prefer , in fact , to be in a degree leisured even though poor , and choose to work when they like and play when

    they like . Class C . is described as a little higher in the social scalethough all who

    belong C 3 to it feel the pinch , of povert O y ; their great difficulty springs out of the fact that

    their earnings are intermittent , sometimes igoodc [ uite as often badand never regular for

    any length , of time together , . These people are unable to reckon upon a guinea a week through

    the year , for a man with a wife and family . The men of Class D . on the other handthough

    they are socially on , the same level as those , of whom MB we have AK H A just spoken , obtain Atheir ^ _ ^^^ _ ^^ ^ ^

    eighteen shillings . to twenty-one shillings a week with a fair degree o— ^ t — of regularity — ^ v . In j

    Class E . we reach those who may fairly be regarded as above the line of povertyand they

    constitute ' the men who get the JL . ordinary V , stan - dard earnings of East Londonin other words

    from ^¦ ft twent _ _ y-two shill ^ h ¦ A ^ M ^ H ings to , thirt ^ K . s . y shillings ^ K A ^ K ^ B A « a - *• week f V % ^ X . / . L ^ ; this VJ . 11 U is -L *> J b *** y J far Mi * . the tlAV largest * fc « pV ^ C ^ ^/ pSJ */ commu vVAAlAAl V * -

    nity in the district , for it numbers ' no less than 377000 orin other wordsforty-two per cent . ,

    of the , entire , , population . , Class F . consists of foremenskilled artisansand other workmen

    in positions , of trust , , earning from thirty shillings ^ 7 to fifty «/ shillings C 5 a week . Shop

    JLkeepers , small employers of labour , clerks , and subordinate professional men form Class

    G ; whilst all above x it , who are described by Mr . Booth as the servant-keeping class /

    constitute Class H ; these are , of course , the aristocrats of East London , and they chiefly

    dwell in Hackney , where one-fifth of the their population hih live rental in houses are not which invaded , because bthe of g y

    School Board visitors , . The whole population of the district

    increased in the twenty years between 1861 and 1881 from 654 , 000 to 879 , 000 . Within the

    same period the number of shirt-makers and sempstresses fell from 8233 to 6729 or from

    ,,, to 2 75 Irish to 1 competition * 75 per cent . ., a Sugar decrease refiners due , decreased it is said ,

    from 1 , 4 : 37 to 616 , or from * 48 to * 15 per cent ., in . consequence JL of the importation jL of bounty a / -fed

    sugar ; whilst silk and satin workers dropped from 9 , 611 to 3 , 309 , or from 322 to " 84 , a

    result attributed mainly to the Cobden treaty with France . On the other handtrimming and

    artificial flower makers increased , from 1510 to 2 , 941 ; printers and bookbinders from , 4 , 829

    to 9 , 195 ; furriers , skinners , and leather workers from 1 , ™ 737 ^ h ^ g to — -r 3 m , ^ y 426 i i ^— ; ^ m paper ^ r- ~ ' ^^ ¦ B ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ bag t ^ n ^ ^•^^^^¦ pi ^ fc and ^^ " ^ ^ —

    workers envelope from makers 1 from 953 to 1 , 092 3273 to 3 , 018 tailors ; tobacco from ;

    10 10 , , 776 466 to to 15 16 , 674 , 84 , $ ; ; cabinet and boo , makers t makers < ftc . from from

    15 , 434 to 17 , 318 . Whitechapel i » the centre

• Citation
  • Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), May 15, 1889, page 524, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_15051889/page/14/