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Nov. 8, 1851.] ftt)e Heabet. 1065
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In 1813, the expenditure was <)<) ,0/>-l...
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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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Social Reform. " Notes Of A Social. Ceco...
7 hIrle 7 * Vmrier , the author of the Nonveau * , J . Tndustriel . has been surnamed the Ariosto % fooi 8 tT His system is based upon agriculture , « ih ! ned with the . voluntary association of capital , f ° and labour , in " siries" or " groups" of Jkws While the principle of equality is to be Wnfview , individualism and the rights of prifp Droperty are to be respected ; communism in Iheory , individualism in practice . Labour is to be ^ ndered as attractive as possible , and may be divided into works of urgency , utility , and
agreehleness— " L ' association en passionel com me en materiel . " According to Fourier , " La fausse Zdustrie rnorcellee , repugnante , mensongere , " is to lie superseded by " UIndustrie naturelle , combinfe , attrawnte , veridique , dormant quadruple produit ,- " and his agricultural colonists are to be located in vast edifices , called " phalansteres , " of which M L Reybaud has given a lively description in his Etudes surles Reformateurs modernes *
The great" socialist" movement which took place in England , Scotland , Ireland , and America , in the early part of the present century , was in its highest state of activity some five-and-twenty years ago ; and the father of Queen Victoria and other members of the Royal Family were among its promoters . On the 1 st of * January , 1826 , the first number of The Cooperative Magazine and Monthly Herald of the New S ' ystem of Social Arrangements , founded on Principles of Mutual Cooperation and Equal Distribution , was published by Messrs . Knight and
Lacey , Paternoster-row ; and a regular correspondence was opened ( London being the active centre ) with Liverpool , Manchester , Exeter , Brighton , Leeds , Huddersfield , Edinburgh , Glascow , Dublin , Cork , and Belfast . The immense importance of this movement , and its ultimate influence upon society , are as yet only vaguely suspected . Before the end of this century it will have brought about a gradual , peaceful , and rational revolution in the social and political condition of the whole population of Great Britain . Robert Owen found many ardent disciples in France ; and , among others , M . Joseph Rey , of
Grenoble . But , with your permission , I shall return to the history of " Socialism , " in 1825 , and must now dive into the heart of the great manufacturing capital of England , with its vast warehouses and mills , which thrust forth their lofty chimneys topped with dense clouds of unconsumeil smoke ; indicating that ceconomy , in the consumption of the " black diamond " of Lancashire is not yet the order of the day in Manchester , the giant growth of a single century . How curious and interesting would-be a history of the rise and progress of the English cotton trade—a marvellous social revolution effected by the ingenuity and enterprise of a few obscure individuals ! Without this enormous
wealth , created by machinery , England could never have carried on the wars against Napoleon in defence of despotic principles . But if war were thus maintained upon cotton , the rapid growth and expansion of the manufacturing system may be attributed , indirectly , to war ; to the English loans <> iul subsidies to German princes , which in twentytwo years , from 1793 to 1814 , amounted to £ 40 , 289 , 459 , besides £ 1 , 582 , 045 in arms , & cy sent abroad in 1814 . The interest of these loans and su bsidies was paid by all classes ; but the manufacturers
reaped the largest share of profit . At one period foreign subsidies were granted to such cxcchs that paper ( gold being out of the question ) wuld not be obtained to send abroad ; so that the Jewis h and Dutch money dealers were compelled to jnake their remittances in manufactures ; and at Junes sueh was the demand for cottons , that the "ales were opened for the choice of patterns , only , j llxe ( l hours of the day , lest any preference to "nyers should be given . Children rose to a pre"nuin ; and cartloads of them were drafted into "incashire , from the parishes and workhouses of ondon
and the south of England . English paper asi then selling on the Continent at 30 , 40 , 50 per in ^ Kn K P » und note could he bought frc 1 an ( * for ten shillings ; therefore , adding in I lt i UU' cxPeil 8 eH » a piece of cotton purchased t « ! n ( lon f » r twenty shillings could be sold for j , ' / \ " [ lollar » d ; which ten shillings would buy an ui ) i 1 > oun < 1 - The low state of the exchanged our tl ( 1 <> 11 acte ( l as a bounty for tbo export of not J nufactu re 8 ; so that the English taxpayers 8 uin gaVC na extra *> rieo for tlieir "oino con " inter ' f ° * cotton 8 » out tlu'y were also paying e « t ou the loans and Kubsidie . s which gave the 4 t j ^ . " - - ¦ --...- . _ M -Arth , lk v J ) ulu « T . «* Cond 6-Hur-Ve « r € H , and a foit lllu , ' j , \ yw , atCitcaux , eunk nearly their whole uta » ' » Phalunatorinu experiment ! .
manufacturers this bounty . By contracting the circulation and returning to cash payments , all this depreciated paper was converted into gold , then rising , from various causes , in its exchangeable value ; and , instead of taking off those taxes which pressed more immediately on the labouring part of the community , the property tax was repealed . * Yet the old system of fictitious prosperity based upon credit or paper , continues unchanged to this day with the same effect—failure , ruin , and Panic which recurs at limited intervals of time—spreading misery and destitution among all classes of the
community : Panic , by which the gamblers and swindlers who carry on their nefarious traffic at the great " Paper-hell" in London alone profit . During the commercial crisis of 1847-8 , the number of failures in Great Britain amounted to 334 ; and the bankruptcies , insolvencies , suspensions of payment , and compositions of that " black " autumn , will barely realize a dividend of 20 per cent . One firm closed its doors with liabilities exceeding a million sterling , having literally
commenced with nothing but " a connection ; " another failed for £ 660 , 000 ; a third for £ 600 , 000 ; two more for £ 500 , 000 each ; one for £ 480 , 000 ; another for £ 400 , 000 ; the liabilities of six reached as far as £ 300 , 000 each ; three more sunk beneath debts amounting to £ 1 , 500 , 000 ; and seven-and-twenty failed for sums reaching from £ 100 , 000 to £ 200 , 000 each . Here , then , we find forty-two commercial houses ( chiefly in London ) , failing with gross liabilities to the amount of eleven millions sterling ; and the total amount of the failures in Great Britain
and Ireland from August , 1847 , to February , 1848 , have been estimated at not less than £ 24 , 000 , 000 f although the Whig Doctrinaire journal boasted on the 10 th of April , 1847 , that the commercial classes " were never in a sounder state , " and that " any severe losses" were rendered " impossible . " But as Mr . Thomas Wilson , the author of Partnership en Commandite , X sarcastically observes , the effusions of the Economist appear more remarkable for words than ideas . " Brevity is the soul of wit ; " but in the Economist there is little soul , * less wit , and no brevity .
One of the greatest obstacles to the success of cooperative association in England , arises from the unsatisfactory state of the law of partnership . If partnership with " limited liabilities , " according to the practice of the continent of Europe and the United States of America , were sanctioned by the Legislature , a large portion of the enormous capital of the middle classes , which is now found ready for investment in foreign speculations , would then be employed in our home and colonial trade ,
and in manufactures : thus greatly augmenting the circulation of wages . But the progressive development of the cooperative principle is inevitable ; for as Bastiat says , in his Harmonies Econowiques , " Aux douleurs de la concurrence l'humanite apprend , chaque jour , a opposer deux puissants remedes : la Privoyance , fruit de l ' experience et des lumieres ; ct f Association , prevoyance organisee . "
Under the present system of internecine competition , the employers and the employed are divided into two hostile camps ; although masters , when their interests clash and it suits their immediate purpose , will support the workmen on strike , and aid them with money in their combinations against rival employers . Tbo operatives , having gained wisdom by dearly bought experience , now carry on a kind of guerilla warfare , and cut off the enemy in detail . But permit me to cite the authority of Mr . M *' Culloch , the political wconomist , as to the nature of the social compact by which these two classes are linked together . This description applies to Manchester more particularly , and to the large manufacturing towns , rather than to the rural factories , such as Mr . ( ireg ' s at Quarry
Nov. 8, 1851.] Ftt)E Heabet. 1065
Nov . 8 , 1851 . ] ftt ) e Heabet . 1065
In 1813, The Expenditure Was <)<) ,0/>-L...
In 1813 , the expenditure was <)<) , 0 /> -l , r 2 /> , or allowing for 22 . J per cent , depreciation , £ 8 'l , H ( i < ' } , (>!) 7 . In 1819 , the expenditure wan only £ 4 » , 43 S , J {<)( i . f It was stated in evidence before the liankruptcy Commission of 1840 , that out of ;!()() London bankruptcies , the average of dividends was only 4 s . 9 jd . ; of these 10 /> paid 2 h . ( id ., and only two paid l /> rt . in the pound . William llawen , Esq ., in Iuh evidence before the Parliamentary Committee ou the Law of Partnership , atated the amount of the annual insolvencie s bankruptcies , and compositions , to be " not lean than £ f > 0 , 00 () , <)()() sterling per annum ; " that £ 1 , 200 , 000 arc paid annually in dividends by the Court of Bankruptcy ; and that , while bankruptcies were in number « h one to ten to compositions and aHHigmneiitn , the dividends of the latter varied from 5 s . to 7 « , whilst those received under bankruptcy were only 3 s . in the pound !
Bank , Mr . Ashton's at Hyde , Mr . Ashworth ' s at Turton , or Mr . Bright ' s at Rochdale . But in Manchester itself there are note-worthy exceptions ; Sir Elkanah Armitage , for instance , of whom , in connection with the cooperative Whit-lane "Weaving Company ' s Mill at Pendleton , and Warehouse in Manchester , more anon : — " Notwithstanding this identity (?) of interest says Mr . M'Culloch , there is , it must be admitted , but little sympathy between the great capitalists and the workpeople . This is occasioned by the great scale on whichlabour is now carried on in factories ; and
by the impossibility of the manufacturers becoming acquainted with the bulk of the people in their employment . They do not , in fact , so much as know their names ; they look only to their conduct in the mill , and are wholly ignorant of their mode of life when out of it , and of the condition of their families . The affections have nothing to do in an intercourse of this kind ; everything is regulated on both sides by the narrowest and most selfish views and considerations ; a man and a machine being treated with precisely the same sympathy and regard . It is not to be denied that this is a state of things fraught
¦ with considerable danger ; and that no society caa be in a really sound and healthy state where the bond of connection between the different ranks and orders is such as now prevails in Manchester and other great towns . Indifference , on the one hand , necessarily produces disrespect , insubordination , and plotting on the other . The whole tendency of society , in modern times , is to make interest , taking the term in its most literal and sordid sense , the link by which all classes are held together ; and should any circumstances occur to make any considerable portion of society conclude that their interest is separate from , or opposed to , that of the others , there would , we apprehend , be but few other considerations to which to appeal to hinder the dissolution of such society . " *
Within a radius of twelve miles from the Manchester Exchange there is a population of above one million , of which the greater proportion is engaged , directly or indirectly , in manufactures . The wages of this population are liable to great interruptions and fluctuations , yet the improvidence of the operatives in prosperous times is proverbial ; and whole families are to be met with whose joint earnings are very considerable , yet who appear to be in a state of abject poverty ; their dwellings filthy ; their children half clothed ; the husband without a single enjoyment except the pot ; and the wife unable , if willing , to make her household a happy home . Many of the women are engaged in factories , and know nothing whatever of their domestic duties : their children are left to the care
of a hired nurse—frequently a little tfirl or superannuated female—and are thus neglected from their earliest infancy . The number of persons frequenting the gin palaces , f which vie in splendour with those of the metropolis , is astonishing . Wretchedness and misery appear to create a kind of rage for the excitement of cin ; and on the l . 'Hh of March , 1842 , 4 S 4 persons were seen to enter one dnnn-s / iop in one hour : the rcater part were women , some dccmt . fi / rfnssed , and others almost naked , carrying in their arms a squalid infant .
" There appears , says an intelligent observer , describing the slate of Manchester , " a necessity for itiHtttutiont * of a totally different character from any now existing " ( I must except the Industrial School atSwinton ) , "institutions where young people would be taught , not . algebra , trigonometry , and the art of making speeches in public , but reading , writing , arithmetic , and the useful arts ; the boys Hhoemaking , tailoring , gardening , & c , and the girls sewing , knitting , washing , and cooking . "
And , above all things , temperance , providence , self-respect ., self-dependence , and the principles of cooperative association . lint , when wives frequent gin-palaces , husbands on leaving work proceed straight to the beer-shops . Home becomes hateful ; and , wife and children once forsaken , the career of crime frequently commences . The Umperor Napoleon one day said to Madame ( Jairipun , " The old systems of education seem to bo worth nothing . What is there yet wanting in order to train up young people properly in France ? " " Motiikkh , " replied Madamo Cainpan . " Well , " said the Kinperor , " therein lfcK at once a complete system of education . It must be , your endeavour , Madame , to form Motiikkh who will know iiow to educate their children . " WlM . IAM (!( ININ (; iIAM . N . B . By Homo error the uorrcctioiiH contained in the revised proof <» f «« y former lut ^ r were omitted . ' . _ ... * Ukihjuai-iiioai . Dictionary . " Manchester . " | In IM . S , then ; w (! i- «» 17 < i 2 _ bccr-uhoi > 8 "" d . 1 > M > nubhe-Iiouhcm in Munchtutrr .
I Coinmunditc , from commundarc , to commit into the hands of another for some cxprcuncd purpose , with directions or ortlurty .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 8, 1851, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08111851/page/13/
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