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THE BOOK WOLF Eveby now and then the Lib...
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T11K WISDOM OF OUR ANCESTORS' DESCENDANT...
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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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Till] Australian Plutus. Gold ! The Amer...
many votes might be dug up after that fashion Or , even apart from bribery , how many an exhausted candidate would enjoy an invigorating retirement into the country , at a place like Ballarat or Mount Alexander ! "To think , " cries the candidate who has a bill for cabs , but no seat , " that shepherds and haymakers should pick up the means to pay at their very feet , and yet have no cabs to pay for ?" If Punch ' s vision had been true , however , and
Salisbury plain had proved to be a Ballarat , what would have become of the general election ? Who would ever care to canvass voters , at five , or even ten shillings a-day , when he might canvass the washings at so many pounds ? Who would care to be voting when he might be digging ? " What do I want with a representative , " the digger would say , " when I can pick up such a representative as this ? I can vote my own supplies ; we of the golden republic are Lords of our of our own Treasury ; our Sovereigns are ingots _, and our general election is the election to dig , So , long live the King of Spades !"
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The Book Wolf Eveby Now And Then The Lib...
THE BOOK WOLF Eveby now and then the Librarian of the British Museum makes a raid upon the booksellers and publishers ; and this time , amongst the victims of his official rapacity , are Messrs . Bradbury and Evans . It is well known that the British Museum has a right to a copy of every work published ; and it is generally understood that the same institution by no means retains all copies it receives , or indeed it would become a vast imperial and perennial storehouse for wastepaper , and ought to rise to the dimensions of an Egyptian pyramid . The publishers do not object
to the surrender of a copy , but they do object to the hostile manner in which casual omissions are notified to them through a police court . It is not so at Stationers' Hall : if a published work be not sent in the usual course to that office , a polite reminder is forwarded to the publisher , and the omission is made good without difficulty . The practice of reminding men of their civil duties through a police court is not a very English proceeding , and it reminds the publishers that the gentleman who pursues it with such zest
is not an Englishman . The affrighted publisher feels like the industrious ants , conscious of dreadful Formica Leo or Ant Lion , lying in ambush for him to snap him up if he stumble into the pit ; and ho regards that devouring insect with the more horror since it is an outlandish species—a sort of crawling Machiavel , whose pit is the British Museum , and whose slaves are policemen . " We should not see this morbid appetito for booksellers , " they say , "if the Librarian were an Fnqlishman . "
afhe idea lists suddenly struck them , these patient publishers , thsit perhaps they might bring their case before the trustees of the British Museum ; sind resilly the idea is not si bsid one .
T11k Wisdom Of Our Ancestors' Descendant...
T 11 K WISDOM OF OUR ANCESTORS ' DESCENDANTS . " Tile wisdom of our ancestors , " once the rallying cry and ultima ratio of 11 great party in the state , has sufferetl fhe inevitable destiny of all high-sounding phrases employed to cover false pretences , and is now become a bye-word and n stalejia _.-it . _IuHteiul <>! ' _« ix ( _oiling uiiccsf . _rid excellence , our generation delights in vaunting its own , With what gootl reason we shall presently ei . desivour to show . We know a great- deal more than our forefathers ; that is a simple historical fact ; and as wisdom should grow with _knowledge , anil as we lire a people
pre-eminently endowed with that happy gift , of common sense which enables its possessors to profit by the lessons of experience , we very logically infer that wisdom lias so grown with us . There arc churlish sceptics , 'indeed , who question flic strict validity of that , inference , and who hint that " the present enlightened age" is not quite so enlightened as if might be , or as if deems itself . Nor are these captious critics content , with general object ions only ; they carp and cavil at . some ol our niostvalue . il institutions- antl profess to see nothing
but folly anil mischief in public measures sanctioned b y the approval or acquiescence ol the community _, the best way ( . 0 confute such censures , suit ! to shame their authors from their affectation of singularity , is lo bold up for tht' admiration of a discerning public some ol the very things which those persons select , for objects ol tbeir keenest invectives . To this end we will here Hirin g together a few choice precepts on public economy , which , being faithfujh , drawn from the actual _images of our sagacious countrymen , may be taken _severall y anil collectively as bur expressions of the
T11k Wisdom Of Our Ancestors' Descendant...
practical wisdom of the nation in this year of grace , 1852 . Rule 1 . —Beware of setting your paupers to work at any productive employment . Tbey must , of course , have something to do , but the more unprofitable their drudgery the better . They come to you as paupers ; keep them so . Note . —The thought that paupers should be made comfortable by the fruits of their own industry is an abomination to every sound political economist . What a frightful revolution would , such a system effect in the present wholesome relations between labour and capital How it would demoralize our peasantry 1 Our
independent labourers would then be independent with a vengeance . Not though you searched the whole island through would ' you then find one able-bodied father of a family willing to toil all his life long for seven shillings a week . What ! convert our admirably repulsive workhouses into cheerful abodes of organized industry ! Get up a regular interchange of commodities between regimented bodies of paupers : agriculturists in Essex , shoemakers in Northamptonshire , cotton spinners and weavers in Manchester , wool-workers in Yorkshire , tailors in London , needlewomen everywhere , and so
forth ! Why , it would be rank socialism . What if it did diminish the poor-rates ? The seven millions sterling , or thereabouts , which Ave now spend annually in maintaining paupers and keeping them in then * proper station , is not too large a tax to pay for the privilege of having always an overflowing supply of labour at a minimum rate of wages . Tbe present system is in _Jcind the best of all possible systems . It might be improved in degree if all paupers were set to dance on treadmills , grinding nothing . Hut , alas ,, there is such a deal of pestilent sentimentality abroad !
Rule 2 . —Throw away the best part of yonr homemade manure , and send half round the globe for guano . Note . —It is very becoming in a great maritime nation to cater for its shipping interests by sueh magnificent unthrift as tbis . The yearly value of the sewage manure swept into the Thames alone has been estimated at more than eight millions , and cannot at the lowest computation fall short of five . But it is a mistaken
notion that all that mass of wealth is lost to human use ; on the contrary , it servos to give body and tlavour to the drink of the Londoners , being well churned up , and diffused through sill parts of the river from which the water companies derive their supplies . Luxurious Londoners ! Talk no move of the Epyptia . 11 queen ' s barbaric profusion : what were a few liquefied pearls , drunk in occasional orgies , _compsircd with the wealthspiced draughts daily and hourly imbibed by our millions of Anthonies and Clcopatras ?
_IIulf , 3 . — 1 urn a deaf ear to all suggestions lor the cultivation of your waste lands . They are one anil all irreconcilable with the fundamental principles of British agriculture . Note . —Every British farmer knows that the only agricultural use of land is to grow corn and rear cattle , and that no one but an ass would waste his time and substance in _eiiltivntiinr bind that could do neither .
much less pay rent , for it . Some people , indeed , tell us that even Hagshot Heath , under the hands of Dutch gardeners , would yield high rents , antl so much the higher as wheat was cheaper ; and that the farmers of EJtinders , whose principal crop is llax , can aflortl to pay a rent of 21 . 7 s . and a land-tax of 11 . 10 s . per acre for a , light sandy soil , originally no better than the worst part of Norfolk : anil this whilst tbey are obliged fo import hay anil oovn from Holland . _Thcso people also twit us with the fact that , French farmers turn a pretty penny by supplying our markets with musty eggs and skinny poultry , antl the Americans by cheese-making and growing apples for us . In short , they tell us that we ought , to cultivate less wheat and import more , and that cheapness of corn will ultimately be good for I he farmer antl for the landlord , since it , will increase the
demand lor every other article of agricultural produce , and bring back for more remunerating crops , many ol which arc now banished from our islands . Hut how little tbey know of the steady going agricultural mind who think fo bamboozle if with such new-fangled t henries . Rni . K 1 . Bury your _tler . tl perpetually in ( lie black , greasy , liet id , reeking mould , among ( he crowded dwellings of your populous cities . Heap corpse on corpse by scores ; antl hundreds daily , till the ground beneath your feel , flic puddle that splashes you , and the _ilusf you inhale , are soaked and mingled with fhe putrid remains ol desecrated humanity .
/ Ve / . a- To say nothing of the moral beauties of tbis practice , if is infallible as 11 means of thinning the superabundant population , and therefore " self-supporting . " If . 11 uo fi . - When a . terrible pestilence rages iu the land , bellow lustily for sanitary reform ; when the epi-
T11k Wisdom Of Our Ancestors' Descendant...
demic has spent its fury , fall back contentedly upon your old nasty ways . Note . —The want of a comprehensive and efficient administrative system for promoting and conserving the health of the community , is a capital subject for a popular cry , and one that may be worked with advantage at election times , and on sundry other occasions . John Bull being constitutionally a . grumbler , can never be happy without a few good grievances ; and the delay of sanitary reform offers so fair a pretext for growling , that perhaps in his heart the worthy gentleman would be rather grieved than otherwise if he was too soon deprived of so convenient a resource .
Kuxe 6 . —By all means encourage competition in trade , without any limit whatsoever . The more there is of it the better . Note . —There is no other maxim of public economy more widely accepted or more strenuously acted upon by the people of England . Competition is said proverbially to be the soul of Trade . Now the personified abstraction here called Trade is not to be understood as identified with the interests either of traders or
consumers . It is a grand _idesil principle to which the _clsiims of both those classes must be sacrificed without hesitation . It is a very fortunate circumstance that the real merits of unlimited competition arc totally unsuspected by the general public , who cherish it for reasons altogether unfounded and illusory . Its great recommendation in the eyes of consumers is its supposed tendency to make commodities cheaper , whereas its operation is just the reverse of this—it makes things dearer . The competition of joint-stock companies for the supply of water , gas , & c , always ends in a virtual monopoly , with monopoly prices—that is to say , in a mutual compromise at the expense of the consumer .
1 or a similar reason , bread and butchers' meat are now at exorbitant prices in London , compared with the prices of Hour and cattle . They would cost less if there were fewer butchers and bakers , each of whom would then do more business , and be as well remunerated by : i lower rate of profit . When retail traders do not combine to keep up prices , they have another resource in adulteration , and a very pretty use they make of it . The grand function which unlimited competition fulfils in the economy of trade is to make trailers sharp , to compel them to be adepts in all tho subtle arts ( illiberally called lying and cheating ) which are essential to success in their calling .
Rule 7 . —The British soil does not belong to tho British nation ; it is the exclusive property of a small _fiatction of tho inhabitants , who have an absolute aud indefeasible right to do what tbey will with their own . Note . — How greatly we bave _improved upon tbe principles and practice of our forefathers in respect , to the tenure of land . Tho old laws of England did not regard the land as private property . They recognise in the baron or lord of tin ; manor a , trustee , entitled to certain dues and services in return for the discharge ol certain definite duties ; but they recognised also the rights of others fo live by the land , and denied the
landlord's right to depopulate bis estates ; he could only do so by an act of illegal violence . Such an act would bave been deemed atrocious tyranny on ihe , part of ( he king himself , the landlord paramount , as witness the universal execration poured upon the memory of William the Conqueror for his seizure of tin _? lands of the New Forest , : u \ d his eviction of their human occupiers fo make room for deer . But law now sides with might :, antl similar processes may be conducted with the sanction and aid of our high courts of justice , as Ireland can tell , and Scotland too . Between the years 1811 . and hs : i <> , all the villa-res on the Sutherland estates of
the Marchioness of Stafford were pulled down or burnt , and 15 , 000 persons were , driven off the lands lo make way for sheep , which it , was thought would pay better than human beings . Similar measures were , adopted about , Ihe same time 011 the estates of seven or eight neighbouring landlords . The law held their imputed rights superior fo the imprescriptible rights of manantl very properly ; whoever thinks otherwise is a Jacobin and an enemy to social order . Here we must pause for the present , anil leave our readers to rellecf on the brief hints we have offered in vindication of fbi ) practical wisdom of England in the nineteenth century .
NOTES ( _hN THE ELECTIONS . IV TU . _I-. " 1 . 1 iik ' _icaI . " inti : i ! i : st ami 'mi' ; _i'KOI'i . k ' s I NT Kill . ST . Tin ; peddling and disingenuous " I . ihcrulisni , " with which the Oovciiiineiif of the British cn _' ipiro has been carried on for some years , is now brought to a . searching confession : whet her if will receive absolution depends upon flic Electors . Whatever might bave been th merit of Hie Whigs of _IH _' A' A , in forcing on Reform , tb chief policy they havo pursued since has consisted i
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 10, 1852, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10071852/page/17/
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