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March 15, 1851.]* HL^t llfatrf t\ 247
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THE PALACES OF THE POOR. Not very far be...
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ADULTERATIONS OF BEER. THE JOINT-STOCK B...
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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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.
Progress Of Assurance. The Railway Assur...
not the recollection of the bereaved . You can face death , but not their after life . Yet there is balm in Guead , even for those worst of wounds . The insurance principle brings its alleviation , and provides for those whose sufferings you feel most . There is the " Railway Assurance Company" which grants assurances against loss of life or any personal injury arising from railway accidents . The advantages of such a mode of assurance it is impossible to magnify . Every traveller sees them at a blow . Nor can there be cause for one moment ' s delay on the score of expense . For the single payment of 5 s . any
railway traveller may be assured in the sum of £ 100 for the remainder of his life ; £ 500 are secured by the payment of £ 1 5 s . ; £ 1000 for £ 2 2 s . ; £ 1500 for £ 3 3 s . ; £ 20 OO for £ 4 4 s . Assurers have the option of travelling in carriages of any class and on any railway in the United Kingdom . You may assure even against minor risks : personal injuries not terminating fatally are made the subject of proportionate compensation . This all looks very cheering to you who must travel ; but will the promises hold good ? That question is answered by the names of the men associated ia the undertaking .
. . . . ... The value of the principle thus applied to railway risk is rapidly becoming recognized . We remember the effect produced , not long since , by the story of that thrifty tradesman who was invited to take out an insurance , and declined : he was killed in the very journey he was then beginning . But the plan of taking out an insurance by one premium removes the only objection that such men as he might feel—the hindrance , the trouble , the bother of renewing your assurance ; especially when you have no intention to be killed " this time . " You
never have . But you know that the risk does stand over you ; and here you see how , at a single stroke , you can secure a provision against it . It is one of the very best illustrations of the mode in which risk is neutralized by extending it over many ; a risk unappreciable to the many , but destructive to the one , —unless he be protected .
March 15, 1851.]* Hl^T Llfatrf T\ 247
March 15 , 1851 . ]* HL ^ t llfatrf t \ 247
The Palaces Of The Poor. Not Very Far Be...
THE PALACES OF THE POOR . Not very far beyond Whitechapel Church , to the left of the main road , is a narrow turning called JBaker ' s-row . It leads you into a region of low houses , populous but not busy , with the dingy unfresh closeness of town , the dull unbustling look of country . Traversing a few of these streets you arrive at a tall edifice towering above the cottages around . It is the Metropolitan Buildings erected by the Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes , and it combines in itself more than one striking " sign of the times . " It is the most recent experiment actually begun by an association which has had no small success
in reconciling the spirit of trade with the spirit of philanthropy . It also reconciles the gathering together of people with healthful ness and comfort . By affording an investment of money which must ultimately prove profitable to the investor , while it rescues the poor from their squalid abodes , it shows us how the interest of the capitalist can be reconciled with that of the working man . The last annual report of the Association contained an account of its progress up to the end of March
, 1850 . By the Charter of Incorporation granted in October , 1845 , the Association is authorized to raine £ 100 , 000 in shares of £ 25 , and it appears that in March last year , no less than £ 50 , 075 had been subscribed . With a portion of that sum the Association fh > nt of all erected a set of model houses in the Old Pancraw-road . between King'scr « 8 s and Camden-tovvn , containing accommodation for 110 families , in wets of two and three rooms each , with separate sculleries , an ample wupply of water , and other conveniences seldom met with in
ordinary houne . n , at rente varying from : » k . to : $ h . 0 ( 1 a-wcek . The next undertaking was a model lodg " » g house for single men . This is situated in the j'astum outHkirtH of SpitalfiekLs , and contains excellent accommodat ion for 2 !» 4 men , who for 3 s . aweek are provided , not only with a , good bed and a convenient partition in a vvell-ventilateil dormitory , nut have the use of a lunro coffee-room , a
readingroom , library , bat . hu , and other conveniences . On the name N pt * t NtarwlN a lodgiug-houfw , capable of accommodating nixty fuinilie « ; and the Association nan taken measures for extending ita usefulnetja iu pouthwark , Riunsgate , ftnfl other place ? , aided by "ranch societies . iVIean while , it in gratjlyj n # to " « m the affairs of the ANnociation conducted in a "nwneHB-like manner . The chief promoters of the scheme are well aware that , unlesH kiicwhhiuI in a
pecuniary point of view , their example will not readily be followed , and the object they have at heart frustrated . Their endeavour is so to manage their affairs as to obtain an interest not exceeding five per cent , on the capital invested ; and we hear that there is every probability of their speedily doing so . In proportion to the extension of its operations , the working expenses of the Association will be gradually reduced ; and as the working classes are beginning to appreciate more fully the advantages placed within their reach , the income from rental will be large enough to afford a good dividend ; so that , even in the present stage of its progress , the scheme may be fairly considered a « one of the safest and most useful ways of investing capital .
When ' you enter into the tangible details , the results are even more striking than they appear in statistical comparisons . Compare the row of cottages on one side , just bought up by the association as the site for a new wing of the Spitalfields building , with the wing already erected on the other side . The row of cottages gives room for eleven families—the wing for more than sixty . As you enter one of the cottages you find it low , cramped , dark , fetid ; a squalid , comfortless , tumbledown place . The idea of living in it revolts the feelings with a sense of wretchedness and de * gradation . Cross the courtyard to the wing on the other side . It is what in Scotland would be called
a land , that is , a tall and extensive range of buildings , with several entries ; each entry opens to a public staircase , on each side of which , on every floor , are two " houses , " like the separate " chambers" of our inns of court . ' Here all is compact but roomy , admirably ventilated , cheerful , convenient , decent , and , in short , of such kind that no one could reasonably object to take up his abode there . By the courtesy of one of the tenants we were admitted to a house in actual occupation . The tenant is a working saddler—one of the rooms being
used as his workshop . He is a man of great intelligence and natural taste , and is suitably mated , circumstances which will account for much of the refinement which pervaded their household ; but the substantial and gratifying fact was the total absence of obstruction to this refinement—the facilities afforded in every respect for its amplest development . To sum up the comparison in . a word , the tenant of one of the old cottages can scarcely struggle with the squalid circumstances which make his abode the hovel of a beggar ; the tenant of the association can make his abode the
house of a gentleman ; and yet the beggar pays more rent for his hovel than the gentleman does for his house—the beggar is paying seven or eight shillings or more , the gentleman five or six . The lodging-house for single men is a similar escape from the squalidities to which the class has hitherto been consigned . Not one of our readers could object to pass the night in the sleeping wards ; the coffee-room , the reading-room , the kitchen , the cookshop , place a , totally new range of comforts within the reach of the humblest working man . The arrangements for ventilation and drainage are so complete , that not a trace of impurity can remain , or does remain , where they are but too often obtruded even in comparatively high-rented private houses .
The benefits effected by the Association extend even beyond their own buildings . By drawing oif such of the working cIushch as can best appreciate the improved dwellings , they will leave more room for the poorest in the old cottages , and check the disposition to extract exorbitant rents for miserable abodes . Their tenants set a wholesale example of improved economy . More refined habits are introduced bodily among the least cultivated of the working classes . Above all , the Association exemplifies the good which may be done in reconciling the iuterestK of various classes directly and promptly , by extending the great principle of conceit .
GRIMVANCKS OF THE SAILOR . Thk wailoiB of I » mlon , who have been memorializing the Board of Trade , find that tliey cannot obtain attention from the Government . They arc told , as n child in when he is whipped , that the Mercantile Marine Act in all for their own good . They nre subjected to a poll-tax in the shape of a muster-roll , uud are allowed no voice in the administration of the tax . They are made to take out ticket * of chfirmiex , JUJw the " JivjretH" , pf th # JrVench wprjknapn , under » pyjtaiw which work * so tyrannically in that office-governed country . They are taxed for the support of the Shipping-oiiice , but no heed is paid to their suggestions a « to the ar ~
native soil , they would fly to America , where they would get better treatment . ( Cheering , and cries of ' So we will . ' ) But they could not all do that ; they could not breakup their homes , and leave those most dear to them . ( Hear . ) As the Board of Trade had declined to relieve their grievances they must act with energy and petition both Houses of Parliament for justice . If they failed , they must memorialize the Queen ; and if then they should not succeed iu obtaining their rights , their only alternative would be to fly to a country where they would meet with & prop * r acknowledgment for their labour . "
rangement oi the office . They are taxed for contributions to the Merchant Seamen ' s Fund , and now they are vainly demanding an account of that fund . The feelings of the sailors at the London meeting on Monday are well expressed by J . Kavanagh : — " The British seaman was the most oppressed in the country , and he had been told by many that if they could not get justice and something like protection on their
Yes , but there is another alternative , one which would not oblige the British seaman to abandon his country , but which would enable him to remain and serve it at the same time that he was working out his own emancipation . It would be , to join his case with that of the other working classes—to throw his grievances into the common stock—to unite his claim for redress with theirs—above all , to unite in the demand for the enfranchisement of the whole People : which would give to him , in common with all the working classes , a share in making the Legislature , and thus in making the laws that govern him . There is no essential distinction in the case of the different working people , and if all the working classes were united , each section might protect itself against its special grievances .
Adulterations Of Beer. The Joint-Stock B...
ADULTERATIONS OF BEER . THE JOINT-STOCK BREWERY COMPANY . One of the greatest among the many evils of the competitive system is the fraudulent practices which it engenders . Honesty and honour stand powerless against it . To sell " below prime cost" is ruinous to the uninitiated , but may be the road to fortune . The coffee-dealer , for instance , can sell " below the prime cost" of coffee , when the thing sold is
horsebeans and rubbish , just as the tea-dealer can sell the best birchbroom and sloe leaves below the prime cost of hyson or bohea . The " beer doctor " has an excellent facility in making money—at the expense of bis own fraud and other men ' s health . " Beer , " says Mr . John Mitchell , the surgeon , in his excellent work on The Falsification of Food : — " Beer is , perhaps , one of the fluids in most general use , and is , unfortunately , the one most adulterated . "
" How could it be wondered at , " said Mr . Henry Drummond , in the House of Commons , last session , " that people should discontinue drinking ; beer when a brewer had actually published an account of the way in which the beer was made , declaring that it was no longer beer that the people drank ? He gave a proper receipt , as he called it . There was a certain quantity of malt and hops , then there was treacle , liquorice , tobacco , colouring , colchicum , salts of tartar , dye , linseed , and cinnamon ; and for giving the beer Htrength an article was used which must surprise most men : it was a compound half alum and half vitriol , not green , but blue . " The operation ** of the " Beer Doctor" are also graphically described in Chambers ' s Journal .- — " It is by the aid of the doctor that the weakest wash of the brewer is transformed at times into treble X . Under
bis talismanic charm simple porter becomes double stout , and fetches more than double price Though the con tents of a cask of beer cannot be doubled with any probability of finding a thoroughfare through the popular throat , yet they may , with cautious management , he increased some twenty or thirty per cent . Quassia , liquorice , couuIuh 1 adieus , and certain other cheap ingredients will curry a profitable quantity of water , and yet impart a flavour to the beer which , so fur from being repulsive to the palate of the London sot , long tr lined by the
publicans to the tolerance of such poisons , is rather agreeable than otherwise . Hut the chief aim of the doctor with regard to beer in to render it provocative of thirst , ko that the fatigued workman who comes in for u glnsn to refresh himttelf , may find , upon drinking it , that <> quart more at least is necenHiiry to quench the thirst it has excited . By this meant * drunkard * are manufactured by ( l < ' « r <« H , imd thus men Hit the livelong evenings through , drinking eight or ten pints consecutively , and wondering the . while at their own capacities for imbibition . "
A return made to the House of Coumutnn , on the motion of Mr . Ormuby Gore , also « tiow « that iu one year twenty-seven . brewer * were convicted and heavily lined fur using deleterious urtides in waking beer , on whose premises the following pernicious articles were seized : grains of paradise , tobacco , coculus Indieuo , orange peae , coriander se < : d « , turmer ic , logwood , control , «& psicuqa , « uid qu «» ia In another return it m shown tlv » t , iu Mie ouur « e oH ime year , one hundred and forty-siac liceiw « d 'victuallers niul bniwcxH won ; convicted of Himilar
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 15, 1851, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15031851/page/11/
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