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Leader (1850-1860), 24th August 1850, Edition Country of 1, Page 12, JACK KETCH AS A MORAL INSTRUCTOR. The ga...

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      What To Do Wits The Land. Among All Our ...

      the change will , if it is still given to nations to rise above the retail spirit of trade . Meanwhile , true Reformers , looking at the evils of our present system of land management and ownership , will be inclined to ask with Miss Martmeau , " whether any system can he much worse than that under which we are living V * It will be said that m this instance the greater fertility and larger monev profits may be referred to the neighbourhood ol a populous city where of the land would be found

      demand for the produce , and from whence might be drawn continual and abundant supplies of manure . But both these conditions of high and profitable farming would be fulfilled were associated capital and labour employed in the cultivation of extensive tracts , combined with handicraft trades and other industrial operations . The source of increased production and the means of its consumption would both be found in the numbers thus organized and located on the land brought under the system , —while from

      Capital would be derived the means of employing every new invention and improvement , whether in machinery or in other matters connected with tillage , which can but seldom , and then with but inadequate advantage , be brought to bear upon smaller and isolated portions . To this subject we shall frequently return ; it is of sufficient importance for many articles , bearing , as it does , within it the solution of our social difficulties , and the means of reconciling the differences by which our country is distracted .

      [ Te 516 ®T)E 3leaifev+ Saturday,

      516 ® t ) e 3 LeaifeV + [ Saturday ,

      Progress Of The Nation. Statistics Conve...

      PROGRESS OF THE NATION . Statistics convey a most brilliant picture of the national progress . The subjoined figures form the two outer columns of a table in the last number of M'Culloch ' s Geographical Dictionary , in its new and improved shape . The figures show the progress of population , revenue , commerce , and production from the year 1775 to 1848 . Ireland is excluded from the table . The facts compressed into its compact form are well worth studying . 1775 . 1818 . Population of Great Britain 8 , 800 , 000 21 , 000 , 000 Interest of debt 4 , 470 , 000 28 , 189 , 000 Total public revenue raised by taxation in Great Britain ..... 10 , 038 , 000 53 , 500 , 000 Loans Nil . Nil . Amount of loans & taxes taken together 10 . 038 , 000 53 , 510 , 090 Amount of taxes paid by each individual 23 s . 9 d . 50 s . lid . Amount of taxes and loans paid by each individual 22 s . 9 d . 50 s . lid . Bent of land 17 , 200 , 000 45 , 600 . 000 Shipping ( of United Kingdom ) 697 , 301 4 , O ! J 2 . I 6 O Imports of cotton in lbs 5 , 000 , 000 686 , 400 , 0 > 0 Produce of iron in Great Britain in tons . 00 , 000 1 , 850 , 000 Produce of wheat per acre in bushels .. 20 32 Price of wheat per quarter 49 s . lOd . 50 s . 6 d . Declared value of export * — 58 , 739 , 000 Efficiency of same amount of labour . ; .. 1 2 From the table we learn that , in spite of agricultural distress , the landed interest has made a considerable advance : the rental of land has increased in the ratio of more than 1 \ to 1 . This increase must have accrued more from the increased productiveness of the soil than from the acquisition of land under Enclosure Acts . In 1827 the number of statute acres in cultivation throughout the United Kingdom amounted to 46 , 139 , 228 , as nearly as possible two acres for each inhabitant : since 1826 the Enclosure Acts have appropriated 483 , 120 statute acres , while the addition to the population has been 4 , 899 , 685 . Land , therefore , is much more valuable to its owners . We know that the chief elements of necessary expenditurethe cost of food , raiment , and lodging—respectively of land rental , has diminished . The position of the landowner , therefore , is much better . Passing from land to commerce , we find that the shipping interest , as represented by the gross amount , has increased in a far greater ratio : it has increased nearly sixfold , while the increase of the population is not threefold . In proportion , therefore , to the mere growth of the nation in numbers , the growth of its shipping interest haa doubled . The shipping interest is twice as large and important as it was ; in spite , too , we may repeat , in this instance , of the distress so often alleged on behalf of that interest . ,, Our landed interest , then , has grown much faster , thaj the-country : the shipping interest still faster . But if ' snipping commerce has thus increased , now much iribre has the manufacturing interest of the country increased ? It has not contented itself with the nathto growth of the marine , but calls into play a yetf / larger amount of foreign tonnage . « £ * J > E ™ th of the ««» trade , increased witlnn theytfnod of the table in the ratio of 33 toj . \ The export of iron in an unmanufactured

      state has advanced in an extraordinary degree—from 4585 tons in the first year of the present century to 358 , 844 tons in the year 1844 . This vast consumption of iron at hom e as well as abroad is ascribable to the extended use of machinery , which inself indicates the immense strides of productive activity . The declared value , that is the quantity

      of exports , has increased from nearly £ 38 , 000 , 000 in the first year of the century to more than £ 63 , 000 , 000 in 1849 . But the most surprising instance of growth is that in the cotton trade , pointed out by the consumption of raw cottonthat has increased 137 fold—nevertheless , the exports of woollen fabrics have increased , and steadily continue to increase .

      Thus we see how enormously has increased the property , wealth , and production of the country , what a vast development of its resources has been effected , what an immense increase of available income , what an immense increase in comfort and luxury . Great Britain has enlarged her resources , has a greater command over her resources , can bring more forward in the general competition of the world . High as her condition was at the beginning of the century , it has risen , and still

      continues to rise . The national revenue has of course increased with the national wealth . Skip the period of the war , when the demands were exaggerated , and you find that it has increased from £ 10 , 000 , 000 to £ 53 , 000 , 000 . But that increase of burden bears no proportion to the general increase of wealth in the face of the table ; therefore , although the burdens of Great Britain have increased in the ratio of more than five to one , the gigantic increase of her wealth ought to remove every apprehension on that score .

      So it would if the table were quite explicit . But , indeed , there is something beneath that is not shown in the table . There is this immense increase in prosperity and resources ; but the question occurs , does this really represent the improved condition of the people , meaning by the people , the largest number of human beings collected on this island ? It does not , —quite the reverse . This immense increase of prosperity and wealth is irrespective of the people . The condition of the English people has in no degree corresponded with this apparent advance . On the contrary , its condition is in many respects worse . We see in the table itself

      that the burden of taxes upon each individual has increased in a greater degree than the number of the individuals . The increase of the population is as 8 to 21 , the increase of taxes paid by each individual is as 23 to 51 ; that is , each person has to pay considerably more than twice as much as he had to pay in the year first set forth . Now we know , that although the price of food and clothing has diminished , the rate of wages , excepting in the cotton trade and some employments necessary to it , has not advanced . The data on this subject are not very satisfactory . But the general effect of Mr . Porter ' s statements is to show that upon the whole wages have been stationary .

      The reports in the Morning Chronicle have proved beyond question that , in the greater number of trades and agricultural employments , the continued tendency of wages is to diminish . The condition , therefore , of the poor—that is , of the vast number of the people collected on this island , is nearly stationary ; but the amount of taxes which each father of a family has to pay , taking a family of five persons , has increased from something like £ 5 to something like £ 12 . The gigantic prosperity , therefore , represented by the

      table is realized not by the nation , but by a comparatively limited class , including the landlords , shipowners , manufacturers , merchants , and others of the middle class . The people , the greatest number of human beings , has no concern in that prosperity , is not better off , but does have to pay a much larger quota towards the expenses incurred in promoting that advancement . There is something rather horrible in this golden facade of prosperity with that increasing misery behind it . To the real nation—that is , the vast number of

      the people , —the country is not so finely in the world . We are beginning to understand nowa-days how imperfect is the information conveyed by mere figures , and what desperately false conclusions too blind an obedience may occasion . One of our most intelligent writers on statistics , in his smiling and somewhat poetical work called the Progress of the Nation accounts for the undeniable depression of certain industrial classes , by the fact that most labouring men purchase their food in very [ small quantities from retail dealers , who are themselves unable to purchase in the

      best markets ; to want of te providence , " and even to idleness ! The vyriter in the Morning Chronicle , who has studied the facts o n the spot , has thrown a little more light on this hideous part of the national progress . He has shown that , in many parts of London , industry the most heroic , amounting to an utter abnegation of existence , is unable to keep pace with the demands of nature ; that large numbers in one devoted district are permanently on short

      commons in spite of the most incredible struggles to let the hand of labour keep pace with the cravings of hunger . To talk of saving or providence to those who cannot get on from hand to mouth is an absurd mockery . It is true that the bulk of the nation is not in the condition of Spitalfields , but an increasing part of the nation , far larger in numbers , we suspect , than that embraced by the prosperity , is permanently verging on that low condition .

      Such discordant states in one country are dangerous . It is not only the moral effect of the contrast which exasperates the poor , —that is , be it never forgotten , the great number of the people , —who compare their own hardships with the growing luxury around them ; it is not onl y that the sense of injustice at such unequal distribution is exasperated by the instigation of want to clutch at the good which is held by the few ; but this accumulation of wealth and resources in the hands of the few positively aggravates the burden upon the many . To all these classes the proportionate increase of wealth imparts , both in the labour market and in the produce

      market , an immense purchasing power over the industrious classes . The money classes are able to rule the industrious classes with the ponderous sceptre of competition , and to out-buy them in every market of necessity or luxury . The money classes dictate the modes of transit , the rates of rent , the money prices of food , for which they can pay so liberally . The money classes for their

      own purposes keep up " the national faith , " in the shape of the huge debt , which consumes more than half of what the poor man pays to the taxgatherer , because any shock to the funds is supposed to tell first upon trade . The money classes keep up the expensive forms of government , which is convenient chiefly to themselves , who enjoy the prosperity which government preserves to the respectable

      orders of society . The money classes absorb the whole of the patronage belonging to these operations . It is not merely a sense of invidious discontent which animates the poor man ; he is also conscious that these immense resources are used to increase his burden and to aggravate his hardships—the prosperity of others is attained at his expense . Statisin this

      tical writers have no warrant for talking way about the progress of the nation . They should avow that their figures only represent the progress of certain persons ; the nation has no such progress , and , unless some means be taken to redress this dangerous condition of public affairs , some day of hardship is like to precipitate a very disagreeable reckoning . We shall have occasion to probe some parts of this large subject rather deeper .

      Jack Ketch As A Moral Instructor. The Ga...

      JACK KETCH AS A MORAL INSTRUCTOR . The gallows-tree continues to bear , but its fruit does not prove any wholesomer than of old . One of its most recent acquisitions is Bennison , the Scottish Mawworm , who poisoned his wife to be free for union with a girl that had inspired a spiritual passion . How far will his hanging influence minds of a like class to treat their wives less cruelly ? His story exhibits a curious confusion of ideas . He expressed great affection for his little daughter when she visited him in prison . His religious fervour was constant , ebullient ; he had " remarkable gifts of extempore prayer . " Natural affection how

      therefore , he had ; and some religious sense , - ever perverted by the highly dogmatic disguise which religious sense takes in Scotland . On the other hand , he was improvident and intemperate Now , improvidence is a common failing with the poor ; and in Scotland intemperance is positively fostered by those Sabbatarian rigours which debar the humbler classes from all recreation . His " piety does not seem to have stood him in much stead : his Methodism seems even to have aided m his criminal propensity . He avers , that after he had administered the poison , he was struck with remorse , and would have revealed his crime ; but he did not summon assistance " for fear of detection . This is remarkable .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 24, 1850, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24081850/page/12/