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Jan. 25, 1851.] ®$* «,***&**? 81
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IRISH MANUFACTURES. The Munster Traders'...
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ANOMALOUS PRICES OF BREAD. A kjciikluon ...
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ARE WE GOING BACKWARD? Adam Smith remark...
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Transcript
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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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Wanted, A National Party. France Is Redu...
nation , the Times calls upon said Roman Catholics , the Irish majority , to act with the English majority in resisting that aggression . Now , there cannot be the slightest prospect ot any such union—it is only said for the sake of saving—a . transparent pretence to cover over that ludicrous state of confusion into which Pope Innocent of the House of Bedford has brought the conduct of public affairs : the quasi-Ministerial
journal must discuss public affairs , but in order to do so * with anything like gravity , it must first of all at least pretend to place them in a state capable of grave discussion , and then in that imaginary state , it proceeds to treat them with all due solemnity . The reason for all this reigning absurdity is the same in England as in France—there is no master principle : instead of positive principles , public men We learned to substitute negative expedients , such
as the combination to " keep out the Tories * j old endeavours for the past are placed in lieu of living necessities , and instead of popular freedom , men will even now " go for the Reform Bill" % the vessel has been put for the thing , and Liberal principles are replaced in the affection of Parliament men by " the Liberal Ministry' * which has descended to us from the past . More than one doating nurse mistakes the tomb for the cradle , and is nursing the political corpse of a John Russell in the hope that some day it will grow to be a man . For any present purpose and future movement , our leading and professional politicians are without positive
principle . Nor can they be revivified while the public remains without . In the public , too , we see many a section advocating its specific , but no master principle—none large , noble , and exalted enough to be the motive of a nation . The place for a national party is vacant .
Jan. 25, 1851.] ®$* «,***&**? 81
Jan . 25 , 1851 . ] ® $ * « , ***&**? 81
Irish Manufactures. The Munster Traders'...
IRISH MANUFACTURES . The Munster Traders' Association , which has just commenced its active work , is both a sign and an engine . The address of Mr . Maguire , unless the scheme is to end in smoke , describes one of the most revolutionary projects ever entertained . The plan of action ranges itself under three heads—the founding of Industrial Schools , the establishing of a Commission Warehouse for the sale of exclusively Irish manufactures , and the formation of a Mechanics' Institute . The Mechanics' Institute was opened on the 8 th instant , the schools were to be established a few days later , and the preparations for the commission warehouse advance
rapidly . The schools will instruct children , commencing with girls , in light occupations , such as sewed muslin work . The commission wareroom will be the means of selling such articles , and articles made by the ticken weaver or web weaver , who now wanders many a long mile to find a market for his wares . But the society , it appears , will labour still more generally to promote the purchase of Irish manufactures , which is at present impeded by two difficulties—the difficulty of discriminating between the genuine Irish manufacture and the English interloper , and the , dis credit which has been brought upon Irish manufactures , by ill-made importations , which dishonest traders have passed off as native produce . This is Mr . Maguire'a injunction : —
In one word , ask for Irish manufacture , when you wiuvt to purchase a ooat , a hat , a shirt , a cloak , a gown , a shawl , a cap , a blanket , a piece of flannel—any article whatever ; and when you can get it , in the name of common sense and common humanity , buy nothing else . " The plan , therefore , although not ostensibly , and , we presume , not intentionally , i . s practically u measure of non-consumption against England — us much so as that of the New Englanders before the revolt of our North American colonies . Practically , it would work as a retribution upon England for that mifigovernment of Ireland , which has wedded Enpflwh mistake to Irish foible , and has engendered " ¦ frightful progeny of disorder , want , disease , and wre tchedness . Under the present relations of Kng'and and Ireland , the Irishman labours without
receiving even that scanty pittance out of the fruits , which is thrown back to the English labourer or " o hunting hound : the promoters of the Minister Bcheme are in the right when they endeavour to break oil" that process ; no theory of old I ohtical ( Economy or Free Trade can justify it . 'Hey are right to consider the life and well-being of "je lrmhinun as of woro importance than the trade <> i _ tno country ; they arc right in holding by the principle that the primary object in distributing the « ni | iloymenl and duties of a ' People is to secure- for «« ch a fair chance of subsistence .
If we are less confident of success for the project than we could wish to be , it is because Mr . Maguire and his friends take up a position of weakness and flinching , instead of resolution and strength ; and they do so , we think , because they do not thoroughly perceive the very simple causes of Ireland's poverty . For an illustration of what we say , let them look to our colonies , where the feeble industry , the turbulence , and the lack of enterprize ascribed to the Irishman at home , disappear from the race , and are seen no more . We regret to see Mr . Maguire complaining that " the
manufacture ' of articles , once profitably made in Ireland , is now crushed beneath the flood of English enterprise , whereas we believe that the English and the Irish could divide among them the several branches of industry , with profit to both Peoples , if both were placed upon an equal footing . We regret to see Mr . Maguire teaching his countrymen to look to manufactures rather than to agriculture—to the secondary rather than the primary—to the unstable rather than to that which is based upon the land ; the very root of all Irish misery lying in the corrupted state of her land
tenure . We regret to see him expressing a fear of * ' annihilation from the poor-rate ; " a sound poor-law being the provision by which , if they become corrupted in individual hands , land and industry revert to the state . It is not poor-rates that Ireland has to fear , but land rents . A land that cannot support the People born upon it , ought to pay no rents . The first charge upon the land is the subsistence of the sons of the soil , and until that be satisfied there is nothing for any other
claim . You may note this great distinction between the Irish and the English People—whereas the land of the English has been confiscated , as to a class , in Ireland it may be said to have been confiscated , as to a race . If the Irish People had possession of the land to which the Irish People is born , it would not see produce drained away for rents , and it would learn by the stoppage of that drain that it is the loss of its produce , and not the invasion of English manufactures , which brings ruin .
Then the Irish People would not need to fear , but would invite the cooperation of English enterpr ise . One article of food , which is shamefully withheld from the English People by a blind reliance on trading agencies , is the fish that abounds off the coasts of our island : experience has thrown great doubt upon the bent of the Irish coasting population , for that spontaneous , steady , and daring cultivation of the sea , which belongs to the more truly maritime English race : were the Union really
consummated , what hosts of Englishmen might find employment on the Irish coasts . If the English Government were forced to restore Irish confidence in England by a more , open , as well as diligent , labour for the rescue of Ireland , the jealousy would be annulled . One obstacle which hinders such a compulsion is the want of concert between the English and Irish People ; and that want of concert , again , is hindered by a want of administrative organization for the People .
Meanwhile , such movements as that at Cork are signs of the degree to which society is stirred by these fundamental questions ; and it Will be a sad neglect of duty in the popular leaders , if they lose the opportunity aliordod by that stir , to secure a large stride in the progress of the People ,
Anomalous Prices Of Bread. A Kjciikluon ...
ANOMALOUS PRICES OF BREAD . A kjciikluon in the Bread Basket ! N . ( J ., of Avenue-road , complains in the ' J ' imes , that " the bakers are now getting enormous profits" ; which he infers from the fact that he pays 7 d . for the 4 lb . loaf , while the poor get that quantity for ( id ., and , " according to the assize in the time of ( Jleorge 1 ., the sixpenny loaf should weigh , of best bread , 5 ll > s . , 'ioz ., and of seconds , ( ilhs . 1 5 o / .., wheat being then at the same average as now . Sorrowful Scvenpenco appeals to the leading journal iu a more eloquent strain : —
" You are eonntantly telling us of the ndvjuita ^ e . s of free trade and of th < " oonsequt'ii (/ diminution of the price of bread ; recently , also , you have informed iih that bread is Helling in the highest juiced n 1 h > i > h in London nt ( J . Jd . thti 41 b . loaf . I think , therefore , you tduuild in juntii > e brinur your powerful influence to bear on the Imker . s of ( 'laphani . The price in London is , you sny , <) , J , d . The League bread in nold at . Kennington for fi'd ., yet . here in ( , 'lapham we are charged 7 < 1- Wow , ( Sir , in lH . ' {/> , the average of wheat wan as nearly aH |> o . Hnible what it in now , and bakers then hold in tin- city of Math , excellent bread for a penny a pound , viz , Id . the loaf . Yet , here we are pay ing Id . " la UiiiS honest ? asks Sorrowful . We do not know that it is , but wo much doubt whether tho
dishonesty is chargeable upon bakers . We doubt whether bakers , as a class , are making fortunes very generally . The fact is , that the baker deals in a plain homely article , which , except to families who live in affluence and luxury , forms an importan t item of expenditure ; and there is , therefore , a constant pressure to abate the price . In poor neighbourhoods , of course , the pressure is still more intense . The bakers that serve the easier classes , properly avoid very frequent changes of price , and the y will , rather continue to lose for a little bit than charge more to a regular
customer , making good the loss at a better season . The baker of the poor is put to closer shifts : his price goes up and down with every change in the market ; and , if the easier customer pays a little more for his bread , the additional price includes the cost of sending round , of credit and keeping accounts , of changing over-stale bread , and the like . Few men of the middle class would like to . be placed , in all respects , on a footing with the cheap-bread customer . On the other hand , your sevenpenny customer is not always the safest—no offence to Sorrowful , who is , no doubt , as punctual , as he ia punctilious in pence .
It is not the dishonesty of the individual baker that creates these mysterious aggravations of price they have a more distant and a wider cause—the excessive division of employments , which overcrowds every branch of industry with superfluous intermediate agencies . The baker has as hard a time of it as any other tradesman : the difficulty you feel to pay his price is the identical difficulty he feels to pay your price . If you could get the Times to screw him down by its hyper-hydraulic pressure , it would be most unjust , unless Baker induced the Times to screw you down also ; and it is the same all round . The evil arises from the
disproportionate mass of industry thrown upon secondary employments , which do not afford the necessaries of "life out of themselves , as primaryemployments do . This looks like that social bugbear , an " abstract truth , " which most of us regard as equally horrid and useless ,- but it happens to be the reason why Baker calls upon you to pay him sevenpence a loaf , and why you find a difficulty in doing so .
Are We Going Backward? Adam Smith Remark...
ARE WE GOING BACKWARD ? Adam Smith remarks that "it is in the progressive state , while society is advancing to the further acquisition , rather than when it has acquired its full complement of riches , that the condition of the labouring- poor , of the great body of the people , seems to be the happiest and the most comfortable . It is hard in the stationary , and miserable in the declining state . " What a change must have come over society since the Wealth of Nations was written , if this was a true state of the case at that period ! Since the world begun there never was a time when society was " advancing to the further acquisition of riches" more rapidly than at present , and yet the condition of the labouring poor is very much inferior to what it was a century ago .
lake the city of ( jdasgow , for example , which is so frequently quoted as an instance of the rapid progress of wealth and population , under the combined influences of trade and manufactures . People talk with astonishment of the rapid growth of London , but its progress has been slow compared with that of the western metropolis of Scotland . At the death of Charles the Second , in lo ' H 5 , the population of London , according to Sir William Petty , was about 6 <)(> , 0 < H ) , and in 1 H 50 it had only reuched about 2 , ' 200 , 000 , having little more than trebled the number of its inhabitants in 105 years . In I KOI the population of ( Jlasgow was K : i , 7 <"> 9 , and in I H 5 1 it i . s estimated at 450 , 000 , giving an encreaKcj
of nearly four hundred and filly per cent , in fifty years . Supposing it ; to go on at the same rate for the next half century , ( ilusgow would contain ' 2 , 050 , 000 inhabitants in J <)() I , which in nearly as many as there are in the metropolis at the present day . Here , then , we have a , city which presents all the outward marks of prosperity ; lei , us enquire whether the condition of its labouring poor h . is improved along with its enereasing numbers . All political economists agi ' ee thai , the quantity of animal food which a nation consumes may be taken as a tolerably accurate test of the condition of tlio people . We shall adopt that test in comparing the present , state of the working class in ( jhiNgow with what it was eighty years ago .
I he Scotch papers huve lately quoted certain tables of the consumption of provisions in (» 'hisgow , during the fast three years , for the purpose of showing that , under the operation of free trade , tho
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 25, 1851, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25011851/page/9/
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