On this page

• Departments (1)
  • 
• Pictures (1)
  • 
• Text (10)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    . , dOlM (iFyltlltirTl WjUU 1+ |

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Untitled Article

    enquiry as may be within their power into the practical working of the cooperative or associative principle . They would then see that the thing itself has nothing terrible in it ; that they have all along been startled at a word . And , we may observe in passing , it would be well for the advocates of association not to u that word , at all events unaccompanied with an explanation , from a regard to the prejudices and apprehensions of those who only require to be shown the value of association to be made its most zealous advocates . At present the-name on the threshold frightens them , like the " Cave Canem" of the ancients ; and they halt there , too timid to explore . *

    The required investigation may , happily , be made for himself by any candid enquirer who is within reach of Oxford-street : not far from the Regent-circus , as our advertising columns have lately shown , is established an association of working tailors , formed by a combination of benevolent capitalists and intelligent workmen , for the twofold purpose of rescuing the operative " class from the miseries and degradation consequent on competition , " and of demonstrating " that health , prosperity , and moral worth " can be secured to the operatives , and cheapness guaranteed to the consumer , by the faithful realization of the brotherly and Christian principle of cooperation .

    If an enquirer would visit this establishment he would find , as we have done , cheerful and contented workmen , employed for a moderate period of the day in light and airy apartments , replete with every appliance for health and convenience for working . He would find men earning the full and fair wages of their class ., not ground down by " sweaters" and by " slopsellers , " but adequately remunerated for their toil , and finding not their least reward in the consciousness of knowing that they are doing their part towards the emancipation of labour .

    He would find a library formed for the benefit of the members , and extensively used by them ; and he would learn that the improvement of the mind , as well as the comfort of the body , is an object with the association , from their contemplating the delivery of lectures and other means of instruction , as soon as their advancing arrangements will permit . He would obtain from the association clothes as well made and of as good quality as from any respectable tradesman , and at prices as low as those charged by the cheap slopsellers , whose enormous profits have been wrung from the sufferings of the operatives .

    The distribution of the surplus profits , after all expenses and interest on capital have been paid , is a notable feature of the plan . One-third is devoted to the repayment of the capital advanced by the persons through whose energy and benevolence the establishment was set on foot ; another to the promotion of similar establishments and to

    assistance in their formation ; and the remaining portion is divided equally among the members . It is an encouraging fact to such as believe in . the value of the associative principle , that this equal division was determined upon at the instance of those members in receipt of the highest amount of weekly remuneration ; they holding that thus compensation would be made to their less skilled or less

    active brethren for their smaller ordinary receipts . Similar establishments are springingup in London and in the provinces . The joiners , the shoemakers , and the needlewomen , are imitating the example set them , and availing themselves of the aid which Christian consideration has placed at their disposal . It is needless for us to say that our most cordial wishes go along with these experiments , and that we recommend their support to every well wisher of his kind : thus he will best do homage to the fraternal principle which has animated their noble minded projectors and the intelligent workers who have united to carry out their project .

    Untitled Article

    AN ARGUMENT AOAIXST SANITARY REFORM . 41 It is well known , " says Mr . Porter , in his Progress of the Nation , " that in climates where the waste of human life is excessive from the combined causes of disease and poverty affecting the mass of the inhabitants , the number of births is proportionably greater than is experienced in communities more favourably circumstanced . " At the late meeting of the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Class , the Reverend Mr . Champneys said he had been struck with the remarkable operation

    of this law , in some of the most crowded and unwholesome parts of London , as exhibited in " the great in- 1 crease of births in those wretched localities , and the rapidity with which a large proportion of the children are carried off . " Under the Metropolitan Interments Bill , this large increase of burials will furnish a valuable source of income to the clergymen of the unhealthy districts , and we may possibly find them , a few years hence , when the progress of sanitary reform has lessened the rate of mortality , and consequently curtailed the amount of their burial fees , bringing forward claims for compensation . "Would it not be advisable to insert a prospective clause in the Interments Bill guarding against any such claim ?

    Untitled Article

    CREDIT . If any of our readers were alarmed by the suggestion which we threw out , and which was powerfully echoed by Professor Newman , that the subject of the credit laws should be revised , let them be fortified by the striking remarks which have fallen from Commissioner Fane this week in the case of Delafield . We said that the laws of personal credit are " a mockery , a delusion , and a

    snare : " penetrate to the kernel of Mr . Fane's remarks , and see what he makes of them . "We said that they induced tradesmen to neglect , not only precautions , but the commonest enquiry as to the means and character of customers on credit , in the delusive hope of obtaining , through " the law " that which they can only obtain from the substance and integrity of the debtor : say if Mr . Fane contradicts that opinion .

    We asserted that the existence of credit with its apparent and fallacious extension of means , acts as a compulsion upon numbers to go beyond their means , not only for selfish objects , but also in the effort to maintain the struggle of competition for themselves , and to mitigate the consequences of a struggling existence on others who look to them for help . We said that the law does not give tha ' t security to the tradesman which it professes , and that along with the amount of debts recovered through the instrumentality of the law must be taken that gigantic aggregate of bankruptcy which is one of our established institutions . See how far Mr . Commissioner Fane bears out those assertions .

    He shows , indeed , that to a great extent , by the forbearance of creditors , the law is made a dead letter . It tempts and deceives , although it is not worked at its full , because the practical trading-mind feels that the full enforcement , if not too cruel for individual conscience , would be mischievous to trade itself . But this , like many other evils amongst us , is not an inborn evil of humanity , it is one made by man , and can be unmade by man .

    . , Dolm (Ifyltlltirtl Wjuu 1+ |

    ( Htynt CnttimL

    Untitled Article

    A JOINT-STOCK CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY . Battle , June 5 , 1850 . Sir , — -I wished to draw the attention of the friends of progress to what I consider . an easy method by which a cooperative establishment or community might be constituted , without risk to any parties , but , on the contrary , with , the greatest advantage to the small capitalist , and to all parties desirous of investing their money to the best permanent advantage .

    Messrs . Chambers , in their last month's Journal , writing on building and life assurance societies , &c , say , «• Many start at the word socialism in our day without knowing that there is an equitable kind of it in vigorous existence and progression amongst us with the entire approbation of all rational persons . Whatever is to be the fate of this principle in its pretensions as a mode for the distribution of wealth , it is certainly found highly efficient in the meantime for protecting individuals against many of the direr calamities of life , " &c . Now , when we find such men uttering sentiments like these , I think it is time that Social Reformers should be acting , for the Chambers' are proverbial for their prudence and sagacity .

    The method is simply on the principle of benefit and life assurance societies with greater advantages . It is , in fact , a mutual benefit society for the production and distribution of wealth , by which all the advantages that are derived from existing mutual societies will be combined , and much besides . But to carry out this extension of the principle of mutual assistance would require , on the part of the members , a tolerable share of intelligence and perception of the true sources of happiness ; as , being somewhat of an experiment , it would require some degree of prudence and forbearance in carrving it out in its details .

    Supposing a society formed for the above purpose , under the denomination of a building society . Five hundred shares of £ 200 each , to be paid in the usual way , £ 1 monthly or otherwise , would realize a sum of £ 100 , 000 in about twelve years , a sum quite ample for purchasing an estate capable of supporting 500 persons , and for erecting suitable communistic buildings and workshops , and for highly cultivating the farm , or , as it ought to be , a garden .

    The purchase of the estate could be made soon after the formation of the society , as the bulk of the money would not be required until the land and buildings were in some degree of preparation ; at any rate the money borrowed would not be sufficient to become an incubus to the society . I should propose that the trustees and directors of the society should be trustees and directors for the property , and that the sole object of the society should be for forming a cooperative and self-supporting community and home for the members , the whether

    admission of whom would depend upon they would be profitable , and also by the consent of those members who had previously joined . Those who understand the machinery of building societies will , I think , see their applicability to the above object , and that , as a profitable mode ot investment , it would be unequalled by any of the popular modes of investment , because £ 200 on this plan would obtain , besides other advantages , as much as £ 1 . 000 would in the usual way of purchasing land and buildings for one person only .

    I know many comparatively wealthy persons who are desirous of joining such a society , and I am persuaded that the requisite members would soon be found . ,. , . I hope that this subject will bo discussed in your columns , and that those who are versed in building societies will take this matter into serious consideration . Union .

    Untitled Article

    RELIGIOUS FEDERATION . Burton Rectory , near Lincoln , Juno 12 , 1850 . My dear Sir , —I do not think that our friend R . B . has quite apprehended the spirit of my remarks in

    Untitled Article

    • Cnvo Cnnem— " Hen-are of tho Dojy" ! This inscription , with u representation of the animal , wsi » painted on tho thr « Rliolris of tho nnoient Uninnn houses , ns exemplified amongst the uxliutned relics of I'omncii .

    Untitled Article

    CLERICAL INFIDELITY . Denunciation is a process that we do not fear , and if we regarded only worldly success we might hail the oral advertisement described by the Lincolnshire Times , when it says , " We understand that at the Bible meeting held on Tuesday last , the Reverend Mr . Scott denounced the Leader newspaper as an insidious promulgator of Infidel doctrines . " But as we do not look only to worldly success , we regret the incident , because it betrays an " infidel" mind in the denouncer . We promulgate no Infidel doctrines , but claim protection and encouragement for the inborn faith in every heart . We do nothing

    that is " insidious" : that which we think , as occasion arises , we speak out directly , without measuring or qualifying it . The denunciation proves either that Mr . Scott is incapable of understanding the nature of faith when he reads of it , or that he is guilty of a still more faithless spirit in denouncing what he has not read , — bearing false witness against his neighbour , without caring to know what he asserts . This is a spirit of " infidelity " which causes infinite misery in society , by setting man against man , warping the intellect , and enfeebling the faculties of citizen , lawmaker , and minister , for doing good . And that is the spirit which it is our special mission to combat .

    Untitled Article

    Villagers and their Lord . —Famine was soon effaced , but not the grateful feeling in the people ' s hearts : and , little as benefits should ever be conferred with the expectation of acknowledgment , it did the heart good to meet such a requital . Every Sunday , after Church , whither the people olten walked fiom other villages of the manor , they always came to my husband with their complaints , preferring his decision to the tediousness of an appeal to law . In one instance , however pleasant this confidence was , it could not be allowed . A peasant , who

    believed himself to have a claim to a piece of land , which came into our possession from the previous proprietor of our estate , resolved to institute a law-suit against my husband ; but , instead of going to the Central Court , he brought to the defendant himself a whole bundle of papers , and asked him to judge ! Of course , my husband explained that it was impossible in a law-suit for one of the parties to decide in his own cause . The peasant shook his head , and remained of opinion that the grant of his request would have been the wiser course . —Madame Pulszky ' s Hungary .

    Untitled Article

    There is no learned man but will confess he hath much , profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for "him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to "write . —Milton .

    Untitled Article

    276 ®!> * U , ea % ieV + [ Saturday ,

    Untitled Picture

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 15, 1850, page 276, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1842/page/12/