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• Instances of deplorable suffering throughout a whole community are oftenest found in close parishes , where the work of cottage clearance is going on , or where a large population is suddenly concentrated , hy the moid growth of a manufacturing or mining interest , in the midst of what was formerly an agricultural district . The neighbourhoods of Axininster and Souttileigh , in the first category , have supplied to the South-west Commissioner of the Morning Chronicle examples of peasant condition in Devon . His letter on this branch of enquiry is contained in the number of the 1 st of January , in the present year . Too many of the cottages contain but two rooms . The walls ar « j » ererally made of " , " —that is , mud and small Btones mixed ; the roof , of thatch . The floor of the lower apartuu nt is sometimes composed simply of clay , and sometimes paved roughly and irregularly with stones . From this door a ladder is coiuinonlv used in ascending to the upper room , —the sleeping plact ' ,
very often , of an entire family , r or such lodgment as this description of hut aflbidH , Is . per week i * paid : a rent for which , in soino places , the labourer has a comfortable home . A specific account is given of a cottage at SmUhloigh , in Deum . Tlte floor of its lower apartment wus paved with khihII stones , after tin ; fashion of a rough and irregular pavement , with a gutter in the centre to cany otF the water . The tenant of this cottnsfo was rheumatic , and the place still Vfry damp and cold from tlio rains which had then lately fallen . An adjoining house was much the same in point of accommodation ; and ita inmates , also subject to rheumatism . The floor was simply of clay , and was partly under water alter every heavy rain . In this case the wet was removed by soaking cloths in it , and wringing them dry out of doors . The unwholosomenpps was further aggravated by a broad , open ditch at one side of the road .
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circumstances ; and the exasperating part of this bondage is , that the oppressive circumstances need not exist . I keep in mind the principle with which I started , that we must care less for goods than for human beings . Our present oeconomy tends to the very reverse : compare the admirable , the perfect condition in which goods , —say pieces of cotton , or packages of hardware , —leave the factory , the tissue braced up in every thread , the blade polished and edged to the most lustrous keenness ; and then , entering the factory , see the slate of the workpeople—jaded , rude , degenerate . We devote all our anxiety to the goods , and leave the makers to shift for themselves .
the shuttle . Flag in the race , and you sink into the pauper . And if there is no escape for such as these , where is the escape for the needlewoman , toiling all day to earn twopence or threepence : of the waistcoatmaker ; of the tailor , working for a middleman , at minimized wages ? What provision is there for sickness or old agesave the grudging " club" or the more grudging workhouse ? A mean dole , embittered by dishonour .
I say the life of the average working man is one of toil , of privation , of confinement to a mechanical routine , from which there is no escape—weary labour , hard fare , no hope of change . They tell you in the books that division of employments augments produce ; there is one division of employments that the labourer feels most keenly , the division of the employment of making demands upon him . He labours , and out of the returns the landlord asks for rent , —a fee for a resting-place on the surface of the planet ; the employer takes his " profit "; the middleman takes his profit ; the
Look at the working man ' s mode of life . Do not be led away by the theory of books on oeconomy , but look at the life as it is to be seen in reality . You are told that division of employments renders labour more productive , and encreases the enjoyment of " mankind , " which is true of the " mankind" among whom bookmakers live ; but how is it with working mankind ? You are told that with diligence , providence , and intelligence a working man may elevate himself "to the first offices of the state , " and ; people point to a Peel : but how many Peels
capitalist takes his " interest , " the collector takes his " tax" : out of the produce of the labourer ' s weary hands , before he can use any of it , either for his hungry self , or his dear mate , or his children , hand after hand grasps a share for rent , for first profit , second profit , interest , and tax ; and each grasps as much as he can : the rest is for the labourer ! Yet so precious is that little that he and his fellow , in competition with each other , to keep some and buy favour of the employers , are daily offering to keep less . With that rest the labourer goes into the market of trade to purchase his needments .
are there born among " the million " ? Look at the actual situation of any average working man as it really is . Take a weaver or a farm labourer . The farm labourer toils from dawn till nightexcept when " out of work , " and then he enjoys a holiday of starvation . Read the accounts of the Morning Chronicle rural commissioner early in this year—where he found Devonshire peasants dwelling in clay-floored cottages , all sleeping in one room , living , perhaps , on potato or cabbage . * Now , follow a man of that class through the day : see him get up , comfortless , not hopeful , going to his
The books tell you that want stimulates industry , by spurring the labourer : the facts tell you that want , in this hopeless shape , makes him dull . The books tell you that division of employments , as compared , for instance , say with the rude life of an early settler in the colonies , augments the return of labour : the facts tell you that , trade being no sufficient guide for divided industry , where no concert is , less perishable goods are multiplied indefinitely ; but that the labourer , turned to a machine , is losing his artistic zeal in his work , is losing the guarantee of a return for his labour . The books tell you that competition is finding out new channels of
induspreacher ! there are thousands who cannot find the copper coin for beer , and they are precisely the lowest . " Moral restraint , " cries the Malthusian — himself a comfortable father of a family ; or , being a man of the world , a discreet user of " the usual substitute" for marriage , which fills our streets at night with outcasts . He preaches " moral restraint' in defiance of natural feeling ; as if the instinctive impulse of nature could be held in abeyance until man should grant his philosophic Creator to
permission for the original decree of the take effect . "Education , " says a gentleman in black , with high forehead and hair brushed up intellectually : but , man , booklearning is not for the many , perhaps never will be . " Save , " cries the oeconomist : but the people don ' t save ; and I do not see how they well can save out of less than enough . Indeed , I am not clear that the active spirit of producing goes very generally with the negative spirit of parsimony . It may in a few cases , but I do not notice the concurrence often , either in
individuals or races . These " remedies" are not what they so supereminently and presumptuously profess to be—they are not practical . Some are fanciful $ some go against the grain of humanity ; some appeal to the meaner passions of our nature ; some imply shocking resorts . Not one is shown to be essentially necessary . All are odious 5 they are preached by ! those who find them , easy or needless to those wiu > are helpless . . . - The upshot is , that the working man " sees ¦ the
return of his labour , to himself , individually , growing less ; his condition , if not in all respects more comfortless , is growing more fixed , tnore . hopelessl y fixed ; he grows more and more familiar : with hardship in the midst of luxury ; and those who sit above , in ease and comfort , wise among their books , coddling themselves into comfortable virtues , to the toiler below , in hardship and privation , preach abstinence , energy , self-controul ! Luxury looks calmly down to penury , and preaches the doctrine of necessity .
work under the compulsion of sheer necessity ; toiling all day—remote , unfriended , melancholy , slow—returning at noon , dreary and slow , to a meal of cabbage or potato ; back to work , halfsatisfied , half-hungry still , jaded and dreary , working till night , with a wash of supposititious " tea "; supperless to the crowded , desecrated bed ; up again next morning , and so on , a dreary round —the labourer himself dreary and slow , and not efficient at all ; a dreary round , broken by Sunday's idleness , —the level idleness broken by the monotonous voice of the parish clergyman , speaking in a
The force of instinct tells the labourer that the doctrine of luxury is selfish and false ; untutored labour feels the disbelief , but cannot set it forth , learnedly ; and so is content to sulk in suspended rebellion . Political faith is destroyed in the body of the people : they do not trust their rulers . Political infidelity has gone so far , that among the working classes very generally national feeling is destroyed . Driven off the land , bound to the soil only through his workhouse settlement , what does the labourer care for b . 13 " country" ? Left to free trade and competition , told to " help himself , " as " no one else will , what does the working man care
try : the facts tell you that , in the blind endeavour to obtain " employment , " the working classes are multiplying the secondary kinds of labour , and developing huge return ' ess branches of industry . The idea is , that if a man will but " work" he shall subsist : he does multiply " works" until nobody wants them , and he will waste a life in making silk for surplus umbrellas in the hope of obtaining half a subsistence . And when it comes to this , the books give you the most fanciful reasons for his sunken condition . See how Porter , like a statistical Dante , bodies forth the supposititious sins that account for the existence of a Bethnal-green : —
fine foreign tongue half understood . Beer lends its passing transport when it may . But you know this round , Erasmus : tell me if it is better where you are . Tell me if you see in that dreary , stupefying round any part where the average man may escape unaided . The factory town , perhaps , I know better than you . I know the sound of the factory bell at early dark ; I remember — for I have seen it often — the " abatement " of threepence for being too late when " the engine gaited "; I
refor the " nation " or for " order" ? He is kept m order by the police and the standing army . The people is divorced from the land , in bondage to a thankless industry ; the middle . class is devoted to trade ; the richer classes , more and more alienated from the people , remember them occasionall y to preach political cecononiy or dabble in charity England heaps bale on bale of # oods , million upon million of capital and funds ; the rich grow richer , the poor are left more and more behind : class distrusts class ; the People , all classes and their rulers . Nationality is dead . All this needs not be so .
member the ceaseless whir of the weaving-room , broken thrice for meals—the human being bound to the galloping car of the loom ; released at night , weary and good for nothing . " Short time " lms made the bondage less severe ; but the confinement lasts the day . The home is less comfortless ; but average human energy cannot do more than keep pace with the headlong engine . It is early to rise ,, to spend the day in the mill ; home at evening to the humble house , a short rest , a sleep at night , and . back to the mill next day . Life is spent between supplying the bodily wants and watching
" It is but rarely we meet with any one that is not in , at least , decent apparel , except it be a mendicant , whose garb is assumed as an auxiliary to his profession . Those who , through improvidence or misfortune , are unprovided with clothes of a good quality , which the improving customs of the people have made necessary , vender homage to the feeling whereby that improvement has been brought about , and for the most part remain within their homes . The silk-weavers of London , who are located in
"Hold ! " cries the practical political philosopher : " hush ! do not talk in that style , or—for God ' s sake , hush l- ^ -you will raise the hopes of the People . " For God ' s sake it is , and the People ' s , that I do speak out . All this is not necessary . If the People work and produce plenty , they should enjoy their full share of that plenty . " Raise the hopes of the People" !—why that is the very thing I would do . Yes ; let the ' People know what is possible , and hope bravely , and , by God ' s blessing , we will win our way out of this bondage of industry .
Not ages hence : we might begin at once . Nor need we ^ yait , as some imagine , for " an altered state of society "; nor " # o back , and begin de novo "; nor do any other wild and extravagant thing . The wild and extravagant thing is the persevering in the vain endeavour to conquer the instinctive disbelief of the People , when they are tol < l that they must be as they are , that it is " their lot . " They feel better . And so do , you , Erasmus . How , then , to begin ; Bat I have already written enough for one reading . Ever your friend and fellow workman , Thornton Hunt .
Spitalfields and Bethnal-green and their vicinity , are , too many of them , a very improvident class of people , so that many of them are unprovided with any other clothing than their working dresses . It has been attributed to this circumstance that those among them who reside in the town provide thcmsvloes amusement by keeping pigeons , great numbers of which are always to be seen in Spitalfields ; while those who live in the suburbs employ much of their Icimre time in the cultivation of flowers . "
This it is to be at the mercy of assumed necessities and a system of assumptions . An honester man than Porter I believe does not exist , nor one better " informed ; " but political oeconomy runs upon a pattern , for want of original minds . A better light is at last dawning upon it . The remedies which the old-fashioned philosophers propose are the most fanciful of their devices . One , in agriculture , for instance , is , more capital " —which is to aggravate the tyranny of capital over
labour . Better diffused capital — " stock more directly employed upon the land—that would be sense ; but to bring the mere city system upon the land would only be to convert our fields , still blest with some traces of nature , into a factory hell . " More trade , " cries the final free-trader- —that is , more whirling toil , more detraction of industry . " Temperance , " go without beer , and you shall thrive , cries Father Mathew : why , excellent
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Oct . 5 , 1850 . ] Wt ) * QLtatStt . 659
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 5, 1850, page 659, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1855/page/11/
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