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Leader (1850-1860), 25th January 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 82, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      condition of the people has greatly improved . The Scotsman recommends to the special attention or the agriculturists the following table , showing the number of cattle , sheep , and other animals slaughtered in Glasgow during the three years ending in 1850 : — i 848 ^ im lggo _ Oxen 19 , 788 22 , 282 26 , 200 Calves .. 3 , 206 4 , 204 4 , 588 Sheep 69 , 82 , 681 96 , 104 Lambs . * . 43 , 658 49 , 817 54 . 400 floats .... 13 lo Zy Pigs .. ' . ' . " .. ' !! .... 3 , 195 1 , 925 3 , 934 139 , 150 161 , 527 185 , 255 Now , we entirely agree with the Scotsman that this denotes a considerable improvement in the condition of the mass of the people during the last two years . But we wish to make a much wider comparison than this ; not for the purpose of testing the value of Free Trade , that question being now fairly settled , but with a view to ascertain whether the condition of the poor is retrograding or improving . Fortunately , we are able to give , from Mr . Cieland ' s valuable statistical tables appended to the Glasgow Mortality Bills , and from Denholm ' s History of Glasgow , the consumption of animal food in that city for the years 1772 and 1822 ; so that we have only to compare the population at those two periods with what it is now , in order to ascertain whether the condition of the people has improved during the last eighty years . In the first place , we may state that the population was , as nearly as can be estimated , in 1722 . 1822 . 1850 . 40 , 000 150 , 000 450 , 000 The consumption of animal food at the three several periods , so far as that can be ascertained from the number of cattle and other animals slaughtered , was as follows : — 1722 . 1822 . 1850 . Oxen 6 , 411 14 , 566 26 , 200 Calves 9 , 204 8 , 557 4 , 588 Sheep 23 , 110 57 , 520 96 , 104 Lambs 10 , 7 90 68 , 637 54 , 400 Pigs 89 6 , 539 3 , 934 49 , 604 155 , 809 185 , 226 Between 1772 and 1850 the number of inhabitants has grown from 40 , 000 to 450 , 000 , an encrease of 1025 per cent . During the same period the number of oxen slaughtered annually for the supply of that large family , instead of keeping pace with its demands , has only grown from 6411 to 20 , 200 , an encrease of little more than 300 per cent . In 1772 the annual supply of butcher ' s meat appears to have been equal to one carcase for each family of six persons . At present it is not equal to one carcase for every seventeen persons . In 18 . > 0 , a year of great commercial and manufacturing prosperity , and notwithstanding all our boasted progress , the annual supply has been reduced to less than one-half of what it was at the former period , after making a liberal allowance for the encreased weight of cattle at present , compared with what they were eighty years ago . As regards sheep and lambs the falling off from 1772 to 1850 is not quite so great , but the difference is not material . Comparing 1822 with 1850 the fulling off in the consumption of mutton is very remarkable . In the former year there was more than one sheep for every three persons , last year there was little more than one for every live persons ; while the total number of lambs slaughtered , for three times the number of inhabitants , had diminished from o " 8 , 6 : $ 7 to 54 , 400 , and that of pigs from () 5 : 5 < J to : ) O . l 4 . The large number of calves slaughtered in 1722 may be taken as evidence of the backward state of agriculture at that period . The farmerK had not then learned the art of providing abundance of food for their cattle during winter , and , therefore , found it more profitable to kill u large proportion of the calves than to rear them . Taken altogether , however , the tablo is an instructive one , and well worthy the attention of ; ill political economists . We are anxious to draw the special attention of our northern contemporaries to the startling facts contained in it , in the hope that they may , perhaps , be able to givi ; some less gloomy explanation of the falling oil' in the consumption of food than the one we have rendered .

      Untitled Article

      CITII "WAE . "Violences multiply amongst us so fast that the fact ought to stimulate the inventive faculties of our intelligent tradesmen , or " competition" is disgraced from its boasted function . Highwaymen infest our great thoroughfare streets , burglars are growing common as rats ; yet we have no tempting wafer to abolish housebreakers like other bloodthirsty vermin ; and " life preservers" are the very things which highwaymen themselves use , improved to the most deadly degree . Really your honest peaceable man , who is not tired of life , seems to have no refuge or hiding-place but the

      tomb . As men attacked by bears feign to be dead , might not merchants , bankers' clerks , and other preserved game , seek a temporary respite in the garb of mortality , and find a safe-conduct through London during business hours in the shape of a death ' s head surmounting a snowy kind of toga ? Perhaps whistling might be a safe habit , on the Horatian principle—" cantat vacuus "; which is based on the idea that thieves take musical gaiety for the outward and visible sis ^ n of an inward empty pocket . Or your inventive tinman might encroach upon the province of the clothier , and supply a suit of complete armour , which would have the double convenience of warding off blows and keeping out rain .

      It may be a question , however , whether this domestic predatory warfare does not invite the strict application of the Quaker principle , or , as it is now called , the Peace principle ; according to which , instead of resisting the belligerent highwayman by force , you should spontaneously offer your wares to him , on reciprocity terms . It is averred that you might rely on his at once falling into that free-trade view ; and by a perfectly amicable exchange of purse and life-preserver , you would promote the circulation of property , extend the blessings of civilization to the barbarian , and be able to retrench the expense of a liveried police .

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      BHIl'MENT OF I'AUPElt CiniVDKEN . Wihdom aH well as humanity guided the St . Marylebone Hoard of Guardians iu refusing to supply the demand for pauper apprentices , who appear to bo at a premium in the Bermuda market . St . Pancras has not been so punctilious . When Mr . Burrows , u master mariner , applied to the Marylebone Hoard , last week , for a supply of boys and girls , and the Board enquired into the nature of his proceedings , he stated , in self-defence , that the tit . Pancras Board had already allowed him to take out sixty , lie lands them in Bermuda at £ C > a head , including freight , bed , and board , and he apprentices them as domestic servants until the age of eighteen .

      A guardian of St . Panoras assures the Morning ( 'hronulc . that the number of hoys and girls Kent out ia only forty , that , they have obtained good situations , and that . " Home" of the children : ue well treated . But what of the rest ? If Jane VVilbred , a pauper servant not apprenticed , within an omnibus ride of her own parish , wan converted into a domeHtio slave , how can the Pancrns guardian unttwer for every pauper went to the Bermudas ? - -a group tainted with convict slavery , and not uuallied to tho West Indies .

      It in true that emigration for Knglish paupers will generally be the path to a greatly improved condition ; but thn youth of the emigrants , the wholemilo manner of their emigration , in private hands , their jumper origin , aiwl the apprenticeship , are circumstances of much suspicion ; and no proceuH of this kind should be sufFered

      however honest a man Mr . Burrows may be . All emigration , especially of children , should pass under tho supervision of the responsible Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners .

      Untitled Article

      CHANCERY B . EF 0 RM . The public meeting , announced in our advertising columns , to fortify the Chancery Reform Association in , its active efforts , ought to be well attended . The Court of Chancery has enormous power : while it claims the superiority due to " equity" over " common law , " it has converted equity into a mystery , tyrannical by the help of its high pretensions , its Egyptian darkness , its inquisitorial rights over person and property . There is a popular delusion that Chancery deals only with the rich ; but many a poor man knows better . The mystery must be torn open , and " equity" made something more than a noble name : the public has ample power to achieve the Reform , if it will use but the diligence needed to back those who are active in the work .

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      SOCIAL REFORM . EPISTOLJB OB 8 CTTROKTJM VIRORUM . No . XXVI . — Edinburgh Review on English Socialism . To the Writer of the Article . Jan . 21 , 1851 . Sib , —Allow me to express to you the satisfaction which is felt generally by English Communists at the service which you have done by introducing the Edinburgh Review into the discussion of the Associative principle . The more so , since you have set an example of excellent spirit . You have recognized the importance of the enquiry , and you have treated writers on the opposite side with courtesy and with candour as to their motives . I could not , indeed , pretend to my brother Communists , or to the many who watch this discussion with so much interest , that you have "given a fair account either of the doctrine or of the arguments by which the doctrine is supported ; but those slight dislogisms which tarnish your manner here and there , such as the reproach of " selfishness " against the Socialist writers , " feebleness of logical faculty , " and so forth , I regard as little foibles incidental to the ardour of a student familiar with early prejudices , but not with this subject . You mean to be fair and honest . You also mean to be a close and logical

      reasoner ; and with that conviction I am surprised to find your argument weakened by an intermixture of very strong presumptions , such as the one that the Communists generally expect social changes not to be " mere slow improvements "; that they impute " all the miseries of the people" to " one source—competition instead of combination "; that nearly all " cheapness " " must " arise , " directly or indirectly " , " from the operation of the competitive element" : and that there is no alternative

      for associated trades but competition with each other , or a fusion attended by " all the evils of monopoly . " In this last mistake I might retort your phrase that you take a " complacent satisfaction-with a partial glimpse "; but , in truth , I do not impute to you any such contentment with half logic : I ascribe your mistake to want of familiatity in handling the subject , which has made you , while looking at a part , forget the correlatives of the whole . You will easily perceive , however , that you cannot have " monopoly" without property *

      Allow me to urge back upon you the passage which you address to Mr . Kingsley , because it is perfectly applicable to yourself , and it admirably expresses the spirit which you and I should both invoke : — " He has satisfied himself with a half comprehension of tho subject , and appears to have shrunk from the intellectual effort which a thorough investigation would require . An enquiry so vast , so difficult , so inomentoiw , —where a false doctrine or a false step may involve consequences which will echo through all time , —de mand 8 no common qualities . It demands , primarily and V * ~ eminently , a close observation and humble imitation of the plaiiH of Providence , us far as It is given to man to discern them and to aid in their accomplishment ; it demand * profound compassion , but profounder patience ;

      boundlcHH sympathy with every form of Buffering , connbined with quiet resolution in tho application of tho moHt searching probe ; an unshaken conviction tliat nj > great cardinal truth of ficienee cun be discarded with impunity , or worshipped and followed without leading * ° ultimate and mighty good ; a lirm faith that sound principle will , in God ' s good time , however slowly * * through whatever tribulation , work out his meroiful ft » happy ends ; and thai no abort cutsunsanctioned by thesc principleH such as human infirmity and natural Impatience under Muttering , cither wititeaxed or endured , a ' constantly tempting us to take—can lead us one moment Hooiior to our goal ; and , finally , it demands nejrvo to wait , alike through the didtrenseB of others or our own ,

      Untitled Article

      AN U N I V H H H A I , I < A W . A 'pa 8 BKN <; hh trying to puns from a steamboat to Huni / crford pier , three or four dayii figo , unused Iuh footing and fell > n . " A < rentl <; mun tried to throw the . hawHer , hut it . wau too lieuvy ; man on thu pier tri < - < l with n clumny bouthook to rrach Mm ,

      but , in the first instance , he pushed it below the <*}*"" » *? £ before he could get it above , as it was almost too heavy for mm to lift , the poor man was out of his reach . I called tc » him . fn quently to throw the boathook into the water , but he would _ not , if he bad there was still a chance , as the poor fellow kept for near five minutes above water . No boat was near , ana , the tiae running rapidly up , he was carried past the stone pier oi ine suspension bridge before he sank . «_ v * Tnn . " Had there been a life-buoy , a grating , or a spare W ™ P £ lif t , in this instance , might have been saved Is there no I ™™ < J , regulation to compel the owners of these vessels to have some apparatus of this nature on board boats in which so many people travel , that , in case of accidents , there might . be some chance of saving life 7 In this there was nothing at faand-Jiad there been , thi 3 person might have been saved .

      Laws and regulations will never reach all possible and minute contingencies ; for that , there needs an influence that shall be present at all times and places . We heard an intelligent and not prejudiced Englishman complain the other day that Roman Catholic charities , works of benevolence , and duties , are all performed i n the name of religion ; " they are always dragging in religion , " he said . This is inverting the process : from various causes which would need more time than difficulty to explain ,

      religion does exercise a more living influence in Roman Catholic countries , and especially in the Roman Catholic country . The people there do more for the love of God and for the sake of Jesus Christ , in daily life , than is done amongst us for any one ' s sake , except the honest penny . Perhaps nothing shows more painfully the deadness of religious feeling amongst us than the indisposition to do good in an impersonal and unostentatious way . Men have not faith enough to cast their bread upon the waters .

      Untitled Article

      ttfre jLl-attrr . [ Saturday ,

      82

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 25, 1851, page 82, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1867/page/10/