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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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checks both the prosperity and the development of the railway system , depriving both public and railway proprietors of advantages that might otherwise be enjoyed . Although Parliament has sanctioned the construction of railways to the extent of 12 , 317 miles , only 6890 miles have been opened ; 326 have been abandoned by authority of Parliament , and there is reason to believe that 3600 will not be completed . This abandonment is without a corresponding reduction of the capital authorized by Parliament . In England and Walesduring the year ended June , 1851 , the
, t ^^ T 9 M . . « - - __ - ^ h - ^^ a ^ . ¦ M 1 ^ ^^^— —^ Lm ^^ n ^ &m 4 " W ^ BV ^^ 4 ^ ^ T ^^^ P passenger traffic has increased by about twenty per cent . ; the goods traffic has increased at the rate of ten per cent . ; railway extension at four per cent . ; and the gross revenue has increased about eighteen per cent . There is no doubt that the increase of traffic and revenue is due to increase of conveniences ; yet extension and dividends do not ad vance correspondingly . If we seek an explanation of this anomalous conjunction of facts , we shall find it in the waste of capital to promote those futile extensions which
have been abandoned , and in the general want ot plan which has so placed railways that they abstract traffic from each other , instead of distributing them to supply wants in places or in modes not supplied . If any one will survey the map of the country , he will find that the iron network is very irregular in its meshes , and that many places are neglected which would pay as well as many that are served . Again , if even on the existing network there were such a distribution of trains
as combination could permit , the number of trains might be greatly increased without detriment , rather with gain to the public safety ; and by an increase of business employment would be found for that capital which is at present negatived or applied to waste , with a corresponding increase to dividends . Mere amalgamation , indeed , would not secure these beneficial results , since they would depend on the degree in which the true principle of Concert should be applied . Amalgamation might be nothing but one form of ' monopoly—which is the combination of persons in one oranch of employment to promote their common interest , as
separate from the interests of other classes , or even as opposed to those interests . The true principle of Concert includes the interests of all the parties to any transaction , the consumer as well as the producer . The prosperity of railways must , in the long run and to the largest extent , depend upon the degree to which they are made subservient to the convenience of the travelling public ; and a perception of that truth has already gained a hold among railway administrators . Amalgamation would help the further appreciation of it , since it would remove from the calculation all the disturbing influences of loss by competition , in construction , or working .
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THE TRUE AGRICULTURAL BOAT . To raise wages would hardly be regarded by practical agriculturists as the best mode of redeeming agriculture from its " distress : " and yet , if we are to break the vicious circle of the ordinary agricultural system , perhaps there would not be a better place to begin . At least so wo are led to infer from the letter of " A Dorsetshire Landed Proprietor , " in the Times . In the first instance , no doubt , his testimony is of a kind to be seized by free-traders . A fow years ago , wlion . wages were 7 s ., with 1 * . ( 5 c ? . a woek deducted for
rout of a wretched hovel , the same gontleman ¦ wrote to the Times , insisting on the necessity of " ¦ change in the system—especially the necessity of a healthy emigration , free-trade with our colonies , and measures to raise the labourer out of his miserable condition . Subsequently there has been free-trade with our colonies , and with other countries besides ; there has boon emigration , < ; uough not , we believe , to so groat an extent Jrom Dorsetshire direct ns from some other counties ; and there have been , partially at least , measures to elevate the condition of tho labouring class . And the " Landed Proprietor" reports *•»« result : —
' Hiimo tho duty has boon tukon oft' corn , in my ""' K'llKMirliood , uitor tho hocoimI year rontu recovered j <> thoir former standard . Whcufc crops nro no longer ° " " P tho solo nlworbing flourco for paying tho !? ' () ats ' »•« now 24 . v . a quarter , a pri <« higher W > nn whon tho duty was on ; hay , 4 , 1 . to U . 10 * . a load ; > utter m IQd . ft lb . ; , ) ork 8 tf . a Hcoro . wiluo tho im"ovod Kytitoin of fanning has led to a much larger I XHl uctoon « t tho mimo coat than was formerly obtained ,
although the prices of wages are rapidly increasing Labourers are not to be had to get in the crops ; 3 * . 6 d . a day , with a gallon of beer , are freely tendejred , and lucky is the farmer who can find men sufficient to meet his present wants . Formerly the farmers only gave 6 * . an acre for turnip hoeing ; now they gladly give 10 * . For the last six weeks part of the work on my property has been at a stand-still for want of hands ; and there has not been , in mine or the neighbouring parishes , a single man but what . might have found employment . How different from what ifc was !" Such are the fruits of free-trade , which abolishes restraints on production . But there is something more than free-trade in this case—• more even than emigration : —
" Tho course I have adopted to counteract the want of labour is to erect a certain number of comfortable dwellings , suitable to the wants of my estate , with an acre of land to each , so that the men when unemployed by myself or others may have resources of out-door occupation within themselves . This acre to a poor man is invaluable ; his wife and children can cultivate it principally . It was with a feeling of humble thankfulness to the Almighty that I noticed one of my labourers eating French beans and potatoes with his bacon and bread , who , a few years ago , I remember to have seen eating only bread and cheese for his dinner . "
And the good landed proprietor had a right to thank his Grod for the result of the work in which he had aided . The fact is that Free-trade alone will not work . Trust to it alone , and there is nothing to prevent it from depopulating Paisley and Bradford to people either with iron machines ; or from setting man to compete with man , until farmers shall give enormous rents and get work done at wages too low for life . And then landlord or factory-lord may stalk about amid the misery he makes , and feel wretched , doubting for the safety of his property , and dreading bankruptcy itselr in a system where production is directed chiefly to articles not necessary for life , and the
machinery for exchange is enormously beyond proportion to the machinery for production . For such are the results of mere negative free trade . The really virtuous patriot knows that he must do more—that he must help to direct industry in a distribution of it which is most desirable—that he must , above all things , help to bring forth the natural resources of his native soil . The Dorsetshire Landed Proprietor has done so , and with what results we see . Landed proprietors often tell labourers that they , farmers and all , " must row in the same boat : " the saying is truer than mere Protectionists , from their actions , have seemed to think . If , like Felix Loyd , or this Dorsetshire Landed Proprietor , they will first secure a comfortable condition for the labourers ,
assuredly they will find prosperous farmers , flourishing landlords , and happy faces in all classes .
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TRANSPORTATION OF THE CONDEMNED WOOLCOMBERS AT BRADFORD . An emigration scheme is on foot at Bradford ; but it is of a kind to make us look rather to tho dark motives that stir it than to tho hopes which await it . The woolcombers are convicted of tho crime of poverty , and are duly sentenced to transportation . The business of the woolcomber is superseded by the " combing-machine . " " Handloom weavers , combers , and other kindred artisans and craftsmon , must bo content to take their places with
shoebucklc-makers , leather-breeches-makers , pigtail-peruquiers , and other divers artists of a trade gone by ; " so saj's a local apostle of tho cruel ceconomy school . To us , who regard human boings as the primary consideration , goods as a vory socondary one , and machinery as a mero means for the convenience of human beings , it is not such an obvious truism that men must bo " content" to bo ruined and exiled because a new invention enables the few to inako larger profits and to dispense with the living machines . Tho
few—tho ovory few as compared with tho numbers of the workpeople—now discover that " they do not want the men here to comb tho wool , but that they "do want thorn to grow it in Australia ; " and , accordingly , tho men must go . Whether they wish or not , whether they have affections that cling to their nativo soil or not—those are irrelevant questions : they must my . It is Hiiid . But that is not all . While they aro summoned together for their departure , and to pay towards thoir own expatriation , they are reproached with tho past . They aro told that they ought to have
" nvailed themselves of the good season" " to lay by money for emigration , as they might have done" - —whereas they " contemned the counsel of their friends , and spent all their earnings in eating and drinking , as if there were no ' rainy day' to come ; " they became the " fatuous , unreasonable" " dupes of designing men , " who enlisted " the unreflecting sympathies of their victims on behalf of Utopian schemes of politics and
social ceconomy . " xes , it is woolcombers and handloom weavers who are the guzzlers of society —the feasters , the spendthrifts on luxury ; it is the politicians of that class that prostitute the pen and the tongue to mercenary purposes ; and when the woolcomber , in his pride of place , fall 3 , no one pities him . For these reasons is the Bradford Observer justified in thus discussing the removal of the live nuisance : —
" The woolcombers of this town and district are a numerous body . They are a distressed , degraded , and naturally dissatisfied body . They increase our poorrates . Their physical misery , and morbific habits of life , imperil tlie health of the community . They are , politically speaking , our ' dangerous classes . ' From their ranks we naturally look for the reinforcement of sedition and tumult in troublous times . As they at present exist , they lotver the tone of society : their example is contaminating ; the attendant influences of their situations compromise us all . We have already admitted that much of the evil of their present lot is
traceable to their own improvidence and indiscretion . But we have disposed of the cause;—we are looking now at the effect , with a view to the application of a remedy . What is to be done ? Shall we allow this deadly leaven to permeate society ? The woolcombers cannot now redeem themselves;—shall we suffer them to remain , festering in wretchedness , and diffusing the contagion of their physical and moral disease ? * * * We hope ere long to record the departure of a large number of this class of our fellow townsmen ; and when they go , may good success attend them . "
INTo wish for their success here ! No , they are a disgrace , a nuisance ; they lower the tone of society ; they recruit sedition and tumult ; they are morbific ; " they contaminate , "they compromise us all ; " " they increase our poor rates . " Let us warn the woolcombers of Bradford who may consent to emigrate , that one more mortification may await them : if they seek the aid of the Emigration Commissioners , impoverished , morbific , degraded , enfeebled , it is highly probable
that they may be rejected as unfit to be emigrants ; just as candidates for emigration among the Paisley weavers and Kidderminster carpetmakers have been rejected . In that case , they must be content to go to the union , or to sink into the grave—as quietly as they can . But wo ask the representatives of the employer-doctrine , whether , at such desperate times , these " dangerous classes" are not likely to remember tho language now levelled at them ? Assuredly they will ; and we dare to tell tho Bradford Observer , that writing like that in its number for the 19 th instant will not have been recorded in vain .
But suppose the men should go — " success attending them "—what will be tho feeling with which they depart ? Already our system is sending out hundreds of thousands annually to recruit tho republic of the West with Irishmen who hate England . Already we have letter upon letter from Australia , warning us of the democratic spirit , hating English domination , which is gaining ground , even in South Australia , tho most conservative of all tho Australian colonies .
Already Van Die-man ' s Land and IMew South Wales aro threatening " to slop tho supplieH . " Already tho star-spangled banner of tho Auatralias has been seen m tho Thames . Already , grave merchants at Liverpool are echoing the threat of tho West Indians , that they may " cut tho painter , " and drift to tho groat American Union . And it is at such a time that omigrantH aro to bo sent out with words of contumely and dislike ringing in their oars ! Let us , however , make a confession for I men of Bradford which possibly they will bo <¦ to make for themselves . They havo boon \ s of a serious mistako , common to the whole of tho working classes . On Mio one Jinn moro active among them have concontnt their energies on a specific measure which best , was out a Parliamentary ¦ " bill" ; a therefore incapable of sustaining for its enthusiasm of a whole people . In tho place , tho vast body of the working clas . se consented to fall into tho selfish policy . classes above thorn , and to bo apathetic oxc
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Avgitst 28 , 1852 . ] T HE LEADER . 825
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1852, page 825, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1949/page/13/
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