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Leader (1850-1860), 7th April 1860, Edition 1 of 2, Page 324, THE 1'ATE'OF THK INDEPE^PENT MISMKKH ^

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  • Departments (2)
    • SOCIAL SHADOWS.
    • THE 1'ATE'OF THK INDEPE^PENT MISMKKH ^
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      Untitled Article

      As long as bribery is exercised indiscriminately by Tory , Whi g * and Badical , and , Veiled with more or less decency , continues to be one of our institutions , the less that is said about comparative morality the better . Lefc otlrers decide between the relative' merits of the man who buys his neigrbbour , and the mail who sells himself- —the man who wishes to give beeivand the man who would be ^ lad to drink the giver ' s health in it . If the briber despises the bribee , neither is the bribee likely to respect the briber , and if depreciated for selling his vote , may very naturally quote from Tqm Dibi > in— , " I been't ,. you see , versed in high , maxims , and sich ; But don't this same honour concern poor and rich ¦?•**

      Untitled Article

      fpHERE is a popular impression that iisrures may maae ¦* - prove anything , and statistics have certainly become one of the most dreadful bores of the day . Nevertheless , the universe is constructed upon mathematical principles , and the reciprocal attraction of all the Sally Soiplus for all the Haket Lackadays might be represented by an algebraic formula , such as the astronomer employs in-his theory of the tides . Fortunately individual life escapes this wearisome analysis , and though men and women in huge masses present average phenomena susceptible of calculation and exposition , the poorest unit of the lot has in him a capacity for developing sonie powers and characteristics that set arithmetic at denance . aiid provethe statist who ineddles . with them tobe little better words from

      than an ass . Dry members of Parliament , whose drop them as disagreeably as the particles of a sandstorm , and thetiresome order in general , which ought to be held a criminal class , from its vexatious assaults upon human patience and endurance , are great in statistics ; .: very many of them members of a society which grubs together figures of all kinds , just as the antiquarians ; and collectors of a former date stocked their cabinets indifferently with fragments of Eoman pots , noses of old staitues , sandals which belonged to Jvi . it : s Cjesab—if they were riot the property of somebody else , halfpence that had seen better days , and the mumiriies of . cats which caiight the mice of the" Pharaoiis when Moses went to sleep to the lullaby of the jSTile- There is a disease of figures as well as ' a use of them , and iii ordinary life it is only-prudenfc to give as wide a berth to a man who has caught statistics , as to another , who has caught the

      small-pox . ' . „ ;• It is ,-however , possible to extract from tabulated records of the various incidents and accidents of social life matter of keen interest , and tedious columns of figures may be madefy the wand of intellect to evolve all the phantasmagoria of tragedy , comedy , ftnd roirvance . We have before us a " Blue Book , " which looks admirably adapted ts , give anybody the blue devils . It is entitled " Miscellaneous Statistics of the United Kingdorn ( Part II . ) , " and in the most repulsive of known , methods provides peepholes , serviceable to those wlio can manage to see through them , by which much insight is gained into tlie manners and customs of the aforesaid " United Kingdom , " which will require a deal of mending before it will deserve to be called a " Commonwealth . " We continually boast of our civilization ; don't we lodge our monarchs in the most costly if not the most beautiful of pnlaces ? Was there ever nation that had so rich an aristocracy , or spent so much upon charities arid churches ? . JHave

      we not , also , fifty-two millions employed in cotton spuming , and eiglit hundred millions worth of national debt ? « . ' , Out of these and other items which our " Blue Book ' affords ,. we might make a charming picture , and grow ecstatic over the blessings of an . England with a Parliament unrefonned 5 but there iii a skeleton standing at pur feast of figures , which tells us how <* nnny of our population are less than men . Pauperism has been , to a great extent , starved to death , or exiled from Ireland 5 but Great Britain had nearly a million specimens of the article in the thriving year of 1859 , and the United Kingdom . altogether 1 , 031 , 759 . In England and Wales , the paupers of 1859 amounted to < M of the whole population ; and this was something to be proud of , as they amounted to 4 > . 7 in 1858 . That more than one in twenty-five ot

      and fine linen may not like this unpleasant truth , but the wholecommunity is answerable for the bad circumstances under which a criminal class has been produced . In 1858 we ebmmitted , by summary decision of magistrates , and otherwise , in England and Wales , 118 , 162 persons to gaol , exclusive of those in convict and military prisons , and of this large number 41 j 826 could neither read nor write ; 68 , 227 could only perform these operations imperfectly ; and only 397 possessed what the Blue Book calls superior instruction . Thus it appears that rather more than 93 out of every 100 prisoners had found the shadow of the British constitution so deep a gloom that few , if any , rays of useful knowledge were able to penetrate it . It unfortunately happens that we are plentifully supplied with lunatics , as well as with paupers and criminals : la 1859 , the total number of insane , in public and private asylums , was 36 , 119 , besides 682 " criminal lunatics , " as they are somewhat unphilosophically called ; and this large number does not include the single patients in private houses , of whom no record is kept . From the few figures we have adduced , it will be seeii that if all our paupers , criminals , and lunatics were collected together , the world has few cities large enough to contain them , and some notion may be formed of the amount of real or law-manufactured offences Wihich ' are committed , when we learn that the magistrates , by their summary jurisdiction , dispensed , in England and Wales , 200 , 290 punishments in the year 1858 ! In addition to the useless and dangerous classes we ' have mentioned , are the professed vagrants , whole number " hiay . be imagined from the fact-that 32 , 7 OC > persons were charged with . "" following : this occupation in England : and Wales during the-year last mentioned ; and of these 18 , 52 s were convicted , and the balance discharged . The Game laws , as might be expected , contribute a . large share to the black ' list . ' ' ppnal ¦ inflictions , but the statistics show a ¦ fluctuation which we do not understand ,, The total convictions in England and Wales for 1857 are set-down at 4560 , and ai 7379 for 1 S 5 S while , according to a return recently laid before the . House of Commons ^ they were 2341 in the year ending 30 thJune , 1859 . In the Blue Book these items are made up to years ending 2-Uth September , while , according to the return jlist quoted ; and which was moved for by Mr . CiinD , a different . division of time was adopted . But , however the subject is regarded , it is apparent that an immense amount : of demoralization , puhislimentrj , suiiering , and expense is borne by the public ^ as the price of enabling the squirearchy to maintain a feudal ' tyranny over the occupiers and workers of the soil . If we look to the catalogue of accidents , we notice that during the three years 1 S 56-8 , the railways of the United Kingdom killed 793 persons , and injured 1088 . During the same period , factories killed by machinery accidents 1-1-3 persons , and wounded- — often so seriously as to cause a « iputation—10 , 8 op . If we include accidents not arising from liKichinery , the total will be higher , and the killed and wounded in the Factory Battle of Industry will be 11 , 292 . The coal-mining battle has been still more murderous : the slain during the same three years being 3081 , and the manned and wounded proportionately large . . ' . ' . , ¦ Our population goes on increasing m spite of the deaths , which in England arid Wales aloiie reached the prodigious . number ot 450 , 018 in 1858 ; and it is remarkable to find . that very levv ( 26 , 847 in 1 S 57 ) die of old age , which is , perhaps , the only natural and inevitable form of dissolution . Consumption carries olt its 50 000 victims annually ; and convulsions , which chiefly afket infants , dispose of nearly half that number . An amazing quantity of children are born into the world to pass out of it quickly , causing only sorrow and expense , to others , and boiug themselves little better than brief receptacles for misery , Jn 1857 , the number oi children thus cut off before reaching the jigo of live years was l / 4 , 0 U 4 . If we coinparo the condition of the people of those islands with that of , nations which Ho bevond their sea-girt bounds , wo may mid pretexts for congratulation ; but when Christian principles littve penetrated the liuart of mankind , our civilization will appear-little better than a whitod sepulchre ; for no pomp of crowns mid coronets * , no splendour of palaces , or solemnity" of temples , will avail to rescue from condemnation a social and political systoiu wliioft sacrificed the muuy for tho benefit of the few .

      our population should be paupers , jo not quite characteristic of a " happy fnmilyj but we don't seo much of the dark side of our social picture , Hyde Park i . a brilliant , Cornlrill busy , and Pall Mall gay . The total sum actually expended for the relief of the poor is pet down at # 6 , 740 , 188 for 18 . 59 ; but we ore not so bad ng we were , for it amounted to £ 7 , 151 , 260 only two years -before . In 1850 we relieved 121 , 8 ( 56 " able-bodied paupers" in tho Unions of England and W » lo 8 alone 5 and thoro is something in the very nomenclature that ought to thrill tho nerves . ? ' Ablo-bodied " labourers , sailors , carpenters , or members of Parliament , npponr intelligible articles ; but " able-bodied ' paupers " is u horrible combination of contr « - diotory appellations , sufficient to condemn the system which produces euoli a monstrous growth . _ . . . Prtssing from paupers wo come to oriruiniils , but ns our statistic xnanufiioturoi's are plow in their work , we cunnot spoak of 1 ^ 50 , so must take 1858 , in wlii ' oh " year o { gruco , " rtt our criminal courts alono , we trrud and convicted u littlu » rniy of 1 U , * MO persona , and

      (§ onten , cc ( l thom to puniahnients , wlyoh o . xporion « e lins ' . provod lmvo littlo deterring and no oumtivo cfloot . In tho huuiq yoar 01 m judges' condoinnod to doiith Ufty-threo persons in Englund and Wafos , and IWo in Ivohmd , out of whom only lift eon actuall y < , \ xpgrionooxl tho lust romody of tho law , and in niowt of the i-oinjuniiig-CftflGS tlm ctnpitiil sontonwwuH prohonnciod in Unit spirit of unvoriieity which lingfVu so obstinutclv in our fomiiaia ufuiii'H . ( . iujsa'ia-. MT lon ^ « g . o tola uh that" pooioLy propiu'es crime , 11 ml the Guilty arc ouly tho instruments by which it is exgcutqd . " Purple

      Untitled Article

      rpHB moat foolish thing nn nmbitioua politician can > ' - *• his own opinions and frankly avow tlioin . Sjuch n habit m , in U * country of Iruo thought and t ' re-o speech , absolutely suifUliil on »>« part of a young innn—thnt js to say of one who has not tunica sinu . As boou » vfl ho is rush enough to show an unwillingness to iiecept with . absolute faith nil the cluusos of his party ' s owod , am uwn > ia upon voting ncwirdiug to hia conscience , thq whole puck ol H > o pauj had ™ is let loose upon him , Jmfl runogiule , apostate , . traitor , ava nhiongst tho mildua-t epifchetH- with which hia , name in doeorutoU . •»' - indeed , ho will entiroly ubundon his chum to tlio vluinu-loi w Liberal or OouBorvntive , nn tho wo « my bo , and turn ««/ 1 ' »» H'L ^ bo aiUi 1

      Bouiersuult . ( Voiniono side tojhu other , vory little will « . >» thepruHumption of dift ' urihff fi-oirt tho nuy . iwty wluuli oll j -nilj , ^ J tho claim to tfxorciBO the lib . « rty « . i" private . judgment . Mr , V ^ ;^ : J now denounces with unblusliinp : ooolnow tho clootruiurt he t \ u > U five yvuya nao douliifed wocpuHiiry < ov the salvation ol tua covHJSlrficMVBU Lvwos botfdn polili «« l Hl ' o us u doinooniL , tun ojv write » brilHimt orutioiia ag-aii ^ t domomicy . That ruiuuiUnblu 1 •» nation of ChrnUian' lovo tiiul humility , tho Atvohmby- < ¦ : ¦; - ^_ ' ( waHU rod-hob Tory « t one gmrevul oleution , ujid . »» vot l . utiyr .. h ^« lit tho noxtj but no one thiiiUn it moudlul to donpun ., ' 0 e » thei ot uio » t disttatrultfhcd poruons us » ronegiulo , or to sopuruto them hi » i > o « . "

      Untitled Article

      304 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ April 7 , I 860 .

      Social Shadows.

      SOCIAL SHADOWS .

      The 1'Ate'of Thk Indepe^Pent Mismkkh ^

      TUB l'ATE'OF XHK INDEPE ^ PENT MISMKKH .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 7, 1860, page 324, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2341/page/8/