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Committee . The agent lives in the house r and the largest apartment is used for the meetings of the members . When the capital has increased so as to be larger than the shop requires , it is employed in giving work to some of the members , the profit of which goes to the Society . This Society was induced , from particular circumstances , to take a lease
of about twenty-eight acres of land , about nine miles from Brighton . Upon this land , their capital now enables them to employ four of their members . The land is cultivated partly as a garden and nursery . The men employed upon it are paid fourteeu shillings a week , and are allowed rent and vegetables ; while the average wages of the surrounding
country are nine shillings , and of parish labourers , six shillings . Should the capital of the Society continue to increase while they pay their men these wages , they will be able to increase the number of members employed , till the land is brought to the highest pitch of cultivation , or till it becomes more profitable to take up other trades . Should this be
the case , it is evident that these people have very greatly and permanently improved their condition . The principles upon which this Society rests are , that labour is the only source of wealth : that the labourer easily produces more than he cousumes : that in the present
constitution of society , the surplus produce above the labourer ' s consumption goes to the capitalist : that if the labourer could contrive to be his own capitalist , he would get the whole produce of his labour to himself : that , as an individual , he can never become a capitalist , on account of the chances and accidents of
life : but that a certain number of labourers , united together , may become joint capitalists , may be supported by their own labour out of their capital till they have reproduced it , and may therefore mutually insure each other against the contingencies of life . The first object of this Society is , to insure the common comforts of life to
all its members . This security is not to be confined to a state of health , but is to extend to sickness and old age . At present , on the death of a member , or a member ' s wife , a subscription is made by the other members for the relief of the family . Whew a member is too ill to work , or unable to find employment , some relief is afforded him in the same
way . But when the capital is sufficiently increased , they hope to be able to find constant employment for all their mem-
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bers , and to support them entirely in sickness : and by the time any of the members are too old to work , they hope to be able to maintain them comfortably at the common expense . Should the principles of the Society prove sound , so
as to produce a capital continually accumulating , they propose to purchase land of their own , upon which they may carry improvements to the highest pitch their capital admits of , and may engage in any manufacture which may be fouud most lucrative .
The idea of such a Society was suggested originally to one or two persons of the working class , whose minds were superior to their coudition , who had had great experience of men and things , aud who were deeply sensible of the degraded condition of the working classes . It is evident that the formation and conduct of such a Society involve in them a great deal of mind and reflection . The
members necessarily acquire useful and practical knowledge as they proceed . They acquire a knowledge of business and of the markets , and the discussions at the weekly meetings are all of a practical , improving character . They become daily more sensible of the value of knowledge , and of the absolute necessity of it to the prosperity of their Society . Hence they
are all desirous of improving their minds . They employ their leisure hours in reading and mutual instruction , aud some of them are far advanced beyond the com - mon acquirements of mechanics . The improvements which have been introduced of late years into the methods of teaching , facilitate their progress , aud
they have proved to the satisfaction of any reasonable mind , that learning and labour are not incompatible . They have published a monthly paper , called the " Co-operator , " price one penny , in which their principles and their hopes of success are stated aud explained , and the paper is by no means devoid of merit .
The principles of this Society , supported by the success it has hitherto met with , seem to offer the fairest chance of improving the condition of the working classes of , perhaps , any plan which has hitherto been proposed . They go no farther than these classes themselves for
all the elements and materials they make use of . They do not apply to the ricli or the government , but to the labourer himself : they point out to him that he possesses the means of his own independence , and they shew him the method of applying them successfully . Another year will afford us a wider field of
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124 Miscellaneous Correspondence .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 124, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/52/
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