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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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Untitled Article
Housebuildiyig and Housekeeping . 489
Untitled Article
expected either to make the same appearances as another possessing 500 / . to 1000 Z . ., or he is subject to the mortification of inferiority , and , rather than submit to this degradation , or even the suspicion of it , he steps into the slough of ruin , renounces the integrity of an upright mind , and sinking himself , drags las creditors to that perdition , which , not foreseeing , they could not avoid . To show how fatally correct this sweeping censure is in its foreboding consequences , take the following report from the Insolvent Debtor ' s Court . The number of debtors discharged , from the commencement of the act to the end of 1829 , was 51 , 000 ; their debts , 4 , 000 , 000 / . ; assets , average one farthing in the pound , after tlie expenses of 2 b L for the discharge of each prisoner . Not more than 65 out of every 1 , 200 estates produced any assets at all !!'
Let no poor man be hopeless who reads the following statement , and learns from what humble means a James Luckcock was produced : — * In the early part of his life the writer was one of a family consisting of a father , mother , and five children ( from the age of about ten to eighteen ) , and , for a while , the amount of their income hardly reached 80 / . a year . This was after the rate of about 111 . a year for each , and might be thus divided : — £ . s . d . Food , per week m » » « , 026 Clothing , ditto . . . 0 10 Share of rent , fuel , &c . . , # 010 0 4 6
And upon this scanty allowance the family preserved a respectable character and decent appearance . Everything * was managed orderly and by rule . Three shillings per week were invariably laid by to discharge the rent quarterly , and eighteen-pence per day was deposited as stock , to meet common occurrences , and which was principally consumed in shoes , fuel , &c . If any one wanted a new coat , or any other article of dress , it was agreed in council that preparation should be made by an additional deposit , till the needful sum was obtained ; but , in no instance whatever , was anything procured upon credit . They would as soon have thought of asking admission to the theatre upon trust , as of requesting the butcher or the tailor to supply them without
immediate payment . They were thus never taken by surprise , everything was purchased at the best hand , and their custom was valued in proportion to its extent and steadiness . No luxury was ever admitted to their table , ( excepting , perhaps , a fat goose on Michaelmas fair-day , or a plum-pudding occasionally on a birth-day , ) but all was plain , economic , and abundant . Into such habits the younger branches of the family were thus early initiated , custom became pleasant , sound principles were established , and in after life were never abandoned . The writer is thus enabled -to state , that lie maintained himself by his own hand labour from the time he was fourteen years of age ; and , for the encouragement of others , lie has the additional gratification of saying , that , without any pecuniary assistance whatever , and in spite of more than an ordinary share of dtfficullieB , he haa worked his way up
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1834, page 489, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2635/page/29/
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