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THE NORTHERN STAR SATUBDAY, FEBRTJABY 4. 18±3.
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Northern Star Satubday, Febrtjaby 4. 18±3.
THE NORTHERN STAR SATUBDAY , FEBRTJABY 4 . 18 ± 3 .
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THE APPROACHING TRIALS . In ihe Liverpool Tones of the current "week , we find the following : — « We understand that the trials of Feargus O'Connor _ ndaw other Ckartista , upon tie indictment * against tkem , which -were removed fey ceriioran from the late Spee _ Commiadon , -will be tried * t Lancaster , and BOt-TliTerpooL Henee It has been thought right to assign » longer period for fte wbks at Lancaster than -voBld o&enriseiiave been necessary . *'
We know not what authority the Liverpool Tvmet may hare for this statement , as we hare received _ * official intimation on the snbject , but we deem it our duty , at all events , to place it before our friends ? . Tbefaet that two weeks are allotted tor the duration of the . Lancaster Assizes , which eommonlj last only two or three days , Beems to give it an air of probability ; and it 1 b most likely upon this circumstance that the Editor of the Liverpool Times has founded las assumption . At all © Tents , it is high tone thai those who are interested in the matter should bestir __ szn _ slves ,
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WAGES OF LABOUR , la estimating the Talue of any " improvement" in the mode of producing wealth , it is a rule with us to ask , " what increase , or decrease * has it . made to the ___ rs of the working man" ! and according to the answer given 10 that query is our estimate of Talue . When arguing upon the question of " Extension of Commerce , " we hare pointedly put the question to its adTocates : What hare been the effects of former * Extensions' upon the wages and comforts
of the labouring many V and havehonestiy aTowed ihat if it amid be shown that they . had been of l > ene _ t to the -worker ; that they had added to ids stock of comforts ; that these had enabled him to enjoy more of the good things . of life ; that they lad placed additional beef and bread upon his table , and put additional clothing upon bis back : we hare ofttimes avowed that if this could be shewn to hare been the effsct of former ** Extensions of Commerce , " we should be the first to call for , and struggle for , another and greater " Extension . *
Our inqainea , howeTer , hare led us to a directly opposite conclusion , to that of benefit from former ** Extensions , '' We have endeavoured to ascertain the condition of the labourer at the beginning of the present « entury , —a period when the beginning of the rapid and much-lauded " Extensions of British Commerce * ' may be dated ; andwehave confra $ . 'e _ that condition -with the present condition of the labourer ; and that contrast is not favourable to the " Extension" cause .
It is not necessary that we Eay much respecting the labourers ' s present condition . It is admitted on all hands that it is deplorable in the extreme . There is _ o party who nave disputes the existence of general distress . It is well known that the cottages are comparatively empty of furniture z that hundreds of thousands are wandering the streets for want of employment ^ that those who are daily and almost nightly employed , are not receiving wages which mQ furnish them with a sufficiency of the first necessaries of life j that starvation is endured by millions of British subjects ; and that the shopkeeping class are rapidly falling into the ranks of the unemployed labourers , the march of potsbtt and - . ratines having reached them , in its progress , upwards , throngh all classes of present society .
Thia is the avowed and undisputed cendition of the labouring many at the present hour . It is also avowed and undisputed , that the condition cf that same class , fifty years ago , was , comparatively , a much better one . H&ey had , then , com - paradvelj , wall-furnished cottage-homes ; a wellloaded table i and well-clothed backs . Employment was not then scant ; and the wages paid to the worker would purchase him , comparatively , a fair share of the comforts of life . During the last fifty years we have added to our means of prodHcing wealth most immensely . The producing-power of the Kingdom at the beginning of the present century has been stated by eminent StaticianB to have been : — Manual Labour 3 . 750 , 000 Mechanical and Scientific Power equal to 1 L £ 50 , 000
Total 15 , 000 , 000 The population at that period was also 15 , 000 , 000 ; consequently , the aggregate productive-power and the population were equal , or as one to one . In 1842 , the producing-power of the Kingdom was thus estimated : — Mansal Labour ... . „ ... ... 9 , 000 , 000 Mechanical and Scientific Power equal to ... ... 600 , 000 , 000
Total , 609 , 000 , 000 The population in 1 & 42 , as shown by the census , was 27 , 000 , 000 . The proportion , therefore , which the prodneing-power then bore to the population was as iwenljf-lwo to one 1 What a vast increase in producing-means 2 Bow comes it to pass , it at with this increase in the means to produce wealth , the comforts and well-being of the wealth-producers should have decreased !
The Betarns connected with our Foreign Trade show also that during those fifty years , we have increased that trade most prodigiously ! In 17 S 8 , we exported , in Official Value , £ 19 , 672 , 503 ; which brought ub in , in Real Value s , £ 33 , 148 , 682 . The last Returns published , for the year ending January b , 1842 , show that we had exported in Official Value , £ 103 , 180 , 517 , which only brought U 3 in , in Real Value , £ 51 , 634 , 623 . Thus it willbe " seen that we had increased in qtushiy nearly SIX TIMES OVER : as for an increase in price that J 3 enite another matter ! That increase is net , by any means , a sir times increase I
Commerce then has ^ Extended" ! Of that there can La no doubt . Our means of producing wealth has w Extended" also , and , with these " Extensions / the wages and means of comfortable living of the workers have decreased ! These facts are , with us , conclusive evidence that former "Extensions of Commerce * have not benefited the working people ; and they hold oat to us little hope that another " Extension , " now sought for by a Repeal of the Corn Laws , will do that which all former ** Extensions" have failed in doing !
To fhia view of the subject , however , we can not fix the attention of the advocates of Corn Law Repeal . These facts and arguments they shrirk with much adroitness . They invariably decline to meet them ; but content themselves with uttering forth aa experience-exploded " principle" of Political Economy : — " Extended trade causes extended employment . Extended employment causes extended wages-, therefore extended trade is beneficial to the worker . "
Latterly , however , another tack ha 3 been taken . It is now the cue of the Free Trade writers to endeavour to induce a doubt , as to the correctness of the fact that the labourer in olden time was much better off than Mb brethren of fee present day . In ttis matter the Morning Chronicle has taken the lead . The week before last , _ e had _ article to show , as he thongbi , that the labourers of England were wretchedly 21-off some 150 years ago ; and the inferenee whieh he evidently wishes iae existing workers to draw from Mb pretended array of facts is , that they have not mnch to complain of in their present condition , seeing that itis belter , or at least , n « worse , than the condition of the labourers in the beginning of the last century .
The writer has adroitly chosen his time . The period he has Mt upon , is about the very best he could have picked out for his purpose . It was juBt after the GtoHiocs bevolbtiom ; " when all -the interests of the state had sustained the shock inevitable from internal commotions of that characei . It was jast at the period , too , when loans and
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loan-mongering began to exercise their baneful influence upon the happiness and prosperity of the producers of wealth , under the auspices of the blessed Bishop Burhei . It was a period , too , when the taxation of the country had been ikcreased , at once , two-and-a-half-times overlSJ A period of time of this character , pregnant indeed with depressing consequences , has the Chronicle fixed upon for the illustration of his dogma , that " the labourers of England , in olden time , were as wretchedly off as the workers in our own day . "
how , even if the Chronicle had proved his point , we should not have been disposed to admit his intended inference , that / because the labourers were badly oSthen , they have no cause for complaint now , Beeing that they ar « in no worse condition . We should have asked if it was right , that the labourer should have no share in the numerous advantages to be deprived from an increase in the means of producing wealth ! We should have asked , if this age of "improvement "; this age of gas and steam ; this age of mechanical and scientific appliances to the production of food and clothing ; this age of means of increase illimitable .- we should have asked , even had the Chronicle established that which he has attempted to establish , if these " improvements" ought net to have worked b&ssfit to the workers 1 We should have asked if it was
right , that the working classes should be kept in a stand-still position , when all the rest of the world was travelling to the . goal of human perfection at a railroad pace !! We should have asked these questions , even had the Chronicle PROV-pthai the labourer ' s condition has not deteriorated contemporaneously with the introdaction and prssent application of those new and mighty agents of civilization , steam and gas : how much more necessary is it to pat them , when the Chronicle has not proved his position ; when it is a fact staring us full in the face that the condition of the producers of wealth is deteriorated ; that the improvements" have been anything but "improvements" to them !
The Chronicle says : — " The labourers of England were wretchedly ill off dnring the first half of the last century ; of which fact there is but too abundant evidence . Wages were extremely low—33 and 4 s a week . Stephen Duck , about 1730 , threshed in a barn in Wiltshire for 33 a week . The population hardly experienced any increase during all that period . But about the year 1760 great advances in manufactures took place . Numerous canals were cut , and other works executed , and the demand for labour led to an increasa of wages and its increased comforts , especially in the manufacturing districts .
Before that time , wheaten bread was little used by the labourers . About 1760 the use of it became general . But even then , the condition of the labourers in the agricultural districts would seem to have been by no means an enviable one . We have in the various tours of Arthur Young , in the eastern , the northern , and the southern counties , very minute accounts of the wages of labour , and they appear exceedingly low . Arthur Young was afterwards in Ireland , in 1776 , 1777 , and 1778 , and in the second
part of his tour he states minutely the results of his experience with respect to the condition of the Irish cotters , contrasting it with that of the English labourers ; and it does not certainly e iy so much for the comforts enjoyed by the latter , that upon the whole he considers the Irishman best off . ThiB , be it remarked , is the opinion of a man who had visited eveiy corner of England , and was intimately acquainted with the state of the agricultural population- The following is an extract from Young : —
u Then the Irishman ' s cow may be ill-fed is admitted ; but ill-fed as it is , it ia better than the no cow of the Englishman ; the children of the Irish cabin are nourished with milk , wMcb , small as the quantity may be , is far preferable to the beer or vile tea which is the beverge of the English infant , for nowhere but in a tows is milk to be bought . * • ** When I see the people of a country , in spite of political oppression , with well-formed vigorous bodies , and their cottages swarming with childrenwhen I see their men athletic , and their women beautiful , I know not how to believe their subsisting on an unwholesome food .
M 1 will not assert that potatoes are a better food than bread and cheese * , but I have no doubt of a bellyfull of the one being better than a half a bellyfoil of the other . If any one donbt the comparative plenty whieh attends the board of a poor native of England and Ireland , let him attend to their meals ; the sparingnesa with which our labourer e _ te Mb bread and cheese is well known ; mark the Irishman ' s pptatoe-bowl placed on the floor , the
whole family upon their hams around it , devouring a quantity almost incredible , the beggar seating himself to it with a hearty welcome , tbe pig taking his share as readily as the wife , the cocks , hens , turkeys , geese , the cur , the cat , and perhaps the cow , aud all partaking of the same d _ . b . No man can often have been a witness of it without being convinced of the plenty , and , I will add , the cheerfulness that attends it . "
Let ub examine the facts the Chronicle brings in support of bis general statement that" the labourers of En gland jin the beginning of the last century were wretchedly ill-off . " " Wage 3 , " says he , were extremely low ; three shillings and four shillings per week . Stephen Duck , about 1730 , thrashed in a barn in Wiltshire , for three shillings a week . " We shall adopt the mean between Ms ) wo rates of wages , three , and four , shillings a-week ; and take it that the average wages paid in money was then three
shillings and sixpence a-week . We shall then endeavour to ascertain what husbandmen are paid at the present day ; aud measure the amount of their earnings in the quantity of provisions and other necessaries of life , wMch the wages of each period would purchase ; taking into account the other several matters which enhanced , or enhances , their relative condition ; and thus have before us a fair contract of the two periods , as far as the labourers are concerned .
What then are the wages paid to husbandmen now 1 Let the Chronicle answer . Week before last we inserted from its pages a long document descriptive of the doings of the Socialists on ihe _ kd , written by a gentleman who subscribes himself" One who has Whistled at the Plough ? We explained that that document was only one of a series j the writer being now engaged in a tour throughout the farming districts to ** note" the condition of both Lasd , Farmer , and Labourer . In the extract we made last week , he lets out , incidentally , the following information relative to the wageB of agricultural labourers : —
H At an inn called the Winterslow Hut , ( between Salisbury and Broaghton ) I received information , that the wages of labouring men had bees reduced to seven sMUings a week by the largest farmer in that district , and that the other farmers were expected to follow immediately with a similar reduction ; and the common expression of those , who were present , some of whom were tradesmen from Salisbury , and one the respectable landlady of the house , was to this effect : * God above only knows how tbe poor creaturts are to be fed » What matters it to them that fiour and bread be cheaper this year than > asi ? They could buy little of either last year , and they can buy as little this . They must bny potatoes , not bread , and potatoes are but a middling crop thiB year ; they are good , but smalL' "
In the Chronicle of Wednesday , Jan 18 th , the same writer saya : — " Wages , are miserably low . Near Preston and about Lancaster , able-bodied men are working to iarmers for nine-pence a day ! A shilling and fifteen pence a day are the more common ran of wages . The labourers in Lancashire are on a level with those of Dorset , Somerset , and Devon ; but so far as I have yet seen , the farms of Lancashire and Cheshire are not so well managed as in these ilieultivated counties of the west . "
The wa £ es , then , of husbandmen now * may be taken on the authority of this writer , who has been to see with his own eyes and hear with his ami ears , at feeven shillings a-week , on an aterage Remember that he has found many working for mnepence oday ! Remember that nine-pence * -day is but four BhillingB and sixpence a-week Remember , too , that a shilling a-day is a common mn j and that a shilling a-day is but six shillings a-week 1 Remember all this ; and then say whether the sum named , seven shillings , is not a high average to infer from the facts the writer has adduced .
Seven shillings a-week , then , we take to be the average wages paid to husbandmen at the present time ; or double Ihe amount paid to the same class of labourers in the beginning of last century , according to the C ?/ Jvmc . V .
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Now how stands the relative prices of provision and clothing at the two periods : for on this will mainly depend the contrast vie wish to make . Fortunately the period fixed on by the Chronicle telling as it is for him for the reasons we have before enumerated , is about the only one during the coarse of the last three centuries , ( barring the last fifty years ) , that he could have hit upon to enable us to satisfactorily solve this last question .
There are no regular consecutive returns of the prices of produce , until towards the close of the seventeenth century . There are several statements as to the pries of provisions in earlier times ; but they are many of them collected from old household accounts ; and cannot be depended on , like accounts regularly taken and regalariy published . In the year 1694 , however , six years prior to the beginning of the period fixed on by tbe Chronicle for his contrast , the present Official Rates of valuation of Exported British Produce and Manufactures were fixed : and that fact will enable
us to state , with certainty , the prioes of provisions and clothing at both periods . It will be necessary to explain that th « Official Value of the present day , was the Real Value of that day ; and that the difference between the Official Value and Real Value shows the increase or decrease of prices since the period we are speaking of , 1694 . The rate of valuation then adopted has been since constantly maintained ; because it has had its uses as a common denominator , or indicator of quantity ; and has served , too , to show the fluctuations in price .
It follows , therefore , that the Official Value and the Real Value of any particular article of British Produce and Manufactures in the List of Exports will show its price at the beginning of the seventeenth centary , and the price of the same description of article now : the fact being that the " Official Value" was the real price in 1694 ; and the " Real Value" the real price at the present day . Let the Chronicle , then , take the last published List of Exported British Produce in his hand , and a single glance will tell him , that at the beginning of the last century , when " the labourers of England were wretohedly ill-off , " and when they only received , according to his own showing , 3 s . 6 d . a-week as wages ; a single look at that List will
prove to him , that " Corn , Grain , Meal , and Flour " was then nearly three times ** cheaper' * than it ia now ! That is , the labourer ' s three shillings-and-sixpence would purchase him nearly three times as much " Corn , Grain , Meal , and Flour" as the labourer ' 8 three-and-sixpence will now / He will find also that Butter and Cheese , Beer and Ale , were fully three times as cheap ; or as much then for one shilling as for three shillings now ' ¦ Ha will further find tha , Cews and Oxen were four times as cheap ! or that one pound would then go as far ia purchasing a Cow or an Ox , as four pounds will go now . He will find , too , that Sheep ' s Wool and Hats are now nearly double the price they were then ; and that Woollen and Worsted Yarn is also about doubled
m price . These facts will the Chronicle learn by an appeal to the last published Returns relating to " Trade and Navigation ; " and they will aid him ma t erially in his endeavour to form an accurate estimate of the relative condition of the labourers of England . But there are other fac < 8 which must not be kept out of eight , in this important inquiry . Money wages were not all that the labourers of England had to live upon , during the earlier periodB of
English History . A far different system obtained at the beginning of the last century from what obtains note . The labouring-man was not then driven out of the farmer ' s house ! He , in general , and almost always when unmarried , formed one of the farmer ' s own family ; lived at the farmer ' s own board ; and slept under the farmer ' s own roof 1 However the farmer fared , he fared ! and we may readily believe that if the labouring inmates of the farmer ' s dwelling fared well , the labourers who lived out of the house would not fare much worse !
That such was the general cuBtom is a fact that admits not of dispute . It lias been discontinued within the recollection of persons now living ! It was discontinued when the immense amount of paper-money in circulation , consequent on Loans and Bank Restriction , had forced up prioes to such a degree , as to induce the Farmers , Manufacturers , and Shopkeepers to think we bad the world " in a band , " and that we could lead it whithersoever we
liBted . It was discontinued when the age of Bcll-F&ooisn set in ; when . every farmer considered himself a Squire ; and every farmer ' s daughter , " a Miss . " Then the labourer waa driven from the homestead ! Then he no longer lived as the farmer lived . Then he had to depend entirely upon the amount of money-wages he could succeed in wringing out of the close-fisted Bull Frog , who despised him because he was a labourer !
That this custom of in-dwelling the labourers obtained at the period fixed on by the Chronicle , is proved by the construction of the old farm-houses themselves , and the furniture with which they were furnished . The contrast between the style in that day , aud the style now , will be beBt understood by the following graphic description , by one who was well qualified to paint the scene he witnessed and describes , and to tell of ether times and doings . It is one of Cobbktt ' s inimitable and instructive M Rural Rides : "— " Reigate , Thursday Evening , " 20 th October , 1825 .
" Having done my business at Hartswood to-day about eleven o ' clock , I went to a sale at a farm , which the fanner ia quitting . Hera I hod a view ot what has Jong been going , on all over the country . The farm , which belengs to Christ ' s Hospital , has been held by a man of the name of Cha&ington , in whose family the lease baa been , I hear , a great number of years . The house is hidden by trees . It stands ia the Weald of Surrey , close by the River Mole , which is here a mere rivulet , theugh juat below thi » boose the rivulet supplies the yerj prettiest floor-mill I ever saw in my life .
" Everything about this farm-house was formerly the scene of plain manners and plentiful living . Oak clothes-chests , oak bed-steads , oak chests of drawers , and oak tables to eat on , long , strong , and well supplied with joint stools . Some of the things were many hundreds of years old . Bat all appeared to be in a state of decay and nearly of disuse . There appeared to have been hardly any family in that house , where formerly there were , in all probability , from ten to fifteen men , boys , and maids : and , which was the worst of all , there was a parlour . ' Aye , and a carpet and bellrpull too ! One end of the front of this once
plain and substantial house had been moulded into a " parlour ; and there waa the mahogany table , and the ane chairs , and the fine glass , and all as bare-faced upstart as any itock-jobber in the kingdom can boast of . And there were the decanters , the glasses , the " dinner-set" of crockery ware , and all just In the true stock-jobber style . And I dare say it has been 'Squire Cbarington and the Miss Ch&ringtons ; and not plain Master Charington , and his son Hodge , and his daughter Betty Charington , all of whom this accursed system has , ia all likelihood , transmuted into a species of mock-gentlefolks , while it has ground the labourers
down into Teal slaves . Why do not farmers now eed and lodge their work-people , as they did formerly ? Because they cannot keep them upon so little as they give them in wages . This ia the real cause of tbe change . There nee ^ s no more to prove that the lot of the working classes has become worse than it formerly was . This fact alone is quite sufficient to settle this point All the world knows , that a number of peoplej boarded in the same home , and at the eame table , can , with as goed food , be boarded much cheaper
than those persons divided into twos , threes , or fours , can be boarded . Tbis is a well-known truth : therefore , if the farmer now shuts bis pantry against his labourers , and pays them wholly in money , is it not clear , that he does it because he thereby gives them a living cheaper to him ; that is to Bay , a worse living than formerly ? Mind he has a house for them ; a kitchen for them to sit in , bed rooms for them to sleep in , tables , and Btools , and benches , of everlasting duration . All these he has : all these cost Mm nothing ; and yet so much does he gain by pinching them in wages that
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he lets all these things remain as ot no use , rather than feed labourers In tbe bout . Judge , then , of the change that has token place in tfee condition of these labourers l And , be astonished , if you can , at the pauperism and the crimes that now disgrace this once happy and moral England . " The land produces , on an average , what it always produced ; but , there is a uew distribution of the produce . Tbis 'Squire Charington ' s father used , I dare say , to sit at the head of the oak-table along with his men , say grace to them , and cut up the meat and the pudding . He might take a cup of strong beer to himself ,
when they had none-, but , that was pretty nearly all the difference in their manner of living . So that all lived welL But , the 'Squire had many wine-decaniers and wine-glasses , and " a dinner set , '' and «« breakfast ' set , '" and " desert-knives ; " and these evidently Imply carryings on and a consumption that must necessity have greatly robbed the long oak-table if it had remained fully tenanted . That long table could not sLarein the work of the decanters and the dinner set Therefore , it became almost untenanted ; tbe labourers retreated to hovels , called cottages ; and , instead of board and lodging , they got money ; bo little of it as to
enable tbe employer to drink-wine ; but , then , that he might not reduce them to quite starvation , they were enabled to come to him , in the Ainu's name , and demand food oj paupers . And , now , mind , that which a man receives in the king ' s name , he knows well he has by force ; and it is not in nature that he should thank anybody for it , and least of all the party from whom it is forced . Then , if this ; sort of force be insufficient to obtain him enough to eat and to keep him warm , is it surprising , if he think it no great ojfence against God ( who created no man to starve ) to use another sort of force more within bis own controul ? Is it , in sbeit , surprising , if he resort to theft and robbery ?
"This is not only the natural progress , but itj&as been the progress in England . The blame ia not justly imputed to 'Squire Carrington and bis like : the blame belongs to the infernal stock-jobbing ayBtem . There was no reason to expect that farmers would not endeavour to keep pace , in point of show aud luxury , with f undholders , and with all the tribes that war and taxes created . Farmers were not the authors of the mischief ; and now they are compelled to shut tbe labourers out of their bouses , an * & to pinch them in their wages , in order to be able to pay their own taxes ; and , besides this , the manners and the principles of tbe working class are so changed , that a sort of self-preservation bids the farmer ( especially in some counties ) to keep them from beneath his roof .
" I could not quit this farm heuse without reflecting on the thousands of scores of bacon and thousands of bushels of bread that had been eaten from the long oaktable which , I said to myself , is now perhaps , going , at last , to the bottom of a bridge that Borne stock-jobber will stick up over an artificial river in bis cockney garden . " By it shant , " said I , almost iu a real passion : and so I requested a friend to buy it for me ; and if he do so , I will take it to Kensington , or te Fleet-street , and keep it for the good it has done in tbe world .
" When the old farm-houses are down ( and down they must come ia time ) what a miserable thing tbe country will be . Those that are now erected axe mere painted shells , with a MiBtress within , who U stuck up in a place she calla a parlour , with , if she have children , the " young ladies and gentlemen , " about her . ¦ some showy chairs and a sofa ( a sofa by all means ) : half a dozen prints in gilt frames hanging up ; some swinging book-shelves with novels and tracts upon them : a dinner brought in by a girl that is perhaps better " educated" than she : two or three nick-nacks to eat instead of a piece of bacon and pudding : tbe house too neat for a dirtr-shoed carter to be allowed
to come into ; and everything proclaiming to every sensible beholder , that there is here a constant anxiety te make a show not warranted by tbe reality . The children ( which is the wont part of it ) are all teo clever to work : they are all to be gentlefolks . Ga to plough I Good God ! What , " young gentlemen" go to plough ! They become clerks , or some skiminy-dish thing or other They £ se from the dirty work as cunning horses do from the bridle . What misery is ail this ! What a mass of materials for producing that general and dreadfu l convulsion that must , first or laat , come and blew tbis funding and jobbing and enslaving and starving system to atoms 1 "
Another means of adding to the labourer ' s stock of comforts , over aud above his money-wages , must not be lost sight of . At the period fixed ou by the Chronicle there were extensive Commons , on which the labourer had common rights ! The aid that these were to him oannot be estimated by the labourer of the present day : for the Commons are gone , and , with them , the common , rights ! During the last seventy years millions of aores of land have been taken from the labouring people , upon which they formerly kept their cow , their pig , their flock ofgeeBe , or their poultry . A rare addition these things , to the money wages paid them by their employers !
It is a faot , that in the period from 1801 to 183 L , no less than ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED
and EIGHTEEN ENCLOSURE ACTS WERE PASSED ! each one taking hundreds , and , in some instances , thousands , of acres from the labouring people , whose common right to the use and enjoyment of them had been sanctioned and guaranteed by numerous acts of the Parliament , as well as by the Common Uausges and Law of the realm ! 1 There was also another means of comfort
the labourer of old had , that must not be excluded from the account . The money wages he received from hia employer were for the work he did for his employer . But they were for his own work alone . The married labourer ' s means were added to , by the exertions of his wife and his young family , at home ; aided by his own exertions , on long winter nights , and ou wet days . They nearly manufactured all the clothes they wore ; thej carded ! they spun ! they wove ! This they did within themselves ! and was it no advantage T Did Dot this help his three or four shillings a week ? Was not tbis rather better for domestic
comfort , and for educational purposes , than the immuring up in a factory , for sixteen or eighteen hours daily , of the wives and infant daughters of the manufacturing-ehould-be-labourer of our time Ah ! Mr . Chronicle , when we come to inquire into the real facts of the case , we do not find much to congratulate ourselves upon , in the condition of the husbandman now , when contrasted with the condition of the husbandman in the beginning of the last century ! We find that his wages now will not purchase him as muoh food as the wages then would ; while we find him deficient of many aids and helps which the labourer of old possessed !
But mind ! we do not say that the labourers of England were absolutely well-to-do at the period you have named . We believe the contrary to have been the fact . We believe that the event called the " Protestant Reformation" worked much to the disadvantage of the labourers of England ; and we believe' that what the Reformation left short of their total and complete degradation , was effected by the Whig-made " glorious Revolution , " with its attendant National Debt , Paper-Money , and Excessive Taxation . The period , therefore , which we should choose for a contrast between the thea , and tbe present , condition of English labourers , would
not be the one chosen by the Chronicle ; but one anterior to the first event just named . We have bestowed the labour and attention which this article manifests , not to prove that the Chronicle ' s position , " that the labourers of England were wretchedly ill-off duritig the first half of the last century , " is untenable ; but to show that if such even were the case , they were muchleltcr off then , thanlhelabourersare at present ! notwithstanding all the "improvements" which we boast , and notwithstanding all the additional means of producing wealth with which we have become acquainted , and which ought to have worked out a far different result .
Our position , that tbe labourers now are much worse off than the labourers were then , may be strengthened by the mention of two facts , which even the Chronicle will not gainsay . " The labourers of England were wretchedly ill-off during the first half
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of ihe last century . " If so , the poor rates will be found to have been excessive ; for poor rates then existed , and the poor wemnot then blessed with a New Poor Law , with its workhouse-and-degrading labour-test , to prevent them from applying for relief . What ; is the fact I Why that for the three years 1748-50 ; the Poor Rates for both England and Wales amounted only to the sum of £ 730 , 135 ! I ! while the Poor Rates have averaged , for the last twenty years . jno less than £ 7 , 000 , 000 . annually 1 i ! What a frightful increase of pauperism , contemporaneously with the enormous increase of productive power 11 |
The other fact is , that from 1714 to 1726 , the taxation of the kingdom averaged £ 6 , 386 , 572 ; while the average for the last fifty years is nearly £ 70 , 000 , 000 . a year ! !! The producer of wealth in latter times has much ( taxation ) to pride himself upon !! ! With the notions of Mr . Arthur Yoong , quoted by the Chronicle , we shall not presume to meddle . We shall say nothing to disturb the equanimity off those who can see plenty , accompanied with cheerfulness , in a family " squatted on their hams ton the floor , devouring POTATOES
in a quantity almost incredible , " having for dinner companions " the pig , the cooks , the hens , the turkies , the geese , the cur , the cati and perhaps the cow ; all partaking of the same Disa ; " we shall say nothing to disturb the equanimity of those who can Bee PLENTY in this , and who , withjARTHua Young , would almost seem to wish to persuade the cbeese-and-bread eater to exchange that Ibread and cheese for the POTATOEBOWL ! There it is ! reader , plainly before you , as pictured by Arthur Young : say how you like it ! 1
The conclusion , then , we arrive at , from a full examination of the question is , that the labourer now is much worse off than the labourer was then ; aud this , too , despite of the vast increase to our means of producing wealth ; aud ia despite , too , of the many and enormous " Extensions" of British commerce 1 From that conclusion , so arrived at , we infer that another "Extension of Commerce , " on the same principle as we have hitherto acted on , can only have the effect of making bad , worse . " To expect anything else , after the experience we have had , betrays { stupidity and obtuseness obtuse enough I
One word more to the Chronicle . In contrasting the past and present condition of the labourer , we surely had a right to expect from a liberal journal , a progressive scale of the " improvement " of all classes , by which that of the industrious classes should be liberally measured . But no ! The lumuries of the great are to increase as a natural consequence of those " improvements" tending what ia oalled civilization ; while the condition of the labourer under all circumstances , is to remain the same ; or he is to receive a modicum of his share , not as a legitimate consequence arising from the same causes , but ) as a pauper with becoming gratitude and thanks '! In another portion of his article the Chronicle
says : — "It is oertain that great discontent now prevails aud has long prevailed among the labourers . They may not have been better off formerly , but THEY WEEK MORE RECONCILED TO THEIR CONDITION . Burke , quoting the opinion of Aristotle , remarks , that the agricultural class ate the least of , any ' inclined to sedition . ' We are afraid that so far as our agricultural labourers are concerned , the maxim will hardly hold good as a universal one . "
In this he commits a grave error . For League purposes he would contrast the condition of a class too " ignorant" ( as he says ) to think for themselves with the condition of the same class when political knowledge has beamed upon them . The desire ought not to be to contrast the labourer of 1843 with the labourer of 1743 ; but to contrast the labourer of 1843 , with him who employs him in the same year ! If , however , we are to narrow our contrast to his own condition at different periods ,- take him from 1803 to 1843 ; and take also the relative condition of all other classes into the full consideration of the question ; and then say whether tbe labourer has held or lost ground ! !
Throughout , the professing Liberal argues , as all Malthasiaas do , that as much has been doae for the labourer as circumstances would admit of . If the Chronicle ' s picture is to be complete ; and if the sitters are to remain side by side on the canvass ; we may perhaps be permitted to ask what has become of the Irish Cow , so feelingly described by Arthur Young , when singing the praises of the POTATOE BOWL ? What has become of the
BELLYFUL ( of that trash )! What has become of the turkeys , the geese , the hens , the cocks , * the oat and the cur ; and above all , what has become of the Cow ! What has become of all these 1 Church and State have swallowed them all up and a substitute , is now to be furnished out of an infernally-principled eystetn of poor laws , which the brave Irish , not jet thoroughly debased by the dependant hand-to-mouth system , have resolved to resist even to the death !
Oue remarkable ; saying of the Chronicle ' s needs a word : ** They may [ not have been belter offformerly ; BUT THET WERE MORE RECONCILED TO THEIR CONDITION . " So were the West Indian Slaves , until they became sensible of their power to alter their condition . Englishmen were never reconciled to a degraded condition , however ignorant they may have heretofore been as to the means to alter it ! As for reconcilement , no journal has taken morepains to reconcile ] them to that exact condition in which they may be slavishly or violently serviceable to faction , and aid in its unhallowed purposes , than the ] Chtonicle ! Out of evil comes good . The desperate attempts of the squabblers to
grasp power hare compelled them to paint the labourer in those colours in which he now desires to see himself . Power achieved , the limner would gladly rub the colouring from the canvass ! but pride and manly dignity keeps it alive in recollection ; and he who Was so fairly represented , would fain make himself a fair representation of so fair a picture ! The right position of man is not now merely confined to the Reform canvass , or the Reform print : it is engraven upon the heart , and stereotyped in the mind 1 The impression is now fired : and man boastingly tries to make himself what those who once courted him told him he ought to be !
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CLASS JUSTICE . THE SCANDALOUS TREATMENT OF MR . ARTHUR O'NEIL . This gentleman has with becoming spirit brought the parson magistrates who refused his bail before their betters . He obtained a rule Nisi calling upoi parsons Badger and Cartwbight to show causa why a criminal information should not iesue against them for their flagrant and wilful outrage nponilM liberty of the subject and the constitution of this realm . As might be expected , the law officers of the
crown were ready to aid in the oppression of tha people aud to bolster up the tyranny of then clerical despots in a small way . The Solicitor ' General appeared to show cause against the rale , and let out , in his defence of the Rev . clients t&m cause he had undertaken , a most important fact ; the fact that an illegal conspiracy and combination bad been entered into by tbe whole magistracy of Staffordshire , for the purpose of defeating the ends of justice in the case of any Chartist who might come before them oh&rged with any manner of offence .
« At a meeting , held before O Nell had been taken into custody , of the Magistrates of the county , presided over by the Lord Lieutenant , it ha 4 been detomined not to accept any person as bail who attended Chartist meetings , and it was in accordance with that resolution that they had refused the bail of Page ui Trueman . " Here , then , we have ihe plain admission of %
deliberate conspiracy against the law , headed bj the Lord Lieutenant , and joined in by the Magistracy of a whole county , and we have the Solicitor General pleading . this base conspiracy as a justification of the acts of the parties to it , instead of prosecuting the whole bevy for the misdemeasoor It is clear that the Judges felt themselves is W awkward fix . It is an irksome thing to hononnWa men to lick the dirt from the hands of their patrons
They hardly knew what to say about the matter The thing was so glaring , that even legal eubtletj and judicial sophistry were a little at fault ; it n * quired time to see how , or whether by any means , an excuse cou . d be framed for denying to Mi O'Nril the plain justice he demanded ; and so , under pretence of looking at the affidavits , & 9 judgment was postponed .
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A WORD OF CAUTION . There are few things of more consequence to the people , and to which the local leaders seem to pay less attention , than discriminating carefully between the movements of the people in their individual capacity throughout their several localities , and their acts as members of the National Charter Association . We have often pointed attention to the fact that the 39 th Geo . III . c . 79 , makes every political society illegal whose members meet for the transaction of business in separate masses , parts , or
divisons ; and that , therefore , the National Charter Association as such , has no meetings . It exists , and can exist only in the public registration of its members , in the persons and correspondence of ita officers , and in its public documentary acts . The advantage of the National Organization is , that it affords a common system , upon which the operations of all the local bodies of Chartists in the kingdom may be conducted ; and that thus they may be all directed continuously towards a given point . Still , ] however , it should never be forgotten that all their distinct operations in
their several localities are those of local bodies , and not of the general body ; if this little fact were borne in mind , in the calling of the several meetings and the wording of the several resolutions which from time to time ace adopted by those meetings in various towns , it would be muoh better . We ought never to jforgeb that the same faction which first enacted these infamous statutes is now in power , and waits only a convenient opportunity for enforcing them . jWo should , at least , therefore , be earefal not to afford them evidence'against ourselves ; yet this is done every time that we publish , either by placard or otherwise , anything about " a
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meeting" at any particular place " of the Natio * Charter Association , " or of « the members of hT National Charter Association" resident there T ? parties who attend such meetings do not g 0 ther members of the National Charter Ass ^ l" * they go there and act there as individual Chart ^ Every such meeting is , and ought to be Jr * a meeting of the Chartists of Birmingham , She 2 f Newcastle , or whatever other town it may be 7 not a meeting of the members of the NatWi Charter Association . Another great mistake ^ that of misconceiving the nature of the generrf council of the National Charter A « uw . iftf ; ,. « \/ council of the National Charter Association juT
. parties speak and write of the general co ' nnS such a place , and " the general council" of 8 uc j . place ; as though eaoh locality had * distinct genemJ counoil of its own . This is quite wrong . % National Charter Association has but one coan 1 Its councillors live in different places—some London , Borne at Leeds , some at Maaohegte * some at Birmingham—but they form only 0 ' general council for the whole body ; and they can not legally act for the body in separate detach * ments . The fact , however , of a maa teine general councillor , is no reason why he shooli aot to be also a councillor , or any other kind « f
office-bearer in any local body of Chartists ia U , own neighbourhood ; only care should be tal not to ascribe to him as a member of the Natioiu ] Charter Association the aots which he performs * member of a local body of Chartists in that pl « e m as an individual Chartist there residing . Thog [ u Shakesperian Association of Leicester Chartists is . local body , perfectly distinct and separate from ti » National Charter Association ; its members nank , all members of the National Charter Asaociatioa its committee may be all councillors of the . National Charter Association , ' ita secretary may be a sob . secretary of the National Charter Association , and its treasurer may be a sub-treasurer oftiw
National Charter Association ; but still its meeting are not meetings of the National Charter Associationthey are meetings of the Leicester Chartists g ^ ' rally , or of the Shaksperian Association of Leicester Chartists in particular . We have been thus pW that tbis matter may be understood and looked tobecause communications continually reach us Trttich . are dangerously , because wrongly , worded . Woeta principle is concerned , we would be the last to tubb the people to succumb to power ; but where it is u
in this case , merely a prudential matter , we tJusfc too much caution cannot be made use of to pretest the enemy from arming themselves with our owa weapons . And hence we have thought it reqniatt to substitute these plain directions for the article ws promised respecting the improvement of the Or . gamzation , which we reserve for another week , tai with the less regret , because it may probity be somewhat longer' than we could at present find space for , in addition to the lengthy aud important matters already given .
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CLERICAL LIBERALITY ! Elsewhere our readers will find a simP ^ ° J " varnished story by John O'Roubke , setting for » the apostolioal character of the Rev . the Vicar « Leeds , chaplain in ordinary to her Majesty , in w «* light as to make comment uncalled for . thei lewr tells its own tale . It is a tale of facts , unembellishW and undistorted , and the facts are a vivid c 00 ^" upon the system by which such men are elevated » the position of lights and lawgivers .
THE SPEECH . _ Whew ! Was there ever sueh a fighting body » pur little Queen ? She has given us the Jonge » fa King's Speech" that we ever saw made by aqaeen , with enough of fighting in it to satisfy a Sa ** n the rest being positively an improvement upon Koj modes of saying nothing . Ot' all the eXPJ ° 91 " vapidities which we have seen , in theshape of W ° y speeches , this is the most vapid . When wiUit come to pass that a few grains of sense and honesty w be made to season the uasuffbrable dullness ol vx costly exhibitions ! Never , we guess , tUl tbe po * of legislation by the whole people shall restore Crown to its due position , and make the faotioHfl *« the people find each their own place .
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MR . O'CONNOR AND THE LEAGUE . The challenge of Mr . O'Connor has taken * to League aback dreadfully . They den't half like it . It is fast opening the eyes of their dupes , many of whom , seeing that they show no signs of " coming to the scratch " , begin to fancy that under the butter of their ** smooth words" there have been no " pannips " . In many towns the large sheet bills published by Mr . Hobson , containing the challenge and
an appeal to shopkeepers to enforce its accep tance , have been plentifully posted ; while the brave " k $ of Stockport , despite their poverty , printed and posted the challenge on a large Bheet , at their own cost ; not knowing , probably , that they might hire had it cheaper from Mr . Hobson . This is the right way to work . Give the rogues enough of it . Stick U under their noses wherever they date shew themselves . Make them " show fight" fairly , or quit the
field . The" Challenge , " as we intimated last week , bin two shapes : ia a large posting-bill for the corneM of the streets , and in a small haad-bill for general distribution . These serve two purposes : they notonly apprize the shopkeepers ( to whom they are addressed ) and the public generally , of the fact that * challenge has been given and is yet unaccepted ; but they contain also some facts and srgnmeniseminently calculated to shake the faith of the Fret ' Traders as to the efficacy of ftie Corn-Law-Repeal-Nostrum . The hand-bill is , in fact , »¦ most asefaj Chartist Tract ; and its extensive circulation cannot fail to be of essential service . . Tae large poster may be had from Mr . Hobsoh » 83 . the hundred : and the small bill for distributor at 7 s . the thousand .
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4 _______ THE NORTHERN STAR . :
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Citation
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Northern Star (1837-1852), Feb. 4, 1843, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1198/page/4/
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