Current:

Northern Star (1837-1852), 4th February 1843, Edition 2 of 7, Page 4, Untitled Article

Page 4
Page 4
4 of 8

On this page

  • Departments (1)
    • THE KOBTHE&H" STAR. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4. 1843.
  • Text (9)
  • Transcript

    • 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 Kobthe&H" Star. Saturday, February 4. 1843.

      THE KOBTHE&H" STAR . SATURDAY , FEBRUARY 4 . 1843 .

      Untitled Article

      THE APPROACHING TRIALS . In the Liverpool Tunes of " the current week , we find the following : — *• We understand that the trials of Tesrgaa O'Connor Bud the other CksrtistB , upon the indictments against th- in , -which -were removed fey certiorari from the late Special Commission , "will be tried at Lancaster , and Hoi at Liverpool . Hence it ha 8 been thought right to as-ign & longer period for the assizes at Lancaster than Would otherwise have been necessary . "

      We know not what authority the Liverpool Times jnsy have for this statement , as we have received me official intimatioB on the Hnbject , hnt we deem It -our duly , at all events , to place it before our friend ^ The fact that two weeks are allotted for ibo dnration of the Lancaster Asazss , which eonwoonly last onlj two ot three days , seems to give it * h air of probability ; and it is most likely npoa this circnznstance that the Editor of the Liverpool Times has founded his assumption . At all ^ ents , it is high t : ma that those who are inieres *^ * & ¦ the matter should bestir themselves ,

      Untitled Article

      WAGES OF LABOUR , Jy esjistating the value of any " improvement" in the iu * de of producing wealth , it is a rule with ns jo > sk , " what increase , or decrease , has it made to jie hbasb of the working man" ! and according to ihe answer given to that q \ iery is our estimate of

      Tiiue . When arguing upon the question of" Extension of Commerce , " we have pointedly put the question to Ite advocates : "What have been ' the effects of former 'Extensions' upon the wages and comforts of the labouring many ? " and have honestly avowed that if it could be shown that they . had been of benefit to the worker ; that they had added to his stock of comforis ; that these bad enabled him to eDJoy more of the good things of life ; that they had placed additional beef and bread upon his table , and put additional clothing upon his back : we have ofttimes avowed that if this could be shewn to lave been the effect of former u Extensions of Commercsj'' we should be the first to call for , and struggle for , another and gTeater Extension . "

      Our inquiries , however , have led ns to a directly opposite conclusion , to that of benefit from former * Extensions , " We have endeavoured to ascertain the condition of ihe labourer at the beginning of the present century , —a period when the beginning of the rapid and much-lauded "Extensions of British Commerce" may be dated ; and we haie contrasted that condition with the present condition of the labourer ; and that contrast ia not favourable to the " Extenaon" cause .

      It is not necessary that we say mnch respecting the laboxrrers ' s present condition . It is admitted on all hands that it is deplorable in the extreme . There is no party who nova disputes the existence of general distress . It is well known that the cottages are comparatively empty of furniture ; 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 Hill furnish them with a snfiieiency of the first necessaries of life ; that starvation Lj endnred by millions of British subjects ; and that the shopkteping class are rapidly falling into die ranks of the unemployed labourers , the march of poverty and Buntinox having reached them , in its progress , upwards , through ali classes of present society .

      This 13 the avowed and undisputed cendiuon of the labouring many at the present hour . It is also avowed and undisputed , that the condirion of that same class , fifty years ago , was , comparatively , s mnch better one . They had , then , com paraavely , well-furnished cottage-Acm ^ s ; a wellloaded table ; 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 wo have added to our means of producing wealth most immensely . The producing-power of the Engdom at the beginning oT ihe present century has been stated by eminent Siatieians to hare been : —

      "Manual Labour ... ... ... ... - 3 , 750 , 000 Mechanical and Scientific Power equal to 11 , 250 , 000 Total 15 , 000 , 000 The population at thai period was also 15 , 000 , 000 ; oonsegnenfly , the aggregate prodnetive-power and the population were equal , or as one to one . In 3842 , the producing-power of the Kingdom was thus estimated i—Afr » in » . T Labour 9 , 000 , 000 Mechanical and Scientific Power equal to 600 , 000 , 000

      Total , 609 , 000 , 000 The population in 1842 , as shown by the census , was 27 , 000 , 000 . The proportion , therefore , which file prodncing-power then bore to the population was a 3 twenty-two to one ! "What » vast increase in prodneing-means ! How comes it to pass , tbat with this increase in the Eeans to prodnce wealth , the eomforts and well-bain ^ of the wealth-producers should have decreased ?

      The Returns connected with our ^ Foreign Trade show also that ouring those fifty years , we have increased that trade most prodigiously ! In 1798 , we exported , in Official Value , £ 19 , 672 , 503 ; which brought us in , in Real Value , £ 33 , 148 , 682 . The last Heturns published , for the year ending January 5 , 1842 , show that we had exported in Official Value , £ 102 , 180 , 517 , which only broughrua in , in Real Value , £ 51 , 634 , 623 . Thns it will be seen that we had increased in qpxsnT ? nearly SIX TIMES OYER : as for an increase in price that i 3 ^ uite another matter I That increase is not , by any means , s six limes increase !

      Commerce then nas "Extended" 1 Of iha t there can be no doubt . Our means of producing wealth has * 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 noi benefited the working people ; and they hold ont to us little hope that another " Extension , " now sought for by a Repeal of the Corn Laws , will < lo that which all former ** Extensions" have failed in doing I To this 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 mneh adroitness . They invariably deeline to meet them ; but content themselves with uttering forth an 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 has been taken . It is now the cue of the Free Trade writers to endeavour to induce a donbt , as to the correctness of

      the fact that the labourer in olden time was much better off lhan his brethren of the present day . In this matter the Morning Chronicle has taken the lead . The week before last , he had an article to show , as heihonght , that the labourers of England were wretchedly ill-off some 150 years ago ; and the inference whieh he evidently wishes the existing workers to draw from his pretended array of facts is , that they have not mueh to complain of in their present condition , seeing that if is better or at least , «• 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 hit upon , is about the very best he eonld have picked out for his purpose . It was just * fier the globiocs XEvoi-raos f when all the interests of the state had sustained the shock inevitable from internal commotions of that characer . It was jusl at ite period , too , when foam and

      Untitled Article

      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 Burhbt . It was a period , too , when the taxation of the country b » d been increased , at once , two-and-a-half-time * over I !! A period of time of this character , pregnant indeed with depressing consequences , h » s 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 . "

      Now , 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 , seeing that they are in no worse condition . Wo shonld have asked if it was right , tbat the labourer should have no share in the numerous advantages to be deprived from an increase in the means of producing wealth 1 We should havo 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 ofincrease illimitable : we should have asked , even had the Chronicle established that whielThe has attempted to establish , if these "

      improvements" ought net to have worked bswbfit to the workers \ We should have asked if it was right , that the working classes should bo kept in a standstill position , when all the rest of the world was travelling to the goal of human perfection at a railroad pace 1 ! We should have asked these questions , even had the Chronicle peoved thai the labourer ' s conditionhasnot deteriorated contemporaneously with the introduction and present application of those new and mighty agents of civilization , steam and gas : how much more necessary is it to put them , when the ChronicU 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 duriDg the iirst half of the last century ; of which fact there is but too abundant evidence . Wages were extremely low—3 s and 4 s a week . Stephen Dnck , about 1730 , threshed in a barn in Wiltshire for 3 s a week . The population hardly experienced any increase during all that period . But about the year 1760 great advances in manufactures took place . JJnmsrous canals were cut , and other works executed , and the demand for labour

      led to an increase of wageB and its increased comforts , especially in the manufacturing districts . Before that time , wh eaten bread was little used by the labourers . About 1760 the use of it , became general . But even then , the condition of the labonrers 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 sonthsrn connties , very minute accounts of the wages of labour , and they appear exceedingly low . Arthur Young was afterwards

      in Ireland , in 1776 , 1777 , and 1 / 78 , 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 s * y bo much for the comforts eDJoyed by the latter , that upon the whole he considers tha Irishman best off . Tnis , be it remarked , is the opinion of a man who had visited eve » y corner of England , and was intimately acquainted with the state of the agricultural population . The following is an extract from Young : —

      "Taen the Irishman ' s cow may be ill-fed is admitted ; but ill-led as it is , it is better than ihe no cow of the Englishman ; the children of the Irish cabin are noarished with milk , which , small as the quantity may be , is far preferable to the beer or vile lea which is the beverge of the English infant , for nowhere but in a town is milk to be bought . * * " When 1 see tte people of a country , in spite of political oppression , with well-formed vigorous bodies , and their cot ; ages swarming with childrenwhen I see their men athletic , and their women beautiful , I know not how to believe Iheir subsisting on an unwholesome food .

      * ' 1 will not assert that potatoes are a better food than bread and cheese ; but I have no doubt of a bel ! yfullof the one being better than a half a belly foil of the other .. If any one donbt the comparative plenty which attends the board of a poor na ; ive of England and Ireland , let him attend to their meals ; the sparingness with which our labourer eais his bread and cheese is well known ; mark the Irishman ' s potatoe-bowJ 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 weleome , the pig taking his share as readily as the wife , the cooks , hens , turkeys , geese , the cur , the oat , ana perhaps the cow , and all partaking of the same dish . No man can often have been a witness of it without being convinced of the plenty , and , I will add , the cheerfulness that attends h "

      Let us examine the facts the Chronicle brings in support of his general statement that" the labourers of Englaadjin the beginning of the last century were wretchedly ill-off . " * Wages /' sayB he , " were extremely low ; three shillings and four shillings per week . St £ . pbe > Duck , about 1730 , thrashed in a barn in Wiltshire , for three shillings a week . " We shall adopt the mean between his t 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 ; and measure the amount of their earnings in the quantity of provisions and other necessaries of life , which 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 ns a fair contrast of the two periods , as far as the labourers

      are concerned . What then are the wages paid to husbandmen now ? Let the Chronicle answer . Week before hist we inserted from its pages a long document descriptive of the doings of the Socialists on thb land , written by a gentleman who subscribes himself " One who has Whistled at the Plough . " explained that that document was only one of a series ; the writer being now engaged in a tour throughout the farming districts to ** note" the condition of both Laxd , Farmer , and Labourer . In the extract we made last week , he lets out , incidentally , the following information relative to the wages of agricultural labourers : —

      " At an . inn called the Winteralow Hul , ( between Salisbury and Broughton ) 1 received information , that the wages of labouring men had been reduced to sev « n shillings 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 the poor creatures are to be fed ! What matters it to them that floor and bread be cheaper this year than last They could buy little of either last year , and they can bay as little this . They must buy potatoes , not bread , and potatoes are but a middling orop this year ; they are good , but small . '"

      In the Chronicle of Wednesday , Jan 18 th , the same writer says : — " Wages , are miserably low . Near Preston and about Lancaster , able-bodied men are working to farmers for nine-pence a day i A shilling and fifteen pence a day are the more common run of wages The labourers in Lancashire are on a level with those of Dorset . Somerset , and Devon ; but so far ^ s I have yet seen , the farms of Lancashire and Cheshire are not so well managed as in these illcultivated counties of the west .

      The wages , then , of husbandmen note , may be taken on the authority of this writer , who has been to see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears , at seven shillings a-week , on an average . Remember that he h& 3 found many working for ninepence a-day ! Remember that nine-pence a-day is bnt four shillings and sixpence a-week Remember , too , that a shilling a-day is a common ran ; and that a shilling a-day is bat six shillings a-week ! Remember all thb ; and then say whether the sum named , seven shillings , is not a high average to infer from the factB 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 the amount paid to the same class of labourer ? in the beginning of last century , according to the Chr , ni .-ie .

      Untitled Article

      Now how stands the relative prices of provision and clothing at the two periods : for on this will mainly depend the contrast we 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 flftjr years ) , that he could have hit upon to enable us to satisfactorily solve this last question .

      Tnere are no tegular consecutive returns of the prices of produce , until towards the close of the seventeenth century . There are several statements as to the price of provisions in earlier times ; but they are many of them collected from old household accounts ; and cannot be depended on , like accounts regnlarly taken and regularly published . In the year 1694 , however , six years prior to the beginning of ike period fixed on by the Chronicle for his contrast , the present Official Rates of valuation of Exported British Prodube and Manufactures were fixed ; and that fact will enable us to state , with certainty , the prices of provisions and clothing at both periods .

      It will be necessary to explain that the 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 fluctu * ations iu 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 century , 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 wretchedly 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 , Gram , Meal , and Flour " was then nearly three times " cheaper" than it is now ! That is , the labourer ' s three shillings-and-sixpence would purchase him nearly three times as much 11 Corn , Grain , Meal , and Flour , " as the labourer ' s three-and-sixpence will now ! He will find also that Butter and Cheese , Beer and Ale , were fully three times as cheap ; or as mnch then for one shilling as for three shillings now ¦ ' He will further find that Cdws and Oxen -were four times as cheap / or that one pound would then go as far in purchasing a Cow or an Ox , as four pounds will go now . He will find , too , that Sbeep'a Wool and Hats are now nearly double the price they were then ; and that Woollen and Worsted Yarn is also about doubled

      in pnoe . - These facts will the Chronicle learn by an appeal to the last published Returns reiating 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 facts which must not be kept out of sight , in this important inquiry . Money wages were not all that the labourers of England bad to live upon , during the earlier periods of

      Eughsh History . A far different system obtained at the beginning of the last century from what obtains now . The labouring-man was not then driven out of the farmer ' s house ! He , in general , and almoBt 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 ! However the farmer fared , he fared ! and we may readily believe that if the labouring iitmales of the farmer's dwelling fared well , the labourers who lived out of the house would not fare much worse !

      Tli at such was the general custom ia 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 m circulation , consequent on Loams and Bake . Restriction , had forced up prices to such a degree , as to induce the Farmers , Manufacturers , and Shopkeepers to think we had the world " in a band . " and that we could lead it whithersoever we

      listed . It was discontinued when the age of ButLFaoGisMset in ; when every farmer considered himself a Squire ; and every farmer ' s daughter , " a Miss . " Then the labourer was 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 !

      ThatthiB custom of in-dwelling the labourers obtained at fee period fixed on by the Chronick , 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 , and the style now , will be best understood by the following graphic description , by one who was well qualified to paint the scene he witnessed and describes , and to tell of other times and doings . It is one of Cobbett's inimitable and instructive " Rdbal Rides : "— " Reigate , Thursday Evening , " 20 th October , 1825 .

      11 Having done my business at Harts wood to-day about eleven o ' clock , I went to a sale at a farm , which the farmer la quitting . Here I had a view of what has long been goin ; on all over the country . The farm , which belenga to Christ ' s Hospital , has been held by a man of the name of Charington , in whose family the lease has been , I bear , a great number of years . The house is hidden by trees . It stands in the Weald of Surrey , close by the River Mole , which is here a mere rivulet , theugh jost below this house the rivulet supplies the very prettiest flour-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 BUpplied with joint stools . Some of the things were many huadiedB 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 bell-pull too ! One end of the front of thia once

      plain and substantial houae had been moulded into a " parlour ;'' and there was the mahogany table , and the fine chairs , and the fine glass , and all as bare-faced upstart as any stock-jobber in the kingdom can boast of . And there were the decanters , the glasses , tbe «• dinner-set" of crockery ware , and all just In the true stock-jobber styla And I dare say it has been "Squire Charington and tbe Miss Charingtons ; and not plain Master Charington , and his sun Hodge , and bis daughter Betty Charington , all of whom this accursed system has , in all likelihood , transmuted into a species of mock-gentlefolks , while it has ground the labourers

      down into real slaves . Why do not farmers now feed and lodge their work-people , as they did formerly . * Because they cannot keep them upon so little as they give them in wages . This is the real cause of the change . There needs no more to prove that tae 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 people , boarded in tbe same house , and at the same table , can , with as goed food , be boarded much cheaper

      than those persons divided into twos , threes , or foun , can be boarded . This ia a well-known truth : therefore , if the farmer now shuts his pantry against his labourers , and pays them wholly ia meney , is it not clear , that he does it because be thereby gives them a living cheaper to him ; that is to say , & worse living than formerly ? Mind he haa a house for them ; a kitchen for them to sit in , bed rooms for them to Bleep in , tables , and stools , and benches , of everlasting duration . All tJ : ere he h ^ s : all these cost him nothing ; and yet so much dnes he gain by p ; ncbing them in wa ^ es tbat

      Untitled Article

      he lets all these things remain as of no use , rather than feed labourers in the house . Judge , then , of the change tbat has taken place in the condition of these labourers 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 new distribution of the produce . This 'Squire Charington ' s father used , I dare say , to sit at the bead of the oak-table along with his men , say grace to them , and cut up tha meat and the pudding . He might take a cup of strong beer to himself ,

      when they had none ; bat , that was pretty nearly all tbe difference in their manner of living . So that all lived well . But , the 'Squire had many wine-decanters , and wine-glasses , and " a dinner set , " and " breakfastset , '" and " desert-knives ; " and these evidently imply carryings on and a consumption that most necessity have greatly robbed the long oak-table if it had remained fully tenanted . That long table could not share in the work of the decanters and the dinner set Therefore , it became almost untenanted ; the labourers retreated to hovels , called cottages ; and , instead of board and lodging , they got money ; so little of it as to

      enable toe employer to drink-wine ; but , then , that he might not reduce them to guile starvation , they were enabled to come to him , in tbe king ' s name , and demand food ai paupers . And , now , mind , tbat which a man receives in the king ' s name , he knows well he has by force ; and it is not iu nature that he shonld thank anybody for it , and least of all tbe 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 offenee against God ( who created no man to starve ) to use another sort of force more within his own controul ? Is it , in sh » rt , surprising , if he resort to theft and robbery ?

      "This ia not only the natural progress , but \ VJias been the progress in England . The blame is not justly imputed to 'Squire Carrington and his like : the blame belongs to the infernal stock-jobbing system . There was no reason to expect that farmers would not endeavour to keep pace , in point of show and luxury , with f undholders , and with all tbe tribes that war and taxes created . Farmers were sot tbe authors of the mischief ; and now they are compelled to shut the labourers out of their bouses , and 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 the working class are so changed , that a sort of self-preservation bids the farmer ( especially ia some counties ) to keep them from beneath his roof .

      " I could not quit this farm Dense 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 some stock-jobber will stick up over an artificial river in his cockney garden . " By it shant , " said I , almost in a real paasion : and so I requested a friend to buy it for me ; and if he do so , I will take it to Kensington , or to Fleet-street , and keep it for the good it has done in the world .

      " When the old farm-houses are down ( and down they must come in time ) what a miserable thing the country will be . Those that are now erected are mere painted shells , with a Mistress within , who is stuck up in a place she calls 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 nkk-naeka to eat instead of a pitce of bacon and pudding : the house too neat for a dirty-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 the reality . The children ( which is the worst part of it ) are all t « o clever to work .-they are all to be gentlefolks Ge to plough ! Good God 1 What , " young gentlemen" go to plough ! They become clerks , or some skimtuy-disb thing or other . They fl'je from the dirty work as cunning horses do from the bridle . What misery is all this . ' What a mass of materials for producing that general and dreadfu l convulsion that must , first or last , come and blew this funding and jobbing and enslaving and starving system to atoms !"

      Another means of adding to the labourer ' s stock of comforts , over and above his money-wages , must not be lost sight of . At the period fixed on by the Chronicle there were extensive Commons , on which the labourer had common rights I The aid that ( ihese were to him cannot be estimated by the labourer of the present day -. for the Common ? are gone , and , with them , the common rights ! During the last seventy years millions of acres of land have been taken from the labouring people , upon which they formerly kept their cow , their pig , their flock of geese , 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 1831 , no less than ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED and EIGHTEEN ENCLOSURE ACTS WERE PASSED 1 each one taking hundreds , and , in some instances , thousands , of acres from the labouring people , whose common right to the use and eDJoyment of them had been sanctioned and guaranteed by numerous acts of the Parliament , as well as by the Common Usuages 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 his employer were for the work he did for hia 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 on wet days . They nearly manufactured all the clothes they wore ; they carded ! they spun ! they wove ! This they did within themselves ! and was it no advantage \ Did not this help his three or four shillings a

      week ? Was not this 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-should-be-labourer of our time ? Ah ! Mr . Chronicle , when we come to inquire into the real faots 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 much 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 faot . 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 tfleeted by the Whig-made " glorious Revolution , " with its attendant National Debt , Paper-Money , and Excessive Taxation . The period , therefore , which we should ohoose for a contrast between the then , and the 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 wretohediy ill-off during the first half of the last centur y , " is untenable ; but to show that if suoh even were the case , they were much better off : hen , lhan the labourers are at present ! notwithstanding all tbe "improvements" of which we boast , and notwithstanding all the additional means of produoing wealth with which we have become acquainted , and which ought to have worked out a far different result .

      Our position , that the labourers now are much worse off than the labourers wore then , may be strengthened by the mention of two facts , which even thu Chronicle will not gainsay . ' * The labourers of England were ivrelchcdv iil-off during the first hau

      Untitled Article

      of tbe last century . " If so , the poor rates will be found to have been excessive ; for poor rates then existed , and tbe poor were not then blessed with a New Poor Law , with its workhouse-and-degradinglabonr-test , to prevent them from applying for relief . WJhat is the fact \ Why that for the three years 1748-50 the Poor Rates for both England and Wales amounted only to the sum of £ 730 , 135 ! ! ! while the Poor Rates have averaged , for the last twenty years , no less than £ 7 , 000 , 000 . annually ! ! What a frightful increase of pauperism , contemporaneously with the enormous increase of productive power !! ¦

      The other faot is , that from 1714 to 1726 , the taxation of the kingdom averaged £ 6 , 386 , 672 ; while the average for the last fifty years is' nearly £ 70 , 000 , 00 Q . a year ! ! ! The producer of wealth in latter times has much ( taxation ) to pride himself upon ! ! ; With the notions of Mr . Arthur Young , quoted by the Chronicle , we shall not presume to meddle . We shall say nothing to disturb the equanimity of those who can see plentv , accompanied with cheerfulness , iu a family " squatted on their hams on the floor , devouring POTATOES

      in a quantity almost incredible , having for dinner companions " the pig , the cocks , the hens , the turkies , the geese , the cur , the cat ' and perhaps the cow ; all partaking of the same dish ; " we shall say nothing to disturb the equanimity of those who ean see PLENTY in this , and who , with Arthur Young , would almost seem to wish to { persuade the cheese-and-bread eater to exchange that bread and cheese for the POTATOEBOWL ! There it is ! reader , plainly before you , as pictured by Arthur Young : say how you like it 11

      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 ; and this , too , despite of the vast increase to our means of producing wealth ; and in despite , too , of the many and enormous " Extensions" of British commerce !' From that conclusion , so arrived at , we infer that another " Extension of Commerce , " , on the Bamo 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 !

      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 luxuries of the great are to increase as a natural consequence of those " improvements" tending what is called 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 say 8 : — " It is certain that great discontent now prevails and has long prevailed among the labourers . They may ript have been better off formerly , but THEY WEBB MORE RKC 0 NC 1 LED TO THEIR CONDITION . Burke , quoting tha opinion of Aristotle , remarks , that the agricultural class are 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 . "

      Iu 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 oi 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 iu 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 olasses into the full consideration of the question ; and then say whether the labourer' has held or lost ground ! !

      Throughout , the professing Liberal argues , as all Malthusiaas do , that as much has been doae for the labourer as circumstances would admit of . If tbe 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 beeome of the Cow ! What has become of all these Church and State have swallowed them all up and a substitute is now to be furnished out of an infernally-principled system of poor laws , which the brave Irish , not yet thoroughly debased by the dependant hand-to-mouth system , have resolved to resist even to the death !

      One remarkable saying of the Chronicle ' s needs a word : * ' They may not have been better off formerly ; BUT THEY WEIJE MORE RECONCILED TO THEIR CONDITION . " So yrete 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 more pains 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 Chronicle ! Out of evil comes good . The desperate attempts of the squabblers to

      grasp power have compelled them to paint the labourer in those colours ia which be now desires to see himself . Power achieved , the limner would gladly rub the colouring from the oanvass ! but pride and manly dignity keeps it alive in recollection ; and he who was ao fairly represented , would fain make himself a fair representation of so fair a picture ! The j 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 [ The impression is now fixed : and man boastingly tries to make himself what those who once courted him told him he ought to be !

      Untitled Article

      meeting" at any particnlar place " of tbe Nar Charter Association , " or of w the members ?** National Charter Association" resident there ^ parties who attend such meetings do not go th members of the National Charter Assort' ^* they go there and aot there as individual CWEvery such meeting is , and ought to be ^ a meeting of the ChartistB of Birmingham , Sheffi Newcastle , or whatever other town it may b hoi oi

      a meeting me memDers of the Jfaf Charter Association . Another great xai ^ l ^ that of misconceiving the nature of j ) , 8 * coancil of the National Charter Association , ^ parties speak and write of ' the general couJp ^ auch a place , and the general council" Of " * place ; as though each locality had a distinct Re council of its own . This is" quite mone »? National Charter Association has but one co Its councillors live in different placea—s London , some at Leeds , some at Mancb *" some at Birmingham—but they form oa i ' general council for the whole bod y ; and th ° * not legally act for the body in separate detfv ments . The fact , however , of a man be ' general councillor , is no reason why he shV Hot to be also a councillor , or any other ti a

      office-bearer in any local body of Chartists" iown neighbourhood ; only care should be i v not to ascribe to hint as a member of the Nat" *" Charter Association the acts whioh he performs member of a local body of Chartists in that the * as an individual Chartist there residing . tj , b li ' Shakesperian Association of Leicester Ghartisfs' ' local body , perfectly distinct and separata from y National Charter Association ; its members . / all members of the National Charter Associati its committee may be all councillors of the Nation I Charter Association ; its secretary may be t sdL secretary of the National Charter Associate and its treasurer may be a sub-treasurer of ft

      National Charter Association ; but still its mesUnn are not meetings of the National Charter Association they are meetings of the Leicester Chartists em rally , or of the Shaksperian Association of Leiceta Chartists in particular . We have been thas piji ,, that this matter may be understood and looked to ' because communications continually reach tu whic ] ' are dangerously , because wrongly , worded . When principle is concerned , we would be the last to adrisa the people to succumb to power ; but where it is m in thisTsase , merely a prudential matter , we th ' ijfr

      too much caution cannot be made use of to prereat the enemy from arming themselves with oar o « a weapons . And hence we have thought it ftpsfo to substitute these plain directions for the articla ^ promised respecting the improvement of the Or ganization , which we reserve for another week mi with the less regret , because it may probablT be somewhat longer than we could at presented space for , in addition to the lengthy and imporiut matters already given .

      Untitled Article

      THE SPEECH . Whew ! Was theTe ever sueh a fighting WI our little Queen ? She has given us the WDJ _ " King ' s Speech" that we ever saw made by |« with enough of fighting in it to satisfy a w » the rest being positively an improvement upon an modes of saying nothing . Of all the tfP ** vapidities which we have seen , in the shapei oi ¦* > l speeches , this is the most vapid . When wtU U » j to pass that a few grains of sense and honesty j be made to season the unsufferable dullness ot j costly exhibitions » Never , we guess , till tbe p& 1 of legislation by the whole people shall re 5 «» I Crowu to its due position , and make the fact "" I tbe people find each their own place . I

      Untitled Article

      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 \ Buch , has no meetings . It exists , and can exist only in the public registration of . its members , in the persons and correspondence of its 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 , j in the calling of the several meetings and the wording of the several resolutions whioh from time to time are adopted by those meetings in various towns , it would be much better . We ought never to forget that the same faction which first enacted these infamous statutes is now in power , and waits only a convenient opportunity for enforoing them . We should , at least , therefore , be careful not to afford them evidence against ourselves ; yet this is done every time that we publish , eiiher by placard or otherwise , anything about " a

      Untitled Article

      CLERICAL LIBERALITY ! Elsewhere out readers will find a simp e varnished story by John O'Rourke , setting t <^ the apostolical character of the Rev . the / . , Leeds , chaplain in ordinary to her Majesty , « » light as to make comment uncalled for . Toe tells its own tale . It is a tale of facts , unembeli » and undistorted , and the faots are a vi ? ld cofl ! upon the system by which such men are elew * the position of lights and lawgivers .

      Untitled Article

      MR . O'CONNOR AND THE LEAGUE . The challenge of Mr . O'Connor has taken the League aback dreadfully . They dc n 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 " p ** nips " . In many towns the large sheet bills pi * - lishfld by Mr . Hobson , containing the challenge id

      an appeal to shopkeepers to enforce its acceptance , have been plentifully posted ; while tbebme"l&& of Stookport , despite their poverty , printed tftt posted the challenge on a large sheet , at their o * n cost ; not knowing , probably , that they might h » w had it cheaper from Mr . Hobson . This is the rigw way to work . Give the rogues enough of it . Stick " under their noses wherever they dare shew * aem selves . Make them " show fight" fairly , or quit ¦«•

      field . The" Challenge , " as we intimated last week , few two shapes : in a large posting-bill for the cornert of the streets , and in a small hand-bill for genem distribution . These serve two purposes : thejo * only apprize the shopkeepers ( to whom they u * dressed ) and the public generally , of the fact B » U challenge has been given and is yet unvxe ptei ; they contain also some facts , and argum ^ eminently calculated to shake ihe faith of the " i » Traders as to the effioaoy of the Corn-Uw-Re ^ j Nostrum . The hand-bill is , in fact , a most ns&u Chartist Tract ; and its extensive circulation cann

      fail to be of essential service . ^ Tne large poster may be had from Mr . f ' . 8 s . the hundred i and the small bill for dis « nM » at 7 s . tbe thousand .

      Untitled Article

      CLASS JUSTICE . THE SCANDALOUS TREATMENT OF MR ARTHUR O'NEIL . This gentleman has with becoming spirit bronjht the parson magistrates who refused his bail before their betters . He obtained a rule Nisi calling upon parsons Badger and Cartwright to show cause why a criminal information should not i ? sue against them for their flagrant and wilful outrage upon lie liberty of the subject and the constitution of this

      realm . As might be expected , the law officers ofto crown were ready to aid in the oppression of the people and to bolster up the tyranny of these clerical despots in a small way . The Solicitor-General appeared to show cause against tie rale , and let out , in his defence of the Rev . clients whose cause he bad undertaken , a most important fact ; tta fact that an illegal conspiracy and combination hid been entered into by the whole magistracy it Staffordshire , for the purpose of defeating the ents of justice in the case of any Chartist who might come before them charged with any manner of offence .

      " At a meeting , held before O'N"eiI had been turn into custody , of the Magistrates of the county , presided over by the Lord Lieutenant , it bad been determined 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 md Trueman . " Here , then , we have the plain admission of a

      deliberate conspiracy against the law , headed bj the Lord Lieutenant , and joined in by the Magistracy of a whole county , and we have tbe Solicitor Genera ] pleading this base conspiracy as a justification of the acts of the parties to it , instead of prosecuting the whole bevy for the misdemeiBoar It is clear that the Judges felt themselves ia « n awkward fix . It is an irksome thing to honourable men to lick the dirt from the hands of their patrons

      They hardly knew what to say about the mitUr . The thing was so glaring , that even le gal subtlety and judicial sophistry were a little at fault ; it re * quired time to see how , or whether by anymeansi an excuse could be framed for denying to Mr . O'Nkil the plain justice he demanded ; and su , under pretence of looking at the affidafits , to judgment was postponed .

      Untitled Article

      4 THE NORTHERN STAR . _^

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Feb. 4, 1843, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct467/page/4/