On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (9)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
THE JSORTHERIS' STAR. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4. 1843.
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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.
Untitled Article
THE APPROACHING TRIALS . In the Liverpool Times of the current "week , we lad the following : — We understand fiat tf » e trials of Feargns O'Connor sad 4 i » other Cfcartista , upon the indictments against them , which -were removed fey cerUoran from the late Specufl Commiaion , vffl be biefl it l « iiwrtw , md not at Liverpool . Benee It has been thought right to assign * longer period for the msubs at Lancaster than ¦ would otherwise have been necessary . *'
We know not what authority the Liverpool Times may have for this statement , as we have received m official intimation on the snbjeet , bnt we deem it © ur duty , ** all events , to plsco It before oar friends The fact that two weeks are allotted for the duration of the . Lancaster Assizes , which commonly last only two or three days , seems to give it an air of probability ; and it is most likely upon this circumstance that the Editor of ibe Liverpool Tunes has founded Ms assumption . At all events , it is high time thai those wbo are interested in the matter should bestir themselves ,
Untitled Article
"WAGES OF LABOUR . in estimating ihe value of any " improvement" in fee mode of producing wealth , it iB a rule with ns to ask , what Increase * or decrease * has it . made to the nsjiss of the working man" ! and according to the answer given xo that query is our estimate of ralue . When arguing upon the question of Extension of Commerce , " we have pointedly put the question to its advocates : " What have been the effects of former Extensions' upon the wages and comforts
of the labouring many f and havebonestly avowed that if it coBld be shown that they . had been of Irenefit to the worker ; that they had added to iis stock of comforts ; that these had enabled him to enjoy more of the good ihings . of life ; that they lad placed additional beef and bread upon Mb table , and put additional clothing npon Ms back : we have offctimes avowed that if this could be shewn to have been the effect of former ** Extensions of Commerce , ' we should be the first to call for , and struggle for , another and greater " Extension . "
Our inquiries , however , have led 113 to a directly opposite conclusion , to that of benefit from former ** Extensions , '' We have endeavoured to ascertain the condition of the laboorer at the beginning of the present ^ entary , —a period when the beginning of the rapid and much-lauded " Extensions of British Commerce *' may be dated ; and wehavecon / rfi «/ edthat condition with the present condition of the labourer ; and thai contrast is not favourable to the ** Extenson cause .
It is not necessary that we say much respecting the laboHrers ' s present condition . It is admitted on all hands that it is deplorable in the extreme . There is no party who rune disputes the existence of general distress . It is well known that the cottages are ^ comparatively empty of furniture 5 that hundreds of thousands are wandering the streets for want of employment 4 that those who are daily and almost nightly employed , are not receiving wages wMch ¦ will famish them with a sufficiency of the first necessaries of life i that starvation is endured by millions of British subjects ; and that the shopkeeping elass are rapidly falling into the ranks of the unemployed labourers , the march of poverty and XTJEunos having reached them , in its progress , upwards , through all classes of present society .
Hub is the avowed and undisputed condition of the laboaring many at the present hour . It is alBO avowed and undisputed , that the condition of that same class , fifty years ago , was , comparatively , a much better one . ^ Lhey had , then , com - paratively , weU-fhrniEhed cottage-Acotm ; a wellloaded table ; and well-clothed backs . Employment was not then scant j and the wages paid to the worker would purchase Mm , comparatively , a fair share of the comforts of life . Daring the last fifty years we have added to our meant of producing wealth most immensely . The prodncing-power of the Kingdom at the beginning of the present century has been stated by eminent Staticians to have been : — Manual Xabour 3 . 750 , 000 Mechanical and Scientific Power equal to ~ 1 ^ 250 , 000
Total 15 , 000 , 000 The population at that period was also 15 , 000 , 000 ; eonseqnently , the aggregate prodnetive-power and the population were equal , 07 as one to one . In 2842 , the producing-powerof the Kingdom was thus estimated : — Manual Labour ... .- ... ... 9 , 000 , 000 Mechanical and Scientific Power equal to ... 600 , 000 , 000
Total , 609 , 000 , 000 The population in 3842 , as shown by the census , -was 27 , 000 , 000 . The proportion , therefore , which the produeing-power then bore to the population was as twenty-two to one 1 Whav a vast increase in producing-means 3 How comes it to pass , that with this increase in the means to produce wealth , the comforts and well-being of the wealth-producers should have decreased *
The Retarns connected with our Foreign Trade show also that during those fifty years , we have increased that trade most prodigiously ! In 37 S 8 , we exported , in Official Value , £ 19 , 672 , 503 ; which bronght ns in , in Heal Value , i 33 , l 48 , 682 . The last Returns published , for the year ending January 5 , 1842 , show that we had exported in Official Value , £ 102 , 180 , 517 , which only brought U 3 in , in Real Value , £ 51 , 634 , 623 . Thus it will be " seen that we had increased in quxxhti nearly SIX TIMES OVER : as for an increase in price that i 3 qnite another matter ! That increase is not , by any means , a six tones increase !
Commerce then has Extended" ! Of that there can bs no doubt . Our means of producing wealth has w Extended" also , and , with these " Extensions / the wageB 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 I To tTiiB 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 an experience-exploded " principle" of Political Economy : — " Extended trade causes extended employment . Extended employment causes extended wages-, therefore extended trade iB beneficial to the worker . " Latterly , howevu-, another tack ha 3 been taken . It is now the cue of the Free Trade writers to endeavour to induce a doubt , as to ihe correctness of
the fact that the labourer in olden time waB much better off than his brethren of the present day . In thiB matter the Morning Chronicle has taken the lead . The week before last , he had an article to show , a * he thonght , that the labourers of England were wretchedly Ill-off some 150 years ago ; and the inferenee whieh he evidently wishes tae 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 , j % 9 vorse , than the condition of ihe labourers in the beginning of the last century .
The writer has adroitly chosen Aw 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 " glorious EBVoitmoK j" when all the interests of the state had sustained the shock inevitable from internal commotions of that charac ex . It was iast at the period , too , when loam 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 Bosket . It was a period , too , when the taxation of the country had been ikcreased , at once , two-and-a-half-times over 11 ! 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 . " -
Now , even if the Chronicle had proved Ms point , we should not have been disposed to admit his intended inference , that "because the labourers were badly off then , they have no cause for complaint now , seeing that they are in no worse condition . We sko-ald 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 benefit 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 travelliug to the . goal of human perfection at a railroad pace ! 1 We should have asked these questions , even had the Chroniele p&ovzpthat the labourer ' s condition has not 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 pat them , when the Chronicle has not proved his position ; when it iB & fact staring ns 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 during the first half of the last century ; of which fact there is bnt too abundant evidence . Wages were extremely low— 3 s and 4 s a week . Stephen Pack , about 1730 , threshed in a bam in Wiltshire for 3 s a week . The population hardly experienced any increase during all thai 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 increase 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 Ms tour he states minutely the results of his experience with respect % o the condition of the Irish cotters , contrasting it with that of the English labourers ; and it does not certainly eiy 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 1—
** Then the Irishman ' s cow may be ill-fed is admitted ; but ill-fed as it is , it is 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 town 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 .
u 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 bellyfull of the other . If any one doubt the comparative plenty which attends the board of a poor native of England and Ireland , let him attend to their meals ; the eparingness with which our labourer eats Mb bread and cheese is well known ; mark the Irishman's poUtoe-bowl placed on the floor , the
whole family npon their hams around it , devouring a quantity almost incredible , the beggar Besting himself to it with a hearty welcome , the pig taking his share aa readily as the wife , the cocks , hens , turkeys , geese , the cur , the cat , and 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 , ihe cheerfulness that attends it . "
Let us examine the facts the Chronicle brings in support of his general statement that" the labourers of Englandjin the beginning of the last eentary were wretchedly ill-off . " " Wage 3 , " says he , were extremely low ; three shillings and four shillings per week . Sxephsr Dvck , 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 earningBin 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 contrail of the two periods , as far as the labourers are concerned .
What then are the wages paid to husbandmen now t Let the Chronicle answer . Week before last we inserted from its pages a long document descriptive of the doings of the Socialists on the iahd , 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 ; the writer being now engaged in a tour throughout the farming districts to ** note" the condition of both Land , 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 Winterslow Hut , ( between Salisbury and Broaghton ) I received information , that the wageB of labouring men had been reduced to seven 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 J What matters it to them that flour 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 buy potatoes , not bread , and potatoes are bnt a middling crop this year ; they are good , but Email . '"
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 ! 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 ; bnt so far as I have yet sees , the farms of Lancashire and Cheshire are not so well managed as in these illcultivated 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 own ears , at seven shillings a-week , on an aterage Remember that he has found many working for ninepence a-day ! Remember that nine-pence * -day is but four shillings and sixpence a-week Remember , too , that a shilling a-day is a common ran ; and that a shilling a-day is but six shillings a-week 1 Remember all this ; and then say whether the sum named , Beven 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 Chronic ' e .
Untitled Article
¦¦¦ - ^—¦¦¦ ¦ .-, •¦ ... — — Now how stands the relative prices of provision and clothing at the two periods : for on this will mainly depend the contrast vre 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 course of the last three centuries , ( barring the last fifty years ) , that ho could have hit upon to enable us to satisfactorily solve this last question . — -
There are no regular consecutive returns of the pr ices of produce , until towards the close of the seventeenth century . There are several statements as to the pric « 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 fee period fixed on by the 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 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 fiucluations 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 century , and the price of the same description of article now : the fact being that the " Official Vaiue" was the real price in 1694 ; aud 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 , Grain , Meal , and Flour " was then nearly three times cheaper * than it is now ! That is , the labourer ' s three ehillings-and-sixpence would purchase him nearly three times as much " Corn , Grain , Meal , and Flour" as the labourer ' 8 three-and-sixpence will now 1 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 ¦ ' He will further find that Caws 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 Sheep ' s Wool and Hats are now nearly double the price they were then ; and that Woollen , and Wonted Yarn is also about doubled
m price . These facts will the Chroniele 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 . Bat there are other faefs which mast not be kept out of eight , in tbis important inquiry . Money wages were not all that the labourers of England had to live upon , during the earlier periods 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 iB a fact that admits not of dispute . It Lias been discon . inued within the recollection of persons now living ! It was discontinued when the immense amount of paper-money in circulation , consequent on Loans and Batik 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
liBted . It was discontinued when the age of Bcll-F&ogism set in ; when every farmer considered himself a Squire ; and every farmer ' s daughter , " a Miss . " Then the labourer waa driven from the homestead I 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 , 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 ether timeB and doings . It is one of Cobbett ' s inimitable and instructive " RpbaxRidks : "— " 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 farmer 1 b quitting . Here I had a view of 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 Cbaria gton , in whose family the lease has been , I hear , a great number of years . The house iB hidden by trees . It stands in the Weald of Surrey , close by the River Mole , which is here a mere rivulet , theugh juat below this house the rivulet supplies the very prettiest floor-mill I ever saw in my life .
" Everything about tbis farm-house was formerly the scene of plain manners and plentiful living . Oak clothes-chests , oak bed-steads , oak shests of drawers , aud oak tables to eat on , long , strong , and well supplied with joint stools . Some of the things were many hundreds of yean 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'tnUl too ! One end of the front of this once
plain and substantial house had been moulded into a " parlour ; and there was the mahogany table , and the fine chairs , and the fine glass , and alias bare-faced upstart as any stock-jobber in the kingdom can boast of . And there were the decanters , tha glasses , the " dinner-set" of crockery ware , and all just in the true stock-jobber style . And I dare say it has been 'Squire Charington and the Mist Charingtons ; and not plain Master Charington , and his son Hodge , and his daughter Betty Charington , all of whom tbis accursed system has , in all likelihood , transmuted into a species of nock-gentlefolks , while it has ground the labourers
down into real slaves . Why do not farmers now feed and lodge their work-people , aa they did formerly : Because they cannot keep them upon so little as they give them in wages . This la the real cause of the change . There need * no more to prove that the lot of the working classes has become worse than it formerly was . Tbis fact alone is quite sufficient to settle tbis point All the world known , that a number of people , boarded in the same home , and at the same table , can . with as goad food , be boarded much cheaper
than those persons divided into twos , threes , or fours , can be boarded . This is a well-known truth : therefore , if the farmer now shots his 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 fox them ; a kitchen for them to sit in , bed rooms for them to sleep in , tables , and stools , and benches , of everlasting duration . AH these he has : all these cost him nothing ; and yet so much does he gain by pinching them in wages that
Untitled Article
he lets all these things remain aa of no use , rather than feed labourers in the honaa . Judge , then , of the change that nas taken place in tke condition of these labourers I And , be astonished , if you can , at the pauperism and ( he crimes that sow disgrace tbis once happy and moral England . " The land produces , on an average , what it always produced ; but , there is a uew distribution of the prodaoe . This 'Squire Charington's father used , I dare say , to sit at the head of the oak-table along with bis 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-decanters and wine-glasses , and ¦> a dinner set , '" and «« breakfast ' set , "' ani " desert-knives ; " and these evidently imply carryings on and a oenamnptlon 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 nntenanted ; the labourers retreated to hovels , called cottages ; and , instead of board and lodging , they got money ; bo little of it as to
enable the employer to drink-wine ; but , then , that lie might not reduce them to quite starvation , they were enabled to come to him , in the king ' s name , and demand food 03 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 ofence against God ( who created no man to starve ) to use another sort of force more within bis own controul ? Is it , in short , surprising , if he resort to theft and robbery ?
"Tbis ( b not only the natural progress , but itlfcu been the progress in England . The blame is not justly imputed to 'Squire Carrington and his like : tbe 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 fundholders , 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 houses , aril to pinch them in their wageB , 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 heuae 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 np over an artificial river in bis cockney garden . " By it shant , " said I , almost in 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 mast 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 np ; some swinging book-shelves with novels and tracts upon them : a dinner bronght 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 : 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 tbe reality . The children ( which is the wont part of it ) are all too clever to work : they are all to be gentlefolks . Q « to plough ! Good God ! What , " young gentlemen" go to plough ! They become clerks , or some skimtny-dish thing or other . They flee from the dirty work as cunning borses do from tbe 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 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 on by the Chronicle there were extensive Commons , on which the labourer had common rights ! The aid that these 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 nook of geese , or their poultry . A rare addition these things , to the money wages paid them by their employers S
It is a fact , that in the period from 1801 to 1831 , 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 Uauages and Law of the realm ! J There was also another means of comfort
the labourer of old had , that must hot be excluded from the account . The money wages he received from hia employer were for the work be did for his employer . But they were for his own work alone . The married labourer's means were added to , by tbe exertions of his wife and his young family , at home ; aided by his own exertions , on iong winter nights , and on wet days . They nearly manufactured < ill 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-should-be-labourer of oar time Ah ! Mr . Chronicle , when we come to inquire into the real facts of the ease , 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 hie wages now will not purchase him as muoh food aa 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 , waa 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 then , and the present , condition of English labourers , would
not be tbe one ohosen by the Chronicle ; but one anterior to the first event just named . We have bestowed the labour and attention whieh this article manifests , not to prove that the Chronicle ' s position , " that the labourers of England were wretchedly ill-off dnriug the first half of the last century , " is untenable ; but to show that if such even were the case , they were much belter off then , than the labourers are at present / notwithstanding all the " improvements" of which we boafit , 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 .
Oar position , that the 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
Untitled Article
of the last century . " If so , the poor rates will be found to have been excessive ; for poor rates then existed , and the poor were not then blessed with a Hew Poor Law , with its workhouse-and-degrading labour-test , to prevent them from applying for relief . What is the fact 1 Why that for the three years 1748-50 ; the Poor Rates for both England and Wales amounted only to the sum of £ 730 , 135 ! 1 ! 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 1 ! J
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 . ajyeat \ !! The produeer of wealth in latter times has much ( taxation ) to pride himself upon !! ' With the notions of Mr . Arthub Yoong , quoted by the Chronicle , we shall not presume to meddle . We shall say nothing to disturb the equanimity of those who can see plenty , accompanied with cheerfulness , in a family " squatted on their hams ion 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 tbe cow ; all partaking of the same dish ; " we shall say nothing to disturb the equanimity of those who can see PLENTY in this , and who , witajA&THUB . Young , would almost seem to wish to persuade the cbeese-and-bread eater to exchange that 1 |> read 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 ; aud this , too , despite of the vast increase to oar means of producing wealth ; and in 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 e ff ect of " making bad , worse . " To expect anything else , after the experience we have had , betrays stupidity and obtuseness obtuse enough 1
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 bis Bhare , 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 saya : — ; "It is certain that great discontent now . prevails aud has long prevailed among the labourers-They may not have been belter off formerly , but THEY WEEK M 9 RK RECONCILED 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 aa 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 Malchasiaas 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 Bide by Bide 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 BEL . LYFUL ( of that trash )! What has become of the turkeys , the geese , the bens , tbe cocks , * the cat and the cur ; and above all , what has beeome of the Cow ! What has become of all these 1 Church and State have swallowed them all ap and a substitute is now to be furnished out
of an infernally-principled fystern of poor laws , which the brave Irish , not yet thoroughly debased by the dependant hand-to-mouth system , nave resolved to resist even to the death ! One remarkable saying of the Chronicle ' s needs a word : " Theymaylnot 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 !
Aa for reconcilement , no journal has taken more pains to reconcile ] them to that exact condition in whieh they may be slavishly or violently serviceable to faction , and aid in its unhallowed purposes , than thej ' Cfoonicfe . ' Out of evil comes good . The desperate attempts of the squabblers to grasp power haver 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 I 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 particular place « of the Natin r Charter Association , " or of "the members of hT National Charter Association" resident there parties who attend such meetings do not go ther membera of the National Charter Asfociali * they go there and act there as individual Chartkt Every such meeting is , and ought to be JS a meeting of the Chartists of Birmingham , ShefiS Newcastle , or whatever other town it may beW aot a meeting of the members of the Natfo ^ r Charter Association . Another great mistake ^ that of misconceiving the nature of the gen J ? ooancil of the National Charter Association , }/^
parties speak and write of " the general council" . # such a place , and " the general council" of soch place ; as though each locality had * distinct generi council of its own . This is quite wrong . < wT National Charier Association has but one coajj ? Its councillors live in different places—some London , Borne at Leeds , some at Mancheste ? some at Birmingham—but they form only J general council for the whole body ; and they « &b not legally act for the body in separate detach * ments . The fact , however , of a maa heinff 1 « n ^ n m councilloris
general , no reason why lie should not to be also a councillor , or any other kind of office-bearer in any local body of Chartists ia bj , own neighbourhood ; only care should be takm not to ascribe to him as a member of the Nation *! Charter Association the acts which he performs M . member of a local body of Chartists in that place or as an individual Chartist there residing . Thm ft * Shakesperian Association of Leicester Chart ists is . local body , perfectly distinct and separate from tfo National Charter Association ; its members vm } all members of the National Charter Association .
its committee may be all councillors of the National Charter Association ; ita secretary may be a sab . secretary of the National Charter Association , and its treasurer may be a sub-treasurer of the National Charter Association ; but still its meetings are not meetings of the National Charter Associationthey are meetings of the Leicester Chartists gejjg rally , or of the Sbaksperian Association of Leicester Chartists in particular . We have been thus pUij , that this matter may be understood and looked tobecause communications continually reach ns which .
are dangerously , because wrongly , worded . When principle is concerned , we would be the last to afaut the people to succumb to power ; but where it is , u in this case , merely a prudential matter , we thii& too much caution cannot be made use of to pretest the enemy from arming themselves with oar on weapons . And hence we have thought it requisite to substitute these plain directions for the article ws promised respecting the improvement of the Or . gamzation , which we reserve for another week , ta& with the less regret , because it may probity be somewhat longer' than we could at present fini space for , in addition to the lengthy and important matters already given .
Untitled Article
CLASS JUSTICE . THE SCANDALOUS TREATMENT OF HR . ARTHUR O'NEIL . This gentleman has with becoming spirit bronjftt the parson magistrates who refused his bail before their betters . He obtained a rule Nisi calling apoa parsons Badger and Cartwbioht to show caosa why a criminal information should sot issue against them for their flagrant and wilful outrage upon tin liberty of the subject and the constitution of ( bis realm . As might be expected , the law officers of tie
crown were ready to aid in the oppression of fb people and to bolster up the tyranny of then clerical despots in a small way . The Solicitor-General appeared to show cause against therde , and let out , in his defence of the Rev . clients trhoae cause he had undertaken , a most important fact ; toe fact that an illegal conspiracy and combination had been entered into by the whole magistney of Staffordshire , for the purpose of defeating the ends of justice in the case of any Chartist who migbi come before them oharged with any manner 0 / offence .
" At a meeting , held before O'Nell had been talen into custody , of the Magistrates of the county , presided over by the Lord Lieutenant , 16 hag been detomined not to accept any person as ball who attended Chartist meetings , and it was in accordance with Out resolution that they had refused tbe bail of Page ui Truentan . " Here , then , we have the plain admission oft deliberate conspiracy against the law , headed by 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 jastification of the acts of the parties to it , instead at
prosecuting the whole bevy for the misdemeaaoor It is clear that the Judges felt themselves is U awkward fix . It is an irksome thing to hononnblt men to lick the dirt from the hands of their patxoaa They hardly knew what to say about the matter . The thing was so glaring , that even legal eubtlfitj and judicial sophistry were a little at fault ; it required time to Bee how , or whether by any mesas , an excuse cou . d be framed for denying to Mr , O'Nbil the plain justice he demanded ; and 60 , under pretence of looking at the affidavits , tbe judgment was postponed .
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 massespartsor
, , 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 its officers , and in its public documentary acts . The advantage of the National Organization ia , 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 direoted 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 are adopted by those meetings in various towns , it wonld be muoh 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 enforcing them . jWo should , at least , therefore , be careful not to afford them evidence'against ourselves ; yet this is done every time that we publish , either by placard or otherwise , anything about " a
Untitled Article
MR . O'CONNOR AND THE LEAGUE . The challenge of Mr . O'Connor has taken ihs 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 " par ** nips " . In many towns the large sheet bills pub * lished by Mr . Hobson , containing the challenge * &&
an appeal to shopkeepers to enforce its acceptance , have been plentifully posted ; while the brave "lads * of Stockporfc , despite their poverty , printed and posted the challenge on a large sheet , at their owa cost ; not knowing , probably , that they might h ** had it cheaper from Mr . Hobson . This is the rigW way to work . Give the rogues enough of it . Stick it under their nosea wherever they dare shew them . - selves . Make them " show fight" fairly , or quit & *
field . The" Challenge , " as we intimated last week , is in two shapes : in a large posting-bill for the cor ners of the streets , and ia a small hatfd-bill for general distribution . These serve two purposes : they n ° * only apprize the shopkeepers ( to whom they are »' dressed ) and the public generally , of the fact that * challenge has been given and is yet unaccepted ; to " they contain also some faota and argnment * eminently calculated to shake the faith of theft ** Traders as to the effioacy of Ae Corn-Law-Repe * " Nostrum . The hand-bill is , in fact , a most asefai Chartist Tract ; and its extensive circulation cann « fail to be of essential service . v v -v
-— ^ ^ r ^ r ^ . ^ ' . rasv ^ PB vr ^« w 4 vr W * Tae large poster may be had from Mr . HobsoU » 83 . the hundred : and the small bill for distribafaoi at 7 s . the thousand .
Untitled Article
CLERICAL LIBERALITY ! EtSEWHERE our readers will find a s ^ P ®" / varnished story by John O'Roubke , setting forta the apostolical character of the Rev . the Vioal : « LeedB , chaplain in ordinary to her Majesty , in sae& » light aa to make comment uncalled for . ^ he " ^ tells its own tale . Itis a tale of facts , unembellisUW and undistorted , and the facts are a « "d com" \ e * upon the system by which snob , men are eletatea the position of lights and lawgivers .
Untitled Article
THE SPEECH . Whew ! Was there ever sueh a fighting body w pur little Queen ! She has given ns the longe * King ' s Speech" that we ever saw made by aQieen , with enough of fighting in it to satisfy a Sas ^ eu ' thereat being positively an improvement upon Roy modes of saying nothing . Or' all the ^ P ^ f " . vapidities which we hare seen , in the shape of W speeches , this is the most vapid . When will it Qom to pass that a few grains of sense and honesty so * f be made to season tbe unsuffbrable dullness of tnew costly exhibitions ? Never , we guess , till tbe po * of legislation by the whole people shall restore . Crown to its due position , and make the faction »» the people find each their own place .
The Jsortheris' Star. Saturday, February 4. 1843.
THE JSORTHERIS' STAR . SATURDAY , FEBRUARY 4 . 1843 .
Untitled Article
j THE NORTHERN STAR . ¦ tI ' ' " '
-
-
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-ncseproduct636/page/4/
-