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THE NORTHERN STAR SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4. 1843. ^^— '—¦¦"¦'¦ '¦ M ' ¦ " ' ¦¦ ¦ ¦ "¦ ¦¦¦¦¦¦'
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Northern Star Saturday, February 4. 1843. ^^— '—¦¦"¦'¦ '¦ M ' ¦ " ' ¦¦ ¦ ¦ "¦ ¦¦¦¦¦¦'
THE NORTHERN STAR SATURDAY , FEBRUARY 4 . 1843 . ^^— ' —¦¦"¦'¦ ' ¦ M ' ¦ " ' ¦¦ ¦ ¦ " ¦ ¦¦¦¦¦¦ '
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THE APPBOACHING TRIALS . Ib the Liverpool Times of the current week , we find the following : — " We anaeistsna that the trials of Feargua O'Connor ana the other C&arfisU , -upon the indictments against them , -wMch were removed by certiorari from tne late Spedal Comnrisnon , -will be tried at ianeaster ,. and notatTaverpooL Hence it has been thought right to assign a longer period for the asszss at laneaster than woald otherwise have been necessary . "
We know box what authority the Liverpool Times jnsylave for ibis statement , as we have received n » official intimation on the subject , but we deem it oux duiy . at all events , to place it before our friends . The fact thai tiro weeks are allotted for the duration of the Lancaster Assizes , which commonly last only two or three day * , seems to give it an air of probability 4 and it is most likely upon this circumstance ih&t the Editor of the Liverpool Times has founded iis assumption . At all events , it is high time that those . who are interested in the matter should bestir iiemselves ,
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loan-mongering began to exeicise their baneful influence upon the happiness and prosperity of the producers of wealth , under the auspices of the blessed Bishop Bubket . It was a period , too , when the taxation of the country had been increased , at once , two-and-a-half-time 3 over 1 !! A period of time of this character , pregnant indeed with depressing consequences , has the Chronicle fixed npon for the illustration of Mb 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 note , seeing that they are in no worse condition . We should have asked if it waB right , that 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 of increase illimitable : we should
hare 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 ? We should have asked if it was right , that the working classes should bo kept in a stand-still position , when all the rest of the world was travelling to the goal of human perfection at a railroai pace !! We should have asked these questions , even had the Chroniele proved thai 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 put them , when the Chronicle has not proved his position j 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 bten 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 but too abundant evidence . Wages were extremely low—3 s and 4 s a week , Stephen Duck , about 1730 , threshed in a barn 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 his tour he slates 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-jy so much for the comforts enjoyed by the latter , that upon the whole he considers the Irishman best off . Toie , be it remarked , ia 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 : —
"Tnen the Irishman ' s cow may be ill-fed is admitted ; but ill-led as it is , it is better than the no cow ot the Englishman ; the children of the Irish c&oinsre nourished with milk , which , email as tho quantity may be , is far preferable to the heer or vile tea which is the beverge of the English infant , for nowhere but in a town is milk to be bought . « * " When 1 see the people of a country , in spite of political oppression , with well-formed vigorous bodies , and their cottages swarming with childrenwhen 1 see their men athletic , and their women beautiful , 1 know not how to believe their subsisting on an unwholesome food .
" I will not assert that potatoes are a better food than bread and cheese ; but I hare no doubt of a beilyfnll of the one being better than ft half a belly full 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 sparingness with which « ur labourer eats his bread aad cheese is well known ; mark the Irishman's potatoe-bowl placed on the floor , the whole family upon their hams around it , devouring a quantity almost incredible , the beggar seating himself to it with a heart ; welcome , the pig taking his share as readily as the wife , the cooks , hene , turkeys , geese , the enr , 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 ih » plenty , and , I will add , the cheerfulness that attends h "
Let us examine the facts the Chroniele brings in support of his general statement that ** the labourers of England ^ n the beginning of the last oentury were wretchedly ill-oS / 1 ** Wages , " says he , " were extremely low ; three shillings and four shillings per week . Sxipheh Dock , about 1730 , thrashed in a barn in Wiltshire , for three shillings a week . " We shall adopt the mean between hiB 1 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 eamtngBin 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 us a fair contrast of the two periods , as far as the labourers are concerned .
What then are the wages paid to husbandmen note ? Let the Chronicle answer . Week before last we inserted from its pageB a long document descriptive of the doings of the Socialists on the lamd , 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 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 Wmteralow Hut , ( between Salisbury and Broughton ) I received information , that the wages 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 2 What matters it to them that flour and bread be cheaper this year than ) ast * 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 crop this year ; they are good , but small . '"
In the Chronicle of Wednesday , Jan 18 th , the s&me 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 as I have yet seen , the farms of Lancashire and Cheshire are not so well managed as in these illcultivated counties of the west . " The wa £ es , then , of hnsbandmen 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 eeven shillings a-week , on an average . Remember that he has found many working for ranepence a-day ! Remember that nine-pence a-day is but four shillings and sixpence a-week S Remember , too , that a shilling a-day is a common run ; and that a shilling a-day is but six shillings a-week ! Remember all this ; and then say whether the sum named , seven shillings , is not a high average to infer from the facts the writer has adduced .
Seven shillings a-week , then , we take to be the average wages paid to husbandmen at the present time , or double the amount paid to the same class of labourers in the tw&inning of last cefctary , according to lhe Cbroi . icU .
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Now how stands the relative prices of provision aud 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 doting the course of the last three centuries , ( barring the last fifty years ) , that he could have hit upon to enable as to satisfactorily solve this last question .
There are no regular consecutive returns of the prices of produce , until towards the close of the seventeenth centos ; . There are several statements as to the price of provisions in earlier times ; but they &r § , many of them collected from old household accounts ; and cannot be depended on , like accounts regularly taken and regularly published . ^|| a 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 ot decrease of prices sinoe the period we are speaking of , 1694 . The rate of valuation then adopted has been since constantly maintained ; because it has had its uses as a common denominator , or indicator of quantity ; and has served , too , to show the fluctuations in price .
It follows , therefore , that the Official Value and the Real Value of any particular article of British Produce and Manufactures in the List of Exports will show its price at the beginning of the seventeenth centary , and the price of the same description of article now : the fact being that the " Official Value" was the real price in 1694 ; 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 hiB hand , and a single giauce 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 Bhowing , 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 shillings-and-sixpence would purchase him nearly three times as muoh "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 much then for one shilling as for three shillings now ! He will further find thai Cews 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 . Ho will find , too , that Sheep ' s Wool and Hats are now nearly double the price they were then ; and that Woollen and Worsted Yarn is also about doubled
in 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 materially in his endeavour to form an accurate estimate of the relative condition of the labourers of England . But there are other facis which must not be kept out of sight , in this 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 now . 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 ! However the farmer fared , he fared ! and we may readily believe that if the labouring inmates of the farmer ' s dwelling fared well , the labourers who lived out of the house would not fare much worse !
That such was the general cuBtom is a fact that admits not of dispute . It Lias been discontinued within the recollection of persons now living ! It was discontinued when the immense amount of paper-money in circulation , consequent on Loans and Bank Restriction , had forced op prices to such a degree , as to induce the Farmers , Manufacturers , and . Shopkeepers to think we had the world in a band , " snd that we could lead it whithersoever we
listed . It was . discontinued when the age of Bull-F&ooisuset in jwhen . every farmer considered him-SBlf a Squire ; and every farmer ' s daughter , " a Mjsi . " 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 !
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 be witnessed and describes , and to tell of ether times and doings . It is one of Cobbect ' s inimitable and instructive "Rotul Rides : "— " Beigate , Thursday Evening , " 20 tfl October , 1825 .
" Having done my business at Hart * wood to-day about eleven o'clock , I went to a sale at a farm , which the farmer is quitting . Here I had a view of what has long been goint on all over the country . The farm , which belengs to Christ's Hospital , has been held by a man of the name of Chabingtow , in whose family the lease has been , I hear , 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 mure rivulet , though just below this bouse 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 snpplied with joint stools . Some of the things were many hundreds of years old . Bat all appeared to be in a Btate 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 wont ot all , there was a parlour ! Aye , and a carpel and bell-pull too ! One end of the front of this once
plain and substantial house bad 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 , 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 Hiss Charingtons ; and not plain Master Charington , and his son Hodge , and h ; s 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 . Wh ; 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 the lot of the -working classes has become worse than it formerly was . This fact alone is quite sufficient to settle this point All the world knows , that a number of people , boarded in the same house , and at the same table , can , with as go # d 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 bis labourers , and pays them wholly in meney , is it not clear , that he does it because he thereby gives them a living cheaper to him ; that is to say , a worse living than formerly ? Mind he baa a house for them ; a kitchen for them to Bit in , bed rooms for them to sleep in , tables , and stools , and benches , of everlasting duration . All these be has : all tbeae cost him nothing ; and yet so much doeb be g&ic ty pinching Hie : a in wages that
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he lets all these things remain as of no use , rather than feed labourers in the house . Judge , then , of the change that has taken place in the condition of these labourers ! And , be astonished , if yon can , at the pauperism and the crimes that now disgrace this once happy aud 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 head of the oak-table along with his men , say grace to them , snd oat up the meat and the padding . : 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 tived well But , the 'Squire had many wine-decanters and wine-glasses , and " a dinner set , " and ¦ breakfastset , '" sp . 6 . "desert-knives ; " and these evidently imply carryings on and a consumption that must necessity have greatly robbed the long oafe-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 the employer to drink-wine ; but , then , that be might not reduce them to quite starvation , they were enabled to come to him , in the king ' s name , and demand food as 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 offence against God ( who created no man to starve ) to use another sort of force more within his own contronl ? Is it , in short , surprising , if he resort to the / land robbery ?
" This is not only the natural progress , but lt [ has been the progress in England . The blame is not justly imputed to 'Squibb 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 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 the labourers out of their houses , 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 ore 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 house without reflecting on the thousands ot scores of bacon and thousands of bushels of bread that bad 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 . t % 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 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 ba 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-BhelveB with novels and tracts upon them : a dinner brought in by a girl that is perhaps better " educated" than she : two or three nick-nacks to eat instead of a piece of bacon and pudding : 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 to make a show not warranted by the reality . The children ( which is the worst part of it ) ore all too clever to work : they are all to be gentlefolks . G » to plough I Good God ! What , " young gentlemen" go to plough ! They become clerks , or some skimmy-dish thing or other . They flee 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 dreadful convulsion that mast , 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 ! The aid tbat these were to him cannot be estimated by the labourer of the present day : for the Commons are gone , and , with them , the common rights . ' During the last seventy years millions of 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 . ' 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 aots of the Parliament , as well as by tho Common Usuages and Law of the realm !!
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 his employer . But they wore 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 manufacfcuring-should-be-labourer ot our time t Ah ! Mr , Chronicle , when we come to inquire into the real facts of the case , we do not find muoh 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 1 We find that his wages now will not purchase him as muoh food as the wages then would ; while we find him deficient of many aids and helps which the labourer of old possessed !
But miud ! 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 . Wo believe that the event called the •* Protestant Reformation" worked much to the disadvantage of the labourers of England ; and we believe that what the Reformation left short of their total and complete degradation , was effected by the Whig-made * ' glorious Revolution , " with its attendant National Debt , Paper-Money , and Excessive Taxation . The period , therefore , which we should choose for a contrast between the 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 wretchedly ill-off duriug the first half of the last century , " is untenable ; but to show that if suoh even were the case , they wsre much better offi hen , thanthe labourers are at present ! notwithstanding all the "improvements" of which we boast , and notwithstanding all the additional means of producing wealth with which we have become acquainted , and which ought to have worked out a far different result .
Our position , that 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 daring the first bai ;
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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 New Poor Law , with its workhouse-and-degradinglaboor-test , to prevent them from applying for relief . What is the faot 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 !!! while the Poor Rates have averaged , for the last twenty years , no less than £ 7 , 000 , 000 . annually ! ! ! What a frightful increase of pauperism , contempo-. raneously with the ( enormous increase of productive power !! j
The other fact is , jthat from 1714 to 1726 , the taxation ot the kingdom averaged £ 6 , 386 , 572 ; while the average for the last fifty years is nearly £ 70 , 000 , 000 . a yeari !! The produoer of wealth in latter times has much ( taxation ) to pride himself upon !! J 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 plenty , accompanied with cheerfulness , in 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 oati and perhaps the cow ; all fa . btak . inq of the same dish ; " we shall say nothing to disturb the equanimity of those who can 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 A ^ thpb Young : say how you like it f I
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 ! j From that conclusion , so arrived at , we infer that another " Extension of Commerce , " on the same principle as we have hitherto acted on , can only have the effect \ of " making bad , worse . " To expeot anything else , after the experience we have bad , betrayb stupidity and obtuseness obtuse enough !
One word more to the Chronicle . In contrasting the past and present condition of the labourer , we Burely had a right to expeot from a liberal journal , a progressive scale of the " improvement " of all classes , by which that of the industrious classes should be liberally measured . Bit aol 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 ia to receive a modicum of his share , not as a legitimate consequence arising from the same causes , but as a pauper with becoming gratitude and thanks ! . In another portion of his article the Chronicle
says : — " It is certain that great discontent now prevails and has long prevailed among the labourers . They may not have : been better off formerly , but IHEt WKttE MORE RECONCILED TO THEIR CONDITION . Burke , quoting the 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 . "
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 the labourer has held or lost ground I j !
Throughout , the professing Liberal argues , as all MalthusiaRs do , that as much has been doae for the labourer as circumstances would admit of . If the Chronicle ' s picture is to be complete ; and if the sitters are' to remain side by side on the canvass ; we may perhaps be permitted to ask what has become of the Irish Cow , so feelingly described by Arthur Young , When singing the praises of the POTATOE BOWL ? What has become of the BELLYFUL ( of that trash ) 1 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 yec thoroughly debased by the dependant j 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 belter off formerly ; BUT THEY WERE MORE BECONCILEp TO THEIR CONDITION . " So were the West Indian Slaves , until they became sensible ] of their power to alter their condition . Englishmen were never reconciled to a degraded condition , however ignorant they may have heretofore been ! as to the means to alter it !
As for reconcilement , no journal has taken 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 Chionicle ! Out of evil comes good . The desperate attempts of the squabblers to grasp power have 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 J The right ! position of man is not note merely confined to I the Reform canvass , or the Reform print : it is engraven upon the heart , and stereotyped in the mind 1 The impression is now fixed : and man boastingly tries to make hiro . gelf what those who once courted him told hira he ought to be !
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A WORD OF CAUTION . i There are few things of more consequence to the people , and to which ; the iooal leaders fyeem to pay less attention , than discriminating care '/ ully between the movements of the people in their individual capacity throughout ; their several localities , and their actB as members of the Natior&l Charter Association . We have often pointed attention to the fact that the 39 th Geo . III . c . 79 , makes every political society illegal whose mevnbera meet for the
transaction of business m separate masses , parts , or divisons ; and that , thereforo , the National Charter Association as suoti , has r . o meetings . It exists , and can exist only in tho public registration of its members , in the persons and correspondence of its officer : ? , 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 tbat 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 would be much bettor . 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 uot to afford them evidence against ourselves ; yet this is dona every time that we publish , eisher by placard or 1 otherwise , any thing about " j
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meeting ' at any particular place « of the Na tional Charter Association , " or of M the members of th National Charter Association" resident there . Th parties who attend such meetings do not go there * members of the National Charter Association they go there and act there as indivic 1 Chartist Every such meeting is , and ought to be , csS a meeting of the Chartists of Birmingham , Sheffield Newcastle , or whatever other town it may be , m * not a meeting of the members of the National Charter Association . Another great mistakalg that of misconceiving the nature of the general
coHncil of the National Charter Association . Maparties speak and write of " the general council" of such a place , and " the general councU" of such . place ; as thoagh each looality had a distinct general council of its own . This is" quite wrong . Ifo National Charter Association has bat one council . Its councillors live ia different places—some ia London , some at Leeds , some at Manchester some at Birmingham—but they form only on general council for the whole body ; and they cannot legally act for the body in separate detach , ments . The fact , however , of a man being » *
general councillor , is no reason why he should not to be also a councillor , or any other kind of office-bearer in any local body of Chartists in ] & own neighbourhood ; only care should be taken not to ascribe to him as a member of the National Charter Association the acts which he performs as * member of a local body of Chartists ia that place or as an individual Chartist there residing . Thus the Shakesperian Association of Leicester Chartists ia « local body , perfectly distinct and separate froa ^ National Charter Association ; its members ma ; be all members of the National Charter Association * its committee may be all councillors o £ the Nat ional
Charter Association ; its secretary may be a saft . secretary of the National Charter Associafcm and its treasurer may be a sub-treasurer of the National Charter Association ; but still it 3 meetings are not meetings of the National Charter Association * they are meetings of the Leicester Chartists gens . rally , or of the Shaksperian Association of Leicester Chartists in particular . We have been thus pljk that this matter may be understood and looked to ¦ because communications continually reach us which are dangerously , because wrongly , worded . When
principle is concerned , we would be the last to advise the people to succumb to power ; but where it ia , u in this case , merely a prudential matter , we think too much caution cannot be made use of to prevent the enemy from arming themselves with our own weapons . And hence we have thought it requisite to substitute these plain directions for the article we promised respecting the improvement of the Organization , which we reserve for another week , and with the less regret , because it may probably be somewhat longer than we could at present find space for , in addition to the lengthy and important matters already given .
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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 nnder the bntter of their ** smooth words" there have been do * paranips " . In many towns the large sheet bills published by Mr . Hobson , containing the challenge and
an appeal to shopkeepers to enforce its acceptance , have been plentifully posted ; while the brave la 4 s " of Stockport , despite their poverty , printed and " posted the challenge on a large sheet , at their offo cost ; not knowing , probably , that they might haTfl had it cheaper from Mr . Hobson . This is the rigM way to work . Give the rogues enough of it . Stick tt under their noses wherever they dare shew themselves . Make them " show fight" fairly , or quit tt «
field . The " Challenge , " as we intimated last week , is in two shapes ; in a large posting-bill for the corners of the streets , and in a small hand-bill for genertl distribution . These serve two purposes : they n « only apprize the shopkeepers ( to whom they are ** * dressed ) and the public generally , of the fact-Aaii challenge has been given and is yet unaccepted ; but they contain also some facts and arguments eminently calculated to shake the faith of the Fttt-Traders&a to the efficacy of the Corn-Law-Repeal ' Nostrum . The hand-bill is , in fact , a most Hseftl Chartist Tract ; and its extensive c irculatio ^ wnnfl t fail to be of essential service . The large poster may be had from Mr . Hobso * « 83 . the hundred : and the small bill for distribution
at 7 s . the thousand . CLERICAL LIBERALITY ! Elsewhere our readers will find a simple onvarnished story by John O'Roubke , setting for « the apostolical character of the Rev . the Vicar ot Leeds , chaplain in ordinary to her Majesty , in suon » light as to make comment uncalled for . "The letter tells its own tale . It is a tale of facts , unembellisnw and undistorted , and the facts are a vivid coffl ° ° upon the system by which such men are elevated the position of lights and lawgivers .
THE SPEECH . Whew ! Was there ever sueh a fighting b < xJ {*? our little Queen ! She has given ns the long ^ " King ' s Speech" that wo ever saw made by aQaeen . with enough of fighting in it to Batisfy a Saracenj the rest being positively an improvement upon Boy modes of saying nothing . Of all the e * p £ «" vapidities which we have seen , in the shape ofKop speeches , this is the most vapid . When will it come to pass that a few grains of sense and honesty sj *" be made to season tho unsnffer » ble dullness of W » costly exhibitions ? Never , we guess , till the poff oflegiakvtion by the whole people eball restore Crown to Us due position , and make tho factions au the people find each their own place .
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^ THE NORTHERN STAR . ¦ ¦ . . . _ ... I ¦¦ II ¦ " I — t , . — ¦ I— - ¦ - — I ! , ¦¦ . — _ — ¦ ' — — "' ' — " ¦ ' ' ' ¦ " - ¦ ..- ¦— ¦ ""' "' - ' - " " ' ' ' ¦¦—¦ ' ~ I ¦¦ ¦ I ¦
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WAGES OP LABOUR . Is estimating the value of any " improvement" in ihe mode of producing wealth , it is a rule with us to ask , " what increase , or decrease , has it made to ihe XBiSs of the -working man" ? and according to ihe answer given to that qiiery is our estimate of Talue . When arguing upon the question of ** Extension of Commerce /* we have pointedly put the qnestion to its advocates : " What have been the effects of former * Extensions' npon the wages and comforts
of theJabonring many f ° and have honestly avowed that if it ceald be shown that they had been of benefit to the worker j that they had added to Us stock of comforts ; that these had enabled him ia enjoy more of the £ ood things of life ; that they had placed additional beef and bread upon his table , and pnt additional clothing npon his back : we laTe-oftrimes avowed that if this could be 3 hewn to have been the effect of former u Extensicns of Commerce / 1 we shonld be the first to call for , and gtrnggle for , another and greater " Extension . "
Our dnqHines , however 5 have led us to a directly opposite conclusion , to that of benefit from former **¦ Extsnsons . " We have endeavoured to ascertain ihe condition of the labourer at the beginning of ihe present century , —a period when the beginning of ihe rapid and much-lauded " Extensions of British Commerce " may be dated ; andwehaveconirflf / edthat eondition with the present condition of the labourer ; and that contrast is not favourable to the " Extension" cause .
ltis not naeessary that we say much respecting the laboBrexs ' 3 present condition . It is admitted on all hands that it is deplorable in flie extreme . There is BO party who jmjhj disputes the existence of general distress . It is well known that the cottages are comparatively empty of furniture ; that hnndreds of thousands are wandering the streets for want of -employment j that those who are daily and almost sightly employed , are not receiving wages which ¦ jvifl famish them with a sufficiency of the first necessaries of life ; that starvation Ls endured by Bullions of British snbjeets ; and that the Ehopkeepiog class are rapidly falling into the ranks of ihe unemployed labourers , the march of povsbtt and smsinos having reached them , in its progress ,
upwards , tnrongh all classes of present society , This is the avowed and undisputed cendition of lie labouring mau j at the present hour . It is also avowed and undisputed , that ihe-condition of that same clasa , fifty years ago , was , comjarativelyj a much better one . They had , then , com paradvely , well-fnrnished cottage-homes ; a wellloaded-table ; and well-clothed backs . Employment was not then scant ; and the wages paid to ihe "worker would purchase him , comparatively , a fatr share of the comforts of life . to
During the last fifty ^ ears have added oar means of prodacing wealth most immensely . The prolln ' ciig-power of the Kingdom at the beginning of the - present century haa been stated by eminent Statician 3 to have been t—
Manual Labour ... ... ... ... 3 , 750 , 000 Mechanical and Scientific Power equal to ... , ~ ~ — 11 , 250 , 000
Total 15 , 000 , 000 The population at that period was also 15 , 000 , 000 ; consequently , the aggregate productive-power and fee population were equal , or as one to one . In 1842 , the prodncing-power of the Kingdom was thus estimated : — Manual Labour ... 9 , 000 , 000 Mechanical and Scientific Power e « ualto ... 600 , 000 , 000
Total , 6 D 9 , WO , 000 The population in 1842 , as shown by the census , was 27 , 000 , 000 . The proportion , therefore , which Uie produemg-power then bore to the population ¦ was a 3 taeni $ 'tuo to one I What a vast increase in prodacing-meaus ! How eomes it to pass , tbat with this increase in the means to produce wealth , the comforts and well-being of ihe wealth-prodacera should haredecreased ?
ThB Returns connected with onr Foreign Trade show also that during those fifty years , we have increased that trade most prodigionsly ! In 1798 , ¦ we exported , in Official Value , ^ 19 , 672 , 503 ; which brought ns in , in Real Value , £ 33 , U 8 3 682 . The Jast Returns puilidi&d , for the year ending Jannary 5 , 1842 , show that we had exported in Official Value , 2 X 03 , 180 , 517 , -Rhica only brought us in , in Real Value , £ 51 , 634 , 623 . Thus it will be seen that we had increased ia < juakhty nearly SIX TIMES OYEE ^ as for an increase in price at is ^ uite another matter 2 That increase is net , by any means , a sis times increase !
Commerce then has "Extended" ! Of ihat there can b . 3 no doubt . Our means ot producing wealth has n Extended" also , and , with these " Extensions , ' ' the wages and means of comfortable living of the workers have decreased ! These facts are , withns , conclusive evidenoe that former "Extensions of Commerce ' have no . benefitled ihe working people ; and they hold oat to us little hope that another " Extension , " now sought for by a Repeal of the Com Laws , will do 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 adrocates of Corn Law
¦ RepeaL These facts and arguments tbBy zhrirJc with much adroitness . They invariably decline to meet them ; but content themselves with nttering forthaa « xperience-exploded "principle" of Political Economy ;— Extended trade causes extended employment . Extended employment causes extended ¦ wagesi therefore extended trade is beneficial to the worker /' Latterly , howevar , another tack ha 3 been taken . It is now the cue ot the Tree Trade writers to endeavour to induce a doubt , as to the correctness of
ihe act that the labourer in olden tiae was much better off than his brethren of the present day . Id this matte * 1 he Morning Chronicle has taken the lead . The week before last , he had an article to show , as he thought , tbat the labourers of England - » rere wretchedly ill-off some 150 years ago ; and the Inference whieh he evidently wishes the existing workers to draw irom his pretended array of facts is , that thej haTe not much to complain of in their presesnt © onditaoiv , seeing that it is better , or at least , Mvorst , than the condition of the labourers in the beginning of the last century .
"Theyrriier has adroitly chosen his time . The period he has hit upon , is about the very best he oculd have picked out for his purpose . It was just after the * glorious xevoltiiios ; " when all the interests of the state had sustained the shock iaevitable from internal commotions of that charac-« r .- It was-J&st a » ike ptrnnj , tov , « hcn loat ' s and
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CLASS JUSTICE . THE SCANDALOUS TREATMENT OF Jffi , ARTHUR O'NEIL . This gentleman has with becoming spirit brougai the parson magistrates who refused his bail before their betters . He obtained a rule Nisi calling upoa parsons Badger and Cabtweight to show cause why a criminal information should not issue against them for their flagrant and wilful outrage up < ra tha liberty of the subject and the constitution of $ 5 realm . As might be expected , the law officers of the
crown were ready to aid in the oppression of iho people and to bolster up the tyranny of these clerical despots in a small way . The Solicitor ' General appeared to show cause against the rale , and let out , in his defence of the Rev . clients trhoaa cause he bad undertaken , a most important fact ; the fact that an illegal conspiracy and combination had been entered into by the whole magistracy of Staffordshire , for the purpose of defeating the ends 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'Neil bad been taken into custody ,, of the' Magistrates of the countj , presided orer by we Lord tjontouaafr , ft oAi been determined not to accept any person as bail who attended Chartist meetings , and it was in accordance with Oat resolution that they had refused the bail of Page and Trueoian . " . Here , then , we have the plain admission of I deliberate conspiracy against the law , headed bj the Lord Lieutenant , and joined in by the Magis tracy of a whole county , and we have the Solicitor General pleading this base conspiracy as a
JostiScation of the aots of the parties to it , instead of prosecuting the whole bevy for the misdeme&aour . It is clear that the Judges felt themselves in * & 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 matter . The thing was so glaring , that even legal subtlety and judicial sophistry were a little at fault ; it required time to see how , or whether by any means , an excuse could be framed for denying to Mr . O'Nril the plain justice he demanded ; and so , under pretence of looking at the affidavits , ihe judgment was postponed .
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Citation
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Northern Star (1837-1852), Feb. 4, 1843, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct789/page/4/
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