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JSbv. 17, 1860J The Saturday Analyst and...
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GUY FAUX AND THE LORD MAYOR. T HE negroe...
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HOW TO DIMINISH OUR ANNUAL EXPENDITURE. ...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Mr. Bright On Social Science. Mr . ¦ ¦B ...
others want , -whether labour , or food , or any other commodity ? It is absurd to object that mischief will thereby accrue to those who do this ; because , in the first place , mischief will not necessarily accrue to those doing it ; and , in the next place , if it were ' tru e * it would still be logically consistent with the fundamental principles of the system ; so that when it is true all it does is to bring the system to a reductio ad absurdum . When the party who " strikes " for higher prices or shorter working hours is unable to hold put , and finds his place supplied by other competitors , and himself left destitute , no doubt he does himself harm ; but if he has the best of it and carries
his point , then he manifestly gains by enforcing a combination price . And so when a monopolist has bought up some commodity which he is thus able to sell at a price that makes bis fortune at once , it would be as difficult to show how he was injured by this , as it would to show that , in making the article scarce , he was not acting in perfect consistency with what the political economists tell us about buying in the cheapest market and selling in the dearest . Let the present system be logically , fairly , consistently carried out ; it will soon be brought to-a dead lock , and proved umvorkable , and a better will be introduced and established .
At Rochdale , Mr . Bright has before his eyes an example of the mutual assurance principle practically and successfully at work in a coadjutive mercantile enterprise , embracing several trades . What is to prevent the application and extension of this principle to an enterprise of any magnitude ? To one whole trade throughout the entire country ? Nay , to all the trade of the country ? In a word , to the whole community ? The larger the scale on which it was worked the greater would be the economy of labour , and the larger the emoluments attending it . While each ^ member of the community would feel the interest of a partner ; so that there would be the maximum of inducement and reward for the minimum of toil , instead of , as at present , the minimum of inducement and reward , for the maximum of labour and exertion .
Jsbv. 17, 1860j The Saturday Analyst And...
JSbv . 17 , 1860 J The Saturday Analyst and Leader . 941
Guy Faux And The Lord Mayor. T He Negroe...
GUY FAUX AND THE LORD MAYOR . T HE negroe ' s criticism upon Caesar and Pojufju y will apply very well to the personages whose names stand at the head of this article , Guy Faux and the Lord Mayor are very much alike , especially the Lokd Mayor . Their anniversaries come so close to each other in the month of November , that we have the best opportunity of instituting a comparison between them , and of forming a judgment as to their respective merits . Guy conies forth on his barrel on the 5 th , my Lord Mayor follows , in his grand state coach , on the 9 th . The interval is so short that one may be said to have both displays in his eye at once . We
are not going to ridicule old customs , or sneer at pompous ceremonials . ? They are things to be reverenced . X ) o we not all of us observe customs and ceremonials . Has not every social circle its grand festival day , when there is a better dinner than usual ; when the girls have new frocks and tho boys new jackets , and a good deal of money is thrown away , just because it is the family festival day , and for no other earthly reason . Don't sneer at tho Lord Mayor ' s Show ,
Mr . Jones , for you have an annual Lord Mayor ' s Show of your own . on your natal day , when you give that g rand dinner party , and burn wax candles , and have the greengrocer to wait , dressed up to resemble , not a man in armour , but a family butler . You have tho pomp and circumstance of a quantity of plate , which you borrow for the day , as the great civic Jones borrows his suits of arinourfand his creamcoloured chargers . Let him who is without a Show of his own oast tho hist stone at the Lord Mayor .
No : wej ard not going to complain of the Lord Mayor ' s Show as a show , and as a symbol of city privileges . We might as well complain of the Queen ' s Procession to Parliamont—indeed , the royal and the civic state coach are also very much alike—or of : the innocent lark in which the charity ohildren indulgo , of beating parish bounds . We complain of tho Show because it is a bad show , a tawdry show , an undignified show , a mean , vulgar , " crapulous " show—a show , in fact , altogether unworthy of the occasion of tho age , and . tho ancient splendour of tho City . The bhow whs all this on the lute Ninth , notwithstanding
that Lobd May / or Cubitx made an efFort to revive the glories of Siv WoolstonkPixik , whose show displayed a pageant in which all the ends of tho earth wore represented in allegorioal figures , attended by soveral nymphs , among whom was- —* " Thepleaeant Thnmod , a Bwoot nnd < lninty onoj " together with Magnanimity , Loyalty , tho Country j tho
Soldier , the Sailor ; Arts , Commerce , and the Old Nobilifce , allled by a Moor , mounted on a lazarn . The effort , we must say , was a feeble one , for the onl y scrap of ancient splendour to be discovered was a dozen unhappy beings in armour , set astride the same number of Astiey ' s cream-coloured hacks , looking for all the world like a row of animated pairs of tongs . You could not help it ; the mind wandered insensibly to the Fifth ; and you expected every minute to hear the fizzing of a squib or the banging of a cracker . Why did not the watermen wear masks , and the City Marshal sing , " Please to remember ; " and the Lord Mayor , or at least the gentleman with his head in a muff , have a short pipe in his
mouth ? We will not , however , lay all the blame of this ragged display upon the Lord Mayor . He was not responsible for the long row of dirty , ramshackle flys—they do riot deserve the name of carriages—which preceded the state coach . There were at least twenty of those vehicles , their panels covered with dust and dirt ; the horses , mere knackers , ungroomed , broken-kuee'd , and . apparently broken-hearted . The coachmen , in most cases , were worthy of the cattle they drove ; and seem to have been selected on the principle , that he who drives broken-down horses
should himself be broken down . No eight cab would present a more miserable and wretched appearance than did these city clarences . No night-cabman could look more dingy and dirty than did those city coachmen . The owners of these vehicles were evidently city dignitaries , for you saw them sitting inside , arrayed in gowns and cocked hats , and looking every bit as important as the Lord Mayor himself . But , nevertheless , we emphatically say , they ought to be ashamed of themselves . If we were Lord Mayor we should decidedly refuse to march through Coventry with such a squad . We Londoners of courseknow very well that those dignitaries in gowns and
, cocked-hats are merchant princes who might ride in coaches of gold if they chose ; but what will the intelligent foreigner think ? If we are all proud of the Corporation of the City of London , as Lord Palmerstott , and every other minister who dines at Guildhall , says we are , we must naturally be jealous for the Corporation ' s dignity . We make some sacrifices | for this show . Throughout the whole route , from Guildhall to Westminster , we are content to suffer a total suspension of business for the greater part of the day ; we give up the and submit to be
various thoroughfares to the procession , driven into back streets ; we yield ourselves to an uncontrolled street mob , and meekly endure robbery and ill-usage . In fact , we pay our money , and have a right to our money ' s worth in return If the Lord Mayor ia simply to be made a Guy of like the hero of the Fifth , the sooner the venerable ceremony is discontinued altogether the better . At present it is typical of nothing but tawdry shabbiness , exciting only ridicule and disgust , and provoking simply derision and laughter whatever whthe Lord Mayor a -
We see no reason y pro cession should be subject to this reproach . It might , we think , very easily be invested both with d . gmty and mterest . The carriages of the sheriffs are unexceptionable—the Lord Mayor ' s state-coach is at least as dignified a vehicle as the state-coach of the Queen , and the procession of the water-SenLif the men were better dressed-is perfectly appropnate ; but all the rest is second-hand leather and prunella , fhe men n armour are grossly ridiculous , and the row of dirty darences poBitively offensive . Why not substitute representatives of the various city companies with their banners and badges . We should then have something hke a symbolical representation of the commercial constitution pf the City of London One mig t then read the Btory of the City ' s wealth and greatness as the procession pasaed by ; while there wou d be afways a efficient element of fun in the old gentleman m the muff-nat who pokes the sword out of the w . ndow of the
Sta ° Ci y may depend upon it that the public will not stand the show much longer , if it is simply to be a repetition of thing else of the kind , whioh has a V ^ ox ^ dj nd ^ UwM $ & £ ^ jw & rs ^» = ~ * whioli has neither meaning nor dignity .
How To Diminish Our Annual Expenditure. ...
HOW TO DIMINISH OUR ANNUAL EXPENDITURE . } yn n * tP «>>— £ r » nt ¦ . tlVAS
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 17, 1860, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17111860/page/5/
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