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688 Wit QLt&iltt. [Saturday,
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THE PUBLIC CREDITOR. London, July 7,1851...
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BIRMINGHAM CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EXHIBITI...
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MALTHUS AGAIN! Clontarf, county of Dubli...
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COMMUNISM. London, July 12, 1851. Sir,—I...
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DR. HADDOCK AND MESMERISM. Liverpool, Ju...
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SUNDAY IN LONDON. Juno 6, 1851. Sin,—It ...
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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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688 Wit Qlt&Iltt. [Saturday,
688 Wit QLt & iltt . [ Saturday ,
The Public Creditor. London, July 7,1851...
THE PUBLIC CREDITOR . London , July 7 , 1851 . Sift , —Your correspondent Video , in your paper of the 6 th instant , promulgates hisopinion "that nothing but a bankruptcy of its ( England ' s ) Government can ever again free its industrious millions from a load of taxation dail y becoming more intolerable . " As I have lately heard this remark made in several quarters , I shall be obliged if you will allow me to ay a word upon it . " Intolerable " as the burden may be , it must be borne . Where would be the justice of making the public creditor give up his debt ? He may have toiled hard for years , and obtained what to him is a competency . He has retired from business , and has purchased stock on the good faith of the nation that
his dividends will be punctually paid , and that his principal will be forthcoming at any time at the market price . Video would break faith with thousands whose position is as I have described . If the public creditor loses his means , how could he possibly keep faith with his creditors ? I think Video himself could not say where this would end . It would produce national bankruptcy , and be a national disgrace . In the name of common sense and common honesty then , let us hear no more about repudiating engagements of this nature , They are as sacred as it is possible for anything to be sacred . The burden is , I will admit with Video , a hardship upon the industrious millions ; but I will not admit with him that " the aristocracy of birth or wealth derive any advantage from its existence . "
I will conclude with the words of one who is differently thought of by various people . VMeo may consider him to have been a selfish and take-care-ofmyself-kind of person , but his greatest opponents have always allowed him to have been an honest man . I mean Benjamin Franklin . He eays in that admirable Essay on Economy and Frugality , " the taxes are indeed very heavy , and if those laid on by Government were the only ones we had to pay , we might more easily discharge them ; but we have many others and much more grievous to some of us . We are taxed twice as much by our idleness , three times as much by our pride , and four times as much by our folly ; and from these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing any abatement . " Yours truly , J . B . " M .
Birmingham Contributions To The Exhibiti...
BIRMINGHAM CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EXHIBITION . Since the appearance of our article entitled " The Birmingham Man ' s Crystal Palace , " we have received many communications , pro and con ., upon that subject . The longest is signed " W . C . A ., " which , while professing to vindicate the manufactures of Birmingham , contains remarks which would be deemed personally derogatory to some of the firms in that town . We cannot suffer public criticism to be diverted into personal offence . " W . C . A . " mistakes the entire spirit of the article signed " G . J . H ., " which made concessions of meritorious workmanship
to Birmingham , which have at least been deemed lUBt by the greatest part of our correspondents who have written on the subject . The argument in our article turned upon the question , " Whether the Exhibition is to be taken as the exponent of Trading perfection or Artistic perfection ? If the former , we said it was brilliant ; if the latter , unsatisfactory —and this not in all things , but in obvious instances . " W . C . A . " does not combat this doctrine ; he does not appenr even to have perceived it . Among the letters from working-men , who 9 e opinions we chiefly expected to elicit , we make nn extract from a writer who signs himself " E . N . " : —
" As I went from Birmingham solely to view the works of art , I was very desirous to see what display was tnade by my fellow townsmen as compared with cxhi bitors in other parts of England . I felt proud of being an artisan of Birmingham when I first beheld that central point of attraction , the crystal fountain , manufactured by the Messrs . Oatler . " Birmingham well deserves the position it holds in the Exhibition . It does not belie its name . It is the heart of industrious England— 'tis the workshop of the world .
It was Birmingham first Ret the example to the people of England ami of the world , of an Industrial Exhibition . Prince Albert suggested the carrying out on a larger scale what the Birmingham manufacturers did in 1819 . I was curious to see how the manufacturer of glasB in Birmingham could Btand in comparison with the foreigner . I was very sorry to see that some of the iirrns in Birmingham had , to all appearance , only studied advertising . There was too much of a market-day appearanos about their statin .
" All the things exhibited are of a neat and elegant design , exquisite workmanship , and a nice adaptation to ffraoe and elegance in art . With respect to the firm of Sfesin . Bacchus and Sons , I was somewhat disappointed , not seeing ; some of their pressed goods exhibited . I believe they are considered the only firm in England that produces articles in neat and elegant designs , to imitate the out glass . By exhibiting their pressed glass the foreigner could have seen how accurately the cutting of the glass can be imitated by the skill of the workmen and th « machinery which they have at their command . " [ Wo may mention that tho articlo by " Ion , " entitled " The workman and the Exhibition , " which
was con-dative of the article by " G . J . H . " has been reprinted at the instigation of a manufacturer m the north of England , for distribution at the Crystal Palace . ] __
Malthus Again! Clontarf, County Of Dubli...
MALTHUS AGAIN ! Clontarf , county of Dublin , July 13 , 1851 . Sir , —Under this head , in your paper of the 28 th of June , your correspondent E . It . says : — " The law of return to capital and labour employed upon land is , that in any given state of agricultural knowledge and skill an increase in the capital and labour employed is not attended with a proportionate increase in the produce ; by doubling the labour you do not double the produce ; or , if you doublethe produce , you must do more than double the labour . "
I will not now stop to ask whence this law is deduced . Having stated it , E . R . proceeds to what he calls a proof of it , but which I respectfully submit is no proof at all ; for it is evident that , like a true political ( Economist of the competitive school , he assumes that the present form which society has taken is the true one . How knows he the wonderful —almost miraculous—changes in the cultivation of the land , as in other matters , that would be produced by a distribution of the people over its surface , in colonies or communities of from to 2000 to 3000 each , as proposed by Owen , instead of the aggregation of the population in large towns , which Cobbett not inaptly called " great wens , " varying from 20 , 000 to 2 , 500 , 000 ? Has your correspondent ever calculated the vast saving of labour , or , which is the same
thing , its greatly increased efficiency , when scientifically disposed over the surface of the earth , and brought to bear upon any department of productionas , for instance , food—in concert , and under wise arrangement ? Besides , labour is but one element , among others , necessary to the production of food . Before a limit can be put to its production , or a natural ratio be established between the production of food and the increase of population , the teachings of science in another department hitherto grossly neglected , must be attended to ; that is , —all the refuse and decaying animal matter which has been taken from the land in the form of vegetable , must be carefully returned to it . But this can never be done under the " Great Wen" system . Who shall calculate the millions of tons of the most
valuable solid and liquid manures which are now annually wasted in our large towns—either contaminating the atmosphere , and thus producing pestilence and death , or swept away by our rivers into the ocean ? Who , again , shall calculate the effects to be wrought , in the production of food , when our railway system is applied in right earnest to agriculture ?—when the chalks and sands shall be taken in millions of tons to our marls and claya , and these in return be transported to the light soils ? But , Sir , when E . R . says " by doubling the labour you do not double the produce , " is he aware of the oft-quoted experiments of Mr . Falla , and others , as to the relative quantities of wheat as produced by ploughings and diggings ? Mr . Falla ' s carefully conducted experiments proved that whilst by the plough
—at a cost , for labour of 32 s ., 38 bushels were produced to the acre—by the spade—at a cost for labour of 37 s ., G 8 $ bushels were produced ; or , in other words , whilst the labour was increased only sixteen per cent ., the produce was increased eighty percent Your correspondent concludes his letter by inculcating upon all " the sacrednoss of the duty every man owes to society , to his children , and to himself , not to bring beings into the world till he haa a rational prospect of providing for them . " Now , it may be all well enough to preach this doctrine to the intelligent or well-to-do ; to those who do not wish to lose caste , or curtail their own
comforts ; but of what use to preach it to the peasantry of Ireland for instance ? Ah well whistle jigs to a milestone . Yet it is this class , if any , which produce what the Malthusians cull " surplus population . " In the language of William Thompson , "in order to obtain the benefits of population checks , it is necessary to proportion the number of labourer ** to the demand for work ; which to attain , two leading sets of circumHtunces must be ascertained and passed under review ;—those which will regulate tho supply of work prospectively for Heveral years ; und those which will regulate the demand for work prospectively for several years . Ih it in the power of any individual , tho best informed in the community , not to say of every uninformed , hard-working person of
the industrious classes , to predict with an y sort ol confidence , as to the supply mid demand , of and for all species of labour during tho ensuing yeur—not to speak of many years , or tho course of u whole life ? There is no balance of fiupply and demand of imy single articlo which a mere tux-gathering or taxregulating , or eurronoy-reguluting law or edict , may not disturb . Internal or external regulations of all nations supplying or demanding the article , —changes of seasons , —improvements in machinery , amd in all other modes of cheapening production , —discovery of material substitutes , such uh cotton for wool changes of habits from increased or decreased knowledge , or from chango of superstition , of uny of these nt home or ubroud contributing to tho uupply or
demand i these are amongst the elements of that mostcomplicated calculation which some well-fed and narroweighted competitive political oeconomists tell the industrious classes they can make , and must make , in order to determine their conduct as to the prudence or imprudence of adding to the number of producers , or in other words , of marrying . " Depend on it , Sir , if ever it be necessary to restrain the increase of our species by moral means , it can only be effected under institutions such as are contemplated by the enlightened Cooperative or Communist . —I am , & c . William Pare .
Communism. London, July 12, 1851. Sir,—I...
COMMUNISM . London , July 12 , 1851 . Sir , —I fully agree with Mr . Thornton Hunt , that the question of Communism becomes much clearer if we can only get at a definition which shall tersely express its principle . Thus , I think much advantage has been gained by his definition of Communism as " concert in the division of employment . " This understanding of the case gives great strength to Socialists when comparing their doctrine with that of the old political ceconomist 8 , and enables them to expose most convincingly the elastic and unscientific nature of the latter . But there is another definition of Communism , which I think I am correct in attributing to Mr .
Thornton Hunt , that strikes me as being almost as valuable . I read it in the columns of a weekly newspaper some two years ago , and was greatly impressed with its practical and conservative character . Communism was there described as " The principle of assurance made universal and national . " The more this is reflected on , the more happy it will seem . It is the very notion of Communism most likely to enlist adherents amongst the provident and at the same time philanthropic members of the working and middle classes . The principle of assurance is every day developing itself in new and advanced aspects ; and why should it not reach at least the point of being universal and national ? A state guarantee for the stability of an assurance society , and an extension of
its objects to all other remediable misfortunes , besides loss by fire , loss of cattle , death of head of a family , & c , would at once constitute a- Communist establishment . Prudence and benevolence , combined in action , are practical Communism . « The competent prudent man assures himself against future ills ; the competent benevolent man assures others against present and future ills . Now , suppose these two qualities of prudence and benevolence united in the same individual—and both practically carried out , on the principle of assurance , to the utmost—and we have a living , working Communist , whether he wear a bonnet rouge or a six-and-threepenny gossamer . May I hope that , in future numbers of the Leader , you will fully develope this idea of assurance ? W .
Dr. Haddock And Mesmerism. Liverpool, Ju...
DR . HADDOCK AND MESMERISM . Liverpool , July 7 , 1851 . Sir ,- —As your reviewer of Dr . Haddock ' s book in your last number seems to doubt the possibility of a mesmeriser by accident mesmerising a person at Rome little distance , while he was trying to affect another person , I beg to mention a similar case , which came under my own observation . Some years ago , I was present at an experimental lecture on Mesmerism , at the Portico , Newington , Liverpool . One of the operators was a Mr . Reynoldson , then resident in the town . While endeavouring
to throw into the mesmeric sleep a young lady with whom he was only slightly acquainted , another young ludy , a patient of his , who was sitting on the other side of the platform , fell soundly into the mesmeric bleep , and it was fortunately discovered just as she wus falling off her chair . She could not immediately , nor , indeed , for an hour or two , be demesmcrised . She was taken from the Lecture-hall home , und an attempt was again made to awake her , but unsuccessfully . If I recollect rightly , she was not awakened while the lecture lasted , and tho difficulty arose I understood , from the cross-mosmcrifiin .
I think this statement in corrohoration of Dr . Haddock is due to that gentleman , an such facts aa these are apt to be doubted . 1 may add , that Dr . Haddock ' s fact and mine must rest upon their own merits , as I have never neon his book , and for anything I know , it may be either deserving or undeserving the remarks of your reviewer . I inclose my curd , and am , Sir , yours , & c , Iota .
Sunday In London. Juno 6, 1851. Sin,—It ...
SUNDAY IN LONDON . Juno 6 , 1851 . Sin , —It is not often that I troublo you with my complaints ; nor is it from any petty annoyance that I seek tho aid of n newspaper ; but when an evil in gigantic I doom it a matter of duty to mako war against it on every suitable opportunity . And it ia because I believe tho evil alluded to by your correspondent , who , in this week's Leader writes on tho above subject to bo of such a nature that I beg to continue tho purport of his remarks , believing , » t tho same time , that the space occupied by my correspondence will not bo wasted or uselessly filled up . To any person who hu » visited tho Continent our
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1851, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19071851/page/20/
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