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Dec. 20, 1851.] ®f>$ 3L$ahet. 1205
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BOROUGH BRIBERY. An " ex-M.P." has been ...
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ASPECTS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE IN AMERICA. [S...
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HOW THK (JAMK I,AVVB WORK. Game preservi...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Lslk Of Tiianmt Aokicmjltultal Associati...
Mr- S . Sackett returned thanks . He had now presided ' at the Board of Guardians some fifteen years , during the whole of which time his motto had been to carry the poor law out with firmness , yet with humanity—with justice to the ratepayers , and with humanity to the poor recipients of the charity . ( App lause . ) He was happy to testify to what the chairman had remarked—of there being but few ablebodied in the union . "Whenever it could be done work was procured those who could perform it , and
thus the pernicious effect of idleness were prevented . To effectuate this , the guardians had taken ten acres of land to cultivate toith the spade , the result of which was most successful , as they obtained from it at the end of the year a profit of £ 50 to the guardians . ( Applause . ) He gave an assurance that it would be his endeavour , while continuing in the office to do all he could to promote economy ; while promoting those ends of humanity that should not cause pain to those who were driven there for shelter . ( Applause . )
Dec. 20, 1851.] ®F>$ 3l$Ahet. 1205
Dec . 20 , 1851 . ] ® f > $ 3 L $ ahet . 1205
Borough Bribery. An " Ex-M.P." Has Been ...
BOROUGH BRIBERY . An " ex-M . P . " has been writing to the Times , exposing the bribery system . Of course , he speaks with authority ; doubtless , from experience . A few passages from his last letter will show that the open and gross form which bribery assumes at St . Alban ' s is not the worst which is to be found . The " Edwards " at St . Alban ' s gives other " Edwardses " lend . " Mr . Edwards has advanced in loans to some hundred electors sums of money varying from £ 5 to £ 300 , and in one or two cases even more than the latter sum . I think there has been £ 7000 or £ 8000 lent ; these sums carry interest at five per cent . The interest of the smaller sums is seldom called for , except to keep the debts from
falling under the Statute of Limitations , or to punish an offending elector . The interest on the larger sums is generally paid . All the sums have been advanced to electors for their votes and interest , though perhaps not always immediately before an election . I am sure , Sir , every one must see the difference of this system of bribery to that of St . Alban ' s . There , as far as has appeared in the evidence , the elector , having voted , is again a free and independent elector ; at the next election he is again open to the highest bidder . Here he is under the greatest thraldom ; should he presume to wish to support the other side , the loan , increased by the interest , is called in ; and it is well known persons who will accept such small sums as £ 5 or £ 10 , have seldom it in their power to pay . And the opposite side , although they may make a show of opposition , know the system is too well organized to make it advisable for them to advance money . Of course ,
to work this system , the ' Mr . Edwards' must be a shrewd , cunning man , not over scrupulous , or burdened with much conscience ;; and he well knows that the elector once in his hands cannot escape , should he attempt to do so , he is sure to suffer for it . This loan-lending is constantly going on , and is charged to the member ' s account . Then , Sir , follows the corruption on every opportunity , a municipal election , a parochial meeting . When ' Mr . Edwards ' considers a dinner necessary there is one . The member sends his venison and game . ' Mr . Edwards , ' to keep his party in good humour , invites the small voters—not only those whom he has caught , but those ho thinks are to be had . They enjoy a good dinner , drink to excess , and are most happy and satisfied , as no payment is expected from them . Their bill is seat by the landlord ( who is one of ' Mr . Edwards ' s ' agents ) to Mr . Edwards . ' It is paid by him , and charged in the member ' s account . "
After stuting what Bpecial grievances he thinks the now Reform Bill ought to remedy , he sketches in another form the prevailing evil . " The borough I am writing of is a small town , with a few agricultural parishes joined to it by the old Reform Act . The farmers , in the first place , will be under the command of their landlords , and if one iimn possesses a large estate in the parishes he will , to extend his influence and make the Teturn of his nominee certain , commence bribery on the loan . system . And , Sir , the farmers arc as needy—are as much in want of moneyas the townspeople . They are quite as willing to accept loans ( 1 know , myself , at the present moment , of a cane where the farmer , who has been hitherto a most
determined opposer of 'Mr . Edwards , 'has accepted a loan , and , from an enemy , has become himself and his connections of ' the parly ' ); but , , the money was given by ii third person , not by ' Mr . Kdwards '; still it is entered in the member ' s account ; and when they once belong to * th < . party ' the tradesmen of the village—the blacksmith , wheelwright , harness maker—must , go with them , or ' Mr . Edwards ' will set up another person in their trades , and all the fanners' custom goes to the newniiin . The question asked by all men in the town and in the country parishes who are in trade is ' Shall 1 ollend Mr . 1 'iilwardn ? ' He prevails everywhere . 1 might name many grow cases of bullying by persons who arc directed is Millicient 1 he
liy'Mr . Kdwards , ' but tin : above . n , . Sir , look : tt the jobbery of the patronage of tin ; borough , tin ; ( ioverninent and the local . In regard to the former , the member never linteim to any request , except it comes through ' Mr . Kdwards , ' and he always recommends Inn "oiniiK'e . The jobbery <> f the local patronage in a more serious all ' air to ' the ratepayers . The town council , fourlifths of it are ' the party , ' headed by ' Mr . Edwards . ' Ml the puidoHic . crn of the borough belong t <> ' the party' ; and , though illegal , these gentlemen frequently have bills , which are passed by the council ; anil if a good job » h to be done , why , 'Mr . i'iil wards ' takes care a i . riidesinim "hall have it , who must , ingratitude , return the kindness by supporting ' the party . ' " l . 'i il . not . ; i strong chiii-go iiiinin . st punt imd preMcnt ,
Governments that ' they have so long tacitly permitted the continuance of this iniquity ? Depend upon it Lord John Russell ' s peddling next session will not touch the evil .
Aspects Of Social Science In America. [S...
ASPECTS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE IN AMERICA . [ Some time ago we published a letter addressed to " Ion , " by a gentleman of the legal profession , upon a new discovery in Social Science . The following letter written from " Modern Times" is a continuation of the same interesting subject . The writer obligingly transmits two works by Stephen Pearl Andrews , the chief expounder of the new theory . ] Modern Times , September , 1851 . Dear Ion , —I left England not against my will . Amongst the reasons which caused me to feel happy , rather than distressed , at my contemplated expatriation , was the conviction that in the United States of America the Social problem would be first solved—completely solved ; and that there , sooner than anywhere else , would superior Social arrangements come into being and yield satisfactory fruits .
I thought this first because here there exist , and have for some time existed , many and various communities of people practising Social moralities altogether different from those of the old world . All manner of Social experiments are going on . Many of them of years and years ' standing . These experiments , I judged , must have a twofold operation , on the one hand preparing the minds of the people generally for fundamental Social reforms ; and , on the other hand , furnishing the thoughtful with materials on which to reason . I believe I may say that these experiments have sufficed already to settle definitely several points . Their
number and extent are greater than is supposed in Europe . I am informed , on respectable authority , that there are fifty-two Shaker villages in the United States . These prove , at least , on thing , that starvation , or the possibility of starvation , is by no means necessary as an inducement to labour . And more , they prove that neither the pressure of want , nor the incitement of competition , is necessary to spur to production . The Shakers are universally industrious—as industrious as they can be . Their productions are proverbially excellent in the highest degree . Their religious system alone prevents the higher developments of industry — intellectual ,
artistic . On the other hand , not the Shakers alone , but a great variety of other communities , seem , to have almost equally well established the fact that systems involving community of property are destructive of personal liberty to such an extent as to render them unbearable , except where either strong religious feeling , or some other dominant influence , exists sufficient to render men willing subjects of despotic power . I know not how many attempts to establish communities on what were suphave failed from tins
posed to be rational principles , cause , but the number is large . I shall obtain . more exact information on this point in due time , and all I learn you shall be informed of . Every attempt , 1 believe I may say confidently every attempt , to establish a community on the basis of the annihilation of private , individual property has utterly failed , except where it has been an absolute despotism , and where also some powerful religious influence has been at work , and , still further , where this influence has been absolutely inimical to inquiry and all intellectual progress .
There is certainly one exception . But this example would not be taken into account at all by the English public ; and you may judge of the extent of free inquiry in this country as compared with England , when 1 tell you that here the exception to which 1 refer is the subject of much attention and dispassionate consideration . It is the case of certain religious sects , and in particular of one called by themselves "The Eree Church of Christ , " who have adopted what they call " complex marriage . " This is , in fact , what would be at once stigmatized in England as the promiscuous intercour . se of the sexes , although really it is not so . Uut one great difliculty that has helped to assail all non-religious communities is at one stroke cut entirely away . The abolition of private
property , and the retention oi any system by which one individual has a monopoly of the society and intercourse of any other individual , is a flagrant inconsistency . These " Eree Church '' men have rejected that inconsistency . The great leading principle of this singular people is , that all the actions of life ought to be undertaken with a view to the attainment of perfection—perfection in all , perfection in being , perfection in production , perfection in the individual , perfection in the race . But 1 need waste no more time or tipacc over these perfectionists . 1 will only nay that they consider all intercourse with eaeli other should be in every respect regulated by thin perfective law ; that in it they should
seek their own perfection and each other ' s , as well as that of their offspring ; that , following this idea , and bringing to bear upon the question certain alleged physiological facts , they abolish all marriage ; an between individuals and live together us one husband and one wife , the details of which arrangement I need not enter into . L am informed thai they are a large and prosperous community ; that , the utmost harmony and all ' ection prevail ; that to . strangers they appear like one family oi brothers and setters ; and that they are enabled to conduct the ' n allaiiH without the despotism which stains other communities , while free inquir y on all subjects prevails amongst them , and , consequentl y , a hi gh degree of intellectual and aisthel . io culture .
But 1 must pass to another of my reasons for believing that to the United Slate : ; is reset ved ; . he honour and happiness involved in solving tin ; great . Social pioblem ; and I wi II add uee t he fact , that , her ! : thelaud the all in all- in available to the people . This letter in dated from a projected town , which is being formed foi the purpose of carrying out in all their fullneim the
principles slightly hinted at in my last . Here we have been able to secure 800 acres of land available for the erection of a town without the actual outlay of a dollar , except for the survey of a small part and the purchase of some half dozen acres to commence upon . The " Cost Principle " I spoke of in my last might possibly be got into operation some other way in a European country ; but a whole city could not be laid out and erected on land kept at one uniform price of less than £ 4 per acre ! Again , the habits of this people have prepared them for rapid changes of employment . To any great and is The
successful Social Reform this very necessary . problem is to redeem the labourer from the exactions of what is ( wrongly ) called Capital ; a task next to impossible if at the very outset you find the labourer universally degraded into a mere " appendage to some trade , " as Andrews says . That every man should be able successfully to follow half a dozen different occupations I do not contend ; but where no man can do anything but just one thing which he has always done , perhaps make the twentieth part of a pin !—a great Social Reform on truly fundamental principles is not hopelets , but immeasurably difficult . immunities
And then there are our political . We have no such atrocious partnership laws as you can boast in England ; no Joint Stock Companies Act ! no Combination Laws ! no jealous Governmental interference . And if we had any legal hindrances , we should abolish them in a trice . While on the other hand , the laws are themselves continually recognizing and enforcing more and more of the social rights claimed for the people . It would fill the remainder of this sheet to detail the admirable , the glorious concessions to social advance that have of late years been inscribed on the Statute Book of New York State ! This subject deserves at least one whole letter , and I reserve it accordingly .
Another reason , the people are more independent here than in Europe ; let" foreigners say what they will , the people are more independent both of law and of custom . You may have heard of our talked of new female costume . Now , apart from the fact that an industrial aim lies concealed in this very reform itself , what did we see last 4 th of July ? The factory girls of Lowell setting the fashion ! With perfect decorum and order did these most veritable young ladies parade ^ the streets of that town , arrayed in the new and beautiful Bloomer dress ; and if they attracted attention , they met with no sign of disrespect . that to have chance
I thought then , a year ago , any for living myself in the midst of superior social arrangements , or even for leaving my children in such when my own life had passed away , I must come to this country ; and now I think so very much more than I did then ; or rather , I think that the Social Reform will come here not merely sooner than in Europe , but soon . Tor aught I know , it may be very near at hand . You shall be able ere long to judge for yourself . But it is time to return to the subject briefly noticed in my last . And I would first observe , in reference to Communismin the Leader
Thornton Hunt ' s article on , of Julv 26 , that the partisans of the new Social Science maintain , that the evil to be coinbatted does not , as lias been supposed , lie in competition . Upon the Cost principle competition is changed in its nature , it ceases to be in any respect an evil , and becomes an unmixed good , by being simply changed in its direction . On the Cost principle it is ' directed exclusively to the point of perfection in workmanship ; not at all to the point of remuneration . But this will probably not be understood with further knowledge of what the Cost principle is . Another point occurs to me in connection with the same article . The object to be attained in the Social Reform , one object at least , is Cooperation—universal Cooperation , liut we maintain there has been another error here , in supposing Cooperation to involve necessarily combination , association of interests , all which we repudiate . 1 say we , but merely as representing for the time Mr . Andrews ' s views . It . is evident , however , from all the experiments which have taken place in this country , that combined interests arc an obnoxious interference with individual freedom . In Europe the people have so long been accustomed , all of you , to endure despotic power , you are so thoroughly Dogberry ridden , that you do not see this point so strongly as we do hen-. But . citizens of the United States will not submit to interference ! with their personal independence—they would light rather , or starve ! And it is impossible that the impending Social Reform should involve a retrogression in this respect . The people have- every where had to learn the lesson first of Liberty ; the Kquality and Fraternity which legitimately follow iu the wake of that cannot require its destruction . 11 . E .
How Thk (Jamk I,Avvb Work. Game Preservi...
HOW THK ( JAMK I , AVVB WORK . Game preserving involves terrible consequences rural demoralization for certain , death perhaps . Sonic examples of both have lately occurred in Norfolk . 1 ' or some months past , the parishes of Letton , Shipdham , Cran worth , and their neighbourhood , have been infested by gangs of poachers , whose proceedings have been of a moat outrageous character ; parties of ten or twelve young men going about , night after night , armed with loaded guns , in pursuit of game . They have of late almost , cleared the estate of Mr . Itrunipton ( jiurdon of game and even proceeded so far us to threaten the life
of his gamekeeper , Mr . W hit ear , if they were not . allowed to do as they pleased . Mr . ( j ' urdon , in consequence , considered it necessary to call in the aid of the police . Late on . Saturday nighl , a body of at least , eleven nun . surrounded the lieuse of Mr . Whitear , and having examined all the outbuildings , where they imagined he inij'lit possibly be concealed , and ransacked the whole of lii . s premises without , linding him , they dared him with hil . tei imprecations to ( Mime forth , .-. wearing that , if he did they would shoot , him ; anil then , before leaving , they fired oil their guiiti at . his house . Last , Monday week , Superintendent I ' arker , with about ; i dozen of the rural
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 20, 1851, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20121851/page/9/
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