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November 25, 1854.1 THE LEAD 1R. in*
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THE SAFETY INSURANCE COMPANY: IN WHAT DO...
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THE MARRIAGE LAW-(To the Editor of the L...
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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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Babel. (From A Various Correspondence.} ...
a new fund to be collected , Major Powys would be exactly the man to prevent it . —• At a late meeting held for the purpose of supporting the present array of editorial talent engaged upon the Morning Advertiser , a gentleman named Homer made a speech to prove that that liberal organ has distanced all competitors . " Where ( said Homer ) is the Rambler , whose pages were filled "with the contributions of Addison
— Mr . Perry calls his draft upon the treasurer to the Defence and Testimonial Fund an unintentional act of discourtesy ; surely it merits a harsher term . In the first place , the list was not closed , and no transfer oi the money had been made to him : to deal with the money , therefore , in anticipation was like pawning a testimonial snuff-box before the ceremony of presentation . Besides this , it turns out that the story about the profitable investment is , to use a mild expression , doubtful ; there being no such railway in existence . Again , we suggest that this money should go to the Patriotic Fund .
— Lord Palmerston has directed the prosecution of a Manchester bill-sticker , or posting a placard containing extracts . rom the war correspondence , tending to excite disgust at the war . What will his lordship do with the author of the following passage from the despatches of Hie Morning Herald ?— "As I picked my way back ^ m ong the dead and dying , turning aside to let the stretchers with their moaning burdens pass , I could not help thinking—oh , you English people , who are so clamorous for war and bloodshed , come and survey this scene , and you will exclaim -with all who hare—Peace / let there be peace at any price /"
— The Guildhall Hop was a disgusting "barbarism ! not because it was a dance of death , but because of the thorough vulgarity of the whole aflhir . The music an hour-and-a-half late ; and fancy those queer city girls , and their queerer men , not dancing ! - ^ - It is rather annoying to the new payers of Income-tax , the young men—gentlemen—that their money is applied withdut any reference to any wishes that they have the opportunity of expressing . The notion amongst that class is that it has been wasted , or rather misapplied , and that it would have been
better expended on the military service than on the naval , which has played a less prominent part . They , however , are far more annoyed at being socially exempted from sharing the glory which they purchase for others- Had the produce of the tax levied been applied to the raising of a regiment , or regiments , of gentlemen , every private soldier of which would even absolutely have gained paste , a large body of men would have been made happy , and their country would have had , at comparatively trifling cost , any number of the most valuable volunteersthose who fight with a conviction of the sanctity of their cause . — Hare you . heard of the " bolt" of Lord ,
at Inkermann ? A shell fell near him ; he ran , to the amazement of his men , exclaiming , " D—d nonsense waiting to be hit ! " So > it was ; but the uneducated masses cannot understand the Charles Lamb disqualifications for the army— " short-sighted and a coward . " My notion is that the wise men should , as usual , make away from the East as fast as possible ! — Menschikoff , whose random wit has a , reputation in Russia , apologises characteristically enough for the comparative veracity of his later despatches : — " I had a droam last night : I stood at the gates of Paradise ; within the gates was St . Peter dangling his keys . While I was waiting to take my turn , there came up three hundred British soldiers who
begged admittance , as they had died at Alma fighting for . their country . St . Peter referred to Lord Raglan ' s despatches , and finding the soldiers tale to be true , let them , in . Next came three hundred French soldiers , who also bogged admittance , aa they had died at Alma fighting for Prance and their Emporor . St . I ' oter turned oyor the filo of the Moniteur and passed the frenchmen through the gates . Next camp up a thousand Russian soldiers , who begged admission into Paradise , for that they had died in the Dobrudscha , fighting for the Cznr , under Prince Gortachakoff , against the infidel troops Omar Pasha . But St , Pctor shook his head as he
hold up the Invalide Rhssc , containing the despatches of Princo GortsehakofF , in which the loss of the Russians was described as insignificant . Go , ' said St . Potcr , ' I have admitted tho British soldiers , for I find their names in Lord Raglan ' s despatches . I have admitted tho J ? rouch , for I find their names iu the Mordteitr ; but Princo Gortschakoir says nothing of your death . ' You nre impostors , and can lmvo no place in Paradise ? And so I saw these poor Itussiau fioluiors wander away outcast and forlorn , and it Bccmed to rao that they wore doomed to waudor for over . When I awoke , I reeolvcd to endenvour to conciliate my duty to tho Emperor with my desire to gain admittance Tot our soldiora into Parndiao . "
November 25, 1854.1 The Lead 1r. In*
November 25 , 1854 . 1 THE LEAD 1 R . in *
The Safety Insurance Company: In What Do...
THE SAFETY INSURANCE COMPANY : IN WHAT DOES IT DIFFER FKO 3 I OTHER WOBKMTG CLASS SCHEMES ? ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , —I am not sure that your brief notice o the Safety Life Insurance Office Company will be enough to make your working-class readers understand the things that distinguish it from the two classes of enterprise to both of which it belongs . It is an insurance office , competing with others for public favour : in what does it differ from them ? It is a project to benefit the working-class , emulating others that have preceded it for working men ' s trust i in what does it difier f rom them ?
We have had plenty of schemes to benefit the working-classes materially and economically , all based on some " principle , " sound enough hi itself , but regardless of circumstances—that mixed soil hi which the seed of principle can alone take root to produce the fruit deed . We have had land societies , co-operative labour exchanges , working-class jointstock insurance offices , savings banks ; and what has become of them ? That they have done good I am not either silly or wicked enough to deny : they have been great experiments , strong practical proof that the interests of the most numerous class must
add should be attended to ; but they have not been experiments ending in final success . Land societies could not get enough of that valuable commodity , land , to return even the puny investments of the majority of investers ; nor capital nor markets even to put the representative allottees or blessed elect in circumstances of prosperity to rejoice the workingman ' s heart by deputy . Co-operative labour exchanges failed for want of profits to insure the zeal or attention of philanthropic adventurers—perhaps failed to enahie them to go on ; and could not compete with shopman or employer in regularity of goods supply , or sufficiency of return for . labour .
Savings banks have been , a wretched abortion . They only admitted a dead saving , with a very trifling and arbitrarily limited kind of profit on that saving of invested capital : to render them " safe , " the amount deposited was excessively limited , and was clogged with impediments on withdrawal totally unlike any proper " banking" security : yet , although the Chancellor of the Exchequer used the money , the guarantee of the state was refused ; and the officers of a paltry irregular excrescence on the banking system were too often adventurers speculating on embezzlement or robbery as the complement of bad salary . Used by a mongrel herd which represented no class , the savings banks are a working-class failure .
Life Assurances should have done better—and accordingly it is in this class of enterprise that we find some progress . Intelligent people soon discovered that the working classes cannot make their depdsits in pounds sterling , quarterly or half yearly , and that the entire plan of premiums must be altered , while tlio objects of insurance must in some degree be modified ; but there was still a want . The commercial basis had to originate With commercial men ¦—the conduct had to be entrusted to experienced men—the moral guarantee to be given by men of known probity and weight—the material guarantee by mon of money . In short , you wanted an Insurance Office designed from the working class point of view , and constructed within the commercial class .
Wo have all these things in the " Safety" — with its payment of the premium by weekly instalments—its ample and stubborn guarantee fund , its really remarkable list of officers , directors , and trustees . That list includes men Avho like Cobdcn , Walmsley , and John Biggs , have made their own fortunes , whilo their position distinguish es them from the common run of mere trading fortunemakers ; they aro real fortune-makers j they ara also statesmen . Tlio working classes might still ask for proof that their interests would be felt at heart : and
so widu haro tho more educated classes . permitted tho class severance to become , that thousands of the working men would hold ibiwlc from a scheme , howover bonoficial to themselves , if designed only fo r a middlcelass profit . lint thousands fwill anwser mo that Sir Joshua Walmsley hn « not only risen above profit-Becking pursuits , and is intent on political objects of tho higher order , but is a right hearty Englishman—and tho whole working class know that their welfare occupies tho head and . heart of Lord Godorich .
So much for the moral and intellectual guarantees . The material guarantee lies , first , in the ample means which the officers , directors , and trustees command ; secondly , in the untouched state of the fund to keep the o ffic e out of debt ; and thirdly , in the resolve not to compete with other offices in low premiums , but to make the deposits ample in amount for securing , not " virtual" but absolute safetydead certainty of solvency . The difficulty with the working-classes would not be to- pay the sufficient price for absolute safety : many a loss has taught them its value ; and they can afford loss less than any other class . Their difficulty is to pay it all at once ; and that is met by the plan of weekly
payments . To them , however , will , a er all safety and solvency are thus secured , come back two-thirds of the profits . The object of its founders is not money profit fox themselves : they only insist on the absolute solvency of the concern for its own sake ; and then the profits , clear of all expenses whatsoever , may drift back to those whose payments go to fi ll its treasury . The institution cannot become insolvent ; the deposits of the thrifty will he safer from , loss or diminution , than if they were locked up in savings banks or Consols ; yet profits they assuredly will yield , and those wall come , after expenses are paid , to the depositors . And insurance is , o all others , the form of saving which , secures the largest objects a given amount laid by . Of course it is not pretended . that only "
workingmen , " in the ordinary sense , will see the benefits of this new savings-insurance office : all thrifty men will recognise the want supplied . The sayings of the shopman and the small shopkeeper will lie as snugly and fruitfully bere as those of the working-man . The young shopman , looking forward to advance himse l in places of trust , will be able to refer to the policy he holds as a proof of thrift ,- —a proof of " substance" to make Mm " responsible , " of intelligence to make hrm trustworthy . If he wants to go into business , here is a collateral security to those that aid him . The established shopkeeper , whose increase of business is a continual going into new business , will have the same collateral security for his creditors enlarging their credit . Or if a man meet a reverse , here is a recourse for temporary aid on security .
The value of insurance as a provision for the depositor ' s own later years will be recognised by all classes ; but this is so important a section that it ought to be treated by itself . T . H .
The Marriage Law-(To The Editor Of The L...
THE MARRIAGE LAW-( To the Editor of the Leader . " ) Sir , —I wish to call your attention to certain anotna ! lies and absurdities which are to be found in the law of marriage tfs it now exists in this country . I shall merely state facts a 3 I have found them , and then leave the reader to sigh or smile over them according to his humour . 1 . The law says that , when parties are to be married by license , the person obtaining such license from the surrogate shall make oath that one of the said parties has resided during the fifteen days immediately preceding in the parish in which the marriage is to be solemnised ; and , also upon oath to state whether either of the parties is under the age o twenty-one , and , if so , whether the consent of the parents or guardians has been given .
These are the requirements of the law , and yet , strange to say , if none of them are complied with , but all broken , tho unlawful marriage ia just as lawful as the lawful one . Thus parties may elope to another parish , a license be obtained from a winking surrogate—the common characteristic of the tribeperjury be perpetrated and connived at , and a minor or an idiot bo trepanned into an unfit marriage , and yet the illegality , dejure , is transmuted by some unknown process into legality da facto . " Tho king ia dead—long live the king . " The law is broken—fulfilled be tho law .
2 . It is the same in the case of marriages by banng , with this difference , that a statement is taken instead of an oftth , The law requires that the parties should bo residents in the parish or parishes in which the banns are puWiBhed . But , nevertheless , if parties can manage it through a friend or a convenient parish clerk , and lmvo tho banna declared in some distant parish in which , they never set foot until tho day of marriage , still although tho law is broken , the marriage is la-wful , at once valid and invalid , legal and illegal , by some comprehensive and mysterious fiction which 1 do not pretond oithor to explain or comprehend .
Ought tho law to bo loft in such on unsatisfaetory Btato ? Make it more stringent or more lax—I care not which—but make it cither ono or tho other . As it now stands , it not only tolerates perjury and deception , but it encourages by rewarding them . Should thoflo things be ? Should they continue ? What say tho bishopsP Will tlioy " make no sign ?" Which will undertake tho work of amendment ? Which ? A CotJNTny Cjubhoymak .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 25, 1854, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25111854/page/15/
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