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September 30, 1854.] THE LEADER, 925
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GOOD STABLING. Agbicttj/ttjbai- Societie...
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GENTLEMEN AND OFFICERS. Not a week now p...
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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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Emigrate Still. If Is Beginning To "Pay"...
hundred tons ; so that the loss of the Tayleur is not likely to be repeated . The actual proportion of loss is little more than 1 ^ persons in a thousand emigrants ; and that proportion is likely to be decidedly less in future . The means are to be had , as we have seen before , b y the numbers who have actually gone .. Although wages have been raised in Ireland there is Toom to continue the same
process : they can be raised higher . They can be raised also in England ; and we should be glad to see the whole of the reserves transferred from the miserable grounds of Spitalfields or . Paisley—the surplus hands who keep down wages in iron shops or factories carried off to grapple with rough work in America or Australia . "We know that mechanical improvements can easily supply the place at home , and that neither manufactures , trade , nor agriculture will suffer . Quite the reverse ; they will benefit by the stimulus to invention ; while the labouring classes would receive the higher rate of wages commanded by a higher class of labour— -just as the powerloom-weaver takes more than the handloom-weaver . If a
million or tyro-more could go within the next few years to the land of high wages , social progress , ana political independence , those remaining behind would begin to feel at home the benefits of high wages , social progress , and , in consequence , political independence .
September 30, 1854.] The Leader, 925
September 30 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER , 925
Good Stabling. Agbicttj/Ttjbai- Societie...
GOOD STABLING . Agbicttj / ttjbai- Societies of the old stamp axe attaining their perfect stage , for they are declining . One of the great working poets of our day , Professor Owen , has said that the real life of certain insects must be considered to be passed in the caterpillar state , since that may last two or three years ; whereas the winged creature lasts but a brief month , perchance a day , and expires . "We doubt , however , whether human reason will ratify
the scientific rule . A life of schoolboyisni , where the student of existence is eating his terms , is not the " perfect" state , although it is long ; and although the honeymoon is postponed till the eve of death , still , we fear , there will be a tendency to account that the really perfect stage . On similar grounds we tail the perfection of the old agricultural society in its death . Agriculture and Science are wed , and the society which has fulfilled its functions feels its golden wings dropping off—its subscriptions . It has passed its
larva state appropriately , in one eternal dinner ; it has undergone a torpor of discouragement , the " sickening" of naturalists , in its pupa state ; and now it emerges , glorious , to expire in laying the egg of futurity . " What is agriculture but a constant funeral ? Ceres rears her child , only to cut him down Again , and bury him ; afterwards to rear him again—one of . tho thousand typea of resurrection . So has Agriculture political reared
its ideas , only to bury them , and the new crop is getting on . Protection is "buried to grow agricultural improvement ; and having escaped from economical cowardice , which the claim for Protection was , agriculture is growing generous . Taught to rely on itself , Landlord Agriculture , like all true" independence , takes thought for others . At BanWy , Mr . Henley preaches , not charity , but good honest aid in improving the condition of the labouring classes . *
There is , says Mr . Henley , much had ploughing ; for after all , he insists , tho fault la noUn tho tool , but iu the man that uses i -i i G a P a ( 1 ° ond the digging-machine have Jailed to . supersede tho plough ; but no branch ? S t ulture > lw insists , requires more skill ux tho handling and tho management than the plough ; and these societies , he says , ahow the workman what is good and bad work . We might ask Mr . Henley whether tue societies can toach tho man to appreciate
good and bad work ? It is not only the actual distinction between a straight line and a crooked one , —between a furrow of unequal depth , and one that cuts the land like the artists' graver ; but it is the ready union between the mere perceptive ideas and the mind . It is not only seeing the furrow , but conceiving it neatly ; it is not only to conceive it in . the mind , but to feel it with the hand ; in . short to possess a clear intellect , and that close union between mind and muscle , which constitute skill . But the requirement pre-supposea a man of developed mind and well-trained body . " We do not mean book-learning : study will not do it , and similar results have been attained
without much library lore . But before a man can possess the tact and skill required by Mr . Henley , he must have had opportunity , leisure , and incentives to fetch out his faculties . However the agricultural idea is growing . " There must , " says Mr . Henley , "be improvements in the dwellings . '' It is , he says , " perhaps one of the most important problems affecting our social position . " He believed there was no subject which had of late years more attracted public attention , and he believed there was no subject more beset with difficulties—no subject which at the present time -was
receiving more earnest endeavours in many directions to be solved and elucidated . There were many persons in the world who were not rich enough to be able to enjoy the luxury of a good house . That was a thing which fell to the lot of few-- ( hear , hear ) , and the lot of the poor man would never be to hare a good house until his situation in life was so elevated that he could afford to pay a reasonable price for it . Charitable institutions were doing something towards that objeet , but it was like the bread they nte , or the coat they wore—the poor man , after all , must pay the cost . ( Hear , hear , and applause . } That was a
problem which every day's experience would tend more and more to solve , and he believed that , with the cheapening and gradual improvement of building , and the materials connected with { building , they might look forward without apprehension to a continued increase in the dwellings of the labouring classes , so at to meet the wishes of almost all of them Those among them who were old enough might , perhaps , recollect the state of the dwellings of the poor 50 years ago , and th « y could not be insensible to the fact , how vast an improvement had taken place during those 50 yeara . They used to live in old mud-built cottages , more resembling a cabin than a
cottage , but those had now disappeared . Many of them were put up by the poor themselves , perhaps at the edge of a common ; but these had now given way to a fcetter description of houses ; and he believed that , as the condition of the poor improved , and they were able to give better rents , instead of haying three or four persons sleeping in one xoom , each one would have his own respective locality . Everything tended to show it was of tho greatest consequence that the poor man should be wade comfortable in his dwelling , because in the case of every man , whatever might be his respective occupation in life , if his liome was comfortable , he could not want to seek for enjoyment out of it .
This is progress indeed , and it ia in the natural order of sequence . It is some time since tlio agriculturists conceived the idea , that instead of making their cattle stand in a heap of straw and filth , and letting them feed how they might , it would be well to study their diet , to secure them plenty of good food , to drain tho floor of their stabling , to make the enclosure warm enough , and yet
to let there bo good ventilation . In other words , tho beasts must have food , air , and comfort , or the owner of the cattle would have to pny the penalty in tho deterioration of tho stock . Tlie same rule holda good with horses . If you would get a maximum of work out of your beast , you must stable him well ; and if you want to get the full amount , in quantity and quality , out of tho human labourer , you must also stable Mm well .
It is the moro necessary in tho case of the human cattle , since , if they be not , as Mr . Henley says , rendered comfortable ati home , " thoy will bo driven to tho public house . " Tho ill-stabled borao doea not take to drinking ; nor docs the superannuated cow turn to intemperance , until , uaelesa for other
purposes , the owner fattens her with grains , and sends her in that condition into the presence of her butcher . Upon the whole , however , the public-house has a very remote relation with bad stabling for horses or for cows ; it has a very close relation with the stalling of men . Mr . Henley praises the human stables that have been introduced , and with reason , on the mere ground of comparison ; tut still we say that neither in . town nor country has thTis improved stabling been yet carried to the point at which sound investment will repay the employer . It is really worth the consideration of farmers , and we specially invite Mr . Henley ' s attention to the analogy of the horse and ox .
Gentlemen And Officers. Not A Week Now P...
GENTLEMEN AND OFFICERS . Not a week now passes but we find an incident of disorderly life among officers of the army and navy made conspicuously public . Society and the press are indignant : particularly the press . In reference to the Portsmouth case , the Morning Chronicle asks— -Shall the army and navy be is
allowed a . special morality ?—^ which immorality . The Globe says , The British public is moral—at least it insists on immorality being concealed—s o that the virtuous Globe is angry because Iaeut . Knight was found out . Both journals , and indeed all the jour * nals , assume that officers are , as a class , distinguished by vices peculiar to themselves .
It is , perhaps , a mistake to assume this It is , perhaps , an error and an unkindness to argue a Perry case and a Portsmouth case aa a question of morality : such are strictly questions of discipline ; and the officer is only specially to blame because it is his professional duty to set an . example of orderly life and well-balanced nature .
The indignation of the pTess , as a profession , would only be justified upon proof being shown that our journalists , as a class , are sinless in the respects in which certain unhappy officers have offended against public decency . This , it could be shown , is not at all the case—and could be shown , as in a Percy or Portsmouth case , by reference to notorious public events and characters ; and , under such circumstances , tho virtuous vindictiveness of our best possible instructors ia suggestive of the very worst sort of hypocrisy —supererogatory hypocrisy .
The vexation of society with officers and gentlemea is just as affected . The sins of the detected officers are the sins of youug gentlemen—notorious , permitted sins . The young gentlemen of this enlightened , not to say Christian , country , supx ^ ly our towns with prostitution . The Haymarkct flourishes though there is an army in the East . Why ,
then , this disgust with young officers who , aa young gentlemen , follow tho fashion of the day ? A . re young barristers , young solicitors , young stockbrokers , purer than youngs officers ? " Young men will bo young men" ia a physiological phrase in society : —young officers -will be young men—would not that be a charitable addition ?
The journalists who have talked morality apropos of tho Portsmouth scene are appealing to an imaginary public opinion . _ Tho public scouts tho individuals who a ro found out , but continues to bo considerate > to tlio class . Young officers woro never inflexibly chaste—were novor vehemently sober--nncl young officers have always boon popu ar m ball-rooms . Morality on nuch points as those raised in tho Perry and Portsmouth ensoa is dopomlont on tho public opinion among women . Our youug Indies do not insist on a Inch BtJiiidiird of young gentlemen : whence a variotv of private miseries and public vices .
A " correct" young man la tho butt ot aooioty ; and there aro wise mon who contend that the world is always right .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 30, 1854, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30091854/page/13/
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