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just return ; and to the consumer a sustained supply throughout the year , at moderate prices . " The practical operation of the system would , I conceive , be very simple , Let us take the probable working in any one market town , as a sample for all : —The county committee advertises and takes means to make generally known bef orehand , that the lowest price any one is to take on the next marketday or series of market-days , is to be so much for ¦ wheat , so much for barley , so much for oate , &c . When the farmers come to market with their prodnce , if they find that the dealers will not give them the price advertised , they take their corn home again —it would more generally be sent into the market by the
sample even than is now the case , so avoiding trouble of pitching and the expense of unnecessary carriage to and fro . The market avoids a glut , and things get no lower , at least that day . They try again the next market-day : things may , perhaps , be no better , and away they go again . But men are eating all this time ; the consumption is just the same ; and however firm the dealers may resolve to be , they must find supply somewhere to keep up their trade ; and after two or three market-days of no sales , the dealers , who , it must be borne in mind , according to my plan , have no other market to which they can resort , where they will not find precisely the same state of things , except , indeed , the foreign market the dealers , I say , will probably find themselves obliged to submit , and come up to the mark .
Funds would be formed by the members of the Association , and thus disposed of : — «• The landlord members of the association must be under the obligation of not demanding payment of the rents that may have fallen due from their respective tenants , who had been , as yet , unable to effect sales of their produce at the regulation price . ***** One of the most important objects for the application of our funds , would be that of affording pecuniary aid , by temporary loans , to the various members of the association who might find themselves inconvenienced by suspension of payments of rent and non-sale of stock , in obedience to the orders and
regulations of the society . * * The committees might easily frame rules and precautionary measures by which , whilst they afforded efficient assistance to applicants , there might be reasonable assurance that the funds of the association would not be lost or misapplied . The association , in this branch of its functions , would , in fact , be neither more nor less than a loan or benefit society on a gigantic scale ; and I firmly believe it would be a society where prosperity would bear a just proportion to its magnitude . By aid of these , or by some such provisions as these , no person would be tempted or compelled to force his corn to market in violation of the regulation price ; but , on the contrary , there would be no one who would not have a powerful inducement to conformity . "
The price of corn , says Mr . Dawson , might thus be effectually regulated , if the home growth were the only supply of the market ; and he would admit foreign corn on payment of a duty countervailing the burdens of English taxation and rates . We hope that we can show Mr . Dawson and his brother Agriculturists a mode of extending the organization , so as to provide for the case of foreign corn , without countervailing duty .
One moment let us expend on this weak point both of Protection and of Free Trade . It is the weak point of Free Trade ; because the first object of industry in any community must be to secure subsistence to all ; and to give even cheap bread , if a large class be cut off from the enjoyment of the consequent prosperity , is neither practical justice nor sound oeconomy . It is the weak point of Protection , because the first object of sound oeconomy is abundance freely distributed among all ; and to secure that , by cutting oil supplies from the consumer , without any equivalent to the consumer , is not sound ( economy , nor likely to be permitted by the consumer . The consumer insists on as full subsistence as he can
get for his work ; the producer insists on full suh-Histcnce for his work : the old kind of Protection denies that just right to the consumer ; Free Trade will not secure it to the producer ; Protection erred by commission , Free Trade makes exactly the same sin by omission . Now , leaving Free Trade and Protection aside , as superannuated geniuses that cannot fulfil the promises of their youth , both producer and consumer can attain their object in one way—the direct and simple way of coining to a mutual understanding . Mr . Dawson has pointed out the half of the way along winch the producer is to advance ; let us explain the other ¦ half along which the consumer is to travel , that both may inccL in the midst . And to make if , clearer , we
will explain it in a concrete or tangible , not un abstract and ideal , form . The People ' s mill at Leeds is the simp le
illustration we select . It belongs to a proprietary consisting of 3500 shareholders , each having subscribed £ 1 ; the business of distribution is effected by about thirty-five agents , who are virtually the retail dealers between the ( collective ) proprietary of the mill and the subscribers in their capacity of consumers . The management is effected by committees ; all the money passes through a banker s hands ; the proprietors and consumers can see the corn and the flour in every stage of grinding—and finer commodities cannot be found in any market or in the most luxurious of kitchens . In this concern
we see , therefore , a large body of consumers supplied exactly with the article which they need at its real price—the cost of growing , carrying , and preparing it ; we see a class of retail dealers , the agents , whose trade is exactly and assuredly measured by the wants of their customers ; and vre see a wholesale dealer whose transactions are conducted upon a basis of certainty . The consumer is released from the chances of adulteration ; the retail dealer from waste of time or stock ; the wholesale dealer from uncertainty of market .
Now , in such an organization as this , the consumer comes half way to the Agriculturist—even as far as the corn market ; where he would be met by Mr . Dawson ' s organization . We have here established an unbroken chain between the corn grower and the consumer ; each able to state his wants and his resources exactly . But we have said enough for one week . Next week we will make out these two further points—how the consumer is to obtain his equivalent for giving a willing preference to the home grower ; how existing capital is to be made available by the process , in extending production and organization . Meanwhile let such of our readers as we have already found among
agriculturists , ponder over the sketch of organization above—not as the plan of a complete system , but as illustrating what is possible in the organization of industry , so that all classes shall not only " Live and let live , " but help each other to live .
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WHY THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IS NOT THE CHURCH OF THE PEOPLE . From a Bishop , rich in the grace of the Apostolical Succession , with the anointing oil scarcely dry on his brow , with the solemn words of consecration yet ringing in his ear , we have the crushing confession , That " the Church of England is not the Church of the People . " The next question is—What then is the Church of the People ? because that Church ought , forthwith , to be " the Church of England "
The Church has lapsed . Her mission of Holiness has degenerated into a corporation , highly respectable , but held together by pecuniary considerations . She is a " profession , " a " vested interest , " As a Church she has become one of the " things of this world " which passcth away and is nought . A Church of the People could not thus decay . No : the Church of the People of England is in abeyance—sunk within the hearts of some , dead in too many ; while sects are quarrelling over metaphysical niceties , and the Church of Kngland , divided in itself , is estranged from the People and forgetful of the People .
Truly the Church has a mission , but she has denied herself more times than St . Peter . It is hers to explain the laws of God in their temporal and practical interpretations as human statutes , and to see that the statutes accord with the higher law . It is hers to champion the defenceless and the poor , the resourceless and the disinherited . Klse she is not worthy to be called a Church of God . She has not done these things . She has practically denied that she had temporal and political duties , except of the " money-changer " kind ; but it will not be safe for her to deny it longer . Thanks to the liishop of Llamlaff , the only question ?) now are , What is the Church of the People , and how the CUurch of the People can he really instituted as " the Church of Kngland" i
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Ii () N 1 ) () N C O A L . An Knglishman '» home is his fireside , and a blazing hearth is I he centre of hospitality - But if London houses were judged by the size of their fires , and their hospitality by the heat of the hearth , our country homes would he apt . to afford a very invidious comparison with those of the metropolis . The countryman laughs at the cockney , and feels starved before his diminutive fire , lie longs to poke it . about , to make it . blaze , to do anything which promises to improve the little apology in the grate . lint the poking of the metropolitan fire is a sacred office , intrusted only to the chief
members of the household . There are men who would never forgive an interference with their prerogative in this particular . In the vicinity of the coalfields all this is reversed . The office of firestoker is conferred upon the servant , who , entering at stated periods , rebuilds the fire , and having banked the coal up to the chimney , places a piece of " cannel" in the centre , and sweeps the hearth clean . In Cheshire , Warwickshire , Worces .
tershire , and some parts of Gloucestershire , it is frequently a boast that th e kitchen fire has not been out for years . The servant banks it up over night , and the mass is broken into a good fire when she arises in the morning . The Newcastle coal , with which domestic London is principally supplied , requires continual stirr ing to keep up a draught of air , without which it is cheerless , or goes out altogether . The inland coal , on the contrary , burns better when left to itself , and gives out considerable heat . In the districts we hare mentioned , the price of coal is
such as to form a very insignificant item in the expenditure of the household . From 5 s . to los . per ton is the usual cost , while in London it ranges from 15 s . to 22 s ., and in the suburban districts , which are dependent on their supply from London , the cost is raised to 28 s . and 30 s . These prices are one of the causes of the inhospitable fires to which we have referred . But it makes one shiver to think of the privations to which the poor are subject , with coals at such a price . To them fire is meat and drink : it becomes absolutely a substitute for aliment , in giving an increased
circulation to the blood , and thus atoning , in some sort , for the paucity of food . Science , the great ameliorator , makes the capitalist benevolent , whether he knows it or not . The development of the railway system is bringing the blessing of cheap and plenteous fuel to the hearths of the poor , as well as cheering the fireside of the more opulent . The Great Northern , the Eastern Counties , and North-Western Railways have been occupied in the carriage of coal , and are dividing with the coasting-trade the supply of this continually increasing capital .
The Great Western is now destined confer an even greater benefit on the metropolis , and the houses in the vicinity of the line . " The Great Western and Forest of Dean Coal Company " proposes to work the coalfields of the Forest of Dean , which have hitherto been worked to very little advantage to the public , though most profitably to the individuals connected with them . A branch of the Great Western Railway , now in course of construction , will pass through this coalfield , thus placing it in direct communication with the metropolis . In some of the towns referred » o in the coal has been as
prospectus , we are aware that high as 30 s . per ton , and is seldom below 24 .. Such will now be supp lied with coal of similar quality at about 14 s . per ton ; a charge wnicii will even he further reduced , the railway companies expressing a hope that the present carnage of 2 s . per ton will be about Is ., when their p lans are thoroughly developed . A company of this description will go far to break up a system , which , though a continual cause of complaint from the seventeenth century , has reached its climax at the present time , wntit every scapegrace , like Mr . Micawber , " turns nis attention to coals . " There are many lngj"J respectable firms engaged in the coal trade ; there are few businesses in which there is more
trickery , or where well known knavery w 8 ° difficult of detection ; while precisely those persons are cheated who most need fair trading . For a coal company there is a ready market , r - muncrativc at a low price , where capital , into - gence , and labour may be app lied with a certaini y of success . Such a company is not a monopoly » hut , while offering an excellent investment capital , gives employment to labour , conlers blessings of cheap fuel up on the p eop le , a « preserves the poor from shark-like advent " tl .. Ikjf i . " ^ . e „„ , . ...: n / lo . wmrl in the < 11 " ' win -
1 V 1 UCI 1 , OI course , i " i " »" i ••• . :. future , on the fulfilment of thw enterprise in original spirit , llungerford Market was expt - ¦ to break up the fish monopoly , and cn abic < London poor to feed on fish at the cheap " which might so easily be afforded ; but » onl 1 . fish in still a sort of luxury . We believe , l «» ever , that a better knowledge has ariseni within these last two years , ami that the <»< -r < : ' ()( class is beginning to learn the safer ir « i « honestly supplying the broad mass ot Hit' / - i n Assuredly no trade , conducted in that spin i , he safer or more inexhaustibly profitable than supp ly of fuel to this vast capital .
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966 affDe % t ft **** [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 11, 1851, page 966, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1904/page/10/
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