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business in trade , for going out to take a walk . He has advertised rewards for galvanic inventions : is it not that the telegraph may be rendered audible , and that he may sit in Paris , with wires from every part of France to his ears—he sitting , cruel , and silent , and listening to the sighs of stifled fears and hopes , a Great Spider Dionysius ?
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FASHIOITABLB PULPIT TEBKOEISMHow is it , we have often asked , that at all fashionable watering places Low Church Despotism prevails ? We mean that form of religion and that species of despotism which make pure godliness consist in rendering this life more gloomy than the terrors of the next ; in rendering human existence nothing better or brighter than a short and narrow path towards the grave . The key to the enigma is simple . It is , that at these fashionable watering places the population are for the most part unsound in body , and proportionately in mind also- To invalids there is no stimulant like the cayenne of the Pulpit ; and the " betterhalf" of the congregation will always prefer the Preacher to thePrayers .
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THE FKIENDS OF ITAiY . The first Conversazione of this Society was , in Mazzini's words , " a commentary , and an improved commentary , " on the reply of Lord Granville to Schwarzenberg . The second Will be a " bit of our mind" Jo Lords Derby and Malmesbury . Our readers will perceive in our ' advertisirig columns an announcement of the next Conversazione , which will be held at Freemasons' Tavern , on the evening of Wednesday the 24 th inst . Wo shall have a
spiritstirring lecture from George Dawson , followed by a strictly conversational discussion , opened by Mazzini , Svho ( we quote the Society ' s Eecord for this month ) " will take occasion to address the meeting ^ on such points , connected with the Italian question , as maybe better developed by an . impromptu reciprocation of sentiments between himself and the audience , than by another written lecture . " We cordially welcome this conversational mode of eliciting the feelings and the opinions of what is sure to be a sympathetic audience on the absorbing topicof the-evening .
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SOCIAL REFORM . " NOTES OF A SOCIAL ( ECONOMIST . " THE COOPEBATIVE ASSOCIATIONS OF ENGLAND . XV . and Last . " Le crddit est la metamorphose des capitaux stables et engages en capitaux circulants ou & 6 gag 6 s , e ' est-a-dire , le moyen qui rend disponiblea et circulables des capitaux qui ne l' ^ taient point , et leur permet par consequent do Be porter partout ou leur besoin se fait sentir . " —Du Cridit et de la Circulation , par Cieszkowski .
Among the remarkable features of the present age , says Mr . Arthur Seratchley , * Benefit Building Societies occupy a very leading position . Large sums of money are already subscribed to those associations , and they seem likely , in a few years , to engage in their operations a considerable portion of the investing capital of this country . A Benefit Building Society , when properly constituted , is a species of joint-stock association , the members of which subscribe periodically , and in proportion to the number of shares they hold , different sums into one common fund ,
which thus becomes large enough to be advantageously employed , by being lent out at interest to such of the members as desire advances ; and the interest , as soon as it is received , making fresh capital , is lent out again and again , so as to bo continually reproductive . Large sums may bo raised in this manner ; for , to take an example , - —if one thousand shares were subscribed for , at ten shillings per month per share , the amount in one year would be GOOO / V , which might bo advanced to any members who should wish to become borrowers . The payments of borrowors are bo calculated as to enable them to repay , by equal instalments , within a specified period , tho
principal of tho sum borrowed , and whatever interest may bo due upon it throughout tho duration of tho loan . Tho other members , who have not borrowed , and who are called investors , receive , atthoondofa giyon number of years , a largo sum , which is equivalent to tho amount of their subscriptions , with compound interest accumulated upon them , Tho idea of u society upon this principle , correctly formed , and afterwards properly managed , is of tho most admirable kind . j < or , on tho ono hand , it holds out inducements to industrious individuals to put by , periodically , from their incomes , small or largo sums , which arc invested
for them by the society ; and , a ] b the end of a certain time , are repaid to them in the shape of a large accumulation , without their having the trouble of seeking for suitable' investments ; while , on the other band , the money subscribed being advanced to some of the members , enables theni to purchase houses , or similar property , and to repay the loan by small periodical instalments , extended over a number of years . As regards the purchasing of hoiise property , Benefit Buildin g Societies must be deemed peculiarl y ^ advantageous . Every one knows that the price paid
for long hiring is at least equal to the original price of the article hired ; and yet , how many persons there are who deem it an . unwise extravagance not to purchase their household furniture , and yet are content to hire their homes . It is only by means of these societies that persons not possessed of capital , and receiving their incomes periodically , can ever become possessors of a house ; and this they are enabled to do from the fact that the annual repayments required by a society upon a loan , do not much exceed the rent of a house , which could be purchased with the sum borrowed .
Benefit Building Societies are divided into two distinct classes ; the one Terminating , the other Permanent . A terminating society is one which is intended to close at the end of a certain period , when all the shares of the members have realized their full amount . In a permanent society it is merely the membership of a shareholder that terminates at the end of a fixed number of years , when he has received the full value of his shares ; the society continues for ever . Mr . Scratchley is of opinion that the Permanent plan is" entirely free from most of the objections peculiar to Terminating societies .
The first Benefit Building Society ( a village club ) was founded , in 1815 , by the Earl of Selkirk , at Kireudbright , in Scotland . Institutions of a similar kind were afterwards established in Scotland under the title of " Menages , " and the system was soon adopted in England by societies formed in Manchester and Liverpool at the public-houses ; and many of the early societies were named after the signs of the houses in which they were originally formed . After the year 1830 , these societies increased rapidly in numbers , and on the 14 th of July , 1836 , a special Act ( 6 & 7 William IV . cap . 32 , ) was passed for their encouragement and protection .
Up to the 30 th of September , 1850 , there had been registered , in the United Kingdom , considerably more than 2000 societies , of w hich , in England alone , 169 were added in the first nine months of that year ; a proportionate increase having taken place in Scotland and Ireland , About 1200 of these societies are still in existence , of which the total income has been estimated at not less than 2 , 400 , 000 £ . a year . The annual income of two or three of these societies amounts to 40 . 000 J . or 60 , 000 / . each .
By means of these societies , a great number of persons have become possessors of houses and land ; yet it is remarkable that they have been overlooked by a class of people in more easy circumstances . There are a vast number of professional men , and others engaged in commercial pursuits , with ample means , who continue for years to pay away large sums in rent , without reflecting , that , by uniting together in the formation of a Benefit Building Society , they would bo able to realize additional property for their families , with but little extra outlay . The followingis a brief statement of the various uses to which Benefit Building Socioties are at present applicable : — 1 st , —Provisions for old age may bo secured .
2 nd , —Houses can bo purchased , instead of being hirod , by a small annual expenditure . 3 rd , —Influential persons , by promoting the formation of such societies , may socuro gieator benefits for their dependents than can bo obtained by any effort , however extensive , of private charily . 4 th , —Leaseholders , farmers , or oChors , desirous of providing for tho fine , or renewal of their leases , can do so by joining a Society as investors . 5 th , —The premiums or fees for placing boys as apprentices or articled dorks to solicitors , engineers , &c , can bo obtained in a similar w ay . 6 th , —Marriage and family endowments of all kinds can bo socurod .
7 th , —Benevolent institutions can borrow funds for the erection of alms-houses , schools , < &c . The same principle of cooperation and mutual
assistance upon which Benefit Building Societies are based may be applied , in various ways , to the formation of other institutions for improving the condition of the operative classes , and for supplying modes of investment ' for the savin g s of persons of * limited income , — -by freehold laitd societies , for instance , building conapanies , and suburban villages ,. &c . &c . ; also " by the application of life assurance and the tontine principle to the purchase of freehold land or property at home and in the colonies , and by benefit emigration ^ societies .
I must now conclude these rather desultory " Notes , " in which a variety of questions , of daily increasing interest and importance , have been incidentally discussed , although Cooperative Association , especially , has been my text . I have briefly touched upon the now rather ticklish question of wages and profits ; and I can prove tliat , for centuries , the English legislature has been actively engaged in protecting the interests of the landed aristocracy , at the cost of the
operative ; and , that while the price of food has been artificially raised by Act of Parliament , the price of labourer wages has been kept down and limited by statute . J 8 ut if the conduct of the ai'istoeracy be obnoxious to severe criticism , the arbitrary principles recently laid down by the Amalgamated Masters , are still more open to attack ; and I venture to tell them , that they are thereby endangering those rights about which they are so clamorous . ' . - < "William Coninghah . February 1 th , 1852 .
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? TreaiUe on Benefit Building Societies . By Arthur Soratchley .
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228 THE LEADER , l ^^ tTRpAY ,
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PILGRIMAGE TO TURNER'S COTTAGE . [ Extract from a Itetter . J I met -r- —3 the celebrated -, the" other evening
He had teen a p ilgrimage to the cottage where Turner died . He liad a sketch of the cottage , and all the particulars noted down . There was even talk of how much more rent ther . cpttage would now bring , where this great artist lived and died ; where he sat , day after day , upon the flat roof which he had railed round , for the purpose of there gazing upon the heavens , and observing the effects of cloud and atmosphere . There , under a feigned name , free from the world , and apart from his reputation , did the great artist worship , and become a prophet in art—the raiser of a new school . For no less than this was accomplished by that strange ,
eccentric man , whom the neighbours ttsed to observe , day after day , book in hand , upon the roof of his house . Some thought him mad ; others , that he was an astrologer : for few know what is tho art of greatness , and that noiie are so busy as those whom tho world tl ' iinks idle . Life only can interpret life . Certainly his case is a very singular one : that he should be so grasping and so mean , and yet so glorious . Possessing a good house and gallery in Queen Annstreet , he preferred , in his love of his art , spending most of his time in his observatory , as you might call it ; just far enough to get clear of the smoke , and not to
lose tho grand effects occasionally produced by it-Turner ' s early works did not exhibit any of the quality which burst forth in his advanced life . His drawing was always careful , but his early works exhibit only a reflex of tho manner and style of tho timo . His new style was like the sun bm-sting out from tho clouds . Ho rose from careful drawing to the expression ot general effects . Like Socrates , he could bring down heuvon to earth . He mingled , cloud and tide , molted the solids into tho sunlight , and his admirable sense of colour harmonized the whole . Ho painted tho vapoursand piled up architecture in his compositions
, in tho gorgeous magnificence conceived by tho poet , gazing on tho setting sun , there from his housetop . It was not the common earth ho painted , but tho earth scon through the atmosphoro of heaven . Ho supplied the mind with what it yearns for—¦«¦ greater perfection than is to he found in tho ordinary circumstances , and tho tangible things , of this won" . All perception , after all , is but a kind of painting . « ° cultivated tho sonso in his contemplations , and , by < in inductive and elevating process , completed what ih incomplete . Ho satisfied thosoul by giving an objective
, reality to-our subjective creations . Wo imagine castles in tho air : wo must got a Turner to paint them ; «««» if tiny ono should object that such creations aro i » ot line nature , it mn , y bo enough to reply—a « Turner «>« reply on ono occasion— " but would you not bo delighted to hoo Nature lileo that P" How diflbront tho pw >* codoiiHiioBH of tho inoro artiut of form . .,. ••• ' _ Tumor wns u true poot in Iuh art . Alas I that k « c » poetic fooling should not elevate tho character to inom and social poetry ! But Nature is not prodigal of im * giflfcu .
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Leader (1850-1860), March 6, 1852, page 228, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1925/page/16/
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