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IMPROVED DWELLINGS FOR THE INDUSTRIAL
CLASSES.
(Brounb JJlan anb Cilcbation
OF
LANGBOURN BUILDINGS,
MARK STREET,
PAUL STREET, FINSBURY SQUARE,
DESIGNED AND ERECTED FOR MR. ALDERMAN WATERLOW
BY MR. MATTHEW ALLEN:
WITH DESCRIPTIVE NOTES, AND AN APPENDIX,
BY
J. A. MAYS.
LONDON:
ROBERT HARDWiCKE, 192,
1863.
PICCADILLY
�*** The number of visitors who are flocking to the building,
which it was the purpose of the following notes to describe for the
benefit of those who were present at the Opening, renders a further
issue of them necessary.
An account of the proceedings at the Opening is now added.
J. A. MAYS.
�IMPROVED DWELLINGS FOR THE
INDUSTRIAL CLASSES.
The friends of the movement for improving the condition
of the dwellings of the working classes have cause to he
thankful, in one respect, to the projectors of the twentynine schemes now before Parliament, for extending and
completing the railway system of the metropolis, as great
good is likely to be accomplished by causing public
attention to be forcibly directed to the tremendous extent
of the evils under which hundreds of thousands of the
working population of London are suffering—evils arising
mainly from the overcrowded and unhealthy condition
of their dwellings. The success of the Underground
Railway seems to have given extraordinary vitality to
a whole host of metropolitan extension and junction lines,
the construction of which, while necessitating the appro
priation of some of the very few open areas that London
still possesses, and going further towards converting the
metropolis into a huge network of tunnels, aqueducts
and arches, will also necessitate the entire removal of
many hundred houses, the majority of which are occu
pied by the industrial classes. The unhealthy nature
and the insufficient extent of the accommodation with
which thev are already provided, coupled with the
sweeping and sudden destruction of the large number
of dwelling-houses which the carrying out of these
�4
projects involves, becomes a matter of serious incon
venience to the working portion of the population, and
of more than ordinary anxiety to the employers of labour
and to the legislature. It is perfectly needless therefore
to offer one word of apology in introducing the accom
panying drawings to public notice. The importance of
the project to which they relate, whether considered as
regards the furtherance of social reforms, the prevention
of disease, the extension of the railway systems of the
country, the general amelioration of the condition of the
labouring classes, or as purely a commercial speculation,
renders it of the deepest moment that everything in the
shape of practical experience, especially of that kind
which points to a remedy for a state of things which every
one deplores, should be placed before the public without
delay.
The nature and extent of the evils sought to be grappled
with by a well-organized scheme, having for its object the
rendering of the dwelling place of the working man a
home in its truest sense, need not be here depicted, as they
have been so often and so eloquently described by abler
pens ; but assuming that there is no longer any doubt as
to their existence, the object of the present paper is to
attempt the indication of a cure rather than to describe
the disease. Laborious efforts have been made of late
years, under the auspices of the two great Societies, and by
many benevolent persons, in attempting to surmount this
subject, beset as it is on every hand with apparently unap
proachable difficulties. Society is indebted to an incal
culable extent to the labours of the late Prince Consort,
the Earl of Shaftesbury, Miss Burdett Coutts, and many
other generous spirits who have been content to spend
large sums in this good work—a work which the noble
earl just named rightly appreciates when he says : “ This
�o
is a subject about which you cannot think or speak too
earnestly. The condition of the dwellings of the labour
ing classes is the besetting sin and difficulty of. the time,
for it stands in the way of every good moral impression.”—
It is due to the unremitting efforts of philanthropists,
under the auspices chiefly of the two great bodies,—the
Society for Improving the Condition of the Working
Classes, and the Metropolitan Association, coupled with
the beneficial operation of certain legislative enactments,
that the debasing condition of the dwellings in which so
many many thousands of our countrymen arc located
has been to some extent alleviated. A perusal of the
annual reports of these Societies shows the long period
over which their operations have extended, and the large
amounts which they have expended ; but it is with a pang
of heartfelt regret that one is forced to acknowledge that,
most praiseworthy as their exertions have been as
pioneering this good work, the success which might have
been expected to result, from their labours has not yet been
achieved. Though they have succeeded in producing in
certain cases houses which satisfy the requirements of
the working classes it is undoubtedly true that no
building has yet been erected which, while combining
the essential elements of comfort and respectability,
produces in the shape of rent such a return on the money
sunk in its erection as to induce capitalists to repeat
similar experiments on a larger scale for the sake of the
profits. It is obvious that if a scheme could be devised which
would in every case attain these important objects, espe
cially the latter, the matter would be set at rest at once
and for ever; and it is equally obvious that until this can
be done the subject must continue to be regarded as the
greatest social difficulty of the day. The late Prince
Consort indicated his clear perception of this truth some
�6
years since in the observation he made to the Honorary
Architect of Lord Shaftesbury’s Society—“ Mr. Roberts,
unless we can get 7 or 8 per cent, we shall not succeed, in
inducing builders to invest their capital in such houses,”
Instead of addressing themselves vigorously to the ac
complishment of what is here indicated, architects and
builders, on whom such a project would naturally devolve,
seem in a great measure to have relaxed their efforts
latterly, and to be content to allow the question to be con
sidered as one incapable of a profitable solution by any
known application of the materials at their disposal.
It would seem to be a matter of extreme importance,
therefore, to examine previous experiments, with a view
to ascertain in what respects greater economy in the cost
of construction may be attained, and whether at the
same time any of the buildings themselves present features
which may be judiciously avoided. Addressing one’s
attention to the last point, first let us notice incidentally
the Institutional appearance that many of them present.
It is unquestionable that in most of the buildings of this
class the long rows of windows have a dreary monotonous
effect, and impress on the mind the idea of a workhouse or
of a penitentiary. This is perhaps not altogether preventible where many suites of dwellings have to be arranged
in floors or flats one above the othei’; but it certainly
speaks volumes as to the great want of decent accommo
dation felt by the working classes, that although this
is an objection which is universally admitted, it does
not seem to operate to the exclusion of tenants ; still,
it is an objection that should, if possible, be obviated
in planning other buildings. Every opportunity should
be seized of providing, if possible, a home which in
every way tends to increase the self-respect of its occu
pant, and to engender that principle in the mind which
�7
indicates its presence in the cleanly appearance of the
home itself, and sometimes adorns it with flowers and
shrubs. It is advisable to give to each dwelling an
individuality of appearance; and also to dissipate the
feeling, unfortunately but too general, that the occu
pants of the “ model dwellings ” are the recipients of
charity. The next thing to be borne in mind is, that
every tenant should have complete and exclusive use
of all the essential accessories to a home ; such as water
supply, sink, copper, dusf-shoot, coal-place, and watercloset. In some cases economy both of space and cost of
building has been sought to be obtained by arrange
ments whereby two or more tenants have had the use of
these in common; but the divided use of such important
requisites, which ought if possible to be in a decent wellregulated home reserved to the exclusive use of only a
single family, is, I think, far from compensated by a
slight saving of space and cost of erection. It would
certainly be preferable to provide these appendages to
every dwelling, even though it should render it necessary
to adopt an exterior of tlic plainest possible description.
In some of the so-called model dwellings recently erected,
and to which the foregoing remarks would also apply,
that which must at once be characterized as a defect of no
ordinary kind is observable. Somewhat showy exteriors
have been obtained at a great sacrifice of internal comfort ;
—in the one case by the introduction, at a very great
expense, of elliptical counter arches over every window
and doorway in four large blocks of buildings containing
in the aggregate some hundreds of openings : and in the
other bv the use of ornamental stone columns at the door
ways. These architectural luxuries seem to me to be
sadly misplaced in buildings which cannot boast a
particle of either plastering or paper on their internal
�8
walls, and where every room, whether parlour, living-room
or bed-room, presents a repetition of the bare and cheer
less aspect of a prison cell. It is surely to be regretted
that money should be lavishly applied to the production
of that which is clearly unnecessary, at the expense of
denying to the tenants the cheerfid effect and air of
comfort that would be given to these dwellings by the
addition of a few yards of plastering and paper-hangings.
In no case save in the houses for working people would any
architect venture to ignore the power of appreciation on
the part of any portion of the community of the decencies
of a well-arranged dwelling, or to profess that a mere
whitewashed brick wall complies with the requirements
of a modern dwelling-house in respect to its internal
decoration.
I am not alone in believing that the
homes of workmen cannot by any possibility be rendered
too attractive, complete, and comfortable; and that while
they will often meet with stolid indifference anything of a
“ missionising ” tendency, the working classes gladly
welcome and warmly appreciate the efforts made to
obviate the evils and improve the condition of their
dwellings. What they very properly desire is, that,
if possible, homes shall be provided capable of meeting the
requirements of an English workman’s family—a home
which shall present an appearance not unattractive, and
the occupation of which shall not engender a feeling on
their part that their friends will regard them as being the
occupants of almshouses.
I am conscious that this brief introduction has already
extended beyond its proper limits; without indulging in
any further digression, therefore, let me at once proceed
to call attention to the peculiarities of the building repre
sented in the accompanying })lan and elevation of a block
of dwellings recently designed and erected by Mr. Matthew
�9
Allen, of Tabernacle Walk, Finsbury, for Mr. Alderman
Waterlow.
A patient and anxious consideration of the whole subject
led to the conclusion that the following were among the
most important points which required consideration :—
I. A ground plan easily adaptable to any plot of
ground, capable of repetition to any extent, and
presenting in the elevation a pleasing and attrac
tive appearance.
II. Suites of rooms at different rents, so planned as
to secure the greatest economy of space, mate
rials, and labour, in the erection of the building,
providing at the same time for the exclusive
use of each family, within the external door of
the lettings, every essential requisite of domestic
convenience.
III. The construction of a flat roof capable of being
used as a drying and recreation ground, so as to
leave as much space as possible available for
building.
IV. Planning the positions of the doors, windows,
and fireplaces, with reference to a suitable ar
rangement of the furniture of the apartments,
and the placing of proper fireplaces, cupboards,
shelves, &c., in every room.
V. An efficient system of drainage and ventilation.
VI. Making the joinery as near as possible to an
uniform size and pattern, so that machinery
might be brought to bear in economizing its
manufacture to a considerable extent.
VII. The discovery and adaptation of a new material
combining the properties of strength and dura
�10
bility, adaptability, attractiveness of appearance,
and cheapness, in an eminent degree.
VIII. The combination of these advantages in build
ings which, when let at fair rentals, would
produce a good return on the outlay incurred in
their erection.
IX. The selection of a locality where the ground rent
would not be excessive, although the tenants
would be sufficiently near* their work to enable
them to take their meals at home.
Let us now see to what extent these advantages have
been attained and combined in the present building. Its
general plan may be described as a parallellogram of 56
feet by 44 feet, divided into four sections by a party wall
in the centre and the two passages (EE) in the middle of
each wing. The two centre sections arc set back about
3 feet from the line of frontage, for the purpose of giving
space for a balcony of that width on each of the upper
floors. Each section comprises one suite of rooms, to
which access is obtained from the passages (EE) leading
(on all the upper floors) direct from the balcony (G). The
balconies arc reached by a fireproof staircase having a semi
elliptical form, the entrances to which are shown on the
elevation by the two doorways in the centre of the building.
This staircase is continued to and gives access to the roof.
The larger lettings, consisting of three rooms and a wash
house, occupy the end sections of the building. E D the
entrance door, g is a living room provided with a range
having an oven and boiler. Leading out of the living room
is tlie washhouse or scullery (ft) which contains in every
case what may be called the accessories of the dwelling,—
water cistern, sink, a small fireplace, washing copper, dust
shoot, water-closet, &c. It is expected that the fireplace
�11
in the washhouse will conduce greatly to the comfort of
the living room in the summer time. Q is a comfortable
bedroom having a fireplace; a capacious cupboard (H) is
arranged in the party wall between this room and the
entrance lobby, and over the latter is a useful receptacle
for the stowage of bulky objects. Passing out towards
the front parlour (0), is a series of shelves having
an artificial stone bottom and back, intended by its
proximity to the living room to serve as a cupboard for pro
visions, &c. 0 is a, spacious handsome parlour having two
windows : the fireplace is placed a little out of the centre
of the room, so as to leave a convenient space in which to
put an additional bed in cases where this would be
required to be used as a bedroom. On the other side of
the fireplace is a sideboard and cupboard.
The centre sections, comprising the smaller lettings,
consist of two rooms and a washhouse, &c. The wash
house A and the living room B are exactly similar to
those in the larger letting The bedroom Q can be con
veniently converted into a parlour by arranging a set of
curtains across the recess at the back of the room, and
thus dividing the part where the bed would be placed from
the rest of the apartment. WWW represent the win
dows. The plan is the same on each side of the party
walls, and every floor or flat is a repetition of the
other. Close to the ceilings of all the rooms a ventilator
is placed which communicates with air shafts running
through the centres of the chimney stacks. The air is thus
constantly rarified, and a system of natural ventilation is
produced. Besides this, it will be seen that by setting open
the windows a current of external air can be at one
passed through every room in the direction of the dotted
lines. The lower panes of the windows are filled in
with ornamental ground glass, so that no window blinds
�12
are necessary. The windows are constructed oil a some
what novel principle, being made to open outwards
like ordinary French casements, but the two lower
panes are not made to open, so that the danger of
children falling out, as well as the disadvantages of
the ordinary window sashes, are avoided. All the rooms
are 8 ft. 9 in. in height. The other dimensions are figured
on the plan, and need not be repeated here. Drainage is
effected by means of 4-in. stoneware pipes passing from
the top of the building, down the corners of the washhouses,
directly to the common sewer. The dust shaft carries the
dust to covered receptacles at the base of the building,
and each shoot is provided with an iron cover so as to pre
vent the return of dust and effluvia. The dust shafts are
also continued to the top of the building, and act as ven
tilators to the dust bins. The greater part of the rooms
especially the living rooms, have scarcely any external
walls, so that they will be always warm and dry. All
the rooms are plastered and papered, and the wash
houses are plastered and coloured. Every tenant has
his apartments completely to himself, and nothing
is used in common except the roof as a drying
and recreation ground. By extending the area of the
building three or four feet in every direction the size of
the rooms could be easily increased, and suites of rooms
obtained well adapted to the requirements of any class
of the community. With the view of judging of the
happy effect that a row of these buildings would produce,
the visitor is requested to stand a hundred yards away
from the building and imagine the pleasing appearance of
a street having several buildings like this on eacli side
of the way. The party walls on the roofs might be
dispensed with in cases where several blocks arc built
side by side, and the roofs thus connected together would
���observing the rapid and facile manner in which it is made
to assume any desired shape. Castings will be made and
removed from moulds in the presence of the visitors.
With respect to the window
dressings and sills it will, probably, be admitted that the use
of the new material is a vast improvement on the ordinary
York sills, and yet the moulded ornamental sill is actually
the cheaper of the two. In the case of the chimney pieces,
too, a marked improvement is recognizable. The com
monest Bath stone, got up in the plainest style, would
cost about twice as much as those of artificial stone with
ornamental sunk panels, and as there are seventy fire
places in the building, there is a great saving in the
aggregate. The effect when these are painted to imitate
marble is very tasteful. The Building Act renders
it imperative to make the stairs of fireproof materials ;
and when we compare the cost of the stairs formed of
this material with the price of ordinary stone steps, the
saving is found to be enormous. The patent material
possesses all the advantages of appearance and durability
of allrtland stone staircase at one-fifth of its cost, and at
half the price of even the commonest York staircase.
These stairs were all fixed in their places as the building
progressed, and they have endured the wear and tear of the
�1G
workmen s heavy boots for some months past—more wear,
probably, than they will suffer for the next three or foul
’s. In some cases they were “nosed” with Portland
nreprooi noors, m ordinary c
construction of 9-in. walls for their support, but here the
extraordinary lightness and strength of the material just
described enables 4-in. walls to be used with perfect safety.
The economy of materials and labour in this respect in a
building of five stories is so obvious that it need hardly be
referred to. Portions of the building will remain unoc
cupied for a few days after the opening for the inspection
of visitors presenting their cards, and opportunities of
making accurate comparisons of the superiority and
diminished cost of various articles formed of this material
and of the ordinary building stones will be afforded.
The judicious arrangements of the plan already alluded
to as securing the greatest economy of space and cost of
construction, combined with the application of this
beautiful material, overcome the great difficulty hitherto
felt in attempting to deal with the problem of reducing
the cost of such buildings to a sum that the net rent
would pay a good return in the shape of interest on the
outlay. The pleasure with which one greets the appear
ance of such a building is enhanced by the knowledge,
�17
based on experience, that similar erections can be under
taken at a cost of something like £110 per dwelling
(see account annexed at page 20). All that is now required
seems to be the judicious application of capital to the ex
tension of the system in the overcrowded districts of the
metropolis and the large towns of the kingdom.
It is earnestly desired to avoid the use of any names
which could have the effect of attaching to the buildings
the idea of their being intended for the exclusive use of
a particular class. It is feared that the somewhat indis
criminate use of the word “model” in connection with
this and kindred subjects, has had anything but a bene
ficial effect; it seems to be associated with the ideas of
centralization so repugnant to the feelings of Englishmen.
The Earl of Shaftesbury honoured the building with a
visit some few days since, and stated distinctly that a more
cheerful and attractive home had been built for £110 than
either of the Metropolitan Associations had produced at a
minimum of £180. On leaving, he expressed himself as
having spent one of the happiest afternoons of his life, as
he had that day seen that which he had been looking for
in vain for many years, viz., a clean, healthy, and desira
ble home for a mechanic, erected at a price that would pay a
fair return on the money invested.
The careful inspection of the friends of the movement,
with which the name of this noble earl is so honourably
associated, are cordially invited to afford the projectors the
benefit of their criticism. It is hoped that it will be easy
to engraft upon the plan as it stands any minor improve
ments that may be suggested by the experience and know
ledge of others.
It should not be forgotten that the buildings now under
review have been erected within a quarter of an hour’s
walk of the Bank of England, and therefore easily within
2
�18
the reach of the large number of artizans employed in
the City of London. This is a most important feature, for
the oftener a man takes his meals at home, and the more
he cultivates a domestic life, the less he is likely to yield
to the flaring attractions of the beershop and the gin
palace : the more he associates with his family, and sub
mits to the gentle influence of little children, the easier
will he be elevated in the social scale, improved as a
neighbour and influenced as a Christian.
Looking down from the beautiful flat roof of Lang
bourn Buildings, the eye-rests upon four or five acres of
ground covered with the most wretched houses, or rather
hovels, the majority of them containing only two rooms each
and having no back windows : the sight is saddening, and
would be most depressing if it were not cheered with a
knowledge that all these vile, tumble-down dwellings, so
close to the heart of the City of London, are now the
property of the Corporation of London, and will in 1867
revert to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners : there is some
hope that one or both of these public bodies, being so
deeply interested in the improvement of the homes of the
labouring classes, may devote a large portion of the site
to the accomplishment of so important an object.
In conclusion, it is possible that the objection may be
raised that the rents of the dwellings in Langbourn
Buildings (0.5. to 6-s. 6<7. per week) are beyond the means of
the working class. The reply to this would be, that, con
tiguous to the spot where this building stands, four other
blocks are to be erected ; and that long before this the first
block was completed, applications were received to a suffi
cient number to have filled the whole of the five blocks had
they been ready, and now that this one is ready for occupa
tion, not a day passes without bringing with it swarms of
eager applicants to be received as tenants at these and even
���APPENDIX.
THE OPENING.
After a minute inspection of the building in every part, and an
examination of the various uses to which the patent material had
been applied, as explained by the builder and inventor, Mr. Allen,
the company adjourned to the flat roof, where refreshments were
served under an awning.
Amongst the noblemen and gentlemen present were :—
Lord Radstock,
Lord Ebury,
W. A. Wilkinson, Esq.,
Samuel Morley, Esq.,
S. Gregson, Esq., M.P.,
C. S. Fortescue, Esq., M.P.,
Fredk. Byng, Esq., M.P.,
Edwin Chadwick, Esq., C.B.,
Wm. Hawes, Esq.,
Hy. Roberts, Esq ,
Benjamin Scott, Esq., F.R.S.S.,
Russell Scott, Esq.,
J. H. Friswell, Esq.,
Rev. W. Denton,
George Godwin, Esq., F.R.S.,
Revd. E. Bayley,
H. Barnett, Esq.,
Thos. Benton. Eso..
W. H. Collingridge, Esq.,
C. Reed, Esq.,
J. C. Colquhoun, Esq.,
Hy. Dawson Esq.,
Robt. Dimsdale, Esq.,
Edward Enfield, Esq.,
C. Gatliff, Esq.,
J. C. Conybeare, Esq.,
A. Haldane, Esq.,
C. J. Hilton, Esq.,
Jno. Hollinshead, Esq.,
H. De Jersey, Esq., C.C.,
D. Simms, Esq., C.C ,
Rev. A. P. Kelley,
W. J. Makwell, Esq.,
Rev. S. Minton,
Jno. Sperling, Esq.,
HrV. Tt TiinrwAll
Ebury.
The noble Chairman said that at the request of Mr. Waterlow he
proposed to say a few words in reference to the object which had
brought them together that day ; but it was a subject so extremely
interesting in itself, and of such extraordinary importance, that it
was really hard to say only a few words upon it. At that high
altitude and somewhat low temperature, however, he would endea
vour to be as brief as possible. Important and absorbing as had
�22
been the events of the past week in connection with the marriage of
the Prince of Wales, fraught as they were with interest to every one
present, and the excitement of which would be still fresh in their
minds, he yet felt that the circumstance which had brought them
together on the top of that house were of deeper interest and of far
more importance than those of which he was quite certain they all
had so lively a recollection, for upon the successful solution of this
great problem the welfare of our town populations entirely depended.
It was a subject upon which, as Lord Shaftesbury had eloquently said,
no man could think or speak too earnestly; for the condition of the
dwellings of the labouring classes was the besetting sin and difficulty
of the time, as it stood in the way of every good moral impression.
He was very sorry that that noble Lord was not present to share
their gratification, but he was quite sure that he would have been
there had it been possible. He saw before him a great number
of gentlemen who with himself had been long labouring in this
cause, and though they had met with somewhat bare success, he
was sure he was but speaking the feelings of all his friends and
fellow-labourers in saying that although they had not achieved
great commercial success, yet the work had not disgusted or
dissatisfied them, because they knew the real good they had effected
among certain classes of the people, and that in the commence
ment of an undertaking with the details and practical working of
which they were not practically acquainted they must expect to meet
with considerable failures. But to-day their interest in that under
taking centred itself in the project before them. He did not know
whether it was too early in the clay to say that the problem was
solved altogether ; but after having very attentively perused
the document which described the building, and having now care
fully inspected the building itself, he must say that, taking the
figures to be correct, and that it was capable of producing a rent
which would give a per-centage of seven or eight per cent, on the
outlay in its erection, a result had been obtained of no slight impor
tance, as it solved the difficulty over which previous experimentalists
had stumbled, and proved that building enterprises of that nature
could be rendered commercially remunerative. There were tides in
the affairs of men,—crises in the development of all great movements.
Buildings (5s. to 6s. 6c/. per week) are beyond the means c
the working- class. The reply to this would be, that, cor
tiguous to the spot where this building stands, lour othi
, 1 -]
J •) _ X J
-1 i 1
rftAll lUVfveti 111 villi
there to criticise the budding in every way, and he could tell him
that he had some severe critics there that day—critics who would
look to the proper accommodation of even the smallest child in the
establishment, and that had in fact been done; indeed,it was neces
sary that all these things should undergo the most careful scrutiny.
He could fairly say for himself, although he did not pretend to
possess the knowledge and experience of some of his friends around
him, that he could really find but little fault. He had looked at it
�23
in the most careful manner—he had felt it with his fingers—he had
walked about it—he had poked it with his umbrella, and he had
asked his friends’ opinion about it; and at that moment he had not.
been able to find anything of any importance to criticise. He was
quite unable to pick a hole in the undertaking, and he thanked God
that he had put it into the heart of a Christian man to do this great
and good work. (Cheers.) He thanked Mr. Waterlow from the
bottom of liis heart for the privilege of being allowed to be present
that day. He felt that this was a movement which laid at the
foundation of all social and religious progress, for it was impossible
to make impressions for good which could have any permanent
effect on the min<ls of the people, surrounded as they were in their
homes with that which tended only to brutalize and degrade. He
begged to propose Mr. Alderman Waterlow’s very good health.
(Loud cheers.)
In responding to the toast, Mr. Alderman Waterlow thanked
the noblemen and gentlemen present for their attendance there that
day and for their kind appreciation of his endeavours. He said that
his object in asking them there was twofold—first, of obtaining the
advice and criticism of men far better acquainted with the subject than
himself, before proceeding to the further development of his scheme ;
and he hoped also that the result of assembling together so many
distinguished philanthropists would be, that they would not separate
without laying the foundation of some broad and comprehensive
scheme for giving further stimulus to this most important movement,
in which he had endeavoured to render some assistance. He would
not dwell upon that which the Chairman had already urged with so
much clearness, as to the necessity of improving the domestic con
dition of the people before hoping to effect anything in the way of a
permanent moral reform, but he would <ask how much of the great
increase of that form of crime which was designated the social evil
owed its origin to the over-crowded and immoral huddling together
of the sexes. So long, too, as the working classes were compelled
to live in close, inconvenient, badly devised and overcrowded dwell
ings, it was impossible to make them thoroughly feel and appreciate
the great truths of the Bible. He was thoroughly convinced that
before the preaching and teaching of ministers of religion could have
that beneficial effect on the labouring classes which they all lookedfc >r ■
ward to, that the demoralizing influences which now surrounded the
poor in the condition of their homes must be removed. So strongly
had this been seen of late, that vigorous attempts had been made to
improve the dwellings of the poor. Without referring in detail to
the great efforts that had been already put forth in various quarters,
he would go at once to that which was undoubtedly the great diffi
culty of the matter—the apparent impossibility of obtaining a good
return on the outlay incurred in the erection of Improved Dwellings.
It was because of this failure of remuneration that capitalists could
not be found willing to continue the erection of such dwellings. He
wanted to show that 8 or 9 per cent. CQuld be obtained by the adoption of the present plan. He was constantly referred to the practical
�24
results realized by the Metropolitan Associations, and was told that
the return he predicted looked better on paper than would eventually
tarn out; but the Metropolitan Associations were the pioneers of
the movement—they had had to contend with and conquer diffi
culties which would now be avoided—they had gradually acquired
an experience of which others were reaping the profit; and their
own accounts showed a return of 4| per cent, on the Family Dwell
ings erected in St. Pancras Square on a cost of erection at the
rate of £160 per dwelling, but here the cost of such a dwelling
would be only £110, and the same rents were obtained: there
fore it was obvious that that which returned 4J per cent, on
£160 would amount to 7 per cent, on £110. But the average
return on the operations of the Metropolitan Association was not
encouraging. This society had spent about £80,000, and had
only realized a return of about 2| per cent. He felt certain that
it was on this point that he was able to demonstrate a remedy.
It was simply a question of reducing the cost of dwellings to such
a sum that the amount received by their rental should form a good
and encouraging return on the outlay. It was absurd to suppose
that the great body of working people were to be allowed to depend
on the efforts of charitable people to provide them with homes.
He was quite prepared, if any gentlemen were desirous of proof,
to show that these buildings, which were certainly quite equal to
those of St. Pancras, could be erected in any number for £110
each. He would say one word as to locality : he believed it to be a
m atter of the most essential importance, both as a matter of economy
and policy, that the working man’s home should be near enough to
his work to enable him to take every meal with his family ; it was
better, cheaper, and more comfortable in every respect. He believed
that the more a man was Subjected to home influences of a healthy
kind, the less he was likely to succumb to the flaring attractions of
the gin palaces. One of the best possible localities, he thought,
for carrying out an experiment of this kind was that in which they
then were,the freehold of which belonged to the Ecclesiastical Com
missioners, and held by the Corporation of the City of London, on
a jease expiring in 1867. If those two powerful bodies could be
influenced to give preference in reletting the ground to the pro
moters of a movement having for its object the removal of the
wretched hovels they saw around them, and the replacing them
with dwellings of a similar character to that on which they then
stood, a great advantage would be gained. The importance of such a
movement was admitted on all hands, and he thought that he had now
proved its feasibility. He did not, for one moment, mean it to be
understood that they were desirous of obtaining possession of the
ground on more favourable terms than others ; all that he wanted was,
the assurance of an ordinary lease on the ordinary terms at the
ordinary market value of the ground. In the present case, the ground
rent was twice that which it ought to be, in consequence of his
having had to negotiate with and pay large premiums to persons who
stood between himself and the freeholders. He would add a word
�25
or two further, before sitting down, when he would be prepared,
and anxious, to answer any question which might be put to him. The
piece of ground of which he had obtained possession was sufficient for
the erection of ninety homes such as they had just inspected, by
the removal of 32 two-roomed houses such as those around him ;
he felt that in the erection of these ninety homes, and in thus
assisting to prove the possibility of making such undertakings pay,
he was doing as much as could be properly expected of him as a
private individual; but he could not sit down without saying, that, in
his opinion, the figures and facts he had brought forward made out
a proper case for the operations of a public company, a body having
a large capital divided into two classes, the protected capital and the
unprotected capital, the former bearing a fixed rate of interest, 4 per
cent., the latter taking the commercial risk and the rest of the
profit. He made this suggestion because he was told, on very good
authority, that there were plenty of people who, if they could be
guaranteed a fixed rate of 4 per cent., would be glad to invest large
sums of money in such an undertaking; and he believed that the
public would be readily tempted to take up the unprotected capital,,
on the prospect of obtaining 10 or 12 per cent, for their money.
In this case he showed a return of over 9 per cent., even under the
disadvantage of the high ground-rent which he had mentioned 'r
but if they thought this overestimated, let them strike off 20
or 25 per cent., as a discount on his statements ; that would then
leave them more than 6 per cent., and the difference between
that and 4 per cent., which would have to be paid on the protected
capital, would bring up the other half—the unprotected capital—
to 9 per cent. If the suggestion was thought worth acting on, he
would be only too happy to do all in his power to carry it out.
He, was sure that there were many gentlemen present who were
able to offer valuable advice and criticism, and he assured them
that he was very anxious to hear everything they might have tosay. He begged to thank them heartily for the honour they did
him in drinking his health, and to express the great pleasure he
derived in seeing so many friends of the working classes present on
the occasion.
Edwin Hill, Esq., as an old director of the Metropolitan Associa
tion, claimed the privilege of saying a few words. He said that
the physical and moral good created by the erection of such a
building as the present extended far beyond its own area, as it
acted as a most powerful competitor with the dirty, squalid habita
tions by which it was surrounded, and that in many cases the
landlords of the latter had been compelled in self interest to
imitate the good example of cleanliness set by these kind of dwell
ings. He felt, moreover, that such a home greatly conduced tothe moral purity of its inmates.
Edwin Chadwick, Esq., C.B., said there could not be a doubt that
these buildings were a very large stride in economy of construction,
and that if the same economy had been enforced by the Metropo
litan Association they would have had 7 or 8 per cent. All the
�26
medical officers of health would agree with him that this building
was perfectly fever proof if they took care to prevent two people
occupying space intended only for one. This building might be
looked upon as well adapted to the requirements of the
Earl of Shaftesbury’s provision, that in future railway com
panies proposing to pull down a number of dwellings should be
compelled to erect a proportionate number of others in their place.
It was plain, in fact, that the railway companies would probably
make more money by the erection of such buildings than by the
construction of their lines.
Lord Radstock thought that as the gentlemen invested with the
disposition of Mr. Peabody’s munificent gift appeared to be
undecided as to how to apply it, it might go with some force
to them if those present were to unite in suggesting to them,
that before making any arrangement for its disposition they
should, at any rate, give this matter their most careful considera
tion. He was quite sure that any representation from such an
influential body of gentlemen as those then present would be apt to
attract more attention on the part of the trustees than would be
likely to be awakened by merely seeing the reports in the news
papers.
Mr. Alderman Waterlow had hoped that the trustees of the
Peabody Fund would have dealt with it in a different way, and he
thought that instead of turning their attention to building homes, it
would be better if they applied the money to the purchase of sites, to
be let at nominal reuts, under a stringent covenant that the lease
should be instantly void if the ground was at any time used for any
other purpose than providing dwellings for the poor. They would
thus be offering most direct inducements for the construction of good,
healthy, well-built dwellings; the ground would be constantly
increasing in value, and would remain in perpetuity as the poor
man’s site.
J. C. Conybeare, Esq., had been long convinced that the only
remedy for the existing evils was the use of some material which
would at once effect a great reduction in the prune cost of construc
tion, and he felt that that was obtained in the present building.
With regard to the proper carrying out of any undertaking for the
complete development of this very valuable idea, he would much
prefer to see it left in the hands of a London Aiderman ; he would
be glad to see it worked by a philanthropic citizen, aided by his
commercial and mercantile fellows of the citizen world of England.
It required to be taken up and prosecuted entirely as a business
matter. He would be sorry to see the Peabody Fund applied to
building any of these houses, but he thought that the suggestion
as to its acquiring sites was a remarkably good one. He was anxious
that something should be done, too, for the improvement of the
cottages of England ; he could speak from experience of the fact
that they were in a most disgraceful condition in several counties.
Samvel Morley, Esq., in moving the first resolution, “ That this
meeting having inspected Mr. Aiderman Waterlow’s model building
�27
ancl listened to the explanations afforded, is of opinion that the very
best moral and social results, and very fair expectations of an ample
return on the capital invested, would result from, the erection of
such buildings,” said, he had very great pleasure in meeting then
Lordships and the gentlemen present on that occasion for he could
not doubt that if the statements they had heard and the figures put
forward in the balance-sheet were borne out by the facts a great
stride had been made in the subject which laid so close to the great
social questions of the day. He joinedmost heartily in the encomiums
that had been pronounced upon the building.. He thought that the
builder had in a very prominent manner exhibited a degree of talent
in designing, and attention to his work in executing it, whic 1
deserved to be taken notice of by them, and that, at any rate, he
ought to receive the expression of their respectfid admiration. He
had read with great interest the pamphlet with which lie supposed
they had all been provided, and he quite agreed with the writer m
insisting that attention should be paid to the provision of every
necessary accessory of a home to the exclusive use of a single letting.
He sympathized also with the respectful attention, which it demanded,
to the comforts of the working-man. He would have been glad to
have seen the fulfilment of the promise which the late Mr. Pearson
made, by which arrangements could be made for large numbers ot
workmen living out of town. With regard to the rents, he accepted
the explanation offered in the pamphlet on that subject, andlie thought
at, the same time that the accommodation was well worth what was
charged. He was entirely in favour of carrying the matter further
under private supervision, and he was quite prepared to go into le
matter if Aiderman Waterlow would put himself at the head of such
an undertaking. He should go into it with a clear and distinct
expectation of receiving a good return on his capital. The amount
of money which could be used iu connection with such a scheme was
perfectly enormous, and he believed it could now be most, profitably
applied in this way.
.
m-Datn
The City Chamberlain (Benjamin Scott, Esq., f .K.b.b.) naci
great pleasure in seconding the resolution He did not know
whether he had been invited there in his official capacity or not,
but he felt that he should not be unduly committing himself, or the
other members of the Corporation who were present, in stating
that in the event of his advice being required as to whether the invest
ment of a portion of the Corporation’s large funds m this undertaking
was advisable, he should have no hesitation whatever in saying that,
in his opinion, such an investment would be a highly safe and proper
one, and that it would be likely to be productive, at the same time,
of the greatest moral and social benefit to the people of the metro
polis. They had gone into the consideration of the question some
years since, and obtained powers from Parliament to apply a large
portion of their spare capital in the erection of Improved Dwellings.
The question had, however, remained m abeyance, m consequence
of their finding they could not build them at a remunerative rate.
The building to which their attention was then directed, how
�28
ever, would, no doubt, lead to a revival of the subject. This building,
so far as his observation went, was a return to a practice uni
versal in the ancient world, and general at the present time in the
eastern world, of availing themselves of the pure air and light of
heaven which were to be obtained at the elevated position in which
they stood. Medical men would tell them that the cheerful
influence of the solar rays, and the refreshing breezes, were of as
much importance to health as a proper supply of good food and pure
water. He saw no reason why we should not, as far as possible,
adopt the salutary practice of the Turk, of constantly frequenting
the housetop.
Henry Roberts, Esq., F.R.S., said that he wished to give ex
pression to the great interest and satisfaction with which he had
gone over this building. It seemed to him to be one of the fruits
produced by the small building erected by His Royal Highness
Prince Albert at the Exhibition of 1851. He had seen that build
ing repeated in various forms, not only in the United Kingdom, but
in many places on the Continent; and he now saw the same build
ing extended and repeated here. Here were the open staircase and
gallery—the fire-proof floors and the flat roof—all of which were
leading features in the lamented Prince Consort’s model dwellings.
He was quite sure that, if they knew as he did, the great interest
with which His Royal Highness devoted himself to the subject,
they would feel especial pleasure in finding that this building was
a further development of the excellences which were so notice
able in those model dwellings of 1851. He would take that oppor
tunity of testifying to the fact that up to the closing scene of his
eventful life the subject before them had been to Prince Albert
one of unflagging interest.
Mr. Robert Cranston supported the resolution, and dwelt with
great force on his experience in connection with the erection of
buildings of a similar class in Edinburgh. He was prepared to
show a clear return of 8 per cent, as the result of his investments.
If a proper plan were adopted in the first instance, and a suitable
locality chosen, he could not have the slightest doubt that this re
turn might be always obtained. He might state that he was origi
nally himself a practical builder, and Mr. Allen had kindly allowed
him access to the figures in connection with this undertaking, and
in the presence of these and his own experience he hoped to hear
no more of the operations of charitable associations, as the necessity
for their help in the matter had now passed away, and it would be
only a matter of time to apply the natural remedy which was now
happily attained.
The resolution on being put from the chair was carried unani
mously.
W. A. Wilkinson, Esq. proposed the health of the noble Chair
man, and bore testimony to the readiness with which he associated
himself with every movement of a progressive nature.
The toast having been drank,
The Chairman thanked the gentlemen present for the compli
�29
ment, and said that the work in which they were engaged was bound
to go forward ; it had received an impetus that day which would
not allow of the question standing still any longer. There was one
omission to which he felt bound to call the worthy Alderman’s at
tention. He had invited only gentlemen to be present that day.
Now, the ladies were quite as much interested in the question, and,
whether they knew it or not, he believed that they had a great deal
more influence in it than the gentlemen. (Cheers.)
Mr. Alderman Waterlow explained that the building would
remain open for public inspection for two or three weeks, and he
hoped that would afford a better opportunity for ladies to inspect it.
The Chairman continued. There was a duty before them which
he was sure all would gladly discharge. They had inspected the
whole of this building, and were delighted with the completeness ofits arrangement in every part; but they ought to be mindful of the
fact that that which gave them so much pleasure to see realized
had been a matter of long-continued patient thought and effort on
the part of Mr. Allen. He could quite understand that there must
have been an enormous amount of really laborious work in re
arranging, and altering, and turning about in every way. He proposed
that they should drink the health of the architect and builder, Mr.
Allen, and wish success to the project which had been suggested.
The toast was drank with great cordiality.
Mr. Allen thanked their lordships and the gentlemen present
for the kind manner in which his name had been referred to, and
for the honour they had just done him. He could assure them
that this building had been a matter of the greatest anxiety and
interest to him for the past three or four years, but now that it was
completed he felt that it amply rewarded him for all the time he
had bestowed upon it. He was now only anxious that the number
of them should be greatly increased, and after what had been said
that day he had no doubt that the matter would be placed in
the hands of men capable of ensuring it the success which he was
proud to believe it deserved. (Cheers.)
The Chairman said that the whole subject seemed to him one of
such vital importance in every way that he proposed to ask the
Rev. Samuel Minton, with Mr. Waterlow’s permission, to offer a few
words of prayer for its success.
The Rev. S. Minton having complied with this request the com
pany dispersed.
���HEALTHY DWELLINGS FOR THE INDUSTRIAL
CLASSES,
LANGBOURN BUILDINGS, MARK STREET, PAUL STREET, FINSBURY SQUARE.
Designed and erected by Mr. Matthew Allen, for Mr. Alderman Wateri.ow.
��Ground Plan af a Flat, Nos. 1 and 4 having Four! Rooms, and Nos. 2 and 3 Three Rooms in each Letting.
The coloured parts indicate that the floors are constructed of Alien’s patent fireproof material, of which also the staircases and roofs are composed.
References: A-Wash-house
W
*_________________ ,_______________ _
___________________________________ ___________________ 56' 3‘
W
F' External Staircase
_____________________________________________________________________________________
HEALTHY DWELLINGS FOR THE INDUSTRIAL CLASSES,
LANGBOURN BUILDINGS, MARK STREET, PAUL STREET, FINSBURY SQUARE.
Designed and erected by Mr. Matthew Allen, for Mr. Alderman Waterlow
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Improved dwellings for the industrial classes: ground plan and elevation of Langbourn Buildings, Mark Street, Paul Street, Finsbury Square, designed and erected for Alderman Waterlow by Mr. Matthew Allen, with descriptive notes, and an appendix by J.A Mays
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 29 p. : ill. (2 folded plates) ; 20 cm.
Notes: Incomplete: p.15/16, part cut away; p. 19/20 removed; p. 21/22 part cut away. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway,
Creator
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Mays, J.A.
Date
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1863
Publisher
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Robert Hardwicke
Subject
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Housing
Social problems
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (Improved dwellings for the industrial classes: ground plan and elevation of Langbourn Buildings, Mark Street, Paul Street, Finsbury Square, designed and erected for Alderman Waterlow by Mr. Matthew Allen, with descriptive notes, and an appendix by J.A Mays), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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G5396
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Text
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English
Conway Tracts
Housing
Langbourn Buildings - London
London
Sidney Hedley Waterlow
Social Problems
Working Classes
-
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Text
�THE LATE FBISCffi CONSORT, AT SHE GREAT EXHIBITION OF 1851.
NOW ERECTED AT KENNINGTON PARK.
MODEL COTTAGES FOR WORKING MEN, DESIGNED UPON THE OPEN STAIRCASE PJSINCIP&E, BY HENRY ROHAftTS, ESQ., F.&A.
PLATE
{See Page 30.)
1.
m
�OVERCROWDING;
THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
LONDON:
LONGMANS,
GREEN
18 6 6
AND
CO.
�PRINTED BY
WATERLOW AND SONS, CARPENTERS’ HALL,
LONDON WALL.
�OVERCROWDING;
THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
One of the most momentous, and one of the most pressing
questions of our age is this of how to find healthful, pure,
and comfortable dwelling-house accommodation for the in
dustrial classes of the community. The distinct and specific
object of the present publication is to bring the general his
tory and various practical bearings of that question n-nder
comprehensive review, within as narrow a scope, in as con
secutive a form, and with as much completeness of detail
as, within reasonable limits, is possible.
The importance of the subject is beginning to be acknow
ledged on all hands. The most illustrious princes, the most
influential statesmen, and the most laborious philanthropists
of our time, have not only had their attention called to it,
but have brought to its consideration their deepest solicitude
—to its exposition and enforcement, their highest eloquence.
It is a question in which the late lamented Prince Consort
took an anxious and practical interest—a fact which, of itself,
might be accepted as a proof of its urgency; for Prince Albert
did not patronise philanthropy as one of the pet amuse
ments of the day, or devote himself to the investigation of
its many problems as fields for curious speculation or dilletanti
research. Into his studies of topics of this nature he brought
�4
OVERCROWDING ;
the true and earnest spirit of a wise beneficence—a benefi
cence in which the calm and judicial sense of the philosopher
was ever in the service of a right Christian devotion to the
welfare of mankind.
Since Prince Albert took the step which may be almost
said to have given birth to one of the most glorious social
reformations ever initiated, and to which reference will
again, in due course, have to be made, the importance of the
question has increased in a degree which may, without any
exaggeration, be described as appalling. And the importance
of the question must necessarily increase with the increase
of our population, and with the increase of the material ad
vantages with which our country is being so liberally blessed.
This question involves the prime conditions of the physical
health, the moral purity, the social order, and the political
honour of the community ; it comprises the leading terms
on which the welfare of the individual, as also that of the
State, can be secured.
It must not be forgotten, however, that a general and ear
nest public interest in the question will be absolutely neces
sary to the carrying out of this great reform. To help to
create that public interest is the aim of the present writer.
The patronage of a prince, an occasional speech in the House
of Lords or the House of Commons, an experimental effort
here and there to oope with a mightily abounding evil, will
be, however noble in themselves, mournfully inadequate to
the demands of the case. Until the whole body of the peo
ple, the rich and the poor, the small and the great, shall be
brought to see its interest and to feel its duty in this mat
ter, abuses and corruptions will accumulate until they explode
in catastrophe. Truths are wrapped up in this question
which the people themselves must learn, before the question
can be considered to be solved. Ignorance of those troths
will be fatal, not only to the efforts made to achieve reform,
but, what is worse, to the very people in whose behalf the
reform is attempted. And even information will be of little
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
5
service, in such an enterprise as this, unless it is backed by
conscience and vitalised by faith. Indeed, it is as true in the
actual providence of life, as it is in the code of Divine Jus
tice, that with an increase of knowledge comes an increase
of responsibility; and that ignorance is never punished so
severely for its sins, as intelligence is for its sins. “That ser
vant which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself,
neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many
stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things
worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.”
Now, the connection between the health and the virtue of
a community and its sanitary condition has been demon
strated in facts innumerable. The science of this question
is as positive as any which comes within the range of human
study. The principal lessons of sanitary science, moreover,
are not only acknowledged by the faculty—they are, to a
greater or a less degree, comprehended by every but the
lowest class of society. But do we practice what we know ?
Do we live according to the light which has been given us ?
Are we not, on the contrary, fully conscious of the humili
ating fact that, whilst our information has increased, the evils
of which we have through that information become cogni
sant have increased also ? Although the state of education
in England was never anything like so high and satisfactory
as at the present moment, it is to be feared that, through the
stolid selfishness of the rich, and the selfish stolidity of the
poor, the sanitary condition of England was never, in some
momentous respects, so bad as now. Notwithstanding those
enterprises a rapid historical survey of which will be found
in these pages, it yet remains true that the necessity for
overcrowding is being forced upon the London poor at a rate
more rapid than that at which improved accommodation is
being provided for them. It cannot be denied that the drain
age of the metropolis is, as a system, more complete than at
any former period; yet we get only a very partial benefit from
�6
OVERCROWDING J
this fact, owing to the manner in which the people are
huddled together, without the sweet purifications of fresh air,
or the scarcely less necessary refreshment of heaven’s light;
compelled to breath diffused death, and existing under wellknown conditions of inevitable emaciation, probable pestilence,
and all but certain moral as well as physical degeneracy.
Wise men learn the truth and obey it. Fools learn only
by experience ; and the experimental fruits of insanitary sins
are so subtle in their development, and so occasional in the
more startling calamities that mark their growth, that fools,
■without the aid of wise men, will never learn the truth at all.
The wise men, however, have compared the phenomena of
health and of disease until they have mastered the chief laws
by which the relations of health and d isease are regulated. And
now the science of the subject is clear. Alas, that only gigantic
public calamities should have the power of enforcing its
lessons upon us ! Alas, that men who are wise enough to build
up a science of health, should be fools enough to neglect
their own prescriptions until disaster comes upon them in
furious desolation, to prove that truth is sacred and may not
with impunity be profaned, and that God’s laws are sup
ported by the omnipotence of His own dread justice, whose
chastisements fall on all by whom they are outraged and
defied!
An old proverb says, that “ self preservation is the first
law of nature.” If we look at life in its larger relations and
more general manifestations, apart from the accidents that
startle our deepest instincts into their boldest action, and
those occasional moods of the soul when the sense of practical
responsibility seems to acquire the intensity of religious
enthusiasm, it is to be feared that the proverb finds but par
tial illustration in the habits of mankind. How few of us
live day by day according to the laws of life ! How little do
conservative considerations obtain in the physical customs
and personal indulgences of even the most enlightened mem
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
7
bers of our community ! How recklessly do we mix poison
with our food, and death with our drinks ! How shamelessly
do we trample on the divinely ordained canons of health
which have been made known to us ! But, in no case is the
instinct which prompts to self-preservation more atrociously
or systematically ignored than in the matter of the construc
tion, the situation, and the material administration of our
dwelling-houses. In relation to thousands upon thousands of
our fellow countrymen our elaborate economy of civilisation
is but an artistic aggravation of the native barbarities of the
race. Why do men build houses at all ? W hy do they not
encamp on the open heath, in the beautiful meadows, on the
hill-side, heaven’s sun shining upon them, and the stars their
faithful night-watchers ? The answer might be furnished by
a fool, and it would be a foolish answer. A house, we say,
is a memorial of family association, a temple for all homely
adorations, a device for the protection of social delicacy, a
shelter from the stormy blast and the treacherous air, a pro
tection against fatal fogs and the pestilential vapours that
rise from the diseased earth. Such is the pretence of civili
sation. Now, in multitudes of instances, what is the fact ?
A house is but a den of depravity, a haunt of indecencies
which in the open air would be intolerable even to those who
are doomed to the endurance of them, a nest of pestilence, a
sepulchre into which living corpses are thrown in heaps, and
under the very eye of society are left to putrify before disso
lution has commenced its work, at once the citadel of fever
and the sanctuary of famine, where a torpid revelry in ghastly
indelicacies is almost the only sign that human conscience
and human consciousness are not altogether extinct. If “ self
preservation were the first law of nature,” what poor wretch
would seek a dwelling in these abodes of death ? And, if it
should be said that the poor are helpless and must be pitied
in their misery, if self-preservation were really the first law
of nature, would, not the wealthy and the well-to-do at once
�8
OVERCROWDING ;
set about the correction of an evil which is pregnant with
peril as with shame to them ? Would they not take care
that the “ fever nests ” which have been built close to their
own mansions should be destroyed ? Would they not recog
nise their common interest in the welfare and the health of
their neighbours ? Would they not, knowing as they do that
pestilence does not confine its desolations to the scenes where
it has its birth, but assails the miscellaneous throng with a
most undiscriminating ferocity, seek, by purifying the whole
locality in which they reside, to protect themselves against
its ravages ? They would, if selfishness were not a blind
and a perverted passion within them. As the miser starves to
death rather than spend the gold he worships on the means
of life; so, too often, does society cherish the spirit of a
wicked and delusive self-security rather than make the little
sacrifice necessary to its own health and happiness.
It is a melancholy fact on which to reflect, but it is a fact,
that our wonderful material progress as a nation is the great
cause of the dangers which press upon us, and to the removal
of which it is the aim of the writer, in his own way, to con
tribute. When an enterprising- individual advances from
poverty to opulence, he mostly improves himself in all the
departments of his own personal being, and in all the asso
ciations of his life as he goes along. He will adapt himself
to his changing circumstances with an elasticity and tact
than which there is in human nature scarcely anything more
extraordinary or more admirable. His providential capacity
improves with his improving fortunes, so that dignity sits
easily upon him, and his new responsibilities find him pre
pared to sustain and discharge them. It is not always so,
however. Some men get rich who display no faculty for the
rational enjoyment or the honourable dispensation of their
wealth. They are always in a muddle. Their poor relations
are kept about them in a squalid condition, a disgrace to
themselves and a nuisance to the neighbourhood. Their
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
9
rooms are just as small as in the old time ; the only difference
being that they are now inconveniently crowded with incon
gruous furniture. All the actual embarrassments of life are
unchanged. There has been no development of the method
and plan of existence corresponding with the development
of its means and resources. Our metropolitan community
has, it must be confessed, shown very much of this spirit of
improvidence in its recent amazing progress. Its wealth has
increased enormously; so has its population. But it has not
applied its increase of wealth to the task of providing im
proved accommodation to its rapidly and awfully accumulating
numbers. Thus its comforts have diminished as its means of
providing them have augmented. It has vigorously com
menced repairing the mischief at one end, but this only
increases the confusion and humiliation at the other. We have
proceeded to the enlargement of our shops and warehouses,
and to the improvement of our facilities for locomotion; but
this has resulted in a formidable contraction of the area allotted
to the necessarily resident population. Our public improve
ments, in fact, have been carried out without prescience, true
economy, or a pretence to harmony and completeness. We
have yielded to the pressure first of one exigency and then
of another; and thus, whilst we have been working out an
incumbent reform in this direction, we have actually been
aggravating a threatening abuse in that.
At last, however, the special and supreme evil with which
we are called upon to grapple is distinctly recognised. That
evil is overcrowding. The measures which have been already
adopted to meet that evil we will now proceed briefly to sketch.
Sanitary science, in its remedial applications, may be said
to have gained no attention in this country until the visita
tion of the cholera in the year 1832. It is quite true that
men like John Howard, Dr. Chalmers, and some others, had
occasionally, and with much earnestness, warned the public
of the frightfully unhealthy conditions under which the poor
�10
OVERCROWDING J
in'large towns were obliged to live, but these individual voices
were unheeded; and even the ravages of pestilence excited
more morbid consternation than enlightened solicitude. In
1834, Mr. Sidney Smirke published his “ Suggestions for
the Architectural improvement of the Western part of Lon
don,” in which the claims of the poorer parts of the popula
tion to better household accommodation were warmly and
pathetically insisted upon. In 1837 a violent epidemic of
typhus fever broke out in the eastern districts of the metro
polis, and the Poor Law Commissioners appointed Dr.
Southwood Smith, the father of sanitary reform in this
country, to undertake an investigation into the general con
dition of that part of London, whilst similar investigations
in other parts of the metropolis were entrusted to Dr. Neil
Arnott and Dr. Kay (now Sir J. T. Kay Shuttleworth). The
results of these inquiries led to the formation, in 1839, of
the “ Health of Towns Association,” the object of which was
to devise and to execute remedial measures for the horrible
unhealthiness of the towns which had been brought to light.
In the following year, on the motion of Mr. Slaney, a com
mittee of the House of Commons was appointed to further
extend these inquiries. The Bishop of London, at the same
period, earnestly pressed the question on the consideration of
the House of Lords. In 1842, the Poor Law Board pub
lished the “ Deport of an Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition
of the Labouring Population,” which Lord Stanley has de
clared has been from that day to the present the text-book
of sanitary research.
The year, 1842, was a very important year in the history
of this question. Then was the Royal Commission appointed,
consisting, among others, of the Duke of Buccleugh and the
late Duke of Newcastle, for inquiring into the state of
the large towns and populous districts; and it may be here
mentioned that the final clause of the instructions given to
this Commission directed inquiry to be made “ as to how far
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
11
the condition of the poorer classes of the people, and the
salubrity and safety of their dwellings may be promoted by
the amendment of the laws, regulations and usages.” That
Commission published two Reports, one in 1844, and another
in 1845 ", and those Reports distinctly trace to the condition of
the houses of the labouring classes the main cause of the
excessive sickness and mortality which had been disclosed in
the returns of the Registrar-General; and had further
distinctly traced to certain definite conditions in and about
those houses the constantly recurring epidemics which, at
that time, swept away one half of the children while they
were as yet in their childhood, destroyed by fever the heads
of families in the prime of life, and deprived the whole of
the labouring part of the population of more than one-third
of the natural term of existence. The Reports of this Com
mission, combined with the increased public interest which
had been excited in the subject, led to the adoption of several
important legislative measures, amongst which we may par
ticularly mention the Public Health Act of 1848, and the
Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Acts of the
same year—acts which have been subsequently amended—the
two latter in 1855, and again in 1860, and the former in
1858. In 1851, also, an Act was passed to enable parishes
or boroughs containing not fewer than .10,000 inhabitants,
either to build new houses or to adapt old ones, with a view
to provide better lodgings for the labouring classes; power was
also granted to raise money and to defray the attendant ex
penses out of the poor rates, such houses being made, as far
as possible, self-supporting. In the same year, 1851, an Act
was passed for regulating Common Lodging Houses—a Bill
the operations of which were, in 1853, made compulsory, and
by which certain important conditions of cleanliness, proper
ventilation, and the avoidance of overcrowding, as well as the
separation of the sexes, were enforced. Another very useful
measure, “ The Labourer’s Dwelling Act,” for promoting the
building of dwelling-houses for the labouring classes, and
�12
OVERCROWDING
providing for the registration of joint-stock companies formed
for that purpose, was passed in 1855.
The tendency of all these enactments was good, and the
principle on which they were based was a sound one. It is
clearly within the province of the legislature to enforce upon
landlords and tenants the observance of sanitary regulations.
Restraints are put upon, and responsibilities are attached to,
the sale of poisons; and the neglect of the fundamental laws
of sanitary science is nothing less than the diffusion of fatal
poison throughout the neighbourhood in which it obtains.
A dwelling-house which contained no provision for ventila
tion and for the carrying away of the refuse of its occupants,
might have inscribed over its portals, “ All die who enter
here; ” and, surely, if that condition of residence were made
known, the State would be bound to protect society against
the issue. We do not permit a butcher to sell putrid meat,
even though the purchaser should buy it with his eyes open.
The frankness of the bargain is no mitigation of its crimi
nality. Why, then, should a landlord be allowed to let his
houses in a state absolutely incompatible with the health of
the tenant ? The plea of liberty is no more available to bim
than to the chemist in relation to the sale of poisons, or to
the butcher in relation to the sale of -putrid meat. And, as
suicide is, in every well-organised society, punished as a
crime, there is really no reason why the gross neglect of all
the primary conditions of health should be left in the enjoy
ment of a mischievous impunity. As Mr. Roberts has shrewdly
and sensibly observed in one of the many useful pamphlets
he has published on this question, “ The class who have not
the power of protecting themselves, and who suffer so greatly
from the consequences of that inability, may justly expect .
at the hands of Government the same immunity in regard
to their dwellings which the public at large are entitled to
in regard to the falsification of weights, and the unwhole
some condition of staple articles of food.” And, indeed, this
argument from analogy may be. carried much further, and
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
13
may be applied to the tenant as strongly and as severely
as it is applied to the landlord. The man who, from igno
rance, indifference, or insane disregard to the conditions of
physical health, settles down in a fever nest, has the same
claim to be protected against himself as the man who should
✓ obstinately refuse to take food, or, under some wild impulse,
should seize a razor with the intention of cutting his own
throat. In other words, just as the chemist who carelessly
dispenses poison is legally guilty of the consequences of his
act, even to the extent of manslaughter, so the landlord, who
permits his property to become a habitation of pestilence,
should be held legally guilty of the consequences; and as the
man who wickedly stands in the way of death is amenable to
the law for his folly, so should the occupant of a foul house
be held accountable for the great sin of which he is guilty.
Indeed, between the careless chemist and the neglectful land
lord on the one hand, or between the would-be suicide and the
dirty tenant on the other, there is this difference, all of which
is, in both cases, greatly in favour of the former. The evil
effects of poison administered in mistake, or swallowed with a
view to self-destruction, are confined to the individual; whilst
the man who, by his foul habits, creates impure air, breeds
diseases which are contagious. He scatters death and desola
tion broadcast. The mischief he does is public, not personal.
He is liable himself to become the victim of his own vices;
but in falling he does but augment the malignant force, and
enlarge the empire of the evil to which he has succumbed.
In enforcing the observance of certain broad, plain, and
essential principles of sanitary economy upon the community,
therefore, the Government has but discharged its most legiti
mate obligations, and fulfilled one of the very first purposes
of its existence. Government is an arrangement primarily
for the protection of the life of its subjects; and uncleanli
ness is just as murderous in its effects, and just as obviously
within the scope of social responsibility, as playing with vast
quantities of gunpowder, or the dispensation of unwholesome
food.
�14
OVERCROWDING
It is worthy of being remembered, however, that so far
Government has found itself unable to deal with one branch of
the evil. In all those Acts to which allusion has been made
there is no distinct provision against overcrowding. The
legislature has insisted on certain most manifest and most
important conditions of health—such, for example, as the
thorough drainage of the subsoil, the abolition of the cesspool,
and the substitution of the watercloset, involving what may
be described as the regular and complete drainage of the
house internally, and at least a minimum supply of fresh air
and pure water. In the Common Lodging Houses Act
(which, as has been said, is a compulsory measure, but which
has been in many large towns, through the indolence of the
authorities, grievously neglected), the evil of overcrowding
was recognised, and safeguards against it were introduced,
by the restriction put upon the numbers accommodated in the
establishment for the better regulation of which the Act was
passed. The great developments of the evil of overcrowding,
however, do not take place in the common lodging-houses.
They are to be found in private dwellings, into which Govern
ment inspectors do not penetrate. There they rage unchecked;
and all the other sanitary improvements which have been
introduced into the districts where such houses abound, are
rendered comparatively useless by the prevalence of the
special evil under consideration. The Medical Officer of
Health in the City of London has frankly admitted that this
is the case. He says—(l Without doubt, overcrowding is the
worst of all the unwholesome influences with which you have
to deal, and until it is corrected you will never be secure from
those outbursts of disease which appear to set your sanitary
measures at defiance.” In a report made by the Assistant
Commissioner of Police on the condition of single rooms
occupied by families in the metropolis, without the precincts
of the city authorities, the following emphatic declaration to
the same effect may be found :—“ It is evident that all the
evils which the Acts for regulating common lodging-houses
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
15
were intended to remedy still exist, almost without abatement,
in single rooms occupied by families, single rooms so occupied
being exempt from the operation of the Act.” Ventilation
is absolutely necessary to healthful existence under all cir
cumstances ; but no structural provision for ventilation,
howsoever perfect, can counteract the contamination of the
air consequent on overcrowding. It must be admitted that
the ventilation of the private rooms where families live
huddled together is exceedingly inadequate to start with;
whilst, if it were faultless, it could involve no security of pure
air under existing conditions. It is calculated that not less
than 500 cubic feet of air are necessary to the due and
healthful sustenance of each individual, and that even that
supply requires to be thoroughly changed once in the hour.
The Lodging House Act requires an allowance of 700 cubic
feet for each inmate. Police constables lodged in a station
or section-house are allowed 450 cubic feet per person. Miss
Nightingale, in her Notes on the Sanitary Condition of
Hospitals, says—“ In solid built hospitals the progress of the
cases will betray any curtailment of space much below 1,500
cubic feet. In Paris 1,700, and in London 2,000, and even
2,500 cubic feet, are now thought advisable.” These esti
mates are, of course, exceptional, and, as a standard of what
is necessary in common life, would be deemed altogether
impracticable. But, at any rate, they serve to show the direct
and momentous relation there is between health and fresh
air; and, if that relation really exists at all, it is obvious that
thousands and thousands of the tenements occupied by the
families of the working classes of London are utterly unfit for
the uses to which they are devoted.
The worst phase of the subject, however, remains to be
stated. It might be argued on abstract political grounds,
that the Government is bound to prevent the lives of the
people from being sacrificed to the unhealthy conditions of
existence complained of; but, supposing that proposition is
granted, the question arises as to what Government is to do
�16
OVERCROWDING J
in the matter. The fact is, the evil is of such magnitude
that the legislature is totally incompetent to deal with it.
There are those who, influenced by a benign concern in the
physical welfare of the poor, would urge upon the legislature
the duty of preventing those great public improvements by
which the industrial orders are being gradually driven into
an ever-contracting area. With such we cannot agree. In
the general view of things, and in the long run, society will
gain more by the public improvements referred to than it
loses in the inconveniences, terrible though they be, incident
upon their adoption. Commercial enterprise is, in itself, a
good; and the commercial growth of the nation is a prodi
gious benefit, for which every wise and thoughtful man will
be grateful to Providence. And that growth has its con
ditions, which are just as evident and just as positive as are
the conditions of health. To attempt to curb the cotti-mcroial
and material progress of the country by legislative enact
ments, in the interest of the domestic and social convenience
or welfare of a particular class in the community, would be a
short-sighted policy indeed. But even if New Oxford Street
and Victoria Street, Westminster, had never been made; if the
Metropolitan Railway system had been arbitrarily restrained;
if the proposed new law-courts should be abandoned; the
great difficulty under consideration would not be met. In
deed, we may go so far as to say that if a temporary stop
could be put to the increase of the population, the worst
elements of the difficulty would still remain to be dealt with;
and those elements would be beyond the physical resources
and the political responsibility of the State. Let it be granted
that the legislature should institute a general inspection of
private dwelling-houses, and rigidly enforce therein the
clearly ascertained laws of physical health, still, what would
be the result ? Simply that thousands and thousands of the
population would be turned out into the common streets, and
left without any homes at all. Bad as is the existing state
of affairs, therefore, the arbitrary application to it of the
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
17
merely primitive or disciplinary bearings of our sanitary laws
would be its aggravation rather than its cure.
The full weight of this argument cannot be too minutely
elucidated or too emphatically urged. We will suppose, for
a moment, that the sanitary policy of the Government is
made much more stringent .than it has been; and that Her
Majesty’s Commissioners are sent forth through the length
and breadth of the metropolis with distinct instructions—
first, to condemn to destruction all houses unfit to be the
habitations of men; and, secondly, to turn out of each house
all persons beyond the number which it will properly and
healthfully accommodate. The effect of the former course
would be enormous and appalling. In an admirable paper
read by Dr. Druitt, at the ordinary general meeting of the
Royal Institute of British Architects, February 20th, 1860, on
“ the Construction and Management of Human Habitations,
considered in relation to the Public Health,” we find the
following sentences, the perfect truthfulness of which is not
to be called in question
“ It appears absolutely necessary
to utterly remove the old, dilapidated, dark, squalid, damp
tenements which cover a large area of this metropolis. Prac
tically speaking they are perfectly incurable, and they serve
only as a nursery of an enfeebled and sensual population.
There are houses close by this from which disease is never
absent j the soil is sodden with damp and riddled with drains
and cesspools; the walls damp and saturated with the exhala
tions of years ; the wood, decayed and spongy, full of'vermin,
never looking clean, and, from its porosity, refusing to dry if
washed. Such houses are utterly hopeless ; and it is evident
that it would be a boon to humanity if the districts where
they prevail could be razed to the ground, the surface exca
vated, and then covered with dwellings which would admit
the light and air and encourage cleanliness.” Now, it so
happens that these vast masses of property, which a strict
sanitary commission would assuredly condemn, are packed
from floor to ceiling with human beings, one half of whom
2
�18
OVERCROWDING
at least would, by that same commission, be cleared out, even
if the property itself were tolerable. What good would this
be ? Before these harsh, though just, proceedings can be re
commended, provision must be made for the better accommo
dation of the population disturbed by them; and that is a
task which, on no sound principle of political economy,
Government should be permitted to undertake. The prac
tical conclusion is, therefore, that the legislature, in the
measures enumerated above, has done very nearly all that it
can under existing circumstances attempt. Let us now see
what voluntary philanthropy and free commercial enterprise
have done towards meeting this stupendous and matchless
evil of overcrowding.
Passing by the labours of the “ Health of Towns Associa
tion,” and the“ Metropolitan Sanitary Association,” as being,
however important and beneficial in themselves, not strictly
within the scope of the present publication, we may pay some
what close attention to the efforts of two societies the useful
ness of which must not be measured by the pecuniary success
which has attended some of their operations. Rather, per
haps, might it be said that as pioneers their experience is
likely to be of much benefit to associations which have since
been formed. By the experiments which they have made,
and the results which have attended them, we have at last
made good progress towards the discovery. of what are the
only conditions on which this great social and sanitary re
form can be carried out.
The “ Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings
•of the Industrious Classes ” was formed in 1842; and two
years later “ The Society for Improving the Condition of the
Labouring Classes,” with a more comprehensive programme,
set itself to pretty much .the same sort of practical work. Por
the present we will trace the operations of the former of these
societies. The exact nature of the objects which it was esta
blished to promote, and of the means it adopted for the ac
complishment of those objects, may, perhaps, be best gathered
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
19
from the first report of the directors to the shareholders, read
at the meeting held at the London Tavern, on the 6th of
March, 1846—no less than four years having been spent in
surmounting preliminary difficulties, and bringing the scat
tered and floating elements of the enterprise into cohesion,
consistency, and working order. That report is as follows :—
The attention, of the public and legislature has been lately much
directed to the sanitary condition of large towns and populous
districts. Investigations into this subject have been made, partly
by individuals, and partly by commissioners appointed under the
Crown; and the result of their labours is the collection of a body
of evidence, perhaps unequalled in extent and value, for the guid
ance alike of legislation and of private exertion.
One of the main subjects of all these inquiries is the condition of
the dwellings occupied by the poorer classes; and the evidence
establishes two facts with regard to these dwellings; first, that
they are in general extremely wretched, many of them wholly unfit
for the habitation of human beings j and, secondly, that the tenants
of these miserable houses pay an exorbitant rent foi‘ them.
The founders of this association, impressed by the evidence ad
duced of the deplorable physical and moral evils directly traceable
to these wretched dwellings, conceived the plan of attempting some
improvement in the general construction of the poor man’s house,
and some addition to its convenience and comfort. They did not,
indeed, imagine that it would be possible for any private body of
men to provide suitable habitations for all the poor, even of the
metropolis ; but they thought that it might be practicable, by the
combination of capital, science, and skill, to erect more healthy
and more convenient houses for the labourer and artizan ; and to
offer such improved dwellings to these and similar classes, at no
higher rent than they pay for the inferior and unhealthy houses
which they at present occupy.
It appeared, further, to the association, that if it were practicable
to present some examples of houses well built, well drained, and
well supplied with air, water, and light, and to -offer these dwellings
at no greater charge than is at present demanded and obtained for
houses in which no provision whatever is made, or even attempted,
for the supply of any one of these essential requisites of health, clean
liness, and comfort, a public service would be rendered beyond the
mere erection of so many better constructed houses; that the in
fluence of this example could scarcely fail to be beneficial; that,
especially, it might help to rendei’ it no longer easy for the land
lord to obtain an amount of rent for houses of the latter description
which ought to suffice for those of the former; and that it might
�20
OVERCROWDING ;
thus indirectly tend to raise the general standard of accommodation
and comfort required in all houses of this class.
It was no part of the plan of the association to attempt to assist
the poor by offering them any gift, or doing anything for them in
the shape of charity; experience having shown that while the means
afforded by charity for the removal of extensive and permanent
evils are always inadequate, because always too limited and too
transient, her gifts in such cases do not really benefit the recipients;
but, on the contrary, have a tendency to injure and corrupt them,
by lessening their self-reliance and destroying their self-respect.
The proposal of the association was, therefore, that the industrious
man should pay the full value for his house ; but that for the sum
he pays he should possess a salubrious and commodious dwelling,
instead of one in which cleanliness and comfort can find no place ;
in which he can neither maintain his own strength, nor bring up
his family in health ; but must constantly spend a large portion of
his hard-earned wages in the relief of sickness.
The plan proposed by the association for the accomplishment of
their object was to raise the necessary capital by shares, and to ob
tain a charter from the Crown, limiting the liability of the share
holder to the amount of his individual subscription. On submitting
their object and plan to the Government, Sir Robert Peel and Lord
Lincoln, after some consideration, expressed their entire approba
tion of it, thought it likely to accomplish much good, and advised
the granting of the charter by the Crown.
It was stated to the Government that, while on the one hand
the essential principle of the association is that of self-support, and
that the founders of it must regard their scheme as a failure, if it
does not return a fair profit on the capital employed, yet that, on
the other hand, it was not their design to set on foot a money
getting speculation ; that their object, though not charitable in the
common acceptation of the term, was philanthropic and national,
and that it was their desire that the profits, after the payment of a
moderate rate of interest, instead of going to increase the amount
of the dividend, should be applied to the extension of the plan.
The Government approving of this principle, the main provisions
of the charter, now in possession of the association, have been
framed in accordance with it, and are as follows : —
The limitation of the liability of the shareholdei’ to the
amount of his individual subscription.
Dividend not to exceed £5 per cent, per annum.
£25,000 capital to be subscribed before commencing works,
and £10 per cent, thereon paid up.
The capital may be increased with consent of two-third
parts in number and value of the shareholders and sanction of
the Board of Trade.
The charter bears date the 16th October, 1845
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
21
Now, we have here a most enlightened appreciation of the
moral and financial grounds on which alone an enterprise of
this kind can be legitimately and healthily conducted. The
utter futility of attempting to render charitable aid to a com
munity like that of the working orders of the metropolis in
the matter of their household accommodation, is just as obvious
now as it was then; and all the experience which has been
gained on the subject confirms the principle that this mighty
reform must be brought within the grasp and under the
control of recognised commercial laws before it will have
anything like a chance of receiving that general support from
the trade and the public, without which it must remain little
better than an amiable chimera or a benevolent dream.
The perusal of the successive reports of the “ Metropolitan
Association,” read in the light of this incontrovertible propo
sition, has, perhaps, rather a discouraging effect. In every
respect but the financial the society seems to have worked
prosperously enough. The sanitary results were uniformly
splendid. The precise advantages aimed at were obtained
with a uniformity absolutely startling. The association
observed the following sanitary conditions with great strict
ness in all its building operations :—
1. The thorough drainage of the subsoiPof the site.
2. The free admission of air and light to every inhabited
room.
3. The abolition of the cesspool, and the substitution of the
water-closet, involving complete house-drainage.
4. An abundant supply of water; and,
5. Means for the immediate removal, by means of dust
shafts, of all solid house refuse not capable of suspension in
water, or of being carried off by water.*
Now, the first experiment made by the Metropolitan Asso
ciation was in the Metropolitan Buildings, Old St. Pancras
Road, which consist of 110 tenements, 20 of which have two
* See “Results of Sanitary Improvement,” by Southwood Smith, M.D.
Knight and J. Cassell, 1853.
C.
�22
OVERCROWDING J
rooms each, and 90 three rooms, and every one of which has
attached to it a scullery, provided with a sink, a supply of
water at high pressure at the rate of forty gallons per day; a
dust-shaft, accessible from the scullery, and a separate watercloset. Other sets of buildings have been erected, or appro
priated by the society; as, in Albert Street, Mile End New
Town, and Pelham Street, and Pleasant Row, Mile End.
Branch associations have been formed in various provincial
towns, and lodging-houses and dormitories established. Into
all the details of these experiments, however, it is not neces
sary that we should here enter. At present, we wish simply
to present the reader with the sanitary results of the enter
prise, as tested more particularly by the “Metropolitan
Buildings ; ” and in doing so, we find it impossible to render
the statement either more brief, lucid, or impressive than as
it appears in the report of Southwood Smith already referred
to. We, therefore, append his analysis just as it stands :—
The results of the experiment with reference to its great object,
the protection of health and the diminution of preventible sickness
and mortality, are now to be stated.
In the year 1850, the comparative mortality of the residents in
the Metropolitan Buildings, both adults and infants, was so small,
that it was generally concluded that the result was accidental.
In the year 1851, this comparative low rate of mortality con
tinued, though the actual mortality was highei' than in the former
year.
In the subsequent year the mortality again became nearly the
same as in 1850.
The following are the exact results :—
In 1850, the total population in the Metropolitan Buildings, Old
Pancras Road, was 560, and the deaths were 7, being at the rate
of 12 and a half in 1,000 of the living.
In 1851, the total population was 600, and the deaths were 9,
being at the rate of 15 in the 1,000.
In 1852, the total population was 680, and the deaths were 9,
being at the rate of 13 and a fraction in the 1,000. The average
mortality of the three years in tfcese buildings has been 13-6 per
1,000.
But taking together the whole of the establishments of the
association, which had now come into full occupancy, the total
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
23
population for the year ending March, 1853, amounted to 1,343.
Out of this number there were, during that year, 10 deaths, being
at the rate of 7 and a fraction iu the 1,000.
If this mortality is compared with the mortality of the metro
polis generally, and with the mortality of one of its worst districts,
the following results are obtained :—
The deaths in the whole of the metropolis, during the same
year (1852), reached the proportion of 22 and a fraction in the
1,000 ; consequently, the total mortality in London generally,
taking together all classes, rich and poor, was proportionally more
than three times greater than the mortality in these establishments.
On a comparison of the infant mortality in these dwellings with
that of the metropolis generally, the results present a still more
striking contrast. Of the total population in the establishments of
the association (1,343), 490 were children under ten years of age.
Among these there occurred 5 deaths, being in the proportion of
10 in the 1,000. In the same year the infant mortality in the
whole of London reached the rate of 46 in the 1,000 ; consequently,
the infant mortality in the establishments of the association has
been little more than one-fifth of that in London generally.
This low rate of mortality, the comparative absence of sickness,
and the general state of well-being implied in the two former con
ditions, will appear the more remarkable when compared with the
mortality in one of the worst districts of the metropolis.
In the Notting Hill division of Kensington Parish, there is a
place called the “Potteries,” which is wholly destitute of the
sanitary provisions secured to the improved dwellings. Until
recently it had no drainage, and even now there is little that is
effectual. It has no supply of water, no means for the removal of
filth, and the houses are dirty, damp, and miserable beyond
description or belief.
According to the Census of 1851, the population of the Potteries
was 1,263 ; and the number of children at that time living, under
ten years of age, was 384. As the population of this place is not
migratory, but quite stationary, it may be assumed to be pretty
much the same in 1853 as it was in 1851. At all events, it may
be considered as sufficiently so, to afford the means of comparing
its mortality for that year with the mortality of the Metropolitan
Buildings.
From the returns of the Registrar-General, it appears that during
the year ending the 31st March, 1853, the total deaths in the
Potteries, from all causes, amounted to 51. In the Metropolitan
Buildings the deaths were 10 ; so that with a smaller population
(80 less), the deaths were 41 in excess. In the Potteries the deaths
from all causes, under ten years of age, were 42 ; in the Metro
politan Buildings they were 5, being an excess of infant mortality
�24
OVERCROWDING ;
in the Potteries of 37. In the Potteries, the proportion of deaths
per cent, to the population was 4-03, or 40 in the 1,000 ; in the
Metropolitan Buildings it was -74, or 7 in the 1,000, being an
excess in the Potteries of 33 in the 1,000. In the Potteries, the
proportion of deaths per cent., under ten years of age to the popu
lation under ten years of age, was 10’9, or 109 in the 1,000 ; in
the Metropolitan Buildings it was 1’0, or 10 in the 1,000, being an
excess in the Potteries of 99 in the l,(W)0. In the Potteries the
proportion per cent, of deaths from zymotic diseases, under ten
years of age, to the population, was 5'2, or 52 in the 1,000 ; in
the Metropolitan Buildings it was '82, or 8 in the 1,000, being an
excess in the Potteries of 44 in the 1,000.
If the deaths in the whole of the metropolis had been at the
same rate as in the Potteries, there would have died in London, in
that year, 94,950 persons, whereas the actual deaths were 54,213 ;
that is, there would have been a loss of upwards of 40,000 lives ;
and if the whole of the metropolis had been as healthy as the
Metropolitan Buildings, Old Pancras Hoad, on an average of the
three years, there would have been an annual saving of about
23,000 lives.
Nothing could possibly be more conclusive or more encou
raging than this, proving, as it does, that in improving the
dwelling-house accommodation of the people, we are really
not only improving their physical health but prolonging their
lives.
The experience of the Society for improving the Condition
of the Labouring Classes is equally stimulating. As we have
said, this society commenced its operations in 1844; and
besides encouraging the establishment by the working classes
of field gardens, and the cultivation of small allotments of
land, it has also contributed largely to the movement to the
claims of which this pamphlet is dedicated. The beneficial
effect of its labours on the life and health of its constituents
has been remarkable. We may find room for just one ex
ample, for which we are again indebted to Dr. Southwood
Smith. It is that afforded by the history of Lambeth
Square, which, before the society in question took it in hand,
was just as unhealthy as those Kensington Potteries to which
reference has before been made : —
Lambeth Square is situated in the Waterloo Hoad district of the
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
25
parish of Lambeth. Tt consists of 37 eight-roomed houses which
let at about £28 a-year, and are chiefly occupied by the foremen
of large establishments, and the more skilled and highly-paid class
of artizans. In outward appearance, and in their general aspect
within, these houses are very superior to the ordinary abodes of
the same class in other parts of the metropolis, and present no
obvious cause of peculiar unhealthiness.
According to the last census this square contains a population
of 434 souls. Among this number on a house-to-house examina
tion, it was found that in one year (1851) there had occurred 80
attacks of zymotic* and other diseases, and 24 deaths ; that is,
nearly one person in every five had been laid up with sickness,
which had proved fatal in the proportion of between 50 and 60 in
1,000.
When built about twenty years ago these houses had been fitted
up with untrapped closets, communicating with flat-bottomed brick
drains, then in universal use. A number of the drains passed
directly under the houses ; they were wholly unprovided with any
regular water supply for cleansing ; consequently, instead of carry
ing away the ordure, they retained it within the houses; and the
emanations arising from the stagnant mass of putrefying matter,
were carried back into the houses, through the open closets, in a
proportion increasing with the obstruction in the drains.
At the beginning of 1852, a new system of drainage was ap
plied to the whole square. Water-closets were substituted for
cesspools, and stoneware pipes for brick drains, and the apparatus
was provided with an adequate supply of water.
By these improvements the houses were placed in the same
sanitary condition essentially as the society’s dwellings. The
result on the health of the inhabitants was strikingly similar,
On a re-examination of this property in November of the present
year (1853) it was found that the mortality had been reduced
from 55 in 1,000, to 13 in 1,000.
This point, however, is now universally conceded; and the
question which remains for solution is simply how the con
ditions of sanitary improvement may be rendered available to
the great mass of the community. And relative to that
question, the experience of the two associations referred to has
* From a Greek word, signifying to ferment. The term is employed meta
phorically, as if this class of diseases were produced and propagated by a kind
of fermentation. In these pages it is used merely for the sake of shortness to
include the entire class of preventible diseases.
�26
OVERCROWDING
furnished valuable information, by the light of which their
successors will doubtless attain more satisfactory results.
Let us deal with the “ Metropolitan Association” first. Some
circumstances which tend to explain the small rate of profit
realised by this association should not in fairness be forgotten.
The preliminary expenses were heavy; the Royal Charter
having been obtained at an outlay of not less than £1,430Moreover, the plan of some of the buildings, more especially
in the adoption of internal staircases, instead of external gal
leries, for giving access to the various tenements, by which
they are liable to house-duty, is a disadvantage to which no
future experiments are likely to be exposed. Then, the
society’s capital is invested in undertakings of various kinds,
some of which are much less remunerative than others; and
thus the average dividend is greatly reduced. In nineteen
years—i.e. from 1846 to 1865—the “ Metropolitan Associa
tion for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes”
expended close upon £92,000 on ten ranges of buildings, in
which accommodation was provided for 420 families and 362
single men. On new buildings, giving accommodation to 371
families, the expenditure was £68,947. Is. 5d.
On this
outlay, a net return was in 1865 obtained, of £3,507.15s. 4d.;
being at the rate of upwards of 5 per cent. On an expenditure
of £5,471.18s. 7d. on old houses, the net return the same year
was £277. 11s. lid., or at the rate of upwards of 5 per cent.
The returns from the lodging-houses and dormitories for single
men were not so satisfactory, amounting only in the gross
to Ilf per cent., from which the expenses of management
must be deducted before the balance available for dividend
can be calculated. The profits from the Dwellings for Families having therefore to be applied to the payment of dividend
on unproductive capital amounting to £18,398. 11s. 5d.,
absorbed by preliminary expenses and Single Men’s Dwellings,
the dividend for the year 1864-5, was at the rate of only 3|
per cent, upon the whole of the capital.
It is curious that whilst the sanitary results attained by
the “ Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
27
Classes ” should have been so perfectly analogous to those
attained by the “ Metropolitan Association,” a corresponding
analogy in the financial results of the operations of the two
societies should be apparent. After an experiment of eight
years, the Labourer’s Friend Society, on a total expenditure
of £35,143. 13s. 3d., in 1852, realised a net return of
£1,385. 3s. 4d., being at the rate of about 4 per cent.
From the twentieth report of the society presented at the
annual meeting held at Willis’s Booms on the 28th of June,
1864, under the presidency of the indefatigable chairman of
the committee, the Earl of Shaftesbury, K.Gr., we gather that
the gross profits realised on the nine establishments worked
by the society, costing a total sum of £37,485. 8s., were
£1,775. 3s. 4|d., or about 4| per cent., from which sum the
working expenses of the society must be deducted. The
accounts of this society, however, are not presented in a
very distinct manner to the public; and it is possible that
our estimate of profit may be not quite accurate. Be that
as it may, we believe it will be found to be rather above
than below the mark; and the latest absolute results cannot
be greatly in excess of those realised by the “ Metropolitan
Association.”
What these two societies are actually doing towards minis
tering to the home comforts of the working classes of London
may be very briefly set forth. The “ Metropolitan Associa
tion ” has, under its management, ten establishments, as
follows :—Albert Street, affording accommodation for sixty
families; Albert Cottages, accommodating thirty-three
families; Albion Buildings, accommodating twenty-four
families ; Ingestre Buildings, accommodating sixty families;
Nelson Square, providing homes for 110 families; Pancras
Square, containing 110 tenements; Pleasant Bow, accommo
dating nine families; Queen’s Place, accommodating ten
families; Albert Chambers, offering dormitory accommoda
tion for 234 single men; and Soho Chambers, offering
similar accommodation for 128 single men. Here, there is
household accommodation, healthy, comfortable, decent, and
�28
OVERCROWDING J
distinctly within the means of the industrious and provident
mechanic, for 420 families ; and lodging accommodation for
362 single men. The business, considered as a business, is an
immense one; and the amount of physical convenience,
domestic comfort, and moral advantage represented by it is
hardly calculable. The Society for Improving the Condition
of the Labouring Classes have now eight establishments,
besides a warehouse in Portpool Lane, the resources of which
are as follows:—Hatton Garden, lodgings for fifty-four
single men; Charles Street, Drury Lane, lodgings for eightytwo single men ; George Street, St. Giles’s, lodgings for 104
single men; Portpool Lane, household accommodation for
twenty families, and lodgings for sixty-four single women;
Streatham Street, household accommodation for fifty-four
families; Wild Court, single room accommodation for 106
families; Tyndall’s Buildings, single room accommodation for
eighty-seven families, and lodgings for forty single men ; and
Clark’s Buildings, Bloomsbury, single room accommodation
for eighty-two families. Here there is household accommoda
tion for seventy-four families; single room accommodation
for 275 families, and lodgings for 280 single men, and for
sixty-four single women. On the whole, the order of persons
accommodated is somewhat inferior to that for which the
“Metropolitan Association” makes provision; but the
attention to cleanliness and ventilation is not less strict, and
the sanitary results are, as we have seen, equally gratifying.
It would not be right, in this survey—necessarily summary
in its character—to pass over, without observation, the efforts
of the St. James’s Sanitary Association, presided over by the
Bishop of Lincoln; the Marylebone Association; the Lambeth
Association, which has derived great advantage from the co
operation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, in which H.B.H.
the Prince of Wales is the holder of a considerable number of
shares, and which provides accommodation for thirty-two
families; the “ Strand Buildings Company,” of which Viscount
Ingestre is chairman, which accommodates twenty-five
families, in Eagle Court, opposite Somerset House, and pays
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
29
a dividend at the rate of 4| per cent., all having the same
object in view. Nor must the labours of certain private
individuals be forgotten. In Bethnal Green, Miss Burdett
Coutts, at an expenditure of nearly <£10,000, entirely defrayed
by herself, has had erected a pile of buildings 172 feet in
length, and four storeys high, for the accommodation of fiftytwo families. W. E. Hilliard, Esq., of Gray’s Inn, has
rebuilt an entire street near the Shadwell Station, on the
Blackwall Bailway, taking as his model the late Prince
Consort’s Exhibition Cottages (which we reserve for special
consideration shortly). His plan comprises accommodation
for 112 families in blocks of four tenements each, each family
having three rooms, together with wash-house, coal-house,
water-closet, &c. The total cost of this experiment was
£13,643 ; and we have been informed that they pay a profit
of close upon 7 per cent, per annum. Mr. John Newson,
again, has constructed five piles of family dwellings on his own
account, situate respectively in Grosvenor Mews ; Bull Head
Court, Snow Hill; Bull Inn Chambers, Holborn; and
Grosvenor Market. In these dwellings he provides superior
domestic accommodation for 125 families, at an outlay of
£13,200; the net return upon which he estimates at 5^ per
cent. The lodging-house established at Camden Town, in
1854, by Messrs. Pickford and Co., by which sixty men are
accommodated, is a well-managed institution, which works
not unprofitably.
The late Prince Consort’s model dwellings for the working
classes may be now taken into consideration. We have
slightly neglected the chronology of the movement which we
have endeavoured to trace in not having noticed them earlier;
but our reasons for the deviation will be obvious when the
special architectural features it will be our duty to point out
come up for consideration. His Royal Highness always
manifested the deepest and most earnest interest in this
subject, and he himself informed the world “ his feelings were
warmly shared by Her Majesty the Queen.”
The Commissioners for the Great Exhibition held in Hyde
�30
OVERCROWDING ;
Park in J 851, in answer to an application made to them,
decided “ that a model lodging-house does not come within
the design of the Exhibition.” Thereupon the applicants
addressed a memorial to the Priu.ce Consort, who expressed
the most lively interest in the subject, and further indicated
his desire that the contemplated houses should be erected on
his own account. At a great sacrifice and personal trouble,
His Royal Highness secured the consent of four Grovern m on t
departments to the erection of the houses in the cavalry
barrack-yard, opposite to the Exhibition. The buildings were
raised, and they were visited and inspected by upwards of
250,000 persons. In their general arrangement the buildings
were adapted for the occupation of four families of the class
of manufacturing and mechanical operatives. They consist of
two floors with four dwellings on each floor. Each tenement
consists of three bed-rooms, living-room, lobby, scullery
water-closet, sink, dust-bin, &c.
These dwellings,* raised under the immediate care of
the Prince Consort, constitute the model of the larger number
of blocks which have been since erected. The superlative
advantages which they present may be easily enumerated,
and will be appreciated at a glance. The most prominent
peculiarity of the design is the receding and protected
central open staircase, communicating with the external
gallery. By this staircase, in conjunction with the fire-proof
floors and the flat roof, two or three very important results
are secured. In the first place, a great security in case of
fire is provided. Secondly, the perfect independence of each
tenant is secured, free even from the dull monotony and
comparative publicity of the common corridor. Then, lastly,
by virtue of this independence of each dwelling, the building
becomes exempt from the house duty.
The “Albert Cottages,” as they were called, consisted of
four tenements, two on each floor ; but it was one special
aim of His Royal Highness to have them constructed on
such a plan as would admit of the addition of a third or a
* See frontispiece.
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
31
fourth storey, without any other alteration than the requisite in
crease in the strength of the walls. Each tenement contained
—first, a living-room, having a superficial area of about 150
feet; secondly, a scullery, fitted up with a sink, a coal-bin, a
plate rack, a meat safe, and a dust shaft; thirdly, three
sleeping apartments, each with separate access, and window
into the open air, and two with a fireplace and, finally,
a water-closet, fitted up with a Staffordshire glazed basin, and
supplied with water from a' slate cistern on the roof. The
ordinary cost of a tenement of this character would be, it was
estimated by His Royal Highness, from £110 to £120, and
if let for 4s. a-week, after deducting ground-rent and taxes,
a net return upon the outlay of about 7 per cent, would be
realised. In this estimate, however, it must be borne in mind,
that no deductions are allowed for architect’s fees, working
expenses, or wear and tear—elements in the calculation, the
oversight of which must be held to modify the strictly com
mercial value of the rate of profit specified.
Notwithstanding this, however, it is due to the fame
of this great and good Prince to record the fact that, in the
history of the most beneficent movement of modern times,
he provided a sound and practical model of the work which
was required to be done; and, by his success, and the popular
attention which he was instrumental in drawing to the
subject, he raised it above the category of mere dreamy
speculations or spasmodic and eccentric philanthropies, and
invested it at once with the attraction of a practicable, and
the authority of an incumbent social reform.
The next stage in the progress of the cause thus hallowed
and brought within purely utilitarian conditions, is one which
may be fairly called a development of the idea and the plan
of the Exhibition Model Houses; we refer to Langbourn
Buildings, erected by Mr. Aiderman Waterlow. In entering
upon his large and costly experiment, Mr. Waterlow had
a very distinct perception of the supreme requirements
of the enterprise; and it was his special aim to afford to
Capitalists, as well as to philanthropic people, a demonstration
�32
OVERCROWDING ;
of the possibility of building healthy houses, containing
adequate accommodation, for the working classes on conditions
that would be commercially remunerative. Prince Albert’s
own words embodied that phase of the problem on the mas
tery of which the entire solution depended :—“ Unless we
can get 7 or 8 per cent., we shall not succeed in inducing
builders to invest their capital in such houses.” Mr. Waterlow, moreover, brought to the consideration of the subject in
its general aspects, rather the common sense of a man of the
world, than the pedantic and really morbid views into which
professional philanthropy is too apt to degenerate. By this
we mean that he saw the wisdom of allowing to the class for
whom he was about to provide as much credit for good taste
and social sensitiveness as possible. He, therefore, aimed to
give each dwelling the highest attainable individuality of
character; he resolved to appeal, in the fullest way open to him,
to the self-respect of his tenants ; he, therefore, avoided all
assumption of patronage; he made no pretence, either in the
style of the buildings themselves, or in the circumstances of
their erection, of being a dispenser of charity; and he
judiciously resolved to make no sacrifice of internal comfort
and decency for the sake of external ornament.
A patient and anxious consideration of the whole subject
led to the conclusion that the following were among the
most important points which required consideration :—
I. A ground plan easily adaptable to any plot of ground,
capable of repetition to any extent, and presenting in the
elevation a pleasing and attractive appearance.
II. Suites of rooms at different rents so planned as to secure
the greatest economy of space, materials, and labour, in
the erection of the building, and at the same time pro
vide for the exclusive use of each family, within the
external door of the lettings, every essential requisite of
domestic convenience.
III. The construction of a flat roof capable of being used as a
drying and recreation ground, so as to leave as much
space as possible available for building.
IV. Planning the positions of the doors, windows, and fire
places, with reference to a suitable arrangement of the
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
33
furniture of the apartments, and the placing of proper
fireplaces, cupboards, shelves, &c., in every room.
V. An efficient system of drainage and ventilation.
VI. Making the joinery as near as possible to an uniform size
and pattern, so that machinery might be brought to bear
in economizing its manufacture to a considerable extent.
VII. The discovery and adaptation of a new material com
bining the properties of strength and durability, adapt
ability, attractiveness of appearance, and cheapness, in an
eminent degree.
VIII. The combination of these advantages in buildings
which, when let at fair rentals, would produce a good
return on the outlay incurred in their erection.
IX. The selection of a locality where the ground rent would
not be excessive, although the tenants would be suffi
ciently near their work to enable them to take their
meals at home.
Mr. Waterlow was able, to an extent on which he is en
titled. to earnest congratulations, to carry out most of these
objects in the buildings which are so intimately associated
with his name. He secured a lease for ninety-nine years of
a plot of ground, situate in the most populous part of Fins
bury. To make way for the noble structure which he has
erected on this ground, he had to clear away a number of the
most wretched habitations imaginable. In his selection of a
site, he was thus fortunate; for he not only substituted
healthy and decent dwellings for hovels which were scarcely
fit for the accommodation of pigs, but he did this in a crowded
neighbourhood, and in close proximity to the scenes of the
labour of those who might be expected to become his tenants.
The locality is within a quarter-of-an-hour’s walk of the Bank
of England. It has another great advantage which should
not be passed over. The property of which it forms a part
will very shortly revert to Her Majesty’s Ecclesiastical
Commissioners, on the expiration of a long lease. The
estate is to a great extent covered with houses of the most
miserable character; and the great success of the experi
ment will, it is to be hoped, encourage the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners, on receiving the estate, to stipulate or provide
3
�34
OVERCROWDING ;
for an extensive improvement of the dwellings for the in
dustrial classes on a plan similar to that which has answered
so well. Every tenement which Mr. Waterlow has built is
complete in itself. Nothing is for the common use of the
inhabitants but staircase, balcony, and roof. Every domestic
office and • convenience is provided for each household sepa
rately. At a rent of 5s. or 6s. 6d. per week, therefore, a
complete and comfortable, as well as a thoroughly salubrious
home may be here obtained.
The enumeration of the “ important points ” held in view
which we have already quoted, as well as the following
description of the plan of the buildings and the nature of the
structure and general arrangements, are transferred from
the pages of an interesting little pamphlet by Mr. J.
Aldous Mays, which was written when the first block
of “Langbourn Buildings” was opened to public inspection
and criticism. This pamphlet is now out of print. After
saying that the buildings were designed and erected by
Mr. Matthew Allen, of Tabernacle Walk, Finsbury, the
writer proceeds:—“ The general plan* of a single block may
be described as a parallelogram, having a frontage of 56 feet
by a depth of 44 feet, divided into four sections by a party
wall in the centre and the two passages (EE) in the middle
of each wing. The two centre sections are set back about
3 feet from the line of frontage, for the purpose of giving
space for a balcony of that width on each of the upper floors.
Each section comprises one suite of rooms, to which access
is obtained from the passages (EE) leading (on all the upper
floors) direct from the balcony (G)- The balconies are
reached by a fireproof staircase having a semi-elliptical
form, the entrances to which are shown on the elevation by
the two doorways in the centre of the building. This stair
case is continued to and gives access to the roof. The larger
lettings, consisting of three rooms and a washhouse, occupy
the end sections of the building. E 0 is the entrance door,
B is a living-room provided with a range having an oven and
See Plates 2 and 3.
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
35
boiler. Leading out of the living room is the washhouse or
scullery (ft) which contains in every case what may be called
the accessories of the dwelling,—water cistern, sink, a small
fireplace, washing copper, dust shoot, water-closet, &c. It is
expected that the fireplace in the washhouse will conduce
greatly to the comfort of the living room in the summer time,
c is a comfortable bedroom having a fireplace; a capacious
cupboard (H) is arranged in the party wall between this
room and the entrance lobby, and over the latter is a useful
receptacle for the stowage of bulky objects. Passing out
towards the front parlour ([)), is a series of shelves having
an artificial stone bottom and back, intended by its proximity
to the living room to serve as a cupboard for provisions, &c.
[J is a spacious handsome parlour having two windows ; the
fireplace is placed a little out of the centre of the room, so as
to leave a convenient space in which to put an additional bed
in cases where this would be required to be used as a bed
room. On the other side of the fireplace is a sideboard and
cupboard.
“ The centre sections, comprising the smaller lettings,
consist of two rooms and a washhouse, &c. The washhouse
A and the living room B are exactly similar to those in the
larger letting. The bedroom C can be conveniently con
verted into a parlour by arranging a set of curtains across
the recess at the back of the room, and thus dividing the part
where the bed would be placed from the rest of the apart
ment. WWW represent the windows. The plan is the
same on each side of the party walls, and every floor or flat is
a repetition of the other. Close to the ceilings of all the
rooms a ventilator is placed which communicates with air
shafts running through the centres of the chimney stacks.
The air is thus constantly rarified, and a system of natural
ventilation is produced. Besides this, it will be seen that by
setting open the windows a current of external air can be at
once passed through every room in the direction of the dotted
lines. The lower panes of the windows are filled in with
�36
OVERCROWDING
ornamental ground glass, so that no window blinds are neces
sary. The windows are constructed on a somewhat novel
principle, being made to open outwards like ordinary French
casements, but the two lower panes are not made to open, so
that the danger of children falling out, as well as the disad
vantages of the ordinary window sashes, are avoided. All
the rooms are 8ft. 9in. in height. The other dimensions are
figured on the plan, and need not be repeated here. Drain
age is effected by means of 4-in. stoneware pipes passing
frGm the top of the building, down the corners of the wash
houses, directly to the common sewer. The dust shaft carries
the dust to covered receptacles at the base of the building,
and each shoot is provided with an iron cover so as to prevent
the return of dust and effluvia. The dust shafts are also con
tinued to the top of the building, and act as ventilators to
the dust bins. The greater part of the rooms, especially the
living rooms, have scarcely any external walls, so that they
will be always warm and dry. All the rooms are plastered and
papered, and the washhouses are plastered and coloured. Every
tenant has his apartments completely to himself, and nothing
is used in common except the roof as a drying and recreation
ground. By extending the area of the building three or four
feet in every direction the size of the rooms could be easily in
creased, and suites of rooms obtained well adapted to the
requirements of any class of the community. With the view
of judging of the happy effect that a row of these buildings
would produce, the visitor is requested to stand a hundred
yards away from the building and imagine the pleasing
appearance of a street having several buildings like this on
each side of the way. The party walls on the roofs might
be dispensed with in cases where several blocks are built
side by side, and the roofs thus connected together would
form a most agreeable private promenade. The contrast
that these buildings present to the wretched tenements by
which they are surrounded is in every way encouraging.
The lofty elevation at the front, with its spacious doorways
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
37
and. balconies, and ornamental railings, and the wide, bold
windows and arches, with their ornamental mouldings and
•sills, soon to be filled with flowers, have an imposing effect,
and compare most favourably with the aspect of the low
dirty hovels which flank the building on either side. At
the back, too, similar improvements are at once apparent.
In the place of the ordinary yard, just big enough to enclose
within its dilapidated brick walls the open water butt, beside
the reeking dust bin and privy, the eye here rests upon a
space enclosed from the street at the back by neat iron rails,
and. laid out in flower-beds and gravel paths. In the spaces
between the washhouses on each of the upper floors are
arranged landings or platforms, on which the furniture of
the occupants is landed by means of a rope, fall and pulley,
working from a beam placed across the space at the top.
This platform also serves the purpose of hiding the view of
the living rooms from the observation of persons in any of
the upper rooms; it will doubtless be used also for floricultural purposes by most of the tenants.”
It may be mentioned that the Earl of Shaftesbury visited
Langbourn Buildings shortly before they were opened, and
declared that a more cheerful and attractive home had been
there provided at a cost of <£110, than either of the Metro
politan Associations had produced at a minimum outlay of
£180 ; and that he had seen what he had been looking for
in vain for many years, viz., a clean, healthy, and desirable
home for a mechanic, erected at a price that would pay a fair
return on the money invested.
This is the distinct and special value of the experiment
in question ; and it was instantly recognised by all who had
taken any interest in the question. On the completion of
the first block a number of noblemen and gentlemen came
together for the purpose of inspecting the edifice; and the
testimony was not only unanimous as to the elegant appear
ance of the wThole, and the minute attention to comfort and
decency in the construction of each tenement, but, above all,
�38
OVERCROWDING J
as to the great importance of the point alluded to.
Lord Ebury, who occupied the chair, said :—
Thus,
He did not know whether it was too early in the day to say that
the problem was solved altogether ; but after having very attentively
perused the document which described the building, and having now
carefully inspected the building itself, he must say that, taking the
figures to be correct, and that it was capable of producing a rent
which would give a per-centage of seven or eight per cent, on the
outlay in its erection, a result had been obtained of no slight im
portance, as it solved the difficulty over which previous ex
perimentalists had stumbled, and proved that building enterprises
of that nature could be rendered commercially remunerative.
There were tides in the affairs of men—crises in the development
of all great movements. The name of a great duke who had now
passed away from us was associated with a struggle which was the
turning point of a great strife—the battle of Waterloo : so, in this
struggle, he thought they were now witnessing the victory of
Waterlow in the great battle in which they had all been striving.
Other speakers dwelt on the same point.
Langbourn Buildings,* at a cost of £9,000, provides, in
225 rooms, accommodation for eighty families; and we believe
that the highest expectations of the proprietor, as to the
satisfaction of his tenants, the constancy of their occupation,
and the commercial value of the property, have been fully
realised.
The immediate result of Mr. Aiderman Waterlow’s success
was the formation of the “ Improved Industrial Dwellings
Company, Limited,” of which Lord Stanley was the chairman.
This association is a commercial association, in the strictest
sense of the word. Although its leading members have been,
no doubt, mainly actuated by a desire to promote the public
welfare, yet the practical aim was to carry on the work which
had been so well commenced ; and, so far, the results
must be held as highly satisfactory. The society has already
undertaken five distinct enterprises in various parts of the
metropolis, as follows :—Cromwell Buildings, Bed Cross
Street, Southwark, which will accommodate 24 families ;
Tower Buildings, Wapping, which will accommodate 60 fami* See Plates 2 and 3.
�THE EVIL ANI) ITS REMEDY.
39
lies; Cobden Buildings, King’s Cross Road, Bagnigge Wells,
which will accommodate 20 families ; Stanley Buildings, Old
St. Pancras Road, 100 families ; and City Garden Row, City
Road, where 72 families will be accommodated. Presupposing
that the net return on these undertakings should average six
or seven per cent., as seems very probable, we may expect
that the Company will continue the good work, erecting new
blocks here and there as opportunity may offer, or their funds
will allow, and as the exigencies of the community may
require. It may be presumed, moreover, that with profits at
such a rate, regularly and permanently realised, there will be
no difficulty in obtaining any additional capital which may
be necessary to the carrying on of the enterprise.
We have now to notice the part taken in this great move
ment by the Corporation of the City of London. We shall
make this portion of our history as brief as possible, taking
care, however, to put the essential facts in due order before
our readers. By a resolution of the Court of Common Council
of the 23rd of October, 1851, it was determined that the
“ Finsbury Estate Surplus Fund/’ which amounted to
£42,469. 3s. should be applied to the purpose of providing
improved lodging-houses for the labouring poor. Through
inattention in some quarters, and the multiplication of little
obstacles in others, this resolution was a dead-letter for up
wards of ten years. In 1851 an Act of Parliament was
passed, called the Clerkenwell Improvement Act, authorising
the Corporation to construct the new Victoria Street, Holborn
(and we particularly refer to clauses 1 and 12 of that Act,
the former authorising the destruction of houses, and the
latter authorising the erection of improved houses in their
place). Within three months of the passing of that Act, the
Corporation evinced its sense of the moral obligaton it was
under, by voting the sum named for the purpose of erecting
the dwellings referred to, and referred it to the Improvement
Committee to carry the vote into effect. It was more than
five years before this Committee made any report to the
�40
OVERCROWDING
Court on the subject. They had, however, in the meantime,
purchased ground in Turnmill Street, Clerkenwell, as the
site for the projected building. In their report to the Cor
poration, presented at the end of the year 1856, they curiously
recommended that it would not be expedient to proceed at
present to the erection of lodging-houses on that site. In
1858 the Corporation decided that the balance of the £42,469
should be re-appropriated to the uses of the Corporation, and
indeed, that it should, along with other moneys, be applied to
the reduction of its liabilities. In a year or two, the plot of
land which had been bought by the Improvement Committee
was wanted by the Metropolitan Railway Company. In the
Act of Parliament authorising its sale, direct reference was
made to the engagements and responsibilities of the Corpo
ration on this point. Such was the situation of affairs when
Mr. Waterlow proposed and carried a resolution by which
the subject was referred again to the Improvement Com
mittee for re-investigation. The result has been a happy
one. The Corporation has become convinced of its obliga
tions ; and has handsomely discharged them. A piece of
freehold land has been purchased, at a cost of £16,000,
in the Farringdon Road, on which a magnificent pile of
buildings has been erected at a further cost of £36,000.
These buildings contain dwelling-house accommodation for
180 families. They are built exactly on the model of
Langbourn Buildings, with the exception that the external
decorations are on a somewhat grander scale: whether any real
improvement in the appearance of the edifice has been effected
by this outlay may, perhaps, be questioned. It seems, how
ever, that the Corporation could not well aim at a dividend of
more than 5 per cent.; and the cost of the outside splendour
which has been aimed at will, it so happens, just about reprcsen the difference between a dividend of 5 and one of 6 or
8 per cent. The average cost per room in Langbourn
Buildings was £40 ; in Cromwell Buildings it was £44 ; in
Tower Buildings, £41; in Bagnigge Wells, £43 ; in Old
St. Pancras Road it wras £46. In the Corporation Build
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
41
ings the average cost per room amounted to £60. We ven
ture to assert that that increased cost adds nothing to the
actual convenience, comfort, health, or happiness of the
tenants ; and, without saying a word in complaint against it,
we wish our readers to remember that the' 5 per cent, estimated
profit here is no fair argument against the soundness of the
calculations of others, that a profit of 7, 8, or 9 per cent, is
really attainable on dwellings of this class.
It now remains for us to consider what has been done in
furtherance of this great movement by the trustees of the
Peabody Fund. What that fund is, and how it came into ex
istence, every reader of this pamphlet will be already aware.
Suffice it, for the sake of the consistency of our narrative, to say
that, some three or four years since, Mr. George Peabody, an
eminent merchant of America and London, gave the munificent
sum of <£150,000 for the purpose of ameliorating the condition
of the poor of the metropolis. This sum he handed over to the
discretionary use of a committee, consisting of the American
Minister at the Court of Her Majesty, Lord Stanley, Sir James
Emerson Tennent, Mr. C. M. Lampson, and Mr. J. S. Morgan.
These gentlemen were to act as trustees of the fund on behalf
of the donor, and on behalf of those in whose interest the gift
had been so liberally bestowed. Mr. Peabody himself suggested
to this committee the desirability of applying at least a por
tion of the fund in the construction of improved dwellings
for those whom it was his especial desire to benefit.. After
delays which are greatly to be deplored, a beginning has been
made in this business. A series of dwellings has been erected
in Commercial Street, close to the Great Eastern Pailway
Station. This pile of buildings, first occupied on February
29th, 1864, consists of nine shops on the ground floor,
and fifty-seven tenements for families on the upper floors; the
rents of the latter are apportioned as follows—
7 tenements of 3 rooms each, 5s. OtZ. per week.
42
„
2
„
4 0
6
„
2
„
3 6
2
„
1
„
2 6
�42
OVERCROWDING
The experiment is one, some features of which are, we
think, not quite satisfactory. In the existing condition of
the working class population of the metropolis, the time
which has been lost is a lamentable evidence of the lack
of decision and earnestness which too frequently appears
when various minds are called upon to deal with intentions,
purposes, and resources not strictly under their own indepen
dent control. Then, it is a subject of great regret that, in
carrying out the really beneficent scheme of Mr. Peabody,
the trustees have not had a stricter regard to the commercial
conditions of the enterprise in which they have engaged.
We fear that the expenses of oversight, added to the great
original outlay, will prevent these buildings from ever be
coming remunerative. In this case, therefore, a certain
portion of the £150,000, instead of being eternally and in
creasingly reproductive capital, has been sunk; and if the
same principle shall be carried out, the Peabody Fund, instead
of being a perpetual well-spring of blessing to the poor of
London, will have very speedily embodied itself in so much
brick and mortar work, there to stand till time shall wear it
into dust. As was said by an able weekly newspaper two
years ago, in reference to this very fund—“ Spend it in charity,
and you may lodge perhaps 1,500 or 2,000 families. But
make it a great paying concern, and its example will lodge
all the poverty in London.” The trustees of this fund might
have added their incalculably influential experience to that of
Mr. Aiderman Waterlow and the Improved Industrial Dwel
lings Company, and proved that house-building on the soundest
sanitary principles for the working classes may be made a
really profitable business. On the contrary, it is to be feared
that they have, by an injudiciously lavish outlay in external
decoration and artificial novelties of design, contributed to
strengthen a too common impression that undertakings of this
nature can never become a good investment.
The common laundry, though perhaps not a very important
matter in itself, is yet, in our view, an objectionable feature
in the Peabody dwellings. The grounds of this judgment
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
43
are very simple, but we think they are very sound. In the
first place, the arrangement necessarily brings a great number
of women together from time to time ; and in the enforced
familiarity thus created, a good deal of gossip, and “chaff,”
. and irregular conversation is likely to be indulged, which
tends banefully to the breaking down of that reserve and
seclusiveness of family life which is one of the strongest
safeguards of its peace and its purity. Then, contentions for
place and precedence are almost certain sometimes to arise,
and these go far to disturb that feeling of good neighbour
ship which it is so desirable to maintain where numbers of
families are living in such .immediate proximity to one
another. Thirdly, the finest delicacies of a woman’s nature
are necessarily taxed by such an arrangement. The woman
whose linen is not quite so ample or so good as another’s,
even should she not be wounded by unpleasant observations,
will find her instinct of self-respect painfully touched, will
feel her inferiority of circumstances to involve a social penalty
which it is hard to bear. These may be esteemed trivial
disadvantages, but those who know most of human nature,
know that the mightiest spring-force of its noblest progress is
always to be found in its very finest sensibilities ; and that, in
all successful efforts for its moral improvement and elevation,
those sensibilities must be taken tenderly and faithfully into
account.
To one other exception we attach much greater importance.
The tenements in this case are made to open into that “ long,
dull, dark corridor,” of which we have previously spoken.
They are not provided each with a separate scullery and
water-closet. But at each end of the corridor there are a
lavatory and two water-closets, those at the one end being
for the use of the males, and those at the other for the use
of the females. It requires no argument to show how far
from the ideal of comfort, decency, and social purity, or
contrary to well known and recognised sanitary laws such an
arrangement as this must be. The constant meeting of
people who should be strangers at these resorts ; the gradual
�44
OVERCROWDING
undermining of all cleanly and healthful sentiments which
must be the result of it; the gross indelicacies which it will
sometimes be impossible to avoid; the extreme inconveniences
which, in cases of sickness, must be endured, are points
which will spontaneously occur to every reflecting mind, and
the condemnation of which will come straight on the heels
of their suggestion.
We have only one more fault to find. We do not sympa
thise with the judgment which denies to the occupants of
these dwellings the small luxury of papered walls. Surely,
where so much money has been lavished on external appear
ance and architectural display-, the very slight cost of a few
yards of paper might have been allowed to the principal
rooms of the tenements. A bare white-washed wall has a look
and tone of desolation which it would perhaps sound pedantic
and somewhat effeminate minutely to analyze, but the import
ance of which every person who has not lived in a prison
or a pig-sty all his days will appreciate. In the combination
of colours and the traces of design the eye not only finds a
silent pleasure, but the mind an unconscious occupation and
a salutary relief. It is not well to cherish in the hearts of
the poor the ambition of luxury, but a life utterly destitute of
luxury is cramped and depressed beyond conception. Taste
is an expensive faculty if it be pampered into absoluteness ;
but a soul without it misses the richest privilege and
keenest relish of existence. The prettily patterned paper
supplies at once the type, the conception, and the motive of
elegance to the simplest housewife, to rob her of which is, in
some sort, cruel as well as mischievous. We really can never
hope that our working classes will master the virtues, if they
are not trained to the refinements of civilization, and it
would be difficult to say how many germs of refinement there
may not be in the neat and agreeable aspect of a sitting
room ; the habitual contemplation of some artistic picture;
the cultivation of a few simple flowers—in short, in the
constant presence of something that, however simple, is sweet
and beautiful.
�TI1E EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
45
In indulging these slight criticisms on the buildings
erected by the trustees of the Peabody Fund, it is, we hope,
unnecessary to say that we have been actuated by a sincere
desire to see that money, so generously giv^n, judiciously
and usefully spent; and we are quite sure the committee have
this object so supremely at heart, that they will not consider
practical suggestions, though coming from the humblest
quarter, intrusive, impertinent, or disrespectful.*
So far, then, as to efforts already made, and the light they
throw upon the permanent conditions of this great enter
prise. That light is neither flickering nor dim. The results
arrived at are as positive and as distinct in their character as
they well could be; and, under ordinary circumstances, the
“remedy” for the “evil” we have discussed in these pages,
would be adequate to the nature of the case. Unfortunately,
however, the circumstances with which we have now to deal
are not ordinary. The work of destruction, in other words,
is being carried on in London at a much more rapid rate
than that at which we can hope to see the work of re-con
struction maintained, unless the natural course of action can
be greatly stimulated, and means in excess of those
spontaneously offered by private individuals can, on a large
scale and on a simple method, be supplied. In a former part
of this pamphlet we have spoken of the obligations of the
legislature as to those sanitary regulations of the community
on which the life and health of the population so intimately
depend. We have proved that there are preventive and
punitive functions which may be legitimately discharged by
the Government in relation to this question. But are there
no remedial measures which come within its recognised and
proper sphere of action ? If there be such, it is obvious that
every reason exists why the prompt adoption of those
* Since these paragraphs were put into type, a repoit “issued under the authority
of the trustees ” has been published, from which it appears that four other sites
have been secured in different parts of London, in addition to the one we have
referred to in Spitalfields. Atone of them, in Islington, buildings comprising
155 tenements have been erected, making together 202 tenements in occupation
at Christmas, 1865, and similar structures are to he raised at Chelsea, Bermondsey,
and iShadwell.
�46
OVERCROWDING J
measures may be fairly urged upon Parliament. Let it not
be forgotten that the State has a direct share of the re
sponsibility of the injuries which have been done to the
working classes by the development of the great railwav
schemes and other large public improvements in the
metropolis. These schemes and improvements have been
carried out with the direct sanction of Parliament. The
Earl of Derby, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and others, when
they have raised their voices in opposition to such schemes
and improvements, involving, as they must, the displacement
of hundreds and thousands of working people, have done so
in full and solemn recognition of the obligation of the legis
lature to consider what is due to those thus sorely and
ruinously inconvenienced.
That obligation exists, and it is all the heavier now that
the work of demolition has, with the sanction of Parliament
been carried on without reference to the claims of the ousted
families to have suitable accommodation provided for them by
those in whose interest that work has been undertaken. In
short, we have to deal not only with a chronic evil, but with
a special and a most gigantic difficulty.* We are called upon
to provide, not only a cure for a long established and radical
disorder, but also a relief to and a compensation for a wide
spread and appalling calamity. The task is exceptionally
pressing and arduous; and the query arises whether, in
discharging it, we may not reasonably seek exceptional aid.
This is a phase of the subject to which the attention of
Mr. Aiderman Waterlow has been directed; and our ex
pository narrative would be incomplete without some brief
reference to the steps he has taken in regard to it. On the
7th of April, 1865, he addressed a letter to the Secretary
of the Treasury, in which he enclosed a rough draft of
a proposition, which, as he thought, would form a suitable
method by which the legislature might afford to the
movement for providing the poorer and working classes of
the metropolis with proper dwelling accommodations, that
help which recent debates in both Houses had shown a desire
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
47
to extend to it, and which if it could be adopted, would, he
felt sure, greatly strengthen the hands of those who were
endeavouring to grapple with the difficulties of this im
portant question. That ‘’rough draft” was as follows:—
By the Act of 9 & 10 Vic., cap. 74, the Public Works Loan
Commissioners are empowered to lend money, in such sums, and
at such interest as they may think fit, upon the security of local
and parochial rates, for the purpose of erecting baths and wash
houses for the use of the labouring classes ; and the repayment
of the principal and interest is made a first charge upon such
structures and the profits which may arise from their use. It is
suggested that if the legislature can be induced to pass an Act
giving the Commissioners power to advance money, to a limited
extent, upon the security of the buildings which have been, or
may hereafter be, erected by persons or companies whose object is
to encourage and promote the improvement of the dwellings of
the working classes, a public benefit of almost incalculable extent
is likely to result, and that a renewed impetus would thus be
given to a movement which has of late sprung up with some
vitality, for providing decent dwelling accommodation for the
working classes of the metropolis and other large cities, where, in
consequence of the rapidly increasing population and wealth of
the country, houses and lands are constantly rising in value, so
that it is impossible for such persons to obtain dwellings at
adequate rents which afford anything like the proper extent of
accommodation in point of space, decency, health, and comfort.
It is assumed that the profit rentals likely to be derived from this
class of dwellings is insufficient of itself to induce capitalists to
invest the large sums which must necessarily be employed in order
to provide the number of houses at al]» to be compared with the
present overwhelming demand, a demand which has been in
creasing with the population year by year, and now rendered
imperatively urgent on every ground, in consequence of the great
havoc and destruction of small houses which has of late been caused
by the construction of railways and other public improvements;
and, further, that the possibility of obtaining a higher rate of
interest than at present derived is likely to attract the investment
of capital in large amounts, and to develop still further schemes
which are already partially successful in remedying the evils
complained of.
The following notes as to the plan upon which such proposed
advances might be made, are offered in the hope of eliciting sug
gestions and opinions rather than as defining a particular scheme.
I. That an Act of Parliament should be passed in the present
session to enable the Public Works Loan Commissioners to grant
loans upon mortgage of lands, houses, and premises, which are now,
�48
OVERCROWDING J
or may hereafter be, applied to the use and occupation of the Work
ing classes, upon the same or a similar principle to that upon
which advances are now made for the carrying out of various mu
nicipal public works, such as the maintenance of fisheries, collieries,
mines, and highways, and the erection of gaols, lunatic asylums,
workhouses, baths and washhouses, &c., where the security for the
repayment of the principal and interest of the loan consists in a
charge upon the tolls and dues, or upon the local or county rates,
or upon the profits of the baths, &c., as the case may be. The
repayment of the principal and interest being secured in this case
by a first charge upon the rents and profits arising from the occu
pation of the tenements, and upon the premises comprising the
mortgage.
II. That no loan shall exceed in amount three-fifths of the value
of the property to be so mortgaged ; the value to be determined
by the Commissioners.
III. That the whole amount of such loan shall, within two
years of the grant thereof, be applied to the satisfaction of the
Commissioners in and towards the erection of other additional
dwellings or tenements for the occupation of the industrial
classes.
IV. That the interest co be paid to the Commissioners on
account of such loans shall be 3| per centum per annum.
V. That the principal and interest thereon shall be repaid to
the Commissioners by thirty-five equal annual payments, the
amounts of which shall be agreed upon at the time of the granting
of the loan.
VI. That the mortgage shall empower the Commissioners
periodically to inspect the mortgaged dwellings (or those erected
by means of the loan) with the view to ascertain whether they are
kept and maintained in proper repair, and also whether they are
occupied solely by person^ of the class intended to be benefited
by the proposed Act.
VII. That, in the event of the foregoing requirements not
being complied with at any time, the Commissioners may, by
giving notice to the mortgagors, call in the balance of the loan
then remaining unpaid, with interest to the date of its payment;
and that the Commissioners may sell the property failing the re
payment of the loan or compliance with their order after three
months’ further notice.
Mr. Waterlow requested Mr. F. Peel to bring these
suggestions to the notice of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
and to enquire whether he would be willing to receive a
deputation on the subject, adding that “ he should be glad if
an appointment could possibly be made either before or at
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
49
any early date after the Easter vacation, as if it should be
found that the Government might probably be induced to
adopt the project, he thought a very large sum would
at once be embarked in the erection of Improved Dwellings
both in London and in the suburbs in connection with the
workmen’s trains.” On the 15th of May following Mr. F.
Peel replied to this letter as follows :—
Treasury Chambers,
15th May, 1865.
Sir,—I am commanded by the Lords Commissioners of Her
Majesty’s Treasury to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 7th
April, on the subject of a proposed loan from the Public Works’ Loan
Commissioners to a society of persons interested in the improvement
of the dwellings of the labouring classes in the metropolis, and I
am to acquaint you that their Lordships doubt whether they would
be justified in holding out the expectation of public aid for a
purpose such as that described, except to such bodies (all other
conditions being satisfactorily adjusted) as might so limit their rate
of profit as to distinguish their case from that of ordinary com
mercial enterprise.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
Mr. Aiderman Waterlow,
F. Peel.
Carpenters’ Hall, London Wall.
On the 24th of the same month Mr. Waterlow wrote again
to the Treasury, as follows :—
Carpenters’ Hall, London, E.C.,
24^ May, 1865.
Sir,—I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter of the 15th hist., marked 7465 U, in reply to my application
to the Right Honourable the Chancellor of the Exchequer, asking
if he would receive a deputation on the subject of a draft scheme
then enclosed, which proposed that the Public Works Loan Com
missioners should be empowered to grant Loans under certain
restrictions for the purpose of encouraging and assisting the
erection of suitable dwellings for the working classes, throughout
the country as well as in the metropolis.
I now beg to enclose for my Lords’ consideration a copy of the draft
scheme to which I have adverted, and would respectfully beg to
draw their attention to the line which I have marked in pencil, to
the effect that the scheme is put forward in its present shape with
a view to elicit the expression of opinion and discussion upon its
merits, rather than as defining, in a final measure, the exact
4
�50
OVERCROWDING ;
terms and conditions under which the proposed advances should be
made.
Speaking for myself and for the Company of which I am the
Deputy Chairman, I had always contemplated that there should
be astipulation as to the amount of profit to be derived by persons
seeking to avail themselves of the assistance of Government in any
such projects as have been referred to; and I beg to submit to their
lordships that the maximum rate of profit to be derived by com
panies or persons from investments in property, in connection with
which a Government loan shall be subsisting, ought not to be less than
£5 per cent, per annum. The object should, I think, be to fix the
rate of interest on the one hand so low as to preclude objection,
on the ground that the public funds were being employed for pur
poses of private profit, and on the other sufficiently high to induce
capitalists to embark in enterprises of this nature.
There are many considerations which might be brought to their
Lordships’ notice, in support of this rate being adopted, but I will
confine myself by calling attention to the fact, that the ordinary
net returns from investments on house property are from 7i to 10
per cent., and I would respectfully submit that there can be no
reasonable objection to the Government assisting persons who are
desirous of placing the working classes in a better position, and
who would be content with less than they could certainly obtain
upon ordinary investments of that class.
It should, I think, be borne in mind that great public benefit
would arise from the periodical supervision to which it is proposed
the mortgaged dwellings should be submitted so long as the Govern
ment loan was continued. No loan would be granted except upon
buildings already erected upon the best sanitary principles, and if
these buildings were constantly maintained in thorough repair, a
very low death and disease rate would prevail as a rule, which, in
districts principally occupied by the labouring classes, almost in
variably produces a low poor rate, the dwellings in question would
therefore confer a benefit in a pecuniary as well as in a moral
point of view.
I do not gather from your letter whether my Lords are now in a
position to grant loans of the kind suggested, or whether it will be
necessary to go to Parliament to obtain any further enactment on
the subject. I mention this point merely that, in the event of the
scheme proposed receiving their Lordships’ favourable consideration,
no time may be lost in bringing it into operation.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
S. H. Waterlow.
To the Right Honourable F. Peel, &c., &c.
The reply to this was eminently satisfactory. It was dated
June 14th, and was as follo-ws : —
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
51
Treasury Chambers,
]Ath June, 1865.
Sir, —In reply to your letter of 24th ultimo, relating to the question
of advances on loan from the Public Works Loan Commissioners
in aid of the improvement of the dwellings of the working classes,
I am desired by the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury
to acquaint you that they consider 5 per cent, as the limit of the
profit which should be allowed, and that their Lordships will be
prepared to apply to Parliament (if that limit be thought a fair one)
to obtain powers for this purpose, either permanent or to subsist
(as to entering into fresh transactions) for a limited time,
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
Mr. Aiderman Waterlow,
F. Peel.
Carpenters’ Hall,
London, E.C.
In closing this important correspondence, Mr. Waterlow
expressed his gratification at learning that the Lords Com
missioners approved of the limit of 5 per cent, and that they
were prepared to apply to Parliament for the necessary power
to grant the loans proposed. He urged, in consideration of
the extensive compulsory powers for the destruction of small
house property granted during the past and then present
sessions of Parliament, the passing of a short Bill immediately
for the necessary authority to grant the Ioans in question.
The dissolution, however, was so near at hand, and so occupied
the thoughts of every Member, that it was found utterly im
possible to enter upon any new legislative business at that
period. The new Parliament will, there can be no doubt,
be called upon to consider the matter without any delay;
and we may hope that the perfectly fair and reasonable
proposals to which the assent of the Government has
been already virtually given, will receive the cordial sanction
of the legislature.
The task which the present writer set himself is now com
pleted. It has been shown how sore and how pressing is the
need for the provision of improved and greatly extended
dwelling-house accommodation for the working classes of the
metropolis. The sanitary obligations which enter into the
question have been set forth in as clear and emphatic terms '
�52
OVEKCKOWDING J
as were available. The efforts, honourable but frightfully
inadequate, which have been already made towards meeting
this stern and urgent demand of our civilization, have been
rapidly enumerated. The results of those efforts have been,
as far as possible, gathered up and stated. The conditions
on which alone a satisfactory solution of the momentous pro
blem can be hoped for, bringing it within commercial laws,
have been demonstrated. And it has been irrefragably
shown that those conditions are not impracticable. Here,
therefore, with one or two passing observations, wo conclude.
Of course, all that has been said about London on this
important subject, is more or less true of every city, town,
village, and hamlet in the country, and it is edifying to know
that the provinces are not idle in the matter. Many of the
great landholders of the nation are beginning to show a wise
as well as benevolent interest in the domestic and home
comforts of their labourers. The splendid examples set by the
late Duke of Bedford, by the late lamented Duke of
Northumberland, and by such good landlords as Lord
Palmerston, and others who might be named, are not only
indicative of a greatly improved feeling—a deeper sense of
responsibility on the part of the employers of labour—but are
powerfully stimulating others to proceed on the same just and
enlightened principles. Several provincial associations have
been formed for the promotion of this movement, and it can
not be doubted that when the business is once fairly afloat in
London it will rapidly extend throughout the kingdom.
And there is an aspect of the case on wThich, as yet, nothing
has been herein said, but the practical force of which all
good men in general, and the large employers of labour in
particular, ought to feel. The value of man, as a helper of
his fellow-man in the occupation of life, is indefinitely
increased by everything that promotes his physical health,
his moral exaltation, and his social respectability. In other
words, to take care of the working man is, in itself, sound
economy. We have found that this is true of horses, and
cows, and sheep—of all animals that are in any way directly
�THE EVIL ANI) ITS REMEDY.
53
useful to mankind. Hence, within the past quarter of a
century, the progress which has been made in the housing of
our cattle has been enormous—infinitely in advance of that
which has taken place in the accommodation provided for
poor humanity. That such a discrepancy exists may be
somewhat shameful, yet it is easily explained. A man’s com
mercial interest in a horse is not only a problem in arithmetic,
worked with certainty and ease, but it is one in the solution
of which the horse has no personal power or responsibility.
Those very attributes of humanity which qualify it for free
dom and independence, take it beyond the reach of commercial
calculation. The worker may sell so much labour, informed
by so much intelligence and aided by so much skill, at a
certain current rate—an average market value; but the man
who buys his labour feels that on the completion of the
bargain, and the fulfilment of its terms on both sides, his
obligation to the worker ceases. And in a sense it does.
But no political economy can be complete which does not
include the fraternity of mankind. The farmer loses to the
full extent of the social degradation and domestic misery of
the labourers on his farm just as much as he loses by the
shambling laziness, the uncleansed dustiness, the panting
feebleness of his ill-fed, ill-stabled, and ill-tended horse. The
analogy does not stop here, however. The capabilities of the
horse are limited. The horse does not work his way up from
the plough to the hunting field or the race course; his
destiny is rather downwards. Man’s destiny is either
upwards or downwards, according to his character, the treat
ment he receives, and the influences that encompass him
about. The young and enthusiastic artizan, engaged to-day
in the simplest mechanical tasks, will, by to-morrow, be
either unfitted for those tasks by the ennervation of his pur
pose, the beclouding of his intellect, the despair that has
settled on his heart, or else he will be worthy of promotion
to trusts where the faculty of design may co-operate with
mere executive ability. The
is really not more interested
in the alternative thus pictured than is the master. Even if
�•54
OVERCROWDING
the man alone were interested, it would be the solemn duty
of all kind and good people to consider the circumstances on
which issues so fine and so momentous hang; and so, within
all reasonable and available limits, to regulate his lot in life
that his energies shall not be relaxed, his ambition staggered
by a hundred malignant, unnecessary obstacles, his heart
broken by griefs which the cruel improvidence of society has
cast upon him. But the master, too, thrives with his thrift;
advances with his progress; flourishes on his prosperity. As
a rule it may be affirmed that every increase made in the
labourer’s wage is sustained by a more than equal increase
in the profit made by the master out of his labour. But how
can the labourer, whose home is a mere “fever-nest,” hope
to make progress in his art ? The very air he breathes
dooms him to decrepitude. He works under the bondage of
a depression and a lassitude which nothing can shake off.
To avoid the foul odours, the jarring, discordant voices, the
ghastly, disordered aspects of his over-crowded home, he, at
night, instead of improving his mind, and bracing up his
loins for the march or the battle of life by meditation, by
study, or by the indulgence of the holy loves of home, seeks
a miserable and a defiling solace in the gin palaoe. He
is not long in reaching the horrible goal of his unhappy
career, and when he sinks into the pauper’s perdition
or the drunkard’s hell, who suffers in his fall ? His
wife and children suffer. That is something to make
the Christian weep. His wife and children become a
burden on the community. That is something to make the
ratepayer ponder. Society suffers in his lost service, his para
lyzed arm, his neglected duty, his damaged work. That is
a fact worthy of the statesman’s study. The capitalist
suffers, in his lagging enterprises, his irregular supply
of labour, his dependence on men who cannot grow up
with his affairs, his exposure to disappointment in critical
junctures, and in the perpetual confusion in which his mind
is cast through the uncertainties of the labour market, and
the ill-condition of the men on whom his reputation, his
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
55
credit, and his fortune depend. Therefore, it is no extrava
gance to say that in this question of the improved dwelling
house accommodation of the working classes, to which the
Christian is urged by every humane consideration, and the
statesman by the highest political obligation, the rate-payer
and the capitalist have a direct, personal, pecuniary interest.
In attacking this huge task, however, we must be on our
guard against easy-looking theories, in which only one object
is aimed at, and all other most sacred conditions of heathful
society are forgotten. Among these theories, we would as
suredly place that which proposes the establishment of subur
ban colonies for the families of working people. In the
mixture of classes is to be found one of the very best securi
ties of civilization. That the railway system may be utilized
in the conveyance of working men from the scenes of their
labour, in the heart of the great city, to their homes in the
suburbs, is a hope which may be legitimately cherished, but
to lay out a whole district for houses suitable only to the
working order, would not only be a mistake in economy, but
a great moral and social calamity. It would be a mistake in
economy, for we may be quite certain that the class of trades
men who would supply these colonies, would be an inferior
class; they would be compelled to compensate themselves for
the limited range of goods required of them, and the small
sums spent by each customer, either by the poor quality of
all they sold, or else by an exorbitant rate of profit; and
every way the working classes would be the losers. Then it
would be a social calamity; for what we want more than
anything besides in this country is, not the isolation, but the
intermixture and the intercommunion of classes. When the
rich and the poor are brought into contact with one another,
both are benefited—the rich by the restraint put upon their
pride, and the breadth and elasticity imparted to their human
sentiments, and the poor by the models of dignity and ele
gance which are continually presented to them, the elevation
of their ideal of existence, the stimulus supplied to their own
aspirations, the encouragement afforded to the salutary spirit
�56
OVERCROWDING.
of social emulation, and the unconscious refinement commu
nicated to their manners, their habits of thought, and their
intercourse with one another.
There is, also, some need of caution in another direction.
Some have already been found who have been provoked to
lament the rapid progress of the metropolis in population, in
industry, and in wealth, because by the exigencies of that
progress so many poor people have been driven out of their
homes, and compelled in crowds to huddle together in places
which are altogether unfit to be the habitations of men.
There has been, no doubt, in the course of the remarkable
developments which we have recently undergone in all the
elements of material prosperity, a sad forgetfulness of the
claims of those who have been displaced to make way for
those developments. And great praise is due to Lord Derby,
Lord Shaftesbury, and others, who have tried to force on the
great traders on the progress of the community some definite
responsibility to that lower strata of the population which
has been so mercilessly and so scandalously jostled about to
give scope to their ambitious schemes. But the schemes
have, nevertheless, a beneficence of their own, the gladsome
fruits of which generations to come will enjoy. Progress has
its penalties ; but it is a gracious law. Civilization has her
cruelties; but she is, on the whole, and. in the long run, a
most chaste and charitable and catholic spirit. Thankful for
her gifts, let us do our duty, and, though the splendid car in
which she rides along may crush an idler here and a straggler
there; yea, though because we do not providently clear the
way before her, many are crushed beneath her chariot wheels,
let us be assured that the Mistress and the Idol of our age is
no Juggernaut, imposing death and desolation as tests of the
fidelity of her devotees, and demanding sacrifice as the price
of salvation; but a most mild and genial and tender-hearted
Maiden—the beautiful Benefactress of all the world.
��56
OVERCROWDING.
of social emulation, and the unconscious refinement commu
nicated to their manners, their habits of thought, and their
intercourse with one another.
There is, also, some need of caution in another direction.
Some have already been found who have been provoked to
lament the rapid progress of the metropolis in population, in
industry, and in wealth, because by the exigencies of that
progress so many poor people have been driven out of their
homes, and compelled in crowds to huddle together in places
which are altogether unfit to be the habitations of men.
There has been, no doubt, in the course of the remarkable
developments which we have recently undergone in all the
elements of material prosperity, a sad forgetfulness of the
claims of those who have been displaced to make way for
those developments. And great praise is due to Lord Derby,
Lord Shaftesbury, and others, who have tried to force on the
great traders on the progress of the community some definite
responsibility to that lower strata of the population which
has been so mercilessly and so scandalously jostled about to
give scope to their ambitious schemes. But the schemes
have, nevertheless, a beneficence of their own, the gladsome
fruits of which generations to come will enjoy. Progress has
its penalties ; but it is a gracious law. Civilization has her
cruelties; but she is, on the whole, and in the long run, a
most chaste and charitable and catholic spirit. Thankful for
her gifts, let us do our duty, and, though the splendid car in
which she rides along may crush an idler here and a straggler
there; yea, though because we do not providently clear the
way before her, many are crushed beneath her chariot wheels,
let us be assured that the Mistress and the Idol of our age is
no Juggernaut, imposing death and desolation as tests of the
fidelity of her devotees, and demanding sacrifice as the price
of salvation; but a most mild and genial and tender-hearted
Maiden—the beautiful Benefactress of all the world.
��I
���w
56'3*
GROUND PLAN OF A SINGLE BLOCK OF THE IMPROVED DWELLINGS FOR THE INDUSTRIAL CLASSES.
��
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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Overcrowding: the evil and its remedy
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 56 p. : ill. (3 plates, 2 folded, including frontispiece plan) ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Plate 1 illustrating Henry Robarts model cottages. Plates 2 & 3 Langbourn Buildings.
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Longmans, Green and Co.
Date
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1866
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G5397
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Housing
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[Unknown]
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Overcrowding: the evil and its remedy), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
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English
Conway Tracts
Housing
Langbourn Buildings - London
Overcrowding (Housing)
Working Classes
-
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Text
Price One Penny.
T4O/
POLITICS for the PEOPLE.—No. I.
MINING RENTS
— AND —
ROYALTIES.
By J. MORRISON
DAVIDSON,
BARRISTER-AT-LAW.
Author of “Eminent Radicals,” “The New Book of Kings," “Book of
Lords,” “ Useless, Dangerous,
and
Ought
to be
I
I For Special Prices for quantities to distribute in
to the Publishers.
I
Abolished,” &c., &c.
Mining Districts apply
LONDON :
I
THE MODERN PRESS, 13, Paternoster Row, E.C.
agAgent for U.S.A, W. L. Rosenberg, 261, East Tenth Street, New \ ork City.
�The Co-operative Commonwealth:
Exposition of Modern Socialism.
Gronlund, of Philadelphia.
paper, price is.
an
By Laurence
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it is in a masterly manner adapted to the Anglo-Saxon public.”—New York
Volkszeitung (one of the largest Socialist papers in America).
“ The best account of German or State Socialism in English.”—New
York Sun (the largest capitalist newspaper in the States).
“The grandest and highest minded statement of Socialism I have ever
seen.”—H. D. Wright, Chief of Massachussetts Bureau of Labour Statistics.
The Emigration Fraud Exposed.
By
H. M. Hyndman. With a portrait of the Author.
Reprinted by permission from the Nineteenth Century for
February, 1885. Crown 8-vo., price id.
The Socialist Catechism.
By J. L. Joynes.
Reprinted with additions from Justice.
price id. Fifteenth thousand.
Socialism and the Worker.
Sorge.
Price id.
Royal 8-vo.,
By F. A.
An explanation in the simplest language of the main idea of Socialism.
The Appeal to the Young.
By
Prince
Peter Kropotkin.
Translated from the French by
H. M. Hyndman and reprinted from Justice. Royal 8-vo.,
16-pp. Price one penny. Tenth thousand.
The most eloquent and noble appeal to the generous emotions ever pen
ned by a scientific man. Its author has just suffered five years imprison
ment at the hands of the French Republic for advocating the cause of the
workers.
Are You a Social-Democrat ?
tinted paper.
"Why
4-pp., on fine
Price 5s. per 1,000, post free.
am a Social-Democrat.
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4-pp., on
fine tinted paper. Price 5s. per 1,000, post free.
The above with announcement of Lectures, meetings, &c.,
printed on last page, 8s. per 1,000, 28s. for 5,000.
The Modern Press, 13, Paternoster Row, E.C.
And YNL L. ROSENBERG, 261, East Tenth Street, New
York City.
�MINING RENTS AND ROYALTIES.
F there be one thing in this world more astonishing
than that individuals should claim private property
in the surface of this planet, and have their claims
allowed by the Legislature of a free country, it
assuredly is that they should pretend to have a right
to the contents of its interior. A coal-hewer descends
into the bowels of the cold earth, and with infinite
toil and danger raises a ton of fuel for tenpence or
even eightpence. Another man, calling himself a
landlord, who is meanwhile, perchance, gambling at
Monaco or bear-hunting in the Rocky Mountains,
successfully exacts a toll of thirteen or fourteen pence
per ton on the entire output of a mine, or, it may be,
a score of mines ! Could there be a more startlinganomaly ? “ O Lord what fools these mortals be ! ”
is all the comment that any rational being can, in the
circumstances, make.
I
�4
Yet this was the kernel of the case which the
influential deputation of Members of Parliament, who,
in April, 1886, brought the question of mining royal
ties before the Liberal Home Secretary, had to sub
mit. True, Mr. Childers’ mind was a taint la 1 asa
as regards mining royalties, and not one of the
deputation ventured to suggest their nationalisation
—the only true remedy for the serious evils com
plained of. Still much good was effected by the
bare recital of the atrocious exactions which the land
lords habitually make both on mine lessees and
miners.
Mr. Stephen Mason, representing one of the
divisions of Lanarkshire, where trade depression is
peculiarly severe, instanced the case of a ducal high
wayman who preys on the mining industry of the
district to the extent of ^114,000 per annum. His
method of blackmail is this :—He benignly grants
leases for twenty-one years at fixed “ rents,” varying
from Z500 to ,£5,000. These are payable whether
the mine is worked or not. If worked, the moment
a certain output is attained “ royalties ” come into
play. These vary from çd. to is. 6d. per ton. No
mediaeval Rhine robber ever devised a more effectual
system of brigandage. Indeed, the landlord is the
undisputed master of the situation, and it is a marvel
that he has not succeeded long ere now in completely
�5
destroying the industrial supremacy of the country.
Mr. Mason told of an instance where a company
spent ^50,000 to get at a seam of coal.
They
reached it, but found that rent and royalty would
together absorb every penny of profit.
The land
lord would, nevertheless, have his entire pound of
flesh. Consequently the machinery has been stand
ing idle for four years !
But it is when leases come to be renewed that the
landlords’ harvest is really ripe.
Mr. Conybeare,
who represents a mining division of Cornwall,
revealed a state of things in his neighbourhood of a
singularly aggravated kind. When the lease of the
Dolcoath mine was renewed a fine of ,£2 5,000 was
exacted, The Duke of Bedford, in the case of the
Devon Great Consols Mine, levied a £20,000 fine.
As for the unfortunate lessees they might like it or
lump it. If they lumped it their engine-houses and
all their improvements went to the landlord without
compensation.
The landlord, moreover, on the
ground-rent monopoly principle, charged from five to
ten times agricultural value for the surface.
As to the amount ofannual tribute paid by the nation
on its mineral wealth to the landlords, no exact figures
can be given. But it is has been estimated that in the
year 1883 they pocketed on coal and iron ore alone
the vast sum of eight millions sterling. This enor
�mous drain in the face of falling and stagnant mar
kets, it is not too much to say accounts for half the
privations which working men are now suffering from
low wages and no wages. Our two staple industries
are admittedly iron and coal. They are controlling
elements in rails, ships, and manufactures of every
description. Every private toll levied on them is a
blight on every related form of employment.
Mr. Mason gave an instructive example of the
effect of a comparatively low royalty.
In Scotland
the minimum royalty on pig-iron is 6s. Some
of the Cleveland royalties on the other hand do
not exceed 3s. 3d. per ton. What is the con
sequence ? Scotland, where all the other conditions
of production are rather more than equal, is invaded
weekly by Cleveland iron to the extent of from 6,000
to 7,000 tons.
Nor is this the worst.
Differential home dues
might be endured, but to handicap the British iron
trade in its strenuous grapple with foreign competition
is a much more serious affair.
In most parts of
Germany the royalty on pig iron is 6d. per ton ; in
France it is 8d., and in both these countries royalties
are national dues, and not, as with us, private black
mail.
In Belgium the ordinary State royalty is
is. 3d. per ton, and even that handicap not
improbably accounts in no small degree for the pre
valent turbulence in that country of miners.
�7
I quote the following weighty sentences from an
admirable address by Mr. William Forsyth, the
eloquent President of the Scottish Land Restoration
League:—“Out of the eighty blast furnaces in
Cumberland forty are at this moment standing idle,
and the others are but partially employed.
There
are many causes which might have the effect of
keeping these forty blast furnaces idle. They might
be idle for want of capital; they might be idle for
want of men willing to work. Well, gentlemen, the
Cumberland furnaces are put out not because of any
lack of capital, for only within the last week or two
a company of employers there were willing to sink
£20,000 in raising iron-ore, and were only prevented
from doing so by the landlord’s ultimatum that he
would not reduce his royalty of 2s. 6d. per ton on
the ore which might be raised. The company found
thatwith this charge they could not raise ore as cheaply
as it could be imported from Spain, and they, therefore, abandoned their project.
Neither can it be
that there are not men able and willing to work, for
an ironmaster in Cumberland writes saying that
there are thousands of men unemployed who would
be glad to find work of any kind in order to save
their wives and children from starvation.”
“ I am informed that the girders of the St. Enoch
Railway Station, in our city, were imported from
j
�8
Belgium, and we know that the Barnsley Railway
Station was built of imported iron. ’ The Midland
Railway Company is at present importing large
quantities of iron and steel sleepers from Belgium.
The streets of London, Liverpool, Dublin, and
Belfast are being laid with tramway rails of foreign
manufacture.
Our Glasgow Municipal Buildings
are at this moment being built with iron girders
brought from Belgium, and paid for from the taxes
collected from the people of Glasgow. On looking
up at these girders we see in prominent letters the
name “ Maclellan,” and in our innocence we think
that if the cost of these buildings is great at any
rate the work is done by our own people.
But this
is not so. The ironmaster to whom I have referred
is himself the owner of eight furnaces specially
adapted to the manufacture of pig-iron and steel rails.
Four of these furnaces are idle, and yet he is actually
importing thousands of tons of iron and steel from
Belgium and Germany.”
Talk of high wages and short hours of labour
“ driving trade out of the country ! ” Why, if these
royalty footpads are not speedily got rid of there will
soon be neither trade nor wages left in it.
One
blast furnace produces in a week six hundred tons of
pig-iron. On that quantity the landlord’s royalties
amount to ^202 ; while the wages of the employes
�9
—managers, engineers, chemists, workmen all told—
average less than one half, or ^95.
The royalties
on British steel rails paid to the landlords amount
to 9s. 6d. per ton ; in Belgium they average is. 9d.
Is it any wonder that the Indian Department of
Government is monthly sending out to India thou
sands of tons of imported iron and steel rails and
sleepers ? Is it any wonder if in most cases it costs
about three times as much to construct a mile of
British railway as any other ?
A Cunard liner making the double or return jour
ney across the Atlantic consumes four thousand one
hundred and twenty-five tons of coal. This means a
royalty to the landlord of ^206 5s., or more than
the wages of the entire crew from captain to cabin
boy. Ina word, the owners of steamers pay to the
lords of land a tribute of ,£274,100 per annum. Of
course passengers and the producers of exports and
the consumers of imports are the ultimate victims.
What, then, is the remedy for this ruinous system
of exploitation ? Is it to be cured, as the deputation
suggested, and as Mr. Conybeare’s Mining Rates
Bill weakly proposes, by establishing a sliding scale
as between landlords and mine-lessees ? Certainly
not, unless the State is to step into the landlord’s
shoes. Every scheme to enable landlords to rob in
moderation is bad.
�IO
We are not without examples of the true solution
of the royalty problem in other lands.
In Germany, speaking generally, the Prussian law
of 1865 prevails. It vests all mineral royalties in
the State. No freeholder can raise minerals on his
freehold without a concession from the Government.
He dare not even, after due notice, prevent private
persons irom entering on his land to bore for the
discovery of minerals. The concessionaire of a mine
is entirely independent of the lord of the surface.
Concessions are made to any qualified person or
persons by a district oberbergamt, or office, on certain
conditions.
Concessionaires must (1) pay to the
State in royalty and inspection dues 2 per cent, per
annum on net produce ; and (2) form a- Benefit
Society, or Knappschajt Verein, for their workmen,
they contributing one-half the funds, the “ hands ”
the other. The Knappschaft Verein supports and
doctors invalid and injured miners, pensions widows,
and educates children free of expense.
In France private royalties were abolished at the
Revolution and made national property. The pre
sent law bears date 1810. It is the same in principle
as the German law. The concessionaire pays 5 per
cent, net produce to the State plus 10 centimes per
franc additional to form an Accidents Relief Fund.
A strictly limited rent is also payable to the lords of
the surface.
�11
The Belgian law (1810) is in the main similar to
the French law', but concessions made under the law
of 1837 are of a less favourable character, and
in some cases the dues mount up to 4s. in the
pound.
But we need not go beyond the limits of our own
Islands for a sound model of mining legislation. An
admirable Act of the Scottish Parliament (1592) still
in force, but audaciously set at defiance by the land
lords of Scotland since the union with England,
appoints a “ Master of the Metals,” with full State
control of all mines and minerals in the realm. He
is to secure 10 per cent, to the State, and is allowed
5 per cent, for inspection dues, &c. “ And by reason
that the said miners are in daily hazard of their lives
by the bad air of the mines and the danger of falling
in the same, and other infinite miseries which daily
occur in the said work, therefore our Sovereign Lord
(James VI.) exempts said miners from all taxa
tion whatever, both in peace and war, and takes
them all, their families and goods, in his special
protection,” &c.
This is the sort of thing that is wanted, and not
sliding scales to. give perpetuity to a system of pal
pable robbery, by which the State is defrauded of
some ten millions sterling per annum. And the
robbers !
�12
What are they ? The drones of the community !
They feed on the mechanic’s labour ;
The starved hind for them compels the stubborn glebe
To yield its unshared harvest.
And yon squalid form, leaner than fleshless misery,
Drags out his life in darkness in the unwholesome mine
To glad their grandeur.
Many faint with toil
That few may know the cares and woes of sloth.
r
�
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Mining rents and royalties
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Davidson, John Morrison [1843-1916]
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An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 12, [4] p. ; 19 cm.
Series title: Politics for the People
Series number: No. 1
Notes: Publisher's advertisement p. 2. List of reviews of 'The New Book of Kings', by the author, on four unnumbered pages at the end. Tentative date of publication from KVK.
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[1885?]
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Working conditions
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Mining
Royalties
Social conditions
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Working Classes
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Text
COMPULSORY
VACCINATIO
ITS WICKEDNESS TO THE POOR.
J. J. GARTH WILKINSON]
LONDON ■
F. PITMAN, 20, PATERNOSTER ROW.
PRICE ONE SHILLING.
��PREFACE.
It has been thought desirable to reprint the following
pages, in the present stage of the national movement
against Compulsory Vaccination.
The Times newspaper gives recent statistics of the
Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Deaths for London.
Thus:—
December, 1872, and January!
' 1873.
Vaccinated.
December 4 th, 1872
. I 3
December 12th, 1872
.
.4
December 20th, 1872
.
.1
December 25th, 1872
.
.0
January 1st, 1873
.
. 2
January 9th, 1873
.
1 1
January 16th, 1873
January 23rd, 1873
January 30th, 1873
.
.
.
.2
.1
.2
16
Abstract of Deaths from
Small-pox, Times newspaper,
December, 1872, and January,
isEH
UnvaScinated.
December 4th, 1872
December 12th, 1872
December 20th, 1872 .
. 3
December 25th, 1872 I
. 4
January 1st, 1873
R
. 2
January 9th, 1873
R
. 0
January 16 th, 1873
.
. 2
January 23rd, 1873
R
.1
January 30th, 1873
.
. 1
to to
Abstract of Deaths from
Small-pox, Times newspaper,
17
Showing that about 6 per cent, of small-pox cases are
saved by Vaccination in London.
The Blue Book for 1870, pp. 124, 5, records twenty
deaths from erysipelas after Vaccination.
Since my pamphlet was written, the history of recent
1—2
�4
PREFACE.
Vaccination, and of the late epidemic of Small-pox, has
confirmed and magnified its positions.
It has come out that the Compulsory Laws were
enacted, because the evil consequences of Vaccination
to health and infant life were widely spread among,
and well known to, the poorer classes, whose resistance
to medical destruction required fire and prison to check
it. Public events now demonstrate that, if Compulsion
were removed, the mass of the rejoicing working men
and women would spurn Vaccinators and Vaccination
from their doors.
The evil diseases caused by Vaccination have come
more manifestly to the front in the last year. It is
admitted by established Medicine that Syphilis—called
in The Lancet vaccine-syphilis—has been sown broad
cast ; and I never make inquiry of a poor man or woman
without eliciting accounts of cases of injury from Vacci
nation to their own or their neighbours’ families. Vac
cination is more terrible than it used to be. This
depends upon two causes: 1. When Small-pox is
rife, as during these years, Vaccination meets the
leaven everywhere, and its own venom is intensified.
Recent cases prove, beyond a doubt, that it is then a
predisposing cause of Small-pox. A writer in The
Lancet says that it has also the power of evoking*
latent syphilis. 2. The transmission of the Vaccine
poison through system after system gathers up the
taints of the bodies it comes from, until a sheaf of im
purity is in the arms of the medical harvesters, very
different from the disease of the cow from which, per
haps, the first poison originated. The modern Commu
nists of evil do a deadlier work than Jenner could effect
in his day. For the personal pollution of three more
generations is on the points of their lancets.
�PREFACE.
5
It may be added that the legal necessity to vaccinate
all the poor involves, perforce, that they be driven, like
sheep, into the Vaccination-pens, and blood-poisoned
higglety-pigglety, with no power of question or appeal.
They cannot, as Her Majesty did, have a select baby for
their babies, but are all imbrued in each other’s taints,
and carry them into their miserable homes to be deve
loped to the utmost. Vaccination amuses and abuses
the rich; it is palpable obscene murder to the poor.
In the meantime the magistracy and the medical
profession are doing their very worst. Imprisonment
for non-compliance is greatly the order of the day.
Where one child has been killed, ojlmaimed, the case
to the Authorities becomes the more urgent for com
pelling the Vaccination of other children in the same
families. The indignant rebellion of the bereaved
parents must be stamped out. The climax of shame
less evil is reached. Church doors are hung with boards
of command proclaiming the law about this devil’s sacra
ment, Vaccination. And the power of the medical
dragon seems complete in its offences and defences.
Turning to the medical men, they are more than evei'
convinced of the paramount good of Vaccination. As
a rule—Mr. Hutchinson to the contrary—the eminent
ones have never seen or heard of a case of injury from
it. They never can see or hear of Buch a easel Mag
nificent blindness, deafness, and unfeelingness !
The Press of the country, with few exceptions, is in
their power. It is gagged in favour of Vaccination. It
is an engine for suppressing truth and propagating
falsehood oh the subject. Its "temerity betokens its
fears.
The lower classes, however, are less beset by panic of
small-pox than the higher ; therefore are less amenable
�6
PREFACE.
to .voluntary submission to the medical Lie; partly,
perhaps, because they see from continual observation of
them own injured babes that the certain evils of Vacci
nation which they get, far outweigh the merely possible
evil of small-pox, which they have not. A viper on the
hand is worse than two vipers in the bush. But, what
ever the cause, the resistance of the unenfrachisecL
masses, under their leaders, is becoming more compact.
This, with the progress of events in God’s providence,
will abolish Compulsory Vaccination.
While the following pages were passing through the
press, it was asserted that Vaccination had “ stamped,
out small-pox in Ireland and Scotland.” Since then a
malignant and most destructive epidemic of the disease
has raged over Ireland and Scotland, and caused a
frightful death-rate in Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, and
many other towns. The Vaccination was admitted to
be complete at the commencement of 1872. What has.
been the cause of the enormous death ? The Vac
cination ? In Berlin, a well-vaccinated city, the pro
portional death-rate among Germans has been four
times that of London.
These details give no light to the Medical Profession.
Endowment and Establishment have put it into its.
coffin: as they always put everything else into itscoffin.
Two things are sure. The coffin, though the body in
it is alive with Vaccination fees, must not rule the throne
and the people. 2. Woman, to whose love and insight
all babies first belong by God, must come into all vot
ing power, to be a heart of flesh over the stony heart of
Parliament.
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION;
ITS WICKEDNESS TO THE POOR.
Vaccination is no protection against Small-pox; 80
per cent, of the patients admitted with Small-pox into
the London Small-pox Hospital, and 95 per cent, of
the patients admitted with Small-pox into the Paris
hospitals, are reported vaccinated. Of 227 persons dead
of Small-pox last week, 86 are returned as vaccinated;
and 20 doubtful. “ The Registrar-General tells us that
on an average of four years, only 65 per cent! of the
English people were vaccinated; that is, less than twothirds. The vaccinated two-thirds furnish four-fifths of
the Small-pox cases, whilst the unvaccinated one-third
furnish only one-fifth. That is, the vaccinated are twice
as liable to Small-pox as the unvaccinated.”*
It is mere assumption that re-vaccination protects
against Small-pox; the re-vaccinated take Small-pox,
and you cannot assert of a Se-vaccinated person who
has been free from Small-pox, that he would have had
it but for re-vaccination. You know nothing about
* A similar result is presented in France. See Report by the Im
perial Academy of Medicine respecting Vaccinations in France in 1867.
Translated and abridged with the Arithmetical Proportions of the
Statistics calculated and arranged by George S. Gibbs. Longmans,
1870. Wherever Vaccination was most common, Small-pox was most
rife.
�8
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
that. In all ages the vast majority of mankind have
not taken Small-pox ; in this age an increasing majority
does not take it.
The contagiousness of Small-pox is one thing; the
mortality of it is another. If Vaccination cannot be
asserted to lessen the contagiousness, and if re-vaccina
tion cannot, at least, so the statistics inform us, Vacci
nation and re-vaccination diminish the death-rate of
Small-pox from 42 per cent, to 1 per cent. ; and make
all cases of Small-pox comparatively mild.
Who are the unvaccinated ? and the un-revaccinated ? At present! as a rule, they are the poorest,
most wretched, or sottish, of the population, to whom
all zymotic diseases are more fatal than to other classes ;
enormously and fearfully more fatal. Let the statis
ticians settle how the forces of severity and mortality
are to be apportioned. Non-vaccination has, as com
peting causes of its 42 per cent, of death,—-drink,
poverty, crowding, all final foulness, deep slums only
heard of because Small-pox is there. How much of the
42 per cent, is due Ito non-vaccination ? And how
much to abyssal slumslincluding moral slums ?
There were many mild cases of Small-pox in the
world before Vaccination was heard of. Has the death
rate of unvaccinated persons increased under the present
treatment? Forty-two per cent, of bad cases lost, as a
constant quantity, is an awkward comment on any
mode of treatment. It were well for medical con
sciences to be dissatisfied with it. 'Are the doctors
continually on the move to try means after means, and
to trample orthodoxy after orthodoxy, to abate the
pestilence of that statistic ? It is a disgrace to them.
If the statistic is crazy because it overlooks all
raging causes of disease existing in the slums of the
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
9
people, and alleges all their destructiveness to the fault
of little non-vaccination, it may well be al so suspected
from the historical character and antecedents of the sta
tisticians. When cholera was in London, a HomoeopathicCholera Hospital was opened in Golden Square,
for treating cholera patients. The House of Qommons
moved the College of Physicians to procure statistics of
all the treatment of cholera in all London hospitals.
The statistics were sent in, and respecting those of the
Homoeopathic Hospital, Dr. Macloughlan, the Govern
ment inspector, certified that the Homoeopathic treat
ment was the most successful of all in what he certified
were real cases of severe cholera; and he added that
though not a Homoeopath! he, were he a sufferer
from cholera, would be constrained by the Homoeo
pathic success to become a Homoeopathic patient for
that disease. The Blue Book of all the statistics was
ordered to be printed under the directions of the Col
lege of Physicians. That Blue Book appeared! But
the Homoeopathic !eturn of cases was not in it. The
College of Physicians had vitiated their result, and
voided the good of the book, by turning the one healing
virtue out of their pages. Dr. Paris, then President of
the Boyal College of Physicians, was asked why he
had done this. He said,—Because Homoeopathy is »
quackery. The question was not what Dr. Paris and
the College thought quackery, but what fact proved to
be the best treatment of cholera. That question the
College was clearly not answering in the Blue Book.
It was fighting for medical supremacy with another
body at the bedside of the dying. [The House of Com
mons printed the statistic separately.] This is of a
piece with the historical action of these chartered bodies
wherever medical dissent crosses them? In all such
�10
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
cases, their statistics are vitiated by the love of supre
macy which is the only unvarying fact in their career.
Add then the impurity and want of single eye in
the medical corporations to the abyss of the slums of
London as another factor of the 42 per cent, of deaths
alleged by these corporations to belong entirely to nonvaccination.
Reader, take in the passion with which those statis
tics are engendered^ the clique force which lives in
every figure: they look cold enough in columns and
lines ; but every cypher is white hot if you attempt to
handle it. It has been gathered with tones unmis
takable from the least reliable, poorest creatures in the
town -: beings whose memories from their dire circum
stances drop piecemeal from month to month; and of
whom, in manycases, family ties can hardly be alleged;
whose oath as to whether they, or theirs, have been
vaccinated, is idle wind | and if leading questions are
put, signifies mere falsity; it has been gathered by
powerful medical cliques which for their very life now,
have a case to make out; and which have for a longstream of history shown similar passion, and have for
ages been chased by fact from fortress to fortress of
their own delusions ; and from everything but their
love of supremacy. Reader, take all these factors in, and
deduct them from the figures of death ascribed to nonvaccination, and you will scout the figures ; and be little
liable to be deceived in the future, when you find that
statistical tables of disease and of treatment may be
mere masks of medical passion. As they were in the
cholera tables drawn up by the Royal College df
Physicians.
For the most part in the said 42 per cent, of fatal
cases, the fact of non- vaccination cannot be verified.
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
11
In the majority of such cases, the person is so concealed
hy the disease that it is difficult to tell whether he isold or young; and hence the fact of his Vaccination
rests upon a hear-say gathered by a voice and an ear
determined for only one answer to the question.
The 42 per centlstatistic of deaths alleged to non
vaccination, may therefore be relegated to the limbo of
assertion gathered from the fields of a foregone purpose,
and not from the good grounds of fact. The statistic
itself comes of those thoughts which Lord Bacon charac
terises as “ steeped in the affections,”—in this case, in
the affection or lust of medical rule.
Where are we, then ? Owing to this passion, now
embodied in laws, colleges, in a great profession, and a
corresponding police, and closing in fines and in jails
for the poor, and in threats for all malcontents and dis
senters ; owing to this passion, we do not know, and we
cannot know, whether Vaccination is any protection
against the severity and mortality of Small-pox or not.
Personally, I have no founded conception on the subject,
because no trustworthy data. The buttresses of Vac
cination argument are as flimsy as the castle of Vacci
nation statistics is illusory. They are the weakest
outworks of the medical passion in its war on the health
of the people.
The nurses in Small-pox hospitals are all vaccinated,
and they never take the disease. Some of them, they
tell me, are pitted with Small-pox previous to becoming
nurses ; and the most are of “ a certain age” little liable
to Small-pox. But do not my medical brothers know
that nurses and doctors enjoy a large immunity from the
contagious and infectious diseases which they attend.
Fearlessness in their functions at the beginning, and
afterwards custom with the diseases, protect them ; or
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COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
■otherwise both, the nursing and medical professions
would be down with the various diseases of London,
continually. Deduct this fact from the immunity of
nurses, and how much of it remains due to Vaccination ?
In Ireland the Small-pox has been stamped out by
Vaccination. The ground here is a little sacred from
the tradition of a similar instance; the toads and ser
pents were stamped out by St. Patrick. The case is
precisely similar® in both cases the stamping was suc
cessful because the stamped object was not there. When
he comes, the stamping mania of Vaccination will wear
out the feet of Old Physic without making any impres
sion upon Irish Small-poM What amount of credulity
can believe that our dear Paddy, with his habits and his
cabins, is a perfectlyl^accinated creature ; that his in
imitable power of non-society, of secret organization, of
resistandb to general orders, is contradicted here; and
that the wolf of generM Irish Ktwlessness is a lamb in
the single fold of Vaccination ?
In the few days since this was written Small-pox
is announced to be making steady ravages in Ireland ;
and the doctors, who accounted for the absence of the
disease by the universal stamping of Vaccination, now
account for its prevalence, and weekly increase, by the
statement that Ireland is “only half vaccinated.”
What ground to go upon is there in such assertions and
statistics ?
The same fact was alleged of Sweden in 1842; of
Sweden, “ the best vaccinated country in Europe only
two deaths occurred from Small-pox; and Old Physic
then said ■“ Lo ! triumph! Vaccination has stamped
out Small-pox !” But again, Lo ! In the next four or
five years the figures rose steadily to an annual death
rate of between 2000 and 3000 in well-vaccinated
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
13
Sweden. Small-pox was easily stamped out when it
was not there; but so soon as it came, its heavy feet
made a football of colleges.
Dr. Lyon Playfair, M.P., in a clever speech traced
the statistics of the decline of Small-pox coincidently
with the terrific frowns of the House of Commons, em
bodied against the monster in the various vaccinatory
laws culminating in the last Act of Universal Compul
sory Vaccination. He made out most beautifully that
every fresh turn of the Parliamentary screw wrung the
withers of the disease 9 and that complete compulsion
would banish it from the earth. Unhappily for the
beauty of his statistics, they were pitted with a few
afterthoughts. In the first place, the diminished death
rate was so immediate on Act after Act of Parliament,
that the effect was clean against time if Vaccination
were supposed to enter into it. The Small-pox might
have been frightened by the Laws, but could not have
been hurt. In the second place, the Acts were at first
coincident with outbursts of Small-pox, after which, decline of the disease is the way of nature : proving that
the coincidence is by a Natural Law. In the third place,
which seams the face of the Doctor’s speech from vertex
to chin, and puts out its eyes,—after the Law of General
Compulsory Vaccination has had time to work, and has
worked, a worse outbreak of Small-pox than before,
occurs ; and has to be accounted for by the statistician
on some grounds quite different to the power of Parlia
ment through Vaccinatory Laws ovei9Small-pox.
Doctor, what are those grounds ? I ask you with
pained interest, as being myself a member of a Special
Commission of the poor men and women of England who
won’t have their children’s blood violated and poisoned
by Acts of Parliament; and who, if even they are as
�14
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
cended from gorillas, refuse to have their natures mixed
again with the disease of beasts. What are those grounds?
You will answer at once,—The Anti-Compulsory Vacci
nation League. But men will know everywhere that
this “ small body of fanatics” has no influence to account
for the fact. You will say secondly, the absence of uni
versal re-vaccination. But neither vaccination, nor re
vaccination is known to check the spread of Small-pox,
however mild the form induced; and when once the
disease is among us, it can spread from the mansion, in
which it does comparatively little death, to the slum in
which it does all death. That, you know, is perfectly
natural. Why, the tenants of our slums are in such a
state physically, that to scratch them each and all with
a pin at fever-time and disease-time, would cause a con
siderable mortality in London.1 And when Small-pox,
ever so mild elsewhere, creeps upon the slum, men and
women and children, they, the proper food of death, die
in shoals. Vaccination, if you; could do it, and watch
the results, would kill shoals of them at once. No
theory of the case is needed. When Small-pox is not
here, it has no death-rate. When it is here, its death
rate has little to do with Vaccination, and almost every
thing to do with bad habits, depressed minds, and filthy
slums. Almost everything to do with the apathy and
somnolence of Parliament.
As soon as this outbreak is done, if you will pass a
tremendous Compulsory Law, and use the military to
enforce it, you will find that the decline of Small-pox,
and the existence and working of the Law, will go side
by side for a time. Simply because, as I told you be
fore, Small-pox always mitigates its ravages after a great
attack has been consummated. After a great scourge,
of cholera, if you will smoke a pipe every day for ten years,
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
15
you will also find that the absence of cholera, and the
smoking of your pipe, are contemporaneous pieces of
history.
But the slums, Doctor,—they are the causes of Small
pox ; and the taking of patients out of the slums through
the various neighbourhoods, the medical taking: that is a
chapter of wide infection. When the Small-pox exists,
move and touch the person as little as you can : let him
or her be, and clear the neighbourhood from about him.
Don’t infect Hampstead* and Haverstock Hill out of
St. Giles, as you are now doing! But how can you clear
out the slums ? Very easily, if you will make war upon
them ; but not if you enter into a treaty of peace with
them, while you make war upon all healthy persons and
places.
At present Parliament is much bent upon Compul
sion : in the present case, the compulsion of Papa Me
dicine upon the thirty-three millions of patients whose
health, failing to come from heaven, comes only through
the channel of papa, who alone knows what is good for
his little ones. But Parliament will discover that this
compulsion has not obvious honesty enough about it, or
results of health, to be borne by the patients, who are
more important to Parliament than Mr. Simon and Papa
Physic. And so Parliament will have to gratify its love
of compulsion by allowing to the people their own pri
vate doctoring, or no doctoring; and by attending to
* Four hundred Small-pox patients gathered in Hampstead !
Patients taken up in open ambulances on the side-walks! Mothers
and nurses, and children, have to run for it to avoid them ! An antwalk of patients going, convalescents returning, and I suppose, coffins
carried somewhere. The very shaking up of London in the Govern
ment bottle of Small-pox 1 And ridiculous Vaccination, Parliament’s
gift per contra. Strain at gnats and swallow camels.
�16
k
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
its own proper business, of national, municipal, and
rural general well-being. Nothing to do whatever with
poisoning people’s arms or opening their bowels. Every
thing to do with the forcible abolition of all buildings
and styles of building that make disease and epidemic
inevitable to the community. Here is room enough for
general officers, field-marshals against disease, working
through surveyors and engineers. But medicine, a
purely private art! has nothing to say or do in the
case.
Take the fact of Westminsteil Out of its square
miles of squalor blossoms a colossal marquis : his sur
veyors and engineers are re-building on a Paris scale
aristocwtic lliondon, because it was not fine enough for
the rich before 9 the palaces were not sufficiently
palatial. Now why not compel here ? Why not enact
that the money crops of Westminster shall be put into
filthy and not into already splendid Westminster ; that
every questionable tenement in it shall be re-built;
that Peabody houses universal, or something better,
shall rise, and be We^minster 9 houses for the poor
with good greensward between them ; and that this
shall be done of compulsion by the landlords of Westminster from one age to another ; they being forced to
improve their estates in this matter ; and to administer
their royal wealth in this manner ? Why not ?
To this compulsion it must come at last. And the
peddling compulsions of vaccinating people whose very
homes and bodies are deathbeds, and of taking them
through healthy neighbourhoods to centres of infection,
must be abandoned. State medicine, that despotic lie,
must be abandoned, State-health, the good of the
people, must be thought of.
A heavy argument is thought to rest in the decline
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
17
of Small-pox since Vaccination was introduced; and
in the few persons one now meets who are pitted
with Small-pox. Since then, however, inoculation has
been forbidden by law, on purpose to limit the propa
gation of the disease ! moreover, the treatment is dif
ferent. In former times, everyone who had Small-pox
was put into the slum-condition at once ! fresh air and
water were sedulously excluded! and crowding and
stifling with bed-things andreurtains was carried out.
That alone accounts for a vast difference in death and
disfigurement. Does it not? But again, cholera has
sensibly declined since it first appeared in India ; has
declined in every country in the world. Why, we do
not know ; but it is certainly not owing to any medical
procedure. Plague has declined!the sweating sickness
has disappeared ; syphilis is constantly on the decline;
the leprosy of the middle ages, with its ten thousand
hospitals, has died away ;but medical prowess is not to
thank for it. Why should it be assumed if Small-pox
declines like all these diseases, that it alone would have
been a fixture but for Vaccination ? You perceive,
reader, that the agency alleged of Wccination in this
result, is a baseless assumption! and that the cases of
numerous other great diseases proclaim loudly that
the assumption is not necessary to account for the
facts.
On the other hand you know again that slums and
hundreds of square miles of landlorded human putre
faction are no assumption as causes of small-pox, scar
latina, diphtheria, typhus, typhoid, and nearly every
disease; and therefore I compel you to face this fact,
divine in its truth, and devilish in its matter, and to
draft your compulsion away from the blood of little
children, and direct it by more than German requisi2
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COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
tional enactment upon those who can be made to grasp
and purify their own Augean slums, out of which their
brazen palaces now rise into our air.
Let every landlord be compelled to sleep for a week
half yearly in the worst room in his dominions ; the
house to be selected by Dr. Farr according to the
death-rate. Let him be vaccinated before he goes
in if he likes. If he decline, let it be recorded as his
testimony about Vaccination. From the cell-germ of
that one room, sweetened by the great fortune,
New London will arise, fair as loving justice, and swift
as an exhalation.
Legislating medical treatment ingeniously takes the
mind away from the true and great problem of fiscal
Sanitary legislation. It opposes some small and most
dubious medical dogma to the common sense of national
and municipal and ■rural cleanliness, air and light uni
versal. But I ask Parliament, do the antecedents of
medicine make the adoption of medical dogma into law,
feasible ? Inoculation, current for some fifty years, has
been forbidden by law. The thoughts and practices of
Old Physic vary with the moons. There is only one
way of fixing any of Bshem; and that is by endowing
and establishing them; and by this method Parliament
has given the fixity of cash and vested interest to
Vaccination. Parliament has made a church out of
cowpox, the smallest and nastiest of churches. This,
and that other foul jakes, the Contagious Diseases Act,
—an edifice in which a Boyal Commission is now asitting,—are, I predict, the two last prescriptions which
Parliament will force upon Great Britain at the bidding
of the medical profession. Before it has done with
Vaccination, and the money power which is its coat of
mail, it will have learnt to rue the day when it went
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
19
out of its own. general path to embody a poisonous
puncture in a law.
Let us hope that in its awakening it will not only
clear the Privy Council of a medical department, but
also discharter all medical bodies ; and disconnect them
from the State.
So far for one side of the case; the side against
Vaccination and Ke-vaccination as preventive of Small
pox, its deaths and its disfigurements. We have seen
that Vaccination does not prevent Small-pox land that
there is no proof that Ke-vaccination prevents it. We
have seen that the diminished death-rate alleged in
vaccinated cases, has in it several other causes more
obviously important than Vaccination, and which pro
bably reduce Vaccination to mimis nil. We have seen
that the decline of Small-pox takes place after out
breaks, just as the decline of all other un-vaccinated
diseases takes place. We have seen Small-pox leap up
again in spite of legislation. We have seen the steady
decline of the disease for one or two centuries, as we
have seen the steady decline of plague and other un
vaccinated pestilences in the same time. We have
seen the common sense hygienic conditions of patients,
their well-being, followed everywhere by an abatement
of the malignity of the symptoms and legacies of Small
pox. We have seen that misery and want are the beds
of Small-pox; and that Vaccination is inevitably also
one of its beds, because every disease—the Vaccine
disease—increases the weakness of the body, and
diminishes its resisting power. And so we have proved
the negative indictment against Vaccination. We have
found that there is no good thing in its bones.
Yet the medical pack hunts on its scent with almost
unanimous voice; it has an endowed and established
2—2
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COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
smell which pleases them. To me, as a Homoeopath,
their unanimity counts for nothing : I know how unani
mous they are in shutting their eyes, and closing their
ears, to a way more excellent than their own. I know
what they have rejected in the great truth of Homoeo
pathy. And until they are more open-minded and
open-hearted, I cannot value their unanimity as con
taining in it one element of strength, or of love. It
is but the crnelty of routine incarnate in its vul
garity.
The positive indictment against Vaccination is a dif
ferent chapter, and cannot be fully written yet; but the
informations which will instruct it are being prepared
in several journals read chiefly by poor men and women
who are almost out of the ken of the medical profession.
They will form bulky documentary evidence ; and pro
bably will be made the basis of claims for compensation
by the poor in some future and better Parliament, when
the Medical as well as National citadels are all in the
hands of the people. For money payments on a scale
are, I see, to be in the indemnity of all social wrong-doing.
What sum of money will the rich owe the poor for the
deaths and destructions caused by compulsory Vaccina
tion I
The allegation of the best informed is, that Vaccination
widely spreads disease among the people; that erysipelas
immediately, and consumption, syphilis, scarlet-fever,
decline, are sown broadcast by Vaccination. New, cer
tainly, by Vaccination, physic adds one more disease to
human beings. Certainly ■ is a beast’s disease. Cer
tainly there are sensitive people, Specially the mothers
of infants, so framed as to loathe the thought of it, and
to wonder at a large profession not being in the main
sick at the filthy little fancy of it. If this be a prejudice
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
21
it is not an astonishing one. But others allege more
tangible proofs against Vaccination.
There are two parties here to put into the witnessbox. Let the medical profession enter the box first
with the lictors before it, and the State Lancet (only to
think of the State having that abomination of desola
tion, a Zancei) in its hand. The medical profession deposes
that it almost never heard of any ill effects to the health
of children or persons arising from Vaccination. {Mem.
The great lords of the past might depose that they know
no particular evils arising from seduction 1 they see no
more, and want to see no more, of the victims when the
deed is done. They want very particularly
to see
them.) I believe the profession almost. But then, abate
this from their word of truth. They have a dogma that
everything ill that follows Vaccination is not a conse
quence of Vaccination! the converse negative to the
wrong use of post hoc ergo propter 7mc. If a child has
a bad skin disease running from the date of ripe vaccine,
that is said to be a time when children usually have
skin diseases, and consequently the malady in question
is not due to Vaccination! I deny that it rasuch a time.
Does not the public see that with this article of the
Church of Cow-pox regnant in him, a doctor can have
no chance of knowing whether Vaccination causes dis
ease or not. He is out of knowledge, and is well-fenced,
well-feed stupidity. As far as gathering the facts here
are concerned, he is an oaf in livery, and does not know
a hawk from a handsaw, being clique-insane. {Mem.
These are the men whose opinions Parliament makes
into compulsory statutes.) Besides this dogma, that
whatever disease comes after Vaccination cannot be
caused by it, the doctors extend their fortress by pro
claiming that fathers and mother! being not medical,
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COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
can have no just opinion on any particular case which
arises in their children. The doctor’s word overrides the
mother’s observation coming sharp out of the mother’s
love. He will hear no evidence but that of his own
dogma, which puts its penny-pieces over his own heart
dead eyes.
Here are indeed two incommunicating parties.
What is the relation between them ? The Vaccinator
in many cases, among the pool in the most of cases, per
forms his operation, sees the child a week after, and knows
nothing more of mother or child thenceforth—until she
is brought to him againwvith a second child, to tell him
how ill the first fared after his deed, and to receive
from him a grand pooh-pooh at the end of her mother’s
tale of her child’s sickness, or death. The child is taken
to another surgeon, who also pooh-poohs, and gives a little
medicine, and the longer the case lasts the less it has to
do with direct ruin by Vaccination. She finds the medi
cal men sealed against her piteous story all round. As
a man at Plymouth, whose horrid dominion is over 2000
women a fortnight, said of the poor wretches violated by
the Contagious Diseases Acts, “ We listen to no com
plaints.”
Is Parliament going to proceed on this ex-parte evi
dence? Does Parliament not know that the opinions of
professional experts are not safe unless common experi
ence is added to them from the largest field of good sense
and ordinary attestation ?
What then is to be done ? I say, let a Parliamentary
Commission sit in any great borough of London, and
summon the Vaccinated poor, and take their depositions
with regard to the effect of Vaccination on their children.
Let there be a house to house visitation, such as Mr.
Gilpin s canvass of Northampton proved to be, when he
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
23
said it was pitiful to go from one to another, and to have
to listen to the long story of disease and death which
parents forced upon him as the sequel of the Vaccination
laws. I maintain that parents do know much, and all,
about these consequences. They see their immediacy
upon Vaccination. The Vaccinators do not. They watch
every point of the Vaccination diseases. The Vaccinators
do not. In reality they have a scientific knowledge
which the Vaccinators have-not, if science is founded
upon experience, and ever-widening experience, and
comparisons of experience. And then they have quick
affections which gather the terrible knowledge, where
the Vaccinators have now but the love of power, and
for eyes, dogmas, which are not to see.
I have taken the trouble to inquire of parents whether
they had ever known evil consequences to arise in their
homes from Vaccination. And the results are curious..
Knowing that I am a medical man, at first they were
silent on the subject. But when they found that I was not
one who “listens to no complaints,” they have in many
cases opened to me a breast of suffering. From my in
quiries I state, under full responsibility of the statement,
that I could without difficulty gather tens of thousands
of cases of serious and irreparable evilland a large rate
of death, if I were able to make anything like a wide
inquiry. A figure so great, that after all eliminations
and honest deductions, it would appal the people,
and make them cry aloud for guarantee and indem
nity. .
This morning, February 27th, in my Dispensary prac
tice, a poor woman, Mrs. T. (thanks to Parliament, I
dare not mention her name) brought in her baby. Her
words: “ Vaccinated last September. A fat, strong boy
till he was done. Never well since. Wasting away.
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COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
Arm never has got well.” I examined and saw. “ A
similar place on forehead and throat.” I saw them.
“There could not be a stronger child than this was
before. Three days afterwards he came out with some
thing which the doctor said had nothing to do with
Vaccination.
7s wzt? being summoned to have a
second baby done /” Out! child of hell by Parliament I
Out! damned Law’!
If this happened to Mr. and
Gladstone, and they
had had the utter conviction whicll these poor parents
have, they would, or could, have paid fines, and kept
their next child unvaccinated; but this blacksmith can
not pay the fines, and must go to prison, and let his
wife go to beggary, or offer up another babe to what
they regard as State murder. That blacksmith is cer
tainly nou equal to Mr. Gladstone in the face of British
law.
Another case. Mygoachman’s child was vaccinated,
and took with it erysipelas, which overspread the body.
The mother who wl nursing it took the erysipelas,
and both nearly died of it, I assert that this result, of
two long and all but fatal illnesses, was, in a poor man’s
house, due to Vaccination, and consequently due to
Parliament.
3.—Miss Edith Hutchinson, of Kensington, was
vaccinated by the late eminent Dr. Joseph Laurie.
The arm dwelled enormously, and ms hard like wood.
After a month it subsided, and then a putrid thrush
occurred, which disappeared after some weeks. The
disease was next transferred to the abdomen, and its
lymphatic system, and she died of great purulent
collections in its cellular tissues, the matter, putres
cent, voided by the bowels. I attended the later
stages of the case with Dr. L. Vaccination, careful
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
25
-conscientious vaccination, did it as plainly as fire
burns.
I give this case again in Mrs. H.’s own words.
“ 2, HorntoJ Villas, Kensington,
“6th March, 1871.
“My Dear Dr. Wilkinson,
“ The dear child was in perfect health in
May, 1863 ; but as Small-pox was prevalent, and our
household being vaccinated, she was subjected to the
process,—though the operation had been performed
upon her, and had c taken,’ when she was four months
old. Within a few days of the Vaccination in May,
1863, she—(being then nearly six years old)—was
attacked with inflammation of the lymphatic glands of
the arms to so severe an extent that her arms were
immensely swollen, and so heavy and hard that each
arm had to be supported in a sling; her sufferings for
ten days were very great, at the end of which time her
arms gradually resumed their natural appearance. But
within a few weeks the poor child was prostrated by an
attack of apthous ulceration of the mouth, which was
of a most distressing character from the peculiarly
offensive odour emitted from the gums, &c.
“The dear child was more or less delicate ever
after, and, in the' following June, enlargement of the
abdominal glands, and mesenteric disease set in, her
life being terminated by a . succession of abscesses in the
bowels in July, 1864; the doctor who attended her
telling me that the glandular disease had been coming
on for some months.
“ I felt then, and still do feel convinced that her
system was poisoned by the introduction of the vaccine
matter, for she had never had a spot or swelling of any
�26
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
kind before, nor had there been a previous case of
mesenteric disease in our family,
11 Ever, my dear Dr. Wilkinson, believe me,
“ Yours most sincerely,
“ S. Hutchinson.’7
The three stages in this case are a linked chain of
consequences uncoiling from the Vaccination. 1.—The
Vaccination itself, poisonous lymph, producing poisonous
lymph. 2.—The enormous swelling of the cellular
tissues, and consequently of all the tissues of the arm;
the cellular tissues being the great plane at the end of
the whole lymphatic system I the universal lymph
plane. All the lymphatic vessels and lymphatic glands
of the body stand in the relation of centres to the
cellular tissue as their great circumference. Effects in
the cellular tissue are reflected in intimate effects in
the vital lymphatics. It is a great arena of transfer
ence! of fluids I and if you disease it, of transference of
diseases. It Suns into the depth! of every organ in the
body]) and a spark of poison in its skin may soon be a
devouring fire of poison in its mesentery. 3.—The
next stage! the malignant thrush, was no doubt the
indexl of commencing destruction in the lymphatic
system of the abdomen. 4.-—The centre of the Vaccination was reached; the abscesses in the abdomen were
the end of the Vaccinatory deed. Verdict—Death by
FaccwaftW
This was a compaMtively acute case, and only
lasted about one terrible year. But you can easily
infer from it the certainty, in many cases, of more
subtle and chronic destructions. Keep your minds
open where they have before been willingly closed, and
you will see.
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
27
4.—Lady Campbell, the wife of a British Ambas
sador, (not known to me, but well known to Mrs.
Hutchinson, of the last case,) was vaccinated by a Dr.
L. The vaccinated arm swelled to enormous propor
tions.
A strong fine woman before, she died in a
twelvemonth from the direct effect of Vaccination;
which the doctor did not deny. All the particulars of
this case are extant, and can be verified if required.
5-—The Bev. Dr. L/s daughter had Small-pox last
autumn, for which I attended her. Mrs. L. asked me
to vaccinate the family. I declined, and gave my
reasons. Dr. L. expressed surprise 1 but Mrs. L. said
she was rejoiced to hear me speak thus; and added,
“ Do you not recollect that our eldest son has a scrofu
lous swelling of the arm from Vaccination, and has
never been well since?” He then remembered ; and I
examined the son, and verified the fact of the disease.
6.—A well-known literary gentleman, a name
known to everyone in Parliament, consulted me last
autumn, for an affection of the leg, attended with a
skin eruption, which much crippled him. He said,
“ Four years ago I was overpersuaded by a lady to be
vaccinated ; and I have had this affection ever since.
I showed it to Mr. ------------ > ; he pronounced it to be
gout, and did not admit its connection with Vaccina
tion.” (Gout may be caused by Vaccination, see p. 38.)
This case wonderfully illustrates the post hoc ergo non
propter hoc pleaded against big linked facts, written
out in two tangible and similar diseases, while the post
hoc ergo
hoc is held by the same surgeon in
favour of the invisible, intangible, untraceable con
nexion supposed to exist between Vaccination and non
Small-pox ; or between something and nothing. To
such a logic, endowment and establishment have
�28
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
brought the heads of the profession. The logic of fees
simple.
But if doctors are so subtly able to trace the absence
of Small-pox when it is absent, to the fact of Vaccina
tion, than which no greater mental ingenuity is con
ceivable, how can they refuse the common public the
right to put tens of thousands of like antecedents and
consequences of the broadest kind into the same rela
tions of cause and effect,—the right to attribute visible
immediate consequences to visible immediate deeds and
causes ?
I could multiply my cases from my own note-books,
but have not space! and I will content myself with re
peating that every neighbourhood is full of such cases,
which are only concealed in their ghastly multitude by
the Egyptian darkness, that is, the scientific darkness
of the established Medical Profession! If the reader
wants more information Met him consult the Anti-Vaccinator and
Health Journal, edited by Coun
cillor Pickering, Cookridge Street, Leeds. I have
touched the matter merely to give the pointing of my
own personal enquiries and observations.
All this experience, the whole other half of the
question, is ungathered, and Parliament has legislated
Compulsory Vaccination without it. Now I maintain
that it is the men and women of England, especially
the poor,!vho are the depositors of all the real scientific
information on the subject. The doctors know the micro
scopy of pustules and pock-marks! the poor know the
serpent whose trail is death in their homes. Why has
Parhament cast out the science of the poor ? Why has
it only listened to the venal science of the experts ?
There is a class intermediate between the poor and
the doctor, which can supply a fink, and that is the
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
29
Chemists and Druggists. To them the wounds and woes
of the vaccinated are freely taken; they are not esta
blished into stupidity; and they listen to the tale. If
they will honestly speak out, they can tell the tale. A
Parliamentary Commission ought to call their evidence
in preference to that of the professional experts. But
the substantial evidence will always be that of thevaccinated poor themselves, who have the real science.
Why the poor ? Because their circumstances cause
the Vaccine Disease, like other diseases, to create greater
ravages among them than among the other classes : and
hence it is a more heinous wrong to vaccinate White
chapel compulsorily than so to vaccinate Belgravia.
Add now to these facts, that in the medical darkness,
the Egyptian darkness that can be felt, and that is
cruelly felt by the poor, Parliament has enacted that
thirty-four millions of people shall, generation after gene
ration, be vaccinated to lower the death-rate (not the
disease-rate) of a few thousands of cases of Small-pox.
Is it less than certain that the death from such a vast
field of Vaccination towers over any immunity ever pre
tended to be secured by Vaccination ? If the doctors
dispute this, in which they are themselves arraigned, let
them come down from the bench, and go into the dock,
and let Parliament order a personal minute to be taken of
the experience of the poor ; then, and not till then,
Parliament can set death against death, and strike a
just balance as between compulsory Vaccination and
natural Small-Pox.
Parliament, if it will meddle with particular kinds of
physic, ought also to enquire into the practice in its
Small-pox hospitals. Do the men there, who lose 42 per
cent, of bad cases, stick to their routine and violent
drugging ? or do they try all the available means and
�30
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
new discoveries for treating Small-pox ? At Hampstead
and Highgate do they try the Homoeopathic way, with
tartar emetic in infinitesimal doses ? Do they try the
Hydropathic way, which is, I believe, excellent; and
always a good adjunct ? Do they try Mr. Rose’s plan,
with cream of tartar, the great success of which is
alleged ? Do they use the Hydrastis and veratrum viride
method ? If they do not try all these ways, they are
playing with Small-pox, and the death-rate is greatly
due to their own perverse incapacity! Parliament, if it
meddle at all, ought assuredly not to stop meddling
until it searches out these things, which must affect
even the half-statistics on which it makes its laws.
But is not a clear case made out for abolishing com
pulsion ? It has been shewn that the statistics in favour
of Vaccination—founded as they all are on
hoc ergo
propter hoc for their own side, and post hoc ergo non
propter hoc for the other side—are subtle and unreliable;
it has been also shewn that the statistics against Vacci
nation, gross as sick-beds and coffins, come up in num
bers, so that the whole foot of Old Medicine cannot
stamp them down! b^^hey have been refused to be
heard in the case. In the face of the flimsiness of the
one part, and the horrible doubt of the other, what has
a wise ParliamentKo do but to repeal these compulsory
laws ? Let them compel epidemics to relax their hold
on the throat of the cowitry, by compelling municipalities
to compel property-holders to set towns right, and
estates to set cottages right; but let them beware of
all compulsion that! rests on grounds more subtle and
metaphysical than these.
If compulsory Vaccination is right, compulsory Re
vaccination is right, and moreover necessary. But no
parliament dare enforce it. Were it attempted by fines,
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
31
it would break down ; were it carried out by violence
personally, the lancet would be jostled by the pistol, the
poker, and the knife. And laudable homicide, and godly
homicide, and if ordered or done in court, good and just
magistraticide, would become common verdicts in the
land.
Even the present law, if unrepealed, will lead to civil
war of its own kind. Against the mother who has one
child destroyed, or badly poisoned, by Vaccination, and is
compelled to bring up another and another to the same
ruin, it is civil war; and she, and her kind, will elude it
not by the laws of peace, but by the ways of war. If she
has strong convictions, who can say what is not lawful for
her to do ? She may conceal her births ; and to do so,
call into existence a new and clandestine class of mid
wives who will turn the doctors out of the neighbour
hoods of the poor. She may invent substitutes for
Vaccination, such as tartar emetic injected under the
skin, and forged certificates on a large scale. She wTill
assuredly do everything to barricade her room and her
neighbourhood against the compulsory Vaccinator. In
the process, a complete alienation must occur between
the poor and the medical profession. And a new, an
unrecognized, and probably secret medical service must
•supply the traitor’s place among the poor. How far
this will be serviceable to sanitary progress it is for
Parliament to think.
It may strike Sunday schools, and all education of
the poor, heavily; for the poor will become secretive
under fear for their children’s lives; and if the Hymn
Book means the poisoner’s lancet, woe then to the Hymn
Book.
But if it will create war between the poor and the
doctors, these laws, if persisted in, will speedily destroy
�32
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
the humanity of the profession. The doctor used to be
a familiar friend in the cabin, and the poor abode ; but
now he is the herald of the policeman, the bringer of
fine or imprisonment, the stern derider of the mother’s
eye, and the mocker of her complaints, the minister to
her children, as she believes of disease and of death.
He is not the single-eyed man of charity, but the tool,
the protected tool of the State, as the State is itself,
by base sufferance, the tool of the medical head-centres.
What is his comfort to the lying-in bed, if his know
ledge of birth which he thus gains, is treacherously
turned into a slmmons against father, or widowed
mother to render her fchild to Vaccination in three
months’ time ? He can only be detested while he
serves. His Eawheart .Bind Bpacitv, must be seriously
affected by the State making him into a spy, and an
informer, and his studies and his skill cannot but be
wasted by the sense of official poweSagainst the people,
where he ought to be a minister and interpreter of
nature only, and a private friend of the poor man’s,
needs®
Panic is the direct out-come of the present laws ;
and panic is a potent feeder of Small-pox. House to
house Vaccination puts all persons in dread; and the
vast fee field which is thereby created corrupts the
senses of the medical profession. The bigger the panic
the greateJ the profits. In the meantime, the death
rate ® scarcely affected by the disease, which only robs,
scarlatina of its usual victims ; for when the one disease
rises the other falls, so that nothing is gained to present
life. In the last weeklwhen 227 died of Small-pox,
the whole death-rate was six under the average of the
ten years. But the doctors stupefy themselves and
terrify the public, by proclaiming “the terrible scourge”
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
33
of Small-pox, when scarlatina, a scourge far more dreadis unnoticed in their public action altogether. This
moral deadness is a direct consequence of the endow
ment and establishment of the treatment of one parti
cular disease by Parliamentary acts.
The laws indeed confound the mind by their stu
pidity of conception. Within three weeks, I, as a
medical adviser, have urgently recommended between
twenty and thirty families not to be vaccinated. I
have done so on all the grounds I know, with all my
light, and all my conscience. As a medical man I am
entitled to an opinion, and am a free agent. But what
is my relation to the law ? It is undoubtedly, without
intending offence, a seditious relation. If I could be
heard, I would prevent all London from being vaccinated ; at any cost I would prevent it. If dragoons
were in the streets to do it, I should still stand only in
a medical right and say to the people, “ At all hazards
do not be vaccinated.’' Again I ask,—Is my little light
and skill forbidden by the laws ? And am I a traitor
to my country because, as a medical man, I do what I
know to be right for the people ?
Perhaps you will say, I ought to succumb to the pro
fession. I answer, that all the gain of man by time
comes out of minorities of one, and that we, the Anti
Vaccinators, cannot yield. I know the profession too
well, its fashions, its fluxions, its prejudiceslits passions,
its hopes, and its fears, to be able to cede an inch of
insight to its decisions, embodied in, and further vitiated
by, Acts of Parliament. Upon this particular question
I know that the profession, in spite of its routine, is a
hot mass of uncertainty and unhappiness.
There is nothing for us to do but to resist. And
those who resist here will have on their side the working
3
�34
■COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
people of England, and in time the majority ot the
House of Commons.
The agitation against the Compulsory Vaccination
laws cannot die, but is growing every hour. The at
tempted coercion of the people by medical despotism
cannot die, but is growing every hour. And the Glad
stone Ministry determined upon one permanence, its
own dynasty, cares nothing about small questions that
kill and maim hundreds of thousands, because these
questions do not seem to imperil the Gladstone empire,
the Cabinet life! The people, the masses, often invaded,
always invaded by these party lusts, the frontiers of
their rights constantly infringed, and their homes wasted
by empire-loving Gladstones, who are determined to
secure to the bullet boys of party their thrones, the
people are not yet drilled I but there is a nucleus of
militant resistance springing up in the Anti-Compul
sory Vaccination League, and the National AntiContagious Diseases Acts Association. The’only
thing you can do, my brothers and sisters of the British
Islands, who have bodies to be defended, and babes to
be defended, is to pass into the ranks of these little
armies, by your allegiance, and by your money, where
you will be silently drilled and informed for the coming
hour. Medical despotism, the despotism of science,
Egyptian darkness and Egyptian despotism, that which
brings down upon your houses the curse of the death
of the first-born, the worst despotism of all is going,
when you are fully ready, but after hard fields, to die
the death. As against the medical Gladstone Govern
ment, to-day is your Jena ; if you join ranks obediently
and heartily, another not distant day will be your Paris.
You must insist on new frontiers to your homes,
frontiers of fortified right over your persons, which me
�35
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
dical science and medical men cannot overstep without
your sovereign pass, and then always as private citizens.
You must insist on the demolition of all the fortresses
from which they have sallied against your lives ; on the
dischartering of all medical and scientific corporations.
You must have Science itself coynpletelg dismantled, and
reduced to its own exact but utterly individual authority,
or you will never be safe for science, erected beyond
its place into any power not its own, is the worst tyrant
of all; red democracy is nothing to it |land while go
vernmental fortresses of it stand, you are a constantly
invaded people. You know now, by experience, that
the rule of science by divine right is the most enslaving
of superstitions ; that an uninspired schoolmaster on
the throne, or above the throne, ferruling overgrown
men and women, is a very devil incarnatel Besides
this, during the civil war now waging, you must keep
account of your destructions,—careful books of harm to
persons and to industry, and life, wrought by these
Government Acts,—first least volumes of the new Dooms
day Book of God and the People,—and when the day
of treaty comes, you must demand from the common
stock your war indemnity. The first Parliament of the
people will levy it for you. And if Mr. Gladstone be
then Prime Minister, as we trust he will be, he is
greatly capable of assessing from the poor man’s point
of view, under the poor man’s thumb and pressure, to
secure his dynasty, the Weregild to be paid; the value
of babies to the mother, and of sons and daughters to
the country.
March 4, 1871.
3—2
�NOTES.
The profits accruing to medical men from a diligent
cultivation of the Fee-Field of Panic during these last
weeks, are in the aggregate enormous. One practi
tioner, they tell me,J in a neighbourhood not remote
from my own, has been making sixty guineas a week
by Vaccination. Statesmen, who can measure interest
as a factor in the instincts of cliques and corporations ;
as a creator of class-doctrines; as a power in shutting
the eyes, or opening the eyes, to facts; as a new lease
giver to abuses,—of course regard heavy fees as a
powerful though unconscious operant cause why the
medical profession has a great love for Vaccination. It
may be a legitimate love, but, were it not so, the fees
would give it artificial permanence. Of that, no states
man can doubt. Gain swerves the mind very danger
ously from the rails of fact, and is a general conjuror
with statistics^ Large profits, then, must be regarded
as at least a possible element in the building of the
present collegiate tables, which, while undestroyed, are
professional gold mines.
Bad cases are said to be due to unhealthy lymph,
and the first object is to get “ healthy lymph.” Clean
dirt, and healthy cow-disease! But passing this by,
we know what they mean,—that only the disease of the
beast should be actual in the matter. But what a sur
prising want of subtlety of mind, what pint-pot mate
rialism, as though men and women were vessels filled
with blood and juices from the tap of the “ King’s
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
37
Arms,” reigns in the medical profession, if they can
dream that matter transmitted through the offspring of
men and women for ten or twenty years, does not con
tain all kinds of abominations. If a drop of seed will
make a man, because it is a man’s, a drop of lymph will
make a gout, or a consumption, or a syphilis, because it
has been trailed through systems impressed with those
diseases. Even if it were all mere dirty cow, cows may
differ so far as to be full of hereditary taints, and our
babes may take the analogues of human diseases very
well from the domestic animals. There is no way out
of it. ’Tis all pollution together, though the vaccinator’s
cauldron may have more or less complexity, or simplicity
of disease and decay in it.
Thoughtful dentists suggest Vaccination as a pro
bable cause of the early decay of the teeth in this age.
The surmise gains countenance from the consideration,
that the germs of the second or permanent teeth are
appearing at the time selected by Government physic
for performing Vaccination. Lay this down as sure—
wherever nature is busy upon any conceptive operation
in the body, any’sudden unnatural shock to the system
is likely to impress the embryonic structure ; and hence
it is feasible to suppose that if Vaccination and the be
ginning of the second teeth are contemporaneous, de
formity of the teeth may be the birth-mark on them
inflicted by Vaccination, and premature decay of the
teeth, consumption of the teeth, the inheritance. Small
pox at the time would not have the same power of ill,
for it is taken because the system is predisposed' to it;
but in Vaccination a disease is given by violence against
pre-disposition not to receive nt.
�38
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
Vaccination is sometimes claimed as in principle a
part of Homoeopathy. Falsely, so far as Homoeopathy
in its whole scope is concerned. Homoeopathy, by an
incomparable drug-science, cancels the symptoms of
disease. But there is no case in which it aims to give
a diseased Vaccination is unsuccessful unless it gives a
disease. It also violates the body in a way that no
disease, not plague, or scarlatina, or typhus does, by
an actual wound into the blood; a poisoned wound.
Neither pestilence, nor physic, has any analogy with •
this procedure.
The clerks in the War Office have lately been vacci
nated. A large number of bad arms has been the con
sequence! Vaccination during epidemic Small-pox is
more likely to produce acute bad results than at other
times; because the town is already charged with a
poisonous miasma. In the War Office, axillary abscess,
and crops of boils on the body, have, I hear, followed it,
and ^rheumaj^c affections have freen reproduced. One
reason of the latter is, that depressing diseases bring
out all the weak points. See p. 28.
There is also goodl’eason to suppose that a process
like Vaccination, which in its theory of prevention,
affects the whole organism, is potent, and harmful, in
an increasing ratio from age to age. We have work for
brain and nerves which make morbid disturbances in our
bodies less tolerable than they were in those of our an
cestors. We cannot do that work, and live grossly as
our ancestors did. Finer causes count for us, and
against us. I submit that on this ground the special
empoisonment of Vaccination is more against us now
than it was in Jenner’s day. See if the effects of the
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
39
present re-vaccinations do not bear out this remark.
And also add to the subject the cumulative effects of
successive Vaccinations.
The baby T., mentioned p. 25, died of convulsions
in the night of March 10. The Vaccinating Doctor’s
certificate ran—Died of Congestion of H Drain during
Teething. Mylcertificate would have been—Died of
Convulsions, the product of inanition ccnd nervotis ex
haustion, caused by
disease d^ect^gpaused
by Vaccination. See what a different statistic will be
gathered from the two different views.
Last Sunday (May 1M1872) I lost a little patient,
Edith Clare Patterson, aged six monthslof whoopingcough. She was twice v®cinated — successfully at
three months old. Always weakly, she seemed no
worse, but her parents said, father better, after the
vaccination. The whooping-cough was of the adynamic
kind : convulsion throughout the frame rather the
character of the disease than cough. She was so blue
during the “inward fits,” as almost to suggest blue
heart-diseasel This weak child had a delicate mother.
What had vaccination to do with the case ? In the
first six months of its life vaccination gave it, by shock,
a disease it need not have had. The disease could not
but take away some of its life. And (1st) predispose
it to any current infantile maladieslsuch as whoopingcough—viz., by weakening its powers of resistance g
and (2nd) weaken it for surviving the whooping-cough
when it came. These positions seem to be incontestable
deductions from vital economics. The case is valuable
to me as illustrating the causes of the present great
death-rate from whooping-cough? The parents, I may
add, are distinctly averse to vaccination, but coerced.
�POINTS SUBMITTED
BY J. jIgABTH WILKINSON
to the Vaccinatio^Committee of the House of Commons.
I.—He is prepared to offer evidence giving actual
observation of evil effects arising from Vaccination.
II. —To allege that such evil consequences are wide
spreadgand very serious to the community.
III. —To show reasons why they are to a great extent
hidden from the medical profession. And why, so long
as Vaccination is endowed and established, they will be
so hidden.
IV. —To show that the statistics on this side of the
question are unknown, and that it is not policy to
legislate without them.
V. —To dispute the statistics which allege fatality
of Small-pox to Non-Vaccination, by showing that
other obvious factors are the causes of the fatality, and
Non-Vaccination only the coincidence of it.
VI. —To dispute the fact that Vaccination, or that
the stringency of Compulsory Laws, has anything to do<
with the abatement of the disease in modern times, or
with the immunity of faces in our day from pockmarks.
VII. —To show that the medical profession is incon
sistent in rigidly applying the rule, Post hoc ergo prop
ter hoc, to all who after Vaccination do not take Small
pox, and at the same time in rigorously insisting on
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
41
Post hoc ergo non propter hoc against all domestic evi
dences of grievous complaints following Vaccination.
VIII. —That fathers and mothers, from the necessity
of the case, have a greatly larger scientific basis of know
ledge of the real consequences of Vaccination than the
doctors can obtain. That Acts of Parliament have
brought this state of things about, so far as medicine
is concerned. They have paralysed medicine.
IX. —That Small-pox is a bugbear, because the
medical profession will not look at the various new
means now known of treating it.
X. —That its hospitals, in carrying the people from
Whitechapel to the tops of Hampstead and Highgate,
propagate the disease ; and by the severe act of carrying,
as well as otherwise, increase the death-rate. That
medical men carry it also, and are wide infectors. That
both these infectors can be easily done without.
XI. —That the medical profession will be socially
ruined if it has compulsory laws to carry out its pre
scriptions ; if it is associated with the police; and
the accoucheur of to-day becomes the informer after
wards ; and is either a party to violent Vaccination for
the child; or a means of fine, or gaol with ruin, to the
husband, or widow.
XII. —That the humanity of the medical profession
is seriously compromised by such acts, and its skill
against suffering diminished.
XIII. —That the poorer classes will become aleague
of secrecy against such acts I and concealment of births,
or false Vaccinations, and forging of Vaccination certifi
cates, will be means of public safety.
XIV. —That resistance to the mother’s knowledge,
erroneous or not, that one child has been poisoned, or
killed, by Vaccination, and forcing her to have the next
�42
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
child Vaccinated, is a procedure which, if insisted on
by Parliament, will cause virtual, and chronic, though
it may be covered, civil war. The Acts that do it are
regarded as declarations of war against, and as invasion
of, poor men’s homes. They may seem to triumph, but
resistance will be perpetual.
XV. —That Law Courts could not carry out punish
ments against poor men and poor women if they oppose
violent resistance to violent Vaccination. The moral
sense and sympathy of the constituencies will be en
tirely with the poorer combatants.
XVI. —That the primary wrong of Vaccination lay
in the Parliamentary grant of £30,000 to Dr. Jenner,
which gave Vaccination, then a slight experiment, an
artificial
all over the world, and made^ it so
difficult to reconsider the question, that compulsory
laws easily followed upon the hasty status thus given
to Vaccination^ The assumption that Vaccination can
do no wrong is the first outcome of these laws. The
next consequence is that all enquiry into the evils
inflicted by Vaccination is regarded as out of date.
And, third, all compensation for the mischiefs and mur
ders, is barred by Act of Parliament.
XVII. —The endowment and establishment of Physic
by the State, and its presence and influence in the
Privy Council, is a.n anomaly, and the like of it exists
with no other private calling 9 and it has been disas
trous, as being, among other things, the main cause of
the compulsory Vaccination laws, founded as they are
not upon facts, but upon presumptions, and in disre
gard of wide facts of the evils of Vaccination, known to
the poorer classes especially.
XVIII.—These futile and oppressive laws divert
the mind of Parliament, and of the Municipal bodies of
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
43
the kingdom, from the true social way of stamping out
Small-pox; viz. : the rebuilding and systematic purifi
cation of poor men’s homes in town and country.
FURTHER REMARKS®
When I was under examination, DrlBrewer asked
me : “ Do you not approve of isolation of Small-pox
cases?” I said I “With oil?” He said I “ No, in
hospitals.”
There are two ways of isolation. 1. Keeping every
case of Small-pox in the room where the patient is, and
sending in a nurse. 2. Using a drug which will sheathe
and destroy each poison particle as it comes off the
skin.
The present way—DrlBrewer’s way—is the way
of the general diffusion of Small-poxl That all London
does not take it, shows how few persons are susceptible
of the disease.
1. The patient is taken from a single Boom, where
no one need be in danger, through perhaps six
miles of streets, dropping contagion as he goes, into
the ready furrow of panicl which the ambulance
makes as it passes.
2. He is removed even with death upon him, and
the act kills him, and his aggravated death increases
the ripeness of the field of contagion.
3. He is taken into hospital, where contagion is
concentrated and focussed, and whence it pours
forth in compound waves over Dr. Brewer’s city of
London.
�44
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
4. Doctors steeped in it visit as usual, and sow it
on their own account.
5. When the patients are convalescing, they may
be seen walking in the purlieus of the hospitals, and
if wind and poison-dust exist, they must be sending
showers of seed of Small-pox. (see Tyndall on Dust)
on the wings of the wind over their locality.
6. When the patients are half well, they are
turned out, and communicate the disease to their
own people and neighbourhood after all, I know
this by experience. Why were they taken away at
first ?
Is this isolation] I say it is Diffusion of Small
pox by Medical Act of Parhament, Concentration of
Small-pox in Barns and Granaries of Small-pox, and
systematic sowing of Small-pox, and continual harvest
ing of Small-pox. The wit of man could not have
devised any respectable means of making Small-pox
more universal than Dr. Brewer’s Small-pox hospitals,
and the process of filling them, and emptying them.
Crown ah with the fact, that Dr. Marson, the virtual
Buler of Treatment in the Small-pox Hospital, avows
to the Select Committee that he has no new lights in
the Treatment of Small-pox, which stands for his
mind where it did twenty or thirty years ago : that
his Art of Medicine can do nothingRoo combat Zymotic
Diseases.
So Parliament endows and establishes Small-pox,
and not to be unfair to its little sister, endows and
establishes Vaccination also.
�LETTERS TO A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
ON VACCINAL SYPHILIS
Feb. 12, 1873.
Dear Sir,—
Owing to your multifarious duties, it is pro
bable that you have not seen The Medical Times and
Gazette of Feb. 1, containing a Lecture by Dr. Jonathan
Hutchinson, Senior Surgeon to the London Hospital—
“A Second Report on the Communication of Syphilis in
the Practice of Vaccination” —and a leading article in
the same journal—“ Vaccinal Syphilis.” In this article
the editor says : “ It is plain that our Compulsory Vac
cination laws cannot be maintained unmodified. * *
The number of instances yet before us is small, but we
also well know the manifold inducements to keep these
secret. * * If a full EB| investigation were made * *
we doubt not but that many more facts might be ac
quired. * * What we do know suffices to warn us of
the possibility of the dreadful contamination. * * * It
is not fair to subject peoples’ children to risks such as
those Vaccination-Syphilis implies, with no alternative
save to go to prison.”
Will you not move at once in this matter ? The
Compulsory legisBtion extends virtually to all subjects
of the British Crown. Considering what the human
race is, it is strongly probable that Vaccination syphi-
�46
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
lizes more people—and these little children—than all
debauchery put together; and, whatever the number,
the two Houses of Parliament have the responsibility
of it. Every month of delay, those two Houses are
syphilizing the Young Hope of the British nation.
The facts now at last admitted by the medical
profession render it also certain that whatever other
diseases blood can carry are imparted into the com
pulsorily-vaccinated by the power of your Honourable
Houses.
I say nothing in detail of my own recent experiences,
but I have lately seen many and sad cases of the irre
mediable evils caused by Vaccination.
Will you not, then, afteik brief consideration, move
for a return of all fines and imprisonments under the
last of the Vaccination laws, and beseech your Honour
able House for an immediate delivery from fine and
gaol of all who are suffering in the holy cause of pro
tecting their infants from “ Vaccinal Syphilis” and
other law-made diseases ?
I cannot but hope that your love to the Lord will be
shown in your prompt action here for the little children
of your country.
Yours truly.
Feb. 13, 1873.
My dear Sir,—
What you tell me of the communication of
Syphilis in Vaccination is very distressing; but the
ravages of Small-pox appear to me more alarming, and
much more extensive ; and I could not make up my
mind, even under your high authority, to take a part in
�COMPULSORY VACCINATION-.
47
•withdrawing protection from helpless infants against
that scourge.
Could not something effective be done to prevent
such clumsy practice in. Vaccination ?
Ever truly yours.
; Feb. 14, 1873.
Dear Sir,—
The ravages of Small-pox are not now alarm
ing, while the death-rate of whooping-cough, pro
bably caused by the weakness induced on infants by
Vaccination, is very great, though taken no account of
by the Legislature or the Profession. I had thought
that the recent epidemic of Small-pox had demonstrated
in large characters the futility of Vaccinawon as a pre
ventive of Small-pox. In well-vaccinated and re-vacci
nated Berlin, the death-gate proportionally is four times
greater than in London. And all the statistics about
the deaths in. the Prussian and French armies, cited
from St. Petersburg, have been shown by German
officials to be fiction.
On the other hand, the curtain is now being lifted
by the unwilling hands of the medical profession itself
from the child-victims of Vaccination. A thick curtain
it is, of prejudice, and greed of money and power; but
under it the profession is forced at last to see the in
fant destruction lying, and to suspect the |arger woe
and destruction which is still for the most part covered.
The poor men and women of the country knew all
this long ago: Parhament and the Profession are the
last to know it. The judgment of Solomon proves
who are the rightful fathers and mothers, and that your
�48
COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
Honourable Houses are neither paternal nor maternal.
The eyes of the heart are the most precious of even
scientific eyes, and your Houses have them not here.
After what has transpired, the longer maintenance of
Compulsory Vaccination amounts to the National En
dowment and Establishment of Syphilis by the Govern
ment. This is inconsistent with the avowed purpose of
the Contagious Diseases Acts. Their aim is to stamp
out Female Syphilis in the interest of the army, and of
respectable youths who are one day to be virtuous hus
bands. But at the other end you are establishing a
Syphilis Factory, Applicable to all infants. In short,
the law you have made is putting in Syphilis with its
hands, and stamping out Syphilis with its feet. The
babies of the country are in its hands, and the women
under its heels.
This does not depend on clumsy, or careful, Vaccina
tion. No Vaccinator can be sure that he is not syphi
lizing the babe on whom he operates. Will you still
send fathers to gaol for their horror at the dreadful
chance ?
Yours truly.
THE END.
BILLING, PRINTER, GUILDFORD, SURREY.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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Compulsory vaccination, its wickedness to the poor
Creator
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Wilkinson, James John Garth
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 48 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Contains letters written by the author to a Member of Parliament for Vaccinal Syphilis and points submitted to the Vaccination Committee of the House of Commons. Tentative date of publication from KVK. Printed by Billing, Guildford, Surrey.
Publisher
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F. Pitman
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[1873?]
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G5287
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Health
Vaccination
Social problems
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Compulsory vaccination, its wickedness to the poor), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
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English
Conway Tracts
Health
Medicine
Poverty
Vaccination
Working Classes
-
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Text
PRICE ONE PENNY.
Oh Slaves of these laborious years,
Oh Freemen of the years to be :
Shake off your blind and foolish fears,
And hail the Truth that makes you free.
WHAT
A
COMPULSORY
8 Hour Working Day
MEANS
By
TO
THE
TOM
WORKERS.
Mi .zV TV ’2V ,
(Amalgamated Engineers).
THE MODERN PRESS, 13, Paternoster Row, E.C.
Agent
for
U.S.A., W. L. ROSENBERG, 261, EAST TENTH
STREET, NEW YORK CITY.
�The Emigration Fraud Exposed.
By
H. M. Hyndman. With a portrait of the Author.
Reprinted by permission from the Nineteenth Century for
February, 1885. Crown 8-vo., price id.
The Socialist Catechism.
By J. L. Joynes.
Reprinted with additions from Justice.
price id. Fifteenth thousand.
Socialism and the Worker.
Sorge.
Royal 8-vo.,
By F. A.
Price id.
An explanation in the simplest language of the main idea of Socialism.
The Working Man’s Programme (Arbeiter
Programm). By Ferdinand Lassalle. Translated from
the German by Edward Peters. Crown 8-vo., paper
cover, price 6d.
Social Progress and Individual Effort.
Desirable Mansions.
Co-operative Production.
By Edward Carpenter.
Price id. each.
The Appeal to the Young.
By
Prince
Peter Kropotkin.
Translated from the French by
H. M. Hyndman and reprinted from Justice. Royal 8-vo.,
16-pp. Price one penny. Tenth thousand.
The most eloquent and noble appeal to the generous emotions ever pen
ned by a scientific man. Its author has just suffered five years imprison
ment at the hands of the French Republic for advocating the cause of the
workers.
John Williams and the History of the
Social-Democratic Federation.
8-vo., price id.
With portrait.
Royal
The Modern Press, 13, Paternoster Row, E.C.
And W. L. ROSENBERG, 261, East Tenth Street, New
York City.
�EIGHT HOURS A DAY.
-------------- ♦--------------
HE appalling amount of distress that exists in
every town in Britain must arrest the atten
tion of all duty loving men and women. No
one who sees the effects of want and the fear
of want can passively behold the dire poverty of a large
section of the workers. Rather will he probe and probe
until he finds the cause of the disease. Socialists have
probed and they find the disease of WANT to be spread
by the profit-making system upon which all industry
and Society itself is based. They know that five or
six centuries ago, without machinery, Englishmen
obtained for their work sufficient to keep them in
vigorous health and that they were not subject to
periodical trade depressions; and when they further
reflect upon the fact that the working day then consisted
of no more than eight* hours, no wonder that Socialists
are discontented with the present state of affairs, and
that they resolve to use every means in their power to
replace the present discord, misery, and anarchy, with
harmony, happiness, and order.
The effect of our so-called labour-saving machinery
(used really by its owners to save wages and not labour)
is to cause continual distress amongst the workers by
mercilessly throwing them out of employment without
any compensation. It may then take a man often
* See “Work and Wages” by Thorold Rogers, M.P.
�months, sometimes years, to find an occupation of any
kind and when found it is at a price much below that
he was in receipt of before the machine disturbed him.
Yet the machine has increased the ease and rapidity of
wealth-production. This increase of wealth is of course
enriching some one—a class of which many perform but
little really useful work while the bulk of them serve
no function useful in any way to the community. Look,
again, at the effect of increased Scientific Knowledge.
By a better knowledge of Chemistry and Metallurgy
tons of metal are now extracted from the ore with the
labour of fewer men than must formerly have been
employed to produce one hundredweight. What I am
concerned about is, that in spite of our advanced methods
of producing wealth, the workers as a class get only a
subsistence wage, whilst an increasing number of them
cannot get the barest necessaries of life.
Optimist Politicians are unwilling to admit that this
is so. Anxious to make out a good case for the present
basis of Society, they ignore the plainest of facts, so in
confirmation of my contention I will quote from one or
two non-Socialists. Professor Thorold Rogers, the
present M.P. for Bermondsey, says on pages 185-6 of
“ Six Centuries of Work and Wages,” written in 1884.
It may be well the case, and there is every reason to fear it is the
case, that there is collected a population in our great towns which
equals in extent the whole of those who lived in England andfWales
six centuries ago; but whose condition is more destitute, whose
homes are more squalid, whose means are more uncertain, whose
prospects are more hopeless than those of the poorest serfs of the
Middle Ages and the meanest drudges of the mediaeval cities. The
arm of the law is strong enough to keep them under, and Society
has no reason to fear their despair; but I refuse to accept the
superficial answer that a man is an admirer of the good old times
because he insists that the vaunts of civilisation should be examined
along with, and not apart from its failures. It is not possible to
give the solution of one problem, the growth of opulence, and to
refuse all attention to the other problem, the growth of penury.
Joseph Cowen M.P. speaking at a Mechanics’
Institute at Newcastle, alluded to the labouring section
as “ a hybrid class doomed to eat the bread of penury
and drink the cup of misery. Precarious labour provided
them with subsistence for the day, but the slightest
�5
interruption threw them destitute. A week of broken
weather brought thousands of these industrial nomads
to the brink of starvation. An inscrutable influence
seemed to sink them as it elevated those around and
above them. Society, ashamed and despairing, swept
them, like refuse, into dismal receptacles, where
seething in their wretchedness, they constituted at once
our weakness and reproach. How to sweeten these
receptacles and help their forlorn occupants to help
themselves was the problem of the hour. If Society did
not settle it, it would in time settle Society.”
To this Socialists answer that there is no permanent
way of sweetening the lives of the class referred to
except by the complete annihilation of the profit-mongers
as a class, by forcing them all into the ranks of the
useful workers. This will be apparent when it is realised
that under the present system we are working to supply
profits to profit-mongers instead of working to supply
the legitimate requirements of the entire community,
and when it is borne in mind that Shareholders and
Employers are contented with nothing less than the
Highest possible profits, it will also be seen that on the
other hand we (the workers) can have nothing more
than the lowest possible wages. To establish Society
nn a proper basis is therefore the work of every rightminded man or woman.
Demagogues have been at work—with good inten
tions perhaps—but they have misled the workers from
the true cause of their troubles. Among the blind
leaders of the blind may be mentioned the Malthusians,
the Teetotallers, the Financial Reformers, and wellintentioned Radicals. The first mentioned have taught
that there are too many people in the country, and that
the only way of bettering our condition is by curtailing
the population, and this in face of the fact that every
year wealth in this country is increasing much faster
than population. The Temperance advocates hammer
away at the blessings of sobriety as though drunkenness
was the cause of poverty, when the fact is the other
Way about. Well nigh as fast as they surround an old
toper with influences that prevent his drinking tastes
�6
being gratified, another fills up the hole out of which
he was lifted. It is a useless expenditure of energy to
be continually preaching temperance and thrift. Let
all be blest with leisure, food, and healthy enjoyments,
as they might be if the economic basis of Society was
as it should be, and then these matters will all right
themselves. The only reason people spend time upon
these panaceas is because they fail to understand the
law of wages, which is that all above a bare subsistence
wage shall go to profit mongers as profit. The only
way out is to destroy the profit mongers.
The same argument applies to the financial reformer.
All sensible persons are of course agreed that the
country should be governed as economically as is con
sistent with efficiency, as also all are agreed that we
should live soberly. But the reformer fails to see that
if we curtail taxation to its lowest possible minimum,
reduce it if you will 90 per cent., not one farthing of it
would be saved to the workers. The Iron Law would
still be in force which says, “ So much as will keep life
in you and no more shall go to you, O ye workers, so long
as the profit making system remains.”
These economic questions cannot be understood in a
sufficiently clear manner by the mass of the workers
while they are absorbed twelve, fourteen, sixteen, and
even more hours a day while in work, and when out of
work are walking about with the pangs of hunger eating
out their vitals, and the blackness of despair staring
them in the face at every turn. Now suppose those of
us who can see these things in something like their
grim reality, decide that come what may, we at least will
do our part towards obtaining remunerative employment
for all, and at the same time sufficient leisure that all
may have a little breathing time after their work, what
course can we take ? To this I reply, there is one way
by which it can be done, viz., by at once concentrating
our efforts towards the establishing of an eight hours
working day.
Let us examine a few figures in order to see clearly
how this would affect us. We have something like
7,000,000 adult workers in the British Isles, working
�7
nominally under the nine hours system, leaving overtime
out of consideration for the moment. Let us see how
many more hands would be put in employment if we
struck off one hour per day from those in work. It is
roughly estimated that of the above mentioned workers
there are about 900,000 now out of work, representing
a total population of 3I or 4 millions of men, women,
and children who cannot get the barest necessaries of
life. Now strike off one hour per day from the 6,000,000
in work. The result would be an immediate demand
for 750,000 additional workers to keep up production
at its present rate, and remembering that these 750,000
would immediately begin to buy more food, clothing,
and general comforts, this of course would give an im
petus to trade, and so add greatly to the comfort of
the entire community for a year or two. These advan
tages, however, would soon be swallowed up by fresh
displacements of labour due to more efficient machinery
and advancing scientific knowledge; but, during the
year or two that it gave relief, see how immensely it
would add to the leisure and therefore to the general
intelligence of the workers. And increased intelligence
means more active discontent with our conditions of
life, and in due course a hastening of the overthrow of
the present capitalistic domination.
I am fully aware that there are some who claim to
have a knowledge of the workers who contend that the
very success of an Eight Hours Movement would
simply mean a perpetuation of the present wretched
system, as the people would become more contented if
the conditions of life were made more tolerable. This
I hold to be the very reverse of truth. As a workman
who has worked from early boyhood on the farm, down
the mine, and in the engineer’s shop, I repudiate such
a slanderous statement. What means the continually
increasing restlessness of late years of those workmen
who are now, relatively to their former position, in a
passable state of comfort ? I contend that it is in
large part due to the additional leisure obtained under
the nine hours system, though most of its advantages
have now been swallowed up by more rapid machinery
�and the cursed system of overtime we still tolerate.
I ask myself what has been my guide in the formation
of my opinions on social and political subjects, and,
risking being charged with egotism, I reply that I have
ever endeavoured to get correct views upon these and
other subjects by fashioning my ideas upon the best
models I could find, and the more leisure I had the
better my opportunity for finding good models. I can
understand a middle-class man holding this—to me—
absurd theory. I can also understand some workmen
reflecting the opinions of these theory-loving, poverty
accentuating blockheads merely because they are
middle-class. But I cannot understand a workman
who through youth and early manhood has been
battling against long hours in order that he might attend
the institute, listen to the lectures, and read the works
of able men, and by these means has succeeded in
having a mind worth owning—I say I cannot under
stand such an one hindering rather than helping in a
shorter hours movement. He practically says by such
conduct that the leisure he used so well as to become a
man thereby, others will use so ill that they will con
tinue fools. But men generally love what is best for
all, and are prepared to do their part towards carrying
it out so soon as they understand clearly what course
they should take. Let those of us who see (or think
we see) further than the average man, do all in our
power towards enabling him to see as clearly as we do,
and then, unless I am incapable of reading aright the
lesson of life, he too will become in his turn an earnest
and an energetic worker for the elevation of his class.
I must apologise to some readers who may think that
none of this reasoning is necessary. I emphasize it
because I know there exist philosophers who strain at
gnats and swallow camels, who talk of ameliorating
human suffering, but hang back instead of assisting a
movement the success of which must for a dead certainty
largely ameliorate the pangs of the hungry men, women,
and children who are now in the throes of despair.
Another section raise the objection that however
desirable it may be to curtail the hours of labour,
�remembering the severe competition of other countries
it is simply impossible either to raise wages or shorten
hours unless a similar movement takes place on the
Continent. I will endeavour to answer this first by
showing that the English workers produce more per man
than any of the Continental Nations, and second, by
showing that with regard to our staple industries
Foreign Competition is a bogie used by the Employer
to frighten the workers into accepting harder terms in
order that their master may make a greater profit. It
may be of some service to point out the relative wealth
per annum produced by the useful workers of this and
other countries. I am assuming that the reader is clear
concerning the source of wealth, that there is no other
source than useful Labour, so that, having sufficient
Raw Material for Workers to exercise their ingenuity
upon, it will be seen that the more workers, the more
the aggregate wealth, as in all ages men have been able
to produce by their labour more than they and their
families required for ordinary consumption. Quoting
from Mulhall’s “Statistics,” we find that Britain with a
Population of 36 millions produces wealth to the amount
of £1,247,000,000 per annum ; France with 37I millions
of people produces annually ^”965,000,000 (or with a
million and a half more people about three-quarters the
amount the English make; Germany, population
45 millions, wealth per annum, ^850,000,000 ; (or two
thirds only of our amount); Russia with 80 millions of
people, creates per annum only ^760,000,000, Austria,
38 millions population, only ^602,000,000 per annum ;
and simarlarly with the smaller nations. These figures
will serve to show that our method of producing wealth
is a more effective one than that in vogue on the Con
tinent, as although they generally work longer hours per
day than the English yet the result of their year’s work
compares unfavourably with ours. The important
lesson to be learnt here is this, that it is not the amount
paid as wages that decides whether or not one country
can compete successfully with another ; or rather, it is
not the countries where wages are low that compete
most successfully with this country. This will be seen
�IO
when it is realised that the severest competitor we have
to-day is America, a country that pays at least 25 per
cent higher wages than are paid in this country.
This of itself should be sufficient to encourage those
timorous mortals who are always attributing our ex
hausting toil to the competition of the lung hours of the
Continent. The time may arrive when, with an equally
advanced method of production, low paid labour will
produce wealth as effectively as better paid labour, but
that time has not yet come. By way of proving this
let me here instance the Iron Shipbuilding industry.
Many have been the disputes between employers and
employed in this industry during the past two or three
years, the employers continually urging that the Con
tinental shipbuilders are getting all the trade, or at any
rate will do so, unless our workmen submit to reductions
in wages and longer hours. This argument was ad
vanced repeatedly during the year 1885, so in order to
thoroughly test the matter a delegation of workers was
despatched to the Continent to bring back precise in
formation upon the subject. They found that Germany
was our chief competitor in Iron Shipbuilding, and
that during the year 1885 that country produced 22,326
tons of shipping. But in this country one firm on the
Clyde during the same period turned out 40,000 tons.
France produced 10,000 tons, and Russia 7,867 tons—
total for the two countries 17,867 tons. But the river
Tyne alone launched no less than 102,998 tons. The
Belgium output was 5,312 tons, that of Holland 2,651
tons, of Denmark 3,515 tons. To sum up, the whole
of the Continental output was a little over 50,000 tons,
while that of the English shipyards was 540,282 tons,
or nearly eleven times as great as that of all the yards
on the Continent put together. With facts like these
before us is it not high time we demanded that our
hours were curtailed so as to give a chance to those
who now walk about in enforced idleness, without
waiting for the Continent to take simultaneous action.
The Americans, who pay their mechanics better wages,
have had to concede the demands of their workmen for
the eight hour working day—not universally, it is true,
�II
because a universal demand was not made. Just astheir success stimulates us, so our success will stimulate
the Continental workers, and we shall find that they
are as well prepared as we are to deal vigorously with
the exploiting classes.
To Trade Unionists I desire to make a special appeal.
How long, how long will you be content with the present
half-hearted policy of your Unions? I readily grant
that good work has been done in the past by the
Unions, but, in Heaven’s name, what good purpose are
they serving now ? All of them have large numbers
out of employment even when their particular trade is
busy. None of the important Societies have any policy
other than that of endeavouring to keep wages from
falling. The true Unionist policy of aggression seems
entirely lost sight of; in fact the Unionist of
to-day should be of all men the last to be hope
lessly apathetic, or supporting a policy that plays
directly into the hands of the capitalist exploiter. Do
not think I am a non-Unionist myself, and therefore
denounce Unionists. T take my share of the work in
the Trade Union to which I belong, but I candidly
confess that unless it shows more vigour in the future
than it is showing at the present time (June, 1886)
I shall be compelled to take the view—against my will
—that to continue to spend time over the ordinary
squabble-investigating, do-nothing policy will be an
unjustifiable waste of one’s energies. I am quite sure
there are thousands of others in my state of mind—e.g.,
all those who concurred with T. R. Threlfall, the pre
sident of the Trades Union Congress, when, in his
Presidential Address, he told the delegates assembled
at Southport that a critical time had arrived in the
history of Trades Unions, and that in the future they
must lead or follow, and that they could not hope to re
tain advanced men with their present policy. In his
magnificent address Mr. Threlfall did all a man could
do to stir the Unionists up to take action in regard to
the Eight Hour working day, but one looks in vain at
each and all of our important Trade Societies to find
any action being taken in the matter. It is not enough
�12
to say their funds are low. Their funds are not too
low to get up an agitation upon this subject. All over
the country they have excellent organisations which
might be used in the first place as the means for instruct
ing their own members up to the required standard, and
then spreading information amongst the non-Unionists,
skilled and unskilled alike. When the bulk of these
understood the pros and cons of the case the combined
forces could make a demand for the immediate passing
of an Eight Hours Bill, the details of which could be
settled by a duly qualified committee.
While this is being done attention should also be
made to another important item alluded to by Mr.
Threlfall viz., the payment of election expenses out of
the local or Imperial rates and the support of Members
of Parliament in a similar manner. When this is done
we shall be able to command the services of those
whom we believe in because of their merits, irrespective
of what the depth of their pocket may be.
Let me now invite attention to the effects of an
Eight Hour Bill upon some of our monopolies. Let us
take the Railways as a representative concern, using
round figures such as will convey a correct idea to the
ordinary reader without confusing him. The Blue Books
bear out the following statements •>—At the present time
the Annual Income of the British Railways may be put
at ^70,000,000, of this vast sum one half goes to the
Shareholders, who do no useful work whatever; one
fourth to keep up rolling stock, permanent way &c.;
and the remaining fourth to the workers, (including
managers’ and superintendents’ salaries).
The man who has not paid attention to Railway
Income and Expenditure will denounce this as trash or
probably by a stronger term. He will probably say
that the figures must be wrong, as Railway Shareholders
get only some 5 per cent on their capital. Exactly, but
where nearly all make the mistake is in not making the
distinction between percentage on money invested and
percentage of Income. There are nominally more than
^920,000,000 invested in Railways in the British Isles,
and 5 per cent on this means about five-eighths of the
�total income, the entire income of 70 millions amounting
only to 8 per cent on the investments. Consequently a
Railway Company paying 4^ per cent to Shareholders
actually pays more than half of the total income to
these utterly useless individuals, leaving the remainder
to go in about equal proportions to rolling stock and
permanent way and as wages and salaries to Employees.
This gives about 18s. per week to the 350,000 persons
engaged on Railways in the British Isles. When we
remember that superintendents and managers get very
large salaries, we see that those who do the hard work
and have the longest hours get much less than 18s.
Now that we realise the enormous amount the idle
shareholders take, let us see how generously they behave
to those in their employ. At Nine Elms are situated the
cleaning sheds of the South Western Railway. Until
recently the “dirty cleaners” at this yard received
£i os. 6d. per week. Instructions have been issued
from Waterloo to curtail their wages from 20s. 6d. to
15s. at one stroke. On the same line, at Waterloo
terminus, the parcels porters commence work at 5.20
in the morning and keep on till 9.45 in the evening with
one Sunday off per fortnight, their wages being from
18s. to 22s. per week.
Now assuming the average day on Railways to be
12 hours, what loss would it inflict on the Shareholders
if a Bill were passed enforcing an Eight Hours’ Working
Day ? We have seen that the Employees get about
a quarter of the total income or about ^"17,000,000.
To curtail the hours by one third means of course putting
one half more men in work than are at present employed.
To pay these at a similar rate to those already working
would require £8,500,000 or less than one per cent on
the nominal value of the shares, so that a Company
paying 4^- per cent now, would, if one half more men
were employed still pay 3^ per cent to the Fleecing
Shareholders. What arrant nonsense then it is to urge
that the Company cannot afford to curtail hours.
Let us look now at the condition of our Colliers.
Here we have men devoting themselves to underground
toil from boyhood to old age, the majority never having
�14
the opportunity of paying a visit to the Capital or any
•other large town, practically kennelled in the earth, tied
down with capitalistic chains,
Spending a Sunless life in the unwholesome mines,
for the wretched pittance of about 18s. per week.
Surely an Eight Hours Bill requires no urging from
me on behalf of those who work in and about the mines ;
when we remember that of the value of coal raised
•annually in this country (about £66,000,000) one third
•only goes to the colliers who raise it.
An item worth mentioning also was pointed out by
Sir Lyon Playfair in his address before the British
Association at Aberdeen in 1885, whilst deploring the
fact that the exhaustion of the British coalfields made
the coal increasingly difficult to get. It was proved
that not only has man’s ingenuity conquered these
obstacles, but owing to the increased power of steam
•engines and hand-labour-saving appliances, two men
now produce as much as three men did twenty years
-ago. Yet coal is dearer now than it was then !
Thirty years ago eight sailors were required for the
management of every 100 tons of shipping. Now, ow
ing to improved machinery, less than half that number
suffice. In twenty years the consumption of fuel on our
ocean-going steamers has been reduced by one half,
chiefly owing to the use of compound engines in place
•of single ones as formerly. Thus on every hand a
greater result is being shown with less labour. And it
must be so or else there is no meaning in material pro
gress. But “ less labour ” means under our existing
system, and must mean so as long as industry is con
trolled by the idle classes, not “ more leisure ” or
shorter hours all round, but less wages, more unemployed,
poverty, famine, and physical and moral degradation.
What then can be more rational than to ease the
burden of those in work and the starving stomachs of
those who are out, by shortening the working day ?
See what is going on in the watch-making industry,
a fine example of the effects of machinery. Among the
exhibits at last year’s Inventions Exhibition was that
of the Waltham Watch Co. Some machines were there
�T5
at work making screws for watches, of which it took
250,000 to make up a pound in weight. These machines
were so perfectly made, that at the Company’s Factory
in Massachusetts, one boy keeps seven of them going.
The best wire to make one pound weight of screws costs
ten shillings, but after this wire has been converted into
screws by passing through this automatic machine, the
screws are worth /’350, or seven hundred times the cost
of the material. Imagine the number of men here
thrown out of employment; the watches in large part
being made by girls, and the enormous profits going to
the owners of the machinery.
Take another case, that of Bryant and May’s Match
Factory in East London. Two years ago this firm was
formed into a Limited Liability Company. Their work
girls are most miserably paid, getting only some 8s. per
week, and the Company refused to increase their pay
when they made a demand a short time since. And
yet that Company, during the first six months of its
existence, after paying all working expenses, actually
paid over ^33,000 to shareholders, who had not done a
single stroke of work towards producing it. These girls
are working ordinary factory hours, io^- per day They
cannot live in comfort on such a miserable pittance as
they are receiving. How many girls are compelled by
this sort of thing, to take to the streets ?
The above is only typical of what all our large firms
are doing. Armstrong, Mitchell and Co., the great
engineering firm at Newcastle-on-Tyne, for instance,
last year after deducting for working expenses and
depreciation of stock, paid to shareholders ^162,000.
Whatever improvement may come through more
efficient machinery etc., its effect, while owned by, and
used for the profit of, the employing class, will be to
throw men out of work and swell the already too full
pockets of the capitalists. If we do not decide to cur
tail the hours of labour, what then can we do ? Allow
things to go from bad to worse ? That is what most
assuredly will happen, unless we absorb the Unemployed
into the ranks of the employed by rigidly suppressing
overtime, and curtailing the nominal nine hours per day
to something less.
�i6
The question will be asked by some, “ What about
wages if we work an hour a day less, are we to have an
hour s less pay ? ” Most certainly not. Even when the
curtailing principle was only partially applied 15 years
ago by the Trade Unionists this did not happen. On the
contrary in many instances the workmen were soon able
to get a rise in actual wages in addition to the curtail
ing of hours. The reason we cannot command a better
wage now is because the Employer can say, “ If you
don’t like it you may go, others will be glad to take your
place,” but, as I think I have shown, if we make Eight
Hours the labour day then the Unemployed will be
absorbed and the workers will be able in their turn to
dictate terms to the Employer.
In conclusion I appeal to the workers of Great Britain
to join hands over this business and let us make it a
success. In a measure of this kind Liberal and Tory,
Christian and Freethinker, Unionist and Non-Unionist,
Mechanic and Labourer, Radical and Social-Democrat,
Teetotaller or Vegetarian, whatsoever be your creed or
sex, unite on common ground and let us fight this
battle of the workers with vigour, with energy and
determination. Be no longer apathetic. Take pleasure
in the performance of your duty as an honest citizen
and the result will be a hastening of that glorious time
when the domination of a class shall be a matter of
History, and when all shall have enough work and
none shall have too much.
For further information on all these subjects read “JUSTICE ”
every Saturday, One Penny, which is owned by working men,
edited by a working man, and independent of capitalist support.
Also, if willing to assist in attaining these objects, write to H. W.
Lee, Bridge House, Blackfriars, E.C.
�
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What a compulsory 8 hour working day means to the workers
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Mann, Tom [1856-1941]
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Place of publication: London
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[1886?]
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Working conditions
Socialism
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Social conditions
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Working Classes
Working Conditions
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Text
COMBINATIONS AND STRIKES
FROM
THE TEACHER’S POINT OF VIEW.
BY
WILLIAM ELLIS.
^Reprinted from “ The Museum and English Journal of Education.”)
LONDON:
THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW:
»
AND EDINBURGH.
MDCCCLXV.
�COMBINATIONS AND STRIKES FROM THE TEACHER’S POINT
OF VIEW.
N a journal not devoted to education,
some apology might be required for
introducing a subject so hackneyed
as “Combinations and Strikes.’’ This
subject, like that of education itself,
has become distasteful to the general reader, on ac
count of the flood of vague and irrelevant matter
with which our periodical literature has been
deluged, both directly from the pen, and indirectly
from speeches at public meetings, where these sub
jects have been treated of.
The subject of Combinations and Strikes can
not, however, have become distasteful to teachers
as teachers, because it has seldom found its way
into schools. And our purpose now is to invite
them to consider whether this subject do not de
serve some of their attention, and whether the
judicious treatment of it in schools will not shield
it from some of that ill-treatment outside which
it has met with so undeservedly.
If we can show teachers that correct views
upon the probable influence of Combinations and
Strikes will materially affect the future well-being
of their pupils, and also that it is quite within the
scope of school instruction that correct views shall
be formed by the pupils in their schools, we feel
quite sure of obtaining their attention; and if
we cannot do thus much, none of their atten
tion ought to be bestowed upon us, due as it may
be, nevertheless, to the matter which we shall
have failed in elucidating.
As for the importance to the young of correct
views upon the probable effect of Combinations
and Strikes, we need do little more than state
what that effect is expected to be, viz., increased
wages, or, which is the same thing, less work with
undiminished wages. Few teachers can contem
plate the present state and future prospects of
adults now at work, without desiring for their
pupils better prospective wages than those which j
widely prevail, however well they may be recon- I
efled to the modicum reasonably to be expected
at starting. Neither can teachers consider this
thought to be otherwise than a wholesome one for |
their pupils to carry into industrial life ;—w By 1
what means may we hope to become entitled to
and possessed of, such wages as will enable us, at
least, to live decently and comfortably?”
How far it is possible to qualify the young
while yet in our schools, to judge of the means
likely to be accessible to them for obtaining satis
factory wages, or for obtaining an increase of the
unsatisfactory wages which they may be com
pelled to put up with for a time, is a matter to
which a little space and attention must be de
voted before we can ask teachers to agree or to
discuss with us. We must bespeak, at the same
time, a certain amount of indulgence, if our at
tempted exposition should be more elementary
and elaborate than might appear called for be
tween teachers and teachers. They will kindly
bear in mind that we are addressing the parents
of the children in their schools as well as them
selves. We can hardly hope to escape mystifica
tion, confusion, and obscurity, except by avoiding
to use many of the general terms in common use,
or by deferring their use until we have established
the existence, and obtained a firm hold of the
ideas, for which those terms are the names. To
this precaution against admissions not warranted
by experience under cover of vague and ambigu
ous language, may be added another against the
unguarded introduction into schools of subjects
that are beyond the comprehension of the children
to be instructed in them. Such subjects might
be overlooked in a crowd. To secure inspection,
therefore, we will enumerate, one by one, some of
the subjects which, in our judgment, are at once
important to be known, and teachable to the
young. Attention will thus be fixed upon each
separately, and whatever is deemed inadmissible
can easily be objected to at once.
Assuming it to be desirable that all the young
should take from school as correct and vivid an
impression as is possible at their age, of the
nature of the life which awaits them, we will pro
ceed, briefly and succinctly, to place before our
readers some of the matters important to be under
stood, on which the young may be brought to ob
serve, and. jiudge correctly, and feel strongly, if
�COMB[XATIOWS AND STRIKES
thW’ be but under the direction of teachers cap
able qL supporting and guiding them.
1. They and all their fellow-creatures are subsisting upon the produce of past labour—partly
even of the labour of some of the men who lived
many ages ^go. If the produce of past labour
were suddenly destroyed, all men would perish,
with the exception of a few here and there in the
warmer climates, who might subsist upon the
spontaneous products of the earth.
2. They and their fellow-creatures are day by
day consuming the produce of past labour—some
things rapidly, as articles of food; others more
slowly, as articles of clothing, and furniture, and
dwellings. If, then, men are to continue to live
as comfortably, and in as large numbers, as at
present, the produce of past labour must be re
placed as fast as it is consumed. If they are to
live more comfortably, and in larger numbers, the
produce consumed must be more than replaced.
No portion of the labour, and of the knowledge
and skill to assist it, which were at work in the
past, can be spared in the present and future, if
society is not to deteriorate. More of each must
be brought to bear upon production, if society is
to be improved.
3. Maintenance of the stores of produce, and
encouragement of future production, are indis
pensable for the continued subsistence of society
as it is. Other efforts must be added to these, in
order to bring about an improved state of society.
Side by side with these truths, it has become
known to us that some men will not work to pro
duce, and will spoil and waste as well as consume.
Not only do they fail to replace what they con
sume, but they would, if not prevented, destroy
the produce of other men’s labour, and thereby
discourage their efforts to produce and save for
the future.
4. A consciousness of the existence of such illdisposed persons interspersed among the other
members of society, fear of their increase, and
alarm lest the industry, knowledge, skill, and
economy upon which the subsistence and improve
ment of society depend, should decline or perish
under their assaults, have led to efforts to resist,
and, if possible, to overcome them. Combinations
Mil. contrivances for these purposes fall within
the province of what goes by the name of government, and must ever be the work of those who
desire to defend the happiness and progress of
society against those who are indifferent or averse
to that which is indispensable for the general
welfare.
L, 5. The conclusion arniled at, and acted upon,
by those who have been accgpted_as most, com
3
petent to organize and administer the powers of
government, is, that their efforts must be directed,
First, To securing to each member of society the
undisturbed enjoyment of the produce of his
industry: implying liberty to exchan gejjEroWirei
and sell, to lend and borrow, to give£and ^.lso
to appoint, subject to some few restrictions, who,
at his death, shall succeed to his possessions. The
powers thus enjoyed under the protectiorg^of
government constitute the “rights of property.”
The declarations of these rights by government
are a portion of the laws under which we enffij
property. The products of industry being cfflMal
“wealth,” property consists of wealth, and those
titles to wealth recognised by law. The penaltrM
by which rights are protected against those who
would invade them, are another portion of laws.
Second, To securing, chiefly through the pro
motion of the teaching and training of the young,
that knowledge, skill, and good habits—the human
agents in the production, preservation, and enjoy
ment of wealth—shall as nearly as possible be co
extensive with life itself.
6. A very cursory survey of society enables us
to recognise who are the principal possessors O’m
wealth, as we see them around us, and as they have
grown up under the protection of our laws, and
also who are those that possess little or no wealth.
The former are the elders, the inheritors of wealth, I
and the more capable, that is, the more intelligent,
industrious, economical, and trustworthy. The
latter are the younger, and the less capable, that
is, the uninstructed, the indolent, the dissipated,
and the untrustworthy. It cannot be qnAstiane J
that the former are much better fitted than the
latter to hold and dispose of that wealth, the
replacement of which, as fast as it is consumed, is
so essential to the welfare of society. To entw^giM
it to the latter is impossible, and would be fatal
were it possible. Nevertheless, no human being,
whatever his disqualifications, can be entirely shnj
out from access to some portion of wealth. To
shut him out, would be to sentence him to death
by starvation. It remains to be shewn how the
“rights of property” maybe maintained while
the “ duties to humanity ” are performed
7. The difficulty in the way of performing each
of these duties, without neglecting the other, al
though by no means overcome, is seen to be
greatly diminished when once attention is directed
to the practice prevailing among a large portion
of the possessors of wealth, and a still larger por
tion of the wealthless ; the first, devoting some of
that wealth which they reserve as a provision
against future want, to the purchase of lalwnj
wherpwith to acquire more; the second, selling^
�4
COMBINATIONS AND STRIKES.
their labour for some of that wealth, without
which they could neither work nor live. The
readiness, on one side, to part with present wealth
in order to obtain increased wealth in the future,
and on the other, to surrender the direction and
produce of one’s own labour to obtain the produce
of* past labour, has been accompanied and fol
lowed by a succession of contrivances, in the form
of machinery and other instruments of production,
by which the labour purchased is made to accom
plish results otherwise unattainable, and to bring
about the continually increasing accumulations of
wealth everywhere observable. It must be evi
dent that the duties to property and to humanity
will be performed together more and more in har
mony, progressively as the wealthy become less
wasteful, and the wealthless less incapable.
8. This practice of applying wealth to the pur
pose of procuring more wealth in the future, has
given rise to a number of arrangements and bar
gains to suit the convenience and ciroumstances
of the various persons disposed to apply a portion
of their wealth to this purpose.
AV hat these arrangements and bargains are,
ought to be understood ; but it would be tedious
to describe them without using the terms in general
use ; and it is dangerous to use these terms with
out making sure of the things which the terms are
the names of. Let us, therefore, rapidly run over
these things, and mention the names which have
been given to them.
a. Wealth applied to the purpose of obtaining
ncrease is called capital. Originally, capital can
have been little more than wealth, destined by its
owners for the purchase of labour. Progressively,
larger and larger portions of capital have assumed
the form of instruments of production, among the
latest developments of which may be named rail
ways and their appendages, agricultural, mining
and manufacturing machinery, ships, docks, har
bours, and canals.
b. Wealth obtained by sale of labour is called
wages. The portion of oapital set apart for this
purpose is spoken of as a wages-fund, to distin
guish it from other portions of capital evidently
no longer available for purchasing labour.
c. The increase of wealth, looked forward to
from the application of wealth as capital, is called
' profit.
d. Many owners of capital are not administra
tors of capital; some administer the capital of
others as well as their own. Where they are not,
as in the case of those who prefer to work for
wages, of professional men, and of men conscious
of incapacity for directing labour, they lend their
capitals, surrendering their title to the larger but
uncertain return called profit, and bargaining with
the borrower for a smaller but certain stipulated
return. This smaller and stipulated return, is
called interest.
e. Besides these arrangements for facilitating
the co-operation of capital and labour in the work
of production, there are various forms of partner
ship and joint-stock association, admitting, accord
ing to the tastes, capabilities, and means of each,
the separation, partial or complete, of the elements
of the total future profit expected ; these elements
being, remuneration for the superintendence, for
the risk, and for the use, without risk, of the
capital. The latter of these elements, as before
stated, is called interest.
f. Wealth, capital, wages, profit, and interest,
are more frequently than otherwise measured in
money, and distributed with the aid of money.
They are also, spoken of, and written about, as
money. But each of them is a thing of itself, inde
pendently of money. And money is another thing.
With the assistance of these terms, bearing in
mind that they are familiar to thousands who
attach no definite meanings to them, and keeping
on our guard, so as not to be entrapped into using
them, sometimes in one sense, sometimes in an
other, quite unconscious that the matters denoted
by them have been shifted, let us proceed further
to indicate what the pupils in our schools can be
led to deduce for themselves from what they have
already observed and thought over.
9. The tendency of administrators of capital or
employers, is for them to distribute the wagesfund at their command among the labourers whom
they employ, according to the estimate which they
form of the producing powers of each. Making
use of the term “labourers” in its widest signifi
cation, employers will give to some, £5000 a-year;
to some, £10 a-week; to some, 3s. a-day; and to
others they will refuse wages or employment
altogether.
10. The total capital, and hence the total wagesfund, is a limited quantity. If it were distributed
among labourers in equal portions to each, the
portion of each could not be more than the quo
tient of the whole wages-fund divided by the
number of labourers. If this portion or wage
were considered insufficient, its increase could
only be procured by increasing the total wagesfund, or hy diminishing the number of labourers.
The latter mode of increasing average wages does
not require to be considered, and the former can
only be brought about at some future time, near
or distant, rapidly or slowly, according to oppor
tunities and the means resorted to.
11. Increase of wages to all is no more possible
�FROM THE TEACHER'S POINT OF VTEW1
at once, because the wages-fund is distributed
among labourers according to their respective
producing powers, than if it were distributed
among them equally and irrespectively of their
comparative producing powers. If more than the
average share be given to some, there must re
main less than the average share for others. But
there are two compensating circumstances at
tached to the apportionment of wages according
to producing powers. Greater future wealth is
produced, and as the wages fall into the posses
sion of more capable men, they are more likely to
be well used, and to be partly added to capital
forthwith.
12, Employers and employed,—they who have
bought and they who have sold labour,—it will
be observed, are two classes much more distin
guishable than capitalists and labourers. In every
country where the industrial virtues flourish, and
in proportion as they flourish, labourers, except
ing the youngest, whose power of earning and
hence of saving is as yet undeveloped, are capi
talists. They lend their capitals because they
can earn more through wages and interest than
they see their way to earn by administering their
own capitals, either separately or in co-operation
with other capitalists. The savings banks alone,
with their deposits of more than £40,000,000, are
proofs apparent to everybody, and many more
might be produced, of the extent to which, in a
community still deplorably afflicted with ignor
ance and misconduct, labourers are capitalists.
The chart of life, and the sailing directions
which the young will take out of schools where
they receive this kind of instruction, points to
wealth as the reward of intelligence and good
conduct,—wages small at first, because producing
power is small, but growing with the growth of
the estimate formed of producing power. The
capable labourer does no damage to his less capa
ble fellow-labourer. He assists in the increase,
so urgently required, of future capital. If he
save, a portion of his wages becomes capital at
once, wherewith employers distribute more wages.
The incapable, he assists to support. Lessons
easy and pleasant to learn in schools become difficult and painful if deferred till those who never
learned such lessons begin to suffer from their
ignorance. To children who leave school with
correct chart and good sailing directions, with
capacity for using them and resolution to act
upon them, the world opens not as a scene of
storm and tempest,"in which shipwreck can with
difficulty be escaped, but as an arena for the exer
cise of industry, intelligence, and the other social
5
virtues, with probable success in the future, and
certain satisfaction from the performance of duty
in the present. Little comfort can be derived by
the victims of ignorance and vice from the know
ledge, if communicable to them, that their desti
tution and suffering are the consequences of
previous mistaken conduct. In the presence of
misery, it would be brutal, if possible, to trace to
the sufferers the causes, no longer removable, of
their sufferings.
Taking our leave of school days, we will accom
pany the young as they leave the schools in which
they had received instruction such as we have
faintly sketched. Four out of every five of them
will be more or less dependent for subsistence
upon the sale of their labour. They will rejoice
rather than complain that there are employers to
be found able and willing to buy their labour, and
able and willing to afford them opportunities of
increasing their powers of usefulness. They may
regret, if service satisfactory to themselves and
their friends is not easy to be found, that capital
and employers are not more abundant. They
will surely not murmur if employers, with capital
at command, are so much in want of labour that,
not waiting to be sought, they apply at the schools
to obtain recruits likely to be made efficient la
bourers and deserving of wages.
They have entered upon their industrial career
With the assistance of their friends they have
sought the best service accessible, in the estimate
of which neither prospective nor present advan
tages will have been overlooked. Some will be
less successful than others in the selection of the
employments offered to therm Employers also
will not always find the services which they have
hired worth the wages which they have bargained
to pay. Shiftings and re-engagements will be of
frequent occurrence. But in subsequent, as well
as in original engagements, there will be one
thought prevailing among employers and la
bourers. Each will wish to do the best for them
selves; and if their efforts in this direction are
made intelligently, they will also do the best for;
one another, the employers seeking labourers
whose labour will produce most in proportion to
the wages paid, and the labourers seeking em
ployers whose service is most likely to lead to
those industrial rewards of which immediate wages
are hut a part.
There is an incessant and, we may say, a
healthy activity of thought and effort for in
dividual and general advancement. It is felt
that there is room for improvement. Th era is
no denying that a very large number of people
are inadequately fed, clothed, and lodged; that
�6
COMBINATIONS AND STRIKES.
they have no capital; and that, thrown entirely
upon the wages-fund for support, they obtain
wages insufficient for decent and wholesome liv
ing. It would be a sadder spectacle to see this
state of things contentedly and inertly put up
with, than even to be compelled to acknowledge
that efforts at amelioration were taking a wrong
^direction. In this country, happily, there is no
danger of such passive submission, on the part
either of the immediate sufferers, or of society in
general. But efforts at amelioration will probably
be not wholly either in the right or in the wrong
direction ; susceptible, therefore, of better direc
tion. And it is desirable that the young should
be prepared to form a correct judgment upon the
plans submitted to them for obtaining increase of
wages, and for bettering their condition in other
respects.
We may now ask the specific question whieh
we had in our thoughts at starting : How should
the young, instructed as we say they ought to be,
deal with proposals to them to unite in combina
tions and strikes ?
We mention combinations and strikes together
because they are so commonly brought to our
notice together. But we may dismiss “strikes”
in a few words, and without much ceremony.
Strikes are acknowledged by everybody to be
evils, and they are resorted to only, as many other
evils are, to avert greater—as the destruction of
buildings to check the spread of conflagration, as
a jettison to preserve from foundering, or as am
putation to save life. Because strikes bring to
our notice the existence of combinations, it must
not be forgotten that many combinations exist
keeping clear of strikes. And it is contended
that all might be so managed as to keep clear of
strikes.
We may be quite sure that when combinations
are formed, the prevailing wish must be to keep
clear of strikes. Strikes are no more intended by
labourers who combine, than indigestions by the
hungry who eat. Proposals, accordingly, will
be made to the young to unite in a combination
by itself, and not in conjunction with a strike in
vidiously tacked to it. But before they could
accede to any such proposal, they would wish to
understand what advantages might be reasonably
expected by them and their fellows, and what
ought not to be expected, if they would escape
disappointment.
They might begin by considering the probable
effect of a combination upon wages. It ’ would
not increase the wages-fund. It could not, there
fore, increase general wages. If it were to alter
the distribution of the wages-fund, it would only
do so by interfering with the efforts of employers
to distribute the wages-fund among labourers
according to their several producing powers.
But that would be to diminish future wealtre, and
hence to check the growth of the future wagesfund.
But might it not maintain a high level of wages
in particular branches of business, or raise the
level of wages previously felt to be too low? It
could only do this by excluding additional labourers from access to those branches, or by
bringing additional capital into them. But additional capital cannot be attracted into a business
except by the prospect of profit equal to or greater
than that seen to be obtainable elsewhere. And
with this prospect, capital would flow in, not in
consequence, but in spite of a combination which
prevents labourers from following or accompany
ing the capital to share in the advantages offered by
it. The forcible exclusion of labourers from par
ticular branches of business can only mean con
demnation of the labourers excluded, to lower
wages, in order to maintain or to raise the wages
of those in possession.
Combinations among labourers, so far as they
can influence wages, can only do so by preventing
that distribution of the wages-fund which would
be made by employers left uncontrolled in their
efforts to employ their capitals to the greatest ad
vantage. Combinations among labourers can
scarcely, then, be said to be so much against emplovers as against other labourers, since they
can only control employers by withholding from
labourers permission to be employed. If decrease
of production be the consequence, future wages
will decrease also.
It will not be lost sight of that employers strive
to distribute the wages-fund among labourers
according to their respective producing powers,
i. e. according to the estimate formed of their re
spective industrial virtues. If the authority of
employers be susperseded by that of a combina
tion of labourers, will they also wish to distribute
the wages-fund so as to reward and encourage
the industrial virtues ? If so, which of the two,
the employers or the labourers, are, from their
experience and position, more likely to form a
correct estimate of industrial merits ? If not, the
development of those qualities upon which the
happiness and progress of communities depend
would scarcely be promoted by combinations
among labourers.
One can conceive of a combination among
labourers in which attempts to encroach upon the
prerogative of employers should neither be made
nor contemplated. Its object might be to dis-
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�FROM THE TEACHER'S POINT OF VIEW.
countenance ill conduct, to contribute out of their
wages towards the maintenance of those tem
porarily incapacitated, to introduce promising
recruits, to find other employment for super
numeraries, to form their capitals into a joint
stock, or to add them to a joint stock already
formed. A combination of labourers thus directed
would be a co-operation of labourers with capi
talists, and also of capitalists with one another.
Combinations have been formed, we are not
sure that some are not in existence still, to ex
clude machinery, or new contrivances for making
labour more effective, from particular branches of
business. Our intelligent young people could not
possibly enter into a combination for such a purposa. They would not be misled by the com
plaint, that it was wished to supersede labour by
machinery. Their intellectual exerdises will have
brought to their notice, that language may be used
to conceal a fallacy, as well as to express a truth.
The spade, the plough, and the thrashing-machine
make labour more effective, they do not supersede
it. And the pumping-engine which drains a
mine, which, without it, must remain submerged,
makes labour possible where it was previously im
possible. To obstruct employers in their efforts
to make the labour which they purchase as re
munerative as possible, is to obstruct the growth
of the wages-fund, from which alone general im
provement in wages is to be expected.
There are, and will continue to be, epochs in
most branches of industry, when, from the flow of
capital faster than that of labourers into them,
wages will rise; and also when, from the flow of
capital faster than that of labourers out of them,
wages will fall. If combinations, by spreading
information and organising facilities, could expe
dite the influx and efflux of labourers, to make
them correspond with the movements of capital,
they would unquestionably be useful, by assisting
to diffuse the benefits anticipated from the altered
applications of capital, and to diminish the suffer
ing of those who were about to be abandoned by
the capital upon which they depend for wages.
But if combinations attempt to make labourers
refuse to accommodate themselves to the move
ments of capital, they can only succeed by exclud
ing some from opportunities for bettering their
(condition, and by condemning others to look on
and clamour for undiminished wages, and, per
haps, pine in want, while the tide of capital is
flowing towards other parts, to confer increased
wages upon those who choose to accompany it.
When the workmen of employers who remain to
the last in a declining branch of business, or who
persist in conducting it by means since surpassed
by others, are compelled to submit to lower wages,
can it be said with propriety that capital has
w triumphed” ?
If combinations be so much less capable than
they have been imagined to be, of improving the
condition of under-paid and over-worked labourers, \
is there, it may be asked, no escape for them from
their misery in the present, and no hope of re
dress in the future? Before attempting to an
swer that appeal, it may be observed that there
are few instances of misery so sad that they might
not be made much sadder, and few lots so dark
that they might not be made darker; and com
binations would rather work in those directions
or encourage hopes doomed to disappointment.
There are expressions familiar to us all, which,
whether manufactured on purpose, or diverted
from former uses, have helped to blind us to our
follies and mistakes.* Restrictions on trade were
recommended to us under the name of “protec
tion.” Persistence in error so long as our neigh
bours chose to go wrong, was advised under the
name of “reciprocity.” The free circulation of
capital between borrowers and lenders was long
prevented through fear of the “extortions of
usurers.” And now, combinations among work
men are recommended as bulwarks against the
“tyranny of capitalists.”
The young should leave our schools qualified
not only to use language to express their own
thoughts appropriately, but to detect the misuse
of language by which they might otherwise be
confounded and misled. A tyrant, they know, is
supposed to be an oppressor. When they make
* For specimens of this use of language see letters from Mr
Fawcett in the Times of 17th and 22d March 1865. Some mat
ters are referred to by Mr Fawcett upon which, although beyond
the scope of our text, we would gladly have a little more in
formation. Mr Fawcett, speaking of the labourer of the present
times, says:—
“ He hears our statesmen eloquently describing the vast in
crease in the nation’s wealth, and he does not find that his own
lot is perceptibly improved; mechanical inventions have caused
untold wealth to be created, and yet his hours of toil have not
been materially shortened ; he hears glowing descriptions of
the growth of this mighty metropolis, and at the same time he
knows that the home of the London working man is not more
comfortable, because, as new streets are opened and other im
provements are introduced, places where the labourers can
dwell are more and more restricted.”
Is it true that labourers have not been benefited by “ the vast
increase in the nation’s wealth,” and are less comfortably
lodged in this metropolis ? If these statements cannot be made
with truth of labourers in general, to which in particular will
they apply 1 and why have some been excluded from participa
tion in the blessings enjoyed by others ? If he will tell us what
becomes of the labourers who are refused admittance to, or dis
missed from, the establishments of such employers as Sir Fran
cis Crossley, and thriving co-operative societies, and why they,
in common with the crowds at our dock gates, are thus unfor
tunately situated, he will assist us, and perhaps himself also, to
the information of which we are in search.
�8
COMBINATIONS AND STRIKES
their first attempts to sellltheir^abour, they
scarcely believe themselves. ioB™n the look out
for tyrants. When they obtain an advance of
wages, they do not become conscious of any
tyranny. When some new employer, hearing of
their efficiency, offers them better wages than
their former employers [can afford to give, they do
not suspect the tyrant. W hen employers attract
labourers from districts where they are earning
ten jfflEnings a-weekf by the promise of twenty
shillings; or when enterprising labourers, unsoli
cited by others, quit places where they were
earning ten shillings and apply for employment
at twenty shillings, the acceptance of their ser
vices will not appear tyrannical to them, unwel
come and tyrannical as it may appear to other
labourers in the receipt of thirty shillings.
We have no thought of escaping criticism or
refutation by affirming, that the expositions which
we have attempted are consistent with “ the prin
ciples of political economy,” or are correct appli
cations of those principles. Principles of political
economy, in common with all other principles,
are liable to be misinterpreted and misapplied,
and we do not seek shelter, accordingly, behind
them. Nor shall we be greatly alarmed by those
who do no more than assert that we have sinned
against political economy. Calculations can be
verified, and the analysis of a compound can be
tested by experiment, without ostentatiously ap
pealing to “ the principles of arithmetic or che
mistry.” We beg that our estimate of the probable
influence of combinations upon wages and well
being may be examined by similar methods.
We doubt whether any political economist, master
of his subject, would find much to dissent from in
what we have written. If he would not, he
certainly ought to refrain from the use of such
expressions as “antagonism between capital and
labour,” the effect of which must be to make
truth and sound doctrine unpalatable.
We were told, on one occasion, when comment
ing, perhaps a little warmly, upon this mischievous
trifling with matters of life and death, that such
11 bosh" did ~ot deserve our attention. To this
we replied, it may be very well for you to despise
“ bosh,” but those who listen to bosh as if it were
sense may rush to their ruin, and those who talk
bosh will never know nor talk sense till they can
see through their own bosh.
.
The expression, “ antagonism between capital
and labour,” must have been invented to foster a
prejudice rather than to recommend a truth. We
might as well talk of the antagonism between
food and appetite, or between the shivering body
and clothes. Passing from capital and labour to
capitalists and labourers, they seem to us to be
more attracted towards, than repelled from, each
other. Their respective wants and means of sup
plying wants draw them together. Apart they
are powerless. Buyers and sellers, borrowers
and lenders, are similarly drawn towards each
other. The antagonism, if there be any, is be
tween capitalists and capitalists, labourers and
labourers, buyers and buyers, sellers and sellers,
borrowers and borrowers, lenders and lenders,
each contending for a common object, and appear
ing to frustrate those against whom they contend.
We will not close this paper without reminding
teachers, that the subjects which we have been
urging upon their attention cannot be left un
heeded by their pupils. They, at the close of
school-life, will be compelled to act. The alter
native before them is not action or inaction, but
judicious or injudicious action, the one leading
towards well-being, the other away from it.
Surely there is misery enough caused by wilful
misconduct, and by “ the ills which flesh is heir
to.” Its increase through ignorance is a reproach
to those by whom the ignorance might have been
prevented. It is more in sorrow than in anger
that we blame the courageous, enduring, and
energetic men, who are adding misery to misery
by their mistaken efforts to obtain relief. But
we cannot suppress our anger at the apathy of
those instructors of youth, who persist in a course
of instruction, the end of which is to leave their
pupils in ignorance upon matters, a knowledge of
which is indispensable to good self-guidance
well-being.
�
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Combinations and strikes from the teacher's point of view
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Ellis, William
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Place of publiction: London and Edinburgh
Collation: 8 p. ; 23 p.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Reprinted from 'The Museum and English Journal of Education'. Printed in double columns. Date in Roman numerals.
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Thomas Nelson and Sons
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1865
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Education
Working conditions
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Conway Tracts
Education
Political Economy
Strikes
Working Classes
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Text
LABOURS PRAYER.
BY C. BBADLAUGH.
“ Give us thisday our daily bread ” is the entreaty addressed
by the tiller of the soil to the “ Otr Father,” who has pro
mised to answer prayer. And what answer cometh from
heaven to this the bread winner’s petition? Walk amongst
the cotton workers of Lancashire, the clothweavers of
Yorkshire, the Durham pit men, the Staffordshire puddlers,
the Cornish miners, the London dock labourers, go any
where where hands are roughened with toil, where foreheads
are bedewed with sweat of work, and see the Lord’s res
ponse to the prayer, the fatlrer’s answer to his children!
The only bread they get is the bread they take; in their
hard struggle for life-sustenance, the loaves come but
slowly, and heaven adds not a crust, even though the
worker be hungry, when he rises from his toil-won meal.
Not even the sight of pale faced wife, and thin forms of
half starved infants can move to generosity the Ruler of
the world. The labourer may pray, but, if work be scant
and wages low, he pines to death while praying. His
prayer gives no relief, and misery’s answer is the mocking
echo to his demand.
It is said by many a pious tongue that God helps the
poor; the wretchedness of some of their hovel houses, found,
alas ! too often in the suburbs of our wealthiest cities, grimy,
black, squalid, and miserable; the threadbare raggedness of
their garments ; the unwholesomeness of the food they eat;
the poisoned air they breathe in their narrow wynds and
filthy alleys; all these tell how much God helps the poor.
Do you want to see how God helps the poor ? go into any
police court when some little child-thief is brought up for
�2
labour’s prayer.
hearing; see him shoeless, with ragged trousers, thread»
bare, grimy, vest, hardly hanging to his poor body, shirt
that seems as though it never could have been white, skin
dull brown with dirt, hair innocent of comb or brush, eye
ignorantly, sullenly-defiant, yet downcast; born poor, born
wretched, born in ignorance, educated amongst criminals,
crime the atmosphere in which he moved ; and society, his
nurse and creator, is now virtuously aghast at the depra
vity of this its own neglected nursling, and a poor creature
whom God alone hath helped. Go where the weakly wife
in a narrow room huddles herself and little children day after
day : and where the husband crowds in to lie down at night:
they are poor and honest, but their honesty bars not the
approach of disease, fever, sorrow, death—God helps not
the line of health to their poor wan cheeks. Go to the
country workhouse in which is temporarily housed the
worn out farm labourer, who, while strength enough re
mained, starved through weary years with wife and several
children on eight shillings per week—it is thus God helps
the poor. And the poor are taught to pray for a continu
ance of this help, and to be thankful and content to pray
that to-morrow may be like to-day, thankful that yester
day was no worse than it was, and content to-day is as
good as it is. Are there many repining at their miseries,
the preacher, with gracious intonation, answers rebukingly
that God, in his wisdom, has sent these troubles upon them
as chastisement for their sins. So, says the church, all are
sinners, rich as well as poor, but rich sinners feel the
chastising rod is laid more lightly on their backs than it
is upon those of their meaner brethren. Week-day and
Sunday it is the same contrast; one wears fustian, the
other broadcloth, one prepares for heaven in the velvet
cushioned pew, the other on the wooden benches of the
free seats. In heaven it will be different—all there above
are to wear crowns of gold and fine linen, and, therefore,
here below the poor man is to be satisfied with the state of
life into which it has pleased God to call him. The pastor
who tells him this, looks upon the labourer as an inferior
�LABOUR. S PRAYER.
S
animal, and the labourer by force of habit regards the great
landowner and peer, who patronises his endeavours, as a
being of a superior order. Is there no new form of prayer
that labour might be taught to utter, no other power to
■which his petition might be addressed ? Prayer to the un
known for aid gives no strength to the prayer. In each
beseeching, he loses dignity and self-reliance, he trusts to
he knows not what, for an answer which cometh, he knows
■not when, and mayhap may never come at all. Let labour
pray in the future in another fashion and at another altar.
Let labourer pray to labourer that each may know labour’s
rights, and be able to fulfil labour’s duties. The size of
the loaf of daily bread must depend on the amount of the
daily wages, and the labourer must pray for better wages.
But his prayer must take the form of earnest, educated en
deavour to obtain the result desired. Let workmen, in
stead of praying to God in their distress, ask one another
why are wages low? how can wages be raised? can we
raise our own wages? having raised them, can we keep
them fixed at the sum desired ? what causes produce a rise
and fall in wages ? are high wages beneficial to the labourer ?
These are questions the pulpit has no concern with. The
reverend pastor will tell you that the “ wages of sin is death,”
and will rail against “filthy lucrebut he has no incli
nation for answering the queries here propounded. Why
are wages low? Wages are low because the wage-winners
crowd too closely. W ages are low because too many seek
to share one fund. Wages are lower still because the
. ’abourer fights against unfair odds; the laws of the country
overriding the laws of humanity, have been enacted with
out the labourer’s consent, although his obedience to them
is enforced. The fund is unfairly distributed as well as
too widely divided. Statutes are gradually being modified,
and the working man may hope for ampler justice from the
employer in the immediate future than was possible in
the past, but high and healthy wages depend on the work
ing man himself. Wages can be raised by the working
classes exereising a moderate degree of caution in increase
�4
LABOUR’S PRAYER.
ing their numbers. Wages must increase when capital in
creases more rapidly than population, and it is the duty of
the working man, therefore, to take every reasonable pre
caution to check the increase of population, and to accelerate
the augmentation of capital.
Can working-men, by combination, permanently raise the
rate of wages ? One gentleman presiding at a meeting of
the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science
for the discussion of the labour question, very fairly said,
“ It is not in the power of the men alone, or of the masters
alone, or of both combined, to say what shall be the amount
of wages at any particular time in any trade or country.
The men and the masters are, at most, competitors for the
division at a certain rate, of a certain fund, provided by
[themselves and] others—that is, by the consumers. If that
fund is small, no device can make the rate of profit or rate
of wages higher.” This is in theory quite correct, if it
means that no device can make the total divisible greater
than it is, but not if it refers to the increase of profit or
wages by partial distribution. In practice, although it is
true that if the fund be small and the seekers to share it
be many, the quotient to each must be necessarily very
small, yet it is also true that a few of the competitors—i.e.t
the capitalists, may and do absorb for their portions of
profits an improper and unfairly large amount, thus still
further reducing the wretchedly small pittance in any case
receivable by the mass of labourers. It is warmly con
tended that the capitalist and labourer contend for division
of the fund appropriable in fair and open field; that the
capitalist has his money to employ, the man his labour to
sell ; that if workmen are in excess of the capitalist’s
requirements, so that the labourer has to supplicate for
employment, wages cannot rise, and will probably fall; but
that if, on the contrary, capital has need to invite additional
labourers, then wages must rise. That is the law of supply
and demand brought prominently forward. In great part
this is true, but it is not true that capital and labour com
pete in fair and open field, any more than it is true that a<
�labour’s prayer.
yron-elad war vessel, with heavy ordnance, would compete
in fair field with a wooden frigate, equipped with the
materiel in use thirty years ago. Capital is gold-plated,
and carries too many guns for unprotected labour. The
intelligent capitalist makes the laws affecting master and
servant, which the uneducated labourer must obey, but has
no effective voice to alter. The capitalist forms the govern
ment of the country, which in turn protects capital against
labour; this government the labourer must sustain, and
dares not modify. The capitalist does combine, and has
combined, and the result of this combination has been an
unfair appropriation of the divisible fund. Why should
not the labourer combine also ? The answer is truly that
no combination of workmen can increase the rate of wages,
if at the same time the number of labourers increases more
rapidly than the capital out of which their wages must be
paid. But the men may combine to instruct one another
in the laws of political economy; they may combine to
apply their knowledge of those laws to the contracts be
tween employer and employed. They may combine to
compel the repeal of unjust enactments under which an un
fair distribution of the labour fund is not only possible,
but certain. Organisations of labourers are, therefore, wise
and necessary: the object of such organisations should be
the permanent elevation and enfranchisement of the mem
bers. No combination of workmen, which merely dictates
a temporary cessation from labour, can ultimately and per
manently benefit the labourer; while it certainly imme
diately injures him and deteriorates his condition, making
his home wretched, his family paupers. Nor can even co
operative combination, praiseworthy as it certainly is, to
procure for the labourer a larger share of the profits of his
labour, permanently benefit him, except in so far that
temporarily alleviating his condition, and giving him lei
sure for study, it enables him to educate himself: unless,
at the same time, the co-operator is conscious that the in
crease or reduction in the amount of wages depends entirely
on the ratio of relation preserved between population and
�labour’s prayer.
its means of subsistence, the former always having a tendency to increase more rapidly than the latter. It is with
the problem of too many mouths for too little bread that
the labourer has really to deal: if he must pray, it should
be for more bread and for fewer mouths. The answer often
given by the workman himself to the advocate of Malthusian
views is, that the world is wide enough for all, that there
are fields yet tfnploughed broad enough to bear more corn
than man at present could eat, and that there is neither too
little food, nor are there too many mouths ; that there is, in
fact, none of that over-population with which it is sought
to affright the working-man. Over-population in the sense
that the whole world is too full to contain its habitants, or
that it will ever become too full to contain them, is certainly
a fallacy, but over-population is a lamentable truth in its
relative sense. We find evidences of over-population in
every old country of the world. The test of over-population
is the existence of povei’ty, squalor, wretchedness, disease,
ignorance, misery, and crime. Low rate of wages, and food
dear, here you have two certain indices of relative over
population. Wages depending on the demand for and
supply of labourers, wherever wages are low it is a certain
sign that there are too many candidates for employment in
that phase of the labour market. The increased cost of
pioduction of food, and its consequent higher price, also
mark that the cultivation has been forced by the numbers
of the people to descend to less productive soils. Poverty
is the test and result of over-population.
It is not against some possible increase of their numbers,
which may produce possibly greater affliction, that the
working men are entreated to agitate. It is against the
_ existing evils which afflict their ranks, evils alleged by
sound students of political economy to have already resulted
from inattention to the population question, that the ener
gies of the people are sought to be directed. The operation
. the law of population has been for centuries entirely
agnoie by those who have felt its adverse influence most
severely. It is only during the last thirty years that any
�labour’s prayer.
pf the working classes have turned their attention to the
question; and only during the last few years that it has
been to any extent discussed amongst them. Yet all the
prayers that labour ever uttered since the first breath of
human life, have not availed so much for human happiness
as will the earnest examination by one generation of this,;
the greatest of all social questions, the root of all political
problems, the foundation of all civil progress. Poor—man
must be wretched. Poor—he must be ignorant. Poor—
he must be criminal: and poor he must be till the cause
of poverty has been ascertained by the poor man himself,
and its cure planned by .the poor man’s brain, and effected
by the poor man’s hand
Outside his own rank none can save the poor. Others
may show him the abyss, b ut he must avoid its dangerous
brink himself. Others may point out to him the chasm,
but he must build his own bridge over. Labour’s prayer
must be to labour’s head for help from labour’s hand to
strike the blow that severs labour’s chain, and terminates
the too long era of labour’s suffering.
During the last few years our daily papers, and various
periodicals, magazines, and reviews have been more fre
quently, and much less partially, devoted than of old to the
discussion of questions relating to the labourer’s condition,
and the means of ameliorating it. In the Legislative As
sembly debates have taken place which would have been
impossible fifty years since. Works on political economy
are now more easily within the reach of the working man
than they were some few years ago. People’s editions are
now published of treatises on political economy which half
a century back the people were unable to read. It is now
possible for the labourer, and it is the labourer’s duty, to
make himself master of the laws which govern the produc
tion and distribution of wealth. Undoubtedly there is
much grievous wrong in the mode of distribution of wealth,
by which the evils that afflict the poorest strugglers are
often specially and tenfold aggravated. The monopoly of
land, the serf state of th$ labourer, are points requiring
�iiABOtritsr PAAYEte.
energetic agitation. The grave and real question is, ho^S
ever, that which lies at the root of all, the increase of
wealth as against the increase of those whom it subsists.
The leaders of the great trades’ unions of the country, if
hey really desire to permanently increase the happiness of
the classes amongst whom they exercise influence, can
speedily promote this object by encouraging their members
to discuss freely the relations of labour to capital; not
moving in one groove, as if labour and capital were neces
sarily antagonistic, and that therefore labour must always
have rough-armed hand to protect itself from the attacks
of capital; but, taking new ground, to inquire if labour and
capital are bound to each other by any and what ties, ascer
taining if the share of the labourer in the capital fund
depends, except so far as affected by inequality in distribu
tion, on the proportion between the number of labourers and
the amount of the fund. The discussing, examining, and
dealing generally with these topics, would necessarily
compel the working man to a more correct appreciation of
his position.
Any such doctrine as that ‘ ‘ the poor shall never cease
out of the landor that we are to be content with the
station in life into which it has pleased God to call us ; or
that we are to ask and we shall receive, must no longer
avail. Schiller most effectively answers the advocates of
prayer—
“ Help, Lord, help ! Look with pity down!
A paternoster pray;
What God does, that is justly done,
His grace endures for aye.”
u Oh, mother! empty mockery,
God hath not justly dealt by me:
Have I not begged and prayed in vain;
What boots it now to pray again ?”
Labour’s only and effective prayer must be in life action
for its own redemption ; action founded on thought, crude
thought, and sometimes erring at first, but ultimately
developed into useful thinking, by much patient experi
menting for the right and true*
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Labour's prayer
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Bradlaugh, Charles [1833-1891]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 8 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Date of publication from the Selection of Bradlaugh's political pamphlets / John Saville (New York: 1970).
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Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant
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[1865]
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N097
G5678
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Labour
Social problems
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Text
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English
Labour Movement-England-History-19th Century
Wages
Working Classes
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Text
SOCIALISM
AND THE
WORKER
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Price One Penny.
BY PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR.
LENDING
LIBRARY
LONDON:
THE MODERN PRESS, 13, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
AND
W. L. ROSENBERG, 36, EAST FOURTH STREET, NEW YORK CITY.
�THE
SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC. FEDERATION.
OBJECT.
The Establishment of a Free Condition of Society based on the prin
ciple of Political Equality, with Equal Social Rights for all and the
complete Emancipation of Labour.
PROGRAMME.
1. All Officers or Administrators to be elected by Equal Direct Adult
Suffrage, and to be paid by the Community.
2. Legislation by the People, in such wise that no project of Law
shall become legally binding till accepted by the Majority of the People.
3. The Abolition of a Standing Army, and the Establishment of a
National Citizen Force ; the People to decide on Peace or War.
4. All Education, higher no less than elementary, to be Free, Com
pulsory, Secular, and Industrial for all alike.
5. The Administration of Justice to be Free and Gratuitous for all
Members of Society.
6. The Land with all the Mines, Railways and other Means of Tran
sit, to be declared and treated as Collective or Common Property.
7. Ireland and all other parts of the Empire to have Legislative
Independence.
8. The Production of Wealth to be regulated by Society in the com
mon interest of all its Members.
9. The Means of Production, Distribution and Exchange to be
declared and treated as Collective or Common Property.
As measures called for to palliate the evils of our existing society the
Social-Democratic Federation urges for immediate adoption :—
The Compulsory Construction of healthy artizan’s and agricultural
labourers’ dwellings in proportion to the population, such dwellings to
be let at rents to cover the cost of construction and maintenance alone.
Free Compulsory Education for all classes, together with the provision
■of at least one wholesome meal a day in each school.
Eight Hours or less to be the normal working day in all trades.
Cumulative Taxation upon all incomes above a fixed minimum not
•exceeding ^300 a year.
State Appropriation of Railways, with or without compensation.
The establishment of National Banks, which shall absorb all private
institutions that derive a profit from operations in money or credit.
Rapid Extinction of the National Debt.
Nationalisation of the Land, and organisation of agricultural and
industrial.armies under State control on Co-operative principles.
As means for the peaceable attainment of these objects the SocialDemocratic Federation advocates :
Adult
tation.
Suffrage. Annual Parliaments. Proportional Represen
Payment of Members ; and Official Expenses of Election
■out of the Rates. Abolition of the House of Lords and all
Hereditary Authorities.
Disestablishment and Disendowment
of all State Churches.
.Secretary, Social-Democratic Federation, Bridge House, Blackfriars, E.C.
�SOCIALISM AND THE WORKER.
----------- >£<-----------
OCIALISM has been attacked and incriminated at all times,
but never with more animosity than recently. Socialists are
reproached with every kind of wickedness; of the tendency
to do away with property, marriage, family, to pollute every
thing that is sacred ; they have even been accused of arson and murder.
And why not ? If we look at the originators of these incriminations, we
are not the least astonished, for they have to defend privileges and
monopolies, which in reality are in danger, if drawn to the broad day
light and handled by the Socialist. They act according to the old
jesuitic stratagem : invent lies, pollute your enemy in every way you
can ; something will stick. But if we find those reproaches repeated
and echoed even by working men, whose interest are quite different, we
must wonder indeed.
If the workers, however, hate and attack Socialism, it is not a clear
perception of the wickedness of the aims of Socialism, by which their
judgment is guided, but by a dim and vague idea, and it is well known
that spectres are awful things in the dark, for people who believe in
them.
.
But everybody who hates and persecutes other people for their pur
poses and pursuits should be convinced that he is right in doing so.
For, if we hate and persecute persons whose purposes and pursuits are
reasonable and right, we are wrong.
For this reason let us examine the real aims of the Socialists. I think
I know them pretty well, and I promise to tell the truth, and nothing
but the truth about them.
. .
When you have read this to the end, you may persecute the Socialists
with renewed hatred, if you find they are bad ; on the other hand, you
will think favourably of them, if you find their views good and right.
For I am convinced, that you, dear reader, whoever you are, have not
a mind to love the bad and hate the good.
Foremost and above all, it seems to be certain that the Socialists
intend to divide all property. Everybody, who owns anything, must
give up what he owns; this whole mass has to be divided equally among
all the people, and each person may use his part, just as he likes. After
a while, when some have used up their allotted part, and a new dispro
portion of property has arisen, a new division will be made; and so on.
Especially the money and the soil are to be divided.—This is, what some
people say concerning Socialism.
Now honestly, reader, have you ever seen or heard of a man of sound
mind, who really demanded such nonsense ? No, you have not! Such
a demand involves the highest degree of ciaziness. Just reflect, dear
*3
I
�4
reader to whose lot, for instance, should a railroad fall ? Who should
haVe the rails, or a locomotive, or a carriage ? And since everybody
would have a right to demand an equal share, all these things would
nave to be broken and smashed up, and one would get a broken axletree
another the door of a carriage, or perhaps some bolts. Not even lunatics
could recommend such a state of things.
A division of money or soil might possibly be thought of, but money
and soil form only a small part of the wealth of a country. The ready
money forms even a very small part. And if the soil should be divided,
all the new owners would be in need of houses, barns, stables, agricultural
implements of all kinds. Such a distribution of the soil is, therefore
utterly impossible, and the Socialists know well enough that such a
proceeding would benefit nobody. During the great French Revolution
in 1709 something similar was tried; large estates were divided among
poor country people to make them happy. What is the result ? The.
French peasantry, generally, are so poor, that thousands of them live in
dwellings with only a door and no window at all, or with only one small
window at the side of the door. And small farmers are not much better
off m any country, except, perhaps, in the vicinity of large cities. The
small farmers must, as a rule, toil harder than any other person, to make
a living, and a very scanty and poor one in any case. Farming, in our
age, only pays well if done on a large scale, if large tracts of land can be
cultivated with the aid of machinery and the application of all modern
improvements. And this knowledge and doctrine of the Socialists is
strictly opposed to a division of the soil. On the contrary, the Socialists
are of the opinion, that there will be a time when a number of small
farmers will unite to cultivate their farms in common, and divide the
products among themselves, seeing that farming on a small scale cannot
compete with farming on a large scale, just as manufacturing on a small
scale cannot compete with manufacturing on a large scale. Therefore,
what has been said about the intention of the Socialists with respect to
dividing the soil, is an apparent falsehood.
Concerning the division of money I must relate an anecdote invented
to ridicule people who were represented to have such intentions. One
day in 1848, as the story goes, Baron Rothschild took a walk on the
Common at Frankfort on the Main.
Two labourers met nim and
accosted him thus : “ Baron, you are a rich man ; we want to divide
with you.” Baron Rothschild, not the least puzzled, took out his purse
good-humouredly and answered: — “ Certainly 1
We can do that
business on the spot. The account is easily made. I own 40 millions
oi florins; there are 40 millions of Germans. Consequently each
German has to receive one florin ; here is your share
and giving one
florin to each one of the labourers, who looked at their money quite
confused, he walked off smiling.
This teaches that the division of money is but an idle invention.
And with a little brain and thought, everybody must easily come to
the conclusion, that the great number of those who confess to the
principles of Socialism cannot possibly consist of blockheads or rather
lunatics, which they would prove to be, if they demanded such nonsense,.
In Germany 700,000 voters voted for Socialist candidates—can they all be
crazy?
Therefore, there must be something else in Socialism. The number
of Socialists in Germany is constantly growing. Even Prince Bismarck
confesses that. There must be something in it.
�Now if we go to the meetings of the Socialists, if we read their
papers and pamphlets what do we find ?
They do not intend to introduce division of property; on the con
trary, they are for abolishing its division.
This sounds strange, but it is so.
The Socialists are of the opinion, that division of property is flourish
ing in our society at present, and further they are of the opinion that
this division is carried on in a very unjust manner. If you doubt, only
think of our millionaires, and say, whether those fellows did or did not
understand to divide and to appropriate to themselves large sums of
money. Think of those swindling railroads and other companies. How
many honest mechanics, farmers, labourers, have been swindled by
them out of the little sums they had gathered by hard work and saving ?
The Socialists do not claim the honour of being the first to discover
that this kind of distribution is going on everywhere throughout thworld ; they have learned it. Men who belong to their adversaries have
taught them. John Stuart Mill, who was opposed to Socialism, said in
one of his writings : “ As we now see, the produce of labour is in almost
an inverse ratio to the labour—the largest portions to those who have
never worked at all, the next largest to those whose work is almost
nominal, and so in a descending scale, the remuneration dwindling as
the work grows harder and more disagreeable, until the most fatiguing
and exhausting bodily labour cannot count with certainty on being able
to earn even the necessaries of life,”
This sounds really dreadful, but if you look around and consult your
own experience, is it not so ? Certainly, it :’s I
There are people who have a princely income, who plunge from one
pleasure into another—and perhaps they have never in their life done
the least useful thing ; they need not work, they do not work themselves,
but—they draw the proceeds of the work of other people and enjoy
them.
On the other hand, look at him, who “ eats his bread in the sweat of
his brow,” look at the labourer who works for wages. If he is skilful,
industrious and strong, and if he is lucky enough to find employment,
he may even be able to save a little. But the large majority of labourers
cannot even think of that, in spite of all hardships they undergo. When
they have to stop work, they are as poor as when they began it. And
many, many labourers, hard toiling men, are not able to protect them
selves and their families from exposure and hunger. You need not go
far, reader, you will will find them everywhere. Ragged, palefaced,
despairing people will meet your vision, and on enquiring you will learn,
that they were industrious, orderly workers, and that there are thousands,
aye, hundreds of thousands of people living in the same miserable con
dition, in the cities as well as in the country.
Now look at the mechanics ? A few of them may succeed ; they may
be able to reach a state, in which they are safe from sorrow and care for
he necessaries of life. The greater number of mechanics who have a
little shop of their own and work on a small scale, have to battle with
poverty and care. Thousands, hundreds of thousands of mechanics fail
in this battle; they give up their small establishments and turn wage
labourers. One manufacturer on a large scale deprives hundreds of
small mechanics of their independent existence, one large shop or “ co
operative store ” crushes out fifty small shopkeepers. As things stand
�6
to-day, only those will succed in the great struggle for life, in the universal
competition, who command large means, a great amount of capital.
In commerce it is the same; merchants with small means rarely do a
good business, many go bankrupt, merchants with large means grow
richer and richer. It is similar with farmers throughout the civilised
countries of Europe and America. Owners of small farms just eke out a
scanty living and have to work very hard ; many gradually fall off: in
general the peasantry get poorer. There is the usurer, who knows how
to make profit of a poor crop. Very frequently we find that small farms
are bought by owners of large farms to be united with them. Only the
latter understand and are able to farm with profit.
Thus we see how the large class of those who work hard and
assiduously do not make money, do not amass riches—on the contrary,
many of them must suffer from want and care. But now, who creates
these riches which fall to those who never worked, or whose work hardly
deserves the name of work ? Who else, but that self-same working-class.
For industry and work scarcely a living ! Riches for those, who never
or seldom did anything useful ! Do you call that just ? Can you
approve of such a state of things? I know you cannot. No sensible
man can approve of it. And now say what you may against Socialists
—in this point they are right. This state of things cannot and must not
continue. It is wrong, and therefore it must be changed. Socialists do
not object to acquisitions made by honest work, on the contrary, they
try to secure the product of work to the worker himself, and to protect it
from the clutches of those who hitherto have been accustomed, not to
work themselves, but only to draw profit from the work of others, and
who, in doing so, are not content with a small part, but try to take the
lion’s share as it is in the fable.
But do the Socialists not go too far in their zeal ? It would, certainly,
be well and just if it could be accomplished, that those who toil and
work could be liberated from care and want, and those who have been
idle so far could be forced to work also. Birt are not the Socialists
enemies of the property-holders, and is not everybody who owns property
threatened to lose it by the Socialists, should they come into power—
so much so that he would have to face penury and want ? ' Ave they not
Communists ?
These objections and reproaches have been made and are made. Let
us not make light of them, but let us consider them quietly, in order to
judge right and justly.
Before we go on, we must explain two conceptions :
I. What is Communism ?
II. What is property ?
About Communism many lies have been set afloat, especially by people
whose interest it was to do so, viz., by those money-making idlers, so
that most people cannot but connect with the word Communism the idea
of rascality ; communist and scoundrel of the worst kind appear to them
to be synonymous. Therefore it is not an easy matter to speak of Com
munism without running risk to be condemned before one commences.
Many people in such a case will not hear, will not see, will not judge,
t heir verdict is formed. All social prejudices are awakened and called
forth by this expression. For that reason it is very difficult to come to
a quiet understanding about it. But the reader, who has followed us so
far, will follow us farther, not blindfolded, but using good common sense.
�7
If we open our eyes and look around us, we find many beneficent and
useful institutions brought forth by many or by the whole people in
common. In one place associations are formed, for instance, to save and
shelter shipwrecked persons; at another place the community erect a
school, or the State, the commonwealth, builds a harbour or a canal. In
ordinary life everybody cares for himself, but in such cases as those
just mentioned people unite for advancing a common, social purpose. Ex
perience teaches that, in doing so, they do admirably well; every one of
them who will reflect a little must confess that his own welfare is greatly
advanced by such institutions of common usefulness. What would people
be without common roads, common schools, etc., that is, such as are built
and instituted at the cost of the community for common use ? We should be
in a terrible situation, if all at once the different insurance companies
were to cease to exist, whose object is, to transfer a calamity, by which a
person might be struck heavily or perhaps be ruined, from his shoulders
to the shoulders of many. If I chose, I could mention here a thousand
other things, but the above named common institutions will be sufficient4
Now all these institutions are nothing but Communism. For Cowwwmswa i?
nothing but the principle of common interests of society. In every-day life
everybody looks out for his own interest, even at the cost of his fellow
men ; here cold, ugly egoism is dominant. The large cotton mills have
ruined thousands and thousands of weavers ; but who cares for hundreds
of honest, industrious, happy people, who get ruined by one mill ? Who
cares how many honest shoemakers are deprived of a living by the large
shoe manufacturers ? What does the usurer care for the victims of his
avarice ? What do the speculating swindlers care for the fate of the
shareholders, after their hard-earned savings are gone ? Nobody ever
thought of caring for such things, and it is my firm belief that a business
man in our days who would show any consideration for the welfare of
his fellowmen in his transactions would be certain to become a laughing
stock. Egoism rules supreme. Everybody thinks of his own welfare,
and does not care whether by doing so he destroys the welfare of others.
“What business have I to care for others if I am comfortable.” In
spite of the prevalence of Egoism, the common interest of mankind is
irrepressibly gaining ground. More and more people unite to culti
vate it, more and more associations are formed, the activity of the State
and community is extending its influence over more and more objects.
Who would have thought in former times of all the different associations
which are formed to-day to advance any number of common interests of
every description ? AVho held a.n idea in former years, that whole
countries would be cut in all directions by railroads, that telegraphs
would communicate news to the remotest parts of the world in an
instant ? Who could predict the admirable development of our postal
system ? Who thought of waterworks or of gas ? Who had an idea of
the modern arrangement of the fire brigades ? The root of all these
is Communism. They represent the victory of common interests over
hideous Egoism.
.
.
To turn institutions of common interest to the use of ail, is tiie tendency
of the age, and however people may curse at Communism, they are
bent to obey its mandates. Everywhere common interests press their
claims, and Communism, proudly elevating its head, marches on trium
phantly with all conditions of human life in its attendance.
He who declares himself an enemy of Communism declares himself
�8
nn enemy of common interest, an enemy of society and mankind ! Who
ever wishes to annihilate Communism will have to destroy the common
roads, the schools, the churches, he will have to destroy the public
gardens and parks, he will have to abolish the public baths,"the theatres,
she waterworks, all the public buildings, for instance, town halls, courts,
-ill the hospitals, the alms-houses, he will have to destroy the railroads’
She telegraphs, the post-office ! For all these belong to Communism.
Communism cannot be annihilated, it has its origin and root in human
nature like egoism. Everybody who will open his eyes must see that in
the present time we are under full sail to land in its sheltering harbour.
Sheltering ? Yes, sheltering ! Sheltering for the great majority of man
kind, for whom a better time will come, must come, when the common
interest, the interest of all, will be the rule governing all our social con
ditions, when a barrier will be erected against egoism by the regard for
the common or public welfare. If it happens nowadays that rich specu
lators make people in hard times pay exorbitant prices, and take advan
tage of a common calamity to double their wealth, or if railway
shareholders make their own rates for freight, injuring by high prices
producers as well as consumers in order to gain a large dividend ; or if
manufacturers prefer running short time to selling at lower prices—these
proceedings are considered “ all right,” for everybody can do with his own
as he chooses, But everybody must see that such egoism is opposed to
the common interest; and there will be a time when people will know
how to protect the common interest against such egGism. When that
time has come it will be better for all; all will enjoy life, not only those
who do so now at the cost of their fellow-beings.
If you define Communism in this way, some of my readers will say, we
do not object to it, quite on the contrary, we must confess to belong to
the Communists ourselves. But this is not what people generally under
stand by the word “ Communism..” We were to consider the Communism
which the Socialists want to introduce, the Communism with regard to
property. We admit that they do not intend to divide, but do they not
intend to abolish property ? That is what we oppose, otherwise we
would not object to it.
What is property ? “ To be sure that, what a person owns, possesses! ”
Well 1 But, now tell me, are you certain that the Socialists are, or ever
were, opposed to what Peter or Paul owns ? Can you show me a
sentence or passage from any of the writings or pamphlets of Socialists
which justifies the supposition, that they intend to attack the property
of any person ?
You cannot, because such an idea never entered the head of a Socialist.
I should not wonder if you yourself have not thought sometimes con
sidering the means and ways by which many amass their riches, it
would be only just and right to take that illgotten wealth from the
rascally owner, but it is a firm principle of Socialism, never to mingle
with personal property in order to investigate its origin, or to arrange it
in a different way. Never and nowhere 1 And whoever asserts to the
contrary, either does not know the principles of Socialism or willingly
and knowingly asserts an untruth. The Socialists deem an investigation
into the origin of an acknowledged personal property an unnecessary
trouble. They do not envy the Duke of Westminster or Sir Thomas
Brassey their wealth. Although they perceive very well the constant
changes with regard to property, although they investigate and are
�<1
■acquainted with the causes producing those changes, although they are
well aware that fraud and meanness and violence in a great many in
stances are among those causes; they forbear to investigate how much
these causes, how much others, have influenced the state of property of
this or that single person. They consider the personal property an
accomplished fact, and respect it; so much so, that they consider
stealing a crime. Every time Revolution was victorious in Paris, bills
were seen at the street corners threatening death to thieves. A remark
able fact is that Baron Rothschild fled suddenly from Paris as soon as
these bills were posted. At Lyons during an insurrection in 1832, a
man who had appropriated another man’s property was shot by a
labourer in command. During the reign of the Commune of 1871,
Paris had no thieves, no prostitutes.
On the other hand, the right of the owner is not always respected in
our time, but they are not Socialists who violate the sanctity of property
in these cases, although it must be confessed that in many instances an
abrogation of the right of a property-holder becomes necessary. Socialists
cannot be reproached with ever having condemned houses or tracts of
land for the purpose of building a street or opening a railroad. They
certainly are not Socialists who seize and sell houses or lots at auction for
unpaid taxes. Nor will you find Socialists who connive at those shame
fully unjust appropriations of the property of others, which however go
on in a lawful form.
One thing, however, calls forth all the energy of the Socialists, and
they will try with all their might to remedy it. I have stated already,
they do not care whether a person owns hundreds of thousands or
millions of pounds, whether that person makes use of his money one way
or the other, whether he spends it wisely or foolishly. He may spend
his own as he chooses. But—these sums of money are not used simply
to be spent, but to bring interest, to increase, if possible, the wealth of
the possessor. Does he himself want to work, to do something useful ?
Far from it. His money works for him, his money makes money, as the
saying is; or in plain English, his money is the channel through which
the earnings of other, industrious people flow into his pockets. Socialists
call all kinds of property in this respect “ capital,” this expression com
prising all means for production : and- because one class of the people
possess, by their wealth, these means—the capital—another, and by far
the largest class have only their physical or mental strength and skill
for labour, hence the capital becomes a means for enslaving workers, forcing them
to give up the greater part of their produce to him who owns the capital.
They themselves obtain hardly enough to support themselves and their
families, while the capitalists enjoy life and get richer without working
at all. This is the point. Dead property deprives living work of its
fruits. Now since work should, by rights, own what it produces, as its
sole and legitimate earning, dead property becomes the bitter enemy of
working life.
Hence the struggle of labour with capital.
Returning to the question ; What is property ? the answer given above
appears unsatisfactory; we must add another question; to whom justly
belongs what the working part of the human race produces.
The answer to this question is of the greatest importance. Now it is
the capital which appropriates the greater part of it, leaving to the
workers, who form by far the greater number, only so much of it, that
�IO
they may keep alive; they are treated like bees, they are robbed of the
honey they make. This class is excluded from enjoying the blessings of
civilisation, the greater part of their product is taken by the capital.
What right has the owner of a beehive to rob the bees of the fruit of
their industry and labour ? They are his property, his is the might.
What right has capital to rob the working class of the greater part of
the fruit of their industry and labour ? The wage-labourers, the
mechanics, the farm hands, are they the property of the capitalist ? Are
they his slaves ?
As things stand to-day—they are 1 Might is right and by the title of
such right the slaveowner considers the fruit of the work of his slaves
his property; by this right, in former times, the feudal landowner
made his serfs work for his employment and benefit. Slavery is injustice,
serfdom is injustice, so the right which capital claims to the work of the
worker is injustice. I would not like to be misunderstood here. As far
as anything is the personal property of a person, he may enjoy it, as he
chooses; nobody has a right to interfere. But as soon as he tries to use
this property to enslave other people, he steps over his domain and must
be checked. For, I think, it is acknowledged among civilised people,
that nobody has a right of ownership over his fellowmen. Slavery has
been abolished, serfdom has been abolished, so the power which capital
exercises now, will be abolished ; its place will be occupied by the natural
and sacred right of the worker to the proceeds of his work.
But—is not the capital as necessary as the labour ? Can labour pro
duce anything without capital ? There must be raw material, there must
be tools, there must be machines, there must be workshops, warehouses
and so forth ; there must be soil to be tilled, &c. What can mere labour
do without all these ? True! But labour existed before capital, and
made the tools, workshops, &c. Is it necessary that capital, now the
foundation of successful labour, and which has been produced by labour,
be owned by a few individuals ? Has this minority a right to continue
to take the best part of what labour produces ?
The Socialists take the side of Labour. They maintain that it is
every body's duty to work, unless he be sick or crippled. They maintain
that whoever is able to work and is not willing to do it, has no right to
enjoy the fruits of the industry and labour of others.
If capitalists attempt to justify their way of making profit, by saying
that they have to run risks sometimes, that a part of their property
might occasionally.be lost, we answer, that labour has nothing to do with
that. The real cause of it is the competition among the employers, the
custom to produce at random, without investigating whether what is
produced is really wanted. For the class of capitalists there is no risk,
because its wealth increases every day. But there is a great risk for the
working-class. When business is slack, when wages go down, when
many workers are out of employment,—when in consequence of this
mechanics, grocers, and even farmers suffer, the condition of the work
ing part of the people is pitiable and many suffer. The newspapers tell
about that. Have they not had startling accounts of people starving to
death in our great cities ? Look at the local columns of the daily papers
and it is exceptional if there is no account of some family or other being
poverty-stricken, of people driven to despair, driven to commit suicide
by want. And all this in cities that have stores and warehouses crowded
with goods ! Is this no risk ?
�11
But how could this state, of things be changed ?
This, certainly, cannot be done of a sudden. There is a natural pro
cess of development in this, as in all changes that history has recorded
so far. According to the reasoning of the Socialists, this development
will be as follows.
Some time ago the middle-class formed the firm and solid foundation
of society and State. Machinery was invented and a change occurred.
Manufacturing, and even farming to a certain extent, were conducted on
a large scale; the middle-class people were pressed down into a class of
wage-labourers, and were employed in large numbers by the manufac
turers or employers. More and more this middle-class cease to be pro
perty-holders ; it is getting 'more and more difficult for the mechanics
and small farmers to hold their ground ; thus the middle-class is con
stantly decreasing, the class of wage-labourers increasing, until there
will be only two classes of people—rich and poor. In this progress
the number of rich people is diminishing, wealth becoming concen
trated in the hands of comparatively few persons, who are getting
enormously rich.
But this process must soon have its limit. There will be a time, when
the large mass of the working-people will feel its consequences unbear
able, will abolish it. That will be the time, when Communism will enter
into its rights. Labour will then be organised according to a certain
reasonable plan, and since, for that purpose, the use of the existing
capital, comprising soil, houses, railways, shipping, manufactories,
machines, &c., will be necessary, those comparatively few possessors of
all the wealth of the nations will have to be expropriated. Perhaps
they then will consent themselves to such a measure and give up every
thing necessary for production of their own accord, honoured and
praised for their patriotism and humanity, and remunerated deservedly;
perhaps they will use their ample means to resist the common demand,
and will perish, overwhelmed by the newly formed organisation of the
State. As I hinted before, in the new order of things all branches of
labour will be organised, similar to the arrangements we see to-day in
large factories, large estates, or institutions of the Government. Un
necessary work will be avoided and the reward for work done will be
greater. Labour will not be wasted in making luxuries for the idle, but
be usefully employed in making the necessaries of life for other workers.
It will be everybody’s duty to work, hence everybody will have ample
leisure for recreation and mental development. All will strive to amelio
rate the conditions of the community they belong to ; for, by doing so,
everybody will improve his own private situation.
The basis of this state of things will be abolition of private property
of individuals in such things as are necessary for production and trans
portation, such as factories, machines, railroads, &c., or which have
been created for instruction and amusement, such as schools, colleges,
museums, parks, &c.
Personal property will be what is necessary
or useful for private life. These are the outlines of a picture of future
times. Nobody is able to state whether the development will go on
exactly in the way we sketch out; but that does not matter, if only the
underlying idea of Communism is right. When Stephenson, more than
fifty years ago, built the first railroad, he certainly did not plan all the
locomotives, rails, signals, stations, etc., the way we find them to-day,
but his idea was right, and it conquered the world. Thus the idea of
�12
Socialism will conquer the world, for this idea is nothing but the real,
well understood interest of mankind. It is injustice, that a large majority,
to-day must work hard and suffer want, in order to procure an affluence of enjoyment
for an minority of people, who do not work. And who would deny, that, if it
is everybody s duty to work, if the production of unnecessary, nay even
injurious articles is abolished, if production is organised m conformity
with the real wants and pleasures of mankind—who would deny, that
■the standard of life of the whole human race might be raised infinitely
above its present grade, that the great mass of human beings might enter
the sphere of a life worthy of a human being ; from which they have been
excluded so far ?
Let me point out to you an example of organised labour in one branch,
to show the benefit of such an arrangement. How would it be possible
to send a letter to any place in the United Kingdom for a penny, a post
card for a half-penny, a letter to America for 2-J-d., if the postmasters in
the different parts of the world were private like the merchants and
manufacturers of to-day, if we had not the communistic arrangement of the
post ? Formerly the post was also a private business in nearly all the
•countries of Europe, like our railroads, and the owners of this institution
derived a princely income from it, although its use was very limited.
And well arranged, as our post-office may be.called, it might be better
yet, and will be more convenient in time.
Similar benefits would arise from all branches of human activity.
Look at our railroads—might they not be the property of the community
at large, as.well as the high roads, instead of being a monopoly in the
hands of private persons, whose sole object is to enrich themselves at the
cost of their fellow-citizens? If so, it has been proved that you could
go to any part of these islands with a shilling ticket, just as a letter goes
now, by post, with a penny stamp. In this manner one branch after
the other will be organised according to the ideas of communism, perhaps
by classes of people who are far from confessing to the principles of
Socialism, of Communism, by classes who are inimical to it—because
they do not understand it—and are narrow-minded enough to shut their
ears and their eyes to everything that does not tend to their private
interest.
This is not yet enough. All means for transportation, such as ships, etc.,
must come into the hands of the community at large ; so must all means
for production. This demand of Socialism has been the cause for accusing
them of hostility to property, even to the property of those who own but
a little. But who is it actually who drive the owner of small means
from his house, from his soil? Is it the Socialist? It is the large
capitalist, the large landowner ! As the magnet attracts iron filings, so
large capital attracts the small sums round it. And the same capitalists
who in all directions seize what they can get, try to persuade the small
•owners to beware of Socialism, this being ready to tear their property
from them. What a shameful falsehood ! Socialism only teaches the
way in which in a future time people will try to re-establish justice and
a more equal condition of life for the whole people while the owners of
small property are being robbed of the little they own, not by Socislists
—they have no power to do so, nor the desire for doing it—but by the
rich capitalists.
And this way is well-organised labour !
This certainly includes expropriation of those who have expropriated
�*3
he mass of the people, restitution of all means of production to those
who made them. Socialism is the true and only friend of the man of
small means, for it is the party of the working people. Large property
is the natural enemy of small property, as long as it has not been able to.
seize and devour it.
Moreover, Socialism, far from intending to abolish any property to-day
or to-morrow, only predicts that there will be a time, not suddenly pro
voked, but brought on by historical development, when the working
people will insist upon their right to the product of their own work, against
the privilege which property enjoys with regard to the work of others.
The conception, of. “ property of capital" will be transformed gradually
into the conception of “property of work."
Nowhere, you will perceive, abolition of property is thought of by
Socialists, and nobody I trust, will object to the change just mentioned.
The development of mankind to greater perfection never was and never
will be arrested by the prevailing laws concerning property, as for instance,
it was not arrested, when humanity demanded abolition of slavery, by
the pretended divine right of the slave owners. And if such rights and
laws demand that humanity stop its progress, such demand is madness.
Laws and rights concerning property are subjected to constant changes,
when such changes are in the interest of progress. But even in our
better institutions injustice is ruling, and the change just spoken of will
abolish that injustice and lead mankind to a higher state of perfection.
At the bottom of our institutions there is a remnant of slavery; as soon
as capital shall cease to govern, wage-labour and the rest of slavery will
be abolished.
Freedom and equality will then be no longer empty and cheap phrases,
but will have a meaning ; when all men are really free and equal, they
will honour and advance one another. The working man will then no
longer be deprived of the fruit of his work, his property, and everybody
who will work will be able to spend a good deal more in food, clothing,
lodging, recreation, pleasure and instruction than he can spend at
present.
If the Socialists had nothing to offer to the suffering people but the
consolation that Communism will bring help at some future time, when
the conditions for life, nearly unbearable now, will have become quite so, ■
this consolation would be poor. Long enough a future state of bliss has
been held out to suffering mankind, in which they would be rewarded for
all the wants and sufferings and pains of this world, and now most people
have lost confidence in such empty promises. They demand an ameliora
tion, not words, not promises, but facts. They do not want to expect
with resignation what may come after death, they demand a change of
their unfortunate situation while living on earth.
The interests of all workers are the same ! This is best shown by the fact
that in many strikes working shopkeepers are in favour of the wage
labourers. Low wages are unfavourable to the farmer as well as to the
mechanic, for when wages are low, the struggle for economical indepen
dence is more difficult; large capital increases, and at the expense of
small property. If working people would only learn to comprehend
the solidarity of their interest !
As it is with the increase of wages, so it is with the decrease of workmg-hours. Eight hours work a day is judged sufficient by physicians.
A person that has worked properly eight hours a day, ought to have
�*4
done his duty and has a right to request some hours for recreation, for
instruction, and for his family. Those who are the loudest in complaining
of the laziness of the working men, would soon make wry faces if they
were compelled to work only six hours a day. This decreasing the
working-hours will better the condition of the whole working-class.
Everybody can easily see that. Even in the country it could be done,
although there such a shortening will meet with the greatest objections,
and it will de done. What a great benefit will be achieved by this mea
sure alone! Whole armies of paupers, tramps, etc., will find useful em
ployment, they will disappear and with them a great deal of mischief
and crime.
Now if the wage-labourers of the cities and manufacturing places will
be ready to lead the van in the struggle for the interest of labour, the
rest of the whole working-class have no right to put themselves in the
position of idle, indifferent, or even grudging and hostile spectators. On
the contrary, it is the duty of the whole working-class to participate in
this struggle, for this war is carried on in the interest of all workers, and
the wage-labourers who have taken up the gauntlet are the Pioneers for
the human race.
But in order to carry on this war successfully, the workers must be
organised. Singly and isolated they are powerless; if all would unite
for the same purpose, they would be a formidable power, which nothing
could resist. You may easily break many single matches, a whole bundle
of them tied together, you would try in vain to break.
With regard to this, the Socialists have the gratification of seeing, that
their endeavours have not been fruitless. In Germany Socialism already
forms a respectable power, which commences to puzzle even the great
Bismark. They have been able to elect twenty-four representatives into
the Parliament of the German Empire, who, by their untiring activity, bv
the speeches they have delivered, have opened the eyes of hundreds of
thousands of people in Germany. And who would venture to pretend
that those men strove for something that was bad, that they betrayed
the interests of their constituents ? But not only in the parliament, in a
great many municipal assemblies also we find members belonging to the
working-class or representing its interests.
And all this has been accomplished in a few’ years: It is only 24 years
since the labour party unfurled its banner there. And what has been
tried and done during those 22 years to suppress this labour movement!
It has been ridiculed, scorned, incriminated. Many of its prominent
leaders have been put into prison. Many were deprived of their offices
and situations, of their customers. In spite of all this it grew and
thrived. In France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Austria, Russia,
Italy, Spain, and now in England—everywhere throughout the civilised
world Socialism has taken root. Everywhere it has begun the struggle
against capital, monopoly, and classrule, and its victory is assured.
Concerning Socialism there might be said, what was said in olden times
about Christianity: If it is bad, it will die of its own badness ; if it is
good, it will conquer the world, in spite of all persecutions !
And Socialism will conquer the world, its principles will carry the whole
human race to a higher state of perfection.
Reader, you may judge for yourself and decide either in favour of or
against Socialism. If you think the aims and endeavours of the Socialists
deserve your hatred, try to crush them ; if on the contrary, you are con-
�*5
vinced that they are good, that the Socialists endeavour to promote the
happiness and welfare of mankind, join them I And if you do not like
to act publicly, help them secretly. Try to propagate their principles
among your acquaintances, explaining them in your intercourse, destroy
ing the falsehoods brought against them. Tell them that Socialists
form the true and only party of the working people. And if you are a
capitalist yourself, reflect how much nobler it is to help to promote the
welfare of the many, than to serve only your own interest, ugly and
hideous Egoism.
All who are interested, in Socialism
should, read.
The Historical Basis of Socialism in England.
By H. M. Hyndman.
Paul, Trench, & Co.
Crown 8-vo., price 8s. 6d
London: Kegan
This is the only Book in the English Language which gives the Historical and
Economical Theories of Organised Socialism. It should be carefully studied by all who
desire to understand why Socialists are enthusiastic for their cause, and confident of
ucces s in the near future.
Woman in the Past, Present and Future.
By
August ' Bebel, Deputy in the Reichstag. Translated from the
German by H. B. Adams Walther. Demy 8-vo., cloth, price 5s.
This work by the best known of the German Socialists aims at showing that the
social condition of women can be permanently improved only by the solution of the
whole social problem,
The Co-operative Commonwealth: an Exposition
of Modern Socialism. By Laurence Gronlund, of Philadelphia.
Demy 8-vo., paper cover, is.
This book supplies the want, frequently complained of, of definite proposals for the
administration of a Socialistic State. Mr. Gronlund has reconciled the teaching of
Marx with the influence of Carlyle in the constructive part of his work, which is
specially recommended to English Socialists.
“ JUSTICE,” the Organ, of the Social Democracy. Every
Saturday, one penny.
Socialism and Soldiering; with some comments on the
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Summary of the Principles of Socialism
By
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Second edition, 64-pp.
crown 8-vo., in wrapper designed by Wm. Morris, price 4b.
This gives an account of the growth of capitalist production, and concludes with a
statement of the demands of English Socialists for the immediate future.
THE MODERN PRESS, 13, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.
(The Publications of the Modern Press can be obtained from W. L.
Rosenberg, 261, East Tenth Street, New York City.)
�Social Progress and Individual Effort.
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By Edward Carpenter.
Price id. each.
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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Socialism and the worker
Description
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Edition: New ed.
Place of publication: London; New York City
Collation: 15, [1] p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: Stamp on title page: 'South Place Chapel Finsbury, Lending Library'. Publisher's list on preliminary pages unnumbered pages at the end. Information on the Social-Democratic Federation on title page verso.
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Sorge, Friedrich Adolph
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The Modern Press; W.L. Rosenberg
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[1886]
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G4979
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Socialism
Labour
Rights
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Text
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English
Socialism
Working Classes
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Az
CAPITAL AND LABOUR;
THEIR
RIGHTS AND DUTIES:
A ^RETROSPECT
OF THE
TAILORS’ LABOUR AGENCY
^jonUnir:
WILLIAM FREEMAN, 102, FLEET STREET.
1861.
�T. e* vr? »VP CO., Iirst-XTSK ASB GSSEXKL PSSTSSSj,
�[CAPITAL AND LABOUR;
THEIli
RIGHTS AND DUTIES.
Ten years’ experience, and the signal success of the “Tailors’
Labour Agency,” may j ustify a few words of self-gratulation, and
warrant a simple statement of past achievement and future
expectancy. To look back upon the hindrances which have
obstructed us, the encouragements which have cheered us, and the
accomplishment of many of our purposes, will be a retrospect not
unpleasing to ourselves, and may have something of profit in it
for others. We would like to speak with diffidence on a subject
on which there is not entire unanimity of opinion, and while we
admit that in carrying out our views we may not always have
done the fitting thing at the fittest time, yet we are confident
that our purpose has been a good and a righteous one, and we
still cling to it hopefully and unflinchingly, thankful for the
(measure of success which has attended our efforts, and in no
degree dismayed by thajloubts and scepticism of well-tried friends,
or the ill-disguised hostility of mistaken opponents.
It were well, perhaps, that working men generally were better
acquainted with the science of political economy, a science which
has, in the main, established itself on principles of commercial
and social soundness; though some of its expounders have driven
their dogmas so hard and heartlessly, that many have been justi
fied in their aversion to the investigating those principles upon
which much of their welfare depends. Money, and how to get
it, has become of far greater importance than labour and how to
live by it; and while the working classes deem themselves
excluded from the sentiments and sympathies which make life
�4
cheerful and useful, the opinion is entertained by many that it is
the interest and desire of the high and the wealthy to oppress
the poor and the lowly; that position, power, and influence are
^associated only with the possession of money—that it is the
■destiny of the worker to work on for the enrichment of those
that employ him—and that while capital is increasing in the
hands of a few, and one class advancing in opulence and
living in luxury, there is another and far larger class whose labour
•can barely find them subsistencej who are living continually
•on the verge of pauperism, into which they drift at last,
leaving the like hopeless toil and cheerless prospects as the
“heritage of woe” which the working man bequeaths to his
'children.
This view of the matter is rather gloomy, and is certainly to
some extent erroneous, but any one who has mixed considerably
with our working population, our average working men, neither
those who are leading vicious lives, nor those whose vocation is
dubious and uncertain, must be aware of much in their condition
that is unsatisfactory, and even perilous. With all our national
greatness, our freedom of commerce, our vast achievements in
science, and the growing intelligence among all classes, it surely
■cannot be that the claims of society, the progress of business, or
•even the spirit of competition itself requires that our millions of
workers, who are the right arm of our strength, and our bulwark
-of defence, should be crushed in their struggle for bread; that the
body should be exhausted by daily toil till the mind become
paralysed, and the moral nature be overborne by physical wants
and necessities, rendering the higher aims, enjoyments, and even
duties of life a bitter mockery, and a stern impossibility. If
this be the fate of labour—if there are laws inexorable in their
■demand, and unyielding in their requirements, which assert this
•condition to be inevitable—then is the fate a hard one indeed.
But we do not believe it
There are some men whom much political economy has made
’unreasonable and unfeeling, who would not deny that in many
•trades the workmen may be inadequately remunerated, and in
■some scarcely remunerated at all, but they would leave all that
�5
alone. ’’These things, they think, will ultimately adjust themselves by some laws of their own, and any meddlesome inter
ference with their operation they earnestly deprecate. Such mem
opposed any interference with the employment of children of'
tender years in factories, and of women in coal mines, and they
would rather support the working man from the poor-rates, as a.
pauper, than countenance any effort by which the wages of'
labour might bejkept above starvation point. They cannot deny
the right of the working class to combine to fix the price of their
labour, but according to them this is never done at the right
time, nor in the right way; and if hostilities are provoked between
Lcapital and labour, capital generally contrives, by calling to its
aid some extreme maxims in political economy, to get the best
in the conflict.
This has come to be considered by a large class of operatives
as more owing to the power of the moneyed interest than
to any inherent justness of the cause in the question at issue,,
and antagonisms have thereby been provoked and embittered
to the manifest detriment of both parties in the conflict.
But, after all that can be said, money has a power—will always,
have a power—as the representative of accumulated savings, and
the engine by which commercial enterprise is set in motion, and
labour made productive; and working men would have long er©
now seen their true interests in relation to capital, but for the
selfishness of a certain class of employers who look upon
their workmen only as the means of money-getting for them
selves, who think that to be rich is the best thing, and Ke next,
best thing to appear to be rich; whose political faith is that
“ Poverty is disgraceful, and hard cash covers a multitude of
sins,”—whose regard for the workers is dictated by the same
consideration which makes them oil then machinery—who view
them only physically and socially, and overlook those moral
relations which are the bond of a common humanity, and the only
means by which a people may become happy and virtuous. We
are no unqualified adinirers of Trades’ Unions, on the principles
by which they have hitherto been conducted; and speaking as
working men ourselves—whom, perhaps, fortunate circumstances*
�6
and somewhat of an aptitude for business have raised a shade
above the merest operative—we deplore the errors into which
they have led those connected with them, and the deep suffer
ing which their unwise counsels have often produced; but we do
say that it will be a happy day for this country when the millions
of those who sweat and toil, shall have intelligence and union
enough among themselves, to combine for securing the same con
sideration for their labour, as the capitalist can secure for his
money; and by prudent, well-regulated lives, promote those
measures of social progress, which shall give them a power in the
■commonwealth to which they have never yet attained.
These views are not mere sentimentalities. Some of the
sternest of political economists have put forth opinions to the
same effect. Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, asks :—
“ Is an improvement in the circumstances of the lower ranks of
the people to be regarded as an advantage, or as an inconveniency to society?” “The answer,” he continues, “seems
at first abundantly plain. Servants, labourers, and workmen of
different kinds, make up by far the greater part of every great
political society. But what improves the circumstances of the
greater part can never be regarded as any inconveniency to the
whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy of which
the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It
is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the
whole body of the people, should have such a share of the
produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well
fed, clothed, and lodged.”
Mr. M’Culloch, in his Principles of Political Economy, says:—
“ The best interests of society require that the rate of wages
should be elevated as high as possible; that a taste for the
comforts, luxuries, and enjoyments of human life should be
widely diffused, and, if possible, interwoven with national
habits and prejudices. Very low wages, by rendering it im
possible for any increased exertions to obtain any consider
able increase of comforts and enjoyments, effectually hinders
them from being made, and is, of all others, the most powerful
cause of that idleness and apathy that contents itself with what
�7
•can barely continue animal existence.” Again, in his Principles
of Population he has this remark :—“ I really cannot conceive
•anything much more detestable than the idea of knowingly con
demning the labourers of Great Britain to rags and wretched
ness, for the purpose of selling a few more broadcloths and
■calicos.”
Dr. Wade, too, in Iris History of the Middle and Working
Classes, says:—I am .a great admirer of political economy,
but do not implicitly adopt all its dogmas. National happi
ness is more important than national wTealth very unequally
■apportioned. Repudiating witlheontempt the idea that the rich
are in a conspiracy against the poor, and that they do not ■wish
to improve their condition; still, I think, that in all fiscal and
•domestic measures the maxim should be acted upon, that it is
'better a hundred persons live comfortably than one luxuriantly. High wages are, therefore, more important than high
profits •, it is better—should they ever be at issue—the people
•should be happy than foreign trade prosperous. It is less an
evil that the minority should undergo a privation of the luxuries,
<than the majority of the necessaries of life.”
With respect to the feeling which ought to obtain between
employers and the employed, a writer in a late number of the
Quarterly Review has the following :—il Employers ought not
to stand too strongly upon their rights, nor entrench themselves
too exclusively within the circle of their own. order. Frankness
and cordiality will win working men’s hearts, and a ready
explanation will often remove misgivings and dissatisfaction.
Were there more trust, and greater sympathy between classes,
there would be less disposition to turn out on the part of men,
and a more accommodating spirit on the part of masters.”
And so, in organising and conducting the “ Tailors’ Labour
Agency,” it has not been our aim to propound any new scheme
of a societary or communistic kind, or any involved or abstruse
doctrines; but, believing that practice was more at fault than
principle, we have sought to deal with old facts and sub
sisting relations, and taking the ordinary intercourse and arrange
ments between the employer and the employed, endeavouring
�8
to rear o-ut of that, a scheme of co-operation which should
enhance the interests of the workmen, while it promoted the
success of the business which gave them employment. For it
is certain, that even in tailoring, depreciated and maligned
though it be, there is as much scope for excellence in taste and
skill, as in occupations of a more artistic kind; and were a body
of workmen got together, stimulated and encouraged by an em
ployer, bound to him by some tie more enduring than the precarious one of here to-day and away to-morrow, were they
sufficiently educated in mind and eye, and fully alive to the.
importance of earning and sustaining a reputation for superior
workmanship, why, a business, steady, certain, and amply remu
nerative, would reward their application and industry, realise
for them what the life of a competent honest artisan ought
to be, and surround them with manifold comforts and enjoy-J
ments to which a large number of working men are too often
strangers.
Fair wages for the worker we therefore hold to be of the
first importance, necessary as a matter of policy and justice,
demanded by the rights of labour, and enforced by the duties of
capital. There may be some law of supply and demand which-,
would appear to take it out of the category of ordinary obliga
tions, but justice and fair dealing are amenable to a higher law,,
and will not be set aside by arithmetical figures, or mathematical,
definitions. The supposed existence of a law in our social
economics, by which every relation in life is defined with
mathematical precision, has a tendency to destroy that sympathy
and kindliness of feeling, which should be for the interest of all
classes, and produce a cold and hard exaction on the part of
those, who, making haste to be rich, seek to increase their
profits out of the wages which labour ought to receive. The
man of contracted and ungenerous nature, who is dead to the
sympathies of his kind, and has never been raised above himself'
by one wave of impassioned feeling, seizes with avidity upon an
argument, or seeming argument, by which his selfishness may
be dignified with the name of prudence, shrewdness, or common
sense ; in this mood of self-complacency he is regardless and
�9
Indifferent about the misery, the want, and wretchedness, the
debasement which under-paid labour produces among the
numerous class of workers whose interests and well-being are
vitally important to the community.
It is reported that a member of a tailoring firm in this metro
polis has lately purchased, a landed estate at a cost of nearly
■£30,000. For making a coat, known by the name of “ Oxonian,”
that firm pays its workmen six shillings. The time required for
making such a garment, is about two days, and the price paid for
making it by most other houses in the trade is ten shillings. Now,
would not a portion of that £30,000 distributed among the workmen in increased wages, and expended by them on bread and meat,
On better clothing, better house accommodation, and more suitable
furniture, on the education of their children, and surrounding
them with happier, healthier influences, have been a greater social
benefit than one man rising to speedy affluence, and becoming
the ancestor of a landed proprietary ? It is, no doubt, necessary
that wealth should be accumulated, and very necessary that
there should be security for retaining it when it has been
Btauired; but surely it is more worthy, more noble, more honest
to be content with small gains, that labour may have its
Equivalent, that the working man may stand erect with a sense
of manhood and self-respect about him, than by taking advantage
of a supposed redundancy in the population, and pitting the
labour of one man against another, seek to extract from that
labour the means of sudden wealth, while those who produce
it are compelled to feel that increasing labour and decreasing
pay are a condition of slavery, most real and degrading.
It is a question for politicians how far the franchise may be ex
tended to the working classes ; but it is miserable trifling, and
Something more, for those to whom capital has given a power over
labour, and who use that power solely for tffigir own aggrandisement, to contend that working men cannot be the safe custodians
of power, and ought not to be entrusted with it. The working
classes, no doubt, have their vices, many of them arising from
want of sympathy and encouragement in the numerous
■difficulties that beset them, but we question if they are worse
�10
than the extreme selfishness manifested by many of their
employers, which has separated interests which ought to have
been in harmony with each other, creating and fostering asper
ities which have occasionally threatened to disturb the peace
of society, and have been at all times the source of much angry
feeling. There is nothing in the relation which ought to.
subsist between the employer and the employed that implies a
right on the one side to domineer, or a duty on the other to be
over-obsequious, and it is certain that a kindly consideration and
regard on the part of the one would produce a respectful attach
ment on the part of the other, and make the situation of both
much more agreeable.
At all events, it would appear that some such principles^
sincerely entertained, and honestly avowed, are in unison with
the feelings and sympathies of many thoughtful and reflecting
men, as evinced by the magnitude of our business, (Appendix A,)
and the increasing power and influence, which, in various ways, it
has been able to put forth; and this second report of our proceed
ings is issued in answer to inquiries which reach us from many
quarters, and which we hope will remove some misapprehension,,
and impart some information as to the exact position we have
taken up.
The origin and conduct of “ The Tailors’ Labour Agency ”
does not rest upon the purely benevolent or philanthropic
idea; we might rather describe it as the result of a mind
speculative and theoretical, flitting about somewhat vagrantlyand restlessly in quest of a social system free from the extremes
of affluence and indigence, which make such a wide gulph
in the present aspect of society, and then in utter disappoint
ment settling down upon the old system, and in the sphere
which seemed to open itself up to us, resolved that the men whose
labour we had to purchase, should, by a commingling of interests,
a gentle compulsion, and a genial intercourse, be helped to wipe
away the reproach that their order is more indifferent to the
duties of life, and less capable of discharging them, than those
in other classes of society. “ The Tailors’ Labour Agency,” then,
is simply a proprietary establishment, conducted like any other-
�11
"business for the benefit of its promoter, but recognising in
various ways the duties which capital owes to labour, and com
bining several projects, which, while seeking our own interest,
may conduce also to the interests of those with whom we are
associated. Let us state these a little in detail:—
1st—The system of employment, and its remuneration.
2nd.—Means for the intellectual improvement of the workmen.
• 3rd.—Provision for the education of their children.
THE SYSTEM OF EMPLOYMENT, AND ITS REMUNERATION.
The condition of the working tailor has been for some years
greatly deteriorating. Various reasons have been assigned for
this decadence. Some have traced it to the strike of 1834, which
disorganised the trade societies, and introduced a number of
women into the employment; others have attributed it to the
excessive competition in the show shops, the “sweating” system,
or the employment of middlemen, and the consequent giving out
of the work to be done upon the premises of the workmen.
These have undoubtedly been great evils. With the sweater,
and those who work under him, one cannot associate the idea of
respectability, comfort, decency, or any of the homely virtues
which are the stamina of domestic felicity. This home-working,
in its worst iorm, has got the name of “sweating,” because a
scheming and unscrupulous middleman interposes between the
employer and his workmen, and, by means, more iniquitous than
any truck system, contrives to get the most of their earnings
into his own pocket. He feeds and lodges them, after a sort,
and the miserable abode in which they work, and sleep, and eat,
is redolent of odours neither pleasant nor wholesome ; it is in
truth, a cheerless, hopeless, miserable life, alternating between
excessive working and excessive drinking, a life physically
debilitating, and morally debasing, and folk which, what
ever he may think of it, the employer who perpetuates it is
morally responsible.
Several years ago, the iniquities of the practice were ex
posed in the columns of the Morning Chronicle; and sub
sequently Mr. Kingsley, in his “Alton Locke” drew a fearful
�12
picture of a “sweaters’ den,” somewhat over coloured, per
haps, but in the main, painfully true; and yet the evil will
continue while it saves money to the employers, and while
gentlemen, inconsiderate and unthinking about the matter, are
content to have their garments made up under circumstances
which, could they but sec them in the process of manufacture,
they'would recoil from wearing.
We determined, as far as we were concerned, to lay the axe*
to the root of this great evil, and to restore the workman’s home
to that comfort which the undivided attention of a tidy house
wife seldom fails to give it. We have, therefore, our workshops
on our own premises, built with all the requisites for convenience,
cleanliness and healthfulness, which the most eminent skill could
suggest, and our men come to work and return to their homes
with the same regularity that artisans in other trades do, or that
is done by men holding situations in mercantile or trading houses ;
nor can we refrain from saying that, as a body, -whether as regards
character, conduct, or respectability of appearance, they are a
sample of the honest, intelligent working-class of this country,
of which any employer might feel proud (Appendix B).
Why, then, is the pernicious system of home working continued ?
Well, you see a workshop is rather an expensive affair. Besides the
cost of erection, the implements of trade, and the usual wear and
tear, there is a considerable item for certain sewing trimmings,
which the employer who gives his work out, generally makes
the men find for themselves ; and besides, if a man is at work on
your premises, it is necessary that at the end of the week, when
you put his wages in his hand, they should be in some measure
adequate to the support of himself and family; and hence, in
the case of home working, in its least objectionable form, where
a man takes out only as much work as he can execute himself,
the scanty earnings of the man have to be supplemented by the
aid of wife and children, to the manifest neglect of other duties,
which are not so claimant perhaps as the bread and butter
question, but which are very important nevertheless. In fact,
it does seem socially to be of great importance, that a working
man’s employment should take him out into the world, to undergo
�13
a discipline by conflict and contact with others, which very
discipline makes all the more a man of him, and to find the
home a retreat and relaxation from the turmoil and cares of a
working life, rather than making that home the arena of every
conflicting element, the scene of jarring and discord, a place
rather to be dreaded and escaped from than longed for and
enjoyed. And we find respectable Workmen to hold pretty
' much the same opinion; for, although nearly all the men in our
employ had previously worked at home, we can recollect only
one or two cases where men have left us to return to their former
practice.
But then, of course, the 'wages must be fair honest wages, as
between master and man, fair too as compared with those of
workmen in other trades, and fair in relation to the ordinary
necessities of a working man and his family. We do not enter
upon any crotchets on the wages question; we disclaim any idea
of fixing a standard of wages, or of influencing the labour
market; we simply avow our design to carry on our business
upon certain principles, and that of helping to sustain the value
©f our workmen’s labour is one of them. It is true, that
indirectly we should like to see this influencing' others ; indeed,
it has already done so, for we have maife-it necessary for men
who never dreamt of such a thing before, in seeking the suffrages
of the public, to profess that they pay good wages to their work
men ; we can only say that we hope their workmen will see to
it, that they practice what they profess.
The wages in the tailoring trade has now been for many years
paid by the piece. What is technically called a “log ” is agreed
upon, that is a certain number of hours for every description of
garment, and the wages fixed at so much per hour ; the higher
priced houses pay at the rate of sixpence per hour, we pay fivepence ; the lower priced houses adopt the more convenient plan
of saying, “ Here is a certain garment, the price for making it is
so much, and you find your own trimmings.” According to our
k “log” the calculation is that a man of average ability shall earn
306'. per week, or 5s. per day of 12 hours, which is a journeyman
tailor’s day ; and we have found that calculation a very fair one
�14
for the workmen, clever men will considerably exceed it, and slow
men will hardly get up to it, but it is such that ordinary men arenot overtasked to accomplish. And then, having a large demand’
for made up goods, we are enabled during the periodical depres
sion in the trade, by replacing the stock sold in the busy season,,
to keep up pretty fairly the earnings of our workmen, so that wehave no need to discharge any of our people in the slack season,
but would rather have them attached to our establishment, as
much as the workman of any factory in a provincial town ; indeed
we would wish to displace the migratory habits of the journeyman
tailor, by a desire to fix himself down in a locality, and acquire
those influences and opportunities which are necessary to the
proper up-bringing of a family, and attaining a social position
which may give life a purpose, and enjoyment a reality.
In this matter of wages too, we are anxious that the public
should be satisfied as well as the workmen. There are many per
sons keenly alive to the principle of buying in the cheapest market,
who don’t desire their articles lessened in price at the expenseof the workman who manufactures them. We know that at the
time that public attention was directed to the distressed condition
of the needle women, there were many gentlemen who said, that
they bought their shirts at respectable shops, and gave a fair
price for them, and then were not sure after all that they were
not produced at the cost of the poor suffering sempstress. The
price for making every article that leaves our premises is vouched
by the signature and address of the workman who made it,
(Appendix C,) so that should any doubt exist about our pro
fessions, it is open to an easy solution. We are anxious to say,
too, that in being thus explicit upon this subject, we are taking
no credit for excessive generosity ; we are quite satisfied that the
course we have adopted has been conducive to our own interests,,
and moreover, the several schemes which we have in operation
for the benefit of our workmen, rest for their success on thebasis of fair remuneration to the worker.
�15
Means for
the
Intellectual Improvement of the
Workmen.
f The question of the day is said to be social progress, and a very
perplexing and undefinable sort of question it is. In its general
acceptation it is held to have reference to the respectable work
ing class, and to the indescribable working class, which is not so
respectable. As a theory, it involves a problem which it is difficult
to solve, while it has the merit of instituting agencies, and
enlisting sympathies, which have had a genial influence on a
class which is not “ working.” The well-to-do people, and the
scantily-supplied people, have become better acquainted with
each other, and there is no doubt that the advantages of their
intercourse have been reciprocal. It is avowed on all hands that
the working class has made great progress during the last thirty
years. Their intelligence, thoughtfulness, and provident habits,.
have well nigh extinguished the occupation of the agitator and
the stump orator; they are more disposed and better qualified to
investigate those subjects which have a bearing upon their own
interests, and less inclined to take their opinions on trust from
any man or set of men. The Press has undoubtedly exerted a
great influence to this end. Mr. Charles Knight, the Messrs.
Chambers, of Edinburgh, and John Cassell, have been the
knirveyors of a literature which was not poprdar, but which has
held on its way, and done its work, to the almost extinction of'
the diluted trash which used to be the current literature at the
poor man’s table. Literary institutions, too, have not been all
the failures they are sometimes said to be. In provincial towns
especially they have been the centre of attraction for youthful,
sardent, and inquiring minds, and stimulated now by the Society
of Arts and its annual examinations, they promise to be of’
increasing interest and usefulness.
And yet the subject of adult instruction for working men
is very difficult, if not discouraging. With but few opportunities
for the acquisition of knowledge systematically, with habits
formed, and tastes acquired, which make it necessary to unlearn
much, before much can be learned ; the utmost one can hope to-
�16
do, is to impart something of a relish for intellectual enjoyment,
and, by a little training, accustom, the mind to reflecting and
reasoning, so as to direct the judgment to right conclusions
on those important subjects with which it is necessary to be well
acquainted; an education, too,which can cast an en lightenment
upon the conscience, and quicken the moral as well as the
intellectual faculties ; in fact, such an education for the working
classes as will make them better as working men, rather than
induce a desire to be something better than working men.
When we erected our Hall, eight years ago, it was intended
chiefly as a day school for our workmen’s children, with a kind
of vague design, that it should be sometimes used by the men
for discussing topics in which they took an interest, or for
hearing lectures on both sides of a debatable subject, that they
might form their opinions for themselves. A little after
reflection convinced us that something more than this would be
necessary, and therefore we took means to organise for ourselves
a regular Literary Institute, with its Lectures, Classes, Readingroom, and Library, and such other adjuncts as experience might,
show to be needful. The premises which are occupied by our
Institution havebeenfound to be well adapted for our purpose, and
we are now recognised as the “ Tailors’ Labour Agency Literary
Institute,” in union with the Society of Arts.
Although as yet we can point rather to means than to results,
still, our Institution has in various ways exercised a wholesome
influence, and in some cases has effected a decidedly educational
improvement. Our classes have been Arithmetic and English
Grammar, English History, Literature and Biography, Music and
Erench. The number of persons in our employ is about 110,
who are members of the Institution, and the attendance at the
•classes has fluctuated from 10 to 40, those for English History,
and Literature and Biography, being the most popular. Our
Lectures have necessarily been of a miscellaneous sort, but the
Lecturers have been men of high attainments, who have attracted
large audiences, and done some measure of good. In our Library
and Reading-room we are amply provided with the means of
passing our evenings in an interesting and profitable way;
�17
and experience has deepened our conviction, that could we
get our people more disposed to avail themselves of such
advantages, much good in every way would come out of it.
Working men have many arguments, which cannot easily
be set aside, for seeking enjoyment of a different kind; it is
only, after all, a small per centage of their number who have
the taste or desire for the acquisition of knowledge for its
own sake, or who would make any sacrifice for a course of
mental training, which does not promise them a present good
pow and then a man will start out from among the rest in
pursuit of some subject which has arrested his attention, and if
he has the courage to apply himself to it, and the resolution to
persevere in the application, his intellectual faculties get
quickened, and by intercourse with others who are like-minded,
he gets “ a little knowledge,” which opens up to him a new life
and prospects, affording him sources of pleasure which the
illiterate can neither understand nor enjoy. Such a man be
comes a power among other men : the salt which in a great
measure has preserved the working classes, has been the intelli-gent, self-taught men who have sprung up among themselves—
the “ little leaven ” which may yet help to leaven the whole
mass.
We have often said that we would stand by our Institution
while there were six men interested in it and likely to be pro
fited by it. We have been frequently disappointed of large re
sults, but we know that it has been to some a haven where they
have found solace and shelter, and we would rather go on hoping
ever, than abandon the principles which have sustained us
hitherto, or lose faith in the efficacy of working and waiting for
an outcome of our labours.
PROVISION FOR THE EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILDREN.
It was not because we supposed that there was any deficiency
in the means of education in our neighbourhood that we opened
a day-school in connection with our Institution—we have seve
ral excellent public schools and many private ones; but we
thought that a school, supported by our own people conjointly,
�18
attached to their own Institution, and to some extent under their
own management, would have for them a greater interest than any
school of which they had a knowledge only hy common report.
We thought, too, that from various causes the attendance of the
children would be more regular, and longer continued than at an
ordinary school; and, that as our members were all acquainted
with the schoolmaster, whose interests and sympathies were with
them, who conducts an adult class among themselves, and is
editor of a manuscript journal, to which they are contributors,
he would be more accessible, if they needed to consult him on
matters affecting the education and habits of their children, than
an entire stranger would be. In all these respects we thought
rightly. Whatever difficulties we may have had about adult
instruction, we have had few, if any, with the children—our
school has been the most encouraging feature in our enterprise,
•and we would respectfully ask those interested in the cause of
•education to pay it a visit, assured that half-an-hour would con'
vince them that this experiment, so interesting to ourselves, has
not been altogether fruitless. The number of scholars vary from
70 to 80, boys and girls, some of them being the children of
neighbours who have sought admission to the school, and been
received at a fee of 6<7. per week. The instruction given includes
the ordinary branches, with history, geography, and social eco
nomy. In addition, the girls are taught plain, useful needlework,
with some little fancy affairs included. Some of the lads whom
we have trained have now entered upon the business of life with
every promise of success, and others, ■who have been with us five
or six years, are preparing to follow them. For the especial use
of those we intend to have evening classes twice a week, for the
study of such subjects as may be most useful to them, and to
keep up that pleasant intercourse to which we have looked for
ward as one of the results of the educational efforts w’e have been
making at our Institution.
May we here add, deferentially, a kind of practical solution of
the much vexed question of voluntary education and state
paid education ?
If every trading firm, employing a large
number of workmen, were to build a school-room as a matter of
�19
course, as they build their workshops, and encourage their men
to provide duly for the education of their children, it would do
the “ State some service,” and might save somewhat in the
expense of the machinery by which enthusiastic educationists
seek to establish their theory of voluntary education.
We have now a few words to say respecting the pecuniary
resources by which these various schemes are sustained. Apart
altogether from the business premises, and on the1 other side of
the way, we have two houses, in one of which is the hall and
committee room, library, class and chess rooms, with warm
baths on the basement beneath^ ThA enlargement and altera
tions necessary in this part of thfe j/r'einfises cost'krver £1,000.
In the other house running parallel with the hall, and of the
same extent, is the workshop, large enough for 80 men, and
which with its conveniences, cost £800. The burrent expenses
of the Institution are defrayed by a charge upoit 'Ofc member
of 6tZ. on every twenty shillings of wages he barns. Thus, a
man earning thirty shillings a week, would have to pay 9d.,
and for this he would be entitled to all the benefits of the
Institution, and to school instruction for all his children, what
ever their number may be. Then, again, we 'hive a weekly
penny paid to the library fund, which is expended on books,
and in supplying the reading room with newspapers, magazines,
&c.; these pennies usually amount to about £20 yearly.
We will put this matter in a form which will be readily
understood, and we are the more anxious to do so because it
will appear that while an Institution like ours may need to be
helped a little during its infancy, it is sure to become self
-supporting, and able to walk alone.
Income.
Per Centage on Wages ...
Letting Hall ...
...
...
Extra Scholars
...
...
Library Pennies
...
...
Rooms let at top of House
...£150
45
...
...
35
...
20
...
...
18
...
...
£268
�20
Expenditure.
Bent and Taxes
School Master and Mistress
Books and Newspapers
Lighting and Warming
Lectures, &c.
Cleaning and Attendance
Bepairs and Sundries
...
... £70
102
...
20
25
10
20
...
10
£257
We ought to remark that the sum set down for Lectures is
only the incidental expenses connected therewith, the Lecturers
sympathising with our objects, having given their services gra
tuitously. This was a necessity which cannot continue. The
source of our income is an expansive one, and will grow with the
growth of our business, and the small surplus we have now, will
soon become a fund out of which we can pay for the services of
eminent Lecturers, and enable us to make Lectures a feature of
our Institution, and a boon to the neighbourhood. We feel
bound in this place to record our obligations for very valuable
services, to the Bev. F. D. Maurice, the Bev. Sydney Turner, the
Bev. Paxton Hood, the Bev. G. Bogers, the Bev. D. Thomas,
Messrs. Henry Vincent, Appleby, Liggins, J. C. Plumptre, Gearey,
Edevain, &c., and for wise counsel and generous encouragement
we have been indebted to many whose names and labours have
long been associated with the progress of education and the social,
well-being of the people.
We hope that we have set forth what will sufficiently indicatethe theory and practice of the “ Tailors’ Labour Agency,” and
that the one will not be considered altogether visionary, nor the
other quite unfruitful of results. It has certainly been our aim
to make the worker more satisfied with his condition, by making'
that condition more worthy of his satisfaction. It is true that
our sphere is but limited, but within that sphere, we would like
to become an influence for good to those around us, convinced,
that wherever such an influence has been put forth zealously and
disinterestedly, benefit has never failed to ensue. It is a trite
�21
remark, but we believe it to be true, that the present times are
-auspicious for working men putting forth their strength, and
rising to the true dignity of that position which they are destined
yet to occupy. “ On all hands we see a stir and movement in
the public mind which is becoming more alive to the necessity
of social ameliorations. Evils which forty years ago would never
have been the subject of remark, are now examined with a care
that betokens a wide spread intelligence and philanthropy.
Every well considered measure, brought forward in a right spirit,
not only does good in itself, but makes it easier to do more good.
Difficulties which appear insuperable, doubts which cannot now
be solved, vanish of themselves when we grapple boldly with the
-duty which lies nearest at hand. The evils of society, as of the
individual, are of our own creation, and are already half con-quered when we look them in the face. No society ever yet
perished which had the will to save itself. It is only where
the will is so enervated, that a, community had rather shut its
-eyes to the dangers which menace it, than make the necessary
■•sacrifices to avert them, that its situation is desperate. Let
every one who in his public or private capacity can do anything
to relieve misery, to combat evil, to assert right, to redress wrong,
-do it with his whole heart and soul, and trust to God for the
result.”
Newington Causeway,
May, 1861.
�22
APPENDIX.
(A)
The amount paid in wages, in each of the last
will show the progress of the business :—
1854 ...............
...
... £3952
1855
...
... 4035
...
1856 ...............
...
4086
...
1857
...3494
...
1858 .
...
4171
1859
..
...
...4976
1860 ............... 4 d if’
...
6709
seven years-*
19 2
0 51
2
2 9j
11 3
11 6.
10 a
(B)
The following extract, from the “ Conditions on which theWorkmen are employed at the Agency,” will illustrate the
kind of connection we seek to establish between them and our
selves :—
“ 5. The first three months’ employment on the establishment will he
probationary. After that time, no Workman will be liable to immediate
discharge ; but, in case of negligence, imperfect work, or any impropriety
of conduct, the Foreman may suspend till the charge be investigated by
the Manager, the Foreman, and any one of his fellow-workmen whom the
offending party may nominate : and, if dismissal should be the result of
such investigation, that Workman shall not, under any circumstances, be
again employed on the Establishment.
“ 6. A decided preference will always be given to those who are careful
and industrious in their habits, and clean and orderly in their appearance.
It is, therefore, earnestly desired that the Workmen cultivate habits of per
sonal and domestic cleanliness ; as it is the avowed design of the Agency,
through its entire proceedings, to make connection with it uncomfortableand uncongenial to men of irregular habits and confirmed intemperance.”
�23
We may mention, also, that for several years we have had an
Annual Holiday ; on which occasion our premises are entirely
closed; and the Workmen, with their Wives, are conveyed, by
railway, some twenty or thirty miles in the country, where an,
ample Dinner and abundant rational enjoyments are provided
for them. We have, also, a Christmas Soiree, at our own Hall,
when Tea, Coffee, and a Vocal and Instrumental Concert are the
entertainments for the evening, These re-unions have had the
happiest effects amongst us, and are always anticipated with
pleasure and enjoyed with propriety.
(C)
DUNN’S TAILORS’ LABOUR AGENCY,
12, 13 and 14, NEWINGTON CAUSEWAY.
WORKSHOPS—39 and 40, Bridge House Place, Opposite.
For Mr_______ ____________________________ No________
Price of Garments_____________________________________
Wages-----------------hours, at five pence per hour.
This form of Ticket is intended to verify the amount of Wages paid to
the workman, and will accompany every garment, with the maker’s signa
ture and private address for inquiry.
A®" The Wages are calculated at 5s. a Day of Twelve Hours.
Printed by P. Grant & C'O., Red Lion Square, HoILorn.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Capital and labour; their rights and duties: a retrospect of the Tailors' Labour Agency
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An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 23 p. ; 20 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by F. Grant & Co., Red Lion Square, Holborn.
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William Freeman
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1861
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G5212
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Labour Movement
Working conditions
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Capitalism
Conway Tracts
Labour Movement
Socialism
Wages
Working Classes
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Text
THE
WORKMAN AND THE SUFFRAGE.
LETTERS
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD JOHN RUSSELL, M.P.,
AND THE “DAILY NEWS.”
BY
GEORGE
JACOB
HOLYOAKE.
AUTH0B OF “ SELF-HELP BY THE PEOPLE.”
“ Certainly a good working measure that stopped many mouths, and sent the whole
topic right to the end of the century, would be worth a little trouble.”—Times, Nov., 1858.
‘‘The real problem, of which no real solution has perhaps yet been published, is—By
what enactment can skilled artizans be admitted to vote without swamping them and us
by an unintelligent jnass whether of peasants or of town population?”—Westminster jReview,
Jan. 1, 1859. Art. 1, “ Reform in Parliament.”
,.,f
PEOPLE’S EDITION.“PRICE TWOPENCE.
�Titter i —<jjr
Mute.
Titter ii.—<jji Norton nub tjjr Mrngr.
Titter iit—<ljr Btilitg nf n ®uniripl Srnnrjjm.
Titter in —^rnterfa tn forking (to Mrote.
�f >' ■
: ■ VSSHKL
Workman ant) iljt Suffrage.
THE
CHEAP
VOTE.
TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD JOHN RUSSELL, M.P.
LETTER I.
147, Fleet Street, E.C., Dec. 1, 1858.
1
Mr Lord,
When a constituent has any political wishes, the constitutional
course seems to be that he should communicate them to his
representative in Parliament, who, if he shall deem them
relevant to the public situation, may find some opportunity of giving
them effect. On this ground I, as a constituent of your Lordship,
now respectfully solicit your attention. The first vote recorded in the
Parish of St. Bride at the last election for the City of London,
was given by me, and given to your Lordship. It was also the first
vote I ever was able to give to a Member of Parliament. It is with
politicians so astute as Count Montalembert, a recognised feature of
English political contests, that with us a party is defeated but never
beaten. We reserve to conviction other chances of asserting itself.
Before Montalembert told this to Europe, your Lordship had said
that the ‘ consciences of minorities ought to be respected.’ I know of
no other Statesman who ever said this before your Lordship. For
this sentiment I gave you my vote, and co-operated with those who
stood by you in the late organised attempt to eject you from the
representation of the City of London.
Permit me to inscribe to your Lordship’s name the letter I here
subjoin from the Daily News. The worst thing that can be said
against the species of franchise I describe is, that it constitutes a cheap
vote. It can be attained by thought without money ; and the
(idea of a cheap vote is received now with the same kind of dis
trust as the cheap Newspaper was a few years ago. Mr. Milner
- Gibson had to meet precisely the same kind of objection when seeking
the repeal of the Newspaper Stamp. In a public letter I addressed
to him in the Leader, in 1853, there occurred the words I shall
place by the side of words written by Lord Stanley in the Press of
1855, two years later:—
■
�4
G. J. HOLY OAKE TO THE HON.
T. M. GIBSON, M.P., 1853.
LORD STANLEY TO THE
“PRESS,”
1855.
“ To the vague and angry
declamation of those who cry,
‘ You want to pull down English
journalism and substitute an
American press in its place,’ I
scarcely hold it worth while to
reply. The plain answer is—like
people like press. The Ameri
can press (which by the way does
not by any means universally
deserve the bad character given
to it in this country) reflects,
faithfully enough, the prevailing
sentiment of American citizens.
It is democratic—so are they. It
is often vulgar, violent, abusive,
addicted to braggadocio, and cre
dulous of marvels—these are
exactly the faults, a little exag
gerated in copying, of a young
and growing nation, in which
material prosperity has advanced
faster than the arts and refine
ments of life. If in the English
mind there be a corresponding
state of feeling, by all means let
it be exposed rather than con
cealed. An evil fully brought to
light is half remedied. But, in
truth, the English character
differs widely from the American;
and a popular press, though ulti
mately, it may help in forming,
must follow, and be suited to,
the bias of the popular mind.”—
Press, February, 1855.
“And here lies close to our
hands a clear answer to all who
fear that an untaxed press would,
in this country, descend to the
level of the ‘ rowdy’ portion of
the American press. Never!
unless English nature and En
glish culture should also be
changed by the same Act of Par
liament which unstamps the
press. Can the skilful mechanic
endure bad machinery ? Will
the cultivated architect endure
an incongruous building ? or a
painter endure a daub ? or an
orator spouting ? or a practical
politician loud-mouthed rant ? or
the scholar illiterateness ? or the
artist bad taste ?
And as of
art and manners, so of news
papers. The cultivated, thought
ful operative will not tolerate a
paper inflated, antagonistic, and
superficial.
‘ Rowdy’ journals
will never sell in Great Britain
until we possess a ‘ rowdy’ popu
lation and Yankee backwoods.
In the United States the same
law holds good. The first-class
journals of that country are sup
ported by the cream of the inha
bitants, and the rising tone of the
American press generally indi
cates what it will be on the social
consolidation of the great Trans
atlantic Republic.” — Leader,
April, 1853.
. L°r4 Stanley is the only Statesman whom I have noticed as coin
ciding in any idea before made public, by one not a member of his
own party, nor a compeer in Parliament. There is hppe, therefore,
in this country that any suggestion that may have the fortune to
prove relevant and practical will receive as much attention as it
shall deserve; and I know no Statesman from whose independent
character this hope may be better entertained than from your Lordship.
I have the honour to be your Lordship’s faithful Constituent,
G. J. Holyoake.
�THE WORKMAN AND THE SUFFRAGE.
FROM THE “DAILY NEWS ” OF NOV.
23, 1858.
LETTER II.
147, Fleet Street, E.C., November 20,1858.
Sir,—It is, I readily own, one of the privileges conferred in these
days by the great press of this country upon the working class, that
their claims are heard in the columns, where those who influence
public affairs are likely to read the statements preferred. It is, Sir,
under this impression that I, a member of the old Birmingham Poli
tical Union of 1831-2, and now an honorary member of the Northern
Reform Union, solicit the favour of saying a few words upon the
qualification of the franchise in the pending Reform Bill. If members
of the working class do not speak out now, the time will soon pass
when their voices can be regarded.
No programme of the contingent bill yet described is likely to satisfy
those whom I presume statesmen of all parties desire to satisfy—the
people. In each species of suffrage proposed by any party likely to
carry anything, a large portion of the working class who will feel the
disappointment the most, and resent it with bitterness, will be excluded.
Universal suffrage is a thing of the future. No statesman will pro
pose it now, and no Cabinet could carry it in England. Not that any
government need fear it; so many of the people are uninformed, pre
judiced, and indifferent upon politics, that ignorance, animus, and
bigotry may be relied upon to vote for “ things as they are.” And
were votes given to all, means would exist, and means would be used,
for limiting any “ dangerous ” operation against established in
fluences. For myself, I doubt the wisdom of carrying universal suff
rage by popular forces—if it could be so carried—so long as the in
fluential classes deem it “ dangerous,” because it would generate on
their part, or through them, new elements of corruption and intrigue
in the state in their endeavours to circumscribe the operation of the
dreaded franchise ; for men outraged or alarmed naturally seek to pro
tect themselves by any means. In our country, at this time when no
class seriously intends the injury of another, I would no more lend
myself to set up a tyranny of the working classes over gentlemen and
scholars, than I would sit quietly under a tyranny of the rich over
the poor, which under present arrangements certainly occurs. Univer
sal suffrage, if adopted frankly by the “ governing classes,” would
work well in this country, where reverence for law, for rank, and
wealth, is the religion of the streets and lanes ; but I agree with Mr.
Bright, that while a politician may reason from his own convictions
�6
and plead for their prevalence, a statesmen can only govern well with
the highest consent of all classes. I for one should be sorry to see the
day in England when a member of parliament shall be the mere
mouthpiece of a section, or the fanatic of a political school, instead of
being the expositor of the true interests of the whole people.
But universal suffrage is not the question yet. Reformers them
selves are not in earnest about enfranchising everybody. Walk on
any promenade—stand in any thoroughfare, and say who need give
his days and nights to an agitation for endowing with the suffrage all
he will see there ? Who cares to give votes to “ fast men,” who think
more of the cut of their collar than the welfare of their country, and
who have a deeper respect for their tailor than for any statesman—to
selfish men, who care only for themselves—to ignorant men, incapable
of judging anybody—to indifferent men, who care for nobody—
to sensualists, sots, and all the descending grades of “rabble,”
who are, unfortunately, included in the general public, and
whose political right to the suffrage every advocate of universal
enfranchisement must hamper himself with maintaining ? Not more
than one man in a hundred in this country, gives time, money, serious
thought, or takes an earnest part in public affairs. Why should any
one die of exhaustion in endeavouring to enfranchise so many as com
prise a mere apathetic mob, who put no value on a vote ? At the
same time, many would work hard and work long that even a limited
number of men, intelligent and earnest, who desire to take part in
securing the well-being of their country, should be enabled to do so.
Now, any mere mechanical suffrage founded on rating, or rent, or oc
cupation, will, as the existing suffrage does, include many utterly
worthless persons, and exclude numerous deserving, intelligent, but
poor men, who might by a simple expedient be included. What is
wanted is an expansive suffrage which shall be open to the worthy
and shut out the unfit. The Spectator (a sound political thermo
meter of what it is safe to attempt) has recently said—and I think you
have expressed some analogous opinion—that “ there is no reason why
a large and substantial extension of the franchise should not be ac
companied by the construction of other forms of the franchise, intro
ducing into parliament the representation of other influences.” To
this question I address myself.
In the contemplated Reform Bill what is wanted is some security
that every elector shall have knowledge enough not to behave
stupidly in matters of industry and commerce, nor vote blindly or reck
lessly for parliamentary candidates likely to disgrace the state or dis
organise society.
Then let our contingent Reform Bill be based on a rating suffrage,
or moderate rental, but provide for the admission of all to the
franchise, not otherwise to be included, who may possess or acquire
a certain intelligence qualification. This might consist of readings
in political economy and English constitutional history.
John
�1
Stuart Mill’s “ Principles of Political Economy,” or some popular
digest of it, such as the Dean of Hereford has written or might write,
*
might be one book decided upon to be read by the candidate for the
franchise.
Hallam’s “ Constitutional History of England,” and
Warren’sf “ Blackstone,” or popular abstracts thereof (as authorised by
“ appointment ”), are possible works which might be chosen. Let the
selected books be read at home, in classes, at Mechanics’ Institutions,
in private or public schools, and let all readers pass a public examina
tion to be held twice a year, or oftener, in each town or village, by
certain Franchise Examiners, appointed by local authorities, and the
certificate that such readers had passed such examination—which
should not be pedantic, difficult, or capricious, nor turn upon any
agreement of opinion with the examiners nor the authors, but merely
upon intelligent comprehension of the purport of the appointed books
—should be a certificate of the franchise, and its production at the
polling-booth entitle the holder, he being of the electoral age, and
neither criminal nor pauper, to vote in the election of members of
parliament. John Stuart Mill, the Bev. Dean Trench, Professor
Key, Archbishop Whately, Professor Newman, the Rev. Charles
Kingsley, Lord Stanley, M.P., General Thompson, M.P., and Pro
fessor Maurice, or any similar quality of scholars whom learning
does not override, and who retain, with a knowledge of what is sound,
a healthy instinct for what is possible and practical to our mechanics,
could select two or three suitable books, and draw up a short series of
questions, which would be unanimously accepted as suitable, sensible,
and unobjectionable, as permanent test questions.
My reason for thinking some such arrangement as this would be
acceptable to the people generally, is, that it would be satisfactory
even to extreme sections on whose behalf I write, who go farther than
any other party in politics. To them the “ six points of the charter ”
seem tame and restricted. They hold principles of democracy which
imply that womanhood, as well as manhood, is included inhumanity.
They would not stop at the establishment of the aristocracy of men
(which is all that the charter proposes) as the final effort of political
justice. They admit the reasonableness of women being ultimately
admitted to some direct voice in the affairs of the state, to the extent
to which it exacts from them taxes and imposes upon them responsi
bility. They do not see why parliament should not include colonial
representatives. New political blood from the confines of the empire
might be found to invigorate the centre. But they are not so mad
* Vide “ Lessons on the Phenomena of Industrial Life.”
Dawes, Dean of Hereford.
By the Rev. Richard
+ Mr. F. R. Jones, solicitor, County Court, Huddersfield, protests against Mr. Warren’s
edition, as poor, trifling, irrelevant, and characterised by a poverty of expression dis
honourable to Blackstone.—Letter to the Writer.
�8
as they seem : while they would advocate the principle they deem in
trinsically right, they would go with the strongest party likely to carry
the most practical measure in that direction—holding that conviction
is not honesty, hut obstinacy, when it becomes an obstruction, and
that it is fanaticism when it refuses instalments of its own truth.
The advantages of the kind of self-acquired suffrage I suggest
would be, among others, these:
1. All demagogues (using the term in Mr Grote’s sense), advocates,
and agitators, would accept it, because they are all in favour of
popular knowledge.
2. All persons and partisans likely to give the government trouble,
if excluded, would be satisfied with the opportunity of an intelligence
franchise, cease agitating in a discontented spirit, and commence to
study and qualify themselves.
3. All teachers, instructors, lecturers, and clergy of all denomina
tions, favourable to popular knowledge, would probably be in favour
of this species of suffrage, and give it the moral force of their recom
mendation—it being a tribute in aid of and in appreciation of their
secular endeavours.
4. It would give political importance without imparting a politi
cal character to mechanics’ institutions, working men’s colleges, and im
provement classes. It would add a popular interest to these institu
tions which they have always wanted and never yet possessed.
5. It would give parents a political motive for having their child
ren educated. It would infuse some purpose into the present injuri
ous desultoriness of reading, by connecting it with citizenship. .
6. It would set thousands of young men reading whose minds are
now unoccupied, and attract others from low associations and familiar
ise them with public duties.
7. This self-acquired suffrage would become a matter of pride, and
many otherwise enfranchised would qualify themselves in this way as
a matter of credit.
8. For the first time in England this franchise would, to use a
popular phrase, set “ brains above bricks.” Political virtue would
no longer be confined to the purse, but depend upon the under
standing.
9. It would diminish that worship of materialism and property
which is attaining a deplorable prevalence in England, so destructive
of the finer qualities of man. How can the preacher censure or
reproach the gross materialism of the times, so long as Christian
statesmen continue to sum up all political virtue in paying a substan
tial rental to your landlord, and in having a balance at your banker’s ?
10. No intelligent, earnest, honest men would any longer feel
themselves outcasts from the State because they were poor and unfor
tunate. The door would be open through which modest capacity
and moderate intellectual industry could enter into citizenship. In
this competitive scramble, dignified with the name of “ our commer
�9
cial system,” the prize is not always to the honest or hardworking.
Property is not always possible to the artisan, but intelligence is.
Then, the just thing is to recognise understanding and moral worth,
and no longer to add to the penalties of inevitable misfortune that of
political disqualification.
11. This suffrage would create a new body of voters, whom the
State could trust to substantially understand its interests, who would
possess what it cannot now be said that all electors possess—viz.,
“ intelligence, love of order, the instinct of public management.” *
12. It would benefit every man who attained this description of
franchise. The intelligence he would thus acquire would be a per
sonal advantage to him, even if the exercise of the vote were not.
13. A Reform Bill settled with this proviso would be final, and
not lead, as it otherwise must, to an interregnum of discontent and a
renewed agitation a few years hence. The voters would augment
as natural intelligence extended—they would be admitted as fast as
they were qualified. Such a bill would regulate itself, and keep pace
with all possible progress.
14. It would exclude the incapable, the idle, the apathetic—also the
ignorant, whom statesmen most affect to dread, and most of the vicious,
whom statesmen ought most to dread.
15. It would shut out the “mob” without offence. It would be a
select franchise without insulting exclusiveness. It would not brand
poverty—it would brand ignorance only, and open the door for its
instruction.
The apathetic would not have the energy to
complain of exclusion, and the idle would not be listened to if
they did. Prejudice would hardly object to this franchise. Pro
perty could not'be endangered by it, and hereditary timidity need not
be afraid of it.
16. If any future agitation arise touching the franchise, it will
chiefly relate to facilities for instructing the people. . Thus, Sir,
popular intelligence would be linked inseparably with popular
freedom—a connection worthy of leaders of the people, worthy of
England, and one that has never yet been consummatedin any country.
If this franchise be devised liberally, without pedantry and in a
practical spirit, might it not be tenable ? It is not likely to be ridi
culed in these days when noble Lords attend Liverpool Conferences
for the promotion of popular knowledge, and when Whig and Tory
peers lecture weekly to Mechanics’ Institutions.
Compare with this the probable suggestions that have been made.
I will enumerate three.
(a) A character franchise, which a gentlemanf of great soundness
* Vide “Spectator,” No. 1,538, Dec. 19,1857.
t Mr. Francis, of the “Athenaeum.”
�10
°f judgment has mentioned, would be objected to by the people, as
making the working classes dependent for it upon their employers
and “ betters,” from whom it is intended they should obtain the cer
tificate which should enable them to vote.
(&.) A savings’ bank franchise would often include the selfish, and
exclude the son who expended all he could spare in supporting an
aged father or mother, or helpless brother or sister—who would be
ten times more worthy of the franchise than hundreds who would
get it.
(c.) A benefit society and club franchise is no guarantee of intelli
gence or of interest in public affairs. Private prudence is not always,
nor generally, identical with political knowledge and public virtue.
These proposals, however, are not devoid of merit: whether the
one I make is on the whole preferable must be left to judgments more
impartial than my own.
Agreeing as to the moral right of the claim for the Suffrage
advanced by the Northern Reform Union and the Political Reform
League of London, permit me, in conclusion, to notice the apparently
unanticipated operation of the extent of franchise they demand.
.The Manchester Guardian (No. 3,812) expresses an objection to a
wide suffrage which will be renewed in higher quarters. “ Our
Borough Members,” it urges, “ would be made, by the immense
extension of the franchise, the mere creatures of the lowest class of
the electors, by whom all other classes would be swamped. They
would cease to represent intelligence, education, and all that really
constitutes public opinion, when they were not the nominees of the
rabble, where they were not the choice of a self-elected caucus.”
This might happen sometimes, and when it did it would be as unjust
and undesirable, but not more so, than when, under existing arrange
ments, a Member of Parliament merely represents certain select interests,
and not the people.
In England, assuredly, though the very “ rabble” had votes, learning
and wealth would know how to take care of themselves. Florian, the
fabulist, tells us that when the iron pot swam down the river, all
porcelain vessels launched on the same element had to look out.
Riches and intellect are the iron pots sent by the governing classes
down the river of politics, and the fragile clay jars floated there by
the people will do well if they escape unsmashed; certainly they
stand a poor chance of success in any competition with rivals of such
density and superior momentum.
Do not think that members of the working class will very soon
find their way into the House of Commons. And if they did,
are they more to be feared than the Irish Members were at the period
of Catholic emancipation, and may they not hope to acquit them
selves as well ? And if a few working men do get there, will they even
endanger the State or lower the character of the House ? I think
not. What they can do, and all they can do, is perfectly well known
�11
now. Until there is payment provided for Members of Parliament,
Brown and Smith would soou find their way into the Gazette, or be
starved to death through want ofmeans to support their position. Besides,
they would soon be discharged from their situations in the factory
through their losing time in attending “ the House.” Or if they
had indulgent employers and were able to keep their “ places,” we
should see them running down from the forge or the foundry with
faces like Ethiopian serenaders, to be present at a “ division.” The
electric wires that now summon the Marquis of Claret from the
Carlton, or Sir Henry Madeira from the Reform Club, must tele
graph to Buggins in a coal mine, and communicate with Sykes at a
ginger beer factory. How often would Stiggins in a fustian jacket
catch the eye of the Speaker ? Would Bob Martin be presentable at
court in a paper cap? Would Snooks, M.P., be eligible to waltz at
St. James’s in his shirt sleeves ? And how would the working class
M.P. transact the business of his borough ? Would he give the town
clerk an audience at a coffee-house after seven o’clock, when his work
was over ? His annual speech to his constituents must be delivered
on a Saturday afternoon. When the bankers or the corporation of
the town wanted the services of their member, to watch some bill be
fore the House, would they endeavour “ to catch him at a dinner time ?”
If a proposed railway were about to chop up the ancient landed estates
of the neighbourhood, would the Earl of Whitechokerlea and Lord
Fitzsatin, constituting, with others, a deputation, wait upon the
sitting member, in the hope of seeing him as he left the factory gates
at “ bell ringing ?” The whole thing is so supremely absurd that
nobody but a Tory could imagine it, and nobody but a Whig of antique
faith could believe it.
And when payment of representatives is conceded, which will be
somewhere about the year 1898, only here and there a workman, and
he of known integrity of character, would be elected. The presump
tion against all others would be that they were merely seeking wages
otherwise unattainable, which supposition would exclude them from
the votes even of their own order.
Granting that now and then a working class member may be elected
(after 1898), could their fatuity, garrulity, and dropsical oratory
exceed what we now witness on the part of certain highly respectable
and right honourable boobies, who never lifted a hammer or earned a
shilling by manly toil ? The workman is not particularly likely to
lower the character of the house. Would he exercise any “ dangerous
influence ” by his presence there ? What weight would he have ex
cept upon a few questions which he might happen to understand ?
If he had the vanity, the folly, or stupidity to speak on any other, he
would sink at once to the level of those distinguished bores whom
nobody reports except for derision, and whom nobody regards. De
prived by birth, position, and indigence, of sound various political
education, he must be generally silent, or be the echo of opinions known
�12
not to be his own. A man may conceal his ignorance among his equals ,
but among those who know more than himself, disguise of his incapacity
is impossible. A representative of the working classes would find
that the actual business of government must always be in the hands
of men of intellect. Upon many local, municipal, and industrial
questions, and upon many general questions, where common sense and
incorruptible honesty are required, he would be a desirable addition
to the deliberative composition of the House, and having the good
sense to restrict himself to such topics he might hope to have weight
with the House according to his capacity. But as for making any
other impression by illicit or blatant means upon an assembly of 650
English gentlemen, conservative by position and by birth, proud by
nature, jealous by education, and independent by wealth, he would
soon find, as everybody knows, the thing to be utterly impossible.
There is hardly any probability, with the widest extension of the
franchise, that any workman will be elected this generation. Henry
Hunt, with wealth, connections, and popular prestige, obtained a seat
only at the close of his life. Cobbett, with acquired fortune, rare
political capacity, and a reputation which no English writer had
possessed since the days of Swift, grew old before he became a mem
ber of parliament. W. J. Fox, distinguished in many ways, and the
greatest orator of the Anti-Corn-Law League, was grey with years
before he was accorded a seat—and there is not a second constituency
in the empire that would do as Oldham has done. Where then is the
prospect of seats for men of lesser means, lesser power, lesser mark,
and still more unacceptable opinions ? To widen the electoral basis
may give satisfaction where there is now discontent, but it will in no
way alter the instincts of Englishmen. We are not Frenchmen, and
we are not Americans. Liberty with us is progress, not a capricious
extreme; and parliament has no more to fear in the way of degeneracy
from the presence of a few workmen, than the army has to fear de
moralisation from the incorporation of a band of acrobats.
These suggestions, which, submitted by a friend, received some con
sideration from some members of the late government, are now de
ferentially submitted to you. In my opinion, the franchise I describe,
if acted upon, might enable the country to realise that condition
sketched by the statesman whom the Duke of Argyle quoted at Dun
dee the other day: “ Happy is that people between whose past and
whose present no gulf of forgetfulness has been fixed; whose pro
gress has been steady progress, under the guidance and protection of
their ancient laws; no national element of life rejected, no national
memory forgotten.”
I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,
G. J. Holyoake.
�13
THE UTILITY OF A MUNICIPAL FRANCHISE
TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD JOHN RUSSELL, M.P.
LETTER III.
147, Fleet Street, E.C., Dec. 4, 1858.
My Lord,—I am no Reform Bill maker. This new pastime of
connoisseurs in politics I do not meddle with. The actual work will
be done by professional or accredited hands But upon the destiny of
any possible Bill no voice in Parliament is likely to be more influential
than your Lordship’s. Though dogmatism will be deservedly neglected,
the impressions of those outside may be recognized in a country where
public opinion is assumed to be the inspiration of law ; and, therefore,
one may ask, since the idea of a rating suffrage has been started, why
cannot we have the thorough thing done ? Any minister having a
Reform Bill to negociate might save himself a world of trouble by
relegating its legal difficulties to the municipal sphere. Why not
(after deciding what places or congeries of places shall send members
to parliament) settle such vexed questions as the nature of the
franchise and the ballot, on the permissive principle ? Give powers
to the municipalities to determine the future nature of the franchise
for themselves. Who outside a town know so well who is fit to vote
as the people within it ? Were the franchise left as it is, and
boroughs permitted to extend it when and as the Town Council—•
the best judges in the matter-—-may determine, it would render
that national self-government which Count Montalembert has so
praised in the English people, something like a reality, and would infuse
new life and dignity into local action—it would relieve Parliament
from the perplexity of a settlement which will probably satisfy no
body—it would dissipate the idea of a restricted suffrage being a
Parliamentary tyranny, and turn men’s attention home, and put the
“ affairs of the people ” where the late Sir Robert Peel said they ought
to be found, “ in the hands of the people.” How this plan might be
adapted also to counties, the resources of your Lordship’s sagacity
would quickly determine.
As one who travels much in the provinces, I know that few books
would be more valuable than a volume upon the Borough Politics of
England. Here and there knotty political questions are settled by
local common sense, over which the collective wisdom of the nation
bungles for a generation. A debate in a corporation is, I grant, often
as vapid as some debates in the Commons, but invested with
national functions, a competition in excellence will spring up in
Town Councils, which will become, as they ought to be, the normal
schools of our Members of Parliament.
I have the honour to be,
Your Lordship’s faithful Constituent,
G. J. Holyoake.
1
,i
J
|
|
'
�14
PROTECTION TO WORKING CLASS INTERESTS.
TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD JOHN RUSSELL, M.P.
LETTER IV.
147, Fleet Street, E.C., January 20, 1859
My Lord,—I write short letters because in the nature of things a
statesman cannot be expected, amid his many duties, to read long
ones. Were not the occasion imminent, and the time relevant, I had
not troubled your Lordship at all.
By birth and life I belong to the order of the people. Like Lord
Grey I am disposed to stand by my order, and for the same reason
that Lord Grey was disposed to stand by his. It is because to the
order of industry no direct recognition is designed in the projected
Reform Bill, that I write to your Lordship. Every order in Great
Britain but this, has the benefit of Parliamentary protection. When
will the turn of the people come ? That every tenth man of the
working class should be in receipt of parochial relief, is a condition of
degradation which every member of that class shares who silently
suffers it. If the “ out-door relief of the aristocracy ” be disgraceful,
the out-door relief of the democracy is no less so. The pauperism of
the. working class is treated like petty larceny, and there is not a
parish in the kingdom where the recipient of “ relief” is not made to
feel this. We perform a sufficient part in the production of the
enormous wealth of this country to be entitled to such a share of it as
shall save all honest members of our order from this disgraceful con
tingency. The dishonest you may denounce and we will disown them.
Therefore, as one of the people, I claim the vote, not as a “ charity,”
which I despise,,nor as a “ privilege ” (for it is more or less than that),
nor as a “ right,” which Parliament deems revolutionary, but as a means
of defence and protection against depredators whom the magistrate
does not recognise nor society brand; but which are not the less real
and serious. Give protection then to the interest of poverty—no
interest.needs it half so much. Give Industry, which toils without
proportional rewards, probably to die on pauper bread, power of
self-defence. Are landlords, bankers, merchants, and shopkeepers
eternally to be consulted, and never the workman ?
Why are
the people alone to be told to look to frugality as their means of
competence? “Frugality” is the fair sounding term in which
the counsel of privation is disguised to them. Why should not the
opulent be advised to practise the wholesome virtue of frugality (good
for all conditions) ? They might then live on much less than they
now have need to appropriate from the aggregate earnings of labour.
There then would remain an immense surplus, which might be added to
the income of the workman, since the wealthy would not want it. My
�15
Lord, why should advice be given to us which is never taken by those
who offer it, and which is intended to reconcile us to an indefensible
and unnecessary inequality ? We covet no man’s riches (not his
lawful riches, because he has a right to them—not the unlawful ac
cumulations, that would be criminal) ; we envy no man’s legitimate
fortune, nor do we propose to attack it, but we demand that Parliament
shall no longer secure to wealth and intellect a monopoly of political
power wherewith to combat men their inferiors in knowledge, and who
are almost without means. Poverty wishes to save itself from the
necessity and discredit of mendicancy. It has always been patient, it
is beginning to have pride. It objects to the protracted doom of
direct labour, direct dependence, and indirect representation. From
this injustice it is more in your Lordship’s power than that of any
other statesman in the House of Commons to save the people. On
the question of Reform no man’s word will be weightier. When the
electoral margin is widened, as it is agreed by late and present
governments it ought to be, the door ought to be left open whereby
well-intending but poverty-stricken intelligence may obtain admission.
He who by any just service secures this, will save future Parliaments
renewed contests, the country renewed agitations, and the people from
abiding and justly entertained discontent.
A story was told the other day of a Dublin cabman who had
carried a rather heavy gentleman a full mile, and who was offered the
precise fare of sixpence. Before taking it, he covered his horse’s
head with the horse cloth, giving as his reason for it that his horse
was a “ dacent baste,” whom he should be sorry to see how great a
weight he had carried for so small a reward. And certainly, unless
John Bull gets a substantial and expansive extension of the suffrage,
he ought, on the day a meagre and disappointing Bill passes, to have
his head covered, lest the people should see how great a load of
taxation they have endured, what rivers of blood they have spilled in
defence of their “ betters,” and how great a load of the aristocracy
they have carried for so poor and mean a remuneration.
I have the honour to be,
Your Lordship’s faithful Constituent,
♦
G. J. Holyoake.
i
�APPENDIX TO THE LETTER TO THE “ DAILY NEWS."
TBOM MB. J. THANCIS.
“ Athenseum ” Office, Wellington Street, Strand, Dec. 3rd, 1858.
Dear Sir,—I have to thank you for the courteous manner in which you have in
troduced my name into an important letter written by you, andinserted in the Daily
News, on the “Workman and the Suffrage.” The suggested character franchise you
judge would be objected to, as the certificate would be issued by employers and
betters. I am aware how difficult it is to remove prejudice from the mind of a
working-man. I should, however, hope that the option when presented him thus
easily to obtain what is so much desired, on reflection—and working-men do re
flect—the reluctance would be overcome, and thus many thousands who should be
voters would possess the privilege. I like much your proposed educational ex
amination. Many no doubt would avail themselves of it; but the time and
application required to qualify I fear would prove too restrictive. Why should
not both plans be adopted ? Fortunately, of late years, feeling has been an
influence at work in the framing of laws; hence, in regard to marriage, those
who object to its being solemnized at church, can avail themselves of the
service of the dissenting minister, while such as . desire neither can with equal
validity sign the marriage contract at the registration office. Let but a kindred
influence operate in the proposed extension of the suffrage, and the intelligent
working-man will find himself in the enjoyment of a privilege that shall bind him
still more strongly to the institution which in principle I believe he loves.
I am, dear Sir, yours truly,
To Mr. G. J. Holyoake.
Francis.
The Western Times,of Dec. 25thult.,republishestheletterto the Daily News
entire. Along letterdiscussingit, in the Statesman, Dec. 4, signed “A Macclesfield
Weaver,” accepts it “as a pledge of moderation, not only for the writer, but for the
thousands of intelligent men represented by him.” The Northern Whig,
Nov. 25, in a long leader upon it, finds “some things which it is important to
press on public attention at this period.” The Beacon and Christian Times,
Nov. 24, considers “ among other advantages of the scheme, the plea that it would
be a self-acting franchise, continually widening with the diffusion of intelligence.
There is something in the suggestion. An educational franchise ought no longer
to be insuperable in these days of competitive and middle-class, examinations.
Many political associations have considered it. These quotations sufficiently
illustrate the sense in which the suggestion has been regarded. But it deserves to
be added that the National Review (for January, 1859) observes, Mr. Holy
oake proposes that the franchise should be given to those who could pass a political
examination; an examination that is in some standard text-book—-Mill s Prineipies of Political Economy,’ or some work of equal reputation. But it does not
need to be explained that this would enfranchise extremly few people in a country.
rit would be enough if it enfranchised all whose exclusion would be discreditable
to the State.] Only a few persons give, or can give, a scientific attention to
politics, and very many who cannot, are in every respect competent to give their
votes as electors, and even to serve as representatives. [A.valuable admission.]
It is probable that such an examination suffrage, in addition to the kinds oi
suffrage which exist now, would not add one per cent, to the present constituen
cies. [Its value does not turn upon the numbers it might, include, but upon, its
enfranchising those who would give vitality to discontent if excluded.) And it it
were made a necessary qualification for the possession of a vote, we should theieby
disfranchise ninty-nine hundredths of the country.” [Nobody proposes anything
so absurd as a retrospective qualification. The Editor of a Tyneside newspaper
told me that an imperative Intelligence Suffrage would disfranchise halt the
magistrates of his county.]
John Watts. Printer, Fleet Street, London.
�
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Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The workman and the suffrage: letters to the Right Honourable Lord John Russell, M.P., and his 'Daily News'
Description
An account of the resource
Edition: People's ed.
Place of publication: London
Collation: 15, [1] p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Appendix to the letter to the Daily News from John Francis and the Western Times.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Holyoake, George Jacob
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Holyoake & Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1859]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G4960
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Subject
The topic of the resource
Suffrage
Suffrage
Working Classes