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expect moral improvement from such regulations, unless he was prepared to maintain that the faith of the church was built on a wrong foundation.

"A man who reasons slowly and with difficulty, and whose only recommendation is a stubborn adherence to plain and obvious principles, such as that, nothing can come from nothing-that the same fountain cannot produce salt and fresh waters-that a man must expect to reap what he sows, and who earnestly and anxiously desires the welfare of his country, finds his spirit oppressed, when he considers, that although he bas demonstrated to an absolute certainty the necessary results of a false line of policy, which others are pursuing, men of far greater powers of mind, and of more transcendant talent, to whom the destinies of his country are entrusted, will not yet be convinced, until facts are brought before them, until they have seen the bitter fruits of their delusion and infatuation. I feel bumbled and distressed that I must mention facts to Sir Robert Peel, in support of that which, to a plain mind, is so obvious and so necessary.

"I know a young man, who, in the year 1838, went down into Sussex, to inquire into the truth of certain reports which he had read in the Times newspaper, of the state of the peasantry, in consequence of this new law, in the neighbourhood of Battle and of Hastings. He found, that the soldiery and the police had been sent down there he found bills, on the walls and palings about, offering a reward for the discovery of the authors of incendiary fires, and of sheep-stealers; he found, that an attempt had been twice made to shoot one of the clergymen in the neighbourhood. He entered into conversation with the labourers of the district, and they told him, they could not pretend to a respect for law or government, because they considered that faith had not been kept with them; and that they looked with suspicion on the clergy, and were disaffected towards them, because either they supported this law, or they were as dumb dogs,' silent at the contradiction given by the Poor Law Commissioners to the ordinances they delivered from their altars, laying upon them burdens they would not touch with their little finger, and preaching to them of faith and charity, when, by their deserting the people in their complaints against this law, they denied the one; and the poor, in want of the common necessaries of life, required a practical exhibition of the other. Some of them had been sent to prison, for infringing an order of the Poor Law Commissioners, in forcibly procuring an interview with their wives in the workhouses, which they had formerly been allowed to enjoy; and they said, they had been allowed that indulgence a fortnight before, and they knew of no Act of Parliament that had taken it away from them. Since that, a gang of fourteen or sixteen sheep-stealers were apprehended in the neighbourhood; and yet afterwards, at that time, the farmers lost two or three sheep every week.

"I know also a young clergymen, who was for some time chaplain to a rural union workhouse not far from two large towns, and who has informed me, that the language in the yards is often so blasphemous and so bad, that women in the workhouse of a respectable character have complained to him it was like living in Hell. The same is mentioned of another workhouse, in The Book of the Bastiles,' by Mr. G. R. Wythen Baxter. This clergyman also observed, we have a number of prostitutes from the towns brought here, and they are placed in the same yard with young women from the country; and the yard is so near that of the young female children, that everything is overheard-and if any of the girls come in in a state of disease, or with child, it soon gets winded abroad, and the youngest children have become as much enlightened' on these matters, as girls that have walked the streets for several years. He added, that the labourers now look upon the farmers as their enemies; they say, they treat them worse than their beasts of burden; that they only respect them as long as they need their services; and, he continued, I consider them ripe for rebellion, and only wanting a leader, or some exciting cause, to make them rise against their wealthy neighbours. Two of the young women also had gone away with child, by one of the paid servants of the workhouse; and he mentioned the case of a woman who, for obstreperous conduct, had been sent to prison by the guardians, two or three times, without any previous application to him, as the chaplain to the union, to use his efforts with her to bring her to a sense of her conduct; the consequence of which was, that she came back hardened, and worse than when she was sent there.

"That the people of England, Sir, look in the same light as I do on this law, and on their being deprived of the protection of the magistrate, the clergy, and the overseers, I gather from a young man who was compositor in Mr. Hansard's office when the law was printed there, and the evidence on which it was founded. He said, that the compositors talked the matter over with one another, and that there was but one opinion in the room in which he was employed, and that was, that the evidence was a very one-handed evidence, and the law a one-handed and infamous law; and that it completely deprived the poor of their natural guardians.

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But, Sir, within a few weeks, four boys have been taken up in London, at two different occasions, for stealing. to appease their hunger; and fourteen men have been apprehended, or rather voluntarily surrendered themselves, having been driven, by hunger, to take bread from a baker's shop. I could mention more; but, Sir, are you not satisfied as to the moral improvement' this new system of tuition is producing in the country? Surely the support of the landed interest cannot be worth the sacrifice of your character in maintaining such a paradox. Surely you cannot set no value in retaining office as a minister, if, by so doing, you are compelled to be instrumental in perpetuating a system which is undermining and sapping the very foundations of the sound, physical, and moral, and civil, and religious constitution of your countrymen and countrywomen.

· Now, Sir I will mention one great error of the present system. Had the Poor Law Commissioners supplied that protection to the labourer which he formerly enjoyed from the clergy, the magistrates, and the over-cers, and of which the new law deprives him, the law might have worked better. The fearful and unconstitutional power with which they have been invested over the inves, the health, and liberties, the moral and spiritual relations of our whole pauper population, a power which the Sovereign dees rot possess to form laws without Parliament, and to annul acts of Pasament. (I allude now to local acts especially.)-might have been passed over without observaron and without resistance: perhaps we may rejoice, that so shameful a precedent has been followed by results that have opened the eyes of the people generally to the danger of it.

Had also men of rank and station. Peers, and Prelates, as well as gentlemen, been entrusted with so great a responsibility, those results also might not have followed. But the same levity and meanness which presided over the conception of this law, has presided also over the selection of the persons entrusted with its execution; and cruelty, the natural concomitant of levity and of meanness, has been the fruit. The Poor Law Commissioners, who ought to have been the protectors of the pauper, have built prisons, and have issued, or sanctioned, harsh regulations, and insufficient and unwholesome dietary tables. The boards of guardians, who, being elected by the rate-payers, were intended to be guardians of the public purse, are obliged to become the advocates of the pauper, and are in continual warfare with the three Commissioners. Each party is thus placed in a false position, and confusion is spread throughout the land; meantime, the annals of the country are disgraced by the sufferings of the poor, and by the suicides and crimes to which they are driven by desperation. To rectify all this, the source of so much evil must be removed, or re-organized; and if the wisdom of the legislature insists upon a commission, I hope that commission may be reformed. A commission that has to regulate the disposal of the immense sums collected by the poor-rates-a commission that has to administer to the wants of the blind, the maimed, the idiot, the aged, the childless, the orphan, were worthy, in any country, I should think, of the assistance of the noblest and best in the land. If it were not an Irishism, I could say, that the monarch herself might well find a seat at such a board.

The consideration of this part of the subject, brings me to another argument of those who supported the New Poor Law, viz. that the temporal condition of the labourer would be improved-that is, that he would find more employment, and that his wages would increase, or that his labour would be less, Leing more distributed, and his wages remain the same. How any gentlemen of enlightened understanding, how any men exercising their powers of reflection, could admit such a proposition, I cannot imagine. I never bowed to this Dagon of the New Poor Law visionaries for one moment. Is there such a thing as political instinct, which a man may inherit, or was it moral instinct that enabled me to reject this fallacy? There is not a man in all these kingdoms, who is so mistrustful of his powers of reason as I am, who is necessitated to place less reliance on his own judgment. Yet I could never abide this impudent assertion of the New Poor Law advocates; and I was made to fear, because of pride; for I found that I was tempted to look upon those who advanced it, and whom I considered as gifted with great intelligence, with contempt or with hatred—with contempt, that they were unable to refuse to listen to such sophistry, or with hatred, that they willingly dimmed the light of a sound understanding, to court the great geniuses of the age. To say that I worship the great intellectual excellence and the noble talents of other men, were to assume a character that I do not deserve. I wonder at them, as at things that I do not understand. But I do not idolize the men or their opinions. I adore that which is divine in them; but so much the more do I pity their folly. The greatest man in the world can never convince a plain mind, that three and two are not five; and the greatest man in England, Sir, shall not convince me, that a system of oppression, a system of wearing out the poor by putting hindrances and terrors in the way of their obtaining relief to their necessities, a system of tyranny mingled with mockery, can ever improve the temporal condion of the labouring population. I make one exception-- Except, indeed, a horrible erime has been meditated, a plan of reducing the population, not only by emigration, but by cutting short the days of the poor; then, indeed, the residue labourers may perchance benefit by the extirpation of their redundant brethren. Such a plan, I believe you, Sir, incapable of entertaining; but I do believe there are men in the houses of legislature, who may look up on it with intention, as a painful necessity. By the last population returns, the law appears to be succeeding in this manner.

Sir, writers say, that the wages of labour depend upon the demand and supply; and that the demand of labour depends upon the profit that can be obtained by the employments of the labourer. But the demand of labour depends on something else on the necessity that farmers and others have to employ certain capital, and not to keep it at a loss. If a man possesses horses that he cannot let, but which he must maintain at a loss, he will sell these houses, or destroy them, and vend the materials. If a farmer has the material, and beasts of burden of a farm, he must keep the one in a certain degree of employment, to prevent rust and dilap dations, and the other to pay for their own maintenance, or sell, or destroy them. Now, these are considered generally as the farmer's capital alone; but as labour is the capital of the peasant, so the labourer is, to a certain extent, a a part of the farmer's capital also. On slave estates this is evident. But supposing I had purchased the Isle of Man from the Duke of Athol, supposing then that the Government had ordered a conscription of all the able-bodied men and women in that island, in time of harvest, to locate them in some other district, would it not be evident, when I looked for my labourers, that I had borght virtually something more than the soil, the trees, the water-courses, the tenements, the crops, the cattle? Would it not be evident that a part of my capital had been taken away? So, Sir, in every agricultural district, the labourer must be esteemed a part of the landlord's property, of the farmer's capital, which he must maintain without loss, if he cannot employ them with profit, or give up to others, or DESTROY. Now, under the old law, he was recessitated to maintain the labourer, and consequently to employ, that is, to maintain, not at a loss. If the Poor Law Commissioners had kept this principle in view, such would still be the case, without the abuses and the laxity of the former system; but now, the poor are terrified from becoming a burden on the rates. Now, when they do come, they are fed on unwholesome and insufficient diet. or enclosed in a tainted atmosphere. Now, the Government indirectly and gradua'ly helps the farmer to destroy an unprofitable capital. Now, the farmer is no longer necessitated, to so great a degree, to employ that capital; consequently, the demand of labour has not increased, neither have wages risen, neither has labour been distributed more lightly in respect of the wages given.

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There is a remedy for this-there are two remedies: the labourers must have their ancient protectors restored to them, or the Poor Law Commission must be taken out of the hands of men who want respect and consideration for them, and given to men who will be their protectors-men who will rot terrify them from applying for seasonable relief, nor mock them by relief at the expense of their health and lorg living, or the Government must begin to take the part of a parent,

which it has too long neglected, and relieve the farmers of these men, (who are, like the beasts of burden, or any other instruments, only capital to farmers so long as they can be maintained without loss, or profitably employed,) and employ them on harbours and buildings, or on other public aud

national works.

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But. Sir, there is another proviso, which regulates the price of any article-the independence of the person who has to part with it. What is it that causes the growth and increase of all monopolies--what causes our small farms to be swallowed up in great ones?-what enables the great manufacturer to undersell and rum the lesser?-because small capitalists are not protectedbecause the burden of taxation is not thrown upon property in a fair proportion--because we are taxed in an arithmetical, and not in a geometrical ratio-because no respect is made between those who have parents to maintain and large families, and those who have none — - because the maintaining of churches, prisons, roads, &c. press in the same ratio upon all. To return: when a tradesman is pressed for his rates, his taxes, or his creditors, he must sell his merchandize, at whatever price, if he has no friends or no other resource. And the labourer, when he is called upon by a hungry wife and children, or a hungry belly, he too must sell his labours, at whatever price, if he has no friends, or no other resource. But under the old law, he had a friend in his sovereign-that is, in the supreme head of the church, and in the supreme head of the magistracy; and he had a resource, an adequate, some say a profuse resource, in the poor-rates. Now, he has, must I say an enemy and a betrayer in the sovereign?—that is, in the Poor Law Commission, and in the new system of relief; for is it not treachery to offer to him relief at the price of liberty-that is, of his honour; at the price of his wife and children-that is, of his fidelity; at the price of a seat in the congregation of his minister- that is, of his conscience and of his religion, and at the price of his life perhaps, and of his limbs, and of his health, because of damp rooms, foul air, deficient medical care, and insufficient diet. And are not these charges proved against the Government?

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The Poor Law advocates said, We will make the labourers independent.' When asked how, they said, We will make them dependent on their own exertions, and not on the poor-rates.' This, perhaps, could have been done, but not under the New Poor Law, or the new system. The only real dependence of the surplus population was taken from them, for their employment was precarious; the vision of their independence, or self-dependence, could not be realized; they were dependent on the poor-rates, because their wages were insufficient: and it was said, 'The farmers make them dependent on the rates, that they might give them insufficient wages. If such was the case, if the farmers were such men, what hope had the labourer of better wages, entering the labour-market without ANY protection, nay, under the terrors of a system of persecution? To restore the labourer to self-dependence, Government should have taken care that he should be respectably maintained, by employment on parochial, or county, or national works-by money levied on parishes, on counties, or on the nation; and this would have tested the ability of the chief ratepayers to employ them on their own account.

But after all, I must, Sir, mention facts, to prove that this line of argument is correct, and that the New Poor Law, in this, has been a failure. I might allude to the general distress pervading the country, but I can, fortunately, do more.

"Not long ago, I met a gentleman in London, who told me, that he collected rents in six different counties in England. I asked him, then, if he could inform me, whether, since the New Poor Law, the wages of the labourers were increased or diminished; and whether there were more hands in employ. His reply was, That he was certain the wages were not higher, they were much about the same; and he was equally certain, that more hands were not employed.' I afterwards remarked, That I supposed the great landlords benefited very much by the law.' He replied, "That was a great mistake; the farmers are the persons who are chiefly benefited. The landlords would benefit if they raised their rents; but none of the landlords for whom he acted had done so.' He added, The farmers ought to employ more hands, but they do not-they do not understand their own interests.'

"A few weeks before this, I had received a letter frow a labouring man at Hastings, who had formerly held a grocer's shop there-a man of great intelligence, in which he gave me the following information, which I forwarded to Mr. Oastler, who has since published it, and which I have not seen or heard of having been contradicted. My correspondent vouched repeatedly for the correctness of his statement, and said he could prove it from the books of tradesmen at Hastings and in the neighbourhood, and by the labourers themselves. The statements were to this effect:-That the price of labour had fallen from 2s. 6d. to 2s. since the introduction of the New Poor Law, and the time of labour from five days to three; so that, in fact, the labourer's income was reduced three-fifths, whilst provisions and coals, &c. had risen, at the same time, about 20 per cent―(vide Fleet Papers. Vol. 1, No. 45.) If this statement be true, there can be no need of further refutation of the gross fallacy of the New Poor Law Philosophy.' Sir, there is an old song

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When men flatter, fawn, and languish,

And if ever hereafter

Think them false--I've found them so;'and there is an older saw, The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.' you may be tempted, by Liberal professions' and persons of good intentions,' to act towards any person, or to legislate for unoffending persons severely, for their own good' I earnestly pray you to endeavour to obtain the opinion first of those unhappy objects of liberal' sympathy who are to be practised' upon. I have acquired experience and understanding, though too little wisdom, in a cruel school; but if I cannot profit by it myself, I hope at least that I may profit others. "I remain, Sir, your obedient, humble servant,

"JOHN PERCEVAL."

"P.S.-Let ne also ask you, Sir, since a broken-kneed or a broken-winded horse will not fetch the price of a sound one, what will be the value, soon, for the labour of a broken spirited Population?-J.P. '

Printed by Vincent Torras & Co., 7, Palace Row, New Road, London.

THE

FLEET PAPERS.

LONDON: Published BY

JOHN PAVEY, 47, HOLYWELL STREET, STRAND,

AND

BENJAMIN STEILL, 20, PATERNOSTER ROW.

THESE Papers are principally intended for the perusal of the friends of Christianity and the Constitution; particularly the Clergy and the Aristocracy, and of all persons who are possessed of Property. The object of the writer will be to explain the reason for the present alarming state of English society, and the corsequent insecurity of life and property; also to offer some remarks upon the folly and wickedness of attempting to uphold our Institutions, particularly that of Private Property, by the unconstitutional means of Centralization, Commissioning, Espionage, and force; finally, to state his own views on the best mode of restoring Peace, Contentment, Security, and Prosperity, to every rank of the people of England.

The author is perfectly aware of the fact, that every Parliamentary leader is now only attempting to legislate for the present moment-putting off the evil day -making laws" from hand to mouth," in the hope that some unforeseen, fortunate event may enable succeeding Statesmen to legislate for permanency. He is also convinced that there is a mode of successfully re-establishing our Institutions upon their original foundation-Christianity ;-and that that is the only way to preserve them from the encroachments of political partisans, who are now paving the way to universal Ruin, Anarchy, and Despotism.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Stamford. It is unwise, because it is unsafe, to send cash in letters. It might be beneficial to the family if the fact were noticed. Will consent be given?

CONSERVATIVE, Exeter.-No consideration can induce Mr. Oastler, for party purposes, to refrain from the free expression of his opinions. He contends for Principles, not for Names.

VOLUME FIRST

OF

THE FLEET

PAPERS

May be had of the Publishers, in

FIFTY-TWO NUMBERS, AT 2d. EACH,

OR

THIRTEEN PARTS, AT 9d. EACH. PAVEY, 47, HOLYWELL STREET, STRAND, AND STEILL, 20, PATERNOSTER Row.

A few Volumes, bound in cloth, may be had, at 10s. each, by applying to Mr. Castler, in the Fleet.

** Mr. PAVEY is supplied with Title-pages, which, on application, will be given to those who wish to bind the volume.

66
NOTICE OF THE FLEET PAPERS."

"The FLEET PAPERS for January, by Richard Oastler.

Street; and Steill, Paterno-ter Row.

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London: Pavey, Holywell

The reminiscences of Mr. Oastler in these numbers we think will not be very pleasing to the free-trading Anti-Corn-Law League cotton lords, who are now making such an outcry about the distress of the poor,-which is great enough, we are well aware and attributing it all to the Corn Laws. At the great Leeds Anti-Corn Law meeting, held a month or two since, a Mr. Plint said, 'We are thankful that we are no longer in office; we can afford to be honest now a very good reason, as our author observes, why office should never more be theirs. But, as Mr. Oastler asks, Where was their honesty in 1834? There was then distress enough to melt hearts of stone! But instead of sympathising with the famished poor, these Leaguers were at that time aiding the Whig ministers to force the working people of England to live on a coarser food. Then they were contriving the means of still further reducing wages, by importing agricultural labourers into their mills!" And at that time, hand-loom weavers were making 4s. 6d. to 5s. a week clear wages. Wheat was then, under the operation of the Corn Laws, 46s. to 50s, per quarter, and the manufacturers were driving a good trade. They then represented the manufacturing districts as being in a state of prosperity, because they were in the full tide apparently of successful enterprise, although the suffering amongst the poor was little less acute than it is now; and when Mr. Oastler and Mr. Fielden. M.P. published an account of their deplorable condition, they were traduced and insulted. In the number for January 1, Mr. Oastler reprints some of his speeches and letters of that time; and it is worth while to quote from them the following exposition of the way in which trade is influenced by slaughter-house masters.

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This is perfectly true: from this cause and OVERTRADING results the distress of the manufacturers, and from their oppression, and the effects of the factory system, spring the distress of the poor. Relative to this distress.-and the steps taken to bring a knowledge of it before the Parliament, Mr. Oastler relates the following anecdote of the honesty' of the Leaguers. *

"He asks Mr. Thornhill-Do you understand them, Sir? If not, I pity you.' So do we...... The Fleet Papers for the last month are highly interesting: we recommend them heartily to our readers: and we recommend to them also the OASTLER TESTIMONIAL. This is a well-merited tribute of justice to an injured man: and we hope the amount will be sufficient to effect its noble purpose, the making provision for himself, wife, and adopted daughter, during the remainder of their days."-Hull Packet, Feb. 18, 1842.

RICHARD OASTLER.

"One of the most remarkable men in the world is now confined in the Fleet Prison, London. His name is at the head of this article. We presume to say he is a great man. He possesses a nobility over which contingencies can have no controul-the nobility of nature. But we must not allow ourselves to launch out in the language of eulogy, with respect to our friend. It were then impossible to stop-For facts: Mr. Oastler was the agent for an aristocrat. He was trusted and esteemed. His income from his place was five hundred a year, or thereabouts. He was led into expenses, by his anxiety for his employer's interest. An account ran on between them, the balance being against Oastler. He was in his master's debt. Shocked at the cruelty of the New Poor Law, and its anti-constitutional character, he opposed it with the spirit of a Briton and a Christian. The employer was in favour of the measure which the subordinate felt himself compelled by principle to oppose. He exerted the authority of a master, and the influence of a friend, to induce Mr. Oastler to discontinue the opposition which he thought himself conscientiously bound to render to it. He received numerous communications to the effect, that to cleave to his principles would be to lose his place, the sole support of himself and his family. Convinced that it was his duty as an Englishman and as a Christian, to continue to oppose an unchristian and an anti-constitutional law, he told Mr. Thornhill (for that was his employer's name), that whatever it might cost him personally, he must continue to cry aloud against the oppression of the poor. He braved, in fact, the beggary that was in prospect, considering destitution itself an evil of lesser magnitude than the disregard of principle. His employer dismissed him. Thus was he at once reduced to a condition of very serious difficulty and distress; not merely had he lost the income on which he was dependant for everything, but, having been his master's debtor, he was completely at his mercy. Discharged for his principles, the whole public of Yorkshire rallied round him. A cavalcade, consisting of very many thousands went to Fixby Hall, the seat of Mr. Thornhill, on the day that Mr. Oastler was to leave it, in order to escort him with all the honours he deserved to Huddersfield. Public sympathy was never more strongly manifested in favour of any individual, and his power to oppose the law was increased by the popularity which the treatment that he had been visited with had gained for him. When the great leaders who were pushing forward the law experienced the potency of Oastler's opposition, they devoted themselves with all their might to crush it, and as it is supposed, induced Mr. Thornhill to lay him in hold for his debt, thinking that in a prison he must needs be powerless. But they had mistaken their man. In his prison, he devotes himself to the very same work that had occupied his attention while at large. He here commenced the publication of the Fleet Papers, a series of letters addressed to Mr. Thornhill; and in these, with a degree of eloquence that is rarely attained unto truly the eloquence of simplicity and in a spirit of Christian boldness, he has gone on denouncing everything that was evil in all parties-thundering especially against the

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