33
*
B
33
13
慮​し
​AARAA
·) }
D
A
") }
}
TAIKHUB Annja
{י|
HA
SABAKARA
1837
ARTES
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
VERITAS
EL PLOURIOUS
Strum
TUEBOR
A
RARA!
SCIENTIA
OF THE
ER:S-PENINSULAM AMŒNAM
CIRCUMSPICE
GIFT OF
REGENT LLHUBBARD
གཔའི་སེ་ན་ན་ག་ག་ག་ག་ག་
W
AAAAAAA
KCE
20 2.
T
>>>
DON'
COLOC
> >
<.<.<
وردد
CEC
Gwa
CCC
DIY »
DDY
5)AND
>>>>>
CCE
COC
DE Dɔɔ
7/9/?,
>
3333
DISED
ODDES
מלכבל.
מנמר
עכבר.
+
גבל
DEAD)
222
MD
מבג..
נב מל
כל מר,
ماشا نما نماده
D
>>
>>
>>
פון
> >>
>>
כב,
בל מרגל
DO
7.9
>.)
2)
>>>
X?
”
>*
>
>>>
D
))
>>
W
>
>>
** |
>9)
>>>>
X
>D
>D
3
MAAAA
元
​د
1.
DA
>>>
Y
>
D)
'));
>>>>>
ورود
>]])
>>)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
222 22
>» *}
འ
> >>
נגנת
>>>
› ND
»»
D
>>
»»
>»»» →
2020
222
222)
»»»
»»2)
در درد
»
22
D2
3
*
>
»
ב
>>>
DOES
>>
>>>
>»»)
>>
>>
>>>D
>12
2
>
DDD
מייל.
>>;
*
>>».
>>>]
→
>>
>
>>
>>>
>>
J)»
>"}
>>>
>>»
>>
ساسانی انسان نماشا
>
تانانا
2
> >
> :)
>>>>
AAA
ARA!
WA
ע
D)
ツクツク
​>>>
• Y
DJ
W21
BAAAAAAA
עוד
>>
>>>
>
AD.
>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>
AAAA
>
ور
>
רג
>>>
>>>>
»»»»»»
>????>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
D
»»
»»»»
>>>>
>>>>
»
>>>>
XXX
>>>>
7,))))
.)))))
D
3
AA
>>
22
D
༩༡
>
D
})
D
>>
> >
יכין
>>
>
>>
>>
>>
}},
))).
J
2
*
>>
כככככ
על,
دد
در
^^
>>>>>>
>>>>>
מסכן <
>>
رد
>>>>>>>
ככככ
>>>>>»
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>
DD
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>
>
>>
>>
>>
>
→
>>
>
»
»»
»
»» >>
222
زرد
Luke
Morvan
R
>>>
>>
>>
دد
ג
رد
ג
3
دد
>
2
>
>>
>
>
>>
*
3
>
»»
DAD
ED
>>
»
>>
2
➤➤
>>
رد
>>>,
>>>>
>>>>
***
>);
>>>
رد
>>>
>>>
>>
>> >
>>
>>
>>>
ban
>>
*
:)) 1
})
Merevals_
Не
2.55
W15
ENGLAND
AND
AMERICA.
A COMPARISON OF THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL
STATE OF BOTH NATIONS.
Wakefield, Edward libber
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
Liv
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1833.
PRINTED BY W. NICOL, CLEVELAND ROW, ST. JAMES'S.
رکھنے
سے
کی۔
27.
L. L. Hubbard
Gift
1-13-27
2 vols.
PREFACE.
THE following pages are intended for publication
in America as well as in England. They have been
written with two objects in particular: first, to lay
before Americans a sketch of the political condi-
tion of England, and before the English an expla-
nation of some peculiarities in the social state
of America; secondly, to point at the means of
removing those causes which are productive of
great evils to both countries.
For the satisfactory performance of such a Work,
powers are required which the author does not
possess; command of language, a style calculated
to engage the reader, and a name which should
give to every statement or suggestion the weight
iv
PREFACE.
1
of authority. But, on the other hand, he has had
peculiar motives for examining the condition of
America, and is so far partly qualified to treat
upon that subject; he believes also that he is
enabled to make Americans comprehend the state
of England, which hitherto has been described
to them only by Englishmen writing, not for
America, but for England. The English and
Americans know very little of each other's affairs.
Now, the present writer has looked at America
with English eyes, and at England with American
eyes. It was a consciousness of this advantage,
that prompted him to undertake the task of de-
scribing to each nation the chief social peculia-
rities of the other.
Another advantage which the writer fancies
that he possesses over many Englishmen and
Americans who might have written on these sub-
jects, is the want of any patriotic prejudice in
favour of either country-of any motive for con-
cealing or perverting the truth. His opinions,
he believes, have been formed and are stated
without affection or fear. Plain-speaking must
PREFACE.
V
nearly always be disagreeable to somebody; and
in this case it will offend many, because large
classes, both in England and America, are men-
tioned without any regard for their selfish in-
terests, their mean passions, or even their honest
prejudices.
The following Notes are not to be considered
as so many discussions on distinct subjects; but
each of them is more or less connected with all
the others. In fact, they all relate to the social
state and political economy of England and
America.
What, it may be asked, has the political eco-
nomy of England to do with that of America,
or that of America with that of England? What
relation can there be between the political pros-
pects of the English, and the origin, progress and
prospects of slavery in America? To such ques-
tions these Notes supply an answer. Compa-
rison is the easiest way to truth. In many cases,
the Americans and the English may have an equal
interest in the same subject, though they may
vi
PREFACE.
have very different objects in view. Of this com-
mon interest with different objects, the subject
of colonization is a good example. Admitting
that the three elements of production are land,
capital and labour; supposing that the chief
social evils of England are owing to a deficiency
of land in proportion to capital and labour, and
those of America to an excess of land in propor-
tion to capital and labour, (whatever great
advantages she may owe to a sufficiency of land)
in that case, the Americans and the English have
a common interest in understanding the art of
colonization, though the object of the Americans
should be to have less, and that of the English to
have more, of one of the elements of wealth. So,
also, if it be for the interest of the English to buy
cheap corn of the Americans, and of the Ameri-
cans to buy cheap manufactured goods of the
English, the two nations have a common interest
in the repeal of the English corn laws and of the
American tariff. In every subject treated of in
these Notes, the Americans and the English have
more or less a common interest.
*
•
PREFACE.
vii
The statements and arguments contained in
these Notes might have been supported by refer-
ence to numerous authorities; but, though the
writer wished, for his own sake, to adopt that
course, still he was afraid that, by doing so, he
might render his work too formal. To one
book, however, he has referred pretty often;
Mr. Stuart's Three Years in North America; a
production, which may be termed a storehouse of
facts concerning the United States. If Mr. Stuart
had seen fit to develope the causes of the facts
which he has collected, to give reasons for the
chief social peculiarities of America, these Notes,
or at least such of them as treat directly of the
United States, would not have been published.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
NOTE I.
THE WEAlth of England.
First signs of wealth observed by a foreigner-proofs of
wealth in London-in the country-superior enjoyments of
the English-large proportion of the English who enjoy
much wealth-immense capital invested-abundance of
capital ready to be invested-overflow of capital-causes
of the great wealth of England-combination of power-
division of capital and labour a cause of poverty-effects of
combination of productive power on the agriculture, manu-
factures and commerce, of England-some conclusions from
the principle, that production depends on the degree in
which men help each other-constant progress of wealth
and civilization in England
page 1
NOTE II.
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
Who are the bulk of the people-misery of the bulk of the
people a favourite topic in England-proofs of misery-what
is a pauper-factory children-Irish wages-increase of gin
shops-cheapness of English children-trade in the murder
of parish apprentices-other trades in pauper children-
climbing boys-prostitutes-cheapness of women-degrada-
tion of the common people—the common people are too
cheap to be happy
page 42
b
X
CONTENTS.
NOTE III.
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
middle
Who compose the aristocracy-particular distresses of the middle
class-uneasiness of farmers-of manufacturers of dealers
-low profits-uneasiness of professional men-of several
classes possessing the common run of knowledge or superior
knowledge of persons having fixed incomes, and families-
primary cause of prostitution-domestic life amongst the
English middle class.
page 80
S
NOTE IV.
COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL WEALTH, WITH THE
UNEASINESS AND MISERY OF INDIVIDUals.
Theories of the English economists a dream of Robinson
Crusoe's island the field of production an element of
wealth-argument with the economists-argument with the
archbishop of Dublin-America and England as to the field
of production-cases of various proportions amongst the
elements of production-peculiar case of England—as
wealth increases, many individuals are less rich—moral and
strictly political effects of the various proportions which the
field of production bears to capital and labour-peculiar
effects in the peculiar case of England
page 107
NOTE V.
J
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
Retrospect the constitution of 1688-its merits and defects-
maintained by corruption-populace subservient to the ruling
class-effects of knowledge-on the middle class-on the poor
-history of the late change in the constitution-new constitu-
tion obtained by the physical force-new constitution described
CONTENTS.
xi
-not likely to last-dangers in the prospect of change-de-
mocracy, or worse, apparently inevitable-dangers of de-
mocracy-possible means of avoiding the probable evils of
change-Christian legislation-means of improving the phy-
sical condition of the bulk of the people, and of removing
the uneasiness of the middle class
page 135
NOTE VI.
FREE TRADE IN CORN, AS A MEANS OF ENLARGING THE FIELD of
EMPLOYMENT FOR ENGLISH CAPITAL AND LABOUR.
Subject of this note stated-wide difference between facts in
America and the English theory of rent-American theory
of rent-various kinds and degrees of competition for the use
of land-facts-effects of a free corn-trade on the several
kinds of competition for the use of land-with cheap bread
the rental of England must be greater-gradual repeal of
the corn laws hurtful for a time to landowners and farmers,
and not useful to any class of labourers-sudden repeal of
the corn laws beneficial to all classes
page 209
NOTE VII.
CLOSE RELATION BETWEEN THE FOREIGN CORN TRADE OF ENG-
LAND AND THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA.
Object of the English in a free corn trade-very cheap corn
not raised except by slaves-why so-direct trade between
English manufacturers and the producers of cheap corn must
be very limited-indirect trade for procuring cheap corn, by
means of direct trade with the Chinese empire
page 245
NOTE VIII.
MEANS OF extendING FREE TRADE TO THE WHOLE COAST OF
CHINA.
Interest of the Americans in this question-Chinese restric-
tions on trade-the Chinese people more inclined to com-
xii
CONTENTS:
merce than the English or Americans—Chinese govern-
ment dislikes foreign trade on political grounds-restrictions
lead to a free trade-description of the free trade which
actually takes place in China-obstacles to the extension of
this free trade-several modes of removing those obstacles
-one mode will endanger the trade between America and
China-safest, cheapest and best mode, commercial stations
near the coast of China-to be formed, if not by English-
men, then by Americans'
page 250
NOTE IX.
SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE AMERICANS.
Peculiar state of religion -causes of superstition without
bigotry or fanaticism inquisitiveness - rudeness of the
backwoodsman-bigotry in patriotism-neglect of learning
page 314
-
NOTE I.
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
First signs of wealth observed by a foreigner-
proofs of wealth in London—in the country-
superior enjoyments of the English-large pro-
portion of the English who enjoy much wealth-
immense capital invested-abundance of capital
ready to be invested-overflow of capital-causes
of the great wealth of England-combination of
power-division of capital and labour a cause of
poverty-effects of combination of productive
power on the agriculture, manufactures and
commerce, of England-some conclusions from
the principle, that production depends on the
degree in which men help each other-constant
progress of wealth and civilization in England.
AN American citizen visits the continent of Eu-
rope, and on his way home passes some time in
England. Here he finds the roads in every direc-
tion far better than any he has seen before, and
he sees more of them on a given space than in
France or America. The cross roads are kept in
far better order than those of any other country.
By the side of nearly all the great roads, he sees,
for the first time, a well kept foot-path. In many
B
2
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
places, the foot-paths across fields are as dry, and
smooth, and trim, as walks in pleasure gardens.
All the carriages on the roads are stronger and
lighter, more useful and sightly, than those to
which he is accustomed; and the vast number
of those carriages strikes him with astonishment.
The strength and beauty of the horses, the quality
and neatness of their harness, and the very whips
with which they are driven, excite his wonder.
The uncommon speed with which he travels
raises his spirits and inclines him to look favour-
ably at every thing. He exclaims,-what mag-
nificent crops! what beautiful meadows! what
fine cattle and sheep! what skill and care in the
mixture of wood, arable and grass lands! what
noble trees! what regularity and neatness in the
fences! even the ditches and gate-posts are ad-
mirable! The mansions are palaces, the farm-
houses mansions, the merest village of cottages
has an air of peculiar comfort; whilst the number
of those mansions, farm-houses and villages, gives
to the country the appearance of a scattered
town. But then the towns: many of them are so
extensive, the houses in them are so well built,
the shops have such a display of rich goods, the
streets are so well paved and contain so large a
proportion of good houses; these towns are so
full of well-dressed people, that each of them
might be taken for a city. Even the smallest
towns appear like sections of a wealthy capital;
-O
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
3
and the number of towns, large and small, is so
great that, together with the great number of
good houses by the road side out of town, one
seems to be travelling all day through one street.
This, the foreigner imagines, must be the most
populous road in England; there must be some-
thing peculiar in this part of the country which
attracts rich people. By no means. He is told
that, so long as fourteen years ago, the length of
the paved streets and turnpike roads of England
and Wales was about twenty thousand miles;
and he soon learns that nearly all the great roads
show marks of wealth like those which he has so
much admired. He therefore supposes, that the
wealth of the country must bear a very large pro-
portion to that of the metropolis; but on this
point he is undeceived on reaching London.
Here the crowd is so great, the objects which at-
tract his attention are so many and so different,
that, for a while, he is bewildered and incapable
of arranging his thoughts so as to draw conclu-
sions from what he sees. At length he begins to
observe methodically and to compare his observa-
tions with those which he has made in other great
cities. Until now he has conceived New York
or Paris to be the place in which the greatest
amount of wealth was enjoyed by a given number
of people; but he is now convinced that the in-
habitants of London obtain a greater quantity of
things necessary, useful or agreeable, to man, than
4
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
1
the inhabitants of any other city in the world.
The quantity of flour and meat consumed, in pro-
portion to people, he finds not much greater in
London than in Paris, and even less than in New
York, where the working classes live better than
in London; so also the proportion of looking
glasses he knows to be greater in Paris, and the
proportion of rum drank to be greater in New
York, than in London; but he cannot doubt that,
on the whole, more good things are enjoyed in
London, by a given number of people, than any
where else out of England. It is not in his power,
indeed, to compare the quantities or values of all
necessary, useful or agreeable, things enjoyed in
London, with the quantities or values of such
things used in other great cities; but he is con-
vinced of the superior wealth of London by the
same mode of observation, which has satisfied
him that the people of New York drink more rum,
and the people of Paris own more looking glasses,
than the people of London. In London one
meets with every thing the immediate produce of
agriculture, such as meat, bread, sugar and tea,
of the very finest quality. Of manufactured
objects used in London, scarce one can be men-
tioned which is not brought to greater perfection
than similar objects used in other capital cities,
whilst the variety of such objects is yet more
striking. The fittings and furniture of a third
rate house in London are of a better quality than
S
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
5
those of a palace in France or Germany; the doors.
and windows answer their purpose better; the:
chairs are stronger, lighter and more convenient
to sit upon; the tables, if not more useful, are far
more beautiful; the glass is more transparent, the
knives cut better, the fastenings of all sorts, the
corkscrew and the toasting fork, are better suited
to their purpose, and composed of superior ma-
terials. In every London house, excepting those
of the poorest order, one finds many useful and
agreeable objects which are either scarce or un-
known in Paris, New York and Vienna. The
inhabitants of London pay, it has been reckoned,
about 50,000l. a year,--being the fourth of 200,000%.
which the nation pays,-for what? for blacking
advertisements-that is, for the facility of choos-
ing between different kinds of blacking. The
number of kinds of horses used in London, though-
very striking to a foreigner, is less remarkable
than the fore-thought, pains and skill required
for making each variety-the Lincolnshire dray
horse, for example, the Cleveland coach horse, the
high bred nag, the cob, and the trotting hackney
-so obviously distinct from all the others. The
variety of carriages, whether for business or
pleasure, and the fitness of each sort for its pe-
culiar purpose, whether that purpose be deter-
mined by the weather, by the fortune of him who
owns the carriage, or the business of him who
uses it, are equally deserving of admiration.
6
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
At night, when other great cities are in darkness,
all London is brilliantly illuminated; nay, the
the beautiful gas lights extend for some miles
into the country in all directions. The pave-
ments of London--but the list of examples might
be continued through a volume. Still, the foreigner
is less surprised at the quantity, variety and per-
fection, of useful and agreeable objects used in
London, than at the great proportion of the
people who enjoy in abundance the most perfect
of those objects. That the houses of the high
aristocracy should be large, fine and richly fur-
nished, is nothing strange; but the houses in
many quarters which the aristocracy despise, are
as large, fine and well furnished as those of the
most aristocratic quarters. The best houses, for
instance, in Bloomsbury, Finsbury and Lambeth,
and in such villages or suburbs as Highgate,
Hornsey, Tottenham, Hackney, Peckham and
Clapham, though a lord would disdain to live in
one of them, are as large, fine and well furnished,
as those of Mayfair or of such aristocratic villages
as Roehampton and Wimbledon. The shops,
too, in many of those "low" quarters, though
stocked for the supply of persons engaged in
some industrious pursuit, are as full, and as rich,
as those of Bond street or Regent street. The
number of carriages also, kept for pleasure in
those despised quarters, greatly exceeds the
number of such carriages kept by the high aris-
?
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
7
tocracy in and about London. In the quantity
and quality of good things which he uses, in his
own dress and that of his family, in his table,
furniture and books, or in whatever mode of ex-
pence he may prefer, a prosperous lawyer or
merchant is not far behind the richest duke; and
the number of rich people in London who pursue
an industrious career is very much greater than
the number of rich lords. But it would be im-
proper to measure the wealth of a society by the
enjoyments of its richest members alone. Dividing
the inhabitants of London and Paris into the
same number of ranks with respect to the con-
sumption of wealth, every London rank enjoys
more good things than its corresponding Parisian
rank. A second-rate merchant, in London, spends
at least twice as much as a second-rate Parisian
merchant; a third-rate London advocate spends,
perhaps, three times as much as a first-rate
Parisian advocate; a fourth-rate London attorney
spends six times as much as a second-rate Parisian
notary; a physician in London, a surgeon, a
dentist, a tradesman of whatever description, a
servant from the butler to the scullion, a mechanic
in whatever line, a porter or a common labourer,
spends more, and in most cases a great deal morė,
than one of a corresponding rank in the Parisian
scale. But this is not all. In London there are
more first-rate merchants, lawyers and tradesmen
in proportion to second-rate ones, more second-
f
1
385
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
;
rate ones in proportion to third-rate ones, and so
on all down the scale. In a word, turn which
way you will, London abounds with proofs of its
enormous wealth.
Thus the foreigner is apt to fall into another
error; to imagine that a very large proportion of
the wealth of England is collected in London.
He is undeceived again by visiting some great
provincial towns of different descriptions, such as
Bath, Liverpool and Leeds. Each of these re-
sembles a large section of the metropolis; Bath
being like Marylebone, Leeds like manufacturing
Southwark, and Liverpool like the commercial
Tower Hamlets. In point of size and general
character Liverpool bears some resemblance to
Bordeaux or New York, and Leeds to Lyons; but
in America there is no town like Leeds, nor,
either in America or France, any town like Bath.
England abounds with such towns as Bath-
mere pleasure towns, they may be called-such
as Leamington, Hastings, Margate, Cheltenham
and Brighton; with more of the same kind,
though of smaller extent, such as Tonbridge
Wells, Worthing, Harrowgate, Aberystwith,
Southend, Lowestoft, and Sidmouth. Of towns
like Leeds, while in the United States there is
not one, and in France but few, there is in Eng-
land a number without end, such as Macclesfield,
Sheffield, Nottingham, Coventry, Birminghamn
and Manchester. Of towns like Liverpool,
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
9
though there be several in the United States,
there are many more in the United Kingdom,
while neither in the United States nor in France
are there any towns of a mixed character like
Norwich and Glasgow. Again, neither in France
nor in the United States are there any great pro-
vincial capitals like Edinburgh and Dublin. But
after all, that for which, in respect to towns,
England is most distinguished,-even more so
than for the number and size of her pleasure
towns, is the vast number and great size of her
smaller provincial capitals, which are neither
seaports nor the seats of manufactures; such as
York, Canterbury, Gloucester, Exeter, Shrews-
bury, Reading, Colchester, and Bury St. Ed-
mund's. And now, further, let the wealth of any
English town whatsoever be compared with that
of a town of the same character in any other
country. With a single and no doubt very im-
portant exception, England has greatly the ad-
vantage. In the United States every labourer,
not being a slave, obtains more and better food,
more and better clothes, as well as a better lodging,
than a labourer of equal skill in England. With-
out any further exception, the inhabitants of
English provincial towns enjoy a greater quantity
and variety of good things, approach nearer to
the inhabitants of the capital in respect to the
consumption of wealth, than people of a similar
rank in the provincial towns of other countries.
10
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
A merchant of Liverpool or Bristol, a manufac-
turer of Birmingham or Leeds, be he first, second
or third rate, indulges in expences for his house,
his table, the education of his children and the
amusement of his family, which to think of, only,
would frighten a Bordeaux merchant or Lyons
manufacturer of the same rank. What a French
provincial doctor spends in a year, would not
keep an English provincial doctor in equal
practice for three months. Country attornies
in England get and spend, on the average, ten
times as much as French country attornies.
Common tradesmen in all English country towns,
bakers, butchers, cheesemongers and linen drapers,
as well as mechanics, such as carpenters, builders
and glaziers, live much better than a similar class
of people in Paris; they have more rooms to live
in; their rooms are better furnished; they, their
wives and children are better dressed; they find
it more easy to obtain comforts and indulge in
luxuries. Surely there are fifty country towns
in England, which contain a good inn, that is a
comfortable innkeeper, for one French country
town that contains a passable inn, held by a man
who does not live so expensively as the keepers
of most English alehouses. That English town
is reckoned poor in which there are not some shops
that would be considered good in the best quarter
of London; and there are hundreds of towns in
England, in which you can purchase almost every
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
11
thing that is commonly for sale in London. The
number of booksellers' shops in the provincial
towns of England, and the stocks which they
contain, present a very striking contrast with the
number and stocks of French booksellers' shops
out of Paris. In the number and quality of
horses and carriages kept for pleasure, English
country towns surpass, very far indeed, French
country towns of equal magnitude. Every town
in England, that at all bears the character of the
capital of a district, possesses a circulating li-
brary, such as would be called good in Paris or
New York; while most of such towns, as well as
many small towns, and indeed rural parts, miles
away from any town, have the inestimable ad-
vantage of a book club. No English town con-
taining 10,000 inhabitants is without foot pave-
ments or gas lights, while many towns with less
than 5,000 inhabitants are as well paved and well
lighted as the finest quarter of London. In their
literary and scientic institutions, such towns as
Liverpool, Leeds and Birmingham appear to
surpass the metropolis, allowing for the difference
of numbers; and in this respect they obviously
excel beyond comparison French or American
towns of like magnitude. Another proof of the
general diffusion of wealth in England, is the
large proportion of the sums invested by savings-
banks which is subscribed out of London; the whole
fund, amounting to about £14,000,000, and sub-
-
12
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
scribed by persons little above the condition of la-
bourers, being a proof of the wealth of England.
But finally the most striking proof of the wealth of
the English, all over England, is the facility with
which, in any part of England, funds are raised for
any undertaking that offers the least chance of
profit. It is to this point especially that I would
draw the attention of Americans.* Though thou-
sands of millions have been spent in rendering
England the most habitable country in the world, in
making bad land good, on fences, farm buildings,
roads, bridges, canals and docks, on the opening
of mines, the building of manufactories and ware-
houses, not to mention houses, still it appears as
if thousands of millions would be forthcoming
for similar purposes, if there were but room for
carrying such purposes into effect. Abundance/
of CAPITAL invested, and ready to be invested, is
the most marked, nay the peculiar, characteristic
*
"The great public work in this part of the United States
in which the people are engaged, is the canal between the
Chesapeake and the Ohio rivers, that is, between George Town
and Washington on the one hand, and Pittsburgh on the
western side of the Alleghany ridge on the other. This pro-
digious work, which is now in progress, is estimated by General
Barnard at about twenty-two millions of dollars. The sum of
fifteen hundred thousand dollars subscribed by the citizens of
Washington, George Town and Alexandria, on the Potomac,
has been obtained from Dutch capitalists, the house of Messrs.
Crommelin of Amsterdam." Three years in North America, by
James Stuart, Esq. vol 2, page 62.—Third Edition.
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
13
of England. By guessing at what it would take
to put France, or one of the American states, into
the same condition as England, with respect to
the improvement of land, to farm buildings,
roads, bridges, canals, wharfs, docks, manufac-
tories, warehouses and machinery, &c., we may
form some idea of the degree in which the fixed
capital of the English exceeds that of the French
or Americans: and yet the French or Americans,
who have invested so small a capital in compari-
son with that invested by the English, have far
less than the English ready for investment.*
Money makes money, says the proverb; which,
translated into the language of modern science,
means that capital creates capital. In America,
where there is so much room for the investment
of capital, because so little capital has been in-
vested, innumerable works, holding out the cer-
tainty of large profits, are projected, but for want
of capital are not begun; while in England, where,
by reason of the vast masses of capital already
invested, there seems but little room for the pro-
fitable investment of more, millions accumulate
#
* "The canal (at Louisville) is two miles in the length, cut
out of the solid rock, and in some places forty feet deep, and
is of sufficient width to allow the largest class of steam boats
to pass. Dry docks are to be constructed for the repairing of
steam boats. There is at present a want of funds; but the work
is so far advanced that there is no risk of its not being com-
pleted." Stuart, vol. 2, page 290.
14
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
so rapidly that funds are never wanted for even
the most hazardous undertakings. How to ob-
tain capital is the question in America; * what
to do with their capital is the puzzle of the
English. In this difficulty the English build
Waterloo bridges, which yield no profit, send
goods to be sold in distant countries at less than
prime cost, squander millions on South American
speculations, lay out immense sums in the pur-
chase of foreign securities, and lend money, by
tens of millions at a time, to North American
States, South American anarchies, and European
tyrants great or small. If the wealth of a society
depend on the proportion which capital bears to
numbers, then, it is clear, the English are the
richest people in the world.
What are the causes of the enormous wealth
of England? This question has never been an-
swered to the satisfaction of Americans; who,
descended from the English, using their lan-
guage, able to use their knowledge, paying fewer
taxes than the English, cultivating a much more
fertile soil, and as well protected, to say the least,
in the enjoyment of property, cannot perceive, in
the reasons usually given for the peculiar wealth
of England, any circumstance peculiar to the
English. This question I propose to examine
with a view to show, here, why the English are
* The state of Louisiana has lately borrowed a great sum of
the English.
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
15
so much richer than the Americans; and, further
on, how the Americans might become as rich as
the English, if not richer. The question is of no
little importance to the English themselves, and
is full of the deepest interest to all new societies,
like the American States and the English colonies
in America and Australia.
All wealth being the produce of industry, it is
evident that the wealth of a society must depend
on the degree in which the productive powers of
industry are improved by that society. What are
the greatest improvements in the productive
powers of industry; improvements, I mean, be-
yond that simple exertion of power, which in two
individuals of equal strength, working separately
in the same way, would raise equal amounts of
produce? Adam Smith has said that the great-
est improvement in the productive powers of
industry is division of labour; others have dwelt
on the great effects of machinery; and some again
have taken pains to show, what is self evident,
that the productive powers of industry are greatly
increased by the use of capital. Unquestionably
capital, machinery which is capital, and "divi-
sion of labour," tend to increase the quantity of
produce in proportion to the number of hands
employed; but none of these improvements are
primary causes, as some of them, and especially
"division of labour," have been considered by
political economists; each of them, on the con-
16
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
trary, though an immediate cause, is the effect of
some antecedent cause. One cannot use capital
merely by wishing to use it, nor can a single
workman practice "division of labour," but the
use of capital and "division of labour" result
from some anterior improvement. What then is
the first improvement in the productive powers
of industry, that improvement on which others.
depend?
In the most simple operation of industry,-in
that, for example, which savages perform when
they hunt for subsistence,-two persons assisting
each other would obtain more game in a given
time than two persons hunting each by himself
without concert; just as two greyhounds, run-
ning together, will kill more hares than four grey-
hounds running separately. The very first im-
provement, therefore, in the productive powers of
industry, seems to be not division, but combi-
nation, of labour. Several individuals, by com-
bining their labour, procure more food than they
want: behold the second stage of social improve-
ment; the society has obtained a capital. The
possession of capital leads to the institution of
property: it also leads to the division of employ-
ments. Some members of the society still co-
operate in the production of food; others in
making instruments which facilitate the produc-
tion of food; and between these two parties an
exchange takes place of their respective pro-
-
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
17
ductions: commerce has begun; the power of
exchanging, on which, all economists agree, de-
pends the division of employments. But now, as
food is produced with less and less labour, the
wants of the society increase, and a still further
distribution of employments takes place: some
build houses, some make clothes and some be-
come dealers. Thus far it is plain, every step in
civilization, every improvement in the productive
powers of industry, including distribution of em-
ployments, has rested on concert or combination
amongst all the members of the society.
But, thus far, all the members of the society
are supposed to possess equal portions of capital.
Such a state of things, if it were to last, would not
admit of much further improvement in the pro-
ductive powers of industry. No man would find
others willing to employ his capital for his ad-
vantage as well as their own, rather than their own
capital for their own exclusive advantage: no man,
consequently, would have a motive for accumulat-
ing more capital than he could use with his own
hands. This is to some extent the case in new Ame-
rican settlements, where a passion for owning land
prevents the existence of a class of labourers for
hire; and where, consequently, half the crop is
sometimes left to rot upon the ground. In the
next place, so long as the capital of the society
was equally divided amongst all, it would be im-
possible to undertake any of those works which
с
18
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
require the employment of many hands and a
fixed capital. It would be quite impossible, for
instance, to build a ship or a bridge; for, even if
a sufficient number of workmen to admit of that
division of employments, which takes place in
building a ship or a bridge, should possess the
right sort of capital, and a sufficient quantity of
it to enable them to wait for distant returns,
by what means could that scattered capital be
combined? and how could the profits be divided?
Only, it would appear, by the institution of a joint
stock company; a contrivance for the combina-
tion of capital in particular works, which is used
only in the most advanced societies. Mankind
have adopted a much more simple contrivance
for promoting the accumulation of capital, and
the use of capital, when required, both in large
masses and in a fixed shape: they have divided
themselves into owners of capital and owners of
labour. But this division was, in fact, the result
of concert or combination. The capitals of all
being equal, one man saves because he expects
to find others willing to work for him; other men
spend because they expect to find some man ready
to employ them; and ifit were not for this readiness
to co-operate, to act in concert or combination,
the division of the industrious classes into capi-
talists and labourers could not be maintained.
A baker and a tailor, who deal with each other,
are said to divide their labour: if they did so in
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
19
reality, each of them would make both the bread
and the clothes which he wanted, and there would
be no intercourse between them. Co-operating,
dealing with, depending on, each other, they
combine their labour: it is the employments
which they divide; and, what is more, the divi-
sion of their employments results from the com-
bination of their labour. The two men divide
the whole work, which is to be performed by
their united labour for their common advantage.
The workmen of a pin factory are said to divide
their labour: if they did so in reality, each of
them would make all the parts of a pin. As it
is, each pin is the produce of many persons' united
labour; many persons whose labour is united in
order that the work, which it is to perform, may
be easily divided amongst them. In this case,
also, division of employments is an effect of
combination of labour. In what case is a work
divided amongst many, without combining the
labour of those who are to perform the work?
But it may be said that this is a question of
terms merely; that though there be a marked
difference between the work performed and the
labour which performs it, still, as either labour
is divided amongst the several parts of a work, or
the several parts of a work are divided amongst
several labourers, it is indifferent whether we say
division of work or division of labour. If so, by
what terms are we to express that minute division
20
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
of labour which takes place amongst the cottiers
of Ireland, the small farmers of France and most
free settlers in new colonies: a state of things,
under which each labourer works by himself, and
for himself only, with no larger capital than his
own hands can employ, without exchange, or
nearly so, and producing, even in the most favour-
able case, that of the settler,-not much more
than enough for his own subsistence. If this be
a dispute about terms only, how are we to ex-
press that combination of labour on an English
farm, or a tobacco plantation in Virginia, which
enables the English workmen or American slaves
to raise so much more produce than they could
possibly consume? The reader who may take
the trouble to find an answer to these questions,
will, I cannot help thinking, perceive, that "di-
vision of labour" is an improper term as commonly
used; and, what is of far greater consequence,
that the use of this improper term has kept out of
sight the first great improvement in the produc-
tive powers of labour, namely, combination of
power.
As for building a ship or making a road, so in
the manufacture of pins, it is necessary to em-
ploy a large capital. A large capital applied to
one purpose, may be said to be combined. A
minute division of capital, such as takes place
amongst the small farmers of France, the cottiers
of Ireland and most settlers in new colonies, is
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
21
as unfavourable to production as the minute
division of labour practised in those cases.
Combination of capital and labour, or combi-
nation of productive power, seems to be of two
distinct sorts; first, that general combination
which, if there were no restrictions on trade, would
render mankind one vast co-operative society;
general combination on which depends that
general distribution of employments, or division
of work, under which some men grow tea, some
dig for metals and others build ships, some
are farmers, some manufacturers and others mer-
chants; secondly, that particular combination, on
which depends the use of large masses of capital
and labour in particular works, and the most
beneficial division of those particular works.
Turning to the sources of the wealth of Eng-
land, her agriculture, manufactures and com-
merce, it will be seen that all these display in
the highest degree the advantages of both sorts
of combination of power.
First, as to agriculture. No part of the popu-
lation of America is exclusively agricultural,
excepting slaves and their employers who com-
bine capital and labour in particular works.
Free Americans, who cultivate the soil, follow
many other occupations. Some portion of the
furniture and tools which they use is commonly
made by themselves. They frequently build their
own houses and carry to market, at whatever
22
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
distance, the produce of their own industry. They
are spinners and weavers; they make soap and
candles, as well as, in many cases, shoes and
clothes for their own use. In America the cul-
tivation of land is often the secondary pursuit of
a blacksmith, a miller or a shopkeeper. In France
a similar division of capital and labour takes
place amongst several employments, though not
to the same extent. The number of proprietors
of land in France is supposed to exceed 5,000,000;
the number of separate holdings or pieces of land
is known to be about 10,000,000. But even
supposing that, on the average, each proprietor
owns two separate pieces of land, still it does not
follow that two pieces of land are generally cul-
tivated by one person. On the contrary, whilst
the large properties are generally divided into
several distinct farms, it does not very often
happen that two or more of the smaller properties
are united under a single farmer. Consequently,
after making a liberal deduction for land which
is not cultivated, the number of farmers or cul-
tivators, not being hired labourers, probably ex-
ceeds 5,000,000. It is further estimated, that
the number of agricultural labourers, who work
for hire, amounts, with their wives and children,
to about 5,000,000. Of these, however, not above
two fifths, or 2,000,000, can be men. If the
number of farmers be 5,000,000, and of farm
servants 2,000,000, there must be 3,000,000
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
23
farmers who employ no labourers at all. Sup-
pose each of the remaining 2,000,000 farmers
to employ one labourer, the agricultural capital
and labour of France would be divided into
5,000,000 parts, of which three fifths would be
the smallest fractions into which capital and
labour can be divided, and the remaining two
fifths would consist of fractions only twice as
large as the smallest. Since, however, some
farmers employ more than one labourer, more
than 3,000,000 farmers cannot employ any la-
bourers; and it thus appears probable, that three
fourths, at least, of the agricultural capital and
labour of France are cut up into the smallest pos-
sible fractions, into single pairs of hands, and
portions of capital such as one pair of hands can
use. Limiting the smallest fractions to three
fourths of the whole, the remaining quarter will
consist of 1,250,000 capitalists, having amongst
them 2,000,000 labourers. If 750,000 of these
capitalists employ two labourers each, 500,000
employ about one labourer each; and for each of
them, who is supposed to employ more than two
labourers, an addition must be made to that
number, each of whom employs only one labourer.
"Il faut habiter un pays," says a modern French
writer,* "où tout le monde est propriétaire, pour
* M. de Bonald (1826), quoted by Professor M'Culloch in
note XIX (Division of Property by Will) of his edition of
Smith's Wealth of Nations.
24
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
se faire une idée juste des inconvéniens et du
malheur du morcellement infini des biens terri-
toriaux." The mischief lies, however, in the
division, not of the land, but of the capital and
labour employed on the land.
One of the evils, resulting from the morcelle-
ment of agricultural capital and labour in France,
is that the farmers and farm-labourers of that
country, like those of the United States, not
being slave owners or slaves, do not confine them-
selves to one pursuit. In England, on the con-
trary, a farmer is, generally speaking, nothing
but a farmer, and an agricultural labourer works
no where but on the farm. The English farın
labourer is a miserable wretch, no doubt, because
he obtains but a very small share of the produce
of his labour; but this is a question, not of dis-
tribution, but of production. In England the
agricultural class seems to have come to an un-
derstanding with the other classes to separate its
employment from those of the manufacturer and
dealer. Except in some of the wildest and worst
cultivated districts, the practice, which is so
common in France and America, of spinning wool
by those who keep flocks, is gone quite out of
fashion, Whatever manufactured object or
mechanical work is required on an English farm,
is procured at some shop in the nearest town or
performed by some mechanic who lives in the
town. The mixed produce of American or French
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
25
agriculture is, for the most part, sold in the
nearest market, by those who raise it, to those
who consume it; while in England there is, be-
tween the producers and consumers, a distinct
class of dealers, subdivided again into particular
classes, such as cattle jobbers, dealers in corn, in
hops and in wool. An English farmer seldom
deals, even with his own labourers, for any part
of the produce of his farm; he pays for their
labour with money, which they lay out, either
directly in the nearest town, or through the me-
dium of village shopkeepers. Thus the farmer
and his men are occupied almost exclusively with
the business of the farm.
English farming is also remarkable for a pe-
culiar refinement in the distribution of employ-
ments, according to various circumstances of
soil and climate. The county of Kent is some-
what more congenial to the growth of hops than
the neighbouring county of Sussex: the Sussex
farmer, therefore, abstains from growing hops,
even for his own use; the beer which his family
drink is made of hops grown in Kent. There are
some districts especially fit for the growth of
natural and artificial grasses for fattening cattle;
and the farmer of such districts is seldom a cattle
breeder, but purchases lean cattle from jobbers,
who have purchased them from farmers in dis-
tricts best suited to the breeding of cattle.
Though the inhabitants of Norwich require a
26
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
great deal of cheese, yet the farmers thereabouts
do not attempt to supply that demand. Their
land is less suited to dairy farming than the land
in Cheshire, from which county comes great part
of the cheese consumed in Norwich; while there are
towns again in Cheshire, which obtain the greater
part of their flour from distant spots peculiarly
suited to the growth of corn. Examples without
end might be cited of this division of agricultural
employments, which seems to be carried to a
much higher pitch in England than in any other
country. In France and the United States,
though much greater differences of climate oc-
casion a more marked separation of some agri-
cultural employments, such as the production
of sugar in the Southern States for the use of the
Northern States, and of oil in the South for the
use of the North of France, still a French or
American cultivator generally seeks to raise what-
ever can be raised on his own land, which he
either wants himself, or for which there is any
demand in his own neighbourhood. The division
of agricultural employments in England is all the
more remarkable, because in England the dif
ferences of soil and climate are not very re-
markable.
The advantage which England derives from
confining her agriculturists to agricultural pur-
suits and, in various parts of the country, to that
particular mode of agriculture best suited to each
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
27
district, becomes manifest in the superior skill of
her farmers. The corn growers of Essex, Suffolk
and Norfolk, the hop growers of Kent and Wor-
cestershire, the sheep farmers of Sussex and
Hampshire, the dairy farmers of Gloucestershire
and Cheshire, the cattle-breeders and cyder-
growers of Devonshire and Herefordshire, the
breeders of horses in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire;
all these, and many more which it would be
tedious to mention, apply to their several pursuits/
a wonderful degree of knowledge, forethought
and calculation. It is rather a science than an
art which each of them pursues; storing up the
facts which come to his knowledge, and from a
knowledge of those facts adopting, as a system,
that mode of proceeding from which he expects
the most beneficial results. Thinking of the
pains which an English farmer takes in draining
and manuring his fields, in the disposition of his
land for various crops, in the selection of seeds,
in the use of the best instruments, in keeping up
or improving his fruit trees, in the management of
his working cattle, in maintaining a peculiar and
perfect race of cattle or sheep, and in subdividing
the work performed by his united labourers, one
might venture to call him a philosopher; though
the term would excite ridicule in England, where
science is almost as much despised in the abstract
as in practice it is industriously cultivated.
But the superior knowledge of English farmers
W
28
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
would be of little avail-it could not have been
acquired indeed-if their capital and labour had
been cut up into small fractional parts, as happens
generally in France and America. In agricul-
ture each farm is a particular work.
The most striking characteristic of English
farming is the combination of capital and labour
in particular works. Even in England, those
districts in which the farms are largest, and in
which each farmer employs the largest capital
and the greatest number of labourers, are known
to produce more, in proportion to the hands em-
ployed, than those less civilized districts in which
the three elements of production, land, capital
and labour, are divided into smaller portions.
But agricultural capital and labour are more
combined in those parts of England, where the
lowest degree of combination occurs, than in
those parts of France or America (slave planta-
tions excepted) which are distinguished for the
highest degree of combination. In order to ob-
serve in the United Kingdom the bad effects of
that division of capital and labour which takes
place in France or America, one must travel to
Ireland, where, in some districts, the separate
fractions of capital and labour are almost as
numerous as the cultivators. Well-informed
Frenchmen are satisfied that the division of capital
and labour in their country will, if it be carried
much further, reduce the agriculture of France
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
29
to a cottier system, like that of some parts of
Ireland, under which the produce of industry is
scarcely more than sufficient to feed those who
work. In America, truly, the smallest fraction
of capital and labour obtains a considerable pro-
duce; but then it should be remembered that,
in America, the chief element of production, the
land, is not divided into small pieces as in France
and Ireland, Hereafter I shall have occasion to
notice the causes and effects of the division of
capital and labour in America. Recurring to
the agriculture of England, the large farms of
that country exemplify the proverb-union is
force. The most scientific of English farmers, if
he were to apply his knowledge to the cultivation
of a single field, would not raise a much greater
produce than the most ignorant of Irish cottiers.
The great extent of his farm allows full scope for
the exercise of his superior knowledge. That of
which he has a superior knowledge, is the art of
cultivation on a large scale; and for the practice
of this art, capital and labour in proportion to
land are indispensable. Holding a large farm,
and employing capital and labour in proportion,
he is able to wait for distant returns, to pursue
the best course of crops, to adopt improvements
which at first bear the character of experiments,
to employ many hands in one field, at one time,
in one work, and when it is required, for a con-
siderable period of time without intermission ;
-
ކ
30
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
finally is able to make that distribution of em-
ployments amongst his labourers, which, after
combination of labour in single works, is the
greatest improvement in the productive powers of
industry. The results are obvious. By means
of drainage and manure, an immense extent of
land in England, which was once sterile, now
possesses the highest degree of fertility; and in
every part of the country, the fertility of land is
carefully preserved. In France, on the contrary,
the practice of exhausting the natural fertility of
land is general, while in America it may be des-
cribed as almost universal.* But the grand
result of the superiority of English agriculture is,
that whilst in France about two thirds, and in
America probably three quarters, of the people
are employed in agriculture, more than two
thirds, it is believed, of the people of England,
are fed by the agricultural industry of less than
one-third. The greatness of England, notwith-
standing laws which forbid her manufacturers
to exchange the produce of their industry for
the surplus food of other countries, is incompre-
hensible to a foreigner until he observes the
excellence of her agriculture. That excellence
consists in raising from a given extent of land,
without impoverishing the land, and, with a given
* The causes of the exhaustion of land in the United States
are explained in the Note on the Origin, Progress and Pro-
spects, of Slavery in America.
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
31
number of hands, a far greater produce than re-
sults from the labour of the same number of hands,
on the same extent of soil, in any part of the world.*
Less than one third of the people being en-
gaged in agriculture, more than two thirds are
set free, as it were, to follow other pursuits. Of
these, a considerable proportion are engaged in
manufactures. The vastness of the produce of
English manufacturing industry, in proportion
to the number of hands employed, may be roughly
estimated by three separate considerations: first,
the power of tens of millions of men is obtained
from steam, which produces without consuming;
secondly, notwithstanding a load of English re-
strictions on trade, the English are, by means of
their manufactures, the greatest commercial
people in the world; thirdly, notwithstanding
heavy taxation and the high price of food in
England, objects of English manufacture are so
cheap as to drive out of any market, where fair
* "No one will presume to say that the agriculture of
France is nearly as well improved as that of Britain—that it is
not indeed a hundred years behind ours, and yet while there
are more than two thirds of the people of France employed in
this inferior cultivation, less than one third of our people
suffice to carry on the infinitely superior system of cultivation
adopted in this country. It is in this single circumstance that
the great superiority of our domestic economy over that of the
French chiefly consists." Professor M'Culloch's Edition of
Smith's Wealth of Nations-Note XIX. vol. 4, page 475.
32
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
competition is allowed, similar objects made any
where but in England.
As in agriculture, so in manufactures, every
improvement in the productive powers of industry
may be traced to general and particular com-
bination of power, leading to general and par-
ticular division of employment.
The same complete division of employments,
which makes the English farmer nothing but a
farmer, makes all the English people who are en-
gaged in manufactures nothing but manufacturers.
Further, whilst in France and America the capital
of one man is frequently divided amongst several
different manufactures, the attention of the
English manufacturing capitalist is confined,
almost, exclusively, to a single object. Thus the
English manufacturer is, as such, a man of single
purpose, "a man with one idea." Hence that
earnest, unremitting and successful pursuit of
improvement, which is conspicuous in every
branch of English manufacture.
Another peculiarity in English manufactures
seems worthy of remark; I allude to the con-
gregation in one place of vast numbers who are
engaged in the same branch of manufacture. In
some cases, no doubt, the main seat of a par-
ticular fabric is determined by natural circum-
stances, such as abundance of coal or iron, or
falling water in other cases it appears to have
been settled by accident. In every case, how-
G
C
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
33
ever, that congregation of numbers engaged in
the same pursuit, by promoting the interchange
of many persons' thoughts on one all-engrossing
subject, by exciting the inventive powers, by pre-
venting a fortunate discoverer from monopolizing
the use of his invention, and above all, by stimu-
lating competition, must have had a large share
in the progress of improvement.
The great effects of particular combination are
still more plain. For the success of some fabrics,
a high and constant temperature is required.
This could not be obtained by any one of a num-
ber of small manufacturers: it is easily obtained
by him who employs a large capital, and collects
a great many people under one roof. There is
scarcely any fabric of which the produce, in pro-
portion to the hands employed, is not greatly
augmented by the use of steam power; but it is
of the essence of steam power to give effect to the
labour of united numbers. The general use of
steam power in England depends, therefore, on
the combination of capital and labour in parti-
cular works. The distribution amongst many
hands of the several parts of a particular work is
greatly facilitated by the congregation of many
hands under one roof. In England, accordingly,
all the most flourishing manufactures are carried
on in large factories, with large capitals, and by
a great number of hands, brought together for
the purpose of distributing amongst them the
D
:
34
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
several parts of each work. Those manufactures
which are conducted by small fractions of capital
and labour, such as the silk works of Spitalfields
and the lace works of Buckinghamshire, are
rapidly perishing: that is, they are in the course
of being superseded by the use of large factories;
those which have been mentioned, by the large
silk factories of Macclesfield and Manchester, and
by the large lace factories of Nottingham and
Tiverton. Universally, indeed, throughout all
the branches of English manufactures, as in all
of them there is an obvious tendency to improve-
ment, so in all of them one observes a tendency
to increased combination of capital and labour in
particular works.
The commerce of England, both domestic and
foreign, exhibits like her agriculture and manu-
factures, a high degree of combination of power,
both general and particular. The whole com-
mercial work performed by the people of England
is so admirably distributed, that one might ima-
gine it to be under the control of a single will;
while no particular operation languishes for want
of sufficient force to carry it on. In vain might
the state of New York have projected the Erie
canal, if a supply of labour for completing it
had not been obtained from Ireland: that great
work was performed by Irishmen, and could not
have been performed with American free labour,
which, for reasons to be stated hereafter, cản
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
35
seldom be used in combination.* The peculiar
skill with which the English apply capital and
labour to the business of exchange, might be
proved by a thousand facts: four of the most
remarkable will suffice for this general notice.
First, while in France or America, the prices of
the same commodity are often very different at
different but not very distant places, all over
England prices are nearly always on a level :
secondly, it is estimated that the rail road be-
tween Manchester and Liverpool saves 600,000%.
a year on the cost of carriage for goods and pas-
sengers between those two towns only: thirdly,
* "The truth is," says Captain Basil Hall in a letter to Mr.
Wilmot Horton, published by the latter, "that there is no
hired labouring class, properly so called, in any part of Ame
rica, excepting where the ground is tilled by negro slaves: I mean
that there is no class of men who support themselves, per-
manently, by wages derived from labouring in the service of
others. There is, in fact, no labour to be had for hire, of such
a sort, at least, as to produce permanently a return greater than
the wages which such hired labourer requires. I speak now
of agricultural labour; and I may say that it is almost an
axiom in those countries, that there is no productive labour in the
fields of a new country, except that which results from the sweat of
the proprietor's own brow. Canals and other casual public works,
and other menial service of the cities, and even the smaller
towns, must, of course, be done by hirelings; but I must again
and again remark that it is the characteristic feature of all
kinds of labour in those countries to be for the time only."
"The workmen employed (in making a road in New York
State) are chiefly Irish." Stuart, vol. 2, page 492.
36
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
the best informed persons concur in supposing,
that twenty-nine thirtieths, at least, of the cur-
rency of the northern manufacturing districts
consist of bills of exchange, which, though they
circulate with much greater ease than silver or
gold, cost next to nothing: fourthly, the foreign
and domestic bills of exchange payable by bankers
in London, which often amount to some millions
in one day, instead of being presented for pay-
ment each bill to the house on which it is drawn,
are all carried to the same spot, where a general
exchange of bills takes place amongst the several
houses; and in this way, one clerk from each
house performs in an hour or two, and without
any money, a work which, if each bill had been
presented to the house on which it was drawn,
would have required the labour of several clerks,
from all the houses, during many hours, and the
use of some millions of money.
This brief notice of the sources of England's
wealth shows why that wealth is so great in pro-
portion to the number of people who enjoy it;
and the more the subject shall be examined the
more plainly, I feel assured, will it appear, that,
in all countries, the produce of industry must be
in proportion to the degree in which capital and
labour are combined and employments are divided.
But it may be said that this is an idle speculation,
leading to no conclusions of practical utility;
that, whether or not the great wealth of England
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
37
be owing to combination of power, the English
will continue to pursue that course which they
find so productive; and that other nations will
not follow their example one day sooner in con-
sequence of perceiving the causes of their wealth.
To meet such observations, I offer the following
conclusions, derived from the principle that, as
respects the produce of industry, union is force.
1. I have said that combination of power ap-
pears to be of two distinct kinds, general and
particular, leading to two distinct kinds of divi-
sion of employments. But this distinction has
been drawn merely for the purpose of explaining
a principle not hitherto noticed. Considering
the operation of industry throughout the world as
one great work, it will be seen that all the parts
of the work, from so great a part as the growth
of tea in China, to so small a one as the making
of a pin's head in England, are productive in pro-
portion to the degree in which men help each
other. Here, then, we perceive exactly, how war
between nations, and restrictions on trade, in-
terfere with the production of wealth; how
friendly intercourse amongst different nations, by
promoting concert or combination, on which de-
pends division of employments, adds to the general
powers of industry; how facilities of communica-
tion amongst different countries, and in each
country, promote the increase of wealth; how a
new road or canal enables more people to live in
38
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
comfort; and how millions owe all their enjoy-
ments, nay, their very existence, to the institution
of the post for letters.
2. From considering the increase of productive
power derived from combination, one perceives
how various tenures of land in different countries,
and in the same country, influence the production
of wealth. Three examples will suffice. The
poverty of French agriculture,—the large propor-
tion of the people of France who are engaged in
agriculture, leaving but a small proportion for
other pursuits,-is owing to the law of division,
which at a Frenchman's death cuts up his estate
into portions as numerous as his children. In
Ireland, again, it is the minute subdivision of
land, which causes a minute subdivision of capital
and labour, and renders the produce of agricul-
tural industry, in proportion to the hands em-
ployed, so much less than that of the same kind
of industry in England. Lastly, a history of co-
lonization would show, that all new colonies,
having a vast territory at their disposal, have
prospered or languished according as the govern-
ments by which they were founded took care, or
neglected, to dispose of the land to be colonized
with a view to combination of power amongst the
colonists. In the case of the last colony founded
by England, the greatest pains were taken to dis-
perse the colonists, to cut up their capital and
labour into the smallest fractional parts, whence
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
39
a miserable failure with all the elements of
success; but on this subject I have to dwell at
length in another place.*
3. By ascertaining how much the productive-
ness of English industry depends on the most
artificial combination of labour and division of
employments; by perceiving the extreme compli-
cation of the machine which produces the wealth
of England, and the close dependence of all its
parts upon each other, the English may learn the
peculiar evils which any serious political convul-
sion would inflict on them.
After exhausting the language of admiration in
a description of the actual wealth of England,
one might suppose that in this respect the Eng-
lish could make no further progress. This would
be a mistake. It would be hard to name a single
instance of the wealth of England, which does
not exhibit, at this present time, a tendency to
improvement. Though of late years the roads
of England have been reckoned the best in the
world, yet on every great road, and many cross
roads, some striking improvement is now taking
place. Though the carriage and foot pavements
of English towns have long been celebrated as
perfect, yet these are, as well in country towns as
in London, in the course of being greatly im-
proved. The number of good houses in London,
"
*
* Note XII.
40
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
and of people who can afford to keep a carriage,
astonishes a foreigner; yet in every direction new
houses of this class are in the course of being built;
and no sooner are a hundred of them finished,
than they are all occupied and each of them has
a carriage at the door. In ninety-nine out of a
hundred old streets, all over England, you will
find new houses greatly superior to those by their
side. The difference in point of utility and ap-
pearance between old houses which are pulled
down in London and those which take their
place, is, universally, almost as great as the dif
ference between the old and new London bridges;
a difference, which is striking to the English
themselves, and is grateful even to such of them
as, hating innovation, love to talk of the wisdom
of their ancestors. But a catalogue of those ob-
jects, which exhibit the actual progress of im-
provement in England, would comprise nearly all
that is necessary, useful or agreeable, to English-
men: it would include every useful or ornamental
art, from the great arts of printing, architecture,
engineering, painting and sculpture, down to the
lowest occupation of human industry; besides
the whole list of sciences, from the most im-
portant, such as chemistry, medicine and govern-
ment, down to the meanest department of human
knowledge. In England, improvement is every
where. In England, advancement from good to
better is a universal principle. Where all this
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
41
Sober
will end, who shall venture to predict?
imaginations are confounded by observing the
very rapid progress, which wealthy and civi-
lized England is at this time making in wealth
and civilization.
42
NOTE II.
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
Who are the bulk of the people-misery of the
bulk of the people a favourite topic in England
-proofs of misery-what is a pauper-fac-
tory children-Irish wages-increase of gin
shops-cheapness of English children-murder
of parish apprentices-other trades in pauper
children—climbing boys-prostitutes-cheapness
of women-degradation of the common people-
the common people are too cheap to be happy.
AMONGST Our wise ancestors the bulk of the
people was slaves, as is still the case in Russia and
the southern states of North America. In modern
states, which deserve to be called civilized, a part
of the people consists of the labouring class; that
is, a class, whose only property is their labour,
and who live by the sale of that property to the
other classes. The proportion which the labour
ing class bears to the other classes, is very dif-
ferent in several of the most civilized modern
states. In the northern states of the American
union, it may be doubted whether so many as a
tenth of the people would fall under the descrip-
tion of hired labourers.* In France, the morcelle-
*"Although it is not a general practice for gentlemen in
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 43
ment of land has converted a very large portion
of the people into the class of proprietors of land.
Deducting from the remainder the class of
capitalists, those who live on government an-
nuities, soldiers, and indeed all who do not labour
for wages, the labouring class, properly so called,
will not be estimated at more than a third of the
whole population. In Ireland the cottier system
takes a great majority of the people out of the
class of hired labourers, and turns them into some-
thing between capitalists and workmen. In
Spain and Portugal, if these may be called civil-
ized nations, the class of people who sell their
labour, who live by wages, seem to be very small
indeed. In some of the Italian states, hired
labourers bear a small proportion to the other
classes. On the continent of Europe, the propor-
tion of hired labourers appears to be greatest
in Holland. But in England, where the system
of large farms is established, where a great part
of the population is engaged in manufactures,
and where, in every department of industry, a
complete separation has taken place between
Mr. Verplank's situation in this part of the United States, in
which I mean to comprehend the populous parts of New York
States, Pensylvania and New England, to be thus actively em-
ployed in agricultural operations, I mean actually to work with
their farm servants, nothing is more common in the United
States, taken as a whole, than for proprietors to work in the
field at the same occupation as their servants." Stuart, Vol. 1,
page 460.
-
44 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPle.
capitalists and workmen, the labouring class
compose the bulk of the people. The bulk of the
people, the great body of the people, the vast
majority of the people, these are the terins, by
which English writers and speakers usually de-
scribe those whose only property is their labour.
If there be one subject in particular upon which
Englishmen love to dwell, it is the misery and
degradation of the bulk of the people. Every
year that melancholy subject forms the matter of
numerous petitions to the legislature, of many
speeches in parliament, of discussion at public
meetings in all parts of the country, of some
large volumes, of innumerable pamphlets, and
of frequent, one might say constant, remarks
in nearly all newspapers, and in all political
magazines. There are some cheap newspapers,
written expressly for the labouring class, which
treat of scarce anything else; and the political
sect called Owenites talk of nothing else. But
the writers of these cheap newspapers, and these
sectaries, differ from writers and speakers of
the conservative or tory party only as to the way
of curing the misery of the bulk of the people.
The Standard newspaper, Blackwood's Magazine,
and the Quarterly Review, all high tory journals,
dwell on the prevalence of misery with as much
zeal as the Poor man's Guardian, and other radi-
cal publications. Mr. Owen, Mr. Carlile and Mr.
Cobbett do not appear more anxious than Mr.
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 45
Sadler and Dr. Southey to remove the misery of
the working classes. Mr. Sadler who, by the
way, has written a large book on the causes and
remedies of pauperism, lately declared in the
house of commons that the working classes in
England are white slaves. It was a tory bishop
who first called the attention of the house of lords
to the fact, that Englishmen are harnessed to
carts like cattle. Mr. Wilmot Horton, after Mr.
Sadler the most industrious writer and speaker
on the subject of pauperism, who lately delivered
a course of lectures on that subject at the London
mechanic's institution, was a member of parlia-
ment, a privy counsellor and a tory. Concerning
the misery and degradation of the bulk of the
people of England, men of every order, as well as
every party, unite and speak continually; farmers,
parish officers, clergymen, magistrates, judges on
the bench, members on either side of both houses
of parliament, the king in his addresses to the
nation, moralists, statesmen, philosophers; and
finally the poor creatures themselves, whose com-
plaints are loud and incessant.
Of comprehensive words, the two most fre-
quently used in English politics are distress and
pauperism. After these, of expressions applied to
the state of the poor, the most common are vice and
misery, wretchedness, sufferings, ignorance, degra-
dation, discontent, depravity, drunkenness, and the
increase of crime; with many more of a like nature.
•
g
46
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
The measures which have been gravely proposed
as remedies for the misery of the English working
classes amount to, at least, nineteen; namely, a
fall of rent; the conversion of tythes to the use of
the poor; more protection for home manufactures;
the repeal of the corn laws; abolition of the poor
laws; correction of the poor laws; poor laws for
Ireland; spade husbandry; home colonization;
gardens and cows for the poor; abolition of the
national debt; other modes of lessening taxation;
a more liberal expenditure by the government;
more paper money; emigration; universal educa-
tion; universal suffrage; moral restraint, or pro-
miscuous intercourse; and property in common,
or rather no property at all. Each of these speci-
fics is earnestly recommended by its partizans,
and as vehemently opposed by the partizans of
nearly all the others; but on two points nearly
all parties agree. They concur in describing as
excessive the evil which it is their object to cure,
and in expressing their solemn belief that, unless
a remedy be found for it, some dreadful convulsion
must ensue. Upon the latter of these points I
shall have to remark in another place; the former
is the proper subject of this note.
There are proofs without end of the misery of
the bulk of the English people. The late insur-
rection of the peasantry of the South of England,
and the modern practice of burning farm-produce,
are universally attributed to the misery and dis-
·
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 47
content of those unfortunate beings. If the Eng÷
lish had been a martial people, those forlorn men,
once roused as they were, would either have des-
troyed the classes whom they consider their op-
pressors or have perished in a servile war. White
slaves, they have been very properly called. It
was some of this class, whom a bishop described
as being harnessed to carts like cattle. In Ame-
rica, too, they harness men to carts; but then
they treat them as valuable cattle; give them
plenty to eat; shelter them from the weather;
keep them in good heart; and bring up their
little ones in clover. English slaves are harnessed
to carts, and ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill housed, and
variously ill-treated into the bargain. American
slaves live longer than their masters, while Eng-
lish slaves die prematurely of hunger, wet, cold
and sorrow. In America the increase of slaves,
in one way only, that is, by births, is more rapid
than the increase of free people in three ways, by
births, by the emancipation of slaves, and by im-
migration and the proportion of slaves being
a hundred years old is 1 in 1400, while the
same proportion of whites is 1 in about 14000;
showing a difference of 10 to 1 in favour of the
longevity of slaves. The peasant of the South of
England suffers nearly all the evils, but enjoys
none of the advantages of slavery. He is not a
freeman, nor is he a slave; he is a pauper. What
a pauper is, Americans may learn from the fol-
1
W
48
MISERY. OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
lowing description of the "bold peasantry of
England,” which I extract from one of the count-
less pamphlets on pauperism lately written by
Englishmen.
"What is that defective being, with calfless
legs and stooping shoulders, weak in body and
mind, inert, pusillanimous, and stupid, whose
premature wrinkles and furtive glance tell of
misery and degradation? That is an English
peasant or pauper; for the words are synonymous.
His sire was a pauper, and his mother's milk
wanted nourishment. From infancy his food has
been bad as well as insufficient; and he now feels
the pains of unsatisfied hunger nearly whenever
he is awake. But half-clothed, and never sup-
plied with more warmth than suffices to cook his
scanty meals, cold and wet come to him, and stay
by him, with the weather. He is married, of
course; for to this he would have been driven by
the poor laws, even if he had been, as he never
was, sufficiently comfortable and prudent to dread
the burden of a family. But, though instinct
and the overseer have given him a wife, he has
not tasted the highest joys of husband and father.
His partner and his little ones being like himself,
often hungry, seldom warm, sometimes sick with-
out aid, and always sorrowful without hope, are
greedy, selfish, and vexing; so, to use his own
expression, he "hates the sight of them," and
resorts to his hovel only because a hedge affords
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE people: 49
less shelter from the wind and rain. Compelled
by parish law to support his family, which means
to join them in consuming an allowance from the
parish, he frequently conspires with his wife to
get that allowance increased, or prevent its being
diminished. This brings begging, trickery, and
quarrelling; and ends in settled craft. Though
he have the inclination, he wants the courage to
become, like more energetic men of his class, a
poacher or smuggler on a large scale; but he
pilfers occasionally, and teaches bis children to
lie and steal. His subdued and slavish manner
towards his great neighbours shows that they
treat him with suspicion and harshness. Con-
sequently he at once dreads and hates them; but
he will never harm them by violent means. Too
degraded to be desperate, he is only thoroughly
depraved. His miserable career will be short:
rheumatism and asthma are conducting him to
the workhouse, where he will breathe his last
without one pleasant recollection, and so make
room for another wretch who may live and die
in the same way. This is a sample of one class
of English peasants. Another class is com-
posed of men, who, though paupers to the extent
of being in part supported by the parish, were
not bred and born in extreme destitution, and
who, therefore, in so far as the moral depends on
the physical man, are qualified to become wise,
virtuous and happy. They have large muscles,
E
50
MISERY OF THE BULK of the PEOPLE,
an upright mien, and a quick perception. With
strength, energy, and skill, they would earn a
comfortable subsistence as labourers, if the mo-
dern fashion of paying wages out of the poor box
did not interfere with the due course of things,
and reduce all the labourers of a parish, the old
and the young, the weak and the strong, the idle
and the industrious, to that lowest rate of wages,
or rather of weekly payment to each, which in
each case is barely sufficient for the support of
life. If there were no poor laws, or if the poor
laws were such that labour was paid in propor-
tion to the work performed, and not according to a
scale founded on the power of gastric juice under
various circumstances, these superior men would
be employed in preference to the inferior beings
described above, would earn twice as much as
the others could earn, and would have every
motive for industry, providence, and general good
conduct. As it is, their superior capacity as la-
bourers is of no advantage to them. They have
no motive for being industrious or prudent.
What they obtain between labour and the rate
is but just enough to support them miserably.
They are tempted to marry for the sake of an extra
allowance from the parish: and they would be
sunk to the lowest point of degradation but for
the energy of their minds, which they owe to their
physical strength. Courage and tenderness are
said to be allied: men of this class usually make
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 51
:
good husbands and affectionate parents.
Im-
pelled by want of food, clothes and warmth, for
themselves and their families, they become poa-
chers wherever game abounds, and smugglers
when opportunity serves. By poaching or smug-
gling, or both, many of them are enabled to fill
the bellies of their children, to put decent clothes
on the backs of their wives, and to keep the cot-
tage whole, with a good fire in it, from year's end
to year's end. The villains! why are they not taken
up? They are taken up sometimes, and are hunted
always, by those who administer rural law. In this
way they learn to consider two sets of laws,-
those for the protection of game, and those for
the protection of home manufactures,-as speci-
ally made for their injury. Be just to our unpaid
magistrates! who perform their duty even to the
shedding of man's blood, in defence of pheasants
and restrictions on trade. Thus the bolder sort
of husbandry labourers, by engaging in murder-
ous conflicts with gamekeepers and preventive
men, become accustomed to deeds of violence,
and, by living in jails, qualified for the most des-
perate courses. They also imbibe feelings of
dislike, or, rather, of bitter hatred, towards the
rural magistracy, whom they regard as oppressors
and natural enemies; closely resembling, in this
respect, the defective class of peasants from whom
they differ in so many particulars. Between these
two descriptions of peasantry there is another,
52
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
which partakes of the characteristics of both
classes, but in a slighter degree, except as regards
their fear and hatred of the rural aristocracy. In
the districts where paupers and game abound, it
would be difficult to find many labourers not
coming under one of these descriptions. By
courtesy, the entire body is called the bold pea-
santry of England. But is nothing done by the
"nobility, clergy, and gentry," to conciliate the
affection of the pauper mass by whose toil all
their own wealth is produced? Charity! The
charity of the poor laws, which paupers have been
taught to consider a right, which operates as a
curse to the able-bodied and well-disposed, whilst
it but just enables the infirm of all ages to linger
on in pain and sorrow. Soup! Dogs'-meat, the
paupers call it. They are very ungrateful; but
there is a way of relieving a man's necessities
which will make him hate you; and it is in this
way, generally, that soup is given to the poor.
Books, good little books, which teach patience
and submission to the powers that be! With
which such paupers as obtain them usually boil
their kettles, when not deterred by fear of the
reverend donor. Of this gift the design is so
plain and offensive, that its effect is contrary to
what was intended, just as children from whom
obedience is very strictly exacted are commonly
rebels at heart. What else? is nothing else done
by the rural rich to win the love of the rural
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 53
poor? Speaking generally, since all rules have
exceptions, the privileged classes of our rural dis-
tricts take infinite pains to be abhorred by their
poorest neighbours. They inclose commons, They
stop footpaths. They wall in their parks. They
set spring-guns and man-traps. They spend on
the keep of high bred dogs what would support
half as many children, and yet persecute a la-
bouring man for owning one friend in his cur.
They make rates of wages, elaborately calculating
the minimum of food that will keep together the
soul and body of a clodhopper. They breed
game in profusion for their own amusement, and
having thus tempted the poor man to knock down
a hare for his pot, they send him to the treadmill,
or the antipodes, for that inexpiable offence. They
build jails, and fill them. They make new crimes
and new punishments for the poor. They inter-
fere with the marriages of the poor, compelling
some, and forbidding others to come together.
They shut up paupers in workhouses, separating
husband and wife, in pounds by day, and wards
by night. They harness poor men to carts. They
superintend alehouses, decry skittles, deprecate
beer-shops, meddle with fairs, and otherwise cur-
tail the already narrow amusements of the poor.
Even in church, where some of them solemnly
preach that all are equal, they sit on cushions, in
pews, boarded, matted, and sheltered by curtains
from the wind and the vulgar gaze, whilst the
54 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
lower order must put up with a bare bench on à
stone floor, which is good enough for them.
Every where they are ostentatious in the display
of wealth and enjoyment; whilst in their inter-
course with the poor they are suspicious, quick
at taking offence, vindictive when displeased,
haughty, overbearing, tyrannical and wolfish; as
it seems in the nature of man to be towards such
of his fellows as, like sheep, are without the
power to resist."
In the parishes of the north of England the
system of pauperism has not been so generally
established. This difference is commonly attri-
buted to the prevalence of manufactures in the
north. But then, the misery of the labouring
class employed in manufactures, though different
in some respects from the misery that attends the
pauper system, is equal to it in degree, if not
more obvious and deplorable. Last year a mass
of evidence was laid before parliament touching
the condition of children employed in factories,
which describes a system of torture, compared
with which the treatment of American slaves ap-
pears truly benevolent. When this evidence was
published the whole press of England repeated,
day after day, that the worst kind of slavery ex-
ists in England. Children of tender years, it was
shown, babies they would be called in America,
are shut up in factories during 12, 14 and 16
hours every week day, and there compelled to
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 55
work incessantly, or as hard, at least, as their
slight frames will permit, and for wages which
but just satisfy their ruined appetites. The pale
cheeks, parched lips, swoln stomachs, deformed
limbs and melancholy looks, of these little wretches
will be easily imagined. They die off with strange
rapidity; but the places of those who perish are
instantly filled, and a frequent change of persons
makes no alteration in the scene.
To remedy this evil a law is proposed, to fix
within some limit dictated by common humanity
the number of hours during which children shall
be employed in factories. But let us suppose
that a law should be passed, of which the huma-
nity would not appear extravagant, to forbid
altogether the employment of young children in
factories. The consequence of such a law must
be, that the parents of children who had been
employed in factories would no longer be able to
support those children. No parent, no mother,
who has the means of supporting a child at home,
sends it to be worked to death in a factory: un-
less we are to suppose, what has, indeed, been
asserted by some, that the working class in the
manufacturing districts are so deeply degraded
as to sell their children's labour, or lives, delibe-
rately for the sake of gin. Not believing this
assertion, though it may be true in a few cases,
it appears to me that the only choice of the pa-
rents lies between two evils; on the one hand
56
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
the factory, with its probable result, death by
disease of which the progress is hardly percep-
tible; on the other, immediate, palpable starva-
tion at home. Such a law as I have supposed
would deprive the parents of this choice, would
compel them to suffer that evil which, since they
seek to avoid it, they appear to consider the
greater of the two. I make this remark, not to
disparage the humanity of those who would pass
laws for the mitigation of English slavery, but
for the purpose of explaining, that the misery of
these factory children results from the misery of
their parents: they are all miserable, fathers,
mothers, and children.
Though the remote causes of their misery form
the subject of endless controversy, its immediate
cause seems as plain as that two and two make
four. Their only property is their labour. They
take this property to market. They find the
market overstocked with labour: there are more
sellers than buyers. The sellers, in order to live,
undersell each other, till they reduce the market-
price of their property to what political econo-
mists call the minimum of wages,-to that sum,
namely, which will barely supply the labourer
with necessaries according to his estimate of what
is necessary. In every condition of life an Eng-
lishman's estimate of what is necessary rises
above that which is formed by people of the same
rank in most other countries. To an European
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 57
labourer clothes are necessary to a Hindoo la-
bourer they are not. The necessary clothes of an
English labourer are better than those of a French
labourer. An English workman considers bread
necessary; an Irish workman is content with
potatoes. If, therefore, the English markets of
labour were confined to Englishmen, and if, above
all, pains were taken to raise still higher the
English labourer's estimate of what is necessary,
the minimum of wages in England would pro-
bably become sufficient to support all labourers
in a state of decency and comfort. But the Eng-
lish markets of labour, and especially those of
manufacturing labour are not confined to Eng-
lishmen they are full of Irish labourers, who fly
from Ireland to escape death by famine. These,
whose estimate of necessary wages is a hovel, rags
and potatoes, by underselling the English work-
man, by consenting to work for the lowest wages
that will support life, compel the English labourer
to adopt the same course, and thus reduce the
general minimum of wages to a wretched pittance.
The Irish workman is content with his wretched-
ness ;
the English workman is not. Here lies
the only difference between them. The discontent
of the English, if properly encouraged, might
soon lead to a higher minimum of wages, were it
not for the competition of the Irish. It is the
competition of Irish labour, which ruins the ma-
nufacturing population of England. In some dif
58
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
ficult manufactures, truly, where the labour of
the barbarous and easily satisfied Irishman would
not be worth having at any price, we find a rate
of wages, high when compared with that which
always attends Irish competition. But improve-
ments in the use of steam power, rendering the
work performed by man's labour more simple and
easy, have lately diminished, and will still further
diminish, the number of those difficult manufac-
tures; which already must be considered as ex-
ceptions to the general rule. In English manu-
factures, the general rule is Irish wages.
English work and Irish wages!" Peter Moreau,"
says P. L. Courier in his Village Gazette-" Peter
Moreau and his wife are dead, aged twenty-five
years. Too much work has killed them; and
many besides. We say-work like a negro, like
a galley slave: we ought to say-work like a free-
man.” I say, work like a Lancashire weaver.
There is no such work in France or America,
even amongst slaves; all day long, from Monday
morning till Saturday night, week after week, and
year after year, till the machine is worn out.
Talk of negroes and galley slaves: American
slaves, or convicts in New South Wales, are fat
and happy compared with very many free-born
Englishmen. By the way, it happens, not rarely
so as to be matter of wonder, but so often as to
pass unnoticed, that Englishmen commit crimes
for the purpose of becoming galley slaves in New
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 59
;
South Wales. They do not keep their purpose
secret; they declare it loudly, with tears and pas-
sionate exclamations, to the magistrate who com-
mits them for trial, to the jury who try them,
and to the judge who passes sentence on them
and all this is published in the newspapers, but
so often that no one exclaims-Great God, am I
in merry England! Well may judges on the
bench talk of the misery and degradation of the
people!
Of this misery and degradation, there are some
who say, the cause is gin : it may be so, but let us
see. Every one remarks the increase of gin-shops.
In all those parts of Leeds or Manchester, and of
London too, where the poorest people live, there
you find, in almost every dirty street, not one but
several fine houses, handsomely stuccoed, curi-
ously painted, ornamented with plate-glass and
polished brass; in the windows, placards inviting
custom by such expressions as "mountain dew"
and "cream of the valley?" inside, great barrels
of spirits gaily painted and disposed for show,
carved mahogany and more polished brass, with
men and women, smartly dressed, smiling wel-
come to all who enter. The doors of these splen-
did dens are carefully hung so as to fly open with
a touch and shut in an instant; whether for the
convenience of those dram-drinkers who are
ashamed of their taste, or to give to the concern
an air of mystery, which pleases the ignorant,
60 MISERY OF THE BULK OF the people.
Messrs. Thompson and Fearon can best tell.
These gentlemen, who, being rich, are highly re-
spectable, keep the largest gin shop in England;
in the world. It is situated (I mention this as a
guide to Americans visiting London) on Holborn
Hill near to Saffron Hill; a quarter in which
Irish wages prevail and pawnbrokers abound.
Here gin is served by young women dressed up
like the belle limonadière of a Paris coffee house,
and the establishment in all its parts is nearly as
fine as Verey's or the Café de Paris. There is
another great gin-shop, not much inferior to it,
a little further to the west, adjoining the gate of
Gray's Inn; two or three close by in Chancery
Lane; and twenty or thirty not far off. In half
an hour you may visit a hundred. What a con-
trast between the finery of the shops and the beg-
garly appearance of the customers! Amongst
these are few really old people; but then plenty
of the young people appear very old. Livid
cheeks, deep wrinkles, blood shot eyes, brown
teeth or white gums without teeth, skin and bone,
shaking hands, sore legs, creeping palsy, a hacking
cough, rags, filth and stench; these are marks by
which to know the regular gin-drinker. Nine
out of ten of all, who may enter the finest gin-
shop in Manchester of a Sunday morning, will
show one or more of these marks; counting wo-
men, boys and girls, as well as men, but not the
children, who, of course, are only beginners. In
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 61
some great towns of the north, they have low
counters and small glasses on purpose for the
small children: in London the children stand on
tiptoe to pay for half a glass of gin; but London
will improve. As to gin-shops, London is im-
proving most rapidly, both in number and in
finery; every week, almost every day, producing
a new gin-shop, fitted up with spring doors, plate-
glass, carved mahogany or rose wood, and po-
lished brass; all more "elegant," as they say in
America, than the gin-shops which sprung up the
week before. But the quarter of London, in
which the greatest increase of fine gin-shops has
lately taken place, is Spitalfields and its neigh-
bourhood. I have said before, that the silk
manufacture of Spitalfields is perishing. The
most zealous enemy of gin-shops does not pre-
tend that the increase of gin-shops in Spital-
fields has ruined the Spitalfields manufacture;
but the ruin of the Spitalfields manufacture may
have caused the increase of gin-shops in Spital-
fields. This is my humble opinion, founded on
the considerations which follow.
Generally, a man understands his own affairs
better than other people understand them for him.
The common people of London have a saying,
lately adopted but now proverbial-" To live, be
a pawnbroker or keep a gin-shop." Here the
increase of gin-shops is explained in ten words.
Pawnbrokers and keepers of gin-shops depend on
62
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
the common people: the common people are dis-
tressed, that is, they find it hard to live: their
distress drives them, first to the pawnbroker and
then to the gin-shop; they pawn their goods to
purchase-what? poison: yes, in the long run,
but for the moment oblivion of their misery.
Misery to the common people is wealth to pawn-
brokers and keepers of gin-shops. The common
people are very miserable; therefore the demand
for gin is very great; therefore the profits of selling
gin are very high; therefore gin-shops increase.
This conclusion is supported by some who take
pains to know the sentiments of the common
people, and who earnestly advise them to abstain
from gin; I mean members of the Temperance
Societies, quakers for the most part, diligent in
works of benevolence, gentle, patient, persevering,
not proud, but feeling with the poor as well as
for them. These, addressing the common people
in friendly and common language, say—" Believe
us, it is a mistake to suppose that gin will keep
the cold out of your stomach. The more gin
you drink, the more will you feel cold in your
stomach. What warms you to day will not have
that effect a month hence: by and by, in order
to feel warm, you must double the quantity.
But twice the quantity, as soon as you are used
to it, will not make you feel warm. The more.
you drink, the more you must drink in order to
feel warm. At last, no quantity will warm you;
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 63
your stomach will be destroyed, and you will die
of drinking gin to keep the cold out of your
stomach." This is all very true; and it shows
how well the quakers understand those feelings
of the common people which lead to dram-drink-
ing. Cold in the stomach! but neither the Spital-
fields weavers, nor their friends of the Temperance
Societies, suppose that cold is matter which enters
the stomach. Cold in the stomach is a figurative
expression, meaning either hunger or despair, or
both. "Sir," says a Spitalfields weaver, in reply
to his friendly adviser, "all that you say is true.
The more gin we drink, the more we want; but
also the less we drink gin, the more we feel the
want of something else. Give us bread, meat,
beer and fire; then we should feel warm without
gin. I am not begging: we are all ready to
work. I work, God knows, morning, noon and
night work, work, work; we have plenty of that.
If we did not work we should die outright.
But what does our work bring? work and hun-
ger, work and cold, work and sorrow.
I get
about fourteen shillings a week, out of which
there's rent to pay-we can't lie in the street,—
and clothes to find, such as they are, but we
must be covered ;-what remains for fire and
food amongst six of us, four children, their mother
and me? Enough to starve upon, and that is all.
The children cry for bread; they must wait :
their mother cries because they cry; she is sick
G
64
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
with crying and what not and wants some tea;
she must want. In cold weather we all shiver
for want of fire: the children and their mother
may lie in bed to keep themselves warm; but I,
hungry and cold, must work on. I do work ;
and when I drink gin, it is to keep myself from
going mad. I allow it-my wife drinks gin some-
times, and the children, too, poor things, now
and then, to pacify them. If you were as poor as
we are, sir, and had to work as hard as I have,
without hope, you would be apt to learn that gin
is bread, and meat, and fire, and hope, all in one.
Without gin, I should not have heart to work,
and we must all go to the poor-house; or die, for
the poor-house is choke full, and the rates are not
paid. We say cold in the stomach; but we
mean hunger in the belly and despair in the
heart. Gin cures both for a time; but it kills,
you say. Well, we can but die, with gin or with-
out; and life such as our's, without gin, is worse.
than death." Just so: those who frequent gin-
shops best know why. The gin-shops in Spital-
fields are many and magnificent because the
trade of Spitalfields is going to ruin. In other
parts of London the poverty of the common peo-
ple enriches pawnbrokers and keepers of gin-
shops. At Manchester, Bolton and Blackburn,
the cause of gin-shops is Irish wages. Verily, the
life of the bulk of the people of England is
worse than death.
-
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 65
In the slave-states of America, a strong, healthy,
boy or girl is worth about £50. In London, on the
gates of poor-houses, one reads "Strong, healthy,
boys and girls, with the usual fee; apply within."
With, not for, the usual fee: you do not pay the
fee to obtain a boy or girl; but the parish officers
pay you for taking one. The usual fee in London
is £10; so that in America you pay five times as
much as you receive in England. To be sure,
the boys and girls in London are neither strong
nor healthy: the notice on the workhouse gates
says that they are both, to invite customers, just
as the keepers of gin-shops placard their windows
with "mountain dew and cream of the valley."
But a little, a very little, care and kindness
would make the English children as strong and
healthy as young negroes in America. It is not,
therefore, the difference of strength which causes
the difference of value between young people in
Kentucky and young people in London; nor can
it be the difference of colour: on the contrary,
one might suppose that a white boy or girl would
be worth more than a black one, instead of being,
so to speak, worth £10. less than nothing.
Ah, but, says a "respectable" Englishman, the
young Americans, who cost £50. each, are born
in slavery; the others are free-born English
children. The buyer of an American child can
do what he likes with it: the English children are
merely bound apprentice for a term of years, and
F
66
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
the parish pays with each of them an apprentice
fee, as a recompense to the master for teaching
them his trade. The magistrate is a party to all
the indentures of apprenticeship; he requires the
child's consent; he cancels the bond if the child
is ill-treated. English children are protected by
our glorious, our inimitable, constitution, which
makes no difference between rich and poor: it is
absurd to compare English apprentices with
American slaves.-I answer: it is the whole press
of England, not I, that calls English children
white slaves; but, not to dispute about words,
let us come to facts. In the reign of George III.
one Elizabeth Brownrigg was hanged for beating
and starving to death her parish apprentices.
About three years ago, another woman, Esther
Hibner by name, was hanged in London for
beating and starving to death a parish apprentice.
In both these cases, the constitution, the law, which
makes no difference between rich and poor, in-
terfered on behalf of a pauper girl: but when?
not before the girl was murdered, but after.
Does the law interfere to prevent the murder of
parish apprentices?-this is the question. The
evidence in the case of Esther Hibner proved, that
a number of girls, pauper apprentices, were em-
ployed in a workshop; that their victuals con-
sisted of garbage, commonly called hog's wash,
and that of this they never had enough to stay
the pains of hunger; that they were kept half
MISERY OF THE BULK OF the people.
67
naked, half clothed in dirty rags; that they
slept in a heap, on the floor, amidst filth and
stench; that they suffered dreadfully from cold;
that they were forced to work so many hours
together that they used to fall asleep while at
work; that for falling asleep, for not working as
hard as their mistress wished, they were beaten with
sticks, with fists, dragged by the hair, dashed on to
the ground, trampled upon, and otherwise tor-
tured; that they were found, all of them more or
less, covered with chilblains, scurvy, bruises and
wounds; that one of them died of ill-treatment;
and,—mark this, that the discovery of that
murder was made in consequence of the number
of coffins which had issued from Esther Hibner's
premises and raised the curiosity of her neigh-
bours. For this murder Mrs. Hibner was hanged;
but what did she get for all the other murders
which, referring to the number of coffins, we
have a right to believe that she committed? She
got for each 101. That is to say, whenever she
had worked, starved, beaten, dashed and trampled
a girl to death, she got another girl to treat in the
same way, with 107. for her trouble. She carried
on a trade in the murder of parish apprentices;
and if she had conducted it with moderation, if
the profit and custom of murder had not made
her grasping and careless, the constitution, which
protects the poor as well as the rich, would never
have interfered with her. The law did not per-
68 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
mit her to do what she liked with her apprentices
as Americans do with their slaves; oh no. Those
free-born English children were merely bound
as apprentices, with their own consent, under the
eye of the magistrate, in order that they might
learn a trade and become valuable subjects. But
did the magistrate ever visit Mrs. Hibner's fac-
tory to see how she treated the free-born English
girls? never did the parish officers? no: was
there any legal provision for the discovery of the
woman's trade in murder? none. That woman
has not traded in murder during the last three
years; but why not? because she was hanged three
years ago but what hanged her? the glorious
constitution or the number of coffins? Plainly,
the number of coffins; that is, the impunity, the
security, with which she had murdered; the for-
lorn state of her apprentices; the utter neglect of
them by parish officers, magistrates, laws and
constitution.
Since Mrs. Hibner was hanged the inimitable
constitution has been greatly altered, but not
with respect to parish apprentices. You still
read on the gates of London poor-houses "strong,
healthy, boys and girls, &c."; and boys or girls
you may obtain by applying within, as many as
you please, free-born, with the usual fee. Having
been paid for taking them, and having gone
through the ceremonies of asking their consent
and signing bonds before a magistrate, you may
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
69
make them into sausages, for anything the con-
stitution will do to prevent you. If it should be
proved that you kill even one of them, you will
be hanged; but you may half-starve them, beat
them, torture them, anything short of killing
them, with perfect security; and using a little cir- .
cumspection, you may kill them too without
much danger. Suppose they die, who cares? their
parents? they are orphans, or have been aban-
doned by their parents. The parish-officers? very
likely indeed, that these, when the poor-house is
crammed with orphan and destitute children,
should make enquiries troublesome to them-
selves; enquiries which, being troublesome to
you, might deprive them of your custom in future.
The magistrate? he asked the child whether it
consented to be your apprentice; the child said
(6
yes, your worship ;" and there his worship's duty
ends. The neighbours? of course, if you raise
their curiosity like Esther Hibner, but not other-
wise. In order to be quite safe, I tell you, you
must be a little circumspect. But let us suppose
that you are timid, and would drive a good trade
without the shadow of risk. In that case, half-
starve your apprentices, cuff them, kick them,
torment them till they run away from you. They
will not go back to the poor-house, because there
they would be flogged for having run away from
you: besides the poor-house is any thing but a
pleasant place. The boys will turn beggars or
70 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
thieves, and the girls prostitutes you will have
pocketed 107. for each of them, and may get
more boys and girls on the same terms, to treat
in the same way. This trade is as safe as it is
profitable.
In England there are many charitable institu-
tions for assisting orphan and destitute children.
One of them, at the head of which I observe the
name of Lord Grosvenor, informs the public that
London contains, at all times, 15,000 orphan or
destitute children, houseless, prowling about the
streets, and supported by begging or robbing. By
dint of zeal, advertisements and public meetings,
this society has, I believe, found means to pro-
vide for 20 of these children. Of the 14,980
which remain, how many are run-away parish ap-
prentices? A committee of parliament might
easily learn; but parliament represents only the
payers of poors-rates, to whom an exposure of the
truth would not be agreeable.
Great things,
however, are expected of the reformed house of
commons. Should they wish for information on
this subject, I hereby undertake to put them in
the way of learning, for certain, that one-fourth,
at least, of the boys under fourteen years of age,
who pass through the prisons of London, are run-
away parish apprentices.
The American reader must not suppose that
London is the only place in England, where free-
born boys and girls may be obtained with the
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
71
usual fee of 101. for each. In all great towns the
parishes get rid of destitute children in this man-
ner; and in most of them the usual fee is 101. for
each child. In rural parishes the usual fee is
from 51. to 71.; a difference explained by the
smaller proportion which in rural parishes desti-
tute children bear to the rates, whence less
anxiety on the part of the rural overseer to get
rid of destitute children.
<<
In all England there cannot be less than five
millions of chimneys. Suppose that on the average
each chimney is swept twice a year, and that a
fifth of the whole number are swept by machinery.
If so, something like what I am going to describe
occurs eight million times every year in England.
A chimney requires to be swept, and the master
sweep attends, with a little boy. He fastens a
blanket across the fire place to prevent any soot
from falling into the room. Now watch the
child. Trembling, he draws a black bag over his
head and shoulders; the master grasps him by
the arm and guides him to the fire place; he dis-
appears up the chimney. Now watch the master.
He is motionless, his head on one side, listening
attentively. Ask him a question: "hush" is the
answer, with his finger on his lips. Presently, a
low, indistinct moaning is heard in the chimney.
William," says the master, putting his mouth to
the edge of the fire place, and speaking in a brisk
cheerful tone," that's right, William." Another
72
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
66
moan; and then-" I say William-brush it well
out, I say." Down comes a quantity of soot, and
the child is heard scraping the sides of the chim-
ney. Presently, silence; and then moaning again.
William," exclaims the master, "I say, Bill,
you've almost done ha'nt you ?" No answer; the
child's head being, remember, in a thick bag;
but the brush is heard once more, and the master
holds his tongue. Silence again; and the moan
of the child returns. This time the master shouts
-"Bill, Bill, I say, Billy, how do you get on ;"
and so on till the end of the work; whenever the
child cries, or is silent, his master shouts to him
Billy, I say Billy, my lad." This is a mild case,
without oaths, threats or blows. Ask the master
why he tormented the half-smothered boy by
speaking to him whilst his head was in the bag
up the chimney: he will say "for no reason
that I know of." Believing this answer to be
false, you press for another, when the master
says—“We always speak to 'em, when they're up
the chimney, for fear they should run sulky and
stick." Run sulky and stick! droop, faint, and die
of suffocation. Examine the boy when he comes
from the chimney. If his knees and elbows are
not raw and bloody, they are covered with horn
like the knees of the mountain goat; his face,
neck, and breast are wet with the water that flowed
from his eyes, which are red with inflammation;
the veins of his temples are swoln into cords; and
(c
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 73
his pulse is at high fever mark. In a word, he
has been tortured.
Every climbing-boy suffers great pain every
time he mounts a chimney; and a good half of
the climbing-boys in England are parish appren-
tices, free-born, consenting, recognized by the
constitution, engaged in learning a trade which,
as men, they could not follow, if by chance they
should grow to be men. Of those parish appren-
tices who become thieves, a great many have first
been climbing-boys, tortured several times a day
as long as they would bear it. This, also, with the
power to examine unwilling witnesses, might be
abundantly proved.
In England, any one who belongs to the ruling
class may be irreligious and immoral without
so much punishment as disgrace. The titled con-
cubines of royalty have been envied by numbers
of their sex, and honoured when they appeared in
public; a lord high chancellor, who keeps the
king's conscience, may also keep a mistress, or
more than one, without incurring the slightest
odium; any man of fortune may change from
prostitute to prostitute without forfeiting any of
the high respect which is paid to him as a man of
fortune: no one, in short, suffers anything by
encouraging prostitution, provided he can afford
the expense. Women, on the contrary, whose
poverty drives them to sin against religion and
morality-prostitutes for bread-are regarded
74
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
with that sort of scorn, which a Turk expresses
when he says" dog of a christian!" The Eng-
lish show profound respect for their devil, in com-
parison with the way in which they treat their
women of the town. For these, such epithets as
wicked, vile, nasty, such terms as slut, strumpet,
wretch, are too good: you must not mention them
at all in public, and you cannot allude to them
in a book without staining your pages. Recom-
mend that they should be treated like fellow
creatures, as in the Netherlands: if you are not
prosecuted for blasphemy, many will say that
you deserve to be hanged. In America or Holland,
if
you strike a woman of this class, she will take
the law of you: in England, her evidence might
be rejected, or at all events, would not be believed.
"Gentlemen of the jury," the counsel of the ac-
cused would say, "this charge rests on the evi-
dence of a common" (meaning poor) "prostitute:
faugh! my res-pec-table" (rich) "client is
already acquitted." I do not pretend that such
a speech was ever made, but assert, admitting the
hypothesis to be absurd, that if, by chance, a re-
spectable Englishman were prosecuted for as-
saulting a woman of the town, then this would
be the way to get him acquitted. The English
constitution recognizes parish apprentices, but
not poor prostitutes. Prostitution is one thing;
the prostitutes another. The laws and customs
of England encourage prostitution, but do not
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
75
even protect the prostitutes. At the royal theatres,
for instance, which are managed by the king's
servants, there are grand saloons, built expressly
for the encouragement of prostitution; but I can-
not hear of any law or regulation, like those
which subsist in France and Holland, intended
to provide for the health, the personal security,
and the decent behaviour of this unfortunate class.
The laws and customs of England conspire to
sink this class of Englishwomen into a state of
vice and misery below that which necessarily
belongs to their condition. Hence their extreme
degradation, their troopers' oaths, their love of
gin, their desperate recklessness, and the shortness
of their miserable lives.
But how, considering the very great mortality
to which they are subject, shall we account for
their vast numerical proportion to the other in-
habitants of England? In France, and more
especially in Holland, women of the town are
frequently reformed, married, and respected in
their new condition. In England, where the
*mere idea of a reclaimed prostitute, married and
respected, would shock the least fastidious, pros-
titution means speedy death. English women
of this class, or rather girls, for few of them live
to be women, die like sheep with the rot; so fast
that soon there would be none left, if a fresh
supply were not obtained equal to the number of
deaths. But a fresh supply is always obtained
76 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
without the least trouble: seduction easily keeps
pace with prostitution or mortality. Those who
die are,
like factory children that die, instantly
succeeded by new competitors for misery and
death. One cannot prove, indeed, by statistical
tables, that the proportion of girls of the town is
greater in England than in other countries, be-
cause in England any deliberate enquiry con-
cerning this class would be considered shameful;
nor are statistical tables required: the fact
speaks for itself, is proved by the swarms of pros-
titutes to be met with in every town, and in
every quarter of the great towns. To prove this,
statistical tables are not more necessary than to
establish, what no one denies, that in England
there are more splendid mansions and gin-shops
than in any other country. But the cause; what
is the cause of this excessive number of prosti-
tutes, notwithstanding so wonderful a rate of
mortality?
One cause of this evil is, of course, an excessive
demand for prostitutes. That demand is occa-
sioned principally by a custom now prevalent
amongst the English middle classes; the custom
of abstaining from marriage, the custom of ce-
libacy, vulgarly speaking; of "moral restraint,"
in the language of political economy. This
cause is explained in the next note: the other
causes, the inducements to a life of prostitution,
are explained by the following story.
MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 77
Some out-of-the-way people founded a refuge
for prostitutes; a charity of which the object was
to reclaim a small number of public women. One
day a girl applied for admission to this retreat,
saying " I am out of work, cold, hungry, tired,
houseless, and anxious to be saved from evil
courses." She was dismissed not being qualified:
so the story goes. This story may not be true;
but most Englishmen have laughed at it in pri-
vate. The story passes for a good joke; and its
currency proves two things; first, that the few
English with bowels of compassion for prostitutes
are ridiculed as eccentric; and next, that the
English themselves consider poverty the main
inducement to a life of prostitution. In America,
where no class practises "moral restraint," the
demand for women of the town is very small,
and, such as it is, arises principally from the so-
journ of foreigners in sea-port towns; but if that
demand were doubled by a sufficient increase of
foreign visitors, it would not be supplied; be-
cause in America every girl can readily obtain
an honest livelihood. In America, you may travel
a thousand miles, taking the towns in your way,
and not meet a prostitute: in England, you can-
not walk a mile upon pavement without meeting
hundreds. In America, it is as difficult for house-
holders to get women-servants, as in England
for women-servants to get places. In America,
prostitution is a choice seldom made; to Eng-
78 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
lishwomen, thousands every year, it is a dire ne-
cessity. In order to reclaim the prostitutes of
England, you must first find employment for
them, which would be the harder task of the
two; and by when this was done, there would be
as many as before. Not vice and misery, Mr.
Malthus, but misery and vice is the order of
checks to population. Charity, virtue, happiness!
these are English words still, but the meaning of
them appears to have settled in America. I
wonder that emigration is not more the fashion,
and wish that Mrs. Trollope would write a book
on the domestic manners of the English.
In England the increase of crime is a common
subject of lamentation. About a hundred and
twenty thousand of the people, it is reckoned, are
always in jail; besides convicts, transported to
comfort by way of punishment, and debtors look-
ing through prison bars for the means of paying
their creditors. In England the increase of fine
jails is nearly as striking as the increase of gin-
shops. The new jails, one in every county, and
in some counties several, would be thought grand
in America; noble buildings of beautiful brick
work or handsome masonry, with imposing fronts,
bearing chains, emblematical, carved in stone.
In Lancashire the magistrates boast, that their
county jail is very like Windsor Castle, the finest
of palaces. The increase of fine lunatic asylums,
also, may be noticed here; since it has been
MISERY OF THE BULK of the people.
79
lately ascertained that there are more mad pau-
pers, in proportion, than mad people of any other
class, except governesses. Poor-houses, gin-shops,
mad-houses, jails; one almost sees them grow in
number and magnificence, with the increase of
paupers, parish apprentices, drunkenness and
crime. In England, those who compose the bulk
of the people are too cheap to be happy. If their
condition be such that it must be worse before
it can be better, the crisis is coming.
80
NOTE III.
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
class.
Who compose the aristocracy-particular distresses
of the middle class-uneasiness of farmers-of
manufacturers-of dealers-low profits-unea-
siness of professional men—of several classes
possessing the common run of knowledge, or su-
perior knowledge-of persons having fixed in-
comes and families-primary cause of prostitu-
tion-domestic life amongst the English middle
In America, it is a common mistake to suppose,
that the English aristocracy consists entirely of
the nobility, squires of good estate, wealthy
churchmen and highly paid public servants. The
aristocracy means the privileged class. Except
the privilege of being born to make laws, there is
none in England that money will fail to procure ;
and even that one, any man, having abundance
of money, may obtain for his unborn, first-born
son. A judge, a bishop, or a secretary of state,
does not consider the trouble of his vocation a
privilege; his privileges consist of money, pa-
tronage, power; the respect, the adulation, the
devotion of his inferiors. In England, with plenty
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
81
€
of the first of these privileges, you have all the
others in abundance. Any Englishman, being
very rich, would. find it hard, if such a whim
should take him, to avoid the respect, the adula-
tion, the devotion, of numerous parasites. Not
the man, but the wealth, is worshipped. The
man may be ignorant, stupid, selfish, dishonest,
in every way worthless; but if he have £50,000.
a year, he will have fifty, nay, five hundred, de-
voted friends, telling him continually that he is
wise, just, generous, all over noble. Poor lords,
though of Norman descent, are very little es-
teemed, and would be quite despised, but that as
hereditary legislators they commonly obtain a
good deal of the public money. The money is
given to them avowedly for the purpose of main-
taining their dignity. On the other hand, money
will purchase the reputation of Norman descent.
Mr. Thistlethwaite, whose father wore wooden
shoes and made a million by cotton spinning;
Mr. Thistlethwaite, who has purchased a mansion
called Thistlethwaite Hall, intends, when he ob-
tains a peerage, to take the title of Thistlethwaite
and Vermont (his mother's name was Greenhill),
in order to make it be believed that he descends
in the female line from the Norman lords of Ver-
mont and this will be believed, religiously, on
account of the million of money. In short, there
is nothing that the English will not do to please
him who can dispose of a great deal of money,
G
82
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
either his own or that of the public. All rich
Englishmen, therefore, belong to the aristocracy
quite as much as any duke, minister or arch-
bishop; not excluding tradesmen, provided they
be called great, like Calvert the great brewer,
Baring the great stockjobber, Crawshay the great
iron-founder, Mellish the great butcher, and
Morrison the great draper. Still, one cannot
draw a very distinct line between the aristocracy
and the class next below them. I thought at
one time of counting amongst the aristocracy all
who are called respectable; but respectability
has various meanings in England: with some it
means to keep a carriage, with others a gig. I
have it the privileged class consists of those who,
whenever they are wronged, or would injure, can
buy law without depriving themselves of any
other costly luxury; those, in short, who, be their
rank what it may, have more money than they
know how to spend. Captain Basil Hall calls
them the Spending Class.
After these comes the middle or uneasy class.
Uneasiness, according to Johnson, is care, trou-
ble, perplexity. By the uneasy class, I mean
those who, not being labourers, suffer from agri-
cultural distress, manufacturing distress, com-
mercial distress, distress of the shipping interest,
and many more kinds of distress, of which the
names and descriptions have appeared over and
over again during the last. fifteen years, in the
S
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
83
;
journals of parliament, in pamphlets without
number, and in all political publications, quar-
terly, monthly, weekly and daily. In English
politics, the word distress is used more frequently
than any other comprehensive word, except pau-
perism. Distress, applied to any particular class,
signifies the trouble, care, perplexity of that
class, but not that the trouble, care and perplexity
are unequal, or confined to any one set of peo-
ple; for each distress has lasted fifteen years, and
all the distresses together make permanent general
distress. This steady national distress is attri-
buted to causes more numerous than the several
distresses of which it is composed; to transition
from war to peace; to the admission of foreign
corn; to restrictions on the admission of foreign
corn; to taxation; to diminution of the public
expenditure; to inadequate production; to over-
production; to change in the currency; to free
trade, and restrictions on trade; to political
economy, and the blunders of practical men ;
and, finally, to rotten boroughs. For an evil
attributed to so many causes, it was natural that
numerous methods of cure should be proposed.
Accordingly, the business of English politicians
for about fifteen years, has been to devise reme-
dies for general distress or particular distresses.
Some of these specifics will be noticed hereafter,
and especially reform of parliament, from which
the uneasy class expect the most happy results;
-
84
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
but here the many alleged causes, and supposed
remedies, of distress are alluded to, merely with
a view to show that the distress itself is real,
extensive, severe, not imaginary, as some of the
spending class assert, nor confined, as in former
periods, to the idle and thriftless. In fact, the
uneasy class consists of three-fourths, or rather
perhaps nine-tenths, of all who are engaged in
trades and professions, as well as all who, not
being very rich, intend that their children should
follow some industrious pursuit. The proof of
this assertion is very easy.
There are some English farmers, though but
few, so rich as to be called great; and these do
not belong to the uneasy class. Even these,
however, complain of low profits. But if he
whose farming capital is, say, 30,000l., grumbles
because his annual profit is only two and a-half
per cent, or 750l., what must be the state of that
farmer whose capital is only 5,000l.? Supposing
his profits to be equal to those of the great far-
mer, his annual income is only 1257.; not so
much, allowing for the difference of prices, as the
income of a common labourer in America. Any
where in America, a farming capital of 5,0007.
would return a profit of fifteen per cent.; so that
taking the common rate of farming profit in Eng-
land to be two and a-half per cent., the American
farmer possessing 5,000l. enjoys an income, equal
to that of the English farmer possessing 30,000%.
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
85
+
But the common rate of farming profit in Eng-
land, during the last fifteen years, has not been so
much as two and a-half per cent.: on the con-
trary, the rate of loss has been considerable.
Impossible! cries a bigoted political economist;
that is impossible, because if farming profits had
sunk very low, capital would have been with-
drawn from agriculture, and employed in other
pursuits of which the profits were higher. But
what if the profits of other pursuits were not
higher? Political economists frequently suppose
the case of low profits in a particular trade:
surely, what takes place in one trade, may take
place in all. But be this as it may, there can be
no doubt that in England of late years, many
farmers have employed capital with a high rate of
loss. Hundreds, thousands, have lost their whole
capital, whilst all, with the exception of those
whose capitals were so large that they could save
out of very low profits, have lost more or less.
The number of farmers, it might be supposed,
has been diminished by the total or partial ruin
of so many: not at all. A farmer was ruined ;
had the landlord any difficulty in letting his
farm? On the contrary, the ruin of a farmer has
generally occasioned wonder at the anxiety of
other farmers to pay as high or a higher rent for
the ruinous farm. Except during a few years
before the close of the last war, the competition
for English farms was never more keen than it
86
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
X
has been during the long period of agricultural
distress. There are very many farms which have
ruined two or three tenants since 1815. No one
pretends that the rent of farming land is lower,
every one knows that it is much higher, reckoned
in corn or cattle, than at any former time, except
just before the peace; and at this time high rents
are, by some, supposed to be the cause, or at
least one cause, of agricultural distress. The dis-
tress continues without diminishing the number
of people who are distressed. As one farmer is
ruined, another takes his place; but the change
of persons, as with children who are worked to
death in factories, makes no alteration in the
scene. I do not say, that all the farmers, or all
farmers who begin with moderate capitals, are
ruined in a few years, and succeeded by others
to be ruined in like manner, but every year sees
the ruin of many farmers of moderate capital,
whose places are instantly filled; and all farmers,
except only those who have very large capitals,
are constantly on the verge of ruin; in a state of
care, trouble and perplexity.
As in agriculture, so in manufactures; with
this difference, however, that the proportion of
great capitals to moderate or small ones being
much larger in manufactures than in agriculture,
the proportion of manufacturers, who suffer trou-
ble and perplexity, is much less than amongst
farmers. There are many manufacturers, each
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
87
of whom employs a capital of more than 100,0007.
These might be content with a low rate of profit:
they are discontented, but they are not care-
worn, troubled and perplexed, like those smaller
capitalists, to whom a low rate of profit brings
ruin, or, at least, the constant dread of ruin. The
number of manufacturers who have been ruined
since the peace, is perhaps, as great as the num-
ber of farmers who have been ruined in the same
period. But has the amount of capital employed
in manufactures decreased? On the contrary, it
has increased rapidly and steadily ever since the
peace. Has the number of master-manufactu-
rers decreased? On the contrary, it has increased,
though in a less proportion than manufacturing
capital; this difference being explained by the
constantly increasing proportion of large capitals
to moderate or small ones. In other words, sup-
posing the whole number of master-manufactu-
rers to have been doubled, the number of those,
each of whom employs above 100,000l., may have
been quadrupled. But how could this be, with
a constant and universal low rate of profit?
I have endeavoured to answer that question in
the next note. Here it must be admitted, that
ever since the peace, the common rate of profit in
English manufactures has been extremely low ;
that a great deal of capital has been employed
with loss instead of profit, that many of the
owners of capital so employed have been ruined,
S
88
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
and that at this time a very low rate of profit
condemns all manufacturers of small or moderate
capital to uneasiness, trouble, and perplexity.
Great manufacturers, who possess immense ca-
pitals, must not be counted amongst the uneasy
class.
In the commerce of England since the peace,
a low rate of profit has produced the same effect
as in agriculture and manufactures. Great
merchants, merchants who employed very large
capitals, have complained of very low profits and
frequently of loss; an immense number of mer-
chants, having only small or moderate capitals,
have been ruined; and all owners of moderate or
small capitals employed in commerce are in a
state of uneasiness. In commerce, which admits
of more speculation than manufactures or agricul-
ture, the loss of capital has caused uneasiness, and
even misery, to numbers who owned very large
capitals, and who, impelled by the low rate of
profit to seek out new channels of trade, have
employed their capitals in glutting distant mar-
kets, and been ruined by such speculations. But
has the total ruin of these great capitalists, and
of a much larger number of small capitalists, di-
minished the number of merchants or the amount
of capital employed in trade? On the contrary,
the increase of commercial capital has kept pace
with that of manufacturing capital, and the
number of merchants with the number of manu-
UNEASINESS OF The middlE CLASS.
89
facturers. Millions, tens of millions, of English
capital have been thrown away since the peace
in supplying distant markets with goods at less
than cost price, and in other speculations, such
as working, or pretending to work, the mines of
South America; but whenever capital was in this
way abstracted and lost, its place was imme-
diately filled; or rather so large a waste of
capital seems not to have caused even a tempo-
rary vacuum. Where all the capital came from,
how it was so rapidly accumulated, is a question;
but that commercial capital has been produced
faster than it was thrown away, is a plain fact,
about which there can be no dispute. The number
of merchants, employing large, moderate and small
capitals, is very much greater than it was fifteen
years ago;* more business is done; new channels
of trade have been opened and filled: yet the pro-
fits of commercial business are now so low that
only the most wealthy merchants are at ease; all
the others are troubled, perplexed, uneasy, always
on the verge of bankruptcy.
With retail dealers, there is the same complaint
of low profits, the same uneasiness, as with far-
* In a late debate on "Distress" in the house of commons,
(1833) Mr. Grote, member for the city of London, a great
capitalist, and a very accomplished gentleman besides, referred
to the increase of names in the London Directory as a proof
that the number of traders had increased.
90
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
mers, manufacturers and merchants. Until of
late years most retail trades were conducted by
persons of small or moderate capital. Of late
years, however, very large capitals have been em-
barked in several retail trades. The owners of
these large capitals act on the maxim-much
business with small profits is as good as little
business with large profits. They are satisfied,
and as each of them possesses a large capital,
they may well be satisfied, with low profits. But
nothing is better established than the tendency
of all capitals, and especially of all capitals
employed in the same business, to an equal
rate of profit. It was impossible, therefore,
that retail dealers of small capital should obtain
high profits while great capitalists engaged in the
same retail trade were satisfied with low profits.
Still, a general low rate of profit in retail trades
must not be considered as an effect of the employ-
ment of large capitals in retail trade. On the
contrary, large capitals have been employed in
retail trade, though, first, because the agricul-
tural, manufacturing, and commercial fields were
fully occupied, still, secondly, because the full-
ness of the retail field offered to the great
capitalist some advantages over the small one;
such advantages as being better able to wait
for distant returns, as being able to buy when
the market price was low and to sell when it
was high. The owners of a large capital can save
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
91
when the owners of a small one cannot. The
owners of a large capital engaged in retail trade
have increased their capitals, notwithstanding a
low rate of profit: a low rate of profit has ruined
many retail dealers of moderate or small capital,
and at this moment condemns all such dealers to
great uneasiness. In London, and throughout
England, retail dealers of moderate or small
capital complain of dulness of trade, stagnation
of trade, and so forth. Do they buy and sell less
than formerly? on the contrary, except in special
cases, which fall out of the general rule and
might be explained by some special circum-
stances, they do more business than formerly:
the profit, not the business, is less. And further,
more of them do business: in all towns without
exception the number of retail dealers is greater
that it was at the close of the war; and in most
towns the increase of retail dealers has kept pace
with that striking increase of houses which has
been noticed before. As in manufactures and
in wholesale trade, so in retail business, the num-
ber of persons who suffer trouble and perplexity
has greatly increased with the uneasiness oc-
casioned by a low rate of profit.
How a low rate of profit renders the middle
class uneasy, I will now try to explain.
The rate of interest is a pretty sure criterion of
the rate of profit. During the last war the rate
of interest was very high. The lenders and bor-
་
92
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
rowers of money practised numerous tricks for
evading the usury laws. One trick, practised by
noblemen who borrowed large sums, was to give
the lender a seat in parliament besides legal
interest. Ever since the peace, the common rate
of interest has remained below five per cent.
Four per cent. has been a common rate for large
sums, which the borrowers were entitled to hold
for a fixed number of years. In other cases, where
the lenders exacted repayment within a short
period, three per cent., two-and-a-half per cent.,
and at times even two per cent., has been the
ordinary rate of interest. Now let us suppose,
though merely for the sake of illustration, that
during the war the ordinary rate of profit was
twenty per cent. and that since the peace it has
been five per cent. If so, during the war, which
lasted near thirty years, the income of him who
employed a capital of 10,000l. was 2,000l. a year,
and has been, since the peace, 500l. a year; if so,
the incomes derived from all capitals have, since
the peace, been only one quarter of what they
were during the war. It would follow, that the
means of every man engaged in business, agricul-
tural, manufacturing, or commercial, wholesale
or retail, his means of existence, of supporting his
family, of educating and establishing his children,
and, above all, of contending against unfavour-
able accidents, such as bad seasons, changes of
fashion, and the bankruptcy of his debtors; his
C
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
93
power for doing all these things, has been less by
three quarters since the common rate of profit
was five per cent., than when twenty per cent.
was the common rate of profit. The difference
may be more or less than from twenty to five
per cent.; at all events, it is very considerable.
But with a smaller power for doing certain things,
as large, or a larger, power has been required. In
every branch and rank of industry, every one con
ceives that a certain expenditure is necessary to
maintain his rank, or as he might call it, his re-
spectability. The amount of expenditure which
makes an Englishman respectable, in whatever
condition or rank, has not been much less since
the peace than during the war; the education of
children has not been much cheaper, while the
desire to give children an expensive education
has greatly increased; the desire or obligation to
establish children in the world is the same as be-
fore, while the difficulty of accomplishing that
object is much greater, since beginners in trade
require a much larger capital than formerly to
obtain the same income as formerly; unfavourable
accidents happen as before, while bankruptcies
complete or partial are more frequent than ever.
All those, therefore, whose incomes are derived
from the employment of capital, except great
capitalists who can easily save out of diminished
incomes, have smaller means of meeting heavier
calls. Their existence is a continued struggle with
difficulties. How to make the two ends meet, which
94
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
way to turn, how to provide for one claim with-
out neglecting another, how to escape ruin or at
least what they consider degradation, how' on
earth to manage for their children; these are the
thoughts which trouble and perplex them. The
anxious, vexed, or harrassed class, would be a
better name for them than the milder term which
I have used. These are the people who in classes,
or altogether, keep up the cries of agricultural dis-
tress, manufacturing distress, commercial distress,
distress of trade, and national distress.
Distress is not confined to those who employ a
material capital. The learning, skill and reputa-
tion, united, of a professional man may be called his
capital. Great professional capitalists, those who
possess all at once great skill, great learning and
a high reputation, still make large incomes; but
none of those, whose learning or skill or reputa-
tion is small, make enough to live upon. The
very high prizes of the bar and the church have
always led to a keen competition in these profes-
sions; so that at all times there has been a large
proportion of barristers without briefs, and of
clergymen eager to obtain a miserable curacy;
but at this time the proportion of briefless bar-
risters is greater than ever, as well as the number
of clergymen eager to be curates. And, at this
time, not only the bar and the established church
are crowded with hungry competitors, but also
every dissenting church, the attorney's branch of
law, and all the branches of the medical and sur-
<
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
95
gical professions. Nay, full, overflowing, as are
all these professions, the number of young people
who hope to live by them is far greater than ever:
witness the crowds of students in the inns of
court, of young men every year admitted to
practice as attornies, of clerical students in the
universities and dissenting schools, and of students
in the schools of medicine and surgery. It seems
impossible that a third of them should ever live
by the pursuits which they intend to follow; for
even now two thirds of the persons engaged in
those careers live by snatching the bread out of
each other's mouths. Two-thirds, therefore, at
the very least, of professional men may be reck-
oned amongst the uneasy class.
To these must be added a swarm of engineers,
architects, painters, surveyors, brokers, agents,
paid writers, keepers of schools, tutors, gover-
nesses and clerks. The occupations of some of
these classes permit the employment of a material
capital. Engineers, for example, or architects,
who employ a material capital, must be excluded
from this list; since whatever has been said of
farmers, manufacturers and merchants, applies to
them. Such of them as employ a large capital
increase their fortunes with small profits; such of
them as employ a small or moderate capital live in
trouble and vexation. Some few also must be
taken out of this list, who, without employing a
material capital, are distinguished for learning,
•
1
96
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
skill and reputation, united. There are some
painters, now and then there is a paid writer, who
make large incomes; but the great mass of these
two classes, those who supply the ordinary, one
may say the necessary, demand for pictures and
composition, are miserably poor. But was not
this always the case? Without a doubt; the po-
verty of painters and authors is proverbial; more-
over there can be no doubt, that the aggregate of
money earned by English painters and authors
since the peace has been very much greater than
during any former period of equal length; but
during the last fifteen years the proportion of
poor painters and authors has greatly increased;
and never was it so great as at this moment.
Since the invention of printing and the general
spread of education, the common run of know-
ledge has always been held cheap; but now, in
England, it is the cheapest of all commodities,
except Irish manual labour. It is not, however,
the smallness of the incomes earned by a swarm
of educated people that strikes one so much, as
the vast number of competitors for those very
small incomes; the hungry crowd of expectants
watching to oust the beggarly crowd in posses-
session. What condition of life is more detest-
able than that of an English governess? In
England, where poverty is a crime, governesses,
young, beautiful, well-informed, virtuous, and,
from the contradiction between their poverty and
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
97
their intrinsic merit, peculiarly susceptible, are
generally treated as criminals; imprisoned, set to
hard labour, cruelly mortified by the parents and
visitors, worried by the children, insulted by the
servants; and all for what? for butler's wages.
Yet take up any London newspaper, any day in
the year, and you shall find in it a string of ad-
vertisements for the hateful situation of gover-
ness. There is an institution in England, of
which the object is, to provide for decayed gover-
nesses, by means of a small yearly subscription
from those who are not yet worn out; and the
title of this benefit club is the "governesses' mu-
tual assurance society." Last year, a newspaper,
which is read principally by the aristocracy, by
Captain Hall's spending class, noticing the club
in question, proposed that it should be called
"the governesses' mutual impudence society." This
blackguard joke was uttered, to please whom? the
readers of the newspaper in which it appeared;
a class who employ governesses, a class to whom,
in that very newspaper, numerous advertisements
for the situation of governess are continually ad-
dressed. An eminent English physician, whose wife
had been a governess, states that, of the inmates of
mad-houses, the largest proportion consists of wo-
men who have been governesses. Yet for this
dreadful and shabbily-paid office of governess,
there are, judging from the newspapers, more can-
didates, in proportion to places, than for any other
H
98
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS,
disagreeable employment: not, however, that
one observes any lack of candidates for other
subordinate employments which require the
common run of knowledge, or even superior
knowledge. They talk much in England of
superabundance of labourers, meaning, common
workmen; but these are not more redundant than
governesses, keepers of schools and clerks of every
description.
Superabundance is a relative term. Consider-
ing the superabundance of capitalists, in propor-
tion to the means of employing capital with profit,
and of professional men in proportion to the
demand for their services, there is a reason why,
of necessity, the subordinate classes should be
redundant because the fields for the employ-
ment of capital in agriculture, manufactures and
trade, and for the employment of professional
learning and skill, being quite full, there is no
room in those fields for the progeny of the sub-
ordinate classes; while the grown up children of
capitalists and professional men, who are either
ruined, or can but just make the two ends meet,
instead of following the careers of their fathers,
increase the competition for subordinate employ-
ments. But is there less room for the subordi-
nate classes, than there was fifteen years ago?
Positively, no; relatively, yes. Subordinate em-
ployments are far more numerous than they were
fifteen years ago; but then, throughout the fifteen
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 99
years, the classes wanting subordinate employ-
ments have increased more rapidly than the
demand for their services. Suppose the field to
have been doubled, the cultivators have been
quadrupled with a greater field than ever, never
was there such a want of room.
Amongst the uneasy class must be included,
finally, a large body of people whose incomes are
fixed, whose means of existence are not subject
to the rate of profit or the demand for profes-
sional and subordinate services, landowners,
sinecurists, public servants, and
and owners of
government stock. Great landowners, great sine-
curists, highly paid public servants, and great
stockholders, belong to the spending class, toge-
ther with great farmers, manufacturers, mer-
chants, tradesmen and lawyers. The owner of
10,000 acres of land, lord Ellenborough with a
patent income of 10,000l. a year, the lord Chan-
cellor with an income lately cut down to 14,0007.
a year, or the stockholder who receives 5,000. or
even 2,000. a year in regular half-yearly payments
at the bank, has no reason to complain of dis-
tress. Nor indeed has any one, apparently,
whose income was fixed during the war, and has
been much increased by an alteration in the
value of money. Nevertheless, many thousands
of people, enjoying fixed incomes, suffer deep
anxiety; anxiety caused by the distress of those
classes whose incomes are not fixed: I mean
-
100 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
landowners, sinecurists, public servants and fund-
owners, whose fixed incomes are not large, and
who have children to provide for. What is to
become of the sons and the daughters? No man
likes that his son should fall, or his daughter
marry, into a circle much inferior to his own;
especially in England, where this sort of degra-
dation, like absolute poverty, is disgraceful, if
not criminal. Every Englishman of property,
inoreover, likes that his eldest son should inherit
nearly the whole of his property. What then,
when there is property, must become of the
younger sons and the daughters? What of all the
children, where the property is only for life? The
father must save: good; but the moment he
proceeds to invest his savings, he feels the low
rate of profit and interest. During the war he
could, with a little management, have obtained
ten, twelve, perhaps fifteen per cent. for his
money: now, no one pays five per cent. with good
security. He consults his banker as to the best
mode of investment. Upon my word," says
the latter, "I cannot advise you: the funds are
so high, and so likely to fall through political
agitation, there is so much money with so much
distress and discontent, that we know not what
to do with our money. I have 100,000l. in that
drawer; and if you will tell me of a better place
for it, I shall be very much obliged to you."* He
66
*In the money market, the greatest torpor and want of
UNEASINESS OF THE middle CLASS.
101
is troubled, therefore, to fix on a mode of invest-
inent, and when the choice is made; annoyed
because the interest is so low. But he cannot
save enough to prevent the degradation of his
children, without incurring degradation himself;
without losing caste by a great diminution of
expenditure. His savings, therefore, when in-
vested in the best way, that is, in an insurance
of his life, whereby he reaps the benefit of low
profits in the shape of a low premium, are but
just sufficient to provide a maintenance for his
wife and children after his death. What are the
sons to do when grown up, if grown up? The
army?-pay for a commission; and then, unless
you belong to the spending class, look on promo-
tion as hopeless. In the navy, candidates for
promotion are quite as redundant as in the
army. The church ?-buy a living, or else your
enterprise prevail. There has probably never existed a period
at which so little employment for capital, at once safe and
profitable, has presented itself; and it is quite evident, that
unless some change takes place, capitalists are on the point of
being forced into some wild and dangerous schemes, that
must be attended with ultimate loss, by the mere impatience
of letting their money lie idle. Whatever the cause of the low
rate of interest may be, reflecting men look at it with much
alarm, especially as it has now been of long continuance; and
if some legitimate employment for capital does not soon offer,
we may expect soon to see a new influx of foreign loans and
joint-stock schemes." City Article of the Times. October 10th,
1832.
102 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
son must struggle, and may struggle in vain too,
with a host of needy competitors for miserable
curacies. The law, medicine, trade ?-all full,
overflowing; while the last, whether agricultural,
manufacturing or commercial, requires a large
capital, or it will bring uneasiness, perhaps bank-
ruptcy. A place under government?—yes, per-
haps, if you are the parasite of a great man.
I say perhaps, because the class of parasites want-
ing places has greatly increased of late, like all
the other classes, while the number of places is
become somewhat less. At best, your son will
obtain but a small place; all the great ones, both
at home and in the colonies, being kept for
young people of the spending class. At any rate,
the pain of being a parasite, brings you within
the uneasy class. There was a way, indeed, by
which a man of moderate or small income could
obtain places for his sons without cringing to any
one; by connecting himself with a rotten borough,
as alderman, bailiff, returning officer or crier;
but the glory of rotten boroughs has passed away;
and, if reform should go no further, only the
spending class and their parasites will obtain
places under government.
But if a man of fixed income, his income being
small or moderate, be troubled to provide for his
sons, how to provide for his daughters is a more
perplexing question. The first, no, the second
point, is to get them married; the first point is
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
103
to prevent them from marrying into a lower,
which commonly means a poorer, rank than that
in which they were born. The first point is gene-
rally effected during childhood, when every day,
and almost every hour of the day, something
happens to impress them with a fear of such
degradation as attaches to imprudent marriages.
The second purpose, being subject to the first,
becomes extremely difficult. If the girl had a
fortune, she would belong to captain Basil Hall's
spending class; we suppose her to have no for-
tune except beauty, tenderness, modesty and good
sense. Who will take her as a wife, that she will
take as a husband? She may by chance, or rather
her mother may, by dint of great toil and
management, catch one of the spending class;
but this would be an exception to the general
rule. The general rule with the daughters of
men of small income, whether fixed or not, is a
a choice between celibacy and marriage with one
of the uneasy class. Now, a great proportion of
young men in the uneasy class dread marriage,
unless there be fortune in the case, as the surest
means of increasing their embarrassment. This
is one of the most important features in the social
state of England. Amongst the middle class,
amongst all classes except the highest and the
lowest, "moral restraint" is a confirmed habit.
Hence, immorality without a parallel in any other
country. This is the cause of that exuberant
104 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
prostitution which shocks an American. Ano-
ther effect of moral restraint" amongst the
middle class is, that a great proportion of the
females in that class are doomed to celibacy. One
may well say doomed. Custom forbids them to
practice that sort of "moral restraint" to which
their brothers resort without disgrace; and cus-
tom is stronger than walls and bars. In this
case, it has more power than the strictest disci-
pline of a convent. But why do the English,
Americans, French, Dutch and Germans, regard
with horror the legal institution of celibacy? On
account of its unnatural cruelty. Well then, in
England, a certain state of political economy,
pride or prudence, and custom, occasion more
unnatural suffering than the villainous theocracies
of Italy and Spain. The proportion of English
women who pine in celibacy, is far greater than
that of Spanish or Italian women who languish in
convents; and the Englishwomen suffer more
than the others, because, living in the world, they
are more in the way of temptation, more cruelly
tantalized by their intercourse with happy wives.
and mothers. There is not in the world a more
deplorable sight, than a fine brood of English
girls turning into old maids one after the other;
first reaching the bloom of beauty, full of health,
spirits and tenderness; next striving anxiously,
aided by their mother, to become honoured and
happy wives; then fretting, growing thin, pale,
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 105
listless and cross; at last, if they do not go mad
or die of consumption, seeking consolation in the
belief of an approaching millennium, or in the
single pursuit of that happiness in another world,
which this world has denied to them. The pic-
ture may displease, even because it is correct.
This, Americans, you whose domestic manners
an Englishwoman holds up to the ridicule of her
countrywomen; this is a faithful sketch from
domestic life amongst the English middle class.
The misery of the working class of English-
men, is not, perhaps, at this time much greater
in degree than at former times, or so great as the
misery of the bulk of the people in most other
countries, except America. In this respect, the
difference between the past and the present seems
to be; first, that with the increase of population
there are more people to be miserable, not more
in proportion, but more absolutely; and secondly,
that, with the increase of knowledge, one learns
all about that misery which was formerly con-
cealed from the happy classes. But the great
uneasiness of the middle class in England, is a
new state of things; unexplained, and at first
sight unaccountable, if one reflects on the vast
and rapidly increasing wealth of the English
nation. Competition for wages is, plainly, the
immediate cause of misery amongst the working
class; but what occasions that severe competi-
106 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
tion amongst people of capital and education,
that snatching at each others means of existence,
which renders the life of the English middle
class one struggle with difficulties? This question
is examined in the following note.
;
•
***
:
3
:
"
107
VIDUALS.
NOTE IV.
COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL WEALTH
WITH THE UNEASINESS AND MISERY OF INDI-
1
Theories of the English economists-a dream of
Robinson Crusoe's island-the field of produc-
tion an element of wealth-argument with the
economists-argument with the archbishop of
Dublin-America and England, as to the field
of production - cases of various proportions
amongst the elements of production—peculiar
case of England-as wealth increases, many indi-
viduals are less rich-moral and strictly political
effects of the various proportions which the field of
production bears to capital and labour-peculiar
effects in the peculiar case of England.
ACCORDING to certain theories of the English
political economists, it is quite impossible that
my account of the wealth, uneasiness and misery,
of the English people should be true. Those
philosophers would say-If the capital of Eng-
land be so much greater in proportion to peo-
ple than that of other countries, wages must
be higher in England than elsewhere;* for
* "Universally then we may affirm that, other things
108 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL
.
wages depend on the proportion between popu-
lation and capital."* Again, if the middle class
suffered from the low profits of stock, the labour-
ing class would enjoy high wages; and if the
labouring class suffered from low wages, the
capital of the middle class would yield high pro-
fits; since "the profits of stock depend upon
wages, rise as wages fall, and fall as wages
rise."++
This is called reasoning à priori, and though very
sound and profound, no doubt, to those who
understand it, is sadly puzzling to common intel-
lects. Let us try, however, to make it out.
66
The English people have accumulated a far
greater capital than the same number of people
ever possessed, or dreamed of possessing, since
the world began: they have so much capital that
remaining the same, if the ratio which capital and population
bear to one another remains the same, wages will remain the
same; if the ration which capital bears to population increases,
wages will rise; if the ratio which population bears to capital
increases, wages will fall. From this law, clearly understood,
it is easy to trace the circumstances which, in any country,
determine the condition of the great body of the people."
Mill's Elements of Political Economy, page 44, 3rd edit.
* Mill's Elements of Political Economy, Section Wages,
p. 41, 3d edit.
+ Mills' Elements, Section Profits, p. 71, 3d edit.
+ "It must at once be seen," says Mr. Ricardo, that “
pro-
+
fits would be high or low, exactly as wages were low or high.
***** There could be no rise in the value of labour, without
a fall of profits."
WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 109
they know not what to do with it: though during
the last half century they have squandered,
wasted, utterly thrown away, more capital than
most nations possess, they still possess more
capital than they ever possessed before. Abund-
ance of capital, in proportion to people, always
produces high wages. Therefore, wages are much
higher in England than they ever were amongst
any other people, or at any previous time amongst
the English people. Aristotle would not have
quarrelled with the syllogism, and that great
logician and economist, the archbishop of Dublin,
will find no fault in it, logically speaking. But
there must be an error somewhere, since the con-
clusion is directly at variance with a known fact.
Let us try again.
1. When capital is less in proportion to people,
wages are lower;
2. The proportion of capital to people, is far
less in America than in England;
3. Therefore, wages are far lower in America
than in England.
The logic is still good; but the conclusion is
again directly at variance with a known truth;
the fact being, that wages are far higher in Ame-
rica than in England. Wherein lies the error?
in one of the propositions, but in which of them,
my lord? I put the question to the archbishop,
and to Mr. Mill, who, like his grace, is a great
economist and logician.
110 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL
Now for the question of profits; according to
the economists.
1. When profits are high, wages are low;
2. In America, profits are very high ;
3. Therefore, in America, wages are very low.
Again,
1. When wages are low, profits are high;
2. Wages are very high in America
3. Therefore, profits are very low in America.
Or thus,-
1. When profits are low, wages are high ;
2. In England, profits are very low;
3. Therefore, in England, wages are very high.
And again,-
1. When wages are low, profits are high;
2. Wages are very low in England;
3. Therefore, in England, profits are very high.
Deuce take the conclusion! it always comes
wrong, which ever way one looks for it. I had
been puzzling myself to get over a difficulty in
political-economy by means of logic, when grow-
ing more and more confused, I at last had the
good luck to fall asleep. Good luck, I say, because
during my sleep I had a dream, which explained
to me why profits and wages, both together, are
so low in England and so high in America. This
was my dream :-
I was shipwrecked and cast into the sea. I
heard the shrieks of my shipmates who were
drowning, and felt the pain of having my own
WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 111
head struck against a rock. My next impression
was less disagreeable. I found myself alone, but
quite well, in Robinson Crusoe's island, walking
up the green slope from the creek to the cave.
Robinson came out by his ladder to meet me, and
said with a smile-"Welcome! countryman." For:
my part, I embraced him tenderly, as an old and
very dear friend. Presently, Friday ran up to us,
and though he made me laugh by bowing very
low and kicking up his legs, backwards, one after
the other, expressing respect and joy at the same
time, still I could not help shaking hands with
him also, the faithful creature. Robinson asked
me to take something after my voyage; but I, not
to be behind him in politeness, seeing that he was
in a hurry to show me all his fine things, said—
"Not at present, thank you; I should like to see
your improvements." Hereupon he led me, first
to his crops, which had a most creditable appear-
ance; and then within the inclosure, where I ad-
mired his goats, the tools which had cost him so
much trouble, and the great store of provisions
and seeds which he had laid up. At length, we
sat down to a very respectable dinner of fish and
roasted kid; chatting as follows during the meal.
W
Dreamer." Altogether, Mr. Crusoe, you seem
quite at your ease."
Robinson."Why, yes, blessed be God! but I
have had my trials. It was a sore trial when I
was obliged to sow the seed that I would fain have
112 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL
eaten, and when I had no Friday to help me;
but I have been very comfortable since I got be-
fore the world, with a good stock of seeds, tools
and goats: nay, since I lighted on Friday, I have
lived like a gentleman, quite at my ease, as you
say."
D. "You are a capitalist now, Robinson?"
R. "Capitalist! what is that?"
D. "Why, seeds, tools and goats, are capital,
and as you possess these you are a capitalist.
Friday works you direct him, and give him a
share of the produce: Friday is a labourer."
R. "A labourer! yes, he works; a share! he
takes what he pleases."
D. "Of course, high wages of labour, eb; and
high profits of stock also, or you would not be so
much at your ease, Mr. Robinson Crusoe."
cr
R. "I have forgotten some of my English.
High wages of labour, high profits of stock! what
are they?"
D. "In this island, high wages mean, that you
can let Friday take what he pleases without
stinting yourself; and high profits mean, that
Friday takes what he pleases without stinting
you. Friday's labour, with the aid of your seeds,
tools and goats, produces plenty for both of
you."
R. "Yes-but hark! man Friday! friend! down
upon your knees! here's another earthquake!"
And sure enough it was a terrible earthquake;
WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 113
for though it hurt none of us and did not last a
minute, when we recovered ourselves and passed
from the cave, through the inclosure, and over
the outer fence, behold, every part of the island
was covered with water, except the rock which
formed the cave and about half an acre of land in
front of us. Robinson and his man knelt again,
and returned thanks to God for having preserved
our lives; whilst I stood by, distressed to think
of what would become of them with only that
half acre of land. Crusoe's calmness and resig-
nation were quite admirable. Rising he em-
braced Friday, saying-" the Lord giveth and the
Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the
Lord!" Poor Friday, however, began to cry;
and I felt disposed to keep him company, when
Robinson pointing to the inclosure said "We
have plenty left, food for a year, seed, tools and
goats; capital, sir, I think you called them ?"
"But what," asked I, "is the use of capital
without a field to employ it on? Your goats will
be starved, and with no more than this little bit
of land you will be unable to use half your tools,
or a quarter of your seeds."
Robinson looked rather blank at this, but said
-"We must do with less; there will be less for
Friday and less for me, but enough, I hope, to
keep us alive."
"Low wages and low profits," said I; " but that
is a shocking state to be in. Cannot you set
•
帶
​·
1
114 COINCIDence of ovERFLOWING NATIONAL
Friday to make, with the things that are left from
your wreck, instruments and ornaments for some
neighbouring savages, who have more food thàn
they know what to do with? In that way, if
Friday were expert and industrious, you might
be better supplied than ever."
"Our neighbours," answered Robinson," would
make food of us if they could."
“Oh !” said I, “I had forgotten that restriction
on trade. Well, you cannot enlarge your field of
production in that way, and it is a sad affair ;
but I know what the English political economists
would advise ; for Friday's sake, at least."
"Political economists!" exclaimed Robinson,
"who are they?"
66
They are," I replied "a new sect, and have
set up a new god, which is called Capital, and
which they worship devoutly."
"The wicked idolaters! but what would they
advise ?"
"Only for Friday's sake, mind, in order that
his wages might be higher, they would advise you
to increase your capital.
"What! when I have already more than Fri-
day and I shall know how to use ?"
"Yes; with abundance of capital, they believe,
wages are sure to be high."
"And my share, the profits I think you called
it, how is that to be made high ?"
"By diminishing your capital, so that wages
99
WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 115
!
may be low; for, say they, when wages are low,
profits are sure to be high."
Here Robinson laughed so loud that I awoke;
saying to myself-The only way in which Robin-
son and his man could get back to high profits
and high wages, would be by getting back the
land that they have lost.
By this dream I was led to observe, that the
modern economists, in treating of the production
and distribution of wealth, have overlooked the
chief element of production; namely, the field in
which capital and labour are employed. They
have written volumes on capital and labour, and
the effect of the various proportions which these
may bear to each other, but have scarcely noticed
the field of production; and this but incidentally
when explaining what they conceive to be the
nature of rent. In their theory of rent, indeed,
they show, that as capital increases on a limited
field of production, it is employed with less and
less productiveness, whence the inference might be
drawn that in such a case profits must become
lower and lower; but of this the modern econo-
mists say not a word. . In fact, to have drawn
such an inference would have placed them in an
awkward position; since in order to support
their views of the omnipotence of capital without
regard to the means of investment, they have
fallen upon Adam Smith for saying, that." the
mutual competition of capitalists naturally tends
--
116 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL
to lower profit." Instead, therefore, of showing
the effects which arise from various proportions
between capital and the field of production, they
have taken some pains to establish that there are
not any such effects; that the effects which Adam
Smith supposed to arise from an increase of
capital in proportion to the field, or from a de-
crease of the field in proportion to capital, have
never existed, save in the imagination of their
great master. How far they are right or wrong,
is a question of great importance to the English.
Bring all the people out of France into England;
would that make any difference in English profits
and wages? None, Messrs. Mill and M'Culloch
would say, provided the French should bring all
their capital with them. But what could they
do with their capital in a field which is already
quite full? Employ it, would be the answer, in
manufactures, and so get food from other coun-
tries. Good, I reply, if there were no corn laws;
but that means, increase the field of production,
lay hold of foreign fields, in proportion to the in-
crease of capital and people in England. Field
of production, they would say, we acknowledge
no such term; capital is all in all.
Well, then, suppose that only the capitalists of
France should come to England with all their
moveable property; what effect would that have
on English profits and wages? Wages, according
to the economists would rise; and, through the
WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c.
117
rise of wages, but not otherwise, profits would
fall. But in what way would this increase of
capital raise wages? By causing, would be the
answer, a greater demand for labour. Truly, if
the new capital were invested productively, but
not otherwise; and how should it be invested pro-
ductively, or even at all, when already the capital
of England is so great, in proportion to the means
of productive investment, that it overflows into
France* and other foreign fields of production?
Nonsense! I hear them exclaim, capital and pro-
duction are synonymous. Let us try them again.
Suppose the sea for three hundred miles east
and west of England to be turned into excellent
land, and that every one were at liberty to take
as much of it as he could cultivate in the most
productive way, that is, with the greatest com
bination of power, according to the English
system of farming. What effect would that have
on profits and wages? Answer not rashly; but
think of America. Messrs. Mill and M'Culloch,
answering devoutly towards the god of their
idolatry, would say-No effect at all, provided
the proportion between capital and population
remained the same. Well, gentlemen, let us sup-
pose that the proportion between capital and po-
pulation were not altered for some time; that a
great mass of capital which is now lying idle, or
:
* Some large iron works, and considerable manufactures of
cotton and lace, in France, are carried on with English capital.
118 COINCIdence of ovERFLOWING NATIONAL
about to fly abroad in the shape of foreign loans
and distant speculations, were employed in cul-
tivating the new land and turned into food, which
is capital; would not the effect be, supposing
always that the mass of capital now idle and so
to find employment were very great indeed; in
that case, I say, would not the effect be a great
increase of the demand for labour and a general
rise of wages? They must answer-yes. Yes,
gentlemen, in that case the mere conversion of
one sort of capital into another sort, without any
increase of the quantity, would produce higher
wages. Let us suppose, further, that the new
land were of so good a quality that the gross pro-
duce of all capital employed on it should be suf-
ficient to replace that capital, to pay high wages,
and to leave high profits for the capitalists; in
that case, bearing in mind that the extent of the
new land is six hundred miles square, would not
capital be withdrawn from pursuits, in which the
profits are low, and employed in cultivating this
very productive land? and would not the effect
be a general rise of profits? Inevitably, they
must admit. Then the case may be supposed in
which wages and profits, both together, would
rise without any increase or decrease of capital.
Supposed, yes, they might say, but you suppose
a miracle. And, you, gentlemen, do not you il-
lustrate all your doctrines, true or false, by sup-
posed cases? But I will soon come to the prac-
WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 119
tical case: meanwhile one more question with re-
gard to this miracle. Suppose that the eight
hundred millions which have been thrown away,
in creating your national debt had been saved,
had not been wasted abroad, and were lying idle
in any shape you please; or rather, for a much
lower draft on the imagination will serve my
turn, suppose that the mass of English capital
actually either lying idle, or invested with very
low profit, were sufficient, when employed on
this new and very productive land, to create a
demand for more labourers than England could
supply without delay; and that, consequently,
labourers, tempted by the prospect of high wages,
should immigrate from Ireland and France. In
that case; no increase, mind, but merely a con-
version of capital is supposed; in that case, an
enlargement of the field of production, a mere
increase in the productiveness of capital, would
have caused a change in the proportion between
capital and labour, would have made the labourers
more in proportion to capital. Here, you see, is a
cause antecedent to your great first cause, the
proportion between capital and labour and ob-
serve, further, that the effect produced by enlarg-
ing the field of production, namely, an increase of
labourers, might have no effect at all on the rate
of wages; or rather that wages might rise whilst
the number of labourers was increasing, pro-
vided the amount of capital lately idle, and now
:
120 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL
used productively, were more than sufficient to
employ the increasing body of labourers.
In America profits and wages, both, are high
without a miracle. In America the land is so good,
it returns so large a produce to capital and labour,
however unskilfully employed, that all who cul-
tivate it obtain plenty, like Robinson and his man
in the first part of my dream; the share of the
masters being called high profits, and that of the
servants high wages. Moreover, the good land in
America is so plentiful, that no one is forced to
employ his capital or labour less productively
than in agriculture. Consequently, all the capital
employed in America yields high profits and
high wages; the high profits and wages of agricul-
ture being spent in giving high profits and wages
to capitalists and labourers engaged in other pur-
suits. The productiveness of all capital and la-
bour is very great, and does not decrease with the
increase of capital and labour; because, however
rapid that increase, it is accompanied by a cor-
responding increase of the very productive field.
The continued high profits and high wages of
America, then, appear to arise from the large
proportion which, in America, the field of pro-
duction continually bears to capital and labour.
In England, on the contrary, the field of pro-
duction is limited, first by nature, and next by the
corn laws, which decree that the people of the
united kingdom shall have no bread but that
WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 121
1
which is grown in the united kingdom. This
limited field, moreover, is so full of capitalists,
that these, by competing with each other, reduce
profits to a very low rate; and so full of labourers,
that these, by competing with each other, reduce
wages to a very low rate. If it were not for
this severe competition amongst capitalists, a
greater difference than actually exists between
the prices of English and American corn would
shew the vast difference between the natural fer-
tility of land in England and land in America: if
it were not for this severe competition amongst
labourers, English labour, which from the mode
in which it is employed is so much more pro-
ductive than American labour, in proportion to
the number of hands, would be better paid, in-
stead of being far worse paid than American la-
bour. In England, both classes, capitalists and
labourers, are fighting for room. Consequently,
it may be said that, in England, low profits and
low wages are owing to the small proportion
which the field of production continually bears to
capital and labour.
But, the Archbishop of Dublin might say; but
low profits and low wages, together, have occurred
in England before now, when the proportion of
capital and labour to the field, as you call it, was
much less than it is at present. How could that
have occurred if, as you say, profits and wages
depend on the proportion which capital and la-
·
122 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL
bour bear to the field of production? Further,
the cases have often happened of low wages with
high profits, and high wages with low profits.
Such cases are at variance with your theory.
No, my lord; nor do I say that profits and
wages depend solely on the proportion which
capital and labour bear to the field of production.
But I will try to explain my theory after the
fashion of the economists: begging such readers
as find this note dull, to pass on to the next,
where they will find some urgent reasons for
turning back to this one.
Capital pays labour, and labour uses capital.
Between these, therefore, there is an intimate re-
lation. The proportion also, which these bear to
each other, is always of some importance; because,
whatever the produce of industry, the division of
that produce between the two classes who raise
it, is regulated by the number of labourers in
proportion to the capital employed. I say em-
ployed, because capital which cannot be employed,
which lies idle for want of employment, is as if it
did not exist. When labourers are few in pro-
portion to capital for which there is employment,
the labourer exacts a large share of the produce,
which leaves but a small share for the capitalist;
and when capital is small in proportion to labour,
the capitalist can reserve a large share of the
produce for himself, leaving but a small share for
the labourers. So far the political economists;
WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 123
and so far both profits and wages depend on the
proportion between labour and capital. But all
this relates to nothing but the division of the pro-
duce. A far more important question remains—
what determines the amount of produce to be di-
vided? Suppose the shares fixed at half and half:
now double the produce, Profits are doubled
and wages are doubled; the capitalist who got
ten per cent. now gets twenty per cent.; the la-
bourer who got two shillings a day now gets four
shillings a day. Messrs. Mill and M'Culloch
would contend that wages had not been altered;
but your friend Mr. Senior, and you, my lord,
would say that wages had been altered in amount,
though not in share. Still, with this remark you
would rest satisfied; and concerning the effect
on profits of doubling the produce of industry, you
would say nothing.
.
Now I venture to suggest, that the mere divi-
sion of produce between capitalists and labourers
is a matter of very small moment, indeed, when
compared with the amount of produce to be di-
vided; that, whether the capitalist obtain three
quarters and the labourers one quarter, or the
labourers three quarters and the capitalist one
quarter, the grand question is, how much do the
two parties divide between them. By discussing
the question of shares only, all that we can learn
is, how one party may gain by the other party's
loss; by discussing the question of amount, we
124 COINCIDence of overflowing natTIONAL
may discover what is that state of things most
beneficial to both parties. By dwelling altogether
on the former question, we make bad blood be-
tween the two classes; telling the capitalist that
he must suffer unless his labourers be miserable;
assuring the labourer that his sufferings arise from
his master's prosperity: by examining the latter
question we may prove that masters and servants
have one and the same interest; that, as there
is a state of things bad for both parties, so is there
a state of things good for both parties. And this
latter question is of vast practical importance to
the English at this present moment; when, as I
have endeavoured to show in the succeeding note,
there is every prospect of a desperate struggle
between the two parties, who have been set against
each other by being told, that the welfare of
either party is incompatible with the welfare of
th eother.
The productiveness of industry depends upon
first, the agency of nature, that is, the natural
quality of the land from which subsistence is
derived; secondly, upon combination of power
for distribution of employments, which, for short-
ness, may be called skill. But these two regula-
tors of production have a tendency to act in
opposite directions. When a people cultivate
land of very great natural fertility, and without
limit as to space, so that the people may increase
without resorting to inferior soils, they have no
C
WEALTH, WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 125
inducement to employ their industry in the most
skilful way. On the contrary, they are strongly
impelled to cut up their capital and labour into
small distinct fractions.* America is the example,
where the produce raised by a given amount of
capital and labour, though sufficient to yield high
profits and high wages, is not equal to a fourth,
perhaps, of what the same amount of capital and
labour would produce on the same land, if em-
ployed with English skill. To proceed at once
to the other example, a produce sufficient to feed
the actual population of England, could not have
been raised in England without the greatest skill
in the application of capital and labour. As
population increased in a country naturally sterile
and of limited extent, industry was applied with
more and more skill to the cultivation of land;
and the increase of skill counteracted the decrease
of natural productiveness when capital was ap-
plied to waste land of inferior quality, or more
capital was used on land already cultivated.
But though greater skill counteract the grow-
ing necessity of employing capital and labour
with less and less assistance from nature, still, in
the long run, the produce obtained with the
maximum of skill and the minimum of natural
fertility, will not be more than sufficient to
* See note on the origin, progress and prospects, of slavery
in America.
126 COINCIDENCE of OVERFLOWING NATIONAL
afford inducements for continuing the work of
production. The amounts of produce, indeed,
raised by equal capitals will be very different,
because land varies in natural fertility and in cir-
cumstances of position, such as vicinity to manure
and a market; but, as those who cultivate land
of superior quality or position, must pay to the
owners of such land, as a premium for being
allowed to use it, all the excess of produce above
what suffices to replace capital with ordinary
profits (they must do this, because others would
do so if they would not), the whole produce to be
divided between capitalists and labourers is, not-
withstanding the greatest skill, reduced to the
minimum.
The land, therefore, from which a society
derives its food, constitutes its field of produc-
tion; and the productiveness of capital, subject
to the temporary effect of increasing skill, depends
on the proportion which capital bears to the field
in which it is employed.
With this introduction, the four following
cases will describe all the common conditions of
society which exhibit different rates of profit and
wages.
First. The case in which capital bears a large
proportion to labour, and a small proportion to
the field of production. The United States and
some new colonies are the examples. In this
case, wages are high in share and in amount;
WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 127
profits being, though low in share, high in
amount.
Secondly. The case in which capital bears à
large proportion to labour, and also a large pro-
portion to the field of production. High wages
and low profits will be the result. This was the
case in France towards the close of the last war,
when the conscription had rendered labourers
scarce: more than once, it has been the case in
England after a pestilence.
Thirdly. The case in which capital bears a
small proportion to labour, and also a small pro-
portion to the field of production. Low wages
and high profits will be the result; the produce
divided being great, but the labourers' share
small. This is the case of nearly all countries in
which, with superabundance of labourers, there
is plenty of room for the employment of more
capital without any decrease of productiveness.
Bengal is a good example, where wages are two-
pence a day, and the rate of interest twelve per
cent.
Fourthly. The case in which capital bears a
small proportion to labour, and a great propor-
tion to the field of production. This case gives
low profits and low wages also; the whole pro-
duce of industry to be divided amongst the pro-
ducers being reduced to the minimum. France
may be an example of this case.
But these are common cases. The present
128 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL
case of England differs from all of these, in as
much as we cannot say that English capital bears
a small proportion to English labour; seeing that,
in consequence of the very high proportion which
English capital bears to the field of production,
great masses of capital lie idle, are invested un-
productively, that is wasted, and are exported to
other countries, not taking with them a corres-
ponding amount, or any amount, of English
labour. The same thing appears to have occurred
formerly in Genoa, Venice and Holland.
The case of England differs from all other
actual cases in a very important particular.
Political economists have described three states
of society, the progressive, the stationary and the
retrograde. They call progressive, that state of
society in which both capital and the field of pro-
duction increase as fast as population can pos-
sibly increase; so that profits and wages, both,
being constantly high, whatever the division of
produce, the people increase as fast as possible.
They call stationary, that condition of society
in which there is no further room for the produc-
tive employment of industry, in which case, pro-
fits and wages are constantly as low as possible.
They call the retrograde state of society, that in
which, generally from moral causes, the field of
production constantly decreases; in which case,
not only are profits and wages constantly at the
minimum, but every year some capitalists are
WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 129
reduced to the state of labourers; and, yet the
labouring class becomes less and less numerous.
The Venetian republic, when she lost the trade
between Europe and Asia, was an example of this
case was not Holland in political convulsions
another?
There appears to be a fourth state of society,
which may be called stationary as to profits and
wages, but which is progressive as to the amount
of capital, the extent of the field for employing
industry, and the number of people. The field,
the capital, and the people, may increase; yet if
the enlargement of the field be not more rapid
than the increase of capital, no alteration of pro-
fits will occur; nor any alteration of wages,
unless the field be enlarged and capital be in-
creased, at the same time, more rapidly than
people shall increase. Though, in such a state of
society, both capitalists and labourers will increase
in number, though new means of communication
will be opened, though fresh towns will arise,
though the increase of population and of national
wealth may be striking, nevertheless the rate of
profits may still be low, the rate of wages but just
sufficient to permit an increase of labourers, the
majority of capitalists in a state of uneasiness,
and the whole body of labourers miserable and
degraded. This has been the case of England
since 1815. War ceasing, great masses of capital
were no longer wasted every year, but were accu-
K
130 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL
mulated in England; new channels of invest-
ment were opened; the number of capitalists was
visibly augmented; signs of increasing wealth
appeared in all directions; but as the field of
production was not enlarged so rapidly as capital
increased, more and, more competition amongst
capitalists led to the lowest rate of profit, and
made the condition of the greater number worse
than that of the smaller number. So with respect
to the labouring class; with the peace, which
removed one check to the increase of people,
came great improvements in medicine, which
removed other checks; and the common people
increased faster than the means of employment
for increasing capital. In a word, both the
capital and the people increased faster than the
field of production was enlarged. This change of
the proportion between two of the elements of pro-
duction and the third or chief element, explains
the coincidence of enormous, nay, of rapidly
increasing national wealth, with the uneasiness
of the middle class and the misery of the bulk
of the people.
The moral and strictly political effects of the
various proportions which the field of production
bears to capital and population, must now be
briefly considered.
In the progressive state of society, capital has
a tendency to an equal distribution amongst all
the people. In America, notwithstanding high pro-
WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 131
fits, individuals seldom accumulate large fortunes.
Though the produce divided between the capi-
talist and the labourer be large, the labourer
takes so great a share, that he soon becomes a
capitalist. Under this most progressive state of
society, therefore, the increase of capital is
divided, pretty equally, amongst a number of
capitalists increasing at the same rate as the
capital; so that whilst none are compelled to
work as servants through life, few, even of those
whose lives are unusually long, can accumulate
great masses of wealth. Moreover, in such a
state of things the independence and self-respect
of all begets a love of equality, and thus conduces
to the equal distribution of the capitalist's wealth
amongst his children; so that an individual
seldom inherits the savings of many generations,
or even the bulk of his father's property. In this
state of things, there is no idle class, no spending
class, as Captain Hall has remarked, no adoration
of wealth, no oppression of the poor, no reason
for political discontent. This appears to be the
happiest state of society consistent with the insti-
tution of property.
In those states of society which are either retro-
grade or stationary, as well as in that peculiar
state which, though advancing in the aggregate
of wealth, gives low profits and low wages, wealth
inevitably accumulates in a few hands. Wages
being extremely low, the great body of the people
132 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL
are unable to save; and profits being extremely
low, small capitalists consume the whole, or
nearly the whole, of what remains to them after
replacing their capital. Some, indeed, appear to
be employed in diminishing their capital. Mr. Mill
has incidentally supposed the case, in which none
but large capitalists should be able to save, or
even to live, on the profits of capital; in which
society should consist only of labourers and great
capitalists.* These last, whose consumption is
small when compared with the returns of their
large capitals, even with very low profits, are able
to accumulate in proportion to the amount of
their wealth. In the next place, when the com-
mon rate of profit is low, the small capitalist is
apt to be ruined by fluctuations in trade, which
are the periods of harvest to the great capitalist,
who can wait to buy when the market price is low
and to sell when it is high. When too, the com-
mon rate of profits is low, great capitalists are
not always subject to the law of competition. In
some operations, such for example as the distilla-
tion of spirits, porter brewing, tanning, and the
publication of a daily newspaper heavily taxed,
-
* "In proportion as capital is attended with less and less.
of annual return, the owners of capital have less and less
income. If the income from capital be continually diminished,
in process of time NONE BUT the owners of large masses of
CAPITAL WILL DERIVE FROM IT THE MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE."
Mill's Elements of Political Economy, page 61, 3d edit.
WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 133
the amount of capital required is so large, and
the time when a return may be expected so dis-
tant, that no small capitalist can undertake one
of them with a prospect of advantage. Such
operations can be conducted only by the owners
of large capitals, who thus establish monopolies
whereby they obtain profits somewhat above the
common rate. Again, when wages and profits
are low in consequence of the large proportion
which capital and people bear to the field of pro-
duction, a part of the produce of industry falls to
the owners of land, both as landlords and capi-
talists; a class who, speaking generally, disdain
the pursuits of industry, and who in most coun-
tries have made laws for the descent of land, and
of capital fixed on land, which promote the accu-
mulation of wealth in a few hands. When, fur-
ther, low wages and low profits condemn the bulk
of the people to want, and all small capitalists to
distress or vexation, wealth obtains such inordi-
nate respect and so many advantages over and
above what wealth will purchase in any market,
that slavishness on the one hand, and pride on
the other, become habitual. And to these evils
must be added, the corruption of idleness, grasp-
ing and gambling habits, which lead to dishonesty
amongst the middle class, and savage discontent
amongst those who are without hope. Thus the
retrogarde or stationary condition, presents at the
same moment, gorgeous palaces and wretched
-
134
COINCIDENCE, &c.
hovels, complete idleness and incessant toil, high
mental cultivation and the most barbarous igno-
rance: it cannot but produce a general corrup-
tion of morals, nor end, sooner or later, but in
violent political convulsions.
Not only the coincidence of misery and unea-
siness with enormous wealth, but all the most
striking social peculiarities of England, may be
traced to a superabundance of capital and popu-
lation in proportion to the means of employing
capital and labour. Nay, it might perhaps be
shown, by reference to history, that the decline
and fall of empires have, in great measure, been
owing to the excess of two of the elements of
production over the third; which disproportion
throws great part of the national wealth into the
hands of an idle class, producing an extreme
inequality of conditions, and therefore an extreme
corruption of morals, with pride, insolence and
cruelty on the side of the wealthy few, discontent
and recklessness on the part of the suffering
many; and resulting, finally, in jealousies, divi-
sions, commotion and civil wars, which dry up
the very springs of national greatness.
·
135
NOTE V.
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THEe english.
Retrospect the constitution of 1688-its merits
and defects-maintained by corruption-popu-
lace subservient to the ruling class-effects of
knowledge on the middle class on the poor—
history of the late change in the constitution-
new constitution obtained by the physical force
-new constitution described-not likely to last
-dangers in the prospect of change-democracy,
or worse, apparently inevitable- dangers of
democracy-possible means of avoiding the pro-
bable evils of change-Christian legislation-
means of improving the physical condition of the
bulk of the people, and of removing the uneasi-
ness of the middle class.
In order to take a just view of the political pros-
pects of the English, we must look back a little;
besides observing carefully by what means was
brought about that peaceful, but very difficult,
political change, that most pregnant revolution,
which has just taken place in England.
The theory of the English government, as set-
tled by the revolution of 1688, was this :-three
powers in one power; the king one power, the
136 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
lords one power, and the commons one power;
but the power of the king, of the lords, and of
the commons, is all one, co-existent and co-equal:
the king powerful, the lords powerful, and the
commons powerful; and yet there are not three
powers but one power. And in this trinity, none
is afore or after the other, none is greater or less
than another; but the whole three powers are
co-existent together and co-equal. Nevertheless,
though all laws must have the consent of king,
lords and commons, the king cannot originate
any laws, nor the lords any laws relating to
taxes; while the king is the sole executor of the
laws. But the king can do no wrong; his
ministers, alone, being responsible for his acts.
Furthermore, the king's power descends from
father to son; as does that of the lords; and the
king can create lords without any limit as to
number. Lastly, the commons represent the
whole nation, save the king and lords, in parlia-
ment assembled.
This is the theory of the English constitution,
as settled in 1688. The practice of that consti-
tution has been as follows.
Since no operation of government can be con-
ducted without money, the commons, who hold
the public purse, have been omnipotent. They
have possessed the power to make whatever laws
they pleased, and to compel the execution of such
laws in whatever manner they pleased. What
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 137
things they have done by the exercise of that
power, or left undone by abstaining from the ex-
ercise of it, is quite another question, depending
on the motives by which they were actuated.
They may have chosen to agree with the king
and the lords, or occasionally to disagree with
them, to enlarge or curtail the royal functions, to
restrict or extend popular rights; but, whatever
may have been their inclinations, whatever their
acts, they have never wanted power to do as they
pleased.
This is the first great difference between the
theory and practice of the English constitution.
The next is, that the commons, instead of repre-
senting the whole nation, save the king and lords,
have been partly self-elected, partly nominated
by individual lords, and partly chosen by certain
bodies of the people. The rights of self-election
and of nomination were bought and sold like an
estate, and descended along with estates; while
the open elections were so costly to the candi-
dates that none but rich men could be chosen.
The whole power, therefore, of the English go.
vernment resided in a few hundred men, who had
the inclination and the wealth to buy seats in the
house of commons, either for themselves or their
dependents. That government has been called
the oligarchy of boroughmongers.
Seeing how this oligarchy was constituted, its
motives for doing certain things, and for leaving
+
138 POLITICAL PROSPECTS Of the englisH.
other things undone, become plain enough. This
would have differed from all other oligarchies, if
the main object of its members had not been to
share amongst themselves the emoluments and
distinctions of government. Monarchy being a
costly form of government, requiring a great out-
lay to maintain the dignity of the crown, opens a
wide field of emolument: the English borough-
mongers, therefore, have always been strongly at-
tached to the monarchical form of government.
Titles of honour are amongst the distinctions en-
joyed by a governing class, and it is natural that
he who has himself delighted in a title of honour
should wish to transmit it to his posterity: the
English boroughmongers, therefore, have always
been fond of an hereditary nobility. But a mere
title, such as lord, or three-tailed bashaw or blue
buttoned mandarin, would not be much esteemed
unless there were attached to it, not only real
power, but also the appearance of power. Now,
of the English boroughmongers a good proportion
were peers, who exercised real power by means of
their dependents in the house of commons; but, as
this was, as far as possible, to be concealed from
the nation, they could not appear to exercise
power without a legislative assembly of their
own: the English boroughmongers, therefore,
have always warmly approved of a noble chamber,
in which the appearance of making laws should de-
scend along with titles of honour. As wealth was
POLITICAL PROspects of the ENGLISH. 139
the source of each man's power in the government
of boroughmongers, each boroughmonger wished
that his wealth should go down to his posterity un-
diminished: hence the profound attachment of
English boroughmongers to entails and the law
of primogeniture. But rich men, like poor men,
have daughters and younger sons: how was the
rich boroughmonger to provide for these with-
out diminishing his wealth? Out of the public
purse, over which, either by sitting in the house
of commons, self-elected, or by means of his de-
pendents who sat there, he exercised a large share
of control. Boroughs were dear and elections
very costly a snug borough cost near 100,0007.,
and one man has spent 100,000l. on one county
election: how were such vast sums to be re-
covered? The public purse was always at hand.
Hence one learns why the English people, who ac-
cording to the theory of their constitution were all
represented by the house of commons, have, in
practice, been so heavily taxed by that assembly.
Oligarchy and faction are almost synonymous
terms; first, as every oligarchy is a faction, and
next, as oligarchies have always been divided into
opposing factions. From 1688 to 1830, the whig
and tory factions of the English oligarchy ruled
by turns, one in and the other out, as the force of
either party prevailed in the house of commons.
But their struggles for emolument and distinc-
tions, instead of weakening the government,
140 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE English.
added considerably to its strength. The party
that was out commonly found fault with the
party that was in, took up national grievances
and made great professions of public virtue:
whence, as one party was always out, the nation
always imagined that a portion of the legislature
was singly devoted to the national welfare. When
the party that was out became the most powerful
in the house of commons, and therefore got in,
the king appeared to side with that party, and
the nation rejoiced in a patriotic monarch. Now
and then, one faction was strongest in the com-
mons' house and the other in the lords' house,
whence differences between the two houses, which
gave to the lords' house an air of independence;
an occasional appearance which assisted in holding
the nation to the constitutional faith. Such dif-
ferences, however, could never be serious or of
long duration, because the faction which ruled in
the commons could always exercise, in the
king's name, the power of creating peers. At
other times, the king disagreed with the ruling
faction and dissolved the house of commons,
when a grand election struggle took place be-
tween the two parties; but whichever party
bought the greater number of votes in the new
house of commons became master of the govern-
ment, or rather the government itself; so that,
though the king occasionally exerted a will of his
own, his independence was but momentary.
A
·
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 141
dissolution of the house of commons was always
called an appeal to the nation: thus, whenever the
king exerted an independent will the nation ap-
peared to do so likewise; thus an occasional dif-
ference between the king and the ruling faction,
by giving an air of independence to the king, and
an air of power to the people, tended to preserve
the nation's belief in the reality and beauty of the
constitution. When a petty disagreement oc-
curred amongst the three estates, the nation ad-
mired the beautiful balance of the constitution,
and when such a disagreement, ceased, the beauti-
ful harmony of the constitution was the thing to
be admired. By such fictions and phrases, the
real oligarchy of boroughmongers was made to
pass for an inimitable mixed government, the
envy and admiration of surrounding countries.
And in truth this counterfeit mixture of mon-
archy, aristocracy and democracy, was the best
government ever established in Europe. Though
the powers of government rested in the hands of
a few, those few owed their power to wealth, and
any one who could acquire great wealth might
help to govern. The qualification for the en-
joyment of power being wealth, it was natural
that the government should take great care of the
wealthy. Moreover, as at all times many of those
who governed had lately sprung from an inferior
class, it was natural that they should sympathise
with a class or two below them. The English
142 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
government, accordingly, ever since it became an
oligarchy of boroughmongers, has provided better
than any other government of Europe for the
security of property and persons.
Security of property! personal safety! What
more could be asked of any government? Not
much; for these are the chief ends of govern-
ment. Why then were the English dissatisfied
with their glorious constitution? why have they
lately made another of a very different character?
These questions will be answered by stating in
what respect, chiefly, the constitution was not a
good one; secondly, by describing the means of
its preservation; and thirdly by showing how the
force on which it depended was gradually des-
troyed.
The old English constitution gave security to
property, with safety to persons, according to a
scale, by which the security and safety was bes-
towed in proportion to wealth. Justice was made
exceedingly dear. Thus, though there was jus-
tice for all who could buy it, there was none for
those who could not; and amongst those who
could pay for it, there was most for him who
could pay most. As between two persons of
equal wealth, law was justice, though dear; as
between two persons of unequal wealth, law was
injustice. In the attack and defence of persons
and property, law, mis-called justice, favoured
the richer party, whether he attacked another
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 143
wrongfully or defended his own right; and
was, to the same extent of course, unfavourable
to the poorer party, whether he were right or
wrong. Down the scale of wealth, there was an
active principle of wrong, and up the scale of
wealth, a defensive principle of right. He who
was at the top of the scale could injure the others,
who could not injure him; those who were at the
bottom of the scale could not injure the others,
but might be injured by them. These were the
principles on which the old English constitution
afforded protection to persons and property.
Recollecting how much the happiness of inan in
society depends on the administration of law, it
will appear that in this respect the old English
constitution was a very bad one.
That constitution bestowed upon superior wealth
many privileges, some hurtful to the majority and
in themselves odious, others odious merely as pri-
vileges bestowed upon wealth. Under that con-
stitution, the rich, alone, could obtain the higher
emoluments, distinctions and other gratifications,
of power; could receive titles of honour; could
make laws in the house of commons; could enjoy
or give places, and receive or bestow pensions;
could administer rural laws, after making them;
could manage roads at the public expense, and
stop roads convenient to the public; could build,
fill and govern, jails; could keep game, shoot
other people's game and transport other people
144 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
for shooting their game; could be married in a
particular way, and be divorced from their wives;
could have their children educated at a particular
place at the public expense; could appoint re-
ligious teachers; could fix rates of wages, saying
to the poor-" you shall marry, and you shall re-
main asunder: you who are married shall not
live together;" with many more privileges, so far
of a like kind as to be obviously unfair. What
privilege, indeed, is free from injustice? Which-
soever of these privileges was most hurtful to the
nation, all of them were calculated to excite hatred
towards the privileged class; and though that
curious machine, the constitution, would have been
less productive, would not have worked, perhaps,
without them, they were very proper to bring
about a revolution sooner or later.
The existence of every government of the many
by a few must depend upon some kind of force,
wherewith to secure the obedience of the many.
The most common force of government has been
a body of guards, assisted by a body of spies.
This, however, was not the force of the old Eng-
lish constitution, which out of regard to the li-
berty of the subject, having property, was always
opposed to standing armies and political police.
The force of the old English constitution was cor-
ruption; an engine of great power, and one ad-
mirably fitted in this case to the machine that it
was employed to work. The oligarchy, which
S
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 145
under the name of a mixed government was set
up in France eighteen years ago, has been worked
by an engine of this sort; but not well. In ma-
terial mechanism, simplicity is a great merit ; in
political machinery, having for object to keep
many in subjection to a few, the grand point is
complication. In the French oligarchy, there was
a sad want of entanglement; and then the French
corruption was all of one sort, obvious to the
most careless observer. In France, political cor-
ruption was a species of force; in England, a
genus, comprehending many species. Of that kind
of corruption which was unique in France, namely,
expenditure of public money by the government,
there was plenty in England; but this, great asit ap-
pears when compared with the expenditure of other
governments, seems small when compared with
the great mass of jobs and monopolies by which
it was assisted. Small, however, as it appears in
this point of view it was mighty by the manner
of applying it. The public income of France was
divided amongst the public servants on these
two erroneous principles; first, that every one
should work for his pay; secondly, that all
public servants should be paid sufficiently. The
principles, on the contrary, which directed the
public expenditure of England, were, first, that
many should be paid who did not work at all;
secondly, that those who worked least should be
paid the most, and those who worked most, the
L
146 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
least. The churches of the two countries give a
good example of the operation of these opposite
principles. In the French church, none were idle ;
all the hard working clergy received comfortable
incomes; and the income of a bishop was not
more than seven or eight times as much as that
of a curate. In the English church, large incomes
were given to clergymen who seldom entered a
church, and never either a pulpit or a cottage;
the hard working clergy were kept in a state of
want; and the income of many a bishop was
equal to the united incomes of three or four
hundred curates. Thus, in the French church,
there were no great prizes by which strong and
ambitious spirits might be attached to the estab-
lished order of things; nor were clergymen of
moderate disposition and talents urged, either by
poverty or the hope of riches, to curry favour with
the ruling class. The strong and ambitious
spirits of the French church, accordingly, instead
of supporting the Hartwell charter, spared no
pains to overturn it, while French clergymen of
moderate disposition and talents were content to
vegetate, comfortably indifferent touching ques-
tions of government. Now turn to England :
here the most able and ambitious of the clergy,
desiring either to keep or obtain great prizes in the
church, supported the constitution with all their
might, while clergymen of moderate temper and
abilities could obtain comfortable incomes only
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 147
by siding with one or other of the state factions,
and zealously supporting the constitution, to
which both factions were equally attached. The
contrast is remarkable, and helps to explain why
the charter of William III. lasted a hundred and
twenty-five years longer than the charter of Louis
XVIII. It does but help, however, towards this
explanation; as the clergy of England did but
help to support the constitution. The two prin-
ciples of sinecures, and of much pay for little
work and much work for little pay, were adopted
in every department of the public expenditure;
in the military and civil branches of the army
and navy, and the distribution of prize money, in
the administration of law, in public education, in
the diplomatic service, in the collection of the
revenue, in all public offices and in the manage-
ment of the colonies, not forgetting Ireland.
Thus a great body of the people were induced,
some by the desire of gain and some by the fear
of loss, to stand by the glorious constitution. If
none had been paid who did not work, and all
who worked had received moderate but sufficient
pay, those who were able and ambitious might
have longed for a change, and the remainder
might have wanted a motive for zeal in support
of things as they were. Inequality is the soul of
political corruption.
But the corruption, depending on a judicious
outlay of public money in the way of pensions
148 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
and places, was small when compared with that
which arose out of jobs and monopolies. This
distinction may be drawn between a job and a
monopoly, that the one is a direct, the other an
indirect, robbery of the public. Under the old
English constitution, the public was robbed
directly by several classes of jobs; jobs in res-
pect to contracts for supplies, loans and public
works, victualling jobs, slopping jobs, scrip jobs,
building jobs, harbour, road, bridge and canal
jobs, and other jobs of the same class without
end; the effect of each of these jobs being, that
the government paid more than would have suf-
ficed if the contracts had been submitted to open
competition; that the difference between the
necessary and actual expenditure was so much
public plunder bestowed on friends of the glorious
constitution. Next, there were more palpable
jobs; such as when crown lands were sold or let
for much less than their value, when the govern-
ment purchased land for more than its value,
when grants of public money were made to
reward, in name public services, in reality devo-
tion to the constitution, when public works were
undertaken, either useless or hurtful to the pub-
lic, or when commissioners were appointed to
perform certain acts, and handsomely paid for
doing nothing. All these are but a sample of
the jobbing that took place under the old Eng-
lish constitution. Now observe, if the whole of
✔
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 149
what was stolen from the public, by means of all
these jobs had been spent honestly in the public
service, the constitution would have wanted the
zealous support of a great band of robbers,
delighted with the present and fearful of change.
Really, the old constitution is to be admired more
for its roguery than its profusion.
Next come monopolies ; and, first, monopolies
of trade, exclusive power to deal with particular
countries or in particular articles, such as, of late
years, the East India Company, the Bank of Eng-
land, the West India planter's monopoly of the
British market, and the corn monopoly of the
landlords, which is the greatest of all: secondly,
monopolies of quite another kind, such as that
of the bar, which bestows on a particular class
the privilege of pleading in the courts, and that
which almost forbids a barrister, even, to prac-
tice in certain courts unless he can afford to pay
for chambers in certain spots, where, of course,
chambers are extremely dear; that other mono-
poly of the law by which 1,2007. must be paid as
an apprentice fee for liberty to practice in some
very important courts; the military monopoly
arising from the system of purchasing commis-
sions, and very many more of which a naked list
would fill several pages. The principle of mono-
poly seems to be :-gain with one hand and lose
.;
* The courts which relate to marriage and the descent of
personal property.
150 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
with the other; you rob me, and I rob you.
Englishmen who gained by those monopolies in
which they had a share, lost by others in which
they had no share. But the gain was manifest,
while the loss was imperceptible: there was the
pleasure of robbing, without the pain of knowing
that you were robbed. So much for individual
feeling; but now observe the political influence
of monopolies. Of the loss, which was hidden,
no one took note; but the gain was felt, joyfully
felt, and attributed, with gratitude, to the inimit
able constitution. Adding to the long list of
simple jobs and pure monopolies a multitude of
establishments, half job, half monopoly, such as
corporations enjoying exclusive privileges, hold-
ing lands, levying taxes, administering charities
and bestowing offices, one begins to understand
the power of that corruption which moved the
old English constitution. It works well! George
Canning, used to exclaim: countless plunderers
responded, it works well!
But corruption was not the sole support of the
boroughmongers' oligarchy. Wherever there exists
only two classes, as in Russia and the slave-states
of America, the ruling class despise the slaves, and
the slaves hate their rulers. The wise ancestors of
Englishmen and Americans lived in such like
enmity towards each other, when their habita-
tions consisted only of huts and castles. But as
a middle class grows up, the highest and lowest
:
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF the englISH. 151
classes generally conspire to injure those by whom
they are separated. England, ever since the revo-
lution, presents a striking instance of combination
between the aristocracy and the mob for the pur-
pose of harming the middle class. Until the late
peace, the physical force was always subservient
to the ends of the ruling class; as when mobs
assembled to the cries of " no popery," and
"church and king," when the poor delighted in
a victory over their "natural enemies," the French
jacobins. The old English constitution worked
well, as long as it was supported by the physical
force. How this support was obtained, is not a
mystery. For above a century, at least, after
1688, they who composed the physical force, the
bulk of the people, were kept in a state of pro-
found ignorance. Closely resembling working
cattle, so far as knowledge goes, they were patient
under oppression, as the horse, through ignorance
of his own strength, submits to the spur. To
obedience they added reverence. A lord or a
bishop, a rich squire or beneficed clergyman, a
rich contractor or stockjobber, residing in his
mansion, surrounded by a park, or when in
London still in a mansion, surrounded by man-
sions, seldom met the poor but on occasions of
show or excitement, when a display of his wealth,
and of the respect paid to him by the middle
class, led the ignorant poorest class to regard him
as a demi-god. Thus elevated above the crowd,
·
152 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
he could treat them with familiarity, and yet pre-
serve their respect, whilst airs of condescension,
from one so raised, were grateful to those so
abject. Rank and wealth, accordingly, were
higher recommendations to mob popularity than
learning and virtue. In the next place, with
regard to property, the great cause of jealousy
and contention amongst men, an English aris-
tocrat of the last century was supposed, by the
grossly ignorant poor, to derive his wealth from
any source but their labour; and he did actually
divide amongst the poor a portion of the money
which he obtained from the public purse. A
general election used to cause a fall in the funds,
by the sale of stock for the purpose of bribing, in
one shape or other, all poor electors in the king-
dom. Add to this the fiction, by which a good
many poor men appeared to exert a voice in
choosing the house of commons, the drunkenness,
license and riot which the ruling class encouraged
at elections, the sham of humility and good fel-
lowship by which the candidates used to cajole
the populace; taking all these things into account,
the only wonder is, that the poor, ignorant,
degraded, mass should ever have had a will of
their own.
We have now to see how the force on which the
constitution depended, was gradually destroyed.
It is not so very long since old Englishwomen
were burnt for witchcraft, to the great satisfac-
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 153
tion of every body, save the old women. Why
do they no longer burn old women in England?
Because, in the course of little more than a cen-
tury, public opinion respecting witchcraft has
undergone the greatest change. The same thing
has happened with respect to dear justice, pri-
vileges, jobs, monopolies, and the prestige of
aristocracy. To examine fully, when this change
of opinion began, and by what steps it proceeded,
would carry me too far; but a few remarks on
the subject may not be unacceptable to Americans.
Fifty years ago, instruction was confined to a
portion of the highest class. The middle class,
indeed, could read and write; but their reading
did not extend beyond divinity, novels, the racing
calendar, Moore's prophetic alınanack, and, now
and then, a newspaper adapted to their ignorance.
As for any interchange of ideas by means of
writing and printing, they never thought of such
a thing; or rather, they would have thought it
presumptuous, if not unnatural, in them to form
ideas upon subjects of general interest. Except
when one of their narrow superstitions was
attacked, as for example, their fear of popish
supremacy, they left all public questions to the
nobility, clergy and gentry, whom alone they sup-
posed capable of understanding such matters. They
eat, drank, attended to their business, went to
church, horse-races and raree-shows, stared and
wondered when a great man passed, and believed
-
154
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF The english.
that the whole public duty of man consisted in
honouring the king and loving the rest of the
royal family. The great French revolution entirely
changed their character. When they saw that
men of their own class in a neighbouring coun-
try had undertaken to govern, their slothful and
slavish propensities gave way to political excite-
ment. The very horrors which succeeded the
French revolution, had an excellent effect on
them; setting them to think, read and even write,
on public questions, and, forcing them, above all,
to look into the condition of their inferiors.
During the long war that followed, some of them
sided with the aristocracy, and some wished suc-
cess to that revolution against which the war
was directed; but all of them took an earnest
part in public affairs. Every public question
was now discussed, by them, and for them, too,
by their superiors, who wanted their assistance.
Books, magazines, pamphlets and newspapers
came to be reckoned necessaries of life; and the
quality of these improved with the greater demand
for them. At length, towards the close of the
war, when a new generation had grown up, the
middle class were better instructed than the
highest class, and the charm of aristocracy was
gone. Individual Englishmen still revere the
distinction of title, still bow and cringe to any
one of superior rank, but the English, in general,
have lost all reverence for nobility in the abstract;
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 155
just as each individual, who shares in a mono-
poly, would preserve his own particular means
of robbing the public, while all, including mono-
polists, loudly condemn monopolies in general.
During the war, however, while profits were high,
while among the middle class almost every man's
condition improved year by year, a great majority
of that class sided with the government and was
opposed to any change in the constitution. But
with the peace, came low profits, all sorts of par-
ticular distresses and general distress. Thirty
or forty millions a year, instead of being squan-
dered in foreign subsidies and distant campaigns,
were accumulated at home. As the national
capital increased, the now intelligent middle
class became more numerous, in proportion to
the other classes; but as capital was invested
with less and less profit, the state of each indi-
vidual among the middle class became more and
more uneasy. Thus every year produced a great
increase of the strength, and the discontent, of the
middle class. Touching politics, distress has two
very different effects; straining men's attention
to their own concerns, and yet disposing them to
wish for change in public affairs. In this case,
for a long while at least, those who composed each
distressed class, when they could think of any
thing but how to make the two ends meet at the
close of the year, attended only to such public
questions as were interesting to their own class in
✰✰
156 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THEe english.
particular. In examining the petitions presented
to the house of commons between the battle of
Waterloo and the expulsion of Charles X., it is
curious to observe how few, of those which came
from the middle-class, asked for reform of parlia-
ment. Relief from distress was the prayer of the
greater part of those petitions; agricultural dis-
tress, manufacturing distress, commercial distress,
and, at last, the distress of the nation. These peti-
tions were utterly neglected; for the spending
class, represented in the house of commons, felt
no distress. In the end, the middle class, thus
insulted as well as uneasy, came to suspect that
there was some radical fault in the constitution.
A more important effect of the French revolu-
tion on the English middle class was the disposi-
tion which it produced in some of them to im-
prove the condition of the bulk of the people.
The slaves of a neighbouring country had revol-
ted, and had acted as slaves in revolt will always
act. The ferocious animals of Labruyère," male
and female, spread over the country, black, livid,
naked, and sun-burnt, fixed to the earth which
they stirred and turned with inconceivable ob-
stinacy, having an articulate voice and showing,
when they stood upright, a human face, creeping
at night into dens, and living on black bread,
water and roots;" these despised brutes had
proved what Labruyère had only asserted doubt-
ingly, namely, that they were men and women.
H
·
POLITICAL PROSPECTS of the English. 157
But what a kind of human beings! Devils, they
were called, in human shape, wretches, mis-
creants, monsters. 'Till then, the English had
not suspected that more, a good deal, than half
of the people were miserable and dangerous, like
starving wolves. Long before then, indeed, De-
foe had shown that the condition of the labouring
class was as bad in his time as it has ever been
since; but who cared? Out of evil cometh good.
The burnings, drownings and massacres, by which
the French populace proved their humanity, led to
humanity, in the other sense, amongst the English
middle class. Selfishness, being scared, was turned
into benevolence. It now became an object with
the middle class to improve the physical and moral
state of their inferiors. But by what means?
This question was not so easily settled. After
much discussion, during which some proposed
one thing, some another thing quite different, and
some strove to prove by reference to history, that
the attempt must fail, it was agreed that Educa-
tion should be tried. The ruling class, however,
and the great amongst the clergy in particular,
set their faces against this mode of proceeding.
What teach the slaves that they were men! it
was a jacobinical project. All the ploughmen
would want to be clerks and the journeymen
weavers gentlemen. Who would work, slave, for
the great, cringe to them, bow down and worship
them? Instruct all the people, and we shall
158 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE english.
have helps instead of servants; teach all men to
respect themselves as men, and then what man
will be valet to another man, pull off his clothes,
and scratch his back when required? No, no-
teach the people this, but not more; to honour
and obey the king and all that are put in authority
under him, to submit to their governors and
spiritual pastors and masters, to order themselves
lowly and reverently to all their betters, to labour
for their own living (say nothing of ours), and
to do their duty in that state of servitude into
which it has pleased God to call them. All this
teach them, but no more, unless you would turn
the world upside down.-Such in substance was
the language held up by the ruling class (it would
be easy to quote chapter and verse for it) when some
of the middle class proposed to instruct all the
people. But they were not satisfied with point-
ing out the danger of educating the populace;
those who sought to instruct the poor, they
charged with revolutionary principles, and put a
mark on them as jacobins and levellers. Thus
many, who wished well to the education project,
were deterred from assisting it. A few, chiefly
quakers and other sectaries, persevered, and es-
tablished a limited number of schools for poor
children on the plan suggested by Joseph Lan-
caster. The inventor of the system of Mutual
Instruction, wished that no Christians, except
Catholics, should be excluded from his schools by
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 159
religious scruples; wherefore, though he used the
bible as a school book, it was without note or com-
ment. The high church party now changed their
tóne. Christian charity required that so great a
blessing as education should not be withheld from
the poor. And then the hypocrites established
schools on the Lancasterian plan, vowing that
one of themselves, a Dr. Bell, had brought the
system of mutual instruction from India. In
their schools, however, which they called national
they added note and comment to the bible; that
is, they taught the church of England catechism,
which makes slavishness the first duty of man.
But this device of the aristocratic clergy was of
no avail. Instead of confining instruction, as
was intended, to those who should be brought up
lowly and reverently to the pastors and masters
of the tythe church, it piqued the dissenters, who
now took more pains than ever to teach reading
and writing, at least, to those whom the clergy
did not teach. In the tythe schools, after all,
more than this was not taught. The result of
all the teaching put together is, that about half,
perhaps near three quarters, of the English poor
can read, and a tenth part of them write. The
writing was of no use to them, nor the reading
either, may be, except as a step. For absolutely
nothing was done by any class of teachers to im-
prove the physical condition of the poor. No
pains were taken to assist them in turning their
160 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
limited knowledge, or rather their means of
knowledge, to the best account. Religious tracts
were given to them in abundance, but nothing
else. In all other respects, what they should
learn by means of reading was left to chance.
Even had it been otherwise, if the greatest pains
had been taken to put useful knowledge in their
way, how should they have profited by the boon?
they who were condemned to incessant toil and
severe physical want. They learned, consequently,
little more than what the antijacobins had fore-
seen that they would learn, to be thoroughly dis-
contented with their lot, and to believe that their
misery was owing to bad government. This
faith may be true or erroneous: it took root
firmly in the minds of the English working class;
and from that time forward the physical force of
the nation was at enmity with the constitution.
Having stated why and how the English be-
came disposed to alter their constitution, I pro-
ceed to describe the manner of the change.
The admirers of the old constitution say, that
it had a peculiar knack of adapting itself to new
circumstances: the pliability, the elasticity, of
the constitution, they call this alledged virtue.
Probably the constitution had become stiff from
age; but at all events, it did not adapt itself to
the new opinions with respect to it, which having
sprung up with the French revolution, were
checked by the war with revolutionary France,
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OFf the EngliSH. 161
and have grown steadily and rapidly ever since
the battle of Waterloo. Those who managed the
constitution obstinately resisted every proposal
for altering the venerable machine. But from
the moment when a good many people thought
of changing the constitution, it no longer worked
pleasantly. Instead of only two factions strug-
gling for the management of the constitution,
which both factions revered, there arose a third
faction, bent on overturning tories, whigs, con-
stitution and all. For many years the reform
party was divided into three parties; first, those
who attacked the constitution itself; secondly,
those who attacked the power which worked the
constitution; thirdly, those who attacked both the
constitution and the power. The first class, nick-
named Radicals, consisted, for the most part, of
work people in the towns and was by far the
most numerous; the second class, called Li-
berals, was composed principally of clever men,
belonging to the ruling class and warmly at-
tached to the constitution, but who, lending an
ear to the public outcry against jobs and mono-
polies, thought that they could stretch the con-
stitution to the length of their liberal opinions
without even altering its shape; the third class,
self-called Utilitarians, comprising, when that
name was first heard, not so many perhaps as five
hundred individuals, were content to speculate, to
reason in the abstract, on all questions of govern-
M
162 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
ment, taking care, however, that their specula-
tions should be published. It would be hard to
say which of these classes of reformers was most
dangerous to the constitution. The radicals,
very numerous and always contemplating the
use of physical force, were highly dangerous; for
though they were kept down by the physical force
of the government, many an accident might any
day have given them the advantage. It seems
well to observe here, that ever since the poor of
England were taught to read, the English have
found a standing army absolutely necessary.
The liberals were very dangerous, because, not
conscious themselves, nor suspected by others,
of intending any harm to the constitution, they
grubbed at its foundation, blind and unseen, like
moles. And the utilitarians were not less dan-
gerous; for by exposing the fiction of three equal
powers, balance and harmony, the injustice of
dear laws, the uselessness of privileges, the
iniquity of jobs and the folly of monopolies, they
took the very best method of bringing the con-
stitution into contempt. But whichever of these
three classes of reformers was most dangerous to
the constitution, no sooner did the whole body
of reformers acquire some importance, than there
occurred a confusion of parties amongst the ruling
class such as may never perhaps be thoroughly
understood. Old whigs now leant to toryism ;
young tories to liberalism; along with the re-
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 163
mainder of the whigs, who happened to be out
at the time; while some whigs declared for par-
liamentary reform, and a portion of the tories
took the title of conservatives, meaning that they
would defend the old constitution in all its parts
against all its enemies. In short, public opinion
forced a new question into the house of commons:
it was no longer which shall be in, the whigs or
the tories? but shall the constitution be altered or
shall it be preserved? From that moment the
constitution could not work well; it was in fact
altered, or had begun to break in pieces. Nothing
could have saved it but such a war as had saved
it before.
At length unconstitutional opinions gained a
majority of the house of commons; and the fact
was made known when that house, on the death
of Lord Liverpool, chose that George Canning
should become prime minister. Canning, who
had been devoted to the constitution, was now a
liberal. His appointment was received with
shouts of applause by all classes of reformers,
while the conservatives groaned in fear and anger.
Still, as yet, the government had performed no
act in accordance with the new opinions of the
nation. Canning, who well understood his mission,
began by some liberal measures with respect to
foreign countries; but the conservatives were not
blind to this mode, however indirect, of attacking
161 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
their beloved constitution: they fell upon Can-
ning and killed him. Then came the Goderich
ministry, mixed and liberal, like that of Canning,
but wanting an able chief to keep together its
heterogeneous materials: for want of a better,
it lasted some months, but disjointed and de-
spised; and was then broken up, partly by the
intrigues of the conservatives and still more by
its own cowardice and stupidity. One fine
morning, the prime minister was not to be found;
when the king, surprised no doubt at the strange
working of the constitution, charged his friend,
Arthur Duke of Wellington, to form a ministry.
Many supposed that the constitution was saved.
By habit, and perhaps by instinct, Wellington
was a pure conservative. He had been used to
power, he delighted in power, and valued the
constitution as it gave power to a few over the
many; but that a mere soldier, so ignorant and
even illiterate, should have understood the nature
of that most complex machine, it is very difficult
to believe. At all events, he humoured the liberal
house of commons by taking some liberal col-
leagues, and soon struck the constitution a mortal
blow.
By that constitution, no aboriginal Irishman,
that is, catholic, could become a member of the
house of commons. A vacancy having taken
place in the representation, as it was called, of an
POLITICAL PROSPECTS Of the engLISH. 165
Irish county, the aborigines of that county met,
and in defiance of the law elected a native Irish-
man. What was to be done? Thirty years
sooner, the armed protestants, that is colonists,
of Ireland, aided by an English army, would have
settled the question in double quick time; and
Wellington, an Irish colonist, a soldier who had
once governed the native Irish on the spot, would
have been the man of all others to put down such
a rebellion by force of arms. The Irish, who as
a people, seem deficient in courage, would pro-
bably have submitted to force, as they have often
submitted before to a handful of English soldiers;
but this time there was something to manage in
England; a thing that never was managed by
force. Public opinion, acting on the house of
commons, had disposed that assembly, as any
corporal might see, to sympathise with the Irish
rebels. The temper of the house of commons
putting a massacre of the Irish out of question,
there remained for Wellington only a choice of
evils; on the one side, concession to rebels and a
repeal of the law which excluded catholics from
parliament, with a certainty that that great
monopoly-job, the English church establish-
ment in Ireland, would be next destroyed; on the
other side, resignation, loss of power, with the
certainty that some other minister would ere long
carry a catholic relief bill. Wellington decided
like a brave and ambitious man, as he is. All at
166 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
once he became more popular than Canning had
ever been. Himself had declared shortly before,
that he must be mad to think of being prime
minister. To what special incapacity he referred
we cannot tell: though all, save the conservatives,
agreed with him at the time, he now became, ex-
cept with the conservatives, the most humane,
the most liberal, the wisest of men. The con-
servatives had looked to him for saving the con-
stitution. When, therefore, he led so outrageous
an attack upon it, they were ready to devour
him; but they could not break his heart, which
is rather hard, as they, aided by him, had
broken poor Canning's, which was of a fine tex-
ture. Nay, he converted the greater part of them
to his own views by saying-Support me or resign;
and as for the remainder, they were so few that
he thought he might safely despise them a mis-
take as it turned out.
However, a relief bill was passed, large, com-
plete, not open to an objection from the revolu-
tionists, except as it excluded from parliament, for
one year, that popular Irishman, whom the na-
tives had elected against law.
This personal
clause, being attributed to the spite of an un-
derling, a violent anti-catholic, who had sup-
ported the bill to keep his place; mean as this
clause was, it did not detract from Wellington's
popularity. Humane, liberal, wise, when he pro-
posed the bill, he was now the greatest statesman
CLA
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 167
IN
of his age or any age; he had won a civic crown
more durable than his martial laurels; his name
would go down to posterity as one of the greatest
benefactors of his country and mankind. These
are some of the terms, in which his grace was
thanked for his part in the first obvious blow
given to the old English constitution.
Revolutions are terrible, but in one point of
view seem better than great political changes
conducted without violence. After a revolution
comes peace; after a great peaceful change comes,
very often, revolution. The leaders in great but
peaceful political changes are, commonly, unwil-
ling actors, who act, from necessity, all their
opinions remaining unchanged; who yield this,
merely to preserve that; and who, therefore, pro-
ceed without regard to consequences; as if the
single concession were to be a final measure,
were to have no consequences. It was just so
with those who managed the repeal of the Irish
slave-code.
A breathing time followed that act; a pause,
during which England was governed, not by a
constitution, but by the individual duke of Wel-
lington. If his grace had not been blinded by
his flatterers, he would have seen from the popu-
larity of the once hated Canning, from his own
popularity, and above all, from the confidence
which the nation reposed in him, the resolute,
slashing reformer; from all this, I say, he would
<
168 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
have perceived the absolute necessity of moving
on with the work of reform. The reformers,
giving the field marshal credit for common dis-
cernment, believed that he would move on, and
thought it wise to let him alone; the house
of commons appeared to have abandoned its
functions to a dictator; some of the conservatives
merely sulked; and some, not knowing what to
do, called out, for what? for a reform of the
house of commons.*
Rulers and nations have often deceived each
other, but never so completely as the English
people deceived Wellington, and Wellington
deceived the English people, for some time after
the passing of the relief bill. Wellington thought
that the people were entirely satisfied with what
had been done; and the people doubted not that
Wellington was hatching some grand plot against
the constitution. An accident suddenly opened
the eyes of both parties.
At the end of 1830, the French constitution,
which had never worked well, stopped entirely
for a few days. The French king and the citi-
zens of Paris came to blows; the king being
* An article in the Quarterly Review, published just before
the expulsion of Charles X., and when the question of reform
in parliament seemed to possess no interest for Englishmen,
exposed very ably some of the greatest defects of the house of
commons, as a legislative assembly.
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 169
beaten, was driven away; his cousin, after giving
some faithless promises to alter the constitution,
was appointed king; and then the constitution
of Waterloo, slightly altered, creaked on as before.
The new French king, and the French whigs,
call this a glorious revolution; but it did not
occupy a fortnight, and it ended in no greater
change than would have happened if the old king
had died in his bed without male issue. On the
face of it, therefore, one can see nothing that
should have produced a great sensation in Eng-
land; still less such violent political excitement
as actually occurred. As respects England, what
new political principles were brought to light by
the Parisian “ three days"? The right of resist-
ance to tyrants? no, for that principle was
acknowledged, nay consecrated, by the oligarchy
of boroughmongers. The right of tax payers to
vote taxes, which was the principle of the Ame-
rican revolution? by no means. The right to be
without a government, which seems to have been
the principle of the first French revolution? cer-
tainly not; for the Parisian workmen who ex-
pelled Charles X., fought in the name of the
Waterloo charter. Well, then, why after the Pari-
sian three days were the work-people of the Eng-
lish towns so deeply agitated? Why did the
ruling class exhibit so much terror? Why did
nineteenth-twentieths of the press demand, all of
a sudden, an immediate and effectual reform of
170 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
the house of commons? Why did Mr. Brougham
declare that he had prepared a plan of reform in
parliament; he who had not mentioned the sub-
ject for years, except to deride the radical
reformers? Why was he elected member for
Yorkshire? Why was Mr. Hunt elected for Pres-
ton, spite of the house of Stanley, in their own
borough? Why was parliament, which for years
had scarcely received a petition for reform, now
overwhelmed with such petitions? Why did Wel-
lington utter his famous eulogy of rotten
boroughs? Why did he, the popular dictator,
resign in dudgeon, if not in a fright? Why did
Wellington and the conservatives make up their
quarrel? What brought the whigs, the proud,
careless, lazy and suspected, whigs into office?
and why did those whigs introduce a bill of
reform, which was to cut through the stem of the
constitution? A single word answers all these
questions, barricades! The principle of the poor
dupes who conquered at Paris, was attachment
to a constitution, which gives all the powers of
government to less than two hundred thousand
persons out of thirty-two millions; but then the
three days of Paris made, and made known, this
very important discovery,-that there is a way
by which the populace of a large town may beat
the best of soldiers. Not one gentleman took
part with the populace of Paris: a general, since
a minister, and still a favourite of the new
(
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 171
king, being asked to lead them, said,-pooh! the
rabble, the canaille! Such was the opinion of
military men, of all men, concerning the relative
force of mobs and household troops. All at once,
opinion as to this matter ran into the other
extreme. In England, cannon balls became as
nothing compared with pavement stones; strap-
ping guardsmen looked like dwarfs, and the smal-
lest artizan was a giant. This new faith produced
the most general and violent agitation ever known
in England, without bloodshed. The workmen
of the towns used to shake hands when they met
in public, though they had parted not an hour
before, and expected to meet again during the
day; and then, when one of their leaders did but
talk of workmen at Paris, tears ran down their
unwashed cheeks, and they shook hands again,
this time with an earnest grasp. The work-peo-
ple in the country, not so well informed on
foreign affairs, and more secret in their ways,
appeared gloomy and savage. All the other
classes, nobility, clergy, gentry, placeholders,
stockholders, manufacturers, merchants and
tradesmen, were disturbed by one of two extreme
sentiments; either fear amounting to terror, or
hope equal to joy. Such of them as admired the
constitution turned pale when you mentioned
barricades, and used to skulk about with down-
cast looks, as if some great misfortune had be-
fallen them. The others, if whigs, were in high
172 POLITICAL PROSPECTS of the EnglishENGLISH.
.
spirits; that is, certain of coming in; and, if
downright enemies of the constitution, of rotten
boroughs, privileges, dear law, jobs and monopo-
lies; these, I say, never met but with sparkling
eyes, to laugh and brag over the prospect.
The effects of a given power may be small or
great, according to the susceptibility of the matter
on which the power acts. The discovery of
barricades could not have affected the whole
English nation so deeply, or perhaps at all, if that
nation had been contented with its political
institutions. The physical discovery of the Pari-
sians led to this great political discovery in Eng-
land; that the nation had outgrown its laws.
What followed might have been foretold, nay as
to its main features was foretold, by careful
observers.
The rural paupers, the serfs, of England
rebelled; and the farmers, who down to that
time had been reckoned warm friends of the con-
stitution, notwithstanding their distress, appeared
to sympathise with the rebels. Thus about a
third of England was more or less in a state of
insurrection, without any physical means of
restoring order. Whilst fires were blazing and
mobs exacting higher wages in the country, a new
king met a new parliament; and Wellington, the
popular dictator, the wisest of statesmen, wisely
seized that opportunity to declare solemnly in
favour of the most perfect constitution ever
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 173
framed by the ingenuity of man. In one day,
all the duke's popularity was gone. The most
humane, liberal, clear-sighted of men, the greatest
statesman, the benefactor of his country and
mankind, became, all in one day, observe, hard-
hearted, narrow-minded, wooden-headed, every
thing worthless. The suddenness of Wellington's
fall in the public esteem shows the extent to
which he had deceived the nation, and they him.
While the shout of execration was at its height,
the day arrived when the king and his ministers
had engaged to dine at Guildhall with the citi-
zens of London. Wellington advised the king
not to attend the feast. As the king was very
popular at the time; and popular, be it said in
passing, because his bearing towards the populace
presented a striking contrast with the haughty
reserve of his late brother; this being the case,
it was supposed by some, that Wellington's
advice to the king had been dictated by personal
fear. This charge, brought against one who pro-
bably never was afraid, is not worth refuting.
Why then, make the populace believe that the
government was afraid of them? Because the
government was afraid of the populace; not the
ministers on account of their own persons, but
every member of the government on account of
the constitution; terrified at the thought of bar-
ricades. Would the presence of ministers in the
city have raised barricades? There was great
.
174 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH:
1
risk of it, to say the least; and if barricades had
been raised, who shall tell where the insurrec-
tion would have stopped? Considering the in-
flamed state of the peasantry, and of the workmen
in the towns throughout England and Scotland;
considering, further, the extremely artificial state
of English society, the great number of people
who live from hand to mouth by pursuits not
agricultural, the influence of confidence and cre-
dit in feeding those people, and the crash that
would have followed if any thing had occurred
to disturb seriously the ordinary course of indus-
try and trade; bearing all this in mind, we shall
conclude, that Wellington acted prudently in
avoiding the city feast. Still the breach of the
king's engagement with the citizens was treated
as a great popular triumph, which indeed it was;
and Wellington, who till then had been feared as
much as hated, was now despised. I do not give
too much importance to the failure of a city feast.
In the progress of revolutions, great events seem
to hinge upon trifles. Some aldermen missed a
dinner; but this was the first time when the
friends of the old English constitution showed
any fear of its enemies.
The dinner things were hardly removed from
Guildhall, when the house of commons objected
to the new civil list, which Wellington proposed
for the new king. Owing to the confusion of
parties which had now taken place, above fifty
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 175
conservatives voted against the duke and the con-
stitution: Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat.
They would have voted for reform of parliament
the next day, when Mr. Brougham, moved by the
barricades of Paris, was to have brought forward
a plan for mending the constitution; but Wel-
lington resigned, Mr. Brougham's motion fell to
the ground, and the whigs came in, giving three
great pledges to the nation. They promised,
first, to maintain peace; which, as there was no
war, nor prospect of war, meant that they would
not get up a war to divert the nation from its pur-
pose of reform: secondly, they promised retrench-
ment, that is, to diminish the power which had
moved the constitution; and thirdly, a full and
effectual reform of the house of commons, mean-
ing a great change in the constitution itself.
The people were overjoyed, but not disposed
to confide implicitly in the whigs, who had often
deceived the people, and who, as members of the
aristocracy, were suspected of a strong attachment
to the oligarchy of boroughmongers. The people,
therefore, formed themselves into societies for
promoting reform, and, partly by petitions, but
still more by means of the press, told ministers
what the nation understood by full "and effectual."
Above all, they threatened openly, in so many
words, that if the whigs should offer them a mock
reform, they would take a revolution. At length,
on the memorable 1st of March, 1831, the whig
C
176 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
cabinet produced their bill, themselves alone
being aware of its contents until it was laid before
the house of commons.
An abstract of the whig bill would not describe
it so well as an account of its reception by
the three great parties which then divided the
country.
The conservatives, including those who had
quarrelled with Wellington on account of catholic
relief, were delighted with the bill: they chuckled,
and laughed, and clapped their hands. Was
there ever, said they, any thing so extravagant?
The whigs must be mad. Thank God, they had
gone far enough. Such a bill! revolutionary was
too good an epithet for it. So ridiculous, so pre-
posterous, a bill would not be read a first time.
The whigs must resign; they had cut their own
throats; nothing could be better.
The feeling of the moderate reformers was ex-
pressed by one of the richest men in England, a
whig, but leaning to utilitarian opinions.* He
declared in the house of commons, that the bill
took away his breath. Perhaps he was affected,
not so much by the bill itself, as by the evidence,
which the introduction of such a bill by the
cabinet furnished, of the force of the popular will.
The decided enemies of the constitution having
carefully examined the bill, said-It is a good
first step pass it, pass it!
* Mr. John Smith, the banker, of London.
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 177
In a week there were but two parties; enemies
of the bill or anti-reformers, and friends of the
bill or reformers. The conservatives made up all
their quarrels, seeking only to throw out the bill:
the whigs and reformers forgot all their differences,
bent only on passing the bill. But, what is more
remarkable, the conservatives now called them-
selves reformers, and the reformers swore that
they were conservatives,
The house of commons, thinking with the con-
servatives that the whigs had indeed gone too
far, would not pass the bill. The press, represent-
ing the nation, stormed for a general election, and
the whigs dissolved parliament. In the general
election, the conservatives were signally defeated.
In vain did they, by pointing out that the bill
would disfranchise many poor men, try to enlist
the physical force on their side; in vain did they
declare for reform generally, pressing their hands
on their hearts and vowing that they had never
been friendly to abuses; in vain also did they
put forward images of revolution, confiscation
and bloodshed: it was all in vain; they were
beaten wherever it was possible, by means of
unions, subscriptions, the king's name, brick-bats,
and a single pledge,-"the bill, the whole bill,
and nothing but the bill."
Parliament was already reformed. The new
house of commons would have passed the bill in
a month, if the whigs had proposed such a course.
N
178
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
In that case, probably, the lords would have
wanted courage to reject the bill, and the consti-
tution might have appeared to reform itself. But
the whigs, deliberately as it seems, managed mat-
ters so that the bill was eventually carried by
physical force. By encouraging opposition to the
bill in the commons, by carefully promoting dis-
cussion and delay, the whigs restored the habi-
tual insolence of the conservatives, who had been
subdued by the general election; and, when
the bill found its weary way into the lords, every
body, the whigs alone excepted, knew that their
lordships would reject it.
There was yet a way of passing the bill con-
stitutionally; that is, by a creation of peers.
Such a measure might even have revived a belief
in the beautiful harmony of the constitution.
But the whigs seem to have been bent on giving
importance to the physical force. Though all, who
wished the inevitable revolution to take place
without violence, implored the whigs to create
peers, they pursued their wilful way; and the
lords rejected the bill.
If the whigs, afraid of their own bill, imagined
that its rejection by the lords would enable them
to satisfy the people with a less effectual reform,
they were soon undeceived. The reformers now
put forward images of revolution, confiscation
and bloodshed; political unions were formed in
London and the agricultural districts, where
C
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 179
hitherto they had not been thought of; the expe-
diency, rather than the lawfulness, of refusing to
pay taxes, was now openly discussed at public
meetings and by the press; and the blindest
might see, that the people were about to take the
question of reform into their own hands. The
whigs, however blind, saw this, and promised
that the bill should pass unaltered. No one
doubted that they had made up their minds to
create peers; and the fury of the people subsided.
As the rejected bill could not be brought for-
ward again in the same session, parliament was
prorogued and re-assembled. This time, a week
might have sufficed for passing the bill in the
commons. The whigs thought fit to discuss it
all over again with the conservatives; and this
farce, from which the people turned in disgust,
lasted near half a year. Still no peers were
created; and at length suspicion began to fall
upon the king, who till now had been the most
popular of English monarchs.
Once more the bill was taken to the lords, who
boldly declared that they would not pass it.
Make peers! peers or a revolution! was now the
cry all over England, Scotland and Ireland. Some
whigs hurried to Windsor and advised the king
to make peers. His majesty, who, there seems
no doubt, would have said, yes, if the proposal
had been made six months earlier, was pleased, in
his royal wisdom, to say, no. The whigs, who
180 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGlish.
were never wanting in pride, resigned; and field
marshal the duke of Wellington became once
more, in name at least, prime-minister of
England.
The conservatives, now thought to govern
England by the sword. For ten days England
was governed by newspapers and political unions.
It was not an interregnum, as some have said,
but a good strong government, orderly too, and
like that of the United States, a government
which gave immediate effect to the public will.
How the king, the lords, the new minister and
the ex-ministry settled the matter amongst them,
has never been told; but after the political unions
and newspapers had governed vigorously for ten
day's, the whigs got in again, and the lords, civilly,
humbly, in haste and without even a wry face,
passed the whole bill. In one word, the new con-
stitution of England was obtained by physical
force. The conservatives said it should be so;
and so it was.
I have dwelt so long on the manner of the late
change in the English constitution, because it
appears more important with a view to the future
than the change itself. But, though the change
itself, if it were to be judged by the elections
which have taken place according to the reform
bill, would not appear very important; though
it would appear trifling if estimated by the paltry
reforms of abuses which have thus far resulted
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 181
from it; still it has, to all intents and purposes,
produced a new constitution, as will be seen in
the long run.
Some of those to whom the reform
bill gives the right of voting for members of
parliament, were prevented by a trick from
exercising their franchise; others were deterred
from voting by the fear of offending their land-
lords and rich customers; these two classes
together being so numerous, that fewer persons,
it is believed, voted at the late election than at
the last election of an unreformed parliament.
Some again, and not a few, were induced by
bribery or intimidation, to vote for conservative
candidates, while many would have voted for
better candidates, if better there had been. In
fact, the late general election took place when
the nation, fatigued with two years of violent
excitement, was in a state of exhaustion. But,
though the result of that election be a house of
commons, which does not appear to differ mate-
rially from the houses that were got together
under the old constitution, still there can be no
doubt, that a majority of its members are respon-
sible to their constituents, or that they will be
made to feel their responsibility; whether at the
next general election or sooner, is not a very
By fixing so early a day for the payment of taxes already
due, such payment being one qualification for voting, that
many electors were taken by surprize and missed the right of
voting at the next general election.
182 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
important question, considering the certainty, al-
most, of a general election within three or four years.
But, at all events, whenever the class, to which the
reform bill gives the right of voting for members
of parliament, shall choose to exert themselves,
they will direct the government of England. The
constitution is changed, howsoever little evi-
dence of the change may be furnished by the com-
position, or the acts, of the first reformed parlia-
ment. The present, then, is worth but little atten-
tion, when compared with the future. Those
who, taking the narrowest view of affairs, treat
the present as if there were neither a past nor a
future, may be pleased or dissatisfied with things
as they are; but the prospects of the English, as
a nation, will not be discovered by discussing
present party politics. Let us, therefore, having
looked back, now look forward; steadily, without
affection or fear, so as to form just opinions on a
subject in which are interested, not the English
alone, but also the French, the Germans, the
Poles, trampled on and scattered, every one, of
whatever country, who rejoices in the progress of
civilization, every friend of liberty in the world,
every miserable slave if he did but know it, and
all the oppressors, as they may learn too late.
The new constitution is neither an oligarchy
or a democracy. In what then is to consist the
force of the government?
An oligarchy may be maintained either by sol-
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 183
diers or corruption. Soldiers are out of the case
in England; for with no other force to maintain
the government, hundreds of thousands would
be required, while it is hardly doubtful that, ere
long, those who can, when they please, direct the
government, will insist on a diminution of the
army. And, as to corruption, it is easy to see,
first, that the jobs and monopolies which were
insufficient to preserve the old constitution, would,
if maintained, be entirely thrown away upon the
much greater number who can now vote for mem-
bers of parliament; secondly, that the new
government of the uneasy class will lose no time
in cutting away jobs and monopolies. The whig
ministry lately declared, that the government of
England should no longer be carried on by patro-
nage: they will be made to keep their word,
sooner or later.
A democracy requires neither guards nor cor-
ruption, being supported by the affection of the
whole people. But the new constitution excludes
from legislative power a great majority of the
people, the whole body, we may say, of the work-
ing classes it must want the force which main-
tains a democracy.
-
Thus, on the most general grounds, we may
conclude, that the new constitution will not last;
but let us come to particulars.
By the new constitution, instead of three, there
are but two orders in the state. Power has been
184
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
taken from what was the highest class, and the
mockery of power from what was the lowest
class. We must now speak only of two orders,
the higher and the lower, the rulers and the
governed.
Who formed this mongrel government? Who
bestowed the power of legislation upon too many
'for an oligarchy, too few for a democracy? Was
it the class who now, on paper, at least, are omni-
potent? Certainly not. Could they have extorted
the new charter, unaided by those whom it does
not acknowledge? Certainly not. The reform
bill was carried by physical force; and those who
compose the physical force know this, are proud
of it, boast of it, and will never forget it. Did
they approve of the bill? As a step, yes; but
merely as a step, declaring that they had rather
no bill than this bill, if it were to be a final mea-
sure. Universal suffrage, was, is, and will be,
the object of the working classes. Assemble a
body of them, and say-Is a pauper, an ignorant,
hungry, gloomy slave, qualified to choose who
shall make the laws? No, they will answer; but
with universal suffrage the law makers will take
care that there be no paupers: universal suffrage
we consider a security, the only security, for uni-
versal ease, instruction and content. But, good
people, with universal suffrage, you, the working
class, who form so great a majority, would be the
only class represented in parliament; you would
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 185
make laws for the sake of your class alone, laws
not good, perhaps bad, for the other classes.-
They reply: That is the very point: your objec-
tion to universal suffrage is our objection to a
limited suffrage: the higher class, we fear, will
make laws for the sake of themselves alone, laws
not good, perhaps bad, for us. Besides, we are
told continually by the classes above us, that
what is good for them must be good for us: we
think so; and therefore, say we, let all vote for
the good of all. Are we ignorant? instruct us:
discontented? mend our condition: dishonest;
you say; give us rights and enjoyments to value.
Universal suffrage, we believe, will do all this ;
but at any rate, we, who know our strength, are
resolved to try the experiment.
Such is the feeling of the working classes.
Will the middle or uneasy class attempt to pre-
serve their monopoly of power? Not without
great dishonesty; for they owe their charter to
the working class, who won it for them on a
complete understanding, that it should be a step,
and nothing but a step, in- reform. The physical
force, exhausted by three years of excitement,
has not yet asked for an extension of the suffrage.
Until this demand shall be made, nothing may
happen to disturb the subsisting union between
the middle and the working classes; but when
the demand shall be made, if it be resisted, if the
petitions of the majority be met by counter peti-
186 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
tions from the select few, then must a violent
quarrel take place between the two classes.
Traitors and knaves would be the merited terms
bestowed on the minority. But minorities, when
power is in question, are deaf to the voice of
reproach. If the new constituency should have
nothing to fear except bad names, they would
'not, probably, compel their representatives to
extend the franchise; but we shall readily per-
ceive, that the majority have a better assurance
of good faith in the minority, than the right to
call them traitors and knaves.
The rulers and the governed will no longer be
separated by an intervening class. Except in
political power, the less rich of the ruling order
are on a level with the less poor of the subject
order. None of the circumstances can exist,
which formerly placed the physical force at the
disposal of those who made the laws. A daily
and familiar intercourse must take place between
the two orders; and whatever the inferior order
may suffer, they will attribute to the selfishness
or malice of the others. In the next place, the
property and persons of the new ruling order
are at the mercy of the new subject order. Not
that the position of the poorest class, as to the
persons and property of the other classes, is
changed, but the poorest class may now have a
motive for attacking persons and property which
were always at their mercy. By the old consti-
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 187
tution, power was given to individual wealth;
by the new one, the aggregate of wealth will be
represented. Instead of one very rich man pos-
sessing great power, fifty persons of moderate
wealth will possess some power. Now the per-
son and property of a great boroughmonger were
not endangered by any sudden anger of the poor
towards him; but a farmer, a manufacturer, a
dealer of whatever kind almost, to whom the new
charter gives the suffrage, must live by day and
night in the midst of the excluded, and his
pro-
perty must at all times be subject to attacks
from them. It is well known that the richer
class of people at Preston would have returned
the heir of the house of Stanley at the election
of 1830, rather than that very ignorant and fool-
ish demagogue Mr. Hunt, if they had not been
afraid of the populace: they were afraid that
their factories would be burned, if they should
take part against the popular candidate. In
1830, just after the three days of Paris, the higher
order at Preston had a foretaste of what the elec-
tive bodies of all such towns may expect, when-
ever the lower order shall be in state of excite-
ment. That the voters for county members
should be affected in the same way, seems proba-
ble, when one reflects that in a good part of the
south of England wages have been raised and
kept up by means of stack burning.
188 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
If it were to come to a trial of strength between
the two parties in open warfare (which God for-
bid!) the result must inevitably be favourable to
the great majority. Retrenchinent, which, amongst
other things, means fewer soldiers, is one of the
great objects of the new ruling class. Besides,
the education, as some call it, of the poor has had
this good effect,-that soldiers, though taken from
the most degraded class, have now some feeling
for other people, as well as some political notions,
amongst which is a suspicion that, in time perhaps,
officers may be taken from the ranks. Already
the new parliament has declared, in opposition to
the whig cabinet, against the flogging of soldiers.
Without flogging, degraded men cannot be made
to observe military discipline; and with the end
of flogging, therefore, must come a better selec-
tion of men for soldiers. Thus, as the moral
character of the soldiers shall improve, as they
shall learn to respect themselves, they will learn
also to respect others; and it will become more
and more difficult to employ them in keeping
down the bulk of the people. A national guard
has been talked of for the protection of the new
ruling order; but a national guard, from which
the hardy poor were excluded, would be, as anti-
jacobin Wyndham said of the armed shopkeepers
forty years ago, a great depository of panic.
Moreover, there is the discovery of barricades;
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 189
on which, however, I for one set less value than
most people, except as it will maintain the con-
fidence of the poorer order in their own strength.
But a trial of strength between the two orders
is highly improbable. The proceedings by which
the reform bill was carried show, that the govern-
ment of England is liable to dictation from the
physical force, whenever that force chooses to
exert itself. I say England, because the liability
in question depends on a state of political eco-
nomy, which is peculiar to England. In no
country does so large a proportion of the people
live from hand to mouth by pursuits not agricul-
tural. In America, in Ireland, in any of the
states of Europe, except Holland perhaps, a pretty
general insurrection of the poorer class might take
place, and might even last some time, without
producing very serious consequences. Supposing
it to produce a temporary stagnation, or even stop-
page, of credit and business, still most of the
people would have food at hand, while the re-
mainder, being few in proportion to the producers
of food, might be victualled without much dif-
ficulty. But in England, where the proportion
of rural population is so small, where such great
masses of the people are congregated out of the
way of obtaining food, save by the regular course
of industry, and where, by reason of the most
comprehensive combination of power and the
190 POLITICAL PROSPECts of the enGLISH.
most minute distribution of employments, the
regular course of industry depends so much upon
confidence and credit; there, I say, any social con-
vulsion, if it should last but a week, must produce
a series of convulsions, one more violent than the
other. Stop, for but three days, the course of
credit, trade and industry, which feeds the popu-
lation of the great towns in England, and in three
days more that population would be frantic: it is
needless to dwell on the consequences. But how
easily, does it appear, might such a stoppage occur,
when one reflects on the sensitive nature of credit,
on the misery and discontent of the poorer order,
on their common object, and, above all, on their
just apprehension of the means by which the new
constitution was torn from the old oligarchy.
During the interregnum, as it is called, of 1831,
the walls of London, Manchester, Birmingham,
and other great towns, were placarded in these
words-"To stop the duke, go for gold." The
people, by means of their savings' banks, did go
for gold to the bank of England; and so did help,
at least, to stop the duke. Some of his friends,
selfish mad-men, who thought their own property
in land secure at all events, and some tory under-
lings whose obscurity was a kind of protection to
them, would have braved this attack upon credit;
but the new ruling order, whose daily bread rests
upon industry, trade and credit, to whom the
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 191
right of voting is as nothing when compared with
peace and order, will never, we may believe, pro-
voke a serious disturbance.
-
From all these considerations, only one con-
clusion can be drawn ; namely, that the new aris-
tocracy have no existence but on paper; that if
gratitude, and a sense of honour, should not im-
pel them to extend the suffrage, if they should be
deaf to reproach and to such reasoning as is here
presented to them, they must yield, nevertheless,
to force or fear, sooner or later.
Let us suppose the new ruling class wise in time;
that having wrested power from an oligarchy by
means of the physical force, they admit all men to
an equal share in the power of making laws. That
would be a pure democracy. In a democracy, the
laws are made by the greatest number. In England,
the greatest number consists of labourers, poor, dis-
contented and ignorant. The laws of England,then,
would be made for the supposed advantage of the
poor. To a very poor man, whose sole property
was his labour, who by constant labour was able to
earn not more than enough to support a miserable
existence, whose only prospect was want in his
old age and a career of wretchedness for his
children; to a man in this condition, laws, which
should cause a revolution of property, would ap-
pear the best. Generous minds, full of sympathy
for the miserable and a love of equality, may be
blind to this conclusion; others, bigoted in at-
192 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
tachment to democracy, may deny its truth,
which, however, is plain to those who think as
well as feel, and think without prejudice. Even
now, some disposition is shown, aye even by the
intelligent but uneasy class, to make laws which
would be most unjust to the owners of some
kinds of property. I allude to the proposed de-
preciation of money, which, in proportion to its
extent, would diminish the receipts of those who
are entitled to fixed payments. But if uneasiness
put such notions into the heads of the new ruling
order, what may be expected from the misery of
those who would govern under the future demo-
cracy? The question is answered by reference
to arguments used in support of the plan for de-
preciating the value of money. "A great robbery,"
say the advocates, of depreciation "was com-
mitted thirteen years ago by the vile borough-
mongers, who, by raising the value of money,
enabled all creditors to exact from their debtors
more than was due: we now propose an act of
justice, by returning to the standard in which so
many contracts were made, in which, above all,
great part of the national debt was incurred; but
not of complete justice, since this measure will not
give back to its rightful owners that which has
been wrongfully taken from them during thirteen
years. Unquestionably, during thirteen years,
many receivers of fixed payments have obtained
more, and a great deal more, than they ever con-
""
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 193
tracted to receive; but during the thirteen years
many new contracts have been made; and if the
value of money were now restored to the old
standard, the creditors under these new contracts
would be cheated, just as debtors were cheated
before. To repair one great robbery, therefore,
another great robbery is proposed. That the
robbery which has been perpetrated was the
work of the "vile boroughmongers" may be true;
but see to what this argument leads. "Every
work of plunder performed by the vile borough-
mongers is liable to be overhauled;" say you so?
Then what becomes of the national debt? Was
the capital, of which the interest is now paid by the
nation, spent for the good of the nation? Was it
not squandered, or rather cunningly laid out, for
the preservation of boroughmongering? Did the
nation agree to replace that capital, or to pay
thirty millions a year for ever? When that debt,
miscalled national, was contracted, the nation had
no voice in public affairs. It follows, that the
nation is not bound to pay a debt which was in-
curred by a faction for anti-national purposes.
Nay, further, if every arrangement of the borough-
mongers is to be vitiated by proof of its injustice,
to whom belong those great estates, which have
been kept together by means of provisions out of
the public purse, for daughters and younger sons?
To the nation, which has paid for them over and
over again, by salaries to those amongst whom
0
194 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
they must otherwise have been divided. Once
acknowledge the principle on which some of the
uneasy class now propose to alter the value of
money, and there would be no end of confisca-
tion. But this principle, which "men of property
and education," being uneasy, are not afraid to
assert, would be all in all with a legislature
moved by the wretched. Nor can one deny,
having regard to nothing but the truth, that
many of those, who actually compose the poorer
order in England, would gain immensely, by
sponging out the national debt, abolishing tythes,
and converting all the great estates into national
property, which should be sold piecemeal at the
rate of twenty shillings per acre. The example
of France is before us. At this time, indeed, the
poorer order in France is very miserable; but
those who composed that order fifty years ago,
the wild animals of Labruyère, were deeply in-
debted to confiscation; and I have spoken here
only of that portion of the English poor, who
should obtain land, debt free and tythe free, for
twenty shillings per acre.
But now turn to the other side of the picture.
How many comfortable people must be made
wretched, by such a transfer of property as would
make some of the wretched comfortable! The ge-
neral transfer of property from the rich to the poor,
which took place in France, may have been con-
sistent with the principle of utility, the greatest
C
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 195
happiness of the greatest number; but in the
present social state of England, any large measure
of confiscation would injure the majority. So
barbarous was the state of industry in France
half a century back, so many checks to produc-
tion did the state of property occasion, that a
general transfer of property, by removing those
checks and by stimulating industry, led at once
to an increase of production: property had
changed hands, but the nation was richer than
before. In England, on the contrary, where
millions of people have, one may say, been called
into existence by machinery, where capital does
so much more than labour, where production has
been carried so far, and depends so closely on the
use of large masses of capital in combination,
where the relations of industry are become so
complicated and delicate; here any legislative
attack upon property would cause a decrease of
production. If property were rendered insecure
in England, capital, that it was possible to hoard,
would be hoarded; capital, that was not fixed,
would be moved to other countries. That very
skilful application of capital, that most produc-
tive application of labour, which enables less than
one third of the English people to raise food for
the remainder, depends on security of property.
The great steam-power of England would be next
to annihilated, if property should become insecure.
Thus, with respect to England, confiscation is
196 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
synonymous with destruction. Make a scramble
for property in England, and the best part of the
thing to be scrambled for would disappear. One
may imagine the result; the scenes of contention
and suffering, which must end in England's ruin ;
which might make England a hunting field, or a
place fit to receive convicts from America. But
I pass on, with a hope that some other, having
words at command, may describe the prospect as
plainly as I now see it. Who is there that does
not see it, clearly or vaguely? Why do we hear
continually in England of apprehensions for the
future, all the more serious for not being exactly
defined? And who, that will take the trouble to
think on this subject, but acknowledges the black-
ness of the prospect?
Still, fearful as is the prospect, great as the
danger appears, there may be a way of escape.
The danger being thoroughly understood, some
means of averting it may be discovered. The
English are not apt to despond. In knowledge,
judgement and moral courage, they surpass all
other nations, according to my humble opinion.
But this occasion will tax their best qualities to
the uttermost. In England, it is no longer à
speculation whether democracy be consistent with
high civilization. This is the experiment which
the English are about to try. Who is there that
does not wish them success? If they should
succeed, then all the talk about the difference
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
197
between old and new countries will go for nothing,
any where; and, in time, the greatest happiness
of all will be every where secured: if they should
fail, misery and vice will be deemed the natural
lot of the greatest part of mankind; and the
world, save as England may suffer by the experi-
ment, must go on as before. A single error may
cause the failure of this great experiment. It
becomes, therefore, the duty of every man, who
has reflected on the subject, to make known his
view of the best course of proceeding.
The misery and ignorance of the bulk of the
English people render them unfit to enjoy, or
rather fit them to abuse, a great extension of the
suffrage. If their circumstances were as easy as
those of the working class in America, they might
be better instructed than American workmen
(whose solitary mode of life is very unfavourable
to learning) and therefore better qualified to take
part in chusing the legislature. In that case,
there would be no objection to universal suf-
frage, every thing in its favour remaining as at
present.
Admitting this, two practical questions arise.
First-Is it possible, that arrangements should
be made, to render the English working class
comfortable, satisfied, and as wise, at least, as the
working class in America?
Secondly Is it possible, that such arrange-
ments should be made in time? Or, in other
198 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE english.
words, may universal suffrage be postponed until
such arrangements shall have produced the de-
sired effect; until, that is, the whole people shall
be qualified, by ease, content and knowledge, to
vote for members of parliament ?
Let both of these questions be answered in the
affirmative; and it will appear that democracy
may be established in England without the least
check to civilization, without the least injury to
any, with the greatest benefit to all decide
either of these questions in the negative, and
England becomes, first a field of battle, and then
a waste, compared with the present.
The latter of these questions, though by much
the less difficult to answer, takes precedence in
the order of time. The subject class may pre-
sently demand universal suffrage; and they have
the means either of enforcing their demand, or
of producing that convulsion to which universal
suffrage may lead, if it should come too soon.
Resistance, then, to the demand for universal
suffrage might be the shortest and the worst way
to universal suffrage. Which is the longest, and
therefore the best, way to the end of a journey
that must, at all events, be performed either
quickly or slowly? But, though delay, postpone-
ment, be the object, there is not a year to lose.
To hesitate about taking the long and the safe
course, would be like a decision in favour of the
short and dangerous one. This is why the means
POLITICAL Prospects of the engLISH. 199
of postponing universal suffrage without serious
disturbance, deserve to be considered before
measures for rendering universal suffrage safe if
not desirable.
Admitting that a demand for universal suffrage
would be irrestible if made in earnest, there ap-
pears but one way of postponing universal suffrage;
namely, by preventing the demand for it. Force
being out of the question, may not the bulk of
the people be persuaded to abstain from demand-
ing that, which, after a while, they might receive
as a matter of course? Government, said lately
a young whig nobleman when speaking of Ireland,
inust be feared in order to be loved. He meant,
of course, in order to be obeyed; and the senti-
ment was not so monstrous, considering the igno-
rance, cowardice and slavishness, of the long op-
pressed people of Ireland. But the English have
been "educated;" they are a brave, though not
a martial race; and they are bent on moving
onwards to democracy or ruin. Their govern-
ment may fear them; but fear will not make them
submit to their government. For the first time
in Europe, the people must be guided if at all, by
persuasion and kindness. What these may effect
is now the question.
The actors in this case must be a majority of
the reformed house of commons, as soon as that
house shall truly represent property in the aggre-
200 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
gate. Let us suppose the house of commons so
constituted, anxious to persuade, not force, the
poorer orders to abstain from demanding univer-
sal suffrage. In that case, what would the house
do? what would it leave undone? what would
be its principle of action?
In that case, the representatives of the richer
order would adopt this principle of action:-
Such legislation as must take place, if parliament
had been chosen by universal suffrage, all the peo-
ple being fit to exercise the right of voting.
Jeremy Bentham would have called it the post-
ponement-of-universal-suffrage principle: its effi-
ciency will be seen by noticing a few of its inevi-
table consequences.
1. Some radical member proposes, that build-
ings and other objects of curiosity, the property
of the nation, should be open to the public with-
out payment. How would the house decide?
Would they let the poor visit Westminster Abbey,
St. Paul's and the Tower? or would they, like
former parliaments, vote for the "vested rights"
of deans and door-keepers? According to the
above principle, the decision would be in favour
of a right which has long been withheld from the
poor. If parliament had been elected by uni-
versal suffrage, all the electors being fit to chuse
representatives, a proposal to this effect would be
adopted as soon as made. Such a measure, pal-
P
-
-
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 201
try as it might seem to "great statesmen," would
go some way in persuading the poor to abstain
from demanding universal suffrage.
2. Another radical observes, that the parks at
the west end of London are very pleasant to the
rich who live near them; that the poor, who
crowd the east end of London, would find a park
in their neighbourhood very pleasant; and that
it would be easy to give them one, not an atom
of enjoyment being taken from the rich. By a
parliament in which all were represented, the
proposal would be received with acclamations.
And why not a park for the smoke-dried people of
Manchester, who at present can breathe fresh
air, only by tramping up and down a dusty or
muddy road? Joseph Hume complains of the
expense. The abolition of a few sinecures would
settle that point. If, however, public funds may
not be diverted to public purposes, if no public
money is to be spent for the comfort of any but
the rich, then let the rich pay for universal suf-
frage: you would find it a dear bargain, Mr.
Hume.
3. A third democratic conservative suggests,
that the cost of postage for letters shall be
defrayed by the government; that the poor as
well as the rich shall send and receive letters free
of postage. What! extend to all the privilege of
franking? Yes; and because, for one reason, you
would destroy the privilege by extending it. In
202 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
America, universal suffrage promises to establish
universal freedom of postage; and we are sup-
posing the English parliament to legislate as if it
had been elected by universal suffrage. But the
frightful expense! the Americans are not fright-
ened at the expense; but they have no great
army to support; nor would the English have to
support a great army if the poorer order were
gratified by such measures as this. Moreover,
one might easily prove that a remission of taxes
equal to the cost of this measure, would be far
less advantageous to the public than this measure
however costly. But, at all events, as this mea-
sure would be approved by a parliament repre-
senting all, all being fit to be represented, so
therefore, would a parliament, chosen only by the
richer order, approve of it, having regard to the
postponement-of-universal-suffrage principle.
This principle is not new: it is eighteen hun-
dred years old at least; meaning, do as you would
be done by. For proclaiming this principle, Christ
was crucified, Paul striped, and Sidney beheaded.
For neglecting this principle, England was
punished by losing the affection of America, the
French nobility by the loss of their estates,
Charles Stuart and Louis Capet by the loss of
their heads. Do, one might say to those who
will soon direct the house of commons, do unto
the poorer class as you, being in their place, would
have them, in your place, do unto you. Honestly,
K
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE English. 203
steadily, boldly, abjuring deceit, hesitation and
fear, follow up this generous principle of legisla-
tion; and the poorer order will wait for universal
suffrage, though miserable for a time, still with
patience.
Supposing the reformed house of commons
compelled to adopt this effectual method of post-
poning universal suffrage, yet they might be
troubled in their course by a class of men, whose
object seems to be mischief for mischief's sake.
Troubled indeed, but not more than troubled,
not checked, still less stopped. Even the mere
annoyance would not last six months. By pas-
sing a few bills, such as a parliament elected by
universal suffrage, content and instruction, would
surely pass, the reformed parliament would
destroy that power to teaze, to create trouble and
mischief, which the feebleness and pride of a
cabinet of lords has bestowed upon two classes,
the ignorant demagogues and wild conservatives :
harmless grumblers and broken jobbers, they
would be called; if, indeed, they were not utterly
forgotten, after one year of genuine Christian
legislation by the reformed house of commons.
The question that remains, is by far more dif-
ficult. May arrangements be made to qualify
the bulk of the English people for chusing repre-
sentatives in parliament?
Volumes have been written to prove, that
arrangements for that purpose could not have
204 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
1
÷
any permanent. effect; and tons of books and
pamphlets, reckoning but one copy of each, to
suggest various measures for the cure of poverty
and ignorance. Hitherto, those who contend
that the greatest part of mankind is doomed by
nature to misery and degradation, have had the
best of the argument. It is not necessary on this
occasion to interfere between these two parties.
The question on which they dispute, must be
settled one day or other. Leaving it to be dis-
cussed in an English parliament chosen by the
whole people, the present object is to ascertain
by what means the English poorer order may be
qualified to take part in that discussion. The
present question, therefore, though more difficult
than that which has been just examined, is a
small practical question, when compared with
that great abstract question which divides the
Malthusians and their opponents: it relates only
to one generation. Truly, if a way should be
found to bestow comfort and knowledge upon one
generation of the poorer class, that might be a
step to the permanent cure of misery and vice;
but sufficient for the day is the evil thereof: the
present difficulty is great enough, though trifling,
it may be, when compared with the other. Let
us then limit the question.
May arrangements be made to bestow comfort
and knowledge on one generation of the English
poorer class?
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 205
Yes, without doubt, says a believer in the
omnipotence of education; increase the number
of schools for the poor, and of mechanics' instilll-
tions; send teachers into the rural districts;
take off the taxes on knowledge; proceed-
Stop friend; all this is supposed to have been
done with a view to the postponement of univer-
sal suffrage.
He continues: Then you suppose the poor
taught, that their own comfort depends on them-
selves, that their well-being is in their own
hands, that, by prudently keeping their numbers
under the demand for their services, they may
exact high wages,-
C.
Stop again: All this is good, may be neces-
sary, for the permanent well-being of the labour-
ing class; but the greatest imaginable prudence,
though made universal to-morrow, would have
no effect on wages for twenty years to come.
Would you prudently get rid of children already
born? If not, you propose to teach prudence, the
highest wisdom, to a miserable race, without
leisure, over-worked, anxious and discontented;
to make the cart drag the horse; to produce a
cause by means of its own effect. Prudence,
wisdom, is the end; the means, high wages, lei-
sure, peace of mind and instruction. A world of
trouble has been wasted in the endeavour to
instruct the wretched. You must begin at the
beginning. Bestow ease on the working class,
206
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
wages.
and then, indeed, you may teach them to dread
the return of misery. The first step is to raise
"When we deliberate about the means
of introducing intellectual and moral excellence
into the minds of the principal portion of the
people, one of the first things which we are bound
to provide for, is a generous and animating diet.
The physical causes must go along with the
moral; and nature herself forbids, that you should
make a wise and virtuous people out of a starving
one. Men must be happy themselves, before
they can rejoice in the happiness of others; they
must have a certain vigour of mind before they
can, in the midst of habitual suffering, resist a
presented pleasure: their own lives and means
of well-being must be worth something, before
they can value, so as to respect, the life or well-
being of any other person. This or that indi-
vidual may be an extraordinary individual, and
exhibit mental excellence in the midst of wretch-
edness; but a wretched and excellent people
never yet has been seen on the face of the earth.
Though far from fond of paradoxical expressions,
we are tempted to say that a good diet is a neces-
sary part of good education; for in one very
important sense, it is emphatically true. In the
great body of the people, all education is impo-
tent without it.”*
-
* Art. Education, Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britan-
nica, by James Mill, Esq.
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 207
The first step is to raise wages. But how shall
wages be raised, except either by increasing the
amount of employment or by diminishing the
number of labourers? In no other way, beyond
a doubt; not by strikes at Manchester, nor by
Swing fires in Kent; not by spade husbandry, nor
by paper money; not by giving books to hungry
paupers, half-starved weavers and parish appren-
tices, nor by accumulating more capital, and
wasting it on foreign loans and far off ruinous
speculations; but by increasing the proportion
which employment bears to labour. How to
raise immediately the proportion which employ-
ment bears to labour, and to maintain the higher
proportion for twenty years or so; this is the
question on which, if I have taken a just view of
the political prospects of the English, depends
their existence as a wealthy and civilized nation.
Here I must refer to the note, in which I have
sought to explain the coincidence in England of
overflowing wealth with extensive uneasiness and
wide-spread misery. In order to raise wages
immediately, the field for the employment of
English capital and labour must be enlarged;
whereby profits, and the rewards of many ser-
vices not called labour, would be raised at the
same time as the wages of labour. The whole
world is before you. Open new channels for the
most productive employment of English capital.
Let the English buy bread from every people
208
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
that has bread to sell cheap. Make England, for
all that is produced by steam, the workshop of the
world. If, after this, there be capital and people to
spare, imitate the ancient Greeks; take a lesson
from the Americans, who, as their capital and po-
pulation increase, find room for both by means of
colonization. You have abundance, superabund-
ance, of capital: provide profitable employment
for it, and you will improve the condition of all
classes at once. Instead of lending your sur-
plus capital to foreign states, or wasting it in
South American mines, whereby no additional
employment is given to English labour, rather,
like the Americans, invest it in colonization ; So
that, as it flies off, it may take with it, and em-
ploy, a corresponding amount of surplus labour,
if there be any. How this might be done, and
how capital so invested, might be recovered at
pleasure, is stated elsewhere, but cannot be tho-
roughly understood by Englishmen till they shall
learn the causes of certain peculiarities in the
social condition of America. These, also, I have
endeavoured to explain in some of the following
notes. May the explanation assist to point out
a way, by which the English shall escape from
that corrupting and irritating state of political
economy, which seems fit to precede the dissolu-
tion of empires!
Công
209
NOTE VI.
FREE TRADE IN CORN, AS A MEANS OF ENLARGING
THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT
FOR
ENGLISH
CAPITAL AND LABOUR.
Subject of this note stated-wide difference between
facts in America and the English theory of
rent-American theory of rent-various kinds
and degrees of competition for the use of land
-facts-effects of a free corn trade on the
several kinds of competition for the use of land
-with cheap bread, the rental of England must
be greater-gradual repeal of the corn laws
hurtful, for a time, to landlords and farmers;
and not useful to any class of labourers-sudden
repeal of the corn laws beneficial to all classes.
WITH respect to the foreign corn trade of Eng-
land, there is but one point left for examination.
The risk of depending on foreigners for the staff
of life, the wisdom of protecting domestic agri-
culture, the folly of importing corn from abroad
when you can reap it on your own native soil,
the injustice of allowing foreign farmers, who
are lightly taxed, to compete in your own market
with your own farmers, who are heavily taxed ;
all these fallacies having been thoroughly exposed
P
210
FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF
by English writers; and the mischievous influ-
ence of the corn laws in liniting the English
field of production being felt, if not understood,
by the new ruling order, no one doubts that the
reformed parliament, as soon as it shall truly
represent the new class of voters, will establish a
free trade in corn. But an important question
remains; whether the corn laws ought to be
repealed suddenly or by degrees. Now the
object of what follows is to show, and princi-
pally, by correcting an error into which English
political economists have been led by their igno-
rance of America, that the repeal of the corn
laws, if gradual, would, for a time, be injurious
to farmers and landlords, without being very
useful to any class of labourers; but if sudden,
would be beneficial to all those classes, and to
the landlords in particular.
That whatever is good for a portion of society
must be good for all, is a general principle or
rule; and no one denies that the repeal of the
English corn laws would be good for some classes
of Englishmen. On general grounds, therefore,
it would follow, that a free trade in corn must be
beneficial to all Englishmen. The fact may be
at variance with this prima facie conclusion; but
if so, it forms an exception to the general rule;
and those who maintain the exception are bound
to prove that it exists. Yet what has been the
course pursued by the friends and enemies of the
ENLARGING the field of emPLOYMENT, &c. 211
English corn laws? Both parties have taken for
granted, and have built all their arguments on
the bare assumption, that, in proportion as a free
trade in corn must be beneficial to owners of
capital and labour, it would be injurious to
owners of land. As in stating that high wages
must necessarily cause low profits, that the pros-
perity of the master depends on the misery of the
workman, so, in this case, the English economists
have taken pains to set different classes by the
ears. The fifteenth edition of the celebrated
Catechism on the Corn Laws, which contains all
the common arguments for and against free trade
in corn, begins thus: "For whose benefit are the
corn laws? Manifestly, of those who support
them, the landlords." Those laws are, no doubt,
intended for the benefit of the landlords; but so
close a reasoner as Colonel Thompson, will admit,
that between the intention and the fact there may
be a wide difference. He concludes his very able
work, as he begins it, by asserting that "the
landlords are kept at the public expense." It
may be so; but where is the proof? Take it for
granted, most of the economists and landlords
would answer. I venture to say, no: on the con-
trary I notice the bare assertion, which you would
substitute for proof, in order to show that an
argument, having for object to establish that a free
trade in corn would be good for the owners of
212 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF
land as well as for the owners of capital and
labour, is not, upon the face of it, irrational.
The way in which, it is said, free trade in corn
would injure the landlords, is by a diminution of
their rents. The first step, therefore, in the
enquiry, is to ascertain the nature of rent.
This point is already settled by the English
economists. When, say they, the increase of
capital and population leads to the cultivation of
inferior land, people are willing to pay for the
use of superior land. This payment, which is
always equal to the difference between the greater
and less natural productiveness of more and less
fertile soils, constitutes rent. Other things, they
add, enter into rent, vulgarly speaking, such as
the interest which the tenant pays for the use of
the landlord's capital fixed in buildings and
improvements; but, speaking philosophically,
rent is a payment for leave to use land of supe-
rior natural fertility, and nothing else is rent.
According to this statement, we should have
to deduct from the rental of England
1. The interest of hundreds of millions of
capital, fixed on the land and the property of
those who own the land :-
2. All that is paid for the superior position of
some land; that is, the greater vicinity to manure
and a market.
3. All that is paid, over the payment for supe-
$
ENLARGING The field of EMPLOYMENT, &c. 213
perior natural fertility, for accommodation land
in the neighbourhood of towns and villages.
4. All that is paid for land used for purposes
of pleasure and amusement, such as gardens and
pleasure grounds, the tenants of which look, not
to profit, but to gratification..
5. All that is paid for the use of land as build-
ing ground.
But it may be, that all these payments under
the name of rent, amount to a great deal more
than what is paid for the superior natural fer-
tility of land. If so, rent, philosophically speak-
ing, is but a small fraction of rent in the vulgar
tongue.
The philosophical theory of rent is made to
rest, by all the English economists, on a state-
ment directly at variance with the truth; namely,
that little or no rent is ever paid in countries
where the most fertile land may be obtained for
a trifle in unlimited quantities. Before contra-
dicting this statement, it will be well to show,
by two examples out of hundreds, how emphati-
cally it is made.
"So long," says Mr. Mill," as a part only
of the best land is required for cultivation, all
that is uncultivated yields nothing; that is,
nothing which has any value. It naturally
therefore, remains unappropriated, and any man
may have it who undertakes to render it produc-
214
FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF
tive. During this time land, speaking correctly,
yields no rent."*
“On the first settlement" says Mr. M'Culloch,
"of any country abounding in large tracts of unap-
propriated land, no rent is ever paid; and for this
obvious reason, that no person will pay rent for
what may be obtained in unlimited quantities for
nothing. Thus in New Holland, where there is
an ample supply of fertile and unappropriated
land, rent will not be heard of until the best lands
are cultivated."+ Again," in New Holland, Indiana,
and Illinois, and generally in all situations in
which no rent is paid, and the best of the good
lands only are cultivated."
Statements to the like effect might be quoted
from every treatise on rent that has been pub-
lished in England.
Now the fact is, that in the town of Sydney in
New Holland, the rent of land is nearly as high
as in London; that a very high rent is paid for
land in Hobarts Town, Van Dieman's Land, in
Montreal, in the new town of York, Upper Canada,
and in every town of the United States, not ex-
cepting those which have been created within
these two years; that in the immediate neigh-
* Elements of Political Economy. Sec. Rent, p. 31, 3d edit.
† Professor M'Culloch's Principles of Political Economy,
chap. Rent, p 433, 2d edit.
ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 215
bourhood of all such towns a considerable rent is
paid for garden ground and accommodation land;
and that in all new settlements, whether American
or Australian, where there are but few roads, the
competition for land in the neighbourhood of a
market, or of a road which leads to a market, is
so great, that all such land, unless it be utterly
sterile, is reckoned more valuable than the most
fertile land far from a market, and either yields
rent accordingly, or enables its owner to take a
greater produce to market, which comes to the
same thing. The most ample proof of this as-
sertion will be found in every published account
of New South Wales and Upper Canada, in the
published histories of most of the United States,
and in every book of travels in America which
notices the value of land. There have been pub-
lished, in London and Edinburgh, certainly, not
less than three hundred volumes, each of which
contains evidence of the greatly superior value of
Some land in countries, where the most fertile
land may be obtained in unlimited quantities for
next to nothing; and showing too, that in all
such cases the value of land depends, hardly at
all on superior natural fertility, but almost
entirely on greater vicinity to labour for raising
produce and to a market for disposing of it.
There are so many witnesses to this fact, whose
evidence is so much alike, that I should take from
the force of their united testimony by quoting a
216
FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF
+
part of it.* All good private libraries in England
abound in such evidence, as Mr. Mill and Mr.
M'Culloch would acknowledge after one hour's
search in books relating to "new countries." If
nature had provided markets in waste countries,
or if mankind could fly, easily carrying great
weights through the air, then, indeed, the value
of land used in producing food for market, would
depend on superior natural fertility, and where
unlimited quantities of the most fertile land
might be obtained for nothing, without flying too
far, no rent would be paid for the use of land in
producing food for market. Even in that case,
however, rent would be paid for the use of land
in various other ways, as for gardens and build-
ings. As it is, land speculators in Australia,
Canada and America, calculate that, because, in
new settlements, the difference between different
portions of land in respect to advantages of posi-
tion must necessarily be very great, therefore, in
a new settlement, the difference of value between
different portions of land must necessarily be
very great. Thus it frequently happens, that
when one of the western states of America, or
some land-jobbing company, fixes on a spot in
the wilderness as fit for a town, marks out the
* For another purpose, there is collected in the Appendix,
No. 2, a number of facts, which establish that rent, and a high
rent too, is paid in new countries, where unlimited quantities
of fertile land may be obtained for a trifle.
ENLARGING THe field of emPLOYMENT, &c. 217
future streets by notches on the trees, and fixes a
day for selling the district in lots by auction,
hundreds of people congregate, build houses upon
wheels and make ready for the sale by estimating
the future different values of the different lots.
Captain Basil Hall describes admirably one case of
this sort, in which twelve hundred people had as-
sembled in the forest and built seventy moveable
houses, weeks before the day of sale. The different
lots of land sold at such auctions are, generally, of
pretty equal natural fertility, being equally covered
by dense forest of the same kind of trees; yet, while
still covered by the forest, they sell for very dif-
ferent prices. And this is the case, not only with
respect to town lots, but also as to lots which
it is foreseen will be, though not in the future
town, more or less distant from the future market.
In fact, the greatest trade in America, that of
land-jobbing, by which more fortunes have been
made than by any other: a trade in which three
out of four Americans engage at some period of
their lives, either singly or in companies; this
trade, by which even a London company has lately
made immense profits in Canada, which last year
produced to the American government, the
greatest of land-jobbers, nearly 700,000l.; this
trade of land-jobbing, of which it would seem that
the English economists have never heard, depends
principally upon the superior value which, in
countries where unlimited quantities of the most
;
218 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF
•
fertile land may be obtained for a trifle, land
derives from superior position. The English
theory of rent, therefore, whether correct or
not is made to rest upon a great mistatement of
fact.
Now the American theory of rent is this. Rent
consists of a yearly payment for the use of land.
But much land, which might be turned to all the
purposes of man, yields no rent. Land, for instance,
on the south coast of New Holland,* or far west
of the Mississippi, which is still uninhabited,
yields no rent; and never will yield a rent until
there shall be people desirous to use it. Indeed,
no one would pay for the use of land, which no
other person was desirous to use. Rent, there-
fore, arises from competition for the use of land.
Competition for the use of land is of various
kinds and of various degrees.
First, touching the kinds of competition; these
are various, because land is used for various
purposes. In England land is used for growing
corn, for breeding and fattening cattle, for pro-
ducing milk, kitchen vegetables and fruit, for the
* Though, as in the case of the sale described by Captain
Hall, a London company lately offered to the British govern-
ment 125,000l. for 500,000 acres of land on this desert coast.
The offer was made, with a view to profit by the sale, at very
enhanced prices, of land in the neighbourhood of a future
market why the offer was refused, may be seen in the Ap-
pendix, No. 3.
ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 219
growth of timber and other raw materials of
several manufactures, for the sites of warehouses,
factories, houses in towns, villas and mansions,
for pleasure grounds, parks and game-preserves,
besides an infinity of other purposes.
The degrees of competition vary with the
various kinds of competition. The highest degree
of competition occurs near the exchanges of such
towns as London, Liverpool and New York. In
those spots land is measured, not by the acre, but
by the yard and foot; and yields, or is worth, a
rent which may be called enormous, compared
with the highest rent ever paid for the use of land
in producing food. No competition whatever
occurs in such spots as Dartmoor, for example, or
the tops of mountains in Wales, where soil and
climate are equally unfit for residence, for pro-
ducing food and for every other human purpose.
Such spots yield no rent; and any one might
appropriate them, if the actual proprietors were
not induced to maintain their titles by a vague
hope of mineral discoveries, or for the vain plea-
sure of calling their own, though without the least
advantage, so much more of the earth's surface.
The lowest degree of competition occurs on these
spots, which are so distant from towns and roads
as to be unfit for any other purpose than the pro-
duction of food, and of which the produce, owing
to a bad soil or climate, or both, as well as to
distance from markets and manure, is little more
·
220
FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF
than sufficient to cover the expence of cultivation.
This lowest degree of competition may produce a
rent of some pence per acre; while the highest
degree of competition yields a rent of some
thousand pounds per acre. Between these two
extremes, various amounts of rent are produced
by various degrees of competition.
This view of the subject will be made more
clear by reference to some facts.
1. Part of Dengy Hundred in Essex consists
of land reclaimed from the sea, and uniformly
of the greatest natural fertility; not merely pro-
ducing large crops, but, since the soil is light as
well as rich, producing them with a small outlay
of capital. Farther, between this land and the
metropolis there is easy water communication; so
that manure is easily obtained and the produce
is easily conveyed to the best market. Yet, for
this land, the average rent paid, deducting tythes,
is not more than twenty-five shillings per acre;
while for land not more fertile, in some parts of
Warwickshire, used only for producing food, and
not nearer than the Essex farms to manure and a
market, a rent of from two to three pounds per
acre is obtained. That the produce of the Essex
land is greater even than that of the land in War-
wickshire, is shown by the higher amount paid for
composition of tythes in the former case. But
how are we to explain the difference of rent? Of
mere theorists the most profound would be at a
ENLARGING The field of EMPLOYMENT, &c. 221
loss to account for the lower value of the land in
Essex: it is explained by the unhealthiness of the
Essex marshes, which indisposes farmers to settle
there; so that when the lease of a farm expires,
either no one bids against the old tenant, or no
one bids more than the old rent. Many con-
siderable fortunes, accordingly, have been made
by farmers in that part of Essex, who retained as
profit much of what they or others would have
paid for rent, if the competition for farms had
been as great in the thinly-peopled Essex marshes
as it is in the healthy and populous county of
Warwick. This circumstance, though not bear-
ing on any of the kinds of competition mentioned
above, is remarkably illustrative of the doctrine,
that different kinds and degrees of competition
arise from various causes.
2. All the land for some miles south, east and west
of Dunkirk (Downchurch) in France, consists na-
turally of downs of loose sand, blown up from a
gaining sea-shore on to a deep subsoil of sand,
without water, and as sterile as the most naked
rock. Yet in this district the rent of land is
considerably higher than in the very fertile dis-
trict which, on the opposite coast of England,
divides the Isle of Thanet from the rest of Kent.
Why? If rent be paid because, as Mr. Mill says,
in the beginning of his chapter on rent, "land is
of different degrees of fertility," we should go on
to say, because the English land is naturally
222 FREE TRADE in corn as A MEANS OF
sterile, while the French land is naturally rich.
The fact, however, is this; at least this is the way,
in which the people about Dunkirk. account for
the high rents yielded by their naturally sterile
land. Time was when the district was uninhabited,
and then, of course, no rent was paid. But a
church having been built on the barren downs,
and its patron saint, Eloi, being in great repute,
pilgrims flocked thither from all parts of France
and the Low Countries. By this means a town
was established. In time the inhabitants of the
town constructed a port; roads were next made
from the port across the downs to the populous
highlands which had once formed the sea shore,
and afterwards canals in various directions; the
flatness and softness of the sandy district offering
great facilities for canal-cutting. In the end, the
means of communication became more abundant
in this district than in any other part of France,
as they are still and the result was, that the po-
pulation of the district became very great, towns
and villages being built at a short distance from
each other; that by means of canals, clay and
other manures were easily obtained, and being
applied to the sand rendered it more productive
than the ancient highlands of chalk; whilst those
canals, again, afforded great facilities for taking
produce to market. In this way, the cost of pro-
duction in the market becoming less and less by
means of art, the naturally sterile downs about
:
ENLARGING The Field of EMPLOYMENT, &c. 223.
Dunkirk, which have never been used except for
producing food, became more valuable, subject
to a higher degree of competition, than the rich
marsh lands between Sandwich and Reculver, on
which the population is scanty and of which every
acre, in comparison with any part of the French
Low Countries, is distant from market.
3. The garden grounds on the banks of the
Thames, not far from London, are worth four or
five, and in some cases ten, times as much as al-
luvial land of equal natural fertility, which is
either more distant from manure and a market,
or which, though nearer to manure and a market,
is not required to supply a demand for produce of
a perishable nature. Thousands of like cases
might be cited.
4. Of late years, in England, many cases have.
occurred, in which the construction of a bridge
between a town and mere farm land on the other
side of the river, having enabled the inhabitants
of the town to use such farm land for gardens, for
the keep of cows, for turning out horses, and other
purposes of utility or pleasure, has caused the
rent of such land to rise, with a corresponding
fall in the rent of accommodation land on the
town side of the river. In these cases a bridge,
which has nothing to do with natural fertility,
causes a higher rent in one place, and a lower
rent in another, by means of higher and lower
degree of competition for the use of land.
224
FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF
5. Every one at all acquainted with rural affairs
in England or Scotland must know of cases, in
which the making of a canal or a road has raised
the rent of land throughout the borders of the
new line of communication. In such cases, what
the tenant saves by a decrease in the cost of ma-
nure, and of taking produce to market, falls to
the landlord in the shape of rent in such cases,
a higher rent may be paid with the same profit as
before, and is paid because a higher degree of
competition has taken place.
:
6. But how much more striking is the increase
of rent on and around some parts of the borders
of new lines of communication, which are chosen
for the sites of towns or villages. In these cases
ground rents, garden rents and accommodation
rents, are now paid for land which before yielded
rent for only the second degree, perhaps, of
natural fertility; such higher rents being paid
because some of the highest degrees of competi-
tion have been created where only the lowest
degree existed before. The land around every
English town, which has much increased during
the last thirty years, furnishes to numbers an
example of this kind with which they must be
familiar; a case in which, through the increase of
wealth and population, land which formerly
yielded only garden and accommodation rent
now yields building rent; land, which formerly
yielded only a farming rent, now yields garden
ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 225
'and accommodation rent; and land, still used
for farming, is more productive with the same
cost, or as productive with less cost, and is there-
fore worth a higher rent, in consequence of more
manure and a greater demand for farm produce
in the neighbourhood of such mere farming land.
7. On that part of the coast of the Mediter-
ranean formerly subject to the Genoese republic,
very little corn and no meat was ever produced:
on the other side of the Appennines, in Piedmont,
there are districts which produce scarce any
thing but corn and cattle; and part of the pro-
duce of those districts is consumed in the Genoese
territory. Yet the rent of land, on the moun-
tainous coast of the Gulph of Genoa, was a few
years back, and probably still is, considerably
higher than in those very fertile districts of Pied-
mont, from which the Genoese derive a part of
their food. This difference of rent is easily
explained. In Piedmont, there was no competi-
tion for the use of land, except in producing
corn and meat. The soil of Genoa being unsuited
to the production of corn and meat, the Genoese
turned their industry into the channels of manu-
factures and commerce, whereby they were ena-
bled to obtain corn and meat from foreign soils.
Obtaining corn and meat with an outlay of
capital, much less than would have been required
to raise the same produce on their own territory,
they created, by the increase of wealth and popu-
Q
226
free trade in corn as a means of
lation, a demand for productions, which were
easily raised on their own soil, such as garden
vegetables, fruit, olive oil, silk and wine. Thus
land, which if it had been used for growing corn
or feeding cattle, would, at best, have returned
a produce not more than sufficient to replace
capital with profit, and for which, therefore, no
rent could have been paid, now yielded a rent
equal to the difference between the value of the
produce and the cost of production. In this
case, land which was sterile for one purpose,
became fertile for another. Then, as by means
of importing corn and meat, the wealth and
population of the state increased, roads were car-
ried into narrow vallies which before had been
shut against competition, and thus the land of
those vallies, which before had been worth nothing,
came to be valuable, and to yield rent accord-
ingly. Lastly, with the further increase of wealth
and population, owing entirely to the continued
cheapness of corn and meat, there occurred an
extensive demand for the use of land in many
ways besides cultivation. The inhabitants of
Genoa the Magnificent, (magnificent, becausé
without corn laws) required, besides houses,
warehouses and other buildings within the city
walls, country villas, pleasure gardens and orna-
mented grounds. For these, the staff of life being
cheap, they could well afford to pay without regard
to profit. Thus much land acquired a value far
ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 227
exceeding the difference between the value and
the cost of things raised for sale. What had
occurred near the city of Genea, took place, more
or less, at other places on the coast, where there
arose such towns as Spezia, Noli, Voltri and
Savona, and where some land, sterile for produ-
cing corn or meat, came to yield a rent for the
use of it in producing other things; while some
land, neither more nor less fertile for any purpose
of cultivation, yielded a rent much higher than
was ever paid for the most fertile land used in
producing commodities for market. The origi-
nal cause of all, or nearly all, the rent paid in the
Genoese territory, was the importation of corn
and meat, which produced all the higher degrees
of competition for the use of land on spots where,
unless the staff of life had been imported from
foreign soils, the lowest degree of competition
could hardly have existed. How the Genoese
would stare, if Mr. Mill, explaining to them the
cause of high rent in their sterile country, were
to begin with the first sentence of his chapter on
rent: "land is of different degrees of fertility"!
From considering the above facts, it appears
that rent is produced by an infinite variety of
causes each cause, however, operating by way
of competition for the use of land; and that
some kinds of competition are far more power-
ful, produce a much higher rent, than others.
Let us now see what, in England, are the main
228 FREE TRADE in corn as A MEANS OF
circumstances that regulate the degrees of com-
petition for the use of land.
First. Superior natural fertility.
Secondly. Superior productiveness arising from
improvements, such as draining, fencing, build-
ing, &c.
Thirdly. Superior vicinity to manure, which is
the same as superior natural fertility.
Fourthly. Superior vicinity to markets, which
reduces, by so much, the cost of taking produce to
market.
Fifthly. A demand for milk, fruit and kitchen
vegetables, which will not bear long carriage.
Sixthly. A demand for pleasure gardens, plea-
sure grounds and ground for all the purposes of
building.
--
Superior natural fertility, alone, produces some
competition: add improvements, which are equal
to greater natural fertility, but which must be
called fixed capital, and a higher degree of com-
petition takes place : superadd vicinity to ma-
nure and to markets, when a still higher degree
of competition occurs, with a still higher rent:
produce a demand for accommodation land,
when competition takes place in the highest
degree but one: produce a demand for pleasure
gardens, pleasure grounds and building ground,
when the result is the highest degree of competi-
tion and the highest rent. How, in England, a
free trade in corn would affect these several
ENLARGING THE field of emPLOYMENT, &c. 229
degrees of competition for the use of land, and
the aggregate rental of the country, is the prac-
tical question before us.
Let us suppose that if the English were free to
buy corn in the cheapest markets they could
anywhere find, there would no longer be any
demand at all for English corn; wheat, barley
and oats. In this case, competition for the use
of land in growing corn would cease altogether.
If this competition should cease altogether,
bread not becoming any cheaper, the general
competition for the use of land in producing
food would be greatly reduced. But, since the
object of free trade in corn is to obtain cheap
bread, we have a right to presume that, the corn
laws repealed, bread would become much cheaper.
Let us suppose, taking the extreme case supposed
by the landlords, when they say that a free trade
in corn would be ruinous to them, that bread
should be obtained at half its present price. In
that case, the demand for all other kinds of food
would increase with the cheapness of bread. But,
even if the demand for other kinds of food were
doubled, it does not follow, as a matter of course,
that the new demand for the produce of land
would have the same effect on competition as the
demand which had ceased. Whether or not this
would be the case, depends upon two propor-
tions; first, the actual proportion between corn
land and land used for growing other kinds of
·
230
FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF
food; secondly, the proportion which the demand
for food not corn would bear to the present
demand for food not corn, if the price of bread
were reduced by half. These are points which
might perhaps be ascertained by a diligent
government. Supposing that the new demand
for food not corn, would be equal in effect to the
present demand for corn and for food not corn, in
that case the corn laws might be repealed with-
out even a momentary decrease of demand for
the use of land in producing food; and, at all
events, after a while, the increase of people and
wealth, owing to the cheapness of the staff of life,
would raise the demand for food not corn, up to
the present demand for all kinds of food.
How would this, either presently, or before
long, affect the various degrees of competition?
1. Superior natural fertility would be as valua-
ble as ever. Might it not become more valuable?
or rather, might not much land, which has now
but the fourth or third degree of fertility for the
growth of corn, become of the second or first
degree for the growth of other kinds of food?
As the Genoese soil is not fit for the growth of
corn or meat, but is fit for the growth of wine,
silk and oil, so the soil, or rather climate, of Eng-
land, is more fit for the growth of food not corn,
than for the growth of corn. Thus cheapness of
bread extending to some land, which is inferior
for its present purpose, a superior quality for new
ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 231
purposes, would rather augment than decrease
the effect of the lowest degree of competition.
Towards the increase of this effect, also, the
growth of raw materials for manufactures, such
as timber and wool, instead of the growth of
corn, a change which could not but ensue in
many cases, if the English were to buy their
corn with manufactures, would operate very
considerably.
2. Capital fixed upon land, as well as, we may
add here, the unfixed capital of the farmers,
would be as valuable as ever. Fifty years ago,
this would not have been the case; because at
that time the art of producing animal food by
tillage had made little progress in England; but
at this time, every English farmer knows how to
raise meat with the plough. If a demand for ani-
mal food, milk, butter, cheese and meat, should
take the place of a demand for home-grown corn,
some farmers, no doubt, would convert a portion
of their corn land into meadow; but, considering
the great skill of the English in growing artificial
food for cattle, and how the power of growing
such food would be increased by the greater
number of cattle kept, that is, the greater quan-
tity of manure, a large proportion of the present
corn lands would, it seems inevitable, be used
for the growth of turnips, potatoes, beetroot,
clover, tares, lucern, and such like food for cat-
tle, which can be raised only by the same sort of
232 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF
capital as is used in raising corn, and which, on
the score of climate, would be raised with less
expense than corn.
S
These two are the only kinds of competition
for the use of land that would be affected by
cheapness of bread, so long as wealth and popula-
tion had not increased. But inevitably, if bread
were cheap, wealth and population would very
rapidly increase. Whatever the effect of cheap-
ness of bread on these two kinds of competition
without an increase of wealth or population, it
would manifestly be much greater after such
increase.
But now we have to consider the influence of a
great increase of wealth and population on the
four higher degrees of competition.
Let us suppose the population and wealth of
the country to be doubled; a supposition by no
means extravagant, after supposing that the staff
of life had been very cheap during one generation.
In this case, the extent of roads, though not
doubled, would be greatly increased. On many
of the new lines of road, as well as on those which
exist already, market towns would be built in
spots, where, at present, neither manure can be
obtained nor produce sold. In the next place, a
large proportion of the people called into exist-
ence by cheapness of bread, would reside in
towns; so that, with double the actual popula-
tion, the town population would be much more
•
ENLARGING The field of EMPLOYMENT, &c. 233
than doubled. In this way, land, which is now of
second or third rate quality in respect to position,
to manure and a market, would become first rate
and second rate. Thus, also, the extent of land
required for producing perishable food, such as
milk, fruit and kitchen vegetables, would be more
than twice as much as it is now. And, finally,
the demand for pleasure gardens, pleasure grounds
and for building ground, would be more than
doubled with the supposed increase of wealth and
population. Whatever the increase of wealth
and population year by year, all the higher
degrees of competition for land would be much
more rapidly extended.
:
Thus, while a free trade in corn might extend
to some land, which is of inferior quality for the
growth of corn, a superior quality for the growth
of other things, not lessening the value of any
capital fixed upon land, but rather increasing the
power of such capital by spreading a mode of cul-
tivation more suited to the soil and climate of
England; while competition for superior natural
fertility, and the use of fixed capital, might be
´rather increased than diminished, the influence
of all the higher degrees of competition would,
it seems quite plain, be extended incalculably.
The aggregate rental of the country must neces
sarily increase to the same extent. All land-
owners, indeed, would not derive equal benefit,
in proportion to their present rentals, from such
234 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF
an extension of the higher degrees of competition.
The greatest increase of wealth and population
would not cause any increase of competition for
land in the neighbourhood of the London ex-
change, where already the very highest degree
of competition exists and the very highest rent is
obtained; nor, probably, would the value of any
land now used as building ground be much in-
creased by the greatest increase of wealth and
population. The effect of greater wealth and
population would be to extend to land, now
subject to one of the lower degrees, a higher
degree of competition; but already so large a
portion of the surface of England is applicable to
those purposes which create the higher degrees
of competition, that but few landlords could miss
reaping some share of the great increase of ag-
gregate rental which, if this view of the subject
be correct, must result from a free trade in corn.
If so, bread cannot, one should think, be made
too cheap, nor be made cheap too soon, for the
landlords.
But here a consideration arises, which is of
great importance to the landlords. Two ways of
making bread cheap are proposed; that of sud-
denly repealing all the laws which restrict the
importation of corn; secondly, that of substitut-
ing for the present truly whimsical laws a fixed
duty on imported corn, and providing that the
duty shall decrease year by year until it cease
ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 235
altogether. The ground of this latter suggestion
is tenderness for the landlords, farmers and farm
labourers. Give them time, say some of the
advocates of cheap bread; give the agriculturists
time, so that the transition from corn growing to
other kinds of production being gradual, not
even a passing injury may be suffered by any of
them. Now this gradual method of proceeding
appears to me to be the only way in which the
agriculturists may be injured by a repeal of the
corn laws; and the only way, too, in which the
other classes could fail, for a time at least, to
reap much advantage from cheapness of bread.
First, as to the landlords. Let us suppose
that twenty years were allowed for the reduction
of bread to half its present price, and that a
twentieth part of the whole reduction should
take place in each of the twenty years. In that
case, each year would bring a fall in the price of
bread equal to one fortieth of the present price.
With so slow a decrease in the price of bread,
little or no improvement could take place in the
condition of the bulk of the people, because the
number of labourers would increase as fast as
bread became cheaper; and thus though every
year there would be more labourers to eat bread,
nay even though all the labouring class should
eat more bread, the class of labourers generally,
who form the bulk of the people, would not be
able to purchase more animal food. The price of
236 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF
•
bread being reduced by so slow a process as to give
time for a corresponding increase of people,
money wages would fall with the price of bread,
and the quality of labourers' food would not be
raised. In this case, the increase of demand for
animal food would not be more rapid than the
increase of population generally. But if, on the
contrary, bread were suddenly reduced to half its
present price, then, as the labouring population
could not increase suddenly, the bulk of the
people must be able to purchase a great deal
more than twice as much animal food as they
purchase now. At present, they buy very little
animal food. By giving to the bulk of the people
the power to buy animal food, the present de-
mand for animal food might be immediately
doubled, trebled, or even quadrupled; and thus
the transition from corn growing to the produc-
tion of other kinds of food might not have to
wait upon the increase of population. If the slow
process were adopted, a considerable decrease of
the demand for home grown corn might take
place, before population had increased enough to
increase the demand for animal food: whereas, if
the sudden process of repeal were adopted, the
power of the whole labouring class to buy animal
food being thus suddenly and greatly increased,
then the increase of demand for animal food would
more or less correspond with the decrease of
demand for home grown corn. In this way, the
t
ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 237
transition from one kind to another kind of pro-
duction might take place without even passing
loss to the owners of land. If, then, bread is to
be made cheap, the cheaper the better and the
sooner the better for the landlords.
Secondly, as to the farmers. These, like the
landlords, might suffer from a slow process of
repeal, which should cause a decrease in the
demand for home-grown corn, without a corres-
ponding increase of demand for other things
which English farmers could raise. In fact, what
has just been said of the landlords ought rather
to have been said of the farmers, since the land-
lord could suffer only through the farmer's loss.
Supposing transition from corn growing to other
kinds of production inevitable, the thing which
the farmers have to fear is temporary stagnation.
The best way to produce a temporary stagnation
of farming business seems to be, by enabling the
bulk of the people to buy foreign corn without
enabling them to buy English milk, butter, cheese
and meat the only way to prevent such stagna-
tion, by suddenly making bread very cheap, so
that the demand for farm produce not corn should
at once equal, if it did not exceed, the present
demand for corn and other things together.
In two points of view more, the farmers appear
to be interested in a sudden repeal of the corn
laws; first as capitalists and secondly as holders
of leases. "A farmer," says the author of cheap
238
FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF
corn best for farmers,* "is as much a capitalist as
a shopkeeper or a manufacturer; and the profits
of farming capital must be lowered by any cause
which lowers the profits of other capital. A
fariner's gain cannot be permanently greater than
that of other capitalists. He has, in common
with other capitalists, a very strong interest in
high profits." Of course he has; and is not one
object of free trade in corn to raise the profits of
capital generally, by enlarging the English field
of production? If, by the purchase of bread from
other countries, the field of production should be
so much enlarged as to raise the common rate of
profit, farmers' profits could not but rise; and the
sooner, of course, this change should take place
the better for the farmer, as for the manufacturer
and shopkeeper. Secondly, supposing the aggre-
gate value of land to be raised, partly in conse-
quence of land which was inferior for one pur-
pose becoming superior for other purposes, and
still more by the extension of all the higher
degrees of competition, many leases, which now
are only contracts, might become bonds for the
landlord, and, for the tenant, securities worth a
premium. Supposing the demand for other things
* Mr. Henry Drummond, who founded the professorship of
Political Economy at Oxford, and who, in this pamphlet, re-
cognizes the doctrine, that profits depend on the proportion
between capital and the field of production.
ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 239
than corn to become suddenly greater than the
demand for corn and other things, and supposing,
further, a rapid increase of wealth and population,
one can imagine landlords envious of their
tenants under lease.
Thirdly, what would be the influence of cheap-
ness of bread, obtained slowly or suddenly, on
the condition of agricultural labourers? "Oh!
take pity on the poor labourers," say some land-
lords; "if you put an end to the growth of corn
in England, you will diminish employment for
that unfortunate class, and so lower their wages.
This profession of tenderness for the pauper herd
means: Beware of increasing the poor's-rate,
which falls on us landlords. And though a good
part of the poor's-rate, levied in the corn districts
of England, be not borne by the landlords, all
that part, namely, with which the farmers pay
wages, and which must have been paid without
poor-laws, still, since paupers maintained in idle-
ness are kept by the landlords, it is true that, as
agricultural labourers were thrown out of em-
ployment, the landlords would have to keep more
people. But it does not follow, that the poor's-
rate would increase because the number of
persons to be maintained in idleness was greater.
The rate payers would have the benefit of cheap
bread, like all other classes; except the paupers,
whose money allowance would be diminished as
bread became cheaper. Thus, even supposing a
240
FREE TRADE IN corn as A MEANS OF
V
great decrease of agricultural employment, in
consequence of a great decrease in the price of
bread (and one could not take place without the
other) it might be as broad for the landlords as it
was long; not to reckon their greater means of
paying the same amount, in consequence of the
greater value conferred upon their land by ex-
tending to it higher degrees of competition. For
three reasons, however, it appears probable, nay
certain, that cheapness of bread, if it should come
suddenly, would not throw any agricultural la-
bourers out of employment; in which case, the
difference between cheap bread and dear bread
would be so much pure gain to the payers of
poor's-rate. Because, first, as capital now used
in corn growing could be easily used in produc-
ing other kinds of food, so could corn-growing
labour be easily turned to the production of
turnips, potatoes, beatroot, clover, tares, lucern,
&c., and to the management of sheep, and cattle.
Transition, then, is not so much to be feared as
stagnation; and the way to prevent stagnation is
to make the transition suddenly; a new and
perhaps a greater demand for the produce of farm
labour arising at the moment when the old de-
mand should cease; not waiting for the increase
of population. Because, secondly, if, which may
be doubtful, the various modes of cultivation
substituted for corn-growing should require fewer
hands than are now employed in agriculture,
܀
ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 241
still, all the cheap corn brought to England must
be purchased with English labour; and this, as it
could not increase suddenly, would bear a less pro-
portion to employment, so soon as a free trade in
corn had provided profitable investments for great
masses of capital now lying idle or about to go
abroad. If any one should say that agricultural
labourers would not be fit for those occupations by
which cheap corn was purchased, I would ask
him, whether the wild Irish cottiers be fit for the
great quantity of inanufacturing work which they
perform in England? and would tell him further,
that during the last war between America and
England, American husbandmen found no dif-
ficulty in turning their hands to all sorts of manu-
facturing employments. Lastly, because the
more productive use of the national capital, with-
out reckoning any increase of it, would create a
new demand for labour in a hundred kinds of
work, for which peasants are already quite fit;
such as, merely for example, in building factories,
warehouses, houses and mansions, in making
wharfs, roads, canals, bridges, gardens and plea-
sure grounds, in cultivating kitchen vegetables
and perishable fruit, in porterage and domestic
service; which new demand could not, for some
time, be supplied by a corresponding increase of
people.
All these reasons for concluding, that cheap-
ness of bread would rather increase than diminish
R
D
242 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF
employment for agricultural labourers, are so
many reasons, likewise, why bread cannot become
too cheap, nor become cheap too suddenly, for
the good of that miserable lass. It must be ac-
knowledged, however, that a class, already so
abject, would not be injured by that gradual re-
peal of the corn laws, which, lowering the demand
for English corn without for some time raising
the demand for other productions of English land,
would injure the present race of farmers and
landlords. In that case, some agricultural la-
bourers, who now work for pauper's allowance,
would receive pauper's allowance without work-
ing for it; and the difference would fall upon the
landlords, after, in some cases, falling on tenants
under lease. Cases might occur, in which the
paupers would become the landlords by eating
the whole rent, though without any change in
their condition either for better or worse. Verily,
the more one reflects on the subject, the more
plain does it seem, that the lords of the soil are
deeply interested in making bread very cheap as
quickly as possible. But this, probably, they
will never understand; for do not they set their
faces against rail-roads; blind to the certainty of
profit, and thoughtful only of their pheasants'
tranquillity.
All the other classes, manufacturers, shipowners,
merchants, dealers, professional men, clerks and
workmen of every kind, whose comfort depends
-
ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 243
on the rates of profit and wages, that is, on the
proportion which these classes and their capital
bear to the field of production; these classes,
though they and their capital would increase
slowly with a gradual fall in the price of bread,
might not obtain higher profits and wages unless
the price of bread should fall more rapidly thaṇ
they and their capital should increase. If the
field of production were enlarged by slow degrees,
capital and labour might increase at the same rate;
in which case there would be no change of pro-
portion amongst the three elements of production.
In that case, the wealth and population of Eng-
land would increase, far more rapidly, perhaps,
than since the war; there would be more capitalists
and more labourers, more factories, warehouses,
ships, roads and houses, more signs of wealth;
but no improvement in the condition of either
capitalists or labourers. Whereas, a sudden en-
largement of the means for employing capital
with profit, so great an enlargement suddenly that
capital and labour should for some time bear a
lower proportion to the field of production, must
raise profits and wages both together. For the
sake, then, of the industrious classes generally,
bread cannot be made too cheap, nor be made
cheap too soon.
•
Referring to the preceding note, all classes,
and especially the new ruling order, have a deep
political interest in making bread very cheap all
">
244
FREE TRADE IN CORN, &c.
át once.
It will be impossible to qualify the
bulk of the people for taking a part in the go-
vernment unless their wages be raised, unless they
obtain some leisure and peace of mind. Their
wages will not be raised, if they should increase-
in number as fast as bread becomes cheaper. As
respects them, the object is to make the staff of
life very cheap, without a fall, if possible with a
rise, of money wages and this can be accom-
plished, if at all, only by a great and sudden fall
in the price of bread. For the sake of all classes
and on every account, therefore, it appears that,
rather than get rid of restrictions on the corn”.
trade by a slow process, which should begin to-
morrow and end twenty years hence, the English
would do far better, if they had sufficient patience,
to leave the corn laws untouched for twenty years
and then repeal them at one blow.
245
NOTE VII.
CLOSE RELATION
BETWEEN THE FOREIGN CORN
TRADE OF ENGLAND AND THE FOREIGN TRADE
OF CHINA.
Object of the English in a free corn trade-very
cheap corn not raised except by slaves-why so-
direct trade between English manufacturers and
the producers of cheap corn, must be very
limited-indirect trade for procuring cheap
corn, by means of direct trade with the Chinese
empire.
THE foreign corn trade of England and the
foreign trade of the Chinese empire appear, at
first sight, to be subjects not closely related; but
a very brief enquiry will show the most intimate
connection between them.
A free trade in corn would be of but little ser-
vice to the English, if there were not plenty of
people in the world ready to buy English manu-
factured goods with cheap corn. To every trade
there must be two parties: he who sells must
buy, and he who buys must sell. The English can
produce very cheap cotton and woollen goods,
and very cheap hardware; but of what service
would it be to them to produce more of these
246
CLOSE RELATION BETWEEN THE
cheap things, without a market in which they
could be exchanged for cheap corn? It is very
important, therefore, with reference to the foreign
corn trade of England, to see who in the world
are the producers of the cheapest corn.
Very cheap corn is not produced any where, in
large quantities, except by the labour of slaves,
black or white, called slaves or serfs. This is a
fact so well known, that as a fact one need not
dwell on it; but why is it that serfs in Poland and
slaves in America produce cheaper corn than
freemen anywhere?
More than one English economist would per-
haps say, that the peculiar cheapness of slave-
grown corn is owing to the cheapness of slave-
labour; the wages of such labour consisting only
of a bare subsistence for the labourer. But in
what country, except North America and some
new colonies, do the wages of free labour em-
ployed in agriculture, much exceed a bare sub-
sistence for the labourer? Perhaps, speaking
generally, it might be shown, that slaves have
more to subsist on than free labourers employed
in agriculture, as undoubtedly farm-horses in
England, being a valuable property, are better
fed than English peasants. But, it might be
said, the subsistence of slaves, though more in
quantity, is less in cost, by reason of the cheap-
ness of the produce of their labour on which they
live. To say this, however, would be to put the
foreign corn trade of enGLAND, &c. 217
effect for the cause. In the next place, consider-
ing the prime cost of slaves, a very important
point, their stupidity, the cost of curing them
when ill, and of maintaining them during sick-
ness, their carelessness, and the great cost of
keeping them in order, with the loss occasioned
by the total escape of some of them and the cost
of getting back some who escape; taking all
these points into consideration, it will be seen
that the labour of slaves is dearer than that of
freemen, though the produce of their labour be
cheaper. If labour were the only element of
production, this contradiction could not occur;
the labour being dear, the produce could not be
cheap. But land also is an element of produc-
tion. Wherever very cheap corn is produced;
land is very cheap; and though in such cases
the corn be raised by slaves, its cheapness seems
attributable to the cheapness, not of the labour
which raises it, but of the land on which it is
raised. Still it will be asked, if this were the
case, why should not very cheap corn be raised
by free labourers on cheap land. Because, I
answer, where land is very cheap and all men
are free, where every one who so pleases can
easily obtain a piece of land for himself, not only
is labour very dear, as respects the labourers'
share of the produce, but the difficulty is to obtain
combined labour at any price. As the two grey-
hounds running together catch more hares than
-
248
CLOSE RELATION BETWEEN THE
four running separately, so the labour of slaves,
though dear compared with that of free labour-
ers in most countries, is, being combined, much
more productive, in proportion to the number of
hands employed, than the divided labour of free-
men wherever land is very cheap. This explains
why slavery and great cheapness of land have
generally existed together; showing besides, that
the cheapness of corn raised by slaves is owing,
not to the cheapness of slave-labour, but to the
cheapness of land; that same cheapness of land
being also the cause of slavery. I have dwelt fully
on this point in a note on the origin, progress and
prospects, of slavery in America.
Now the master of slaves and serfs would not
be apt to produce cheap corn for the English
market, if they had no prospect of being paid for
it except with English manufactured goods. A
Polish or Russian noble, or a slave owner in Vir-
ginia, if he were to exchange the produce of his
land directly with a Manchester manufacturer
for the produce of steam engines, would hardly
know what to do with his purchase. The Eng-
lish will be able to obtain a great deal of very
cheap corn, only by an indirect trade; selling
their manufactured goods where such things are
in great request, for things which are in great
request with the producers of cheap corn; just
as the Genoese buy corn and meat in Piedmont
with salt-fish and hard money, which they first
J
foreign corn TRADE OF ENGLAND, &C. 249
obtain by means of trade with North and South
America. By what indirect, and perhaps very
complicated traffic, cheap corn would come to
England in consequence of cheap manufactured
goods going from England, the English govern-
ment need not enquire: that is a point which
may safely be left to the traders, and any med-
dling with it by the government could not but be
hurtful. But, whether there be in the world a
sufficient demand for manufactured goods to ena-
ble the English to obtain cheap corn by some
indirect trade, is a question of the greatest moment
to the whole people. Further, if there be any
foreign restriction on the foreign demand for
English manufactured goods, restrictions which
it is in the power of the English government to
remove, interference for that purpose is a proper
office, a bounden duty of government. The nation
who, but for the existence of certain restrictions
on trade, would probably buy the greatest amount
of English manufactured goods, are the Chinese;
and it so happens that the Chinese possess a good
deal of that commodity, which, being in great
request every where, would be readily exchanged
for cheap corn, namely, silver. Thus between the
question examined in the following note and that
of the English foreign corn trade, there is a close
and very important relation.*
AR
* See, further, Note on the Art of Colonization.
+
W
>>
250
NOTE VIII.
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE TO THE WHOLE
COAST OF CHINA.
Interest of the Americans in this question-Chinese
restrictions on trade-the Chinese people more
inclined to commerce than the English or Ame-
ricans - Chinese government dislikes foreign
trade on political grounds-restrictions lead to
a free trade-description of the free trade which
actually takes place in China-obstacles to the
extension of this free trade-several modes of
removing those obstacles-one mode will endan-
ger the trade between America and China-
safest, cheapest, and best mode, commercial sta-
tions near the coast of China-to be formed, if
not by Englishmen, then by Americans.
A GREAT change in the English trade with the
Chinese is about to take place. The strict mono-
poly of that trade by the holders of India stock
will presently cease. The English will soon be
free, so far as their own government is concerned,
to trade with the Chinese; but it does not follow
that the Chinese will be free to trade with the
English. To every trade there must be two
parties; and the advantages derived from trade
1
MEANS OF Extending free TRADE, &C. 251
depend on combination of power, or concert, for
the distribution of employments. How are the
English to obtain cheap silver, the produce of
Chinese labour, wherewith to purchase cheap
corn, the produce of Virginian labour, if the
Chinese are not permitted to buy hardware and
cotton goods, the produce of English labour?
The escape of the English from a certain restraint
will not of itself set the Chinese free. On the
contrary, there appears some reason to fear, that
the removal of restraints on the English may lead
to greater restraints on the Chinese; and not
merely as respects their trade with the English,
but also in their trade with the Americans and
others. And, at any rate, the trade between Eng-
land and China could not be much enlarged
without removing the actual restrictions on that
trade, which are independent of the English, which
depend either on the Chinese government or on
the habits of the Chinese people. The nature of
those restrictions and the means of entirely re-
moving them form the subject of the following
remarks, which are addressed to the Americans
as well as to the English; seeing that both na-
tions are concerned in the establishment of a free
and secure trade with China, and that if the
English will not establish such a trade the Ame-
ricans may do it for them, as will be shown pre-
sently. If I were to add, that some steps had
been taken with this view by Americans, not a
•
ว
252 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
few of the English would be jealous of their
"transatlantic brethren." Good! the sooner the
two nations begin to rival each other in under-
takings of this kind, the better for both of them.
Much as the English and Americans are given
to trade, in that respect they are far surpassed
by the people of China. "The propensity to
truck, barter and exchange," which Adam Smith
describes as the original cause of wealth and civi-
lization, (it is the first cause after a surplus pro-
duce has been obtained by combination of power)
is stronger and much more general in China than
in any other country. Upon this point there is
abundant evidence.* Yet the Chinese have made
less progress in the art of navigation than any
other people addicted to commerce; and their
government exceeds all others, whether of past
or present times, in animosity to foreign trade.
Upon these main facts, the commercial disposi-
tion of the Chinese people, their ignorance of
navigation, and the dislike of their government
to foreign trade, must turn every speculation on
the present subject.
The people of China are most desirous to trade
with foreigners; but their ignorance of navigation
prevents them from trading out of China. Their
foreign trade, therefore, is necessarily conducted
* For the information of Americans some curious evi-
dence of the industry, skill and commercial disposition, of the
Chinese people is printed in the Appendix (No. 1.)
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
253
in China, and depends on the presence of foreign
dealers and foreign ships. This point should be
carefully borne in mind. Trade with the Chinese
never has been, and for ages to come never will
be, conducted without the presence of foreign
dealers and foreign ships on the coast of China.
But the Chinese government detests or rather
dreads foreigners, and lays all sorts of restrictions
on their presence in China, confining them to a
single port and subjecting them to many insults
and injuries. If the propensity of foreigners to
trade with the Chinese, and of the Chinese to
trade with foreigners, were not stronger than the
Chinese government, there would be no foreign
trade in China. That government, however, has
not much power over its own subjects. The
men who compose it are, not Chinese, but Tartars
who conquered China about two hundred years
ago. Like the Mahomedans who conquered India,
and the English who conquered and colonized Ire-
land, they are perfectly distinct from the subject
race. The weakness of the rulers of China arises
partly from their foreign origin and partly from
the great extent of their empire. Such power as
they possess depends solely on the ignorance and
timidity of their subjects. Hence their dread of
foreigners and their apparent animosity to foreign
trade. If people could buy and sell without
personal intercourse, the Tartar government of
China would, by all accounts, encourage foreign
254
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
trade for the sake of revenue. It is not the trade
which they dislike, but the traders. Nor is their
dread of foreigners surprising. "The history of
European commerce in the East is really nothing
but the history of a continued series of usurpa-
tions; nor can any one acquainted with the sub-
ject feel surprised, that such native princes as had
the means excluded those from their territories,
whose object was, not to maintain a fair and
friendly commerce, but to extort oppressive privi-
leges and to make conquests."* But, in addition
to the fear lest foreigners should make conquests in
China, the rulers of that country, being themselves
foreigners and conquerors, dread lest their own
subjects should be led, by intercourse with
other foreigners, to think of rebellion. We have
it in evidence that the mandarins of China, were,
like the mandarins of England, terrified at the
great French revolution. Every restriction which
the government of China imposes on the inter-
course between its subjects and foreigners, its
acuteness and diligence in limiting that inter-
course to what is indispensable for carrying on a
very limited trade, the strict inforcement of
rules by which foreigners were prevented from
moving beyond a narrow spot set apart for their
use, and foreign women are excluded from China,
the care with which on such occasions as em-
* Edinburgh Review, No. CIV.
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
255
bassies to Pekin foreigners have been guarded,
watched and led, as it were caged, through the
empire; all these, and many more practices of the
same kind, may be traced to a political feeling; to
a nervous horror of revolutionary principles, The
emperor and his mandarins are anti-jacobins ; not
stout, like George III. and his boroughmongers,
but very timid, being enervated by gluttony, ex-
cessive venery and the use of opium.
But the feebleness and cowardice of the Chinese
government have two opposite effects upon trade;
producing numerous legal restrictions, and en-
couraging the people to set those restrictions at
naught. Wheresoever trade is restricted there
are smugglers. On the coast of China, where
every body, opportunity serving, is a trader, all
the people are smugglers; not excepting the
officers employed to prevent smuggling. Of the
foreign trade of China, but a small part is carried
on according to law. Moreover, the legal trade,
in which there are only seven Chinese dealers, and
which is confined to a small number of com-
modities, is a trade by which foreigners lose. The
English East India Company would have lost
more than they have gained by the legal trade, if
they had traded to the same extent without a mo-
nopoly of the British market. There will be no
legal trade in China when the company's mono-
poly of the British market shall cease. My
authority for this statement is Mr. Marjori-
[
14
bla
256 MEANS OF Extending FREE TRADE
banks, chief of the company's factory at Canton.
The following question and answer occur in his
late examination before a committee of the house
of commons :-Q. "If the tendency of the trade
in China is to get into the smuggling line, will
not the company, acting on different principles
and being from its circumstances unable to enter
into that trade, be at a disadvantage against per-
sons who have no scruples of that description ?——
A. If the question put to me contemplate the
subversion of the company, I think we should be
all smugglers in China together, and there would
be no legal trade in China." Just so: when there
shall not be any body exclusively privileged to sell
tea in England, nobody will buy tea of the seven
privileged Chinese tea dealers. The English mono-
poly supports the Chinese monopoly: put down
the one, and down goes the other. To some
extent, every witness examined by the house of
commons helps to confirm this opinion; and
none more effectually than the servants of the
company, who seem to have overlooked that an
argument against their own privileges would be
drawn from their admission, that the Canton
monopoly depends on the monopoly in Leaden-
hall street. On other occasions the partizans of
the company have taken great pains to conceal
the importance of the illegal trade; perceiving,
of course, that if that illegal trade, in which they
take no direct part, should appear more import-
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
257
ant than the legal trade, their monopoly of the
English market and of the coast of China as an
English trading station, would be considered
doubly unjust and injurious to the English people.
With this view they have spoken in sneering
terms of the illegal trade, calling it the smug-
gling trade, and swearing that "respectable mer-
chants" would not engage in it; the fact being,
all the while, that a large proportion of the
smuggling trade consists of the sale of opium
to the Chinese; that the importation of opium is
strictly prohibited by the Chinese government,
66
on a moral principle," as Mr. Marjoribanks
assures us; and that the opium smuggled into
China is grown by the company in India, sold by
the company, with a full knowledge of its destina-
tion, to those who smuggle it into China, and
smuggled into China by means of licenses from
the company, without which the foreign smug-
gler could not enter the Chinese seas. So much
for the delicacy of the most " respectable mer-
chants" in matters of trade. But, in truth, those
who conduct the illegal trade of China do not
smuggle, properly speaking. They buy and sell
whatever they please, of whom and to whom they
please, without let or hindrance from the govern-
ment. The imperial edicts, which forbid the
Chinese to quit their own country for any pur-
pose, and which declare that no Chinese, save
only the seven Hong merchants of Canton, shall
S
C
258
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
deal with foreigners; these orders are all moon-
shine, mere sham, as were the English laws
against bribing at elections. The Chinese man-
darins, like the English boroughmongers, are
amongst the first to treat the law as a dead let-
ter. Thus, whilst, legally, trade is no where so
much restricted as in China, the Chinese enjoy
greater freedom of trade than any other commer→
cial people; as will appear by the following in-
structive, and, one may add, entertaining account
of what is called the smuggling trade.
offers an advantageous price.
**
*
+
Extracts from Dobell's Residence in China.
*
"In defiance of an annual edict from the em-
peror, making it death to smuggle opium, the
enormous quantity of nearly 4000 chests is im-
ported every year to Macao and Whampao. * *
It is a business that all the inferior
mandarins, and some of the higher ones, their
protectors, engage in; so that opium is carried
through the streets of Macao in the most bare-
faced manner, in the open day. Large boats
armed, having from thirty to forty men, ply
between Macao and Canton when that market
*
..
"I have known many persons send large sums
of specie by these boats to Macao, at a moderate
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
259
rate, and never heard of an accident happening
to them in any way. All metals are prohibited
from being exported, except zine; there are,
however, immense quantities smuggled into the
English East India cotton ships, whenever they
wish to buy more than the portion allowed by
government."-Vol. ii. p. 148.
"The Chinese have an extensive foreign com-
merce carried on by their own junks to Japan,
Cochin China, Siam, Tonquin, Sumatra, Java,
Borneo, Macassar, and indeed to all the Indo-
Chinese islands. The Chinese declare this trade
is the most important of any of their external
relations ;* and we may believe them when there
are said to be upwards of 40,000 tons of shipping
occupied with that and the salt trade. We know,
also, that a Chinese junk, bound to the islands;
carried a cargo of from 3 to 500,000 dollars' valne
in China ware, nankeens, silks, ready-made
elothes, books, writing-paper, ironmongery, tea,
instruments of husbandry, iron, cloth, &c. &c.”—
Vol. ii. p. 175.
"Nothing can be more barefaced than the
manner in which smuggling is conducted in open
day at Whampao.”—Vol. ii. p.
132.
* It is wholly contrary to law.
260 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
Extracts from the Evidence delivered before the
Select Committee of the House of Commons, on
the Affairs of the East India Company, &c.
First Report.
CHARLES MARJORIBANKS, Esq., a servant of
the East India Company in their China factory
for seventeen years, the greater part of that time
resident in China.
"Has any change taken place in the trade
within your recollection ?—Yes, very considerable
changes have taken place in the foreign trade
generally. One of the greatest changes which
has taken place, and which, in my own opinion,
will sooner or later affect the security of our
trade, is THE ENORMOUS EXTENT OF THE SMUG-
gling trade nOW CARRIED ON IN CHINA, amongst
the islands in the mouth of the Canton river, to a
very great extent indeed; so much so, that if the
Chinese government had the inclination, I do not
imagine they possess the means of putting it down,
at least by any marine force which they have.
"Will you be good enough to state to the com-
mittee if you know in what other articles, besides
opium, the smuggling trade is carried on upon
the coast of China?-I conceive that at present
it extends to articles, more or less, of every descrip-
tion; not on the coast of China, but among the
islands in the mouth of the Canton river."
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
261
"Articles of British manufacture?—I am not
aware of any individual instance where smuggling
of articles of British manufacture has existed;
but I know nothing to preclude it.
"You have stated that the smuggling trade in
China has become very extensive; has not the
increase of that smuggling trade a tendency to
injure the fair trade?—I think it has a tendency
to do so, in as far as articles smuggled into the
country that evade duty can be sold at a profit,
when articles which pay government duties can-
not."-" Is not the opium trade in China, which
you state to exist to the extent of 13,000,000 or
14,000,000 of dollars a year, entirely an illicit
trade? Entirely prohibited by the Chinese
government.
"Has not the Chinese government in its con-
duct towards foreigners, who have attempted to
fix themselves in their harbours, shewn itself a
shrewd government, acutely understanding its
own interests ?-I think that the Chinese are a
highly intelligent people, remarkable for their
industry and perseverance; but I think they are
oppressed with one of the most corrupt govern-
ments that ever weighed down the energies of a
people.
"If it should be the case, that the American or
foreign merchant has carried on a trade of this
(prohibited) description with profit, when the
Company have been carrying it on with loss,
262 MEANS OF extending FREE TRADE
would not that prove that their trade has been,
in this article at least, better conducted than that
of the Company ?-It might not prove that it was
better conducted, for it might arise from the cir
cumstances. I have stated, of some of those goods
having been smuggled into China, having evaded
the Chinese duties."-" If the tendency of the
trade in China is to get into the smuggling line,
will not the Company, acting upon different prin-
ciples, and being from its circumstances unable
to enter into that trade, be at a disadvantage
against persons who have no scruples of that
description ?-If the question put to me contem-
plates the subversion of the Company, I think we
should be all smugglers in China together, and
there would then be no legal trade in China.
"Would not the temptation to smuggling be
irresistible if the trade was carried on in small
vessels ?—I imagine that individuals who do not
much respect the laws of the country, will not
consent to pay duties which they can evade by
acting in opposition to those laws."-" Is the
smuggling carried on among the Chinese by what
are called outside merchants? This term is
applied in common to all merchants not members
of the Hong; some of them are smugglers, some
mere shopmen,"
p
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
263
JOHN FRANCIS DAVIES, Esq., a servant of the
East India Company in China, who travelled for
six months through the interior of the empire.
"What impression, in your opinion, would be
produced upon the Chinese generally by throw-
ing open the trade to British merchants gene-
rally ?—The whole body of smugglers at Canton
would rejoice. The government would, in the
first instance, view it with jealousy, as they view
every change; and when they came to lose their
revenue, they would view it with hostility.
They have already, in consequence of the extra-
ordinary amount of smuggling, (not only relative
to contraband articles, such as opium, but in the
case of articles that pay duty) lost so much, that
they have issued edict after edict directed against
those individuals and those nations who princi-
pally partake in this smuggling trade; and it is
impossible to suppose that they would go on ad
infinitum in their endurance, or consent to the
conversion of the whole trade of Canton into a
smuggling intercourse.*
"Can you state the probable amount of the
tonnage employed in the country trade carried on
between India and China, with reference to the
Company's tonnage ?-The report on the table
speaks to that fact it is nearly equal, at all
* It is a question of power, not of inclination.
264 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
events, to that of the Company. It arises, not
from there being so large a quantity of tonnage
actually employed, but from the quickness of the
returns, and from the comparative smallness of
distance, enabling one ship to make two voyages
in the year."-" Is that trade carried on without
the intervention or assistance of the Company's
servants at Canton at all?-A very large portion
of it consists of smuggling trade, and therefore
must be entirely out of the Company's cognizance.
"Is there not a very considerable smuggling
trade in other articles imported into China from
Europe?—I believe that a great deal has been
smuggled into China.
"Have the Hong merchants themselves taken
part in this smuggling trade ?—Far from it; they
were sold, not to Hong merchants, but to outside
shopmen.
"You were understood to state that some of the
Hong merchants have been ruined by their mix-
ing with the smuggling trade?—Not at all; they
have been ruined by the smuggling trade. They
pay heavy duties and exactions to the govern-
ment, on account of the advantages which their
situation affords them in the monopoly of the
regular trade; and, as the smuggling trade must
necessarily be carried on by persons who do not
pay those heavy exactions, and who in fact fre-
quently evade the regular duties, they must ne-
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
265
cessarily be ruined by the extension of such a
course of transactions.
"Have you any means of judging what pro-
portion of the whole imports into China consist
of the smuggling trade?—It is impossible to say
exactly how much, because the smuggling is
secret, and therefore not so open to investiga-
tion: but with regard to opium, we know that
the amount of the annual importation into China
is upwards of 10,000,000 of dollars.
"Were you at Canton in September 1828 ?—
I was.
"Did you hear that a ship called the Merope
had returned to Canton after having been a
voyage as high up as to Ningpo, having made a
very profitable voyage and converted the whole
of her cargo to a very large extent into specie?—
It must have been entirely surreptitious, if she did;
and I judge that her cargo was opium.
"Do you conceive that such a thing would be
possible?—I should say very improbable, until
the fact spoke for itself; from surmise, I should
say it was a thing that could not easily occur,
but that by smuggling a ship might manage to
introduce goods in that way.
"You have stated that the Chinese govern-
ment have issued many edicts against smuggling,
have those edicts been carried into force or not?
-They certainly have, to the utmost capability of
of the weak Chinese government. I would say,
266 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
that they have rather shewn the hostility of the
Chinese government to the system, than that
they have been very effective in suppressing it.
"Do you consider that smuggling has been
decreased by them, or the contrary?—I should
say that the weak and ill-organized government of
China cannot follow up its edicts by a corresponding
effectiveness; and they have probably, in a great
measure, proved unavailing."
CHARLES MARJORIBANKS, Esq.
"Has not the smuggling trade in camlets in-
creased?—A good many Dutch camlets have been
imported by Dutch ships; and camlets have also
been imported on private account.
"Are the committee to understand, that al-
though the trade of opium is prohibited under
very severe penalties, yet that the quantity im-
ported, and the prices at which it is sold, are as
regularly known as any other article which is
authorized and regularly imported?-It is made
no secret of; it is generally known by the parties
who deal in it, and they communicate it to others.
The prices of opium are always given in the Canton
Register, a public newspaper.
"Can you inform the committee how the trade
of opium is carried on ?-When I first went to
China, the opium trade was at Macao, from
which it went to Whampoa, and is now confined
to the islands at the mouth of the river. The opium
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
267
smuggling boats go alongside the ships in the
open face of day, and the opium is delivered to
them on their presenting what is called an opium
order from the agent in Canton.
"Is this trade carried on within the view of
the officers of government and the men-of-war
boats of the Chinese?-Frequently within the
view of the men-of-war boats.
"Are these boats stationed on the part of the
Chinese authorities within reach and view of this
trade?-Not regularly stationed: they frequently
go and come there. They are constantly manœuvr–
ing about, and often report to the Canton authori-
ties that they have swept the seas of all smuggling
ships. The ships remain there just the same.
"Then, in point of fact, it may be said that the
smuggling trade in opium is carried on with the
connivance of the Chinese authorities ?-With
the connivance of the lower government authori-
ties; I am not prepared to say of the higher au-
thorities."—" Is that the case in the smuggling
of other articles?—Yes, it is.
-
"Under what privilege is silver exported?-
The Chinese laws prohibit the exportation of any
metal; dollars are allowed to be exported from
China, but not bullion, but it has always been ex-
ported to a large amount.
"Are not the smugglers of China a very power-
ful body? do not they move in considerable fleets
upon the shore?-Not in fleets; their boats are
268
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
very well manned and armed."-" Do not they
set the government at defiance ?-Entirely, I should
say, when they have sea-room.
"Do you suppose that the government is ca-
pable of keeping them under?—They possess no
marine force capable, in my opinion, of suppressing
them.
"Is the force of the smugglers upon the increase
or upon the decrease?-The smuggling trade of
China is materially upon the increase.
"Are the transactions of the smuggling trade
carried on with as much fidelity and regularity on
the part of the Chinese as the transactions of the
regular trade?—With wonderful regularity, consi-
dering the nature of the trade; certainly not with
the same regularity as those of the legal trade."
Mr. JOHN AKEN, formerly master of the Inves-
tigator, and afterwards commander of the Ex-
mouth, trading between India and China.
"Is it not a fact, that they (the outside mer-
chants) bring the boats alongside, and then it is
thrown out of the ship into the boats?-Yes:
when I sold my opium I gave an order upon the
chief officer to deliver it; but the person to whom
I sold it takes the risk entirely in taking it from
the ship; he pays me for it before he gets the order.”
"What does he generally pay you with?—In
dollars, or sy-cee.*
* Silver bullion, of which the exportation is prohibited.
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
269
"Do you happen to know the method by which
the opium is smuggled into the country ?-They
take it from alongside in smuggling boats that
are well manned and armed, and there are a great
many rivers, branches and islands, and different
places, and they are off directly with it, and they
put all the government boats at defiance. I have
seen that myself. I have seen four mandarin
boats surrounding my ship when I had thirty
chests of opium to smuggle, and I was prevented
from going to sea on account of the opium, and
I sold it to the people. I went down myself and
saw the way that they smuggled it; they stripped
the chest entirely away, and took nothing but the
opium, and put it into bags; and we opened the
lower-deck port, and in one moment they put the
opium into the boat, and all hands were off in a
moment: we did that in a very heavy shower of
rain. There was a cry out about three minutes
afterwards, but the boat was gone like a shot."-
"Were the mandarin boats lying near?- One
was lying a-head touching the ship, another was
lying at the stern, and another was lying upon the
opposite side."-"They were there to prevent
smuggling?—Yes.
"Do you obtain greater or less price for your
opium in proportion to the degree of vigilance of
the mandarin boats ?-No, I never knew any dif-
ference made on that account.
"If the mandarin boats had not been there,
270 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
should you have obtained a larger price?—I do
not think we should have got more; they always
make certain of it; and it always struck me, that
there was an understanding between the smugglers
and the mandarin boats; there is an apparent
vigilance kept up which has no existence in my
opinion. I have been told so by a number of people.
Might not other commodities, of small bulk,
be introduced into China by the same means ?-
I should think they could, very easily.
cr
"Do you happen to know whether it is a prac-
tice with regard to any other commodities except
opium ?-Saltpetre, which is a bulky article, is
smuggled. I used to smuggle it myself; at least
I carried it there, and it was smuggled by the people
to whom I sold it.
"Is saltpetre a prohibited article in China?-
No, you can sell it to the government if you
please; but we cannot sell it so well to the go-
vernment. We can generally get about two dol-
lars a pecul by smuggling it.
"Is that on account of the duty paid to govern-
ment?—I think it is.""Have you known of
any other article being smuggled?—I think some-
times broad cloth is smuggled."-" By the Ame-
ricans or the English ?-By the English. I once
carried two bales of cloth, and it was smuggled,
I know, but wherefore I cannot say, because it
did not belong to me."
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
271
Second Report of Minutes of Evidence.
Mr. JOHN ARGYLE MAXWELL, who resided at
Sincapore for more than six years, and who went
several times to Canton.
"Do you know whether there is much smug-
gling in China in the articles of export ?-As far
as my own experience went, I found the parties
who were not Hong merchants ready to make a
bargain either way, that is, to deliver the article
as a smuggled article at Lintin, or in the usual
way at Whampoa.
"Have you ever known of the country ships
proceeding to Chinese ports, north of Canton, and
trading with the natives ?—I have heard of several
of those adventures.
66
"Can you state what the cargoes were that they
took?—The cargoes generally consisted of opium
almost altogether; in some cases they took a
little saltpetre, I believe.
"Did they find any difficulty in effecting sales
with the natives ?—I understood that they always
effected sales; I did not hear that there were any
extraordinary difficulties.
"What were the ports they went to ?-Many
of the ports have escaped my recollection, but
I remember the port of Chingchoo, and Chusem
and the island of Formosa.
"Do you know where these ports were situated?
-Chingchoo is in the province of Fokien.
272 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
"What reception did you understand the na-
tives gave those adventurers?—I believe they
gave a good reception. A Spanish gentleman,
who was a supercargo in one of the expeditions,
told me that he landed on Formosa, and walked
several miles. I recollect his mentioning par-
ticularly that he observed the remains of Euro-
pean houses there, which he considered to have
been the remains of those that were occupied by
the former Dutch factory at Formosa.
"Do you know how long it is since that factory
was removed?—I should think more than 100
years.
"Did you understand that the sales which were
effected at the northern ports were at a consider-
able advance above the Canton prices ?—I could
not understand that there was any great advance.
I heard the parties mention that they found the
Chinese dealers there in possession of regular price-
currents from Canton, stating the stock on hand of
opium, and other circumstances connected with the
market.
Captain ABEL COFFIN.
"Have you been at Sincapore and Siam ?-I
have."-" Have you
"Have you found any
found any quantity of
Chinese junks there?—At Siam a large quantity.
"What quantity have you ever seen there at
one time?—I should think eighty.
"Of what size?-Some of them would carry
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. '
273
700 or 800 tons, and some others perhaps 200 or
300."-"Do these junks carry on an extensive
trade with different parts of China besides Can-
ton?—They are principally from other parts; very
few from Canton.
"Do they import teas in any considerable
quantities into Siam ?-They do.
"Did you find any Chinese teas there ?-A
large quantity. I should have had no difficulty
at any time in loading one, two, or three ships of
the size that I had there."-" What quality of tea?
-Principally black teas: Souchong and Congou
of very good quality."
Extract from a Statement delivered to the Parlia-
mentary Committee, by Mr. CRAWFURD. Third
Report.
"The Chinese junks, properly constructed, pay
no measurement duty, and no kumsha or present;
duties, however, are paid upon goods exported
and imported, which seem, however, to differ at
the different provinces. They are highest at
Amoy, and lowest in the island of Hainan. The
Chinese traders of Siam informed me that they
carried on the fairest and easiest trade, subject
to the fewest restrictions in the ports of Ningpo
and Sianghai in Chokian, and Souchon in Ki-
Great dexterity seems every where to be
exercised by the Chinese in evading the duties.
One practice, which is very often followed, will
annan.
T
274
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
afford a good example of this. The coasting
trade of China is nearly free from all duties and
other imposts. The merchant takes advantage
of this, and intending in reality to proceed to
Siam or Cochin China, for example, clears a junk
out for the island of Hainan, and thus avoids the
payment of duties. When she returns, she will
lie four or five days off and on at the mouth of the
port, until a regular bargain be made with the
custom-house officers for the reduction of duties.
The threat held out in such cases is to proceed to
another port, and thus deprive the public officers
of their customary perquisites. I was assured of
the frequency of this practice by Chinese mer-
chants of Cochin China, as well as by several
commanders of junks at Sincapore. From the
last named persons I had another fact of some
consequence, as connected with the Chinese trade,
viz. that a good many of the junks carrying on
trade with foreign ports to the westward of China,
often proceeded on voyages to the northward in
the same season. In this manner they stated that
about twenty considerable junks, besides a great
many small ones, proceeded annually from Canton
to Souchon, one of the capitals of Kiannan, and
in wealth and commerce the rival of Canton,
where they sold about 200 chests of opium at an
advance of fifty per cent. beyond the Canton
prices. Another place where the Cantón junks,
to the number of five or six, repair annually, is
(
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
275
Chinchoo, in the province of Shanton, within the
gulph of Pechely, or Yellow Sea, and as far north
as the 37th degree of latitude."
WALTER STEVENSON DAVIDSON, Esq.* a mer-
chant, a naturalized Portuguese, chief of a large
mercantile house at Macao.
"Have you any means of judging whether the
trouble attending the sale of opium is less now
since the ships were removed from Whampoa, and
stationed themselves at Lintin, outside the river?
-I should say, that I do not believe there is much
difference in the trouble, but a vast difference in
the anxiety; because, in the one case, they were
liable to seizure any day, in the other case they
lie in a spot where they can defend themselves
against any power that can come against them.
"You mean to say, that the trade in your time,
whilst the ships lay at Whampoa, was more dif-
ficult than it is now ?-More full of anxiety;
there was no difficulty in it: it was a very good
business.
"Did you ever know of any other articles ex-
cept opium being smuggled ?I have heard of a
great many, but I never smuggled any other
articles myself in the import trade.
"With regard to the exports ?-In exports I
smuggled very largely of silver, because it was a
prohibited article as well as opium, and so was
* Now a banker in London.
276
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
tutenog I believe; and the rule which guided me
was, that I would smuggle the articles which were
prohibited, but not those upon which a direct
duty was laid.
"What responsibility did you consider to attach
to you as an agent, selling a prohibited article
likė opium ?—In a pecuniary point of view I never
considered it was a responsibility that could be
valued, nor did I ever charge, or pretend to have
a right to charge, any thing for it; personally, of
course, every man who resides in China runs a
great risk; the government, for instance, as I have
stated, knew full well that a ship was at Wham-
poa with a quantity of opium, that she was to my
consignment; and they might have imprisoned
me any day, and said, till you pay a 100,000
tales you shall not be released.
"Did that ever happen during your residence
there?-Never.
"Did you ever hear of its happening?—Never;
I do not think that in the history of trade there has
been an instance of it.
"What risk do you consider you ran in smug-
gling silver?—None whatever, beyond the seizure
of the silver, with which they are always exceed-
ing well satisfied."-" Have you known many
seizures made?--I have known some, but very
few indeed, the parties are so exceedingly expert.
"In your time did the Chinese undertake to
put the silver on board for you ?—Yes.
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
277
"What rate did you pay them for it?—I
bought the silver of them, and they undertook to
put it on board: it was delivered on board, and I
paid them sometimes before and sometimes after
they brought me the captain's receipt for it.
"Then your own risk was at an end?-Entirely,
except when I chose to step out of the way and
trusted them, which I have often done with all
those parties, both in silver and in opium.
"Are you not aware that those custom house
boats are moored a-stern and on the quarter of
every vessel?-Custom-house boats are; but I am
not aware that the boats whose duty it is to seize
those parties are moored there; they are far too
weakly manned and armed."—" Are you aware that
those boats permitted the opium to be landed?
-Decidedly."—" Could they prevent it if they
pleased?" That does not follow; they may not be
strong enough. I have known instances of the
Chinese opium boats overpowering all force where it
was a very large quantity, and it was worth their
while killing and wounding men, but generally they
do not attempt it."-" On such an occurrence hap-
pening have you ever known any notice taken of it
by the government ?-Never."
Captain CHARLES HUTCHINSON, a commander
in the navy, who commanded the ship called the
Bombay Castle, from Liverpool to India, and re-
mained in the latter place for five years. He went
278 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
three times to Canton, three several years, from
Bombay, with cargoes of cotton and other Indian
articles.
"Supposing the Chinese were to put a stop to
the export of teas altogether, are you of opinion
that the prohibition would be effectually enforced,
so as to prevent its being sent to Sincapore?—I
think it is extremely probable that they would be
enabled still to bring it to Sincapore, but I am
not certain.
"What do you apprehend would be the effect
in China of a total prohibition of the export of
teas?—It would be difficult to say. The Chinese
government feel themselves to be a very rotten
sort of government; they know that the people are
`ready to revolt in many of their provinces, and they
would therefore be very cautious how they gave any
cause of discontent to any part of their empire; but
whether they are particularly afraid of that part
of it situated near Canton, I cannot tell. There
are some of the provinces where they are much
more inclined to revolt and to resistance than in
that, particularly the province of Chingchoo.
"You are aware that tea can be exported from
other ports of China besides Canton, in Chinese
junks?—Yes, because it is brought to Sincapore
from other parts."—" Is it brought from the tea
provinces ?—It is brought by canals to the coast, and
then put on board the junks, who bring it to Sincapore.
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
279
"Are the junks that come to Sincapore with tea
loaded at Canton, or at ports nearer the growth of
the tea ?—At ports nearer the growth of the tea, I
believe; I know they are not loaded at Canton.
"Are there any goods that are reckoned prohi-
bited goods in China exported by the country
ships?-A large quantity in almost every ship;
they chiefly consist of cassia and a coarser kind of
silk, upon which the duties are too heavy to be taken
in the regular way; they are therefore bargained
for with the outside merchants, to be smuggled on
board the ship, and it is done with as great facility
as the regular trade; the mandarins being all feed
and permitting it.
"Did you ever know of an interruption to this
irregular trade?—None whatever; it is as easily
carried on as the regular trade.
"Is a large portion of the assorted cargoes
exported from China articles prohibited or sub-
ject to such duties that they are generally smug-
gled?—Yes."-" And with the knowledge and
connivance of the mandarins?-Certainly. There
is an island near Whampoa called French Island,
where those smugglers live. Goods intended to
be smuggled are sent to French Island, and you
receive notice the night before at what hour the
cargo will be brought; the mandarins then sur-
round the ship, and wait for the smuggling boat;
when it comes alongside they send a man in a
canoe to count the packages, that no more may
280. MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
be brought to the ship than they have received
their fee for. In fact, their whole government is
one system of corruption from top to bottom.
"Do not you think that the facilities they
afford to smuggling arise from an anxious desire
to extend the foreign commerce ?-Certainly, in
the people; not in the government, of course.
"In the officers of the government, do you attri-
bute it to a desire to obtain a suitable remune-
ration in return for the sum of money they have
given for their offices?-Certainly.
..
"It being notorious that all those offices are
paid for?-So I have always been told.
"Could not cotton goods be smuggled to other
ports? There was a difficulty in smuggling at
other ports when I was in China, but some ships
with opium succeeded to a certain extent. Since
I left that country, I understand that they have
smuggled to a larger amount, and I suppose other
goods as well as opium."-" Do you think that
the smuggling could be carried on with the same
ease at those other ports as at Canton ?-I should
think not, because at Canton it is systematized.”
Third Report of Minutes of Evidence.
JOHN STEWART, Esq. a member of the commit-
tee, who went to China seven times, in the years
1800, 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807-8, and in 1817.
Is it your opinion that the Chinese govern-
ment would find it very difficult to put an end to
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
281
the foreign commerce with England?—I think
they could do it; but I am of opinion that if the
Chinese government were to put an end to that
commerce, it would produce great misery and
distress in China, particularly at Canton, where
it is carried on.
"Would the government, in your opinion, be
strong enough to accomplish the putting an end
to the trade?—My opinion is, that an edict of
the emperor of China might be so enforced as to
put a stop to all the regular foreign trade car-
ried on with China; but I DO NOT THINK THAT
THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT COULD PREVENT SMUG-
GLING BEING CONTINUED FROM THE COAST OF
CHINA, EVEN IF THEY PUT A STOP TO THE REGULAR
TRADE.
“Then you do not mean to say that you think
the Chinese government would have power to put a
final stop to the progress of the trade?—No; Ithink
that a smuggling trade would be carried on on the
coast of China to a very considerable extent, in
spite of any act that the Chinese government might
adopt."
ROBERT RICKARDS, Esq. who resided in India
twenty-four years, being on the Bombay esta-
blishment, and had during that time good oppor-
tunities of seeing what passed in the trade be-
tween India and China.
"Are you aware of the peculiarities of the
282 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
Chinese government with regard to trade, and
that a comparison cannot therefore be fairly made
between India and China as to any expected
increase? I know that the Chinese government
have imposed restrictive regulations upon the
foreign trade of their own country; but I know
at the same time that these regulations are com-
pletely set at nought by the commercial spirit of the
people.
"If, therefore, English ships were prohibited
going to China, I conceive that supplies of tea
and other Chinese articles might just as easily be
got from Sincapore, or Java, or other ports in the
Eastern Archipelago, as they can now from China
itself. These then are the grounds of my belief
that, under all circumstances, we have the means
of controlling the trade with China, even more
effectually than the Chinese government itself;
for when the Chinese merchants and the mass of
the community find that they have an interest in
carrying on certain branches of trade, they will
do it, as is sufficiently manifest in their importa-
tion of opium, and export of silver, in spite of the
most severe laws that can be enacted by their own
government.'
""
JOHN CRAWFURD, Esq., appointed parliamen-
tary agent to the inhabitants of Calcutta. He
resided in the Upper Provinces of the Bengal
Presidency for five years, in Calcutta one year, in
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
283
Penang three years, and in Java six years. One
year he went on a mission to Siam and Cochin
China. He resided in Sincapore about three
years; afterwards was appointed commissioner
by the governor-general in the Birman Empire;
then went as envoy from the governor-general to
the court of Ava; after which he returned to
Calcutta, and eventually to Europe.
66
Supposing an interruption to take place in
the European trade of China, are you of opinion
that a considerable quantity of tea might be
brought in Chinese vessels to Sincapore, or some
other emporium in the Eastern Archipelago?—
I conceive so. I think it was a great point,
during the discussions respecting the former
charter of the East India Company, to establish
that fact themselves. Mr. Drummond, now lord
Strathallan, gave it distinctly in evidence, that
a very large quantity of tea might be imported
into Europe through such a channel. The evi-
dence is to be found upon the records of the
Committee of the House of Commons, I think in
1812. It seemed, indeed, to be a settled point,
especially in reference to the Phillipine islands
and others. I have a short entry on this subject,
taken out of a note book that I kept at Sinca-
pore; it is dated the 22d of August, 1825, and is
the result of a conversation with the commanders
of some junks. The tea consumed in Cochin
China is brought from Tchaotchen, on the con-
284
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
fines of Canton and Fokien, but in the jurisdic-
tion of the former, to Hainan, from which it
comes to Saigun and other places. It is all the
produce of Fokien. Into Saigun there are an-
nually imported about 70,000 boxes of tea, of
twenty catties each, and into Hué about 10,000
boxes. It is impossible to conjecture the quan-
tity brought into Tonquin, as a great part of it is
imported by land. The price of the ordinary
qualities at Tchaotchen and Canton is twenty-
six dollars per pecul. The same tea would be
sold at Saigun for forty dollars. My informants
state that any quantity whatever of tea may be
imported into Sincapore, which the market may
demand, from Chaotcheou, Changlim, and other
parts, either black or green. The commanders of
junks will do this in spite of any regulations to the
contrary."
JOHN STEWART, Esq., M. P.
"Do you think the trade could be carried on
in the neighbourhood of Canton, in any of the
islands?—Yes; I imagine that tea might be con-
veyed, and in all probability would be conveyed,
to the islands on the coast of China; it might be
smuggled from thence, or it might be sent in Chi-
nese vessels to the islands of the Eastern Archi-
pelago, and could be exported from thence.
"Would it be sufficient to supply the wants of
this country? If the Chinese permitted the ex-
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
285
port of tea in their own vessels, I am decidedly
of opinion that a sufficient quantity might in
that way be exported from China to supply the
wants of all Europe.
"Do you suppose that they would do that under
such circumstances?—I think they would; the
Chinese are a people of great commercial enter-
prise, and I think they would be disposed to send
tea wherever they could find a sale for it with
advantage."
Captain Jони MACKIE.
"You have resided in India several years?-
I have for ten years"-" From what period?—
From 1820 to the latter end of 1829.
"Did you command a ship in the China trade?
-I commanded a Spanish vessel on the coast of
China.
"What was this vessel engaged in?-In the
opium trade."—"She was sailing under Spanish
colours?-She was.
"What ports of China have you visited?-I
visited the port of Amoy, and all the ports between
that and Canton.
"Were you entirely engaged in the opium
trade?-Entirely I carried also a little salt-
petre.
"What was the name of the ship? The St.
Sebastian.
"Whom was she owned by ?-Spaniards."-
286 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
"Did any part of the cargo belong to British
merchants?-Entirely British."-" Can you state
any other ports in China that you touched at
besides Amoy?—Not any other principal ports;
I touched at all the ports between Amoy and
Canton.
"You lay off some ports, did not you?-I lay
off the port called the Cape of Good Hope, and
the island of Namo.
"At what distance is the Cape of Good Hope
from Canton ?-About 300 miles to the north-
east.
-
"Did you find good shelter for your ship?—
Excellent; all those harbours are as safe as the
port of Canton itself.
"Was the trade you carried on authorised by
the laws of China?-I understood it was not au-
thorised, but it was done quite openly.
"In the same way that the opium trade is car-
ried on at Canton ?-The very same.
"Have you ever experienced any difficulty in
carrying on the trade, although not formally
sanctioned by the Chinese laws?-Never the least.
"Who were the parties with whom your trade
was carried on ?-The Chinese merchants.
"Resident at any particular points ?-Some of
them from the city of Amoy, some from Ta-ho,
and Namo, and some from inland towns.
"Have you got better prices for those articles
than could be got at Canton ?—Yes.
1
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
287
"What was the difference of the price?—About
100 dollars upon a chest of opium, or 125, and
sometimes 150, or even higher.
"Is that (the port of the Cape of Good Hope)
near any town?-Yes, it is within fifteen miles of
a very large city, the city of Ty-ho.
“From the time of your arrival how long were
you detained before you disposed of the whole of
your cargo ?—From fifteen to twenty days.
"Why did you make your returns in bullion
only?—I was particularly desired by the agents
of the brig to take nothing else.
"Could you have had returns in the produce
of the country?—I could have had returns in any
produce of the provinces, such as sugar, tea, cassia,
tortoiseshell, nankeens, or anything that could be
had.
"You would have had no difficulty in com-
pleting your cargo of these articles?-Not the
least.
"In what manner is the produce of the north-
eastern provinces sent to Canton ?--I presume it
is principally sent by sea, from the number of
large junks always upon the coast.
"Have you seen teas sent by sea?-Yes; I
have been on board of two junks entirely loaded
with tea.
"What was the size of them?—They could
not have been less than 200 tons.
"From whence did they come?-They came
from Amoy, and they were bound to Canton.
288
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
"Did you board the junks?—I boarded both
of them, and sent letters by them to Canton.”—
"Were those letters regularly received?-They
were received in due course.
"Do you think you could have loaded your
vessel with teas of good quality?—I have no doubt
I could of the very best quality. I have no doubt
I could have had any sort of Chinese produce that
I wished.
"What species of woollens do you think you
could have disposed of?-Principally long ells
and fine broad cloth; blankets and camlets also
would have sold very well; they are in ready
demand all along the coast of China.
"Were there any duties paid to the govern-
ment upon those cargoes?—I never paid any
duties; but I understood that upon all opium that
is taken away from the ships the inferior officers
of the government get about twenty dollars for
every chest; the Chinese pay that themselves; the
ships pay nothing.
"Did you ever pay any port-charges of any
kind?-Never.
"Were you ever annoyed by any of the Chinese
authorities?—No. I have been requested, as a
favour, to shift my situation, as the principal
officer was coming; and I have gone away and
come again, in one or two days.
66
Perhaps a legitimate trade was not your
object ?-Not at all; we were trading in prohi-
bited articles.
•
289
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
"Do you imagine that the contraband trade is
more profitable than the authorised trade?-I
have never been in the authorised trade, and
therefore cannot state that.
"Did any other British ships under the British
flag prosecute the same trade that you did at that
time?—Yes; there was an English ship, the
Merope, belonging to Calcutta; the Velletta; the
Eugenia; the Fanecena, and the Dhaule schooner.
"What were those vessels?—All English vessels
belonging to the port of Calcutta.
"Where were they trading to ?-To Formosa,
and the port of Nimpo, which is considerably to
the north.
•
"Is not that in the province of Kiangnan ?-I
believe it is.
"Did those ships go to Amoy ?-One of them I
think did, but they did nothing; they knew that
nothing could be done by the merchants; the
Merope touched off Amoy, but did not go in,
because she could not trade in opium.
"Had you any communication with the com-
manders of those vessels ?-Frequently, although
we had different interests, all except the Merope.
"Was your interest the same as the Merope?
-She had an agent of ours.
"Did you understand from the commanders of
those vessels, that they carried on trade as easily
as you did? With the same facilities; although
U
290 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
I believe I was rather more fortunate than they
were, being engaged in the trade earlier.
"At the ports you have named, do you know
whether the import and export duties are paid to
the government ?—I am not aware of the duties;
I never heard the duties mentioned.
"Did the Americans ever engage in this trade?
-American vessels have gone to the coast, but I
believe on British account.
"Did the British vessels you have named visit
any ports besides those you have mentioned ?—
The Merope traded to the port of Chingchoo and
the island of Formosa.
"Did the Merope go to Nimpo and the Cape
of Good Hope?—Yes; she touched at every port
on the coast.
"Which do you conceive is the best station
for carrying on the trade?-The best station I
ever found, was between the island of Namo and
the Cape of Good Hope.
Why do you conceive that to be better?—
Being the centre between two very large towns.
"Have you ever been off the province of Fokien?
-Yes.
66
"What harbour did you go into there?—I
went into one of the ports of Chingchoo.
"What was the species of cultivation you saw
when you landed there?--The only species of
cultivation I have seen was rice and sugar.
"Is the trade, which you have described as
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
291
being carried on when you were there, still car-
ried on? It is.
"In what year was this?-In 1823 and 1824.
Afterwards I lay as a depôt-ship at Lintin."—
"How long were you altogether in China?-
Four years and a half.
"In what year were the British ships you have
mentioned there?-They were there in the same
year as myself; and I left some of them lying as
depôt-ships at Lintin; they are lying there now
as depôt-ships.
"Do you know of any ships having been there
last year?-No; I do not know of any ship;
there was one vessel went up in 1828 when I was
there, and delivered a cargo upon the coast.
"What are the depôt-ships?-They are ships
that lie outside of the island of Macao, to receive
opium, or any other goods that are wished to be
deposited on board of them.
"Then you have no knowledge of any lawful
trade carried on there at all?- Not the least.
"Were the others obliged to move sometimes
as well as you?-Yes; we moved as a favour to
the mandarins; the mandarins come down once
or twice a year, and send a person to warn you
to shift yourselves.
"You were obliged to shift your station?—
We were not obliged to do this, but it was to
favour them, that they might make a report that it
was all clear.
292 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
"What number of ships do you remember
there at any one time?—I have seen as many as
20 ships at one time.
"How many European ships?—I have seen 10
European ships, and a considerable number of
American ships."
If this be not free trade, what is? Establish a
trade in corn and Manchester goods on the same
footing between England and America; in that
case it would be quite needless to repeal the
English corn laws and American tariff. But
here we must draw a distinction of first-rate con-
sequence. The foreign trade of China, though
perfectly free in its nature, is restricted in extent.
Though free from bonds, permits and taxes, it
cannot at present be extended beyond the Bocca
Tigris, and even on that one spot it is not secure.
Upon this distinction the whole question turns.
The people of England, by paying an extravagant
price for tea, have enabled twenty-four men in
London and seven men at Canton to carry on a
trade which is called legal, but which ought to be
called the losing trade. How to increase this
trade, is not worth asking: the grand point is to
extend, not to alter, the free trade, which the
Chinese call Smug-pigeon, and which, though
of limited extent, is perfect in its kind.
What then is it that prevents the free trade
from spreading to the whole coast of China and
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
293
increasing beyond any assignable limit? The
political fears of the Chinese government. There-
fore, says an Englishman, send another embassy
to Pekin; instruct the ambassador to swear, like
Lord Amherst, that he has no commercial objects,
that he is sent across the world " to manifest the
regard of his Britannic majesty for his Imperial
majesty, and to improve the relations of amity
that so happily subsisted between their illustrious
parents Kien-lung and George the third": but
this time do not trust altogether to the ambassa-
dor's skill in the art of lying; back him with
armed ships; order him to talk of English con-
quests in India; tell him to frighten the man-
darins by a display of English power, and if
necessary by the use of force: this is the way to
calm the political fears of the Chinese govern-
And to destroy it likewise, we may add.
No one who is acquainted with that government
can doubt, that such a mission, if given, not to
a priggish lord of the bed-chamber, but to a man
(a man, said Bonaparte, is wanted in China)
would be entirely successful; that it would open
the whole coast of China to the presence of Eng-
lishmen and English ships. But this object
accomplished in this way, what would be the
other consequences of thus exposing the weak-
ness of the Chinese government to its own sub-
jects and to foreign nations? Look to it Jona-
than! John Bull would have gone to work in
294 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
this way long ago, if the English Hong had not
been deeply interested in preserving every bar to
the extension of free trade in China. The Eng-
lish Hong is at end. Be alive, Jonathan! Your
smug-pigeon with the China-man is in danger.
Even mere threats from the English govern-
ment, though couched, as no doubt they would
be, in the form of a demand for redress of griev-
ances, would, if they had for object the particular
advantage of English traders in China, be viewed
with jealousy by several governments of Europe,
and still more by the United States. Suppose,
however, that disregarding the jealousy of other
nations, the English had compelled the mandarins
to establish the trade of Englishmen in China on
a satisfactory basis, would not the Dutch, the
Russians, the French, and above all the Ameri-
cans, demand, each nation for itself, as with equal
facility they all might obtain, similar conces-
sions from the feeble mandarins? Such demands
on the part of some, at least, of those nations,
would, it seems hardly doubtful, be the inevit-
able consequence of the successful use of force
or threats by the English government. Thus the
weakness of the government of China would be
exposed in more than one instance, to its own
subjects and to other nations. Other exposures
of the same kind could not but ensue. Foreigners
of all nations would enter China and further
expose to the people, not the weakness only, but
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
295
the iniquity also, of the government. Next, the
foreigners of each nation, having obtained some
footing in China, would, if we conjecture from
experience, seek to obtain privileges, each party
striving to gain more than its rivals, and to injure
them as much as possible. Either the nature of
man is not always the same, or the history of
European settlements in distant countries is false,
if this would not be the case. Considering also,
that each party of foreigners in China would be
so far removed from the control of its own
government as to act almost without responsi-
bility, there is reason to expect that the rivalry
amongst those foreign adventurers would not be
confined to trade, but would extend, as soon as it
had been shown that the mandarins were unable
to resist aggression, to interference between the
people and their masters, to the excitement of
revolt and civil war, and finally to territorial
acquisition. In this way, contests must arise
between some of those parties of foreign adven-
turers; and by degrees each party would, pro-
bably, enlist its distant government in the quar-
rel, until, at length, the miserable government
of China being dissolved, or rather dissolving as
soon as its weakness had been made conspicuous,
China would become, as Hindostan has been in
modern times, a theatre of war for foreign nations.
What has preserved China from the fate of India?
The constancy of the mandarins in rejecting, as
•
-
296 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
¡
they would have avoided contact with the plague,
every proposal from foreigners for the establish-
ment of friendly intercourse. Timeo Danaos et
dona ferentes, has been the never-failing answer of
the Chinese government to offers of friendship and
advantage from other governments. In vain did
the Dutch ambassador Titzing, a fat man, crawl
upon all fours into the imperial presence, and
remaining in that posture, beat his head nine
times upon the ground; in vain did the lords
Macartney and Amherst exhaust the arts of their
craft to wheedle the lords of China into a belief
that it was for the advantage of the great emperor
to be on terms of friendship with the illustrious
king; in vain have been self-abasement, rich
presents, flattery, coaxing, prayers, lies and
remonstrances, when employed by the govern-
ments of Europe in order to obtain such a foot-
ing in China as might have furnished pretexts
for measures of another kind. The existence of
the government of China has been preserved by
the constancy of the mandarins in rejecting offers
of foreign friendship. The utter impracticability
of the Tartars is their only defence. Break
through that single barrier, and they must be
swept away by a flood of internal revolt and
foreign pretension.
If the existing government of foreigners were
destroyed, it must be succeeded by another
government of foreigners; since the ignorant,
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
297
timid and slavish, people of China, being inca-
ble of governing themselves, would tacitly invite
foreigners to rule them, and would find nation
after nation eager to undertake the task. In the
end probably, the English, who command the
sea, would govern China as they govern India ;
and that the people of China would in the long
run gain incalculably by such a change, there
cannot be the least doubt. But what in the mean-
while would become of the foreign trade of
China? And what could the people of England
gain by ruling the Chinese empire? Not reckon-
ing the gratification of national pride as an
advantage, they would gain nothing beyond free
commercial intercourse with the Chinese people.
But they might miss this, aiming at it in this
way; not to mention what they might lose in the
confusion arising from the jealousy of other states
and the destruction of the Chinese government.
Still, if it were impossible to counteract the
political fears of the mandarins otherwise than
by adopting measures of compulsion under the
name of diplomacy, such measures, whatever the
consequences likely to result from them, might
be thought expedient. But considering the im-
mediate evils that might arise from measures of
compulsion, and the jealousy with which they
would be viewed by the Americans at least, such
measures, however easy, however sure of ultimate
298 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
success, and however just when viewed with a
mercantile eye, will not be thought expedient by
the English, provided it be shown that a com-
mercial intercourse with the Chinese people, free
in its nature and without limit as to extent, may
be established without delay, permanently, at lit-
tle cost, without making a demand or even ask-
ing a favour of the trembling mandarins, and,
lastly, without exciting any national jealousy. To
show all this, is the object of what follows.
Sir Stamford Raffles founded the commercial
station of Sincapore, in the belief that the Chi-
nese free traders would readily find their way to
that port in their own ships. He was mistaken
by above twenty degrees. Near twenty years'
experience has shown that the distance between
Sincapore and the most commercial parts of the
Chinese coast is much too great for junk naviga-
tion. But Raffles, who was a man, has pointed
out the way to extend the free trade of China
without diplomacy or war; not only without fur-
ther alarming the poor mandarins, but so that,
with the extension of free trade, their present ter-
rors should entirely subside. In order to give to
the free trade of China its utmost possible deve-
lopment, the only thing wanted is a free market-
place; a place to which Chinese dealers could
easily resort, where foreign ships might lie undis-
turbed by wind or government, and where foreign-
Ga
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
299
ers might live in security; a mere market-place,
convenient for Chinese dealers, and out of the
control of the Chinese government.
Along the whole coast of China there exist not
less than a thousand islands, some of which pos-
sess all the requisites of a trading port; good
anchorage, shelter from all winds, and plenty of
fresh water. There are more habitable islands
near the coast of China, than along any other
coast in the world of the same extent. But now
observe another peculiarity: those islands are
not subject to the government of the main land.
Some of them are uninhabited; some are inha-
bited by a few wretched fishermen who govern
themselves; and some by a race of pirates who
make war against the Chinese government, occa-
sionally putting a stop to the coasting trade, mur-
dering great numbers of Chinese, levying tribute
on the continent, and at times making peace
with the mandarins on very advantageous terms.
Some evidence on this point appears in a note
below.* The emperor of China claims dominion
* "The Lion continued thus several days working off the
China shore, without gaining a mile. She then stood over for
Formosa, where there was less current against her; and she
made some progress; but the turbulence of the weather was
such that she sprung both top-masts, and was obliged to re-
turn to the Ladrones, in order to be in some degree of shelter,
for the purpose of being refitted, and capable of renewing her
efforts to get forward. Several piratical vessels, filled with
300
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
in England, and makes his subjects believe that
he receives tribute from that country; but in
Chinese, were hovering in this neighbourhood, and had very
lately taken several Chinese junks, and plundered the adjacent
islands. The practice of these pirates is to make slaves of
such able-bodied men as they take prisoners, to put the rest to
death, and to sink the junks, and burn the houses, after taking
out whatever they deem valuable.”—Staunton's Embassy to
China, vol. ii. p. 521.
During the time the pirates infested the coasts, numbers of
salt junks were intercepted by them, and salt rose to an extra-
vagant price. At length the Company were obliged to nego-
tiate with the admiral of the pirates, and paid a certain sum
for every vessel he furnished with a passport.
"After a while the captains and crews of the salt junks
became leagued with the pirates, and used to convey to them,
clandestinely, provisions, stores, ammunition, &c. The go-
vernment detected the connivance, and laid an embargo, of a
sudden, upon the returning salt junks. The pirate admiral,
finding his supplies cut off, invaded the country about the
inner passage leading to Macao, where he cut all the ripe rice,
and carried it off, as well as a great number of women, whom
he presented to his followers. His name was Apo-Tsy, a very
formidable robber, who had an immense fleet of junks, and
upwards of 20,000 men under his command. He at length
became so daring, that he intercepted the boats carrying car-
goes to the ships at Whampoa, and committed depredations on
land within eighteen miles of Canton. The Viceroy became
alarmed, for he had no army to oppose him, and was forced to
employ an English armed country ship to drive him out of the
river. Many naval engagements took place between the Chi-
nese war ships and the pirates; but the latter invariably ob-
tained the victory. The Portuguese at Macao were also called
upon, or rather were told their offer would be accepted, to fit
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
301
1
fact, and in right too, his power is limited by
the water's edge of the Chinese coast. At sea the
pirates are his masters, and neither he nor his
ancestors ever conquered the islands. Those
islands, therefore, are open to be used by any
body for any purpose. If one of the Ladrones or
Pirate Isles, were turned into a market-place for
the traders of all nations, the English and Chi-
nese Hongs, were they not in extremis, might
complain that the vested rights of the pirates had
...
out ships against the pirates, and a sum of money would be
granted to them by the Canton government. However, very
little good resulted in the way of fighting; but the Portuguese
rendered the Viceroy an essential service in the way of nego-
tiation, as mediators between him and the pirates. Apo-Tsy
positively refused to listen to the Viceroy's promise of an am-
nesty, should the pirates return to their allegiance, without the
Macao government becoming security for the faithful perform-
ance of the contract. The Macao government therefore, came
forward, and pledged itself to the admiral, who immediately
submitted with all his followers. He was made governor of
the province of Fokien, and his followers were all pardoned.
During their wars with the Chinese, the pirates took a fleet,
commanded by a thai-tuk, or admiral, who was uncle to the
present emperor. Apo-Tsy had some dislike to the Chinese
admiral; and when he took him, ordered him to be beheaded.
The present emperor (Tao-Kuang,) on coming to the throne,
sent the governor of Fokien a polite message to say, that
the laws of China required blood for blood, and he therefore
sent for his head instead of his uncle's. There was no excuse
to be made, and Apo-Tsy's head was conveyed to Pekin,"
Dobell, vol. ii. p. 153.
302
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
been attacked; but who else could find fault with
the conversion of one of those robbers' nests to so
excellent a use?
Not the Chinese government, to whom the
founders of the market-place would say:-You
dread foreigners; we keep out of your way. You
forbid us to enter your ports, Canton excepted;
we withdraw from Canton. You tremble lest we
should sow revolutionary principles amongst your
people by residing with them; henceforth there
shall be no intercourse between them and us, save
for the purpose of exchanging goods; and that
intercourse shall not take place within your do-
minions. Hitherto, between you and us there
have been frequent quarrels ; but now all ground
of dispute is gone; we demand no rights, ask no
favours. Well we know, that you cannot prevent
your people from coming to us for trade in this
our new, our own, market-place; and sure we are
that if you could do so, you would not; because
if you should do so, the present arrangement,
which ought to relieve you of all anxiety, must be
superseded by diplomacy, which would frighten
you extremely, and in the end, probably, realize
your worst fears. The step that we have taken
was devised expressly for your comfort: tremble
no more; we bid you farewell for ever.
Nor could the Americans object to an English,
any more than the English could object to an
American trading station near the coast of China;
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA,
303
-
provided that, in either case, the market-place
were free, that is, open to all nations on perfectly
equal terms. Why not so in an island used
merely for trade, as well as on the main land,
where, if the Chinese government permitted trade,
they would, as far as they might be able, treat
all the foreign traders alike? The English ex-
clude the Americans from Sincapore. It so hap-
pens that Jonathan suffers little by John Bull's
meanness in this affair; Sincapore being, I repeat,
more than twenty degrees too far south for its
intended purpose; but Jonathan has a right to
his revenge, and may take it, overcoming evil
with good, by establishing a Sincapore in the
proper place, for the use of the English as well
as the Chinese and Americans. Concert between
two nations whose origin, language and real in-
terests are one, would be better still, and would
not be difficult, if the English ministers, instead
of being proud, lazy, selfish lords, were, like the
American ministers, active men of business, liable
to be removed for neglecting the public good.
If, however, this happy change should not
occur in time, there are islands enough on the
coast of China for all nations to chuse amongst,
who may wish to establish a market-place for
trade with the Chinese ; and for two reasons it is
very desirable that more than one such trading
station should be established. Because, in the
first place, the more numerous such stations, the
304
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
more easy would be the total suppression of
piracy on the coast of China; and secondly, be-
cause, if there were but one station, nearly opposite
the mouth of the Canton river, such free trade as
now takes place in that river, though it would go
to that new market-place, would not be extended
to the northern maritime provinces, where the
greatest demand for foreign goods exists and
where the principal exports of China are raised.
To show how much would be saved by a direct
trade with the northern maritime provinces, and
how extensive such a trade would probably be-
come, some conclusive evidence is given below.*
L
* The Dutch Ambassador and his suite, on their return from
Pekin in 1796, passed through what may be considered the
richest and most populous provinces of China; and Van der
Braam's account of the journey abounds with information on
the state of the maritime districts in the neighbourhood of the
great Blue River, or Yang-tse Kiang, which rises in the moun-
tains of Thibet and traverses the Chinese provinces of Setchuen,
Konquang, and Kiang-nan; and falls into the sea at no great
distance from the mouth of the Hoang-Ho or Yellow River,
the second river of China, and indeed of Asia. Van der Braam,
one of the most phlegmatic of Dutchmen, described what he
saw at the moment of seeing it, and without the least ap-
pearance of exaggeration: yet his journal, in that part of it
which relates to the temperate maritime provinces, becomes a
mere catalogue of villages, towns, cities, canals, aqueducts,
bridges, and other signs of a dense, industrious, and wealthy
population. Has the East India Company any trade with this
part of China? No direct trade whatever, and if some little
indirect trade by means of internal carriage, still almost with-
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
305
One word touching the cost of establishing the
most free, and perhaps most extensive, trade in
out being conscious of it. Considering that this is the heart of
the Chinese empire, that the climate requires woollen cloths,
which are a staple production of England, and that the en-
trances of two wide rivers would afford great facilities for con-
ducting the unauthorised trade, this, beyond all comparison,
appears to be the spot where the trading disposition of the
Chinese people ought to be cultivated.
"Can you," Mr. Marjoribanks is asked, "say whether the
demand for English woollen manufacture in China is capable
of being increased according to the increased supply?" and he
answers-"I imagine that, if our manufactures could be in-
troduced into the northern provinces of the empire, the demand
for them would decidedly increase."—"Are there any insu-
perable obstacles to the introduction of our woollens into the
northern parts of China? The ports of China being hermeti-
cally sealed against us for many years ?"—" What do you con-
sider the impediments to a great extension of trade? The
limits which the Chinese have set to the foreign trade; their
confining it to one remote corner of one of the southern pro-
vinces of the empire. The articles which we import into
China are carried to the northern provinces through the interior
of the country."
*
*
*
"The black tea imported by the East India Company is
grown and manufactured in the province of Fokien, with thẹ
exception of about one-third of that sort called by us Bohea,
which third part is produced in the north-eastern corner of the
province of Canton. The green tea is all grown in the pro-
vinces of Kiang-nan, Kiang-si, and Che-kiang, but chiefly in
the two former."
*
*
Mr. Davies, like Mr. Marjoribanks, a servant of the Company,
and of course a friend to the monopoly, says-" the tea trade
would be more beneficial, because I conceive it would be larger,
X
306
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
the world. The reckless jobbing of those who
managed the old English constitution, has, to-
gether with the uneasiness arising from low pro-
fits, led to such a passion for retrenchment that
the new English government will probably be
denied funds for many a useful purpose. But, in
this case, no public funds are required. The har-
bour dues of Sincapore (which is little more than
a stopping place for English ships) the mere har-
bour dues of that ill-chosen and merely English
port, are sufficient to defray the expense of main-
taining it. The trade of a well-chosen market-
place on the coast of China, open to all nations
*
*
*
*
if it were near to the centre of the empire; that very great ac-
cession to the prices of tea which arises from the long land-
carriage would be avoided, if the trade were nearer to the tea
provinces.
"With all that has been done, the facilities" (of internal car-
riage)" are in a very inferior state to what they might be. The
river which brings the tea to Canton from the frontier of the
province, where it has to cross a high mountain, is a mere
trout stream for a great portion of the way; and foreigners of
all descriptions have been obliged to wait for months at Can-
ton, on account of there not being enough water in that river
to float the vessels that bring the teas."
On this head, more evidence of a conclusive nature might
be brought forward; but what has been given will satisfy
most readers. Those who wish for further information on the
subject, will find it in Van der Braam's work, in the accounts
of Lord Macartney's and Lord Amherst's embassies, in Cap-
tain Hall's account of Loo Choo, and in the Parliamentary
Reports.
*
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
307
on equal terms, must produce, from moderate
harbour dues alone, more than enough to cover
the cost of establishing and preserving it; sup-
posing the work performed in the American
fashion, with a view to utility, not in the old
English fashion, with a view to robbing the public.
Besides, referring to the preceding remarks on the
causes of the value of land, to the value of land
at Sincapore, Penang and Batavia; a value pro-
duced mainly by the competition of Chinese set-
tlers; and bearing in mind that as many Chinese
as could find room would settle in a free market-
place near the coast of China, it would seem that
great profits might be made by an outlay of
capital in the way proposed. The English are
puzzled to find investments for their capital. But
if their expiring Hong, should for the present
forbid them to lay out money in this way, do not
they lend money to the Americans? and who was
it that lately negociated a loan between English
capitalists and the state of New Orleans? it was
Joshua Bates, himself an American, chief of
the first commercial firm in England, deeply en-
gaged in American trade, and intimately acquain-
ted with the trade of China. An Anglo-Ame-
rican Company could not, indeed, make money,
by extending free trade to the whole coast of
China, without the sanction of some government,
without a flag and a charter. Penn, who made
money even by planting a colony on the desert
•
308
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
coast of America, had a charter from his govern-
ment, but beyond that piece of parchment no
assistance. The present English ministers would
not grant a charter for the purpose in question,
which they would dislike as a dangerous example
of cheapness, without patronage, in the manage-
ment of great public undertakings. They would
prefer a costly embassy to Pekin. Lord Amherst's
pocket money, forming part of the great sum ex-
pended on the last embassy, was 40,000l.; more
than six times the yearly pay of his American ma-
jesty. The English ministers, then, would spurn
at a proposal for effecting a public object with
private funds; that is carefully, cheaply, without
patronage, as they lately refused a charter to
some of the best men in England who wished to
employ private funds in founding a Pennsylvania
on the south coast of New Holland. But their
time is nearly up; all the usefulness that was in
them having been got out of them. Meanwhile,
before their successors shall be named by the
new ruling order, striped bunting would do as
well as the union jack; and an Anglo-American
Company, willing to speculate on the establish-
ment of market-places for free trade with the
Chinese, would not be rebuffed at Washington.
At Washington, New York, Boston, Baltimore,
or Philadelphia, what follows may be read with
interest.
C
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
309
Questions submitted to Mr. Aken,* with his
answers.
1. What have been your means of becoming
acquainted with the foreign trade of China?-İ
commanded the ship Exmouth of 725 tons from
Calcutta, and visited China under a license from
the East India Company in 1817, and spent four
months in the Canton river. In the following
year I again visited China in the same ship, and
again spent four months in the Canton river. In
1819 I made a similar voyage. On all these
occasions the whole of a mixed cargo,, worth as
much as 60,0001, was consigned to myself; and I
had the entire disposal of it, as well as the
charge of reloading the ship, acting as captain
and supercargo.
2. What do you conceive would be the effect
on the unauthorised trade, of establishing insular
commercial stations near the coast, and in the
most favourable situations?-The effect would
be, that the Chinese would very readily enter
into all your views of trade. Great numbers of
Chinese would settle themselves in such stations,
in order to conduct trade. They would enter
* Mr. Aken resides in London. Great part of his life has
been spent at sea: there are but few coasts in the world that
he has not visited; and his character as a navigator is esta-
blished by the work of Captain Flinders, who appointed him
master of the Investigator discovery ship.
310 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE
i
heart and soul into the spirit of a free trade,
which nothing could prevent them from establish-
ing. They have all kinds of craft along shore,
the junks being from 20 to 500 tons; and they
would come with their vessels to the commercial
stations, bringing with them Chinese products to
be exchanged for European and other products.
The government has no power to prevent the
people from trading even in the Canton river,
and could not by any means interfere with a
trade carried on at a short distance from the
main. My opinion of establishing such stations
for trade is, that it would be most advantageous,
and would cause a very great increase of the
foreign trade of China; but it would destroy the
trade of the Hong merchants, and of the East
India Company also, if Englishmen were not pre-
vented from trading at the stations.
3. What in your opinion are the most proper
places for such stations? On this point be so
good as to furnish any information that you may
think calculated to be of use.-On account of the
nskilfulness of the Chinese as sailors it would
be advisable to have more than one station, in
order to keep up a trade with a great extent of
coast. Suppose you had several stations; I would
begin with one island, called Pulo Condore, in
latitude about 8 deg. North, almost within sight
of the coast of Cambodia; which island was
settled by the English 130 years ago; but they
→
•
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
311
·
were cut off by the Macassar soldiers whom they
employed. I have been close to this island and
all round it. It is inhabited by a few fishermen.
The anchorage and shelter are good; and I was
assured by the people who came from the island
to my ship, that there was plenty of good water
there. The next situation would be one of the
Great Ladrones, or Pirate Isles, near the mouth
of the Canton river; and the best of these islands
appear to me to be Neong-kong-oa, where there
is good anchorage for a great number of ships,
and plenty of water. This island, on the north
side of the great Lema Channel, used to be
inhabited by pirates of the most ferocious cha-
racter. The Chinese government could not pre-
vent a settlement from being formed there, nor
interfere with the settlers afterwards. Another
place for a station, at which a great trade would
soon spring up, is one of the numerous islands in
the neighbourhood of Amoy, in latitude 24 deg.
North. I have not visited this part of the coast;
but from such charts as we have, and what I
have heard from those who have sailed further
north than Canton, I have not any doubt that
several islands, well suited for the purpose, would
be found in the neighbourhood of Amoy. The
most important place for a station is still further
north, near the mouths of the great rivers; but
of this part of the coast I know only that it has
many islands; as may be said of the whole coast
•
312
MEANS OF EXTENDing free TRADE
of China, which is more studded with islands
than any other coast in the world.
"Cette île, (Formosa) quoique située vis à vis
la province de Fokien, et à trente lieues de la
côte, n'etait pas soumise à l'empire de la Chine,
qui n'a point la passion des conquêtes, et qui par
une politique inhumaine et mal entendue, aime
mieux laisser périr une partie de sa population
que d'envoyer la surabondance de ses sujets dans
des terres voisines. Ou trouva que Formose
avait cent trente ou cent quarante lieues de tour.
Ses habitans, à en juger par leurs mœurs et par
leur figure, paraissaient descendus des Tartares
de la partie la plus septentrionale de l'Asie.
Vraisemblablement la Corée leur avait servi de
chemin. Ils vivaient, la plupart, de pêche ou de
chasse et allaient presque nus. Les Hollandais,
après avoir pris sans obstacle toutes les lumières
que la prudence exigent, jugèrent que le lieu le
plus favorable pour un établissement étoit une
petite le voisine de la grande. Ils trouvaient
dans cette situation trois avantages considérables;
une defense aisée, si la haine ou la jalousie cher-
chaient à les troubler; un port formé par les
deux îles; la facilité d avoir dans toutes les
moussons une communication súre avec la Chine.
La nouvelle colonie se fortifiait insensiblement
sans éclat, lorsqu'elle s'éleva tout d'un coup à une
TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA.
313
prospérité qui étonna toute l'Asie. Ce fut à la
conquête de la Chine par les Tartares qu'elle dut
ce bonheur inespéré: ainsi les torrens engraissent
les vallons de la substance des montagnes ravagées.
Plus de cent mille Chinois, qui ne voulaient pas
se soumettre au vainqueur, se réfugièrent à For-
mose. Ils
Ils y portèrent l'activité qui leur est par-
ticulière, la culture du riz et du sucre, et y
attirèrent des vaisseaux sans nombre de leur
nation. Bientôt l'ile devint le centre de toutes les
liaisons que Java, Siam, les Philippines, la Chine,
le Japon, et d'autres contrées voulurent former.
EN PEU D'ANNÉES ELLE SE TROUVA LE PLUS GRAND
MARCHÉ DE L'Inde.”*
OUT.
* The Abbé Raynal's Philosophical and Political History of
the Establishments and Commerce of Europeans in the two
Indies. Vol. i. p. 286. Paris Edition of Amable Costes & Co.
314
NOTE IX.
SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE AMERICANS.
Peculiar state of religion-causes of superstition
without bigotry or fanaticism-inquisitiveness-
rudeness of the backwoodsman-bigotry in pa-
triotism-neglect of learning.
MOST English travellers in America hurt their
credit for veracity by describing instances of the
most violent religious phrenzy. In England, many
people do not believe Mrs. Trollope's story of
the "anxious benches": I do, not doubting either,
but satisfied, that throughout the less populous
parts of the union people often meet for the ex-
press purpose of working themselves into a state
of superstitious madness. To overrate the crazy
doings of a camp-meeting in the back woods
would be impossible. Bodies writhing, arms
swinging, legs dancing, eyes rolling; groans,
shouts, howls and shrieks; men knocking their
own heads against trees, and women tearing the
clothes off each other's backs; the congregation
frantic with fear of the devil and the preacher
drunk with his own gibberish; it is all true, and
of common occurrence. Captain Hall would say,
it arises from the want of a spending class to set
SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES, &c. 315
an example of decorum in public worship; or
from the want of loyalty, to which he attributes
so many of Jonathan's peculiarities. Mrs. Trollope
would have the English believe, that superstition
in America is owing to democratic government.
Some, again, find a cause for it in the want of a
state religion; adopting the notion of David
Hume, and supposing that " each ghostly practi-
tioner, depending for subsistence on the liberality
of individuals continually endeavours by some
novelty to excite the languid devotion of his
audience, without regard to truth, morals or
decency in the doctrines inculcated; and that
thus every tenet is adopted that best suits the dis-
orderly affections of the human frame, customers
being drawn to each conventicle by new industry
and address in practicing on the passions and
credulity of the populace." Another set of Eng-
lishmen who, in their abstract love of democracy,
cannot bear to be told that some things in Ame-
rica might be mended; haters of church establish-
ments, too, who therefore disagree with David
Hume; these, when asked to account for the ex-
cesses of love feasts and camp meetings, lay all
the blame on the oppressors of those puritans who
colonized New England, concluding that the
fanaticism which arose from persecution has been
handed down to living Americans and spread
over the union by emigration from the New Eng-
land states. The doctrines of Mrs. Trollope and
316
SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES
Captain Hall are not worth, the others will not
bear, examination.
Hume's argument in favour of church establish-
ment supposes the existence of a "populace,"
liable from their profound ignorance to be de-
luded by needy speculators in religion. But
there is no populace in America; and those con-
gregations, whether under roofs or in the forest,
which most resemble the inmates of a mad-house
are composed of people whose knowledge goes
beyond reading and writing; shrewd, worldly-
minded, calculating, industrious, buyers and sel-
lers, and what is more, politicians represented in a
local parliament and in congress, who make the
laws which they have to obey; laws which, mea-
sured by the rule of utility, show more practical
wisdom in the makers than the "greatest states-
men" of Europe can pretend to. On the other
hand, the spirit of puritanism is extinct in Ame-
rica. The founders of New England, as their
hot zeal arose from persecution, so were they,
always excepting the quakers, persecutors in their
turn, more cruel than the oppressors from whom
they had fled; and far more bigoted, since they
persecuted as they had suffered for religion's sake,
while the churchmen who had hunted them out
of England were moved by a spirit altogether
worldly. But that bitter, that most vindictive
religious zeal, which dictated the first laws of the
New England colonies, is now unknown in Ame-
OF THE AMERICANS.
317
rica. The odium theologicum did not descend to
the grand children of the puritans, Scenes have
been lately acted at Exeter Hall, in London, ex-
hibitions of furious religious bigotry, such as
it would be impossible to get up in America;
where all sects are tolerant, and not one takes
half so much pains to make proselytes as several
sects in England. Of the many religions that
flourish in America one only, of course, can be
true; yet is there no one sect, which zealously
declares all the others in the wrong. In things
spiritual, as there is neither favor nor persecu-
tion from the government, so bigotry and fanati-
cism, in the English sense of those words, have
perished. In order to describe the peculiar state
of religion in America one must use words not
commonly applied to the subject.
The Americans, speaking generally, are reli-
gious by habit, but not constantly, not mixing up
things spiritual with things temporal, not showing,
I had almost said not feeling, religious sentiments,
except when they meet for public worship. The
custom of attending public worship is almost
universal; and to neglect it would be considered
indecent; but so completely has custom taken the
place of zeal in this matter, that what form of
worship a citizen prefers is perfectly indifferent to
all the other citizens, like the colour of his coat.
Members of the same family, even, belong to
congregations of opposite tenets without the
318
SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES
slightest interruption of domestic peace. More-
over, avowed deists, who in England would be
scouted as infidels, are as much respected as the
most devout Christians, provided they belong to
a sect and congregate once a week to profess
their limited faith. Lukewarmness, indifference,
this would be called in England, and has been
called by English writers; but some other ex-
pression must be found for it, since amongst the
most tolerant congregations in America are those
which occasionally work themselves into a state
of religious phrenzy. Sobriety in general, with
occasional fits of intoxication, seems a more cor-
rect description of spiritual matters in America.
The general sobriety is explained by a total sepa-
ration between religion and politics; but this
does not account for the occasional drunkenness.
What is the cause of that religious phrenzy now
and then exhibited by people, whose ordinary
religious feelings are so tolerant and sober, so
much the reverse of bigotry and fanaticism?
The terms of the question point to an answer
which explains this curious moral phenomenon.
Violent occasional excitement of the mind ap-
pears to be a physical want with those, whose
ordinary condition either does not require or
prevents much mental exertion. None take such
delight in getting drunk with spirits, as the
savage whose monotonous life keeps his mental
faculties in a state of torpor. Rum in America,
OF THE AMERICANS.
319
whisky in Ireland, gin at present in England,
opium in Turkey and China, and tobacco in
Spain, are substitutes for moral stimulants. But
where in the wide world shall be found any con-
siderable number of people, whose minds are not
actively employed by their common pursuits, and
who yet forego the use of extraordinary stimu-
lants? No where. The rule is universal, inclu-
ding those savages, who for want of spirits,
drugs, music, shows, romances and idols, are said
to intoxicate themselves by twirling round till
they fall. The kinds of mental stimulants which
it seems in man's nature to require, differ with
the infinite variety of men's circumstances. The
spirits of a water drinker are raised by one glass
of wine, drank without company; while an habi-
tual wine drinker is not elated by a dozen glasses,
nor by two dozen unless there be others to drink
with him. The solitary prisoner is exhilarated by
obtaining a single companion, drunk, he knows
not why, when he returns to society; while on
him who enjoys social intercourse every day, it
has no unusual effect. There would be no end of
examples to show that different circumstances or
states of mind produce a craving for mental sti-
mulants very different in kind and degree; that
in this case, as in so many more, what is one
man's meat is another man's poison.
Now the dispersed inhabitants of America, and
in particular of those new settlements where love-
320
SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES
feasts and camp meetings are most common, pass
a great part of their lives in solitude; not in
absolute solitude, like that which when inflicted
as a punishment produces death or insanity, but
out of the way of social intercourse, each family
being isolated from all the others, except on rare
occasions, when they congregate in spite of dis-
tance and bad roads. The effect on the mind of
this lonely and monotonous existence, can hardly
be conceived by Englishmen generally, to whom
the stillness of the country gives fresh and plea-
sant feelings. To a lone American family, there
is nothing so delightful as one of those occasions
when many families meet for any purpose; and
when thousands meet for a religious purpose, the
congregation, excited by a total change of scene,
by the unusual confluence of numbers, and by
the novelty of an impulse common to many, are
easily intoxicated by eloquence of which the ob-
ject is to inflame their already heated imagina-
tions. The preacher may or may not be as sin-
cere as his audience; but in either case he is not
to be blamed for their extravagance. Instead of
causing the phrenzy over which he presides, he
only helps to gratify a desire, the desire for some
violent mental excitement, which has resulted
from sameness and solitude. A wandering preacher
in America does not create, but only supplies, a
demand for his services; visiting thinly peopled
districts, not with a view to delude the scattered
OF THE AMERICANS.
321
inhabitants, but because he knows that they
already long for his presence, that they are wait-
ing for a dose of superstitious terror; and that if
he should not help them to devil-worship, they
would send for some other dealer in that, to
them, intoxicating drug.
C
1
It has been remarked, that on these occasions
of self-sought delirium, the women are wilder
than the men. And this might have been ex-
pected; because as almost every where women
lead a more lonely and monotonous life than
men, they are more susceptible of excitement
from novelty and crowds. They are so especially
in the back settlements of America, where travel-
ling, if not dangerous, requires energy and bodily
strength, not to mention how much time. In such
spots, men pass weeks together without exchang-
ing two ideas; women, months, or even years,
without forming one. If the men did not attend
markets, fairs and elections, they would proba-
bly be as wild as the women at love feasts and
camp meetings. The peculiar extravagance of
the women on such occasions, helps to account
for the extravagance of both sexes; and this view
of the subject is confirmed by reflecting that
they who compose the wildest congregations of
America, when they return home after a fit of
superstitious intoxication, are as diligent as ever
in their ordinary pursuits, more contented than
before, and, touching religion, not less tolerant
Y
322
SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES
*
and sober, not a whit less different from English
bigots and fanatics.*
It would be a great mistake to suppose that
obstacles to social intercourse are confined to
the newest settlements. When the states were
colonies, waste land was usually given away by
their governments, often in vast tracts to per-
* Mr. Flint in his Geography and History of the Western
States, after showing the utility of camp meetings, writes :—
"Nine tenths of the religious instruction of the country, is
given by people who itinerate, and who are, with very few
exceptions, notwithstanding all that has been said to the con-
trary, men of great zeal and sanctity. These earnest men,
who have little to expect from pecuniary support, and less
from the prescribed reverence and influence, which can only
appertain to a stated ministry, find at once that every thing
depends on the cultivation of popular talents. Zeal for the
great cause, mixed imperceptibly with a spice of earthly ambi-
tion, and the latent emulation and pride of our nature, and
other motives which unconsciously influence, more or less,
the most sincere and the most disinterested-the desire of dis-
tinction among their contemporaries and their brethren-and
a reaching struggle for the fascination of popularity, goad them
on to study all the means and arts of winning the people. Tra-
velling from month to month through dark forests, with such
ample time and range for deep thought, as they amble slowly
on horseback through their perigrinations, the men naturally
acquire a pensive and romantic turn of thought and expres-
sion, such as we think favourable to eloquence. Hence the
preaching is of a highly popular cast, and its first aim is to ex-
cite the feelings. Hence too, EXCITEMENTS, or in religious par-
lance, awakenings' are common in all this region." Quoted
by Stuart, vol. 2, page 456.
OF THE AMERICANS.
323
•
sons who had no means of cultivating them, and
who, therefore, either left the land in a desert
state, or disposed of it to others at so very cheap
a rate that individuals readily obtained more
land than they could possibly cultivate. In either
case, the dispersion of the people was very great;
for either the desert, wanting roads, was a bar to
intercourse amongst the people who surrounded
it, or each settler fixed on it was, still by want
of roads, separated from all the other settlers.
But since the government of the United States
has, generally, instead of giving away new land,
sold it by auction to the highest bidder above a
fixed minimum price, some new states which
offered peculiar attractions, have been more
densely or rather less thinly peopled than some
of the old colonies, and far better provided with
roads, which are more easily made in proportion
as they are less wanted, that is, in proportion as
the people are less dispersed. Still, above two-
thirds of the inhabitants of America pass the
greater part of their lives in comparative lone-
liness; in a state which, if it could be imagined
by hill squires in Wales, even they would call
unbearable solitude. It is a state of existence
not readily imagined by any Englishman, quite
incomprehensible by those who have always lived
in towns; but the Englishman, who shall con-
ceive what it is, will be at no loss to account for
many American habits and customs, besides that
"
324
SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES
peculiar kind of superstition which displeases
English travellers.
The officers of Captain Parry's second voyage,
after being cut off from the world for more than
two years, landed on one of the Shetland islands,
and were invited to dine with a party of the inha-
bitants. At this meeting, I have been told, ques-
tions and answers formed the whole conversation;
the voyagers, though craving for news, being
obliged to gratify the habitual inquisitiveness of
those secluded islanders. In like manner, the
curiosity of Americans is not a vulgar trick, nor,
as some will have it, a fruit of democratic govern-
ment, but a result, natural and inevitable, of a
faulty mode of colonization, in which no thought
was ever taken to keep a due proportion between
people and land.*
1
The American of the backwoods has often
been described to the English as grossly igno-
rant, dirty, unsocial, delighting in rum and
tobacco, attached to nothing but his rifle, adven-
turous, restless, more than half savage. Deprived
of social enjoyments, or excitements, he has
recourse to those of savage life, and becomes (for
in this respect the Americans degenerate) unfit
* “I found them very inquisitive; far more so than any of
the New Englanders I have ever met with; but I afterwards
learned that these people had lately come from a remote part of
the country, where, probably, there were no schools." Stuart,
vol. 2, page 345.
OF THE AMERICANS.
325
for society. As the evils of society, misery and
vice produced by misery, are unknown in Ame-
rica, as they would have been quite as well
avoided with a greater concentration of the peo-
ple; as, indeed, the produce of American indus-
try might have been greater if the people had
been less dispersed, the semi-barbarism of Ame-
rican backwoodsmen is an unnecessary evil; and
an evil, too, without the least countervailing ad-
vantage; but, though caused without a motive, still
it has been caused by all the governments which
have disposed of new land in America, from that of
Queen Elizabeth, which bestowed twenty-five
millions of acres upon an individual, to that of
President Jackson, which sells new land at the
very low price of five shillings per acre.
Americans are accused of presumption, conceit
and gross national vanity. Allowing for excep-
tions in the more populous parts of the union,
and especially in the great sea-port towns, the
people of America may, in this respect, be likened
to the Tartar conquerors of China, who, being
themselves barbarous, consider all but themselves
barbarians. The least civilized Americans, those
in a word who despise the old country, make up,
like the Chinese mandarins, for want of bigotry
in religion, by excessive bigotry in their patriot-
ism. Some Creoles of New South Wales visiting
England, thought London a miserable place
when compared with Sydney. The settlers of
326
SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES
New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, ad-
joining colonies, planted by the same people, in
the same way, and nearly at the same time,
cannot bear, if we may judge by their books and
newspapers, any comparison between the two
very similar sheep-walks, which does not represent
one as greatly superior to the other, according to
which set of colonists may be addressed. Nearly
all colonists, it is remarked, or at least nearly all
people born in dispersed colonies, are fanatically
proud of their own wild country and love to dis-
parage the rest of the world. This narrowness
of mind, arising from ignorance, seems proper to
the barbarous conquerors of China; but, in co-
lonies planted by the most civilized nations, it is
a degenerate sentiment, a step backwards from
civilization to barbarism, and out of the course
of nature, which seems favourable, stoppages
reckoned, to the improvement of mankind. In
such cases, the ignorance which promotes con-
ceit and mean pride, is a result of dispersion ;
the original cause of it in America being, not de-
mocracy, Captain Hall, but the low price of new
land.
S
But the Captain Halls of England, when they
contend that democracy produces neglect of
learning in America, make out a case which has
some show of truth. The memory of Franklin,
say they, honored in Europe, is despised in Ame-
rica, save by a few whose eccentricity goes to
OF THE AMERICANS.
327
prove the rule. Subject colonies produced scholars
and philosophers; the democratic union depends
on England for literature, or rather for a supply
of novels, the only books suited to the American
market. In all the United States, there is not an
observatory; Copley and West could not live in
America; Cooper and Irving publish in Europe.
Amongst nations called civilized the Americans
are the most neglectful of fine arts, science and
philosophy; and in America the cultivation of
learning has fallen off with the progress of de-
mocracy. Therefore, in America, democracy is
unfavourable to the cultivation of learning.
This statement of facts is true;* and the con-
clusion appears true to many in England, because
English travellers in the United States have care-
fully shut their eyes to a circumstance by which
they might have accounted for most of the social
peculiarities of America. Democracy, that is, po-
* Men of science, too, and of literature, not a small body in
England, will find but few persons in the United States not
engaged in professional business, and have not, in that count
the means of resorting to great public libraries, which they find
in England indispensable for their pursuits. They find but few
people disposed to sympathise with them in the objects which interest
them. The United States do not offer a desirable asylum for
persons of this description, even if they are in straightened cir-
cumstances. It will be much more for their happiness to con-
tract their style of living in England than to make a voyage to
America." Stuart vol. 2, page 427.
328
SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES
litical equality, which lays open to all alike every
career of ambition, and makes usefulness the
standard of merit, must surely be very favour-
able to the cultivation of learning; more especially
when accompanied, as it is in the United States,
by universal ease, which bestows leisure upon all.
The Americans are the only people in the world
blessed with leisure and equality. If political
equality should be established in England, to-
gether with high profits and wages, who can
doubt that the English would advance rapidly in
every department of knowledge. Why then have
the Americans degenerated in this respect? why
do they set a lower value on knowledge than the
colonists of Franklin's time?
"Though," says Adam Smith "in a rude' state
of society there is a good deal of variety in the
occupations of every individual, there is not a
great deal in those of the whole society. Every
man does or is capable of doing almost every
thing which any other man does or is capable of
doing. Every man has a considerable degree of
knowledge, ingenuity and invention, but scarce
any man has a great degree. The degree, how-
ever, which is commonly possessed is generally
sufficient for conducting the whole simple business
of society. In a civilized state, on the contrary,
though there is little variety in the occupations
of the greater part of individuals, there is an
almost infinite variety in those of the whole
OF THE AMERICANS.
329
society. These varied occupations present an
almost infinite variety of objects to the contem-
plation of those few, who, being attached to no
particular occupation themselves, have leisure
and inclination to examine the occupations of
other people. The contemplation of so great a
variety of objects necessarily exercises their minds
in endless comparisons and combinations and
renders their understandings in an extraordinary
degree both acute and comprehensive." But
rudeness and civilization are effects as well as
causes. By going further back, by substituting
dispersed for rude and concentrated for civilized,
we get nearer, at least, to the truth. In the
history of the world, there is no example of a
society at once dispersed and highly civilized;
while there are instances without end, in the
history of colonization, of societies, which, being
civilized, became barbarous as soon as they were
dispersed over an extensive territory. That divi-
sion of each man's labour amongst several em-
ployments, which, says Adam Smith, is the im-
mediate cause of ignorance, is an effect of disper-
sion; and dispersion interferes with the cultiva-
tion of knowledge in another way; that is, by
obstacles to social intercourse, to the interchange
of ideas, to the exercise of the mental faculties.
By adding to this consideration one fact, the
difficulty may be solved.
The citizens of the United States are a more
Ꮓ
330
SOME SOCIAL FECULIARITIES
dispersed society than the colonists of Franklin's
time. When Jefferson wrote the declaration of
independence, the vast regions west of the Al-
leghanies had scarcely been opened for settlement.
Washington became a soldier in contests with
the Indians on the western frontier of Virginia,
which is now the eastern frontier of states more
extensive than the dependent colonies. Even if
the increase of people had been equal to the ac-
quisition of land, still the dispersion would have
been greater, because the interior settlements are,
by reason of their great distance from the sea,
more deficient in natural means of communica-
tion. Washington often foretold some of the
evils that would result from spreading towards
the west, unless the eastern and western states
were connected by canals and good roads. His
warning was neglected until lately, when the
eastern states became alarmed at the amount of
emigration to the west. In those eastern states,
the dependent colonies that were, they talk now
of Washington's inspiration, and are most anxious
to establish means of intercourse with the western
settlements: they will find it difficult to remedy
their own error. The western wilderness was
theirs and liable to be treated in the way most
for their advantage. They thought only of grati-
fying their national vanity, by extending as much
as possible the surface of the union. Not content
with promoting emigration to the wilderness,
OF THE AMERICANS.
331
ľ
when their own population was so scanty that
they ought rather to have encouraged immigra-
tion from Europe, they sent to Europe for the
purpose of acquiring more wilderness, and in one
case actually paid hard money for an accession
of mischief. The result is, that population has
spread, not merely as fast as it has increased, but
faster; that there are fewer people to the square
mile than when population was about a quarter
of its present amount; and that this smaller
number of people in proportion to land, besides
being separated from each other by greater dis-
tance, are not so well provided with the means
of social intercourse. Where there are markets,
there the people live together; but these are few
and far between. What the Americans would
probably have been without markets, and to what
they are indebted for the existence of markets, is
shown in the following notes.
* "The acquisition by the United States in 1803, of the
territories belonging to France in North America, including
New Orleans, Louisiana and the Mississippi, was a most im-
portant one. The negociations resulted in the cession of the
French territory in North America, exceeding in extent the whole
land then belonging to the United States, for sixty millions of
francs." Stuart, vol. 2, p. 227.
END OF VOL. I.
LONDON :
PRINTED BY WILLIAM NICOL, CLEVELAND-ROW, ST. JAMES'S.
BB
DO NOT REMOVE
OR
MUTILATE CARD
PRINTED IN U. S A.
Cat. No. 23 530
2005
FAD
22
בנוב
DE
ביב
בבנ..
>>>
دد
3565
DJE
199:
AD.
J'
כיכ
פגכ
He
D9%
· D
CUC
DAD
ITD.
XXX
J
ܐ
DD.
22.0
>>
??
>>
C
DE
U
גנ
»
>>>
כיר
NOTIĆ,
LLS
>>>>
ه
»D
DOD
CAK
>)
XX
Y
Cvx
>>>>
>>>>>
D
22
(&
بھی
D
2.
272ܐ,,
D
D)
>
:)
Cor:
CVC.
«CE
CCW
XD XXX
))
C
رد
CCC
D
כי
CC.
>>>
D).
J
>>>
クラブ​アル
​DDDD
D
DO
>>
DD.
CC
> >
)
>>
The
C
7
7.
))
CL
3
D DX
>>>> >>
גל(
>>>>
CEL
CCCC
3
Ca
G&C
>
>>
>>>
>>>>
>
>>>
a
22
222
AAAA
>>>>
>>
>>
»
J
»»»
(*).
درد
دور
&
Dy
>>>
>>>
XX X
>>>
>>
>>
>>>
»
»
>
CCCC
»
>>>>2
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>
33
333
»
25
CUC
Co
>>
נברג
.)
".
CAC
دید
??
>>>
79)
)))
>
X
>
>> >>
>>>
גג
AD>
>>
>
>>
ΣΕ
>>>
>>
2
ܝ
EC
D
>>
ww
>>
>>
>>
>>>
X.C
>>
P
HD
כל.
OK
3D
X
XX
»
>>
>>
AAAA
Vi
***
FAC
دو
>
27
>
70.
CCCCC
acc
DD
>>
>