The Press. — London, England, 1858-11-20 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 20, 1858. London -bridge, the first ready-money establishment in London ; and he has left us a lively account of his duties, which were made more onerous by the customs of the period. All the assistants had to wait to have their h a ir powdered and curled before appearing in the shop ; and g i wEN himself bad two large curls o n each side, and a stiff pigtail , which had to be nicely and systematically arranged before he could show himself to the cus tomers. His removal to Manchester—an important epoch in his life— took place when he was about eighteen. He was apprenticed to a Mr. SATTERSFIELD, and, after about two years spent with him, set up for him self on a capital of 1001., borrowed from his brother, in partnership with a clever mechanic of the name of JONES. This connection being speedily dissolved, he became manager of a Mr. DRINKWATER'S mill at a salary of 3001. a year. He was now a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, and during this period made the acquaintance of COLERIDGE, recording with some satisfaction that he was sometimes consi dered to have got the better of that great man in conversation. In 1795 he became partner in another company who had extended their busi ness to Glasgow, which led to ROBERT OWEN'S first visit to Scotland. On this occasion he made acquaintance with the family of Mr. DALE, pro prietor of the " New Lanark Mills," prettily situated near the falls of the Clyde, and which he then said seemed better fitted for the trial of a great experiment he was contemplating than any spot he had met with. This intimacy ultimately ended in OWEN'S firm becoming the purchasers of the New Lanark Mills, and OWEN himself the husband of Mr. BALE'S daughter. He was married on the 30th of September, 1797. In the year 1800 he permanently took up his abode in Scotland, and became manager, or, as he terms it, "Governor," of the "New Lanark Mills." In 1813, with the aid of certain gentlemen in London whom be had won over to his own views, including JEREMY BENTHAM and Mr., afterwards Alderman, Glnns, OWEN became the purchaser of these mills, and immediately proceeded to carry out his own ideas. Space will not permit of our giving any outline of his management ; but it does not seem to have differed in the first instance from what all our leading philanthropists at the present day would approve. Schools and playgrounds for the children, and the judicious exercise of moral influence over their elders, were the instruments he relied upon for regulating his little community, and for some years he undoubtedly had the sympathies of the public with him. It was during this period that he was in partnership with ROBERT FruroN the engineer ; and that numberless eminent men, including the Emperor NICHOLAS of Russia, and various members of our own Royal Family, were visitors at the now celebrated new Lanark establishment. This great success and popularity seems to have affected Mr. OWEN'S judgment, and to have led him to brood more and more upon those religious doubts which an active and laborious life had hitherto contributed to suppress. It was in 1817 that he resolved upon the step which he flattered himself would in an instant open the eyes of mankind and inaugurate a new epoch. This was to publicly proclaim the falsehood of Christianity at a great metropolitan public meeting. So much excitement was produced by the announcement of this meeting, that, according to OwEN, the Government became alarmed, and he resolved to have an interview with Lord LIVERPOOL to relieve his mind upon the sub ject ; believing at the time that his Lordship, with a great portion of the Cabinet, was a convert to his own views ! His Lordship received him with great politeness, and gave him permission to make any use of his name and his colleagues' that he chose, short of implicating the Govern ment. OWEN'S friends, however, were all alarmed at the consequences of the step he had taken, and Lord BROUGHAM, who met him soon after, said—" How the devil, Owen, could you think of saying what you did at " your meeting? Had any fus said half as much in the House of Corn " mons we should have been burned alive." The unfavourable impression thus created was strengthened by the publications which just about this time OWEN was issuing from the press. His memorial presented to the allied Sovereigns at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, and his scheme for the im proval of the working classes, were considered to remove him from within the pale of practical men, and to stamp him as a useless, if not a dangerous, enthusiast. The latter-mentioned essay, which was severely handled even by the Edinburgh Review, was published in 1819, and proposed that the country should be divided into compartments of 1,000 or 1,200 acres each ; a village to be erected on each of them in the form ofa parallelogram, with the requisite inclosurcis and buildings for agricultural purposes; in each village were to be a thousand inhabitants, who were to cultivate the soil and work up its produce on the principle of combined labour and expendi ture, and were f rom th e period of infancy to be placed in preparatory schools. This afterwards developed into the theory now better known as Socialism, according to which the thousand acres were to be the absolute property of the thousand inhabitants, who should form a community to be governed by " the Simple and the Beautiful." For the last thirty years Owenism has fallen into disrepute, though the founder of it has been treated with distinction both in foreign countries and in America, where his son, the Neapolitan Ambassador, possesses a considerable estate. This gentleman, in common with his deceased father, is to be reckoned among the warmest disciples of spirit-rapping, a faith which Mr. OWEN adopted when Christianity began to seem improbable. His latter days have been spent at his residence in Kent, in the enjoyment of a good fortune, and the society of attached friends. His rece n t a pp eara n c e at Liverpo ol, and the events immediately subsequent, are thus recorded by the Times : " The last public appearance of Mr. OWEN was at the late Social Science Congress at Liverpool. He stood between Lord BROUGHAM and Lord ' IO IIN RUSSELL. He spoke for a few minutes, when, his strength failing him, he was removed to the Victoria Hotel, where he remained for several days. He was accompanied by Mr. RIGBY, who has acted as his secretary and man of business for the last thirty years. While at the hotel he expressed a determination to see his native town , and started next day, ring from Shrewsbury, as th ere was no ra il. He only remained a few ours, returned to Liverpool, and after transacting some business went back again to Newtown. He told Mr. Molly on the way, I ,hall leave 1133 my bones where I got them.' He died at the Bear's Head Hotel, and, what is strange, there is not a single inhabitant now alive in the place who was there when he left it, a child of ten years of age." ROBERT OWEN is one of those men whose names have been doomed to an unmerited share of obloquy. Ile was, in truth, almost the founder of that school of philanthropists to whom the working men of the present day are so much indebted. He saw and deeply lamented the vice and degradation into which that class was sunk, and he set. resolutely to work to do what in him lay as an individual to give effect to his convictions. No greatness or virtue which cannot abide this test is worth the ink in which it is celebrated. ROBERT OWEN did act, and made great sacrifices for the sake of his principles. Like many other pioneers, he did not see the whole truth. Like many other well-intentioned Reformers, his intellect was ruled by his imagination, and he was unable to bear the burden of his own fame. But there was no malignity in OWEN'S irreligion, and no selfish ness or other petty feelings in his radicalism. He was a true friend to the poor ; and let all their other friends utter a requiescat over his grave. We are happy to see from what took place before the Lord Mayor on Saturday last that the scheme for providing the London poor with suburban dwelling-houses has not been abandoned. Two years ago, in a paper which appeared in our literary columns, we strongly urged upon the public the propriety of some such expedient. Not only is the number of houses every year erected for the rich out of all proportion to those erected for the poor, but almost every other new house of the former kind entails the removal of one of the latter kind ; while at the same time the increase of streets and squares occupied by respectable inhabitants increases the demand for labour in the vicinity. So that a process is going on by which at one and the same time the necessity for the poor man's services is augmented, and the poor man himself thrust away to a greater distance. From this it arises that the poor are all huddled together in particular quarters of the town, and that the crowding of lodging-houses, with all its concomitant evils, is greatly on the increase. To remedy this evil as far as possible, it has been proposed to supply the poorer classes with cottages a mile or so from town, and to enable them to pass to and fro by a system of cheap railway travelling. Could this system be effect ively carried out; it would be one of the greatest boons conferred upon the London poor since philanthropy came into fashion. We wish the pro moters of it all success. Nor, although there are doubtless obstacles to be encountered, can we perceive any of sufficient magnitude to thwart that resolute spirit of benevolence which has already overcome so many diffi culties in the path of social improvement. It won't do for the Duke of MALAKOFF to accept the command of the French troops in Rome. The Duke has just begun fox-hunting, and the Pope has just put an end to it. What may be the object of his Holiness in putting the veto of infallibility upon this Anglo-Saxon entertainment we cannot pretend to conjecture. Whether on the Wellerian principle, that a dog who is a good judge of a fox is a good judge of anything, and that his red stockinged counsellors would be in danger when other game became scarce in the Campagna, we cannot say. We have heard of a priest being hunted by a celebrated character in Leicestershire : possibly the fame of his exploits may have spread to the Eternal City, and have been the cause of the precautionary measure we allude to. The omnibus rivalry case is adjourned to the 21st of December. Of course, it does not become us to offer any opinion on the legal bearings of this question, or to impute either to the General Omnibus Company or their servants the offence with which they are charged. But, if common sense may be allowed to speak in the matter, there can be no doubt that a serious offence has been committed by somebody. The simple fact, which seems to have been amply proved, that passengers were forcibly prevented from entering the Saloon Company's vehicles, is surely sufficient evidence. The long-suffering "NABBY," so-called, we suppose. from his alacrity in picking up passengers, and the "gentleman named PINCHER," are certainly, we think, in a position to prove the fact of unlawful inter ference and obstruction on somebody's part. TABBY, whose professional abilities rendered him a formidable rival, was, it appears, "nursed " with special tenderness ; and we can readily imagine the consternation of that class of stout and elderly passengers, with whom Punch has familiarized us, at the tumults of which they have suddenly found themselves the centre. Not that we mean to imply that the lady and gentleman alluded to in last Thursday's evidence were either stout or elderly. Far from it. But as we know from sad experience that it is for persons so afflicted that omnibuses seem to have been expressly invented, it is but right that practices espe cially painful to them should be stopped at once. Who that remembers Mr. Pickwick's memorable passage from his carriage to the hustings at Eatanswill cannot picture to himself his description of this very obtrusive system of " touting"? At present the cabmen seem to be the only gainers by the practice—stepping in, like a neutral power, when the combatants are exhausted, and quietly appropriating the prize for which they had been struggling. We trust, however, that before the 21st of December the nursing fathers of this monopoly may be brought to a sense of the true laws of political economy ; and that NABBY, PLNCHER, and last and least, the Public, may be relieved from the annoyances to which ignorance of commercial principles has subjected them, and that the lbrmer may be permitted to pursue in peace the avocations for which they are so eminently qualified. If they will not accept Sing Log, in the shape of Sir RICHARD MAYNE, they will find a veritable King Stork in the House of Commons. ~.