The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-15 00:00:00

. . .
• .
•
462 THE PRESS, MAy 15, 1858.
officers tell us that
recruits are rejected
This suspension of the bitterest warfare of times questioned, titatiitouwtdeeWs: naot:suforoueuc,:e:rateirzne:::- -Pr: h;::::,
Yittraturt. parties, this absence of a great national cause, inferior to country people. He says:— '
badeol,ife w teeth,ea v
er
s and,.
may be a blessing to us if we will make it so. If
anNdVfeesbeleeiftradmainlya of
multitudes
a fourth period of trial awaits us, we shall have
a n factoringenor
m o u s
proportion
theirrecruiting
town
Transactions of the National Association for the or want strength to sustain it according as we have
for these reasons, as wellarase foof,r,e,
Tdnehteorm evidencesspitii
tiaes,
imiade
employed this precious interval of repose. Peace
Promotion of Social Science. 1857. Inaugural is not given to a nation for nothing ; nor is it a
osurchli
Addresses and Select Papers. London :J. blessing, but a curse, unless those who enjoy it constitutionalke defects,
weakness. which
si"Coowfell'il,
hereditary
themselves a regiment of volunteers of good stature anit
W. Parker and Son. discern its true value. A time of peace should says a late writer, " who were formerly able to raise among'
(Second Notice.) be a time of domestic reform. Peace is not in. -
appearance,
are
rapidlyTe dwindling
obri ai 0 to
0
cfnesir
activity ; the spear ought not to be hung up in tut..."ipu.
OUR readers may endure to be brought back to the hall at her advent, but beaten into the at Manchester and Stockport several years ago,'
this book, for there is more in it than can be ex- pruning-hook. She brings rest from angry feel- decided inferiority in stature and weight of th SChh°l7dredell
hausted at a single meal. It may, indeed, serve ings, from hatred, from bloodshed, but not from employed in the factories as compared with those not sac%
as the text-book of a vast subject, and a subject labour ; she is not drest in holiday attire, but employed.
•upon which an Englishman ought not to be ill- carries a stout broom to sweep away cobwebs, That the physical evil is closely connected with
informed, even though he should be ignorant of and is armed with soap and sandpaper to make the moral one, Dr. Beddoe points out in his
most other things. For this, if we look into the war on dirt and rust. Peace has been among us enumeration of causes :
matter, is the subject which the present gene- now, with slight interruptions, for a long course Close packing and the want of fresh pure ai and •
r tank
ration is set to study. If we will take notice of of years; nor have we altogether misunderstood among the first of these Other evil agencies at
the fact, the volume of Time is now open at the the character of our guest. Reform has pro- work are—the want of opportunity and stimulus for the
chapter headed " Social Reform," and those who ceeded with an unprecedented rapidity,se,that those Ithieeveldoepbmileitnattionfgtehffeierataiboyfsiaceadleploitwaera
andby yoolunng persons;
rase to study this chapter are neglecting the who have not considered the wants of the nation some employments; the generallyrygreater prevalence var alennac
heol,e;f
lesson appointed them to learn. It is generally may be disposed to think that nearly enough has intemperance in drinking, and of youthful profligacy; and
recognized, even by those who do not philoso- been done. One simple and unquestionable fact the greater facilities which feeble and physically degenerate
phize, that the present is a period of transition • ought at once not only to dissipate this miscon- persons find for contracting matrimony and reproducing,
their defects and infirmities in the next generation.
and the justice of this opinion may be perceived ception for ever, but to convince every one that
by any one who takes even the most cursory the work of social reform, so far from being Mr. Jelinger Symons, now happily turning his
view of the course of affairs in England during nearly completed, is scarcely commenced. The attention to sublunary matters, contributes a
the last three centuries. England has three population of Great Britain has increased nearly paper in which he endeavours to show that crime
times been engaged in a contest for life and twofold in the last half-century. Multitudes of is in proportion, not to ignorance, but to density
death with mighty and malignant powers, and men now living can remember a time when in of population. Ile gives a scale of the chilli.-
between each deadly struggle a period like the these two islands there were only half as many nality of English counties, and parallel to it a
resent has been interposed, the wise employ- mouths to be fed, bodies to be kept in health, scale of their density of population The cor-
ement of which has given the nation strength for minds to be enlightened, and souls to be saved. respondence of the two tables is certainly re-
resistance and victory in that which has It follows that if the country is now twice as rich, markable. If this principle be true, there Isom
succeeded. In the sixteenth century, we resisted contains twice as many houses, twice as many cause both of physical and moral deterioratioo—
spiritual tyranny and Spain in a war of fifty schools, twice as many churches, the nation is no viz., want of room, or rather this combined with
years. Kings and casuists commenced that better off than it was in the year 1800. Or, bad architecture and drainage.
struggle; bishops and preachers followed; martyrs rather, we should say it is much worse off. For, A paper contributed by Mr. Hastings on "the
sustained the great cause in its adversity ; states- in the first place, the number of persons neglected "river Severn, in relation to the pollution of its
men reinforced it when the crisis was past ; sailors is twice as great. In the second place, whatever " stream, by the drainage of the towns situated
and sea-kings crowned it with victory. When in our social economy was faulty affects twice as on its banks," seems to show that the march of
Elizabeth died, this contest was over and done. many. If wages are too low, or taxation too social change is sometimes retrogressive. The
Then followed the period of transition, of midis- heavy, twice as much misery is produced. If substance of it is contained in the following,
turbed advance; the period during which men houses are ill-built or towns ill-drained, twice as sentence:—
enjoyed the fruits of their victory, rejoiced in much disease is generated. If educational systems There is no doubt that the plan that is being adopted
their religious freedom, and tested its working ; are bad, twice as much and distaste for by engineers, of carrying the sewage of towns, wherever
they can do so conveniently, into adjacent streams, affordis
the period during which a new generation grew l • ignoranceIf i• • • •
earning arediffused. re apous instruction a ready mode of solving a difficult question, and recta'
up, not disposed to rest in the privileges their be sectarian, or cold, or superstitious,•heretical, ormends itself on the score of pecuniary ()whin bat nut'',
fathers had won for them, but eager to win other twice as much sectarianism, indifference, super- some means can be devised by which sewage water can be
privileges for themselves, and pushing the prin- stition, or heresy is called into existence in the rendered innocuous before it is allowed to mix with pure
ciples which their fathers had first dared to assertstreams of water in our rivers, every consideration should
country. In the thirdplace, the principal cause induce those whose aim it is to improve the public btadth
to consequences which astonished and shocked of the increase of I • d • the
those old heroes themselves. When the second half-century—an increase equal to that which
great struggle commenced, not now with spiritual We have not space to review that section of
took place in the whole century previous—has
tyranny, but with arbitrary political power, the been the increase of activity in manufacturins. • the volume which treats of the amendment of
transition was complete—the new men were found Now, if this has sea In- the law. It treats largely of the inequalities of
dustry, and trade.
equal to the new crisis.the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Courts, aril
increase of population, it has also had another
The resistance of the English nation to arbi- proposes various plans for facilitating the trans-
result. It has awakened into energy every. sleep-ference of land. Probably nothing so effectually
power lasted a century. It was not sue- ing mischief. Whatever
bars the way of substantial improvement to the
teiNully completed till the year 1745. Then, is 'I
was
infinitely ess
.inert than it was. What before
ruled by a king who possessed only a parliamen- only passive ignorance is now brutal and tor- labouring classes as the expense and trouble at-
-1 title, and relieved from all apprehension oftending the sale and purchase ofland ; which, being
bulent vice • what before was indifference • in • _I
inueoendent of the size of the estate transferred,
the return of the obnoxious dynasty, England reli • is ' religion now avowed and aggressive infidelity. •. • •
entered upon the secure enjoyment off` her bee- ' while it inconveniences the rich, absolutely excludes.
ties, and commenced her second period of tran- From the single fact, therefore, of the rapid the poor from the hope of becoming propries
sition. New sources of national wealth were dis- increase of our population, it may readily be tors. History is almost entirely silent about
covered—the spinning-jenny, the power-loom, and perceived what an immense work of social reform the gradual process by which the old race of
the steam-engine were invented. The morals of lies before us. But another fact, equally well t proprietors, the ancient yeomanry of
the nation began to recover their purity ; private known, will, when duly considered, make the rnagli:rid, in the course of the seventeenth century
morality began slowly to improve after the acces- same conclusion appear still more irresistible. parted with their farms ; but surely no social
sion of George III.; and the influence of Johnson Our population has not only increased in num- revolution of which we have any knowledge can
contributed to make literature respectable. In berm, but it has changed its way of life. It used have done so much to injure the independence
the forty-four years which elapsed between the to live in the country; it has now migrated into and patriotism of the lower class, and to plant at
battle of Culloden and the commencement of the the town. Now townsfolk are, as a general rule, in- the base of the pyramid, instead of a conservative
French Revolution was acquired that soberness, tellectually stronger, physically weaker, and, owing class tenacious of the soil beneath them, a dis-
that attachment to our institutions, which, when to special causes, more immoral than country contented and servile rabble whose only hove is
the third tempest broke upon us, proved superior Pe,e. It would appear, therefore, that there is a in revolution or emigration. Nor can we begin
first to the seductions of Jacobinism and then to mighty power at work tending to injure the health, to retrace this backward step until that cheapen--
the arms of Buonaparte. Some parts of this strength, and virtue of the English people, and ing of the law is effected which now occupies sci
period of transition remind us strongly of our own at the same time to furnish them with a miserable much ot' the attention of Social Reformers.
times. The universal disorganization of parties compensation for physical weakness and a dan-
and
conse9uent succession of short governments, gerous weapon for vice in an increased measure
Essays : Scientific, Politicul, and Speculative.
which political men complain of now, were corn- of intellectual acuteness. Here is an evil which
"
plained of quite as bitterly between the years 1760 mere activity in improvement cannot overcome. By Herbert Spencer, Author of Social
and 1770. The reason of this disorganization of Increase of population may be met by effecting Statics," &c. London : Longmans.
parties is the same in both cases. It was from an increase in all social appliances. But a pro- FROM his work on " Social Statics," we conceived
the great struggle against arbitrary power that blew in social science is here presented to us. a very high opinion of Mr. Spencer's powers,
the parties sprang; as soon as that struggle was We cannot prevent the people from crowding and within a certain literary circle he has ac-
over, they fell into abeyance. The French Re- into the cities. We must purify the city itself: quired considerable and deserved distinction.
volution revived them under new conditions, the We must discover and remove the causes which The philosophic public is gradually • getting-
Tories now speaking the voice of the nation, as operate in the city to the demoralization and smaller, and attention is concentrated more and
Whigs had done in the former contest. physical deterioration of its inhabitants. Two more on solid realities. In former times, Eng,-
n they began to fall into abeyance, to lose arge sections of the volume before us are devoted lisp literature could point to a great many purely
il& ardour of their mutual repugnance to ap- to the questions of the prevention of crime and " speculative" writers ; but the taste of the age
proach each other at certain points, as soon as the sanitary reform, has changed in many respects. Physical science
revolutionary struggle came to a close. Dr. Beddoe adduces evidence of the fact, some- appears to have more charms for readers $I
lIIIIIL_