The Express.
London, England, 1868-02-22 00:00:00

SHOP AND STORE.

CO-OPERATION in retail trade is prevailing in an
alarming manner—we mean in a manner alarming
to the British shop-keeper. The success of the
Civil Service Stores in the Haymarket and in
Monkwell-street has spread like an infection. The
districts N., N.W., W.C., S., S.E., S.W. are
catching it one after the other. All the points
of tho Metropolitan compass are down
with this complaint—complaint of the ex-
orbitant charges of butcher, baker, and all les
autres. Paterfamilias now finds in his letter-

box a prospectus of a co-operative store, or
" housekeeper's association for the purpose
"of supplying its members and others with
" household necessaries of the best kind, of
" genuine quality, at reasonable prices, with just
" weight and measure." These companies propose
to supply-1, meat of all kinds ; 2, bread, flour,
and meal ; 3, groceries ; 4, cheesemongery, butter,
eggs, bacon, &c. ; 5, potatoes and other vegetables ;
6, poultry and fish. Every article issuing from
the emporium will be guaranteed of the beet
quality and perfectly genuine ; and in order to
secure this a chemical analyst and microscopist has
been engaged, who will examine, by the most
searching testa, all stores received into the em-
porium, and all supplies issued from it to eon-
' Burners. These associations contemplate operations
on a large scale. Goods will be delivered imme-
diately on being ordered within a radius of two
miles, and on many articles a saving of fifty per
cent. will be guaranteed for ready money. A sub-
sidiary branch will be established for the supply of
labouring people with cooked food at the lowest
possible cost, and even with coal/ direct from the
I pit.

All this sounds very " fine," but we suspect the
"emporium" is foreign to the genius of the British
people. We should not like to see all the shops
shut up, or half of them, or a quarter of them, or
any of them indeed. We like shops; everybody
likes shops. If they get a little more out of us
than they ought, in fairness, to get, they adorn
the town. They make a stroll through the streets
interesting by day ; their gas lamps make it
bright and cheerful by night. It was the
sight of the glittering shop windows in Cheap_
aide that caused Marshal Blucher to exclaim,
" Mein Got, what a city to sack !" And what a
safety valve to the temper of wives and daughters
is afforded by shops ! If they have no money,
they can look in at the windows and indulge in
an Alnaachar's vision of what they would buy
and adorn themselves with if they had. If they
have money they can go in and be flattered. It is
all very well to save fifty per cent., butwhat if
our women folks can't go out shopping 1 Curtains
at fifty per cent. over their value are cheaper
to the busy, thinking, occupied man than
curtain lectures. And, after all, if we were
to carry co-operation out in everything, there
would soon be, as the raving demagogue said, " no
" nothing"—no Queen, no Parliament,no Church,no
Army and Navy, no Bench, no Bar,—nothing to
swear by or toast after dinner with a " hip, hip,
" hurrah, and one cheer more."

No. Sentiment, the British spirit of fair play,
the " live and let live" maxim, convenience,
human vanity, everything, in fact, is in favour
of the perpetuation of the shop. The
shop-keeper has the matter in his own
hands. Let him be satisfied with a reasonable
profit. Let him not be in such baste to get rich.
Let him be content with the back parlour, and not
aspire too soon to the suburban villa, and the
horse, on which he too often rides to ruin. At
the same time, let not the public condemn the
whole body of industrious, fair dealing, hard work-
ing, too often struggling tradesmen, for the exor-
bitancy of a few, upon whom a seeming exorbitancy
has been forced by the inconsiderate conduct of
customers who run long bills, and subject their
tradespeople to heavy losses. If the present
feverish co-operative movement should strike •
blow at the pernicious system of long credit it will
have served a useful purpose.

nix HOLY Fenian, in the midst of the more
momentous duties of his sacred office—such as
inspecting his fortifications and reviewing his
Zousves—has found time lately to receive a
deputation of two hundred Roman and foreign
ladies who came to pay the homage of their
humble assent to the Apostolic Brief of October
12, 1867, against the luxury and extreva-
gance of" women's dress. We are told by the
court newsman of the Vatican that the young
and beautiful Princess laavonzAorrx, née ALDO-
1111,ANDINI, was the speaker on this ocearion, sad
delivered a "vary well turned address to his
" Homing." Pius IX. replied by an instructive
and touching allocution, which, however,
appeared to a few among the audience some-