Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-04-09 00:00:00

A POPULAR HISTORY

07 TUX

WORKING CLASSES.

ADDRESSED TO THE WORKING CLASSES
THEMSELVES

[These articles being Copyright, the Author reserves to himself
the privilege of further publication or translation.]

PART FOURTH.

CHAPTER THIRD.

SUBJECT OF THE POOR-LAWS CONCLUDED.-PROGRESS
OF THE ARTS AND MANUFACTURES DURING THE
REIGN OF ELIZABETH. - AMUSEMENTS OF THE
PEOPLE.-REFLECTIONS ON THESE.

Having, in the last chapter, endeavoured to estab-
lish the policy of a compulsory provision for the
poor, I shall next submit a few remarks on the
description of persons to whom it ought to be
restricted. Many who are in favour of a poor-
rate are still inclined to keep the amount at
a minimum, and for this purpose have submitted
the following sugFestions :.1. That no case of dis-
tress shall be eligible to relief unless it be casual,
unavoidable, and such as ordinary prudence could
not see or avert. 2. That able bodied labourers
shall not be eligible for relief merely because they
cannot obtain employment. 3. That neither a wife
nor child per se shall constitute a claim to parish
allowance.

Under the first class of exclusions, a claim, on
account of old age, would be rejected; since that is
a calamity which comes on a man by degrees, and
can always be full seen. Secondly, mere want of
employment is often nothing more than one of those
occasional depressions in demand for labour arising
out of the changes of the seasons, or vicissitudes of
trade, which are of periodical occurrence, and which
workmen ought to be provided against. Thirdly,
marriage is a voluntary act, for which the parties
have nobody but themselves to blame, and conse-
quently cannot reasonably expect to escape the
burdens they have deliberately brought upon them-
selves by throwing it on the shoulders of others.
It is obvious that all these cases of exclusion from
parish relief are founded—first, on the considera-
tion that they are all cases of distress, which,
by the exercise of the prudential virtues, might
be avoided ; secondly, on the consideration that
by leaving such cases of distress to what may
be termed their natural punishment, a powerful
notive is created for the exercise of the forethought
by which they may be avoided; and thirdly, that a
public provision for such cases of distress is really
granting a bounty on imprudence.
My first remark on these deductions is, that before
we rely on the prudential virtues as a provision for
any description of indigence, we must be sure that
such prudential virtues exist. If the habits of the
poor, as I endeavoured to show in the previous
chapter, are such as clearly indicate they do not
exist, then they can neither be a remedy nor preven-
tive of that specific evil for which the poor-laws
provide.
The poor-laws, besides, have not been instituted
for the relief of the destitute merely, but for the
general peace and security of the community. They
are not only an institution of charity, but of POLICE,
to shield society from the evils of mendicity and
crime. If we exclude the aged in distress, or the
able-bodied in want of work, from the scope of their
operation, we fail to obtain one great object of their
establishment. The sufferers will not starve ; there-
fore they must either beg or steal, or be relieved.
If we tolerate the first, in ever so limited a degree,
we open a door for the admission of the greatest
evil the poor-laws were meant to exclude ; and if
mendicity be allowed, in conjunction with a poor-
rate, the community is at once afflicted with both.
Therefore, I say, let there be no pretext either for
begging or stealing ; let the poor-laws embrace ,
every kind of absolute destitution, whether it arise
from old age or want of employment ; if the latter
is occasioned by idleness or criminal misconduct,
there are laws to punish the offender, and it is-the
fault of the parish-officer if they be not enforced.
Whether the destitution for which the poor-laws
provide arises from improvidence or unavoidable
necessity, is not so important a consideration as that
persons and property shall be shielded from all
pretext of violation ; and the security of these, and
the justice and humanity of the laws by which they
are guaranteed, I esteem wholly incompatible with
any large portion of the community being in a state
of extreme misery, without resource or means of
alleviation. It will thus be seen that lam a decided
advocate of the famous national institution of the
Elizabethan age ; but though an advocate of the
policy of the poor-laws, I am neither an advocate of
the abuses in the laws themselves, nor in their
practical administration.
I now quit, for the present, the further discussion
of the question of poor-laws, and proceed to the
consideration of other matters in connection with
our. subject, as respects the era which is under

review.
The prosperity
.of the working classes, which we
find so cheering in all its aspects throughout the
Elizabethean age, may be principally ascribed to the
work of the Protestant Reformation, together with
the spirit of religious freedom and security which it
tended to diffuse. One of the benefits indirectly
accruing from it was in the encouragement which it ;
gave to foreign workmen to come and settle in the
country, who were glad to escape from the bigotry
and persecution of their own governments. And to
the credit of the English people at this period, let it
be remarked that, instead of looking upon them in
the same spirit of rivalry as their forefathers had
done, they received them openly and with kindness
—a hospitality which those strangers repaid by
peopling our towns with an industrious order of
working people, such as dyers, cloth-dressers, linen-
makers, and silk-throwsters. They brought with them
n fact many improvements in the manufacturing
arts which were unknown among the English
artizans at that time, and laid the foundation of
many new branches of trade—as, for instance, the
making of baizes, serges, and other stuffs. These
were chiefly taught by the Flemish manufacturers;
while at a later period the revocation of the edict of
Nantes produced a like tendency as the persecution
of that people by the Duke of Alva had done—it
impoverished France in its silk trade, and laid the
foundation of the silk manufacture in England.
Silk stockings, we learn, were introduced for the
first time in this reign. Elizabeth spent her
youthful days without ever having indulged in their
luxury, for no less sufficient reason than that she
could not get them. At length one of her courtiers
presented her with a pair of black silk stockings
he had procured from Spain which pleased the
Virgin Queen so much that never afterwards would.
she consent to wear stockings of any other material.
At the same time, we learn that one Thomas Burdet,
an ingenious apprentice, presented Lord Pembroke
with a pair of worsted hose, the first knit in the
country.
While upon the subject of new manufactures, it
may be as well here to notice others. And it is
curious to observe that, although spoons and knives
seem to have been in use as early as the reign of
Edward the Confessor, yet the fork was not known
until the middle of this reign. A well bred person
at the present day would certainly stare to see a
lady, over dinner, cut up her
food with a knife in
one hand, and convey it to her mouth between the
fingers of the other, but such Was the custom with
our fashionable as well as poorer ancestors previous
to the age of Elizabeth. The manufactureofearthen-
ware does not seem to have been much. encouraged,k
although there is evidence that it was
Wooden and pewter plates were chiefly usedlr andwn
in the latter description of articles the English
workmen became so famous that they were even
prohibited by statute from quitting the kingdom,
or imparting their mystery to foreigners. There
were several other branches of trade, which formerly
had been practised only in monasteries, that now
fell into the hands of a useful body of artizans,—such
of time
as carving and gilding,
themanufacture
pieces, and various other metallic arts. Nor must
we omit to make honourable mention of two other
most useful articles, which, besides being now
esteemed of so much importance in themselves, gave
employment at that time, as they still continue to
do, extensive employment to a large number of
wol.kinen. I refer to the manufactilre of needles

(1). To make 5,646 pins, weighing one pound, according
to Mr Babbage's Economy of Machinery and Manufactures,
occupies four men, four women, and two children, rather
more than seven hours and a half of time, and the total
expense of their labour, each being paid according to his
skill and the time he is employed, amounts to nearly Is. Id.
The ratio of the wages earned per day, by the persons so
employed, varies from 41d. the sum paid to the boy who
assists in twisting and cutting -the heads, to 6s. the sum
paid to the man who finishes the most difficult part of the
art. Of the seven hours and a half consumed, four are
taken up by a woman in heading; rather more than two
hours by another woman in preparing, and the remaining
hour and a half is spent by the other eight persons in
drawing the wire, straightening the wire, 'pointing and
tinning.

,
To SHIPPERS AND EXPORTERS.—A most profitable
article of .export, to warm climates especially, are the Selfr
cleansing Charcoal Filters, patented by Messrs. Saunders
and Co., of 16, Parker-street, Liverpool—in fact they are
invaluable wherever there is bad water. S. and Co. allow
a liberal discount on export and wholesale orders.
THE NEW RUSSIAN LOAN. —The first instalment is fixed
for the Bth of May, and the loan will, therefore, be
announced very shortly. The Daily News gives some
authentic account of it. The issue price is 69 per cent.,
but practically 68. The loan will represent in cash eight and
a quarter millions sterling. The portion reserved for the
London market will only involve a cash withdrawal of two
and three-quarter millions. The Continental subscriptions
proffered exceed seven millions sterling, so that ttio succeq
Of tii loan is already assured,