The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1855-07-03


rUEspAY MoRNTNo...............DuLY 9. 1853.
DrspATcu FOR THE SPRISGs. - Persons
voiup to the Springs can have the Dispatch
sent to them for any length OF time they
may desire. ----
RAILWAYS AND THE ENGLISH WORKING
CLASSES.
II appears from recently published stats
tics that the chief gamers by the introduce
ton of railroads. in Great Britain have been
the working classes. In former times loco
motion beyond the narrow precincts OF their
native town or hamlet was thing almost
impossible. The wealthy could travel IN
their splendid carriages, and the middle CAS-
ses enjoy the favorite mail coach, bur- IL the
poor man visited the next valley, he was
compelled to do it on foot. But, by the aid
ofrailways, which have brought the remotest
parts of Great Britain within twenty-four
hours of each other, the laboring classes are
carried for small sums all over the kingdom.
1t is said that On every pleasant holiday,
hundreds of thousands of artizans rush from
TIE smoky recesses of Liverpool or Lon
don to refresh themselves after their ta;l with
the gay verdure and invigorating air of the
country. A "cheap trip by railroad is now
their established mode of passing leisure
day. The following table shows the number
who travelled by railway in one year lately,
as follows:
Passengers. Receipts.
First class 292 8l1 81. 927 76e
50t go 9 S30 9SS
Third. 80 $50 1923 2Sl6.4
1t thus appears that the poorer classes
travelling by railway outnumbered the mid
die in the proportion of four to three, and
the weather in the proportion of four to
one. They numbered nearly thirty three
millions of travellers, and spent in that way
nearly two millions of pounds sterling
There is another fact which shows that II
there is much to lament in the material 20
sition of the working classes of Great Britain
they treat themselves with even less liberal.
ity than they are treated by their govern
ment. In valuable paper read before the
British Association On "the selfimposed tax
alton of the working classes" it is proved
that they tax themselves every year, in three
unnecessary and injurious articles, to an
amount equal to the whole yearly revenue
of the British Kngdom-these articles too,
being consumed almost entirely by the heads
Of families, to the exclu.ion of their wives
and children. The yearly expenditure of the
English workingmen in these articles is as
follows:
Hum, gin and whiskey. --.--.-..-4 S0 slO2o
Beer and porter. 20 oco ioo
Tobacco ard snuff. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS H2lo'2f2
953 Ali 615
No one can doubt that the condition of
the workiogmen of England would be great
ly alleviated if this vast sum, instead of be-
ing expended in a manner which increases
their misery and degradation. were employed
in adding to their domestic comforts, or laid
by against sickness or old age. In truth, a
moral elevation of this kind, self achieved,
would be the best proof of their fitness for
political elevation, as well as the sure pre-
cursor of that desirable event.
AGRICULTURAL POPULATION IN TURKEY.
A wIiteI OF. this subject estimates the
Agricultural population of the Turkish En-
pire at more than twenty millions, of which,
it is said, about ten millions are Turks and
Mahommedans, dwelling in Asia Minor and
the north of Syria; and about ten millions
are Christians of various races, inhabiting
Europe The agriculture is of the most rude
and imperfect kind, and the social and politi-
cal interests of the cultivators are entirely
neglected by their government. The great
bulk of the agricultural interests, whether
Mahommedans or Christians, is said to be
decidedly hostile to the existing governments,
and it is thought could be easily brought to
act in unity.
The land tax in the Ottoman Empire is
paid in kind and amounts to one-tenth Of
the gross productions of the soil, in addition
TO which is the labor of gathering in, thresh
ing and winnowing the government shares
In consequence of regulations adopted by
the government to guard against fraud, the
whole grain crops, it is said, frequently re-
main nearly two months exposed in the open
air near the threshing floors, merely to pre-
vent the cultivator from abstracting some
portion for the use of his family, without
paying the government the tenth on this
grain is estimated at about five per cent,
resulting from this system Of exposing the
crops.
Even in Greece, the same ruinous system
prevails, and mention is made of proprietor
who was refused request to harvest his crop,
and use threshing machine in his own yard
under the plea that the taxcolleetors could
not prevent frauds should the practice be
come general.
BACKBONE"
This phrase, and that of dough face are
the chief arguments now used by the free
soil papers and speakers against theperiorm-
ance by Northern men of their constitution
nj duties to the South. Every man who is in
favor of adhering, in good faith, to the ma
tional compact, is pronounced dough
face" and entirely destitute of shack bone
L.. int yph ~ oh