The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1876-07-01
one Hundred Years AGO.

From English "ThrutI
England was not u manufacturing
country one hundred years ago. Vein.
ported nearly everything except corn,
wool and flax. We imported the greatest
part, Of our iron from Spain, Sweden,
Germany and Russia. We imported our
pottery from. Holland, our hats from
Flanders, our silks from France, our
cloths and carpets from Belgium. Our
cotton manufactures, our wooden and flax
manufactures, our machine manufactures,
could scarcely said to exist. Coal could
scarcely be had, for the coal-pits could
not be kept clear Of water.
A hundred years ago, we could not
build steam.engine; we could scarcely
build a bridge. Look at the churches
built hundred years ago, and behold the
condition Of our architecture. A hun
dred years age, we had fallen almost to the
lowest condition rs nation. We had
not harbor we had not a dock. The
most extensive System OF robbery pre-
vailed on tho river Thames. The roads,
such as they were swarmed with high
waymen; the blackmail was levied by the
highlanders upon the Lowland farmers
down to the middle Of the last century.
A hundred years ago. our ships were
rotten; they we're manned by prisoners
taken from the hulks, or by workingmen
pressed In the streets in open day. When
James Watt was learning his trade Of an
instrument maker In London, hundred
years ago, he burst scarcely walk abroad
lest he should DO seized and sent to India
or the American plantation. Less than
hundred years ago, the Golfers and salters
OF Scotland were slaves. II is not forty
years since women and children worked
in coal.pits. Surely we are not to 60
down upon our knees and pray for a res
toration OF the horrible things that exist
ed q hundred years ago. :,
A hundred years ago Ireland wastrcat-
ed like a slave country, and hangings and
shootings Of rebels were frequent, The
fleet at the More mutinied, and the
mutiny was put down by bloodshed and
executions. Towns and cities swartned
with rufEians, and brutal sports and bru.
tai language existed to frightful degree.
Criminals were hanged, FIVE or six to-
gether, at Tyburn. Gibbets existed at all
the cross roads throughout the country.
The people were grossly ignorant and al.
together neglected. Skepticism and ire
ligion prevailed, until Wesley and White
field sprung up to protest against formal
ism and atheism. They were pelted with
rotten eggs, sticks and stone. A Method.
lat was whipped out Of Gloucester. l11.
Ahundred years ago, literature was at
very low ebb. The, press was in q mis-
cradle state. William Whitehead was
poet laureate Who knows OF him now?
Gibbon had not written his decline and
Fall" Juaitw was the popular writer ;
political corruption was scaritied in his
letierS. The upper classes were coarse,
drunken and ill.mannered. Bribery and
corruption on the grossest scale were the
principal means Of getting into Parlia-
ment. Mr.. Dowdeswell, n. p. for Wor-
cestershire, said to the Commons, "You
have turned out q member for impiety
and obscenity. What half dozen menu
bers Of this House ever meet over con-
vivial bottle, that their discourse ia en-.
hEel1 lLtc 1Euu OUdCSuAtJt lmpIetIs VI
abuse Of the GOVERNMENT"
Though drunkenness is bad enough
now, 1t was simply infinitely worse hum
dred years. ago. The publican's sign
board announced, "You may here get
drunk for penny, de4d.drunk for two
pence, and have a clean straw for moth.
ing" Drunkenness was considered n
manly vice. To drink deep was the fash
ion Of the day. Six.bottle men were
common. Even drunken clergymenwere
What were The popular ahusements of
the people one hundred years ago? They
consisted principally Of thanksgiving, dog
fighting, cock.fghting, bull-baiting, bad
ger-drawing, theplllOry, public whipping,
and public executions. Mr.. Wyndham
vindicated the ruffianism Of the ring as
school in which ,Euglishmen learned
pluck and "the manly art Of selt.defenSe."
Bull.baiting was perhaps more brutal
MISUNDERSTANDING, though Wyndham dc.
Tended 1t as acalcIlated TO stimulate the
noble courage Of Englishmen." The bull
was secured to stake in the market.
place or the bull ring (the name still sur.
wives in many towns, and there the AMI
NAL was baited by the rabble dogs OF the
neighborhood. 0hecan scarcely imagine
the savageness Of the sport-the animal
mutilations, The imprecations OF ruthans
worse than brutes, the ferociousness and