, 1876-02-12
THE BREAD.RIOTS AT MONTREAL.
From the Spectator

There Is something disoouraging in hearing
from Canada ard New Zealand the same COM
plants of want of work that are so familiar
10 us in England. Is there no hope that these
new societies will escape the disasters any
more than the vices Of older societies =? Are
pauperism or restitution to be the last al
ternatives presented to the poor in bad times
alike ia the Colonies and at home ! And ifso, are
veto surrender all the hopes that have been
built upon emigration as the natural remedy
for over-population in this country I To the
frst of these inquiries it may be feared that
no very satisfactory answer can be given.
Poverty is not exclusively the result Of misfor-
tune or of vice. If it were, there would be a
fair ground for 8upposing that, in q new coun-
try, it might be adequately dealt with by pri-
vate charity or in the House of Correction.
But at least as often it is the result of intellec-
tual weakness. The poor man does not seem
TO have the ordinary power of toreSeelng the
certain results of bis actions. Every one who
has seen anything Of the English poor must
have observed how wanting they are IN this
faculty of moral calculation. They are not
idle, they are not extravagant, but they live
from h~and-to-mouth, and never seem TO ask
themselves whether there will be any means
of livelihood left to them by tomorrow. This
mental attitude is common to all classes OF
Englishmen as regards uncertain events. Pro-
f|essional men, for example, often DO not in
sure their lives or lay by for sickness. But
then they h~opethat their lives may be prolonged,
or that they may escape serious illness, until
such time as they have made a provision for
their families in other ways. But the poor
often seem to forget that the years income
has to support them for the year, and that un-
1ncu THAR VupGElv. rpOnipfG ara the sauna nil the
year round, this balance cannot be maintained
without striking an average as regards income,
and not allowing their expenditure to 90
beyond that average, even at the ines when
their receipts are most above it. When
a man who has not mastered this elemen-
tary fact in the economy of lite goes out
to the Colonies, be is under more than
ordinary temptations to forget it. lie is pro-
badly earning larger wages, and spending them
with corresponding freedom, and 1t does not
enter into his head that wages that are counted
by pounds may be as preOarious as wages that
are counted by shillings. He takes for granted
that, in a society which is so free with its
money, money can never be wanting. There
is no chance, therefore, that he will practise,
where there seems to be no use for it, the
thrift which he did not practise where, at all
events, be saw the consequences of peglecting
it everywhere around him. When winter
comes, and work grows scarce, be is in pre-
cisely the same position that be was in at
home. He has had more money, he has spent
more money, but he is equally without money
now. This is the explanation Of the complaints
of the Dunedin labourers. They thought that
in coming out from England they had left
behind them the always unregarded obligation
of laying by for a rainy day. Now the rainy
day has come, and they find that they are no
better able to meet it in New Zealand than at
home. Of course the Bread-riots at Montreal
are not accounted for quite SO easily. These
French Canadians have grown up in the
society against whose inability to find them
employment their complaints are directed.
They cannot maintain that they have been
deceived or disappointed. But in proportion
as the plea of surprise is inadmissible, the plea
of restitution is more easily sustained. The
population of Montreal has probably long lost
the independence and faculty of self-support
which is additionally attributed to colonists.
The Canadian cities are closely assimilated to
the cities of the Old World. There is very
much of the same Ignorance, the same indo-
len &c, the same brutality, the same lawlessness
that is to be found in London or Liverpool.
by comparison with English towns, they are
young communities, but they have a social
history which has already made them old.
As yet. however, there is one striking differ
eRCe1 between Montreal and an English town.