THE CONDITION OF ENGLAND.

Auckland Times, Volume 2, Issue 55, 30 January 1844, Page 4

THE CONDITION OF ENGLAND.

(From the “ Adelaide Observer.") “ A time there was, ere Eneland’s griefs began, When every rood of ground maintained its man; 111 fares the land to hastening ills a prev, W'b ere wealth accumulates, and men decay. Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, A breath can make them, as a breath has made ; But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride. When once destroyed can never be supplied.’ Some months ago we ventured to assert that bad as things were in South Austra. lia, they were infinitely worse in the Mother-country, and that it behoved all who Were located on these shores to be thankful that in times ot national bankruptcy, mistrust, and starvation, their lot was cast where, at any rate, labour was plentiful, and the necessaries of life could be cheaply and abundantly procured. Since then we have not been unobservant of the “ signs of the times,” and every mail from Great Britain has confirmed the view we then took, and afforded us accumulated evidence of the fact that England is not now what she used to be. Our fellow countrymen can no longer earn their bread by the sweat of their brows, and from the want of employment and insufficient wages,an overstocked mar. ket, the almost universal use of machinery in every departineut of manufacture without simultaneous introduction of the “ free trade ” principle, a deplorable stale of the national finances, a redundant population, and a consequent want ot national emigration, Great Britain, the mistress of the seas, and on whose dominions the sun never sets, is become an asylum of paupers, the refuge of her own destitute sons and daughters, and a land on whose multiplied and unmitigated misery the sun never ceases to shine, England, says a Colonial contemporary, presents at this moment a “ picture” to the observant eye, such as no nation, either in ancient or modern days, ever exhibited. A kingdom abounding in wealth—in the most abundant produce in ample supplies for every human want Sind luxury —about fifteen millions of the most skilful and ingenious men ot« the face of the earth, manufacturing every species of work that can delight the eye, and gratify the wants or vanities of the human heart, in all the varieties of its cravings—yet such a kingdom groans and heaves under the pangs and writhinns of its countless suffering subjects. What a festering mass of penury and discontent, brooding over their wretched condition, and ready to grasp at any chimerical project, or to rush into any revolutionary movement that may be exhibited to their bewildered minds, as holding forth some distant hopes of improving their condition ! The rich, and the moneychangers, on the other hand, so burthened with “ capital,” that they know not where to turn, in order to find a profita ble outlay, and thus to add thousands more to those thousands for which they cannot find a lucrative investment! What a spectacle of want and wealth ! Did any other nation ever inherit so much of the opposite extremes of affluence and indigence ? In London, the most wealthy city of Europe, nay of the world, the treasury of commerce, and the heart of a mighty empire, and where, if anywhere throughout that empire the true principles of Christian policy which it professes to recognize would be expected to find sound and enlightened supporters—in that city myriads, literally myriads, of people are in wretchedness for want of food, roof, and raiment. It appears from the Morning Herald that (he number of beggars about the streets of London has never been so large as'at. present, and it is stated that the number of poor persons belonging to Marylebone parish alone, receiving outdoor relief, has, within two years, been more than doubled; whilst the relative increase of those belonging to neighbouring parishes has been sufficient to anest the attention of all who are concerned and interested in the welfare of their fellows, or in marking the present condition and future prospects of society.

In Sheffield seven years ag6, one man in a thousand was a pauper, now the proportion has increased to one in nine. 5 he Edinburgh Observer says, that in the me. mory of the oldest citizen of Edinburgh there never was a greater amount of distress and want of employment, than at the present time* In Glasgow there has been

a procession through the principal streets of a thousand women, whose husbands and children were in a slate of utter destitution, carrying a board, on which w as written in largo letters “ BKEA D or DEATH.” In Sunderland the pqor raies are seventeen shillings in the pound. So great is the amount of distress in Newcastle-upon-Tyne that, according to late accounts* 5120 persons were receiving indoor or outdoor relief; and the Union Workhouse has no fewer than 480 inmates. In Leeds tiie relief granted to outdoor paupers is £9,250 above what it was three years ago; and, within the same period, the number of applications for relief has increased from 3,481 to 14,839. The Bradford, Observer states, that in one week the Leeds Benevolent Society relieved with soup and potatoe ticket3Bl9 families, These families, consisting of upwards of 10,000 persons, were found to be subsisting on incomes, averaging in the various districts from 5d to Is. 2d a head per week. Such is the slate of the Working population at Leeds.

There are upwards of 300 houses unoccupied iu the borough of Knarsbro which contains a population of little more than SGOO souls.

At Rudd ersfield on one day four auctioneers were engaged at one time in selling goods distrained for rent from unfortunate cottagers, and an auctioneer in the neighbourhood of Boston is stated to be under engagement to sell up 26 farmers, on as many consecutive days. Another “ sign of the times ” mav be mentioned. Speaking with an acquaintance, a pawnbroker, says the Ed itor of the Bolton Free Press , on the long continued and deep distress which prevails throughout this district, he invited us to an inspection of his returns pledges taken by him, and we found that in the years 1833 and 1834 he was days without taking in one pledge ; while in the years 1840 and 1841, the number averaged for every day in those years 125 per day, or 3,750 for each mo- th.

For an individual ease of ill requited labour we must find room. 4 ‘ A few days ago,” writes a correspondent of the Times , “when passing tthrough the village of Murcott, Oxon, I inquired of a young man who was scraping the road what lie was paid per week for his labour. • Is. 6d., Sir,’ was the reply. I then asked him his age. * I am 19, Sir,’ answered the workman. At the smallness of the wages I expressed my surprise, and again questioned him by saying, ‘ Do you mean to say that you work all the week scraping and repairing these roads for Is. 6d. ?’ ‘Yes, Sir, it’s all I have, and the farmers look over me. I must keep on; I must not leave at all-’” It is stated on the authority of the Manchester Times that the consequence of the low prices of milk, butter, and other articles of farm produce, is a severe pressure on the dairy farmers, who in several parts of Lancashire are bringing their milch cows to market at a time when it has been customary rather to increase than to lessen this description of stock, in order to enable them to pay their rents. The distress under which other agrricultural districts of the country are labouring seems to have reached the countv of Denbigh, and to have induced the tenants and occupiers of land within the vale? of Ciwyd to convene a meeting at Denbigh, for the purpose of taking into consideration the unprecedentedly depressed state of agriculture, and the means best adapted to procure that protection to labour and capital which their great importance demand. The reason assigned for the holding the meeting is, “the progressive and almost daily depreciation in the value of all agricultural stock and produce, which, if not counteracted, must soon terminate in the total ruin of the whole agricultural interest and rural districts of the kingdom, in which the tenants will be the first and greatest sufferers.” At a recent Anti-Corn Law demonstration at Winchester, Mr. Cobden stated that he did not know any country which furnished so melancholy a picture of agricultural distress as

Hampshire. A gentleman had prepared with great care and put into his hands a statistical abstract of 50 farms, contiguous to each other, without any omission, within a circumference of about eighteen miles, taking Burlesdon, bridge as a centre, showing the names of farms and their owners. The occu piers, whether as owners or renters in the year 1815. Their fate and that cf their fami ies. with the names of the occupiers in the present year, comprising the twenty-eight years of corn-law protection—passed for the avowed purpose of securing steady and remunerative prices. The result is. that ten of these tenants are dead, and their children are become labourers or paupers. Nine of them are sold up and beggared. Four left their farms, of whom two died poor, one is living in reduced circumstances, and the pother died by his own hand. One tenant is now bailiff on the land tie formerly rented, and of the remainder a few are still occupying their farms, whose circumstances are not stated; and the fate of a few is unknown ; but out of the whole fifty tenants there are only ten cases in which the families have been prosperous.

In a word there are said to be twelve hundred thousand workmen in miscalled workhouses and elsewhere, who cannot find work, and as to Ireland, Mr. Buller has stated, on the highest official authority, that’ there are more than two millions of persons always in distress, for thirty weeks in the year, from want of employmentIn Lord Howick’s speech on the state of the country a truth was declared, which shocks the mind more than the most highly coloured descriptions of misery. “Bread is becoming a Luxury.” Dr. Marsham, a gentleman connected with the Oxford University, made a speech at Buckingham a short time in which he stated that five millions of the people lived on oatmeal, and another five Trillions on potatoes. The distress at Stourbridge is stated to have become so alarming, that numbers are subsisting on turnips alone. From a field belonging to Thomas Parteger, Esq , as many as from five to six tons a week were taken for several weeks together; nor did he think it expedient to attempt to put a stop to the peculation ; whilst the Cork Examiner says, “At present the Scotch are not fed, they exist on the recollection of what they ate in former years.” But with all this, Mr. C. Villiers complained in the House of Commons not long ago that the people did not die that the mortality had not increased though the revenue decreased from their distresses—that though thev did not consume they did not perish ! Pray, how much more ruin must there be, how much more want, how much more misery before a remedy is applied ? or are the churchyards of our fatherland to be crowded with the untimely dead to allow survivors to earn the means of supporting life ? The Spectator of the 17th July states, that the poverty everywhere so iif e through the manufacturing and agricultural districts of Great Britain is mainly caused by “ the state of trade.” Staffordshire in particular, says the editor, suffers from intolerable depression ; arid it is doubtful which will be the final course ot the working classes of that district—lwhether they will starve patiently, under tear of the punishments tor insurrection which they incurred last year, or whether, conceiving the present distress to be more unbearable than future punishment, they will break out into disorders, Others, with Mr. Lawrence Hay Worth, of Liverpool, attubute the national distress to low wages, the lo,w wages to die want of demand for labour, and the cause of the want. of demand tor labour to the want of consumption of those things which the labourer is in the habit of making. Another party l as tracedstbs nation’s vrots to the wholesale application of machinery, throwing out of employment a large quantity of labour. At a public meeting recently held at ibe Crown and Alienor Tavern in London, in order to protect labour against the general employment of machinery, it was staled trial “ the effect of machinery was seriously felt by the Spitalfields Silk-weaver, and uoirss something were done they wouH be only

able to live by the hand ol charity.’’ Mr. Jmce a delegate from Loughborough, said that in his town formerly, a «oikman could get a comfortable lives liliood. Lately gome machinery had been introduced, by which four thousand paiis of stocking, could be made in two day-. A manufacturer who had this machine was working night and day. r pj le consequence iv.s, ihat the s ocking-weaver wag Hang out of work, tie ha i been obliged to dispo-e of Itis stocking-frame for a subsistence, and then apply to the workhouse. It was rhe same will) i| le wool comber. In 1826 a wool comber could -•am per week, but n <w lire same work is done by boys and gills with steam machinery, and thousands are flung out of employment, [Tile obvious lemedy to all this mischief is a wise protection and culiivation of the nascent Colonies.— Ed. Times.|