of the Poor in Thirty-three Townships of the Manufacturing District in in the manufacture of Cotton, of Woollen, and of Silk. 44 2287 d. S. d. d. 81 0 61 74 1 51 1. 114 The families visited, are 8362.-The persons in these families, 49,294, being nearly one-fourth of work in the same is 23,060.The number of workers is 23,947. The total weekly wages which weekly average of 3.s. 8d. And for each of the whole number of persons visited, a weekly average gives an average of 3d a-week for each individual in the families visited. Fuel, light, and wear of average rent of 3d, being deducted from Is. 94d. the average income of each individual, leaves for to the families visited is £139 7s., or, for each, of a penny,Aud the average income of each 08 3 19 17 0 5 17 2 3 17 10 11 9 8 893 2 4 0 3 8 3 0 1 7 5 4 15 6 10 8 2 1 1 24 12 8 24 1 34 1 34 3 6.11 ך 6 7 1 1 2 6 0 2 0 17 2 1 10 7 J. Halliwell, Thomas Swire, Edmund Ogden, J. Sellers. T. Redfearn, J. [Butterworth. J. Butterworth, T. Stansfield. S. J. C. Adamson, Minister; W. Seville, P. Ryder, J. Lees. R. Siddale, George Holt, E. 1 4 9 0 19 0 3 6 2 1 3139 7 0 the distant provinces; and which did not proceed far, before those who had relied upon the police for their protection, were sent out of their mansions as beggars upon the world. EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE Bolt-court, 21. March, 1833. SIR,-For about ten or twelve years, I think it is, I have exchanged two I charge the Morning Chronicle, as Registers a week against six Morning being a FEELER for effecting this purChronicles in the week. I will do this pose; and I detest and abhor it accordno longer. I will no longer have fel-ingly; and will no more have any lowship or communication with that transaction with it of any kind whatsopaper, and my reasons are as follows: ever. I believe that the scheme is very I have perceived in the Morning ripe in the minds of some persons, and Chronicle, always, a disposition to in- I think it my bounden duty to keep the troduce a government of spies and in-country in a state of warning with reformers and gendarmerie and hired ma-gard to the thing itself, as well as with gistrates into England; a disposition to regard to its consequences. supplant the ancient laws and usages of the country by German and Austrian establishments; a disposition to sweep away sheriffs, constables, watchmen, and all the whole of the county and parochial officers of the peace; and to introduce in their stead hirelings, exercing power coming immediately from the Government; a disposition to supersede, in effect, the humane poor-law of Elizabeth, and to treat the working people like so many slaves; a disposition, in short, to reduce Englishmen to a government of force, instead of a government willingly obeyed. This I have perceived, in that paper, for many years past, and have, upon several occasions, expressed my indignation at it; but, NOW, that man must be blind who does not see, in that paper, FEELERS continually put forth for the purpose of preparing the country for the establishment in England of just such a government as that which has so long existed in Ireland. That paper now tells us, almost in so many words, that the POOR-LAW COMMISSIONERS are about to recommend the establishment of a police-force, which is to extend all over England into the very villages, and that one object of it is to compel the poor to desist from demanding and obtaining relief. The writer of the articles that I allude to, forgets that there was, in France, a police of this sort in every village, previous to the breaking out of the French revolution; and that, the police force did not prevent that revotion which began, not at Paris, but in Wx. COBBETT, STAMP TAXES. I CANNOT answer the letters written to me on this subject. My whole time would not suffice for giving proper answers to a twentieth part of them. To one correspondent, who expresses a hope that I will not let the matter drop till I have obtained justice for the people, had almost a mind to write an angry letter. When did he know me let a thing drop? As to obtaining justice for the people, that I cannot pledge myself for; but I will pledge myself to leave undone nothing that I am able to do, in order to obtain that justice. The affair stands thus at present. On the first Monday in April I shall bring forward the subject again; and, if the Chancellor of the Exchequer do not then name some day before the 21. of April, on which he will bring in the bill of which he has spoken, I will, on the last Monday in April, have my bill ready, and move for leave to bring it in. If I have leave to bring it in, it is well; if I have not, I will then publish my hill, and show what has been, and what is, and what ought to have been, and what ought now to be. The country will be astounded at the sight; and, for my own part, as I proceed in the work, I feel my heart filled with indignation that I cannot describe; indignation to reflect that this industrious and harassed people should have been thus treated nufacture, if you include rent of land, for so many years, and that there should wages of reaping, washing, bleaching,, have been no one single member of dressing, and plaiting the straw, sewing Parliament to make a complaint in the plait, freights of vessels, and manutheir name. facturers' profits, bring in 20,000l. a year) additional, to enable the Orkney man to eat his brown bread, to drink his beer, and kindle his fire in the middle of his hearth, for this good old Saxon custom, as well as that of drinking his own homebrewed, is cherished by the descendant of the Norseman. And a patriarchal ORKNEY ISLANDS, BRITISH LEGHORN. To Mr. William Cobbett, M.P. for Oldham.sight it is to see the bluff old islander, behind the hallan, with his numerous offspring encircling him, to hear the fireside tale he tells them of the sea→ some virtuous exploit of his younger days, for all are seamen in their youth. SIR,-These islands are benefited not less than 20,000l. a year by this manufacture, which you were the first to introduce. The wages paid out to females who plait the straw, somewhat exceed 12,000l. As high as six guineas To any county in Scotland the sum of an acre are given for land to grow the 20,000l. a year would be a vast accession straw, in a country the arable acres of to its resources, but this came to Orkwhich seldom exceed 251., and rarely ney at a critical time, and went far to come up to that amount. The owner supply the deficiency occasioned in its of the land ploughs and lays down the revenue, when the kelp trade was crops; but, after all deductions for his ruined by the experiments of Huskisson labour at the current rates of the coun- and Poulett Thomson, backed by the try, he pockets a nett rent of not less stupidity of some of our northern rethan 47. 10s. an acre-the average of presentatives. You may remember that the arable land in Orkney being not this article of kelp, the staple of one 147. To such a pass is the manufac- third part of Scotland, and the staff of ture brought, that bonnets have been life to two hundred thousand families, made as high as 107. in price; 31. or 41. was the first on which those bungling have frequently been obtained for fine charlatans, who knew nothing of the specimens. What renders it more pe- true principles of free trade, tried their culiarly advantageous, the greater part miserable hands. Having plunged the of the labour is carried on by those who whole north and west of Scotland into could not otherwise turn their hand to ruin irremediable and deplorable, they so good account-the young women. rested from their labours, till a wagon At this easy employment they find an wheel avenged the wrongs of the houseoccupation every way suitable to the less, and the orphan, and the exile on softness of their nature, and calculated the Canadian shore. Thus it is to legisto engender those little tastes and habits late for men, as if they were sheep, and of nicety, neatness, and propriety in to sport with the property of the sub-, dress and behaviour, the ornament of ject as if there were no property in their sex when kept in proper bounds. goods. Kelp, which brought in 30,000l. I have not by me, at present, an exact a year to Orkney, prior to the minisreturn of the number of persons wholly tration of that ill-omened Jacobin, Husor partially employed in this manufac-kisson, yields not, now, 5,000l. The ture in Orkney, nor of the number of difference goes into the pocket of the yards of plait manufactured, with their Spaniard for his barilla, or of the glassmarket value; but I have applied for it, maker, who has a monopoly, and keeps and when obtained, I shall send it to up his price as before. But the British you. I do not think, however, that I Leghorn compensates, though partially exaggerate, when I repeat that the ma- to other hands, the whole deficiency of 25,000l., except 5,000l. of which this nufacture, dispensing bread to the incounty has been robbed. dustrious, instruction to the ignorant, You should know how this manu-and comfort to the poor man's hut. facture is conducted; the system is They live without reproach, and almost one very opposite to that of the Owenite without envy, but for a few neighboursocial system, apt to become too social. ing fanatics who cannot abide that Altogether, I am inclined to believe it is faith should be contaminated by good one which will meet your cordial appro- works. bation, unless I misapprehend entirely Here are no odious factories to poison the spirit of your writings. It is chiefly health and morals; no heaps of human carried on by two sensible men named beings are huddled on one another, at Robertson and Ramsay, who were the 90 degrees of a thermometer, to first to introduce it, and have done breathe the air of Pandemonium. much for its permanent prosperity. Competition does not starve the indusThese two excellent persons, respected trious. No ten hours bills are necessary. for their honesty, industry, frugality, The high-pressure system of labour moderation, and zeal, in every good which has enslaved your country, is that is to be done the poor, are also the yet unknown in mine. We have no pastors of an unobtrusive congregation troops of paupers mangled in the engine, of independents-a sect in Scotland or spirit-broken on the tread-mill. The differing little from our national esta- expense of our poor, to each individual blishment, except in the article of church liable to pay rates, is one shilling and ́ government, in their mode of solem-threepence per annum. Each pauper nizing marriages, in the administration costs 2. 11s. 8d. per annum, exclusive of baptism, and partaking of the com- of voluntary aid. This arises not from munion. Each congregation chooses want of poor-laws, but because we have its own pastor, and is in itself a su-no poor, except the blind, the maimed, preme church court. The clergy are the aged, and the sick; every able man supported by the voluntary oblations of has work. the faithful-not unfrequently by their The young women, who plait the own means; for all are useful, all in-straw, live at home with their parents; dustrious. They reduce marriage more they assist "the good woman" in the nearly to a civil contract, at least in duties of the house; churn, make cheese, some congregations. They do not bap-and milk the cows, bake, brew, and wash. tize infancy. They partake of the They give part of spring and all harvest Lord's Supper every Sabbath, instead of twice a year, as in our established church and once a quarter, as with some of our sectarians. The same confessions of faith very nearly pervade all our religious societies; Calvinism is the bottom of their creed.. to their parents. If the family be numerous and strong, some stay at home, and some take hire at other farms, because, the country being thinly peopled, labour is invaluable at that season, and the safety of the crop, beneath that variable sky, a duty paramount. This In Kirkwall, the principal town of feeling, so necessary to the very existOrkney, the independents have one ence of the inhabitant of this "stormchapel (meeting-house), capable of swept" land, the God of nature seems hölding 400 hearers; and they have four to have implanted in the breast of every or five others throughout the country, one, with the force and the sanctity of a in two of which Messrs. Robertson and high religious duty. The old man, Ramsay officiate on alternate days, at a speaking of the weather, and the prosdistance from their homes of from 10 pects of the harvest, reverentially to 16 miles, in that boisterous climate, touches his broad bonnet, beseeching almost without a bridle road. Thus," the mercy of God." Till the crop all Sunday, they lead their little flock has been secured, no man may properly "by the quiet waters;" and, all the be said to be his own master; old and week, they carry on their beautiful ma- young lay all aside but the harvest work; and not unfrequently I have seen | stream, wash their feet, and “ don their them "stack and screw" by moonlight. hose and shoon," as your Chaucer has Then all is cheerfulness: for, about this it, by no means fastidious to the passing time, the young men are coming home from the Greenland fishery, high in spirits and provided with the rent; for these fine fellows throw all their savings into the common purse. I should tell you, nowhere is filial, piety more re-foot, "kilted to the knee," excites no spected than among this truly openhearted people. stranger. This ceremony is reversed at their departure homeward; for though not deficient in vanity, my country women are careful and económical; and such is the effect of custom, that going bare unpleasant feeling there, as it is said to Vast tracts of moor-land and of bog cover the interior parts of these islands. The cultivated lands stretch along the creeks and bays, and less precipitous cliffs, which intersect this iron-bound coast. Patches of old green pasture, watered by the little streams which issue from the springs among the hills, lie With the money they get for their interspersed among the waste lands, work, and they reckon mighty shrewdly and are used as summer herdings. Skirt- with the employer, our young women ing those wastes, stand the low turf purchase the thousand little items they cottages of the moorland farniers, with call necessaries, though God knows how their few roods of arable ground, with- correctly! An infinity of needles and out any sort of enclosure; a few stacks pins, and tapes and starch, and soaps of bigg and oats are in the yard, and an and blue-not omitting snuff for "the excellent stack of peats for fuel. Thus old man," flannel for the mother, and provided, he hears the tempest whistle a trifle of finery for themselves, exulting from without, fearless of its violence. in the thought of Sunday. Perhaps they Weather permitting, he goes out to fish; are the least sophisticated of women, the rest of his time he thrashes in the simple, obliging, contented, and kind; barn, mends his net or line, and "winds kind beyond expression in their manner, bands," which signifies making straw and always civil. They are desperate ropes; for such is bis simple tackle. at a bargain, much feared, yet beloved The women spin and plait thin straw; of the shopkeepers. All things conand thus, in cheerful industry, the long sidered, perhaps no people enjoy haphours of winter are beguiled. In sum-piness more purely unalloyed; their mer they work out of doors, and beside wants are few and easily satisfied; they the corn-fields in early harvest, tending are not oppressed, nor given to the the cattle. abuse of taxable commodities. Every Once a week, barefoot, with petticoat visit to the market-town is a minor kind tucked, or, as they term it," kilted up," of carnival; and each young woman they carry their work to the towns of contrives, by hook or crook, to have a Kirkwall and Stromness, whichever dozen such to her share within the year. they happen to be nearest to, these Her great pleasure there is, to walk being exactly fifteen miles apart, situ- about the street, staring at the finery, ated beside convenient harbours, almost to call on friends, and higgle with the at opposite extremities of the main shopman, not omitting, any more than land, and enjoying a tolerable trade. Here the principal manufacturers reside, and hither the young women carry their work, and receive their wages, and so much straw for the next week's em- If the great end of all who aspire to ployment. When they reach the town be useful be" to make men happy, or head they sit down by the nearest to keep them so, I conceive you will ladies in Cheapside, a sly look at the young men passing, herself at the same time visible, and for that reason making such thing she buys debateable. |