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The
price
per
week
of
such
lodgings
ranges
from
8d.to
3s.
\"The
town
of
Newcastle-on-Tyne,\"
says
Dr.
Hunter,
\"contains
a
sample
of
the
finest
tribe
of
our
countrymen,
often
sunk
by
external
circumstances
of
house
and
street
into
an
almost
savage
degradation.\"63
As
a
result
of
the
ebbing
and
flowing
of
capital
and
labour,
the
state
of
the
dwellings
of
an
industrial
town
may
today
be
bearable,
tomorrow
hideous.
Or
the
aedileship
of
the
town
may
have
pulled
itself
together
for
the
removal
of
the
most
shocking
abuses.Tomorrow,
like
a
swarm
of
locusts,
come
crowding
in
masses
of
ragged
Irishmen
or
decayed
English
agricultural
labourers.
They
are
stowed
away
in
cellars
and
lofts,
or
the
hitherto
respectable
labourer's
dwelling
is
transformed
into
a
lodging
house
whose
personnel
changes
as
quickly
as
the
billets
in
the
30
years'
war.
Example:
Bradford
(Yorkshire).
There
the
municipal
philistine
was
just
busied
with
urban
improvements.
Besides,
there
were
still
in
Bradford,
in
1861,
1,751
uninhabited
houses.
But
now
comes
that
revival
of
trade
which
the
mildly
liberal
Mr.
Forster,the
negro's
friend,
recently
crowed
over
with
so
much
grace.
With
the
revival
of
trade
came
of
course
an
overflow
from
the
waves
of
the
ever
fluctuating\"reserve
army\"
or
\"relative
surplus
population.\"
The
frightful
cellar
habitations
and
rooms
registered
in
the
list,64which
Dr.
Hunter
obtained
from
the
agent
of
an
Insurance
Company,
were
for
the
most
part
inhabited
by
well-paid
labourers.
They
declared
that
they
would
willingly
pay
for
better
dwellings
if
they
were
to
be
had.
Meanwhile,
they
become
degraded,
they
fall
ill,one
and
all,
whilst
the
mildly
liberal
Forster,
M.
P.,sheds
tears
over
the
blessings
of
Free
Trade,
and
the
profits
of
the
eminent
men
of
Bradford
who
deal
in
worsted.
In
the
Report
of
September,
1865,
Dr.
Bell,one
of
the
poor
law
doctors
of
Bradford,
ascribes
the
frightful
mortality
of
fever-patients
in
his
district
to
the
nature
of
their
dwellings.
\"In
one
small
cellar
measuring
1,500
cubic
feet
...
there
are
ten
persons
....
Vincent
Street,Green
Aire
Place,
and
the
Leys
include
223
houses
having
1,450
inhabitants,
435
beds,
and
36
privies....
The
beds
and
in
that
term
I
include
any
roll
of
dirty
old
rags,
or
an
armful
of
shavings
have
an
average
of
3.3
persons
to
each,
many
have
5
and
6
persons
to
each,
and
some
people,
I
am
told,
are
absolutely
without
beds;
they
sleep
in
their
ordinary
clothes,
on
the
bare
boards
–young
men
and
women,
married
and
unmarried,all
together.
I
need
scarcely
add
that
many
of
these
dwellings
are
dark,
damp,
dirty,
stinking
holes,
utterly
unfit
for
human
habitations;
they
are
the
centres
from
which
disease
and
death
are
distributed
amongst
those
in
better
circumstances,who
have
allowed
them
thus
to
fester
in
our
midst.\"65
Bristol
takes
the
third
place
after
London
in
the
misery
of
its
dwellings.
\"Bristol,
where
the
blankest
poverty
and
domestic
misery
abound
in
the
wealthiest
town
of
Europe.\"
66
C.
The
Nomad
Population
We
turn
now
to
a
class
of
people
whose
origin
is
agricultural,
but
whose
occupation
is
in
great
part
industrial.
They
are
the
light
infantry
of
capital,thrown
by
it,
according
to
its
needs,
now
to
this
point,now
to
that.
When
they
are
not
on
the
march,
they\"camp.\"
Nomad
labour
is
used
for
various
operations
of
building
and
draining,
brick-making,
lime-burning,railway-making,
&c.
A
flying
column
of
pestilence,it
carries
into
the
places
in
whose
neighbourhood
it
pitches
its
camp,
small-pox,
typhus,
cholera,
scarlet
fever,
&c.67In
undertakings
that
involve
much
capital
outlay,
such
as
railways,
&c.,
the
contractor
himself
generally
provides
his
army
with
wooden
huts
and
the
like,
thus
improvising
villages
without
any
sanitary
provisions,
outside
the
control
of
the
local
boards,very
profitable
to
the
contractor,
who
exploits
the
labourers
in
two-fold
fashion
–
as
soldiers
of
industry
and
as
tenants.
According
as
the
wooden
hut
contains
1,
2,
or
3
holes,
its
inhabitant,
navvy,
or
whatever
he
may
be,
has
to
pay
1,
3,
or
4
shillings
weekly.68One
example
will
suffice.
In
September,
1864,
Dr.Simon
reports
that
the
Chairman
of
the
Nuisances
Removal
Committee
of
the
parish
of
Sevenoaks
sent
the
following
denunciation
to
Sir
George
Grey,
Home
Secretary:
–
\"Small-pox
cases
were
rarely
heard
of
in
this
parish
until
about
twelve
months
ago.
Shortly
before
that
time,
the
works
for
a
railway
from
Lewisham
to
Tunbridge
were
commenced
here,and,
in
addition
to
the
principal
works
being
in
the
immediate
neighbourhood
of
this
town,
here
was
also
established
the
dept
for
the
whole
of
the
works,
so
that
a
large
number
of
persons
was
of
necessity
employed
here.
As
cottage
accommodation
could
not
be
obtained
for
them
all,
huts
were
built
in
several
places
along
the
line
of
the
works
by
the
contractor,
Mr.
Jay,
for
their
especial
occupation.
These
huts
possessed
no
ventilation
nor
drainage,
and,
besides,
were
necessarily
over-crowded,
because
each
occupant
had
to
accommodate
lodgers,
whatever
the
number
in
his
own
family
might
be,
although
there
were
only
two
rooms
to
each
tenement.
The
consequences
were,
according
to
the
medical
report
we
received,
that
in
the
night-time
these
poor
people
were
compelled
to
endure
all
the
horror
of
suffocation
to
avoid
the
pestiferous
smells
arising
from
the
filthy,
stagnant
water,
and
the
privies
close
under
their
windows.
Complaints
were
at
length
made
to
the
Nuisances
Removal
Committee
by
a
medical
gentleman
who
had
occasion
to
visit
these
huts,
and
he
spoke
of
their
condition
as
dwellings
in
the
most
severe
terms,and
he
expressed
his
fears
that
some
very
serious
consequences
might
ensue,
unless
some
sanitary
measures
were
adopted.
About
a
year
ago,
Mr.
Jay
promised
to
appropriate
a
hut,
to
which
persons
in
his
employ,
who
were
suffering
from
contagious
diseases,
might
at
once
be
removed.
He
repeated
that
promise
on
the
23rd
July
last,
but
although
since
the
date
of
the
last
Promise
there
have
been
several
cases
of
small-pox
in
his
huts,
and
two
deaths
from
the
same
disease,
yet
he
has
taken
no
steps
whatever
to
carry
out
his
promise.
On
the
9th
September
instant,
Mr.
Kelson,
surgeon,reported
to
me
further
cases
of
small-pox
in
the
same
huts,
and
he
described
their
condition
as
most
disgraceful.
I
should
add,
for
your
(the
Home
Secretary's)
information
that
an
isolated
house,
called
the
Pest-house,
which
is
set
apart
for
parishioners
who
might
be
suffering
from
infectious
diseases,
has
been
continually
occupied
by
such
patients
for
many
months
past,
and
is
also
now
occupied;
that
in
one
family
five
children
died
from
small-pox
and
fever;
that
from
the
1st
April
to
the
1st
September
this
year,
a
period
of
five
months,
there
have
been
no
fewer
than
ten
deaths
from
small-pox
in
the
parish,
four
of
them
being
in
the
huts
already
referred
to;
that
it
is
impossible
to
ascertain
the
exact
number
of
persons
who
have
suffered
from
that
disease
although
they
are
known
to
be
many,
from
the
fact
of
the
families
keeping
it
as
private
as
possible.\"69
The
labourers
in
coal
and
other
mines
belong
to
the
best
paid
categories
of
the
British
proletariat.The
price
at
which
they
buy
their
wages
was
shown
on
an
earlier
page.70Here
I
merely
cast
a
hurried
glance
over
the
conditions
of
their
dwellings.
As
a
rule,
the
exploiter
of
a
mine,
whether
its
owner
or
his
tenant,
builds
a
number
of
cottages
for
his
hands.They
receive
cottages
and
coal
for
firing
\"for
nothing\"–
i.e.,
these
form
part
of
their
wages,
paid
in
kind.Those
who
are
not
lodged
in
this
way
receive
in
compensation
￡4
per
annum.
The
mining
districts
attract
with
rapidity
a
large
population,
made
up
of
the
miners
themselves,
and
the
artisans,
shopkeepers,&c.,
that
group
themselves
around
them.
The
ground
rents
are
high,
as
they
are
generally
where
population
is
dense.
The
master
tries,
therefore,
to
run
up,
within
the
smallest
space
possible
at
the
mouth
of
the
pit,
just
so
many
cottages
as
are
necessary
to
pack
together
his
hands
and
their
families.
If
new
mines
are
opened
in
the
neighbourhood,
or
old
ones
are
again
set
working,the
pressure
increases.
In
the
construction
of
the
cottages,
only
one
point
of
view
is
of
moment,
the\"abstinence\"
of
the
capitalist
from
all
expenditure
that
is
not
absolutely
unavoidable.
\"The
lodging
which
is
obtained
by
the
pitman
and
other
labourers
connected
with
the
collieries
of
Northumberland
and
Durham,\"
says
Dr.
Julian
Hunter,
\"is
perhaps,
on
the
whole,
the
worst
and
the
dearest
of
which
any
large
specimens
can
be
found
in
England,
the
similar
parishes
of
Monmouthshire
excepted....
The
extreme
badness
is
in
the
high
number
of
men
found
in
one
room,
in
the
smallness
of
the
ground-plot
on
which
a
great
number
of
houses
are
thrust,
the
want
of
water,
the
absence
of
privies,
and
the
frequent
placing
of
one
house
on
the
top
of
another,
or
distribution
into
flats,
...
the
lessee
acts
as
if
the
whole
colony
were
encamped,
not
resident.\"71
\"In
pursuance
of
my
instructions,\"
says
Dr.Stevens,
\"I
visited
most
of
the
large
colliery
villages
in
the
Durham
Union....
With
very
few
exceptions,
the
general
statement
that
no
means
are
taken
to
secure
the
health
of
the
inhabitants
would
be
true
of
all
of
them....
All
colliers
are
bound['bound,'
an
expression
which,
like
bondage,
dates
from
the
age
of
serfdom]
to
the
colliery
lessee
or
owner
for
twelve
months....
If
the
colliers
express
discontent,
or
in
any
way
annoy
the
'viewer,'
a
mark
of
memorandum
is
made
against
their
names,and,
at
the
annual
'binding,'
such
men
are
turned
off...
It
appears
to
me
that
no
part
of
the
'truck
system'
could
be
worse
than
what
obtains
in
these
densely-populated
districts.
The
collier
is
bound
to
take
as
part
of
his
hiring
a
house
surrounded
with
pestiferous
influences;
he
cannot
help
himself,
and
it
appears
doubtful
whether
anyone
else
can
help
him
except
his
proprietor
(he
is,
to
all
intents
and
purposes,
a
serf),
and
his
proprietor
first
consults
his
balance-sheet,
and
the
result
is
tolerably
certain.
The
collier
is
also
often
supplied
with
water
by
the
proprietor,
which,
whether
it
be
good
or
bad,
he
has
to
pay
for,
or
rather
he
suffers
a
deduction
for
from
his
wages.\"72
In
conflict
with
\"public
opinion,\"
or
even
with
the
Officers
of
Health,
capital
makes
no
difficulty
about\"justifying\"
the
conditions
partly
dangerous,
partly
degrading,
to
which
it
confines
the
working
and
domestic
life
of
the
labourer,
on
the
ground
that
they
are
necessary
for
profit.
It
is
the
same
thing
when
capital
\"abstains\"
from
protective
measures
against
dangerous
machinery
in
the
factory,
from
appliances
for
ventilation
and
for
safety
in
mines,
&c.
It
is
the
same
here
with
the
housing
of
the
miners.
Dr.
Simon,medical
officer
of
the
Privy
Council,
in
his
official
Report
says:
\"In
apology
for
the
wretched
household
accommodation
...
it
is
alleged
that
miners
are
commonly
worked
on
lease;
that
the
duration
of
the
lessee's
interest
(which
in
collieries
is
commonly
for
21
years),
is
not
so
long
that
he
should
deem
it
worth
his
while
to
create
good
accommodation
for
his
labourers,
and
for
the
tradespeople
and
others
whom
the
work
attracts;that
even
if
he
were
disposed
to
act
liberally
in
the
matter,
this
disposition
would
commonly
be
defeated
by
his
landlord's
tendency
to
fix
on
him,as
ground-rent,
an
exorbitant
additional
charge
for
the
privilege
of
having
on
the
surface
of
the
ground
the
decent
and
comfortable
village
which
the
labourers
of
the
subterranean
property
ought
to
inhabit,
and
that
prohibitory
price
(if
not
actual
prohibition)
equally
excludes
others
who
might
desire
to
build.
It
would
be
foreign
to
the
purpose
of
this
report
to
enter
upon
any
discussion
of
the
merits
of
the
above
apology.
Nor
here
is
it
even
needful
to
consider
where
it
would
be
that,
if
decent
accommodation
were
provided,
the
cost...
would
eventually
fall
–
whether
on
landlord,or
lessee,
or
labourer,
or
public.
But
in
presence
of
such
shameful
facts
as
are
vouched
for
in
the
annexed
reports
[those
of
Dr.
Hunter,
Dr.
Stevens,&c.]
a
remedy
may
well
be
claimed....
Claims
of
landlordship
are
being
so
used
as
to
do
great
public
wrong.
The
landlord
in
his
capacity
of
mine-owner
invites
an
industrial
colony
to
labour
on
his
estate,and
then
in
his
capacity
of
surface-owner
makes
it
impossible
that
the
labourers
whom
he
collects,should
find
proper
lodging
where
they
must
live.The
lessee
[the
capitalist
exploiter]
meanwhile
has
no
pecuniary
motive
for
resisting
that
division
of
the
bargain;
well
knowing
that
if
its
latter
conditions
be
exorbitant,
the
consequences
fall,not
on
him,
that
his
labourers
on
whom
they
fall
have
not
education
enough
to
know
the
value
of
their
sanitary
rights,
that
neither
obscenest
lodging
nor
foulest
drinking
water
will
be
appreciable
inducements
towards
a
'strike.'\"73
D.
Effect
of
Crises
on
the
Best
Paid
Part
of
the
Working
Class
Before
I
turn
to
the
regular
agricultural
labourers,I
may
be
allowed
to
show,
by
one
example,
how
industrial
revulsions
affect
even
the
best-paid,the
aristocracy,
of
the
working
class.
It
will
be
remembered
that
the
year
1857
brought
one
of
the
great
crises
with
which
the
industrial
cycle
periodically
ends.
The
next
termination
of
the
cycle
was
due
in
1866.
Already
discounted
in
the
regular
factory
districts
by
the
cotton
famine,
which
threw
much
capital
from
its
wonted
sphere
into
the
great
centres
of
the
money-market,
the
crisis
assumed,
at
this
time,
an
especially
financial
character.
Its
outbreak
in
1866
was
signalised
by
the
failure
of
a
gigantic
London
Bank,immediately
followed
by
the
collapse
of
countless
swindling
companies.
One
of
the
great
London
branches
of
industry
involved
in
the
catastrophe
was
iron
shipbuilding.
The
magnates
of
this
trade
had
not
only
over-produced
beyond
all
measure
during
the
overtrading
time,
but
they
had,
besides,
engaged
in
enormous
contracts
on
the
speculation
that
credit
would
be
forthcoming
to
an
equivalent
extent.
Now,
a
terrible
reaction
set
in,
that
even
at
this
hour
(the
end
of
March,
1867)
continues
in
this
and
other
London
industries.74To
show
the
condition
of
the
labourers,
I
quote
the
following
from
the
circumstantial
report
of
a
correspondent
of
the
Morning
Star,
who,
at
the
end
of
1866,
and
beginning
of
1867,
visited
the
chief
centres
of
distress:
\"In
the
East
End
districts
of
Poplar,
Millwall,Greenwich,
Deptford,
Limehouse
and
Canning
Town,
at
least
15,000
workmen
and
their
families
were
in
a
state
of
utter
destitution,
and
3,000
skilled
mechanics
were
breaking
stones
in
the
workhouse
yard
(after
distress
of
over
half
a
year's
duration)....
I
had
great
difficulty
in
reaching
the
workhouse
door,
for
a
hungry
crowd
besieged
it....
They
were
waiting
for
their
tickets,
but
the
time
had
not
yet
arrived
for
the
distribution.
The
yard
was
a
great
square
place
with
an
open
shed
running
all
round
it,
and
several
large
heaps
of
snow
covered
the
paving-stones
in
the
middle.
In
the
middle,
also,
were
little
wicker-fenced
spaces,like
sheep
pens,
where
in
finer
weather
the
men
worked;
but
on
the
day
of
my
visit
the
pens
were
so
snowed
up
that
nobody
could
sit
in
them.
Men
were
busy,
however,
in
the
open
shed
breaking
paving-stones
into
macadam.
Each
man
had
a
big
paving-stone
for
a
seat,
and
he
chipped
away
at
the
rime-covered
granite
with
a
big
hammer
until
he
had
broken
up,
and
think!
five
bushels
of
it,
and
then
he
had
done
his
day's
work,
and
got
his
day's
pay
–
threepence
and
an
allowance
of
food.
In
another
part
of
the
yard
was
a
rickety
little
wooden
house,
and
when
we
opened
the
door
of
it,
we
found
it
filled
with
men
who
were
huddled
together
shoulder
to
shoulder
for
the
warmth
of
one
another's
bodies
and
breath.
They
were
picking
oakum
and
disputing
the
while
as
to
which
could
work
the
longest
on
a
given
quantity
of
food
–
for
endurance
was
the
point
of
honour.
Seven
thousand
...
in
this
one
workhouse...
were
recipients
of
relief
...
many
hundreds
of
them
...
it
appeared,
were,
six
or
eight
months
ago,
earning
the
highest
wages
paid
to
artisans....Their
number
would
be
more
than
doubled
by
the
count
of
those
who,
having
exhausted
all
their
savings,
still
refuse
to
apply
to
the
parish,because
they
have
a
little
left
to
pawn.
Leaving
the
workhouse,
I
took
a
walk
through
the
streets,mostly
of
little
one-storey
houses,
that
abound
in
the
neighbourhood
of
Poplar.
My
guide
was
a
member
of
the
Committee
of
the
Unemployed....My
first
call
was
on
an
ironworker
who
had
been
seven
and
twenty
weeks
out
of
employment.
I
found
the
man
with
his
family
sitting
in
a
little
back
room.
The
room
was
not
bare
of
furniture,and
there
was
a
fire
in
it.
This
was
necessary
to
keep
the
naked
feet
of
the
young
children
from
getting
frost
bitten,
for
it
was
a
bitterly
cold
day.On
a
tray
in
front
of
the
fire
lay
a
quantity
of
oakum,
which
the
wife
and
children
were
picking
in
return
for
their
allowance
from
the
parish.
The
man
worked
in
the
stone
yard
of
the
workhouse
for
a
certain
ration
of
food,
and
threepence
per
day.
He
had
now
come
home
to
dinner
quite
hungry,
as
he
told
us
with
a
melancholy
smile,
and
his
dinner
consisted
of
a
couple
of
slices
of
bread
and
dripping,
and
a
cup
of
milkless
tea....
The
next
door
at
which
we
knocked
was
opened
by
a
middle-aged
woman,
who,
without
saying
a
word,led
us
into
a
little
back
parlour,
in
which
sat
all
her
family,
silent
and
fixedly
staring
at
a
rapidly
dying
fire.
Such
desolation,
such
hopelessness
was
about
these
people
and
their
little
room,
as
I
should
not
care
to
witness
again.
'Nothing
have
they
done,
sir,'
said
the
woman,
pointing
to
her
boys,
'for
six
and
twenty
weeks;
and
all
our
money
gone
–
all
the
twenty
pounds
that
me
and
father
saved
when
times
were
better,
thinking
it
would
yield
a
little
to
keep
us
when
we
got
past
work.Look
at
it,'
she
said,
almost
fiercely,
bringing
out
a
bank-book
with
all
its
well
kept
entries
of
money
paid
in,
and
money
taken
out,
so
that
we
could
see
how
the
little
fortune
had
begun
with
the
first
five
shilling
deposit,
and
had
grown
by
little
and
little
to
be
twenty
pounds,
and
how
it
had
melted
down
again
till
the
sum
in
hand
got
from
pounds
to
shillings,
and
the
last
entry
made
the
book
as
worthless
as
a
blank
sheet.
This
family
received
relief
from
the
workhouse,
and
it
furnished
them
with
just
one
scanty
meal
per
day....
Our
next
visit
was
to
an
iron
labourer's
wife,
whose
husband
had
worked
in
the
yards.
We
found
her
ill
from
want
of
food,
lying
on
a
mattress
in
her
clothes,and
just
covered
with
a
strip
of
carpet,
for
all
the
bedding
had
been
pawned.
Two
wretched
children
were
tending
her,
themselves
looking
as
much
in
need
of
nursing
as
their
mother.
Nineteen
weeks
of
enforced
idleness
had
brought
them
to
this
pass,and
while
the
mother
told
the
history
of
that
bitter
past,
she
moaned
as
if
all
her
faith
in
a
future
that
should
atone
for
it
were
dead....
On
getting
outside
a
young
fellow
came
running
after
us,
and
asked
us
to
step
inside
his
house
and
see
if
anything
could
be
done
for
him.
A
young
wife,
two
pretty
children,
a
cluster
of
pawn-tickets,
and
a
bare
room
were
all
he
had
to
show.\"
On
the
after
pains
of
the
crisis
of
1866,
the
following
extract
from
a
Tory
newspaper.
It
must
not
be
forgotten
that
the
East-end
of
London,
which
is
here
dealt
with,is
not
only
the
seat
of
the
iron
shipbuilding
mentioned
above,
but
also
of
a
so-called
\"home-industry\"
always
underpaid.
\"A
frightful
spectacle
was
to
be
seen
yesterday
in
one
part
of
the
metropolis.
Although
the
unemployed
thousands
of
the
East-end
did
not
parade
with
their
black
flags
en
masse,
the
human
torrent
was
imposing
enough.
Let
us
remember
what
these
people
suffer.
They
are
dying
of
hunger.That
is
the
simple
and
terrible
fact.
There
are
40,000
of
them....
In
our
presence,
in
one
quarter
of
this
wonderful
metropolis,
are
packed
–
next
door
to
the
most
enormous
accumulation
of
wealth
the
world
ever
saw
–
cheek
by
jowl
with
this
are
40,000
helpless,
starving
people.
These
thousands
are
now
breaking
in
upon
the
other
quarters;always
half-starving,
they
cry
their
misery
in
our
ears,
they
cry
to
Heaven,
they
tell
us
from
their
miserable
dwellings,
that
it
is
impossible
for
them
to
find
work,
and
useless
for
them
to
beg.The
local
ratepayers
themselves
are
driven
by
the
parochial
charges
to
the
verge
of
pauperism.\"
–(Standard,
5th
April,
1867.)
As
it
is
the
fashion
amongst
English
capitalists
to
quote
Belgium
as
the
Paradise
of
the
labourer
because
\"freedom
of
labour,\"
or
what
is
the
same
thing,
\"freedom
of
capital,\"
is
there
limited
neither
by
the
despotism
of
Trades'
Unions,
nor
by
Factory
Acts,
a
word
or
two
on
the
\"happiness\"
of
the
Belgian
labourer.
Assuredly
no
one
was
more
thoroughly
initiated
in
the
mysteries
of
this
happiness
than
the
late
M.
Ducpétiaux,
inspector-general
of
Belgian
prisons
and
charitable
institutions,
and
member
of
the
central
commission
of
Belgian
statistics.
Let
us
take
his
work:
\"Budgets
économiques
des
classes
ouvrières
de
la
Belgique,\"
Bruxelles,
1855.
Here
we
find
among
other
matters,
a
normal
Belgian
labourer's
family,whose
yearly
income
and
expenditure
he
calculates
on
very
exact
data,
and
whose
conditions
of
nourishment
are
then
compared
with
those
of
the
soldier,
sailor,and
prisoner.
The
family
\"consists
of
father,
mother,and
four
children.\"
Of
these
6
persons
\"four
may
be
usefully
employed
the
whole
year
through.\"
It
is
assumed
that
\"there
is
no
sick
person
nor
one
incapable
of
work,
among
them,\"
nor
are
there
\"expenses
for
religious,
moral,
and
intellectual
purposes,
except
a
very
small
sum
for
church
sittings,\"
nor
\"contributions
to
savings
banks
or
benefit
societies,\"
nor
\"expenses
due
to
luxury
or
the
result
of
improvidence.\"
The
father
and
eldest
son,
however,
allow
themselves
\"the
use
of
tobacco,\"
and
on
Sundays
\"go
to
the
cabaret,
\"for
which
a
whole
86
centimes
a
week
are
reckoned.
\"From
a
general
compilation
of
wages
allowed
to
the
labourers
in
different
trades,
it
follows
that
the
highest
average
of
daily
wage
is
1
franc
56c.,for
men,
89
centimes
for
women,
56
centimes
for
boys,
and
55
centimes
for
girls.
Calculated
at
this
rate,
the
resources
of
the
family
would
amount,at
the
maximum,
to
1,068
francs
a-year....
In
the
family
...
taken
as
typical
we
have
calculated
all
possible
resources.
But
in
ascribing
wages
to
the
mother
of
the
family
we
raise
the
question
of
the
direction
of
the
household.
How
will
its
internaleconomy
be
cared
for
Who
will
look
after
the
young
children
Who
will
get
ready
the
meals,
do
the
washing
and
mending
This
is
the
dilemma
incessantly
presented
to
the
labourers.\"
According
to
this
the
budget
of
the
family
is:
The
annual
expenditure
of
the
family
would
cause
a
deficit
upon
the
hypothesis
that
the
labourer
has
the
food
of:
\"We
see
that
few
labouring
families
can
reach,we
will
not
say
the
average
of
the
sailor
or
soldier,
but
even
that
of
the
prisoner.
The
general
average
(of
the
cost
of
each
prisoner
in
the
different
prisons
during
the
period
1847-1849),has
been
63
centimes
for
all
prisons.
This
figure,compared
with
that
of
the
daily
maintenance
of
the
labourer,
shows
a
difference
of
13
centimes.It
must
be
remarked
further,
that
if
in
the
prisons
it
is
necessary
to
set
down
in
the
account
the
expenses
of
administration
and
surveillance,
on
the
other
hand,
the
prisoners
have
not
to
pay
for
their
lodging;
that
the
purchases
they
make
at
the
canteens
are
not
included
in
the
expenses
of
maintenance,
and
that
these
expenses
are
greatly
lowered
in
consequence
of
the
large
number
of
persons
that
make
up
the
establishments,
and
of
contracting
for
or
buying
wholesale,
the
food
and
other
things
that
enter
into
their
consumption....How
comes
it,
however,
that
a
great
number,we
might
say,
a
great
majority,
of
labourers,live
in
a
more
economical
way
It
is
...
by
adopting
expedients,
the
secret
of
which
only
the
labourer
knows;
by
reducing
his
daily
rations;
by
substituting
rye-bread
for
wheat;
by
eating
less
meat,
or
even
none
at
all,
and
the
same
with
butter
and
condiments;
by
contenting
themselves
with
one
or
two
rooms
where
the
family
is
crammed
together,
where
boys
and
girls
sleep
side
by
side,often
on
the
same
pallet;
by
economy
of
clothing,washing,
decency;
by
giving
up
the
Sunday
diversions;
by,
in
short,
resigning
themselves
to
the
most
painful
privations.
Once
arrived
at
this
extreme
limit,
the
least
rise
in
the
price
of
food,stoppage
of
work,
illness,
increases
the
labourer's
distress
and
determines
his
complete
ruin;
debts
accumulate,
credit
fails,
the
most
necessary
clothes
and
furniture
are
pawned,
and
finally,
the
family
asks
to
be
enrolled
on
the
list
of
paupers.\"
(Ducpétiaux,
l.
c.,
pp.
151,
154,
155.)
In
fact,
in
this
\"Paradise
of
capitalists\"
there
follows,
on
the
smallest
change
in
the
price
of
the
most
essential
means
of
subsistence,
a
change
in
the
number
of
deaths
and
crimes!
(See
Manifesto
of
the
Maatschappij:
\"De
Vlamingen
Vooruit!\"
Brussels,1860,
pp.
15,
16.)
In
all
Belgium
are
930,000
families,of
whom,
according
to
the
official
statistics,
90,000
are
wealthy
and
on
the
list
of
voters
=
450,000
persons;
390,000
families
of
the
lower
middle-class
in
towns
and
villages,
the
greater
part
of
them
constantly
sinking
into
the
proletariat,
=
1,950,000
persons.Finally,
450,000
working
class
families
=
2,250,000
persons,
of
whom
the
model
ones
enjoy
the
happiness
depicted
by
Ducpétiaux.
Of
the
450,000
working
class
families,
over
200,000
are
on
the
pauper
list.
E.
The
British
Agricultural
Proletariat
Nowhere
does
the
antagonistic
character
of
capitalistic
production
and
accumulation
assert
itself
more
brutally
than
in
the
progress
of
English
agriculture
(including
cattle-breeding)
and
the
retrogression
of
the
English
agricultural
labourer.
Before
I
turn
to
his
present
situation,
a
rapid
retrospect.
Modern
agriculture
dates
in
England
from
the
middle
of
the
18th
century,although
the
revolution
in
landed
property,
from
which
the
changed
mode
of
production
starts
as
a
basis,
has
a
much
earlier
date.
If
we
take
the
statements
of
Arthur
Young,
a
careful
observer,
though
a
superficial
thinker,
as
to
the
agricultural
labourer
of
1771,
the
latter
plays
a
very
pitiable
part
compared
with
his
predecessor
of
the
end
of
the
14th
century,
\"when
the
labourer
...
could
live
in
plenty,
and
accumulate
wealth,\"
75
not
to
speak
of
the
15th
century,
\"the
golden
age
of
the
English
labourer
in
town
and
country.\"
We
need
not,
however,
go
back
so
far.
In
a
very
instructive
work
of
the
year
1777
we
read:
\"The
great
farmer
is
nearly
mounted
to
a
level
with
him
[the
gentleman];
while
the
poor
labourer
is
depressed
almost
to
the
earth.
His
unfortunate
situation
will
fully
appear,
by
taking
a
comparative
view
of
it,
only
forty
years
ago,
and
at
present....
Landlord
and
tenant
...
have
both
gone
hand
in
hand
in
keeping
the
labourer
down.\"76
It
is
then
proved
in
detail
that
the
real
agricultural
wages
between
1737
and
1777
fell
nearly
or
25
per
cent.
\"Modern
policy,\"
says
Dr.
Richard
Price
also,\"is,
indeed,
more
favourable
to
the
higher
classes
of
people;
and
the
consequences
may
in
time
prove
that
the
whole
kingdom
will
consist
of
only
gentry
and
beggars,
or
of
grandees
and
slaves.\"77
Nevertheless,
the
position
of
the
English
agricultural
labourer
from
1770
to
1780,
with
regard
to
his
food
and
dwelling,
as
well
as
to
his
self-respect,amusements,
&c.,
is
an
ideal
never
attained
again
since
that
time.
His
average
wage
expressed
in
pints
of
wheat
was
from
1770
to
1771,
90
pints,
in
Eden's
time(1797)
only
65,
in
1808
but
60.78
The
state
of
the
agricultural
labourer
at
the
end
of
the
Anti-Jacobin
War,
during
which
landed
proprietors,
farmers,
manufacturers,
merchants,bankers,
stockbrokers,
army-contractors,
&c.,enriched
themselves
so
extraordinarily,
has
been
already
indicated
above.
The
nominal
wages
rose
in
consequence
partly
of
the
bank-note
depreciation,partly
of
a
rise
in
the
price
of
the
primary
means
of
subsistence
independent
of
this
depreciation.
But
the
actual
wage-variation
can
be
evidenced
in
a
very
simple
way,
without
entering
into
details
that
are
here
unnecessary.
The
Poor
Law
and
its
administration
were
in
1795
and
1814
the
same.
It
will
be
remembered
how
this
law
was
carried
out
in
the
country
districts:
in
the
form
of
alms
the
parish
made
up
the
nominal
wage
to
the
nominal
sum
required
for
the
simple
vegetation
of
the
labourer.
The
ratio
between
the
wages
paid
by
the
farmer,
and
the
wage-deficit
made
good
by
the
parish,
shows
us
two
things.
First,
the
falling
of
wages
below
their
minimum;
second,
the
degree
in
which
the
agricultural
labourer
was
a
compound
of
wage
labourer
and
pauper,
or
the
degree
in
which
he
had
been
turned
into
a
serf
of
his
parish.
Let
us
take
one
county
that
represents
the
average
condition
of
things
in
all
counties.
In
Northamptonshire,
in
1795,the
average
weekly
wage
was
7s.
6d.;
the
total
yearly
expenditure
of
a
family
of
6
persons,
￡36
12s.
5d.;their
total
income,
￡29
18s.;
deficit
made
good
by
the
parish,
￡6
14s.
5d.
In
1814,
in
the
same
county,
the
weekly
wage
was
12s.
2d.;
the
total
yearly
expenditure
of
a
family
of
5
persons,
￡54
18s.
4d.;
their
total
income,
￡36,
2s.;
deficit
made
good
by
the
parish,
￡18
6s.
4d.79In
1795
the
deficit
was
less
than
1\/4
the
wage,in
1814,
more
than
half.
It
is
self-evident
that,
under
these
circumstances,
the
meagre
comforts
that
Eden
still
found
in
the
cottage
of
the
agricultural
labourer,had
vanished
by
1814.80Of
all
the
animals
kept
by
the
farmer,
the
labourer,
the
instrumentum
vocale,
was,thenceforth,
the
most
oppressed,
the
worst
nourished,the
most
brutally
treated.
The
same
state
of
things
went
on
quietly
until
\"the
Swing
riots,
in
1830,
revealed
to
us
(i.e.,
the
ruling
classes)
by
the
light
of
blazing
corn
stacks,
that
misery
and
black
mutinous
discontent
smouldered
quite
as
fiercely
under
the
surface
of
agricultural
as
of
manufacturing
England.\"81
At
this
time,
Sadler,
in
the
House
of
Commons,christened
the
agricultural
labourers
\"white
slaves,\"and
a
Bishop
echoed
the
epithet
in
the
Upper
House.The
most
notable
political
economist
of
that
period
–E.
G.
Wakefield
–
says:
\"The
peasant
of
the
South
of
England
...
is
not
a
freeman,
nor
is
he
a
slave;
he
is
a
pauper.\"82
The
time
just
before
the
repeal
of
the
Corn
Laws
threw
new
light
on
the
condition
of
the
agricultural
labourers.
On
the
one
hand,
it
was
to
the
interest
of
the
middle-class
agitators
to
prove
how
little
the
Corn
Laws
protected
the
actual
producers
of
the
corn.
On
the
other
hand,
the
industrial
bourgeoisie
foamed
with
sullen
rage
at
the
denunciations
of
the
factory
system
by
the
landed
aristocracy,
at
the
pretended
sympathy
with
the
woes
of
the
factory
operatives,
of
those
utterly
corrupt,
heartless,
and
genteel
loafers,and
at
their
\"diplomatic
zeal\"
for
factory
legislation.It
is
an
old
English
proverb
that
\"when
thieves
fall
out,
honest
men
come
by
their
own,\"
and,
in
fact,
the
noisy,
passionate
quarrel
between
the
two
fractions
of
the
ruling
class
about
the
question,
which
of
the
two
exploited
the
labourers
the
more
shamefully,
was
on
each
hand
the
midwife
of
the
truth.
Earl
Shaftesbury,then
Lord
Ashley,
was
commander-in-chief
in
the
aristocratic,
philanthropic,
anti-factory
campaign.He
was,
therefore,
in
1845,
a
favourite
subject
in
the
revelations
of
the
Morning
Chronicle
on
the
condition
of
the
agricultural
labourers.
This
journal,then
the
most
important
Liberal
organ,
sent
special
commissioners
into
the
agricultural
districts,
who
did
not
content
themselves
with
mere
general
descriptions
and
statistics,
but
published
the
names
both
of
the
labouring
families
examined
and
of
their
landlords.
The
following
list
gives
the
wages
paid
in
three
villages
in
the
neighbourhood
of
Blanford,
Wimbourne,
and
Poole.
The
villages
are
the
property
of
Mr.
G.
Bankes
and
of
the
Earl
of
Shaftesbury.
It
will
be
noted
that,
just
like
Bankes,
this
\"low
church
pope,\"
this
head
of
English
pietists,
pockets
a
great
part
of
the
miserable
wages
of
the
labourers
under
the
pretext
of
house
rent:
–
83
The
repeal
of
the
Corn
Laws
gave
a
marvellous
impulse
to
English
agriculture.
84Drainage
on
the
most
extensive
scale,
new
methods
of
stall-feeding,
and
of
the
artificial
cultivation
of
green
crops,
introduction
of
mechanical
manuring
apparatus,
new
treatment
of
clay
soils,
increased
use
of
mineral
manures,employment
of
the
steam-engine,
and
of
all
kinds
of
new
machinery,
more
intensive
cultivation
generally,characterised
this
epoch.
Mr.
Pusey,
Chairman
of
the
Royal
Agricultural
Society,
declares
that
the
(relative)
expenses
of
farming
have
been
reduced
nearly
one
half
by
the
introduction
of
new
machinery.
On
the
other
hand,
the
actual
return
of
the
soil
rose
rapidly.
Greater
outlay
of
capital
per
acre,
and,
as
a
consequence,
more
rapid
concentration
of
farms,
were
essential
conditions
of
the
new
method.85At
the
same
time,
the
area
under
cultivation
increased,
from
1846
to
1856,
by
464,119
acres,
without
reckoning
the
great
area
in
the
Eastern
Counties
which
was
transformed
from
rabbit
warrens
and
poor
pastures
into
magnificent
corn-fields.
It
has
already
been
seen
that,
at
the
same
time,
the
total
number
of
persons
employed
in
agriculture
fell.
As
far
as
the
actual
agricultural
labourers
of
both
sexes
and
of
all
ages
are
concerned,
their
number
fell
from
1,241,396,
in
1851,
to
1,163,
217
in
1861.
86If
the
English
Registrar-General,
therefore,
rightly
remarks:
\"The
increase
of
farmers
and
farm-labourers,
since
1801,
bears
no
kind
of
proportion
...
to
the
increase
of
agricultural
produce,\"87
this
disproportion
obtains
much
more
for
the
last
period,
when
a
positive
decrease
of
the
agricultural
population
went
hand
in
hand
with
increase
of
the
area
under
cultivation,
with
more
intensive
cultivation,
unheard-of
accumulation
of
the
capital
incorporated
with
the
soil,
and
devoted
to
its
working,an
augmentation
in
the
products
of
the
soil
without
parallel
in
the
history
of
English
agriculture,
plethoric
rent-rolls
of
landlords,
and
growing
wealth
of
the
capitalist
farmers.
If
we
take
this,
together
with
the
swift,
unbroken
extension
of
the
markets,
viz.,the
towns,
and
the
reign
of
Free
Trade,
then
the
agricultural
labourer
was
at
last,
post
tot
discriminarerum,
placed
in
circumstances
that
ought,
secundumartem,
to
have
made
him
drunk
with
happiness.
But
Professor
Rogers
comes
to
the
conclusion
that
the
lot
of
the
English
agricultural
labourer
of
today,not
to
speak
of
his
predecessor
in
the
last
half
of
the
14th
and
in
the
15th
century,
but
only
compared
with
his
predecessor
from
1770
to
1780,
has
changed
for
the
worse
to
an
extraordinary
extent,
that
\"the
peasant
has
again
become
a
serf,\"
and
a
serf
worse
fed
and
worse
clothed.88Dr.
Julian
Hunter,
in
his
epoch
making
report
on
the
dwellings
of
the
agricultural
labourers,
says:
\"The
cost
of
the
hind\"
(a
name
for
the
agricultural
labourer,
inherited
from
the
time
of
serfdom)
\"is
fixed
at
the
lowest
possible
amount
on
which
he
can
live
...
the
supplies
of
wages
and
shelter
are
not
calculated
on
the
profit
to
be
derived
from
him.
He
is
a
zero
in
farming
calculations
...
89The
means
[of
subsistence]
being
always
supposed
to
be
a
fixed
quantity.
90As
to
any
further
reduction
of
his
income,
he
may
say,
nihil
habeo
nihil
curo.
He
has
no
fears
for
the
future,
because
he
has
now
only
the
spare
supply
necessary
to
keep
him.
He
has
reached
the
zero
from
which
are
dated
the
calculations
of
the
farmer.
Come
what
will,
he
has
no
share
either
in
prosperity
or
adversity.\"91
精選分類
