TAIT'S COMMONPLACE-BOOK.

NOTES ON THE ECONOMICAL DOINGS AND SAYINGS OF THE

MONTH.

THE month has seen some odd doings in the economical way, and heard not a little wisdom of such sort, that a plain man might easily have forgotten the existence of a Reformed Parliament. Not long ago we listened to various harangues about the blessings of the Bill, and eke gave utterance to a few such ourselves.-Tell us, O Whigs! when it will suit your conveniences, that the novus ordo sæclorum begin?

We shall make a few remarks on sundry topics, on which we have neither leisure to write articles, nor, in the meantime, room to print them.

THE FACTORY BILL.

We would now touch shortly upon a most painful subject—we mean the Factory Bill. Mr. Wilson Patten has carried his motion for a Commission of Inquiry into the real state of the factories; wherefore, or with what practical reference to the bill, we are entirely at a loss to conjecture. The mill-owners, we understand, complain of having been misrepresented, and deny stoutly that the atrocities with which they are charged in the Report, have now, or at any time, had existence within the last twenty years. We almost believe them; but will these gentlemen be kind enough to inform us what influence a proof of this ought to have upon the Factory Bill? Is not all we ask for granted? Is it not enough that children are daily worked for more hours than strength or health can endure, that their little energies are wasted-mortgaged in a murderous Jewry, eaten up by the most horrid usury? We pass, if it shall please them, altogether from these stories of bad treatment, and take our stand upon what is vowed. We rest upon that broad principle that children-infants we may call some of them-are not the less entitled to the protection of the State, because they cannot claim it; and we care not from what the misrule arises-whether from the brutality or avarice of parents, or the recklessness of Factory Masters,-it suffices that it exists. No commission in the world can put a face upon this matter, which already it does not wear; the monstrous evil is confessed, and a case thoroughly made out for the interposition of the shield of the law.

We are not blind to the errors of the Factory Bill. It is, in its remedial provisions, founded upon no accurate or foreseeing principle ; and bears in almost every line, the indelible stamp of the school from which it issued. That bill should have been confined to the judicious prevention of the evils just stated;-an honest and skilful man would have been all awake lest other ends might, by hazard, be created. The thing to be done, had been accomplished by an enactment, that none under twelve be employed in any way in factories, and none under sixteen longer than six hours a-day; a provision which would have necessitated the employment of young people between twelve and sixteen by relays. The hours of work, if fixed at all, might have been taken at the present average

time, and the restriction applied to the machinery, and made absolute. Thus had the more respectable manufacturers been protected against the competition of the sharks; thus had the present efficiency and productiveness of capital been preserved entire; and thus had the amount of wages arising from it been very little, if at all, diminished. We are looking here, not to the personal and definite interests of the capitalist, but to those of the labourer, as intimately and indissolubly bound up with his. People may talk as they choose of the hard-heartedness of Political Economy; but we suspect the philanthropists will make but sorry work of their emendations, by running right in the teeth of principles upon which the social well-being is constantly dependent. If we would amend, we must not get into cloudland: we must remember that we walk upon a rugged earth. Nothing can be finer, or more amiable, than a few tears, of a morning, over the sorrow of a Factory Report; but we should infinitely prefer the manifestation of a small quantity of practical beneficence. Honeyed words are cheap; we want deeds,-something tangible. We are seeking bread, and clothing, and comfort; and so long as these are refused we know what account to take of their ostentatious, "crocodile" tears!

Mr. Patten's Commission will, in all probability, be as useless as it is uncalled for. A formal visitation of this sort is not well calculated to secure much credit for its Report. The present case is one more of our many ever-recurring illustrations of the extreme difficulty of obtaining accurate statistical data, for the solution of any one important problem connected with our social condition. A few more sessions of Parliament cannot pass, until the necessity of adopting some extensive arrangements becomes absolute. We are not sparing in useless and immoral expenditure;—it were a poor economy to play the niggard when the first interests of the country are so manifestly and intimately concerned.

THE CURRENCY QUESTION.

If it be true that Mr. T. Attwood, when he made his motion for a committee on the distresses of the labouring population, had his eye fixed on one grievance a master grievance in his imagination, and to the unfolding of that, if he had got his committee, would all, or almost all, his labours have been directed; it is impossible to refrain from remarking how much better then, and how vastly more becoming a practical and honest statesmen, to have come boldly out with his grievance, and manfully moved a committee to investigate the evils arising from Sir Robert Peel's act in restoration of the metallic standard! We desire nothing more than a full sifting of this question; for it would either convince us, or direct the minds of those who think differently to some more practical and better-grounded means of alleviating the national distress. A degree of discussion, however, may go on without the aid of Parliament,—and in this case, perhaps, in an equally satisfactory way. An important step has just been made on our part, and we demand for it the immediate and specific attention of all who either advocate depreciation or equitable adjustment. Mr. Mushet's well-known tables have been corrected and completed, at the expense of immense labour, by Mr. Childs of Bungay, and the results published in the last number of the Westminster Review. The entire tables, however, should immediately be republished in a cheap form, and placed within the reach of every man who can read, and who understands the first few rules of

arithmetic. They establish in the most unequivocal manner, that the fundholders, as a body, were not gainers, but, in reality, losers by the joint effects of the restriction act and Peel's Bill; and it is plain that no step farther can be advanced until these results are invalidated. Now the question is one of simple calculation; and if we are in error, the error may be shewn. There is here no web of sophistry to cut through or unrol, but only a few operations of multiplication and division to test, and either pass or reject. Mr. Attwood may deny Mushet's table of the extent and progress of the depreciation: but if so, he is bound to satisfy us immediately, by bringing forward a table of his own. We have had enough of declamation: we want the arithmetic of the affair. In all disputes of this sort, let it ever be steadfastly remembered, that the disgrace never is in changing one's opinion, but very often in refusing to change it. A man's opinion must, if he is honest, be modified by his growing knowledge; it is only his obstinacy, or his conceit, that can stand always still. And how long shall the interests of Great Britain, and the harmony of the society of reformers, be laid prostrate before such a Moloch?

A PROPERTY TAX.

The question of the Property Tax has been ably mooted in Parliament. Mr. Robinson deserves the greatest credit, and he will get it, if he does not lose sight of what he has undertaken. As a pacifier to Lord Althorp's qualms, we beg to tell him, that the proposed commutation is no longer a matter of mere expediency, but of imminent necessity. In regard of the public burdens, the people want nothing but a just and fair distribution, according to each man's strength; and until this is conceded, and made manifest, his Lordship need expect neither rest nor health. In the name, therefore, of his cherished ease, of the comfort of his round-sterned yeoman-like frame, we conjure him to think better of affairs! If matters go on after their present style, his Lordship must die of old age before he is fifty; and we are, indeed, told that the cares of deep thought are already furrowing his brow!

The refusal of a committee on this important subject was eminently worthy of the good old times. There are sundry points connected with the theory of direct taxation not yet well understood; and is there a better method of attaining the requisite knowledge, than by taking counsel of the most eminent, practical, and scientific men in the kingdom? Is it not strange in a financier to complain of ignorance, and in the same breath to decline information? My Lord, my Lord, the plea of indolence has a thousand shapes! Indolence is many-mouthed!

THE IRISH CHURCH BILL.

When men are timid or dishonest, and at the same time frightened for the punishment due to cowardice or dishonesty, what manoeuvres and doublings will they not attempt? Mark the illustration afforded by Lord Althorp's Irish Church Bill!

Lord Althorp, in framing this Bill, knew that he could not venture to sustain the integrity of that church's huge property; and also that he dare not boldly and openly infringe upon it, for sheer terror of Stanley; and observe how the excellent Chancellor has comported himself! If a reduction was to be made at all, the natural sources of that reduction, were the Vestry Cess and Tithes. The latter in every point of view is a

tax-upon rent as some say—upon the consumer as we say ;* but at all events it is a tax, a revenue, collected by authority of Parliament; and, therefore, it might have been partly remitted, applied to other purposes, or in any way modified according to Parliament's best wisdom, without in the least degree bringing property-rights into dispute, or mooting any "revolutionary" principle whatsoever. Thus at least spoke common sense, but what provides Lord Althorp? Instead of doing what common sense told him to do, he makes a direct attack upon the Church landed property; and not only so, but he does it in the apparently downright intention of constituting a precedent for future attacks upon all landed property. Only notice his logic-notice to what he solicits the sanction of Parliament ! He tells us that he means to improve the condition of Church lands by allowing them to be feued; or, in other words, he is to increase their rental by a legislative enactment, and forthwith to seize the addition thus created. This is no attack upon property,-Oh, no! The Church had no right to the increase of rental! Will his Lordship plainly inform us, what right any landlord shall henceforth dare pretend to whatever increase of rental may at any time be caused by social changes, say, the progress of population, or by legislative procedure, say, an alteration of the Entail Laws? Behold a new mode of saving property. Verily a Daniel is in judgment !

We shall see how his Lordship settles this matter with his opponents. Be it farther remarked, that he had no difficulty in discovering a mode of imposing a "just" graduated property tax upon the parsons.

EAST INDIA COMPANY'S CHARTER.

The East India Company's Charter will be shorn of many of its privileges. We do not mean at present to travel through Mr. Grant's paper of Hints; because the difference betwixt a talked-of measure, and a measure actually brought forward, is in these days generally so great that we should in all probability lose the labour of our criticism. It may be assumed, however, as a settled point, that the China trade will be thrown open, in spite of Sir G. Staunton's forebodings; and, as a consequence of this step, we shall be saved nearly two millions annually in the prime cost of the article of tea. Something of the statistics of this question will be seen by the following table. The first column contains the average prices at Hamburgh, and the second the London value of the same kinds, independent of all duty.

The selling price at London, or the price to the consumer is double the sums in the latter column; so that with regard to the cheapest teas,

Let the Westminster not "craw sae crouse;" one of these days we shall have something more to say to him. We take this opportunity of thanking our correspondent Britannicus.

or those consumed by the "lower orders," what with monopoly, what with duty, there has hitherto been a tax paid of upwards of 300 per cent.!! If the same ad valorem duty is now paid as before, the cheapest Bohea which now sells at about 2s. 7d. per pound, will be got at Is. 3d., and the good Congou and Souchong, which retail at about 4s. 2d. and 4s. 6d. will be had for 2s. and 3s. 3d. The relief to the poorer classes will thus be very great ; and it must be remarked that tea is now a universal and almost necessary article of consumpt. The lowering of the price of such an article is in reality augmenting wages, and increasing, in so far, the whole comforts of the labourer. The diminution of price will lead to a greatly increased consumption, so that we should hope Lord Althorp's returns will not be diminished, or otherwise affected to his Lordship's embarrassment.

It does not appear whether government proposes to permit the Company to engage in any commerce whatsoever. It would be its clear wisdom to inhibit it; as its interference in the markets of Hindostan has always been most injurious to the interests of the free trade. The Company will any day make a purchase for the sake of effecting a remittance, and afterwards sell the article in the London market at a great loss, without grumbling, or fancying it does wrong! We leave the British merchant to discover what free trade there is here; and many a one, we doubt not, could show us sufficiently emphatic proofs of the grievance. The monopolists in fact have always traded for the benefit of their servants. Commerce has been strictly with them an illustration of the Sic vos non vobis, &c. &c.

Government is to become proprietor of the territory; and, although it does not distinctly appear, we infer from the known dispositions of Parliament, and in fact from the whole recent conduct of Lord William Bentinck, that colonization will follow. This is one great practical answer to "India's Cries to British Humanity;"* we will present India with a company of free settlers, and they will soon give the death-blow to every kind and order of tyranny. We shall return to this subject next month.

MR. KENNEDY'S ENTAIL BILLS.

Mr. Kennedy has introduced three Entail Bills, by which the heavier grievances of Entail will begin to be lightened in some twenty-one years! These Bills hardly interest us; the thing itself will scarce last so long. When the Corn Law are abolished, the landlords will be the most clamorous for the abolition of all restriction. One abuse is shouldered upon another, and they all tumble when the lowermost falls. Financial Reform! Reforms yet undreamt of depend upon it, and will flow out of it, as certainly as the sun shines when the intervening cloud is removed.

THE PRAISE OF PLUMPNESS.-Corpulency is a state much and most wrongly stigmatized. It is considered as degrading, despicable, and in a measure infamous, by the refined of habit, and sore deprecated by all of gentle birth. This is aspersive and ridiculous, to say the very least of it!

See a work recently published with this title, by James Peggs, late missionary at Cuttack, Orissa. London: Simpkin and Marshall. It contains as triking view of many of the social abuses in the Peninsula.