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PROVINCIAL OCCURRENCES

IN THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND, AND IN WALES, SCOTLAND,

LONDON.

AND IRELAND.

Destitute Sailors' Asylum.-We understand there is to be a bazaar at the Hanover-square Rooms on the 12th and 13th of June, and that her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, ever ready to promote a benevolent work, has kindly consented to patronize it. Many ladies of distinction have likewise promised their aid. The directors of this charity are desirous of erecting a plain but convenient building, better suited to their purposes than that which was temporarily engaged. Several ladies have determined to raise the necessary sum by means of a fancy fair; and are, therefore, at the present moment labouring heart, head, and hand to attain their object. We feel assured all our fair countrywomen will willingly come forward and contribute, by their works, to so useful and benevolent an institution, which has for its object the relief of those best props and defenders of Great Britain. We can truly say we heartily wish them success.

The

The proprietors of shares in the London and Westminster Bank-established on the principle of Scotch banks, allowing an indefinite number of partnershave held their first meeting. Chairman, in showing the advantage to be derived from the safe and simple plan of banking in Scotland, drew the attention of the proprietors to the fact, that for many years up to 1819, only one bank had failed, and in that instance the creditors had been paid immediately 14s. in the pound as a dividend, and upon the winding up of the concern the whole of the demands. He then contrasted this statement with the failures that had occurred in London from 1810 to 1832. Of 70 banks existing in London in 1810, no fewer than 32 failed; three only paid in full, while 19 were insolvent. The debts proved against these unfortunate establishments amounted to 7,350,000., and the average dividends to only 8s. 3d, in the pound, so that the public had lost upwards of four millions sterling in that short period of time; while in Scotland, during that time, only two or three failures had occurred. In Edinburgh there were no failures; and, in

all their cases, the
20s. in the pound.
Directors was then

creditors were paid
The report of the
read, and a state-

ment of accounts was submitted to the
meeting, from which it appeared that,
in the first instance, 10,000 shares had
been taken up, and subsequently a
greater number were issued, making a
total of 17,713 shares, held by 575 pro-
prietors. 15. per share had been paid
up, the receipts amounting to 244,945/.
The profits of the Company would en
able the Court of Directors to declare a
dividend of 2 per cent. after paying all
expenses, leaving a small amount as a
reserve-fund. The preliminary ex

penses in forming the Company amount-
ed to 10,635. It also appeared, from
the Company's accounts, that there
were due to the public, for interest and
deposit receipts, &c., 180,3801. 9s. 10d. ;
to the proprietors, for capital paid up,
182,2557.; making a balance in favour
of the Bank of 3,5407. 6s. 6d. On the
other side, for sums due to the Bank,
on account of investment in Govern-
ment Securities, &c., there was
amount of 355,540/. 3s. 6d.
the profit and loss account it appeared
that there was a balance in favour of
the Company, as already stated. The
report was adopted; and after a vote of
thanks to the Chairman, the meeting
adjourned.

an

From

The New Post-Office. It is intended immediately to widen the end of Newgate-street from Cheapside, so as to form a spacious carriage approach to the new Post-Office. This is to be effected by pulling down two of the three houses which form the corner between Paternoster-row and the south-east side of Newgate-street, together with several The tenants other houses in the rear. have received notice to quit, which has been already partly obeyed.

The Governors of Christ's Hospital, London, in General Court assembled, after being informed that the new buildings for the accommodation of the children were now finished, ordered that 130 governors have each the privilege of placing a boy in the school immediately, and the same number six months hence-viz., in the month of

136

Dorsetshire-Lancashire-Northumberland-Ireland.

September next, and that their names be printed, and distributed to the public at the counting-house.

The London Court of Common Council has decided, by a majority of 63 to 38, that Aldermen shall, in future, be elected periodically, for seven years instead of for life.

DORSETSHIRE.

Of all the phenomena in England, there is none greater to be seen than is now under the East Cliff at Bridport harbour. The beach (till within this fortnight) from time immemorial has been covered with sand several feet deep. No more extraordinary than true, the sand has now entirely disappeared, and nothing remains but a ledge of rocks; they lie in tiers one over the other from the harbour to Burton fresh water, being upwards of a mile. Many ancient coins have been picked up, among them one quarter guinea found by Mr. James Bartlett; the fossils and shells are of numerous descriptions. Many hundreds, both from the town and country, have been to see these phenomena, and all think them well worthy of admiration.

LANCASHIRE.

Mr. Moore, of Liverpool, who has invented a plan for supplying Liverpool with water to extinguish fires, has made a calculation, from which it appears that from the end of 1831 to the beginning of the present year, the ascertained loss of property by fire in Liverpool amounts to near 400,000. This is only the ascertained loss. Much has been destroyed of which no account can be obtained and no exact estimate formed.

NORTHUMBERLAND.

Discovery of an Ancient BuryingPlace. A short time ago the labourers employed in clearing away the earth for the extensive street improvements now going on at Newcastle-on-Tyne, discovered an ancient burial ground immediately behind Anderson-place. Two lead coffins, a stone coffin, and several fragments of wooden coffins, human bones, &c., have been dug up. The places which have held many others are

distinctly marked, though the bones and coffins have themselves, by the lapse of time, decayed and disappeared. This was no doubt the burial-place of the nunnery of Newcastle. David, King of Scotland, who resided at that town about 1135, is reported by some histo rians to have been the founder of the nunnery, while others assign the honour to King Henry I.

IRELAND.

Curious Relic.-A curious sword was lately found by J. M'Grogan, of Nockavrinnion, parish of Loughgeel, in the county of Antrim. He discovered it in repairing a bank of the river Bush, covered by three flags of black stone; on these a great many characters are inscribed. The sword measures 5 feet, 4 inches in length, and 3 inches in breadth, tapering to a point, much after the fashion of a dagger. It is entirely brass, with a huge handle, and a great many characters are inscribed on it like those on the stone under which it lay. It has a very sharp edge, and is remarkably hard; and it seems, from several deep indentations both on the back and edge, that it has been well tried. From its length and weight, it must have been a powerful arm that could wield it. Its weight, and that of two large brass buckles found with it, is 161b. 5oz.

Clerical Magistrates in Ireland.-A return has been printed of the number of clergymen in the commission of the peace in Ireland. The whole number is 275, of which not one is a Catholic. The officer who made up the return says he cannot make out how many are Dissenters. The only county in which the return is "none" is Carlow, which we believe is a mistake: there is a Rev Mr. Roberts in the commission of that county, and there are probably others. Dublin has only one, the Rev. Henry M Lean; and Wicklow only one, the Rev. Moore Morgan. Monaghan has only two; and Longford, Louth, and Waterford, three each. Cork has the greatest number-43. The counties with the next greatest numbers are Donegal and Tyrone-20 each; Kerry, 14; Cavan, 11; and Clare, Galway, Kilkenny, and Londonderry, which have 10 each,

THE

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

THE TRADE OF THE COUNTRY.

READER, be not appalled at this ominous title! You are not about to be irritated or composed by a tedious disquisition upon the decrease or increase of exports and imports,-upon the superiority of a free or a protected commerce,-upon the comparative growth or decline in cotton and woollen manufactures,-upon processes shortened by machinery to the destruction of hand-labour, and the propriety of multiplying the difficulties of production in order to employ a population running fast towards the destruction of property by a too facile power of raising and preparing all sorts of necessaries and luxuries;-of all these high topics you will find very little; and what little you do find will rather be intended for your amusement than your instruction, for our essay, like the arrangements and articles of the trade we are about to speak of, will be light and ornamental, made quite as much for delight as for profit. We have thought it right to premise thus much for both our sakes, lest you should lose the entertainment we hope to afford you, and we the chance of being permitted to entertain you.

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But, nevertheless, the trade of England is a great matter, and when we see women and children employed in directing almost invisible threads which inanimate wood and iron set into a motion almost as rapid as the passage of light by a subtle mist, and when we reflect that by this is created an almost equally incalculable number of millions per annum, that nations are clothed by these processes, and so vast a portion of the people maintained,-when, taking this for the most important example, we glance through all the employments of labour, and think that wealth, in some shape or other, is created to the amount of hundreds of millions: observe, reader,-the hands of man and the minutes of time employed to this intent accumulate hundreds of millions of pounds, which by circulation give the means of life and luxury to millions of our fellow-creatures, it is a curious speculation to gather up, as it were, these atoms intellectually till we obtain something like a Pisgah sight of that vast aggregation of men and moveables which we call society, -the civilized society of our empire, which has been thus raised and continues to be sustained and enlarged by the same means. Truly it is a marvellous fabric!

In 1812, Dr. Colquhoun estimated the existing property accumulated. by the labours of the population of the British empire, and with a probable approximation to the truth, at no less an amount than 2,736,640,000l., the annual income of the country at 430,521,3727. It is curious to compare these computations with those of former dates, and made by the most accurate calculators. In 1664, the national property was computed at 250,000,000l. In 1688,' the national annual income at no more than 43,491,800. What the increase since 1812 June.-VOL. XLIV, NO, CLXXIV,

L

has been, both of property and income, we are unable to state, but both must have been enormous. For, although the money price is greatly reduced, the value of the commodities as such, as ministering to the wants and pleasures of life, is the same. The increase of the numbers of the people was, from 1811 to 1831-3, 746,570. And as the increase of production must have some, though it is impossible to ascertain what, exact relation to the increase of numbers, it must yet be prodigious. Take a single instance:-The number of houses in England and Wales were

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Of the occupations of the people a much clearer knowledge than heretofore has been obtained by returns to Parliament, and the following summary is as nearly accurate as possible, they are even divided into the three kingdoms, but we need not follow this more minute classification. Thus it stands :

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The counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire are distinguished by the greatest numbers employed in manufactures, but the county of Warwick seems to entertain by far the greatest diversity, Birmingham being the seat of the production of a countless variety of articles in paper, wood, and hardware. The technical enumeration is indeed singularly curious.

If we simply take the smallest possible amount indispensable to support the existence of all these people, it will rise to at least one hundred millions the real sum of their earnings is probably much larger.

But these calculations are not the objects of our essay. It is the manner, the method of trade more than the total with which we would amuse the reader, and especially of retail trade, for it forms an era, a point in the national progression.

The principle is the accumulated capital (or credit acting the part of capital), which concentrates power so astonishingly. In the production of commodities it shows itself through the vast aggregation of tools, which all machines are to be esteemed. A cotton-mill which enables the proprietor to employ two thousand persons carries with it also this peculiarity, that half the profit upon the labour of each of the two thousand will give him just as great an income as double the same amount per head will give to the employer of one thousand. Thus it appears that the cheapness of articles arises from this power, and price assumes a middle place between the extent of demand and the nature of supply, that is, whether the greatest factories can furnish enough, or whether the least must also be called in aid. When the competition lies only between the former, the article sinks to the lowest possible rate

of production; when the latter must assist, the great are disposed to take advantage of an insufficient supply, and ask a higher rate of profit than they could obtain if pushed by traders of their own degree. But the ultimate tendency is to swallow all little men. The price of the very article we now write upon-paper-has thus been reduced. It is not only that the invention of the machine has broken up the conspiracies of the men, which for some years perpetually went on to increase the price of the commodity,-it is not alone that the superior facility has made it cheaper,-but it is that power can be concentrated in one hand. There are manufactories in England, the property of single firms, that produce quadruple, quintuple, sextuple, what the largest establishments by hand used to prepare. The consequences are those which apply to all such concentrations of men, money, and machinery. Capital beats down mere labour, and drives the small maker from the field. But machinery has also had another effect in this branch: it draws the trade around and near to the metropolis. As thus,---when the air alone was employed to dry the goods, the average of time necessary to bring a ream of paper from the rag to the string, as the technical phrase goes,—that is, from the raw material to the perfect article in a marketable state,-was from two to three months. Now, it is dried by steam upon the machine, and a week will execute a large order. How does this affect the distant mill? Why thus:-The London stationer, the middle man, no longer holds the large stock he used to do, If a bookseller applies to him for one hundred reams of a certain paper, he knows where he can to a certainty have it made and delivered in six or eight days on an emergency. When the distant manufacturer comes into the market, the stationer is willing to purchase on speculation only at a very low price. He is therefore driven to a country trade in his own vicinity. The same facts apply to the material of the staff of life, -to flour. The moment there is a rise in the market, the steam miller in the immediate neighbourhood of Mark-lane sets on all his power and fills the market. The country manufacturer is ousted by mere propinquity. While his commodity is on the water, the dealer near London has reaped the advantage, and he leaves the depressed market to the countryman. An immense depreciation of the value of distant mill-property, no less than an almost total decline of that branch of commerce, has followed this improvement, if such it may be esteemed, in the conduct of mills.

Our illustration of the paper-trade introduces another, and perhaps the most remarkable, possibility attending mechanical processes. Every body has heard of the bet laid and won some years ago by a gentleman of Yorkshire, that he would dine in a coat made of wool which should have been growing on the sheep's back in the morning of the same day, He did so. The sheep was shorn, the wool combed, spun, and woven, the cloth was dressed, and the coat made before six o'clock. He wore it, but it was wet, and having achieved his promise and won his wager, he begged to be permitted to escape the chance of dying by a cold caught from sitting in his damp garment. He took off his coat, and finished an hilarious evening in his capacity of president of a large agricultural meeting. This was considered to be one of the greatest triumphs of accelerated manufacturing processes. But our proposition goes to this:It is possible to produce a printed book which one single minute only before was one of the vilest of all substances-rag-and

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