The Spiritualist newspaper > No.318, September 27th 1878

152
THE SPIBITUALIST.
Sept. 27, 1878.
spirit; and that although man brought nothing into this
world, he can take a very great deal out of it in the shape of
accumulated spiritual and intellectual experiences, gained
inside a body not so subjected to material disadvantages,
that time and opportunity were not at command for the
cultivation of the intellect. On these principles political
economy is an essential branch of true religion, and Mr.
Binney’s prospectus is one enunciating principles at the. very
root of national laws which so overwork vast masses of
Englishmen, that uncultured and degraded spirits are
launched in abnormal numbers into the land beyond the grave.
Here are some extracts from the said prospectus :—
It is intended to purchase large farming estates; to divide them into
ten or fifteen acre farms; erect cottages and suitable outhouses, and sell
them off to peasant proprietors at a small profit, the purchase money
being secured by mortgage of the farm at an annual interest of say four
per cent., and payable by annual instalments extending over a period of
twenty-five or thirty years.
It is calculated that a company, having the foregoing objects in view,
will be a great boon to the English agricultural labouring classes, who
at present are, from want of capital, utterly unable ever to raise them¬
selves in the social scale. Their interest at present is to do as little as
possible, and get the largest wages they can. They have no other interest
in the land they till, and are devoid of all stimulus to thrift, industry,
and independence. By giving them small farms of their own, these men
will be encouraged to labour untiringly upon the land that belongs to
them; they will increase its productiveness.
In a measure, the proposed scheme would be an application of the
principles of the building society to the agricultural labourer and the
land. The success of building societies in large towns like Man¬
chester (which has almost been entirely built by their agency) seems
to suggest that the same principle would be applicable to the creation of
small peasant farms.
It is an admitted fact amongst all the authorities on this subject that
more can be got out of the land by a small proprietor tilling his own soil
than by a large farmer employing hired labour. This being so, it is
obvious that the land so purchased and laid out will ipso facto increase
in value, and a higher price can be realised per acre for such small
farms than for large ones. A writer in the World for December 12,
1877, states that “the late Duke of Rutland has largely benefited the
labouring population on his estates by sub-dividing his farms into small
allotments, and that at the present time there are no fewer than 700
allotments, varying from a sixth to a quarter of an acre, at Belvoir alone.
The results of the system are, I believe, even commercially a success,
the land being brought into a high state of cultivation, and the rent
regularly paid.”
Again, it might be found desirable to encourage a still poorer class of
men to engage in farming on their own account—namely, the day
labourers, without even sufficient capital to support themselves until the
land began to yield produce in return for labour expended on it. For
these men it might not be worth while to build farm-houses and farm-
buildings, and in their case a neat row of cottages overlooking the land
allotted to them might be erected for their accommodation, at weekly
rents. They might continue in their regular employment as day
labourers, either for some of the small peasant farmers or for their usual
employers, and maintain themselves by the wages so earned. . . . These
small transactions would doubtless involve more trouble than the returns
would compensate for; yet these men are precisely those who most need
the assistance, so necessary for a first step towards raising them above
this hand-to-mouth life of the day labourer. At present they are too
poor to take any farm, however small, so long as it involves their working
several months without weekly wages, since even the smallest of farmers
must be something of a capitalist.
Independently of the commercial aspects of the question, it cannot be
doubted that it would be a great blessing to the poorer classes in the
country districts. It would raise up a class of yeomen, check the emigra¬
tion of some of the best blood of the country, diminish poor rates, and
cover the land with smiling happy homesteads, surrounded by thriving
orchards, and inhabited by industrious, contented people. Where
money can be so usefully employed in doing a real good (and that
without risk to principal or interest), it is confidently expected that, in
these days of low bank rates and unemployed capital, there is sufficient
raison d’etre for the proposed undertaking.
Mr. J. S. Mill, in his ^Principles of Political Economy, treats very
exhaustively of the question of peasant proprietorship, and adduces
overwhelming proofs, from the writings of acute observers, of the culture
in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, and the Channel
Isles, to prove that the division of the land into small farms, tilled by
the owner, is an immense advantage, both to the peasantry and to the
country. All his authorities cannot here be quoted; but the following
conclusions (p. 189) may be cited:—
“ As the result of this inquiry into the direct operation and indirect
influences of peasant properties, I conceive it to be established that there
is no necessary connection between this form of landed property and an
imperfect state of the arts of production; that it is favourable in quite
as many respects as it is unfavourable to the most effective use of the
powers of the soil; that no other existing state of agricultural economy
has so beneficial an effect on the industry, the intelligence, the frugality,
and prudence of the population, nor tends, on the whole, so much to
discourage an improvident increase of their numbers; and that no
existing state therefore is on the whole so favourable, both to their moral
and their physical welfare. Compared with the English system of culti¬
vation by hired labour, it must be regarded as eminently beneficial to
the labouring classes.”
|(f In the foregoing quotations, Mr. Binney’s prospectus has
! | been grievously cut down; but apart from its commercial
I | aspects, it drives more at the root of all English social evils
Mj than any document I have seen for a long time, and I hope
||| that he will enlist in his support men who have given
| | attention to various aspects of the question, such as Mr.
| ! Buskin, Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, of St. Albans, Mr.
[ | Alderman Mechi, of Tiptree Hall, and Professor Thorold
I)| Bogers.
|1| I write this in the middle of a country of peasant pro-
| | prietors, where there is free trade in land, and land is bought
i j and sold like other property. The majority of the working
| | classes and small shopkeepers are consequently much better
j j off than in England, notwithstanding a few comparative
j | disadvantages, such as the fettering of the liberty of the
| | press, and prohibition to some extent of free public meetings.
| | The happy
1“ Cottage homes of England ”
| now scarcely exist; but in France the agriculturist usually
owns his own land, looks erect as a free man at everybody,
has a little property of his own, and a home, from which he
I cannot be dismissed, buried in surroundings of fruits and
j( flowers. As the produce of his industry has not been
| j regularly pumped away from him by the raising of rents,
j j he has been able to empty old stockings, filled with his
I | savings, to pay off the enormous German ransom, and to
| | refill the stockings once more. Germany has been made
I i poorer by the money, because it has spent it on unproductive
j labour, such as salaries to generals, captains, and so on.
| I The people in France are happy and contented ; they have
I i smiling faces; the haggard look of care seen on nearly
j | every face in English towns is not here. I have never seen
I a French subject dressed in rags, and have met only
i | two beggars since I have been in Paris ; even these had a
111 neat, comfortable look, and one was relieved at once in my
| | sight by some of the French working classes. In the Paris
| | Exhibition, a few days ago, I saw a crowd with open eyes
| | round the picture of an English workhouse, with a ragged
| I crowd outside, waiting admission. The picture was a purely
i 5; natural one, not overdrawn, and the scene such as anybody
I | can see in reality in all parts of England; but to the
| | French people gazing at it, it must have been a representa-
111 tion of the ugly dream of an unhealthy painter devoted to
| \ | tragedy. I have spoken with French, Americans, and
I | Swedes on this subject; I have also read the utterances of
| | French thinkers, such as Jules Michelet, about it; I have
| | studied the ideas of John Stuart Mill; and I have on the
I spot listened to the grievances of poor Irish agriculturists
j 11 when complaining of their sufferings due to land in Great
I j | Britain not being bought and sold like other property, with-
i | out legal delays, impediments, and expenses. All are
|) | agreed that the evil is of a vital nature, carrying misery
j - into nearly every home ; that this inbred sin is sinking
|) | Great Britain in the scale of nations; that retribution of
| | some kind must of necessity be in the future, for the laws
| of nature cannot be broken by men or by nations without
| the results following in due course.
To turn to another social subject, a lady here remarked to
| me that the French women were much better off than the
j English women in not being cut off from the great body of
| | society while the husband was engaged during the day, and
| I was at his club in the evening. I suggested that she had
| | not gone deeply enough into the question, because if affection
111 existed, the husband would certainly not often be at his club
! during the evening. The real point usually was that a
|)| matchmaking mother had sold her daughter (probably with
I I her willing consent) for social position and material ad-
j 11 vantages, consequently the wife had no right to claim her
j | husband’s attention or affection, and she was but paying the
j 11 well-deserved penalty for her own sins, in accordance with
| I the irrevocable laws of nature—which are just and honest.
111 Spirit Drapery,—In reference to the Williams-Rita matter, the
j) | Count de Bullet informs us that the spirits at Mr. Firman’s seances
I (| often carry in drapery for the forms, but as this exhausts a portion of
11 j the power, he sometimes provides them with drapery, and thereby
K j strengthens the manifestations. If a medium told him that he (the
| (| medium) had brought drapery for the purpose, he should think nothing
11 i of it, but if he brought it surreptitiously, it would be a different matter.