5 DECEMBER 1829, Page 7

MEANS OF CHEAPENING THE NECESSARIES OF LIFE. ALDERMAN WAITHMAN AND

THE PRESS.

AMONG those that approve our arguments and adopt our statements on this subject, we have hitherto omitted to number our able Sunday contemporary the John Ball. It is true that, going along with us in oar wishes to abate the long-continued nuisance of exorbitant retail prices, John does not entirely concur in our views of the simple means by which the abatement is to be effected. He would have a Society of a much more extended character, and one which we fear neither his eloquence nor our own will ever succeed in forming. " The club," says he, " should be the population of London en masse • who should come to the resolution of not purchasing meat, fish, or other articles of consumptidn, at the high rate now charged. Such a decision,fimay adhered to, would bring the thing to its level in a week." Doubtless it would ; and we may add, for a week also. The plan of John Bull partakes of the common defect of such magnificent undertakings ; it would require more labour to ETV it up than to put down the evil against which it is proposed to be erected. The butchers, bakers, fishmongers, et id genus wane, are a sad set to deal with, in more senses than one, and they have the powerful stimulus of self-interest to excite their resistance to our arguments and entreaties ; but after all, they hardly exceed the one-hundredth part of the community, by whose sufferance they cheat; and we should stand a much better chance of defeating their active hostility than of rousing to exertion the mighty inert mass of their customers. Besides, our con- temporary forgets, that if by some miracle greater than any that has yet been wrought, we could get a million and a quarter of Englishmen to be all of the same mind for a whole week together on so important a question as "what's for dinner '?"—could we contrive to postpone for seven mortal days the ardent longings of the "old man" after beautiful fillets of veal and splendid cuts of salmon—could we bring every butcher from Whitechapel to Tyburn to his marrow-bones, and strike both fish ladies and fish gentlemen as flat as their own soles, the grand evil we complain of, which a club, and nothing but a club can cure, would still remain—THE CREDIT ! We most cheerfully grant that the retailer should have a fair, nay an ample profit. We are as sturdy sticklers for the good old rule of "live and let live," as any that quote it. But we can never willingly consent that out of our savings the idle, the profligate, the swindler, the thief should that the tradesman should draw upon our honest gains to supply the wants of the drones and leeches of the community. Our rule must have reciprocity in it—if we let live, we must be let live in turn. The new police bids fair to banish the " minions of the moon" from the bounds of Westminster, by reducing the profits and increasing the ha- zards of their trade ; our club, if it do not effect the same purpose by "the minions of the sun"—the " fineerers," the "good customers" of the West end, who wear fine coats and cat fine dinners and tax us for both—will at least impose on those who credit lightly,Nhe burden of bearing their bad debts instead of saddling them on the public. We shall no longer have to pay the premium of" doubly hazardous" for premises that are fire-proof. That good the club will effect and the saving in that way alone, to say nothing of other savings, will amount to more than the sum at which we rated the whole in our first paper on this important subject.

While noticing the objections among our brethren of the press, we cannot pass by an objector among our readers—for we cannot sup- pose that so diligent an investigator of truth as Alderman WairnivraN is not a reader of the SPECTATOR. The occasion which the Alderman took to express his sentiments, was on the discussion of Mr. CLARKE's case at the Common Council on Thursday. Mr. CLARKE, a butcher in Faningdon Market, had been served by the Committee of City Lands with notice to quit, because, as he said, he had sold meat cheaper than his neighbours. The case, as explained by the Com- mittee, does not turn out to be exactly as stated by Mr. CLARKE—he was not ordered to quit because he sold cheap, but because he put a bit of paper on the joints to let the public know that fact ! Ticketing, it seems, is disapproved of ; though why so simple and effective a method should be disapproved of, appears to us somewhat strange. It is true, an attempt was made at defending the Committee, by an alle- gation that CLARK& had subIst his shop; anti there was even a heavier charge—that when told that he would be reported if he did not take down the obnoxious bits of paper, he "damned the Committee:' "Oh mother ! mother! Robin damns dumplings !"

Alderman WAITEIMAN, after maledicting tickets, said- " There was at this time a cruel system of attack made by the press upon the retail traders. It was impossible to support high taxation, or for things to go on as they now were and he did not hesitate to declare that the press," by its conduct, aggravated existing evils. Were this licentiousness tolerated, the wholesome food supplied by the press would be converted into poison. In early life he had been advised by a newspaper proprietor not to attack the press, for it would always be to his disadvantage ; they would at least watch for trips, and no previous service would avail an old public servant against them. But he was now too old to regard. those things."

It is extremely amusing to listen to the remarks that the press calls forth from those whose interests it happens directly or indirectly to touch upon. Mr. WAITHMAN is not directly included in our list—we ' do not contemplate a shawl bazaar, at least at present ; but among the six thousand Liverymen who return him to Parliament, the Alder- man has a mighty store of retailers, and hence his twaddle about "wholesome food" and" poison," and the "licentiousness of the press." Of all the charges ever preferred against the press, the present is pre- eminently the most ridiculous. We say that wholesale prices are low all over the kingdom—that retail prices in London are enormously high, as high as they were when wholesale prices were high ; and, for- sooth, this is a vemlinm of poison ! the annunciation of a plain and un- disputed matter of fact is licentiousness ! But " it is Impossible to support high taxation !" And how did the retailers support It when they paid fifty per cent. more to the wholesale dealer, and got no more from the customer than they now do ? And will we support taxation high or low with more difficulty because we pay 5d. for a pound of beef instead of Bd. ? But it seems as if the licentiousness of the press is not to be tolerated ! By whom ? By the Aldermen ana Common Councilmen of London? MT. WAITHMAN says he respected the press when he was a young man, lest it should attack hum; but he is now too old for these things. The press cares not a stiver for his neutrality, and we can assure the Alderman, quite - as little for his hostility. It has borne with intereSted friends and foolish foes too long to have its gall moved by Mr. WAITHMAN.