CORRESPONDENCE.
A COMMENTARY IN AN EASY-CHAIR: THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY-DIFFERENT KINDS OF POVERTY-THE ABOLITION OF THE USELESS-THE STATE OF THE DOCKS.
NOTHING could be more strange or more suggestive than the last revelation of the working man, which has reached us from one of those who count themselves distinctively his friends, and who at least know too much of him to misunder- stand his language and meaning. In the midst of this sober- toned; middle-aged, nay, elderly world, which has outgrown so many delusions, to hear of a company of rational beings who meet and speechify and pass a motion—all as if they were sane and responsible—to abolish poverty, is the most bewildering evidence of regions unknown to the ordinary observer, and possibilities of thinking which no philosopher could understand. To abolish poverty ! One wonders whether it seems a simple thing to the theorist, whether he believes in it, or whether it is merely what the boys call "swagger," to make his mates see how clever he is. Swagger, I suppose, in matters so-called intellectual, dwells in Mile End as well as at Oxford, or any other home of culture ; and one can imagine the club rapping on the table with all their fists, and shouting out, "A good thing too !"—to all the echoes. What a very good thing it would be if it could only be done !—but then, the respectable working man would not go half far enough. His poverty means want, destitution, that grim Hunger which lurks in the slums, as far removed, indeed, from his respectable home (almost) as from ours, yet painfully near notwithstanding. And this, Heaven be praised ! is a thing which perhaps might be accomplished. For there is an army, a host, a valiant Crusader band, or rather many bands, already embattled against it, fighting the horrible spectre in his own haunts, and capable, sooner or later, one cannot but hope, of giving a good account of him, and making him as impossible as it would be to abolish him by Act of Parliament. Indeed, at this present moment I venture to say, though I shall possibly be overwhelmed by contradictions, that to starve, so long as there is a clergyman within reach, or a district visitor, or a Sister devoted to the poor, or even a Little Bethel, though its opportunities may be smaller, not to speak of Charity Organisations, still less of the machinery of official charity, is almost impossible to those who are not too proud to reveal their condition. Almost—for of course there will always be fatal conjunctions of circumstances in which all these agencies will fail,—yet growing less, I hope, every day. I Poveri Vergognosi—the poor who are ashamed to beg, and will not tell—are of course, in all circumstances, the most difficult to manage. But the working man, the theorist whose grave impracticability breaks the heart of Mr. Arnold White, who expected better things, would not go half far enough. He would not even guess the existence of that poverty for which nobody has any help,—that of the vast and often hope- less multitude whose active life is spent in the struggle to keep their heads above water, never knowing at what moment the bitter flood may overwhelm them ; labouring with throb- bing head and trembling hands to bring the yearly ends together and make them meet, or at least not gape asunder too widely. These are people whose credit is often unbroken, whose homes are not without comfort, whose children are getting all the advantages of education, and who yet are swinging by a thread over the abyss in which an unexpected failure of health on one hand, or on the other a mistaken investment, may plunge them any day. The working man who means to abolish poverty would reckon these desperate strugglers for life among the rich.
And how many things there are besides poverty which we should all vote to abolish, if we could believe in abolitions ! Sickness—nay, one only of all the diseases which flesh is heir to ; and those partings which press the life from out our hearts ; and Death, whose shadow lies across every path of happiness,—all which are, on the whole, more hopeful things than poverty. For if we are to believe the boasts of sanitary science, and the progress of medicine, and all the daily developing forces which are on the side of Health and Life, we ought to be able to put back the shadow on the dial, and gain, like King Hezekiah, a dozen of years or so, if no more. But, alas ! we die all the same, while all the drains are being looked to, drains which never can be looked to enough, which are always breaking out in a new place.
I remember to have read of two visionaries who had a cure ready for all troubles, if they could, like the working men who proposed to abolish poverty, have but applied it generally at once. Not that they had invented the cure, which exists always in the patience of God, and which is no doubt applied daily, unseen, and works its silent miracle, and keeps the world, amid so many storms and billows, always afloat. The first of them was a certain enthusiast, called by the wise Hallam half-idiotic; but by a great part of Christendom consecrated, and justly so, as a saint. Francis, once of Assisi, who, when the Crusading armies were about to embark to crush
the heathen (which they did not accomplish, as we know), desired those armed bands to pause, to wait, to send him, that he might convert those heathen, which was so much the easiest way. And the other was a dignitary of that Irish Church which 'unfortunately furnished more notable prelates than con- versions, a visionary, he also, in his philosophy and genius. Bishop Berkeley had a panacea for Ireland which would undoubtedly cure all her woes. He did not say, "Let them have a Parliament ;" but he said, "Let them be good." Most tremendous of all revolutions, if at the same time • divinest of all expedients Let them be converted, not cut 'to pieces ; let them be good. How the wilderness would rejoice -and blossom like the rose ; how the desert plains would break into flowers and beauty ; how the spectres would fly and vanish from the light ! So much the easiest !—not a drop of blood shed (save perhaps that of the Apostle, which mattered nothing) ; no need for legislations, cumbrous law-makings, and officials to carry them out ! If every man would but be good, as for so many hundred years be has been exhorted to be, and as he knows in his individual soul he ought to be ! Then ,everything—who could doubt it P—would come right.
The other side of this expedient might perhaps interest the manful Socialist who has the courage of his opinions. There are a hundred ways of benefiting the thrifty, the hard-working, and the prudent, who generally, indeed, save 'under exceptional circumstances, can scarcely be prevented, wherever they are, from doing well for themselves, and whose tendency is always to abolish poverty in the partial and limited way which alone is possible ; but what of the idle and care- less and prodigal, who are as the French forrat's bullet at the heel to the rest of the race? It is they who ought to be abolished, not poverty. Never up to this time has the world been able to shake off that weight upon its movements. It is against them that all laws have been made, and all pre- cautions taken. But if the reign of the absolute and arbitrary came in, and we took to abolishing the conditions of humanity, why not make an end of them ? One can imagine, if not a reformed Society (and I doubt whether any amount of reform could bring society up to that point, especially after the example of the French Revolution), at least some stern Socialist- Despot, the Dictator for whom, in their hearts, all visionary reformers instinctively and involuntarily sigh, standing up before heaven and earth to carry out that vast reformation, and drive the useless as the devils drove the swine down the steep places into the sea. The British Islands would afford a favourable sphere for accomplishing this scheme. It would not be any worse, perhaps, than other convulsions which the world has seen ; and it would be an extraordinary relief, no doubt, to the tension of modern living, disposing of various problems, such as over-population, as well as of so much poverty, as almost to abolish that drawback to happiness—for the moment, till the new generation came up into their fathers' place.
It seems almost impossible, in talking of poverty and its burdens, which oppress so many generous minds, to think of the curious saturnalia which are described as going on at the docks, as a. real state of affairs. The picture has many characteristic touches which make it look like truth ; but can it be true ? The fantastic pranks which the ignorant and foolish multitude, with its head turned by success, its wind- fall of extravagant wages, its continual extortions, its insolent insubordination, plays before high heaven, is one of the most wonderful of spectacles. It is more like a dream of possible results, than an actual account of what is. And yet there has been no contradiction of the extraordinary tale. I cannot help wondering why the young men who are not made to succeed in examinations, as there are so many—they before whose career that barrier has been put up, whose only prospect is the Colonies and backwoods, and who are ready to endure all sorts of hardships and filthy work on ranches, &c.—do not organise a brigade of poor gentlemen to replace these arrogant and skilless dockers. Fifteen shillings a day, even occa- sionally, with one or two days in the week at 4s. 6d., is very good pay, and the work cannot be half so bad as that of the cowboy, which is what so many are looking forward to. This is a very wide subject, for it seems to me that there are a great many things which the boys might do and yet keep the comfort of their homes behind them, if they would fling away the scruples of civilisation in England as they do unhesita- tingly in Manitoba, and work at whatever their hand findeth
to do. And what could they do more easily than this simple dock-work 14 The Union docker scares and frightens the " blackleg ;" but he would not scare the well-knit, well- exercised public-school boy, who knows the use of his fists, and how to defend himself. It is the greatest pity that there should be so much strength, coolness, and discipline at the disposal of the country in a class which it is so difficult to employ, and that work should be lying undone, with a squalid carouse going on over rotting grain and neglected bales within reach. It is possible that the interference of the gentlemen might rouse a fierce struggle of class against class, and embitter the whole question ; but it is also possible that it might give the ignorant the most impressive and trenchant lesson, which even the dullest brains could not misunderstand.
I have received a letter lately on the subject of dressmakers, which I presume is intended to put to the test my assertion that a capable woman in that department of industry can command work. It describes the ease of a respectable, poor woman, who has a brutal husband and children to support, and who "says she can sew." I fear I must have made my views far from clear when this is the result. The world, as my correspondent does not seem to be aware, is full of poor women who have children to support and who say they can sew,—nay, who do sew, poor souls, God help them ! with the most lamentable results. But neither this humble statement, nor the addresses of Dressmaker Associations with which I have been favoured, have anything to do with the question. Women who can sew, or who are thought to be able to do so, are thick as leaves in Vallombrosa. It is the good work that is rare.
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