NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE.
I. I am surprised to find that my Index to Vols. I. and II. of Fors does not contain the important article ‘Pockets’; and that I cannot therefore, without too much trouble, refer to the place where I have said that the Companions of St. George are all to have glass pockets; so that the absolute contents of them may be known of all men. But, indeed, this society of ours is, I believe, to be distinguished from other close brotherhoods that have been, or that are, chiefly in this, that it will have no secrets, and that its position, designs, successes, and failures, may at any moment be known to whomsoever they may concern.
More especially the affairs of the Master and of the Marshals, when we become magnificent enough to have any, must be clearly known, seeing that these are to be the managers of public revenue. For although, as we shall in future see, they will be held more qualified for such high position by contentment in poverty than responsibility of wealth; and, if the society is wise, be chosen always from among men of advanced age, whose previous lives have been recognized as utterly without stain of dishonesty in management of their private business,—the complete publication of their accounts, private as well as public, from the day they enter on the management of the Company’s funds, will be a most wholesome check on the glosses with which self-interest, in the minds even of the honestest people, sometimes may colour or [[62]]confuse their actions over property on a large scale; besides being examples to the accountants of other public institutions.
For instance, I am myself a Fellow of the Horticultural Society; and, glancing the other day at its revenue accounts for 1874, observed that out of an expenditure of eleven thousand odd pounds, one thousand nine hundred and sixty-two went to pay interest on debts, eleven hundred and ninety to its ‘salaries’—two hundred to its botanical adviser, a hundred and fifty to its botanical professor, a hundred and twenty-six to its fruit committee, a hundred and twenty to its floral committee, four hundred and twenty to its band, nine hundred and ten to its rates and taxes, a hundred and eighty-five to its lawyers, four hundred and thirty-nine to its printers, and three pounds fifteen shillings to its foreign importations’ account, (being interest on Cooper’s loan): whereupon I wrote to the secretary expressing some dissatisfaction with the proportion borne by this last item to the others, and asking for some further particulars respecting the ‘salaries’; but was informed that none could be had. Whereas, whether wisely or foolishly directed, the expenditure of the St. George’s Company will be always open, in all particulars, to the criticism not only of the Companions, but of the outside public. And Fors has so arranged matters that I cannot at all, for my own part, invite such criticism to-day with feelings of gratified vanity; my own immediate position (as I generally stated in last letter) being not in the least creditable to my sagacity, nor likely to induce a large measure of public confidence in me as the Company’s Master. Nor are even the affairs of the Company itself, in my estimate, very brilliant, our collected subscriptions for the reform of the world amounting, as will be seen, in five years, only to some seven hundred and odd pounds. However, the Company and its Master may perhaps yet see better days.
First, then, for the account of my proceedings in the Company’s affairs. Our eight thousand Consols giving us £240 a year, I [[63]]have appointed a Curator to the Sheffield Museum, namely, Mr. Henry Swan, an old pupil of mine in the Working Men’s College in London; and known to me since as an estimable and trustworthy person, with a salary of forty pounds a year, and residence. He is obliged at present to live in the lower rooms of the little house which is to be the nucleus of the museum:—as soon as we can afford it, a curator’s house must be built outside of it.
I have advanced, as aforesaid, a hundred pounds of purchase-money, and fifty for current expenses; and paid, besides, the lawyers’ bills for the transfer, amounting to £48 16s. 7d.; these, with some needful comments on them, will be published in next Fors; I have not room for them in this.
I have been advised of several mistakes in my subscribers’ list, so I reprint it below, with the initials attached to the numbers, and the entire sum, (as far as I can find out,) hitherto subscribed by each; and I beg of my subscribers at once to correct me in all errors.
The names marked with stars are those of Companions. The numbers 10, 17, 36, 43, and 48 I find have been inaccurately initialled, and are left blank for correction.
List of Subscriptions
| £ | s. | d. | ||
| 1. | D. L.* | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| 2. | R. T.* | 80 | 0 | 0 |
| 3. | T. K. | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 4. | C. S. | 75 | 0 | 0 |
| 5. | A. R. | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| 6. | J. M.* | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| 7. | P. S. | 45 | 0 | 0 |
| 8. | D. A. | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| 9. | A. B. | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| 10. | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 11. | G. S.* | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 12. | J. S. | 4 | 0 | 0 [[64]] |
| 13. | B. A. | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 14. | A. P. | 13 | 10 | 0 |
| 15. | W. P. | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 16. | A. H.*. | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| 17. | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 18. | F. E. | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 19. | J. S. | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| 20. | — D. | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 21. | C. W. | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| 22. | S. B.*. | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 23. | E. G. | 6 | 1 | 0 |
| 24. | — L. | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 25. | S. W. | 55 | 0 | 0 |
| 26. | B. B.*. | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 27. | J. W. | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 28. | E. F. | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| 29. | L. L. | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| 30. | A. A. | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| 31. | T. D. | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 32. | M. G. | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| 33. | J. F. | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 34. | W. S. | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 35. | H. S. | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 36. | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 37. | A. H. | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 38. | S. S. | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 39. | H. W. | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| 40. | J. F. | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 41. | J. T. | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 42. | J. O. | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| 43. | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 44. | A. C. | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 45. | J. G. | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 46. | T. M. | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| 47. | J. B.*. | 2 | 11 | 0 |
| 48. | 1 | 1 | 0 [[65]] | |
| 49. | J. D. | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 50. | G. | 15 | 15 | 0 |
| 51. | F. B. | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 52. | C. B. | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 53. | H. L. | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 54. | A. G. | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| £741 | 14 | 10 |
II. Affairs of the Master.
When I instituted the Company by giving the tenth of my available property to it, I had, roughly, seventy thousand pounds in money or land, and thirty thousand[3] in pictures and books. The pictures and books I do not consider mine, but merely in my present keeping, for the country, or the persons I may leave them to. Of the seventy thousand in substance, I gave away fourteen thousand in that year of the Company’s establishment, (see above, Letter XLIX., p. 2,) and have since lost fifteen thousand by a relation whom I tried to support in business. As also, during my battle with the booksellers, I have been hitherto losing considerably by my books, (last year, for instance, paying three hundred and ninety-eight pounds to my assistant, Mr. Burgess, alone, for plates and woodcutting, and making a profit, on the whole year’s sales, of fifty pounds), and have been living much beyond my income besides, my seventy thousand is reduced to certainly not more than thirty; and it is very clear that I am too enthusiastically carrying out my own principles, and making more haste to be poor than is prudent, at my present date of possible life, for, at my current rate of expenditure, the cell at Assisi, above contemplated as advisably a pious mortification of my luxury, would soon [[66]]become a necessary refuge for my ‘holy poverty.’ The battle with the booksellers, however, is now nearly won; and the publishing accounts will soon show better balance: what changes in my mode of living may, nevertheless, be soon either exemplary or necessary will be better understood after I have given account of it for a year.
Here are my opening expenses, then, from 1st January to 20th, and in each following Fors they will be given from 20th to 20th of the month. I content myself, being pressed for space in this number, with giving merely the sums of cheques drawn; somewhat lengthy gossiping explanation of items being also needed, which will come in due place. The four first large sums are, of course, payments of Christmas accounts.
| £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | ||
| Balance in Bank, 1st Jan. 1876 | 1344 | 17 | 9 | ||||
| Paid by cheque: | |||||||
| Jan. 1. | Jackson, (outdoor Steward, Brantwood) | 50 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 1. | Kate Smith, (indoor Stewardess, Brantwood) | 160 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 1. | David Downes, (Steward in London) | 115 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 1. | David Fudge, (Coachman in London) | 60 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 1. | Secretary, 1st quarter, 1876 | 25 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 4. | Frederick Crawley, in charge of school-rooms at Oxford | 10 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 6. | Self, pocket-money | 20 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 17. | Arthur Burgess, assistant engraver | 27 | 10 | 0 | |||
| 20. | New carriage | 190 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 20. | Gift to Carshalton, for care of spring | 110 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 20. | Madame Nozzoli, charities at Florence | 10 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 20. | Mrs. Wonnacott, charities at Abingdon | 3 | 10 | 0 | |||
| 20. | William Ward, for two copies of Turner | 21 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 20. | Charles Murray, for rubbings of brasses, and copy of Filippo Lippi | 15 | 0 | 0 | |||
| ——— | 817 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Balance Jan. 20 | 527 | 17 | 9 | ||||
[[67]]
III. I am gradually rising into greater indignation against the baseness and conceit of the modern scientific mob, than even against the mere money-seekers. The following fragment of a letter from a Companion bears notably on this matter:—
“The only earnest folks I know are cold-hearted ‘Freethinkers,’ and not very earnest either. My church-going friends are not earnest, except about their form of sound words. But I get on best with them. They are warmer, and would be what I wish, were circumstances not so dead set against it. My ‘Freethinking’ acquaintances say that with Carlyle the last of the great dreamers who have impeded the advance of science will pass away, and that, in fact, he is dead already, for nobody minds him. I don’t heed such words now as I used to do. Had I lived when Socrates was condemned, I would have felt hope extinguished; yet Jesus came long after him, and I will not fear that God will fail to send His great and good men, any more than that the sun will forget to rise.
“My Freethinking friends sneer even at the mention of any God; and their talk of methods of reformation that infer any wisdom above their own has long since sickened me. One Sunday evening last year, I accompanied one of them to what they call the ‘Eclectic Hall’ here, to hear a Mrs. Law speak. There were from two to three hundred present,—few women—almost all toil-worn looking men. Mrs. Law, the lecturess—a stout, coarse-looking lady, or woman who might have been a lady—based her address on another by Mr. Gladstone, M.P. One thing she said will give you an idea of the spirit of her lecture, which was full of sadness to me, because highly appreciated by her audience: ‘Jesus tells you,’ she shouted, ‘ “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven,” but I tell you, Blessed are the rich, for theirs is no myth-world, but this substantial one with its tangible, satisfying joys.’
“I got one of them to read the October Letter—and then [[68]]Volumes I. and IV. of Fors. Another young fellow, a Londoner, read them too, and then at leisure moments there was a talk over them for some days. But, with the exception of the first referred to, they talked pitifully enough. Your incidental remark about destroying the new town of Edinburgh, and other items of dubious sort, blinded them to any good, and it was a blessing when something else came athwart their vacant minds, and they ceased to remember you.”
IV. I am grateful for the following note on the name ‘Sheffield’:—
“Leeds, 29th Dec, 1875.
“Sir,—The town, in all probability, took its name from the river ‘Sheaf,’ which flows into the Don.
“Doncaster is a case in point out of hundreds of others. It may be that the river has been named in recent times, but it is unlikely; for as a rule a river always has some name by which it is known before any settlements are made on its banks.”
V. I must now request my reader’s attention somewhat gravely to the questions in debate between my correspondents at Wakefield; not that these are in themselves of any importance, but they are of extreme importance in their general issue. In the first place, observe the extreme difficulty of writing history. You shall have one impertinent coxcomb after another in these days, writing constitutional Histories of England and the like, and telling you all the relationships and all the motives of Kings and Queens a thousand years dead; and here is question respecting the immediate ancestor of a living lady, which does not appear at once or easily determinable; and which I do not therefore pursue;—here again is question respecting the connection of her husband with the cases of bribery reported in the subjoined evidence on the Wakefield election petition, also indeterminable;—here are [[69]]farther two or three questions respecting the treatment of his workmen, respecting which the evidence is entirely conflicting; and finally, here is the chapel on Wakefield bridge pulled down,[4] a model of it built in its place, and the entire front of the historical building carried away to decorate a private boathouse; and I, quite as knowing in architecture as most people, am cheated into some very careful and quite useless work, and even into many false conclusions, by the sculpture of the sham front, decayed and broken enough in thirty years to look older than sculpture of 500 years B.C. would, or does, in pure air.
Observe, in the second place, how petulant and eager people are, the moment a single word touches themselves, while universal abuses may be set before them enough to bring all the stones in heaven but what serve for the thunder, down about their ears,—and they will go on talking about Shakspeare and the musical glasses undisturbed, to the end of their lives; but let a single word glance at their own windows, or knock at their own doors, and—instantly—‘If Mr. Ruskin is what I think him, he will retract,’ etc. etc. But, alas! Mr. Ruskin is not the least what Mrs. Green thinks him,—does not in the smallest degree care for a lady’s “Fie’s,” and, publishing the following letters and newspaper extracts for the general reader’s satisfaction and E. L.’s justification, very contentedly, for his part, ends the discussion, though of course Fors shall be open to any further communication, if not too long, which either Mrs. Green or her husband may desire to have inserted.
In the following letter I have left all the passages containing due apology, while I have removed some which contained matter of further debate, if not offence, thereby much weakening the whole.
“Dear Mr. Ruskin,—I have been away from home, and have only recently seen Mrs. Green’s letter in the Fors of last month. [[70]]
“I am sorry to have vexed her; I did not think that you would print the passages referring to her husband in the form in which they stood.[5]
“When you said that you would assume my permission to print passages from the letter, I supposed that they would be those relating to the general life of Wakefield. All that I have written is essentially true, but I do not wish to hold any controversy on the matter, for if I defended myself publicly I should have to wound still further the feelings of one who is no doubt a devoted wife.
“It is for your satisfaction alone that I write these lines. I have been inaccurate on two points, on which I wrote too hastily, from hearsay, gleaned on brief visits to Wakefield. Mr. Green has not a Scotch estate, only occasional shooting, and he is not concerned in the forges that stand near the bridge, as I was wrongly informed.
“I did not say, though I may have led your readers to infer it, that the so-called ‘American devil’ was his. I knew, or rather was told, that it belonged to Whithams, who have the largest foundry. He (Mr. Green) does not forge iron, it seems; he makes it into machines. He can hardly be classed as an engineer; he is a machine-maker. If he is not an ‘iron lord,’ on what is his wealth based?
“Robin the Pedlar is no myth. I often heard him mentioned, when a girl, as being Mrs. Green’s father. I dare say that Mrs. Edward Green never heard of him. She came into the family in its genteeler days; but there are old people in Wakefield who remember all about him. I send by this post a Wakefield paper containing some speeches highly illustrative of the town of which Mr. Green is the hero and model.” (These I do not think it necessary to publish.) “Party feeling still runs high at Wakefield, and when the next election occurs, Mrs. Green expects to find big yellow bills on the gate-pillars of Heath Common, [[71]]‘Professor Ruskin on Ned Green,’ and she is naturally angry.
“Of course he is not the sole offender. This case occurred to me because he is the most prominent type of the modern successful men who are to inaugurate a new era in the town’s history. It is the blind leader of the blind in the downward way that things are going. Everybody wants to get rich like him; everybody who has greed and competence pushes to the front. The town council promise them that they will make of Wakefield a second Bradford. Meanwhile they squabble about their duties, the streets are filthy, smallpox breeds there, and they set up a hospital in a tent. It catches fire, and nurse and patients are burnt together. I think that was eight or nine years since. Possibly arrangements are better now.
“You say truly that quickly acquired fortunes must be ill acquired, but you must live on my level to realize fully how the prospect and possibility of such gains are disorganizing middle-class life. English people do not lift their families along with them, as we reproach the ‘clannish’ Scotch with doing.
“Ignorant pride on the one hand, envy on the other, breed hate between those who should be a mutual stay. As classes are estranged, so are families.
“In conclusion, I must again say that I shall always feel regret at having pained Mrs. Green, but what I have said is true in all essentials.
“He is the hero of the men who are changing Wakefield so rapidly. I liked it better thirty years since, when, if it was poor, it was clean and honest.
“I am, dear Mr. Ruskin, yours truly,
“E. L.”
I print the following first portion (about the fourth part) of a column and a half of the evidence on the Wakefield election [[72]]petition, sent me by my correspondent; though I do not suppose it to indicate anything more than compliance on Mr. Green’s part with the ordinary customs of English electioneering.
“The trial of the petition against the return of Mr. Green, the Conservative member for Wakefield, was resumed this morning before Mr. Justice Grove. Mr. Hawkins, Q.C., and Mr. Chandos Leigh again appeared for the petitioners, and Mr. C. Russell, Q.C., and Mr. Forbes for the respondent. There was again a crowded attendance.
John Thompson, a tailor, and a voter in the Northgate Ward, said that about half-past six o’clock, on Sunday, the 1st February—the day before the polling—‘Councillor Joe’ (Mr. J. Howden) called at his house and solicited his vote for Mr. Green. Witness said he did not think that he could give it, but if he did he must ‘have something.’ Mr. Howden said, ‘If it’s worth anything I’ll let you know.’ About half-past one o’clock on the polling day witness again saw him. Mr. Howden said, ‘If you vote for Green, I’ll send you 10s. for your day’s wage.’ Witness said, ‘No;’ and they parted.
Cross-examined: Witness did not say to Mr. Howden that he had already been offered a couple of pounds. He was a strong Radical. Mr. Howden was at witness’s house several times, but he only saw him once. He (witness) voted about half-past two in the afternoon.
Elizabeth Thompson, wife of the last witness, said that on the Saturday and Sunday before the polling day Mr. J. Howden called to solicit her husband’s vote, and he said, ‘If he votes for Green, I’ll see that he is paid.’ On the Monday, when Mr. Howden called, he said, ‘If your husband votes for Green I’ll give him 5s. out of my own pocket, and see that he is ‘tipped’ in the committee room.’ Later in the day, her husband was at home when Howden called, and they left the house together. [[73]]
Henry Blades, a blacksmith’s striker, and a voter in the Westgate ward, said that on the day of the election Mr. Ough gave him £2 in the Finisher Off public-house, on condition that he voted for Mr. Green. Witness voted in the course of the day.
Cross-examined: Witness, since he received his subpœna, had met Mr. Gill, the respondent’s solicitor, and others, at the Bull Hotel, and put his name to a paper, of the nature of which he was ignorant.
Mr. Russell: Was it not a statement, made by yourself, and taken down in writing, to the effect that you had never received any bribe or offer of a bribe?
Witness: I don’t know. They asked me to sign the paper, and I signed it. I was not sober.
Re-examined by Mr. Hawkins: Witness was sent for to the Bull. He received there, after making his statement, two glasses of beer, and 5s. in money—the latter from Mr. Ough.
Henry Lodge said that on the afternoon of the election he was in Farrar’s beerhouse, in Westgate. Blade was there ‘fresh,’ and taking three half-sovereigns from his pocket, he threw them on the table, and said, ‘That’s the sort to have.’
James Meeghan, an Irish labourer, said that he was a voter for the borough, and on the polling day was canvassed by Mr. Kay for the Conservatives. He met Mr. Kay in the polling booth, and received from him 10s. Before voting, witness said to Mr. Kay that he was a poor man and could not afford to lose his day’s wage. Mr. Kay said, ‘I can’t give you a bribe—that’s against the law; but as you have had to pay your mates for doing your work, you shall have something.’ In the polling station Mr. Kay held a half-sovereign in his hand, behind him, and witness took it.
Cross-examined: Mr. Kay offered witness the 10s. out of his own pocket.
Mr. Russell (to the Judge): What this man says is quite true. [[74]]Mr. Kay does not deny that he gave him half a sovereign for his loss of time.
Patrick M’Hugh, an Irish labourer, and a voter in the Northgate Ward, said that on the polling day he visited the Conservative Committee-room at the Zetland School, and saw Mr. Tom Howden. Mr. Howden said, ‘Are you going to vote?’ Witness replied, ‘I suppose so;’ and Mr. Howden said, ‘Come this way and I’ll show you how.’ Witness was taken into a back room, and there Mr. Howden said, ‘Well, how much?’ Witness said, ‘Three,’ and Mr. Howden took them out of his pocket (three sovereigns), and said, ‘See there.’ Witness took the money and voted. He had, since receiving his subpœna, been away from Wakefield.
Cross-examined: Witness had visited Harrogate—staying a week there to take the waters—(laughter),—and afterwards Thirsk. He paid his own expenses and travelled alone, having been recommended by a doctor to go away for the benefit of his health.
Mr. Russell: Who was the doctor?
Witness: Mr. Unthank—(great laughter);—Mr. Unthank being a chemist, and a prominent Liberal. He said that if I could go, and was strong enough, a bit of an out would do me good. (Laughter.) The £3 that I received at the election supported me while I was away.
James Wright, a police officer of the borough of Wakefield, said that on the polling day he was acting as door-keeper at the Zetland Street polling station, and observed Mr. Priestly hand some money to one who presented himself as a voter. Witness followed the voter into the booth, and pointed him out to his superior officer. The man voted, and then left. Mr. Priestly was busily employed during the polling hours in conducting voters from the Conservative committee-room to the polling station. [[75]]
Cross-examined: At half-past three Priestly was ‘fresh’ in drink, and it was found necessary to keep him out of the polling station. He was in Mr. Green’s employment. Witness could not say what amount of money passed; but some one in the crowd, who also saw the transaction, said to Priestly, ‘You are doing it too brown.’ (Laughter.)”
The letters next following are from an entirely honest engineer workman, a Companion of St. George.
“Dear Master,—I read Mrs. Green’s letter in the November Fors two or three days ago, and yesterday I adopted the hint in it to inquire amongst the workmen. I asked one working beside me, who I knew came from Yorkshire, if he ever worked in Wakefield, and, curiously enough, he belongs there, and was apprenticed in a workshop close to Mr. Green’s. He says he knows the place well, and that certainly when he was there, ‘At six o’clock, or some approximate hour,’ the firm of Green and Son, ‘issued its counter-order’ with a horrible noise; and not only at six o’clock, but also after meals.
“He also tells me that the wages of a working engineer in the workshop of Green and Son average 22s. a week, and I know that here, in London, they average 38s. a week, and Wakefield is close to coal and iron, while London is not. It may be, as I once heard it, urged that the workmen in London are superior as workmen to those in the provinces; but my experience, which has been considerable in London and the provinces as a working engineer, enables me to assert that this is not the case. Also it may be urged that low wages prevail in the provinces, but in Glasgow I got 30s. a week two years ago, and this week meant fifty-one hours, while in Wakefield a week’s work means fifty-four hours.
“Since Mr. Green derives no pecuniary benefit from Wakefield, it is evident from the above that the London and Glasgow engineers are very ingenious persons indeed, if they contrive to get [[76]]pecuniary benefit from the cities in which they issue their ‘counter-order.’
“Moreover, my fellow-workman tells me that there is a system of piece-work carried on in the workshop of Green and Son, which is extended to the apprentices, so that the boys are set to think, not how to learn to work properly, but how to learn to get hold of the greatest number of shillings they can in a week. In the man the desire for more money is tempered with forethought: he knows that if he earns more than a certain amount the price of his job will be cut down; but the boy does not consider this, and his price, to use the language of the workshop, is cut down accordingly.
“Mrs. Green in her letter says Mr. Green never had a forge. This means that he never had a place which exclusively turned out forgings. But connected with Mrs. Green’s establishment, my fellow-workman tells me, are forges, as indeed there are in every engineering work I have seen. Besides, there is constantly carried on a process of moulding ‘pig iron’ at Mr. Green’s place, which requires the most intense heat, and to which the workmen are exposed, as they are at the forge Mrs. Green speaks of. (In your lectures to the students at Oxford in 1870, you say that work requiring the use of fire must be reduced to its minimum, and speak of its effects in Greek. I know some of its evil effects on the blacksmiths, but I wonder if it is desirable for me to know the meaning of the Greek language you use on that occasion.) (Yes; but you need not be in any hurry about it.)
“It would seem, then, that Mr. Green stays at Heath Hall, and cultivates an ideal refinement in art, while he is instrumental in causing two or three hundred men and boys in Wakefield, from whom he derives no pecuniary benefit, to cultivate there the fine art of music in the shriek and roar of machines all day, to cultivate a trader’s eagerness for bargaining, instead of a wish to do good [[77]]work, and to cultivate an acquaintance with the sort of work which, over ten years constant experience in it tells me, is the most effective in this country for qualifying themselves and others for admission to the Ophthalmic, Orthopedic, and other institutions mentioned by your correspondent, E. L.
“Last week I had intelligence of the death of a young engineer friend of mine. A boiler burst while he was standing by, and shot him a distance of 60 yards, killing him instantly.
“Dear Master, if I have made a mistake in troubling you with these notes on Mrs. Green’s letter, I am sorry, but I could not resist the impulse to write to you after what I learned from my fellow-workman. I believe the facts are reliable, and at any rate I can give the workman’s name who furnished them, if it is wanted.”
“Dear Master,—Since I wrote to you last I chanced on another workman, who has worked in Green’s shop. He tells me it is known among the workmen as ‘The Port in a Storm.’
“My first informant also, unasked, wrote to Wakefield for further information. He showed me the letter in reply, which says that Green’s whistle (it is also called a ‘buzzard’) was not stopped till force was applied.
“ ‘The Port in a Storm’ means that only when assailed by the fierce storm of hunger do the workmen think of applying for work at Green’s place; that is, when they can’t get work anywhere else in the neighbourhood.”
These letters appear to me entirely to justify the impression under which E. L. wrote; but of course I shall be most happy if Mr. Green will furnish me with more accurate indication of the persons who have made Wakefield the horrible spectacle that it is. For although many of my discreet friends cry out upon [[78]]me for allowing ‘personalities,’ it is my firm conviction that only by justly personal direction of blame can any abuse be vigorously dealt with. And, as I will answer for the sincerity and impartiality of attack, so I trust to make it always finally accurate in aim and in limitation. [[79]]
[2] The law of its course will be given in the ‘Laws of Fésole,’ Plate V. [↑]
[3] An under-estimate, at present prices for Turner drawings, and I have hitherto insured for full thirty thousand, but am now going to lower the insurance, for no money would replace the loss of them, and I less and less regard them as exchangeable property. [↑]
[4] I have not space in this Fors to give the letter certifying me of this. [↑]