During the prevalence of a speculative mania there is not one person in ten among the English public that can be induced to weigh any arguments or facts that run counter to their fancies; but by the small proportion capable of giving heed, the following résumé of British banking experience during the twelve years from 1846 to 1857 will be considered valuable.
In 1858 an interesting paper was published by Messrs. Waterlow and Sons, under the ominous title of British Losses by Bank Failures, and extending from 1820 to 1857. In the great mania for the establishment of new banks, it may not be out of place to call attention to the general facts proved in this document. Omitting, then, the years previous to 1846, which may perhaps be considered to be out of date, and taking the twelve years from 1846 to 1857 inclusive, it appears that the liabilities of the private banks which suspended payment amounted to 6,700,000l., and those of the joint-stock banks to 40,800,000l., making a grand total of 47,500,000l. To this, moreover, must be added another 1,500,000l. for some banks, the liabilities of which are not mentioned.
Value of Horses.
As an example of the large sums produced by the sale of first-rate Horses, we may quote the following prices from the sale of the stud of the late Earl of Pembroke, at Paris, in 1862. The condition of the horses was so good that, in spite of their being aged, some of them sold for more money than Lord Pembroke paid for them years previously. Thus, a pair of bay carriage-horses, aged respectively 13 and 14, bought at Anderson’s seven years ago for 400l., fetched 600l.; and another pair, which had been bought at the same place for 600l., fetched 1088l.! Never was the policy of buying a good thing, and taking care of it, more practically proved than at this sale. Elis, a brown carriage-horse, more than 16 years old, sold for 100l.; Pilot, a bay, upwards of 15 years old, fetched 220l.; Papillon, 14 years old, 384l.; Abeille, 13 years old, 200l.; Grasshopper, a chestnut cob, 13 years old, 128l.; Zouave, a grey carriage-horse, 12 years old, 304l.; Calthorpe, a bay carriage-horse, 12 years old, 280l.; Sebastopol, a grey carriage-horse, 11 years old, 240l.; Pigeon, a brown phaeton-horse, 9 years old, 140l.; Solferino, a bay carriage-horse, 16 hands high, and 7 years old, 640l.; and Glaucus, a bay carriage-horse, 6 years old, 448l.
Friendly Societies.
The repeated failures of Friendly Societies to effect the object for which they were projected, prove how the best intentions may be defeated through want of proper foresight and calculation of probabilities, which so often reduce to certainty results which, to unthinking minds, appear mere chances.
In 1863, Mr. Tidd Pratt, the Registrar, reported: Sixty-five societies have been dissolved in the course of the year. The causes of such societies not being able to meet the claims of the members are to be found in incorrect tables for the contributions, small number of members, insecure investment of funds, and unnecessary expenses of management, which actually, in some instances, take 10s. out of every 1l. subscribed. Most of these societies still hold their meetings at public-houses, with the landlords for treasurers; and the members are required by the rules of most of the old societies to spend a monthly sum in beer “for the good of the house,” which amount is generally taken from the box, whether the members have or have not paid their contributions; and in many instances the money is not repaid to the society. In the correspondence of the year it is stated, in a letter to the Registrar respecting the affairs of a society, that it has spent nearly 1300l. of the funds “for the good of the house.” There is generally a strong party in favour of it. One letter states that a female friendly society will be obliged to break up unless they are allowed to have an annual feast and music; and an objector who is contending with the managers against any such application of the trust-funds writes:—“I can do nothing with them unless you assist me by sending a very saucy letter to the stewards.” Sometimes the law is evaded by paying an extravagant rent for the room, the excess being really allowed in beer.
The Registrar considers it to be proved by thirty-five years’ experience that some further provisions are necessary to secure to working men that they shall not be required to subscribe to these societies more than is necessary, and that they shall be certain of obtaining the benefits paid for. Returns which have been obtained from only 128 unions show about 1150 inmates in their workhouses who have been members of friendly societies which have been broken up or dissolved.
Wages heightened by Improvement in Machinery.
It is stated, in a Report of the Commissioners appointed in 1832 to inquire concerning the employment of women and children in factories, that “in the cotton-mill of Messrs. Houldsworth, in Glasgow, a spinner employed on a mule of 336 spindles, and spinning cotton 120 hanks to the pound, produced in 1823, working 74½ hours a week, 46 pounds of yarn, his net weekly wages for which amounted to 27s. 7d. Ten years later, the rate of wages having in the meantime been reduced 13 per cent., and the time of working having been lessened to 69 hours, the spinner was enabled by the greater perfection of the machinery to produce on a mule of the same number of spindles, 53½ pounds of yarn of the same fineness, and his net weekly earnings were advanced from 27s. 7d. to 29s. 10d.” Similar results from similar circumstances were experienced in the Manchester factories. The cheapening of the article produced by help of machinery increases the demand for the article; and there being consequently a need for an increased number of workmen, the elevation of wages follows as a matter of course. Nor is this the only benefit which the working-man derives in the case, for he shares with the community in acquiring a greater command over the necessities which machinery is concerned in producing.—G. R. Porter.