Venice, October 20th.—I have sent for press, to-day, the fourth number
of ‘Deucalion,’ in which will be found a statement of the system on
which I begin the arrangement of the Sheffield Museum.
There are no new subscriptions to announce. Another donation, of fifty
pounds, by Mrs. Talbot, makes me sadly ashamed of the apathy of all my
older friends. I believe, in a little while now, it will be well for me
to throw them all aside, and refuse to know any one but my own
Companions, and the workmen who are willing to listen to me. I have
spoken enough to the upper classes, and they mock me;—in the seventh
year of Fors I will speak more clearly than hitherto,—but not to them.
Meantime, my Sheffield friends must not think I am neglecting them,
because I am at work here in Venice, instead of among them. They will
know in a little while the use of my work here. The following portions
of letter from the Curator of our Museum, with the piece of biography
in it, which I venture to print, in haste, assuming permission, will be
of good service to good workers everywhere.
“H. Swan to J. Ruskin.
“Walkley, Sheffield, October 18, 1876.
“Dear Master,—The interest in the Museum seems still increasing.
Yesterday (Sunday), in addition to our usual allotment of casual calls
at the Museum, we had a visit from a party of working men; two or three
of them from Barnsley, but the most Sheffielders, among which last were
several of those who came to meet thee on the last occasion. Their
object was a double one; first, to see what progress we were making
with the Museum; and, secondly, to discuss the subject of Usury, the
unlawfulness of which, in its ordinary aspects, being (unlike the land
question) a perfectly new notion to all except one or two. The
objection generally takes this shape: ‘If I have worked hard to earn
twenty pounds, and it is an advantage to another to have the use of
that twenty pounds, why should he get that advantage without paying me
for it?’ To which my reply has been, There may, or may not, be reasons
why the lender should be placed in a better position for using his
powers of body or mind; but the special question for you, with your
twenty pounds, now is, not what right has he to use the money without
payment—(he has every right, if you give him leave; and none, if you
don’t;)—the question you have to propose to yourself is this, ‘Why
should I, as a man and a Christian, after having been paid for what I
have earned, expect or desire to make an agreement by which I may get,
from the labour of others, money I have not earned?’ Suppose, too, bail
for a hundred pounds to be required for a prisoner in whose innocence
you believed, would you say ‘I will be bail for the hundred pounds, but
I shall expect five pounds from him for the advantage he will thereby
get?’ No; the just man would weigh well whether it be right or no to
undertake the bail; but, having determined, he would shrink from
receiving the unearned money, as I believe the first unwarped instinct
of a good man does still in the case of a loan.
“Although, as I have said, all question as to the right of what is
called a moderate rate of interest was new to most of our visitors, yet
I found a greater degree of openness to the truth than might have been
expected. One of the most interesting parts of the discussion was the
relation by one of the party of his own experiences, in years past, as
a money-lender. ‘In the place where I used to work at that time,’ said
he, ‘there was a very many of a good sort of fellows who were not so
careful of their money as I was, and they used often to run out of cash
before the time came for them to take more. Well, knowing I was one
that always had a bit by me, they used to come to me to borrow a bit to
carry them through to pay-day. When they paid me, some would ask if I
wanted aught for the use of it. But I only lent to pleasure them, and I
always said, No, I wanted nought. One day, however, Jack —— came to me,
and said, “Now, my lad, dost want to get more brass for thyself, and
lay by money? because I can put thee in the way of doing it.” I said
that was a great object for me. “Well,” said he, “thou must do as I
tell thee. I know thou’rt often lending thy brass to them as want a
lift. Now thou must make them pay for using thy money, and if thou
works as I tell thee, it’ll grow and grow. And by-and-by they’ll be
paying and paying for the use of their own money over and over again.”
Well, I thought it would be a good thing for me to have the bits of
cash come in and in, to help along with what I earned myself. So I told
each of the men, as they came, that I couldn’t go on lending for
nothing, and they must pay me a bit more when they got their pay. And
so they did. After a time, Jack —— came again, and said, “Well, how’rt
getting on?” So I told him what I was doing, and that seemed all right.
After a time, he came again, and said, “Now thou finds what I said was
right. The men can spare thee a bit for thy money, and it makes things
a deal more comfortable for thyself. Now I can show thee how a hundred
of thy money shall bring another hundred in.” “Nay,” said I, “thou
canst not do that. That can’t be done.” “Nay, but it can,” said Jack.
And he told me how to manage; and that when I hadn’t the cash, he would
find it, and we’d halve the profits. [Say a man wants to borrow twenty
pounds, and is to pay back at three shillings a week. The interest is
first deducted for the whole time, so that if he agrees to pay only
five per cent. he will receive but nineteen pounds; then the interest
is more than five per cent. on the money actually out during the very
first week, while the rate gradually rises as the weekly payments
come,—slowly at first, but at the last more and more rapidly, till,
during the last month, the money-lender is obtaining two hundred per
cent. for the amount (now, however, very small) still unpaid.]
“‘Well, it grew and grew. Hundreds and hundreds I paid and received
every week, (and we found that among the poorest little shops it worked
the best for us). At last it took such hold of me that I became a
regular bloodsucker—a bloodsucker of poor folk, and nothing else. I was
always reckoning up, night and day, how to get more and more, till I
got so thin and ill I had to go to the doctor. It was old Dr. Sike, and
he said, “Young man, you must give up your present way of work and
life, or I can do nothing for you. You’ll get worse and worse.”
“‘So I thought and thought, and at last I made up my mind to give it
all up, though I was then getting rich. But there was no blessing on
what I’d got, and I lost it every farthing, and had to begin again as
poor as I was when I first left the workhouse to learn a trade. And
now, I’ve prospered and prospered in my little way till I’ve no cause
to worry anyways about money, and I’ve a few men at work with me in my
shop.
“‘Still, for all that, I don’t see why I shouldn’t have interest on the
little capital I’ve saved up honestly; or how am I to live in my old
age?’
“Another workman suggested, ‘Wouldn’t he be able to live on his
capital?’ ‘Aye, but I want to leave that to somebody else,’ was the
answer. [Yes, good friend, and the same excuse might be made for any
form of theft.—J. R.]
“I will merely add, that if there were enforced and public account of
the amount of monies advanced on loan, and if the true conditions and
workings of those loans could be shown, there would be revealed such an
amount of cruel stress upon the foolish, weak, and poor of the small
tradesmen (a class far more numerous than are needed) as would render
it very intelligible why so many faces are seamed with lines of
suffering and anxiety. I think it possible that the fungus growth and
increasing mischief of these loan establishments may reach such a pitch
as to necessitate legislative interference, as has been the case with
gambling. But there will never fail modes of evading the law, and the
sufficient cure will be found only when men shall consider it a
dishonour to have it imputed to them that any portion of their income
is derived from usury.”
THE UNION BANK OF LONDON (CHANCERY LANE BRANCH) IN
ACCOUNT WITH THE ST. GEORGE’S FUND.
1876. Dr. £ s. d.
Aug. 16. To Balance. 94 3 4
Oct. 12. ” Draft at Bridgwater (per Mr. Ruskin) 50 0 0
24. ” (J. P. Stilwell) 25 0 0
----------
£169 3 4
==========
Cr. £ s. d.
Oct. 12. By Postage of Pass Book 0 0 3
25. Balance 169 3 1
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£169 3 4
==========