It has often occurred to us, and we have once or twice hinted at the
idea in the Journal, that the working-classes might make a provision
for themselves in times of want, whether occasioned by failure of
employment or natural disability through disease or old age, if they
could be induced to agree to a system of stoppages like that which has
existed for ages in the mercantile navy for the support of Greenwich
Hospital. We find that, in 1843, probably before the date of any
reference of ours to the subject, though unknown to us, Mr David
Milne, a patriotic country gentleman of Scotland, and member of the
Scottish bar, made a suggestion to this effect to the commissioners who
conducted the Poor-Law inquiry in Scotland. His idea was this:--Let
some small sum, say sixpence a month, be deducted from the amount of
wages under a law to that effect, and thrown into a fund upon which
every contributor would have a claim. He conceived that, in five
years, so much would be accumulated, that the managers might begin
to give support to any number under a twentieth part of the original
contributors. Some one had suggested to Mr Milne that it might be well
if the law taxed the masters to an equal extent for the benefit of
the fund; but he rejected this idea, on the ground of its injustice,
and because it would induce employers to be less anxious to carry on
their works in unfavourable times for the sake of giving bread to their
people. 'It is also to be considered,' says Mr Milne, 'that the duty
of sixpence a month for each workman would, in ordinary times, when
trade is prosperous, and labourers in demand, actually fall upon the
employers, because the natural competition of trade would make up for
the deduction of duty by a corresponding rise of wages.' Mr Milne was,
however, not unwilling that appeals to, and even a general assessment
upon, the rich should be resorted to when the fund failed under the
pressure of any unusual calamity.
There cannot, we think, be a doubt that if this plan were practicable,
it would be a great improvement in our social economy. At present,
the bulk of the working-people of this country have scarcely anything
to save them from a state of dependence whenever they fail in getting
work, or are no longer fit for it. In Scotland, the able-bodied man
who cannot obtain work and wages, has no legal recourse to the poors'
funds. In England he has, but accompanied by conditions calculated
to lower the man in his own eyes; and therefore the privilege is no
true advantage. Even though the poors' funds were more available than
they are, the honest workman who wishes to maintain his self-respect
can never complacently place his trust in them; for though it is not
uncommon to hear individuals in humble life proclaiming that they have
a _right_ to them, the fact really is, that these funds are only a
product of the humanity and economy of the country, designed to insure
that there shall be no class left to misery and the barbarism attending
it, but not to interpose between any one and his obligation to gain his
own subsistence if possible. In plain truth, he who accepts parochial
relief sells away some of his very best rights as a citizen, as well
as his dignity as a man; and any one who wishes to exalt either the
social or political position of the labouring-class, should desire
nothing so much as to see them in the first place superior to all but
a remote chance of coming to this wretched expedient. If any feasible
and easy-working plan could be devised for enabling them, mainly by
sacrifices on their own part, to defy the prospect of becoming paupers,
or leaving their children to pauperism, they would certainly have
received the greatest boon that any philanthropist could confer upon
them.
We fear that no such plan is at present practicable. There is too much
prejudice among the labouring-class against their employers to admit of
its being received with general favour. While an honourable minority
would be glad to see their independence secured, the great mass would
undoubtedly prefer going on upon their present footing, careless how
soon the failure of business or the occurrence of sickness should
deprive them of an independent subsistence. Some such plan, however,
may be expected to be realised when the labouring-class shall have
acquired a just feeling for their own character, and a just sense
of their relation to the rest of society. It would only be a fair
and proper part of a social system in which the highest behests of a
true civilisation were worked out. How soon it may come about will
depend on the rapidity with which the education of the masses of the
people shall proceed. If, from any narrow views of whatever kind, a
member of the middle or upper classes in this country finds himself
thwarting the movements towards universal and improved education, let
him understand what he pays for the gratification he thus obtains. He
pays for it in large poor-rates and prison-rates, and in the distress
which his humanity must be continually receiving from the spectacle of
a multitude of his fellow-creatures lost to the sense of self-respect,
and consequently subjected to a vast load of misery.