Anything offering a man inducement to save must be attended with
beneficial results. As society is constituted, a spendthrift is a
nuisance and a curse; the charge hitherto against the working classes of
this country has been, that they have been reckless and improvident--that
they are beggars one day and spendthrifts the next--that the money gained
with such difficulty is squandered away with a wicked wastefulness, such
as can be paralleled in no other part of the world. The English lower
orders have always been thus improvident. During the late war the
sailors, when on shore, would resort to every absurdity to get rid of
their money. Colonel Landman tells us of one who had just received prize
money to the amount of 500 pounds, and, being allowed only one week in
which to get rid of it, had, to do so more effectually, hired a carriage
and four for himself, another for his hat, and another for his cudgel, in
which style he travelled to London. A common sight at Plymouth was that
of sailors sitting on the ground breaking watches to pieces for a glass
of grog, for which they had previously paid 5 pounds each; one
hard-hearted captain having refused leave to a sailor to go on shore, the
man, in the bitterness of his disappointment, filled a pint pot with
guineas and threw them overboard, as he could not immediately derive
enjoyment from their use. It is true a great change has been effected in
this respect, and society has reaped the benefit. A man who saves money
is not a drain upon his friend; is not a dissipated man; costs society
less, and does more for it than another man. The self-imposed taxation
of the working classes has been set down by Mr. Porter at fifty millions
a-year. In reality it is much more: there is loss of time--there is
sickness induced by intemperance--there are the gaols, and
police-stations, and police, which would be much less expensive were the
intemperance of the country less. Thus, if you change a nation of
spendthrifts into a nation of economical men, you bring about a great and
glorious result. Such a nation never can be poor. It will always have
capital, and capital is the fund out of which labour is maintained, out
of which the arts that humanise and bless mankind spring--out of which
the soft humanities of life arise. Thus, then, the Freehold Land
Movement is attended with great moral and social good. Viewed
politically, also, it must be considered to have had the same result. It
is something to have made a man an independent voter--to have made him
feel that he has won his political rights for himself--that he has no
need to cringe and beg--to have taught him that--
"Man who man would be
Must rule the empire of himself."
Such a man will infuse fresh blood into the constituency. He will not
give a vote like a browbeaten tradesman or a dependent tenant-farmer.
His landlord will not be able to drive him to the polling-booth like a
sheep. On the contrary, he will go there erect and free--a man, and not
a slave. In every point of view, indeed, the benefits of the movement
are immense. In the neighbourhood of all our large towns estates are
being built on, where the members of the different societies living on
their own freeholds enjoy the blessings of pure air, and light, and
water, of which otherwise they would have been deprived. In Birmingham
the mortality amongst children has been already lessened 2.5 per cent. in
consequence of this very fact. If it be true that we cannot get the
healthy mind without the healthy body, this is something gained; but when
we further remember that the money thus profitably invested would most of
it have been squandered in reckless enjoyment--in body and soul
destroying drink--it is clear nothing more need be said. It was
calculated that out of 25,000 pounds received by the Birmingham Society,
20,000 pounds have been saved from those sinks of poison, the dram-shop
and the beer-house. Mr. James Taylor tells us, "Our working men are
beginning to ponder the often-quoted saying that every time they swallow
a glass of ale they swallow a portion of land. From calculations which
have been made, it appears that the average price of land is 5.5d. per
yard, and therefore every time a man drinks a quart of ale he engulphs at
the same time a yard of solid earth." Nor is Mr. Taylor alone in his
testimony. A correspondent of the _Freeholder_ at Leominster stated,
that instead of money being spent in drink it was devoted to the society
there. In a late report of the Committee of the Coventry Society we read
that "one of the most pleasing results of the society's operations is the
improved moral habits of many of its members." The North and East Riding
Society also reported "The society's operations produce the best effects
on the habits of its poorer members by encouraging them to save money
from the public house." Similar testimony was also borne by the
Newcastle Committee, and at Darlington we learn that the society has been
the means of converting many of its members into steady members of
society, and instead of finding them at the ale-bench, wrote a
correspondent, a few months since, "you may now see them at our
Mechanics' Institution, gaining all the information they can." Thus,
then, the Freehold Movement is creating everywhere a great moral
revolution. It teaches the drunkard to be sober and the spendthrift to
save. It comes to man in his degradation and strikes away the chain and
sets him free. To the cause of Temperance it has been a most invaluable
ally. For the money saved from the public-house it has been the most
suitable investment. No wonder, then, that most of the leading men
connected with the movement are also connected with the Temperance
societies, or that it originated with them. It was born in a Temperance
Hotel. Its founder was the Secretary of a Temperance society. Did the
Temperance societies effect no other good, for this one fact alone would
they deserve lasting honour in the land.