46 THE LABOUR INSTITUTION. 



in the words of Owen, will by the labour institution " be pursued 

 to destruction." 



We cannot therefore applaud the establishment, by public sub- 

 scription, of an institution which is thus avowedly to destroy the 

 body of the smaller shopkeepers of London, who in these times of 

 difficulty are already the most universally distressed and mentally 

 uncomfortable of all the commercial classes of the country, requiring 

 rather assistance, than the opposition of a large and monopolizing 

 institution, such as that of Mr. Owen. We cannot indeed discern, 

 how the removal of ignorance and poverty will ever be effected 

 by the establishment of a monopoly of shopkeeping. 



Indeed, the views of this gentleman are somewhat confused and 

 contradictory ; and though generally allowed to be benevolent in 

 his intentions, we fear that not an inconsiderable portion of vanity 

 and hungering after notoriety and power, are ingredients in his 

 character. Thus his recent co-operative establishment, at Harmony 

 in the United States, was dissolved by his own supercilious as- 

 sumption of too great an appearance of wisdom and of power ; 

 for we learn from a recent enlightened traveller, Mr. Ferral, that 

 Mr. Owen could brook no distrust in the infallibility of his schemes, 

 and the members of the society retired, universally disgusted with 

 the man. Nor do we perceive why this man of benevolence should 

 have refused, at a recent meeting, to vacate the chair upon any 

 occasion whatever ; alleging himself the governor and founder of 

 the institution. Whence he derives his title to the governorship, 

 we know not, excepting by the doctrine of divine right ; but he 

 is most assuredly not the founder of the institution in a pecuniary 

 point of view, for the purchase of the building, and the other 

 expences of the project, have been defrayed by the subscriptions 

 of the public. Mr. Owen is thus at no hazard whatever ; but, on 

 the contrary, we remember that at the meeting for the completion 

 of the purchase of the building, a resolution was introduced, most 

 strongly guarding him from all personal liability. In these times, 

 when the self-election of boroughmongers and parish vestrymen is 

 yielding to the principle of election by the people, we trust that 

 Mr. Owen will not be the only personage to be tolerated as the 

 perpetual governor of an institution supported by the subscriptions 

 of the public. 



But the institution we consider nugatory and of no avail ; for al- 

 lowing that the utmost extent of employment were afforded to me- 

 chanics by the labour bazaar, still it is obvious that this merely 

 displaces the same amount of labour in another situation ; for the 

 unemployed shoemaker, who manufactures a weekly pair of shoes to 

 be sold by Mr. Owen, causes another journeyman to be unemployed 

 by the master shoemakers in the neighbourhood, which, therefore, is 

 a t mere change of the person and the place of the want of employ- 

 ment, and the consequent distress. But we find by a recent decision 

 of the governor, that deposits are now refused of goods in value 

 below one sovereign, a rule which apparently removes the institution 

 beyond the reach of the unemployed of the working classes altoge- 

 ther, since very few mechanics indeed can be possessed of materials 



