66 Xotes for the Month. JAX. 



hands, over the number that can find employment in the market ; and to 

 talk of this as " a plan for bettering the condition of the working classes/' 

 is a little too good even for William, with all his eccentricities. The 

 scheme itself, is only an old scheme, but with a new, and an extremely 

 impudent face : it is the " Shop System ;" only avowed, and bullied upon, 

 instead of worked under the rose. The " Shop" manufacturer pays his man 

 with tickets for goods which maybe deficient in weight or in quality. Cob- 

 bett pays at once with goods of which the weight, quality, and all other 

 material attributes, are to be settled solely by himself. The remedy for 

 discontent in^both cases is the same " Those who are not satisfied may 

 keep away." But, except for the unhappy state of things, which makes 

 that argument unanswerable, no such course of dealing, in either case, 

 would ever be attempted. 



The indignation of a man about " shopkeepers' profits," is ridiculous 

 enough who puts forth a scheme, in the very same breath, which 

 makes him the shopkeeper himself! Besides which, his labour 

 at the rate at which he proposes to pay will be got infinitely below 

 the average price of farming labour, any where in the vicinity of 

 London. His " two pound ration of meat," issued in the fairest way 

 (according to the prices published in his own Register of December 

 the 10th) may be bought for ninepence. His " two pounds of bread" 

 for threepence halfpenny ; and his " half pound of cheese" for two pence 

 halfpenny. The whole cost therefore of his allowance " in kind" is 

 fifteen pence a day or, seven shillings and sixpence a week : he having 

 moreover this advantage, that it is not a hiring by the week, but abso- 

 lutely by the hour ! the work to stop, or to go on, just as he sees con- 

 venient or reasonable : and no wages to be paid, but for those hours, 

 during which, the labourer may be actually employed ! Now, if this is 

 being a " benefactor " to the working classes, all the farmers in England 

 would be glad to become " benefactors" to-morrow. 



The rest of the stuff about being "Resolved no man shall work 

 for me, who has not a belly-full of good food, consisting of meat 

 and bread, and cheese, &c." is mere insolent bombast, and imposition. 

 A "belly-full" is for our horse, or our ox: the wants of men 

 though they be labourers go beyond " a belly-full." Men must have 

 a lodging ; and shoes ; and breeches ; and a shirt ; and fire ; and soap 

 to wash ; and a pot to cook Mr. Cobbett's mutton in ; and they must 

 have something more than Thames water to drink with it ; of all which 

 needful provisions good William " knows nothing!" We know perfectly 

 well (and he knows too) that the " pound of meat " which might be 

 spared daily out of his " belly-full " ration will not supply them : not to 

 speak of our maintenance for the seventh day ; which as we do no work 

 on it his Excellency means should be kept as a Fast, as well as a 

 Sabbath ? The fact is, that the whole story is nothing more than a flimsy 

 pretence, to cover the real shabbiness of beating down labour even lower 

 than it is bought in the general market ; catching a bargain, at the fag- 

 end of the day ; picking up people, who as Cobbett himself states- 

 have no choice left between his work, and begging about the streets of 

 Kensington ; and offering them " victuals " for their hire, while it suits 

 him to employ them ! There is no law to forbid this : and the poor 

 creatures had better work even for such pittance than beg ; but to call it 

 " a plan for bettering the condition of the labouring classes !" is really 

 putting the common sanity of mankind below its average level. 



Lex Talionis. " An Armenian jeweller, who had sold a quantity of 



