WEALTH AND LUXURY THE HANDMAIDS OF INDUSTRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 304, 26 September 1857, Page 2

WEALTH AND LUXURY THE HANDMAIDS OF INDUSTRY.

(From Blackivood's Magazine.)

The greater part of employment arises from the luxurious habits of the people. If they were content to subsist, like Apemantus, upon roots and water, or even to restrict themselves to bread and meat,ruin, destitution, and beggary would be multiplied far and wide. It is natural, no doubt, that the poor man should feel a sensation of envy when he gazes on the magnificence of the rich ; but let him remember that the creation of that magnificence has given employment and food to hundreds of his fellow creatures. The true enemy to his race is the hoarder and miser, theman who is not luxurious up to the limit of his means. No man can be blamed for expenditure if he is able to pay for what he gets. On the contrary, he is a benefactor ; for he extends the sphere of employment, and maintains the rate of wages to the operative. It would be well for the country if this truth were more generally known and recognized, for there are undoubtedly a large number of affluent persons who act upon the opposite principle. They deny themselves the enjoyment of everything which cannot be classed as an absolute necessary of life, and they take credit to themselves for doing so. Men of this stamp wear the coats which covered them at the hymeneal altar, until their eldest born is old enough to go to school, when Astyanax succeeds to the reversion of the threadbare garment, cut down to the dimensions of a jacket. No sight is more profoundly melancholy than the opening of the repositories of a deceased spinster of the Lady Grippy school. Her whole wardrobe, to which no addition has been made since the Reverend Jonas Humgudgeon disappointed her middle age affections, would not fetch three shillings at Rag Fair. The scanty pieces beggar description ; the carpet is so worn that its pattern is entirely obliterated ; the dusters have been darned so often that their original texture has disappeared. Cracked china, brass scale, glass beads, and one treasured ornament of cairngorm are among the most valuable of her effects ; but in one drawer there lies a pocket-book of antique form, which her executor straightway clutches, and in it is discovered a deposit receipt of the Royal Bank of Scotland for £15,000 ! The lonesome woman has been scraping together, hoarding, and saving for many years, representing herself all the while to her friends as an object of compassion — doing good, no doubt, in her way, by distributing many tracts and a little flannel to the poor, but never dreaming that it was a Christian duty to foster the industry of others. Poor thing ! and yet there must be some amiable traits in her character. The old woman who has acted as her sole servant on miserable wages for the last twenty years bursts into a loud wail as she sees the sacred repositories invaded by the rude hand of a stranger — and is no hypocrite, for with the death of her mistress her sole tie to earth is severed. Then there is the old cat, so sleek and comfortable, coiled on the rug, and winking as if it wondered at the unusual bustle ; and the little canary, once so brisk and lively^ but now lifeless and i dejected, as if it missed the hand that was wont to give it food. A melancholy scene, on which we will not further dwell ! Well — there is the money now to be used, or, it may be, squandered ; for her nephew, Jack Littlego, has a decided propensity for the turf; but we cannot help thinking with a sigh that a poor, old, decrepid, and un-cared-for woman, who now lies in- a dreary church-yard, might have had better interest for her money in the shape of the blessings of her kind. The sin of Dives lay not in his wealth, or even his sumptuousness — it lay in his entire abandonment to self, and disregard of the welfare of others. The very dogs were more compassionate than he, for they^ licked the sores of the beggar to whom he sent not a portion from his board. But it is wrong to distort the beautiful and kindly parable into a denunciation of wealth and magnificence, "which, duly administered, are

beneficial far beyond the person of the possessor. A stranger to British society and customs, who beholds for the first time one of the stately baronial castles, seats of our highest nobility, is apt enough to form a false estimate of the influence which is really exercised by the wealth of the owner. He sees the hall filled with liveried servants ; he walks through carpeted galleries, upon the walls of which are hung the choicest productions of modern andancien-t art; he beholds the costly furniture,; the marble statues and the bronzes, the ample library, and the, conservatories ; he passes through the gardens and pleasure-grounds, and is amazed by the care, neatness, and exquisite taste which are everywhere apparent. He visits the stables ; admires the noble horses and the equipages which are there ; and, on comparing his own lot with that of the owner of the princely mansion, he may lament that the opulence enjoyed by one man should not be distributed among thousands. Thus thoughts may occur not only to a stranger, but to many of our own countrymen who toil for their daily bread ; and the existence of such wealth in the hands of a few is the most favourable argument in the mouths of demagogues, who preach disaffection to the ignorant. This view has of late years been adopted by some men of education, and. even talent. Wealth has been denounced as sinful from the pulpit, and the most dangerous doctrines of Socialism have been insinuated as the aspirations of a fervid philanthropy. Now it is a very easy thing to demonstrate that such views are utterly false, and that, if sincerely entertained, they arise from shallowness of thought. The fact is, that the owner of that wealth is dispensing it for the general benefit. He clothes and maintains a large retinue of servants, thereby lessening the pressure on the labour market. The trimness of the pleasureground is the result of the constant care and attention of many gardeners. The equipages have given profit to the London coachmakers, and enabled them to pay high wages to their workmen. The costly furniture has benefitted the upholsterer and his operatives. Artists have received large sums for the pictures, busts, and bronzes. The stocking of the library assists the book trade and authors — in short, magnificence is but another word for munificence, and it scatters its blessings far and wide. The same results would by no means follow if the wealth were subdued, because wealth alone can give adequate encouragement to artists, and even the highest class of artizans. A man may be comfortable in his circumstances, and yet unable to indulge in such expensive luxuries as pictures, or wrought plate, or other articles of decoration or of taste ; and without the existence of a wealthy class among us, art would soon dwindle and decay. Wealth, rightfully gained or inherited, and properly employed, even though it be lodged in the hands of comparatively few individuals, tends to the prosperity of the whole nation ; a proposition so clear that it seems absolutely marvellous that any one should have been tempted to dispute it. While saying this, however, we wish it to be understood that we regard with no favour, but the reverse, that inordinate craving after wealth which is one system of the age, or that reckless extravagance which is another. The pursuit of riches is a great snare, and in that headlong race many fall down to rise no more. Tt cannot be denied that the speculative mania which, some ten years ago, was developed in the country, has had a pernicious effect, by demonstrating that fortunes can be made by pursuing other paths than the royal road of industry. True, it may be shown that in numberless cases the fortunes so acquired were unsubstantial. as fairy gold, having vanished suddenly from the grasp. The throne of the once idolized railway monarch was as baseless as that of Theodore of Corsica, of whose coinage it is scarcely possible to obtain a sample. But the fever, though abated, is not yet extinct. It is still burning in the veins of many, and we. see- the melancholy results in the appalling catalogues of frauds and villanies which have latterly become so numerous that the fabric of credit is shaken. Nor is it confined to one locality — it extends over the whole empire. Alike in the heart of London and remote Tipperary, rogues and hypocrites combine to organize their plans of plunder. For a time these succeed—rogue and hypocrite alike put on the garb of Croesus — are flattered, worshipped, promoted, patronized by ministers — until all of a sudden, and without an instant's warning, inexorable Nemesis plucks the robes from their backs, and exhibits them in their nakedness and their knavery. "Well said

the -wise old Hebrew, " He that loveth gold shall not be justified, and he that followeth corruption shall have enough thereof. Gold hath been the ruin of many, and their destruction was present. It is a stum-bling-block unto them that sacrifice unto it, and every fool shall be taken therewith." [The monotonous dullness of local politics having been pointed out to us, and an offer having been made to give to the public, through the medium of our columns, such original contributions as from their nature are not exactly within the scope of our prospectus, we have consented to give publicity to a supposed third newspaper, to be called the " Commonweal," in which the acts of public men and the local proceedings will be treated in a jocose and satirical manner. What success the attempt will meet with will depend upon the style in which the " Commonweal" is conducted. An effort to produce original styles of writing, which are as yet new to us, is worthy of encouragement. We have therefore to request, on behalf of our new contemporary, t\e merciful consideration of our readers for his first number. — Ed. O. W.~\ ,