DOI issue:
July to December, 1848
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16547#0050
42
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
WAR; OR, THE PIPING TIMES OF PEACE.
FRANCE AND FRATERNITY vertut ENGLAND AND ENJOYMENT.
ELBOW-ROOM.
Yet earth is wide enough for all, and England holds in fee
Rich prairies—broad savannans—o'er South or Western sea,
Where virgin soils are offering their riches to the hand
That withers for pure lack of work, in this o'er-peopled land.
Unopened mines, ports shipless, loam innocent of grain,
(iardens unpruned, wild vineyards, happy islands, happy main;
Listen, and mark yon press that wedged in close discomfort stands,
Where Labour thrusts on Capital a crowd of craving hands,
Where Capital itself is cramped, till stagnant stands the gold,
That thro' its limbs, with room to stir, a living tide had rolled.
No air to breathe, but at the price—a buffet for a breath; The banquet spread.the guests unfed," that jostle here" and jar.
No space to spare, but what lays bare the scythe of Mower Death.
Each foot must tread some fellow's head, or heart, or heel, at best,
With smiting hands for helpful, and restlessness for rest.
'Tis England, full and over full! True—fertile is her soil,
But all its growth, trod out by those that have no room to toil:
Hearts may be oak, and sinews steel, and arms of Saxon pith;
There's work enow for these to win bare standing-room therewith.
Look, where a steam of filthy life the breat h of summer taints,
Where o'er day and night-long shuttle the hand-loom weaver faints;
A\ here plies the skinny s+ockmger his labour till he drops;
And the grinder drinks Consumption from the wheel that never stops ;
Where mothers turn from mothers' cares to earn a niggard dole;
Y\ here Infancy must toil to eke the household's scanty whole ;
Where for hours the little trapper crouches darkling in the mine,
Nor, save when comes the Sabbath, sees the blessed daylight shine;
YY here diggers and where delvers, with due sweat of the brow,
May scantly earn their meed of bread from acres that they plough ;
Whereon outworn Labour, erloomily to close a life of gloom,
Waits, certain, Workhouse dotage, Parish-shell, and Pauper tomb.
Nor this the only wretchedness of field, or mine, or mill:
There's starvation that must smile and wear its black coat bravely still;
The thread-bare Usher, hawking all about his useless store,
Glad, for the sorriest mess, to sell his heritage of lore.
The Barrister who thro' the Courts, sore pinched and ill at ease,
Hollow of cheek and bag alike, still hopes for hopeless fees ;
The College-bred Physician, heart-sick, and poor, and prim,
Plenty that runs, unblessed, to waste, while want here breedeth war.
Then raise the cry, till loud and high it rise from lathe and loom,
Erom forge and held, from hut and hall, the cry of "Elbow-room ! "
Of elbow-room for labour, of elbow-room for life,
Eor mind, for means, that so may come some calm upon our strife.
That we may have some pause for thought, may find some breathing-space,
To look, not as a foemau looks, upon our neighbour's face ;
That we may hold our hold on life, not like poor drowning souls,
Where each that grasps the plank, to death some weaker comrade rolls.
And then how many a swimmer, now struggling with the tide,
Will find that he was grappling: with a brother at his side !—
What Right may grow where Wrong is now, what Concord from Debate,
What Knowledge out of Ignorance, what Loving out of Hate !
LOGIC OP DEBT AND CREDIT.
The Morning Chronicle has a long article on the law of Debtor and
Creditor. The essay is finely conceived and logically conducted ;
imparting to the trading world in general one unexpected comfort.
For instance, " at this moment," credit is in a most wholesome condi-
tion. Hear the Chronicle—
" At this moment, not less than nineteen shillings in the pound of everybody's
money is fructifying or evaporating, as the ease may be, in the pockets of some-
body else."
Now, as nineteen shillings in everybody's pound is one in the pockets
, of somebody else, it follows that everybody must owe everybody nine-
patient as patients waiting, that never wait on him. j teen shill ings; and as everybody owes nineteen shillings, and everybody
And the poor Scribe, that to a film spins out his sorry brains,
As spider spins its web—but his, alas! no prey detains ;
The worn Inventor, adding still new engines to the old,
Starving himself on the device shall breed for others gold.
So Mind and Matter pine alike in this eternal press,
The kindly seed of Pity choked with rank growtii of distress ;
Hearts drown with all their freight of hopes, as on life's ocean rolls,
Sapping our bodies of their strength, and of their grasp our souls.
has nineteen shillings to receive, why everybody, in fact, owes every-
body nothing.___'_
Boring for Water.—" If you please, Sir, the man's called again
for the water-rate."
Printed by William Bradbury, of No. 6, York Place, Stoke Newington, and Frederick Mullett Evans,
of No. 7. Church Row, Stoke Newinmon, both in the County of Middlesex, Printers, at their Office,
in Lombard Street, in the Precinct of Whitefriars. i n the City of London, and Published hr them al
No. 85,Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London.—Satuhday. July 22nd.
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
WAR; OR, THE PIPING TIMES OF PEACE.
FRANCE AND FRATERNITY vertut ENGLAND AND ENJOYMENT.
ELBOW-ROOM.
Yet earth is wide enough for all, and England holds in fee
Rich prairies—broad savannans—o'er South or Western sea,
Where virgin soils are offering their riches to the hand
That withers for pure lack of work, in this o'er-peopled land.
Unopened mines, ports shipless, loam innocent of grain,
(iardens unpruned, wild vineyards, happy islands, happy main;
Listen, and mark yon press that wedged in close discomfort stands,
Where Labour thrusts on Capital a crowd of craving hands,
Where Capital itself is cramped, till stagnant stands the gold,
That thro' its limbs, with room to stir, a living tide had rolled.
No air to breathe, but at the price—a buffet for a breath; The banquet spread.the guests unfed," that jostle here" and jar.
No space to spare, but what lays bare the scythe of Mower Death.
Each foot must tread some fellow's head, or heart, or heel, at best,
With smiting hands for helpful, and restlessness for rest.
'Tis England, full and over full! True—fertile is her soil,
But all its growth, trod out by those that have no room to toil:
Hearts may be oak, and sinews steel, and arms of Saxon pith;
There's work enow for these to win bare standing-room therewith.
Look, where a steam of filthy life the breat h of summer taints,
Where o'er day and night-long shuttle the hand-loom weaver faints;
A\ here plies the skinny s+ockmger his labour till he drops;
And the grinder drinks Consumption from the wheel that never stops ;
Where mothers turn from mothers' cares to earn a niggard dole;
Y\ here Infancy must toil to eke the household's scanty whole ;
Where for hours the little trapper crouches darkling in the mine,
Nor, save when comes the Sabbath, sees the blessed daylight shine;
YY here diggers and where delvers, with due sweat of the brow,
May scantly earn their meed of bread from acres that they plough ;
Whereon outworn Labour, erloomily to close a life of gloom,
Waits, certain, Workhouse dotage, Parish-shell, and Pauper tomb.
Nor this the only wretchedness of field, or mine, or mill:
There's starvation that must smile and wear its black coat bravely still;
The thread-bare Usher, hawking all about his useless store,
Glad, for the sorriest mess, to sell his heritage of lore.
The Barrister who thro' the Courts, sore pinched and ill at ease,
Hollow of cheek and bag alike, still hopes for hopeless fees ;
The College-bred Physician, heart-sick, and poor, and prim,
Plenty that runs, unblessed, to waste, while want here breedeth war.
Then raise the cry, till loud and high it rise from lathe and loom,
Erom forge and held, from hut and hall, the cry of "Elbow-room ! "
Of elbow-room for labour, of elbow-room for life,
Eor mind, for means, that so may come some calm upon our strife.
That we may have some pause for thought, may find some breathing-space,
To look, not as a foemau looks, upon our neighbour's face ;
That we may hold our hold on life, not like poor drowning souls,
Where each that grasps the plank, to death some weaker comrade rolls.
And then how many a swimmer, now struggling with the tide,
Will find that he was grappling: with a brother at his side !—
What Right may grow where Wrong is now, what Concord from Debate,
What Knowledge out of Ignorance, what Loving out of Hate !
LOGIC OP DEBT AND CREDIT.
The Morning Chronicle has a long article on the law of Debtor and
Creditor. The essay is finely conceived and logically conducted ;
imparting to the trading world in general one unexpected comfort.
For instance, " at this moment," credit is in a most wholesome condi-
tion. Hear the Chronicle—
" At this moment, not less than nineteen shillings in the pound of everybody's
money is fructifying or evaporating, as the ease may be, in the pockets of some-
body else."
Now, as nineteen shillings in everybody's pound is one in the pockets
, of somebody else, it follows that everybody must owe everybody nine-
patient as patients waiting, that never wait on him. j teen shill ings; and as everybody owes nineteen shillings, and everybody
And the poor Scribe, that to a film spins out his sorry brains,
As spider spins its web—but his, alas! no prey detains ;
The worn Inventor, adding still new engines to the old,
Starving himself on the device shall breed for others gold.
So Mind and Matter pine alike in this eternal press,
The kindly seed of Pity choked with rank growtii of distress ;
Hearts drown with all their freight of hopes, as on life's ocean rolls,
Sapping our bodies of their strength, and of their grasp our souls.
has nineteen shillings to receive, why everybody, in fact, owes every-
body nothing.___'_
Boring for Water.—" If you please, Sir, the man's called again
for the water-rate."
Printed by William Bradbury, of No. 6, York Place, Stoke Newington, and Frederick Mullett Evans,
of No. 7. Church Row, Stoke Newinmon, both in the County of Middlesex, Printers, at their Office,
in Lombard Street, in the Precinct of Whitefriars. i n the City of London, and Published hr them al
No. 85,Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London.—Satuhday. July 22nd.