xliv Habits which Destroy Domestic Happiness., careless wife, and an untidy and uncomfortable house, drive the husband to the drinkshop, and ruin the children by initiating them into the same pernicious habits. It is thus that evils are perpetuated from one generation to another. These little evils are admirably dealt with by Mr. Livesey in the following extracts from his "MRS. MEANWELL'S LECTURES ON LITTLE THINGS": "My female friends! I pretend to no oratory, though I belong to the sex who are said to be favoured with the gift of tongues. My coming here to-night is simply to draw your attention to a few practical remarks on matters bearing closely upon the peace and comfort of families. I leave the weightier matters to the Lords of the creation; and as it is often insinuated that we have but little minds, I intend to confine my address this evening to little things-things of course too insignificant for some minds to notice. I begin with remarking that if you who keep servants do not wish to have your carving knives spoiled with cutting up wood in the morning to light the fires, you should always provide a chip basket well supplied with kindling materials; and if they are at all damp put them in the oven over night. Never allow them to carry burning coals from the kitchen to kindle the parlour fire with, or your paper and furniture will be spoiled. The mistress should often look through the pantry to see that no cold mutton is moulded, no crusts of bread scattered abroad, no unsalted meat beginning to give out an unpleasant odour. She should see that the cinders are not thrown unriddled into the dust hole, or burnt in the afternoon, to get rid of them, when not needed. She should raise her eyes to the ceiling to observe that no spider's webs are fixed in the corners, and down again to prevent a collection of dirt under the rugs for want of shaking. The best way of scolding Nancy for getting up late in the morning is to rise early yourself. Never forget to supply the bed-room water bottle with fresh water every day. Always have your pins, needles, and thread in fixed places, so that you could lay your hands upon them in the dark. A little twine and waste paper for packages, and cards for directing parcels or trunks should always be ready. Let there be no bawling out, 'Where is the hat brush?' or, Where is my umbrella?' these should have a proper place and always be in their place. Get a few labels printed with your name and address on; and attach one of them inside every hat, overcoat, and umbrella. A file for your bills will prevent your losing them, and if you are economical enough to live under rather than over your means, you will pay them promptly. Paste all your receipts in a book made on purpose out of a number of old newspapers. Such papers as the Family Herald and the Progressionist are worth buying, but never begin to read them till you have put a stitch in to prevent the leaves being lost or scattered about the room. Take away old weekly newspapers as soon as the week is over, and put them in your collection of waste paper. Make a memorandum of every book you lend or borrow; and never be so thoughtless as to keep other people's books longer than you can help. I should be ashamed for a little boy to be knocking at my door with,' If you please my mamma has sent me for the umbrella you borrowed last week but one.' Have a corner in some part of the house called the 'giving store'; there put all the papers and periodicals which you don't care to bind up, also your cast-off shoes, boots, and wearing apparel; and if you do your duty you will always find persons who will be glad even of these articles; charitable people never sell old clothes. There is nothing looks worse in a house than fly marks on a chimney glass; a sash cord broken; breakfast things on the table when preparations are making for dinner; a kitchen floor whitened with plaster of Paris, mottled with dirty foot marks; a sink stone crowded with glasses, pots, pans, tins, sand dish, soap box, dirty knives, forks, and spoons, cabbage leaves, coffee grounds, and potato peelings; or bleached window blinds turned grey again, hanging after the fashion of an inclined plane of six in twenty. Pictures may hang one five inches lower than another, and in other respects disproportioned, but visitors, though they may not speak, will scarcely omit observing these discrepancies. "Now in giving you these admonitions (said Mrs. Meanwell), by way of making them more interesting, I will treat you to a few instances of not over good management by Betty Thoughtless, which you will do well to avoid. She lived in A Teetotal Wife with Something yet to Learn. I xlv the country in a nice sort of a cot, if she had only had thought enough to keep it in good order. The first time I called upon her she was very much excited. Neglecting from day to day to order coals, she had borrowed from her neighbour; and upon paying her back, Betty was charged with seven coalboxes-full, while she maintained she had only had six. One dark night a conveyance came rattling to the gate; she lit the candle, put it into the lantern, but as she had neglected getting one of the glasses repaired, which the baby had broken, the candle went out. She tried again by covering the lantern with her apron, but as there was a large hole in it, the wind took advantage, and out the candle blew a second time. Betty's husband was a careful man, and though his wife was not extravagant, he wished her to keep a 'housekeeper's register'; that is, to put down in separate items their whole expenditure weekly. He said by this, as they had a family coming up, they would be able to see if their expenses upon any article were too large, and could abridge accordingly. But though he urged it upon Betty several times, and twice bought a shilling book for the purpose and commenced the entries, yet his wife excused herself, saying, 'she had really so many things to attend to she could not be bothered with bookkeeping'; besides, 'it was of no use, she could not be more careful than she was, and it looked so to be expected to put down every penny.' often visited Betty, and talked with her; she was not very sharp, yet upon the whole there are many worse wives. She meant well, but had not been trained to think or do things orderly. For instance, if the candlestick shoot was broken it would remain so, and then there was a difficulty in lifting up the candle without waste. If the candle was too small for the stick, she would wrap a piece of newspaper round to make it steady, and just as her husband was perhaps reading some interesting passage, the paper would take fire, and an alarm ensued how to disengage it; of course a waste of tallow and a pair of dirty fingers were the consequence. Betty was a very sober woman; indeed she was a teetotaler, which reconciled her husband to many of her little infirmities; but she was fond of nettle beer which a country woman hawked about, assuring her customers that it was capital for the blood. John wondered how it was that nearly all the forks were gone out of shape, and had blamed the children (as those who cannot defend themselves generally come in for the blame), but upon close inquiry it turned out that these nettle beer bottles were corked very closely to prevent the spirit flying out, and as there were no other means of opening the bottles, his ready-witted wife had made the forks into a corkscrew. She had a great fault of giving the young child spoons and shells from the mantel-piece to play with; the former were beaten square, and the latter were knocked to pieces. Betty had never learnt the art of fire making; she seemed to think that the more coals she put on the sooner it would blaze up. Instead of laying all the fuel as loose as possible, with an opening in the centre to secure a draught, she always heaped up the centre higher than any other part. Plague on this fire, it will never burn,' she was saying, after having wasted half an hour one morning. Her husband, expecting the breakfast on the table, stepped in, and though he was generally good-tempered, he got into a passion, saying, 'I think some people will never learn sense; why what is it but the air that makes the fire to burn, and you have excluded it entirely; how can it burn?' The fact is, Betty had opened a newspaper and had fixed it at the front of the grate, which just filled the square of the fire-place. She innocently replied that,' she had been told that this would do when nothing else would'; being ignorant that those who use this dangerous expedient always make a hole in the centre of the paper in order to secure a current and send a strong draught through the grate." Not only in his books and publications, but in leaflets and "Letter Linings" small handbills just large enough to go into an envelope which he adopted at the time the penny post first came in-did Mr. Livesey advocate method, order, and system in domestic management. The contents of one of these "Linings" is here reprinted as a fitting summary of his teachings on the subject. It would be difficult to crowd more good advice into the same space, and perhaps impossible * Livesey's Progressionist, 1852, p. 5. xlvi Hints to be Stereotyped on the Memory. to express it so forcibly and yet so kindly. It is questionable whether Franklin ever excelled it. The same matter was also printed on a large sheet, with an ornamental border, to be put up in the houses of the poor, and the kitchens of the better classes. THE FAMILY MONITOR. 1. Remember and adore your Creator and Benefactor; be grateful to Him for His favours, and constantly endeavour to keep all His commands. 2. Choose your cottage in a clean, airy situation; free from damp, and as far removed as possible from bad examples. 3. Keep your walls clean, the timber painted, your beds, clothing, and persons as clean as possible. 4. Attend to the timely repairing of your furniture, your domestic utensils, and especially your clothing. 5. Put every article in its right place; call everything by its proper name; do every duty at its appointed time; and put every utensil to its own use. 6. Watch against a dependent disposition; support yourselves by your own industry; if possible, never get into debt or rely upon the charity of others. 7. Manage your affairs with care and economy; pay attention to the price, weight, measure, and quality of every article you buy. 8. Do not become weekly customers for your provisions, coals, or clothing; but secure to yourselves the advantages of buying with ready money. 9. Beware of the ruinous practice of pledging your goods, clothing, or bedding. 10. Let the husband love his wife, and provide well for her; and the wife respect and obey her husband. 11. Let the parents teach and train their children in everything which is good; and the children love one another, and obey their parents. 12. Let honesty, kindness, generosity, order, peace, and piety, be conspicue as in all your family arrangements. CHAPTER IV. POLITICS: THE CONSCIENTIOUS RADICAL. What is bad government, thou slave, What is bad government, thou knave, It is the deadly Will, that takes What labour ought to keep; It is the deadly Power, that makes Bread dear, and labour cheap.-EBENEZER ELLIOTT. We have the labour of Hercules in hand to abate the power of the aristocracy and their allies, the snobs of the towns.-COBDEN. The sole object of Government ought to be the greatest happiness of the greatest possible number of the community."-BENTHAM. ALTHOUGH Mr. Livesey was pre-eminently a moral reformer, and mainly directed his efforts to the improvement of the individual, he rendered, in his time, great services to the cause of political progress. He may be said to have brought a new element into politics, for while he strenuously fought the people's battles as a Radical, he disdained to resort to unfair or unworthy means. He would rather lose a fight honestly than win it by subterfuge or fraud. Hence in his native town to this day his political opponents speak of him as "Honest Joe Livesey," and the leading Conservative paper of the district affirms that "he well deserved the epithet." In Chapter X. of the "Autobiography" he gives some interesting reminiscences of his connexion with political contests at Preston, and expresses his disgust at the corrupt practices which too often prevail at both parliamentary and municipal elections. During his early years he had keenly suffered, with his fellows, from the results of bad legislation-from the operation of laws enacted for the advantage of the few to the injury of the many. He saw thousands of weavers and other artisans and craftsmen struggling for a bare sustenance, the victims of monopoly and injustice; and, while he did not believe all the evils of life could be removed by improved legislation, he felt that considerable amelioration could be effected by such means. Bad laws could be repealed; irresponsible legislative power could be limited, if not put an end to; monopolies could be withdrawn, and equal political rights accorded to all good citizens. Mr. Livesey heartily set himself to work to promote these objects. He was a thorough radical, and when the late Joseph Sturge headed a movement for extending the suffrage to every adult male inhabitant, of sane mind and unstained by crime, Mr. Livesey was one of the first to declare in its favour, and in No. 10 of the Struggle he expresses the delight it will afford him to promote the reform throughout the country. Instead of all classes sharing in the common benefits, as should be the case in a prosperous country, the rich were becoming richer, and the poor poorer. This xlviii Political Changes should be Secured by Peaceable Means. unsatisfactory state of things is accounted for by Mr. Livesey as follows (the italics are his): Why these wide extremes-that, while numbers have been getting immensely rich, the working people have been reduced to the lowest state of poverty? The laws by which wealth has been distributed are defective, and have constantly operated in favour of a FEW, to the ruin of the MANY; and the religious obligations of justice and humanity have been lost amidst the pride and avarice of the age.' REASON, NOT FORCE, TO BE RELIED UPON. While he spake out boldly, and with no "bated breath,” against the political wrongs of his fellow-countrymen, he deprecated all violent measures, and exerted his influence against anything like an appeal to force. In an article upon Loyalty, in the Moral Reformer, Oct., 1831, Mr. Livesey utters the following wise caution: "Do I, therefore, advocate bad government? No. But in applying a remedy let not the turbulent passions, but the reason of mankind, suggest the safest course. Let patience and pure patriotism, and not the vicious desire of plunder and the lust of revenge, lead the way. Let a nation, justly discontented, demonstrate its wishes by a strong and successive display of moral power; let everything be tried before physical force is appealed to. Revolutions may sometimes be attended with beneficial effects, but it is a question, balancing the evil against the good, whether, in most instances, by patience and perseverance in milder measures, greater good would not have accrued. The train of evils attendant upon a national convulsion are truly appalling; it is like reducing creation to chaos; and happy is it for those countries whose stability is secured by the honesty of their government, and whose liberty is achieved by the bloodless conquests of the march of mind.'"+ These words of caution were written at a time when the Tory party were using every means to prevent the passing of the Reform Bill, and when their conduct had so exasperated the unenfranchised "serfs," that very unpleasant results were apprehended. Mr. Livesey regarded the conduct of that party as amounting to disloyalty, as will be seen by the following: "The Tory party is comprised of those who have been wont to bask in the sunshine of corruption, and whose measures have been gradually reducing the country to slavery and pauperism. The opposition of this party is sordid and selfish, arising from chagrin at the loss of the power of perpetuating a system, which, while it worked well for them, had well-nigh convulsed the nation. This is the cause of their disloyalty; they see in the measures now pursued by the present government, the loss of those opportunities by which their wealth has been accumulated, and their influence and arbitrary power maintained.”‡ THE HOUSE OF LORDS-DANGERS OF RICH LEGISLATORS. 66 In the Moral Reformer for April, 1831, Mr. Livesey playfully alludes to the sudden conversion of opponents of parliamentary reform to that cause. 'How strangely," he says, "have the enemies of reform turned round and become its supporters! And when the whole matter is impartially reviewed, it shows at once how few support or oppose a measure from personal conviction."§ Have we not seen in recent times the same tactics from the same party, which, after all, afford but another illustration of the truth that history repeats itself? The action of the House of Lords in refusing to pass the Bill received Mr. * Moral Reformer, vol. i. (1831), p. 45. + Ibid., vol. i. (1831), p. 292. § Ibid., vol. i. (1831), p. 119. |