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Thread: Nineteenth Century Urban Conditions

  1. #1

    Default Nineteenth Century Urban Conditions

    Hi
    I'm new to this forum. I really interested in tracing my Liverpool roots and happened across this newspaper article from the Guardian 1864 in the course of my research.



    Can it be true?

    davy

    Lives of misery and ignorance in Manchester

    Edward Brotherton
    Tuesday January 5, 1864
    The Guardian

    I have lately been exploring the less public districts of Manchester, with a view to understanding thoroughly whether any progress in social economics or education is being made.
    The result is that I have been shocked and alarmed to find vast masses of people rotting and festering in ignorance and corruption. I do not exaggerate. No words are strong enough to convey any idea of the truth; and the most fearful sign is that the evil is rapidly increasing. We look at the census, find every year a large increase of population , and look upon it as an index to the prosperity of the district. At present, nearly the whole addition which is being made to the population is of this ignorant, half-starved class, who are constantly spreading into districts that formerly contained only the moderately well-to-do classes. These latter are now extending only outside the limits of Manchester.
    It seems to be overlooked entirely that in a manufacturing and commercial city like Manchester there is very little chance of success for any man who has not the germs of education. In rural districts it is of comparatively little importance. A man can do, and generally obtain, labourer's work. But here there are continual changes of manufacture and every change throws out of employment many who had learnt to do some specialty work.
    If the worker has never had his intellect awakened, he cannot take the same wide and intelligent view of his position; he cannot obtain the needful information as to what he ought to do; his range of possibility is bounded by what he sees with his eyes. The probability is that he just sinks into one of the dens of misery, and he and his family slowly die there - die by inches.
    But this is one of those things that is not seen by the intelligent classes, because they do not know Manchester. Nowhere - even in London - is the separation of classes so complete as in the great commercial towns of England. It is one of the changes which have insensibly crept upon us, as the result of railways and the manufacturing system of modern times.
    I speak far within compass when I say that in Manchester and Salford there are more than 50,000 children who ought to be at school and are not. These must almost of necessity, grow up idle, reckless, and many of them criminal. Most people in Manchester believe that this vast mass of ignorance is being reduced. I confess I had a vague idea of this kind myself, until I began to investigate. My conclusion now is, that this ignorant population is growing at the rate of more than 2,000 per annum.

  2. #2
    Senior Member ChrisGeorge's Avatar
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    Hello davy

    Welcome to the Yo Liverpool discussion forum. The article you have posted is about the situation of the poor in Manchester in 1864 but the same could have been said of Liverpool or other large British cities at that time. That is why ragged schools were set up to help educate the poor and why such philanthropists as Dr Barnardo and others tried help poor children. In the era before the Welfare State and society-wide awareness of the conditions in the poorer areas of the city, those in such straits had to rely on charity and campaigners to bring their situation to light and to work toward government help for the poor, including state-provided, welfare, unemployment assistance (the dole) and the job programs we know today.

    Chris
    Christopher T. George
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  3. #3
    Senior Member shytalk's Avatar
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    I actually read this as a serious article untill I got to the last sentence:

    "My conclusion now is, that this ignorant population is growing at the rate of more than 2,000 per annum and by the second millenium 60,000 of the filthy raggamuffins will be packed into Old Trafford every other week."
    You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
    Winston Churchill

  4. #4
    Senior Member ChrisGeorge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by shytalk View Post
    I actually read this as a serious article untill I got to the last sentance.
    Ha ha. I missed that. Can't put anything past those Arkansas Liverpudlians.
    Christopher T. George
    Editor, Ripperologist
    Editor, Loch Raven Review
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  5. #5
    Senior Member shytalk's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ChrisGeorge View Post
    Ha ha. I missed that. Can't put anything past those Arkansas Liverpudlians.
    Errrrrrrr Arkansas Scouser Lah.
    You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
    Winston Churchill

  6. #6
    scouserdave
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    LOL! Missed that last bit too
    The article is genuine - apart from the last couple of lines.

  7. #7
    Senior Member ChrisGeorge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by scouserdave View Post
    LOL! Missed that last bit too
    The article is genuine - apart from the last couple of lines.
    Fixed it. Thanks, Dave.

    Chris
    Christopher T. George
    Editor, Ripperologist
    Editor, Loch Raven Review
    http://christophertgeorge.blogspot.com/
    Chris on Flickr and on MySpace

  8. #8

    Unhappy 19th/20th/21st century Britain

    There is very little change in circumstances if it is considered that children are still going uneducated, the only difference being that they are now being uneducated in our schools. The class system is still going strong, with the wealthier being able to afford the better, private education. There is still poverty in the inner cities, just that the government have become more adept at evading the real issues by causing moral panics over other less important issues. Issues such as, should gay people be able to adopt? Should gay marriages be allowed? This is just two of the sidestepping avoidance tactics that the government employs to take the attention off all the lies and cheating that goes on behind government doors. Why on earth is it better to let children starve or live in poverty than to give them a happy, loving home, where they are not only fed and clothed, but loved too? The government creates poverty then creates programmes to tackle it so that the people think they are doing something. The same can be said of the so called yob-culture. Real though yob-culture may be, it is the government who have created the situation where the youth of today think they are beyond the law and moral responsibility for their actions. They have taken authority from parents, schools and police and are now in the process of shoving the church out of the way too by the censoring of our faith belief system. I am not religious, nor am I a do-gooder, but I care about people, as I'm sure the majority of people today do. But until the people of this country make a stand and take back parental, school and police authority, we will never move very far from the scenes of the 19th century.

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