Arrows of the Chace, vol. 2/2: being a collection of scattered letters published chiefly in the daily newspapers 1840-1880Ruskin, John
History
Arrows of the Chace, vol. 2/2: being a collection of scattered letters published chiefly in the daily newspapers 1840-1880
Ruskin, John
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence; Letters to the editor -- Great Britain; Ruskin, John, 1819-1900 -- Correspondence
I made no attempt to answer "A Tenant, not at will," because the
subject is much too wide for any detailed treatment in a letter; and
you do not care for generalizations of mine. But I am sure your two
correspondents, and the large class of sufferers which they represent,
would be very sincerely grateful for some generalizations of yours
on this matter. For, Sir, surely of all questions for the political
economist, this of putting good houses over people's heads is the
closest and simplest. The first question in all economy, practically as
well as etymologically, must be this, of lodging. The "Eco" must come
before the "Nomy." You must have a house before you can put anything
into it; and preparatorily to laying up treasure, at the least dig a
hole for it. Well, Sir, here, as it seems to my poor thinking, is a
beautiful and simple problem for you to illustrate the law of demand
and supply upon. Here you have a considerable body of very deserving
persons "demanding" a good and cheap article in the way of a house.
Will you or any of your politico-economic correspondents explain to
them and to me the Divinely Providential law by which, in due course,
the supply of such cannot but be brought about for them?
There is another column in your impression of to-day to which, also, I
would ask leave to direct your readers' attention--the 4th of the 3d
page; and especially, at the bottom of it, Dr. Whitmore's account of
Crawford Place,[100] and his following statement that it is "a kind
of property constituting a most profitable investment;" and I do so
in the hope that you will expand your interpretation of the laws of
political economy so far as to teach us how, by their beneficent and
inevitable operation, good houses must finally be provided for the
classes who live in Crawford Place, and such other places; and, without
necessity of eviction, also for the colliers of Cramlington (_vide_ 2d
column of the same 3d page).[101] I have, indeed, my own notions on the
subject, but I do not trouble you with them, for they are unfortunately
based an that wild notion of there being a "just" price for all things,
which you say in your article of Oct. 10, on the Sheffield strikes,
"has no existence but in the minds of theorists."[102] The _Pall Mall
Gazette_, with which journal I have already held some discussion on the
subject, eagerly quoted your authority on its side, in its impression
of the same evening; nor do I care to pursue the debate until I can
inform you of the continuous result of some direct results which I am
making on my Utopian principles. I have bought a little bit of property
of the Crawford Place description, and mending it somewhat according to
my notions, I make my tenants pay me what I hold to be a "just" price
for the lodging provided. That lodging I partly look after, partly
teach the tenants to look after for themselves; and I look a little
after them, as well as after the rents. I do not mean to make a highly
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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