Page:Description of the Abattoirs of Paris.djvu/19

Rh modation, and if the Islington Company should demand too high a rent for their shops, competition would spring up, and thus the matter would speedily find its level. Seven-eighths of the cattle coming to Smithfield came from the northern counties, and were mostly carried by railway; and even with regard to the sheep from Kent, they might be ferried across the river, and brought by the West India Dock Junction Railway, which now came within less than four hundred yards of the Islington market, into which there would soon be a branch formed; or by the railway bridge constructed across the river at Richmond, by which means, the passage of cattle, through the streets of London, would be entirely avoided.

Mr. said he was intimately acquainted with the views of the farmers on the subject, as he had heard the question discussed at their club. The unanimous feeling appeared to be, that an establishment outside the metropolis, with adequate room for the animals, where they could be free from that state of excitement to which they were subjected, from being driven through the streets, would necessarily be advantageous; the main thing that opposed itself to the plan, was the actual scarcity of buyers there, and he much feared that as long as the interests, which then surrounded Smithfield market, were made to tell, as they now did, on the butchers and salesmen, so long buyers would be deficient there; he thought the best way to remove that objection, was to get up a feeling of willingness in the minds of the farmers, to trust their stock in a better place, and he had no doubt that purchasers would then go to a place where the cattle could arrive without the loss, or damage, to which they were now subjected. The salesmen were the parties who really interfered most, to prevent this desirable improvement for the farmers and the public, and they were actuated solely by the principle of self-preservation, because from the moment that the butchers could easily come into actual contact with the farmers, and purchase directly from them, the occupation of the salesman would be gone. It must be self-evident, how desirable it would be to do away with the present system, and there could not exist any reasonable doubt of the proposed improved measure being soon fully carried out.

Mr. said, his experience in markets convinced him of the great evils attending the mode in which beasts were now slaughtered, and of the degrading tendency of the proximity of such places. On visiting a slaughter-house, he had been surprised to find young tradesmen in the neighbourhood attending and officiating as amateur slaughterers. He was happy to see the present movement, which