ving bought it, they must eat it. On the 6th of January, 1844 (if
I am not greatly mistaken), a court leet was held in Manchester, when
eleven meat-sellers were fined for having sold tainted meat. Each of
them had a whole ox or pig, or several sheep, or from fifty to sixty
pounds of meat, which were all confiscated in a tainted condition. In
one case, sixty-four stuffed Christmas geese were seized which had proved
unsaleable in Liverpool, and had been forwarded to Manchester, where they
were brought to market foul and rotten. All the particulars, with names
and fines, were published at the time in the _Manchester Guardian_. In
the six weeks, from July 1st to August 14th, the same sheet reported
three similar cases. According to the _Guardian_ for August 3rd, a pig,
weighing 200 pounds, which had been found dead and decayed, was cut up
and exposed for sale by a butcher at Heywood, and was then seized.
According to the number for July 31st, two butchers at Wigan, of whom one
had previously been convicted of the same offence, were fined 2 and 4
pounds respectively, for exposing tainted meat for sale; and, according
to the number for August 10th, twenty-six tainted hams seized at a
dealer's in Bolton, were publicly burnt, and the dealer fined twenty
shillings. But these are by no means all the cases; they do not even
form a fair average for a period of six weeks, according to which to form
an average for the year. There are often seasons in which every number
of the semi-weekly _Guardian_ mentions a similar case found in Manchester
or its vicinity. And when one reflects upon the many cases which must
escape detection in the extensive markets that stretch along the front of
every main street, under the slender supervision of the market
inspectors--and how else can one explain the boldness with which whole
animals are exposed for sale?--when one considers how great the
temptation must be, in view of the incomprehensibly small fines mentioned
in the foregoing cases; when one reflects what condition a piece of meat
must have reached to be seized by the inspectors, it is impossible to
believe that the workers obtain good and nourishing meat as a usual
thing. But they are victimised in yet another way by the money-greed of
the middle-class. Dealers and manufacturers adulterate all kinds of
provisions in an atrocious manner, and without the slightest regard to
the health of the consumers. We have heard the _Manchester Gua