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::May ;^185SL]:. : : : -^, ; : : ', ¦¦ ¦...
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: THE ^RKINtt ]M^ DOMEfflpNS. « OUBPOorB...
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. THE DISRAELI FRANCHISE. The Tories are...
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A CHECK FOE CHICORY. Dekby agrees not wi...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
::May ;^185sl]:. : : : -^, ; : : ', ¦¦ ¦...
:: May ;^ 185 SL ] :. : : - ^ , ; : : ' , ¦¦ ¦ :: ' THE L ^ EADER . ¦ ' . ¦ ¦ ;¦ . M . . . . ¦ .
: The ^Rkintt ]M^ Domefflpns. « Oubpoorb...
: THE ^ RKINtt ] M ^ DOMEfflpNS . « OUBPOorBishop , ao \^ rnpr , aiia , indeed , every one , loSks fcgged and worn to 4 eath ; writes an intellicetit gentleman—and w % / Because Bishop , Gov ^ ttor , " et toe . genus dmne , " hare become vorMng class ! Not metaplwrica % ^ but ao tujjlv Imagine a working-class Bishop ! A Governor grooming his own horse is odd enough , i ^ t ^; iiltogeite >^ f . < rf- ^ t ^ r vsinbe ; li « . lm ^ t have been a military man , and . he is a poor soldier , whatever the charge on his escptcheon may be who cannot , on occasion , f ^ room hie own horse ; but a Bishop fagged and worn to death with genuine Hard work !
Where , then * is the strange place in which Governors , andBishops , " et hoc genus omne , " are mere workers P It is at Melbourne , capital of Victoria , heiEirt of the gold xe ^ on in Australia . Andthe gold , has done it all . It has proved your true lfev « ue * v : V ' . ^\ t his ; ^ un 1 ^ , . ; f 6 p .-t | ie most part , it is . piily ' - - 'the '' ' ^ diMe ^ alass-ytIiat ' - attain to the pleasure ofbeing nojiveawx riches , parvenus , or upstarts of the purseproud order ; but in Australia it has becomepossible for the working man . The new field of industry offers to the £ | ^ ll ¦ ¦ . . JU Jt ¦ ^ r . •» ' »^ » . — - ; __ — ¦ — - ; . - ¦ - - .
^ mere day-labourer , by steady mdustry , —letting alone windfalls and extraordinary prizes—his thousand of twelve-hundred a-year . The windfau ^ , of course , are jnbre splendid—say a thousand and a few odd hundreds in a week . Of course , wprlong inen jprefer that kind of life to being shepherds * or- shopmen , or lackeys , and off they go . And thus it comes about that the Bishop is absorbed into the working class ; that the Governor is left to groom his own horse ; his wife to be cook an ' d housemaid in her own house .
The working class has risen in value . Its want has never been felt so keenly before . The poor middle class of Melbourne is calling out lustily for more working class from England . Middle class does not at all like to be working class ; and it sorely wants to be relieved . They are highly " democratic" inJLustralia ; they do not approve of titles—which they seldom get ; they talk stoutly against aristocratic institutions , and they hint at separation from IJngland . Yet they have their own ideas , have those middle classes without an tipper class above them , about the dispensations of ^ Providence and the allotment of men
to different stations in life ; and they are almost , nay , quite angry with the working class for slipping from under them . They describe the grooming Governor and the fagging Bishop as affecting incidents which must , ex officio , excite compassion in every respectable breast at home . When the tables are turned upon them , they are piqued . They resent the upstart airs of the nouveauy riches who have served no apprenticeship to middle-class relations . "A friend of mine" dines at a public table in a steamer , and his quondam gropm , " with a familiar air , " asks him to take wine . Now , why should not the groom be " familiar" P Had he not lived in the
gentleman ' s family P Would not the gentleman have been familiar to him P If formerly they had only been equal in the sight of God , now they were equal in the sight of Gold , which is a practical equality in the best society . The { jroom , indeed , showed a decided taste for good breeding : "A few weeks ago , sir , " he said , " I had the honour to be your groom . " It is a question whether his mend would have addressed him with equal affability , or said , " A few weeks ago I nad the honour to be your master . " Among instances of
upstart ingratitude is the story of men who naturally preferred gold picking , and declined the oftor of a great stockholder to go woolgathering jor his sake ! It is astonishing , the hardness of Jieart among those common people ; as if he hod not hitherto kept his flocks and collected the wool for the sake of the men , poor fellow 1 They added insult to injury ; he found them " lvinir indolontl
y round their fire . " What right have common working men to be indolent P And after do-• 1 . ? £ P ^ ilanthpQpio offer , they reciprocated Jt w ^ h an offer to engage him as their cook at niteon shillings a day ! Ho wpuhi onco hare expected them to be grateful for such an offor , wiough he would scarcely have offered such wagea ; but to think that common men should have the face — !
Somo of these common mon are not quito so considerate m the form of their courtesies : one , jot exampl e , to whom a person had sent his plate ior some potatoes , keeps it to himself for the flake 1 tUo * ow * » n it ; observing , " I am nob going to
let this go again . An agreeable country this to reside m ! " True enough , your Irish pptatoeater will think ; but it would probably become a more agreeable countryifmen were not so grasping and unpolite . -We have , indeed , seen men m this country , sitting at table , enj oying heaps of good things , with their fellow-creatures behind them , and vet not a word of offering so
much as a potato ; but then the men sitting were gentlemen , and the human beings standing were only servants ^—only equal in the sight of God , as the saying is . However , it remains a fact that in England gentlemen keep the potato to themselves ; in Australia , working men do so—that is all the real difference .
Yet they no sooner see a Governor grooming , or a Bishop decanting his own wine from necessity and not from gout , than they cry " Society is dissolved ! " Strange fact , that gold , the great cement of society , introduced in great abundance , should be the great solvent ! Is there not something wrong in the structure , where more mortar demolishes the foundations P Hitherto wages have been the great nexus between man and man ; and practical philosophy , — excepting always Thomas Carlyle , who is a philosophical philosopher , — -has taught that the tie i ? all-sufficient . " Love your neighbour as yourself" is for church ,
but put of doors expect only your price in the labour market ; your price to be paid by those who not only " buy in the cheapest market , " but make organized arrangements to ke < ep the market cheap , or to make it cheaper . " Love your neighbour / ' & c ., —that is pnly in a " non-natural" sense , or translated by an " enlightened selfishness ; " in practical working life , wages is the only tie . Such has been the moral taught to the working class ; whyshould theynot retort it P Wages bind them to their employer , and if the stony earth pays higher wages , why not be bound to that ?
Meanwhile , it is a pleasant country to live . in , that Australia . No society of Employers , no combination pf Gold Hills , compels the workman to sign a declaration that he belongs to no union . ISTo , he may belong to all the unions in the world , hob-nob with his master , engage some Bishop out of work as his cook , use a silver fork like a Christian , and feel that he really is worth something in the state ; for there his labour is his own , and God ' s own free earth is his capitalist .
. The Disraeli Franchise. The Tories Are...
. THE DISRAELI FRANCHISE . The Tories are better than the Whigs—in performance , in spirit , and especially in promises . They have recognized the discords of classes , with a desire , not to " leave alone , " but to reconcile ; at the Crystal Palace meeting on Tuesday , Lord Shaftesbury recognized the influence of art as an auxiliary to Sabbath observance , and the necessity for leisure ; and more than one Minister , speaking in his place , has recognized the necessity for a working class franchise . Mr . Secretary Walpolo has favoured a franchise to be earned by serving in the militia ; and Mr . Disraeli , Chancellor of the Exchequer , has deplored that operation of the Keform Bill which , in abolishing freemen , disfranchised the working classes . " Humbug , " cries the sceptic Liberal . We do not share the doubt , however , but incline to believe that both Walpole and Disraeli have sincerity in what they say—the sincerity of intellect , if not of heart . Would that they had corresponding force ot
will . It was a flaw of the Reform Bill that it abolished an ancient working-man ' s franchise ; and disfranohisement has been too much the tendency of more recent reforms . Mr . Disraeli sees as muoh ; but he contents himself with criticizing and regretting , and promising to " consider . Why not do ? It would not bo impossible to devise a working class franchise , without at onco resorting to universal suffrage . Still it should bo a cenuine direct representation of the working
classes , by themselves , aa such . " Protection" promises to take some new shape , consonant with the wants of the day : and among those wants is a protection of industry , not in the shape of restriction or consumption , but in tho shape of a self-acting power to maintain tho rights of labour as against the powers of capital . The " unions" spontaneously formed by tlio working classes are the direct , natural , and fitting embodiment of that want in a tortative realization . They have worked indifferently , hereto * fore , chiefly bocauso the law triea to prevent them
The employers think that they have gained a final and a crushing triumph over the men ; but no mistake can be greater . The ingenuity of thousands is not so easily exhausted . What the Amalgamated Masters have done is , to make the men understand that no quarter is to be given , and so to fill the hearts of the workmen with a sense of helpless present injury , which cannot but solace itself with vague fore-reckonings of revenge . Why are the men always to have the law against them ? How much better it would be , not to impede , but to regulate the unions which are formed at the dictate of practical experience . Even-handed law might then introduce order where there is now only evasion alternating with turbulence . But if unions , guilds , or corporations of the working classes ( not in the sense of close monopolies borrowed from past centuries , were sanctioned , by whatsoever name , it would be easy to make them the means of a direct representation of the working classes , by giving the franchise to the guild , with a specific allowance
rather than to regulate them . Hence incorporated labour cannot negociate with incorporated capital , but can only contend with its great enemyally . Meanwhile incorporated labour maintains itself by evasions of a partial and oppressive law , which drives the unionists into twisted and inefficient courses . The best that unipris now do is to prevent worse oppression to the men , by threat of still worse retaliation and yet worse confusion than they have hitherto occasioned .
of' members to represent the guild in Parliament ; just as the Universities are now represented . The idea is worthy of consideration by men who desire representation of the working classes , without universal suffrage . That public discussion , that practical government , would benefit by making the voice of the industrious class heard in the national council , we are convinced ; the advantages thence accruing would be wholly apart from any alteration , of political balance ; and at all events the Legislature , sometimes , in the hour of legislation , woulct know what it was doing in affairs concerning the industrious classes .
A Check Foe Chicory. Dekby Agrees Not Wi...
A CHECK FOE CHICORY . Dekby agrees not with " Chicory Wood" in blind reliance on the maxim " Caveat emptor "let the buyer look after his own interest—though he thinks that mixture of chicory with coffee cannot be wholly prevented . Nor is there any need that it should . The law needs not prohibit anything in the matter , except fraud ; but why should that which is forbidden in other things be permitted in chicory alone P Let chicory be sold , if you will , but as chicory . Let it be mixed with coffee , if the consumer wishes , but avowedly . The thing wanted is not prohibition ,
but an easy mode of redress ; and we do not see why that should be given up as impossible . As usual , the facts of the mischief suggest the proper remedy . Chicory is passed off upon the consumer as coffee , which , is a fraud ; and the law ought to give redress for that fraud . But the fraud is moat often and most grossly commitjbed upon the poorer class of consumers , who can never attain redress so long as it is to be sought only through complicated , tedious , or expensive processes at law . jNow it would be quite easy to provide a specific check for the fraudulent sale of chicory , by imposing a fine . To enable the
poor man to obtain redress it should be administered summarily , by a police magistrate . To prevent malicious prosecutions , none of the fine should go to the informer , but only compensation for the actual loss in coffee and the expenses . The fine would be a proper punishment for an offence instigated by avarice . It would be easy for the honest tradesman to' avoid all embarrassing liabilities by never selling chicory mixed , or , better still , by not soiling it at all . Lot it bo bought at tho seedsman ' s , or herbalist's , and the grocer would bo relieved of that facility to adulterate , which the really honest and intelligent tradesman has now learned to know for the canker
of genuine trade—a curse trebly cursing , smce it defrauds the consumer , the' producer , and , at last , the dealer himself , through rotten prices and blasted confidence . Tho dishonest tradesman is a knave , a false steward to the producer , n swindler to the consumer , a traitor to his own craft , a fit subject to bo controlled by tho correctional pplice .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 1, 1852, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01051852/page/13/
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