On this page
-
Text (3)
-
April 5, 1851.] &f>e ?if atff t\ 319
-
they are denied their right to labour; a...
-
BAD FAITH. Sir James Graham makes an adm...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Cellency Throws Out Some Hints Of Great ...
likely enough they do . It is , in point of fact , but right that they should . We would not give much for either of them if they did not . But are we for all that entitled to interfere with them so long as their plotting rests on mere presumption ? Are we to open their letters merely because the Austrian ambassador says they contain treasonable matter ? Are we to issue warrants for their
apprehensionexpulsion being altogether out of the question—for even felons are transported , not banished—because the Pope has seized some papers purporting" to be shares of the Mazzini loan ? Are we to have recourse to the desperate measure of domiciliary visits , because the Austrian ambassador assures us that Mazzini has given large orders to some of our Birmingham gunsmiths ? What , in Heaven ' s name , is the Austrian ambassador to us ? Is this
Constantinople , or Tangiers , or Timbuctoo , where aliens are subjected to the jurisdiction of their respective diplomatic agents ? We hear , indeed , of shabby tricks being played upon inoffensive strangers in Republican France , of refugees of high character being roused from their slumbers at dead of night , and gensdarmes rummaging their drawers , poking their noses into their papers , only to find out that the persons subjected to such vexatious proceedings have no hand in any conspiracy either against France or against any of her neighbours . But we—God help us ! should we
stand by and see such things done in this country ? Alas ! too much has already been done which it is in vain for us to wish undone . A sneaking Secretary of State has been found willing to oblige foreign Governments by a dirty trick for which men had their right hand burnt in the good old times . But that was years ago , under that Tory rule which Lord Lyndhurst would fain bring back upon us . We have not forgotten the trick , however , nor forgiven . Sooner will our tongue
forget its Jbnglish , sooner will we see the Russian and Austrian eagle wave on the White Tower , or hear the roll of the Prussian drum at the Horse Guards , than forget or forgive Sir James Graham , and the indelible stain he inflicted upon us . Let his name be shouted aloud now : let his guilt be visited on any man that would only throw out a hint at the repetition of such deeds of dastardly subserviency . Espionage is no English word ; even the term police our Saxon fathers were
unacquainted with . We do not know ourselves the French and Austrian extent of its meaning ; thank Heaven , we never shall . Our constabulary have no hold even upon thieves except on the strongest presumption being established against them . Let the Austrian ambassador apply to a magistrate for the apprehension of Mazzini or Klapka if lie can substantiate any charge against either of them . But as for the Alien Bill—what next ?
Why , Mazzini and Klapka will then apply for the ejection of his Austrian Excellency , or of the Duke of Parma , Cardinal Wiseman , or General Haynau . And how are we to decide between them ?
April 5, 1851.] &F>E ?If Atff T\ 319
April 5 , 1851 . ] & f > e ? if atff t \ 319
They Are Denied Their Right To Labour; A...
they are denied their right to labour ; a fact which is , alas I too true ; but which existed in the palmiest days of monopoly , at least as much as now . The address goes on to say that " it should be the first and most important duty of a wise government to adopt such measures as will best secure employment to the entire population , and for their labour an abundance of the necessaries and comforts of life . " Nothing can be more true - but how do the Trades Delegates recommend that it should be done ? By an improved Poor Law ? by the gradual
cry , which can benefit none but a few landlords , farmers , and shopkeepers ; which would , if successful , be most injurious to themselves ; which would only tend to split into hostile factions the best and most earnest friends of Social and Political Reform , and would be used by the people ' s worst enemies as an additional means of keeping them still longer from their rights . G . R .
organization of labour on Associative principles ? by dealing boldly with the land question ? Not at all ; but by following the guidance of Lord Stanley and Mr . G . F . Young , and returning to " a Protective policy , so that you , fellow-countrymen , may be enabled to live by your labour . " Such an object is the most desirable of all objects—and doubtless it would be immensely facilitated by doubling the price of bread and of all "the necessaries and comforts of life ! "
A "Protective Policy" to be worthy the name must be one of universal protection : and do the framers of this address really- believe that such a system as that which they indicate would enable their fellowcountrymen to live better by their labour than they do now ? Do they think that wages would , rise in proportion to the rise in the price of the protected articles ? and if wages did so rise , by what exploded sophism would they maintain that any one could be the better for having higher wages , when the price of everything was proportionately higher ? Do
they mean to assert that in consequence of Free Trade wages have fallen in an equal ratio with the price of corn and the other necessaries of life ? Why , the agricultural labourers have found out by this time , that even to them—the class whose wages have in the last three years fallen far lower taan any other—Free Trade is a blessing-, and that wages cannot fall in proportion to the fall in the price of bread . In many parts of England—in spite of all that landlords in the House of Commons and out of it may say—they would be ready to rise in open resistance to any attempt toreenforeea duty
on corn . The reduction of wages in some trades , which is noticed in the address , is not the result of Free Trade , but of that war-to-the-knife , competition between man and man , and of the systematic protection of capital and property against labour , which is almost the sole object of legislation in the present day . This reduction of wages be ^ an before Free Trade became the rule of the commercial policy of this country ; and the remedy is to be found , not in Protection , but in cooperation , two things which , despite the contrary assertions of the Maccullochs and Bastiats , are diametrically opposed to each other .
NOT PltOTISCTION , JJUT CONCERT . Lord Stanley has spoken , and many who were looking forward with hope to the dinner at Merchant Tailors' -hall , will look back with surprise at their own hope . His vague promises of some Protection if possible , his resolve to resist all " revolutionary , " that is effectual extensions of the franchise , will disabuse , at least , such of the working classes as have been casting an eye towards Protection and what it may do i ' or them . We do not wonder that they have cast a wishful glance ; when the Liberals have sent them to the one-sided , hardhearted doctrine * of self-reliance amid laws made to
cripple and oppress them ; and when the responsible Ministers show such total impotency to serve the People . Yes , after all , the working danaes must rely upon themselves ; only it must be a reliance of themselves severally , upon themselves collectively—¦ upon the People . To Lord Stanley ' s speech let us refer the authors of " An Address of the Metropolitan Trades Dulegiites to the Working Classes of Great Britain
an < l Ireland . " The object of the address , as we read it , is to impress upon the working men , that all the evils from which they are suffering are tho result of tho recent Free-Trade legislation , and are to bo cured by a return to a Protective policy . We believe such a doctrine to be most erroneous , and "lost likely to turn away tho atteution of those whom the Trades Delegates represent from the real causes of their present condition and their true remedies . After stating the numbers and condition of tho London working men , the address declares that
One , at least , of the names at the bottom of the address , we believe to be that of a Socialist ; and we cannot understand how a believer in the great principle of Concert , or of the advantage and necessity of men ' s acting tot / ether , can support a theory whose fundamental principle is to " protect" every man against every one else . To build barriers round each country and round each trade
in the country , is surely not Association . To foster fictitious secondary employments , and by high protective duties , to keep up prices ruinous to the poor consumer , enabling them just to ding on aa unhealthy existence , is surely not Socialism . To maintain the bread of the people at an unnaturall y hi # h price for the benefit of idle Landlords and bad-cultivating Fanners , is surely in nowa y " to enable them to live . " No ; a return to the worn-out and selfish policy of Protection is impossible . Tho working men of Great Britain and Ireland must look forward to the gradual and steady carrying out of the cooperative principle , to the effectual recognition of the right to labour so ably defeudori in our own papers by W . E . Forster , and to the solution of that great problem , which is now in one way or other
occupying almost every man's mind , the land ; let them not look backward to a system under which they wore no more able " to live- by their labour" and escape " tho pauper ' s budge , " than they are now ; but which tends inevitably to encourage the employment of labour on the less productive branches of industry , with the necessary accompaniment of artificially high prices .
Wo do not for a moment doubt the sincerity of tho Trades Delegates , or their earnest de . sire to aid the good cause of the emancipation of Labour ; but . we would warn tho working Clausen not to allow Ihemaolvca to be misled into joining a Protectionist
Bad Faith. Sir James Graham Makes An Adm...
BAD FAITH . Sir James Graham makes an admirable and convincing speech on the subject of non-intervention in religious affairs , and everybody cries out against his " cunning . " The more his arguments speak for themselves the greater the suspicion that he has some " deep" design . A syllogism suggests doubts greater than its convincingness , and a Q . E . D . establishes duplicity of purpose . Show that two and two make four , and you are looked upon askance ; prove that the square of the hypothenuse is equal to the square of the two sides , and you convict yourself of being a traitor . This
mistrust and suspicion pervade all places , all classes . Working men treat " the middle classes " as heartless fiends , bent only on " grinding the marrow of the toiling millions into money , " or some such process ; Lord Truro happens to have met Miss Talbot in society , at Lord Shrewsbury ' s , and an evil eye is cast upon the absolutely immaculate perception of the Lord Chancellor . There was a time when an honest man's word was taken because it was his : now it is degenerating into the " old-fashioned" to say that such a thing " must be true , for so-and-so said so . " There are no honest men in our day—so says Public Opinion .
Faith is broken down all but universally , to the immense hindrance of all public progress ; for there is no getting on well without faith . Trust may be abused , but blind mistrust is far oftener deluded . Men are mostly honest when they are honestly treated . Of all men the fewest lies are told to the notoriously straightforward . The instinctive sympathy is excited even in the liar by the open countenance of honesty ; his self-respect is reawakened by the expression of generous trust .
But it must be confessed that there is some ground for the mistrust in public affairs . The ruling principle has been a misanthropical scepticism in the value of honesty . Ministers themselves have set an example , not only of shuffling-, —that might have been transitory , and its effect limited to an estimate of Whig humanity , —but of general mistrust . It is " official" to have no real heart in anything , to deal in the suppressio veri , to prevaricate , and to trust no one ; the " official" style is one that refuses to recognize the truth when stated , and avoids recording what may hereafter be used
against the department—avoids recording anything positive lest it should be an absolute truth . Ministers are " virtuous" men , and Lord John backs the Cape , Ceylon , or New Zealand asseverations of Mr . ilawes . A Whig corn-law reform Or sugar reduction is thought of just as expulsion from office is imminent ; a franchise extension is proclaimed in the reply to a Locke King ; a Disraeli blocks olit the questioning of " Liberals , " and a Lord John gets an Anti-l ' ap & l Bill , supply , and income tax , all set smooth against the entry of a
Stanley into office . With no public faith there is no public spirit . No parties command credit , no measure commands frank cooperation . Even the census becomes suspected of party motives and hidden objects . The philosophical demand for " statistics" would quite fall in with the temper of the day ; but let it take the shape of a Somerset-bouse " form , " and the demand becomes " inquisitorial . " In liermondsey , we arc told , such difficulties presented themselves to the collection of the Census returns : —
" In delivering the Hchednles the enumerators were in many iittttunceH looked upon with greut Muapicion . Some [ MTHUitH dic . ltued Unit they were the emissaries of the Chancellor of tin * Kx . ru * ( pur , who hud some Hintater object in view . OthciH p . mteNteil that the information nought vvau of n more ii . ' ([ ui * ii <> riul imltire even than that required for the purpose of aHm-nsing the income tax ; ftntt in not u few in . stunceN tho letter < : Iunh of objeclorn committed the paprrti to Ihe / lumen , or tore them no
before the eyes of the enumeralorii , vowing that they would not KtsUe live it ug «» to please » i > y Government . wWuU'ver . In one hack Ntreet , wiu'ie the ' Heluiplrimntei ' is altom'lher unknown , the tfi euKjst poNtiibh * ulurw wan cro & ted by the ; itppranmcr * of the officers and tlm Hcrvice of the paprrit—and no niroiitfly did the idea of cjectrnentH Mud di « tr < HHfH present them . selvea to the mind * of the uccupantH , that tight or nine Iri ^ h fumilieo completely disappeared before the lupse of foui- ; uvd twenty honrn . * - ' We know Unit , stuli frelin ^ a are not limited to " back nf . reeLs , " or to I . erinondNey ; but that leading men in far more ci'iifral placey have taken f . h <;
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), April 5, 1851, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05041851/page/11/
-