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    Dec. 27, 1851.] ®\>t &*&&*?+ 1229

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    SAXONS AND CELTS. A lecture was delivere...

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    THE PARTIES IN ITALY. BY JOSEPH MAZZINI....

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    A meeting of the representatives of the ...

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    Tirk Coming Tstllikk At Manc1ikstku. It ...

    « These are the formal demands ; but it is understood that the council are prepared to advocate an equalization of the rate of wages ; to lend themselves , in fact , to an agitation for a trial of the ingenious doctrines of M . Louis Blanc . " Amiens , whoso fr-ernlliness is more than questionable , continues . " Now , Sir , the consideration of such demands as these on the part of the employed to their masters would open out too wide a field of inquiry to he brought within the limits of a single letter in your columns . We should have to discuss the right of one workman to restrict the

    amount of labour of his fellow ; whether the idle and unskilful should be allowed to rule the industrious and expert , and prevent the latter from gaining 10 a . because the former could not earn , perhaps , more than 4 a . ; whether , in obedience to the caprice of an agitating committee , the dismissal of good and faithful servants , who have in no way misconducted themseltes and are fully competent to their work , should follow as a matter of course ; and many other similar topics . But permit me to direct your especial attention to the fact that the Union Committee again recommends its members to have recourse to intimidation and threat as the surest means of obtaining a concession . The Manchester masters have certainly adopted a decisive measure for

    the salvation of their trade and the protection of the really well-disposed among their operatives , and it is to be hoped that the misguided men , the many victims of the designing few , will have the good sense to see that their true interests are bound up with those of their employers , and are not to be promoted by proceedings which would cripple trade and destroy that control of management essential to success . Should they drive matters to the extremities threatened , should the strike actually occur , and your readers be pained with the recital of further attempts upon life , as recently at

    Leeds , then some strong legal measure will be emphatically demanded for the suppression of these dangerous combinations , and they may rely upon it that public sympathy and the general support of employers of labour in all districts of the country will accompany the Manchester firms in the steps they may decide upon . ' This minatory letter was the next day followed by a leader still more menacing . The doctrine laid down by the Times being that of the most perfect freedom of trade in labour—for the masters ; the most p erfect subserviency for the men . Mr . W . Newton , one of the Council of Amalgamated Engineershas addressed a letter to the Times , showing

    , that " Amicus" is wholly wrong . For our parts we have only this to say , as we have said before : Working men are not protected by the law ; combination , 80 ° facile among the masters , is not only not rendered easy , but positively forbidden—under penalties—among the men . The " strong measures" required by the urgency of the ease , are strong measures of protection of the right of workmen , so long as competition is the god of trade , to meet , combine , and exact what wages they can—all things considered . Meanwhile we are investigating the facts of the case , which we shall lay before our readers .

    Dec. 27, 1851.] ®\>T &*&&*?+ 1229

    Dec . 27 , 1851 . ] ®\> t &*&&*? + 1229

    Saxons And Celts. A Lecture Was Delivere...

    SAXONS AND CELTS . A lecture was delivered at the Whittington Club , on the 18 th , by Newenham Travers , M . A-, upon Celts and Saxons , in which the lecturer exposed the inconsistency of the " War-of-JRaces" theory , upon the ground taken up by ethnologists themselves , who assert the common origin of races , and admit that there are really no natural barriers to their fusion . He showed that the more violent process which once extinguished races by the sword is no * w changing to one more peaceful and useful , which amalgamates them by common interests , and whose action is tending to the destruction of distinctive barriers , though not necessarily of distinctive characteristics , which will continue as long as the physical -world

    shall present its inexhaustible varieties . The allegation that the Celtic race is effete was met by the examples of Cornwall , Lancaster , the North of Ireland , France , Switzerland , and , above all , America , where Celtic blood is now almost predominant , and which it becomes us now more than ever not to irritate , by the application of preconceived theories to so large an element in its new and marked national character . The decline of the Celts was admitted wherever they had courted or preferred isolation , but this fact "was instanced in confirmation of the argument that no race can preserve its vitality if secluded from others . The same law applies in this to communities as to individuals , and the decay of royal families was alleged in support of the

    argument . The lecturer traced , at too great length to be noticed here , the chief points of contrast between the two races ; alleging , as sufficiently accountable for the stationary character of the Celts , their prior occupation of western Europe , and the consequent defensive and isolated position which they had . been compelled to assume in presence of the restless tribes which poured over the Roman empire from the German forests . This continued existence , under such circumstances , was some proof of unextinguished vigour ; nor was sufficient attention paid by ethnologists , real or pretended , to the causes which , in Ireland

    especially , had worked to produce , as much as possible , the degr adation and even the extinction of the race in the long period from the statutes of Kilkennymaking intermarriage with the Celt high treasonto the Union , a period , in its latter portion especially , of " sad servitude , " as Grattan said , " to the one side , of drunken triumph to the other . When , however , the disturbing forces have been regulated , the perplexing connection of contradictory qualities which had astonished and confounded us no longer appear . Healthy nature does not perpetuate deformities , liemove the ligaments , and the deformity disappears , and the Celt is found to be a reasonable agent .

    The restless character of the Saxon was contrasted with the more indolent temperament of the Celt ; but was alleged as some evidence of incompleteness , " never ending , still beginning . " It might , it was asserted , be advantageously blended with the less vigorous but graceful and delicate organisation of the Celt . To the Saxon the present is all ia all ; nor eun tradition chain his reason , nor custom sanction in his sight what his present needs

    find inadequate to their supply . Yet will he use to the utmost the institutions by which he is surrounded , sometimes even when they are seen to have lost their vigour , though always remodelling them when time imperatively demands the change ; thus differing from the slave , who accepts every change and every muster ; and from the despot , who stereotypes the forms of the past , and rules irresponsible- under them .

    The lecturer proceeded to remark on the imperishable character of the early Teutonic ideas , whose vitality still pervades our institution . " . He instanced those of self-government—abhorrence of tribute—a fact against which Filmer struggled in vain—the recognition of the true theory of royal or governing power , and the right to condemn n « guilty of treason any who should try to assume it without authority ( instanced even in the cane of ArminiiiH )—trial by jury

    — 'the stipulation that , service should bo done for all grants , the Church not excepted , a rule from which we have in sonic respects dangerously declined— -und not least , that which contained the germ of national education , the law which made the well-doing of all a respoiinibility not only of himself but , of his surety . These , it wsw observed , were ideas existing before the time of Alfred , who only modelled his institutions from them , and who expressly professed to hold to that which was old .

    After Home lurtlier remarks upon the present and tin : future of the Celtic race , which does not nirnply incite in the American , people , but acts as in Nome chemical combinations ( where elements apparently heterogeneous produce- a result new and surprising ) , the lecturer gave instances to show that , the Anglo-Saxon character was « t , ill immature , und i ( H history not yet . fully developed . He instanced its urn-less and expensive wars , rarely undertaken in support of a principle , its unimportant party triumphs , the more

    them all . It was the belief largestmen that the existing barriers between races must be removed for the full development of the still latent powers of humanity , and every thing tended this way . War destroyed those barriers , commerce blended and fused the living mass . Political geography forbade the idea of immutable distinctions . Railways and the electric telegraph were penetrating or overleaping all impediments , and drawing nations into a narrower circle . We gain increased sympathies by wider intercommunication , and our thoughts of each other now are no longer as fearful as when our day ' s journey was scarce more than than the Sabbathday ' s journey of the Jew .

    of the hearted of family interests with which its glory was thought to be associated ; and contrasted these with the results flowing from the labours of Arkwright , Watt , Wheatstone , the ideas of Locke and Bentham , and the increase of national education and intelligence , in proof that the true present of the race would be found in the time when all its members should -work for the good of all , and all share in the results . The lecturer asserted , in conclusion , that all races which have occupied any place in history have manifested characteristics whose extinction were a loss to humanity , but that none such have been really extinguished , nor did he see that any race possessed

    The Parties In Italy. By Joseph Mazzini....

    THE PARTIES IN ITALY . BY JOSEPH MAZZINI . There exists now in Italy , to speak correctly , but one party ; that party is the great n tional one . Without it there can only be factions and opinions . I call party a nucleu s of men having a principle , a denned aim , an instrument , and an organisation to attain that aim . The principle must embrace and unite both the national tra dition and the future , the consciousness of the country as it was and as it will be : the aim must be general , common to all the inhabitants of the country , and superior to all secondary , sectional , and local objects ; the instrument aimmust include all the

    must be analogous to the , living forces of the country , and its action in conformity with the logic of the affinities between the principle and the object . The principle affords to the party the right and power of initiative ; the instrument , strength of realization ; the aim , morality . Whenever a party re-unites in itself those characteristic conditions , victory is on its side , in spite of all obstacles . God and logic , reason and the force of circumstances combat for and with it . Wherever those conditions do not unite , you may be sure that there is nothing but a faction ; an opinion , but no party , no sacred nucleus called forth to gain sooner orllater the adhesion of the whole country .

    Faction is an instrument without principle , without a general aim . It substitutes caste or individual interests , for princip le : for a general aim , a partial , secondary object ; it can have its action , but no consecration of thought . Opinion may have a principle ; it may have a very incomplete , very vague conception of an aim , but it possesses no instrument . It is to party what philosophy is to faith—it represents an individual aspirath thou

    tion without any collective streng—a ght without action . It can frequently , like heresy , indicate ti step in advance on the road of futurity ; it has no positive , practical , value , on the ground of actuality ; it can introduce into the bosom of a party a dissolving more or less active , element ; but it has no power to create one in its own name . Like faction , it is in want of the necessary elements for an initiative . Monarchism can furnish in Italy no other elements but those which form a faction . Federalism is und

    can never be anything else but an opinion—an exaggated protestation in favour of liberty , which nobody in Italy dreams of attacking . It is totally deprived of the quality of attaining a common , superior , end ; it it . could ever organise itself , it would render the Nation an utter impossibility . Monarchiam , as a positive element—as a source of life or progress—nevt-r entered into the historical tradition of Italy . It has only , inertly and impotently , ¦ superposed itself on the country , by the aid of corruption and foreign tyranny , but it has never associated itself with its destinies . It has ever been an

    iey incubus , stopping the heatings of the nation n heart , it , bus , during three hundred years , hermetically kept down the tombstone over all collective movement and Unitarian aspiration- —it has always been utterly incompetent to conceive for itself u mission , a function to perform . It ; slid into central Italy over tlie glorious ruins of the Florentine- republic , alter Charles V ., misleading , amidst the debris , this only idea that could have given a sense to royalty , viz ., unification . It left Italy dismembered—partitioned into little states , without strength , without tie , without , progress . It was never anything else , to . speak correctly , but , the steward of the palace of foreign royalties ; and the only princely house whom ; tactics occasionally assumed a course of independence did but oscillate between Fiance ami Austria .

    How I . Ikii could Monarohi . sm pretend to furnish n vital element to the Italian constitution ? To what recollections could it . appeal , when it never had any faith in the I ' eoplc , and whom the l ' eoplc only know

    A Meeting Of The Representatives Of The ...

    A meeting of the representatives of the principal engineering firms was held at the London Coffee-house , Ludgate-hill , on Wednesday evening last , to take into consideration certain demands made by engineers , millwrights , mechanics , and others , on their employers , which demands have been accompanied by threats that , unless they are acceded to , a general strike will take place throughout the country on the last day of the present year . Mr . Joseph Field , of the firm of Maudsley , Field , and Co . ( Lambeth ) , was called to the chair . The Chairman , in opening the proceedings , read several communications which had been received from

    different parts of the country , and stated that the demands which had been made were to the following effect : —1 . The abolition of overtime , excepting in case of breakdown . 2 . When overtime is absolutely necessary , it is to be paid for at double rates . 3 . The abolition of the system of piece work . 4 . The unconditional discharge of all labourers , or such class of persons at present engaged in working planting machines , or tools of similar character , and the employment in their stead of mechanics members of the union . The meeting was addressed by several employers , and certain resolutions were unanimously agreed to . These resolutions

    affirmed that the demands referred to were an attempt to ignore the right of every British subject to dispose of his labour or capital according to his individual views of his own interest ; that it was advisable that the threats held out . of dictation to employers and tyranny over the employed should be promptly and peremptorily resisted ; that if the- threats were curried into effect , vast numbers of skilled workmen would be thrown out of engagements , on account of the employers being compelled to clone their establishments until the vacancies can be supplied . It was also determined that , as a incaof srll-delenee , the employers would , in the event of the hands of any establishment going out on strike on tlie . ' { 1 st of DiMX-mber , or at any subsequent period ,

    entirely clone their estuoliMhmentH on the IOth of January , lHfi' 2 , or within one week after such other period respectively , until 'lie causr-H which have rendered this step necessary shall have bvvn removed to the Hutinfactioii of the employe ™ . In order to curry out . these resolution ^ it whs resolved that a nooiety should be formed , to be eull < d " The Central AHHOciution of Employers of Operative Kngineers , " Ac , and the following gentlriiun were elected to constitute that body : — Messrs . . 1 . Field , John Hcott Russell , Thomas Maudsley , John lVnn , Oeoi « e Kcniiic . Kichiud Itiivcnhill , John Seward , Hrynn J ) onkiu , juu ., Henry iirinm-W , C . I ' .. Amos , John Ulyth , Joel Mpiiler , and ( hihr ^ fi Uovill . Lt was agreed that another meeting of reprtinentalivuB of the principal firms

    should be held so soon as circumstances rendered it necessary . Thanks were voted to the chairman , and the proceedings terminated .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 27, 1851, page 1229, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_27121851/page/9/