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scarlet often deprives him of all reasoning power , rousing him to paroxysms of uncontrollable fury which astonish beholders . Observe the Bull in a pasture land , surrounded by obedient cows , some recumbent in their indolent repose , others knee deep in a pond under the branching shadow of a clump of trees ; he stands there vyhisking away obtrusive flies with his restless tail , turning a calm eye—without any speculation in itupon the universe at large , and quietly chewing the cud with a sublime indifference to the rest of creation , so that his personal comfort be
secured . He suffers strangers to enter the field . He resents no intrusion from insidious M'Crowdys calculating how his food may be reduced with profit to the landlord . He allows the butcher to examine and purchase his eldest born or his youngest born for the market . He allows " tramps" to cross the . field unmolested . He allows his drover to treat him with merciless despotism . ( Bull has a great respect for the institution of drovers , and at the present moment permits an extremely diminutive and feeble chief drover to sway the bovine destiny as if he were a giant . ) He permits—with occasional outbreaks—all kinds of machinations against his liberty , peace of mind , and ample
nutriment ; but there is one thing he will not permit , and that is the passage through his field of an old woman in a red cloak . Let that misguided female make her appearance , and , although her intentions may be strictly honourable , though her thoughts may wander far away from the Bull , though she be toothless , antiquated , hobbling , foolish , disrespectable , and disrespected , no sooner does her red cloak flash upon his sight than with impetuous bellowing he closes his eyes , lowers his head , and thunders in her reari Nothing but her death can pacify his wrath . His fury is all the more terrible from being perfectly groundless . There is some ineradicable association in bis mind of the colour
scarlet with all hateful iniquities . If the appearance of red cloaks agitate the pastoral Bull , and madden him even in his calmest moods , what must be the effect of an appearance of a red hat perambulating Westminster , where the Bulls are overcrowded , overdriven , and agitated by the turmoils of metropolitan confusion How can the most philosophic of Bulls endure that ? What ! here in the very market-place ,
where Bulls already turn a dull fierce eye upon their drovers , awakened as they are to a perception of the fact that their treatment has not , on the whole , been consistent with justice , here where entangled horns and loud cries of rage already indicate that the bovine temper is not amiable , will you flash in their eyes the hated scarlet , and assure them that scarlet will henceforth be abundant ! The temerity of such an act is unparalleled .
Those who profess intimate acquaintance with bovine annals declare that the cause of this fierce antipathy to scarlet is simple enough . Originally all Bulls were devotees of red . In their theory of the universe the one true and perfect colour was scarlet . Any speculative young Bull-calf , who happened to demur to this , was roasted at Smithfield for the good of his soul . A great many were so roasted ; the whole heavens were ablaze with the fires ; but somehow the number of fires drew the attention of numerous Bulls to the matter .
They had never troubled their heads about it before . The Papa—or Chief Bull—had declared scarlet to be the one colour , which all Bulls were to worship if they wished to be saved . But now they began to ask themselves , " Why should we see witli the eyes of a Chief Bull , why not use our own ? " They did use their eyes , and saw various colours , but each proclaimed the colour he saw to be the only true and perfect . One stood up for redbrown , another fop black , another for dappled
grey . lMcrce wars ensued ; roastings were multiplied on all sides ; the contest rages still ; but , however savagely they hate each other ' s colours , ill the dissidents join in execration of scarlet . File pretensions of scarlet they regard as the most n f ; u no us and absurd ; bad as other Bulls may be , ill are preferable to the " mothers of harlots , ' * the * walking pestilences , " the " sinks of iniquity , " the : ruel , impotent , ambitious , " aggressive" scarlet lulls !
And that is why the certain method of rousing ho malignity and madness of the Bull , is to flutter scarlet ni # before his stupid eyes .
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THE CTJIISE OF LABOUR AND THE BLESSING OF LABOUR . iik Old Testament considers Labour as God ' s m > o unoji man In punishment of his disobedience
in eating of the Tree of Knowledge ; the Newest Testament , in direct contradiction to that superstition , considers Labour as a great blessing to our race , developing man ' s activity , ministering to his wants , strengthening his nature , and dignifying his life with a noble aim . This new aspect presented by Labour is a natural consequence of the evolution of society from a military into an industrial regime . Throughout the early epochs of civilization Labour of all kinds was " a disgrace—the emnlmrmpnt r » f sin . vfls nr sf « rfs . therefore deroeratorv
to the free warrior . But the military spirit is no longer dominant in Europe ; the rise of the industrial classes into power has changed the whole constitution of society ; and among other changes it has brought a deep and general respect for Labour of head or hand . But , as in our present heterogeneous and transitional society we trace the most curious juxtapositions of old and new—of traditions and Utopias —of remanets and crude anticipations , we must
not be surprised to find the old swu living beside the new gospel , and Labour regarded as a curse by some , and by others as a blessing . For in truth it is a curse to tome . It is the chain round the ankle of the captive ; the heavy burden on the shoulders of the weak . Much as one may glory in the beneficence of Work , one cannot be dithyrambic on the condition of a handloom weaver , or a Dorsetshire peasant . To them Labour is a curse , because it is not the energetic employment of natural powers , it is the degradation of their human nature into the condition of a machine . They do not work to supply their wants and to occupy their own abundant energies ; they sell their birthrights for a mess of pottage , give up their whole existences in purchase of the means of living calculated nicely above starvation point—ety propter vitam , vivendi perdere causas . There is hope , however ; nay , more than hope —there is the certainty that the world is in a process of evolution which will finally bring peace , plenty , justice , upon earth . Sad as times look , they were never really brighter to the prescient
eye . Ours is a noble epoch , and has noble work to do . Never before , in the history of the world , was such a mass of injustice and misery disclosed , because never before were the intellects of the earnest and generous so resolutely bent on discovering and disclosing evil . The great work of our age is the endeavour sincerely to get at the real amount of evil , and at the causes which produce it . Differ as they may among themselves with respect
to theories , all parties are united in object . Everyday some fresh disclosure startles the optimist , and forces him to doubt whether the present system really is the best ; everyday withdraws the curtain from some new and more appalling manifestation of evil that demands a remedy . The Times declares that it has at last discovered the " lowest deep" in agricultural distress ; and with that alacrity in exposing abuses , and that undoubted ability in the manner of exposing them , which
make me l a giganuc power , a multitude of its political sins , it devotes a leading article to the subject . Read this and ponder : — " In this country it is the fashion , and happily so , to reflect often on the miserable pittance with which many forms of labour are rewarded . We hear , perhaps , of a Dorsetshire labourer receiving six shillings a-week , and
we proceed to calculate the uses to which that sum must be applied , and the arooun t of comforts which it can procure . We find it to be barely the means of sustenance to a family , and doubt whether human exertion can receive a more barren recompense . A little reflection , however , aided by the details of late investigations , convinces us that an equal amount of toil may meet with a still smaller remuneration . We hear of shirtmakers whose average earnings may be sixpence a-day for twelve hours' labour ; we hear of strawplait-workers and lacemakers whobend over their sedentary occupation with unwearied patience , and find their weekly earnings half-a-crown ; we dream that this , at least , is the bottom of the scale , and our dream is dispelled by a new discovery , which pives to such pittance the character of wealth . We are only happy to think that the -valuation of labour we are now to remark upon is not vet accepted in this country ; and , though occurring within the boundaries of this realm , is confined to that land of anomalies separated from us by St . George ' s Channel . At the petty sessions lately held at Kauturk an Irish farmer , Green by name , was summoned by one of his labourers for the sum of one shilling and sixpence , which we might suppose represented a day ' s work ; it appeared , however , that it was claimed for three weeks' work , done at the rate of one penny per diem during harvest time—for eighteen days eighteen pence ; there was no dispute about the fact of the labour having been performed , the farmer ' s reluctance being grounded on the exorbitant character of thedemnnd . Mr . Green declared that he should never have thought of engaging a starveling like the complainant Walsh at that money , when he could got the best man in the country f »> r a « little ; lie could brina a
witness to prove that the wages really covenanted for were one halfpenny per toeek : it was purely a commercial question ; he had made a bargain , as he averred , in accordance with the state of the labour market in that locality , taking into consideration the capacities of Walsh ; he considered that a bargain was a bargain , and ought to be kept ; finally he tendered three-halfpence as the amount of the legitimate claim . Astounded by such an offer , the magistrates demanded of Walsh what he had obtained in the way of food from his employer ; they received for answer as follows : — ' Whilst I was with
him I was obliged to be up in the morning about four o ' clock , to let the cows out of the sleeping-field , and remain herding them until the other men would come to their work , and used then to be obliged to work with them all day , and get nothing for my support but a bit of dry Indian gruel . They used to give milk to the pigs and calves before my face , but would not give me a drop . ' Under these circumstances the magistrates gave orders for the payment of the more exorbitant sum of one penny per day , not , however , without renewed objections on the part of Mr . Green , who stoutly maintained the justice and the sacredness of his bargain . "
What , indeed , is more sacred than a " bargain " ? The immutable laws of supply and demand regulate the wages of labour , and to suggest any other mode of regulation is to sap the foundations of society ; none but diabolic Socialists preaching universal robbery could ever dream of interfering with such a state of things . Thus it is that the blessing of Labour becomes the curse of Labour ; nay , an infinitely greater curse than that of the old Hebrew superstition , for in that scheme of society man did at least earn his bread by the sweat of his brow , but , in our reading of the curse , we wring the sweat from his brow and
do not give him the bread . How men can pray to the Almighty Father with daily gratitude for the blessings He profusely tenders them , how they can ask Him for their daily bread , and , rising from their knees , pass out into the crowd of wasted workmen to bargain for Labour at a penny a-day , — thus earning their bread by the sweat of starving fellow-creatures , —how this can be done by Christian men must fill the reflective mind with awe at the appalling contradictions of the human heart , and startle the most careless into a serious consideration of the possible rottenness of our moral Denmark . And do not throw aside the heavy
burden of remorse by saying Fanner Green is a " monstrous exception "—he is only the reductio ad absurdum of our entire system .
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SOCIAL REFORM . EPISTOL ^ : OliSCUEOEUM VIKOUUM . XVII . —X . I 3 Dboit au Travail , No . 2 . To TiroiiNTON- Hunt , Esq . Hawdon , near Leeds , Nov . 12 , 1850 . " England expects every man to do his duty ; " all of us reecho Nelson ' s famous saying , but how seldom , my dear Sir , do we feel the meaning of what we say . What England expects she surely should allow ; let her do so , and divers strange things would happen ; among others , " Le droit au travail" would stand confessed by English law the
right of eveiy Englishman . . Yes , translated into our dutiful , because practical * tongue—for duty is the ideal of practice , and we pride ourselves on being a practical people—this fearful French phrase simply means the right to do one ' s duty ; and this right underlies all the rights of man , it is the principle of which they are the % t
various expressions , — " the rights of man" mean or they mean nothing ; for traced , indeed , to their true meaning , rights and duties are synonymous , both , the realization of life ' s purpose , the one in relation to man ' s self , the other in relation to his fellows ; they are , as it were , the obverse and the reverse of the same coin , God ' s image stamped on man ' s soul , and passing current as truth ' s sign . his
A man finds his own weakness or passion , want of self-control , prevent him from getting through the task life has set him : his effort to supply that want is the fulfilment of his duty ; but not alone his own weakness and passion distract him from this task , the weakness and passion of other men , their weak and wild wills , as well as his own , interfere with its performance ; his protest against this interference in his assertion of his rights . God
Allowing , then , that man has a purpose on s earth , it is at once his right and duty to fulfil it ; but toil is not only part of the purpose , it is the very condition of life ; his first duty , then , is to toil—to work for his living ; deny that your brother has a duty to fulfil , prove that his life is purposeless , and you disprove his right to labour , you free him , it is true , from the curse—but , how ? By banishing him from the earth , which is cursed for his sake . Grant that lie is drifted into time to float as
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804 tRtl C % taUeV * [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 16, 1850, page 804, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1859/page/12/
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