On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
Untitled Article
she directs her face . Justice , we are afraid , is a bit of a Snob—especially in tbe provinces . She lias an eye for a good suit of clotbes , and two for a heavy balance at the banker ' s . In matters affecting life and limb she is blind ; in matters affecting property she is wonderfully quick-sighted . She licks the dust at the feet of capital ; she bows to position and " respectability "; but she is impartially , rigidly blind to Labour and Poverty . We do not speak without book . Our authority is unimpeachable . It is the State of Trade correspondent of the Times : —
" The strike of the tinplate workmen of Wolverhampton and the nailers in East Worcestershire has had the effect apparently of resuscitating the evil energies of the men engaged in the glass manufacture , ¦ who * turned out' some months ago . The workingman s Attorney-General , Roberts , is again in the field in support of trade combinations ; but at our public office in the course of the present week the learned gentleman met with very indifferent success . It apextensive
pears that Messrs . Summerneld , glass manufacturers , some few weeks ago differed with their workpeople ; it was not until the law was put into active operation that these differences were for the time allayed . The sore , however , still rankled in the minds of some of the operatives , and one or more of the men who supported the views of their employers have been continually subjected to the abuse and violence of others employed in the same establishment . Mr , Summerfield acted as he was
bound to act . He immediately , without notice , dismissed the men charged with intimidation and assault , and left them to seek any remedy which the common law of the country might afford to them . The discharged men , under the advice of * Attorney-General' Hoberts , took out summonses against Mr . Summerfield for discharging the men without the customary fornight ' s notice . The hearing of the case occupied five hours , and the result
was that the magistrates thought the defendant was justified in the course he pursued , and they dismissed the charge . This decision will have a good effect in the neighbourhood . It asserts and vindicates this important truth—that agreements , written oral , and established by use or custom , are at once vitiated and rendered void by the misconduct or illegal acts of the men by whom such agreements are sought to be enforced . "
This is not new in the Gospel of Capital , but it is a new axiom in law . If you obtain a suit of clothes from your tailor , is the contract to pay for the clothes " vitiated and rendered void , " supposing- that important personage " misconducts " himself towards you , or commits an " illegal act" ? One might pay all ones debts , according to this doctrine , on a fine morning , by insulting one ' s creditors consecutively up to fighting point . An assault breaks a contract . Saving Gospel for swells" and men upon town !
aow , the important truth asserted and vindicated l ) y the extract above is in plain words this—that there is one law for working men and another for capitalists and employers . Contracts , as at Wolverhampton , are held to be binding upon working - men . Contracts , as at Worcester , are not held to be binding upon employers . Capitalists may combine to lower wages and persecute workmen ; workmen may not combine to raise wages and persecute employers . All this comes from justice being herself a capitalist , and having clear eyes for her caste , but not even a squint for those who " coin their blood for drachmas . "
Untitled Article
PRACTICAL ADVANTAGES OF A EUROPEAN WAR . " What , if we notify to Austria , " asks a New York journalist , " that we intend to aid any future Hungarian patriots who revolt against your t y ranny ? " These are not our words ; we take them from the journal which may be called the Times of New York . The words are not suggested by us ; they were published in New York before our suggestion on the same head had reached the writer . They are the spontaneous result of American feeling . The idea had already been awakened there of sending the star-spangled banner to Kurope as the standard of Liberty . An American contingent , therefore , is not bo great an improbability as some might deem it . The suggestion on our part was limited to thisthat the star-spangled banner should take the lead in the great war of Peoples against Despotism . It has a right to that post . Now , what provoked the threat of the New York journalist ? The provocative was the threat in the London Times , that " the maritime powers" would interfere in Cuba between Spain and America . And if the Cuban affair had not fallen to the ground , for
the present , the maritime powers might have interfered , not without much to say in their justification . The opportunity for interference will probably occur again , especially if Spain should act in the spirit of proud chivalry manifested by the Madrid Heraldo , which is all for war against the Republic . Nor is Cuba the only ground where the American Republic and European Monarchy may clash ; in the African blockade the British Government keeps alive an old ground of quarrel , on which the stars and stripes may yet find occasion to vindicate their independence . But the occasion is a secondary matter . We did not
sympathise with the marauding expedition against Cuba until the personal gallantry of the victims was displayed under the infliction of Spanish cruelty . Certain of our readers who have addressed us on this subject , have no r ight to presume that we justified the aggression in Cuba . We did no such thing . What we did was to marshal before us facts far greater than the Intrigues or even the fate of that factious island , whose Government is the least respectable of its factions ; and we simply recognized Cuba , not as a province which America
ought to conquer , but as a field where a greater war than that between Abolition and Negro Slavery might soon break out—the war between the Despotism and the Democracy of the world . . In this matter we are dealing with actual movements , not aspirations . We see ' Despotism rearisen in the East , restored in more than its old strength , more than its old voracity , rampant , aggressive ; we see Constitutionalism outwitted , baffled , helpless
England , who ought to be at its head , apathetic , trimming , inert , or covertly acting to favour the real enemy of mankind ; in the West we see the Young Republic , fresh , active , ardent , aggressive ; and , with all its faults and errors , we do hail a power that can , and must , take the lead in an active warfare—an aggressive warfare—against the old monster to whom England leaves Europe undisturbed , as a hunting-ground for its insatiable appetite .
It is a mistake to suppose that the war which we anticipate would be injurious to this country . Even trade would not have a hair of its head hurt . Quite the reverse : trade would profit by a war , so would manufactures , so would labour . Prices and wages would rise . Nor could the war possibly bequeath those lamentable legacies which make the memory of the last so hateful to the English taxpayer . Let us look calmly at these facts . It is foolish to be frightened from a benefit , because it bears the name which we associate with an evil .
Are we less able than we were half a century ago to sustain our share in a war , such as that share is likely to be ? The amount of real property assessed to the income tax in 1843 was £ Q 5 , 000 , 000 , and something more ; but had the minimum of income , subject to assessment been £ 50 instead of £ 150 , the amount must have been at least
£ 120 , 000 , 000—an increase of more than £ 80 , 000 , 000 since 1803 . It would , therefore , be as easy to raise £ 30 , 000 , 000 now as £ 10 , 000 , 000 in 1803 ; nay , easier , since our methods of collection are more facile and cheaper . Hence it would be quite possible for tbe patriotism of our wealthier classes to raise the needful supplies without taxing industry .
But there are vast differences between the future war and tbe past . No Heaven-born Minister would be allowed millions to subsidize foreign tyrants , as we did in the last war , to tbe tune of £ 46 , 000 , 000 and odd , besides presents of arms . Nor would any Heaven-borri Minister find it necessary to contract loans at the rate of £ 00 7 s . Gd . for every £ ' 100 stock , as we did in those good old times . It is the turn of Austria to contract loans on terms like those : we of England have a more effective credit—if we should need loans . We have
already a large army ; but we should not want to fight any Waterloo , bearing the brunt of war against a huge military power . We have a navy of 573 ships of all classes , which might have better employment than coercing our ally Brazil as soon as she begins to help us in putting down the slave trade ; or in dunning our ally Greece for Don David Pacifico ' s preposterous bill of damages . We are therefore abundantly furnished for war .
without incurring any new outlay , except for current supplies in order to maintain our position . But tne comparatively small outlay of public money on that account would be far more than compensated b y tbe movement given to our commerce . Would not tbe arms-makers of Birmingham have fair expectation of good pickings from a war ? would not Leeds cloth be in demand ? the ¦ hoes of Northampton , the leather of Bermondsey ?
nay , would the cotton of Manchester be undemanded ? No one believes such things . In a war " dur ing which we remained friends with the Ame ^ ricans and French , our ships would easily fin ( j access to the ports of Europe ; and while othe r Peoples were doing the work of fighting , Our industry would supply them with necessaries This conclusion is not all speculation : from If 93 to 1802 the war was mainly Continental , not naval or mercantile ; and during those ten years our export trade rose from £ 20 , 39 ^ , 000 to £ 46 , 120962
, so that war was not very bad for trade after all The increase was 130 per cent . The first check to that increase was given by Napoleon ' s Berlin , decrees : it is the Peace that now visits us with Berlin decrees , which we call by the mo re moder n and learned names of " Zol ) verein" and " Steuverein . " A war of Peoples against Despotism would repeal those Berlin decrees , with some others and would open to us the markets o f Germany ' Italy , and Hungary .
It is not because we say these things that there will be war ; there is no use in " advocating " war , and we are not undertaking any task bo thankless . We only survey facts , ar d recognize the existence of great principles which are now moving to the conflict ; we only seek to assure our more timid readers , that the event cannot be bad for them , unless , as in the last war , and , perhaps , in more recent " transactions , " England should side with Absolutism . A war of freedom would benefit trade , would benefit labour . It would do more : once again it would give a national feeling to the People of this country ; it would shake us out of our fears of being frightened ; it would override
the sectional questions that divide us . A period of prosperity would afford the opportunity for arranging many even of our oeconomical and social questions , which the desperate pressure of our industrial system now forbids us to handle deliberately . It would restore to us movement , hope , and a fresh occasion for settling down again on better principles than those guided us in 1815 ; for we have learned much in the interval . We may henceforth be the ally of nations , not the tool of despots ; we may share that trade of the world , which no nation can monopolize ; we may enjoy , not the quiet of oppression , but the peace of real freedom .
Untitled Article
THE TRUTH THAT THERE IS IN BLOOMER . Bloomerism shakes society—at least in the neighbourhood of John-street . Like Jove , Bloomer threatens , with her rosy right band , our most sacred institutions : — " Ac rubente Dexteia sacras jaculatus arces , Terruit urbem ; Terruit gentes , grave ne rediret Sieculum Fyrrhac . " —that is , tbe age of Pyrrha , when no stays were worn ; all the City is alarmed at the prospect , and especially the " gents . " Horace evidently prophesied . Yet we do not share this terror of the commercial world and the gents , because , in tbe first place , we do not expect to see " Bloomerism " established in lieu of whalebone and coutil , or any of our institutions in Church and state ; and secondly , because , if it were , we do not know that the change would be for tbe worse . In short , neither' Bloomeriam nor Old World " costume stand on such a rock of logic , or live by such an inspiration of taste as to be deemed final in their way .
Women ' s costume is bad for anything but evening parties , and not of the best for them ; granted . But is the Bloomer costume the appropriate substitute ? We doubt . Women ' s costume fails , we think , on three important grounds—it is not so " economical " as it might be , it is not ^ so becoming as it might be , when it is made in plain materials , as the working-day dress of most women must be ; it , is not suited to active work or outdoor exercise ,
and is thus a hindrance to health and useful employment . But is the Bloomer plan better ? Not when the materials are such as seem to be usually chosen . Satin is not weatherproof nor cheap ; muslin trousers are not mud-proof ; nor are any trousers in the Turkish pattern pretty . Bloomerism appears to us to be an illogical effort to get at tlie Q . e . d . by a short cut : petticoats are ill out ot doors or out of a carriage ; trousers are better ; Turkish women wear Turkish trousers ; let us wear-Turkish trousers—such is the argument . I >« fc Turkish trousers , which are like bolster-cases on a huge scale , are made to recline upon a divan all day ,
Untitled Article
920 © ft * % t& 1 ttT . [ Saturday ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 27, 1851, page 920, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1902/page/12/
-