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Leader (1850-1860), 24th January 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 83, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      - . ^ - ^ g J itfafiiifi-jfoiei-Jto nersevere , they will be ableto give to themselves Si such just demands as are now vain petitions to their masters . But the grand distinction between the old trades' unions and the present action of the Amalgamated Engineers is , that the latter have rendered their union productive . This keeps the life in tHeir industry ; and , if continued , will render their union for mutual protection self-supporting . The plan of the Poor-Law Reform Association , whose address we print in another page , is the same

      substitution . of . living industry for dead industrythe reproductive employment of the able-bodied paupers . While there is a single rood of ground uncultivated , a single job of work : to be done , " able-bodied pauperism " is an absurdity in terms an absurdity injurious to the ratepayer , cruel to the indigent labourer . " Relief * is an insult to the man who is willing and able to work ; maintenance without return is an injustice to him who bears the charge . The absurdity has made itself practically apparent to those who administer the readers knowthe Reform

      law , as our ; Poor-Law Association revives its activity , and will concentrate their efforts to effect an amendment . If the society does justice to its own mission , it will find abundant support ready made to its hand in many parts of the country . Meanwhile , it is in itself a great sign . A sound poor law would supply these three great wants in our industrial system—employment , for whom the boasted but imperfect law of " supply and demand" leaves without work , and therefore without subsistence ; a ground whereon the labourer mav rest his foot in effecting that change of

      employment which attends all improvements in machinery ; a means of extinguishing those delusive mockeries of employment which constitute the tail of every branch of industry , and , by the competition of the starving with the hungry , and of the hungry with the better fed , is perpetually dragging down wages . A sound poor law is the ground on which Concert can be effected between the different branches of -industry and the different classes , without disturbance Of our existing arrangements . Reproductive employment is the solid basis , Concert the living principle ; and here we have an important Association to concentrate the reform which is spontaneously making itself known , even too vigorously for official blindness , in many parts of the country .

      The conference to be summoned by the Irish Board of Manufactures , to investigate the principle of cooperation as a method of reviving Irish Industry , is another important step . The Board has access to the help of one on the spot , who is master of the theory of cooperation , a man of business , and practically acquainted with Ireland . An event less distinctly defined , but not less significant , is the close attention given to the subject by a new class of enquirers . Among the trustees of the Amalgamated Engineers are Lord Goderich

      and Mr . Augustus Vansittart . Lord Goderich is an avowed promoter of Socialism ; and , although young , is a master of the subjeot . Lord Ingestre is not a convert , but he is evidently willing to enquire . Other titled and Parliamentary names we might mention , of men who are favourably considering the question ; but we prefer to leave the investigators undisturbed . More than thirty years ago we saw titled and even royal persons countenancing Mr . Owen ' s benevolent plans—we then saw a Vansittart enquiry , a Duke of Kent and Duke of Sussex jointly presiding at a public meeting :

      but the dbctrine was not understood as it is now , was not a living demand in a large portion of the population . The fact is that the Protectionists are beginning to see that Concert can realise what Protection failed to attain , while Free Traders are discerning in it the complement of free-trade . It is the principle to attain Protection without starving production , free . trade without displacing labour ; it is the true principle of " order , " wealth , and peace ; and we have daily proof that whole classes and leading men are rapidly learning to appreciate its value . .

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      LOUIS NAPOLEON'S IRON CONSTITUTION , The new " Constitution " granted ' by Louis ¦ Napoleon is at once- recognized as an edict of selfappointment to absolute power ; but the thoroughgoing and elaborate care with which he has retained everything in hia own hand does not come clearly out until we look closely into all the provisions of , this monstrous charter . The President is the beginning , the middle , and the end ; every other functionary is either his creature , or his slave , dependent or in chains . He is a monarch to all

      ^ tents ^ and ^ piiiyMea ; 3 e _ comttiands the land and sea forces ; makes treaties of alliance and commerce ; appoints all officers ; makes regulations for the execution of the laws ; renders " justice , and pardons . But all that is a small part only of his power : his largest range is that which he ^ exercises by the assistance of a Senate , a Legislative Body , a Council of State—all his passive or supple

      instruments . The Ministers are responsible only to him ; only for then-individual acts—with no joint responsibility . In other words , there is no Ministry , as we understand the word in this country ; but there are only heads of departments , his servants , and acting disjointly and separately in execution of his will . The Senate will be nominated by him . It may consist of one hundred and fifty members , but at first it will only number eighty ; leaving a margin for him to swamp any majority , should that by any

      possibility be adverse—a provision which attests the excess of his care , since an adverse majority is the lost thing that he could be expected to encounter in that body . It is to consist of *• Cardinals , Marshals , and Admirals "—the chiefs of the clergy whom he has" made his obliged allies , and of his land and sea forces , and of any other persons whom he mav choose . Its services are to be "

      gratuitous " — they are to expect nothing ; but he may give a " dotation" of £ 1200 a year to any whom he pleases . As in the case of waiters , the fee is to be " optional , " and dependent on behaviour . He appoints President and Vice-President ; he is to prorogue , convoke , and limit in its term of sittings , which are private ! He is to appoint , regulate , and fee ; and ye * he has taken the precaution to swamp , if needful 1

      The Legislative Body ( it has not even a name , but only a descriptive designation ) is elected by * universal suffrage —as he was . Its President and Vice-President the Prince himself will name . The sittings are to be public—unless five members call for a secret sitting . Its debates are to be reported —only by the official" Hansard , " whom the journals may copy . The-Council of State , forty or fifty in number , is the Privy Council of the scheme ; the Prince President himself is to preside ; he nominates it ; his Ministers form part of it ; its members are to be the spokesmen of Government in supporting measures before the Senate and the Legislative Body .

      Now , let us see the functions of these bodies in matters of legislation . The " Prince President "—he alone has the initiative of all laws . Bills are to be drawn up by the Council of State , his Privy Council and Ministers . The Legislative Body is to discuss it—in secret sitting , if five Members please ; if about to be amended , the amendment is to be made in committee ; but " if the amendment is not adopted by the Council of State , it cannot be

      submitted to the discussion of the Legislative Body " ! The bill , we presume , to which the Legislative Body may just say Yea or Nay , then passes to the Senate —the House of Lords salaried by the Crownwhere there is a power of vetoing various measures . And finally , the bill , thus guarded through the discussion of the mock Parliament , must await sanction , promulgation—aye , and execution—at the hands of the President , under such regulations as

      he may fix . The Senate—his nominees enjoying or awaiting a salary—is charged with the important duties of giving a Constitution to Algeria and the Colonies ! —of interpreting all doubtful passages in the text of this Constitution!—and of fixing the President ' s own salary 1 They are to pay each other , but not with each other ' s cash—oh 1 no ; they are to pay each other out of the funds to be drawn from a grateful country .

      Is there not something more hideous even than its arbitrary power in the cold impudence of this solemn farce ? If Louis Napoleon had abolished all law except his will , had pleaded a divine mission , and had professed to appeal to Heaven alone , it would have been less insulting to France , than the clause preceding these bad provisions , which declares that " The President of the Republic is responsible to the French People , to whom "he has always the right to make an appeal " 1 The People have had an earnest of the mode in which he will make the appeal—in hia midnight burglary of power , and his highway robbery of a national vote .

      They have in the following clause a sample of the legislation which they are to expect from the new machinery : —" Art . 57 . A law will determine the municipal organization . The mayors will be

      appointed by the executive power ; an 4 maybe taken from without the municipal council ?* ; " . " " - They have , in the total suppression of the jour nals , in the abolition of juries— -and , above all , in the wholesale proscriptions—specimens of the mode in which the laws are to be executed by the new Prince-PresidentrAutocrat , " Dei gratia /* Emperor that is to be . But what " are Law , and Right , and Justice , and Humanity , to the perjured man who only ceased to be a conspirator when he became an outlaw?—whose authority is an insult , whose domination is a

      fraud , whose Government is a living lie ? Td the man , whose every hour of usurpation is a defiance and a threat to freedom and to progress , whose religion is persecution , whose theory of property is confiscation , whose defence of society is to rend families asunder by delation and espionage , to tear helpless women from their beds , to rob childhood of home and parents , to make widows and orphans by decree ! If there be a spark of honesty or of honour , if there be a gleam of dignity and independence , if there be an aspiration after free

      spiritual culture , if there be a thought of virtue , a cry of conscience , a sentiment of noble impulsesaway with it ! It is an offence against the " sincerity of imperial institutions . " Arms and the Man are the substitute for such pitiful juggleries—the inventions of pestilent thinkers and " paper scratchers . " M . de Moray ' s Circular to the Prefects on the conduct of the Elections is the best commentary on the execution of the laws under the present regime . It is the official ostracism of eloquence and capacity . It is cynicism surpassing itself in describing the nd

      work of the Government as " -pacification a— reedification ; " for the banished and the murdered need no " pacifying , " and the " reedification" is a scramble of bandits ! Into prison vans and convict ships are herded , like penned and goaded cattle , all who will not _ bow down before the brazen image . The soldiers , the orators , the poets , the legislators , the , publicists , the philosophers , the historians of France;—Victor Hugo , Emile de Girardin , Edgar Quinet , Pascal Duprat , De Flotte , De Remusat , Esquiros , Scheelcher , Bedeau , Lamoriciere , andCharras—must seek France elsewhere .

      Their country is a corpse : " the vultures swoop down upon her as on a prey . " By these expulsions Louis Napoleon proclaims that he and France cannot coexist j for if " France" is more than a geographical expression , it means the genius of that nation , its statesmanship , its men of mark and public esteem , its learning , its honour , its science , its worth , its poetry , its chivalry—all , all expelled , to make room for him ! He has here cut short the history of France , and henceforth narrows that history to the autobiogrphy of a Count Fathom .

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      VOLUNTEER REGIMENTS AND RIFLE CORPS . Cheeking is it to see the spirit which displays itself as the idea of invasion spreads—a hearty resolve to be ready—almost a pleasure at the prospect of . an opportunity to be active in the service of our country . For many a long year this is the first occasion for the display of a national feeling ; but no sooner does the occasion offer , than out it

      comes , as glad and manly as ever . Already are all classes resolving to make ready for the service ; Rifle Clubs are the leading idea ; other forms of Volunteer organization are beginning to suggest themselves ; and if the Government does justice to the spirit of the People in " calling out the militia , " it will make provision for permitting an alternative of service in Volunteer . corps duly recognised .

      it is most desirable to give this spirit its full practical development . Without wishing in the slightest degree to check the gay temper of the general zeal , we most earnestly pray that it may not degenerate into sport . Let us nave no ** playing at soldiers : " the movement to which the People is instinctively resorting , from the sense of necessity , ought to have consequences more important and permanent than a mere demonstration to keep off an invader ; arid we wish to see it set about in a business-like fashion .

      Let us have magnificent companios of the highborn and wealthy , if the young men of our leading families choose to render conspicuous , by a clothing of gold and brilliant colours , the example which they mean to set of activity and discipline . Any amount of guineas may be spent on a uniform ; and a splendid new order of chivalry , justifying its magnificence by its deeds—by its soldierl y discipline at drill , and by its courage should active service

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      jw . , 1852 . ] © Ire aeattrriv *

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 24, 1852, page 83, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1919/page/15/