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
'U K DAY OK TIM' ] WOKKKK . I ,, ' . l ) ori . » perha ps , within the present cenj Uy ' < r ( li | 'tainly within the present generation , 0 lhc working classes boon more " tranquil "
tban they are at the present moment . At no period within the same range have they been so well off . " We know well , indeed , that the tranquillity of the working classes is not exactly that thorough contentment which the superficial politician , making up his accounts for the parliamentary campaign , is so willing to believe it . We know as well as the members . of the -working class themselves , that the tranquillity arises in part from mere weariness of agitation , the want of invention amongst their political leaders , and the want of confidence also in the most active of
those leaders . We know that it partly arises from faults which the working class share with others in these commercial days , and which are often denounced at public meetings—the selfishness which makes men quiet when they are doing well for themselves , the want of generous spirit which makes them draw hack into themselves , and mistrust all when they have been deceived by a few . It arises also from a still more serious fault which distinguishes the working class and the middle class , egregiously , as compared with the other less numerous but more cultivated
classes of the community , the miserable want of the love of country . Disgusted with the operation of our institutions upon themselves , many of our working classes go to America or to Australia to learn the love of country ; and then the country is not England . The more cultivated classes , who have not so largely lost this virtue , are greatly to "blame for the extent to which it has declined in quarters where they might have kept it alive by more active attention , and a more noble-minded intercourse with their " inferiors . "
Furthermore , the tranquillity m part arises from the real absence of physical discomfort throughout a much larger proportion of the general community than we remember to have seen in such pleasant condition . Statistics , we know , might exhibit higher wages , say in Stockport , twelve or fifteen years ago , or amongst certain classes in Yorkshire even two or three years back ; but the working people of the
manufacturing districts are sharing in a prosperity far more generat than any exhibited at the most prosperous times of the cotton , manufacture ; and at no time since the growth of that manufacture has so largo a share of agreeable and wholesome food visited the lips of the labouring class in the agricultural districts . The stimulus of " distress " fails tbe political agitator ; and the superficial statesman of the public meeting is not less gloomy than the superficial statesman of the public office
is elated at " the tranquillity of the country . " For our own part we are in every way cheered at the prospects ; not because we share in the red tape satisfaction at the political apathy , Tnor because we hold that the working classes have yet attained all to which they are entitled . The political apathy appears likely enough to bo cured by the great movements which the world is preparing . When once the conflict of principles shall break out on the great fields of contest , every Englishman will become a thing of value
to his country ; and then the working classes , — which possess , but scarcely rato at its true importance , the great political power that lies in numbers , —will become a thing of value to the ruling classes of the country . Already , if wo are not too sanguine , we discern in Lord John Russell's speech at 1 ' erth , a sign that the ' JKngglishniun , of whatsoever class , will not , unsought , be w on by the active . statesman of the day . God bless the hour when the value of the . Englishman , whatsoever his degree , b 1 ih . 11 again be recognised by the working statesman , and by the people .
There are also unmistakeablo signs that the labourer in becoming a thing of value to the employing < : lansen . This in in great 'part due to three concurrent causes . In the first place , I'Yeetrade , which has ho largely contributed to relieve the cupboard outlay oi" the- labouring man , has rendered him proportionately ed ' eotivo as a consumer , and has consequently imparted a . great stimulus to the homo consumption of the country . Statistics have not as yet supplied us with the exact account of our own
condition at the present moment ; ' Home months hence we . shall know how much per emit , the enhancement has been in thin or that frn . de >; hut in the meanwhile wo can enjoy the improvement , although we cannot . statistically . survey it ; and it i . s sufficient to know that all the great . staples ol the country- —tho cotton , the woollen , the iron , and the linen trades—report a most healthy condition—low stocks , steady demand , and increasing
investments . As many as eighty-one manufactories have been added to the cotton-trade within the last official year ; and more than one fortune of half-a-million has been thrown into some of these new factories . If the damaged harvest in the South has deranged the accounts of the farmer , and given a shake to the quarter-day expectations of " the landlord , Free-trade has secured the bread to the labouring man , and emigration
has unmistakeably established liis market value . In all quarters of the country , from the extreme South to Scotland , the same tale continues . Here and there farmers are taking counsel as to the effect of emigration on wages . The continued outpouring from Ireland is expected to show a greater decrease of the population than even that of last year . Two facts will powerfully illustrate the searching effect of this draft upon the labour market .
The Glasgow reports announce that the beneficial reaction has at last visited even those longsuffering people , the handloom weavers of Scotland . Mr . Lilwal , the secretary of the- Early Closing Association , announces not only a greatly improved condition of accounts , but a much more independent position of the members . Their claim for early closing receives an unwonted attention from employers . In short , the shopmen—who may be considered the upper extremity of the town working classes , as the bandloom weavers are the lowest—are feeling the moral as well as the material effects of an enhanced market value .
The present tranquillity , however , differs immensely from any preceding aspect of the kind , in more things than one . In the even balance of political parties , resting as those parties have done hitherto upon the upper and middle classes , the influence of the working class , neglected as ithas unaccountably been by the party of the author of Sybil , has become a thing of value ;
and Lord John Russell ' s Perth speech suggests that he has at last discerned the true value of that instrument which he used in 1831 , but did not appreciate ; which he forgot , and left behind him . In this way , especially if they could improve the opportunity offered to them , the working classes have the prospect of realizing some Parliamentary influence , even before the direct attainment of the franchise . Since the last
period of true political peace , opinion lias been largely developed on many most important subjects : the question of reproductive employment , for example , spontaneously suggesting itself to the practical administrators of the Poor Law throughout the country , has been excellently worked by the industry of the Anti-Poor-Law Association and its indefatigable secretary , Mr . Archibald Stark . The adhesion to it of a , journal like the Globe , faithful as that journal is to the traditions of the Whig party and of the orthodox political ( economy , marks the advance of the
doctrine ; and the subject of the Poor-Law will come before the new Parliament with the popular interest backed , not only by the increased political influeneo of the working classes , but by the development given to the general knowledge on the subject . At the same time , the diminished pressure of pauperism— -from all quarters of the country they are reporting that the number of able-bodied paupers has never been bo small as it is now—renders a practical solution of this question , if less urgent than it has been , also far less alarming and dillicult . The disposition to a closer intercourse between the several classes , which is
indicated concurrently by the speeches of Lord John liussell at Perth , and Mr . Lilwal in London , will contribute to facilitate the discussion of industrial questions . The workingclasses , therefore , are likely to encounter less hostility , precisely at a period when they acquire more poAvor , by the enhancement of their market value and of their political value . Tbe opportunity is great ; it can only be marred or abused by the ignorance or dishonesty of the men whom the working classes may accredit as their representatives .
Untitled Article
DANIKIi WNHSTHK . ' D . iNiior , Wkiimticr is the darling of . the United States—only they wont elect him for President . Ho exemplifies several of tbo most admirable traits of the national character , and not a low , al . so , of its faults . The " aliiiigliIy dollar" is an idol which he has not repudiated , nor altogether . subdued , as tbe younger mind of A meriea i . s subduing it , to a position at leant , secondary , under Lho far higher object of national greatness-. Of
Untitled Article
w-October 2 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 945
Untitled Article
re + ne men who " rushedwith enthusiasm into the arms of despotism P" Was it in Naples ? Let him ask Mr . Gladstone . Was it it in central Italy ? Let him ask Lord Minto . j ^ into j— The name should make Lord John Russell blush for his allusion to Italy and 1848 . If it was licence that was then awakened , what was it that the father-in-law of Lord John Russell was sent to cheer with his open sympathy P If there was a going back to despotism , how much share had England in that re-action , after having , for the third time within the century ,
inveigled Sicily onward , by an affected sympathy , in order to betray her by abandonment ? Lord John Russell ought to be ashamed of his P harisaical boast for England— " we are not as other nations ; " when England has committed herself to a sympathy with those other nations in the hour of their advance , and separated herself from them when adversity claimed her help . This protest is due to countries whose wrongs and misfortunes must not be forgotten in the day of England ' s prosperity , as assuredly they will not be forgotten in the day of England's adversity . For , should England ever descend in the scale of nations , and be threatened by the barbaric powers now rising in the world , she will owe a shield and a defence to the representatives
of those patriots , whom Lord John now wrongly denounces as the champions of " wild licence . " But the substance of Lord John ' s speech at Perth most chiefly concerns us in our own country . His acceptance of the word Democracy is a political fact . It is a distinct and a corroborative political fact that the public has endorsed his acceptance . Taken together , the two facts are a great advance in political philology . Heretofore the Democratic party , so calling itself , has applied
the word to designate one class alone ; which , however numerous , however deserving the esteem and the profoundest respect of the politician , still does not include all classes . The democracy —the government by the people - — ought to include all classes of the people , especially classes existing and exercising great influence de facto . Heretofore the classes directly or indirectly sharing the Government , have excluded that class which is the most numerous . This is
equally an error . The working classes have been mistaken in the first half of the word " Democracy ; " the constitutionalists , like Lord John , have practically erred in the second half of the word . If we now understand the Perth manifesto , the practical error is to bo amended , and the whole people is to be taken into the scheme of Government , which is to in elude Queen , Lords , Gentry , Middle Class , and Working Class ; it is all those elasses that constitute the people of England , and you cannot omit one without cutting off a constituent part of the Democracy .
Heretofore indeed the fault has been , not that any one class arrogated to itself too much , but that it asserted itself too little . From luxury , from the apathy of peace , from the want of public spirit , or from whatsoever cause , the aristocracy has not been enough of an aristocracy—it has not enough stood forward to act upon high principles , upon generous regard for others , upon the spirit
oi sacrifice for country , upon chivalrous courage in the J ' aeo of doubtful events—the real traits of an aristocracy worthy of the name . The middle class has accepted the suffrage , but , 'or want of courage , for want of faith , lias not done enough with it , especially to help the < 'lass which helped it to the tVanehise . The M ' orlung-dass has not been less traitor to its
country ; and wo boldly challenge it to recognise ' •» laults : it has frittered away its energies in bootless agitations after they were known to bo bootless ; it has suffered itself to be misled into in trigues by paltry beggars wdio were petitioning ' ° r its ponee ; it lias in class objects forgotten its country . This last ih tho fault of every ( -lass ; and ' once , by whomsoever summoned , every class
an act lop ( ho whole people , can pursue its uterest in the teeth of every obstacle , can carry 'Ih will in tbo teeth of every danger , lOngland will reall y own a , democracy capable of controlling N <> wn governments and of restoring its country ° that high position of national power and pride winc h the enervated doctrines and practices of l '"<> day have for the moment hazarded .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1852, page 945, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1954/page/13/
-