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" The moderation of France takes from her all r esponsibility , and gives her the right to hope that all the sacrifices which she has made , to secure the tranquillity of the East , will not have been in vain ; that the Russian Government will at length discover some mode of reconciling its pretensions with the prerogatives of the Sultan ' s sovereignty ; and that thus an arrangement may he devised that shall settle , without a resort to force , a question on the solution of which so many interests are now dependent . " And by a great stretch of consideration , the Allied Powers have transmitted to St . Petersburgh the suggestion of a mode in which the Czar may make his retreat .
The deliberation , afforded by these last negotiations will be far from useless . We scarcely expect that Russia should yield to any reasonable proposition . Her Emperor , indeed , is almost pledged to go forward , unless he obtain a very abject submission ; if after that , he give way , it will be , not to reason , but to alarm at seeing the strength arrayed against him ; and thus he will confess before the world that his bullying submits to the lesson of fear . We have little expectation that he will have sufficient command over his pride for such a practical confession . . ¦ __ . _
If he decide upon war , probably he "will show as little respect for real dignity as he has done already , and will not scruple to take advantage of our delay to increase the start that he has been permitted to gain ; but even then we hold that the delay will not be valueless . It will be something for England to have proved to herself , beyond the possibility of mistake , that war was not to have been avoided by any pains on her part . It will be something- to have stretched justice in favour of Russia till it crack ; to have exhausted every consideration for that power ; and so to prove her irresponsible lawlessness , her inexorable temper , her hard , cruel , impenetrable nature . It will be something to have drawn out her total want of scruple—to have made her character understood ; so that when
she stands unmasked in all the odiousness of tyranny , falsehood , and injustice , England may say—This is the power that suppressed Poland •—this is the accomplice that despoiled Hungary of her ancestral constitution—this is the power that menaces Sweden , and threatens our own India with treacherous advances—this is the power that cannot respect the rights of the Circassian who spurns the Cossack from her indomitable fastnesses—this is the Christian power that is oppressing Turkey in the name of religious faith , and is gradually suffered by chicanery and assault , by violence and intrigue , by overweening effrontery and barbarian force , to devour that patient and passive Europe , which lies basking in the sun of a decrepit civilization , preaching peace , and deifying trade—playing at soldiers , and parading pleasure navies — permitted an ostensible supremacy , on condition of real impotence ! Because , if the character of such a powei * , if the necessity of at last arresting its guilty career , bo fully understood , Englishmen will not be wanting to the occasion , nor will they suffer English statesmen to tamper with the destinies of Europe by a finikin oxclusivoncss of diplomatic or dynastic alliances . If Ilusaia will not stop in her attempt to assume tho dictatorship of Europe , she must bo pulled down .
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AN ENGLISH CONSEIL 1 ) E PRUD'IIOMMES . An Association has been formed in Lancashire , apparently to orgauiso a systematic resistance to tho operatives who aro moving for high wages , and on tho first blush , wo aro inclined to regret that the masters should treat tho men so much like an cnomy , as to form a Roparato camp . On reflection , however , wo aro convinced that tho Btop now taken , if it be followed up with judgment , will be useful to tho men as well as to tho mantars . "<¦
Our readers know that wo Hold all industrial operations to be rendered more facrilo and more advantageous'to all concerned , if tho principle of concert bo introduced , bo that the divided operations may bo carried on with reciprocal aid . Tho grand obstacle to that principle is tho want of understanding , far moro than the conflict of intovoHts , bocaUBO it m almost always found , that in tho long run tho interests aro tho same . Thus , if a master manufacturer onn undersell his neighbour , Uo may miatcli a temporary advantage ; but in tho long nm , the derangement of trade , tho debased amount of profit , and possibly oven
the bankruptcy inflicted upon his fellows , will , to some extent at least * recoil upon himself . Those who connive at his proceedings , or lazily permit them , will also suffer ; and in the end , the gross amount to be divided amongst the whole number is less than it would have been It is the same with the working-man consenting to a lower rate of wages . But it is the same also as between masters and men ; for there is no doubt that a trade conducted with the largest amount of sagacity , of skill , assiduity , and
oeconomy , will return a larger proportion to be divided amongst the whole , than if those who ought to co-operate are niching from each other . The first step towards an understanding throughout the whole , is an understanding in the several sections . If the men be thoroughly organisedif they have a machinery for collecting information and diffusing it again , for collecting the opinions of the several individuals , and forming it into a public opinion of their class— -they will at once concentrate their action according to the
largest amount of information they can command , according to the feeling which will obtain the most general support , and in a mode most likely to influence the opposite side . Exactly the same may be said on the side of the masters ; with this additional remark , that individual departures from a general understanding amongst the capitalists cause more confusion , since each man operates on a larger scale than a single working man . We believe that the masters , by their concentration , may do more narm- ^ -may acquire a strength to inflict greater injury on the men ; but if they do so , the
mischief will recoil upon themselves . They will have more broken machinery , more imperfect fabrics , more disturbances , and , in the end , they will have to pay a fine out of their own pockets . The masters of Lancashire , however , are neither fools nor devils ; and we believe that when they deliberate on the interests of themselves , of their men , and of the country at large , they cannot be blind to the advantages of sound information , of honesty , and of justice . If they" once admit this information , the effect of their forming an organisation that may collect knowledge and suffrages , is another step in the direction of a general understanding .
The men , however , ought to . be sensible of the responsibility entailed upon them , by the joint difficulties and opportunities which this organisation of the masters affords . We can readily understand that an appearance of systematic hostility may provoke the men ; and the first act of the masters' associations may tempt the hands to retaliatory measures . We hope not . The demands of the men , if they are sound , must rest upon commercial principles , which will ultimately prevail , if the men stick to reason and to commercial
necessity . In other words , the masters will do what they must , if they can be made to understand that they must do it ; and the men will not enforce that conviction upon tho masters half so well by riotous actions or offensive language , as they will by calm determination , distinct reasoning , and statement of plain fact . Organisation can do much , but it cannot do everything . No organisation in the world could make the Mersey run back to its source . No organisation of masters can convert tho men into that which is ,
commercially , a very valuable commodity— -milling workmen . If the workmen rely upon the true strength of their case , tho organisation of the masters may bo the means of bringing tho question to tho judgment of reason , sooner than if tho men had to deal with tho masters separately . To attain that end , however , the men will be all tho stronger if they havo an organisation of thoir own , so that it bo well conducted . Possessing that machinery , they will be able to mod . tho masters , and to prosont tho case on the one side , in a form matured for consideration on tho other
Bide . Tho masters who aro organising themselves speak as if thoy would refuse to acknowledge " associated bodies of mill hands ; " but if tho men use their opportunity woll , thoy will make the masters feel that it is more convenient to doal with associated bodies than with the men in detail . It may bo possible to convort those hostilo associations into thatsy stem which has boon successfull y carried out in France , and very imperfectly attempted in England , in a Consoil do Prud ' homnien- a council of discreet man , to determine upon tho general arrangements of tho trade It lias boon a rocont improvement in Franco , to
admit a representation of the working-men at these councils , —a step which must conduce to arriving at a general understanding the sooner . Should the men act with , sufficient perseverance in maintaining a reasonable position , they nlay ultimately obtain a fusion of those , two . councils which are now arrayed in an attitude'hostile * and consequently hurtful , to each other .
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LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT TO BE CONCEDED . One announcement made by Lord Palmerston , on Tuesday , we regard as being the germ of the most important class of public acts—it is , that a measure will be prepared by Government , introducing the principle of county representation in connexion with county rates . We know well enough that this will not satisfy those who insist upon a restoration of the true Saxon principle of local self-government , which ought to leave the parish to manage the parish , the county the county ; every aggregation of freemen , in short , to manage the affairs coming within the local boundaries of their own homes collectively . We quite agree with those who hold complete local self-government to be the true broad , solid foundation of political freedom ; but we do not expect to realise anything complete in these days of compromise ; ana we are well content to get hold of a principle that will do practical good , and tend to a healthy restoration . County boards are , Undoubtedly , a very imperfect form of local self-government ; but if we can only make them succeed , we may get the principle extended , until we emancipate the people of England . _ . _
. . We anticipate as much , because the benefit will extend to all classes , even to some who are not expecting it . It must prove pleasant in the working ; and it will have effects scarcely anticipated at a first glance . We will touch only upon those which Emerson might call representative benefits . The Times invokes the sympathies of the philanthropist on behalf of a creature overworked , harassed , and ill-used—the miserable M . P .:
—" They don't do the work as it ought to be done , and it is . quite impossible they should . Here they have been at it , with alight intervals , ever since November . During that period , or at least a great part of it , they have been giving to the work of legislation —that is , to hearing bad speeches , and similar occupations—more hours a-week than they will themselves permit a strong woman , or a young man of seventeen , to stand at a spinning jenny and keep the spindles going by joining the broken threads with his forefinger and thumb—as if that would not be a light and
agreeable occupation compared with listening to a young lawyer trying to talk himself into consideration . There is committee business , and the afternoon sitting , and tho evening sitting , usually protracted to some hours after midnight . Last week , the Speaker was in tho chair till half-past two on Tuesday morning , till four on Wednesday morning , till three on Friday morning , and till between one and two on Saturday morning . Any member who does hia duty must sit or hang about tho House twelve or fourteen hours on four days of the weelc , six hours another day , and before tho session
is over , will have to give up his Saturdays also . Meanwhile he is supposed to read heaps of bine-books , deposited sometimes six inches deep on his hall table before ho is out of bed , if ho ventures to indulge in that luxury . Then , he has a . largo correspondence with his constituents , tendering their advice , or wanting places , or both . As he cannot do all this honestly , or indeed at nil , he shirks the greater part of it , and botches tho rest . In fuct—to use a common expression —tho business of tho nation is ' scamped / like a
contract undertaken by tradesmen unequal to it . A wellintentioned member gets up at nine , reads hia papers , his letters , and Homo Parliamentary report , till it is time to order his brougham , and go to a committee or a morning sitting ; and ho is positively lont to his wifij uitd family and friends till , two or three hours alter midnight , ho steals into his own hbuso with a latchkey and gets into bed , in , the condition of u fox that has been hunted twenty „ miles , nnd just biwcb its life by creeping into a sowor , with tho houndtf nt itn heels . "
"Tho chief aouroo of the evil , " Bays tho Times , with astonishing forgotfulness , "is endless and pointless talking , and chiefly of new Mombcrs ;" and tho journalist proposes a sumptuary law on gabble . Tho idea is not new , but a practicable ineaHuro has never yet boon devised . Wore it discovered , however , il , would only bo followed in Parliament by a now discovery—that if MomborH would talk Icbb , thoy would find more to say and
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686 THE LEADER . [ Saj-pbday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 16, 1853, page 686, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1995/page/14/
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