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    Untitled Article

    cannot possibly be settled by individual bargain Some kind of general consent on each , side is necessary j and we cannot put our own view on tbia point more clearly than by adopting the language of our contemporary , the Globe ; which ., while speaking with great strength against strikes , has preserved an impartial consideration throughout the movements of the working classes . " Factory operations extend over a great extent of time , of numbers , and of ground . The manufacturer purchases a quantity of cotton ; he must work it up in machinery of great size , employing 1 a number of hands ; he must collect those materials and instruments

    together , and be prepared to continue his operations for some months , before he can have accomplished all his orders , and have turned forth the predestined amount of shirting . During this period , prices which ordinarily regulate each other , will have undergone many fluctuations ; the calculations of the master must not only take into account such fluctuations , occurring probably in , more than one country— -for his material , his labour , and his market lie separate ^ - but he must do so prospectively . If he wants to < fb his work well , he must have the best machinery , must keep it going regularly , and must have willing men .

    In the- case of the amalgamated engineers , to which the correspondent of the Times refers , a great and not an unfounded complaint of the men was , that by systematic overtime the masters kept a certain number out of work , and set one party of men against the other to reduce wages . It was against that system that the men combined . They tried to turn the same tactics upon the masters in the Preston strike ; directing their coercion upon individual mills , and thus attempting to force , a rise of wages upon the masters one by pne . It wag to resist that system that the masters combined ;

    * ' If combinations cannot be prevented they might be used . No combinations can force wages or prices permanently above tfye level set by the publio market . To discover that level is a question of fact , and if , instead of using the combination to coerce each other , masters or men-were to employ their ' concentrated power' to discover the commercial facts by which every bargain must be regulated , they would do more to attain a profitable solution of the dispute between them than by any hostile combination . In fact , they would settle the wages question as other questions in trade are settled , without the expense , the trouble , the loss , or the calamity of a strike on either side . " It is quite true , as the Times reporter says , that the master likes to have about him hands who

    are attached to his mill , and who work with an esprit do coi ^ ps . It is true that the rate of wages by the pieco may be reduced , yet the hands reap an advantage , if the machinery be more productive . But to attain , those ends , the master must make his workmen feel that they share in the general prosperity of the establishment ; and hence his arrangements in regard to distribution of work , to the comfort of the mill , the

    allotment of hours , and other circumstances that bear upon tho material well-being of tfio people , must bo such , as to incite tho motives that he desires . It is no breach of political oeconomy , because the very object is , to place the human part of tho machine in that state of thorough efficiency and unison winch results in the largest proportion of produce out of a given , number of hands and a given horse-power .

    If thore are any difficulties , they can bo better settled by consont than by contest . If thcro aro too many hands , let tho married women bo sent home , and let the husbands be hotter paid for attending improved macliinory . If tho hands arc not intelligent enough , encourage them to educate thomaolvea , and give them . the timo to do it in . If tho aoaaon will not admit of liig . li wages , show tho people tho reason why ; speak to tliem in a friendl y tone , with a sincere purpose , and they

    aro suro to entertain the reasons with candour . •» ut to do those things is not to break down union , or to pursue separate interest on one side ftt tho oxponso of tho other . Union is solf-doroneo ; hut it needs not bo mutual attack . On th , o contrary , it may be tho moans of oonoontrating opinion on either side , of collecting information on both aides , to onablo both sides to understan d , their reciprocal relations , and so to Hci , tlo . thoir dissensions < , m tho iirm basis of ascertained facts and common interests .

    Untitled Article

    GOQ , MAGOG , AND AGOG . G-og and Magog arc reduced to tho level of tl )( c pauper . The pauper in called upon to justify Jiih "Xistoneo , wlion thoro in no cover for him on tUo board of nature . Clog mid Magog are called ** pon b y a Parliamentary Commission , to explain what right tlioy have to be . When tho subvor-¦ wa Sheriff WaUis has introduced a plainor

    fashion into his state coach ., and the lord Mayor , who only once a year travels from the City in a coach , as cumbersome and ugly as any out of a fairy tale , ' is threatened with , a prohibition to spend three times his civic allowance in hospitalities , the omens are bad . The City Corporation is worse off than John Barleycorn ; for not three kings , but Mr . James Acland , has sworn that it shall die . It-has been accused before Parliament of corruption , of antiquity , of uselessness , of tyranny , and over-taxation . It finds small help in some of its friends . After the revolutionary accuser before the Commission succeeds

    one of the great City magnates—an exquisite of such water that he ignores the Corporation , and therefore everything municipal . It is , he says , the trade and plaything of shopkeepers ; no man of rank in the City wiU attend ; to it ; no man of station takes part in it ; and he cannot conceive any use in any City body save a Chamber of Commerce . Thus the great and the wise now make the rule of pounds , shillings , and pence the test of everything ; The object of life is to buy and sell ,

    and the City politician recognises no legislature but a Chamber of Commerce . The City resident complains of a Lord Mayor ' s show that it obstructs his street , and hinders his customers for a day . To us it appears that if shopkeepers can feel an ambition , if they can take an interest in the municipal business of their community , they are the more likely to be elevated above mere shopkeeping , and the community will be the better for that higher degree of self-government .

    But the few who are loud in their complaints that the annual pageant interrupts their trade , cannot be of the ambitious race that rejoices in Aldermanic titles , and troubles itself with . Ward business . It is evident from the facts that the leading shopkeepers take part in the Corporation , and that the great bulk of the residents take an interest in the election of aldermen and councillors , so that the existence of the Corporation and its annual pageant cannot be displeasing to the real staple of society within the walls . Again ,

    the immense concourse , certainly composed of something besides " riff-raff , " collected to witness the pageant , disproves the implication that the public at large is either indifferent to the pageant or dislikes it . The broad facts confirm what we also kiidw , that many of those who iirat turn their attention to municipal affairs in the City , with a bias against the Corporation and the ancient usages , discover in the manner of conducting local business many incidents too valuable to bo abolished . The inquests , for example , to ascertain the accuracy of weights and measures , while they have the effect of a usoful inspection , arc

    also good , in bringing the citizens together and making them acquainted with each other , and inspiring that spirit of solidarity which is akin to patriotism—itt , in fact , a local patriotism . Tho very abuses of tho Corporation—the tendency to bonefit particular porsons who acquire a general liking , spring in part from this united feeling . If we look round tho whole metropolis , although it is easy-to criticise tho taste displayed in some publio works , yet wo do iind that no portion of the whole communit y has boon more active in local improvements , has done more . to give effect to opinion on that subject ; , than the City .

    If tho City inherits its privileges from ancient times , tho fact affords a reason for continuing an authority which has taken so long in tho growing , and wo may romombor that if wo wore to abolish sorao of thcHO usages and institutions wo could not restore them for future generations , who may perhaps prize long enduring things better than it is the fashion of our day to do . Most of tlioso who take part in tho Corporation aro commorcial men , and if . they find that they can spairo time for local businoHH , and can ' afford to

    take a day for a holiday and a pageant , we may prammo that trade does not suffbr very aeriouwly from that sacrifice to public aflairs or * to public gratification . The necessity for attending to something besides trade , tho Jmbilj of . " public , debut © upon goneral as well an private intcrc-ata , tends to jnalco raon fool that thoro in more in life than the shop and individual welfare—a truth manifest enough to many of uh , but too far forgotten by great numlxfl-H , who appear to think that aeountry can )> o safe after it in broken up into individuals , each looking after bin own purposoN , and talcing no hood for tho general weifar © of Ins neighbours .

    these than the mere " reformer" can brush away with his Utilitarian maxims . Disappointed candidates for place in the Common Council , exquisites who are too exalted to care for the statesmanship , centralizers who would merge the government of the metropolis in the general government , may think that a few words of ridicule or indiscriminate statistics will suffice to abolish the Corporation ; but there is many a sweet little cherub sits perched up aloft to wish for the immortality of Gog and Magog . The citizens like their Corporation , and their liking will come out

    It is probable that in the City we shall find more genuine public spirit than in any equal space of ground . The very pageant , decried as "it" has been ,, reminds ; the great multitude of tho public , by its gross and palpable signs , that there are other things besides the objects and business of our day—that there have been times when soldiers wore metal clothing , ' that there are distant countries typified by costume and the arms paraded before us—that there have been ancient Britons and ancient Romans , whose effigies are a species of local idol . There is more in all

    in the _ process of inquiry . Ministers who know what iCondon has done , would not care to cause an aching void by tearing the Corporation from its place . The Throne itself would begin to feel uncertain of its foundation , if the civic throne were ra ? ed . But above all , the great idea has seized the civic mind , that it is possible to harmonize the Corporation with the age , by reforming it . That is the plan , that is the true conservatism . If Grog and Magog be made to understand that they had better not derive their income from coals in Hertfordshire ; if they can apply

    themselves with , increased assiduity to the improvement of the metropolis ; if they can rake out the filthy abodes which breed pestilence for the poor and spread it for the rich ; if , above all , they can assist other districts in the metropolis in shaping out self-government for the whole of this great capital , then they may not only continue their immortality or acquire & domain really rivalling that of many a ^ European State . But Grog and Magog had better " look sharp" to seize the opportunity ; for the enemy , too , ia all

    Untitled Article

    ARISTOCRACY IN AUSTRALIA . Theee is no country under tho sun in which man does not like to be certified of his own estimate , to the effect that , in some respect or other , he is superior to his fellows ; and one quick mode ot getting that certificate is by bearing a title . -Hence the love of titles , more or less reasonable in proportion as the title indicates a practical function . There is no objection to the American titles for Senators , officers in the army , and all public functionaries , since they mean something , and , more or less , point out that which is really worthy of estimation—that the bearer of the title

    is the bearer , also , of a public trust . The strong innate desire , however , prevents men from reasoning so closely ; and hence there is a love of titlo for its own sake , without reference to tho rationale ? of the matter . Notwithstanding the democratic feeling in our colonies , including the American Union , this fooling is nowhere moro strongly displayed than in those communities . And m Australia it , has been recently distinguished in a very remarkable manner , in the proposal of a committee of the Legislative Council for New South Wales , to establish a local

    hereditary peerage , whoso members should have tho privilege of electing tho Upper Chamber from amongst themselves . This has boon likenod to tho eloction of representative Peers for Scotland or Ireland ; but inasmuch as the representatives would in themselves form a complete Chamber , they more resemble , on an extremely minute scale , the councils elected by tho Venetian nobility .

    Some surprise has been excited at tins proposal in New South Wales , whore the democratic , foe-ling was supposed to bo very strong , recruited im it had been by the most democratic of all classes , working emigrants and gold diggers . The colony , not long since , showed considerable disaffection to the mother country ; and lionco , agnin , a cause of Hurprifio , ninco the . Legislative Council in of opinioii , thai , the titles should bo created by the ( frown . There is , however , no just cause for astonishment . The principal reason for tlio disaffection of tho coloniatH wuh , that tlio mother country t , riod to force her convicts , and tho croaturos of her ponal law , upon the colony .

    Untitled Article

    November 12 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 1091

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 12, 1853, page 1091, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2012/page/11/