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Leader (1850-1860), 7th January 1854, Edition 1 of 1, Page 13, Untitled Article

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      oppress us . In the cotton trade , for example , it has both created the occasion of the present dispute , and it now prevents the solution . What is the true cause of that state of tie trade which renders it less valuahle to the mill-owner , while it is actuall y extending , and prevents a rise of wages in the midst of the advancing prosperity of the country ? The cotton ^ factory system has been pronounced the crowning triumph of British in - dustry , and yet it now cannot advance its wa ^ es as wages advance in other trades , because , as the manufacturers tell us , their own profits are

      declining . Now , why is that ? Principally for two reasons . First , because the manufacturers , while obliged to meet foreign competition , have had no concert amongst themselves to arrange the quantity and distribution of their exports , and have thus beaten down each other ; and they have thus helped to depress themselves as a body , aiding the mischievous influence of the dreaded u foreign rivals ! " Secondly , "because the masters have endeavoured to keep down wages by setting their working people one against the other , and

      by employing a larger proportion , of women and children , as they do at Preston ; thus demoralising the home of the operative , and bringing down the character of the labour . Instead of this , they might , if they had copied the simple example of the iron trade , have done much to check overtrading or mis-directed trading- If they had caughtAihe spirit of a lesson to be derived from the intelligent labour in some of the iron trades , they mi g ht have found that the true course is , not to substitute an inferior species of labour , but to cultivate that kind of operative whose intelligence and skill assimilate him to the engineer , and so to

      which the fire scarcely causes warmth , bad drainage , and ill -devised ventilation , because no intelligence has presided over the arrangement of this part of the household of society . And those bad lodgings are dear , because comityerce has not listened to " the demand , " andhaVleft " the supply " to the low classes whom we have mentioned . Bread is dearer for this disconcert , which aggravates the cost of production in all quarters of our own country . Indifferent landlords settle their

      lands with farmers on bad leases ; farmers with limited capital take more land than they can work , and rub on with labourers , stupid because ignorant , and listles s because paid at a rate which scarcely supports life , much less exertion . Thus our corn is less in quantity , inferior in quality , and dearer in price , than it would be if landlord , farmer , and labourer would really " in the same boat , " and consent to bring us a better cargo . Abroad our Government has winked at the

      conspiracies of crowned heads against their own peoples , and has thus really connived at the power acquired by treacherous Russia , not only to undermine Turkey , but to dam up our food supplies from the Danube and Baltic . And the better understanding which help to bring * us constantly enlarging supplies from America has grown tip between the peoples in spite of the impertinent slight with -which our Government has thought fit oc casionally to risk the friendliness between England and America .

      Thus the want of understanding makes clothing , lodging , fuel , and food dearer than they would be in this hard winter ; and then we see the great English journal coming forth with an exhortation against charity , or recommending charity only to distribute its dole through the police office ! It appears to us that if those who pretend to ru 1 . ; and influence society have allowed these hard r \ ips to come upon the poor , they ought no ^ - * o go down into the cottage and the cellar , a- aee that

      special measures be taken * to supph- j omission by clothing , warming , and feediD ^ destitute .

      reduce the cost of production , not by an abatement of wages to the individual , but by paying higher wages , and procuring that superior labour which is more productive in a geometrical ratio . This application of concert , not without its example in cognate trades , would have pr evented that Strike ; which might now "be ended , if the master would only consent to mutual explanation . In the whole round of industry- and commerce , there is no such striking exception to the general prosperity as that same cotton trade and its strike . But for the poor much more has been done to aggravate instead of mitigating their hardships . Bread is dearer than it needed to have been : fuel

      is dear because conspiracies are arranged for the very purpose of making it so . The Newcastle Chronicle explains a single form of this conspiracy , and we are aware that it is not the only form . On the 9 lh and 12 th of December arrived in the port of London 600 sail of colliers . Coals were at that time about 28 s . a ton or more , and they were rising . Here , then , was a relief to the consumer ; but there were circumstances which contributed to cut off that relief . The coal factors

      did not think it desirable to permit such a check for rising prices , and there was " Bonaparte blow 11 to be effected . The gas companies were very short of coals . Some , says our contemporary , had but twelve hours' stock on hand ; and a reduction of price on the cargo of that great fleet would secure its absorption in the great maw of the gas furnace ; tbe price was reduced to 26 s ., and the whole floating coal-field was cleared off . Soon afterwards , the consumer discovered that the price of house coals was 33 s . and 35 s . Now

      do the coal-owners profit by that rise of prices ? On the contrary , the interests of the coal-owners in the North would be greatly improved if they could hiring to the metropolis such quantities of a material practicably exhaustless as would render coals " as cheap as dirt . " But that anti-concert in the London pool cuts off even the supplies which the too limited means of transit can bring us . The means of transit , indeed , would not have

      been so limited if some concert had presided over the distribution and construction of the railways which bring us so very small a portion ; and the produce would be increased , if by a better understanding the masters had educated their men to work more continuously and more intelligently . Domestic discord is an expensive indulgence , and the Londoner may learn its influence by raising the price of coals . The poor are ill-lodged , not because the business of providing good lodging for the poor is commercially unprofitable , but because commerce has left that branch of its business to fall by chance into the hands of worthless speculators and low-minded- dabblers in house property . The poor in London are now enduring all the hardships of oold houses , ill-v « ntilated rooms , drafty holes in

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      JANUARY 30 , 1649 , AND JANUARY 31 , 1 , 854 .. Pabliament meets on the 31 st of this month ; it will then ask Ministers , not only what they have been , doing in the East , but what these reports mean about Prince Albert . The rumours have been repeated , over and over again , in several of the journals ; they have been mentioned by those of our newspapers ¦ which are conducted with the greatest sense of responsibility , and by those which are avowedly attached to the Government ; and although terms have been employed which signify that the reports are not worth attention , we believe that as yet not the smallest cpntradiction has been made . This cannot be because the

      reports are not specific enough . For example , it has been stated that when Ministers have audience of the Queen , Prince Albert is present . If it has not been stated , it has been insinuated as distinctly as statement , that Ministers are called upon to defend their propositions before Prince Albert . It has been stated that the Prince is in communication with all the Courts of Europe , except that of France . And it has been insinuated , again in terms as distinct as statement , that the Prince interferes with the administration

      of some public department—the Horse Guards , for example . We are quite aware that at present these reports are unsupported by any proof ; but they are believed , and it is almost impossible that the public should withhold belief , when a statement so excessively dangerous to the Crown is daily and hourly repeated in the most public places without contradiction , and is even alluded to by the correspondent of the Times itself , in a letter from Vienna , written on the 28 th of

      December . The passage is the more interesting since it is printed only in the second edition of Tuesday , and is withdrawn from , the usual reprint on Wednesday morning : " Instead of being astonished that the ' house-policy' of tho Coburgs is so severely animadverted on in England , the Austrian !! appear surprised that tbe British nation was so slow to remark what was going on . A brief reforence to past events will suffice to show that England has indirectly been in the leading strings of Russia and Austria . Some

      few months since Russia found it convenient to remomber that a kingdom of Belgium figured on the map of Europe , and the constquunce was that the Ulysses of Europe was recognised as a ' legitimate' sovereign by the imperious Czar . In order still further to strengthen his position , King Leopold aimed at a family alliance with the House of Austria , and accordingly tho marriage between the Duke of Brabant and the Archduchess Maria wus arranged . It is positively affirmed that as soon aa all was tbua ' made right between he King of the Belgians luultb * two great Northern Powers ,

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      MILITIA AND VOLTJNTEEK CbBPS . Lobd Pajlmebston has just issued instructions to the Lords Lieutenants of Counties , that the regulated contribution qf each officer towards the mess , shall be the same in the militia as in the line , namely , half-a-crown a day ; a regulation intended to equalise the expenditure , and to accommodate it to the means of officers who may not be rich . It appears to us , however , that the time is approaching when the present militia law can be most advantageously revised . It is , in many respects , encumbered" with relics of our feudal system , which may be regarded as dead for any useful purpose , and available only for the limitation of genuine good . A distinction of caste ia kept up between officers and men which belongs ta

      a past state of society , and is not found even in the , army . Gentlemen bearing her Majesty ' s Qopa-, mission in the line are not obliged to haye a property qualification . The sole effect of the qualification is , to keep the commission of the militia , which should be a national force , within a class ; to mark out that class invidiously , and so far to occasion feelings of discontent and humiliation amongst the men . Those who possess it , in many cases , no more represent our u aristocracy " than they represent tn « families which came in with William the Conqueror , or with Hengist and Horsa . It might probably be asserted with safety , that the majority of those who hold commissions in the militia are parvenus . There is , however , a more practical reason for the revision of the law . lavery good rea-

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      tke former undertook to convince his high relatives and friends in England that an intimate alliance with France would be pernicious to Encland . How well tho astute monarch has acquitted himself of his task has been seen by the humiliating part which England has bo long been playing in the great political drama which now exclusively occupies the attention of the world . The Earl of Westmoreland may and probably does , assnre the British Cabinet that the Eoasian Emperor , will certainly make concessions to the wishes of the other Powers , but every one here feels convinced that he will do no such thine . It atroeara that the horm af

      inducing Austria to assist in making head against the dangerous encroachments of Russia is still cherished in England , but tGis is entirely out of the question . Her active cooperation the Western Powers will never have , bat if Prance and England go together heart and hand , she cannot venture to meddle or make in . the Oriental question . Circumstances prevent my expressing my opinions on this subject freely , but you may p a lace great confidence in my knowledge of the exact position m which Austria stands . " The eve before the meeting of Parliament is that dedicated to " Cbarles the Martyr , " so called because , according to the authorised calendar and

      the set forms of the Established Church , Charles the First , who was condemned by his country to suffer death for the attempt to subvert it 3 constitution , by snatching for the crown the taxing power of Parliament , is regarded as the martyr . If he was a victim of martyrdom , it follows that the acts for which he suffered are , in the authorised view , a sacred cause . Every year the tolling bells of the Established Churches remind the people of this country , that the Court and constituted authorities take the side of Charles the First ; and every year the country laughs at that impudent mummery of

      martyrdom . ' , " ~ The retention of the ceremony shows how little our royal Government has learned to understand its true position in reference to the country ; and if it can still -regard Charles as a martyr , it may be equally mistaken in some other respects . For example , it may suppose that the attempt to tax by absolute power was the "worst element of Charles ' s conduct ; whereas the true crime which that person committed was the attempt to infringe ! upon the constitution . Other infringements of the constitution would be as dangerous as that which he attempted in the taxing department .

      The government of the standing army is anomalous , and we are not prepared to define the amount of interference which a member , of the Royal Family and a Field-Marshal might exercise ; but we are quite aware that no coUateral ^ bf the Royal Family can have , b y the letter of the conafi * tution , any right to assist at audiences of the Cabinet Council with the Sovereign ; still less by the usage of our constitution . When Parliament meets , the public will expect to be told-distinctly , " yes or no , " whether any other person besides a responsible Minister of the Crown has had the opportunity of learning what passes in the council ; especially if that person should also have the opportunity of communicating with courts , whether friendly to this country , or now engaged in the endeavour to undermine us before meeting us in open war .

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      January 7 , 1854 . ] THE L E A D E R . 13 i —— _ . .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1854, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2020/page/13/