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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.
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' mtr "the -service 'attractive , and by infusing jitto tfee'tpiiwrl and suburban populations the $ && > & £ duty . sBjat ^ e ^ ar more efficien t mode of keeping gmithe MaKtia would be by a further extenaion .-of : £ ke voluntary spirit . It behoves the (^ overniment to consider whether , having waived the ballot , they can command the annual training of sufficient numbers to sustain a respectable force . Under the present system we doubt ' whether , the stimulus of
. war being removed , that can be done . But there is one mode by which it would certainly -be accomplished—a mode which would place -a" large constitutional reserve at the disposal of the Government , and foster healthy habits rainong the people . That mode is the simple -one of repealing the Drilling Act , and persnitfeing the enrolment and organization of volunteer regiments and companies . Remove the obstruction to the free assembling of persons for purposes of military exercise , taking
such precautions as might be deemed fit for the security of the state ; not only permit , but encourage the formation of these corps . Let . every schoolmaster in the eoimtry be recommended to include drilling in the school -exercises . In all schools that partake of a public character , let the boys be induced to form into military bodies , the drill-instructor appointing the officers . As a sanitary measure , this would be most valuable ; nor would its moral be hardly less than its physical
results . Discipline is as good for the mind as for the body , and as beneficial to children oi honest parents as to those who find shelter in institutions like Mettray . The cost would be nothing to the state ; the gain would be immense to the state ; to individuals incalculable . We can see no valid objection to the adoption of such measures . If the Government are in earnest in their desire to improve
the army ; if they really wish to raise at call a truly national force that would make a ¦ country like ours perfectly safe from invasion , these are the mcasxires they would adopt : perpetual maintenance of the regular Militia ; encouragement to the adoption of military organization in all schools ; and , above all , the repeal of the Drilling Act , which is in itself a violation of the written right of Englishmen .
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A WO 11 KING-CLASS DEFEAT . Once more the employer has defeated the employed , because he is the employer . The . Glasgow miners have capitulated to their masters . The long Scottish strike is at an ¦ end ; the men have been starved into submission . After a three months' struggle with misery , they arc to resume their work at a reduction of twenty por cent , upon their
former Avngoa . The lords of districts and counties rejected till plans of arbitration ; they would have their men submit imconditionally , without reserve or discussion . That is , the coal and iron masters are to bo unqualified despots ; they will not treat the individuals in their servico as in any respect l > etter than serfs of the soil . This ia a new : aspect of feudalism—tho autocracy of tho . mine as of the mill .
"While tho strike lasted , tho coal and iron masters mado holiday at home , or enjoyed thoir glimpses of tho London season . They calculated how far the vigorous human nature of the European can sustain tho want of food , . and they knew that , when tho extreme point of endurance had been reached , tho lathers ¦ of ¦ famifihed . children would once more dive sullenl y into theinineB and labour for bread . IPTerthor the Scotchman nor the Englishman ia capable of tho abject bittornesH which brings tho Hindoo to bin eneniy ' H door , that hia dt > ath from hunger may be a curs . 0 oh the opprenaor ' ti family . The
master , we say , knows this to be impossible , knows , "further , that the workman , however exasperated , will return to his work . A balance is struck , therefore , between the advantage of gaining his point , and the disadvantage of interrupting his business . If the gain is worth the interruption , why then the unctuous logician closes his schools , suspends his overseers , and waits until his workmen have spent their savings , exhausted their credit , fettered themselves with debt , degraded themselves by the sense of physical privation . The appeal is made , not to reason or right , but to the powers of despair , to famine , to the humility of hunger .
"What is the value to the working classes of the civilization which places them under these conditions ? What is the value to them of the national prosperity w hich leaves them , in the nineteenth century , exactly as powerless , in relation to their employers , as in the sixteenth ? The civilization is , after all , of some value . It influences the men , if it does not humanize the masters . "When the northern strike
began , prophecies of outrage upon life and property were circulated through the mining districts . The militia , the yeomanry , the constabulary were invoked , and " good society" was organized against the anticipated violence of the thousands of rough and strong men thrown up from the depths of the coal and iron mines . "What happened ? Crimes , instead of becoming more frequent , became fewer . The c incendiaries ' who led the
movement gave their advice , invariably , m favour of strictly legal and pacific action , and the ' incendiaries' were obeyed . This is what the working classes have gained by civilization . It may be that material improvements and the reform of manners have not conferred on them a better station in society ; but they are better fitted to claim what is due to them . Had the mass of the working classes been as civilized at the time of the Chartist agitation as they appear to be now , the agitation might not have been a failure .
Connected with this subject is a personal matter which deserves a word of explanation . The National Association of United Trades in London appear to have imagined themselves censured by tho Leader for ignorance on a question of law involved in the recent application to Lord PaTjMERSTon to appoint and empower a court of arbitration to settle the dispute of the Scottish miners . Now , tho allusion , which was not a censure , but a simple statement of fact , referred to the Society of the United Trades of Glasgow , and by no means to tho Metropolitan Society .
The National Society of United Trades , established in London upwards of twelve years ago , were requested by Mr . Mackinnon to co-operate with him in tho movement for establishing Courts of Industrial Arbitration , to arrange , on a conciliatory basin , the disputes of masters with their workmen . They were consulted as to the
constitution of tho committee , and have done good service by collecting and preparing a systematic body of evidence , calculated to assist and enlighten tho discussions of the Legislature . It was by tho London Society that the delegates from Glasgow wero brought to give their testimony before Mr . Mac-Kinnon ' s committee
Thin explanation in duo to tho National Society of United Trades , becauao a eocioty formed in Glasgow for temporary purposes appears to huvo adopted tho aame " title , " and by doing bo Iihh been tho originator oi Homo ' con ( union . Tho London Aasociation of coui-ho dooH not doairo to bo held responsible for erroi'H of opinion or conduct that may be committed by junior societies not in correspondence with it .
If all jthe . tnade societies in the United Kingdom'were { affiliated to the Central Society in London , an organization , almost irresistible , would be created . But the resuli of Mr . Mackin ^ on's investigation will sug . gest a full discussion of this and simila : topics .
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THE POPULAR BRANCH . If it be an honour to be a member of the House of Commons , it seems to be equally a nuisance . The gentlemen thus honoured , often with a very ill grace on the part of those who " honour" rthem , go down with a supreme contempt -for public business—a contempt almost as supreme as that of the clerks of the Foreign-office . During the present session there have been fewer full Houses than usual , and several counts-out . But when there is not a count-out , it is by no means to be supposed that forty members are representing their constituencies . It matters not whether ten or fifteen are
listening to the debate , provided that a scout is at the door to report in the coffee-room whenever a " count" is moved . Early on Tuesday evening Mr . Uetwood ' s motion in favour of an extended endowment of science was discussed—a motion which ' was seconded , almost in dumb show , by Mr . Tite . For the sake of safety , a few members had dropped in when it was moved that the House be counted . The essential Forty were in their places . Then , Mr . Mackinnon delivered his objections , and the British Legislature dwindled almost to the limits of a
common jury . Again a " count" was sounded , and the alarm was signalled in the coffeeroom . The Speaker kept silence to allow the senatorial dummies to get up a second sham , and then solemnly reckoned from side to side of the House , and pronounced that a quorum was present . After this farcical decision , up rose the Right Honourable Sir Cornewaxi- Lewis , Chancellor of the Exchequer , to give the opinion of the Cabinet on the patronage of science by the State . Scarcely was his first sentence uttered than the members rushed away , leaving not twenty in the House .
Two displays of this sort might have been enough for one evening . Honourable members did not think so . The same pertinacious " bore" raised himself , after a solemn interval , upon his legs , and said , " Sir , 1 beg to move that the House be counted . '' Again the signal , the alarm , the mob at tho door , tho Speaker ' s , pause , the count , the announcement that more than forty members were- in tho House . And again tho noisy outgoing .
_ . „ „ . . That put an end to tho comedy ? Not at all . Lord Stawi-isy spoke to about twenty honourable gentlemen , and , for tho fourth time , there was a scandalous repetition of
tho scene . There might have been a fifth ; but when , for tho fifth time , a member moved that tho House be counted , the coffee-room legislators did not find their way to their places early enough to anticipate the Speaker ' s reckoning . " There being only twenty-seven members p resent , the Houbo stood adjourned . " This is our Imperial Parliament .
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London Hohpitai . Mkdioai- CoaKQB . —Tho Council und ProfeHHora of tho London Hospital Medical Collogo mot on Monday in oun of tho lecture-rooms of tho institution to distribute the prizeH awarded to tho more inoritorioiiH of the HturiontH during tho hosbioii of 1 H . Wi-d . Tho J * inhoi > « f Oxford occupied tho chair , and Loul Auckland , tho Uiahop of Bath uud WcilM , was ulno pro-Hont at tho tmrcmony . Thk Oahk on- AuomuOTior Pknihon . —1 ho ArclibiHlion of Canterbury h » B fixed to hold hid court for proceeding with tho cuho of tho Archdeacon of launton at the Uuildluill , Uuth , on Monday , July 21 .
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jjoaoa &k ' ttSWM ! TtHE MEA D ^ E ^ EL gA »
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 14, 1856, page 567, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2145/page/15/
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