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subjects , and is a copy from a daily paper . The -writer says : —" The firms in the building ixade ^ are resolved in . supporting Messrs . Trollo ^ e , In whose yard the strike was decreed to begin . All workmen who will not assert then * own rights and libert ies against the agitators will be turned off on the 6 th . " This was the tone of the worst fanatics of the French Revolution , and Canning ' s friend of the " Needy Knifegrinder " might have been the author of the ridiculous paragraph . Men cannot be compelled to be free ; and it is idle to represent an immense body of workmen as under the tyranny of a few agitators . Lord Brougham , in advocating Conseils de Prud'Tiommes the markand it
and arbitration , was far nearer , would be well if a few gentlemen of known character and intelligence would endeavour to understand every important strike as it occurs , and explain its bearings to the parties concerned . The cost of strikes is prodigious , and their number far greater than is usually supposed . It was computed that the Preston strike cost . £ 524 , 000 , of which , £ 92 , 000 was contributed by the working classes . The Engineers' strike cost enough to have materially improved the condition of the whole trade , which it awfully damaged ; and Sir S . M . PetO estimates this builders' quarrel as likely to cost £ 300 , 000 a-year . The money loss is , however , far from representing the whole damage of these collisions ,
which embitter social relations and keeps back the political enfranchisement of the working classes . It will be well for public opinion to deal fairly with these matters—to point out clearly where the men are wrong , and at the same time to reprobate on the . part of the employers any conduct that may be contrary to sound principles . The men combine against the capitalists , and the capitalists combine against the men . Both are entitled to this course , provided they keep within the bounds of morality and law . If the men keep _ the hands on strike , let the masters protect individual firms by sharing their loss ; but do not let them go further and resent what they think wrong , by a tyranny which is worse .
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OUTRAGES AT SEA . The numerous outrages committed on board ships , especially ships under the American flag , have attracted the attention of the House of Commons , and an address to her Majesty has been adopted to take steps to prevent them . It will not be difficult for her Majesty to enter into negotiations on this subject with the American Government , and fbr the two Governments together to extend the provisions of the Extradition treaty to offences committed onboard ship , or subject them to some special tribunal which in England may
chiefly take place in vessels engaged in the traffic between the united States and England . Amongst the Greeks there may be piracy , but only amongst the English and American mariners are these outrages common . In Dutch vessels we never heard of such doings ; now , the seamen of both countries are in the main derived from one common stock , and the laws and customs of both nations in use at sea have one common origin . Anterior to the separation of the United States from England , the maritime population of both was subjected to the same barbarous'legislation . After the separation , the English seamen , who fled to the United States ,
were always liable to be reclaimed , so that till the termination of the war in 1815 the mariners , in both American and English vessels , lived under a system of coercion . This naturally affected the manners of all classes , and it made merchant captains tyrants like officers of men-of-war in both countries , and continally degraded merchant seamen . Exposed as captains and their crews are , to common dangers , their occupation , places them on an equality , gives them a common interest , and supplies continual occasions for mutual service and mutual friendliness . Our old naval system of coercion , however , has for a long period vitiated
and continues to vitiate all the natural relations of both English and American mariners . It has affected commanders and men , shipowners , and their servants . Latterly , too , this old and erroneous system , somewhat improved , has been very much extended . The coercive power has turned schoolmaster ,, examiner , registrar , and certificate giver . It has supposed that it can inspire men with unflinching courage and prompt decision , or make them good seamen as it makes boys good clerks ; and by petty regulations it has attempted to undo the mischief which it had done by long-continued injustice . The result is the continued
deterioration of the seamen . We expect , therefore , no good from further interference with this subject . Diplomacy and legislation know nothing of the maritime population of the world , and they have failed too often and too signally , when dealing with subjects about which they might possess some information , to justify a hope that these measures will improve the moral feelings of private seamen and ship captains . This , however , is the object to be effected with regard to men who are months absent from our shores , with whom the Government cannot possibly send detectives , constables and police cornrnissioners , and whom it must trust to take care of their own lives and help one another .
act with the authority of the American Government , and in America may act with the authority of our Government ; but only those who have not yet lost faith in diplomacy will expect much from any such contrivance . Sailors are , in one respect , sui generis . They axe under no one jurisdiction , and oannot always be reached by the law . Tor a large part of theirlives they are passing between one port and another , and if their own customs and dispositions be' not kindly and just there is then no power at hand , external to themselves , to keep them in order . Hence the superior
importance of measures to improve and cultivate the good feelings of mariners , to measures which can only partially punish the ill actions which result from bad feelings . Hence , too , the deterioration in the character of seamen , caused bjr our system , of whioh these outrages are an additional prpof , is a groat moral and an irremediable calamity . As trade communication between different parts of the world inorcases the number of mariners will increase . At the same time , as the celerity of-navigation inoroases they will be absent from the land and from the amenities of civil life
for shorter periods , and so the naorosonoss generated by hard diet and want of social enjoyment , one cause fox * outrages , will be lessened . As the means of interchanging commodities , the produoe of different climates and of a diversity of industries , they are an important element of civilisation ; wd oannot be lightly or unjustly treated by other portions of society without inflicting a grievous injury on the whole . For the public , enactments concerning the maritime population , who are necessary to foreign trade and the defence of the country , shouldfcavo a deep interest . As tax as we know , the outrages complained of
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THE UNIVERSAL STRODE . Why don't we all strike ? We are never surprised at anybody striking work on any pica whatever . We are only astonished that the whole nation , ourselves included , are not continually striking . Wo ai * e all underpaid 5 we arc nil overworked . We ore all unappreciated . The hours of our work arc daily increasing ; tbc amount paid for it is daily diminishing ; nnu the estimation in which it is held—well , that , happily , can hardly sink lower than at present . Pharaoh was considered to have reduced the claims of capital to a
reductio ad ahsurdum when ho required the children of Israel to make bi'ioks without straw . Ivow-a-days we have to make bricks without clay ; as for the straw wo never oven think of it . Why , for instance , do not tho curates of the Church of England strike work some fine Sunday morning . Supposing , say to-morrow , before Divine service commenced , the curates of every church in England , Ifclnria , and Borwiok-vpon-Tweed wore to give notice- that they would road sacraments
no more services , perform no moro , and proaoh no more ? sermons till thoir just claims were conocded , till their stipends wove raised to such a sum ae they could subsist upon , and until tho relative amount of work rendered by themselves and their vicai'S respectively was accepted as tho basis by whioh thoir several salaries should henceforth be regulated . What oonstornatjon there would be amongst that poouliar population of whom wo how so much at present , whoso omot earthly qualification consists in attending service and paying church-rates . Tho bosom of every
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against ona ; to his loving arms his erring but penitent spouse . If we seem , to treat the subject with levity , it . is because our real feelings "would require language for their expression stronger than we think it fitting to employ here . Mr . Sickles , happily for himself , lies beyond the jurisdiction of the English press . Happily , too , we say , for ourselves also . We have dirty linen enough of our own to wash , without taking in other people ' s . As for Mr . Sickles , we are well content to leave him , with the sincere hope that we may never hear his name again . If , however , he is bent on keeping the memory of his shame before the public , there is only one piece of mock-morality and pseudo-herohas left
ism which to our knowledge he linperpctrated . Let him baptise his next child by the name of Key , and the measure of his fame will be full . Our object , indeed , in calling attention to this disgraceful story is to point but an evil which has grown to alarming' heights in America , and ol which we have had already too many symptoms . We allude to the system of public interference in the private lives of public men . In America there is always an appeal from the verdict of the law or the rules of society to the sympathy of the public . If you will only consent to make the public a partner in your most private affairs and affections—if you will only tell them everything that an honourable man would keep secret— -you are certain of their support . It was this pandering to idle popular curiosity—this laying bare , of the most hidden recesses of the heart , which turned
a Sickles inter a . popular hero , and a murderer into a martyr . We in this country have not goiie so far . It is not the common custom for a husband separated from his wife to publish a statement of his wrongs and misfortunes in the public prints . It is not also habitual with us for a gentleman on dissolving partnership , to thrust into everybody ' s hands an ex parte narrative of his quarrels with his partners . These sort of events are happily of rare occurrence amongst us . Still it has been top much the fashion of late , especially amongst literary nien , to take the public into confidence about their private circumstances and their family affairs . There is no custom we believe to be so
" SICKLES AND SENTIMENT . " We hoped that we had heard the last of Mr . Sickles . We were mistaken . Sickles is himself again— -a husband and a father . Balzac remarks , that in all adulterous connexions , " II y a toujours une chose de trop e ' est le mart . " The American moralist has reversed the French apothegm . The one thing " de trop" in Mr . Sickles matrimonial relations , was Mr . Key . This little obstacle being removed , marital equilibrium was restored . All is forgiven and forgotten—Mr . Key included . And Mr . Daniel Sickles writes to inform tho papers , that he has condoned his wife ' s offence and welcomed her back to his hearth and home ,
Wo , with our old-world notions , can hardly keep pace with $ ieso developments of American sentiment . Our transatlantic friends are always trying , in some form or other , to out-do every ono else . They have either the biggest patriot or the biggest pedlar—the smallest dwarf or tho fastest clipper . Had they lived in the days of the Titans , instead of piling Pelion upon Ossa , they would have chucked Mont Blano to tho top of tho Himalayas , or , at any rate , they would havo said they had done so . Upon tho samo principle , they have been of late endeavourto the domostio
ing produce greatest tragedy in the world . The drama , however , which began in a Porte St . Martin tale of blood , ended in the raanriex' of a " Palais Royal" farce . Harrison Ainsworth should have written tho prologue , Samuel Warren tho narrative , and Paul do Jvoclc ( for wo have no English writer possessed of tho requisite amount or grotesque indelicacy ) the sequel . A now edition of " Qthello" should be composed , suited to American sentiment . The Moor , instead of -throttling his wife , should first stab Cassio behind his back ; acknowledge , in the presence of lago , the justice of the imputations
derogatory to the true dignity of literature . In drawing this moral from the Sickles confessions , we may be thought to be talcing an extreme view . We should be glad to think that we were . In private life one respects a man who bears his own troubles , pays his own way , and fights his own fights , without coming , puling and puning , to his neighbours for assistance and advice . It h so also in public life . If Mr . Sickles can be nothing else , let him at least bo a warning to ourselves . Once in a century is quite enough for the confessions of a Rousseau .
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Desdem and then and there receive g 14 THE LEADEK . [ BTo , 489- Aug . 6 , 1859 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 6, 1859, page 914, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2306/page/14/
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