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730 ©tJ * %t&^tt+ [Saturday,
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THE PENNY STAMP COMMITTEE. This day 139 ...
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T1IK rOLLSH-IIirNUARlAN EXILHS. Pi.KAMUK...
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WJ1AT IT MKANS . Thk fatal skirmish nt I...
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The "Daily News" On Association. In Welc...
sure , they think , that it must better their plight . This divergence results , not from any essential diversity of principles as to why and how labour should be rendered cooperative , or should be organized , but more from the fact , that our Socialists are Christiana by education ; theirs , Revolutionists by profession . " There is more than one error in this passage . To be accused of- being an exclusive Christian sect will amuse a vast number of English Socialists , who have been accustomed to hear the name of
Socialism used as almost synonymous with Infidelity . This originated with Mr . Robert Owen ' s mistake in making the abnegation of Religion a part of his system . In fact , however , neither Infidelity nor peculiar views of Christian revival are essential elements of Socialism , which is an oeconomical question ; and we can vouch for the fact that Socialists are now to be found in every religious sect , as they are to be found in every avocation , and in every class of society . Sectarianism has as little to do with Socialism as it has with the Stock Exchange , or with Political ( Economy . Indeed , the new doctrine is nothing more than a chapter added to Political ( Economy .
It is a mistake , too , to suppose that there is that distinction between the French and English Socialists , or that the French are peculiarly revolutionary in their tendency . The new fact is , that the Socialists are gradually transferring their attention from the ulterior consequences and more speculative parts of their doctrine , < to the essential principle and its practical application ; and in this process , so highly judicious and business-like , much more than in theological investigations , the English Socialists are engaged ; their French brethren having- set them the example .
Our contemporary is mistaken in supposing that the numbers of the Socialists in Paris have decreased ; an inference which he draws , without grounds , from Mr . Coningham ' s lecture . If he will reperuse that lecture in its more complete form , as we publish it this week , he will see that the particular examples cited by Mr . Coningham , are not selected for their numerousness , which was not in question . The enrolled organizations of Paris are now computed to be about one hundred in number , and they have been estimated to comprise about a third of the working population of Paris , the recruitments steadily proceeding :.
The Daily News accounts Mr . Coningham ' s examples to illustrate " the beneficial results of Free-trade and the division of labour "" The most favourable specimen seems to be an association of picked men , who have subjugated all disorderly inclinations ; who subject themselves to mutual control , discipline , and cooperation ; who starved themselves and their families until they < jot together a little capital ; and who , having acquired it , draw the most clear and distinct line between the value of their individual labour and the profits of their capital .
For the worth of their separate and individual work each member is paid its actual value as estimated , not by internal , but by external standards of its value ; and the workmen , bein ^ thus paid , the capitalists , in this case the K-anie individuals , then divide the profits , taking care , as all other prudent capitalists do , to keep a re . seri & e fund applicable to their business . Now , if this be Socialism , we are all Socialists . We had , however , thought that the lirst principle of Socialism was the ^ abrogation of competition . "
J lie fundamental principle of Socialism is concert , in the division of employments , without which that division cannot , attain its most productive power . As to competition , the mistake ! of the old ojcoiiomists was , that , they took it , for the only incentive to industry . Our contemporary will observe ; that the option of performing a greater or smaller share of work , where all have an equal opportunity , and whore the success of one docs not bent down another , is a totall y dilll-ront thing from the sort of competition that , # ocs on in the lOiitflisli labourmarket , where so many ^ et excluded from work altogether , and where each purchases tlu : opportunity by helping l . o beat down the return for all .
We need not , pursue our contemporary ' s speculative apprehensions further . If he , will continue his observation , ho will perceive that the Socialists , whether of Franco or England , aro not tho men to abrogate " siilf-cxerl ion , " or individual free , agency ; although they me well aware that , sound u : couoiny , practical morals , and huumu happiness , cannot exist without tho fulfilment , of tho Christian precept , to " love one another , " pructicully carried out by helping one another . Meanwhile , wo hail tho tmpport offered in the following passago : —•
" Tho elevation of working-inon ih far too hoiious n matter to bo trifled with . Education and capital arc itH beat frioudw : aad to tho latter the ncarcHt route iu
by the former . Every obstruction to the workmgman becoming a capitalist is an . injury to society ; as such it ought to be removed , and all encouragement be given to him to become a capitalist . If cooperation will so assist him , by all means let it be promoted ; if association , he has as much right to associate as the shareholders of a railway company , or the partners of a cotton-mill . Much , we agree with Mr . Coningham , may be done in a modification of the law of partnership by the removal of restrictions . " This is a good beginning : " Perge , puer !"
730 ©Tj * %T&^Tt+ [Saturday,
730 © tJ * % t &^ tt + [ Saturday ,
The Penny Stamp Committee. This Day 139 ...
THE PENNY STAMP COMMITTEE . This day 139 years ago saw the commencement of the most successful scheme ever concocted for the enslavement of the press . It was a truly English idea to put an excise stamp on the newspaper , so that the man who should refuse to wear the legal chain should be considered as a fraudulent debtor . By putting the press under the excise it was made at once to smell of the shop , and from this taint it has never yet freed itself . Under the pressure of taxation , Ithuriel himself could not conduct a newspaper without asking every week " How does it sell ? " No wonder that the fourth estate is so often in league with the other three to oppress the people . The wonder is that it should ever do otherwise ; and the fact that it has so often contended for truth
and justice is a testimony to the truth and justice that lives in the hearts even of those who profit by things as they are , arid meddle not with those who are given to change . Next week we shall publish the report of the committee appointed by the House of Commons to examine into the effects of the stamp . Unlike the ordinary legislative proceedings of the year , that report is clear , straightforward , and practical . After detailing abuses and anomalies ( well known to our readers ) , both at the stamp-office and the post-office , it shows clearly that the law , however stringent on paper , is ill-defined in practice and utterly incapable of impartial enforcement . Turning to the postal question , it shows that the system of stamping papers
not posted and that of reposting stamped papers are alike unfair ; and recommends that the postage of newspapers should , for the future , be entrusted to the post-office , with the understanding that four ounces should be conveyed at a penny rate . It then goes on to deplore the effect of" the stamp , which , it truly says " prohibits the existence of such newspapers as from their price and character would be suitable to the means and wants of the labouring classes . " With a due regard to the rights of those who spend vast sums in obtaining news , it suggests a short copyright for their benefit ; and it ends with a declaration that , " apart from fiscal considerations , your Committee do not consider that news is of itself a desirable subject of taxation "
1 his report has received the unqualified approbation of the leading journal in a long article published on Saturday last , in which it says : —• " A tax on news is nothing more or less than a tax on the use of tho eyes and the ears , a tax on the employment of the mind , a tax on the improvement of the understanding , a tax on knowledge , a tax on events , a tax on our social existence , on our common interests , and our mutual sympathies . The lloyal
assent has just been given to the abolition of a tax on those useful apertures through which wo admit the light of the sky , the vital air , and the sight of tho world around us . What , indeed , could be said for a tax which operated as an inducement to sit in the dark , to stop ventilation , and to shut out the face of nature and of man ? 15 ut only next to that in a tax which operates in precisely tho mime manner on the apertures of tho mind . "
After this , it is not too much to hope that tho 1 st of August , 1852 , may give us a press free , at least , from tho stamp . Tho freedom of tho press will hallow still further a day already holy in tho annals of England , a . s that of negro emancipation .
T1ik Rollsh-Iiirnuarlan Exilhs. Pi.Kamuk...
T 1 IK rOLLSH-IIirNUARlAN EXILHS . Pi . KAMUKAiiMO feelings aro excited within uh when wo reflect upon tho noble and hospitable sentiments displayed-by our countrymen , especiall y by the working-people , in favour of those victims of Continental despotism and tho lahsez fiiire system of our own diplomacy , tho Polish-Hungarian rcfiitfoes , who landed at Liverpool on tho 1 st of March last , from Turkey . It wan not necessary to have recourse to tho ingloriouH stimulation of fancy fairs , or quadrille and polka parties , to arouse the sympathy of tho British workmen . It was Hiifliciont that they were appealed to ; men whose life ih made up of privations can alone comprehend need in others . An appeal waa
made to their generosity , and it was nobly responded to by them . The men who craved assistance were men who had combatted in a good cause , and who were suffering from want of food . No obstacles , no slander , however cunningly spread by the dancing philanthropists against the refugees , were capable of shaking the noble sympathy of our working-men , for in the sufferers they recognized their brothers . They hastened from all parts of the country to send in their painfully earned pence , to provide for the first pressing
wants of the exiles ; and not content with that they set about doing what philanthropy in white gloves never did : they exerted themselves to the best of their means to provide what is more valuable than pecuniary assistance—employment ; and thus to furnish them with the means of acquiring an independent position by their own labour . Their noble exertions have been rewarded by perfect success ; for a great majority of the 230 exiles , who resolved upon remaining in England , have got employment , and are thus earning their own living .
' If the ultimate result of the Exhibition in the Crystal Palace be calculated to produce sympathy amongst nations divided by their crowned rulers , the Exhibition of noble feelings , dwelling in the learts of our working-people , has anticipated that result , by tangibly showing that they understand what is meant by the fraternity of Peoples . Honour be to them ! It is to them we are indebted for having shown that they too understood and cherished that sacred principle upon which the future salvation of Humanity depends .
In thus doing justice to our countrymen for having nobly sanctioned that grand principle , we are prompted by our love of Truth to say something about the private character of the exiles . They are all young men , sober , industrious , amiable , and of a rigorous morality . Many amongst them are highly gifted , and they , one and all , give the greatest satisfaction to their employers , and to those with whom they come in contact ; and Liverpool , Manchester , Halifax , Bradford , Leeds , Birmingham , Bath , Sheffield , Newcastle-upon-Tyne—where committees ad hoc are formed , have testified to their good character . From Newcastle-upon-Tyne , for instance , Mr . Joseph Cowen , jun ., thus writes to the central committee of the Polish Democratic Society : —
.... " You will be as happy to learn , as I am to inform you , that the behaviour of your countrymen while with us , has been highly commendable . They have won the esteem and confidence of all with whom they have come in contact . A better , braver , nobler body of men , it was never my good fortune to know . The high and chivalrous spirit that animates them , has communicated itself to those with whom they have mingled ; and I count on much good resulting to our cause in this locality , in consequence of their living amongst us . "
We are thus happy to learn that all those who so nobly offered their protection to the victims of a generous sacrifice , have not only the sweet satisfaction of having accomplished a sacred duty towards their fellow-men , but moreover the consciousness of having imparted their sincere sympathy to worthy men . But in doing justice to the working-men we must not forget that they are not alone . Literary men
of tho first rank , like Dr . Vaughan and Professor Newman , men whose high character and great abilities have won for them a lofty position in society , and who have nothing in common with whitegloved and dancing philanthropy , came forward nobly in the hour of need . Dr . Vaughan has repeatedly uttered words of the most hearty sympathy , as he did the other day at Manchester , for tho cause of trampled Hungary and her noblo sons . Honour to those men also !
Wj1at It Mkans . Thk Fatal Skirmish Nt I...
WJ 1 AT IT MKANS . Thk fatal skirmish nt Ilusholmc , near Manchester , between the biickmakcrs and the watchers of Mi . Fair , throws out into hold relief the Btrange relations of employer and employed . It will be called nn " extreme cane" ! ( Granted . Kxtremo or extraordinary cases aro needful , apparently to rouse attention to the subject-Kxtreme canes—tragic canes—are forcible indication !) of frightful disorganization . We do not defend the destructives ; we do not attack the offending employer . We simply point to the fuct—and usk what it means ? It meaiiH—not that the members of the Mrickmakers ' Trades' Union are a Bet of bloodthirsty , destructive , insubordinate men , or that Mr . Parr is a harsh , cruel , exacting employer—but it means thut there is something wrong generally , in the relations of employer and employed , of which this affray iu at ojico an afllictiug illustration and a tragio proof .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 2, 1851, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02081851/page/14/
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