On this page
-
Text (3)
-
876 tRfft &£&&£*? [Saturday, _ _ . - - —...
-
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN IRELAND. Bishop ...
-
THE GLAZIERS' STRIKE AT THE CRYSTAL PALA...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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 Example For England. To Wish What Is...
decorum the Cape rebels : Lord Grey withdraws the convicts . This example has not been lost on other colonies . Lord Grey , for instance , has volunteered for the Australian colonies a constitution , which has the peculiar felicity of satisfying the mind of himself and Mr . Hawes , and of proportionately disgusting the Australian colonists : from Sydney to Adelaide they are murmuring of " independence . " Some West Indians have talked about " annexation , " but that magnificent group of colonies has been so long accustomed to being ill-used , that we have no belief in the exhaustion of its patience .
It was in the midst of the altercation and discredit occasioned by the Australian Colonies Bill , marked as the discussion was by the most unaccountable equivocation on the part of Ministers , the most monstrous discordance between known facts and official assertions , that Lord John Russell spontaneously promised to the Cape a constitution of the complete English model . It rather took the world by surprise , but it was supposed that Ministers were redeeming at the Cape , in reward of its energetic outspeaking , the sins which they had committed on other colonies . Who would have
supposed this purely spontaneous boon was a new illustration of that peculiar regard for truth which has distinguished the colonial administration under the Grey-Hawes regime ? The Queen ' s letters patent were laid before the Legislative Council when it opened on the 6 th of September , and then the true nature of the Ministerial gift became known . No doubt it directed , as Lord John Russell promised , that there should be two Chambers , and so far it lesembled the English constitution : but what trait of our constitution
can be cited to justify the passage in the letters authorizing the Governor to dissolve both Chambers , or either one of them separately . Imagine Queen Victoria dissolving the House of Commons , and carrying on the public business with the monarchcreated House of Lords alone ! That is what the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope would be empowered to do . Such is Lord John Russell ' s idea of following the English model in making a constitution ! The letters patent dictating such general heads as these left the details of the constitution to
be filled up by a council appointed under the present system as a body representing the Cape ; but in order to understand the dishonesty of this delegation we must see how the council was composed . And it is worth while to follow the details of these transactions , not only because the Government thus trifling with a respectable community is the same Government which is permitted to trifle with the people of our own islands , but because we have seen in the anti-convict affair that the Cape colonists knew how to treat that Government which is permitted to trifle with the English people .
The Council to which the duty of filling up the details of the constitution was delegated , consisted of twelve persons : seven , including the governor , were appointed directly or indirectly by the colonial office ; five were elected by certain municipal bodies , and may so far be considered comparatively genuine representatives ; but one from this number of five must be transferred to the official members . On the list of persons sent in as nominated by the
electors , Mr . J . H . Wicht stood fifth ; but he was passed over by the Governor , who , in lieu of that gentleman , selected Mr . Godlonton , the eleventh on the list , and he repaid the distinction by voting with the official party . It is not to be understood that even the four members were appointed by anything like a general election , nevertheless their conduct warranted their being considered as practically representing the colonists .
I he official eight and the non-official four soon came to a contest . The first point of dispute was the qualification for members of the Legislative Council or Upper Chamber under the proposed constitution : the official members proposed a qualification of £ 2000 , or even £ 4000 , clear of all encumbrances ; the non-official members proposed that the members should be elected " by the combined votes of nil persons possessing the electoral franchise " —contending that so tried and extended
a confidence would in itself bo sufficient qualification . The votes , of course , were eight to four in favour of tho oilicial recommendation . The next point of dispute was an extraneous matter . During the ( lisordered state of the colony the governorx ^ ainst whose personal honesty and good intentions fto . charge is made—had irregularly raised noney on tys own authority ; and he now asked be snncjioi * of the Council to ordinances which vould hayc tjic effect of indemnifying him for those
irregularities . Sir Andries Stockenstrom objected , first , because the present Council was appointed for a specific duty ; secondly , because the financial indemnity was too important a question to be discussed parenthetically , in a mere interruption of urgent business ; thirdly , because the Chambers to be appointed under the new constitution would be more qualified to consider the financial indemnity ; and , fourthly , because some of these ordinances ,
for which a hasty sanction was now demanded , might not merit to be passed at all . Sir Andries was , of course , outvoted ; on which he and his three coadjutors resigned ; recording in a protest , of language equally temperate and explicit , their embarassing position as popular representatives whose presence implied a sanction to anti-popular measures carried by the overwhelming vote of the official party .
Such is the first working of Lord John Russell ' s English constitution—it places the red tape party and the popular party irreconcileably at issue . The Cape colonists behaved with their usual judgment and energy ; the municipal commissioners of Capetown met the four resigned members of Council , who were joined by Mr . Wicht , the genuine fifth . Those five gentlemen were requested to prepare the draft of a constitution , which they did . Sir Andries Stockenstrom and Mr . Fairbairn were requested to bring it personally to England , which they consented to do . These arrangements were ratified by a general meeting of the inhabitants on the 2 nd of October . The draft constitution
is very simple , practical , and moderate — - in this country , we should even call it Conservative . For example , the electoral qualification is set down as the possession for twelve months of the property valued at £ 25 . It is not , however , the Conservative character of the plan which we recommend as an example to the English people , though it shows very great judgment on the part of the Cape colonists , under the peculiar circumstances of their contest with a powerful and invidious adversary What we recommend for imitation is the promptitude , the combined movement , the energetic and
concentrated action of the colonists . It was these qualities that enabled them to beat the Government in the anti-convict affair : they have now to contend with equivocation and mystification , by which the Government in Downing-street obtains credit from the English people for volunteering to give an English constitution , while the thing given is a disguised bureaucracy , after the fashion of those which Lord Grey has thrust upon New Zealand and Australia . The Cape colonists have met these tactics by tactics diametrically the reverse ; they
have transferred the discussion to London , where they will carry it on with Lord Grey in the face of that English people whose applauses he filched by pretending to volunteer an English constitution for the Cape . The Cape will be well represented by b , gentleman like Sir Andries , whose biography is interwoven with the history of his country , and who may be said to represent at once the Dutch blood and the most enlightened spirit of the colony , and Mr . Fairbairn , the virtual leader of the triumphant anti-convict movement . The conduct of
that movement and its results make us watch the present struggle with a lively interest . We believe that the colonists will display the same sustained vigour and concentrated purpose which they have done before : we trust that the English people will see justice done to a spirited community waging an unequal contest with an arbitrary and dishonest Government , whose power would be nothing if it were not backed by the inert power of the English people : we are certain that , in any event , the English people must derive valuable instruction from the contest .
876 Trfft &£&&£*? [Saturday, _ _ . - - —...
876 tRfft & £ && £ *? [ Saturday , _ _ . - - —* - - . . _
Industrial Education In Ireland. Bishop ...
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN IRELAND . Bishop Berkely , in his Querist , published more than a century ago , asks " whether there be any country in Christendom more capable of improvement than Ireland , " and whether the people of Ireland are not as far before other nations in natural advantages as they are behind them with
respect to arts and industry ? Had Berkely been alive at the present time he might have published these queries with the same pertinence as he did in 1735 . " What has produced the difference , " says a Belgian Minister , " between the rich and flourishing condition of England and the poverty and weakness of Ireland ? Industrial knowledge . " These two words contain a complete reply to the question . It is b y her industrial knowledge , and by that alone , that England has attained so high a rank
among civilized nations , and it is only by a similar laborious process that Ireland can ever hope to elevate herself to the same platform . It is true that England has done much in former days to thwart the free development of Irish industry , and no time should be lost in making every amends for this . But whatever may be said on that score the fact still stares us in the face that , notwithstan ding all its wonderful natural advantages , Ireland remains the most backward country in Christendom .
Take the single item of agricultural labour . In Ireland , previous to the late decimation of her inhabitants by famine , pestilence , and emigration , the number of persons employed upon the land was greater than in England . But so worthless was the labour of the Irish compared with the English labourers , that the gross value of the agricultural produce raised in England was worth about £ 150 , 000 , 000 a-year more than the entire annual produce of Ireland . People grumble at the enormous cost of the poor in Ireland—some two or
three millions sterling a-year at most ; and yet they never utter a single complaint on account of a loss fifty times greater—that arising from the want of a proper organization of industry . Take an Irish boy at an early age , give him a sound industrial education , and he is able to do as much work as any skilled English agricultural labourer . " What is it , then , but the want of industrial training , and just laws securing to the labourer the fruits of his industry , that causes this annual loss of £ 150 , 000 , 000 to the Irish nation ?
The Glaziers' Strike At The Crystal Pala...
THE GLAZIERS' STRIKE AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE . Poor working men , in their disputes with their masters , seldom receive a fair hearing from the public . The recent strike of the glaziers at the Exhibition in Hyde-park seems to be an instance of this . The contractors , Messrs . Fox , Henderson , and Co ., made a proposal to their glaziers , the substance of which was that they should be paid at the rate of 4 s . a-day for every fifty-eight panes of glass put in by the machine
system—that being the contractors' estimate of a suitable day ' s work . This proposition the glaziers respectfully declined to accept—stating that it was impossible , under the most favourable circumstances , for a man to glaze fifty-eight squares a-day ; and that , from the peculiar obstructions to which they were liable at the Exhibition , from thirty to forty panes would be a good day ' s work . " man doing more than this , " they said , " must scamp his work , and it would tell for itself in due time . " The reply of the contractors was : — "If you like to work for us according to the terms of leave the work
the proposal , well ; if not , you can . " A reply which , though it is probably what most masters in the circumstances would have given , is , we beg to say , not such as should be addressed by any master to men with whom he has a merely pecuniary difference ! The reason of such peremptory curtness probably was that there were hundreds of poor fellows hanging about the Exhibition but too glad to undertake a job on any terms that would get them a week ' s bread . This it is that , in all such cases , gives masters the advantage , and compels workmen to submit to what they consider hardship in silence .
The public ought not to be prejudiced against the workmen in this case by the fact that the strike has occurred at a building , the progress of which is a matter of such universal interest . Let the Exhibition , important as it is , go to the dogs , rather than that injustice , if there is injustice in the case , should have to be done to poor but respectable workmen . There is too much disposition , both in courts of justice and elsewhere , to scowl upon workmen who have a difference with their masters , as if they were so many ruffians . It is not so ; men , living from day to day , do not throw up their work for nothing ! We regret to see that one of the glaziers has been accused of having had recourse to threats nt « nnnference with the Contractors . Legally he
may have committed an offence ; hut the most probable version of the affair is , " Here is an honest fellow , who , in stating his case , has got into a scrape by suffering his temper to get the better of him !" The lessons of such strikes as that of tne glaziers , are these—that our laws relating to master and workman require a great deal of present modification in favour of the latter ; and that glaziers and all other classes of workmen should do their best , by their small efforts , to speed on the yet distant time promised by Cooperative Socialism , when there shall be no caste of masters , in the present sense
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 7, 1850, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07121850/page/12/
-