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August 11, 1855. j THE LEADE1. 7tf5
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A JOURNAL OF THK WAI!. Tho War: from the...
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. Frederick the Great....
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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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Rights Of Employer And Employed. Tke Rel...
< ioxical . How is it to be worked out ? Here let the author speak for himself : — In order to apply this great principle to social , domestic , and manufacturing life , let a Joint Slock Company be formed of any number of persons , who possess the requisite amount of capital , for tho purpose of commencing in any branch or branches of business that they may determine upoq . The cost of erecting houses and other buildings , for the working shareholders , and the purchase of every article required for their dom estic use and comfort , should bo included in the estimated expenses , as 'well as the cost of erecting the manufactory , providing it with machinery and raw material-Let such capital be raised in shares of ten shillings , or one pound each ; and interest at the rate of five per cent , per annum , be paid on all capital so advanced . A dividend of the profits should be declared annually , and each proprietor receive his due proportion of interest and profits according to the number of shares he may have in the establishment .
We then come to the details of the scheme . A skilled manager must be provided ; workmen must be obtained ; houses must be built for them . Here we are referred to a fine picture at the end of the volume , in which an ideal Industrial Agapemone is set forth . A spacious square of houses and gardens , looking like excerpts of Regent ' s l ' ark , with a nuigniOcent factory ui the neig hbourhood , a railway quite convenient , and a sea-port town in the offing . Schools are to be provided and furnished , - " a steward , cook , clerks , and storekeepers " are to be engaged ; every workman ' s house "to be furnished with a water-closet , vapour and shower bath ; " " the windows of all the lower rooms to be of the French style . " There are to be hothouses " for the protection of p lants requiring a warm climate . " Where
tho billiard-rooms and wine-cellars are to be placed does not appear ; but there can be no doubt that they will not be forgotten . For these accommodations the workpeople are to pay a rental " which will realise to the company 5 per cent , per annum upon the cost , and also an additional sum , which will cover the cost of keeping the buildings clean and in good repair . " After five y ears an additional rental of ' 2 k per cent , to be paid . Weekly wa ^ es are not to be paid to the workpeople ; but they are to be charged witn their keep , and never allowed to draw more than nineteen-twentieths of their earnings . Saving is to he comjntlsory . The savings not to be drawn out without the consent of the directors .
Considering the author ' s doctrine as to inventions , already referred to , we were not prepared for a provision that " all inventions which the company deem good , should be protected by patent in the inventor ' s name , but at the company ' s expeuse . "" Until man is sufficiently intelligent to bow to the decisions of the company without criticism , and to bear the truth without being offended , all votes should be taken by ballot . "" No workman should be permitted to leave the works until be has thoroughly washed himself . " Suck are a few outlines of the detailed scheme set forth by the author , in which every contingency seems to be provided for with a minuteness worthy of the author of The Hepublic .
_ A long chapter follows , in which some of the more obvious objections to the scheme are supposed to be answered . From this we learn that " the possession of money is merely a habit , and one that may be easily abandoned ; " that " it is sliameful that the young men of our day are permitted by society to throw away their money ; ' and that "it is our wretched system of non-prevention that is a curse to the country . " We are also told that " large towns are most unnatural in their arrangements , demoralising in their tendencies , and must ultimately give place to a better state of tilings . " . /• i Such are , in their essentials , the views entertained by the writer of tins little book , and to those who are in the habit of perusing the columns of the Leader liases we trust that it will be necessary to do little more than state
them in order to convict them of absuulity . Co-operative mills and cooperative factories are now at work and are found to be moderately successful . So far tho writer of this book recommends no new thing . But when he comes to set over free operatives the discip line of a workhouse , to make savins compulsory , and to engraft a sort ol modified Monnonisin upon the rights of free labour , he sadly miscalculates the true character ot the British workman . We very much question whether even windows in the Irreiieh Style and hot-houses would reconcile your Lancashire man to a law com-Belling him to wash himself upon leaving work . There can be no doubt that the writer of this book is very near the truth when he looks to the co-operative system for the regeneration of the working it out in
classes : where we differ from him is in the manner ot e . irrymg . tlie present state of society and in the present organization ot commerce suoh working Phalansteries as he depicts arc both theoretically , and Muctically impossible . Uy-and-by , when the working classes have had the Unefit of two or three educated generations , and the gams ot the Limited Utility principle shall have ripened into fruit , wo may expect , to see the exonerative system occupy a more important position in the commerce ot the bountry than it has yet done ; but , to be successful , it must be based Vpoa sounder views of political economy than those pursued by the writer « i" tlus book . With the part of the volume which points at the disadvantages of Strikes and Trades Union we most cordially agree , and we wish that U » e rest had been written with as deep a knowledge of the mutter m hand .
August 11, 1855. J The Leade1. 7tf5
August 11 , 1855 . j THE LEADE 1 . 7 tf 5
A Journal Of Thk Wai!. Tho War: From The...
A JOURNAL OF THK WAI ! . Tho War : from the Ending at Gallipoli to the I hot / , of Lord Raglan . By W HRubsuH , Correspondent of life Time * . lxoutleclgo . Tiufl publication , in ft compact form , of the Times war correspondence , will Uave gratified a desire lone felt throughout tlu « country . W i- need not insist We uuou the claim * which Mr . Resell has established among hiiglishnien by his nluin speaking on matters vitally affecting our soldiers and the stern busumw tlmy have in hand . It . may , perhaps , be difficult to separate the literary merit of his book from its more solid value us a lailhhil eoinmcniaiy , HfwwrtHich as many of the-statements it contains , acknowledged as they now » rc to be strictly and scrupulously true , niif-lu have Imd less elinncu against official misrepresentation had they not been aclvnncrd with the eloquence ns
the scenes which his vivid pen has chiefly helped to make familiar to us , has had no opportunity of revising his work . He has left that duty to an editor , whom we hardly know whether to blame for doing so little , or to thank for doing no more . Whoever this gentleman may happen . to be , we do not think he lias added greatly to any reputation he may have hitherto enjoyed among publishers . He describes the book inaccurately , to begin with . Mr . Russell ' s letters include an account of the voyage from England to Malta , and from Malta to the Dardanelles , and do not commence with " the Landing at Gallipoli . " Contradictions are left to settle the matter among themselves as they best may ; errors are reproduced with perfect indifference to the fact that , in subsequent letters they are admitted to be errors ; and not the smallest foot-note tells the reader when a grave statement or a too bold
well as the consciousness of truth . Still , the despatches of Mr . Russell having now assumed the shape of a volume , it is in that shape that his work must be dealt with by us ; and we will say at once that no volume has ever depended more completely for success on the merits of the author . We accept his warning , however , to take the book , not as aconnected history * but as a journal , recording from time to time the occurrences of the war , and consequently impressed in a much greater degree with the writer ' s personal feelings than would have been the case with a deliberate review . So strikingly picturesque are his bits of narrative and description that they remain in our memory like actual scenes ; and when we light on the brilliant passages again , long afier reading them for the first time , we seem to be calling up events which we have ourselves witnessed . The author , being still engaged amid
opinion is presently to be withdrawn . As an instance of the slovenly way in which the letters have been pitchforked together , we will just observe that the dates , though ranging over two years , give us only the particular day and . month of each communication , leaving to future students of our history the task of searching other records for the precise year in which these events occurred . It was surely an editor ' s business to see that an omission , veryexcusable and even unimportant when first made , should not be perpetuated in a work which will be sought as an authority in years to come . An index would be acceptable to the purchasers of the next editions ; but perhaps we are immoderate in hinting at such a boon from an editor who cannot be at the pains even to find a proper title for his author ' s work , or to make good a few imperfect dates .
There is enough description in this book—we say nothing of its inexhaustible wealth of incident—to set up a circulating library , and to make the fortunes of all the ladies and gentlemen whose original and selected ideas are thereby circulated . Consider how these letters must have been dashed off—and there is no lack of evidence that they were written in haste . No apprehensive delicacy of judgment , no " finite eye" for little flaws of hurried labour , has worked a single improvement or change of any kind , as far as we can see . Judging , however , from what little the editor has done , we are not much disposed to quarrel with his forbearance . The signs of hot haste
are even valuable , as helping to keep in view the real nature of the book . We stand beside the author , and look with him into the pit where are lying " some 30 clods of the valley , all covered with scarlet and blue cloth , with lace and broidery and blood . " As mere readers of this terribly real description , we cannot escape the assurance that no man with the power of writing thus , would , if lie had revised the sentence , have left those numbers in place of the word " thirty . " Of course , an editor with any literary pretensions would instinctively have made the alteration , and a hundred others into the bargain ; but even this humble work is best left alone by editors of
a certain kind . . , As the volume is cheap enough to be very ' soon in everybody s handsbeside * that it is a reprint—we need not extract any passage at length to prove that Mr . Russell is a writer of no common stamp . His facilities of expression are not only discoverable here and there , just as he may have leisure for a bit of 'fine writing ; ' they abound most in exact and prosaic statements and are curiously blended with matter-of-fact . Thus , he speaks of " massive multitudes , " where no such admirably suggestive phrase would be expected , and where it is very likely to be overlooked . H « re , too , is a picture , side by side with information : — Throe battalions of the Chasseurs d'Orleans ( I believe they had Ko . G on their
buttons ) rushed by , the light of battle in their faces . We mi"ht fill columns with such extracts as this , but , for reasons already named we leave our readers to renew their acquaintance with Mr . Russell .
Books On Our Table. Frederick The Great....
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Frederick the Great . By the Kight Hon . Thomas Babington Macaulay , M . P . Reprinted from Mr . Macaulay ' s Critical and Historical Essays . ( Thelravelkr * Library , « 5 . ) Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . Tho Philosophy of Reproduction . By Robert James Mann , M . D ., & o . ( Illustrated with Woodcuts . ) Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . Caroline Alton ; or , Vanity * , vd Jealous ,,-a Tale . John Menry and Jtmoa Parker . Servants Uflmnce-a Talc John Henry and Jamea 1 arkcr . The Soldier in Peace and War—Suggestion * for Arming and Trowing Light ' ^ J" * , With Observations on Recruiting . By Lieut-Colonel . Burns and Luuibort . War Songs . By W . C . lleauett . Efflngham U » bou . Lord Brougham ' s Speech on tJie Slave Trade . < " « 9 K ^ giHi } Sjyeeeh : f the //<>» . Joseph Howe on the . Union of the North American Pronnoos ami on the Right of British Colonists to Representation in the Imperial I " ™^ ,. jJtf , v , lv . Letter to Viscount < Palmerttomon the Address voted b' f Convocation ^ /^ f ^^ y . By Gilbert Klliot , D . D . sw « w and on the The Financial Policy of the War : Two Lectures on the fr'f ' W * Uve !! d before tho different Modes of liaising Supphes m / me of £ <» ¦ * B iokftrdS i M . A . University of Oxford in Trinity Term , 1855 . By t- ^ orb e ^^ Ridgwly < A Bon Chat lion Rat , Tit for 7 ht : a New and Idiomatic Course » f ^ * f ^ wMtfioML French Language , Wy Chrisostome Dotfobort . yv # fo | r > By ftondrik The Curse of th « Village ; a * ul tJ * Happiness of Ucmg *« J Lambert-and Go . Conscience . ( Translated from the original * lenueu . ;
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 11, 1855, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11081855/page/19/
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