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July 19,1856.]
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SPANISH POLITICS. The political agitatio...
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FEDERAL UNION OF TRADES. We have said th...
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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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The Allegolty Of Apsley Guise. The Story...
two other Bisters . The three were kept at work in making lace for fourteen hours a day throughout the last fifteen or sixteen months ; they were fed on barley or oatmeal gruelfor breakfast and dinner , with apiece of scalded bread , about the size of their own pigmy hands , for supper . This last was denied if they did not finish their task of five feet of lace in the day . Samuel and Susannah his wife sat in the hack room , and Elizabeth their daughter shared the comfort of that nnrlnur with them . Those who had less to t
So , more food , and more free motion , » aa a fire to warm themselves ; the three lacemakers in the front room , kept constantly over the lace pillow , starved to the verge of j death , were denied any fire . Surely John Bxtnyan never composed an allegory more exact than this . What is Samuel Bakbatt , but the monarch ; Susannah who had the control of the household , but the Executive ; and Elizabeth , who enioyed the favours of the powers that ue , the middle class ; while the three sisters are the working class , —the class that produces the wealth and has none of tLe returns , —just enough to keep body and soul together or D
_____ ' —^""""""'"^ the brain—those were the mortal causes . The very physiology of a mob in hard times . But what right had the working classes ot the Babkatt world to rise against the constituted authority ? They said their food was not enough : now was ndt this manifestly a lie , when Susannah , the executive , gave them the constituted stint ? If they wanted more , was it any thing but lack of will which prevented them from making more lace , and thus earning more money ? The defence of the father was , that he gave all his earnings i ~ v ; D « t ; a » nnA Irnfiw nothinsr of the ill
treat-. nent of his children . He claimed the lrre-3 ponsibility of the monarch ; his wife was the responsible government—responsible apparently to Elizabeth , the middle daughter , who stood between the government and the working-classes : Elizabeth , who enjoyed the comfort of the parlour , vras quite satisfied with the state of society , discountenancing all subversive theories . The jury found the prisoners guilty , and they were sentenced , the women to four years penal servitude , the father to one years' imprisonment . What for ? It is true that the executive of the Babbatt community used coercion to make the daughters work , beat them dug
less tban enougar xuere » u . o v ~ . ~ mand" for lace , and the lace of course was valuable ; there was very little " demand for Helen , Charlotte , or Julia Barbatt creatures with the minds of women , sharp , wrought to a fine edge with industry and hunger , but the bodies of children . Stern want indeed had worked out the allegory as if it were a tragic poem . There is not a more piteous story in Dante ' s Hell or Purgatory . The working class of the Babratt community pined away . Helen , the eldest , became subject to fainting-fits ; her fingers , contracting , refused to work ; and for her incapacity , she was sent to bed supperless . She prayed for food . " Bread ! " cried the women of Paris when they went to IiOUis XTI . — " bread ! " The executive—that is the mother flogged Hel-N with the first instrument she could lay her hands upon , and told her that that was her supper . The emeute was thus put down . If Helen cried for food , ht > v mother " ffot up and cuffed her , "—the
rewhen they were idle , and starved them ; is this really different from the mode in wnicli the working classes are treated by the constituted powers ? If the working man will not work , is there not coercion for him r It he is destitute , is it not an offence under the Poor-laws ? If he finds that his payment is not enough , and rebels , does he not subject himself to severe penalty ? The Union , the House of Correction , the Treadmill , —these are the instruments with which whole classes are flagellated—ins truments which are sometimes used in act , and are always in terror em ?
gular mode of preserving domestic tranquillity . Susannah , the executive , no doubt made a report to the monarch Samuel , that his dominions presented in all quarters a tranquil state ; and could equally report to him also , both from the returns of produce and the revenue returns , that the state enjoyed that condition of prosperity which it had exhibited during several successive quarters . Being reduced by this kind of government to submit , Helen sang a hymn , and prayed , finishing with the words " Oh ! Lord Jesus ! help me to do my work next week ! " Is not this exactly what pious moralists telL the working classes they should do ? Accept what is given to them , stick to their work while life is in them , and if they arc conscious of any failing , pray that they may have strength to do their work next day . If indeed they say that they lmve not food enough , it is explained to them that the reason arises from the relations of supply and demand ; and they are told patiently to bo contented with the lot f . n wV » ir > h Providence has appointed them ,
thanking Heaven it is no worse . At last indeed , with this kind of rule , grim death entered tho house , nnd the governmont was called to account by a higher power . Even in tho defence the allegory is completely borne out . Susannah , the executive , declared that tho children " told lies and wore idle . " The stinted and starved condition of the unhappy wretches did not prevent that authoritativo mode of accounting for the situation . " Overwork , insufficient food and exercise , cruelty , and excitement of
July 19,1856.]
July 19 , 1856 . ]
THE LEADER . 685
Spanish Politics. The Political Agitatio...
SPANISH POLITICS . The political agitation of Spain is by some attributed to foreign intrigues , by some to a revolutionary leaven working through the mass of the population . It is impossible to deny that since the Duke of Wellington s campaigns the Spanish kingdom has been so sedulously cared for by contemporary governmterveiinuua ^ ut
meuts , that repeated uvc - stroyed , for a time , the self-reliance of the people . Amid the maze of Spanish politics it is difficult to fix upon any man or idea that may be described as representing the positive tendencies of the nation ; but , between French and British sympathy , Moderado reaction , Progressista activity , the intrigues of the Palace , the excesses of the Church , the conflict of Orleanist and Bonaparte pretensions , the country has been reduced to a state of helpless uncertainty . The only national force that appears to be in action is the qualified political and socialist propagand spreading through Aragon , Catalonia , Estramadura , New and Old Castile , Valencia , and Andalusia , and operating to some extent in the Biscaynn and Galician provinces . Tins seems the radical cause of the numerous insurrections that have recently broken out , not in tho garrison towns only , but in populous rural districts . But Spain abounds in adventurers—who are , for the most part , military men or financiers — the military ot whom
^^^^^^^^^^^^^—^^^^^^^^^^^¦¦^¦ M ^ M M ^^ M ^^^^^^ M ^^^ M ^^ HH ^^^^ B ^ BV ^ B ^ H ^ M ^ BM ^ M ^ HM ^ H ^^—natural productions and large and valuable colonies , is exposed to continual interference on the part of foreign powers , is distracted by miserable factions , decays in commercial and industrial prosperity , has scarcely a political existence with respect to the external affairs of Europe , and is in a chronic state of fruitless revolution . Yet Spain has enjoyed a remarkable share of English " good offices . " When , in 1823 , a French army crossed the frontier , and suppressed tlie young constitutionalism of the State , it was loudly proclaimed by Mr . corollar
Cannin g-, and , as an inevitable y , oy Lord PaIiMEBSton , that Great Britain would favour the constitutionalism of the Continent . But how ? By remaining neutral ! These were Lord Pai / mebston ' s remarkable words , which , at the present moment , may be applied to Spain and to other countries as well . " YVe had two causea from which to choose : neutrality , or war in conjunction with Spain ; but , whichever we determined to adopt , it became us to adopt it decidedly , and adhere to it consistently . Some , indeed , have proposed a middle course , and , strange to say , would have had us use threats in negotiation , without being j i __ „ 4- ^ v i « nv > if norr / ifvm'fcin'n Tailed . i j 1 ^™ ———
prepareu . wj g o w «<* - - - uvv . To have talked of war and to have meant neutrality ; to have threatened an army , and to have retreated behind a state paper ; to have brandished the sword of defiance in the hour of deliberation , and to have ended with a penful of protests on the day of battle , would have been the conduct of a cowardly bully , and would have made us the object of contempt , and the laughing-stock of Europe . If statesmen could be fixed to their words , there would have been some value in a declaration like this ; but the English Government meddled in Spain as it has meddled in Italy , just enough to discourage national movements , and not enough to prevent foreign interference . " When he actively interfered years afterwards in Spain , it was in pursuance of Ins opinion that English subjects were associated with the cause of the Queen and of the constitutional party ; yet , has the throne been free , or the constitution safe ? Is not Spain
in the hands of soldiers , who suppress her intermittent insurrections by the unsparing use of the musket and the gallows ? What is the action of our Ministers now , when Bonapartism , which has been called the new religion of Europe , corrupts the Spanish leaders , when miserable Orleanist plots still revolve around the throne , when the Queen and her unhappy Consort are alternately the objects of disgust and pity , and when the provincial governors , shutting themselves up with their garrisons , threaten to reproduce throughout Spain a picture of feudal fear , violence , and barbarity ? At the head of all , triumphing over tho insurrection ho provoked , stands Marshal O'Donnell . It will be necessary for the comprehension of the present aspects of Spain—tho paradox of Europe—lightly to retrace the last eleven years of her political history , and to draw a sketch of her loading men and parties .
class preponderating—some ngni only for favour at tho palace , while others are careless of Camarilla influences while they preserve tho suffrages of the army . Of this stamp is O'Donnell , who aims , it would seem , at a mimicry of Napoleonic usurpation . Tho general result , however , is , that Spain , with a constitution by no means tho worst m Europe , with a splendid soil , with a remarkably commodious coast-line , with a natural lino of demarcation dividing it from the rest of tho continent , with an abundance ot rare
Federal Union Of Trades. We Have Said Th...
FEDERAL UNION OF TRADES . We have said that a federal organisation of the Trados Unions throughout the three Kingdoms would place industry in its natural position , and confer on tho working classes a social equality with their employers . The Trades of Scotland have at last recognized tho value of this suggestion , which our vigorous contemporaries in Glasgow — tlio Sentinel and tho Commonwealth— haves cordially recommended to the attention ot tho industrious orders . Tho ono thing unintelligible is , that though this idea hna been re-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19071856/page/13/
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