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TKEQii LEABrBIL [No. SaQ^SAOTBPAY,
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HAXtf-PAY BISHOPS: It is a curious chara...
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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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Federal Union Of Trades. We Have Said Th...
peatedlv presented , to . publicr notice , it , has not , hitherto been adequately , developed in any pacfeof : Great . Britain . The Oprades ¦ Unions , are still , sectional ,,, local ,, limited , powers .. ! Last week ,, however ,, an important , meeting was . held in Glasgow , upwards of sixty delegates being present ,, from the trades of that cityy of . Aberdeen , Dundee ^ Ayrshire ,. Stirlingshire , and other districta—upwards of twenty trades beingjre ^ -presented .. It was tmanimoualy resolved to form a federal , union , with a , view , to put , an . end to the ' mischievous results arising to all
classes of the community from tiie forced idleness of' the : working , classes , whether they " strike , ? or-are . " locked-out" by their employers . As ia remarked by Mr . Alexander CamopbeIiI , the , immense amount : of wealth consumed , and the immense amount of production , prevented , during the last twentyfive years j by " locking out" and" striking , " would have . sufficed to carry the legitimate objects for : which the Trades TJnions contend . An enormous power is deposited with the ¦ working classes ; t > ut they never use it . They are ; like men attempting to raise some ponderous block . of stone—the burden of their
lives . One is straining at the task , while the others are at rest . The engineers are on strike and starving , while the spinners are humming in the . mills . The miners are in a state of collapse ,. reconciled , by hunger ; . to low wages ? truck : payments , false weights ^ and measures ^ and despotic overseers , while , the carpet- ; weavers , perhaps , are preparing for-a social war , of three months' duration .. That system will never prosper . They must combine their 1
methodsof defence . They must , agree and act-together ; They-must get rid of the falla * eies that oppress , them . , They must , work in concert ; , men and women , engineers and milliners , sempstresses andpitmen ^ because the class that , generally speaking , has placed itself in antagonism to them , without being formally organized , has discovered certain set maxims , by the . enunciation of which the sympathies of the public are abated . Thus , it is their practice to object that all organizations of labour are attempts to . interfere with
the laws of ; the social economy , with competition , with supply and demand , with the natural , operation of food , upon wages , and wages upon . food . Now , we know that capitalists have , frequently combined to put a check upon competition . An obvious exam-E le was tha - Booksellers' Association , for eeping up the . trade price of books . It was established to enforce the principle that retail dealers should not be supplied with certain : commodities unless they sold those commodities at uniform prices determined by the wholesale dealers themselves . This is
one illustration , out of many ; and , in the face of it , who has a right to deny the propriety of Trade Unions for Trade purposes . ? . As to that , deceptive fiction , quoted by economists as the . law of supply and demand , we have learned'how demand may be forced , and supply curtailed , by the arts of the bondholder , by holding back ,, by tampering with the processesrof production and exchange . We have Been ten . tons of . meat destroyed to keep up the high price of provisions in a city market ;
we have discovered how far this sort of jug-§| ling . is in operation ; and we detect it in-Luencikg- the trade in every species of . commodity ; and when , capitalists resort to these profitable artifices , some audacity is required ! to impugn the position of self-dofpnce assumed ! - oy the working trades . " We arsin . the presence of certain facts , of ! which one or two suffice by -way of explanation . How is it tnat tenv thousand needlewomen are employed in this metropolis for fburpence-nalfpenny per day—the day . being ! front twelve to fifteen hours . long _ , P How isi
it . that , ten ., thousand , slop-women blind or . atup ify themselves by working : fon starvation wages ? How . is it that . onerfburth of the masons ? trade , ia out-of . employment for three - months iiL the . year ? That a bitter- winter may drive away dock-labourers . to the . workhouse . —the representative" of a . poor-law disgraceful to our civilization ? That the working classes throughout - the three , kingdoms-: — especially those in ; factories , and mines—are
exposed , to the frauds , of the truck system , to false weights and measures , and prices higher than , the prices of the general market ? That workshops are . unhealthy , that defective steamr engines are worked to a dangerous pressure , that machinery is not fenced , and guarded , that the employed classes suffer under a mul titude of grievances and restrictions , and de ? rive no benefit whatever , as a body , from , the increasing prosperity of the nation ?
The Bleaching Works Bill is anillustra * tion . It has been rejected , of course , because it was a workman's , not a master ' s bill . Mr . Cokbeii affirmed and proved that he had known young , girls to be employed at times from sixteen , eighteen , even twenty hours day , in an atmosphere varying from ninety to Be Hundred and - thirty degrees * It . has been , shown . that they frequently work , halfnaked , in the bleaching infbrno ,-. until they are compelled to . run , or are carried , out ,, to lie down , for refreshment ontthe cool earth .. We
have no desire to use exaggerated language ; but we . say , this is the tyranny of : the Pharaohs-: no . industrial object whatever can be alleged in justification , of the murderous practice . The- opponents of parliamentary interference : completely stultified themselves by asserting , that the hours of labour in the bleaching works were less than those . which Mr . Cobbett proposed , to allow * and by arguing , at the same time , that such short hours would injure the trade . He should have said " diminish the bleachers' profits ;"
whereupon we say , that to employ a growing girl in a poisonous atmosphere , for even twelve hours a day , is irreligious , inhuman , and criminal . If a majority of the employers in this trade have the work performed in the open air by well-clothed , well-fed , well-housed girls , who labour only seven hours a day , why should they object to put dbwn the > unfair and rapacious competition of men who , by their own admission , are the scandal of . their class , and who get the same amount of" work out of Tialf the same number of workwomen ?
Admit that the bleaching of linen or calico is a peculiar process which must sometimes be carried on uninterruptedly for four-andr twenty hours . Ifc could be done by relays . But the employer may do what he will with his own , and the girls are his own ^ for they enjoy neither free will nor the salfljpry control of their friends . The one thing needful is , to bleach the linen , and the slcin of the poor workwoman is blanched to the pallour of death .
The working classes , who have their millions in savings banks and the funds of friendly societies , who have their unions , their journals , their places of assembly , can certainly help themselves , i £ they have the will and the resolution . In the annual report of the ITational Association of United Trades of London , it is said , " The general result haa been to maintain intact the rights and
privileges of all the members of tHe association , while so many otlior trades and associations have suffered so severely in wages , hours of labour , and general treatment . It is oven ' shown that the operations of this league have had a marked oftccfc upon the condition of the labouring class in Cheshire . That is a 'distinct and positive result . 1 But results of incomparably greater value would follow from tho Federal Union
agreement , and combined action , of" the "working trades throughout the three kingdoms . The movement commencedJasfc . week , in Glasgow is . very important .
Tkeqii Leabrbil [No. Saq^Saotbpay,
TKEQii LEABrBIL [ No . SaQ ^ SAOTBPAY ,
Haxtf-Pay Bishops: It Is A Curious Chara...
HAXtf-PAY BISHOPS : It is a curious characteristic of tnerpresent Ministry , which is not . a , Reformed Ministry ^ but only one to continue , the war and " to carry on her Majesty ' s Government , " should have aimed , in one year at . more innovations on the . constitution of the present day than any other which we have had for generations . It is true that the changes have not been such as materially affect the body of the people , but they Have been in one peculiar direction , which it is important to note . Ministers
have introduced life Peers—that is , a sort of peerage which would enable them to place in the Upper House of the ^ Legislature persons of such classes as were peculiarly acceptable to the official body ; and since we must look forward—at least for a time—to an alternation of Whig , or Tory , or mixed Ministries , we may suppose that the House of Lords will be recruited by Whig , Tory , or half-and-half Life Peers ; somewhat undermining the independence of the Upper House , and rendering it
more ductile to the official class . Again , it has been proposed to mocjify the position of Bishops by . permitting them to resign—a total innovation on the theory and actual constitution of the episcopal office . The office , it must be understood , is in theory not conferred by the Crown , but is conveyed from Bishop to Bishop , in what is called the . apostolical succession . The Crown
permits a particular person to be appointed Bishop , but he is actually " elected" by the Dean and Chapter of his diocese , as the most apostolical personage , and he becomes a successor of the apostles . Now , it is proposed by the present Government to set aside this apostolical succession ; and after a man has been a successor of the Apostles , to unmake him , and return him into private life .
Thus , besides altering the constitution of the House of Peers by the admission of Life Peers , the present Government has undermined the Church by declaring that the apostolical succession is subject to be set aside by th'e secular authority . It is not for us , of course , to dispute that official view ; but how materially it alters the position of the Church of England ; how strikingly it places that Church on an equality with any Dissenting body in the country !' JNTor can it be said that these changes are
without practical consequences ; ( jiutc tho reverse ! The life-peerage innovation could of course only be worked out by degrees ; but it would , most decidedly tend to bring the hereditary notables of the country more under the control of the bureaux . The new plan would also tend to place tho Church more under tho control of tho Executive . The last point is important , not only from its spiritual bearing ,, which must ' not go for
nought ,, but for its political " and social bearing . If a Bishop is getting old , and finds tho exorcise of his duties irksome , lie will be able to retire to leisure and a pension . So far good ! We see no reason against the arrangement . It is very proper that public servants should retire upon pensions , and a mean policy in such matters is never more for tho real interest of states than of individuals . But let us observe how this will wotIc with refcronco to tho Executive . Tho
clergy of the country are a species oi missionaries preaching respect for tho powers that bo—most usually in . a reactionary nonso . It is in this that tho official clergy of tho English Cliurch differ from , tho Dissenting clbxgy . Their solo ground of superi ority over Dissenting clergy has consisted in tho
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1856, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19071856/page/14/
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