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Qctober 22, 1853] THE LEADER. 1019
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THE BRASS- BUTTON POLICY. We. have recen...
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THE FAIRY TALES OF SCIENCE. Ik the mist ...
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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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Hail Columbia In Japan. Int Order To App...
• vigour of her external administration . A Hungarian refugee is detected at Smyrna arid violently taken by an Austrian office ? . He has , however , to some extent an American character , for he bears American papers , if not American citizenship ; he was rescued by an American , and provisionally lodged in custody of the French consul , The Austrian Government makes an appeal to the civilized world against the outrage . The Anierican Government indorses the prompt action of Captain Ingtaham in the rescue of Kossija , and ultimately Austria , ' aTter having seized tie man ,
and after having protested in the face of Europe , surrenders him to America . So far has a little vigorous treatment "Broken through the Japan box of Austrian jirrvilege ! But Austria has not done with America yet . The pfrineijples of Hie two countries are so diametrically opposed 1 that they cannot meet without conflict . The commerce pf the Western power is so extending , tliat ; tlie two nations must meet again and . more freduentlv . Austrian' routine and etiauette will
be put to severe trials ; but ttere will be a Commodore P ^ rry for other exclusive systems besides tnat of Japah and we , niay look forward to the day even when some land-going Qdinmbdore Perry shall bid the everlasting gates lift up their heads , proclaim freedom even in Vienna or Milan , and enter the Capital of despotism , with thei Americari colours flying , and the' band , echoed bi the hearts of the people , playing " Hail , Columbia . " ;
Qctober 22, 1853] The Leader. 1019
Qctober 22 , 1853 ] THE LEADER . 1019
The Brass- Button Policy. We. Have Recen...
THE BRASS- BUTTON POLICY . We . have recently said that the true emancipation of labour wilf be found , not in any sudden " reconstruction ' of society , " which is hot necessary to the development of the true principle of Concert—not in mere political enfranchisement , althougli that will greatly facilitate the machinery of better industry—tut in the extension of practical information on their own commercial
interests , amongst the members of the workingclasses . We do not mean education in the ordinary sense of the word ; we do not mean that the working-classes need to wait the slow process of sending little children to school , letting them be taught a plain curriculum , letting them grow up , and then , by their children two or three generations hence , slowly arriving at a better state . What we mean is , that in proportion as' the working-classes take pains t 6 acquire a knowledge of the facts beating upon their actual condition , and especially of the commercial value which
attaches to their labour , they will be able to adapt their labour to the demands of the day , and to obtain the highest returns which are in the possibility of things . The employing classes continue to restrict them from that information . In this respect the old " friend of the labourer" is still the niost distinguished by the worst species of tyranny—the dishonest attempt to cajole ignorance into contentment . The employing classes in the cotton
districts keep aloof from their men , withhold information , and do not try to come to that common understanding which would best promote the interests of both . But they do not directly endeavour to keep ' their hands ignorant ; they do not give pitiful rewards for ignorance ana for contentment under starvation , by clothing tho contented clow ^ v in ' a ; ' green ¦ coat with brass buttons , and putting a ; Bovorbitm or two in his hand . ' " ' ¦ ' : ¦ ¦ — . ' '¦! ¦ ¦ ;
Tliat policy is ' reserved for "the friend of th 6 farmer . " We hayo it m itri befit form at the feast ° i tluitr Agricultural "Society which is also a noblo oxnndple of Toryism ' consistent wit-h itself , tt ' of Pro'tootionism true toita old colours . Of all boons given to the labouring- " classes , a prize proclaimed ; by the Ilinekford Agricultural nncl Oontiojrvatiyo Association is . jbho one whidi jnost-disgraces its donors ., It ' was a , prize to b ] iiit , labourer , servant of a subscriber , who should have paid the lar ^ ost amount to a medical club wi thout wijVing rocoivcd more than ' lO . v . h wook . What l « ttui precept wliieh this prizopractically convoys P Tffe ( Tub . ' - " Thdlii ^ ortrliKtfuirfnowcrht ' ndt ' to
"epond upon iia for hdp m ttfelmeBs . " In those Umlhil daVW wlicii jnou ' wwo ' tyrants ; " their ¦ labourers cli < l ho depend upon them "; wo still want t ( > 1 ) 0 landowners , but wo would got r id of that roH ponfiibilifcy . We will not subscribe for you , hut you rnuHt subscribe for yourself to a medical c « ib . Wo will not ; care for you mil ess you aro <> ur Horvanlnj you miiBt stifl bo ' adscribed' to lm though you are nolf-supportiug . Wo
compound for your subsistence by giving you wages , but it must be only 10 . ? . per week . If you will thus rub on , at the end of the year we will reward you by a munificent gift of one pound sterling . " And positively there is found a candidate to compete tor that prize ! JSTow , how are these wretched people to be emancipated by universal suffrage , or by " reconstruction of
society" in that ancient hamlet of Castle Hedingham ? Yet now would they not be emancipated if they knew the true rights of their case , as the labouring classes are all beginning to do in other quarters . We may understand what amount of wages is considered remunerative , by the state of another district greatly resembling in its purely agricultural character the one to which we refer . Let us
take the district of Yoxford , in Suffolk . Ther . e Wages are 11 s . a week , sometimes 12 s ., and so high is the present price of provisions—although they are not dearer in Suffolk than in Essex—that even with lls . or 12 s . it is hard work tb get on . The Suffolk man has Is . or 2 s . above the Essex iOs . —21 . 10 s . or 51 . more in the year ; yet when the Essex man is rewarded for foregoing that 21 . 10 s . or 57 ., he has an idea that he has gained something by the reward of 11 . sterling . If he only knew !
We say it is hard work to live , even at the higher rate of wages , in the Suffolk district ; but hard as it is , the case may be yet harder before long . Should wages continue at that rate , and prices rise , it is probable that when wheat seeding is ; finished many labourers will be discharged , and the now independent man will become the pauper . It has been recommended by a correspondent of the Times that agents in other parts of England should seek labour in Norfolk , and convey it elsewhere to the advantage of employers and employed . Wot , indeed , to the advantage of employers in Norfolk , who hare not too many hands , nor too much capital to pay them with . The plan of agency , indeed , has been tried in other places ,
but not with the best effects . A wealthy , intelligent , and benevolent manufacturer suggested it years ago for the cotton districts , and agricultural labourers were poured in , to the detriment of wages-in those districts . The same people were poured back again , at a subsequent day , in the shape of enervated weavers , and they became paupers in their native villages . Men arc not beasts ; and when they become commodities for the dealing of " agents , " they arc likely to undergo the fate of those German'" redemptioners" in the United States , who were actually bought and sold before their faces by tho agents who spoke a language unintelligible to tho ignorant foreign emigrants .
English labourers have sometimes been sold almost in tho same manner . Some years back families wore actually taken from a district in Suffolk to other parts of England ; where it was represented that they would obtain much higher wages . After a time , a few families , with great difficulty and much hardship , managed to get back , and others wore prevented from doing so Only by tho lack of means , so little had they found prospority where it was promised to them by tho strangers . No , tho working-classes must bo informed on their own interests , and on their own
knowledge must bo enabled better to regulate their claims of wages at home , bettor to speculate in homo migration , or to seek fortune in America or Australia . By the proper development of intelligence amongst thomsolves and their employers , prosperity may be brought , lileo justice , to thoir own dobrs . To the Suffolk district which wo have ' mentioned it will come some < lny , not long lionco wo'hope , with railways and improved cultivation . T | lo ' railway indeed , which is already settled , will not Occasion immediate increase of" employment for the labourers , because ifc scarcely Hui , ts the ordinary agricultural labourer to abandon his
home mid become a navigator , with higher wages but also higher expenses and unsettled condition . Tho navigator will come and earn Ins own wages but fclie railway will , bring traffic , and will bring moans of carrying off the produce of the land . It will introduce a more stirring spirit into tho heart of the county , will elevate " tho wiyle of agriculture , will call for mow intelligence on ' tho part of the labourer , and thus , while augmenting tho prodiifto of the district , will enhance tho rate of wages , and nnprovo the condition of the whole . Tins is sounder and better than protection , which rewards labourers content to sturvo through tho
period of rising wages and commercial prosperity , upon the beggarly pittance of 9 s . or 10 s . a week .
The Fairy Tales Of Science. Ik The Mist ...
THE FAIRY TALES OF SCIENCE . Ik the mist of an Irish evening , groups of travellers sped gaily along a noble highway . A sudden stop : but they wait calmly — a little work will set all right again . But they soon hear of a terrible destroyer on their path . Death rides behind . It comes in a familiar shape : that . of a railway engine , whose stops are governed by a man ' s hand . Yet the trained officers of the railway cannot check it . It rushes on :
it presses the life from out young hearts , and the evening darkens for ever to some bright eyes . Is the mechanical genius of our people gone ? Has our right hand forgot its cunning ? If a , murderer is to be caught in London , a whisper from Liverpool plants the policeman on his path . But if a . murder is being prepared two miles off , by means of a railway engine , there is no whisper , and no fine ear to hear it . On a smooth and simple path advances a railway engine : Required , to send to it , as quickly as possible , a command to stand still . One would think a set
of savages with nothing but native tact could devise some means towards this end , and yet we are told that our railway managers are at a loss . On the Irish line they sent back a man to wave a lamp , fondly hoping that a driver blinded with rushing wind and furnace glare would see him ; and the device failed . Explosive signals would have roused the driver , even had he been asleep ; but explosive signals were not used , because there was no fog , and no thick darkness . Here we trace the ill effect of bad rules . Instead of
using explosive signals only for fogs , they should be used on all occasions , until better signals are invented . The Hornsey accident would not have occurred had they been used : and this Irish accident they might have prevented . But in the latter case time was wanted for tho fixture of signals . at a distance far enough from the place of danger . A man , running , cannot do much towards stopping a train coming on at thirty miles an hour . A signal transmitted as rapidly as tho train was advanciug , would have met it tlireo
miles from the broken-down engine , and so liavo prevented all accident .. But there was no such signal to be had . Railway managers can run heavy engines fifty miles an hour , and are not able to run signal locomotives to fire off lights at meeting another train P We are not engineers , but the thing does not seem impossible . Or , to suggest another device , if a touch at Liverpool can make a sign in London , why should not a touch at a station show signs along the telegraph posts for miles P
But the true cause of all these calamities lies in the characters of railway directors . If they do not see direct gain in a new p lan , they will not take it up . In the long run it is better for a railway company to work its line well . But who are the railway Directors P They are men who make money by speculation in railway shares ' , not by the Working of a , railway traffic . Whether a , Company gets a bad name or not , thero arc nice things to be made out of speeukition in its very infamy . Many a , fine fortune
has been made out of the falling stock of a , fatal line . Few of the great men of a Company are directors only of that one line . They arc owners Of railway propert y all over the kingdom . They sit at many boards . Unless you knock up all the railways in the land , you cannot dimmish their pl ' ofits ; the low shares of one railway cause nigh shares in another , and they know how to rig the morlrot at pleasure . And Who are the Company P A shifting body of flilty shareholders , who sell out in a , panic , and buy in when they have nothing <* ln <> to do with their money . Simple strcuVhl ; ior \ VJird ' people think railways were
built for the conveyance of nien and goods . They wo ' ro projected to enable a , > sofc of clever gentlemen to cook accounts , ami live on the fat of the land—the iron road and the steam conches being merely " accidents . " If vvo would turn the lines to thoir proper use , wo must regard these gentlemen in their true light , —speculators on the Stock Ex'chiuige . If they or any other i >< rsons establish a machine or institution for public use , wo must wee that they do not so misuse it an to endanger public health . We drain off cchhpools , and will not allow gunpowder factories : are we to allow Death to ride roughshod on our railways because ( he directors arc " buny in their parloura counting all their money"P
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 22, 1853, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22101853/page/11/
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