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FACTORY LABOUR. The failure of Mr. Cobbe...
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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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Not The Least Difeicult Of The Foult Poi...
tions prxrte « a well-known truth—that thte iohief ^ obstacles Tfco reform in CDiirioJy oriste from-thie difference iof races and the incotn-, pa * ibyit 5 T' < of . ^ eir ideas . The difference * < if . itoligion , traditions , and institutions among 4 ihemi & iiapta ! tant , Since it indicates vital , andorganic differences of character and constitution . So long , therefore , as these dif-. ferences'exist , so long will they < offer permanent 'difficulty , to a complete civilisation of . the Ottoman OBmpire . -Thfridea of ¦ Sultan ISJLlhmottd— " I wish for the future > that among my subjects the
Mahometan < Bhould only be distinguished at the Mosque , the Christian at the Church , and the Hebrew at the Synagogue "—would be a noble = wish if religion could be confined to the form qf worship alone , but it exerts an influence so powerful and -extensive ion all that relates to the social and political life of a people , that it raises a barrier , if not of hatred , at least ( of dissimilarity of education and of rfeeling , among the various members of the human ifamily . This is the ^ misfortune of the population of Turkey , and to thisimust European statesmen direct attention .
How can : these obstacles be removed ? A fusion of traces , always difficult to accomplish between the conquerors and conquered , is , for the reason we have mentioned , impossible in Turkey . -It is hopeless to expect a voluntary renunciation- of a system of corruption which infects all Government offices , since Abdul
- Medjtii ) ^ and •» all '' ids predecessors for the last -150 years have constantly failed in their attemptsctofreform these abuses ; and we look in vain-fora patriotic self-abnegation , a departure from ignorance , from idle and effeminate habits , and a determination to adopt moral ^ principles befitting useful -and intelligent citizens .
What , then , can . force civilisation on the Turks ? Continual European intervention ? -H $ o . The general opinion of England considers = that 'the best plan would be to vender the political condition of the Christians equal to that of the Turks . This , also , is the opinion of the Allied Governments ,
who have designated it as one of the four points which will tend to the establishment of peace in -Europe . But let us inquire—Jlowcanthe Allied Powers expect that ,-by taking 'away every political inequality from the Christians , they will guarantee the independence and safety of Turkey , and advance the interests of Turkish civilisation ? The
moral , intellectual , and industrial condition of the Turks can , in no way , be compared with that of the Christians subjected to them . The Christians are already infinitely superior , and if to this superiority you add political existence , you immediately annihilate the Turks , and with them the Ottoman Empire falls . If the question be asked—Which of the two races is the better prepared to enter into the European system P—we cannot resist the reply : The Christian population .
• Hence it is clear , that if the European 'system of civilisation be imposed on Turkey , the Christian race will become dominant , and , as the fall of the Turkish Empire is what the Czar most desires , and what the ADied Powers are most anxious to prevent , it follows that , even if the allied armies should raze every Russian fortress , still , under these circumstances , [ Russia « would
virtually triumph . We maybe permitted to ask , then , what is the independence of Turkey , if not a mere nominal question ? Independence , strictly speaking , would be nothing less thnn perfect ¦ liberty 'given to the Turks to exercise their 'corrupt , arbitrary , and despotic rule , according to their own good pleasure ; now , « ucha "Bystemiissbttrbarism , which is henceforth dm--possrible .
Independence , interpreted more in accordance with justice and the rights of nations , would allow the conquered ^ people to resume the power which had been wrested from then * by force , and to which their greater aptitude for civilisation entitles them ; but this would be a Byzantine Empire , in other words , diplomatists believe though the Czar denies , an absolute triumph for Kussia .
Independence , finally , as understood by the Allied Governments , is , that five foreign Powers shall protect three-fourths of the population of Turkey from being xuled over by the remaining fourth , who are Turks . Such independence can only be ironical . Can five foreign Protectors , -assuming the their
right to interfere with the affairs of own co-religionists , thus multiplying five times the dissensions , the divers interests , and the rivalry for power in Turkey , definitively settle the question ? On the contrary : each of them , tc strengthen itself , would try to form a party in order to predominate over the others . They would finally clash among
themselves , and leave the Ottoman Empire a prey to the strongest . The political wisdom , therefore , concealed in the fourth point of the conditions of peace , far from deciding the question , merely adjourns it .
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Factory Labour. The Failure Of Mr. Cobbe...
FACTORY LABOUR . The failure of Mr . Cobbett to obtain the leave of the Commons for restricting , by bill , the working power of factories , ought to tell the working classes that they must seek some other reliance than that "upon Parliament . They will be very indignant at the summary treatment of a measure which many of them favour . Several will be very indignant with us for saying that Mr . Cobbett did not make out such a case as the present , or any probable , House of Commons could accept . But when they have indulged that natural feeling sufficiently , ' they-will perceive that there is something more to do than to be indignant . The fact is , that there are periods for all things j and there was a period when OASTiiEB and Fiei , i > e : n" had a rising influence—when ten hours expressed the want of multitudes who could stand out ,
show themselves , and speak with one-voice . But Joseph Riyner Stephens has grown grey ; Oastleb has , been writing unread little sheets ; and Fieldet * has retired to a better existence . A ten-hours' agitation survives only in a comparatively small circle —the very name of Cobbett , like that of O'CoKNTEiiii , belongs to the past . It will need much to be done before the working
classes can get up an agitation like that which Oastjyeii , Stephens , and Fiei / den used ; and we must pass through many years before the opportunity for that agitation can arise . Should it come , there will need a greater strength of arguments and of voting power before the main proposition of Mr . Cobbett ' s Bill can be accepted . We muBt remember , that not only was it the rejected part of the measure proposed by the triumvirate , but that while a controversy on the principle of the existing statutes was admitted , the
proposal to stop the motive power was uniformly rejected by the majority in Parliament , and by all the influential classes in this country , ns absolutely incapable even of argument . Not , without good reason , existing legislation abstains from imposing any restriction upon adult men supposed to be in possession of their faculties , ' or upon the working of machinery , the propertyof such men . It went upon the assumption , that women , who are the servants of their husbands , and young persons who aTe in bpndage to their parents , are incapable of defending themselves from improper employment . Manufacturers 'were
prohibited to ' employ ; Suen peidple ibr < apro - rfeeacied ' time 'daily , because it was'presumed that the > two ' classes < could Hot ¦ refuse for themselves . ' The ? mantlfae * tn ? er -was prohibited , exactly on the same principle ^ as the subjects of the' King , of-Spain were prohibited from receiving presents from the Virgin Mary ,-af ter the soldier had pleaded a miraculous cotrrtesy on the part of the image in church , whose ring he wore on his finger . So far there was no interference with the subject .
The persons placed under "restriction were , by the presumption , not free , and . the statutes of 1847 and 1850 , therefore , constituted no infringement on the rights of the subject , or on the British constitution . The proposal to stop the motive power is a direct infringement on the rights both of person and of property . Volenti nonfit injuria . There is nothing abstractedly immoral in continuing the working of factory engines for any length of time . An iron furnace is never blown
out : a barrister will labour for longer hours than the greediest inillowner would exact ; and if the adult male population regard the employment in factories for the usual hours , as injurious to their health and moral condition—their intellectual culture , or their political power—^ they have only to refuse . We know beforehand the answer . They will say that they cannot refuse ; that the number of persons amongst them prevents concentration of purpose or collected council ; that if the majority agree , the " knobsticks " can always defeat the judgment of the many ;
and they will follow up this representation with many indignant . epithets levelled at the " knobsticks , " who , in times of violence , frequently receive something more substantial than the coarsest epithets . This is a representation of facts , but no argument . The existence of an evil does not prove the necessity of abolishing the cause from which that evil springs , unless the eviHs the sole product . The unconsidered pressure which the-millowners put upon their machinery indeed produces other evils besides the exhaustion of the workmen : it inflicts other
injuries upon him besides those which he seeks to remedy in a Ten Hours Bill . It helps to reduce his wages by the same process . which ., inflicts . _ bjLnkx \^ . tcy __ jin ^ the ^^ millowners . But these evils are not the only product of the system . We also have from it that enormous producing power which enables England to supply the world with a
particular kind of goods , and which -really places an immense amount of wealth at the command of our merchants and manufacturers , and our working-classes . For the condition of a factory hand , so far as it can bo measured in money and in many of the means of life , is superior to that of his equal in social standing in mosttowns of the world .
If we begin to interfere with the steam-power of this system , we' may stop other things than the evils , and , indeed , cannot tell very well what we should do . There is , however , a remedy , and it is one which lies comparatively within the reach of the working classes ; a reason , perhaps , why they do not value it sufficiently . They have it in their power to enter into competition with the manufacturers , and to beat them by their own weapons . The cotton-trado is one in which the rcower of making increases taster
than the markets . One palpable consequent of this condition was , recently , -that tiie markets of America , India , and Australia had nearly a year ' s stock on hand ; in otner words , Lancashire and North Cheshire had got , in the producing power , a year ahead oi the consuming power of these three great markets . Hence ibaillcruptcies in Liverpool nnd'Manchester ; hence , a" < ahort time tnac the working classes do not ask for ; tlio re-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 24, 1855, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24031855/page/14/
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