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1248 THE LEADER. [No. 301, Saturday,
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THE SPITALFIELDS WEAVERS. We are glad to...
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Political Sym1toms. Tin; Deplorable Infa...
once essayedthie argument of . Reform , nowutte the cries of Gassakdka , and predict that which mig ht be true , if it were intelligible . . We would , however , offer a caution to the junior enthusiasts of suspicion :- —only prophesy that which , in any event , may be true . 'We have never seen a Mooke ' s or Raphael ' s Almanac in which the hieroglyphics of the preceding year were not triumphantly explained .
The Chartist body as it exists , does not include all that portion of the middle and working classes -which claimed "• the Charter ;" that is to say , universal suffrage , annual or triennial Parliaments , abolition of property qualifications ,, payment of members , vote by ballot , and the equalisation of electoral districts . It is composed merely of those who adhere to the old forms , as well as the old principles—who maintain the feud between the
middle and ' working classes—who still delight in exhibitions of vulgar violence—who apply to England epithets which are justifiable when refugees apply them to Austrian oppression , or to Bonaparte cruelty . The immense majority of intelligent workmen desire an amalgamation with' the middle classes , upon fair t erms , though they accuse them , not without reason , of having dealt hardly with them in trade , and selfishly in politics .
On the other hand , as far as we can perceive , the liberal middle class—that which has no secret hope of verging toward the aristocracy—sees the difference between itself and the working-class materially lessened ; the proposition of a £ 5 franchise by the Whigs , teaches it to regard with less terror the word Universal ; it would accept , probably , as the essence of a new Eeform , and the leading points of a new scheme of organisation , the fundamental principles of the suffrage , the "ballot , and shorter Parliaments , leaving out , as questions of detail , to be settled easily afterwards , other questions which were formerly of equal weight .
When the nation sees the war mismanaged , sees diplomacy faltering , sees its prestige lost , and its policy corrupted , it turns against the aristocracy . It requires the aristocracy to act as though it were not an aristocracy , and as though England were not a monarchy . The time has come when it should study the public interests from a different point of view . We are governed by the aristocracy , because no other class has volunteered to govern . If the affairs of the metropolis arc managed with spirit and economy for the next five years , why ? Because local self-government , on a broad scale , has been established . And why has it been established ? Because the middle class took , the power out of the hands of a clique into its own .
1248 The Leader. [No. 301, Saturday,
1248 THE LEADER . [ No . 301 , Saturday ,
The Spitalfields Weavers. We Are Glad To...
THE SPITALFIELDS WEAVERS . We are glad to find that good sense and temper have averted the prolongation of a xjontest which threatened to drive some hundreds of industrious families to the utmost limits of want in this inclement season . After much parleying on both sides , conducted with almost uniform good temper , and after mutual concessions wisely made , peace is now all but universal between the Spitalfields weavers and their employers . Under these circumstances ,
wo should be taking a most unwise and misohievous course if we were to re-open the old sores by discussing the points at issxie between the parties . So far as the past is concerned , we can do nothing but congratulate both masters and men upon this improved method of settling their disputes . The temper and sense which they havo displayed do them infinite credit , and offer , an admirable contrast to the perverse obstinacy which still prolongs that most unhappy dispute between the
Manchester spinners and their employers . There , alas ! the senseless and pernicious cry of " No Surrender ! " has been unfortunately raised by those who have a selfish interest in continuing the dispute , and both sides are fighting upon the old terms : the one behind famine-stricken entrenchments ; and the other in a luxuriantly provisioned camp . Wherever
the right may be , there can be but one termination to such a struggle . It is Williams and Moueavieff over again : the former in an impoverished fortress ; the latter with all the countiy behind him . The main difference will be that the vanquished will have to surrender at discretion , iviihout any of the honours of war .
Reverting for a moment to the peculiar case of the Spitalfields weavers , it has struck us as a most affecting circumstance that such a momentous contest could rage within the very heart of this metropolis , not merely without disturbing the ordinary functions of social life , but without supplying a topic for general concern , or even for conversation . It certainly affords an extraordinary proof of the greatness of this metropolis , and of the gigantic proportions which all its parts have assumed , when we find that many hundreds of skilled workmen , engaged in such an important branch of our commerce as the silk
manufacture , can leave off working for saveral weeks , and the fact be not generally known within two miles of the locality -where it occurred . A strike in one of the great Lancashire manufacturing towns completely paralyses the vitality of the place . Trade is at an end , the pulse of enterprise ceases to beat , and so far as the ordinary functions of business are concerned , the whole town is like a City of the Dead . The strike at Preston ruined shopkeepers by scores , and the Gazette is to this day adding names to its catalogue of misfortune , which would never have been there but for that terrible labour-battle . It was
said at the time that the progress of the town was retarded for at least ten years . But in London , scarcely a mile from the Royal Exchange , a large community of workers may cease its activity , and few besides the poor law guardians for the district , and haply a few inquisitive rate-payers , know anything at all about it . The daily papers , indeed , said something about Whitechapel workhouse being full , but no one ever dreamed of connecting that fact with the strike of the Spitalfields weavers .
In dismissing the subject for the present , with an earnest hope that we may not soon be called upon to resume it , we urge both employers and workmen to take into their careful consideration the Conseil de Prud'hommes ' system which works so admirably in France . We have so often and so fully entered upon this question before , that it would be superfluous to enlarge npon it again ; but it seems likely that the intercommunication caused by the Grande Exposition may have done something to promote a better understanding of French institutions and French principles among the people of England . The popular
mistake in England has hitherto been to confound the political with the social system of France , and to suppose that because that nation has not yet been equal to the growth of a constitution , all its inner relations are equally unstable . Never was there a more monstrous blunder . The social sj ^ stem in France is in many respects as superior to our own , as our form of government is to theirs ; and if this nation can bo induced to adopt whatever of good can bo discovered in the social system of its present ally , the alliance ( whether ephemeral or everlasting ) will not havo been cemented in vnin .
ADMINISTRATIVE BEFGRM REVIVAL . The choice before the Administrative Reformers is perfectly clear : they have to make their election between success and failure , and to choose at their own option . It 13 seldom that a young Hekcules has had a choice so distinct , with so little to disturb his judgment . The elements of success are perfectly plain ; the causes of failure are manifest . The ~ Administrative Reformers have not answered to sample ; they have held great meetings , but , to speak with a friendly plainness , they have effected little It is not correct in them to say that Sir William
Moleswoutii was selected because they had held their meetings , " or . that Mr . Baines is placed in office because of the Administrative Reform Association . The real cause why Sir William Molesworth was invited to join the Cabinet was , that he possessed the confidence of the public at large , considerable attainments , a power of making an impressiA'e statement in Parliament , and no small amount of administrative ability when he screwed himself up to the exertion . He was not cut out for an administrator , and the exertion proved too much for his enfeebled frame ; but he did well while he resolved to do so . His word was
a pledge to the Colonies that they would be treated upon the whole with fairness and good sense ; and in this country nobody believed that Sir William Molesworth would be a party to anything that was foolish or base . These were the reasons why he was asked to join the Cabinet ; circumstances having deprived Ministers of their ordinary party bases , and requiring them therefore to rest the Government as much as possible upon individual trustworthiness or capacity . . Mr . Baines , again , had been in office before ; his dismissal
was considered rather discreditable to his colleagues ; his character is good ; and these were the grounds of his new appointment as much as any peculiar administrative capacity . If his administrative fitness had been the cause , the present agitation could not claim the credit of having pointed him out , since he had been in office long ago . It does not benefit any agitation to put forward unsubstantial pleas for the public .. confidence , most especially when those pleas can be contradicted by anybody who has simply observed the course of affairs .
The Administrative Reformers appear to us to have neglected two branches of action which would at once give them the master position of the da }' . . They have suffered Government to beat them in the race of administrative reform . Our very fr iendliness to the movement makes us desire to place this charge against its leaders in as distinct a form as possible .
Government has gone far beyond the Administrative Reformers in investigation—itluisframed and canned out improvements : Administrative Reformers have done neither . They have not inquired into the conduct of any single department ; they have not exposed the baa method of working hitherto ; they have not compelled Government to adopt any specific measure . Government lias done all these
things of its own accord : it has made inquiries into the conduct of more than < tne department , has investigated the manner of doing business , has had before it several p lans-ot improvement , and has carried oul such l > nrts of those plans as it thought fit . Ifc has , therefore , positively completed sonic of I hose movements of -which the Adminstrotivo lteformors talk . The very extracts in the volume published by the Administrative Kefornu > r . s wore taken from tho publications of the (
lovornment . . ¦< Now , it is simply a measure of choice the Association leaves tho Governmen t in pos-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 29, 1855, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29121855/page/12/
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