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EASTER . " Prosperity " and " Tranquillity ** continue up to Easter . The political world cannot sufficiently admire that fact ; especially in conjunction with the other striking- feet , that we have no Government but a mere Locnna-tenens , or provisional Government . Men repeat , m journal and debate , in club and drawing-room , tfrat the country is really very prosperous—amazingly so ; ateo very tranquil , of course , as it aftvays is in times of prosperity . Yet the very chuckling , and admiration imply wonder that it is not otherwise ; and there are rumours and notions of something ulterior not quite so brilliant and intelligible .
A part of the uneasiness may be created by the facility which waits on every turn of an impotent Ministry . One of the weakest Governments that ever existed , finds that it has every thing its own way ; and bo doubt it dots feel that there is something portentous in that absenee of an enemy—as Napoleon did on entering Russia . Is there a Moscow in the distance I Not merely have we a non-Government , but all parties are conspiring to hide that negation . Thus in the Budget debate of Friday night you saw Mr . Disraeli with a grave face talking as if Ministers , by following out Sir Charles Wood's first Budget ,
might have laid < ct he foundation "—his own words —of a new financial era , beneficial to all ; but Mr . Disraeli missed the concession of £ 3 O , 000 for seeds Mr . Gladstone criticized the Wood Budget and the Di&raeli notion , and gave his vote to Government . The Irish Members could not agree to oppose tbe sham "Liberal" administration , though it has become Anti-Catholic . There was a general consent to discuss details ; but the important question really before the House—whether a Government existed worthy of the name—Members conspired to shirk . They shut their eyes to consequences ; as travellers do who are hurried down a mountain
steep , in a crazy coach , with a bad driver . That we have arrived at the Kaster recess without the passing of any bills in Parliament , is an old joke ; but that the first half of the session should have been used positively to break down the influence of Government , and thus to give anarchy the rein , is a peculiar variation of Parliamentary amusements . But it in ho , all round . Look at Ireland , —excited by Lord John ' s Anti-Catholic policy , weakened by past , famine , its people emigrating , its landlords bowing to the Kncriinbcred Instates Act , its members quarrelling in the facie of the enemy . Look at the Colonies , where the Mnglish people have to pay millions of money to put
down , in one place rebellion , provoked by r , ht officials ; in another , the natives , provoked by the officials ; in a third ,. disftstor , incurred by the officials ; while " Reformer" At hmne aro proposing to cut tbe difficulty by casting off the colonies—to cornpennate the want of a Government equal to the rule of tbe empire by breaking up the empire ! And meanwhile those Maine "" Reformers" are keeping up tbe farce of non-Govmiment by shielding the impotent Ministers when any real darker approaches them . In foreignaffiiirs an irresponsible department plays fast and loose with English policy , supports the enemies of freedom , and makes Kngland appear as the instrument of Absolutism ; but who cares ?
It is not different at home . The shorter half of the session has witnessed that failure of tho prosecution against the London Docks Company , which implies a sentnncn against the Government of the grossest corruption . Lord John Russell han been playing at "Church in danger , "—defying the Roman Catholics , exitsperatingthePuHeyit . es , inciting tho GorhamitCB , and , in short , cultivating a hpctariun agitation at the risk of a disruption which would destroy the Establishment . But who carua ? Lord John ' s anti 4 * it |> al Bill in an ottioMtj ami coatauaptiblo meaauiui it hm been mauled in debut * ,
will be mauled in committee , and probably exterminated in the House of Lords ; but meanwhile the Government which introduced that idle measure , which created that vain and mischievous agitation , has been prolonged in its existence throughout the half session by the deliberate connivance of all parties to that end . Ministers declare the necessity of Law Reform ; and at the head of the Law department they place that courtly and obstructive
optimrst Lord Truro . It is well known that on no public subject do the real convictions of men in Parliament come forth : a servile courtesy , a sympathiaing concurrence in the reciprocal protection of patronage , a determined protection of rents , and , above all , a languid indifferency , have perfectly corrupted and demoralized every party . The grand object of the day is to screen a Government whose weakness tends to expose these all-pervading corruptions of political society .
This negation and this indifferency pervade every class : there is no strong conviction , no resolute attachment to any particular policy , no faith in the avowedl intention of any party , however numerous . The Free Trader is ever ready to sacrifice his doctrine to Whiggism ; the labour of the Protectionist leader is , to avoid the pledges expected by the Protectionist follower ; the People suspects all parties , and all suspect the People . The next trouble will find us enfeebled by universal mistrust ,
universal want of purpose . " Prosperous and tranquil as the country is , a dim feeling gains upon all , that the next time of difficulty will bring forth , the Labour question , not only in the towns , in the factory or mining districts , but also in the highly unsettled agricultural districts ; and the half session of Parliament has been suffered to pass without making the slightest provision or preparation for that day of reckoning . Ask any man familiar with the agricultural counties what is the state of feeling there ?—are the farmers contented ? Are the
labourers in a safe temper ? And yet , has anything heen done to maintain or restore confidence and respect for any party ? A worse infatuation rules abroad . The appoint ment of the Leon Faucher Ministry in Paris looks like a general defiance . Perhaps the English reader will best understand it , if we say that it is equivalent to placing the Manchester School in office , without Free Trade ' s having been accomplished , without its having been adopted by the country ; while Protection , native-born among the numerous class of small proprietors , is gradually
developing itself into Socialist doctrines ; those doctrines being closely allied , by a common adversity , with Red Republicanism . When M . Leon Faucher puts in force his professed duly " to reanimate labour , " his oeconomical opinions will compel him to do it in a mode hostile both to the new and the old doctrines of the People ; and in the conflict , labour must be brought to some impracticable test , against which it will most assuredly rebel . The announced attempt to revise the constitution will be the signal for
conflict—a Red and Socialist insurrection . But a Red insurrection in France will hasten the anticipated events of 1852 : there will be an insurrection of Germany and of Italy—of l £ urope . Meanwhile , the lessons of iti ' M ) and ' 48 , junctures when " peaceful" revolution was snatched from the bauds of the People , have not been lost ; the next revolution of Europe , happen when it may , later or sooner , will be a Lalumr insurrection , a Democratic insurrection , a Red insurrection . Blood will not be spared a third
time . At Hiich a season , with new ideas awakening on the subject of Labour and its rights—awakened also to tlie incompetency , the criminal trilling , and tbe scattered condition of tbe ruling clay . ses—will the labouring People : of l ^ nglaiul remain unstirred by the commotions of Kurope ? Aro we hkul y to find thai ; the pococurante spirit now in the ascendant , the political scepticism , tin ; total want , of positive ideas or plans , will have prepared the ruling classes to keep their rule ? Will it do at , such a tiiiu ; to place u blind reliance on the Special Constable ? These , seeing what tlit : half session has donofor tho People , are the reflections suggested by Faster .
Them is one way to supersede revolutions , ami that is , to grasp their elements , to aeuo their principles , to master their motives , anil to do the iiireviUblo work which they are destined to eiltuit , but to do it with tho skilled bund of vigorous government . If Governments will no * achieve tbe revolutions d ^ cieed Uy tlw » progress of time , the Peoples do it lor themselves . Ujbiory haa no atwer moral .
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ORGANIZATION OF LABOUR IN THANBT Anarchy is the result of the attempt , under the present Poor Law , to master the growing destitution of the country without reorganizing the labour of the country ; as we saw last week in Kilrush and Barham—types of the anarchy as it appears in the agricultural parts of England and in Ireland . That this anarchy needs not be , is a conviction gaining ground with intelligent persons engaged in the practical handling of the Poor Law ; and among the most interesting examples of this awakened intelligence is the management of the Thanet Union .
The accounts of the Industrial farm will not be ready until the expiration of the first year—in the autumn ; but the plan has already attained no small good , even in the saving of money . The Union is peculiarly situated . Many of the poorer hangerson of the watering places , Ramsgate and Margate , who find independent means of subsistence during the holiday season , have heretofore entered the Thanet Union as regularly as the winter set in . Unemployed , these paupers did worse than waste their time in the workhouse : mischief was the
subject of their conversation , petty destruction their amusement . Their being called to account before a magistrate and imprisoned , not only rendered them more desperate and degraded , but entailed considerable expense . Among those who used thus to be regularly incarcerated , some few have this winter escaped ; and the cause is obvious : occupied all day in the fresh air , their physical energies supplied with proper employment , they have neither the time nor the inclination to destroy property ; they sleep better , and are more contented . The plan has also had the effect of keeping away many idlers altogether . " Oh ! " they exclaim , " we shall have to work if we go in there , " and they find means to get on elsewhere .
These results are most interesting ; they are the same as those which we have seen in the experiment at Sheffield . It is expected that the industrial farm of the Thanet Union will " pay "; but in order to estimate at their full value these necessarily partial experiments and their results , two important facts must be kept steadily in view . 1 . The law under which these experiments are made , not only withholds facilities from them , but positively hinders and obstructs them .
2 . If men engaged in the practical working of tbe law are forced by their convictions to attempt these experiments , unsanctioned by that law , how many men must there be entertaining similar convictions , but yielding to the obstruction ? For one place where the advocates of reproductive industry go to the length of practical experiment , there must be scoros where the opinion is less overtly manifested .
We see that in Kent a subsidiary question of the very greatest importance is activel y discussed among practical men . Under the old " repulsive" theory , which discarded the idea of reproductive employment , or thought of labour merely as a vexatious " test , " it was deemed necessary to reduce the workhouse dietary below the level of that prevailing among the ho called " independent" labourers out of doors . This has sometimes been found
impracticable , for the frame which could subsist on cabbage and freedom , languished even on gruel when it was seasoned with hnpriKoninent ; and the spread of disease has compelled an enhancement of workhouse diet . In some pails , as in Kssex , the : lowest-level dietary has provoked workhouse riots . In fact , this lowest-level plan is a pretence;—under the name of relieving destitution , the plan forces it to remain destitution still , and to feed on its own starvation . The attempt has broken down . Hut a converse diet <| ucstion in now rising in Kent , in Yorkshire , in Eanex , and oilier counties : if you employ men on reproductive labour out of doors you must feed them better ; and if you feed them better on the union farm , will tho independent labourer consent to starve * m tho private farm ? Of
course not . . Nor is- this t , | its only respect in which the machinery of the I ' oor Law , even in its : present imperfect and erroneous form , ia seen practicall y working us the lever for raising the condition ot the industrious das-sea . In ucvwal unions , an in Thanet , tho paupor children arc receiving . something like an education ; a blessing from which the independent labourer in wholly smut out . Is that exclusion jiiint ? On tbe other hand , would you restore justice by taking buck from tho pauper children that education which will ho much help to olovake their condition hereafter } Of course not :
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There is nothing ao » revolutionary , because there ia nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of ita creation ua eternal progress . —De . Abiiolb .
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o SATURDAY , APEIL 19 , 1851 .
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April 19 , 1851 . ] Qfat % * afe £ t * 365
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Leader (1850-1860), April 19, 1851, page 365, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1879/page/9/
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