On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (7)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
^nrtfnltn.
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
" All men ' s ideas were centred in politics . Owing to the counter-revolution , the revolutionary party was compelled for the moment to place itself on the defensive , and organize for war , and the nation was once more given up to soldiers and lawyers . It seemed as if the nobility , the clergy , and the monarchy had disappeared only to make way for another race of governors , Anglo-maniac constitutionalists , classical republicans , democratic politicians infatuated with the Romans , the Spartans , and most of all , with their own selves , and caring but little for the real needs of the country , which , unable to understand Avhat they were about , left them to kill one another at pleasure , and ended by attaching itself to the fortunes of a soldier . "
This is good history ; but we dissent from the conclusions he makes it carry . Instead of an oeconomic organization which should at once have been commenced and which was left without direction of any kind , Society , he says , languished in Constitutionalism . We say it developed into Constitutionalism , and having found that form useful as a transition , worked in it , until now it wishes to escape therefrom into a more permanent
and satisfactory state . We quite agree with him that the Revolution is still to effect its purposethat the industrial regime is to supplant the military regime , that Socialism is to take the place of Constitutionalism , that the Organization of Labour and not the Organization of Cabinets or Dynasties , is the work of the nineteenth century . But we think the epoch society has traversed since 89 , has been useful as a transition : it has also been inevitable .
" It seems that society can only be conceived under two forms—the political and the economicalbetween which there is an essential antipathy and contradiction . " The anarchy of Economic Forces , the struggle they maintain against the Governmental system as the sole obstacle to their organization and with which they cannot combine—such is the real cause of the uneasiness which torments French society , and which has become aggravated since the last half of Louis Philippe ' s reign . " Those Economic Forces are , Division of Labour , Competition , Exchange , Credit , Property , &c , which stand in the same relation to Labour and
Wealth , as the distinction of classes , the representative system , hereditary monarchy , judicial hierarchy , &c , stand in regard to the State . It is by the equilibrium and stability of these Forces that the Organization of Labour alone can be effected . But at present there is nothing but anarchy among these Forces , consequently Society is in a false condition . Proudhon examines each of these Forces separately , and points out the seat of the evil . Thus
Division of Labour is in itself unquestionably one of the most powerful principles for the increase of production ; but owing to the extreme minuteness of the subdivisions , not being counteracted by any other activity which would give employment to the other faculties of man , we sec this principle tending to the enormous increase of production , and , at the same time , the impoverishment of the body and soul of the working man : art advances , the artisan retrogrades ; the capitalist grows rich , the masses miserable .
* ' . Society , by its deviation from true principles , not only tends incessantly to impoverish the producer and —• 8 traiigc contradiction ! —to place Labour under the yoke of Capital [ which snid Capital , Ictus remark in passing , is itself nothing but accumulated Labour ] it also tendti to make workmen i \ race of Helots , inferior as in antiquity to the canto of freemen ; it tends to erect into a political and social dogma the slavery of the wn'king-clasBcs , and the necessity of their condition of want . " \\ y the side of these energetic sentences we will place two passages : —
" Ah Society tends towards the reconstruction of ancient custcs , so Government , on its part tends to concert with thin new aristocracy , and ho conoummato . the oppression of the proletariat " What is tliu function of Government ? To protect and defend every one's person , industry and property . 15 « it . if by the necessity of things , property , wealth , well-being , all go to one nide , and want and misery to another , it is clear that ( iovernment is const . itut . cd in reality for the . defence of the . rich against the poor . "
These , then , aro the- phases through which ( Jovernnient has passed : —I . Might ; 2 . Divine Right ; U . Money ; the strength and valour of n Chief ; the Loyalty of a People ; and , finally , the omnipotence of Capital ! In the first , men obeyed because they feared ; in the second , because they believed ; in the third , because they were hungry . It ia well that Society should know the principle on
which it rests . Having touched this point m passing , we resume our analysis of Proudhon . This section we are examining contains his exposition of the anarchy of the economic principles , and the proof that Revolution is necessary , either a peaceful or a violent Revolution ( for by a noticeable perversity in human beings , Revolution is almost identified with violence , and the notion of a . peaceful change is quite modern ) . He says : —
" Since the evil lies in the tendency of Society , the problem of the Revolution will consist in changing that tendency ; in straightening it as a young tree is straightened , by propping ; in giving it an impulse in a fresh direction , as a carriage is moved after it has been dragged out of a rut . llevolutionary innovation must consist in that straightening ; there must be no idea of touching Society itself , which we must consider as a superior being endowed with individual life , consequently excluding all idea of arbitrary reconstruction on our parts . " This quite accords wren the instincts of the People .
" The People , as the constant experience of Revolutions shows , are by no means Utopian . Fancy and enthusiasm possess them but at few and short intervals . They do not , like ancient philosophers , seek for the Sovereign Good , nor for Happiness , like the modern Sociaiists ; they have no faith in the Absolute , and repel as fatal to their nature all a priori and definite systems . The deep sense of the People tells them , that neither the Absolute , any more than the statu quo , can enter into human institutions . To them , the Absolute is life itself—diversity in unity . As they do not accept of any final formula , as they always need to progress , tfie mission of their instructors consists simply in widening the horizon and clearing the road .
" This fundamental condition of the revolutionary solution does not appear hitherto to have been understood . " Systems abound , projects swarm . One organizes the workshop ; another , what he thinks of greater importance , the Government . The social hypotheses of the Saint Simonians , of Fourier , Cabet , Louis Blanc , &c , are well known . Quite recently the public has received the dew-drops of Messrs .
Considerant , Rittinghauscn , and E . Girardin , on the form of sovereignty . But no one , to my knowledge , has said to himself that the question , politically as well as ceconomicallv , is tendential rather than constitutional ; that we need steering rather than dogmatizing ; in a word , that the solution consists in dragging Society out of the perilous by-path into which it is hurrying , to put it back into the high-road of common sense and prosperity which is its law .
" None of the Socialist and Governmental theories proposed have seized this capital point of the question . Far from it , they are all its formal negation . The spitit of Exclusion , of Absolutism , of Reaction is the distinctive characteristic of their authors . With them Society is not alive—it is on the dissecting table . Besides which , tluye gentlemen's notions remedy w , thing , preserve from nothing , open no perspective , and leave the intellect more blank , the soul more wearied , than before . "
He not only condemns the various systems , be makes a decided onslaught upon the principle of Association which is common to all these systems . Hut we must defer till next week what he says on this point—it is too important to be despatched in a paragraph .
Untitled Article
BOOKS ON OUlt TABLE . Tlift Woild and it * Workshops . A critical examination of the Fabiics , Machinory , and Works of Alt coiitiiiiirti in the ( ireat Exhibition . By James War < l . AV . B . Orr and Co . Exhibition imd kcin Endc ! Another and another , the cry is still they come ! The libra ¦ . that would contain the literature of the Exhibition must be nearly ns large as the Crystal Palace itself . Mr . Ward has taken one section of this subject mid treated it popularly nnd intelligently . The tone of the introduction is out of keeping with the rest of the work , and will prejudice n < iiny readers against it . This is a pity , jih the work itself might luive stood upon its own merits without the need of its ambitious title , and equally ambitious introduction .
1 hi ? Imperial (' yrlopiKiliii . The Cyclopedia of tin : 15 iitinh Kinpire . 1 ' iut VI 11 . C . Knight . The . subscribe ™ to this excellent and most useful work will be glad to know that , its publication in resumed ; having been suspended , \ vu believe , while the repeal of the paper tax ( which tax presses ho heavily on it and all such woikn of laige circulation ) wan in limitation . This part contains the geography of our empire alphabetically included within Euiuh and ( Jujeivit . We presume , it will now continue uninterrupted to the conclusion .
Iln ] f-Ilourn of Kiifjliuh lliBtory , K ( 1 «< : I « m 1 mid 11 ] uk | mtid by Charl < : » Knight . <; . Ki . i K ht . Thin part contains chapters of Hintory from Thierry , Hurke , Hume , the Ph tonal History . Charles Knight , and poetic extracts from TliomiiM Muy and G « orgc Durley . Tho work will be a veiyugrceablo hull-hour book when complete .
Untitled Article
DOUBT . It came at length . I rose to face the day , I heard rude laughter , voices loud and wild Music and mystery both had past away , An orphan I , for God had left his child . I saw the lean uncomfortable sand . The sea was flat and sullen as a pond . Ah ! what if there should be no morning land Should be no sunrise and no shore beyond ! * Then doubt on doubt of subtle thread I spun , Firm were my strands , my cord was all co mpact From sense and fancy hateful help I won , ' Built thought on thought , and buttress'd fact by fact . . J Spring comes , I said , but never more return
The leaves and blossoms of the perieht year ; On tree and tower red fruit and berry burn , But not the same old autumn sun ' s held dear . All grows and ripens , falls , decays , and dies , No second life hath bud , or flower , or tree ; Oh ! suffering soul , be humble and be wise , Nor drtam new worlds have any need of thee . O loveliest child of Time , imperial man , But once thy fruit shall fall , thy blossom fade O God , is this thy wisest , fairest plan , Is this the noblest venture thou hast made ?
Untitled Article
ON THE WORD " TALENTED . " Words are the counters of wise men , the money of fools . But although the wise man uses words for symbols only , he is naturally as desirous to preserve them pure from the admixture of incongruous elements , as the vulgar are to keep the coinage from debasement . This jealousy has its peril—the fear of vulgarism throws us often into pedantry , which is a vulgarism of another kind . The verbal purist , therefore , though deserving of respect , must not be suffered to assume absolute authority . I am somewhat jealous of our " Pure
well of English , " which is undoubtedly " very much defiled , " and I will not pretend that I myself ' o not occasionally throw in a lump of earth on of ignorance and out of carelessness ; a confession which by no means arrests m ^ * nt »» trance oi tn ° ' who do the same . Very often I raise my voice against the innovation of some word or p hrast- , because , while on the one hand the forced rapidity of journalism tends to carelessness in the nice < >!¦> - crimination « f style , on the other hand the urnthe
ver-ality of newspaper reading tends to rap «< naturalization of the foreigner , whose cin zc «« i » l > becomes too widely acciedited to be succcbslni y conlested . The Press is not a g <><>» K <' . 1 1 "" . lich diction ; yet the lVess may correct the evil wn the Press generates . Uccause Jones uses langu « K carelessly , Smith in not bound to iniitnle him ; ^ Smith ridicule the error , and Jones will write wi more vigilance . , All this is Apropos to a letter sent by my ex « - lent friend Kelly , in reply to a p assag e m o
Untitled Article
We should do our utmost to encourage the Beanf ifi , e the Useful encourages itself . —Goetuk . uuiu fo *
^Nrtfnltn.
^ nrtfnltn .
Untitled Article
878 H £ f ) t % t&itt K * [ Saturday ,
Untitled Article
FAITH . And yet , I said , the worid is deep and wide , And the full circle of all life expands , Wavering and brightening on the endless tide That ebbs and flows between the mystic lands . There is no death for that which dwells apart , 'Mid changing forms a secret strength remains ; All work endures ; strong mind and noble heart With finer breath touch lordlier hearts and brains True word , kind deed , brave act , shall vibrate still In rings that wander this celestial air , And human will shall lay for human will Fair basement for a palace yet more fair . O God , I will not ask to know thy thought ;
I would not climb th y hill or span thy sky ! Shall the child measure what the man hath wrought ? Shall man do more t \ in . n feel the God on high ? Not endless life but endless love I crave , Fragrance and calm as of remembered springs ; The genial hope that makes men wise and brave , The joj ful life in the great life of things . The soul that loves and works will need no praise , But fed with sunlight and the morning ' s breath , Will gladly live with God eternal days , Or fearless greet the mild and gracious death . M .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 13, 1851, page 878, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1900/page/18/
-