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" * t « . -nraa brilr desirous qf seeing the Salle des SJ ^ Saux ; aSrd , the interior 5 the TuUeries , jS ^ t visited : in a word , ^ none would avow the Smotive , but all begged and prayed to bemyited to tneWsident * ball . It may be fairly estimated Sat at least half the number of qards . issued were the result of earnest and perseverrag solicitation . " The President of the French Republic calls round him a well-dressed Parisian mob , and a herd of travelling foreigners , who leave- "^ principles " at home - and while the throng is gathering . in the valaee , to honour the hospitality of brigandage by accepting it , another ^ thrpng is dispersing and wandering away from France . We turn from the invited to the proscribed—Lamoriciere , Charras , o « d the chivalrv of France , cowardly surprised at ^ - ^^* ^
midnight , and carried forth like thieves ; Victor Hugo / and the poetry of France ; George Sand , a woman , a master soul , the power and melody of whose magic genius have overcome the grossest prejudices ever raised up against a reformer ; Agricole Perdiguier , the honest but not dangerous politician , who bad won the esteem of his fellow workmen by the courageous reformation of their manners ; Emile de Girardin , the indefatigable and fearless pioneer , with a host of writers and thinkers , the living faculties of their country—in short , the heart and brains of France . These are driven forth ; those cherished are the triflers that will come at the bidding of a Louis Napoleon .
And France endures this 1 Likes it , apparently . Wonder will never cease to wonder at this strange spectacle of national humiliation 1 It may be true that the French people were disappointed in former governors . Cavaignac , more soldier than statesman , defended the Republican form , as it was entrusted to him , against its own authors and creators , and estranged the working classes while he failed to win the confidence of the middle classes , because his name seemed radically unsympathetic to authority arid " order "; but how did honest
Agricole Perdiguier disappoint them ? when did George Sand swerve from her long cherished principles ? when did Charras forfeit his spurs ? Never , Yet no protest for them bursts through the restraint of prohibition—no following honours their parting footsteps . While Count Fathom , at the Tuileries , can't find room for his guests and adherents , France sees her chivalry , her science , her poetry , her genius , her statesmanship depart ,
and does not follow even to say farewell . There is no time ; for the air is perfumed with beauty , the sparkling music and the brilliant lustres , and the witchery of the whirling waltz ; and the supper tables , festal with rarest wines and dainties , leave no thought for the murdered and the exiled that are gone , for the widowed and orphaned that remain to mourn . But to many the floor is slippery- —with blood ; and the very atmosphere of success is heavy with crimes and tears .
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THE " TRIAL" OF THE ORINOCO . We have often said that the warlike spirit—the spirit that confronts danger and overcomes difficulty , that dares with a purpose and as a duty—is not extinct in the breasts of Englishmen . The gentlemen of England are not like Pompey ' s cohorts , afraid of spoiling their beauty and damaging their personal appearance ; the workmen of England are not effeminate and cowardly , like the Roman mob who bawled for bread and brutal
spectacles . We have still among us plenty of men the equals in pluck and hardihood of the early voyagers ; the soldiers of Peterborough , and Clive , and Wolfe , and Wellington ; and the sailors of Howard of Effiingham , and Blake , and Nelson . We have had thirty-seven years of peace , thirty-seven years of money-mongering and money-getting , thtrty-seven years of arrant materialism , and we are not tamed .
vv e are , m spite of our sedentary occupations and shopkeeping , as familiar as ever with the elements , as daring as ever in the use of them , as coolly dauntless as ever in facing them in their fury . We * ear neither wind nor wave , nor firedamp nor fire . We meet and daunt and vanquish every kind of loe—but in the advancement of civilization , in the enterprise of Art triumphantly achieving a mastery over Nature , in the cause of Humanity .
A striking illustration of this great truth is afforded by a recent incident . But two short weeks ago the Amazon perished by floqd and fire , and the majority of the brave souls in her shared her doom . As the coastguard are picking up here and there the charred relics of that noble ship , another , destined to run the same course , leaves the sheltering Jj ' r &nd dashes proudly out into the stormy ocean . I he Orinoco , a hug © mass of timber andiron , one
hundred yards long and eleven deep , steamed * down the Thames on a " trialtrip" onthe 23 rd , at the rate of twelve miles an hour . But this was to be no freshwater trial ; she was to be pushed through any weather , the " dirtier "the more to the taste of her captain and crew ; and , if weather sufficiently " dirty " wat not encountered between the Nore and Southampton , she was to seek " it off Lizard Point or the Rock of Lisbon . To seek it ? Yes ; because it was a duty the West India Company owed to the ptfblic , and they were willing to run the risk themselves before asking the public to have confidence in these vessels . And , as will be seen , this generous risk has been amply rewarded with perfect success . * °
Passing the night at the Nore , the anchors of the * Orinoco were weighed on Saturday morning , and the nautical men on board , looking to windward , " cheered each other" with the prospect of " plenty of wind" and "dirty weather . " They wanted a gale ; they brightened at the promise of a gale , and a gale they were destined to have with a vengeance . On she went in a glorious style . "Every instant , " says a veracious report of the trip , '' the wind rose higher , and with it the spirits of those on board . " And their courage mounted up as they pointed out where "the Royal Adelaide
was lost with all on board , " or where the So and So went down " in a dirty night last year . " But on she went—the wind rushing "fiercely over the low lands of " Sheppey from the south-west , and tearing away as hard as it could to the North Sea . " Small vessels flew before it ; clippers , with all sail on , bowled away at the top of their speed , challenging thjs huge steamer , and being beaten . And when she got under the lee of the North Foreland , there was a sight to stir the blood and string the nerves . In that secure mooring rode countless ships . In Ramsgate Harbour , capable only for small craft , " a forest of masts . " They had all run in out of the " fury of the gale . " Gentlemen on board the
Orinoco had the " satisfaction" of seeing them safe ; and in the Downs " an Armada of ships , " including the " celebrated American clipper ship Oriental , " in the same predicament . The pilot thought it would be better to run in too ; but no ; the Orinoco was to be tested , and tested she should be , the more severely the better . What pluck , what resolution , what iron determination not to be turned aside ! On she must and should go ; and "ere darkness closed in , the Orinoco was pushing past the Goodwin , on which for miles vast toppling mountains of water , crested with foam , ran their terrible course , and bursting upon the sea that rushed to meet her from the Channel . "
We quote from a report , apparently the work of a landsman , astounded at the sight ; but still it was a night to be remembered . A man could with difficulty stand against the wind . Rain fell like iron points in the squalls ; nothing could be seen from the deck but the black , starless 6 ky , which seemed to rest upon the waves—nothing heard but the blast , roaring over the decks and screaming
through the rigging , and the waves hissing against the ship ' s sides . So stout was this gale , that the mighty vessel could only make sixteen miles in eight hours . Yet all the while her machinery worked " as blandly almost as the watch in one ' s pocket , " and she drove along as steadily as a line-ofbattle ship . The gale lasted six hours—and the Orinoco was the victor .
We know few higher proofs of physical and moral courage than specimens of voluntary daring like this . The gallant fellows on board the Orinoco deliberately chose to encounter the most tremendous dangers . They were not surprised in a storm ; they drove into it from a sense of public duty . We honour them for so doing ; and while England possesses men of this sterling metal , can she not afford to smile at the threats of all her enemies ? Yet this instance is only one of a thousand where ships put to sea , in weather quite as tempestuous , in the fulfilment of an ordinary duty . What then , need we fear ?
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POLITICAL LETTERS . . III . —TWB PttOOHESS OF PROGRESS . January 27 , 1853 . •* HaVe you » ot gone back from your principles " ? " Are you not retrograde , in giving up free trade , in supporting a Church , and in counselling war " ? I know that neither you , most excellent friend , nor any other who has vouchsafed to me a close attention , will ask those questions ; but I also know that many do whom I truly esteem ; and while I feel that our journal is manifestly as little retrograde as the world itself ia . I wish to answer the questions
now , not for self-vindication—the idlest employment in the World—but for a right understanding of what is * ' progress . " In the matter of industry , for example , we are getting on bravely , although we have ceased to regard free trade as the be-all and end-all of social organization . Free trade is not the whole of social , ceconomy , any more than trade is the whole of industry . I do not underrate the value of commerce when I say that trading , as we understand it , is not essential to human existence , whereas industry is essential . It has been said that trade , by its law ^ ^^ ' . ^ m
of supply and demand , could regulate the industry of society so completely as to create everything that is needed ; but we , who see great numbers wanting food and comfort , while large tracts of land lie idle , and no steps are taken to set industry to work upon that desert in the midst of industrious want , know that trade fails to fulfil the promise . And society is beginning to recognise that most vital truth . Trade philosophy naturally considers goods as the great object of industrial ceconomymarketable goods ; trade philosophy talks of "
protecting capital , " '' protecting property , " and will sacrifice thousands , hundreds of thousands , millions , of human beings to the prosperity of cottons and iron goods . We know that human beings ought to rank first , goods afterwards ; and that the object of industry is to sustain life . It is better that two human beings should live , with half a given amount of goods between them , than that one should have much wealth and the other starve , even though twice the amount of goods should be born into the world . To hear trade philosophy talk about "the rights of property , " " giving the vote to property , " and so forth , you would think
that the national religion must have taught how God had made cotton goods after his own image ; and truly ceconomists would monopolize for their beloved goods the blessing of the mandate to multiply . Now , I think we are learning to understand this better : it is not by waiting for supply and demand to promote production , but by simply going direct to the duty , that we secure its performance . Production is the means by which industry supports life , and even trade ; trade cannot set all men on work , nor adequately excite production for the behoof of all living souls ; and we are beginning to perceive that where trade fails we had better set about the duty forthwith .
We perceive , further , that we can do that best if we introduce to our industry the principle of concert . Competition has driven " cheapness" to such a point that trade is obliged to get its profits out of the substance of the thing sold : the coffee seller sells his " coffee" so cheap , that he must keep back some of it to reimburse himself . Thus trade has outwitted itself . And this corruption , which is a real spontaneous decay of trade , is eating into it at every point : retail trade cheats society ; contract trade cheats Government
—as in the flagrant case of the " preserved " meats . English spirit used to exist even in trade , which was proved to " do the thing handsomely , " to be " sound to the heart , " " sterling " : now , while the Cyclopean walls of races that existed before history still stand like eternal rocks , outliving the empires of Italy , our contract walls , like that at Whitehaven , will scarcely stand to be finished ; and manufacturers themselves , like the black " silk " lacemakere at Nottingham , are growing alarmed at the effect of counterfeit and adulteration on the very life and
existence of their trade . Is that " progress" ? The lace men of Nottingham are making a stand against the " shoddy cloth" of their business" combining " for that purpose ; and that stand I do call progress ; Poor law reformers , theoretical and practical , are calling out for the able-bodied poor to be set to the work of producing . Sq are prison inspectors ; so are Irish reformers—as at the great Rotunda meeting this week . All these persons say they will thus make the able-bodied " selfsupporting . " I call that progress ; I call the extension of that idea progress . The Amalgamated
Engineers have left the unproductive " strike " to their masters ; and , being forced into a strike , have resolved , by cooperative and productive industry , to make their organization self-supporting . That is progress . Yes , immense numbers , in all classes , are reverting to the natural laws of industry—productive labour for the good of the human beings concerned , division of employments , and concert in the division of employments . It does not matter that I happen to have been the first to use that last phrase—I have only unfolded the meaning of Adam Smith ' s idea , as he only unfolded the meaning of the fact itself ; the law always existed , bo as to bo
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jan . 3 i » i 852 J Ifcfje ILeahet . 105 ' . _ _ k ' L . . ' ¦ ' t . _> ¦ - ' — ' ^ te ¦ A 4 A A _ a MB A ¦
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 31, 1852, page 105, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1920/page/13/
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