On this page
-
Text (4)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
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
farmer knew his customer , if the customer knew liis farmer , increase in the consumption of bread must follow ; nay , greatly increased growth of bread corn , and great demand for hands to manage that enlarged ; traffic ; and then demand for men learned in bread-corn . The whole difference between unconcerted Competition and extended concert is this , —that , ' iri the case of competition , many are trying to get a share of a certain thingand filching it from each other , thus
, diminishing the substantial proportion of produce to people ; in Concert , they are uniting to increase the produce for a given number of people . Competition multiplies the hands engaged ^ in carrying the loaf , each hand snatching a piece for itself ; Concert plans to multiply the loaves for all concerned , until all be satisfied . We see the result practically exemplified in the cases which we have cited—and they are no imaginary cases , from London and Leeds .
Untitled Article
A SOCIETY ABDICATING ITS DUTIES . Gold continues to break up society in Australia Given , " the medium of exchange" in abundance , and trade tumbles to pieces by the convulsive force of its own motives . Never did a great social dogma like that of self-interest obtain such ample refutation from itself . It is the season of exhibitions . If you go to the Zoological Gardens , indeed , you will see certain articles not made by man—the living creatures , and the representatives of the vegetable creation : all presenting a beautiful variety and
adaptability of mechanism of the amplest kind ; but you will notice two broad truths rather opposed to the dogmas of the day . In the first place , parsimony is not the true ceconomy of nature , but production , constant production , ample , more than sufficient . In the second place , mechanical sufficiency does not suffice : there is self-regard , no doubt , but that is not all : there are also sympathies . The very human beings have a sympathy with the vegetables , and exult in the beauty of the flowers . Nature does not work with stinted means , nor with self-interest
alone . Pass to the exhibitions of man , and see how the selfish philosophy of the day fulfils its purpose . It gives us pictures without passion or motive . It gives us " ornamental manufactures " without freedom or beauty : the workmen of civilized England rebuked by the taste and skill of the half-civilized rivals—of barbarous Persia , or of mediaeval Benvenuto Cellini . But of all the exhibitions , commend us to Australia .
Gold is discovered—wealth ; and it threatens to be the ruin of the community . It is true that the discovery ought to give many advantages to Australia . It should secure , at the antipodes , the means of paying for the cost of communication , for tho cost of sending over labour . It should afford a fine market for industry , specially devoted to minister to the wants of the population engaged in tho process of gold-digging . It should double the internal trade of Australia , create now channels , and guarantee
payment for new enterprises . South Australia , for instance , might become the granary and vineyard for the golden land . Sydney might bocomo the port for an immense trade with China and tho extreme East . Closer communications with England should expedite tho constant exchange of immigrant labour for exported produce . But tho industry which might bo available for those processes of certain return , can with difficultybe organized . " Each for liimsclf , and tho devil tako tho hindmost , " is tho accredited wisdom ; and every man wants to bo the gold-finder . Even supposing evory man wore to succeed , ho would bo no nearer two real wealth . Whoro all
find gold , and none make corn or other necessaries , there is sure to be increased abundance of tho representative of AVonlth , but actual scarcity of substantial available wealth ; and that is already beginning . Men can roll in gold , but they cannot eat it , nor oven sleep upon it in comfort . A paroxysm of afFluenco is ill compensated by general ruin " in tho long run . " But there is no motive to keep the labourer from tho gold bod . Society in Australia is ono vast Midas . Where , you may say , is religion : arc not these emigrants Christians P No , they arc not . They mostly profess , and will nttond public worship , but not thoir crood against the gold , and Christianity kicks tho beam . Tho religious instinct indood is strong , but tho practice of our religious toaohors , who truckle to tho vice of tho day , has
been to make the pupil postpone the spiritual to the worldly good . J 3 y example , by innuendo , by every available means , the religious teacher habituates the Englishman to take thought for other men's observances , but to relax his own when " business" Calls- —to conform in professions to the creed of Christianity , but in practice to the creed of Mammon . Hence , if we were to talk of Christianity as an effective check to the extravagancies of the Australian disorganization , the idea would be received , by all experienced men in this Christian country , with a shout of derisive laughter .
Will not patriotism induce men to do the duty of citizens , and see that the wants of society be secured ? Patriotism ! Why , that does not " pay , " and has come to be a greater joke , in practical life , than the literal observance of Chris"t ~\ flTl 1 ST ^ ff Will not " enlightened interest" —the perception of the ruia which must befall others , the community itself , and all belonging toitP Not immediate profit is the strong motive of pushing trade ; and gold is the most obvious tangible form of immediate profit ; hence the oaconomists
of Australia snatch at that gold rather than anything else . Capital has been accustomed to command labour solely by bribery and coercion ; but coercion fails in the wild plains of Australia , and bribery is of no avail against the native gold . In the hour of its extremity , trade itself finds that it might have realized that splendid opportunity better , if it had not cast away the motives of affection , patriotism , and religion , —the motives which incline men to do that which is good for the sake of their neighbours , of their country , and of God .
Untitled Article
CHOICE OF MEMBERS . A dead set is made at Mr . Gladstone by certain sectaries of the Low Church party , who declare that he does not " represent" theconstituency for which he sits , and who therefore seek a candidate more suitable . The favourite of the day is Mr . John Campbell Colquhoun , formerly member for the Kilmarnock burghs , and eminent Ibr his quasi-Presbyterian vagaries , — with a grace almost Catholic , but still smacking of the icy and hard-headed North . The movement would be of no importance , if it did not fall in with a cant of the day , which treats " representatives " as mere voting machines .
If it were possible to select a man who , m his ono person , could represent the University of Oxford , it would assuredly be—not Mr . Colquhoun , nor yet Sir Robert Inglis—but precisely this very Gladstone whose fitness is impugned . What are the characteristics of Oxford , above the level of its fast men P Are they not learning , extended back to tho very days when learning was born , and afterwards rose from its long sleep ; refined intellect , competent to all the exercises of reasoning and casuistry ; sincerely
noble conduct , tho result of intellectual rofinoment and of knowledge of the world in its higher levels ; and all those characteristics of tho accomplished gentloman embodied in a sincerely English disposition—an indomitable love of fairness , a conservative love of liberty , a hearty love of right , and a courageous contest with palpablo wrong P Such we take to bo tho characteristics which tho most frequented seat of ancient learning might bo proudl to claim as her own , whatever discordant opinions tho majority of her members may entertain on tho special questions of the day . Tho true typo of an Oxford man in 1
as learned as a professor , us piousas a j > riest , as courageous as a soldier , as shrewd as a lawyer , as kind as a brother—a true gentleman all round . Now , whoro do you find the man who can bo that typo half so manifestly ns Gladstone P Certain active canvassers may bo of an opinion not Inn on the subject of Maynooth ; but what doos Oxford need , or deserve , a member for , if not to typify her , to bring her faculties to boar on tho hundred
questions daily arising in Parliament—to makc . not omitted in tho national council , but standing forth and throwing tho light of her historic wisdom on those passing questions , for thoir enlightenment and her honour P And who , wo repeat , can perform that function aH Gladstone doesP Docs ho not speak to England and to Europe in tho well-known yoico of Oxford P It will bo a disgrace , a disrating of Oxford , if her favoured son , in whoso countonanco tho family-likonosfl is strong , bo displaced for tho casual offspring of a Scotch liaison .
But this electioneering oui * ag-e is only a sTjee ' men of the idea in fashion ; Parties are formed " they set up a " cause /* appoint its election agents ' frame then ? tb . ii * ty-ttine articles , and set their election agents to hire members who will sub scribe to the conditions . They think to get faithful members , whereas , they get nothing but conforming knaves , or comrnon-place nobodies who can , and will , swallow any " average" opi- ' nion , because they have no opinion in them already . A pledgect member ia a man engaged in
do the national work by the job . Contesting their opinions through the instrumentality of the poll and the lobby-voting , parties may carry " measures" worth nothing , and may realize huge debateB , filling dreary broadsheets with stuff not fit for reading ; but the country is paralyzed . The standards are not those of patriotism or morals , but the promises to Jones , Brown , and Robinson , who bought a pledge with " vote and interest . " Look over a division list , and ask
yourself of what earthly use it is to have there the names that encumber it : a page torn at random out of any directory would give as good a debating or voting chorus as the list of the House . The men who do give character to the council , who do advance the national action , who do represent the living national faculties , are the Gladstones , the Grahams , the Palmerstons , the Macaulays , the Disraelis , the Grotes , who , whether in or out of Parliament , are the active
pbwers of the day . Any measure to be got out of this parliament or the next , will be worth nothing to the country , so much as a multiplication of such men . These considerations suggest a practical hint for the election . All over the country , at Paisley , at Blackburn , and a hundred places that we could name , there are coalitions , more or less explicit or tacit , to return average members who representblank opinions , who are destined to carry on the-public stagnation of the country , and to that end will give pledges to " vote for"
anything , especially if it can't be carried . Of what use are they P Even if they carry a bill with a sounding title and no force , what good do they do P It may be very desirable , and is so , to ask men their opinions on subjects of the franchise , of labour relations , of religious freedom ; but many a man pledged to vote for the Jew Bill would be less certain to resist an intolerant absurdity than Disraeli , whose intellect pledges him not to follow Spooner . A par ty pledge presumes that the party clique can forecalculate the
contingencies , the mischances , the opportunities , of the future ; which is impossible . But it is easy to see , that to send up a man who is a hearty man and a gentleman—who is generous , courageous , warm in sympathy with his fellow creatures—clear in understanding , and strong in feeling—is to Bend up tho best " representative of any English community , and to add one good rliament
element to the council . A pledged pa , especially when the public has no strong distinctive convictions , is an empirical humbug . Jingland would bo disgraced it it so befell , that attcr tho next election , there were in the Houso oi Commons , no Gladstone , no Disraeli , no Grraliam , no Palmorston , vote how the Houso nugM , pass as it might , cart-loads of statutes to puzziP the lawyors and accommodate tho buttormen .
Untitled Article
THE NEXT EXPERIMENT IN CABINKT MAKING . Derby and Disraeli cannot rub on much longer with their cabinet of Quarter Sessions Chairm ^ —that is tho general impression ; and tho qww tion of shares in tho llussell company w rifling Having performed its function of burying x w tcction , as in the magnanimous usngos oi valry a beaten army is allowed to como jn « i bury its dead , the Tories , it is felt , « H ! h * ^ especially as they don't seem to know now stay . What noxtP becomes tho quostion , d public opinion , which is just now rather » " « £ . [ nits ideas , is not ready with « wnly : * ^ dined to suppose ^ however , that . ^ orti joj » ^ come back , only reinforced , of course , ^ J ^ den , and perhaps Graham . A Uusho Ures * t tion , therefore , 18 to bo tho final ^ l ^ v \ a to Derby dalliance with power ; and / lu 8 ,, f | . n bo Bet up again , like tho Koval Arms n ^ revolution , with Graham nnd . Com ° ^ -nn then Lion and Unicorn . Tho further < l » » ° d , nso is , what might we expect from such ft » ow 1 of tho Bussoll dispensation P , 3 tho Graham would bo a tower of etrongtu ,
Untitled Article
490 THE liEADER . V . ¦ ¦^ ¦¦ CSAjptbkSA ^ ¦
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 22, 1852, page 490, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1936/page/14/
-