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demanded more than lie can exact , loses the power Of enforcing his claim at a better time . It is important that the working classes should , as soon as possible , acquire some means of knowing what their own fellows are about in different parts of the country . Hitherto , it has been too much the custom with them to consider only the state of wages in their own trade ; but at a time of general briskness , it must become evident that the state of wages in all trades is an object of paramount interest to each . In trade 3
which are nearly related , transfer of labour is not impossible ; and by such means a certain degree of circulation of 'labour may be set going . The employing classes know this well , and they used the fact to keep reserves of labour for the' purpose of beating down wages . On the other hand , the working classes ought to know that a rise of wages in one trade , at a time of general activity 3 warrants the ° presumption that there should be a , rise of wages in all parts . A strike in one trade affects all branches of it ; and emigration from
one district ought to affect all others . It is time that the working classes should bring up their knowledge on thesepoints to a level with that of their employers , we very much doubt whether the operatives and labourers , even at the present day , are aware of the movements going * on in different sections of their own body . In the cloth districts they are doing well . Manchester
has been quiet for reasons which we have already explained , but still trade is substantially active . From Birmingham they write that " scarcity of labour in some branches continues to be severely felt . " In JN ' ottingham , where the manufacturers are refusing to concede the demands for higher wages , the men have been threatening a strike : which the employing class particularly desire to avoid .
Even in the agricultural districts , the improved state is now felt more than it has been hitherto . In Staffordshire and Yorkshire the farmers complain that labour is getting scarce . In Wiltshire , hitherto one of the poorest of agricultural counties , men . are successfully carrying on a demand for a rise of wages ; and in two par ishes they have already obtained an advance of two shillings . It would be scarcely possible for us to make our friends in the manufacturing districts understand the importance of such a rise . In Wiltshire it may be almost said to be equivalent to a rise of five or ten shillings in some manufacturing towns ; since it will make all the difference between bare existence—the
mere bones of life—and ease , possibly with a modicum of enjoyment . In some parishes of Wiltshire the farmers are resisting ; but even here with signs of concession : they offer an advance of one shilling , which the men refuse . The same movements are observable in the general trade of the country . The carpenters and joiners- of Bristol , who complain that " they have toiled years enough , ' From early morn till noon , from noon till dewy eve , ' " are now demanding their share of the prosperity , in the modest shape of an advance of sixpence per day on their present rato of wages .
These opportunities are the joint result of the general prosperity , emigration , and the gold importations ; all of them helping to one common end—a greater value for labour , more demand for labour , and more means of paying labour . The working classes have been rather slow to perceive their opportunity ; and wo do not hesitate to say that they have missed securing to themselves an increase of wages during the last six months—that they have missed what would bo in tho aggregato a sum of money represented probably by some millions sterling . They have
missed that opportunity because they have not the means of knowing tho stato of tho wages market throughout tho country . - If they had , . they would have acted differently . They would not have put forward a fishing demand for a rise of wages , to obtain what they might get , or what they could threaten thoir employers into granting ; but they would have asked distinctly for thoir fair share , and they would have obtained it . 'J ^ lioy have lout that immense Bum of money " through their ignorance and thoir want of administrative organization .
Thoro is one means by which tho working mon might obtain a general knowled ge of tho Htato of wages in their own class , and might ovou have the data for shaping demands which should bo just because practical . Wo have formerly expressed our belief | l * at strikes are usoful as a
means of checking the blind injustice of the employing class ; but they are very far from being the best means of defending the interests of the working classes . It is the working shipwrights of Sunderland who have fallen upon the right mode . On Saturday evening they held a meeting and appointed > & court of arbitration , to iudfire between themselves and their employers ,
like the councils of discreet men in France . We do not know the details of the arrangement ; but we are quite clear that such a course may save an immense amount of waste , of fruitless agitation , of disorders in trade , of expenditure without result both to employers and to working men . But it might be the means of doing a great deal more . If all trades had their assemblies like the iron-masters of Staffordshire , the
individuals belonging to those trades would be able to arrive at a knowledge of the condition of their own trades , and of the grounds on which they could exact or concede a rise or fall of wages . Agr iculturists who were at one time Protectionist have suggested the same plan for landowners and farmers . An organization to collect the knowledge respecting the state of trade in various districts , and to determine the course which should be taken by the individuals
composing that trade for a given per iod . If working men of all trades possessed such an organization , if it were honestly managed , if its statistics were collected with a care for accuracy , and if the information were placed at the service of other trades , it would be possible to make this local organization bear the same relation to a general council of the working classes , which the several States of America bear to the United States . The working classes would then know what they are doing ; they might be able to ascertain what the employing classes were doing ; and in such case they would know when to make their demands and when to waive them . In
other words , they would never waste their own substance by missing an opportunity , and they would never waste it in endeavouring to use an opportunity that does not exist . The vast opportunity which offers itself to the working classes now , they are not yet prepared to use as fully as they might ; but they may at least put it to this use—they may construct an organization which shall enable them never to mistake future opportunities .
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DOES DR . WISEMAN REPRESENT THE ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLICS ? There are two ways of dealing with tho significant Leeds lecture of Cardinal Wiseman . In the first instance , we will deal with the " demonstration" as it may be supposed to affect current politics . The more a Prince of the Church comes forth from the Church and resolves himself into an ordinary subject Englishman , the greater should bo general , including Protestant , gratification . At a moment when tho Ministers oif the Crown arc popularly supposed to bo in some doubt whether last year's Synod of Oscott would not greatly affect tho facile application of a national system of education to Roman Catholics in this country , it ia a positive pleasure to see one of the austerest of cardinals leave his cathedral for an "institution , " and recognise by his presence on a Leeds platform , where lay lecturers only have hitherto been known , that though the salvation of tho soul is the indispensable in life , the
salvation will not bo retarded by having the " wius m a good Htato of cultivation . Tho Cardinal and the community are to bo congratulated on thus encountering one another- And we are disposed to receive respectfully an essay from his Imminence on a question of science ; for when a younger and less exclusive ecclesiastic , ho risked his faith in tradition , and faced all tho logic of fact ; and he ia at least to bo admired for tho boldness
—his success was scarcely inferior to Dr . . 1 yo Smith's—with which he attempted in his " lectures" to reconcile Genesis and geology . Perhaps ho is wrong in his notion of the relations which Ilia Church has historically held with science ; but in criticising , we will do him tho justice to remember that ho is tho most enlightened Cardinal of tho College and that ; at any rato , ho has in \\\» own person illustrated how a priest may bo learned . At the same time , let uh not accept tho inference from that fact which the Cardinal cunningly offers . Learned priests are not scarce in a Church which , in its early periods , preserved learning ; but there has always been
an exoteric system , too . It is the whole question have not the pr iests always attempted to retain the learned as a caste among themselves P The Cardinal says , " My Church is not opposed to science ; for if I am deficient in knowledge , the limits of my intellect , not those my Church has put upon me , are accountable . " The Messrs . Bramah might with much the same truth censure the public ignorance of the best methods of breaking open safes . A slight knowledge of this world would teach cardinals that Englishmen detect fallacies such as this .
Indirectly , the Cardinal at Leeds was offering an elaborate defence of his Church against the accusations which have been vehemently urged in England . The Church of Rome stands charged with being the enemy of knowledge , freedom , and consequently of civilization , —for what is that faded civilization worth which is not the result of self-government ? At this moment , men are in church dungeons in Italy , because they have been detected reading the Bible ; and the Church , in its heart at Borne , is
found in alliance ,, offensive and defensive , with the two most aggressive political despotisms of modern times , —those of France and Austria . But , says the Cardinal , rising in his red robes to speak complacently , while these things are in progress , the Church is not opposed to knowledge , for were not Volta and Torricelli sons of the Church ? Such is the Cardinal ' s logic . In
proffering such an argument , he offered an insult to the intellect of his hearers , and the fatuity of his syllogism suggests an application of the old saying to the former head master and director of St . Mary ' s , Oscott , —that he who has been a man among boys will be a boy among men . Why did the Cardinal undertake a vindication of Italian men of science ? Wo one ever questioned their claims ; no one ever impugned the capacity of the Italian mind . His only object in enumerating the names of distinguished Italians was to connect their fame with the Church , and
because they lived and laboured under the eyes of the Church , to convince the sympathetic audience of Yorkshire Roman Catholics that such men were encouraged by the Church . History is against the assumption ; they sought knowledge without the aid of the Church—they gained it in the teeth of the Church . But even granting that the Cardinal is right , what does the argument amount to ? Are we to seek for the spirit of the Church in its private patronage ? In what
condition were the countrymen of Volta when Volta was wondering over electricity P It is strange that the Cardinal did not see the error of his theory developed in the very method of his statement . Throughout his lecture , he has to say Protestant England applied such and such a discovery , but to Roman Catholic Italy you are indebted for the origin of the discovery itself . Why was the application never made in Italy P—why w as modern Italian science always an abstraction?—tho amusement of scholars—never the handmaid of
commerce ? The Cardinal appears to think it is an affair of climate . lie says , — " We should not slight tho gifts coming from God , by attempting to raise ourselves above those whom Ho has blessed with the bestowal of other , indeed , but still beneficial gifts . There was a beautiful principlo of compensation in His different distribution to tho different races of men . Thus , to the Englishman He gavo greater industry and more indefatigable energy in tho cultivation of the earth , while he gave to another to 1 ) 0 the native of a softer climate . " Ho
forgets that Italy existed before the Church , and was mistress of the world . Ho forgets that when the Churelihad covered Italy , there ; were great men in tho Republics , and that when Italy was free , she was not only first in arts and in letters , but that she ruled the commerce of tho world . Tho Cardinal avoided tho question he really undertook to answer . Science in only a branch of knowledge : knowledge is freedom ; and tho question raised by himself was—Is tho Church
tho enemy of human freedom ? He appeals to tho past , taking no cognizance of the evidence of the day ; but lie does not go fur back enough . The Church of freo Italy is tho Church Roman Catholics may point to with pride ; it was aChuroh that understood itnelf to be tho Church of tho people , the Church of that Tchlament which proclaimed the principle of equality , and whose mission it was to forbid oppression . The Church of the . Italy of Hie last throe centurion is a Church whose history is written in blood and tears—a Church to be abhorred ; for ii him been a Church in
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H February 12 , 1853 . ] ^ THE LEADER . 157
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 12, 1853, page 157, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1973/page/13/
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