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take strong ground at the very outset . For the Ministry that is weak abroad cannot retain any strength at home .
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MODERN TYRANNICIDE . Pbeachments are made in this quiet country about the crime of attempting to assassinate the Emperor of Austria , and we are told that the tyrannicides of classic times have ceased to excite our admiration . If so , the mawkish degeneracy of the times has advanced further than we supposed , and its silliness . But these censors seem to forget some of the elements in the estimate of a man ' s actions , and they thus render themselves liable to the charge of confounding good and bad . We are , it seems , licensed to respect Csesar , or
even Nero ; but not Brutus . Catiline would be a hero in history if he had succeeded , whom Lord Malmesbury would eulogise for his " immense glory ; " and Lord John [ Russell would say that in doing so Lord Malmesbury had " supported the dignity of this country . " For such is really the fact . Napoleon the Third , and Francis Joseph , are the objects of official eulogy or respect ; while the poor wretch who has attempted to avenge the wrongs of Hungary , is hunted down to the portal of the tomb with execration .
But where is the practical sense of the distinction ? Is it that Lebeny attempted to take a man ' s life ? If he did , the act is not of the worst . All the imperial potentates whom we have named have taken lives by wholesale ; and that which is bad in a single instance cannot become good when multiplied . No man has shown a greater contempt of human , life than Francis Joseph , whose executioners are continually at work with process of law , genuine or sham , or without any process of law whatever .
Is it that he approached his victim by a treacherous stealth ? Even here he is not guilty as that Emperor is , or any other of the European Emperors . Do not accept our arguments , but look at the facts for yourself , and say if Lebeny is so guilty as Francis Joseph , or as Louis Napoleon , in the matter of treachery and stealth ? Francis Joseph habitually employs hosts of spies , who steal around his subjects night and day , betraying them , if not inveigling them , into destruction of every shape . Louis Napoleon organized a host of assassins , primed them with wine , and
set them to assassinate the people of his own capital at midnight . That was literally assassination . Among the men who fell in that detestable attempt how many had been guilty of the tyrannies and cruelties that have made Francis Joseph the object of hatred to the many peoples over whom royal accomplices maintain him by 1 heir alliance F Not one ; but if those men might Lave been dared even to a fair light , what was Hie plea for assassinating women and girls P Lebeny is not accused of acts like those , any more than with the ingenious stranglings of Mantua .
But it is nonsense to make the stealthy approach a matter of accusation . There is , in fact , . no surprise in' such cases , except that which is made by the tyrant himself . Francis Joseph ' s A-. hole conduct is a defiance to the tyrannicide . ; f e casts away moral obligation ; for he has broken his word with Hungary—the word of an Kinperor with a , people ; he has sot his spies in Italy to break up family ties , by punishing the son , or the wife , for not denouncing to the police p ., father , or a husband , guilty only of acts which sire inside crimes by Austrian tyranny ; he canjiot even pay his bonds in the money market . I Pe has cast away the respect ibr human life , and lavishes it to support the very caprices of his
I yrariiiy ; for if Francis Joseph would consent 10 govern constitutionally , that i . s by law instead of bayonet , we all know that he might be , not ( olerated , but adored . Yet ho imprisons , bents , . shoots , hangs , and tortures his subjects . While . lie thus treats them , be . hedges himself round !> y great armies , and within them by body-guards . And then he lias troops of spies and scouts to warn him of danger , lie casts away moral obligation ; lie outrages ( lie common feelings of humanity ; ho surrounds hiniHelf b y ¦ armies and bodyguard ' s ; he keeps watch against the avenger . . In such a man " taken by surprise" when the avenger comes P No ; lie is taken at his word , 011 bin own terms .
Is it that Francis Joseph abides by a law , however harsh , while Lebeny breaks it P Assuredly not . No man living , hrvo Louis Napoleon , lias broken the law in si way ho wholesale as I'Yancis Joseph . Ho refuses law to Italy , save his own
law ; and if one man may decree his code , why not another : if Francis Joseph may decree a code to warrant the slaughter of Italians by the mass , why may not Lebeny decree his own code to warrant the slaughter of one man ? But it needs no refinement to establish Francis Joseph ' s criminality : he has broken the entire law of Hungary . A thief breaks one statute , a murderer another , a swindler a third , a ravisher a fourth , and some criminals of deep die break several at once : Francis Joseph broke them all . He reduced Hungary to anarchy , and then for Hungarian law substituted an alien law of " siege . " By defying all law , he made himself , towards
Hungary , an outlaw ; and the hand , that brings him to justice breaks not , but executes , the law . There is , indeed , one kind of action that too often unfavourably distinguishes the modern from the ancient tyrannicide , though we have no evidence that it existed in the case of Lebeny . It is quite clear that the tyrannicide who prepares for his own escape , makes from , his public service two serious detractions , which go far to neutralize it altogether . He takes from it that element of sacrifice which attests the singleness and nobleness of the motive ; and he risks failure . Moreover , he thus renders the path more difficult to his successor . For successors there will be , so
'long as tyranny exists , and so long as human instincts have a deeper truth than human reasoning . If the tyrant chooses that the knife of the tyrannicide shall be the sole form of responsibility available , the choice is his own . The life of Francis Joseph , the system he impersonates , the principle he embodies , the tyranny he represents , is a summons to the tyrannicide .
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PROGRESS OF LABOUR . It is a hopeful incident of the present time , that the working of part }' , the commercial state of the country , and some of tke most recent mechanical improvements , are all combining for the benefit of the working-classes , in spite of their quietude . Even the present week indicates some very important steps in that direction . We do not allude only to the successful stand which the working-classes are making in several directions for higher wages , because the mere rate of wages that may be drawn , from the
employers in a particular branch of trade , although important to the men directly engaged , is not of so mucli moment as some other considerations . Nevertheless , it is satisfactory to see that tho working-classes have caught the idea of watching the general progress of wages . The sailors of Southampton , who are demanding higher payment from the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company , are perfectly in the right to moot tho question . There are , indeed ,
statements on the part of the masters , which throw some doubt upon the completeness of the case upon the side of the men . For example , in a rival company grog is allowed , but not in the Peninsular ; this company , however , allowing an additional five shillings as compensation . It will be well for the members of the workingclasses to weigh such kinds of sot-off , before they hasten to put their claims . They should bo careful not to ask too much , and to ascertain
clearly that which they have a right to ask under any circumstances—namely , an equivalent for the rsite of wages generally current in the country . They will attain to a right judgment in proportion to the amount of information they may be able to collect ; and when they are possessed of that information , they will be able to secure- tho acquiescence of their masters without tho frequent resort to the rude process of going out , " on strike . "
The same kind of education that is now teaching the working-classes better methods of supporting their own interests , will also enable them to understand the advantages which they may derive , in common with the rest of the community , from mechanical improvements . Rightly understood , every mechanical improvement for the saving of labour should bo as advantageous to the working-classes as to the employing-classes . Unluckily , from tlie working of our competitive system , where man is set against mini , tho workers are often defrauded of the gain which . should be theirs . Many an instrument Avhich bus brought wealth to tho employer ,
has thrown whole classes out of work . iov we by no means adopt the commonplace but unfounded dogma of books on political «> eonomy , that labouring men who are thrown out ol 0110
branch of work , can " transfer their industry to another ; and the survival of handloom weavers in Paisley , Bolton , and Bethnal Green , we havd several times cited as a disproof . The case of the wool-combers at Bradford is another . There is , however , no denying the fact- that all great improvements in machinery have given occasion to increased employment ; as the power-loom did" , and as the railways have done . It is
particularly the case when the direct production of articles necessary to life is involved in the improvement ; for then the very basis of population —subsistence—is augmented . Mechanical improvements for agriculture , if they were of a highly progressive kind , would not only enrich the whole community , but would call into existence what may be considered a really new branch of industry . Two improvements just published at Birmingham are of that nature : —
"An important invention to reduce agricultural labour and facilitate harvesting , has recently been produced by a labouring man in Buckinghamshire . It is a reaping machine , which , while it cuts the wheat with precision and closeness , at thesame time lays the sheaves with as great regularity as if laid with human hands . " " Mr . Samuelson , of Banbury , has recently produced
and patented a new machine for digging . It is simple in construction , goes deeper than the plough by several inches , covering from two to three times its breadth , and reducing the land to a tilth equal to several ploughings and harrowings—in fact to trenching . It is equally effective in breaking up land for railway and other public works . The cost will not be more than from ten pounds to fifteen pounds . "
The value of these particular improvements must be tested by experience ; but we are convinced that the second is certainly proceeding in the right direction . It is remarkable how mankind adheres to some of the earliest and simplest inventions : trousers- and shoes , very similar to articles which are still worn , though not seen at Almack ' 8 , are to be traced back in the most antique sculpture ; and the plough , in particular , is like that of which Triptolemus set the fashion . Such machines as those described above are very
likely to realize the expectation of avast change . Birmingham has already anticipated great advantage to herself , and is calculating that "the agriculturists will be among tke best customers to her local manufactures . " Thus , there is a beginning to a far better relation between the agriculturists and the engine-making trade . It is a hopeful state of things , when agriculturists are beginning to be thought " important customers" anywhere . But , how much more momentous to the agriculturists themselves , such a revolution as that indicated by tho second invention . If it were carried out , it is obvious that our often expressed belief of a much more minute application of
labour to land , would become speedily available : the labour would concentrate itself on a much smaller extent of land , and tho produce for every pair of hands would be immensely increased . In other words , the proportion of food and of raw material to the people of this country would bo augmented ; and the return to the field labourer would become proportionate to that of the skilled labourer . To put this idea in a tangible shape , it would seem to indicate that a time is within prospect , when tho agricultural labourer may bo receiving the wages of the factory hand , or of tho artisan , say eighteen , twenty , or thirty shillings a week , with more for the best hands !
And while their own intelligence is combining with the advance of mechanical improvements to secure a better return for their labour , tho intelligence ; of their legislators is also improving . Incidentally , during a discussion on a bill for enabling certain noblemen and gentlemen to carry on the Opera-houHO called "her Majesty ' s Theatre , " with a limited liability to the shareholders in tho enterprise , it wan stated by Mr . Card well , that a commission would be appointed to survey the whole of that question . Of course
M 10 survey may include other imperfections in the present law relating to joint-stock undertakings "; and many of the inconveniences which impede the working-classes may be removed . The present Jaw , even where it is intended to defend them against fraud , operates as a restriction on their enterprise ; and in evading it , they place themselves at tho morcy of their own odicers . The restrictions , also , liavo frequently a directly mischievous efleet , such jib that which prevents the division of profits beyond a certain fixed amount . But tho power to limit tho
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204 T H E L EADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 26, 1853, page 204, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1975/page/12/
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