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centrator of the liberal force in Europe . If the standard of England were raised in Europe as that of Protestantism and freedom , millions would support it . Hundreds of thousands we believe would come , not only from the bodies of the people , but from the armies now arrayed against it . We believe , also , that in that contest , the expenditure of England , would bear no proportion to the nefarious expenditure which she incurred in the endeavour to sustain absolutism against the march of democracy before 1815 .
War , it is said , is sanguinary , but can it be so sanguinary , so cruel , as the " peace" of absolutism ? Is the loss in killed , wounded * and captive , of the greatest campaign that ever happened in the world , equal to the loss in killed , wounded , and captive , now sustained by Europe under the rule of absolutism P JSo ' , there is no comparison , even in the money loss of a wai * , and in the money loss of such a peace as this . For it is certain , that if the peoples were relieved from the Governments that restrain them , in all the relations of life , their industry would be ten-fold more productive , their trade -with us ten-fold what it is . Take the
instance we have cited more than once lately : Turkey , which iB but a corner of Europe , halfcivilized , takes more of our products than Austria and Russia put together , and yet we know that the peoples subject to Austria alone , if they were free , would take from us more than ten times what Turkey consumes . Verily therefore we are losing a trade of far more than 30 , 000 , OOOZ . in " Austria" alone , rather than go to the expense of war . In such a case we say , war itself would be an investment , as safe , and as manifestly profitable as the most prudent speculation which the merhis booksBut h
chant ever opened in . , as we ave repeatedly shown , war , in the old sense , would not be necessary here . We will not pursue this subject . We , like Mazzini , are sick of writing and talking , where action should be substituted . The action of England , as a state , is at present in favour of absolutism and popery , and against freedom and protestantism . Her Government is in alliance with Austria and the Pope , to put down protestantism and people . But , we say , the principles of the English constitution are now at stake on the fields of Belgium and Italy , and if we suffer Belgium and Sardinia to be defeated , we shall have to
fight that battle on our own land . One word to the friends of Italy . They are prudent men ; some of them are closet men ; and we are not sure that , like Mr . Grote , they do not fall in with the humour of the day , and so fail , for want of explicit speaking , to arouse the sympathy which is dormant in many an English bosom . There has been a prudential tameness in the representations to the English people on this subject , suited to those who loved writing and talking , and who disliked action as much as trouble or cold water . But such language , such
bearing , fails to enlist the sympathies of men who are inclined for a sterner and rougher method . We believe that this sympathy is still accessible , if evoked by a direct appeal . We have long held this conviction , but have abstained from saying so lest we should hinder the exertions of those who were meritoriously devoted to tho work . We cannot fail , however , from contrasting tho language of Mazzini with that of his friends ; and we believe if he . could have spoken face to face with the body of tho English people , when tho English peoplo could have heard him and scon hini he would have obtained different results .
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LABOUR AND LMERTY , IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND . The grand success which appears to attend the fortune of the working classes in Paris , and tho reverses which appear to attend their interests in England , for tho moment , wo hold to bo equally fallacious . Wages aro important things , and they aro among those good things of which wo do not believe that tho recipient can have too much ; but thoy are not all V and oven high wages may bo bought at too high a price In Franco tho working man appears to have realized a positive gain ; but lot us look a little at tho facia . In . the iirst place , we suspect everything that cornea from Louis Napoleon , because he ifl an uniTutliful and an unjust man , to a degree unparalleled in modern times : ho whose life has twice been spared restores punishment of death ; he who talks about " property has confiscated the property of the Orleans
family ; and although they are Princes , they ought to be treated with justice equal to that shown to any other persons , i In the next place , he is evidently embarking in a course of expenditure that must end in bankruptcy . He is promoting expensive building improvements in Paris and other towns ; to enable the municipal authorities to support the expenditure , he is lending them money from his banks of Credit Foneier ; and he is busy in Paris with the bank of Credit Mobilier . " Now these
operations occasion a great amount of " employment" for the time ; but as they call into existence nothing fresh , and do not create wealth of a very exchangeable kind , they tend to employ the industry of the country in processes that yield no return , or no adequate return available for feeding the people or replacing capital . Such an expenditure , in fact , must come to a natural end . But commercial bankruptcy , which rujns the tradesman , starves the workman . The
prosperity of the day , therefore , so far as it is indicated by these building magnificences , isafallacy . So is the Government patronage of the workman . The Paris Government is providing model lodging-houses for the working classes who are displaced by the improvements ; but we leaapn Louis Napoleon ' s animus , towards that class in other things . The ¦ workers in bronze have lately struck for wages , and their employers have been obliged to shut up shop ; whereupon the Government arrested some of the men , and then the rest—returned to work ! We eomplain
of tiie decision in . the tin-plate workers ease at Wolverhampton ; but , at all events , our workmen have a process of law ; at all events they have the chance of a judgment by a Rolfe instead of an Erie ; they have the chance of a bill by Mr . JDrummond to explain the law $ and they are not liable to be summarily arrested and imprisoned hy Lord Pahnerston , " to encourage the rest . " There are model lodging-houses in London , but there is riot a Government spy on each floor , as we are confident there will be in the Parisian model lodging-house .
The case of our own workman is perfectly in contrast . He is not misled by any treacherous pretence of patronage on the part of Government . The law seldom interferes with him , save as an enemy . It permits the master to combine , but prevents the workman , who hates the Government for the injustice which he feels practically .
He is under no tempting delusion . In . other respects , too , he is far better off than the French workman . Trade , whose prosperity he is sharing , in the shape of higher wages , is extending solidly and naturally . The imports of the country comprise large supplies of the necessaries of life , or of raw materials , purchased by the surplus of our production . The emigration , which thins the numbers in the market , is pot
that of a forced exile , bearing political victims to Algeria or Demerara , but it is a spontaneous emigration to America and Australia , bearing the poor man from penury to comfort . We are far from saying that the condition of the working man in England is what it ought to be ; but it is improving , and will continue to improve , ami he can help in promoting that improvement . In some trades , his proper advanthe of
tage is kept back by the employers : case the carpenters and joiners at Birmingham appears to us to be in point , since tho masters , whoso trado ia oxtonsivo and brisk , are refusing the men an advance not disproportionate to that obtained elsewhere , and a half-holiday on Saturday obtained by other trades in Birmingham . But the men wiil probably win , if they stick to their purpose , and are not prevented by recruitments of hands from other places .
And if the working classes know their own interest , they will religiously abstain from leaving thoir own towns to help in bringing down wages where tho men are making a stand for a rise ; for it is that action of workman against workman which most defeats tho interest of the whole body . In some trades , as in that of shoemakers , the comparative case of the business , tho numbers and slihter amount
already engaged , perhaps a g of emigration in those brunches , prevent an advance equivalent to that in many lines of business ; but ultimately tho emigration still going on at a irreat pace , will toll upon these trades also ; mnco it will soon become more profitable to do many things than to make slop shoos ; and then the trado will bo thinned by a process other than emigration .
Ifow all these causes of improvement will be promoted exactly in proportion as the working classes obtain sound and complete information as to the opportunities before them . They cannot obtain higner wages in a trade than that trade can yield . Wages depend but partially on the will of the master ; chiefly on the ultimate price which the article is worth in the market . But the workman can obtain all the wage that the trade can afford ; and to do that he must know how the trade stands . To many emigration offers the best field . Ona good land the healthy man is sure to obtain more than a livelihood—the means of securing a competency for old age , and
a pleasant life for his children ; and every healthy man who emigrates leaves a larger share of wage for the less robust man who stays behind . Emigration will proceed exactly in proportion as the workman knows all about it . It is by information , not b y blindly directed demands or hasty strikes , that he can obtain his just due : without information he does not know what he is at ; with it he knows exactly what he can and cannot do . Union is strength , when he knows on what to unite . And in England information is freeexcept for the penny stamp , intended to deprive the workman of his paper .
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A GUILLOTINE HINT FOR LOUIS NAPOLEON . France is blessed just now with a beautiful illustration of the delights of Royalty . As the French once more have a Royal chief , it is argued , the crime of high treason is once more possible ; but for the crime of high treason , there is only one punishment—death ; wherefore that punishment is restored to the penal code . This is a new view of restoration j with the dignity , the scaffold .
After the next revolution in France , therefore , which is , we understand , in preparation , more Gallico , though the date is not fixed , some loyalist will of course propose the subsequent change from Republic to Royalty , and then he can say to his fellow-countrymen , " JN " ow let us , for the honour and dignity of France , restore the Monarchy and Gallows . " Or the proposition might be simply , " Let us restore the Gallows , " the Monarchy understood ; the two being , it appears , convertible terms . Certain improvements occur to us , social and
mechanical , as due to this age of practical and political science . If the guillotine is a necessary attribute of Royalty , the gallows should be one of nobility , and with titles the Emperor ought to restore the right of hanging to families noble by inheritance or creation . There is great pains taken just now to control the expression of public opinion—an attempt but partially successful among so mercurial a people as the French ; but it might be more effectual if there were a diffused power of execution . There is no polemical instrument like the gallows , —no argument , no wit , can fail to bo silenced by tho halter .
The only mischief is , that in these days of subversive insolence among the people , even they can snatch the manorial privilege to themselves , and if Royalty can establish its guillotine , tho populace can re-establish " La Lanterne . " The other improvement is mechanical , but it has been suggested b y a poet . As Raphael pictorially suggested the paddle-whoel which moves the car of his Galatea , and now moves tho steamer of every-day life at sea , so Raphael ' s compatriot Giusti suggests tho new improvement in the guillotine , although he fancifully ascribes the invention to the Chinese .
" Hanno fat to nella China Una machina a vaporo , Per rnundar la guiglotina ; K quottta inachinii , in tro oro , lui la testa a con to mila , Mcsfli in fila . " Which being done into English , might read some what thus : — " Thore ' s a man has brought in China Steam to bear on ho riivitio a Guillotino , tliat it luy « low , Sirs , Heads by tbouHaiids at a blow , Sirs , All a row , Sirs . ' '
Thnro iH no doubt that the inventive- genius who could thus improve the machine would receive in Franco tiio honour which tho poet imagines for him in China . " L'hanno fatto Mandurino J ) i Poofiliino . " " ITo that mado thin groat maohino , Sirs , II aa boon inado a Mandarin , j > irn , Of Pokin , Sirs . "
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Mat tl , 1 & 53 . ] THE LEADER . 491
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Leader (1850-1860), May 21, 1853, page 491, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1987/page/11/
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