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ttast as well as the present . Having told how in former times great violence was used , he bore testimony to the good conduct of the workmen during the pending struggle . " In this recent Lancashire strike , no mills have been ' picketed , ' no gross personal violence has been committed on workmen , and no serious tumults have occurred , except at Wigan . I am disposed to accept this as a remarkable proof of the growth of the intelligence and public spirit of tie workmen . I believe the time is passing when any class of workmen or committee of trades union would venture to
make upon the operatives of these districts tie experiment of dictation by the croel outrages resorted to a few years ago . The days of assassin committees are , I hope , past . The outrages of vitriol throwing , cudgelling , picketing mills , cutting webs from the looms , ana rude personal assaults are , 1 trust , at an end . Of this I am certain , that any committee of a trades' union , which should attempt to establish tie tyranny of a minority by these means , would not only signally fail , but would probably be exposed and prosecuted by the workmen themselves . " Though these signs of advancing civilisation are indications 01 the direction which improvement is taking , tie conviction still remains among the operative population , that the rate of wages can be regulated by the will of tie trade .
" A daring minority can operate in trades organised like tie manufacture of cotton , with the greater facility , since it is always in the power of a minority to stop a large factory . Suppose a firm to be hi possession of 120 , 000 / . capital , and that 90 , 0002 . is invested hi buildings and machinery employing 800 persons . Sixty or seventy spinners can at any moment , by their separate decision , turn out the whole body of workmen , and render this vast apparatus of wealth and skill utterly useless . The union has , therefore , chiefly to secure the adhesion of any one class of skilled workmen whose opinions are influential , and whose position enables them thus to dictate to the rest . If you fellow the operation of this law in the organisation of the trade , you will perceive what
the ends of the earth , or starved to deatl by misery or disease . No blight of pestilence , no violence of war , no irruption of the central fires , could be more fetal than a few years of the anarchical control of the committee of a trades' union , invested with an absolute control even only of the waees of this district ¦ " My confidence that Socialism cannot flourish La England arises solely from my conviction that ? our middle classes are too sagacious not to learn then * duties to the working men dependent upon them , and , when learned , too conscientious not ta perform them . We shall . not b « content to trample Socialism into the mud of our streets , trader the hoofs of our dragoons , or to bury it in the ruins of its barricades under cannonades of grape shot . If we wait for such a crisis in
Lngland , we may bid farewell to our trade . We shall anticipate that day and prevent it by removing every legitimate cause of discontent . We have already pursued such a path with great political success . Our legislation has of late years taught the great mass of our countrymen to rely with confidence on the Parliament of this country . We have rendered the electoral and municipal franchise more accessible ; we have freed trade from its shackles , cheapened almost all the necessaries of life , removed almost all class legislation , relieved the burdens of the humbler classes , rendered the settlement of ordinary disputes easier and less expensive . Above all , we have protected the operative in the factory and the mine against excessive labour and the neglect of sanitary precaution . W « have given considerable impulse to reform
sanitary , and we have laid the foundation of a system of national education . We have reaped the fruits of this wisdom in the defeat of Chartism . If we would in like manner defeat that form , of Socialism which manifests itself in the trades ' unions , w e must pursue a similar policy of conciliation . Every master must look well to the sewerage of his factory village , he must improve his cottages , make his schools models of order and intelligence , diligently work bis benefit societies , savings' banks , and annuity dabs , provide for- the education of the youn £ men and women in evening schools , promote the healthful recreation of all his dependents , and give constant , earnest , and practical proofs of the presiding influence of bis sympathy and intelligence Before such a system Socialism , as it appears in the trades ' unions , vill disappear like mist before the sun . "
He deliberately asied the aid of the employers to the school he had established as a check to strikes and combinations . Dr . Lyon Playfair also made a speech on " common things ; " and several other gentlemen addressed the meeting .
a vast power it gives to the central committee of unions to create a tyranny over the operative population . Let me suppose that the spinners or any . other separate class thus capable of stopping a mill , and in every district represented by delegates elected in each mill , who in their turn depute delegates from the local to a central committee . As soon as tie local committees can agree upon a common mode of action thev have it in their power to disturb the operatives of the entire trade by a strike , in which their o ~ wn opinions are imposed on the mass . Now , if they are the victims of some fallacyy so plausible as to become popular , their control over the trade will for a time be the result , not merely of tJeir separate power in each mill , but of tie influence of in wnatever inis lax unions
vpuuon . way aumoniy or xrsaes is organised or supported , it has hitherto operated ns a tyranny invading the personal liberty of large classes of workmen , and as an insurmountable obstacle to the employment ' of capital' Trades' unions have thus ; driven from Norwich to Yorkshire various descriptions of stuff manufactrurei They have not only expelled the silk trade ( except in t&binets ) from Dublin , but they have generally rendered the application of capital to the erection of factories hi Ireland impossible . I have spent a good deal of this autumn in Germany , and I can assure you that the German papers report with the most lively interest the progress of the Lancashire strike . ....
" They consider this strike as an effort to create a Socialist domination over the capital employed in our manufactories . They know that any such tyranny would bo fatal . They scarcely expect it to be established , but they regard it as an nicer at the heart of our manufacturing power , which will discourage the application of capital , enfeeble our commercial enterprise , disturb our powers of production , and thus enable them to steal from us some of the markets of the ¦ world . They would be quite right in their conclusion if the failure of those monstrous attempts to control the application of capital did not teach the people truths of which they had been hitherto ignorant ^ " Nothing is so inimical to manufacturing prosperity as
Socialism . The attempt to regulate wages by trades unions is a form of Socialism which grasps , pernaps unconsciously , at the subjection of capital to the dictation of a committee representing an association of workmen . Such a domination 'would be fatal to trade . Its first effect , therefore , is to discourage enterprise . It prevents the investment of capital ; it causes the employment of English capital in other countries ; it destroys our domestic manufactures ; it builds up the prosperity of other countries on the ruins of our own . The capitalists have no alternative but to resist buch domination . They cannot , without universal rain , permit the trade of the district to be subjugated to a republic of their workmen , however organised * conducted , or governed .
" Let us for an instant suppose the contrary . Let us imagine the reign of personal ¦ violence and intimidation to be at an end ; let us conceive the organisation of the operatives to be us complete as in the best devised representative system , and that the central committee of a vast union of the workmen of the cotton trade truly represented the collective opinion of the class . Let us suppose them to limit their interference to the regulation of wages . They could not interfere thus far without determining the destiny of the entire trade . Now , we will put out of siglit the frightful individual ruin consequent on any attempt at a nominal equalisation of wages ; capitalists would be at least free to
determine whether they would conduct or erect mills in a district in which the rate of wages was settled by a republic of workmen . Do you not see that every country not ' subjugated' by such a tyranny would become the seat of manufacturing enterprise , ratlier than Lancashire ? ( Jcr-< nany , Switzerland , Belgium , America , would , engross the cotton trade of the world . The cotten mills of this district "would crjimblo into ruin . After terrible starvation , fever , and misery , its population would disperse . Tlienow populous towns and villages would be Jiko districts ravaged by war and pv'Btilenco . Hundreds of millions of capital woul » l bo lost , and a million and a half of people either scattered to
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INDUSTKIAIi SCHOOLS FOE MIDDLESEX . At the last meeting of the Middlesex magistrates , the following important resolutions were carried unanimously : — . " That in the opinion of this court there ought to be erected a county industrial school for the reception of juvenile offenders , to which children under the age of 14 years may be sent , instead of being , as at the present time , committed te prison . " That the expense of erecting the same should be paid out of the county rate . " . That the expense of the maintenance of the inmates should , in the first instance , be paid out of the county rate . " That in all cases where the settlement of a child can be proved , the parish to which such child legally belongs- be liable for the expense of maintenance ; but the parents or parent to be liable to the parish for the whole or part ef the same . " That in all cases when , as at the present time , the expense of maintenance of children committed to prison is paid by the Government , the same liability should continue with respect to children sent to a county industrial school . " That judges and magistrates should have powers granted them to send children under the age of 14 years to a county industrial school instead of to a prison . '' That a bill to effect these objects should be introduced into Parliament next session . " Lord Robert Grosvenor undertook to bring the bill into Parliament ; and he will do so with the unanimous consent of the bench .
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PREPARATIONS FOR PARLIAMENT . The usual dinners and meetings which precede the opening of Parliament are already announced . On the 30 tti instant Lord Aberdeenjentertains the Cabinet and the great officers of state , and on the same day Lord Derby musters the Opposition at his table . Sheffield this week , and Manchester next , hold their political gatherings . There are thirty-eight notices of motion on the order-book of the House of Commons ; and several bills printed last session will be moved at the commencement of . this . The friends of Mr . Roebuck will be glad to know that h « will be in his place on th « first night ; imt he will not ask questions respecting Prince Albert .
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LETTERS FROM PARIS . Letter- CVIII . Paris , Thursday Evening , Jan . 19 , 1854 . Tub past week has been fruitful in emotions , but barren in home news . The . English journals brought us a protest of the TJucliefSB ^ d'Orleans againet the Fusion . Waa there ever a sorrier dispute ? Six years ago there were few amateurs of crowns to be found : now wo find them blowing the trumpets from the four winds of the earth . This letter of the Duchess , if authentic , is apolitical error : it was eagerly caught up by the Bonap&rtists , printed in the official journals , and disseminated in
ESS ?!!? * ^ " ^ sts disgasted : they call Che js ^ -sf tssss s . 'Eftrsr . &as-^^ frasKwasgSs it has conferred : it is , besides , to sancSo ^ hVfiS ! pire , which has the incontestabl e election of 1848 ana the two contested elections of 1851 and 1852 in its favour . It is certaia that this letter will not prevent the Fusion being % fait accompli if the Fusioniets
should be able to accomplish their coup d ' etat . M . Thiers is said to have composed the letter . No doubt he expects the result of a coup < T 4 tat in a monarchical sense to be an Orleanist , not a Legitimist , . restoration . Oh ! human folly . LouisPhilippe , or Henry V . When will men cease to be flocks and herds ? How long will they suffer mortals , their equals in , right , perhaps their inferiors in courage and intelligence , to dispute about their fleeces ?
Aiter the letter of the Duchess we had the circular of Persigny to the prefects . It appears that some barking tradesmen had ventured to address a fetation to the throne in favour of peace . Bonaparte had a circular drawn up by Fersigny , telling- the prefects roundly that if petitions were acceptable before the Empire , they were useless now . War is the cry now at the Tuileries ; especially of Fersignjr Some one expressed an apprehension that it might result in a catastrophe . Persigoy replied : Taht miens ! I'd rather explode in a blaze of fireworks than get drowned in the mud . " Preparations for war are going on actively . Last Saturday 100 pieces of artillery were forwarded from Vincennes to Toulen , besides an immense weight of powder .
All this tune ere full of gaiety at the palace . ' On the 17 th there waa another ball given by the Princess Mathilde : on the 28 th there is to be a ball given , by the Empress . The ladies are mad abotit ^ Louis XV . On Tuesday the costume of Mous ^ ne- taires was . de riyueur . The Empress's ball will be devoted to Vivandihres and Garde * Francoises . >¦ - War with the Jesuits is at its height now . It is reported that two other colleges are to be suppressed . Bonaparte is not happy In his selection of an opportunity for this contest . The Jesuits ? are tough wrestlers , and , if he closes with them , * the struggle will be for life and death .
' They are falling off in devotion at the Tuilenea . Masses and fastB begin to be disregarded . M . 3 Potw : tool , the Minister' ©! : Public Instruction , ventured ' to ' say to certain members of $ he University the other day : " Take courage , gentlemen , our common enemy . [ is the clergy ; we shall lead them a pretty dance . " By way of a consolation in tie midstLof all these . follies , we have received this week a copy of Victor . Hugo ' s protest against the punishment of death . It is r dated the 10 th of January , and addressed to th < inhabitants of Guernsey . It appears a man was exe-I cutei on the 27 th tilt , in that island . Never was human language more elevated , more noble , thajyin - this protest in bekalf of the sacredness of human life .
Trade is torpid in France . Many of the work-, , shops and factories of Rouen , Lille , St . Queatin ,. Mulliouse , are closed . Lyons and Nismes have still , some commands for America to execute . The retail business is almost null . The bourse is in a punic . On Saturday there was an attempt to negotiate the new loan : and for that object , to * ' buU" the market , ; a telegraphic despa-tch from Marseilles washavked about , announcing the official acceptance by the Czar of the Note of the Four Povers . Persigny had falsified this , despatch . The despatch from Marseilles mentioned the acceptance by the Sultan , Persigny had substituted Czar for Sultan , and Petersburg for Constantinople . M . Alplionse Foy having refused , as director of the telegraph , to lend his band
to this falsification , was dismissed , and replaced by M , d'Esparbes , brother of the M . Esparbes wlio , in the Court of Cassation , supported the right of the Government to open letters . However , the falsified despatch had its effect ; there was a rise of two francs : the Funds got up to 73 . Yesterday they felL again to 69 80 , a dispatch from Vienna announcing that the Czar would , not even deign to answer the Note of the Conference , and that in good time when it shouLd please the Czar , a Circular from M . de Nesselrodo would explain to the diplomatic agents of the Russian Government the reason why . In the meanwhile the financial world of France and England , not to speak of statesmen , who are always haid-headed , will be expecting a satisfactory and comfortable reply from the Lord of Peace and War , and Arbiter of European Fate . » .
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CONTINENTAL NOTES . TUB FOftlON OF TUB BOURBONS . The following is said to be am authentic copjr of a letter addressed by the Duchess of Orleans to the Duke de Nemours : — " Eiseivach , Dec . 10 , 1853 . " My Royal and Dear Brother-in-law , —I have received your latest despatch , In which you again urge me to enter ' frankly' i « to tne ' fusion * "which
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January 21 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . ** ———^——— —
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 21, 1854, page 53, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2022/page/5/
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