On this page
-
Text (2)
-
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
Now , this is not only good political economy , but also good common sense ; and , strange as it may sound , the employers must submit to be told that , for this time at any rate , their workpeople have displayed a liigher degree of intelligence than themselves . Consider for dhe moment the application of the truth enunciated by the Spinners . u Bad times" is an expression to signify an excess of supply over demand . To mend this , the
proper course should be to lessen the supply . But what the employers do , and have been for some time in the habit of doing , is this : — they go on increasing their stocks , in anticipation of some extraordinary demand , I and they take the interest upon the capital thus laid by out of the pockets of their workpeople . Manifestly , nothing can be more unjust . As a principle , it may be stated that no ordinary depressioa of trade ought to affect the rate of wages . It is , of course , possible
to conceive events which might so permanently and so seriously affect the price of a manufactured article , that a thorough revision of the cost of production might become necessary . Extensive improvements in machinery , and a consequent depression of the retail price , or the birth of any extensive foreign competition , might have this effect . But so long as the retail price remains much the same , and the wholesale price only fluctuates in consequence of the speculations of manufacturers and " a reckless course of
competition / ' then the wages of the labourer Ought not to be interfered with . ' We have a shrewd suspicion that this right to make the operatives pay interest upon dormant capital is the real easus belli in all these Lancashire disputes . It would be absurd for the Preston employers to repeat now the assertion , by which they once contrived to obtain some public sympathy—that
with them , it was a struggle for mastery : indeed , we are glad to perceive , that in their reply to the proposals of the " Mediation Committee" they have the honesty to abandon that pretence : — " The only * matter now in dispute between the masters and the operatives is "the amount of wages to be paid ; ' * —in other words , the right to reduce wages whenever the glut of the market creates what is called " bad trad * ' *
This being , on their own confession , the cause of dispute , how can these gentlemen reconcile it with the principles of common honesty to pocket some thousands of pounds weekly from their brother manufacturers , upon the pretence that they are disputing for the mastery in their mills ? But the subscribers to the Defence Fund do not pay their
money ignorantly . They know what the battle is about . They know that it is not a question of authority . They know also that it is a question of wages ; and , sooner than abandon the right of rendering the operative subservient to the genius of speculation , they will support a body of rival manufacturers in maintaining a decided advantage over themselves .
Untitled Article
cite one other piece of injustice perpetrated some years ago by Mr . Cobden ' s pet First Lord ,. Sir Francis Baring , which certainly would never have been sanctioned had it been properly explained . Sir Francis Baring reduced the allowance of grog in the navr from one gill to half a gill per diem . Under the old system it was optional for a seaman , to take the allowance or l- | d . a day in lieu . When the reduction took place , the men were given the fd . ( tha value of the half gill
relinquished ) per diem , and a further sutiLof 2 d . per day . Now the reduction applied equally to officers and men ; but the former were not only refused the 2 d . given as com * pensation , but were also mulcted in the sum of fd . ^ per diem allowed them before . By this sage proceeding the empire gained nearly one thousand pounds sterling ; but lost considerably in character . And who begrudged the officers their paltry farthings ? I ^ ot'tfee country , for we hear but one prayer , and tnat is for the success and comfort of all our brave fellows at sea ,. officers and . men : not
LETTER-TAX ON OFFICERS IN THE BALTIC . " Letters from home !"— -Every traveller knows the delight of that welcome sound ; but how much more welcome must it be when the travellers consist of a picked set of men , selected for the very fact that they are instinct with life and with the most generous impulses ; of men sent forth from home on a dangerous enterprise , whose deserved solace consists of the messages of confidence and affection which follow them . Nowhere would " letters from home" bo so sweet aa in a fleet like ours in the Baltic . Of course the loiters are written . Wo know what numbers of epistles have followed
Franklin and his companions , even af ter the hope of finding them had died away . Letters have been written to the . Baltic , and not all of them on business . Some indeed spoke of affairs at home , in which , by the privilege of a free country , officers bearing her Majesty ' s Commission may still avow an interest ; some told . of adversities or blessings befalling the houses of the wandering song ; others conveyed the expression of manl y friendship ; but many no doubt carried still gentler
messages—the blessings of the mother , the confidences of the sister , and the tenderest of" all claims which can follow the wanderer . These letters have been written , and have been ex- , pected . Indeed , it is not difficult to conceive , though it is to describe in words which are always too meagre and cold for these purposes , the great anxiety with which " letters From England" were looked for . Accordingly , not long since the signal -was
made , on the arrival of a ship in the Baltic , " to send for letters from England . " A boat was despatched from each vessel , and its return to the ship ' s side was watched with increasing eagerness . Tho mail was brought up , delivered , and distributed : plenty of letters , we dare say , for the men ; but imagine the" intensity of the disgust when there was scarcely a single letter for an officer on board !
Luckily the cause was understood . It was not supposed that all the friends in England had forgotten their friendship ; that the sweetest postage of all had become extinguished as respects the Baltic . There was an -official stroke in it—a new invention of the Department . In general , each man-ofwar , on leaving Portsmouth , sends to the Post-office at . that place for any letters that
may be there for the fleet . Such letters are always forwarded free of charge , or in other words , the Captain of the vessel takes charge of the letters as they are delivered at Portsmouth . All the officers in the experimental squadron last year thus received letters . Only the other day at Wingo , at least , one letter was by the Dauntless , in the same manner . But new times have come—new ideas are
operating . Some clerk in the Post-office , it appears , well up in Manchester finance , conceived the bright idea that the presence of the fleet in the Baltic presented an opportunity for raising a few hundreds , and suggested that a rate of Is . 8 d . should be charged on all officer ' s letters . The suggestion was adopted , and as pre-payment is compulsory ,
the letters were returned by the Post-office . " We cannot describe the indignation that this precious stroke of state economy has excited among the gallant men in the fleet . It touches all officers equally , from the admiral to the boatswain who lias left his independent position as a foremast-man to become * liable to such an imposition as this .
IiOrd Grey called Lord Canning ' s attention to this matter , and was told in reply that the officers need not grumhle , as the charge was only 6 d ., and the seamen received their letters free . The reply has provoked just indignation ; to which a friend in the neet gives expression : — " Am I , then , " he writes to us , " to consider that Government contemplate conferring a boon on ^ he seamen and charging the expense to the officers ? 'But the Postmaster-General did not speak of the
inconvenience as well as expense to "which officers are put by this innovation . We all left England under the impression our letters would reach us a-s usual , and did not contemplate that a new order would proceed from the Post-office . Hence all our arrangements are made , and our correspondents ( nil of whom will not probably see the recent circular ) will not know how to transmit our letters . I ana at a loss to say whether regret for own deprivation , or contempt at the meanness of Government , ia the prevalent feeling . " This ia not tho first instance , by hundreds , of auch cheeseparing economy ; but let us
the Commons , for they have lately ^ voted millions unanimously ; but simply Sir Francis Baring and his Five Lords , who never made any complaint against the officers , or showed any reason why they should be so mulcted , but wished to mollify Messrs . Bright and Cobden by showing- that if their scheme coat 20 , 0002 ,, they could with impunity rob the officers of 1000 ? . As the king in the story fined his people a virgin a year to mollify the dragon , so Sir Francis put the twopenny . tax on officers to appease the Bright-Gobden
monster . There is really gross impolicy in the new act of economic tyranny . The squadron has now been absent from England nearly * * month , and during that time we have , not heard of a single case of corporal punishment among the crews , nor lias ' there been a court
martial or reprimand inflicted on any officer . Are these facts without significance ? Indeed , there is but one idea as to the efficiency of the squadron—namely , that with , raw crews it has made more progress in discipline and practice than usually takes place in . eighteen months . The officers all admit that : their
work in instructing the crews is light , ' . on account of the excellent spirit that prevails , and the determination shown to be reaAyifor the Russians ; but have the officers no share in calling out that spirit ? The gunnerv is superb : we have practical instances : a lineof-battle-ship ' s broadside . is fired three times ia two minutes at a target on the rocka , At 800 yards' distance , and every shot pitched into a space equal to the size of a pinnace ! But have the officers no share in this T Do they make no sacrifices ?
" The officers , " -writes our friend ,, « are in three watches instead of five as of old . and in consequence of the exercise all day long , and the necessity of their attending to the clothing of their respective divisions , we generally work fifteen hours of the twenty-four * This is not grumbled at—hard work in war ia to be expected . When the peace corner , we talk in a different strain . The officers have sacrificed the privilege of taking private stores of wine and fresh stock without a murmur , because they know the
decks must be kept clear for action . Clean linen is an improbability , as we haven't got our clothes washed for six weeks . Most of them hare given up shirts , and taken to flannel ; for we can't expect to lie in a harbour long enough to employ a washerwoman till November . All these privations have been cheerfully borne , and the spirit of contentment and happiness on board the ships could not be surpassed— till this new arrangement about the Utter * arrived "
We trust the matter will no » fc rest till the entire postage has been' taken off . It may bo maintained that the officers pay alike with the English at Copenhagen ; but they are not at Copenhagen—they are fifteen miles out of Danish waters , , and are on the national service . Why should letters he taken to the Channel fleet—say a . hundred miles west of
Untitled Article
i April 22 , 1854 ] THE LEADER . 37 a ¦ * : ' ¦ ' ' — .-. ——¦¦ , ¦ ¦ . T - "" ' ¦¦ f
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), April 22, 1854, page 373, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2035/page/13/
-