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
LORD CAMPBELL'S NEW MISDE-3 MEAKOR . " What a fine tiling it would be for the worl ^ L if some philosopher or practical man could discover how we might put down those yexafckms abuses to "which even the best of things are liable ! " We heartily "believe there are people who think this can be done , and done ,
too , b y act of Parliament ; else whence the despotism of the teetotaller , who would take away beer from the majority because the minority intoxicate themselves ; the despotism of the fanatic , who would shut out the majority from all amusement and healthful recreation , because he believes it essential , and we believe it wholesome , to keep one day in the week as a Sabbath of rest and
unworlcUiness ; the despotism , of fche politician , who ob * structs the voting of the millions because the voting of the hundreds may be corrupt or stupid ; and a thousand other despotisms equally wrong and absurd ? Lord Campbell wants to stop unauthorised negotiations with foreign Grovernments , and why ? Not because any evil has followed such proceedings of late years , but because three Quaker gentlemen , well-to-do in the world ,
and able to bear the expense , recently betook themselves to St . Petersburg , and there , in the name of all the Quakers , besought the great Czar to enter upon peaceful courses . Struck h y this visit of unauthorised Quakerdiplomatists to the modern Attila , a number of similar cases iu point crowd upon the mind of the Chief Justice , and he recollects that Englishmen presented fraternal addresses
to the French jSTational Convention ; that Mr . Smith O'Brien asked M . Xiamartine to send an armed force to deliver Ireland , and that Louis Napoleon was one day agreeably surprised to hear tliat Sir James Duke , and a host of City envoys were waiting in his antechamber to present him an address of adhesion to the policy of the coup d ' etat . JNTow in all these cases did any evil arise to Old England ? Did not each nnd all result in the
confusion of the chief actors ? Mr . Frost , Mr . Barlow , and Dr . Thomas Cooper , of Manchester , scarcely dared to show their faces in England under tlio dictatorship of the Ileaven-born Pitt . Mr . Smith O'Brien was scolded by Sir George Grey , shunned by the House of Commons , and finally , although not for that . spocial conduct , sent to Australia . The
City envoys were overwhelmed with ridicule , which did not matter much to them , it is true , as their pecuniary interests were secured , and their railway concessions obtained . These wore unauthorised negotiations or communications with foreign Governments ; but it did not matter 0110 jot to 33 ngland , because she had a Government whose authorised negotiations wero of much greater import to these
Untitled Article
idleness ; we must think of the bad blood and bitter feeling which thirty-six long weeks of strife cannot fail to have engendered . Our Preston correspondent tells us that one effect of the strike has been to cause many millowners to employ self-acting mules in their mills . This always has been the result of a strike ; the self-acting mule itself was born of a strike . If self-acting men could be invented , we do not doubt that mill-owners
wh y it is true we will very shortly make ] plani . The , operatives employed in the facwries of this country" sire a very improvident class , and it is a very exceptional case indeed to ; £ nd that a store has been laid by for the rainy day . They live , as has been remarked , fiom hand to mouth , and , in most cases , it is ^ fortunate if Saturday ' s wages pay all the xlebts incurred during the week . Week after "Week is ' supported upon tlie credit afforded l 1
by the . ahopkeejrers , and if a few shillings are Teqiiuredto' supply a li ttle extra drink , or to pajr t £ e expenses of a merry-making , some ' article of clothing or furniture can be dis-^ e nsed with for a time , and the convenient ^ awn-Bhop affords the requured accommoda-1 ta $ b :. ' . ' - ¦• : - - 1 Suieh , we regret to say , is the common rule * of life in our factory towns , and this is one of ^ e direst of the sores to which , the attention
of those who seek to do thesepeople any sound good should be directed . "We do not mean Jtf > say that none among the operatives save , for many do ; but that many is not the multitude , at is , indeed ^ a very poor minority : thfr JnuaBj ^ r if them JiavW hitherto ^ been wasteful , ^ unthrlKyj ; ' ' careless of providing for the mor-* row . l ^ or is this improvidence attributable * to ilisiifficient . earningSj for we believe that it f be snown , that where the earnings have
'Siirpassed the average , the habits of expense ' liaye increased proportionately . This being ~ sop it is obyious tfcajb the position of the operatiyes after the first weekof the struggle was ; not capable of being made -worse . They had no stores to fall back upon , ( speaking generally ) , and so long as the districts sent a sufficient amount of relief to keep the people iTom starvation , they were in the position of people who had nothing to lose and much to
g ain . Their tare might possibl y be plainer in its natuire with five shallings to live upon ) than TWheii-lhey earned an average of ten . ; there might be a curtailment of tjie diurnal beer mid -tne hebdpmadal feasiJ ; b ^ it this , if i t had any effect at all , was all * the better for their health , and certainly all the better fox the tranquillity of the town . At hdme , indeed , hidden in the privacy of their humble , dwellings , there may
have been aged fathers , bedridden mothers , brothers and sisters crippled in the coibtonmillsjjwho depend for support uponthe lads and lasses who"have been idle , ana who may have felt the want of accustomed little comforts , if not of absolute necessaries ; but the lads and lasses themselves were at no time during the dispute in any worse position than the first week of their inactivity placed them in .
In eorroboration of this we may call to witness all whom either business or curiosity has taken to Preston any time during the last six months . In the public journals , in eloquent review-articles , pictures have been drawa of a starving population wandering like g-hosts about the streets , horrifying all beholders with the gaunt reality of famine ; but how far these pictures have been overcharged , all those to whom we appeal will know . The outward appearance of the
Preston turn-outs during the entire of this prolonged struggle has excited the wonder ol all who have had an opportunity of observing them . Clear , ruddy complexions—bright , confident looks have met the gaze of the observer , when he expected to see nothing but the pinched features of want , and the glassy gaze of despair . This is a very different picture
from that which it has pleased many " special correspondents" to depict , but it is Fact in opposition to Fiction . To find the real evils which the strike has worked upon the condition of the workingclasses we must examine its indirect effects . We must think of the habits of idleness which it has engendered , those habits so difficult to Dvercome ; wo must think of the demoralisation which is the iuevitablo consequence of
would employ them too . Another effect of the strike has been , it has plunged many of the operatives into inextricable debt ; debt from which , probably , they m il never be able to free themselves ; debt , -which is the most enslaving chain that can shackle a free man , which bows down his spirit , robs him of his self-reliance , makes cowards of the bravest , and converts the best intentioned man into a knave . Surely these are evils enough to result from , six weeks' work ! Honest men
association of honourable manufacturers to be proud of ! Associated Masters of Preston , condescend to learn a , lesson from the past and improve the tone of feeling between your workpeople and yourselves . Learn that they are not your menial servants , but your hel pmates . Iiearn to respect their rights and they will learn to respect you . Strive to improve their condition , socially and mentally ,
and in so doing you cannot fail to better yourselves in both respects . In the words of a distinguished writer , " let your political economy have some human bloom upon it . Don't let it be but dry bones . Remember that trains in the operative ' s head is money in the employer ' s pocket , and that if he cannot acquire sound fruit from the tree of knowledge , he will have that which is rotten . " Above all , if you must have a victory , conquer your prejudices ; conquer your pride ; conquer your avarice . These will be victories indeed !
turned into insolvents , and honest girls into worse ! / One class has been heavil y visited by the effects of this contest , and that is the middle class of Preston . If , in round numbers , 250 , 0002 . has not been spent by the Preston operatives , which would have been spent if the course of business had not been
interrupted , the profit upon turning that money is a clear l oss to the thrifty and provident shopkeepers . The operatives themselves have gone without good dinners , and will have to make the old coat and the old frock last out another year , but the shopkeepers have received deeper injury than that . It may be possible to calculate the gross loss to the town in wa ges , and perhaps even in the profits of the cotton-trade of Preston ; but
how far the town has indirectly suffered , what has been the indirect injury to its internal trade , what the stop to its future prosperity * how far the current of enterprise and speculation has been turned aside from that ill-omened town , none can ever know . In 1842 , when the town of Stockport was suffering under the pressure of fearful poverty , and Mr . Oobden obtained a report from the Poor Law Commissioners into the state of
that town , Mr . Edward Hollins ( then one of the principal manufacturers in Stockport , and now known to this country as the only Preston manufacturer who has preserved his own dignity while he has dealt kindly by his workpeople ) thus accounted for the distress under which the town was suffering ( see Report , p . 116 ) : —
" What in your opinion has led to this state of things in Stockport ?—Any one must see that Stockport suffers in some degree from peculiar causes . One which strikes me as most apparent is the existence of unions pf the -workpeople , which have heen far more powerful in Stockport than iu other parts of the manufacturing districts . " How is it that such unions haTe been more powerful in Stockport than in other places ?—Stockport
has always been considered the head place for turnouts in the cotton districts of Lancashire and Cheshire ; and all the neighbouring unions have joined liberally in the support of turn-outs at Stockport , because they thought ; that an abatement of wages there would bo the forerunner of a general reduction . This is so much the case , that Stockport hands are regarded with distrust and dislike when applying for work in the neighbourhood , in consequence of their notorious disposition to turn out . "
Will not this plague-spot , this murk of avoidance , bo henceforth sot of Preston ? But , for tiie Winners of the L'iqiit ; what is their position ? llavo they any great reason to be proud of their victory ? As the Times very justly remarks , the fact of victory proves nothing but that one party could resist longer than the other . Jiut wlmb does their victory amount to ? Whore are the trophies of their conquest to be discovered ? Are they in their depreciated businesses , or in the embittered feelings of their operatives ? Surely hero ia no victory for any
Untitled Article
444 / THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 13, 1854, page 444, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2038/page/12/
-