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    ^ THE WORKING MAN AND HIS

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    was a challenge ; and it was accepted : but does the subsequent demeanour of the challenger suggest confidence in the issue ? Louis Napoleon is a man of genius ; -with a great fleet ; with a grand notion of a servile "war in the United States ; and doubtless , with Spain and Mrs . Stowe for his allies , might do a great deal . Yet , if England would not be Ms ally in the West , in return for his alliance with England in the East , then he knows , as -well as most men , that the States could bring the Napoleonic system about his ears in less than six months .

    It would not answer his purpose to bring the States into Europe ; so that , on the whole , it is not likely Mr . Mason -will be driven from his pleasant hotel in Paris . Yet his Majesty , even if he now beg- pardon , may only postpone what is inevitable . Of course he does not knownone but those who took part in the proceedings can know—what was the issue of the conference at Ostend . But he guesses , like the rest . For our own part , we cannot believe that three American gentlemen would meet at Ostend to talk of mere States' domestic business .

    They must have had in view European polities , and the relations of the United States to Europe in certain contingencies of the war ; and we infer , from all we see and hear , that the United States Government ranks itself among the " neutrals , " and as as prepared as Austria , or Prussia , or Denmark , or Sweden , to assume a positive attitude—when necessary . May the necessity , for the United States , soon arise !

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    THE NEWSPAPER STAMP RETURNSWHAT THEY PKO"VE . Oitr interest in the last analytical return of the number of stamps issued to London newspapers is scarcely personal . These successive returns have , indeed , indicated our increasing commercial success— -a success to be the better comprehended by reference to the circumstances that we are but four years old , and that we started with the deliberate intention to be

    on the unfashionable and the unconventional side . But the absolute and conspicuous success of the L , eader is not to be tested by stamp returns . " We have undergone the ordeal of all Reformers ; we are beginning already to realise the Reform . In . that ordeal misrepresentation was the severest trial . Exposed to the coarse criticism of the ignorant , and the venomous indignation of the interested , nve

    have had to submit to being caricatured in " Advertisers' Hand-books " as " Socialist , " and reprobated by contemporaries as " Andi-Christian — being so libelled merely because , facing- all the facts of our era , we steadily refused , as journalists , to ignore the existence of classes and persons who believe neither in Society nor in Religion . Our success is in having- largely induced the Legislature and Literature to face such facts : —our

    influence , we may say without vanity , wo traco wherever printing-presses are providing modern thought to the Anglo-Saxon race . The general indications of these stamp returns interest ever ybody . Two facts stand out prominently : among the daily papors , there is only one journal with a circulation beyond the clubs , nows-rooms , and publichouses ; and among the weekly papers , the large circulations ( with one exception , thai ; of an illustrated pnper ) are possessed by the journals selling at 3 d . per copy . What do these facts prove ?

    As regards the daily morning press , tliove is proof tlmt " , as there is only ono successful , there must bo an enormous amount of capital , enterprise , and time thrown away on the other five . The other fivo attempt to explain away th 6 disparity by malignantly hinting that-the

    Times succeeds because It is so dishonest—that the Times is a quack , while the Morning Chronicle is the Teal , respectable thing—and that the public likes quackery . Now that is neither philosophic nor true . The public does not take to anything that is bad , where it can get a better , at the same price , as in this case ; and it is not true that the Times is more dishonest than the other morning papers , for though the Times is absurdly inconsistent , and consequently is without vital influence , yet is

    it not a fact that each of the other morning papers serves consistently shifting parties , Peelite , Whig , and Toxy—literary service of a party being , notoriously , ver y dirty , aa well as very dishonest , work ? Certainly it must be conceded to the five , that the sixth does not succeed , because it is the best . The Morning Chronicle has better news and is perhaps better written—as a matter of literature—than any other morning journal , yet it does not sell 1000 copies a day . The Daily

    News has as good , and more varied , news than the Times , and is carefully -written , yet the Daily JVezvs is apparently not so successful as it should be . The competition between the Times and its contemporaries has been going on since the reduction of the stamp from 4 d . to Id ., twenty years ago ; and quarterly the Times has improved its position . What , then , is the cause ? It is very plain . When the stamp was 4 d . there were many morning papers , and their sales were nearly equal : their sales were to taverns , and

    not to the nation * Since morning papers have become 5 d . in price they came within reach of a certain large class , merchants , and the trading community generally , to whom a morning paper became a necessity of business . But they were not numerous , and not rich enough to take more than the one ; and the Times haying , by great enterprise , got the start , at the outset of the competition , and having maintained itself in a state of thorough efficiency , has kept the lead . The competition with it is now mere madness . We , therefore ,

    suggest to the managers of the other daily papers that they should agitate for the removal of the stamp—a reform which , making them all cheaper , if not cheap , would enlarge their market . The public will observe that even the Times , appealing to all Europe , and publishing in a capital of 2 , 500 , 000 , does not sell 60 , 000 copies daily : a clear indication that , nationally , the nation knows nothing of a daily press .

    As respects the weekly press , the public will not fail to see that the total figures represent only a sale of about a million copies every Saturday to all England ! We are far from overlooking the circumstance -that these returns do not deal with the provincial press , which , as represented in the large towns ,, is her © and there more intellectual and more efficient than the mass of the weekly London press . But it remains a fact that the London weekly press

    does appeal to the whole country , that certainly one-half of its sale is in tlie country , and , whether we look to the influence nationally or in the metropolis :, can wo contend that England is a nation of political readers ? The sale of the first-class papers is very small ; and for this sufficing reason , that so long 1 as they are subjected to tho penny stamp they must charge a high price hi order to enable them to employ first-class contributors .

    How can wo listen to " educational speeches " from our public men while a stamp h put upon tho press , to restrain reading—the only real education—among- the people x "

    ^ The Working Man And His

    we cordially and emphatically admit that each one will do good within the reach of his own hands , we repeat our firm conviction that emigration , colonisation , and improvement in the commercial value of labour , will beat all the teachers . The question -with these philanthropists , —and we say it in no

    disparagement of them , —xs one of taking down education , instruction , and knowledge to the level of th-e working classes ; "but we believe that the light which can be carried to the bottom of a mine is not worth having . To > enjoy the full sunlight of life the miner must come to the upper level of the earth with , which he is endowed as his birthright .

    Tlie specific plans for improving education , are many- We have a Working Men ' s College , established by the Christian Socialists in Red Lion-square , imitating in name , and to a certain extent in purpose and plan , the People's College at Sheffield ; we have the President of the Council , as Minister of Education , opening the Athenaeum for the working classes at Bristol ; we have Cardinal Wiseman diffusing the lectures which he delivered at St . Martin ' s Hall in

    August last ; we have the unions of mechanics' institutions , clubs amongst the working classes under various names for the same purpose , and lecturers innumerable , from lords to those members of the working class who have themselves become the teachers of their fellows . All who frame these plan& endeavour to overcome certain difficulties which meet them at the very threshold of their undertaking . Mechanics' institutions are established ; but unless they be Icept up by extraneous contributions from patrons , or become subscription-rooms of the middle

    classes , they often fail , because the working man cannot fin d the time to attend , or the money , in sufficient numbers , for a sound and firm self-support . Projects have been , thrown out for permitting the -working classes to study at the ancient universities j . but , as Mr . Maurice asked on Monday night , what effect can such plans have , except to take some very few working men from their own class , and transfer them to the professional class ? In lieu , he proposes the new college , specially constructed to adapt itself . to working men .

    Its classes will be held in tho evening , its professors will jlecture in such manner as toguide the studies in . classes , and to mingle exposition with conversational explanations ^ In other words , Mr . Maurice anticipates that the working class will have very little time , indeed , for collegiato studies ; but trusting greatly to the mere spirit of study at times not devoted to such pursuits , anxiousto give a new bent for working man while engaged at their labour , he endeavours to

    muke the : most of that rag of time at the end of day , and to make a low hours a week do the worlc of real studentship . With what effect ? Bo tho professors the best in tho world , knowledge , we affirm , of arithmetic ; , algebra , geometry , drawing , music , geography ,. history , constitutional law , and theology , cannot be convoyed in passing hours at the fag end of day when half tho tuno is given to questions and answers between the professor and stud out .

    Lord John Russell would set no oflicinl bounds upon tho studies of working-men ; would not tell them that such etudicH aro " sibovo them , ' but ho truata to a perfect exchange of opinion for tho correction of wrong ojnniona by better . . But how can tho working oIusbos have opinions without knowledge , juitl they might aa well endeavour to acquire a knowledge of nature through tho window of tho workshop , aa through tho fragnionlury hours which tho Working Men ' s College -will gi \ o . No : such institutions arc ,

    THE WO 11 KINO MAN AND HIS TEACHERS . TiiKitio nro several competitors lor tho office of teaching tho working classes ; but while

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    1042 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 4, 1854, page 1042, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2063/page/10/