The Press. — London, England, 1853-07-23 00:00:00

JULY 23, 1853. responding privilege, it is certain that the former have rarely the opportunity of combin ing with effect. A very few dissentients suffice to spoil their market. Detach a few, and you disorganise all. In any movement requiring entire union, the chances of success are in an inverse ratio to the number of persons eon cerned. Where multitudes attempt to co operate, competition is usually too strong for combination. The interest of the individual is more powerful than the interest of the class. On this head a full statistical detail, showing the proportion of successful to unsuccessful strikes, would be exceedingly useful. We arc led to these reflections by the appearance of a pamphlet by " Viudex," professing to describe the present con dition of the labour market among build ing operatives. From this work—manifestly the genuine production of an artisan, turgid in style and discursive iu substance, but authentic as a statement of facts—we learn little beyond the existence of a general dissatisfaction with the actual rates of remuneration. Such a state of things appears neither unnatural nor objectionable. It results simply from what we all see and feel—the effects of Australian emigration, cheap food, and the deficiency of Irish labour. And accordingly, favoured by circumstances, the strike of the last few months has been generally, though not uni formly, successful. In most instances the masters have given way. In others, where the demands made were obviously unreasonable, a fair compromise has been effected. But these happy results have followed from cir cumstances exceptional rather than common, and the continuance of which cannot fairly be counted upon. The question remains—" By what means shall the operative secure for him self, under all circumstances, not merely such remuneration as he may be able to extort from the employer, but such as shall suffice to sup ply him with the ordinary requirements of life?" Three remedies suggest themselves :- 1. Facility of locomotion is the primary condition of operative independence. In a material sense this facility at present exists. But, legally and socially, the law of settlement acts as an obstruction to the free interchange of labour between various parts of the country. The removal of this law is therefore likely to be the first demand of the mechanic. While it continues in force, a uniform scale of wages throughout England cannot be expected. 2. To carry out this uniformity, a more com plete organisation among working membees of the same trade is indispensable. The legal obstacle to such organisation, long obsolete hi practice, is now about to be formally done away. The rest must be left to time and to the exertions of the more enlightened opera tives, which will probably not be wanting. 3. The principle of operative association, not yet developed iu this country, but which flourishes in ranee and America, will at no distant period affect the position of the em ployer. We do not refer to any Socialistic or Communistic theories ; nor to any form, how ever plausible, of parliamentary interference. Parliament, in such matters, has no right to meddle, except for the protection of women and children, who are assumed not to be free agents. Men must be left to fix their hours of working and their rates of pay as best they can. The association of which we speak is that of labourers, themselves in some small degree capitalists, and either whole or part proprietors in the undertaking which they carry on. The details of such a plan cannot be here discussed : suffice it that they have been tried in practice and found to answer. Mr. MILL, in his admirable chapter entitled • The Probable Future of the Labouring Classes,"* has embodied the results both of experience and theory on this subject. The creation of such a class of working capitalists —living links between the employer and em ployed—would indeed go fitr to justify the seeming paradox of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and render democracy conservative. No reform is more needed ; for nowhere is the line be tween poverty and wealth more sharply drawn than where it divides the millowner from the mill hand—the bourgeois from the prolitaire. * " Principles of Political Economy," b. lv., c. T. THE PRESS. THE INFLUX OF GOLD—ITS PHENOMENA IN FRANCE. THE ECOXOttua in a recent number took issue with the PRESS upon the question of an inver sion in the relative values of silver and gold, consequent upon the unprecedented influx of the latter metal into Europe ; and left the im pression on the taunts of its readers that, so far front there being an extraordinary abundance of gold either in England or France, the stock in both countries "has been gradually " for nearly twelve months:" in England from 21400.000/. to 17,700,000/., and in Prouty from rhea/ 14,500,000/. to about 10,000,000/4 so " that in the two great capitals of Western " Europe bullion has suffered a reduction Of " about 9,000,0001. in loss titan a year." What ever may have been the fact as to the rise or fall of the deposits of gold in the flank of France, recent events have demonstrated that throughout the Empire the demand for gold is altogether without precedent; and the late advices, so far from treating this subject in the buoyant spirit of the Eeononiist,take a very different view of the facts, and, looking forward into the future, draw a much less agreeable inference us to their probable eon sequenees. Whilst in the United Kingdom silver is a legal tender only for sums under forty in France, on the contrary, silver and gold are equally legalised, or, as it is more t e rsely de scribed, theirs is a " double standard," whilst we are limited to a single one. But with this apparent facility the financiers of France have been taken entirely aback by the discovery that—such is the unparalleled demand for gold—the operation of coining at the Hotel des Monnaiea has been proceeding at the rate of one million francs per day! an issue which, in one single year, would exceed by one half the entire collective gold coinage of the eighteen years reign of Louis I'muers: ; and would surpass by sixfold that of the reign of CHARLES X. ! In short, the Journal des lkbats very , properly treats this great fact as an evidence that gohl is rapidly superseding silver as the circulating inalium of France, a result which, it (Oda, the country should not contemplate with dissatisfaction, if it were not that gold is threatened with a depreciation equally alarming and imminent. This inference it sustains on the demonstra ble ground that the relative values of silver and gold, calculated on the previous production of each, have been altogether inverted by the prodigious influx of the latter metal, whilst the accustomed yield of the former has been scarcely, if at all, affected. At the commence ment of the present century the annual pro duction of gold was, in round numbers, muter 800,000 ounces troy. This had been tripled even before the discoveries in California and Australia. It is now four times greater than in 1848, and ten times greater than in 'slat ; and it goes on perpetually reduplicating. The writer in the .Debats confesses his bewilder ment in the contemplation of the possible results of a phenomenon, foreboding, in his opinion, the utter confusion of comtneree, which is only to 1w averted by some as yet Immature(' expedients, to he suggested by fiscal and economical science. The expedient thus obscurely alluded to has been elsewhere explained to imply the " the " demonetising of gold," and the taking refuge in silver as a single standard for the currency of France. We hold that such a resort would be tanta mount to fiscal suicide. Why should Franee restrict herself to pay in one metal when she has two at her option? The simple course is to leave the existing system as it is, permit ting public convenience to consult for its own interests, by selecting as the medium of its settlements that one of the two metals which circumstances may designate as the most suitable. Meanwhile, one result is obvious and inevi table. It will be impossible for France, whilst the present influx of gold continues, to keep the silver for her own circulation when a profit can be Made by carrying it elsewhere, at an enhanced rate of exchange. Mid, so long as the Bank of Fnince tint replace the effituc of silver by the influx of gold, commercial eonti (knee will experience no shock, and commer cial honour will remain inviolate. Besides, the peculiar position of France, as regards the balance of trade, renders it indis pensable for her to retain gold as a legal 1 ender :—else, how are the United Kingdom, the U 'tiled States. anti Australia to make their payments ter the exeess of Freneh exports which now find their way to these countries, and for which the imports in return are far from furnishing an equivalent: The exports of Franc© in 1811 were close upon a 5,000.000/. sterling ; her imports were but 414,000,000/. Take away the power to pay the difference in gold, and mark the emtvulmunt that must follow. From (treat Britain alone our exports of specie to France have been, in-- 1 s IN 1519 IWO 4,00,000 suppose that Funny, in her panic at. the sudden distortion of her currency, were to in sist, on the payment of this balance in silver,—it would amount to an abatallte disruption of our eommereial intercourse. We can conceive nothing more mischievous to our own interests, as well as destructive of those of France anti other countries, than that, in her pilule tweletioned by phenomena so little anticipated, she should resort to expe dients such as have been hinted at. anti which, in removing a SllpllOSed illeollVelailellee, would inflict a substantial and a permanent injury. IRISH EDUCATION. Err any Irish tourist who takes an interest in education knock at the door of one of those substantial stout , buildings near the roadside or in a village, the I►usy hum of voices from which, even without the inscription above, tells him it is a " national school: . and inquire into the instruction given. Ho will find a number of poorly-clad but quick and bright eyed children answering eagerly and with in telligence questions asked by himself or their muster—very ready at figures, and perhaps far advanced in geometry. Suppose him to be in the south of Ireland, and to ask the usual question. " How do you manage about reli gious instruction ?" he will almost certainly hear front a monkish dominie, " This is at Ca tholic school ;" and find that, in fact, all the tenets and practices of the Romish Church are ineulcat ed daily. Should ho make similar inquiries in the north, he will learn, in a harsher brogue, that the school is under the minister, and the religious instruction ultra-lh•esbyterian. A few schools (about 150 out of 1,100) he may find Church of England. "Strange," he thinks to himself, "I heard a great deal of this 'mixed system,' and Lord John is fond of holding forth thereupon; but here I find all the meets neat as imported,' anti have been fi►r years taxed for the support of Roman Catholic and Presbyterian schools because they are ealled national. This looks ve►y like extorting money under false pretences. If the Hoverument think right to pay for teaching the Roman Catholic religion, why do they not honestly say so, and lay aside this flimsy pretext of a ' mixed system'?" The national schools in Ireland am not Om they pretend to be, and are more ►aid more every year, under resolutions of the Board permitted by the tiovernment, departing from their ori ginal foundation. Thene are priests' schools, and Presbyterian schools, and Church of Eng land schools, but no national schools. Let us look hank a little. To educate the Roman Catholic population of Ireland became, after the passing of the Emaneipation Act, a matter of unavoidable necessity. Ignorance, superstition, and bigotry I' 1