The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1879-07-08 00:00:00

THE CONSERVATIVE WORKING MAN.

The Pook Felegman sap :
Comments upon the actions of beings who never
existed, except in the fertile imagination of fanatics,
read far better in Greek hexameters th ns man in titecolu
of a Poole newspaper, and it requires a pen as able is
Lempriere's of classiCal dictionary celebrity, to do
justice to the being we write of—a being who, from
his versatile peculiarities, puts the traditional
histories of Polyphemus Sisyphus, together with all
the rest of the " Immortals," far back into the shade.
The Conservative working men of the present day
made his debut upon the political oreso co-temporary
with the wearer of the wreatli,f or which he is supposed
to have subscribed his penny; prior to that date open
voting prevented him from being not only created,
but patted on the back by his aristocratic enemies,
who wanted his vote. These manifestations of his
superiors, (his enemies though they be), lead him to
believe himself to be somebody of importance, and
so he must be, when we have seen him represented as
I a chimney sweep in our back alleys, hunted up by a
thike's daughter, and warmly shaken by the hand,
unmindful of the trade mark left upon the pale blue
gloves, which fitted so perfectly upon the delicate
hand. It is reported of en Earl of very penurious
habit., who was in the habit of keeping cows and
selling milk, that he onus met a little girl
wending her way towards his dairy, and upon asking
what she wanted, was told that it was a penn'orth of
milk. His lordship them became very patronising,and
poured what was wanted into the little girl's jug him-
self, then, receiving its value from her, he took her up
and kissed her, saying, after he had done so—" There,
my little dear; now you can go home to your mother,and
tali her that you have been kissed by an EarL" The
answer he received was, " Aye - but you took the
penny, though." This little comedy is virtually acted
over and over again every day in Great Britain, where
men of exalted position are not onlycondesoending lower,
but pocketing more pennies every day. If a working
man had anything to gain by joining the noble army
of
of Tories, Liberals we are, we would wish him
lurk; but he tag nothing, unless he condescends to
call the patronage of those who (but for his vote) des-
pise him,—something. What are the first principles
Instilled into his political soul after he receives his
Conservative baptism ? Do as you are told—this is
the first and great commandment. And the second is
like it—Ask no questions. In promulgating these '
doctrines it is evident that the wire-pullere and top- I
sawyers of the Tory party would never tell those who
they would, if they dare, call their serfs, to do any.
thing contrary to the good of the aristocracy--not the
good of the working man—and it is but too well I
known to all Tories, from the Premier downwards,
that the moment the Conservative working man begins
to " ask questions' he becomes a LibereL We go
a little further with this train of ideas, and say that I
the moment the working man becomes a Liberal, the
first question he asks is ooe he puts to himself. He
asks himself if he is to remain at the plough tail all his
life a working man, or if his stock of brains do not
admit of his rising in the social scale, lie than
remembers that one of the leading features of
Liberalism is that Liberals court enquiry; they say to
their fellow men,' If you don't know, ask, and if you
are told to do anything and your conscience tells you
it is wrong, don't do it." Filled with these ideas the
eyes of the working man are opened, and by com-
rparison, and the use of those faculties which
ollaonhes endowed him with (and which the Tories
would tear from him if they could),he manages either to
raise himself in the social scale, or, should he find that
impossible remain as be was, The members of the
Tory aristocracy are fond of describing the working
man as they would wish to see him. After having
made him obedient, and made questioning upon his
part a penal offence, they would have him uneducated,
and in the drawing.rooms of Belgravia the constant
expression we hear fall from the lips of their ladyships,
whenever they condescend to talk upon a subject so
far beneath them as domestic servants, is to the effect
that the best servants they ever had or will have can
neither read or write,and that an illiterate servant always
has the priority of one who reads and writes, because
one who can write and read knows too much. This,
however, by the way ; it surely amide in showing how
some of the worst educated in the land cannot bear to
be waited on by those whose brains are better stored
than are their own, and who have just sense enough
to see that brains, next to money, are uppermost in
the thoughts of those where these commodities are
only to be found in an inverse ratio. Another greet
quality the Tory working man must have Is humility,
which, going hand in hand with contentment, pea
well on towards keeping him in his proper place. He
is told to do Ms duty in that state of life in which it
has pleased God to call him- if he only earn. 10a,
a week, he is to be thankful that it is not nine
shillings; if he is thrown out of work by his mister's
business growing slack, and if he should happen to he
I of any use to that master, he is told to look upon his
I connection with him a. a morally sacred one, and to
I leave his case in the hand, of his employer, who, in
prooves of time "will not forget him." fie is told to
" reverence " his pastor. and masters; to touch his
hat to "a gentleman" when he meets him, and to
look upon those who can afford to dress in other than
working clothes as his ruperiors. He is ordered to
attend the arish church (the Conservative "Church
and State" church), not the Liberal chapel. If
his master keeps a shop, he is ordered to deal with him,
to the exclusion of other tradesmen. The comforts
and luxuries of the workhouse are duly pointed out to
him as his future when "three score and ten" over-
take him, and the system of mutual dependence and
support by which mankind exists le either deftly
hidden from bins, or he is led to believe that his entire
source of support is his master, who is not only inde-
pendent of him, but deserving of reverential worship
for condescending to employ him. The first chapter
of the Pentateuch tells us that "God made man"
(working MAC. Conservative working man, and
employer's:well)" in iiisown image." The brain of
the working man then is made on the same model as
that of his employer ; the bodily faculties are also of
the same perfect type. lie did not think it wise to
let the "bowers of wood and the drawers of water"
have any distinguishing characteristic by which they
might be unfitted to employ others to work for them;
on the contrary, it was evidently His intention that
all should run the "race of life," however few there
might be to receive prizes for success in the contest.
The superficial difference which exists between one
man and another has been ably commented on by
Thomas Carlyle in his "Sector Regattas." Many
will remember the following quotation from his book :
" Often in my atrabilier moods, when freed of Pompous
ammonia& Frankfort coronations, royal drawing-rooms,
levees, couches. ; and how the ushers and memo are all in
welting • bow Doke this is presented by Arch-Duke that,
and Gime' A. by General B, and innumerable bishops,
admirals, and miscellaneous functionaries, are advancing
siallanlly to the anointed presence ; and I strive in my
remote Weser, to form a clear picture of that solemnity
—on • sodden, as if by some enchanter's wand,
week It the clothes ffl off the whole dramatic corps ;
wad dukes. grandees, bishops. generals, anointed promisee
itself, every mother's eon of the= stand straddling there,
not a shht on then' ; and I know not whether to Mash or
weep. nig physical or wades' infirmity in which,
Perham I am not , I have after hesitation, thought
rithl to Publish. Intro.:Mice of those &filleted with the
my friends, we are (in Yodel( Sterne's words)
but as 'turkeys driven with a stick and • red clout the to
market

These word, may shock the muter of the Conservative
working man, a master whose imperially contracted
mind considers it treason to advance any &drum which
compares aim even corporeally with those " beneath
him ; " hence it comes that "forward' is the master's
road and not the servant's., and hence it comes to pass that
he who cells himself " • Cooaervative working man" is
content to "exist" whilst others around him "live."
Hundreds of working ;nes will read these lines during
the next tow days. Should these men's minds be
imbued with what is called • liberal spirit, they will
the truth of this article, and ii they she to
gli=thropista, they will not only nod it stow
selves, but came their LIM 110/161.11.001 Ocassevados
weans to rive it attention, in the hissed telasky
dam to believe that--" It is aeon boo to mod.

Some of my readers will ask how all this came about.
Well, it there is any weight at all to be attached to
politics, surely the supporters of the "powers which
b." should get "the benefit of the doubt," if they
have the shadow of • claim upon those powers.

Art
On the table before me is • " General order"
relative to Section 37 of "Th. Divided Parishes and
Poor Low Amendment .
1876 (98 and 40 Vict. cap.
6I,)" and • circular letter from the secretary to the
Local Government Board relative to " spowial rates."
From the perusal of those documents I find that we
have not to look to ex-oilcio EuZdians of the Poor to
tell us who is to collect the ugh rates, but to the
Town Counclllo, of which functionaries at the
present moment a large majority (in common with the
majority of the Burgesses of Poole) would prefer Mr.
John Mowlam to Mr. Peens as collector of the
borough rates. This majority is Liberal—and, from
what I hear, likely to be so.

frob3n gat inth stud atom f trot pritmer did, on the 30th June, threaten to "have his
revenge, and to use • knife on twooscutrix. —Prisoner in
I congrat flat* the poor'arant payers •
(Dot the rate- • defence said he had been drinking, end scarcely knew
what he was about at the tima—Prossentrix stated her
payent fo there • vast deal of difference between and was sorry for what had ooeuried. —Bound over to keep
unwillingnew to press the charge as prisoner was drinky.
the two) 311 laving secured the valuable serviced; of Mr. the peace for six months, in his own recoglit2onotsls, and
Edmund Pearce as collector of the levies we are In. a surety of
the habit of paying every quarter when we have the
money, and can do so.