The Press.
London, England, 1853-10-22 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

newspaper stamp duties—now law reform—
now the sanitary question—now labourers'
strikes—now baths, washhouses, and free
libraries—every subject that can be named is
more popular, even with Democratic assem-
blies, than that of the much-vaunted manger
extension. Possibly at the bottom of this
indifferenee there may lie a strong suspicion
that the Ministerial professions are all a sham.
If so, we join in the sentiment and agree in
the opinion. We believe that Ministers will
bring forward no reform bill if they can help
it ; and that, if they are driven to legislate,
they will do as little as possible.
This result may he attained in more than
ono way. Nobody has forgotten the intrigue
by which Irish members were led to vote for
the ejection of Lord DERRY'S Government.
Mr. Harrxti could answer fur Sir C. WOOD, but
not for Mr. GLADSTONE: he was authorised to
speak for the Whigs, but could not undertake
to be the organ of a coalition. So the votes
were gained, and the quid pro quo withheld.
What has been done once may be tried again.
The dodge which imposed on the astute intel-
lects of the Brigade may be at least equally
successful with the more simpleminded and
guileless Saxons. Who stands pledged to
bring in a Reform Bill ? Lord ABERDEEN'S
Cabinet. But what if Lord ARERDEEN resign?
A I liivernment deprived of its chief is ipoofueto
dissolved and reconstructed, even though the
other constituent parts remain the same.
Thus a single change in the personnel of ad-
ministration releases twelve or thirteen states-
men from an ineonvenient pledge. Nothing
simpler than this evasion—nothing more
exactly in accordance with the CHANCRLLOR of
the EXCHEQUER'S Cast of mind. Here is one
door of escape, equally available too, what-
ever be the state of Europe, whether ono of
suppressed menace or open war; for real
peace, unhappily, is out of the question. Sup,
pose war imminent or impending, the means
of evasion are still easier to find. In any case,
under any circumstances, it seems to us
doubtful whether the great measure of 1554
will ever see the light ; and scarcely doubtful
that, if produced to the public, it will fall very
far short of the wishes and expectations of
those by whose votes it must be passed into
WV.

In these suspicions we are confirmed by the
language of a literary publication once power-
ful beyond all periodicals then existing ; and
even at the present day, though rather belong-
ing to the past than to the present--" mogul
nominis umbra '—respectable from its position,
its influence, and its tone. The Edinburgh
Review has long resigned to younger contemn
poraries its ancient post in the van of the
popular movement ; but it still commands
a respectable circulation, and occasionally,
though seldom, renovates its obsolete Whig
eery with an infusion of modern Liberalism.
Not so, however, in the matter of parliamen-
tary representation. The two remarkable
papers of October, '5l, and Januai7, '5l, were
Conservative in the strict sense of the word.
Diselaiming democracy represented by uni-
versal suffrage and electoral districts, not only
as inexpedient for the present, but as abso-
lutely and at all times dangerous—setting
forth the necessity of a limited franchise both
now and for the ftiture—and expressly de-
nouncing as class legislation that policy which
would throw all power into the hands of the
hamming masses—the writer addressed his
whole energies to moderate, rather than to
encourage, expectation—to cheek, instead of
stimulating, the innovating and ultra-progres-
sive spirit which it was the obvious policy of
Lord Jonx Itussm.m. to excite. In a third
essay—a continuation of the two former—the
same feeling is not less unequivocally dis-
played. Those indirect electoral influences
against which purists declaim, and which few
persons venture openly to defend, are palliated,
if not vindicated. The reviewer objects to
ballot—excuses the bribe taking voter by the
example of the place-accepting or place-hunt
ing senator—considers " any large reduction
"of the present qualification as unjust in
" principle, perilous in its operation, and re
" trogressive in its tendency "—and conebides
by a strong pnnegyrie on the project lalreadv
noticed in our columns) of a so-called "
franchise. Lastly, though recommend-

SATURDAY,

ing a lowering of the electoral qualification
in counties, he proposes to increase the intiu.
once of these last, as opposed to the towns,
by transferring to them the majority, if not the
whole, of such sesta as may be vacated by the
disfranchisement of corrupt or rotten bo-
roughs. Ou the merits or demerits of this
plan we may find opportunities to comment.
Enough for the present to have indicated the
tone of oomprounse, not to say vacillation, in
which an accredited organ of the Coalition
Cabinet approaches a question out of which
its employers have made so much political
capital.

MR. COBDEN AND THE EDINBURGH
CONFERENCE.
PASSING by the graceful tribute paid by
Mr. JOSEPH SWIM to the memory of Mr.
BRADSHAW, of Raiticay-Quids celebrity, " over
" whose grave he believed more tears had been
" shed than over that of Wellington," and
barely remarking the generous allusion of Mr.
lIINDLEY to the physical infirmities of Mr.
RozsucK, who was said to be suffering from
pamlysis, we return to the apostle of peace, Mr.
Com)Es himself; and, notwithstanding his
pathetic appeal, "Do not pick out a stray re-
" mark by this orator or that—do not cavil at
" any discrepancies that may be found in the
" speeches, but look alone to those resolutions
" which embody the principles auti objects
" of the Conference "—we shall take the liberty
of examining not only the resolutions but also
the reasoning on which they rest.
The tenor of these resolutions is to the effect
that war is an evil and that armaments arc
expensive. But no one asserts that war is a
positive good, or that armaments are in them-
selves public benefits: all that is alleged is
that war, though an evil, is sometimes !miles-
siny, and that armaments eau be justified as a
means to an end. Will Mr. COBDEN venture
to assert that in no event would he go to war,—
that he would rather endure national disgrace
than strike a manly blow for his country's
honour, or, it may be, its existence ? Let him,
without qualification, make this assertion
openly, which his unqualified declamation
implies, and his political existence is extinct.
As national credit is wealth, so national honour
is security. But if Mr. Comm.; will not repu-
diate war in all events, in that of foreign in-
vasion, for instance, then the question is only
one of degree, not of principle.
He says "we are not in a condition to exe-
" cute God's vengeance on Russia for doing
"an net of injustice to Turkey." Who sup-
posed we were ? Does he think that Admiral
DusnAm, his skilled seamen and disciplined
maniacs, are fanatics who have gone forth to
fight. in the spirit of crusaders ? They sailed
in obedience to the orders of the Admiralty,
which orders emanated from the Cabinet on
certain considerations of policy, one of which
is, that it is hazardous to the liberties and
dangerous to the peace of Europe to permit
any potentate to aggrandise his dominions at
the expense of his neighbours, and acquire
a preponderating power in the community of
nations.
But Mr. ConnEx, forsooth, has made a
notable discovery—that not only is acquisi-
tion of territory not necessarily an increase of
strength, but that the acquisition of Constan-
tinople by Russia, " instead of tending to in-
" crease her power, would have an opposite
" effect." That is, that the possession of
some of the richest portions of the globe, anti
the occupation of that position on it—which.
whether it be for the purposes of pence or of
war—as an emporium or a military post—is
the best, the strongest, and the most com-
manding—would impoverish Russia and di-
minish -her military strength. This is a
matter of opinion ; and, inasmuch as Lord
PALMERSTON thinks that territory furnishes
men, money, and military positions, Mr. Con
DEN says that neither Lora l'Ai.mrasvox nor any
one else except himself knows anything about
the matter. If Mr. ConoEN thinks it absurd
to apprehend that Russian aggression will
increase Russian power in the East, still more
absurd does it seem to him to suspect the Em-
peror NICHOLAS of cherishing ulterior designs.
Russia absorbs the neighbouring States, by

OCTOBER 22, 1853.

attraetion, because " they are a disorderly.
am:m.114.81, and decaying people." Not stt Tping
to question the accuracy of this statement, we
Shall only remark that, if the morality or it
were generally recognised and acted on, France
would have a very good title to Spain, and the
United States to the greater part of Central
Antetica.
Mr. Couot:x believes that war has always
been caused by the bulldog propensity of the
Ettglish people to tly at everything that will
tight with them; that Louts XIV. was com-
pelled to take towns in Flanders in self-
delowe ; that the French Directory was
bullied into war against its will. On this
point we may le:tve him to the concise answer
of Mr. H. Daummoxo---" Franco had first pro
claimed war on every crowned head in
Europe." The Convention had sworn etental
hatred to kings; nor do we think they were
deterred front war with England by any ex-
ceptional and personal affection for G EouuE
111. Had we, indeed, selfishly relying on our
insular security, left Europe to struggle un-
aided with that wild and helve revolutiontsy
spirit which in delirious frenzy " went raging
over the Rhine and up through the passes of
the Alps," we. too, should have been left alone
unaided, and, when without allies, attacked
ourselves at the last.
Our doubt id, on reviewing Mr. COBDEN'S
performances, whether he is greater as a
philosopher or a historian.

STRI
At Preston 30,000 MCII, whose annual wages
amount, at a nualerato Computation, to
01.1,0001., have struck to eoerve the maste►s
to increase that amount by an additional ten

per cent. What may be the aggregate capital
invested in that business in which the wages
of labour alone are nearly two-thirds of a
million it is not easy to say, but illllllollSe
it
must be. What the value of the annual pro-
duce of fifty mills—for that is the number
closed—May be, we do not know ; but it is
clear that, if this unhappy strike be continued,
the losses of the masters, and the sufferings
of the men, must be alike enormous; and,
great as is the wealth of England, even that
must be sensibly affected by it.
It may be easy and pleasant for a modern
Square, with a mind stored with the
axioms of political economy, to proceed from
those axioms and prove to demonstration
that according to " the rule of right and the
fitness of things" the evils of the strike will
work their own cure ; that when the funds of
the operatives are exhausted—when between
half of them and starvation only the work
house stads—when some, as was the ease
lately in London, have escaped by a death
self-sought front a condition they found un-
bearable—and when all the ministers have sus-
tained enormous losses and some are bank-
rupts in the. Gra:ette, their misery on the one
side, and pecuniary beim on the other, will
conquer pride, and either eonstmin mutual
concession or ensure the triumph of one over
the other, of labour over capital, or of capital
over hil tour. But man is not a mere machine to be
moved and measured by the principlesof weights
and forces applied to matter. Man is not culy
an intellectual and a reasoning but a moral
and a spiritual being. No must he be dealt
with as if he were a bale of cotton or a hogs-
head of sugar, as a medium of making money
alone. The maxim that " property has its
duties HA well as its rights" is not to be under-
stood as only applicable, and therefore to be
confined exclusively, to Ireland. What is right
on the Shannon is right also on the Irwell.
We are not expressing an opinion—we do
not say, for we do not know, that the men are
right and the masters wrong, or the masters
right and the men wrotg—we are only stating
certainties, that at Preston the men, in an
organised minion, the millowners, in their asso-
ciation,—labour and capital, confront each other
face to face, and straggle for the mastery ;
that, whether labour achieves a victory over
capital or capital over labour, the contest will
be alike diuvitroua to both ; that the zueuluuat

THE PRESS.

stag. tiitteli misery, the masters st.riolis
loss ; and this nutiuilul wealth. great a it is.

some diminution.
Now. the course to be adopted in this crisis
is, it appears to us. seareely to laugh as if this
strike was a pleasant and an amusing Speeta•
ele ; and then when one attempts to stop the
eontest or the—play, to step in and demon-
strate in the ' Square' style that men and
masters have a tight to do as they like, with a
parting sneer that in the emi one must
prevail over the other, when either famine
has done its work on the men or the
Court of Hankniptey on the masters. The
issue ought not to be which is the
stronger of the two— run conquer—
labour or eapital? Our own opinion is that
capital is far the more powerful of the two, be-
cause, whilst with the men it will be neces-
sary when their funds are exhausted for them
to seek a new mode of existence, with the

masters it will be a question of great or com-
parative wealth. and it will be only incumbent
on them to procure new men, if necessary.
from the Continent, where, and also here, the
coining war will deprive manly of employment.
But the question ought to be, what is fair?
what is just? what is right?
There is a proportion which wages should
bear to profits. is it impossible in the county
of Lancaster. in the nineteenth century, to
ascertain what ►enema that proportion should
be at present? Amongst the masters are men
whose humanity is known and velebrateel
wherever the English tongue is read, spoken.
and understood; and amongst. the meetumnies
are many whose candour, intelligence. and
freetbon from prejudiee, have deservedly
drawn forth a tribute of admiration front Lora
IlaorteitAm. When such are the materials, of
which it is largely composed, the great Maus
trial In:whine should work harmoniously :
that it does not do so proves that some
foreign body has got into it and disturbed it.
How to find tint what it is, is the question. Is
it impossible to have a permanent committee
of masters and men, whose fiat shall be final
on all points in dispute? is it impossible to
have a journal specially devoted to the entice
tint of facts, and the discussion of questions
bearing upon the Male of the labour market
and the amount of wages? 1s it impossible to
have a few able men appointed by the com-
mittee permanently engaged in instrneting, by
lectures and in other ways, the ineehanies—
ay, aid the ministers too —in the laws and
the principles of political economy, and in the
application of those principles to existing cir-
cumstances?
The amount of loss sustained in one day's
strike would more than accomplish the sus;
gestions, loosely indicated, which we, have
thrown out for consideration. The working-
men of England are a noble race, and our Ina-
iifintturers and merchants are, in power and
wealth, greater than princes. Between such
masters and such men strikes should never
occur. To the masters we would say, do not now
--even if you have been unfairly treated lq the
men—out of mere pride insist, to their Ilina•ly
and your own loss, until you have conquered
on every minute point ; instruct your me
why you cannot comply with
their demands—if your reasons are good, they
will yield to their fierce ;—anol to the me-
chanics we say, in no ironical sense, " Strike,
but hear !"