Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-07-16 00:00:00

to concede to its perseverance and its clamour. Such

men will, one day, have reason to rejoice that they

have been saved from themselves.

that there Was

an order of men whose traditions instinctively led
them to fix and embody that Conservative sentiment
which really animates all sections of the State not

hopelessly committed to an incipient spirit of revolu-
tion. There are crises, in ti poplar Government
when the controlling power., of unofficial influence
performs loftier functions than the Executive. We
believe one such crisis is at hand. We believe the com-

ing campaign—not this session, and, perhaps, not

this year

—will sift many opinions and disturb many

allegianCes ; and, we believe,'the•existence of a strong

Conservative Opposition is an augury of stability to
the British Constitution.

It is not mere politics in which the working classes
of this country are really interested, so much as it is
those philanthropic principles,.and the practical sys-
tem, founded upon them, which belong to our com-
mon humanity ; would men but give heed to them in
their everyday intercourse with one another. They
are the principles of universal goodwill—of a desire
to serve one another—a wish and an aim to advance
the general happiness. As the poet has well pro-
claimed,—

111 mankind's concerned in charity

—meaning by this, that we have all a deep concern
in the benevolence, tenderness, kindness, compassion
which may be summed up in that one word, and
without' which, in Christian ethicS more especially,
all our doings are nothing' worth. Our humbler
brethren have the strongest claim upon us for its
exercise towards them. The dependent position of
the toiling masses of,the people constitutes them the
very classes who are especially 'entitled to our more
benevolent care and concern'; yet, alas! how often
has it not been, that in the, cold and heartless world
in which, day by day, they have lived and moved,
they have nothing to cheer, but rather everything to
depress them. Take the case of the factory operatives,
some twenty years ago. How indifferent used to be
their very employers,
,as to their condition under
their employment ; how little did they care about
what they or their children suffered thereby, so long
as the mills in which they toiled and slaved, and
were not lmfrequently mangled and attenuated,
turned out profitable in their operations. Nay, worse
than this, how active and how bitter was the ani-
mosity of the millowncrs against those who sought
to ameliorate their condition—how determinedly they
opposed, and how constantly they threw the most
formidable obstacles in the way of every endeavour
to effect so humane and beneficent an object. But
they did so, in the end, in vain. God defended the
right. The struggle was a long and a severe one.
It was the mammon of unrighteousness against the
sacred rights of humanity; and those rights at length
triumphed, and that .humanity was *indicated. But
politics didn't do it.

The change which has come over the spirit of the
nnrighteous.mammon on this very subject of factory
labour, has been remarkably exemplified within the
last few days. The very law for the protection of
their workers, which the mill owners opposed so
strenuously, they appear now amongst the most
anxious to have strictly enforced. Several of them
accompanied a deputation of the Lancashire opera-
tives to the Home Office, when Mr. Bazley, one of
the members for Manchester, in introducing them,
said, that he was glad to find that their object, was
not to seek for new legislation, but simply to ask the

Home Secretary to afford the means of more efficient
inspection, in order to put down violations of the

law, which .no doubt prevailed in many of the out
districts. So far as that was concerned, he added,
he fully concurred with the views of the deputation,
and hoped that the Home Secretary would give his
attention to what would be said on the subject. Nor
was this all; for one hon. gentleman took occasion to
testify to the happy effects of the legislation which
the manufacturers, used to think so obnoxious and so

mischievous in its influence upon the relations of
master and ,workman. Never, he declared, was
there a time at which such a good feeling existed
between master and man, and he believed that a
large number of the employers of labour were anxious
that the provisions of the present hill should be
strictly observed by all concerned. '

There was a slight difference of opinion among the
deputation on the subject of further legislation. But
the general impression seemed to be, that if the present
laws were strictly enforced, it would answer every
good purpose. One of the deputation, however, said
that as regarded the violations of the law, he con-

sidered it his duty strongly to impress upon the
mind of the Home Secretary that they 'were on the
increase, and he believed chiefly owing to the want

of proper inspection

It is not, however, into the question itself of more
efficient inspection that we would now enter. We
trust that the subject will be carefully considered by
the Government, and that the factory hands will soon
have cause to appreciate more than ever the law in
all its fulness and force. Our only object at present
is to point to the happier state of things that now
exists, through such legislation, among a most numer-
ous and important body of the industrious classes; and
to remind them that this great practical improvement
which they have-experienced was not accomplished
by means of politics, but rather in spite of them; for
it had to contend, for a long time against the opposi-
lion of some of our most popular politicians.