The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-14 00:00:00

~,.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE
BRADFORD REFORM ASSOCIATION.
Sir,—lf question were asked at Bradford of the
cause of the distress, it is almost certain the first
an i wer would be, " want of employment." What then
is this that is called want of employment, and how
do s it come ? Is it throuvh malice of somebody
that will not employ, or is there any further light to
be thrown, either on how it comes, or what would
re: move it?
If a number of people, as for instance the contents
of an emigrant ship, were cast away on an uninhabited
isl end and; left to their own exertions for support,
thoy must apply themselves either severally or in
co tnpanies, to see how the means of living can be got.
If they had a boat, as many as it would hold might
climb the rocks in search of sea-fowl or their egi. ;
and some must penetrate inland, to look for roots or
and at the worst to bring down firewood to
co ok what the others might obtain. If their
striy in the island seemed likely to be lasting,
th fit efforts must take a wider range. If
se:d-corn or potatoes had been saved from
the wreck, they must be planted in the manner
which gave the best prospect of having something to
eat hereafter. Shelter also must be provided against
e cold or the rainy season, which will be sure to
come. And though for a time they might adhere to
so much of a ship's discipline as should cause the pro-
ce eds of their industry to be brought into a common
snick, and a sea-gull to be faithfully divided as re-
corded in histories of shipwrecks, it would not be long
before this kind of community of goods was broken
ups, if only by the necessity there would be for dis-
persion in order to make the most of the capabilities
of the country whatever they might be. Aud as
so me would be abler or luckier than others, it would
not be long before some were found holding the po-
sition of employers and others of employed, present-.
k to some extent a copy of what is found in
so bieties that have stayed at home.
In this state of things, whether the employed
wc,uld have a good time of it or a bad, would clearly
depend mainly on one thing, viz. whether the whole
concern of the community was in a prosperous and
advancing state, or the contrary. If store of such
comforts of life as the place afforded, were attainable
with moderate certainty and moderate toil, then there
would be a lively demand for persons to gather or to
plant. But if on the contrary the returns were in
general less than would keep alive the workers, it is
plain that working for pay must be confined to a few►
of the most favoured localities, and those who did not
work for pay and had no previous resources provided,
must do the other thing hinted at, which is to starve.
In other words, there would be all the symptoms of a
" want of employment?' To put, for instance,
particular case ; if there is to be a demand
in Australia for servants upon sheep-farms, the extent
of the demand and the rate of wages must depend on
the general prosperity of sheep-farming in the coun-
try, and there will be no use in crying out "Employ
us, and give us ten pounds of meat a week and a
quarter of a pound of tea," unless the sheep-farming
trade is on the whole in a condition to afford it. If a
zealous man wants to improve the condition of farm
servants, he must go and discover a new territory for
sheep-farming.
The inference to be drawn from all this is, that the
only real cure for a want of employment is to open
new roads to the extension of profitable industry on
the large scale. It is not a thing to be done by Mr.
A. nor Mr. 8., nor by the united wisdom of the whole
parish together. It must be done by opening com-
munications
with new countries, either through going
there ourselves and producing what we and others
want, which is colonization or emigration,—or else
through offering the inhabitants of other countries
our home produce in exchange for theirs, which is
free trade. It had been hoped thatsometlnngin this
last way would have been done
already. And if it has
not, one reason may be that free trade
in
next February ; and another that the effettcoto corn
ro
duced by the smell of tree trade next February,ph-
been counteracted by potato-rots and failing as
crops
the year before.
And this leads to a wider and newer field, which
seems in part connected with the other. The idea
has widely gone forth, that the great defect is in the
existing system of division, which is by means of
competition and the accumulation of capital ; and an
experiment on a great scale is being made in France,
at the end of which we shall know more about the
subject than at present. But in the meanwhile, it
may be permitted to agree with the Chancellor, when
The Chancellor said, I doubt." And the doubt is
considerably strengthened, on applying the same
parallel as before.
Imagine two or three hundred working men sad
their families, hearing that an island like Robi'ison
Crusoe's affords tempting opportunities for living,
and determining to go there ; but they are to have
nothing t) do with either capital or competition.
The first thing they must have, is a ship, with sea-
men, and provisions. But this, unless they begin by
seizing somebody's ship, which will be met by strong
resistance from the owners and crew, they must either
effect by saving money to buy or hire one before they
think of proceeding further, which is being capitalists
themselves, —or they must in some manner pledge
their future labours or a portion of them, which is
entering into a competition of a most harsh and
revolting form, nothing shirt in fact of what
was done by the ancient bound servants itt
the American colonies, who were never mistaken for a
branch of successful Communists. But suppose
this difficulty got over, and that they arrive. It is
undeniable that when a man-of-war's crew has been
cast on an unknown land, men without families and
possessing in general something approaching to an
Equality of strength and ability, the habit of discipline
and the consciousness of being directed by indivi.
duals of greater knowledge than themselves have
kept them for a few weeks in something like a state
of communism or equal division of food and gunds.
And a similar effect has sometimes been produced by
religious excitement ; joined, it may be observed,
very frequently, to the profession of either celibacy,
or such rigid submission to the direction of
superiors in matters matrimonial, as precluded
the danger of disturbance from increase of numbers.
But where is the evidence in the whole world, that
collections of the working classes, either as they
are or are likely to be, would contentedly continue
to labour for the lazy or the ill-conditioned ? It is
clear that something like an American whipping-
house must be set up in self-defence, till the society
determined to recur to the easier mode, of leaving the
lazy to feed upon their laziness. It is because the
American has net this resource that he spends him-
self in hard whipping; he has paid his money before-
hand, and must either get the value of it by whipping
or lose it ; if he had so simple a remedy as not pay-
ing, whip-leather would be saved to him.
Fancy then an association of working men, car-
rying out as long as they were able their plan of a
kind of communism, and fancy another of equal num-
bers and with equal advantages of climate and soil,
employing the old-fashioned methods of making the
best contracts they could for themselves, and allowing
everybody else to do the same,—leaving, within cer-
tain reasonable limits to be determined by what men
call law, the right to every man to store for his own
use what fortune or talent shall put in his way,—thus
opening what to a certain extent may be a game of
chance but to a certain extent also is a game of skill,
to all the benefits arising out of the keen direction of
private ingenuity for the promotion of private ad-
vantage directly, and public incidentally. The ques-
tion is, which of these two associations would in the
-long run be found to have created the greatest amount
of comfort, not merely for those who were to be up-
permost, but for those who were to be undermost too.
If the amount created in the whole was in one in-
stance signally less than in the other, there must at
all events be a possible condition of things, where the
lot of the undermost shall be of any conceivable
badness.
A day or two ago it was my chance to go home
by water, and my attention was drawn to the finish,
equal to that of an astronomical or a surgical instru-
ment, of the steam-engine which worked
it like a great
giant between the decks. The name on it I remem-
ber was " Penn," and occurred to me to think how
many. Miss and Master Penns were enjoying the
luxuries of the ball-room or of riding a good horse,
in consequence of the successful application of sleep-
less nights and toilsome days by the senior Penn to
the polishing of pivots and the parallelism of cylin-
ders ; and how certainly along with this, would have
disappeared the support of the multitudinous classes
who live by steam, if no man had been allowed to
make any profit by steam-machinery, beyond the
share which might have befallen him from putting the
proceeds into botchpot. I firmly believe steam-
engines would never have been made by communism.
Till we see the results of the French experiment,
we bad best be moderately contented with things as
they are, to the extent at all events of not rushing
hastily into paths, which instead of leading us out of
the wood, may plunge us further in.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. PERRONET THOMPSON.
Blackheath, London, June 14,1848.

DEATH FROM FIRE-ARMS.—MT. Blacken, an
elderly gentleman, possessing considerable property in
the vicinity of Eaton square, and residing in that neigh-
b urhood, went down last week on a visit to a friend at
Frimley, near Bagshot. and on St,turday last he took up
a pistol which
,was lying on a shelf in the hall of the
house, or in one of idle adjoining rooms, and after
making several remarks on the construction of it, he re-
monstrated with some of the members of the family on
the rusty state in which it was kept, when by some in-
explieable mystery the pistol suddenly exploded, and
the muzzle being unfortunately turned towards the old
gentleman, the ball passed directly through his head,
killing him instantly, and almost without a groan. The
unfortunate gentleman had been for some time a sufferer
from the gout in the hands and wrists by which his
hands were greatly stiffened, and it is supposed the
want of pliancy of finger was the chief cause of the un-
fortunate accident.