The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-06 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 6, 1869.

One of the most notorious novels of EUGENE SUE,
Le Juif Errant, was recently, it may be remembered,
recalled to mind in a very frightful manner through
a reported admission by the sensational murderer
TRAUPMANN, of its pernicious influence upon his own
imagination. Intermingled with many of its more
evil influences, there were in that extraordinary fic-
tion of the " Wandering Jew" a number of compa-
ratively harmless, though for the most part wildly
Utopian, ideas—ideas which directly emanated
from the romance-writer's belief in what is de-
signated Communism. As a Socialist or Com-
munist, EUGENE SUE, quite as much as a man
of letters, or artist in words, wielded his pen
as a writer of imagination. And it was in his
first-mentioned capacity more especially, that, in Le
Juif Errant, he threw out those suggestions of his in
regard to the association of the employed artizan
with the employing manufacturer, in the production
of any given work of mingled art and industry, in
which their skill and capital, respectively, were inter-
twined, so to speak, or, otherwise to express it, were
brought into harmonious manifestation. It was in
this respect that he described how it came to pass
in the ideal atmosphere of his story, that
the name of the brawny, but supple-fingered
working goldsmith was inscribed, was either engraved
or emblazoned, on the article of vertu upon which his
skilled hands had been engaged, in return for the
wages of his master, the manufacturer. Touching
upon the same ground, though in a more practical or,
at any rate, in a less transcendental manner than the
French Communistic novelist, one of the most sober-
minded among our English statesmen, Lord STANLEY,
took occasion, yesterday, down at Liverpool,
in the course of an address delivered by
bins at the newly inaugurated Trades' Hall in
that town, before a large gathering of working
men, to remark—" Mau does not live by bread a!onc.
Pay day is not everything, and it is a natural and
not an unreasonable wish for every man to form, that
he should have some interest in and some control
over the work on which he is employed. Meanwhile
I say," added Lord STANLEY, noticing th ,t these
words had been greeted with ringing cheers by the
workmen there assembled—" that I wish most em-
phatically to guard myself against being supposed to
encourage the foolish fancy that there is anything in
the receipt of pay from employers which implies de-
grading dependence: Wages are equally wages,
whether paid weekly or quarterly. It can hardly
be said that the Judge on the Bench, or the
General in the field, or the Cabinet Minister in
his office is degraded by being paid for what
he does. But it is human nature, I think,
that a man should like to feel that he is to
be a gainer by any extra industry that he may put
forth, and that he should like to have some sense of
proprietorship in the shop, or mill, or whatever it
may be, in which he passes his days. And it is be-
cause the system introduced of late years of co-opera-
tive industry meets that natural wish that I look for-
ward to its extension with so much hopefulness. 1
believe," he went on to say, " that it is the best, the
surest remedy for that antagonism of labour and
capital which we hear so much talked of, and which
to a certain extent no doubt exists; for it is not
in any way necessary to successful co-operation
that the capitalist should be turned out of the con-
cern. The very best instances of its working,
in my belief, are those where the men employed
hold a certain number of shares in the under-
taking, the rest being held by the owner. But
questions of this kind--questions of detail—will
settle themselves better with the help of time than we
can settle them. The one thing that seems to me de-
sirable is that, no matter by what particular agency
or mechanism, the men who give their labour to the
concern shall to some extent share in the profit that
it makes. No doubt that participation is not to them
an unmixed gain. There are losses as well as gains,
bad times as well as go.od times ; but the very fact
that these vicissitudes occur will make the men who
share in them understand and feel better than they
ever did before the responsibilities and the diffi-
culties of the employer—and if, as is quite possible,
many having felt its difficulties, prefer the certainty
and security of fixed wages, they will, at least, have
had their choice between the two systems, and will
only have themselves to blame if they are not satis-
fied." Now in all this there is not one word, not one
idea, not one suggestion that partakes in any way of
an Utopian character. It is simply suggestive of bring-
ing together—into a reciprocation of interests—of
employ& and employed. But it touches on ground
akin to that to which we have already here incident-
ally referred. So put—put as Lord STANLEY puts it
—the proposition comes, and, in the consideration of
us all, most acceptably. So speaking—speaking as
Lord STANLEY did yesterday to the working men at
Liverpool—a Statesman does his work well and effec-
tively, and that, moreover, in the noblest capacities
that can appertain to him i❑ his character as .a States-
man, in his distinctive capacities, that is to say, as a
Social Reformer and as a Practical Philanthropist.

PROCRASTINATION is the first infirmity of feeble
minds, and that infirmity appears to be growing
rapidly upon the French EMPEROR, though hitherto
his mind has not been feeble. He has just
made what we fear will prove a serious blunder. Ac-
cording to ordinary arrangements the Corps Ldgislatif
should have met at an early date after the
elections for their verification. It did meet for
a sliort time, hut the Chamber was soon found to be