The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PDBLIO JOURNALS.

TIMES.—Some twenty years ago, when the doe-

.rines of SociaEsm were actively &Cussed in France,

M. Louis Blanc, one of the ablest advocates of the

new school, propounded certain axioms which are
not without their interest at the present moment.
He laid it down as an introductory definition or
principle that " the people " of a country consisted
exclusively of those who had no certainty of either
board or lodging. If a man were possessed either
of a little capital or of any such means of labour
as would render his subsistence more probable, or

his dependence upon others something less than
absolute, he was not one of " the people" at all,
but belonged to the clase of " burgesses," or, as we
should say, shopkeepers or citizens. This assump-
tion monopolised a respectable title in a very arbit-
rary manner ; nor was it, indeed, at all difficult to
reduce the proposition to an absurdity. M. Blanc
was writing and thinking of a country and an age
in which " the people," according to his definition,
might really form the majority of the population,
but it was perfectly easy, not only to imagine, but
to produce examples of times and countries in which
the means of comparative independence might be so
generally distributed as to leave very few " people "
discoverable. To take a very strong case, we might
find one of the United States of America in which

with a numerous population, there would perhaps
be no " people" at all. Indeed, to complete the
demonstration, we need only observe that, if M.
Louis Blanc could have established his own prin:

ciples of society in France, and those principlei had
been successful, the result would have been simply
the destruction of the entire French " people." M.
Blanc's belief was that by the principles which he ad-
vocated the dependence of thelabouring classes would
be abolished, and a reasonable competence secured
to all persons alike. In:this event, however, " the
people," by his own definition, would have ceased to
exist. We have said that these now almost forgotten
discussions have an application to our own current
politics, and we make it by remarking that it is ex-
ceedingly doubtful whether the people of England,
according to this definition, form more than a small
minority of the population. There was one attempt
during the Reform debates of the last session to in-
troduce poverty or dependence as the characteristic
of a political class. Mr. T. Hughes, the well-known
member for Lambeth, argued that the " excessive
solvency of " of the upper and middle classes dis-
qualified them for appreciating the views of work-
ing men—intending, we presume, to contrast the
dependence of the latter with the independence of
the former. We showed. at the time with what very
large corrections on bah sides this distinction should
be received, but we are now led to conclude, from
certain documents recently published, that it would
be by no means easy to maintain the distinction at
all. In a few words, we suspect that the average
working man is, according to his wants and ways,
as well provided against a rainy day as the average
shopkeeper, clerk, artist, or professional man gene-
rally. This result, it is but just to add, has been
produced by something resembling that organisation
of labour to which M. Louis Blanc looked for the
accomplishment of his own views. Our working
classes of all trades and callings have co-operated
and associated to such good purpose that the
absolute dependence or uncertainty of subsistence
which M. Blanc assumed as the characteristic of
the order has pretty well disappeared. What with
trades' unions, friendly societies, benefit societies,
and societies for mutual help of all kinds and
descriptions, a working man has always the means
of assistance at hand. 'Through these various
agencies he can and does insure himself against sick-
ness, accident, old age, loss or suspension of employ-
ment, domestic casualties, or any kind of contin-
gency which might either diminish his income or in-
crease his expenditure. We see, indeed, that working
men can, by thousands together, cease from labour
of their own free will, in order to enhance, if pos-
sible, the value of that labour, and that, so far from
living in a state of helpless dependence, they can
put this preSsure upon their employers for months
at a time. These working men's Clubs have very
large accumulations of capital at the service of their
members. The Report of the Registrar of Friendly.
Societies, just published, gives a list of these Asso-
ciations, extending over 132 pages, printed in double
columns, and this list is entirely independent of
Associations for purposes of trade. Then the ac-
cumulations of private capital as exhibited in the
Returns of the Savings Banks are enormous. The
old Savings Banks one have nearly a million and
a half of depositors, with an aggregate of deposits
little short of forty millions of money. In fact, the
average amount standing to the credit of each de-
positor is £26 7s. Bd., and, as we presume the de-
positors mainly represent the working classes, and
we have recently been assured on the authority of
Professor Leone Levi that the average income of a
working man is 225. 6d. a week, it follows that up-
wards of a million of working men possess, upon an
average, private capital equal to some six months'
subsistence, apart from their claims on Unions and
Societies. All this, too, is exclusive of the'sums de-
posited in the new Savings Banks opened at the
Post-offices by Government, and of the annuities
purchased on similar security. Now, upon the whole,
is there any calling which is better provided or less
dependent than this? Labour is "organised," not, in-
deed, by any such State agency as Louis Blanc con-
templated, but by the better agency of labouring men
themselves. In fact, the organisation has been
almost carried to excess. The 'Trades' Unions have
shown symptoms of that exclusive and tyrannical
spirit which distinguished the Guilds of ancient
times, and the benefit societies have been so multi-
plied, and have entered into such competition with
each other, that Mr. Tidd Pratt is often obliged to
complain of their rules as based upon calculations
which must lead to insolvency. Upwards of ten
thousand of these societies have just made returns
to the Registrar, showing the number of members
to be 1,374,425, and the amount of funds to be
£5,362,028. Add this sum to the deposits in the
old and new savings banks together, and we shall
get a total sum of more than fifty millions of money
which the working classes in England alone have
put by, for the Savings Banks' Returns apply to
England only, and those of the Friendly Societies
only to England and Wales. Professor Levi, how-,
ever, gives the total number of " workers" in Eng-
land, male and female together, as under 7,500,000,
so that, upon an average, every man and woman of
the labouring classes would have a saving of some
£7 to fall back upon. This, of course, is a very
rough calculation, liable to many corrections, but it
is enough to show that our working classes are not,
in their own spheres, more dependent or helpless
than. the classes above them. Many a professional
man's subsistence hangs by a frailer thread than
that of the artisan, and we fancy M. Louis Blanc,
on looking around him, must discover that his defi-
nitions of 20 years since are upset by the experience
of the very country which he has complimented by
selecting it for his domicile.
.14aaLn.—The latest news from America tends
to justify the predictions of those who foretold a
second invasion of Canada by the Fenians before
the end of, the present year. The danger grgws
more imminent, in proportion as the chances of Pre-
sident Johnson's success diminish. The more evenly
the two parties are balanced, the more important
becomes the Irish vote and the more popular the
Fenian cause. ."Were the Democrats sure of, a
triumph in the approaching elections, we might con-
fide in the good sense and the firmness of the Pre-
sident to restrain the Fenian leaders, and to observe
the laws of good neighbourhood towards the British
territory. But there is now scarcely any room to
doubt that the President's wise, liberal, and patriotic
policy will fail in gaining the support of the majority
of the American people, who insist upon claiming
their full revenge upon the beaten South, and upon
asserting the Union by preventing unity. This is a
matter which concerns the American people alone,
and which we may leave them to settle in their own
way. But it is obvious that the predominance of
the Republican party in the States means a direct
menace to Canada. The Republican majority in
Congress has already openly avowed its sympathy
with Fenianism' and has done all in its power to
remove all difficulties from the path of the next
Fenian invasion: The further observance of the
rights of neutrality can, in any event, be hardly
expected from the United States Government. The
press of either party makes no secret of its sym-
pathies, real or affected, with the Fenian movement.
The New York Herald, which professes to take the
popular voice for its guide declares that " the four
millions who represent the Irish race in America
constitute too important an element in our political
society to have their views opposed and thwarted
by any party or by any politician." It affirms that
no executive officer in America will dare to place
any impediments in the way of the Fenians, and that
" whenever the Fenians are ready for the invasion
of Canada ou a grand scale," their movements will
be passively aided by the American Government.
The New York World is struck with the pertinacity
of the Irish Americans in their patriotic design, and
announces it as " very certuln that the A merican
people will warmly second their fellow-citizens in
their endeavours to secure justice for their native
land." Making every kind of allowance for the
characteristic habit of American ,politicians to say
more than they mean, it is impoSsible to shut our
eyes to the reality of the Canadian peril. Every
circumstance is in favour of a renewal of the Fenian
enterprise, and the road to Canada may be trodden
by General Roberts as soon as ever he is, pleased
to enter upon his mission of restoring justice to his
native land. There is nothing wanting, at least on
the American side, to render the crusade both easy
and profitable to the warriors of the green banner.
They are called upon for no other sacrifice than to
give up for a few days the luxury of quarrelling with