The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-07 00:00:00

know that we shall there find numerous friends
who will help us to cure ourselves.
A slight attempt has been made to throw ridi-
cule on what the democrats say on "an assumed
hostility" between capital and labour; but no
sneers ought or can now conceal the fact that
such an hostility actually exists, and is loudly
proclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic. It is
unwise to deny this hostility, and better were it
to acknowledge it, to seek out its origin, and, if it
cannot be subdued, at least to be very careful not
to aggravate it by unthinking legislation.
Considering capital as hoarded labour, as skil-
ful and ingenious machines made by labour, and
used by labour, it is undoubtedly erroneous to
suppose that there ever can be any hostility be-
tween industry and its best products. In that
sense capital is only labour's helpmate. It
subsists labour, while toiling to produce more,
and lightens its exertions. But that. is not the
sense in which the word capital is used both in
England and the United States. Here and there,
when used by labourers, it means capitalists—the
owners of capital, not capital itself; it means the
power of one man, or one peculiar class over
another, and in that sense the New York working
men are not wrong in affirming that the history
of the world is but the history of a struggle for
capital or power. In the early stages of society
the struggle was carried on by the sword in order
to get possession of the soil, and reduce some
classes to a state of slavery. In every part of
the world some one class or tribe succeeded, and
some other class or tribe was enslaved. The
former acquired a monopoly of the soil, and the
latter became dependent on them. They were
only allowed to have as much of the bread they
produced as barely sufficed for their existence.
Out of that condition of the labouring classes
has sprung their present condition; and
as capitalists now, in the great majority
of cases, set labourers to work, and are
the middle men between theta and the mo-
nopolists of the soil, and between theta arid
the Government, they receive a large share of the
traditional hostility which the enslaved class
has always felt for the enslavers.

That is the theory of the proclaimed hostility
between capitalists and labourers in both hemis-
pheres and now that the latter class are every-
where becoming aware of all the peculiarities in
their condition, and of the causes of those pecu-
liarities, it seems to us neither safe nor wise to
treat this hostility as a light or assumed matter,
and to run the risk of increasing it by laws con-
ferring additional or exclusive privileges on
any class of capitalists. That hostility pervades
society ; it is at present an element of its exist-
ence, and foreseeing laWgivers will take it se-
riously into their consideration, and provide, if
they can, for its gradual extinction, so that mas-
ters and workmen, who are indispensable to one
another, may work and live together in peace
and brotherhood.

it is a fact little thought of probably, even by
those whose whose conduct the principle which
it indicates ought to govern, that at this moment,
and every day of the year, persons are employed
in China, in the West Indies, in the United
States, in Poland, in France, and in other places,
preparing the materials for the daily meals of the
people of England. Our breakfast is partly pro-
vided by the Chinese and the West Indians.
America contributes flour, cheese, and meat to
the sustenance of the people. Poland, too, helps
to supply them with bread. No dinner of the
opulent classes is complete without French wines.
For us to have those commodities, men of whose
existence we know nothing whatever must now
be labouring, and must labour daily.
Who cultivates and gathers our tea ? who
brings it to Canton? Nobody in England knows.
We know that there is a great extent of land
called China; we know something of its :govern-
ment, and of the appearance of its people ; but of
the actual cultivators of the tea-plant, we have
never, perhaps, seen one, and we know very little
more of them titan we know of the inhabitants
of the moon. Yet on the labours of several ge-
nerations of these unknown men have many of
the English been dependent for comfort, for
exhilaration, and for food. What do we know
either of the actual cultivators of the vineyards of
France, or of the fields of Poland, or of the
United States? Absolutely nothing. Of course
knowing nothing of them, and they living far
beyond the reach of our laws, our Government
has not the smallest direct influence or control
over their exertions; but, were they discontinued,
great indeed would be the destruction of com-
fort, of subsistence, and of life in England?
It is another, and a reciprocal fact, that at the
same time the spinners of Manchester and
Leeds, the weavers of Paisley and Glasgow, the
grinders of Sheffield, , and the iron-founders
of Wales, of whose existence the inhabitants of
China, of the West Indies, of the United States,
of France, and of Poland, are as ignorant as we
are of the existence of the men whose labours
supply our wants, arc labouring daily and suc-
cessfully to supply the wants of those distant and
unknown people. Over the labours of our
people, the respective Governments of China, of
the United States, of France, or of Russia, have
not the smallest direct influence, and, at the
same time, the subsistence of no inconsiderable
number of their subjects depends on the market
for their produce which is found in the produc-
tions of the skilful labourers of the manufactur-
ing towns of England.
Such facts, though familiar to all the inqui-
rers into the subject of national wealth, ought to
be continually impressed on the minds of our
Members of Parliament. It requires no second
observation to prove that the reciprocal industries
we have alluded to, and all the immense mass
of employment in trade of which they are the
foundation, are of almost infinite importance
compared to the results of all the labours of
statesmen. For several generations a large part
of the subsistence of every trading society has
been dependent on the labours of men over
whom the rulers of each society have not had
the smallest direct control. Without the inter-
ference of the statesmen of England, the quantity
of tea required from China has always been ob-
tained, and the regularity of the supply, increas-
ing with our demand, has far surpasseeqduitthyeirmes
e,-
oularity with which the supply
of
kept pace with the demand. A Member of
Parliament wiplleoopnlenotoacticioeunntatlttrruasltatabde
tensecertain
opera
tiootnsthoef trade; but here is a case in Which
he is obliged to trust, and has trusted for ages,
the subsistence of all those who have been en-
gaged in the China trade, who have, articles
subsisted w
with
selling tea, or by manufacturing tl
which it has been bought, to the labours of un-
known men in a distant part of the globe.
It is very likely that our intruding statesmen
never knew, or never reflected, on the class of
facts we have adverted to. Had we never done
so it would have been no reproach to us. It is
no part exactly of our duty. It is no part of
the duty of any man in the street. Our duty,
and the duty of our neighbours, is nearly con-
fined to taking care of ourselves and families.
Ifwe provide for their subsistence and careful
bringing up, we do all that can be, with strict
justice, required of us. But those who under-
take to provide for the public happiness, and
marshal States into order, are bound to know all
the phenomena of social production, for by them
their own conduct ought to be guided. It is not
now contended, or supposed, whatever might
have been the case when FENELON wrote his
"-Telemaque," that statesmen make society. The
most self-sufficient HOTSPUR amongst the Tories
will tell you seriously that you must take man-
kind as you find them; that you cannot alter
human nature by written Constitutions ; that
men must be dealt with as they are, and Consti-
tutions adapted to them, not framed on some ab-
stract principles of presumed perfection. If that
be true, and no man will deny it, statesmen are
bound to know the whole phenomena of man's
social existence, including the important facts
that men who live in different countries labour
for each other without .any knowledge of the
existence -of each other, and that the subsistence
of both•—including millions of families in 'Me-
re nds on their mutual ancireci-
prnocC c6in
alilabtorrui cOePenstichmutual phenomena their laws
ought to be framed ; for by interrupting and de-