The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-02-09
Sfsss fAs Rhsladslpkia erssa.
British Governing Glasses.

~s~s" s1s f@ssHastRhs" ErsSei
British Governing Glasses.
Whenever the bosom of public economy
shall be brought into use among our British
friends across the water, it will make clean
sweep of useless and overpaid officials
When wages in the agricultural parts of Eng
land, are only two dollars week, taking an
average OF receipts all the year round-there
being seasons in which outdoor work is al
most wholly suspended-it may be immagined
how miserably the masses crawl through life,
Id condition little higher than starvation
pol1t. In most instances the field-laborer has
wife and children to support, and certainly
10 provide rent as well as food and clothing,
OUT OF his miserable earnings. This too, in
the midst of plenty, elegance and luxuries
which would satisfy even the palled tastes of
pampered Sybarite. Snch utter poverty,
amid the utmost splendor and extravaganza,
is peculiarly European institution, and
would not be endured, indeed, it could not
exist in this country, where every honest man
who desires to work can have it almost for
the asking, with wages the amount of which
would be considered fabulous by laborers,
each of whom has to support himself and fam
lily upon an average of thirty six cents day.
The inevitable order of events will bring
about a wholesome revolt against this condi-
| ton of things in England, as 1t did in France
in 1889. The Revolution in the latter coun-
try arose rather from social than political
causes. The peasantry were wretched, OPP
pressed, i'll paid, well nighsdesperate in their
hopeless poverty. The mobiles were rapacious
contemptuous, and extravagant in their PRIDE
The many finally took courage, and threw off
the hard yoke of the oppressive and exacting
Few. That the Revolution did not material
j ly improve the condition of the workers must
be admitted. Political schemers got in and
pulled the wires for personal advantage, which
was opposed to the general good, but the
naughty nobility were swept away, as by a
/ deluge, and though new Aristocrscy was
created and some of the exiled noblesse crept
1 back to their titles, feudality never did, and
the French know that it never can return.
The British aristocracy, consisting of wealth
as well as rank, cannot be charged with ex-
ercising power over tie masses which caused
the downfall of the privileged and titled class
es in France. In very many instances, they
are even very kind to them personally. But
the powerful Lords and Commons who COM
pose the British Legislature make the laws
under which taxes are levied and the public
money distributed. They would not be hu-
man if, having the power in their hands, they
did not legislate in favor of their own class
and their own interests. Taxation 10 very I'M
equal in England, falling heaviest upon those
who can least afford to pay it, but its fruit, the
public revenue, is spent in a manner the best
suited to be of advantage to the wealthy class
es. Were 1t not so, could it ever happen that,
paying only twenty-six cents day to each
private soldier in the British army, he having
to feed himself out of that miserable dole,
there yet should be over six hundred general
officers, on handsome pay, in that small ar
my, being one general to every 365 soldiers?
An Oriental proverb tells us: "The last
straw breaks the cancels back" Much is
borne, up to a certain point, and then endu-
rance ceases and discomfort becomes practi-
CAL In England, when that point is reached
the details of the public departments will be
overhauled, sinecures swept away, pensions
examined and adjusted, perquisites repudiat.
ed, needless offices abolished, and salaries
adapted to the quantity and quality of work
performed for them. This would be "most
tolerabe and not to be endured" The noble
the landed estate man, the rich manufacturer
the wealthy shipowner, the millionaire mer.
chant, who desires to continue or to form lit.
tie dynasty of his own, by aid from the law Of
primogeniture, (which gives extensive proper.
ty to the Oldest son, leaving a pittance to
younger children, calculates upon having the
cadets of his family quartered upon heavily
taxed John Bull, and would chafe terribly
against any reduction of offices or salaries by
which their interests would be affected. Prac-
tically, the prospects Of these cadets would be
limited, If Office, which is held for life in Eng
land, were not open to them. It would be a
dreadful blow to the family pride, if any oil
them sought to live by mere mechanical pur-
suits or by trade. The bar, the church, the
a oh0 navy 0hO OPOn w tuCuiJ Uub III bdhcS
money to enter these professions, whereas it
costs nothing to 60 into Government office,
and, indeed, until lately it was not considered
necessary that, for this, their ability to read.
write, and cast accounts accurately, should be
tested, by examination, competing or not.
There were plenty of poor Woodworking fell
lows, sons of tradesmen and shop-keepers,
who did the business of each Office, leaving the
young gentlemen to figure as,its ornamental
caryatides-imposing in appearance, but real
| ly supporting no burthen. Reduce the pub
lie establishments, and what would become of
these popinjaysa For our own part, we firm
| ly believe that there is decided revolutions
ry tendency in England, among the millions
that the time is rapidly approaching when the
Many in that country will refuse to submit
any longer to the exclusive and usurping Few.
The refusal or neglect of the two powerful
parties, Wing and Tory, to grant such re-
form as will really make the Lower House rep
resent the Commons of England, is likely to
advance rather than retard the coming change.
The public mind in England is prepared for
that change, and, when it is made, it will prob
ably be effected without damage to life or
property, for the ruling classes know of old
how great is the power of the many, when
once agltated by the conviction OF common
wrong.
Missouri and Maine.
These twin sisters-admitted to the Union
at the same time, and born of a compromise
between freedom and slavery, though not
without reluctance end conscious shame by