The Potteries Examiner : — 1872-07-27 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

NOTES OF THE WEEK.  THE INTERNATIONA L.  A paragraph referring to the anticipated collapse of the International recently went the round of the papers. It was stated that the members of the organisation expected the society to pees through a serious crisis at the approaching meeting at the Hague. On the alleged ground that English working men had found it doing so little towards helping them in their struggles against employers, it was averred that a proposal would be brought forward to disintegrate the society, and that in any circumstance the English element would withdraw from the organisation. The Nottingham Congress of the International, however, took notice the other day of what it called the miarepresentations of the press, and declared the statements about the divisions of the society and the rumoured intention of the English members to withdraw as utterly false—the mere invention of those who are afraidof the progress of the principles of the association. From the extreme breadth of the platform adopted by the members,  _ a considerable variety of topics came up for discussion at the Nottingham Congress. One of these had , reference to the representation of labour in Parliament, atd a resolution was carried to the effect that as the social emancipation of the working classes was the great end to which their efforts should be directed, it was necessary to take political action for that purpose, and they therefore pledged themselvee to establish a district labour party. A debate on education ended in a resolution which recognised the necessity of an equality of education for all persons, and required the establishment of a thorough system, which shordd be obligatory, gratuitous, industrial, and secular. On the subject of political action for Ireland, suggested by the Rome Rule agitation, the congress approved of the system of Federative government with local Perlis.- , merits for all purposes of the British Empire. In the political platform adopted there were such strong " planks " as the principle of political equality, based upon adult suffrage, with proportional representation; the eligibility of every person to fill any office in the State ; the nationalisation of land; the abolition of hereditary titles and privileges; the abolition of the office of Justice of the Peace; re ligions equality, and the dieestablishment of all State Churches ; and the establishment of a National Bank of Issue in lien of all other banks. The schemes of the Internationalists, it must be admitted, are sufficiently broad and sweeping, but no harm can come of mooting them if they are always discussed as temperately as they seem to have been at the Nottingham Congress.  The present high prices of meat, real, and other necessaries, that have given rise to angry demonstrations in some quarters, are not confined to this country, but are being felt with equal stringency on other pane of Europe. The Federal Assembly of Switzerland, taking into consideration the increased difficulty of maintaining social status in dear times, have raised the salaries of all Federal councillors from 8,500 to 12,000 francs, common councillors from 6,000 to 9,000 francs, and the salary of the President from 10,000 to 13,000 francs per annum. In Berlin again, according to the statement of a correspondent, the augmentation in the prices of all descriptions of commodities has been so disproportionate to the increase of the inhabitants' means, that much suffering has befallen the lower and middle classes, and many suicides have taken place from sheer want and desperation. Everything, from hones-rent to beef-steaks, is said to be so outrageously dear, that clerks and Government officials, who are there ill. paid, have a sore fight to keep soul and body together with two or three meagre meals a day. The pressure upon the recipients of small stipends is noted in the falling-off in the number of students attending the Berlin University, there being six hundred students less than at the same date last summer. It is in Berlin that the pressure of high prices is most painfully felt, and the students who are compelled to beat a retreat from the capital find a refuge In Leipzio.