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    914 T H E L BADE U. U$o. 489. Aug. 6, 18...

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    OUTRAGES AT SEA. The numerous outrages c...

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    against Desdemona; arid then and there r...

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    THE UNIVERSAL STRIKE, Why don't we all s...

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    The Builders' Strike

    subjects , and is a copy from a daily paper . The writer says : —" The firms in the building trade are resolved in supporting Messrs . Trollope , in whose yard the strike was decreed to begin . All workmen who will not assert their own rights and liberties against the agitators will be turned off on the 6 th . " This was the tone of the worst fanatics of the French Revolution , and Canning ' s friend of the " Needy Kpifegrinder '' might have been the author of the ridiculous paragraph . Men cannot be compelled to be free ; and it is idle to represent an immense body of workmen as under the tyranny of a few agitators . Lord Brougham , in advocating Coriseils de PrucThomines

    and arbitration , was far nearer the mark , and it would be well if a few gentlemen of known character and intelligence would endeavour to understand every important strike as it occurs , and explain its bearings to the parties concerned . The cost of strikes is prodigious , and their number far greater than is usually supposed . It was computed that the Preston strike cost . £ 524 , 000 , of which . £ 92 , 000 was contributed by the working classes . The Engineers' strike cost enough to have materially improved the condition of the whole trade , which it awfully damaged ; and Sir S . M . Peto estimates this builders' quarrel as likely to cost ^ £ 300 , 000 a-year . The money loss is , however , far from

    representing the whole damage of these collisions , which embitter social relations and keeps back the political enfranchisement of the working classes . It will be well for public opinion to deal fairly with these matters- ^ -to point out clearly where the men are wrong , and at the same time to reprobate on the part of the employers any conduct that may be contrary to sound principles . The men combine against the capitalists , and the capitalists combine against the men . Both are entitled to this course , provided they keep within the bounds of morality and law ; If the men keep the hands oh strike , let the masters protect individual firms by sharing their loss ; but do not let them go further and resent -what they think wrong , by a tyranny which is worse .

    914 T H E L Bade U. U$O. 489. Aug. 6, 18...

    914 T H E L BADE U . U $ o . 489 . Aug . 6 , 1859 .

    Outrages At Sea. The Numerous Outrages C...

    OUTRAGES AT SEA . The numerous outrages committed on board ships , especially ships under the American flag , have attracted the attention of the House of Commons , and an address to her Majesty has been adopted to take steps to prevent them . It will not be difficult for her Majesty to enter into negotiations on this subject with the American Government , and for the two Governments together to extend the provisions of the Extradition treaty to offences committed on board ship , or subject them to some special tribunal which in England may

    chiefly take place in vessels engaged in the traffic between the United States and England . Amongst the Greeks , there may be piracy , but only amongst the English and American mariners are these outrages common . In Dutch vessels "we never heard of such doings ; now , the seamen of both countries are in the main derived from one common stock , and the laws and customs of both nations in use at sea have one common origin . Anterior to the separation of the United States from England , the maritime population of both was subjected to _ the same barbarous legislation . After the separation , the English seamen , who fled to the United States ,

    were always liable to be reclaimed , so that till the termination of the war in 1815 the mariners , in both American and English vessels , lived under a system of coercion . This -naturally , affected the manners of all classes , and it made merchant captains tyrants like officers of men-of-war in both countries , and continally degraded merchant seamen . Exposed as captains and their crews are , to common dangers , their occupation places them on an equality , gives them a common interest , and supplies continual occasions for mutual service and mutual friendliness . Our old naval system of coercion , however , has for a long period vitiated

    and continues to vitiate all the natural relations of both English and American mariners . It has affected commanders and men , shipowners , and their servants . Latterly , too , this old and erroneous system , somewhat improved , has been very much extended . The coercive power has turned schoolmaster , examiner , registrar , and certificate giver . It has supposed that it can inspire men with unflinching courage and prompt decision , or make them good seamen as it makes boys ^ good clerks ; and by petty regulations it has attempted to undo the mischief which it had done by _ long-contmued injustice . The result is the continued

    deterioration of the seamen . We expect , thereforej no good from further interference with this subject . Diplomacy and legislation know nothing of the maritime population of the world , and they , have failed too of ten and too signally , when dealing with subjects about which they might possess some information , to justify a nope that these measux'cs will improve the moral feelings of private seamen and ship captains . This , however , is the object to be effected with regard to men who are months absent from oxir shores , with whom the Government cannot possibly send detectives , constables and police commissioners , and whoni it must trust to take care of their own lives and help one another .

    act with the authority of the American Gov'ernment , and in America may act with the authority of our Government ; but only those who have not yet lost faith in diplomacy will expect much from any such contrivance . Sailors are , in one respect , sui generis . They are under no one jurisdiction , and cannot always be reached by the law . For a large part of their lives they are passing between one port and another , and if their own customs and dispositions be not kindly and just there is then no power at hand , external to thomselves , to keep them in order , Hence the superior

    importance of measures to improve and cultivate the good feelings of mariners , to measures which can only partially punish the ill actions whioh result from bad feelings . Hence * too , the deterioration in the charactpr of seamen , caused by our system , of which these outrages arc an additional proof , is a groat moral and an _ irremediable calamity . As trade communication between different parts of the world increases the "number of mariners will inoroase . At the same time , an the celerity of navigation increases thpy will bo absent from the land and from the amenities of oivil life

    for shorter periods , and so the morosenoss generated by hard diet and want of social enjoyment , one cause for outrages , will be lessened . As the means of interchanging conunoditios , the produce of different climates and of a diversity or industries , they are an important element of civilisation ; and cannot be lightly or unjustly treated by other portions of society without inflicting a grievous injury on the whole . For the public , enactments concerning the maritime population , who arc necessary to foreign , trad © and the defence of the C 01 "ltr 7 » should have ft deep interest . As nw > as wo know , the outrages complained of

    Against Desdemona; Arid Then And There R...

    against Desdemona ; arid then and there receive to his loving arms his erring but penitent spouse . If we seem to treat the subject with levity , it is because our real feelings would require language for their expression stronger than we think it fitting to employ here . Mk Sickles , happily for himself , lies beyond the jurisdiction of the English press . Happily , too , we say , for ourselves also . We have dirty linen enough of our own to wash , without taking in other people ' s . As for Mr . Sickles , we are well content to leave him , with the sincere hope that we may never hear his name again- If ; however , he is bent on keeping , the memory of his shame before the public , there is only one piece of mock-morality and pseudo-heroism which to our knowledge he has left uiipcrpetrated . Let him baptise his next child by the

    name of Key , arid the measure of his fame will be full . Our object , indeed , hi calling attention to this disgraceful story is to point out an evil which has grown to alarming heights in America , and of which we have had already too many symptoms . We allude to the system of public interference in the private lives of public men . ¦ In America there is always an appeal from the verdict of the law or the rules of society to the sympathy of the public . If you will only consent to make the public a partner in your most private , affairs' and affections— -if you will only tell them everything that an honourable man would keep seca-et—you are certain of their support . It was this pandering to idle popular curiosity—this laying bare of the most hidden recesses ofthe heart , which turned a Sickles into a popular hero , and a murderer into

    a martyr . We in this country have not gone so far . It is not the common custom for a husband separated from his wife to publish a statement of his wrongs and misfortunes in the public prints . It is not also habitual with us for a gentleman on dissolving partnership , to thrust , into , everybody ' s hands , an exports narrative of his quarrels with his partners . These sort of events are happily oJ rare . 'occurrence amongst us . Still it has been , too much the fashion of late , especially amongst 'literary men , to take the public into confidence about their private circumstances and their family be

    affairs . There is no custom we believe to so derogatory to the true dignity of literature . In drawing this moral from the Sickles confessions , we may be thought to be talcing an extreme view . We should be glad to think that we were . In private life one respects a man who bears his own troubles , pays his own way , and fights his own fights , without coining , puling and puning , to his neighbours for assistance and advice . It is * o nlso in public life . If Mr . Sickles can be nothing else , let him at least be a warning ^ to ourselves . Once in a century is quite enough for the confessions of a Rousseau .

    " SICKLES AND SENTIMENT . " We hoped that we had heard the last of Mr . Sickles . We were mistaken . Sickles is himself again—a husband and a father . Balzac remarks , that in all advdterous connexions , " II y a toujours une cliose de trop e ' est le mart . " The American moralist lias reversed the French apothegm . The one thing " de trop" in Mi . Sickles matrimonial relations , was Mr , Key . . This little obstacle being removed , marital equilibrium was restored . All is forgiven and forgotten—Mr . Key included . And Mr . Daniel Sickles writes to inform the papers , that he has condoned his wife ' s offence and welcomed her back to his hearth and homo .

    • We , with our old-world notions , can hardly keep pace with theso developments of American sentiment . Our trans-Atlantic friends . arc always trying , in some form or other , to out-do every one else . They have either the biggest patriot or the biggest pedlar— -the smallest djvarf or the fastest clipper . Had they lived in the days of the Titans , instead of piling Polion upon Ossa , they would have chucked Mont Blanc to the top of the Himalayas , or , at any rate , they would have said they had done so . Upon the same principle , they have boon of fate endeavouring to produce the greatest domestic tragedy

    in tho world . The drama , however , which began in a Porte St . Martin tale of blood , ended in the manner of a " Palais Royal" farce . Harrison Ainsworth should have written the prologue , Samuel Warren the narrative , and Paul de Ivook ( fox wo have no English writer possessed of the requisite amount or grotesque indelioaoy ) the sequel . A new edition of " Othello" should bo composed , suited to American sentiment . The Moor , instead of throttling his wife , should first stab CJassio behind his back ; acknowledge , in the presence of Ingo , the justice of the imputations

    The Universal Strike, Why Don't We All S...

    THE UNIVERSAL STRIKE , Why don't we all strike ? Wo arc never surprised at anybody striking work on any plea whatever . We are only astonished that tliu -whole nation , ourselves included , ore not continually striking . We are all underpaid ; wo are nil overworked . We are . all ¦ unappreciated . Tlic hours of our work arc daily increasing ; the amount paid for it is daily diminishing 1 ; and the estimation in ... l . Inl . It . !~ 1 , ^ 1 / 1 ... nil * lin 4- linwnilir fill ! lllll'dlV 11

    WlllUU AU JO . UA . U- — " W VH , HAUl * , **** l'l ' J 1 < -- ' ' * r sink lower thno ., at present . Pharaoh waa considered to have reduced the claims of enpitnl to a reduotio ad absurclwn when ho required tlie children of Israel to make bricks without straw . Ndw-a-days wo have to make bricks without clay ; as for the straw we never even think of it . Why , for instance , do not the curntes of the Church of England strike work some fine Sunday befor

    morning . Supposing , say to-morrov , e Divino sorvico commenced , the curates of every church in England , Ireland , and Berwick-upon - Tweed were to give notice that they would read no more sorvioos , poi'form no more uacraments , and preach no more sermons till thoiv just chums wore ooncoded , till their stipends wore rnisou to such a sum as they could subsist upon , nnd until the relative amount of work rondorod by thornhqIvos and their * vicars rosneotivolv was iiccoptcu

    as the basis by which theii several salaries should henceforth be regulated . What consternation thore would bo amongst that poouliav population of whom we hoar so much at present , whoso cwoi earthly qualification consists in attending service ana paying church-rates . The bosom ot ovory

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 6, 1859, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06081859/page/14/