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    664 THE LEADER. [Saturday,

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    AMERICAN POLITICALXIEE SKETCHED BY v' AN...

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    The Shoe-Black Brigade. We Find Some Cur...

    been withdrawn by the superintendents of their schools , or discharged for various causes . The remaining 37 are still in the employment of the society . " The total earnings of the boys have increased from 656 / . in the first year , to 900 ? . in the second , which were thus divided : 49 ll . went to the boys as wages , 205 J . went into the boys' bank , and 203 / . was retained by the society . The society is not self-supporting , and it does not appear that it could easily be made so . The business of a shoe-black is one of those

    simple occupations that terminate with themselves ; it is not easy to see how a surplus blacking of shoes could be produced , and there could hardly , therefore , be an available surplus of returns , unless machinery was devoted to the purpose . And here again it might be difficult to induce customers who desired their shoes to be blacked to arrange themselves in sufficient numbers and in such postures as would facilitate the application of machinery . If it is desirable to make an effort for keeping open this branch of industry for boys who must otherwise go to the bad 3 it must be , as it is at present , the work of charity , and , we do not know any kind of charity of which the results are more tangibly beneficial .

    664 The Leader. [Saturday,

    664 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

    American Politicalxiee Sketched By V' An...

    AMERICAN POLITICALXIEE SKETCHED BY v' AN ENGLISH RESIDENT . Letter U . ¦ . ' » . £ The letter which we inserted last week , and which our printer addressed to "My dear Son , " should ( as the reader doubtless recollected of former letters ) haye been addressed to " Ion . " We record , without Bharing , all the sentiments of our American correspondent . Does he not overlook , when speaking of

    the " corruption" of representative government , that by the nature of Democracy it is all manifest , while in monarchies and despotisms it is intenser and deeper , only more concealed ? If " Democracy does not carry out the voice of the people" as we could -wish , it carries out and forwards the opinion of the people which in . due time becomes its voice . With these dissents we commit these interesting reflections to the attention of the reader IonJ

    " Modern Times , Thompson Station , Long Island , N . Y . " 11 th March , 1854 . "My i > eak ' Ion , ' — Why does our admirable friend , our Leader , suggest his non-responsibility for the opinions of ' The Stranger' and ' Non-Elec-tor ?* And , still more , why does he say the point of view occupied by his incomparable correspondent is the ' foreign one ? Surely , my friend , you will agree with me in thinking it is simply the point of view of the ' Non-Elector' in general ? Claiming myself to be essentially an English proletary , settled , permanently , in America , having every kind of sympathy to the fullest degree with the

    English working man , I say it fa our view of English politics expressed for us in a manner so admirable as to merit , as assuredly it ' will have , our deepest gratitude . Perhaps , however , we need not quarrel with the epithet ' foreign-, ' for are we not treated by the * Governing Classes' of England as foreigners—aliens ? England ia not our England } we belong to it , not it to us ; we belong to it , and to these ' Governing Classes , ' as do their cattle and machinery ^ or the three millions of negroes to the ' evangelical owners' of the southern plantations hero in the United States . We are counted up as so many hands the

    • ; ' we axe * producing classes , ' whose products belong to the elect few , who claim the right to 4 do what they like with their own . ' " You , my dear friend , know our brethren , the working-classes of England , personally , bettor than I do . Tell me , may we not count upon it that their long-continued apparent indifference to mere political reforms , springs m great measure from an inBtinctivo consciousness ; perhaps , tliafc the amelioration of their social condition depends ' finally upon a moral rather than a legal regeneration . This I regard as the essential basia of positivism in its social aspect . And the condition of this country is a . flnal demonstration of the truth of this doctrine .

    " The European Republican parties in general , amid all thoir endless diversities , diversities inneparablo from the metaphysical character of thoir doctrines , aeon * to bo nearly agreed in one thing ; in regarding the solution of the immense social problems now convulsing Europe na essentially a political one . Now , without denying the Immense gain to be derived from the annihilation of tho ? red monarchies , ' who have organineil a chronic r « ign of terror' immensely naoro sanguinary than tho exceptional one , chargeable upon the * party of progress , ' tho condition of tula country ia quite enough of itaolf to prove that

    the installation of Democracy , ever so intense , is just no solution at all . " First of all , Representative Government' means at bottom , Government by corruption . Auguste Comte , penetrating , by his most wonderful insight , into the real constitution of human . societies , proclaimed this as a principle , arrived at by him deductively . It was reserved to the United States to give a decisive and final , because practical , demonstration of its truth . A senator , from Florida , I think , once stated in Congress , that if the people of the United States generally were aware of the unfathomable depths of corruption in which every part of their central Government was submerged , they would inarch up to Washington en masse , and tumble the whole concern into the ocean . I admire the

    momentary gush of patriotic honesty which I assume to have dictated this singular speech ; but sympathise rather , though sadly , with the ' shouts of laughter ' which greeted it . For those shouts of laughter were but the expression of the consciousness of our ' honourable' rulers , that the corruption was too universal to admit of their having the slightest , fear of such a result . In fact , the rulers are but a ' representation' of the people in this matter ; the corruption has oaten its way into the very heart of society , affecting all classes , all orders of men , making itself felt in every village , I might say in every family . The fact is , the people ( Lo know that their Government is corrupt—wholly corrupt ; but the corruption has penetrated into every nook and cranny of the social system , and is , therefore , looked upon as a mere matter of course—a necessity— -without hope of remedy .

    " In the next place , Democracy , ever so rampant , does not secure the carrying into effect of the will of the people—except in the long run ; and that is secured under every form of Government . I am not unaware of the immense facility enjoyed under an ultra-Dembcracy- ^ -from the necessary "weakness of such a Govern ment ^ -for the propagation of new ideas . The people of some of our states would , if they could , bitterly persecute certain forms of faith .

    But they can't . Moreover , it is scarcely to be doubted that in several of the states a great majority of the people—of the lawful elector ' s mind , —would , if they could , pass the celebrated Maine Law ; while , after years of agitation , with elections intervening , it still remains in many of these states a rejected measure . The same holds good with regard to the school laws ; the people vainly endeavouring to effect great ameliorations , which the wealthy few find means to frustrate .

    " Then , again . Democracy is powerless in the most important of all modern questions—the labour question . The condition of the working classes here and in England differs solely by reason of circumstances certainly not produced by our Representative Government . On the contrary , this Representative Government ia itself a consequence , a product , of these same circumstances ; a fact which accounts for that connexion between the two results which has led casual observers to attribute one to the other . " Tell me , now , my friend , is it not the fact that many of our proletarian brothers of the ' old country , ' the most intelligent , the most influential among their followers , already know that this is the ca 3 e , or at least , shrewdly suspect it } and that , consequently , they nre waiting , perhaps often with but small hope 9 , for a deliverance quite other than that which political measures could yield ?

    "To such men , be they few or be they many , positivism must come as the gospel of glad tidings 3 Tor looking at the whole social problem from the loftiest point of view , it at least prepares the way for the solution of it . " Positivism proclaims , as the result of a scientific inquiry into human nature , the supremacy of the moral point of view . Socially , this is the foundation , I might say the very essence , of religion . " Such a religion , freely embraced by the masses

    of any population , could not fail to acquire a social Influence which would greatly modify tho exercise of that power which ia universally inherent in wealth , ' and which democracy , ever so democratic , cannot in tho least diminish . On the contrary , it increases it , if only by removing all competitors for social influence . In England * birth and blood' go for something ; educational manners go for something :. In America money ia all in all . Tho dollar , as I have told you before , is literally the Almighty .

    • ' Upon what can wo intellectually repose if not upon positive science ? And upon what basis shall wo organieo with chances of success equal to that promised by one capable of a roal universality ? " Of course , for tho day , wo must take such moans as we have have at hand . But I speak to one who has the ear of the most thoughtful of our class—of those capable , morally and intellectually , of doing something for a , future , in whoso happiness themselves will never share . And I » sk , what does experience teach ?

    " What earnest secularist reformer haa not found his courage failing him , when high wagoa aeomed to reault solely In the multiplication of gin-palaces , or ut tho best , in moro proaWuUca without aim and

    direction , real personal improvement not being recognisable ? True , this has always been only seemingly , because progress is the universal law ; but then the progress has been incomparably slower than it would be if subjected to wise , and earnest , and continuous efforts ia the right direction . " And especially , has it not been discouraging to have no satisfactory standard by which to measure progress ? We must always have felt instinctively that progress at bottom meant moral progress ; but what was moral progress ? The theologian could point to his scriptures—Bible , Koran , or what not ;

    but to us what resource ? only the hopeless and endless speculations of the metaphysician or sophistsave the spontaneous promptings of our own hearts . " To have , then , a common doctrine , based upon a scientific appreciation of our real nature , around which to rally , and by which to guide ourselves , is a boon of unutterable value—personal value , social value . Around such a doctrine , moreover , a philosophical organisation may grow up capable of furnishing a centre and a head to a popular organisation that no limits of country could confine ; for from its very Character it is obviously susceptible of a real universality .

    "Meantime , no doubt our friend the Leader , with his incomplete positivism , ' is about the most trusty guide the people in Englafel can for the present follow . But for myself , I want to do something to aid the final solution involved in tlxe reorganisation of public opinion . I cannot leave this great , this greatest theme , without referring to one singular social phenomenon , a careful consideration of "which would , I think , help our friends of the workingclasses to a better appreciation of positivism . I refer to the religious affinities , so to speak , of the celebrated * Manchester School . '

    "By the Manchester School , I mean that large party embracing the bulk of the middle classes , whose political philosophy is summed up in the brief French expression : ' Laissez-faire * Of this school , Mr . Cobden is the temporal head , so to speak , and Mr . Edward Miall—a name I must ever mention , were it only out of gratitude , with respect—the spiritual . It is only but too characteristic of the entire party that the spiritual element is treated as

    altogether subordinate . Now the fundamental principle of this party , in both its branches { I speak advisedly ) is , that self-interest constitutes the universal spring of human action . Consequently , with it , political economy is the beginning , the middle , and the end of political philosophy : the ultimate advantage to the individual of what is assumed to be right conduct is the highest principle of moral philosophy . The social point of view is , on both hands , virtually excluded .

    "It was the Bradford woolcombers , was it not ? who , during the Australian emigration , were rejected by the commissioners , on the ground that their emaciated condition rendered them incapable of labour . To these forlorn beings our ' Manchester School ' offered the consolation of meditating on the laws of supply and demand . So long as the private individual interest of these precious ' captains of industry ' kept them in flourishing trade , all well and good ; but although the failure of any one of them must necessarily plunge many families (!) into misery and want , the conception of a corresponding duty ia utterly foreign to both branches of this * Laissez-faire ' doctrine .

    " A man ' religious duty is in it marked out thus : Heaven—take others with you if you can , but any how—get to Heaven 1 In regard to temporal things duty is replaced , openly , expressly , without limitation of any kind , by interest . A man must not steal ; must not use false weights and measures , or rather must not bo found out in using thorn , on pain of gaol . But the conception of a positive duty , an active duty , especially on the part of'the strong towards the weak , is utterly foreign to this doctrine . Moreover , tho very possibility of such a conception prevailing would . bo art absurdity to any disciple of this school . " The spiritual aido of the doctrine docs add , it ia true , ' But tho grace of God changes the heart , "

    But this ia tho singular part of the phenomenon . This change of heart , whenever referred , as ia the cnao moro or . loss -with all Protestant sects , to a direct transaction between tho individual and his God , without social intervention , is n doctrine which fairly carried out to ita logical result ia tho leading feature of my quondam political teacher Mr . Miall , through his Nonconformist . This doctrine loses thus its whole social oiilcacy . Ita adherents , I know , roally consider it a moral truth ; but it is nothing else than tho eolf-intcrcst Byatom . of tho Cobden School—ita ultimate ia ft negation , of all positive social duty . " Yours , my dear « Ion , ' over faithfully , "IIknuy Enamn . "

    Lin tho lottor of lust wouk Miaa llroM ; er should have boon of coufHO Mist * DrottMir ; and " tho luat prcnidentiul doctrinn " tlio hint j ) rotikliiiil . inl chotion . Owing to Homo indititinotneaet ia tho US . of U . K . a low " Hloruln" crept into tho letter , which douUtloas tho reiuler was ublo to aupply , but ho ct'rtuiuly ought not to bo expected to rcoogniso Phalanx under tlio orthography of " Thakiux , " & c . —Ion . ]

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 15, 1854, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15071854/page/16/