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    J uly 31, 1852.] THE LEADER. 731

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    [in this department, as ai/l opinions, h...

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    THE BARONESS VON BECK. {TotheEditotof th...

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    On The Issue Op The Engineers' Late Stru...

    that " the ' Great Distressing-case Manufactory' of this country was one conducted by railway companies , nd until the rights of Industry were better recognised the public would long have to insure itself against ' « Fatal Accidents '—for while society took no interest - the rights of Labour , there could be no complaint f Labour took no interest in the safety of society . " At a remark so pregnant as this , jittered with a sullen kind of energy , our third traveller looked up , and it was observed to him— " Did you , sir , happen to take any interest in the late struggle of the Amalgamated Eng ineers ? " ' > . : " Interest ? No ; " was the monosyllabic reply . _« Considering the recognition of the welfare of the working class the public now profess , perhaps they deserved a better fate ?" " Perhaps . " The reply of our friend in countinghouse costume was limited to this disyllabic " The course they are understood to intend for the future may possibly lead to more favourable results ?" " Possibly , " was the trisyllabic ejaculation of our non-communicative companion . As , however , an additional syllable had been extorted at each attempt at conversation , I did not despair . " The Times admitted , " I added , " that the masters as much combined against the men as the men against the masters . Combination therefore seems regarded as a legitimate instrument . The only quest ion is its right direction . May not the men solve the problem of its wise use ?" sullen and llabic

    " Peradventure , " was the polysy response . And I gave up the dialogue . Had there been a word of five sy llables suited for an answer , I might have attempted to extract it , but the forbidding growl in which he ' peradventure" spoke , would have disconcerted a Barrister in cross-examination . This gentleman , you could see , was a disciple of cheapness . His vest had the well-known sparkle of devil ' s dust upon it—the collar of his coat betrayed the slop-shop stitch ; his carious teeth were stopped with gutta-percha ; his trousers had shrunk in the first rain to which they had been exposed , and req uired st raps of considerable powe r and unusual length to keep them below his knees ; he had bought everything in the cheapest market—even his manners . A hard student of " dollars and dimes , " he had never learned that amenity is economy . It had never occurred to him that a generous sympathy for others might prove a good investment in a world where there exists Humanity as well as Manufactures . The world opens before those who meet it with heart-feeling , while it closes up the way before those whose sole wisdom lies in seeking to overreach it or coerce it . Beauty wins the Beast by kindly arts , while Deformity has to fight it . The lesson has its moral in the world . The taciturnity of our rail-mate in " West Saxony , " was however compensated for by the prompt loquacity of him in " barragan , " who said in explanation of his former remark , that " if the citizen felt he had a recognised position in the state—if the House of Commons trusted him—if the public cared to guarantee him wholesome . subsistence , and ultimate moderate competence , for Labour conscientiously discharged , he might como to feel Industry an honour instead of finding- it as now a punishment , and he would come to feel artistic ]> ride in the excellence of his work , and in the masterly 1111 ( 1 Vigilant ( _liscluirgn of hio dutica _whioli , if * onoo £ o \ t . would save us fif ty accidents a-year on tho railways Jilone . All things go by cheapness . Among trade < " : _onomists they have yet to learn that to guarantee tho welfare of honest Labour is tho least expensive , smd tho only mode of guaranteeing tho public safety in such respects as that safety depends upon vigilant and conscientious Industry . " concerned in the late contest of

    You were I presumes the amalgamated engineers ? " Yes , " he answered : " I am now in search of work in consequence . My former situation was good and I Naved some money . I should now be employed but I have been required to sign a declaration that I will leave the society formed for our joint defence . Though I have been defeated I will not bo disgraced . The employers forced us into tho defensive . They struck against m rather than wo against them . They turned ¦ 1 ' rados Unionists themselves , _condemning uh nil the while for being ho . Yet if we were wrong they could not he hi tho right . Generally however the press Hided with them . Competition HeeniH to be a _gumo in which it is legitimate for Employers to crush workmen l » y any moans . " The _saddest ' _eonsideration , I observed , in that , _worktoon taught by ho _disastrous an example may come to think themselves at liberty to conduct their wide of the _oontost with the sumo licence . " The public _ncom willing that wo should , " tho mechanic replied . " We had u right to improve our

    On The Issue Op The Engineers' Late Stru...

    condition . It is an advantage to the public , as Mr . Ludlow showed in his instructive Lectures to us , * whenever a class of workmen are able to raise their own wages without destroying the manufactures or employing class who conduct the trade itself . Political economy has agreed to this . We were in the right . We were not doing harm . We assaulted no one . We attempted nothing illegal . Then why did the public leave us to be destroyed ?" The public suffered Poland to perish , though the independence of Poland was important to the liberties of Europe . The public has lately suffered Italy to fall and Hungary to be overrun . It first suffers the wrong and tardily sympathises afterwards . It does but ill understand , its own interests , and where it does , any power having the skill to assail them indirectly , may calculate on success . Even in Home affairs it is little perceived how closely Middle Class welfare is allied to Working Class rights . You thought that because you meant well and were on the whole in the right , that you must succeed , and t hat many would help you . Hence your shopmates are everywhere despondent and outraged . More experience will show you that it is a little thing to have right on your side unless you have conquered the methods of making that , right understood , and can command the means of making it successful without the sympathy or aid of other classes . You will have both sympathy and aid e ventually , but not until you have shown capacity to do without them . It is apparently very hard , but such is the way of the world . " In the future we shall turn our attention to Association . By Co-operative Workshops we shall attain an independency of Employers . We are unanimous , " added the colloquist of the Amalgamated Society , " and this time we shall succeed . Henceforth we act for ourselves . " of

    And lose , I rejoined , the remainder your money inevitably , unless you have much more wisdom than the world credits you with . A Strike is a mode of losing money by a hostile act . Co-operation , as hitherto conducted , is a mode of losing it by a peaceable act . Co-operation without authority is merely anarchy by mutual consent , and anarchy in busine ss is but bankruptcy in progress . Now , no body of workmen in England are sufficiently well-informed to set up among themselves an intelligent and imperative authority , nor wisdom enough to submit to it . Co-operative workshops can only subsist at first by the principle of mastership and division of ultimate—very ultimate—profits . Where every man is to be a master , every man comes to bo a beggar in the end . This was the source of failure in the experimental Communities of which you may have heard . People tell you they wanted the Religious bond . Those who say so do so because , knowing not hing about the subject , they find themselves called upon to assign some reason for failure , and they assign that . It satisfies the public , and precludes the necessity of any inquiry into the truth . There was religion in all these Communities , if Religion means boundless faith , good intent , and devoted service . But faith without direction is , among multitudes , more dangerous than scepticism . Such faith is active for conscientious mischief . Doubt is merely neutral . The commercial sense of Religion in a Community is Unity , and Unity always acts by submission . The submission may be an act of piety or an act of sense . With the _ltupjntes it was an act of piety , and they have pursued an eccentric career . No instance lias occurred in which Hub-mission has been an act of sense ; and whether it would be progressive in its effects , cannot be predicated . The problem in yet unsolved . The practical point ascertained is the conviction of tho indispensable necessity of an authority which shall act by consent—hut act , and act unfettered . Queenwood fell for want of this . The existing Welsh Community is languishing from the same cause . A Co-operative Workshop is certain ruin without it . Tho council of tho Amalgamated Engineers have acquitted themselves in a very superior manner compared with previous Trades' Councils ; but they have more courage than any men in the country if they should propose such a plan ; and their members are more intelligent and better disciplined than any body of workmen yet known in Kngland , if they consent to it , and aid cordially to carry it out—that is , without reluctance , suspicion , or impatience . Whether wo should have agreed on thin subject did not appear . An influx of passengers at thin point diverted and terminated tho conversation . Jon .

    Viiiii ..- Too Into for Uiin wc'olr . A _HiiiiHciuiiiut . —Will lit' wind hiH _namn and _uddronn , in _aucordanoo with our rulo V 11 ' ho , wo will readily _pultliHh his valuahlo contribution .

    * Tho Master _EnginoorH and their Workmen : Thrco Lectures by T . M . Ludlow , Esq ., _Bumator-at-Law .

    On The Issue Op The Engineers' Late Stru...

    IQur friend , the _tdon of the " Open Council , " w > _unavoidabl y omitted this week . Me has been lent for one toeek only to the _Protectioniats- _^ -the ancient British animal being quite uted up in their service . ]

    J Uly 31, 1852.] The Leader. 731

    J uly 31 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 731

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    n mt

    [In This Department, As Ai/L Opinions, H...

    [ in this department , as ai / l opinions , howetee kxxebms abb _allowed . an expression , the editob necessabilt holds himself eesponsible fob none . ]

    The Baroness Von Beck. {Totheeditotof Th...

    THE BARONESS VON BECK . { TotheEditotof the Leader . ) Sir , —May I request the insertion , in your paper of Saturday next , of the following copy of a letter which I send to the Examiner this day . It is due to the defendants , in the case of Derra v . Dawson , that the appearance of this letter should be ensured . Yours respectfully , J . _ToiJiiMiN Smith . THE BAEONESS VON BECK ' S CASE . ( To the _JSditor of the Examiner . ) Sir , —As you gave insertion , last _Satiirday , to a letter from Constant Derra , asking att ention t o his trial , I now request at your hands—in the name of fair play and common justice—the insertion of the following in your paper of next Saturday . On the 30 th August , 1851 , the imposture practised by a person calling herself " Baroness von Beck , " conclusively established at Birmingham . The press , with the facts before it , noticed the proved imposture —neither Times nor any other journal , doing other than app rove the exposure , and not one voice being raised in disapprobation of the proceedings . Nothing has happened since , except that the public and the press have forgotten the evidence of facts at that time published . But certain private objects were to be gained by bolstering up the imposition . It has been attempted . Among other things , an action was commenced against certain most honourable gentlemen . The inevitable result ( in failure ) being foreseen by those who took this step , it was sought to prejudice the public mind by bringing an ex parte and untrue case before the House of Lords , pending the trial of this action . Though the course of justice was thus allowed , by the House of Lords ( strangely enough ) , to be interfered with , however , the action has altogether failed . The p laintiff has broken down , and been nonsuited . But this very circumstance has prevented the defendants from bringing the true facts of this case before the public . I beg , therefore , to state that I and _others attended that trial prepared with complete evidence , which would have left it impossible for any man of honesty or common sense to pretend to doubt the propriety of the proceedings taken to expose the imposture practised by the person calling herself the Baroness von Beck . his conduct

    I make no remark on Constant Derra or . He has , I have always believed , been the mere tool of others . But those whose sentimental sympathies have been aroused may derive consolation from the fact , that the lady personated—the actual Baroness von Seek , whose name , family , and rank , the impostor assumed —is innocent of all wrong or suffering in this matter ; and is now ( or was a very short time ago ) alive and well in Hungary , alike honourable by birth , position , and character . Of this the evidence ; is in my possession . I am , yours respectfully , London , 20 th July , 1852 . J . ToDXMIN SMITH . ]\ S . —Since the above letter was written and posted , [ have received , by a coincidence ( sufficiently remarkable , a letter from the Continent , containing the last remaining links in the evidence as to the real Baroness von Beck . 1 am formally authorized by my distinguished correspondent ( who is a bishop of the Hungarian Church ) to publish the _following . Tho full details of names and personal residence , & c , aro in my possession . It must be stated that the impostor Riicidulu expressly put herself forth an " born llorc . czky " " I . authorize you to declare , in my name , to whonmoovor it may concern , that tho pretence of the upholders of tho Into Rucidula in forced and false ; I hat therein not , and never has been , any other _IJaroncHs . Heck , born Horeezky , than tho two above ; named _Huronessos | wives of two brothers ] , and both of which Indies arc ? still living . " Thus ends one of tho most extraordinary attempts at imposture of modern times : an attempt wickedly sought to be bolstered up after the imposture had been conclusively demonstrated in an open court of _justice ; and still further , though most clumsily and with its just results , attempted to be bolstered up at Warwick yesterday . This result , and the facts I now publish , will bo a lesson to all men not to he deferred from tho path of duty and the exposure of wrong , _although for a time even tho public press shall have been misled into treating as genuine that which _m in reality the most , barefaced impouturc and fraud . 20 th July , 1852 . J - TOULMIN SMITH .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 31, 1852, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31071852/page/15/