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    nounced , we see nothing in it ; for , if the thing in to be done , it is better that there should be no mistake about it . " The Londonderry Standard prefaces an explanatory paper on the new Tenant Right Bill thus : — ' . ' . The Conference , which was expected with so much interest , took place on Wednesday w « ek , at the Imperial Hotel . Dublin . Mr . Sharman Crawford was accompanied by twelve members of the House of Commons , among whose names we are sorry to see none from the North . Twelve or thirteen more have written , promising their support to the bill : Lord Castlereagh is one of these . — We have , now , therefore , something tangible , anddehnite , and hopeful to present to the tenant-farmers .

    The Northern Whig asks where the blame will lie , if Ministers prosecute the Irish Bishops : — 41 The parties who procured the enactment of the bill , took very great pains to believe it should remain a dead letter . Probably their intention was that it should so remain ; but , at all events , the leaders of the movement , so inauspiciously entered on in this country , have not allowed the sincerity of their declaration to be tested . With a wrong-headed precipitancy , and an intemperate zeal which we must regret as much as we condemn , they have gone far to deprive the Government of every excuse for leniency , and have rendered it almost impossible for them to escape a conflict with the Executive . " " Tithe-hunting and Land Monopoly" occupy the Nor folk News : —

    " We do not hesitate to affirm that any law or usage which gives to an individual member of the community , whatever his rank or position may be , the absolute and unqualified right to control , for a long series of years after he shall have quitfed this world , the destination of vast territoiies , overlooks the primary and essential principle to which all rights of property are subject . That which was given originally for the support of many thousand families , cannot , without a gross violation of a most sacred principle , be placed at the uncontrollable disposal of any one man , for the simple and obvious reason that those thousands have a right to live given to them by a charter of infinitely higher authority than any human law . All regulations , therefore , affecting the transfer or devolution of property , should be reconcileable with those original and indefeasable rights which are prior and paramount to all human laws . "

    The Leeds Times attacks the Universities : — " The inveterate tendency towards priesism in both universities , but especially in that of Oxford , will not be thoroughly checked until the whole system of study is so modified as to take freely the impress of the pervading spirit and character of the age , and admit the new knowledge , new in form or substance , which the active and inquisitive intellect of our own times is continually accumulating ; and until the Shibboleth of a religious test is abolished , and the doors of these great national institutions , and the paths to university preferments and distinctions , are thrown open to men of every faith . " In an article playing " the dispassionate critic " on both parties , the Dublin Commercial Journal gives the following passage : —

    "It is hard to say which is right and which is wrong . We find the Prime Minister agitating an empire to crush a name ; and the Bishops convulsing a kingdom to maintain a title evidently incorrect . " On the prospect of the Reform Bill to be passed in the Greek Kalends of " next session , " the Bedford Mercury somewhat earnestly recommends the acceptance of any modicum however small , of any concession however minute : — " Now we are aware that our advice will be scouted by our sanguine Radical friends , ( iive them Universal SufFiaae , and they think therewith to make a political

    heaven , and with nothing cIho will they be satisfied . But they muBt excuse us if we are not so flanguinc . Much observance and much thought have considerably dimmed the brightness of that Utopia which we once hoped to obtain by political change ; und we have learned that more depends upon the character of a people than upon political organizations . The whole object of the represent . itive- system is to secure the wisest and bent to govern ; but , what if there be no wist ; and good ? Or if the people itre too stupid or wicked to know them ? Or if the- people know them , and arc too corrupt to choose them ? li « 't . tit > thoughtfully consider these questions . "

    In itH summary of nowa the Scotsman , after stating the annihilation of the Constitution l > y the Emperor of Austria , Hays that the object of the report demanded from the Ministers in the last of the epistolary ordinances is plainly not to " carry out the Constitution , " but to " write its epitaph " : — " What the final result , of thin open perfidy and audacioiiN defiance of public opinion on the part of monareliH will be , ran scarcely Ik ; doubtful to pcrnoiiH who have Btudied the history of the luwt sixty yearn . " Trewnuin' ' . v Exeter Flijiiuj Post is very angry with the Irish Catholics for breaking the law , and treats Lord John Russell very scornfully for not having the pluck to enforce the law . It applauds the Thesiuci- YVulp ole piovu ; o ( h , and thus perorates : —

    " Lord John Rusnell has not the courage : o enforce obedience to the law—hence we may take it for granted that ho long us the present . Ministry exists , at least ho far uh Ireland in concerned , the law is to be considered u dead letter ; thus the honour of the down in tarnished by the dictum of a foreign Sovereign being allowed to Nuperaede un Act of Parliament pawed by the British Legislature . " Journalists In Ireland , with any claims to

    independence , see nothing but evil as a result of the Ecclesiastical Title Bill . The Dublin World places Lord John in a dilemma . Here is one side : — " But suppose the constitution trampled down , the Catholic blwtied from the panel , and an Orange attestation established as the passport to the jury-box , would even Protestants sign their own death-warrant and say ' guilty' — how many squadrons of dragoons and iegiments of infantry would protect the twelve househo d hearths—what posse of police , backed by artillery , would guard the prison-van that bore a Primate ? Would { government beg his Grace to stay the raging ocean—from persecutors would they turn suppliants—would they become beggars or butchers—would they point a new moral for the future census—or would they rely on the compassion of their victim ?"

    Eulogising the Queen as " worth allied to rank , " and " power sublimed by virtue , " the PrestonGuardian indulges in an exquisite alliterative sentence : — " We believe this to be the case with our Queea and her Consort , both of whom have conciliated the affections of the people by the exhibition of domestic , social , and political excellencies , such as if exhibited by royal personages generally , would effectually dissociate the ideas of thrones and thraldom , sceptres and scourges , in men ' s minds , and render republicanism a remote theory . " * * " Let royalty be brought into more frequent communion with the people ; let it see how the masses from whom its splendour is derived , work , and live , and endure ; and the result will be a mutual appreciation and confidence , affording the best guarantee for the maintenance of authority on one hand , and the extension of liberty on the other . "

    " All about nothing ! Under this modest title the Wolverhampton Herald publishes above two long columns of sprightly gossip upon things in general ; traversing a multitude of topics , from " his infamous Majesty of Naples " to the yachts Titania and America .

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    ASSOCIATION IN AMERICA . [ We have received the following communication from one of the most enlightened and consistent of British Socialists , William Pare . It is an extract from a private letter by a lady now visiting the " States . " Mr . Pare's introductory letter was inserted in our last Open Council by an error of the printer . ] New York , March 4 , 1851 . My dear T , —We have just returned from a visit of three days to the North American Phalanstery , near Red Bank , Shrewsbury County , New Jersey . This society is formed on Fourier ' s principles , which are carried out as far as they can be under the circumstances . It has existed seven years , and is still going on prosperously , by which I mean they are producing more than they consume . Last year they realized a profit of two thousand dollars , after paying all expenses . They have just finished a large building , with very superior arrangements for cooking and washing . They are also taking advantage of a little waterfall on the estate to put up a waterwheel , which will work a force-pump , and so convey water into every part of the building .

    Their sources of income are , first , a Corn Mill , where they not only grind their own wheat , but that of their neighbours , and buy from the latter a great deal of Indian corn , which they manufacture into what is called fancy grains ; they make the best hominy in the State , and have a greater demand than they can supply . This mill ia worked by steampower , which works a Saw Mill for preparing the timber for their buildings , all of which are of wood . They send a good deal of fruit to New York market . In the summer they have a great number of visitors , which they iind profitable though charging only half u dollar a day for board and lodging . We were treated the same as the- members , the food plain , but good of the kind .

    At breakfast ( which we could have at six or halfpast setfen o ' clock , a . m . ) there was tea , coffee , hominy buckwheat cakes , bread and butter , and cold meat . The same at twelve o ' clock for dinner , with the addition of potatoes and stewed peaches . Tea , at half-past six , was iinothcr edition oi dinner , minus the potatoes . The estate contains about 700 acres , and is heavil y mortgaged ait 7 per cent , intercut . This is a heavy burden on them ; l » ut they , nevertheless , neern confident of ultimate success . It is a joint-stork company , like our railways . All the property is in shares , I think , of ten dollars each .

    1 hey are governed by an executive council , consisting of u president , secretary , treasurer , und four or live members . For working , the people are divided into groups ; eucli group choosing one of their number for n chief , who in responsible for the work being properly done . The cooking group consists of three women ami one man who is the head . " Very proper , " you say , and 1 agree with you ; because , it ia bin fitness , not his sex , that plueetj him there . There are men and women in the washing group ; there a women takes the lead , ( jlive all cquul chances let those reign who are moat worthy .

    Ten hours is considered a duy ' s work . Each member has a book , und enters daily how many hourti he or she has worked , and in what group . This work is posted to his or her credit once a month by the

    secretary . These books are kept in one particular place , and are open to the inspection of every member at all times . This plan is found efficient : no one attempts to cheat . The married people have a sitting-room and two small bedrooms opening from , it for which they are charged about eight dollars per ann urn . These they are expected to furnish , and keep clean . They are paid for everything else they do and must pay for all they receive . ' Women who have babies are not expected to do anything but take care of them , their husbands paying for their board . Those who have no incumbrance of this kind , or whose children are old enough , to go to school , ioin some of the working groups , and are pecuniarily independent of their husbands , ' which , from all I heard and saw , seems very favourable to connubial bliss .

    Half a day ' s labour is found sufficient to maintain each person . They may do more or less , there is no restraint upon them ; they are paid only for what they do . Some work a day and a half , others half a day in one group and a half a day in another . Even the President forgets his high station , and becomes a worker under other chiefs . He is at the head where he is fit : where he does not excel , he is satisfied to work under the direction of others . I never saw so interesting an exhibition of the

    democratic spirit anywhere as here , or one so much to my mind . Every month they have a meeting to settle their accounts , make changes in the groups , &c . &c . At the end of the year they see what they have exported and imported—calculate what is the value of food consumed by a definite number , and what they have gained by their labour , and by this fix the rate of wages , and the charge for board for the next year . They have different rates according to the work and the skill of the worker . In the house ,

    washing takes the premium , cooking next , waiting and sewing lower . Each individual is valued b y the group in which he or she works ; for instance , if one woman can iron three shirts better than another can iron two in the same time , she is paid more wages by the consent of that group . If any consider themselves undervalued , they change till they are appreciated . If any wish to visit the outer world , they can go , by paying their own expenses , but must return within the year or forfeit their membership .

    Fortunately for me , one of these absentees returned the day I arrived , and offered to introduce me to the Phalansterian mysteries . We went first to the school , where I found about ten boys and girls drawing a vice , from a copy on a blackboard ; a definition of the same was written underneath . The school-master ( who is also dancing-master ) teaches three hours in a morning , after which he assists in keeping the books ; he is succeeded in the school-room by a lady , who teaches the g irls sewing . Most of the members hold a plurality of offices ; they say it answers very well , by changing they can work longer without being tired , and can more easily supply the place of an absent member .

    My chaperone was very communicative about every thing except the rate of wages , and the price of their board . On this subject she was silent , in spite of my hints and questions . I could not see any reason for secrecy in a case like this . No matter ; I gained the information I required from a young man who sat next me at tea , who had lived hero from the commencement of the community . He said when they began they gave high wages , some of the men had two dollars a day . At the end of the year they found that they could not go on at that rate . They had to reduce wages . Now a few of the men get one dollar and a-half , some one dollar , others half a dollar . The women vary from one dollar to half a dollar . All over fourteen are charged

    one dollar and a-half per week for board , washing and sewing extra . At first there was a good deal of quarrelling and many left . Now they agree very well , and are very particular who they admit as members . The candidates must be there a year on probation , then tried by a jury of twelve ; if they have a majority in their favour , they are admitted ; if otherwise , they must retire . There is a store , at which the members can purchase their clothes at coat price . The women wear a short dress and trousers , when

    they are working , on account of convenience , reserving their long petticoats for dress occasions . They appear to work very harmoniously together . I must make honourable mention of one to whom 1 was introduced in the kitchen . There , she was nubordinate , acting under male supremacy , but as a nurse and doctor she stood unrivalled and alone . They attribute it to her skill that in a population oi 100 they have never had a death , except that of two babies ; though they had Tt ill of the smallpox at once , tihe treated them hydropathically , with perfect . success .

    Altogether I was very much pleased with my vieit The system adopted hero , while it aeoures to ea V uul ) advantages of combination , eeema more fav ourable w individual development urnd independence than * " thing of the kind I havo seen . It in very uupenor w th © aueenwood experiment ; and I ^ hh * W «»<*«" better than a German community I . viwtod nea

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    844 «!> * % t& \ ltt * [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 6, 1851, page 844, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1899/page/8/