On this page

• Departments (1)
  • 
• Text (6)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    dtom Cmranl.

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    that "the ' Great Distressing-case Manufactory' of 2 v country was one conducted by railway companies , d 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 , uttered 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 Engineers ?" " 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 question is its right direction . May not the men solve the problem of its wise use ?" " Peradventure , " was the sullen and polysyllabic response . And I gave up the dialogue . Had there been a word of five syllables 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 stiteh ;

    his carious teeth were stopped with gutta-percha ; his trousers had shrunk in the first vain to which they had been exposed , and required straps of considerable power 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 thoso who meet it with heart-feeling , while it closes up the way before thoso 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 recognise d 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 feol Industry an honour instead of finding it as

    now a punishment , and he would come to feel artistic pride , in tho excellence of his work , and in the masterly and vigilant discharge of his dutieB which , if onco relt , would save us fifty accidents a-yeur on the railways alone . All things go by cheapness . Among trade economists they have yet to learn that to guarantee tho welfare of honest Labour is the least expensive , and tho onl y mode of guaranteeing tho public safety in such respects as that safety dcj > ends upon vigilant and conaciontiouH Industry . "

    You wcro concerned I presume- in tho late contest of the amalgamated engineers ? " , " he answered : " I am now in search of work in

    "Kfiinst us rather than wo against thorn . I hoy turned TnuluH Unionists tboinsolveH , condemning us all tho whilo for being ho . Yet if wo were wrong they could not bo In tho right . Generally however tho press Hided with thorn . Competition seoms to bo a gamo in whiojj it is legitimate for Employers to crush workmen % 'my moans . " Tim middcst consideration , I observed , in that workmen taught by so disastrous an example may como to think thomsclvos at liberty to conduct their sido of tho 'ontesfc with tho sume liconoo . "Tho public Hooin willing that wo should , " tho mechanic replied . " Wo had a right to improve our

    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 that 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 eventually , 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 . " And lose , I rejoined , the remainder of 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 business 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 nian comes to be a beggar in the end . This was the source of failure in tho experimental Co mmunities of which you may have heard . People tell you they wanted the Religious bond . Thoso who say so do so because ,

    knowing nothing 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 tho truth . There was relig ion in all these Communities , if Religion moans boundless faith , good intent , and devoted service . But faith without direction i « , 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 . Tho submission may bo an net of piety or an act of sense . With tho

    Rappitos it was an act of piety , and they have pursued an eccentric career . No instance has occurred in which submission has been an act of souse ; and whether it would be progressive in its oIIim-. Ib , ennnot be predicated . The problem is yet unsolved . The practical point ascertained is tho conviction of tho indispensable necessity of an authority which shall act by consent—but act , and act unfettered . Queenwood fell for want of this . Tho existing Welsh Community is languishing from tho samo cause . A Co-operative

    Workshop is certain ruin without it . Tho council of the 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 ; un « I their members ftro moro intelligent and bettor disciplined than any body of workmen yet known in . England , 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 this subject did not appear . An influx of * passengers at this point diverted and terminated tho conversation . Ion .

    Untitled Article

    [ IN THIS DEPABTME 1 TT , AS AM . OPIWIOHS , HOWSVEB BXTBSMB ABB ALLOWED AK BXEBBSSIOIT , THB BDITOB WBCBSSABIIiT HOLDS HIMSELF BESPOlfSIBLB * OB ITONK . il

    Untitled Article

    THE BARONESS VON BECK . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sib , —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 . Toulmin Smith .

    THE BABONESS VON BECK ' S CASE . ( To the Editor of the Examiner . ) Sie , —As you gave insertion , last Saturday , to a letter from Constant Derra , asking attention to 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 , " was conclusively established at Birmingham . The press , with the facts before it , noticed the proved imposture —neither Times nor any other journal , doing other

    than approve 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 prevfttitod tho 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 pe rson calling herself the Baroness von Beck .

    I make no remark on Constant Derra or bis conduct . He lias , I have alway s believed , been the more tool of others . But those whose sentimental sympathies have been aroused may derive consolation from tho fact , that the lady personated—the actual Baron ess von Beck , whoso name , family , and rank , tho 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 , 29 th July , 1 S 52 . ' ToTJLMIN SMITH .

    1 » . S . Since the above letter was written and posted , I bavo received , by a coincidence sufficiently remarkable , a letter from the Continent , containing the last remaining links hi the evidence as to the real Baroness von Beck . I am formally authorized by my distinguished correspondent ( who is a bishop of tho Hungarian Church ) to publish tho following . Tho full details ot names and ]> orsonal residence , &c , arc in my possession . It must bo stated that tho impostor Raoidula expressly i ) ut herself forth as " born lloreczky "

    " I authorize you to declare , in my name , to whomsoever it may concern , that tho pretence of tho upholders of tho lato Kucidula is forced and false ; that there in not , ami never has boon , any other UaroneHH Heck , born lloreezky , than tho two above named HaronosHOH [ wivos of two brothers ] , and both of which ladies are Htill living . " TIiuh ends one of tho most extraordinary attempts at imposture of modern times : an attempt wickedly sought to bo bolstered up after the imposture had been

    conclusively demonstrated in an open court of jmtico ; and still further , though most clumsily and with its just results , attempted to bo bolstered up at Warwick yesterday . This result , and tho facts I now publish , will bo u lesson to all mon not to bo deferred from tho path of duty and tho exposure ' of wrong , although for a timo ovon tho public prow hIihII havo Ihjoii misled into troating as gonuiiu ) that which >« i" reality tho moat barofuccd imposture and fraud . 2 |) th July , 1852 . J - TOULMIN SMITH .

    Untitled Article

    Vifiiii . — -Too Into for thin wook . A HmiHciiniKU . -Will ho hoik ! liiu namn and luldronn . in aocorditnco with our rulo i * J ( ' mo , wo will readily puliliith hiH valuable contribution .

    Untitled Article

    * Tho Master Engineers and their Workmen : Throo Lectures by T . M . Ludlow , Esq ., Barriatcr-at-Law .

    TOur friend , the Zionqf the " Open Council , t » unavoidably omitted this week . Me has been lent for one week only to the Protectionists—the ancient British animal being qwUe used vjp in their service . ' ]

    Untitled Article

    I JtrLY 31 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 731

    Dtom Cmranl.

    dtom Cmranl .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 31, 1852, page 731, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1945/page/15/