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    ^nlilit Mnirif.

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    wPif fr£T' ^a*JK i^ c^ «?>

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    Untitled Article

    TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is of ten delayed , owing to a press of matter j and when omitted , it is frequently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the communication . . JJo notice can be taken of anonymous co mmunications . Wfiatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of his good faith . - . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . All letters for the Editor should be addressed to 10 , Wellingtonstreet , Strand , London . Communications should always be legibly written , and on one side of the paper only . If long , it increases the difficulty of finding space for them .

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    PROGRAMME OF MINISTEBS . The course marked out by Lord John Ilussell for Ministers during the present session , is notable upon the whole for the absence of the political element ; and , indeed , for the absence of any considerable changes in our home polity . The greatest exception , perhaps , is the proposal to remove Jewish . Disabilities , but that has been so long discussed , and has received the sanction of the public so widely , that it is to bo considered

    rather as a measure remaining in arrear , than one belonging properly to the future . So far as Ministers aim at progress , they limit their efforts mainly to the subject of education . Several administrative reforms , especially in the department of the law , are also promised ; and the measures affecting the relations of our colonies are likely to have very important consequences . The statement of measures may be taken according to the following divisions : —

    National defence . On this head Lord John Hussell ia not very explicit . There is to be an increase in the estimates , but no increase to the number of men beyond the announcement made before Christmas . It is probable , however , that the number of men on service at home may be increased . The proposals affecting the colonies will bo of so conciliatory a nature , that these

    dependencies will probably be left in a far greater degree to keep order for themselves ; and thus troops would be released for service at home . Military authorities also throw out a hint that troops intended for foreign service will not be hurried off * Hy the double process of bringing back , and not sending away , tho line may be considerably augmented at homo without any increase of the number on tho estimates . An

    omission under this head consists of tho absence of any mention of the militia or volunteer corps . Colonial Government . The surrender of the clergy reserves , and the discontinuance of transportation to Australia , are two grand concessions to tho principle of local government of bo marked a nature that further improvement must be expected from tho same Ministry . Both Australia and tho Cape may expect a iinal and satisfactory settlement of tlioir constitutional questions .

    Education . On this head we have hints rather than statements . A " proposition" is to bo made with respect to tho universities ; something which Lord John is " not prepared to call a very largo plan , " will be < lono iu education , to effect " great improvement" throughout the country . And in glancing at tho revision of secondary punishments and tho discontinuance of transportation , Lord John speaks of education as an auxiliary . " In proposing measures to supersede tho

    punishment of transportation , " he says , " and in devising other mcana to deter men from crime , it bocomes , if possible , tho moro nooossary that we should implant in their minds motives sufficiently sf ^ \^ l ^ tron g to induce them to avoid crime altogether . " ¦ £ f > . . \ i * . ' O"Tjtaf ) other measures to which ho alludes , and £ ~ *> s > V > | >\ " ^ tti *

    tend to aim so much at striking political changes as at a sufficient administration , and at the completion of improvements very long sanctioned by the great mass of public opinion . Their claim to defer a better arrangement of the franchise than that which Lord John Bussell himself has condemned , will of course depend upon the manner in which they execute the task that they have laid out for themselves . If they give us all these measures in a state of completeness and efficiency , instead of reproaching them for placing the subject of reform in the session of 1854 , we may then approach it with more confidence and with greater facilities than we yet possess . It all depends upon their own conduct , of-which we shall soon have some data for judging .

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    THE INSURRECTION IN ITALY . What to say as to the insurrection in M ^ lan we hardly at present know . At the news of the outbreak , our hearts bounded with exultation ; all that we now wait for , all that is necessary to convert anxiety into enthusiasm and acclamation is the news of success . Success , complete or partial—success , even to the extent of prolonging the outbreak into a movement , though that movement should be crushed and extinguished—would be a thing to be rejoiced over . But as to this , we are still in the dark . While we write , it is uncertain whether the outbreak in Milan was suppressed immediately , or whether it continued

    itself , and still goes on . That there was a violent outbreak , that the Austrians were attacked , and a number of them killed , is known . So far , all the first despatches agreed . The general tenor of subsequent despatches was , that the Austrians had suppressed the insurrection . Against this , however , was the general conviction that the absence of more detailed information direct from Milan was to be taken as a favourable augury for the insurgents ; added to which , there is the distinct statement , brought by the last despatches yet received , that the insurrection was not confined to Milan , but had broken out in other towns

    of Lombardy , and at Rimini . While still waiting for the intelligence that shall either call out a burst of hope and applause , or plunge us into mourning and despair , we may at least , on the evidence before us , risk these two assertions respecting the insurrection . 1 . It was premeditated : it was not a mere casual outbreak , but tlie result of a plan . Our readers do not forget the horrors we have had recently to report from Lombardy—the wholesale arrests among all classes , to the number of hundreds ; the public stranglings at Mantua ; the intolerable and universal increase of

    suffering . Human nature , Italian nature , could bear this no longer ; and through all tho organized clubs of Lombard patriots , there ran the thrilling resolve , — " We must do something ; bettor death and massacre , hand in hand than this crucifying of us one by one—you to-day , and me to-morrow . " Such was the resolve—come to , perhaps , more than a month ago . Mazzini , the man to whom Italy looks , seems to have known this . Ho left this country , and some part of continental Europe onco more contained him—a

    hero disguised for a heroic errand , on which it is tho world ' s shame , and not his , that he could not proceed openly—a wandering chief of Italian insurrection . Where he was , or how he was occupied , few could know , but the 6 th of February saw his noblo proclamation posted on the walls of Milan . Perhaps , ero now , it is abroad through Italy . 2 . Though premeditated , the insurrection seems to have broken out sudden / , ?/ , and perhaps a day or two before the appointed time , in consequence of the stimulus of new arrests . Tho latest news scorns to convey some such intimation as this . There had been numerous arrests , it is said , in Milan on tho 4 th , —that is , two days before the insurrection ; and tho probability ia , that this circumstance , arguing as it did , a sense on tho part of the Austrians of tho impending danger , had hurried on the catastropho . On tins point , however , wo cannot be certain . A day or two more , and England will have either to exult in the success oi a now Italian Insurrection , or to mourn a new massacre of the martyrs of liberty . I neither case , Englishmen will have a duty to -perform . Tho thing to > bo immediately hoped for , and prayed for , in , that the outbreak may so prolong and extend itself , as to become not a mere Milaneso , but an Italian movppiont . If that shall happen , t-heyo is room

    for other nations to take a part—for England , and for America , let the movement but last long enough , and it might not be too much to expect a volunteer descent of Americans in aid of Italian liberty on some point of the Italian coast .

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    HOW TO CONTINUE THE RISE OF WAGES . The success which so many of our friends amongst the working classes have attained in securing a higher rate of wages ought to strengthen their hopes , but ought , at the same time , to knit more closely their determination to be prudent . It may become the mere tradesman to act upon the principle of asking as much as hecan , and of finding out what that " can" is by the limit of endurance in the person with whom he is dealing ; but for many reasons the working classes cannot safely act upon that ' principle . In the first place , they have not as yet sufficient information—they are

    not educated enough , and they have no instrument for acquiring information of a collective kind . In the next place , they are not so rich as the party with whom they have to deal—the employer ; and , therefore , they cannot venture so well as he can to approach the utmost extremity of their demand . And thirdlr , in all that concerns the dealings of men , that race , upon the whole , is irappiest , which adheres most faithfully to principles of moderation and justice . Prosperity among the employing class has too often forgotten

    the welfare of other classes , in its headlong pursuit of the principle " to buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest , " though the thing 1 bought should be human flesh , and the thing sold human food . Nevertheless , it becomes the working classes , simply because they are the greater number , and therefore more completely represent humanity at large , to waive this extreme exercise of power , and to prove that , even in a commercial country , and even ia times of great temptation , men can still adhere with unbroken faith to that

    which is moderate and just . In nothing that we say of this kind do we mean to express a desire that our friends amongst the working classes should forego their just rights . The employing classes have always used times of great competition to beat wages lower and lower ; far lower than they needed to do for their own profit ; much lower even , in too many instances , than the point at which life could be healthfully Bns + niTififl . Times have altered : the briskness of

    trade renders it necessary that the business of manufactures should go on ; the draughts of emigration have so far abstracted the surplus labour of the agricultural districts , that in order to carry on their operations the farmers are obliged to submit to higher wages . The recruiting serjeant is helping tho emigration agent . The time , therefore , has como when the working classes can demand a greater measure of justice than they have received for many generations . We would have them make the amplest use of their present opportunity ; and we would urge upon them to

    make that uso not only as a means of acquiring present comfort , which is much—for even the temporary enjoyment of life to its full is a thing worth having , though it pass—but also we would have them take from tho present opportunity the means of meeting more adverse days . Nay , there is something beyond oven that . At the present time it appears to us , with so great a scope for asserting the value of labour in tho operations of trade , with tho increasing disposition of different classes to acknowledge the importanco of tho labouring man , politically , socially , and

    commercially , it is desirable that the working classes should endeavour , as extensivel y as possible , to mark anew their actual position in tho social system ; to mark it strongly , and to mark it advantageously for themselves . They can make terms now , not only for present advantage but also for futuro reference ; and they can do it with an increased intelligence amongst themselves , and , what Is scarcely loss important , with an increased intelligence amongst those classes who- have been

    adverse to them . Wo would urge them , therefore , to uso tho present opportunity to the fullest possible extent . For the vory samo reasons that we have already recited , wo would urge them not to spoil their f ( resent advantage by pressing their demands too ar . We should call it pressing their demands too far , if their claim of wages operated unjustly ; or even if it failed . That is to say , if they urged a demand which could be successfully withstood . In mutters of this Icind failure lias a permanent jnflupneo ; and tho man who lias peremptorily

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    There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so -unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law ol its creation ia eternal progress . —Db . Arnold .

    ^Nlilit Mnirif.

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    SATURDAY , FEBEUABY 12 , 1853 .

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    156 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 12, 1853, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1973/page/12/