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    Untitled Article

    nf A difference of opinion on the part of the judges as * n the construction of the present act , but , after the strictest inquiry , he had been unable to discover that onv such difference of opinion ever existed . Two judges had construed the statute with reference to two entirely different cases , in which the same facts were not involved , and the mistake lay in supposing that their decisions were applicable to the same point . There # as therefore , no call for the preserit bilL The law as it now stood made liable to prosecution for conspiracy nersons who were guilty of coercion , molestation , or obstruction of workmen with reference to the wages of

    labour , or the hours of labour , and the object of the present bill was to declare that the peaceable persuasion of workmen by others should not beheld as molestation or obstruction . But he put it to their lordships whether , in the event of a number of men waiting upon another man day by day , walking with him to his work in the morning , and home from his work in the evening , and besetting him at all times when it was possible to do so , for the purpose of « peaceably persuading' him to follow any particular course , that might not in reality amount to molestation or obstruction ;

    and whether , under such words as were here used , the greatest amount of force and coercion might not be employed ? If their lordships should agree to read the bill a second time , was any noble lord prepared in committee to define the meaning of the words ' peaceable persuasion ? ' If nothing but peaceable persuasion were intended it was legal to employ it now , and the bill was unnecessary . If , on the other hand , it was meant , under cover of the words * peaceable persuasion , ' to give legality to acts which were at present illegal , the bill was one which their lordships ought not to pass /'

    It is a very unfortunate law , however , which derives a new colour from new circumstances . We have seen an Indian juggler east a colourless dust upon , a colourless ground , where the dust assumed a variety of forms and tints ; but that English law should possess that faculty of metamorphosis , and that those who have it in their hands , unless they possess the juggling power of the barrister or the judge , should be unable to tell how it may look at last , is about the very worst quality that any law can possess . When lawyers are uncertain , about a document , the judge pronounces it " void for uncertainty : " by the same rule , the public might declare the existing law of combination to be void .

    Lord Truro , however , is mistaken in supposing that the difficulty with the working classes lies in not knowing how to apply the same law to different circumstances . The difficulty consists in a thing essentially different ; it consists in what the two judges have severally pronounced to be a principle in the law ; we put the two expressions as they are reported together .

    Mr . Baron JRolfe ( Combination of Iron Trades , Liverpool Assizes , 184 / 7)— " If the workmen in assembling had no other object than to persuade one another that it was their interest not to work except for certain wages , or not to work under certain wages , or unless certain regulations were complied with , that was not an illegal object , provided it was sought in a peaceable manner . "

    Mr . Justice JErle ( Wolverhampton Tin-plate Workers , Stafford Assizes , 1851)— " Wherq persons combined together to obstruct and molest a master manufacturer , in order to enforce him to altor his mode of carrying on his business , and in pursuance of that object combined to persuade other men to leave his employ , that being an overt net , was an indictable offence . " Now , it is impossible , for any understanding , to receive these two statements of one law , as fairly describing the same law , whatever the variation of the circumstances . Casting tho

    circumstances entirely out of tho account , wo find that Mr . Baron Iiolfo pronounces that persuasion is not an illogal object ; " whereas , Mr . Justice . urlo deelaros that persuasion is an " indictable offence . " It is true , that in . tho last sentence , Mr . Justice Erie is talking about molestation of a master ; but tho persuasion only applies to tho act of one workman upon another , and does not , in his statement , prosupposo any violonco in tho porsuasioru

    Under tho explanation of Mt . Justice Erie , it would bo illegal for twolvo working men to try to persuade n thirteenth to leave his master , because that would bo obstructing or molesting tho muster . Practically wo find , that twelve masters can eombino or persuade a thirteenth to suspend ins works , in order , for example , to throw worlcnion out of employment , and thus to prevent some ob ject of those workmen . This , as it is at pro-Beufc constvuod , tho law permits to the masters what it prohibits to the men , under penalty

    recoverable by criminal process , and one judge has declared that to be not illegal , which another pronounces to be indictable . This law , we say , is obscure , fallacious , and misleading . We have said that the House of Lords , probably , acted to the best of their judgment ; but it is unfortunate that they shbuld have suffered their judgment to be led by Lord Truro in the case . He is an accomplished lawyer , and might , perhaps , if there were sufficient motive for fastening his attention upon a particular point of law , explain the distinctions with a greater

    knowledge of eases , and keener perceptions , than most men wise in a wig . But it has not been his province to consider the social , still less , we believe , the political bearing of such laws as e nable class to press upon class , and , therefore , when the House trusted to his high legal attainments , they mistook one species of learning for another . It is still more unfortunate , that the upper Chamber of the Legislature shows itself to be so very remote from the great body of the people , that positively it does not understand the bearing of the statutes which it assists in

    making , Upon the interests , the daily avocations , and the conduct of the people . Ifc does not understand the difficulties which the people find in obeying and claiming the protection of the laws ; and it refuses to amend its statutes so as to render them more intelligible to the body of the people whose obedience is exacted . The people are willing to be governed ; but what they want to know is , the rule by which they are eroverned , and how they may observe it . The

    House of Lords , not understanding the wants or feelings of the people , not having sufficient motive to fix attention upon the point , leaves it all to Lord Truro , and does as he says . We have never joined in the cry once raised by very moderate ^ po liticians , to pull down " the House of Incurables ; " but we do say , that if the Peers desire their institution to be reverenced , they have selected the jtnost unfortunate method of winning the reverence of the working class .

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    ENGLAND AS SHE IS REPRESENTED IN PARIS . Last week the Times devoted three articles to American subjects . The first was that sneering aggression on the Crystal Palace of New York , which we noticed , followed up two days later by a just and complimentary acknowledgment of the practical businesslike attention to the diplomatic arrangements of the American Government , and on Saturday there was an emphatic acknowledgment of the assistance given by the American Government to our own in maintaining order and peace upon that most difficult of frontiers—the waters where fishermen of the two countries meet in rivalry . Perhaps if America deigns to weigh the opinions of the Times , she may set the compliment against the sarcasms , and find that there is a balance of tribute left for her after all . And if it pleased her she might retaliate in excellent style , especially for that Crystal Palace article . Those who live in glass nouses , it is said , should not throw stones ; but some houses may bo worse than a glass house , and we may look at home . Not to enter into any comparisons where young America beats her old parent , let ua see the confession , applicable in many ways , of tho state into which the British embassy at Paris has been suffered to fall . An architect has recently been sent to report tho facts , and Sir William Molesworth tells tho round unvarnished

    talo without disguise . Lot us pause for a moment and consider what an embassy is . It is tho residence of that functionary who represents tho character , tho resources , tho power of the State ; who holds in tho particular spot the influence of that State . Tho embassy in question was in tho capital of that other country which shares with England tho foremost place in Europe . Between England and Franco there have boon , of . late years , misunderstandings to be

    regretted . The two countries havo misconceived each other ; but Franco especially had learned to think that England had abandoned all prido in herself ; had Buffered her own institutions to fall into contempt ; had withdrawn all Ivor means , or wan inclined to do so , from State purposes for mere trading , mid had , in short , fallen m a condition of mind which would make her let tho renown , the influonce , and the strength of England go to rack and ruin abroad , rather than tako money out of tho shop . That was the

    French misconception of the English character prevalent in the capital where our Ambassador resides . Now , let us look at his house . We will begin outside . " The verandah around the house had fallen down : the walls were in a state of decay " . —the embassy emulating the decayed mansion of some decayed Irish squireen ! . The English , however , are great in the dining-room—that is their strong ground ; if

    they have not French magnificence and show , yet theyhaveplainnesB , strict decorum , and good cheer . But , alas ! " the dining-room especiall y was in a most dilapidated state . " Comfort is characteristic of the British home . We have " the best of everything ; " we hate rags and dirt , and like to make it appear in every part of the house that we can pay our way ; can afford good wages for our servants : but , above all , we are a clean

    people;—yes , the French are dirty , and the English are clean ; and yet , what must be the French idea of English manners and customs , when they see the house thus described ? " The house had not been painted for several years ; the staircases were unsafe ; the drains were exhaling a most offensive effluvia . " It is really becoming painful : one begins to be alarmed for what may come next , and remember we are in the home of the English Ambassador , the impersonation of decorous , well-to-do England . What , then , is our horror when we learn that " maggots are in every place , on . the furniture , on the curtains ? " Such are the manners and customs of

    the English , as represented at Paris in that most authentic of theatres , the British embassy . But there is worse even yet— " The rooms are full of vermin , which are running over the tables . " Is not this an astounding account of the manners and customs of British ambassadors ! What can they think of it in France ? What will they think of it in America , where the Government puts forth such exceedingly judicious instructions for plain and decorous conduct ? The Republican is advised not to cultivate showy magnificence of apparel or lavish expenditure ; but , we make no doubt , that he has a house in which ifc is safe to go up stair 3 ; that you are not reminded at every turn of the most unmentionable resorts ; that the

    domestic animals are made to know their places ; that the dining-room is fit to dine in , the curtains safe to lean against , and the tables not an abomination for the hand to rest upon . There has been a comparatively recent reform at the British embassy in Paris , of a character as extraordinary as any of these unreformed institutions . By virtue of this reform the dining-room is used as a chapel , and , incredible as it may appear , there is really a gain to decency in tho arrangement ; for previously the chapel was tho ball-room ; divine service and profane service possessing an alternate domain . After such a confession as this from our

    Minister of Public Works , with what countenance is the American likely to read the attacks upon his own Crystal Palace P What impression is any unread Frenchman likely to entertain as to the character of the great English nation ! The English journalist satirizes tho Americans for not being up to time in the preparations of their Crystal Palace , but as yet they have not suffered years to slip by without repairing or even cleaning their principal embassy .

    Untitled Article

    THE INDIGNANT VIRTUE OF THE HAR . When Mr . Bovill throw up his brief ( and returned his fees ) in the Smyth case , on Wednesday last , ho did so , ho informs us , from a sense of what was due to himself and to his profession . Tho baronet who had seduced him from his hearth into tho crowded court turned out to bo a flagrant impostor , of miscellaneous parentage , and limited education . At least " Sir Kiclmrd , "

    whatever his claim to title or estate , had begun to look very like a liar , and though fraud has often , as in the case of religion , been employed by zealous fools in support of truth , it certainly is an awkward thing for a gontlonmn suddenly to find himself advocating apparent injustice , or helping an obvious ' swindler" to oust tho fatherless and tho widows out of thoir homes . Mr .

    Bovill ,, therefore , mot with copious approbation . A weary judge , who thought ho might havo been quicker , still comp limented him on being 8 o quick , and an infcolligonf ; jury , too respectable to lovo scandal , woro glad to find a painful and disgusting caso Hpoodily dosed . " Sir Richard" was , undoubtedly , a rotfuo ; in fad ; , as it was proved , a rogue who , in early life , had narrowly escaped tho hangman . Mr . Bovill abbreviated the period

    Untitled Article

    August 13 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 781

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 13, 1853, page 781, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1999/page/13/