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Leader (1850-1860), 3rd September 1853, Edition Town of 2, Page 856, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      lie was a friend of the Prince Consort ' s , in his confidence ^ having been his chief ally and instrument in the direction of the Great Exhibition , and that , consequently , his Royal Highness would protect us from the possible errors of the inexperienced but well-intentioned son of that '' talented" diplomatist ,. andobsequious ambassador , the first Earl of Granville , G . C . B . . " Prince Albert has not only the advantage of being a foreign gentleman engaged in life as an English politician , but he has the personal advantage of having

      a policy . King Leopold may have instituted this poliey , but the head of the family , and the leader in that policy , is unquestionably his Royal Highness . This chieftainship his Royal Highness owes , in the first place , to his position in this country , but , in the next place , to his intellect- —one of the most accomplished , the most refined , and most candid of the age . This policy is called the Coburg policy . It is always called so ; very fortunately for the Coburg Princes , so far as England

      is interested , for to the enlightened English mind the phrase—" the Cobnrg policy "—conveys a pleasingly safe , because indefinite idea . The Coburgs are an extraordinary family ; you cannot trace them forty years back as prominent historical personages , yet in 1853 they are the most powerful family in Europe A Coburg married the heiress to the English throne , and when she died , another Coburg married the actual English Queen . A Coburg married the Queen of Portugal ; a Coburg only narrowly missed—Louis

      Philippe was a very clever man—the Spanish Quaen ; a Coburg was the other clay ready for that throne of Greece ( which a Coburg once declined ) , if the Bavarian had disappeared ; a Coburg has the throne of Belgium , and as King of Belgium , has . great power in England and France—in England , because he was the uncle of the Qnee ' n : in France , because he was son-in-law of the King ; a Coburg—the son of the King Leopold—has just married an Austrian Archduchess . France being lost King Leopold seeks

      German alliances . It is a Coburg plan that the future Queen of Prussia shall be a Princess Eoynl of England , and it is as certain , as things human can be , that daughters of Prince Albert will be sovereign ladies , in great abundance , on German thrones , great and small . Hence a family " solidarity , " great now , increasing with every year , and an obvious d ynastic policy . At any rate , obvious fulness of knowledge on the part of

      Prince Albert of all the Court movements of Europe , obvious extensive sympathies , obvious breadth of view ; and the value of Prince Albert as a directing statesman in Great Britain , is , consequently , incalculable . This paper is written to put his position and his services in the point of view in which wo may comprehend him , and be grateful to him .

      This power for good , nnd the influence which he possesses , were not obtained in : i diiy , and merely because of his station ; lie progressed by decrees and he succeeded because he proved ability . Tea years a <> -o he wns not a niiin to excite much respectful deference among the men of our governing classes ; to-day he is stronger than any one of them—stronger in position stronger in popularity . Prince Albert is probably the most popular man in this country ; mid it is a fact all the more remarkable that the popularity

      has been obtained by his discovery thai , tho English who / irmly holieved that they were long jig-o au enlightened nation , lire barbarians in urt , and in all the more delicate cultures of civilization ! As a foreigner , ho is enabled to detect and to counteract the Bermondsey policy ; lisa foreigner , in the name way he could hco the coarseness , nnd the vulgarity , and the insularity , of our art , manufactures . What tad ., what , consummate cleverness , must lie have displayed while

      ' engaged— -and he has been soino years at it— -in oonvlnchig- us that we were uncouth and ignorant . Clearly , lie thinks that though ho cannot gratify that passion for power incidental to his birth , nnd station , and character of mind , in controlling Sir William Mole . swovt . li in " Beruionrtsoy , or Mr . . Iuuniu Wilson at the Treasury , there is consolation and compensation in the creation of a Ministry of Public limtruction—the ollice whicli ho officiously holds , and holds with honour . He i « revolutionising our art manufacturers ; he is touching

      a clumsy people to love grace as well as strength ; to admire symmetry as well as power ; and he is revolutionising the darkened popular mind without giving offence—nay , at the same time becoming the most popular man in England ! Such a man must be a great man . And such a man—may he not be exhibiting equal art , tact , and patience , in abolishing the Bermondsey policy , —in instituting a foreign policy for England ? Let us hope that his foreign policy is as beneficent as his domestic policy : we cannot doubt that it is as artistic . Non-ETjECTOB .

      Untitled Article

      A DISGBACE TO IIEK SEX . Elizabeth Eyas" has acted very badly . She formed a connexion with a tradesman , and had three children . Instead of cutting-up the babies in little bits as soon as they were born , and finally committing suicide after a wretched life , she has kept her house neatly , has brought up her children well , and , though she and their father fight , she dares to call it a home . Mr . D'Eyncourt , the magistrate , praised her for this part of her conduct , and was mild in his decision , that lie might not break up the hoine . He has thus provoked terrible censure from a Married , Man , writing to the Times . What ! " compliment Ryan . on the clean and healthy appearance of her

      illegitimate children ' . " this is " queer morality . " We agree with the Married Man . Mr . D'Eyncourt should have pointed out to the woman how far superior was matrimony to all other bonds ; how the married life is always marked by pure lore , and a total absence of strife ; how , in all circles of society , from police-magistrates to coalheavers , the refining influence of the rite is such , that husbands are always kind , and wires always quiet . On the other hand , he should have shown the necessity of bringing up " natural" children in such a way that they might furnish frightful examples , and that the mother herself should slope down towards the foulest sins and the darkest crimes , that- her life might point a pious moral and adorn an Exeter Hall tale 7

      Untitled Article

      T 1 JM PALSLKY BM ) CK-CIPITKRS , AND DOCK LABOURERS OF LONDON . ( To the Mditor of the Loader . ) Httj , —By the paragraph appended to my short communication of last week , you . still seem to consider tho conduct of the Paisley block-print cutters as " unfair , " and " dietatory , " in seeking to regulate the number of apprentices to be taken , nnd tho mode of distribufiii" - employment among these apprentices tuul themselves .

      Now , I am not going in this place to say more than to state once again , that I believe the men , in endeavouring to effect , some alteration in these matters , are perfeetably justifiable , for what can be of greater injury to the abiding interests of any trade tban tho continuous introduction into it of any element of the mere cheapening process ? as all occupations in which this system lias been recklessly carried on abundantly testify .

      What , I would ask , but this avidity for boy-labour , has canned the cruel slop-working of the tailor p ()( the shoemaker , in the eastern quartern of London , and at Northampton , ' Norwich , and different , places beside ? Of our low-priced cabinet , making ? Of that ; which takes place in our under-cutting printers' dens P Not to mention numerous other instances which might bo specified of the like complexion ; and also ramifying , as t , he same system does , perhaps nioro extensively still , into all occupations where fonialo labour in in

      request , the industrious daughter of the poor par being taught a trade , at which , as soon as it is learned or rather but half-learned , she can find no indepencb t employment—the on-coming , new brood of V > renf girls filling the situations she and her companio ° have been just compelled to vacate—to vacate beca ^ the ' prentice with her fee , small as such fee may prov ° in amount , and her unpaid stitching , is the more pro fitable acquisition .

      But , as already has been intimated , this subject is f too large a one for present discussion , or , at least fo my present purpose , which is merely that I ma l ^ permitted to reassert my prior given opinion in favour of the fairness ( under the circumstances in which the employing and the employed are now placed in society ) of the Paisley block-cutters , or any other class of working men or working women ( for why should not women look after these things , in like way , as well as men ?) striving to keep themselves from being wholly crowded out from the chance of earning some sort of a comfortable living , at the mere will of the calloushearted profit seeker .-

      In the workshop of the block-cutter the master takes the apprentice , and gets the apprentice-fee , whi ] c the journeyman has to teach these apprentices for nothing but a " thank you , " or scarcely that , in reward ; and then , after all , when a dearth of employment comes , the apprentice—advancing now nearly into the perfect craftsman—has either all , or the best

      paying portions of the work given over to him , such apprentice being paid—because he is still but an apprentice—at , perhaps , not one-third of the wage , of the journeyman ; and for this reason is it that tins apprenticeship system is so tenaciously clung to by tho master ; while , on the other hand , for reasons of quite an opposite character , the journeyman does all he can that such a system should be somewhat modified .

      The Leader , too , I find , seems still inclined to blnme the dock labourers in the affair of their late strike . "We see" two parts , " the writer , in regard to this matter , states— " ' riot' and ' failure ; ' both are faults . All failures are not faults ; but in the present _ coriditioii

      of industry the men who deserve success generally command it /' Now ,-is this writer not awai * e , that there may be such a " condition" of things as that in which the worker may not know how best to " command success ? " Just as an uninformed child , in attempting to escape from some apprehended suffering , may push itself further into the jaws of danger ; and yet surely , because of this unwittingness , is it fair to assume tlint death , or any other heavy injury , is the merited consequence ?

      Assumptions of this kind , if they wero allowed to fructify into indifference still more extensively than at present is the case , would soon render this workl of ours n thoroughly dispiriting abode , with no remedy for the immediate wrong-doing whatever , and no hopo for the future . Than might the so commonly abused field labourer become still more the serf—the children in our factory districts be still less cared for—the twolvo or fifteen shilling a week earner of the town still I ' ""'

      his only home Avhere the low lodging-house prbvidci holds dominant sway ; or the cruelly injured slave class of America have no chance of ever being lifted into the sphere of an equal humanity ; and all merely because- — as it might bo , asserted in respect to each of these injured interests—they knew not how to win their mvl 1 redemption , and consequently were to be left to their fate , be that what ; it might—tho most severe and loiii ; - endurincr !

      Surely the able , clear-sighted , and hones t-purposed Leader , as it undoubtedly is , is not prepared to sm ' - tion any such permanency of the Unjust us this , on tho principle , as goes the old song , that none but the bi'uve deserve the fair , or that other maxim which tell * * that every one has the shaping of his own for tune . Many a turner up of the sUlIcned clod of the valley l » lf j a strong will and clear perception—ninny a wretrl"' ' factory boy nnd girl an earnest , yearning *<» " in . ° " personal freedom—many a dark-skinned toiler m >< slave district * of the / Wx ' -called United Sfatw of A » " " riea , the inllatus of ii real hero in his soul ; an < l nothi' >' arc , doubflcsHly , union-.- the dock labourers of L <"' ( I () II > i

      those who bavo a , true and keen comprehension » their proper worth \\ h men- an " labourers won ' ) their hire "—and yet , notwithstanding » H < i | l <; s 0 Jl < 1 . " "(| * sions , tho ploughman lives in a . hovel , is meanly clot i << > and imulequntely led ; the dull-eyed nnd wll <;( j /] , " throated factory ' child lias to rise to ' the call <> ' " 1 - 1 " . '" , '" tory bell ; and "« Undo Toms" are still of tl" > sttbimp _ cast ; for even when Christian-taught , H »« . ^ iimists on micli heaven-winning humility , wliil" "' ^ manner the dock labourers arc ; incapable of 'iM . > ll ^^ lioration of ( heir both waiti-aiulstarvo and wor «¦ - » ^ starve condition . Nevertheless , all these , with ''"" ^ ceptiou of that of tho children , are potent i " "" " ' '

      Untitled Article

      856 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

      Ddpm Cmttiril

      dDpm CmttiriL

      Untitled Article

      Pitt Tnia dkturtmunt , as aia , opinions , nov / Evuit -f . xtukmk ARE ALiIjOWICO AN HXlMfU . SSlON , TJIK HDlTolt NliCHKiSAIUlA ' HOIiDH HUIKI !! , * ' KHSI'ONNnilYK l'OIt KOMI ! . ]

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      There is no learned man bur . will confess ho hath rrmoh profited b , y readnii ; controversies , his soiifujs awakened , and nis judgment ^ hiirponnd . IT , then , it l > o profitable " for him l . o read , wli . v rhouldil , not , ab least , bo tolerable for hit ) udvcT . iarv to write— -Milton -.

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 3, 1853, page 856, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2002/page/16/