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Leader (1850-1860), 24th December 1853, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1232, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      Mr . Alderman Copelaiid , presiding over the wardmote of Bishopsgate , said he viewed the proceedings of the commission with " unspeakable disgust . " The mote was also speechless ; perhaps from lack of sympathy . There appears to be only two cases of opposition ; otherwise the elections have been carried out with unanimity . Two old members , Mr . Evans , who has served 32 years , and Mr . . Watkins , who has served 30 years , retire from their wards , carrying 1 with them the thanks of the citizens . The City Commission sat on Tuesday , and adjourned to the 11 th of January . Several witnesses were examined , but their evidence presented no new features of interest .

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      LECTURE ON LABOUR BY MR . DANIEL WHITTLE HARYEY . The appearance of Mr . Daniel Whittle Harvey , Commissioner of the London Police , as a lecturer on the rights and duties of labour , may be taken as a gratifying sign of the set of public attention in that direction . Mr . Harvey lectured on this subject at the Kelvedon Institution , Essex , on Tuesdaj-, to about three hundred persons , among whom were " many agriculturists" from the neighbourhood . Mr . Harvey said the requirements of labour were misunderstood on the one hand and derided on the other . " The workmen demanded relief from ceaseless toil , a cure for involuntary idleness and unmerited poverty , an antidote against the misery , ignorance , and vice which these evils produced . Their advocates repudiated the notion that such objects were unattainable and visionary . They took comfort from what the human mind had alread y achieved in science , in literature , and the arts . They insisted that the time had come when mighty changes might be effected with the least injury to individuals , when , enlightened by experience , the public could correct errors in a calm dispassionate spirit , on the broad and unchangeable principle of equal rights . It was not surprising that doctrines so seductive as these found wiliing adherents ; and , unless those to whom they were addressed were better instructed , their progress

      was as certain as their tendency was pernicious . I hat equality of rights which was claimed as the very soul of society was a mere delusion , unallied with equality of duties . It was contended that all the excessive toil and poverty and wretcludness of the working classes was solely attributable to the unjust and iniquitous manner in which labour aud its reward were apportioned , and that until the social arrangements which produced and perpetuatel this injustice were altered , no relief could be given to the sons of toil . This scheme of national regeneration was that of the Socialists , who sought for an equal distribution of tlie common stock realised by the labour of the whole community , and that without reference to the inequalities of the mental or corporeal faculties of individuals . "

      Mr . Harve } r , however , admitted that the condition of labouring men did not correspond with their pretensions , and that it ought . The interests of masters and men are identical . " But their interests being identical , whence , he asked , arose the dark , deep chasm which at present yawned between them ? He could only find a solution of tho question in the disturbance of their natural relations to each other . But existing systems , right or wrong , were too deeply rooted in the soil of ages to yiel . l readily to change ; and when a country had become great through the aid . i of cultivation , arts , and learning , a necessity for its preservation was established , against which sweeping abstract theories , however fascinating , could , not prevail . What , therefore , ought to be done , and what pressed with increasing weight upon

      every considerate mind wan , as quietly and effectually as possible to remove tho evils and preserve the benefits that Jiad uriscn in our transit from a simple to a highly artificial . state of society . The condition of existence was the right of subsistence , und food , clothing , and sliolter were the elements of that right . Labour was tho condition of their attainment , and nowhere could these elements be found to exist primarily , save in tho cultivation of tho earth—the raw material of nil wealth . Were tho labouring classes fed , clothed , housed , and educated in a manner corresponding with tho improvements which marked the condition of the landlord and the tenant ? It could not bo denied that tho inequalities between them were- becoming < htily wider and more apparent , the rural population having been better fed and less actually homo down by labour when they were tho mere Bavin of feudalism . A mere commercial

      principle , -when it became subservient to a calculating spirit of accumulation , generated tho idolatry of Mammon , and dried up nil tho social charities of Hfi \ The notion of degradation which attached to more labour also disturbed tho equality of tho contracting parties , and there appeared a studied desire to forget that tho toil und the privation of tho working man formed tho solo source of wealth . An essential means by which this prejudicial conflict of feeling might be mippreHsed would bo found in the obligation , which every capitalist who nought to hire a farm sliould . rccogniso , of being the guardian of tho working

      classes . Ho calculated the number of horses he would require , and tho co . st of their keep , the . capital necessary for cultivation , demanded now buildings , or the repair of old ; bat tho duo reward of the labourer , tho cheerful cottage and its rood of ground , wore littlo considered . When tho question of rent was nettled , an import / wit party to tho contract was abtusnt . That contract involved an adequate provision for those who cultivated tho soil , and a reasonable profit upon tho capital and tjkill employed ; and when theao two clajmu were « atinfie ( l , the surplus wno the rent . That- these , proportions were not

      preserved was too evident . Territorial possessions were aggrandised and capital accumulated in heaps , while prostrate labour presented its woful lot in every distressing form that could be imagined . This state of things could not continue . The working classes had a clear conviction that the social scheme operated to their disfavour . Yet there was no portion of the population which possessed firmer elements of character or a purer sense-of light Their combinations and strikes were but the manifestation of their deep conviction that the intersts of capital were in tlie present industrial arrangements of society wielded to their disadvantage . . . "It was greatl y to the prejudice of the working man that , in matters of indirect taxation , he paid , not a proportionate , but the same pef-ccntage as the owner

      of 10 , 000 £ a-year . One-third of the labourer s scanty pittance was subtracted 'by taxation upon indispensable articles of consumption , and he mi g ht justly complain that the absence or perversion of " -capital cheated mm of his exertions , while he was excluded from a reasonable participation in the profits of the soil as tenant cultivator . . . . Mr . Harvey pointed out , as a grievance of which the working classes had a right loudly to complain , the state of ignorance"in which they were kept from the absence of suitable provision for their instruction . It was because they were so kept in ignorance of their social rights that they were indifferent to their social duties . The higher classes had no security for their position but in the education of the people , who in their turn , would discern that the comforts of life were the fruits of industry , that there could be no

      accumulation of property but from irs saving , and _ that , rightly understood , labour and capital were the twin elements to which everything- that advanced , improved , and elevated man was to be attributed . The first step to be taken , in order to carry out the views which he Jiad been expounding , was to obtain a sounder and wiser appreciation of the relations of employer and employed . How often did masters seem to have no apprehension of the feelings of those under them—no idea of any duty on their side beyond ' cash payment . ' Servants , from their want of education , were often little better than children . To cherish and reward the labours of industry , with a view to

      the greatest production of the comforts of life , was a pursuit worthy of the best and purest minds . It had been well said that , in the eye of Heaven , wages were unjustly withheld from the labourer when they were totally inadequate to his subsistence , and such as nothing but helpless indigence induced him to accept . Kecognised rights would speedily guarantee tho cheerful observance of lecognised duties on the part of the working classes . It was hot to be denied that great distrust pervaded their minds , but that would be mitigated by the higher tone of feeling which reflection kindled , and by the palpable evidences of consideration for their condition ; the more the people knew , the better would they be able to appreciate what was worth preserving . "

      At the close of the lecture , which was warmly applauded throughout , the meeting , on the motion of Mr . Mechi , seconded by Mr . Varenne , voted by acclamation their thanks to Mr . Harvey .

      Untitled Article

      SABBATARIANS REBUKED . It is not seldom that Scotland lends a . helping hand to physical , political , or religious progress . The latter is by far the most infrequent ; but we have one sturdy lift at the wheel to record . Our readers will remember that Sur James Colquhoun , defeated , in his appeal to the judicial authority of the district to put down the Sunday excursions of the Emperor steamer on . the Clyde , carried his case to Edinburgh , and demanded the assistance of the Court of Session to suppress the " nuisance . " As he claimed the piers , which the passengers of the Em pet or more than once so gallantly carried by storm , he asked the Court to interdict the use of the piers to the public on Sundays .

      The case was fully debated before the Lord of the Second Division on the tith inst . For , Sir James , the complainrr , it was pleaded that he had erected the piers at his own expense and on his own property , that he had been in use to levy dues there , and to exercise the rights of proprietor over them . More particularly , he contended that he was in possession of right over them to the extent of shutting them on the Sundays . He also pleaded that these parties who had infringed his rights were carrying on an illegal traffic , and that their proceedings were an infraction of the statutes passed in 1579 and IG 90 to protect the aacrcdncss of the Sabbath , the complaincr considering his case to be the stronger , that the parties thus injuring his patrimonial interest wore at the time engaged in an

      illegal act . For the respondents , it was pleaded Unit the piers , by whomsoever they had been erected , were built upon tho public shore , and therefore . upon public property , and that persons ho erecting piers could not exercise patrimonial right over them , or exclude the public using tho loch an a highway , from at any time lauding at thorn . The patrimonial interest , if sustained , would equally entjtlo tho proprietor to close the piers on smints' days , fust ( lays , or any day he thought proper . On this side , tho obligation of the old statutes was denied . The Court thought the case should be confined to patrimonial interest , leaving out of view the question of Sabbath profanation . On Thursday week tho Court gave judgment , in the case .

      The Lord Justice Clerk remarked that tho suspender had presented this suspension and interdict in ropeet of his alleged rights us proprietor of certain piers in the Gurdoch and in L , och I-. ong . " In support of thenu righto lie hud not attempted to take

      the ground that he could exclude the public , at all times an 1 to any extent he chos ? , from these piers , but he pleaded that as proprietor of the pier , he was entitled to have these Der sons interdicted from plying to them , because the daven which they chose to come was Sunday , and because tW resorted to them in profanation of the Sunday . The interdict had no prayer to prohibit these persons from sailing in steamer to and from Glasgow on the Sundays , aud no public law of any kind had been stated which prevented the steamer sailing down the Clyde or entering the Garelodj or Loch Long on thai . day . So far as the Court knew there was nothing to prevent this any more than to prevent anv vessel leaving mijr public port or entering any port intlip

      lintisivKingdom on » unday . out , laving-aside the question of Sabbath profanation entirely—for , if the suspender conld show a sufficient patrimonial , he did not require this additional" plea , and , it he could not do so , this Court did not sit to try such alleged infractions of the criminal law they came to the question of the alleged outrages and breaches of the peace of which the suspender complained . He did not think that this point really bore on the question they had now to decide . Permission for these breaches of the peace was not what the complainer could ask for in this court . If he had no right at hid own bands and without authorit y previously obtained to extrude the public jFrom the use of these piers on Sunday , he was wrong to attempt to erect barricades , and oppose bya sort of posse comitatus those whom

      by law he had no right prima Jxz < cie to exclude . If he had such a right as he claimed , certainly his case could not receive aid from such unseemly proceedings . Indeed , one was surprised ' that any one entertaining , as they could not doubt the complainer did , a proper and pious regard for the sanctity and repose of the SaUbuth , such as it had been observed in Scotland , should in the first instance have brought on the certainty , of such conflicts by the measures lie adopted . On the part of the respondents and those acting with them , and of the passengers , these collisions and outrages which the complainer described might have been expected as inevitable . Entertaining what their counsel termed 1 their views of the Sunday question , ' they could not be

      expected to pay any attention to the character of the day as any reason for abstaining from forcing a violent passage , notwithstanding the preparations made for resisting it . These collisions and breaches of the peace were plainly inevitable , if force were resorted to to prevent these person * landing ; and the course adopted was as singular on the part of one desirous to preserve the sanctity of the Sunday , as the forcible landing was natural on the part of those who disregarded the Sunday . "But , clearing the case of these matters as having no legal bearing on the question , they came to the real question they had to decide . By the admission of the suspender , tho piers were places of public resort , aud were thrown open to them fyr certain dues , and there was no averment that they were only used by certain persons to whom ex gratia he

      gave leave . But , assuming that these piers were built by him , as he alleged , and assuming that he was entitled to heavy dues ( though he had not stated on what authority he did so , and the Court was not to be understood as giving any opinion on the legulity of the exaction ) , if he built these piers as a source of revenue to himself , and at his own hand and without authority levied dues from the public , this did not put his piers in a better situation than any regular port , or harbour , or pier established on competent authority . If , on his own showing , he was in the situation of levying dues from the

      public in this manner , he must submit to the consequence of ( those piers being open and patent to the public , , in the same way as if he had legal authority for the exaction . He admitted that it was a very laudable object for the pursner to endeavour so to regulate the piers aa to prevent a crowd of idle passengers from a great public town landing quite close to the parish church , and converting the quiet banks- ot the Garelock into place * of resort for idleness and noisy revelry ; and for one who would go on such p leasure trips to enjoy the pure air and the elevated scenery , there-were probably fifty who would go only to indulge in the habits oi an ill-snent town life . But the ouestion was , could a public

      landing-place of this kind be closed on Sundayon the alleged ground of privato " property ? Tho suspender might mako out an action of declaration that he possessed such patrimonial right as to entitle him to do so , but , on the question of granting interdict on the Bill Chamber , the Court , as ax present » id vised , were of opinion , on the suspender s own showing , that the primd facie cuao was against him . ¦ j ° Court could not , on any authority or argument which Juu been addressed to them , hold in tho Bill Chamber tlmt "ie suspender was in possession of such an uncontrolled an absolute right , as proprietor , as to announce that on &un < Vv these piers should bo no longer public . Tho suspender s pit » would give tho right to deny access to the pier to all vess ! : whether seeking shelter or driven by stress of wea « r > " * whether at sea from proper and necessary causes ; and iu answer , if attempted , that he would only exclude such resort to tho pier as tins steamer occasioned would only mi k out more clearly tho repugnance , between his uncontromand arbitrary exercise of his alleccd rights , as proprietor , i

      tho exchiMon of fioino persons . ami the admission ot ouu '' and the fact that the piers were resorted to by tho public , ai that revenue was drawn from them . Tho Court must recu lc-ct that there was no public law which shut U P P Iors » ' { ' t bours , or highways on the Sunday ; there was no li »* v " *>'"' travelling on the Suocky by sou or land , entitling tlio iu keeper to shut hia wites and the harbour-master to «? c' 1 vcmels from his port . Tho application for thin , P . *»»" . ""' rested solely on iho » n » pcn « lcr \ i ullegcd patrimonial rib"'l and the Court wore at present of opinion that on * ! /\ facie vi « w of the question , the pier wna quite m "" " meet this application for interdict , and that th <> ««»| ' ^ ' ^ had not mndo out such u case in support of his rI t > , would warrant thorn in granting the prohibition ^ Nought . "

      Lord Cockburn concurred . Ho was no \ fi ^ to HiitiBflcil of the right any private individual 11 . appropriate the seashore in any form , ana 1

      Untitled Article

      1232 THE LEADER . ESaturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1853, page 1232, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2018/page/8/