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Leader (1850-1860), 6th August 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 920, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      920 THE L E A DEB , [ No . 489 . Aug . 6 , 185 Q .

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      Eclectic , in an article on Hero-worship , is somewhat severe on M ! r . Carlyle , and his life of " Frederich the Great . " As in other monthlies , the views on the peace are unsatisfactory ; but on the whole the number may be pronounced good . Englishwoman ' s Journal contains another poem by Isa Craig , " A Dream of Death , " which is only pretty ; and the number is inferior to its predecessors . Recreative Science—A monthly Record and Eembrancer of Intellectual Observation . —( Groombridge . )^— -The number for August contains a variety of useful articles . One by Mr . Hain Friswelf , on ETumboldt , is especially commendable . Gallert of Nature . By the Rev . Thomas Milner ( W . and R . Chambers ) , progresses favourably . Part X . is attractively got up .

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      MISCELLANIES . Ast , and How to En jot it : —A Reply to the Question , "How shall I Know a Good Picture ? " By Edward Hopley . —The author regrets , with reason , the popular ignorance concerning simple and absolute art-principles , and makes a laudable endeavour to supply the requisite instruction , and to render superficial criticism less acceptable than it has unfortunately too frequently been , even in regard to journals and periodicals of high repute . OUR EKGINES OP WAK ; AND HOW WE GOT TO Make them . By Capt . Jervis-White Jervis , M . P . ( Chapman and Hall . )—The treatise commences with the origin of gunpowder , and a denial that Roger Bacon was the discoverer , and terminates with the fortifications in the nineteenth century .. It consists of seven chapters , and is suitably illustrated . The Elfi-e Muskjet . By the same writer . —^ A plain practical treatise , the utility of which is apparent .

      Handbook to Australasia . Edited by Wm . Fairfaix . —This Work presents a brief historical and descriptive account of v ictoria , Tasmania , South Australia , New South Wales , Western Australia , and New Zealand . It is accompanied with a map of the Australasian colonies . Printed and published at Melbourne , it is put forth as an experiment . If successful , a yearly volume will be issued . Practical Swiss Guide . By an Englishman Abroad (^ Longmans ) . —This is the fourth edition of a useful work , intended to include " all that ought to be seen , in the shortest period and at the least expense . " PARLQtnt Journal . Part I . —This is a new periodical , designed for " a Weekly Record of Entertainment and Instruction , adapted for readers of all ages ; " illustrated by Julian Portcli . It consists of six weekly numbers , which are principally addressed to female tastes ; and the -work hitherto appears to have been judiciously conducted .

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      The Future of India , By M . N . S . Booth . The author has had ten years' experience in the covenanted civil service of India , and is so far qualified to deliver himself of an opinion on the subject of the " troublesome possession , " as ho calls it , that we have of that country . The range of Himalaya affords us , in his opinion , a natural boundary beyond which -we should not , unless compelled , attempt to penetrate . We should be careful not to alarm the natives , with the notion that we are greedy to annex independent countries on the slightest pretext . A Russian invasion by Caubal the writer regards as quite a myth . He requires , ho wever , a more efficient police than the present corrupt force . Improvements have been lately introduced—the sitting magistrate and the tluef-catcher are no longer identified . in the same person . The burden of the taxes still falls on the landholders alono , a system to which the inelasticity of our finances is due . " Finance is the rock upon which the vessel of State will smash , unless some experienced man be placed at the holm to guide her over the difficulties that arc plainly looming in the distance . " The pamphlet contains many useful suggestions .

      Commercial. — -?"— ' ¦ —: • ¦

      COMMERCIAL . — - ? " — '¦ — : ¦

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      exist by which the industry of different individuals and different trades can be made to assist and help one another so effectually as by free and unrestricted competition . " This is as necessni'y to the well-being of ' society as industry itself . Generally the principle is acknowledged , and now it is emphatically dwelt , on by those who are most forward in sermonising the men who stand out on strike . It is plain therefore'that ' the contravention of this principle is always a cause of evilj and is the cause of the present calamity . At least it should be rigidly and consistently acted on by those who object to the men contravening it ; and if these are blame , how much are those to be condemned who continually and systematically violate it .

      COMMERCIAL ASPECT OF THE STRIKE . TT 7 "E shall say a few words here on the com-W mercial aspect of the builders' strike , which threatens to be , if both parties hold firm to their declared resolutions , the most memorable that has ever occurred . The sub-class 15 , of the 11 class of occupations , in the Census returns , is headed " Houses , Builders , House decorators ; " and includes " Surveyors , Builders , Carpenters and Joiners , Masons , Paviors , Slaters , Plasterers , Painters , Plumbers and Glaziers , and others engaged in house construction . " In the metropolis , in 1851 , the number of men engaged in these several trades , aged twenty years and upwards , was 59 , 455 , and increasing this number by 10 per cent ., on account of the increase in the persons engaged in building since then , we

      may assume that about Go , 000 persons , upwards of twenty years of age , will all he out of work on Monday . On the one hand , it is not strictly true that all these will be out of work ; on the other , a great number of youths below twenty years of age will be thrown out , so that we shall not be far wrong in taking 65 , 000 as the number of working men who will then at once cease their bread-earning occupations . We cannot estimate the average wages of these artisans below 5 s . per day , which will give a sum of 16 , 250 / ., or 97 , 500 / . per week , withdrawn from wages . In four weeks the sum . will be 390 , 000 / . That represents roughly , but very incompletely— -for the earning of wages carries with it the gaining of profits—the loss to the nation in one month by the suspension of this one species of' industry .

      We now know , however , that one industry feeds another , and that to suspend one necessarily starves the other . A merchant , for example , last week was in treaty to sell a cai'go of deals , but his would-be customer cried off when it became probable that the strike would ensue . He could not use , and therefore would not buy them . This is ah index to many other businesses , which are impeded or wholly stopped by the strike , and to the losses 'in which the ^ above figures of 39 O , 0 O 0 Z . give us no intimation . Or we may express the probable loss in this way . The number of males above twenty years of age enumerated in the census as engaged in occupations in Great Britain was 5 , 458 , 815 , and of these the trades on strike may be taken as one-hundredth part .

      Onehundredth part , therefore , of the industry of the whole people is suspended by the strike . The annual produce of their industry cannot be estimated — taking Mr . M « Culloch ' s basis , and adding 20 per cent , since his " Sketches of the British Empire" was published—at less than 359 , 000 , 000 ; . for income , and 100 , 000 , 000 / . to replace and extend c ipital , or a total of 459 , 000 , 000 / ., one-hundredth -port of this suin is 4 , 590 , 000 / ., or the probable loss by the strike , were it to t continue six months , might be 2 , 295 , 000 / . It is Impossible , however , to ascertain the total loss , because the cessation of industry' in various businesses puts a stop also to the means of payment for consumption , and lessens the work and the profit of retail and wholesale dealers . It strikes us—but we cannot affirm that the

      comparison is precise—that the Joss by the cessation of so much industry , should it continue for . months , would not fall very far short of half the sum the Chancellor of the ' . Exchequer expects to receive from his new income tax . It will be , under such circumstances , nothing loss than a national calamity , making itself perceptible in the diminished moans of a largo portion of the community . Of tho sufferings of hungry children , of patient women , connected with the workmen , gradually selling all their little ornaments and useful articles to keep themselves and their oflspring alive , we

      shall hero say nothing . Those circumstances cannot fail to attract attention . They are the bitterest consequences of tho cessation of so much industry , and alone make tho loss of tho wealth deeply to be ^ deplored . Wo , limit our remarks to tho commercial aspect of tho question , and leave tho philanthropic aspect to more export pens . However multifarious tho consequences , the whole evil resolves itself into a cessation of useful industry , and we must look therefore to the laws which regulate industry for its causes and its ourc . It is now thoroughly well established that no othor means

      The workmen try to obtain by combination with one another—setting at defiance free competitiona diminution of the hours of labour , with no diminution in the rate of wages . But this is exactly what the Government does . Setting at defiance free competition , it is a standing combination to obtain from the public by taxation the largest possible sum for the smallest possible amount of useful work . Moreover , lnws are continually made for

      the very purpose of restricting competition . Our whole public-house system , our banking system , our factory acts , with factory inspectors , our j > ayrnent of mail packets-,.. cur restrictions in the navy and army , &c , are open violations—some new and and some old—of unrestricted competition , and most of them are directed against the classes-who now stand out on strike , hoping by a similar combination and the use of force to attain their end .

      We say , therefore , that if the strikers be to blame for contravening the great law of free competition , t hey have only followed the example continually set by the Legislature . In the case of the factories , mines , and some similar works , the public lias demanded and enforced a restriction on the hours of labour ; and the public can only be justified in blaming the building classes for now striking , if it be wrong for individuals to do so themselves by the same-means , what the Legislature is continually doino for others .

      It cannot , however , be concealed that this is a contest between the masters and the men as to their . respective shaves of the produce of their combined and equally useful labour . The men complain that they do not get wages enough for their work ; that the continual introduction of machinery diminishes the amount of their employment and the rate generally of their payment . They cannot , as reasonable beings ,-object to the use and extension of machinery , which

      lightens labour ; but they do object , and justly object , that from this diminution of labour they receive only disadvantage . Tin ' s is exactly what took place in 1811 and 1812 , when at first the people in the ijnanufacturing districts were driven to desperation . Then our beautiful cotton machinery , which has so much enriched the nation , and contributed so much to the well-being of the working classes , was broken and destroyed by the Luddites , and then the revengeful law in turn took the lives of the misled men . Ai'c wo to

      have similar scones revived ? We shalL have , if the same causes arc allowed to operate . The Luddites , like the working builders , justly complained that they got no benefit . from the new machinery . All the profit went to the employers and the wasteful Government , -which was tiien ^ now , extorting immense sums from tho working people by taxation , and disbursing them on worthless objects . Wo pointed out a fortnight ago tho groat increase in the Government expenditure-, and remarked that it had obtained a great deal more than a fair share of tho increased wealth oi tho community arising from tho improvement of industry . At present , then , as in 1810 , and subsequent years , tho Government' is taking to itself

      a much too large a share of tho national produce It does not leave enough to satisfy masters and men . It prevents tho advantage of nmohincry from reaching tho labouring classos . It makes them hate this noble moans of improvement , and by its example it excites thorn to try and mend their condition by a combination to got more pny than they now rocoivo . Members of tho legislature mw members of tho exoou ' tivo may denounce the " strikes , " but those who trace" effects to causes will not hesitate to say that tho bad oxiunplo sot by the Legislature , and excessive taxation , wo to blame for this national calamity . J » - it can bo cured or stopped , wo will not now protend to say . Wo have , however , no hope—w

      Untitled Article

      The Water ing-PlacesofEngland . With a Summary of their Medical Vopoyrapliy and Remedial Resources . By Edwin I ^ ee , M . D . —John Churchill . This is the fourth edition of a valuable work , to which , however , considerable additions- have boon made , for which we are indebted to the fUct of the author having revisited the principal loealitos . The Importance of mineral waters as remedial agents has" raised these in public estimation i though they Buffer from the preference given by thoso who are desirous of travelling to foreign watering-places . Dr . X . eo confesses , indeed , that England cannot fbirly compete with France or Germany , both of wblch countries contain many hot and cold strongly JwnwaUfiKid springs of various kinds . Nevertheless , ho £ iaeU ? h spots have also their claims and uses , to ¦ ¦ w mmJXtfZ ' &trta volume will direct tho valetudinarian .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 6, 1859, page 920, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2306/page/20/