introduced trial by jury, and several other re- | 1842, and a third in 1845. In 1841 the "Pop forms into that neglected country, but was soon dismissed on account of his political writings. Elected Deputy for his district, (Côte d'Or,) he took his place, in July, 1831, on the extreme left, by the side of Mauguin and Lamarque. In an address to his constituents he now first called attention to "the dangerous position of affairs." Lamarque's funeral, at which he was present, drew upon him suspicion and persecution. The government, which feared him, brought him to trial on account of his "History of the Revolution of 1830," but the cause was decided in his favor. In the following year, 1833, the third edition of this work was issued, and 20,000 copies sold. In the month of September of the same year appeared the first number of the "Populaire," a weekly journal, which in a few weeks obtained 27,000 subscribers. It was deemed necessary to get rid of such a man, and after he had in the chamber accused a minister of treason, and in his journal exposed the treacherous conduct pursued towards the Poles, he was condemned to two years' imprisonment, and the loss of his political rights. He preferred five years of exile, and went first to Belgium, and then to London. Thence he continued to edit the "Populaire," and published a pamphlet against Thiers, Guizot, Barthe, and Bugeaud, and a "Letter to Louis Philippe," against the policy of his government. He also employed himself upon the following works: "Universal History," History of the French People," "History of the French Revolution," and "History of England." It was during this period that he became convinced of the untenableness, as he terms it, of the whole basis of modern society, and especially of the present system of rewarding labor. In order to master the subject he studied more than a thousand works in the British Museum, and at last gained the conviction that "Communism is one of the inalienable rights of mankind." Upon his return to France in 1839, he became one of the founders of a society for promoting a reform of the electoral system, which, however, produced but little effect. He then published his "Popular History of the French Revolution," of which a second edition appeared in 1845. In 1840 he was one of the most determined assailants of the scheme for fortifying Paris, and published "Six Political Letters on the present Crisis," and several other pamphlets. Towards the close of the same year appeared his "Journey to Icaria," in which he describes a large commonwealth thoroughly organized on communist principles. Further explanations were given in two pamphlets called "Communist Creed," and "In what sense am I a Communist?" A second large edition of the above work was published in ulaire" was resumed, but henceforth exhibited Cabet has for some years exercised a very powerful influence over a large portion of the working classes in France; and although he has always preached peace and submission to the constituted authorities, there can be no doubt, as we have already stated, that he has done much towards preparing the minds of the people for the conflict in which they are now engaged. It would not be a matter of surprise if he should yet be called on to play a conspicuous part in the further development of the crisis. OCCUPATION FOR CHILDREN. The habits of children prove that occupation is of necessity about nothing, still more to be usefully employed. with most of them. They love to be busy, even With some children it is a strongly-developed physical necessity, and if not turned to good account, will be productive of positive evil, thus verifying the old adage, that "Idleness is the mother of mischief." Children should be enbe disciplined into performing for themselves every little office relative to the toilet which also keep their own clothes and other possesthey are capable of performing. They should sions in neat order, and fetch for themselves whatever they want; in short, they should learn to be as independent of the services of others as possible, fitting them alike to make a good use of prosperity, and to meet with fortitude any reverse of fortune that may befall them. I know of no rank, however exalted, in which such a system would not prove beneficial. couraged, or if indolently disinclined to it, should A PEER BUT A POET. - We have heard that during the insurrection at Paris, when the throne was overturned and the monarch driven like a criminal from the country he had betrayed, the mob espied Victor Hugo overlooking their proceeding; in their frenzy some cried out “Down with him, he is a peer of France;" but the majority exclaimed, "No, but he is a poet," and whilst he was endangered by his association with the oppressors of the people, he was saved because he was a poet! - Nonconformist. MANIFESTO OF THE COMMITTEE OF METROPOLITAN TRADES. From notices which have appeared in this journal, our readers are aware that during the last month several meetings have been held of "Delegates of the Metropolitan Trades," for the purpose of collecting information as to the state and prospects of the industrial classes. The inquiry was comprehensive in its range, fifty trades having sent representatives to this Congress of Labor, and each deputy furnishing facts and statistics collected by the members of his own society. The great object in view was to prepare an accurate account of the destitution of the operatives, to investigate the causes out of which it has arisen, and to consider what remedies were best adapted to the removal of the existing distress, and to the prevention of a future recurrence of the calamities so frequently endured and so bitterly deplored. The Report is now printed, and we propose to make it the text of some remarks. It appears that the number of mechanics and artisans at present in London amounts to at least 200,000 men; that of these one third are employed, but many at such reduced wages as are wholly inadequate to provide a sufficient supply of the necessaries of life for themselves and families; that one third are only half-employed, and are suffering such cruel privations as to be compelled to sell their clothes and furniture to escape absolute pauperism; that the remaining third are entirely out of work, and have been so for many weeks past, and thousands of these, who have no friends able to assist them, and are unable to obtain credit, have been compelled to submit to the last degradation of pauperism, and enter the union workhouses. The Report then proceeds to classify, under the following six heads, what they believe to be the causes of this wide-spread and deep-seated wretched ness: "1. The usurpation and possession of land, which, being the gift of the Almighty, as the means from which man was to obtain his subsis tence, should always be held in sacred trust for the benefit of the people at large. "2. The usurpation of political power to make laws that govern the mass, thus unenfranchising and politically degrading the productive classes. "3. The adoption of gold at a fixed price as money and as the medium of exchange. "4. Competition with home machinery, and the introduction of foreign manufacturers, combined with felon and workhouse labor supported by public and parochial funds. "5. The monopolies and protection which | Government maintains and affords to all its employés in State and Church. 6. The cruel and reckless neglect of the Legislature in not making the required arrangements; first, to usefully employ the destitute; and, secondly, to properly educate the ignorant." With the slight exception of some phrases of doubtful import, we subscribe cordially and implicitly to the whole of this manifesto, and shall state our reasons for doing so in some comments on each section, taking them in the order arranged by the committee. 1. The construction we put on the first proposition is that property has its duties as well as its rights. In the sense of a Malthusian, the private possession of land is clear usurpation, since it denies a seat at Nature's board to the poor and hungry; it deprives man of his inheritance, and aggravates this injustice by adding the penalty of starvation. There can be no doubt that man was born to live, and therefore he has a right to the means of life, but this right involves the duty of labor, since none capable of adding to the stock of food are entitled to eat the bread of willing idleness. It does not, however, follow from this statement that every private possession of land is usurpation, or injurious to society; very far from it, for without the institution of property civilization could not have any permanency, or even existence. The title to reap what a man has sown is the very foundation of proprietary rights, and, were that title withheld, the earth, remaining in common, would be a sterile waste. The true question, then, to be determined is, upon what principle land ought to be appropriated to exclusive ownership? Had we to establish a tenure for a new country, such as New Zealand, we should certainly vest the fee-simple in the State, granting leases to the cultivators, they paying rent to the public treasury, such rent being devoted to the purposes of taxation. This was in fact the feudal principle which prevailed in England during six centuries. The King was the sole proprietor of all the lands; and before feudalism was introduced estates were only held during the life of the donee, hereditary title not being acknowledged. Feudalism, however, sanctioned the hereditary title in the transmission of lands, but with many stringent restrictions and many clauses of resumption. In the Crown lands, not yet alienated, we have evidence of the old system. It might be difficult to revert to the ancient plan, but not so to abolish primogeniture and entails; and if it were found impracticable to make the culti- | Majesty, her consort, and her ministers; all the vators of the soil pay rent to the national treas- subordinate officers of State and their assistants; ury instead of to individuals, there ought to be the judges of the civil and criminal courts and no difficulty in compelling the landed proprietors their assistants; all the generals, officers, and to contribute a large tax in compersation for soldiers in the unproductive army; all the adtheir territorial privileges. mirals, officers, sailors, and marines in the navy; all the officers of customs and excise, the coast guard, the police, and, last but not least, all the archbishops and bishops, and other State Church clergy; all these have their wages and pensions regulated by law, never being subject to competition, never undergoing depreciation, by the rise and fall of commercial pursuits. Yet what a contrast does this partial protection exhibit, when it is considered that it is the government that are the employers, fixing the wages of hundreds of thousands of all classes, protecting its employés from the enormous evils of competition; the same government that day after day continues to neglect, degrade, and despise the industrious operatives of every business, whose ill-requited labor alone maintains the classes protected, affording to others that which is denied to themselves, food, clothing, comforts, and every convenience of life which the unproductive thousands consume and enjoy." 2. We need not repeat here what we wrote last week on the extension of the suffrage. As a general rule, it accords with justice that all who are taxed ought to have a voice in the election of representatives. An educational test, if insisted on, should apply as well to the candidates as to the electors, for surely a lack of brains or knowledge ought to disqualify a member, as well as a lack of property. Were this test enforced, we believe that hundreds who have given silent votes during the last quarter of a century would be cashiered, and doubtless no small number of the loquacious who torture the ingenuity of the reporters of the press to construct sentences which may pass muster before the disciples of Lindley Murray. To this statement we would add, that where money is made out of gold, and the price of gold in coinage is fixed, it is certain to be exported as a commodity of merchandise whenever its market price exceeds its mint price. To prevent this export as much as possible, gold is made the cheapest of all commodities in this country, and as it measures labor, labor must be 3. On this proposition we need not enlarge. Our opinions are well known. Against ignorance, scurrility, and fraud, we, as consistent free traders, have unswervingly held that a free trade in the commodity of gold is as necessary for commercial prosperity as free trade in all other commodities; and it is, therefore, most gratifying to us to read in the manifesto of the Trades, "that they have also to suffer the consequences of a mischievous gold currency, totally inadequate to serve as the basis of the circulating medium for carrying on the commercial transactions of this country." Here is encourag-permanently as cheap as gold, though labor is ing proof that the schoolmaster is abroad. Light has penetrated the darkness, and truth will soon disperse the mists of error, in spite of the resistance of those journalists who know, and knowing fear, that their vocation of appealing to the passions will be gone, whenever the great body of the operatives exercise their reason and investigate causes, as the committee has done in the Report now under our consideration. Let the usurers and their venal scribes ponder over the following paragraph, and prepare to become honest men. "If laws," says the Report," are made to regulate the money wages of one class, in justice laws should be made to regulate the money wages of all classes; for the principle which goes to employ and protect some at the expense of the remainder is as grossly unjust as it is certain not to stand. Yet this principle of protection to the few, and denial to the many, is in full force at the present time, as is evident from the following facts; and they are deduced from the crowned head to the pettiest officer in the country's pay. The wages and pensions of her taxed and gold is untaxed. Hence arises that cheapness which increases the purchasing power of the incomes and pensions of all government annuitants; and whenever gold is exported, this class reap a further advantage, for all prices then fall, to tempt the foreigner to restore the gold; and when prices fall, wages are lowered and operatives are dismissed. In such circumstances property gains what industry loses. That this occurs in regular cycles, is notorious. 4. This proposition complains of the "introduction of foreign manufactures combined with felon and workhouse labor." To import from foreign countries such produce as native industry can create, and to put heavy and almost prohibitory duties on that foreign produce which is denied to our soil and climate, are among the curiosities of modern legislation. We allow silks, hats, shoes, gloves, jewellery, to displace the labor of those of our operatives whose subsistence depends on their manufacture; but tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, wines, which cannot be cultivated on our own lands, are loaded with the heaviest duties. Through competition we compel our op contained in the document under review, and shall quote the words of the Report: "That for the just protection of the rights of labor, a Labor Protecting Board' be established, the members of which shall be elected by the working classes, and in virtue of their appointment be entitled each to a sitting in the House of Commons, the president being a member of the Cabinet, as the representatives of labor and the guardians of its rights." eratives to sell their industry cheap; and by fiscality we compel them to buy foreign luxuries at the dearest rate. They are smitten on the right and the left, both as producers and consumers. But the evil does not stop here; they are subject to a grievance for which most of our readers may be unprepared, and that is the competition with felon labor. Government having determined to make the prisons self-sustaining if possible, the convicts are employed at the trades to which they have been habituated, and they are thus To the principle of this measure we see no made to compete against those whose good con- objection. We have already a Board of Trade, duct keeps them without the walls of the gaols. which professes to regulate commerce and record As a specimen of the system we are assured that its statistics; but as all commerce is the result at Pentonville prison three pairs of boots can be of labor, why should it also not have its special bought for less than the leather can be purchased superintendent? It is demanded, however, that in the ordinary retail way, and any person can the "Labor Board" should be elected by the go to the establishment and supply himself with working classes, and that its president should have boots and shoes. From the information we have a seat in the Cabinet. Here very grave difficulreceived it appears to be the intention of Govern- ties arise; how is this election to be determined? ment in all the model prisons to classify the con- is it by universal suffrage, or by delegates victs according to their trades, so as to form shops or rather bazaars in which all sorts of goods can be purchased at the lowest possible price; the dietary of the prison, which will measure the cost of production, will become the standard of the dietary of all our operatives, with this further disadvantage to them, that Government, purchasing the raw materials in large quantities, will be able to buy those materials on cheaper terms than private tradesmen. The underselling process will become maximized by the double competition of the foreigner and the convict, and this extension of the principle of free trade can have no other result than to make a prison a desirable retreat for native industry. There ought to be a new inscription on the walls of the gaols, to this effeet: Taxed Labor undersold by Felon Labor. We pass over the fifth proposition, as it is fully supported by the extract quoted from the Report, which refers to the monetary system, and proceed to the sixth proposition, which complains that Government does not usefully employ the destitute, or properly educate the ignorant. Here again we recognize the doctrines constantly enunciated in this journal. Over and over again have we endeavoured to enforce the principle of a minimum of wages in lieu of the Poor Law system, by which Government should be compelled to employ on national works that labor which private enterprise cannot absorb. As to public education, we have contended that this is a family obligation, not a duty of the State, and that it ultimately resolves itself into a question of wages; for all men should be paid sufficient to enable them to educate their children, instead of sending them to labor at an age when they ought to be receiving instruction. We now come to the most important demand selected by the trades?—is the appointment to be for life, or for a term of years? — is the office to be salaried?—would it confer any patronage? On these points the Report is wholly silent: so that while we accede to the principle, we must suspend our judgment till we are furnished with further details. At any rate, the appointment would involve an interference with the prerogative, nor does it appear that the Crown could put even a veto on the selection. On the whole we consider that this proposition requires more mature consideration than it has yet received from the committee, to win the favor of public opinion. The Report concludes with assuring the Government that "the Trades of London are formed of men of peace, who wish to maintain order." Of the truth of this statement we have the most profound conviction. It has been proved by a fortitude under suffering which has on several occasions elicited the commendation of parliament. The working classes are not to be confounded with the rogues and vagabonds who smash windows for the love of mischief or plunder. Let it not be forgotten that last month the coal-whippers, 2,000 strong, offered to be sworn in as special constables to preserve the peace of the metropolis. They spoke the sentiments of all the respectable operatives in England, who are interested in the maintenance of order, without which industry cannot flourish. Is it not the Legislature which introduces the principle of disorder, when it exposes taxed industry to competition with felon labor, and drives the mechanic and artisan out of his native market, by permitting the comparatively untaxed foreigner to undersell him on his own soil? Are we astonished at murmurs and remonstrances differentism can be tolerated, much less proved injustice. The manifesto of the trades should elicit the sympathy of the middle classes and claim the anxious attention of Government. Let them beware lest a refusal to redress wrongs should convert "men of peace, who wish to maintain order" into open enemies of all the institutions of the State. when men able and willing to work for their remediable. These are not times in which indaily bread are denied the means of employment through measures sanctioned by Parliament? For is it not Parliament that has fixed the price of gold in our coinage, though it cannot fix its price as a commodity, that encourages the foreigner to supersede native labor, and permits the felon to cut down the wages of the honest man, untainted with crime? Surely these are grievances which give rise to justifiable complaints, and the more so because they are easily -Douglas Jerrold's Newspaper. pense. CAPITAL AND LABOR. Now comes the question whether the workman can, or ought to be, associated on the footing of a partner; he contributing his labor and skill, the capitalist his capital. However, there is nothing at all alarming in the proposition, considered apart from the mischievous doctrine of Government interference that has been connected with it in France; but it is obvious that the proposition itself implies a partial attainment of the object we have in view, namely, the moral and material improvement of the working class. The laborer who lives from hand to mouth, and has neither capital nor credit, still less the one who has not acquired a character for regularity or skill, cannot expect to be as sociated with his employers with regard to profits, or to be permanently provided for at their exBut, if we are rightly informed, there are causes even now in operation in the manufacturing districts, which give reason to hope that the consummation, which the Provisional Government strains to bring about in France by breaking down the masters, will be attained by the willing co-operation of these self-same masters in this country; and we make bold to say that, if it is not attained by or through them, it will never be attained at all. The fact is, machinery is becoming so complicated and so valuable in many branches of manufactures, that the owners are afraid to trust it to any but the best and most careful workmen. They find it profitable to give high wages in such cases; and, by the same rule, they may soon find it profitable to give the best and most careful workmen a direct interest in the concern. At Nottingham a machine for making lace, which cost less than £15, has been replaced by one of very delicate construction, which costs £1,500. This is a fact well worth the attention of political thinkers. Again, is there anything extravagant in supposing that the great manufacturer, the railway companies, and large proprietors may be induced to do what is done already in many quiet respectable firms and old families, as well as by the State, namely, to provide for all who have been disabled or worn out in their service, or have served them during a given number of years with fidelity. It is surely better to pay our contributions towards the relief of poverty in a shape which elevates instead of degrading which soothes instead of irritating — the poor. — Morning Chronicle. SUCCESS IN LIFE. In no department of life do men rise to eminence who have not undergone a long and diligent preparation; for whatever be the difference in the mental powers of individuals, it is the cultivation of the mind alone that leads to distinction. John Hunter was as remarkable for his industry as for his talents, of which his museum alone forms a most extraordinary proof. If we look around and contemplate the history of those men whose talents and acquirements we most esteem, we find that their superiority of knowledge has been the result of great labor and diligence. It is an ill-founded notion to say that merit in the long-run is neglected. It is sometimes joined to circumstances that may have a little influence in counteracting it, as an unfortunate manner and temper; but it generally meets with its due reward. The world are not fools-every person of merit has the best chance of success; and who would be ambitious of public approbation, if it had not the power of discriminating? - Physic and Physicians. |