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as well as insures him individually the larg- the case of the working classes, the prosest amount of personal well being; but if perity or the misery of the future depends the present conditions of labour do not ad- on their exercise or neglect. Le Play cites mit of this system-if the accumulation of the following, as instances of the greatest capital, and consequently of power, has de- amount of industry and economy to be met stroyed this small independent class-if with in Europe. machinery has changed the character of human labour, and large associations swamped individual efforts-if all these new phases are in positive existence, then the solution of our present difficulties must be made to agree with our present circumstances; we must find a remedy for the existing evil that shall accord with the existing régime.

"Les portefaix et les bateliers émigrants de la Russie centrale, le marchand de grains de l'Oural, le fondeur d'Hundsrucke, le métayer de la Vieille Castille, le mineur émigrant de la Galicie, le Penty de la Basse Bretagne, le moissonneur émigrant du Soissonnais, le mineur de l'Auvergne, le maréchal ferrant du Maine, le maître blanchisseur

The greatest difficulty of all perhaps lies de la banlieue de Paris." with the working classes themselves. Their improvidence, extravagance, want of fore- In Spain, the best and the most frugal sight, and love of gross sensual pleasures, workmen are to be found among the mounrender any outward attempt at amelioration tains of Galicia, the Asturias, and Biscay; of their condition very sad and very hope- in France, among the mountains of Limou less. Until they will aid themselves by sin, de la Marche, and Auvergne; throughmoral elevation-which can only be brought out Savoy generally; in Italy, in the high about by a wide-spread and most liberal ed- valleys of Piedmont, Lombardy, the Veneucation-no one else can aid' them. Yet we tian States, the Tyrol, and in all the chain of must be just. We must not expect from the Appenines. Combined with local habits ignorant, or at best half-educated men, the and tendencies, this love of saving and demoral virtues others of high intelligence and sire to possess property are found among liberal teaching do not often shew. We the muleteers and waggoners of Spain; that must not expect that fabulous amount of is to say, in several provinces, but not naself-control-the total subjection of the nat- tionally as a professional characteristic alural instincts and inclinations. It is very ways evident: among the market-gardeners easy to say that the poor ought to be this and cow-keepers of the suburbs of Paris; and that; that if they were reasonable and among the reapers of Picardy, Normandy, frugal, such and such benefits would accrue and the Soissonnais; among the hemp and to them in their old age. But this is fla- linen carders of Franche Comté; among grant injustice; and this is the imperfect the chimney sweepers (poêlier fumistes) side of political economists. The good we who come from the valley of the Domo seek must accord with human nature, socie- d'Ossola-the blacksmiths of Lucquois, and ty must change and right itself into harmony the Bergamasque country-the emigrant with natural laws. All that ignores, stulti- woodmen of Bohemia-the waggoners and fies, and mutilates the full force of human boatmen of Northern Germany and Scanlife-always in due and noble proportion-dinavia the fishermen of the Mediterranean is a false and a vicious theory. It is only and the North Seas-the waggoners of South another mode of preaching subjection to ty- Russia and of Siberia-the farmers and ranny, and resignation to wrong. If we horse-rearers (éleveurs de chevaux) of the have not found the true answer to this terri- valley of the Don-the boatmen of the Volble social enigma yet, we must not accept ga and the Kalma-the hunters of the north false guesses as the truth, and be contented forests and of Russia. This somewhat with them. Still, while pleading earnestly lengthy list is given as the roll-call of the and warmly for the recognition of natural most economical and industrious workmen laws, for the dignity and sacredness of hu- in Europe. Our country does not figure man instincts, we must not forget the grand there at all. question of proportion, nor allow of excess, M. Le Play divides the workman's income which is vice, because total abegnation is into four sources; "propriétés, subventions, not virtue. The working classes owe it to travaux spéciaux, industries domestiques." themselves, as well as to society, to make This last, by the way, includes an absurd the best of their condition; and the best is calculation of the worth of a woman's-wife not made by ruining themselves and their or mother-work in the house, duly set prospects by sensual and profligate extrava- down as so much in the balance-sheet, figurgance. Economy, frugality, industry, self ing there among the receipts in kind, not denial, all are virtues, whether exercised by money. The simplest form of propertyrich or poor; doubly virtuous where, as in after a man's wardrobe-is his house. In

the east it is a tent. Then comes a garden, that it caused, was one of the principal an orchard, fields, meadows, special crops, causes of that Revolution. and finally, granaries, work-rooms, and sta- Animals are a simpler kind of property; bles. The term "proprietor" does not al- they belong more entirely to the nominal ways include the same tenure of property. owner; and even in communistic tribes, In France and England, a landed proprietor, some animals are held as individual prosmall or great, is a man holding land in his perty. Cows are the most valuable of all own right, or at a lease, without interven- to a family. In some countries they are tion and without collateral claims, so long treated as veritable housemates; and share, as his lease shall last. With the eastern equally with the children, in the care and afnomads proprietorship is communistic; the fection of the household. Every one knows pasture grounds belong to the whole tribe what his mare is to the Arab, and what a alike, and therefore are not to be included large place in his wellbeing his camel fills; as the private property of any; while the and every one has heard of the Irish pig and mixed character of communism and indivi- the Irish cow. Our author gives rather too dual privileges among the stationary peas- much moral weight to the fact of this posants of Russia, disturbs the accuracy of our session; assuming that forethought, prudefinition in another direction. The heads dence, economy, self-sacrifice, and most of houses enjoy there, under their seigneurs other moral virtues, follow on the peasant's and by the laws of the community, special keeping of animals. advantages which give the character of pro- The highest kind of property is of course prietorship to some in the midst of the com- money accumulated and put out to interest: munism of others. In general, the land in this is the fast form, and naturally the one Russia is re-divided among the peasants most seldom met with among the ouvriers. once in every fifteen years; but in some In Turkey, where interest is forbidden by districts, as among the Ural mountains, the law, and in Russia, where property is never land is transmitted from generation to gen- more than a long loan from the seigneur to eration, always as the seigneur's property, the serf, the peasant saves only for what he held in trust and for consideration; but the wants to buy: he does not save to accumuholder can neither sell nor yet mortgage it late capital and obtain interest. In Russia, to a stranger. It is simply his to cultivate, there are certainly instances of great wealth and he may enjoy the fruits of his cultivation, among the serfs à l'abrok. One of the after he has satisfied the claims of his seig richest men of our time, and the husband of neur. In Turkey, land is held under different an Imperial Princess, is said to be a royal terms again. A distinction is made between serf à l'abrok. But the general rule in terres mortes" and "terres vivantes." Russia is, that the lower orders do not save, The first are the lands, such as garden, field, simply because they have no motive for orchard, &c., which, lying round the house, doing so. Why should a man deny himself are cultivated by the spade. The second present pleasures to swell the future joys are the farms and fields worked by the of his lord? Where property is not secured plough. Theoretically, all land in Turkey to the holder, what reason is there for sacribelongs to God; next under him to the Sul-fices to obtain it? In other countries, tan, as senior tenant, who receives a certain other causes stand between the workman tithe or tax in recognition of this tenantship: and a saved competency; but the result is the usufruct is the cultivator's-the person always the same, that working-men as a who, being in possession, cultivates it well, class do not save. To induce this habit, and pays his dues to the State and to the savings banks and benefit societies have Mosque. If the land is suffered to fall into been undertaken by Government and by neglect for three years, it then lapses to the private speculation. These institutions have State. In Hungary, and in many parts of done much good in relieving distress, and Europe, the peasant's tenure is the same as in inducing habits of economy. They in our old feudal times; by a service-fee threaten, however, from their increasing paid to the lord. This service-fee is some- numbers to become the source of great evil, times redeemed by a certain sum of money, by affording an excess of help. Le Play paid once for all for a term of years, or paid asserts that speculations of this nature yearly, as our rent would be. Or it is re- savings banks or benefit societies — succeed deemed by the peasant hiring a substitute; only when undertaken by the masters and when, in Russia, a man is said to be living employers-that the workmen fail when à l'abrok. The same law of tenure and ser- they attempt these or other such matters by vice held good in France before the first themselves; an assertion not sought to be Revolution; and by its crying injustice, by supported by proof, and in England refuted the tyranny, oppression, wrong, and crime, by many striking instances to the contrary.

But as the design of this folio is to shew account, and who is entitled to so much free that all which the working-classes attempt pasture as he can find in the extent of marsh for and by themselves-all and every assigned to him for salt-making. Even manifestation of free will or independence, when the land passes into other hands, and is hurtful when not useless-we must ac- though the proprietorship may be subcept mere assertions with caution, and even divided ad infinitum, nothing touches the qualify the facts set down. Masters, by rights of the saunier lettriér. Wild fruits, this author's theory, should be the supreme game, fish, free pasture, common lands, controllers of the whole business of life: firewood, and many other privileges of the the ouvrier should be as a child, attempting same nature, are the chief ameliorating cirnothing on his own responsibility. He cumstances in the condition of the ouvrier in calls this solidarity; we call it want of North, South, and Central Europe. Benefit freedom. He upholds the necessity of the societies and charities take the place of workman's tutelage, and the value of the these in Western Europe; especially in master's tutorship- he paints the evils Great Britain, and in France. Common which have sprung from the liberty, free- windmills for grinding corn, common ovens will, and want of solidarity among the for baking bread, are also very generally met working-classes of the west, but he does with, especially in Servia; and in fact subnot look forward to a possible time when ventions are the principal means of livelilabour shall be more justly rewarded than hood in many districts; direct wages for at present, and when the skilled and edu- direct work forming but a small part of the cated workman shall be able to win a family income. higher species of recognition from his masters, and from society, than he does to- The "travaux spéciaux," as a means of day. Yet this would be a better state of income, of course cannot be more than things than any return to feudal dependence, indicated; they vary with each man's indieven if dignified by the name of solidarity. vidual capability, education, and goodwill; Subventions, or privileges beside and be- sifting themselves into classes not only disyond wages paid for a certain amount of la- tinct from each other but distinct and bour performed, assume large dimensions in varying in the numbers of each. Thus, in the systems of Central Europe. In North a special trade, working at the same class and East Scandinavia, in Russia, and in Tur- and kind of work, two men will earn key, subventions assume a purely domestic different sums according to the individual and exceptional character. There servants habits of each; while the general result, often enter their master's households by mar- even of a fixed system, and of fixed rates of riage, and thus become part of the family remuneration, though outwardly more uniwhile still acting as servants-giving their form, will in reality be modified and distime and labour for equivalents paid neither turbed from the same causes. The "train wages nor in separate subventions vaux spéciaux," therefore, can only be forming an intermediate state between spoken of in a tabular summary, or when right and privilege. giving the budget of an individual, or of one family. As a general source of income, they are too vague and wide to be fixed

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This belongs to the patriarchal order of society; and is a state expressed by a word or words wholly wanting to the western into rules. languages as these have terms for hired Of domestic labour we have not much to and salaried workmen wanting to the say, though M. Le Play always includes eastern tongues. In many of the French this as one of his sources of income. But provinces, subventions or privileges are it is a very unstable item; difficult to calstill largely allowed. One of the best and culate, and more difficult to define. When wisest is that accorded to the peasant of you come to the money value of a woman's Basse-Bretagne the Pen-ty, or day labour-washing the floor of her kitchen, or mending er living in a house of his own. The Pen-ty, her children's socks, you enter into regions when he enters service, may place two so vague and so vast, that none but such a heifers among the flocks of his master, to be mind as M. Le Play's would venture to nourished for two years à titre gratuit. give the faintest outline, still less the exact After this time they are sold at a certain form and manner and worth as he does. profit, which profit constitutes the first sub- The labour of a family may be divided, cerstantial foundation of a fortune that often tainly, into principal and secondary. The ends in some thousands of francs. There principal is that of the father or head of is also the saunier lettrier of Saintonge. the house, including perhaps his eldest son Ile is the privileged salt-maker who makes or sons; the secondary is that of the mother salt in the marshes of Saintonge on his own and her younger children. But even this

Still

definition holds good only for Europe. For ties, are all singularly evil conditions both in the east men do many things, which, in morally and physically for women. Women, the west, are wholly appropriated by as a class, ought not to be employed out of women. They work with the needle, wash, the house in any kind of labour not immeiron, and do other things which we have diately connected with domestic life. been accustomed to regard as especially less ought they to be employed in unfeminine labour. Even in our own Indian healthy occupations, kept in confined atmocolonies, a lady's dress-maker and em- spheres, or forced to remain in constrained broiderer is a man; and the tailor-or or sedentary positions. Of course, there what would be in the west the workwoman are individual cases where women can be -is part of the regular establishment. employed abroad healthfully and advantageOne great"domestic labour" also in the ously. We would not circumscribe the east, is the manufacture of the family wearing sphere of their usefulness; for in acknowapparel; from the first spinning of the raw ledging their capacity for labour, and in material to the last embroidery stitch of granting them the dignity which springs the perfect garment. Here, owing to the from this, we make the first steps towards cheapness and rapidity of machine produc- placing them in their true and equal position. tions, it is rare for even knitting or spinning It is only cowards who fear the just emancito be carried on in a family; and unhappily pation of women. But still, granting her almost as rare for the material to be made the full liberty of labour as a rule- - the up at home. Few mothers of families sphere of a married woman's labour ought among the working classes in England, can to be home, or in matters immediately conmake even the most ordinary clothes for nected with home. To care for the cattle, themselves or their children. The dress- to attend also to the garden when in the maker who goes out to work by the day, is country, to make the children's clothes and a positive" institution" now; and a most her own, and to mend them more than our disastrous one; the cause of many evils, as unthrifty housewives often do now-a-days, to it is the result of many, of which the crea- wash and iron and cook and bake; and if tion of the class itself-of a class so there be then any leisure left from all these miserable and so nearly approaching des- duties, to read if she can, and as she ought titution as the work-woman of England - to be able to do, to spend some portion of is not the least nor the lightest. We buy the day, however small, in the recreation both labour and material into our families; necessary for the moral health of humanity; buy them with money earned by often the these are the occupations naturally fitted nost toilsome and monotonous kind of for women, and these are what they neglect work, which might be diversified and when they follow their husbands to the faclightened if we mixed in this home work, tory or the mine. There are also other small now farmed out" to another. This same- handicrafts, such as lace-making, plain neeness of labour in manufacturing districts, dle work, &c., which fit in well with the which has no interest in itself, no artistic leisure-time of women; while harvest-time, beauty, and which is chiefly mechanical, not and the gathering in of autumn fruits, formi requiring intellect or fancy-this work, another source of income and legitimate which is simply a dull means of livelihood, employment. In the East, where several and oftentimes a very poor one, certainly married sons or brothers live together, the does little for the happiness or elevation of labours of the ménage are divided and the worker. It is morally and physically lightened. With us, what household aid is unhealthy, both for men and women; but given or or required is all hired and paid as it is the régime of the day, the changes for. And though it may be urged that a that are to come must take place in this, woman's time is worth more to her in the and by this, not against it-the changes factory than it is at home that she can that are to come, and that are to ameliorate gain there more than she spends on the subthe condition of the workers, must be by stitutes she hires to do her household work further development, not by annihilation of - yet the moral and physical effects are so the present system. We must still work bad, that no consideration of mere gain by machinery and manufactories, but we ought to be held to counterbalance their must work more healthfully and under more tremendous evil. As a question ranging natural conditions. For instance, it is pecu- far wider than the mere labour question, the liarly bad for women and young girls to be out-of-door employment of married women employed in the factories. Long hours is one which no political economist should passed in constrained postures, a vitiated be led into supporting. The systematic atmosphere, dull labour, the absence of in- substitution of the wife and mother at home terest or change, the breaking up of home is one of the most grievous features of the D-5

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VOL. XXVI.

man to earn

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The Workmen of Europe.

November,

present system of labour. children are sent to infant schools, or con- posing that the house is large enough for a Whether the place for eating and sleeping; always supfided to the care of young inexperienced work-room and the sleeping chambers; and girls, or of harsh unfeeling women, the sys- that the work is well and sufficiently paid tem is equally bad. The mother is guardian for. of her both by nature and by reason; fields among the handloom weavers there, Else we have only to ask in Spitalyoung and any substitution of that guardianship what results home labour gives the indigent - except in special cases must have a workman. bad moral tendency. And most distinctly do we say that wages ought to be at such a value of family ties M. Le Play speaks well In all that he says of the sacredness and level, that a man's work alone could support and sensibly; laying too much stress, though, his family. Married women ought not to on certain favourite virtues, some of which, be obliged to leave their home where their however admirable in the individual, would duty lies, for the miserable purpose of not be so advantageous in the mass. earning their children's bread. It is for the instance, he upholds parental authority to a For for the woman to guard and bewildering and crushing extent, and conto distribute. And farther, as the health of founds the rule of the old and the rule of the woman is one of the most important best literally together. Filial obedience he subjects that a nation can consideras from ranks as the highest virtue known: carrying her strength and perfect organization springs it down to the simple obedience of all youth the source of a people's prosperity in the to all age. energy, health, valour, and intellect, mainly in a broad light. To be old is not necessaHe is wrong in this-looked at transmitted by the mother become a nationally vital matter to abolish great the honour proper to be paid to parents, -so does it rily to be wise and virtuous. However all such customs and habits as injure this, this honour is not to fall on mere length of and, by injuring this, sap the life-blood of years, without natural claims. If the young What work soever has been want the experience of age, the old want the proved injurious to the health of women, vigour of youth;-if the young commit folought to be abolished from our customs, if lies, the old never attain success. we hold to seeing our men and our race country of ours would never have risen to its This great stand among the foremost of the world. Work undertaken at home by men on our youth. Had a rigid system of parental present height without the emancipation of their own account, is a mode of labour in authority subsisted, our colonies would never some points of view very advantageous. have been founded, India would not be ours, We grant the impossibility of this system our trade would not be so adventurous, our now, and until machinery shall have attained national prosperity not so extended. Had far greater perfection, far more compactness, we been ruled by our old men, we should completeness, and home-manageableness not have shared in the triumphs of our young than at present. But if we could develop ones. our present materials of labour into like- of youth most countries owe all that they To the blood and sinew and daring ness with our past modes of labouring, we possess; and those who would repress the should have solved the problem which now freedom of youth would put out the fire of perplexes the whole economical world. For a nation. the past modes were undoubtedly good in

the race.

In the enumeration of the circumstances

some respects for instance, this habit of and expenses of the working classes, the working at home. The most superficial question of food comes in as one of primary thinker must understand the probable happy importance. Where the food is bad, of innuresults of this system. It would employ tritious quality, or of insufficient quantity, the old, the young, and the sickly; it the health, physical development, intellectual would give each an interest in the progress power and moral nature, all suffer alike. of the work, and develop the intelligence as Men, for instance, who live chiefly on vegeit proceeded; it would keep the family tables, or even on cereals, are seldom as together the young girl under the eye of strong, and never so perfectly organized, as her mother, the mother with her children, those who live on a mixed diet of meat, &c. the husband with the wife. were of any varying or artistic nature, the rule; as witness the strength and daring of If the work Yet even this is not always an invariable skill required to bring it to perfection would the Highlander, classed among the number give it a charm totally unknown to factory of those ouvriers who eat the least amount and monotonous labour-and by that of meat. charm and interest, home itself would have animal warmth, which else he would have But the Highlander supplies the a beauty denied to those families to whom got from meat, by alcoholic drinks: a more home means simply the family meeting-temporary but still efficient, and in due pro

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