author who thus seems to defy translation. They will see too that all the progress of modern scholarship, great as it has been, greater still though it may be destined to become, gives but slender hope of the attainment of their wishes. We have indeed opened up a flood of questions, most interesting and instructive, respecting the origin and structure of the Homeric poems. Their historical value as a picture of early Greek life, their philological value as a storehouse of early Greek language, have been again and again discussed; here and there a Buttmann or Passow may have altered the interpretation of a word. Still we admit that even Chapman had sufficient knowledge of the language to be in the main a correct interpreter; that none but a very literal modern version would show a material difference from him in point of accuracy; that even the most correct would not differ nearly as much from him as we might at first sight be inclined to imagine. On the other hand, the years that have given us scholarship have robbed us of far too much of that spirit which alone could make Homer a living book to us. An age when chivalry and warlike enterprise had not yet given way to commerce and industry, with all their changes of sentiment; an age which had not long since had Sidney for its Achilles and Drake for its Odysseus,-might well excel us in this vigorous freshness; a spirit which was yet more hearty in an age to which Chapman was modern, when minstrels tuned their harp in knightly halls to the deeds of the Bruce, the Percy, or the Douglas; the age that lived and breathed in the spirit of Homer, though it knew him not. All this we have lost and much more, and the great poets of modern times have been less and less inclined to peril their poetic fame by attempting a translation of the untranslatable. Few have drunk more deeply of the spirit of ancient legendary lore than the Laureate, yet he is scarcely likely to follow in the steps of Chapman or Cowper; and his best friends, perhaps, would least wish to see him do so. To a perfect translation, it seems, we must ever remain strangers, till some rare combination of circumstances has united in the same person the full learning and scholarship of the nineteenth century with that magic gift for describing stirring scenes, and living in the history of the past, that command of all the language of fiery valour and knightly duty,-which has been granted to none of all the writers of later days save Sir Walter Scott. For the present, our translators are but mortal men, and must be satisfied with such scanty measure of success as they can win. It would seem as if all the students of Homer, -editors, commentators, translators, yes, and infallible critics and reviewers too,-all were but as the suitors who strove in vain to bend the mighty bow of Odysseus. There it lies before us to string, if string it we can; and at first sight it may seem as if a child could achieve the task; and it is only when we address ourselves to it that we mark its unyielding stubbornness. One may scarce move it an inch, another may almost seem to draw it to the nock; yet the strained muscle betrays their weakness, the wondrous bow still mocks their puny strivings. The suitors discerned not the hero in his disguise, nor can we point out the genius, though he may be even now amongst us, calm in the consciousness of his strength, who shall without strain or effort string the bow which none but he can wield, and from that string, in his hands alone alike tuneful and warlike, awake the long-forgotten echoes of its magic music. μεγα τόξον ἐβάστασε, καὶ ἴδε πάντῃ, Ως ὅτ ̓ ἀνὴρ φόρμιγγος ἐπιστάμενος καὶ ἀοιδῆς Ως ἄρ ̓ ἄτερ σπουδῆς τάνυσεν μέγα τόξον Οδυσσεύς. Ἡ δ' ὑπὸ καλὸν ἄεισε, χελιδόνι εἰκέλη αὐδήν. ART. III.-BUILDERS' COMBINATIONS IN LONDON AND PARIS. Report on the Builders' Strike. By T. R. Bennett and G. S. Lefevre, Esqrs. Printed for the Trade Societies' Committee of the Association for the promotion of Social Science. 1860. Die gewerblichen und wirthschaftlichen Genossenschaften der arbeitenden Classen in England, Frankreich und Deutschland. Von V. A. Huber, Professor in Wernigerode. Tubingen, 1860. Association d'Ouvriers pour l'Entreprise en général du Bâtiment, rue St. Victor, 155 (Maison Bouyer et Cie.). Documents divers. FEW events in that sphere of social action which may be said immediately to outlie the political one,—that of the relations between class and class,-have fixed attention more of late years than the strike and lock-out of the London building_trades in the latter part of 1859 and the early part of 1860. From the closing of their shops on August 6, 1859, by 225 of the largest firms of this city (employing, it is said, 24,000 out of the 40,000 artisans engaged in the building trades, and comprising every builder employing more than fifty men, and some of the smaller firms), to the 27th Feb. 1860, when the last dividend was paid to the "lock-outs," nearly seven months passed over this huge metropolis of a social war,-for it can be called by no other name, -involving directly the comforts, the fortunes, and, within cer tain limits, the lives of probably full 125,000 of its inhabitants, indirectly those of many thousands more; and the result of the struggle was seemingly nil. What the men demanded they could not get; what the masters exacted of their men in turn they were forced to give up. The men could not obtain a reduction of the hours of labour to nine; the masters could not tie the men down to a declaration meant to break up their trade societies. We wish to consider the history of this remarkable interruption in the peaceable working of our commercial machinery simply as an exhibition of the power of the English working classes, viewed in one particular trade or group of trades. We will then contrast this history with that of a movement of an entirely different character, amongst working men belonging to corresponding trades in Paris, considered equally in the light of a development of power in the class from which it springs. From a valuable Report on the London Builders' Strike, drawn up for the Trade Societies' Committee of the Social Science Association by Messrs. T. R. Bennett and G. S. Lefevre, we learn that "under the term building trades' are generally included the four principal trades, viz. bricklayers, masons, plasterers, carpenters and joiners; and the five subordinate trades, smiths, slaters, painters, plumbers, and glaziers," which, however, are "only considered as part of the building trades" when "carried on in connection with one of the former." The 38,000 or 40,000 men employed in these trades are divided into skilled and unskilled, or labourers; the last numbering about 12,000, and earning from 18s. to 21s. per week, generally members of registered friendly societies, but not combined in distinct trade societies. Of the skilled workmen, on the other hand, more than half appear to belong to trade societies; thus Of 800 to 1000 masons, about 500 are in society. Of about 5000 bricklayers, about 3000 are in society. Of about 13,000 carpenters and joiners, about 7000 are in society. In all these trades the skilled workman's day is ten hours, except on Saturday, when the hours are shorter. The question. of the reduction of time has been in agitation since the spring of 1853, when it was first demanded by the masons, to whom the carpenters and joiners united themselves. On this occa sion the agitation was bought off for an extra 6d. per day, making 5s. 6d. instead of 5s., the previous rate. In 1858 the carpenters and joiners again brought forward the question, held an aggregate meeting in Exeter Hall on June 3, 1858, and memorialised the Master Builders' Society, whom they met on deputation on the 26th August. Their memorial was courteously rejected; so had been a request from the masons (1st June) for the Saturday half-holiday. The masons now joined the carpenters and joiners in the nine-hours movement. The bricklayers were invited to join, and did so. A Conference of seven members from each of the three trades now met (September), and, thus united, presented a second memorial to the master builders (18th November); re-soliciting, this time in somewhat firmer terms, the one hour per day, "and the present rate of wages to continue." The master builders, in reply, simply referred the memorialists to their former resolutions of the 26th August. A month more passes by, and the painters and plasterers join the Conference; each still with seven delegates, forming now what are termed the five united building trades. The masters are applied to to receive another deputation. They reply by letter that they adhere to their former resolutions, that no new facts have been brought forward, and decline to receive the deputation. Another meeting of the building trades is held in Exeter Hall (26th January 1859); a resolution passed to ask a definite reply from the masters; a letter forwarded (19th March) requesting an answer, "whether you will consider the nine hours as a day's work, yes or no." A meeting of the metropolitan builders, members or not of the masters' association, is convened (20th April). It resolves, that it is "not expedient to accede to the request of the workmen;" that "the request for nine hours to be paid for as ten hours ought not to be acceded to." The labourers of the various building trades join the Conference, which now numbers forty-two members. The men meet again in Exeter Hall (11th May); and, in consequence of the resolutions passed, an "ultimatum," sharp in tone as in name, is sent forth (26th May), still requesting a decisive answer, "whether you will concede the nine hours as a day's work.' The Master Builders' Society replies that the request has been already "very distinctly" answered (June 10). On the eve of engaging in open warfare, the leaders of the agitation seem to have hesitated, so far at least as to require a fuller assurance of support from their constituents. The Conference delegates put the question to their respective trades, whether the nine-hours question should be postponed or mooted that autumn. The reply of the trades their plebiscitum as it might be called-was in favour of immediate action. The plan followed in such cases now seldom varies. The workmen endeavour to take the masters in detail; the masters meet them by a collective lock-out. It was determined that five firms, afterwards reduced to four, whose names were selected by chance out of a hat, and of which three only were members of the masters' association, should be memorialised for the reduction. The memorial, which requested a reply by the 23d of July, was presented to the four firms separately by four of the working men. To Messrs. Trollope, one of the four, it was presented by a mason in their employ named Joseph Pacey, on the 16th July. On the 20th Joseph Pacey was discharged, his employers say, for neglect of work. But it is absurd to suppose that the men could take the act otherwise than as the flinging in their faces of the glove of war. Anyhow the spark fired the train, and prematurely for the men. The masons in Messrs. Trollope's employ struck work on the 21st. The Conference on the 22d approved the act, and determined upon calling out all the men in the shop. By the 23d, when Messrs. Trollope were to give their reply, it was no longer needed. Nothing, of course, could suit the employers better. Pacey's dismissal may not have been intentional; but if it had been, it could not have worked better to put the men outwardly in the wrong. The strike, then, now began. The Conference called upon the building operatives in general to support it. The metropolitan builders met, 200 in number nearly, at the Freemasons' Tavern (27th July), and resolved to close their establishments on the 6th August, appointing a committee at the same time to consider the best means of opening the doors to non-society men. At an adjourned meeting on the 1st August, the committee reported in favour of the formation of a "Central Association of Master Builders," with subscriptions, contributions for extraordinary expenditure, an executive committee, and all the usual appliances of an ordinary trades union, but formed upon the basis of excluding from employment all members of trades unions among working men, and requiring from all operatives, before taking them into employ, their "distinct agreement and formal assent to the conditions embraced in the following terms of engagement, which shall be read over to every such workman, and a copy whereof shall be handed to him before entering upon his work: 'I declare that I am not now, nor will I during the continuance of my engagement with you become, a member of or support any society which directly or indirectly interferes with the arrangements of this or any other establishment, or the hours or terms of labour; and that I recognise the rights of employers and employed individually to make any trade engagements on which they may choose to agree.' The form of a notification to be addressed to the working men, |