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expense, too, of the industrious portion of the community.

A Church Election in Switzerland. In Switzerland, Democratic institutions have almost attained perfection. To most of the English clergy the idea of their being elected by their parishioners would be regarded with little short of horror. And yet in Switzerland the Church is Democratic, and the people elect their own religious teachers. A correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette describes how after a Commune had elected its new priest the whole population turned out on a Sunday afternoon, formed a procession, and conducted him to the parish church. "There was not a nobleman, a gentleman, or patron in any shape in the whole procession. This Sunday reception of a newly-elected priest, who has been freely chosen by the whole commune, or Volk,' is locally called the Volksinstallation.' The function closed, exactly as such a business would have done in pre-Puritan England, with a supper in the 'Three Kings,' at which everything went on, as we are told, 'Sehr gemuthlich.' So curious a union of the ecclesiastical and the secular, of religiousness and joviality, of free Republican independence and ancient Catholic reverence, of what is most modern with what is most ancient in Europe, cannot be witnessed out of Switzerland, and is itself a thing worth coming out to see."

No Need for Further Witness. "Many of us have come back from the hunting-field in order to see that the Queen's writ shall run in Ireland." Such were the brave words given expression to by Mr. W. F. Lawrence, in the debate on the address. What marvellous patriotism is here! Territorial magnates actually refrain for a time from squandering in "sport" money which others have earned, in order to aid their fellows in the Sister Isle in pillaging the homes of toilers and spinners, and thrusting them out on the roadside to perish. Carlyle on one occasion took Emerson to the House of Commons to satisfy his friend as to the existence of the devil. If an orator of the Lawrence type was speaking at the time the proof must have been overwhelming.

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THE POLITICAL SITUATION. What was lacking in the Queen's Speech Lord Randolph Churchill supplied in the bold and comprehensive address which he made to the House of Commons. The Tory programme is before us, and it amounts to this The Government will devote the power and credit of the nation to collecting Irish rents and buying Irish land. Neither Salisbury nor Churchill is deficient in the wisdom of the historical steward, and if they are permitted to carry out their designs the Tory party will not be short of funds at the next election. The audacity of the propositions is not more surprising than the mendacity of the statements by which they were supported. The Tory champions, Salisbury and Churchill, contend that Irish rents are not excessive, and they actually assert that the Commissioners who fixed the rents under the Land Act of 1881 were aware of the reduction in prices which has since taken place, and had made full allowance for it. What wonderful persons these Commissioners must be to possess such knowledge, and yet never to mention it in all the discussions that took place on the subject when they were fixing the rents.

It is clear that the Government intend to lose no time in enforcing a policy which will enrich themselves, their friends, and their party generally. They have, indeed, promptly commenced its enforcement, and we have already heard of people being evicted from the wretched homes made with their own hands, and of landlords who have taken possession of crops for which charity had supplied the seed. Nothing comes amiss to landlords; relying upon the passionate instinct of the natural love of home, they confiscate the proceeds of charity, the remittances of devoted sons, and the earnings of the hard-working reaper of other men's crops, as well as the whole of the scanty produce of the soil. We shall now have hundreds-probably thousands of the Irish people evicted month by month, under circumstances of injustice and cruelty of which no other country in the world can show such frightful examples. The Government policy for Ireland is emphatically "a word and a blow,

and the blow first.". While Lord Randolph can do nothing for the people until he has had time for "immense consideration," he does not lose a moment in rent enforcement for the benefit of the class to which he belongs.

It is constantly said in reference to Irish tenants in poor districts that they could not live on the land even without rent, as the whole produce is inadequate to their support. This statement is undoubtedly true, and Mr. Tuke, in his recent report, refers to the fact as an illustration of the wretched condition of the people. The agents of Irish landlords are so case hardened against misery that they frequently use this as an argument in support of their inhuman exactions; and now we have a Government which is putting in force the powers of eviction against such poor people, and making these actions the foundation of its policy.

In the eyes of our present rulers there are, it appears, no circumstances which can bar a landlord's claim. It is no answer to say that the land does not produce enough to pay the landlord and to support the cultivator. Such a plea cannot be listened to. The landlord's claim must be paid or out the tenants go. It might be a very proper and humane thing to make a better provision for poor persons so situated. But that is not contemplated. The action of the Government in removing them is not benificence; it is extortion. However little landlords may get from these small occupiers, their eviction will be a warning to others who are somewhat less destitute, and will induce them to strain every nerve and half starve every child, so that they may pay their rents and escape eviction.

the most astounding claim ever advanced on behalf of landlords. He says:-"If it should turn out that the Land Courts have made a blunder, and that there is that impossibility in any case to pay rent, I think it should not be the landlords who should bear the loss, but that the State, and not the landlords, should suffer for the error which has been made." And he pushes this argument not only for the payment of rent, but for the purchase of the landlords' interest, which has thus been raised beyond its natural value by the "blunder," as he calls it, of the Land Commissioners in giving the landlords too much rent. But even these heartless exactions of rent are not the limit of Government audacity. Lord Salisbury declares that it is the purchase of land which the proposed Commission "will have principally in view."

We know, therefore, what we have to expect so long as a Tory Government remains in office. They have entered upon it in order to enforce impossible rents and to employ the public credit in permanently securing the landlords, at the public cost, in the receipt of incomes which it is impossible to obtain from the land.

Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird, and both English and Irish Radicals will see the pitfall which is preparing for them. As land in Ireland is losing its value by the development of competition, the whole industry of the country is to be weighted with the responsibility of securing to the landlords the incomes which they have hitherto enjoyed. For every pound which the landlords thus unjustly obtain, working men will have to labour without remuneration, and this in perpetuity, or until the nation sinks under the burdens imposed upon an industrious people by unscrupulous legislators.

The question comes-Will the people of this country look on without a protest while these shameful deeds are being perpetrated in Ire- After the announcement of such a policy land? Will Mr. Chamberlain support a there is little more to be said. No other subject Government in a policy of reckless eviction? is worth discussion. The course proposed will Will he support a Prime Minister who claims fasten on the working classes burdens that will in a national crisis absolute immunity for land- make life still harder for them, and more easy lords, and demands that the nation must make and secure for those who live in luxury and good any loss that may arise from bad seasons idleness. It will revive the worst atrocities or low prices? ever committed in Ireland by Government or The language used by Lord Salisbury urges people.. Against such a policy Liberals,

Radical Unionists and Nationalists are bound the happiness and advancement of the human to unite in determined resistance.

It is scarcely conceivable that a Ministry, which is actually in a minority in the House of Commons, can be permitted to carry out such a policy. A deep responsibility will rest upon any Liberal, Unionist or otherwise, who may fail to co-operate with the Liberal party as a whole in any course which is necessary to prevent the atrocities which the Government coolly propose to commit.

To those politicians who rely mainly on men and methods, the present must be a time of doubt and difficulty. To such and to all we would say, "When in doubt, play trumps." This rule always holds good in politics. The bewildered people, unable to decide what leader to follow, or what methods to adopt, may obtain assurance and guidance by reference to those eternal principles from which no Radical should ever depart. Not for a moment should any sanction be given to to the idea of Government without representation. Under no circumstances should the establishment of a "first order" be regarded as within the range of practical politics. In financial matters between England and Ireland, identity of interest must be preserved, and the relation of a tributary should never be looked upon as a possibility. The natural rights of the people must not be sacrificed to secure the unjust claims of idle landlords. Even if landlords had a right to any payment, this payment should be the last, and not the first, to receive Government protection and enforcement. Our rulers must learn that their proper duty is not to protect the strong and the rich at the expense of the poor, but first and chiefly to protect the poor and the weak against the rich and the powerful.

Some are disheartened at the present time because so-called Liberal organisations have not obtained their wonted success. Sound Radicals should rather rejoice that Liberal parties have not prospered, and cannot prosper, without Liberal principles, and that even Home Rule, or other desirable objects, must not be sought at the expense of those Radical principles on the adoption of which depends

race.

As to men, but little can now be said. All our leaders have failed and come very short of the standard which in leaders we have a right to expect. But the man and the hour will come, possibly at a time and place when we look not for them.

As to methods, we can promptly find a solution of all practical difficulties, if, instead of taking the trouble to invent complicated programmes of doubtful utility, we are sufficiently practical to accept what has been made to our hand and tested by extended experience. The federal system of the United States shows us all, or nearly all, that is required to secure union, and provide local self-government, or Home Rule, in its most desirable form.

It is fortunate that in its present disorganised condition the Liberal party is called on to do nothing more than resist to the uttermost the audacious proposals of the Tory Government. There should be no difficulty in uniting over this work, and when this first duty is performed, the way becomes clear for further efforts. WILLIAM SAUNDERS.

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WORKMEN IN COUNCIL.

The Trades' Union Congress meets in Hull on September 6th, for a six days' session. The programme of the Labour Parliament is not at all calculated to alarm either capitalists or landlords. It might well have been drawn up by the Liberal Whips to reassure timid party employers. Of the twelve topics set down for discussion, nine are so elementary, we do not say trivial, that Lord Randolph Churchill, as leader of the Tory democracy and leader of the House of Commons, will not have the slightest difficulty in swallowing them en bloc if necessary. The Employers' Liability Act (1880) must, of course, be amended. That it should require amendment at all is solely due to one of the many legislative freaks of the House of Lords. They insisted on permitting the employer to contract himself out of his obligations, just as they rendered the Agricultural Holdings Act at once permissive and

abortive. Why do not our Broadhursts, Howells, Shiptons, and Potters go at once to the root of the evil, and join the People's League for the Abolition of the Hereditary Chamber? Surely Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Mr. Labouchere, and Mr. Storey, are company with which even "the aristocracy of labour" can associate without loss of caste.

"Certificates of competency formen in charge of steam engines and boilers." Could there be a more reasonable demand? Even the owners of boilers can have no object in seeing them exploded through ignorance on the part of employes. Over-insured "coffin-ships" we can understand, but coffin boilers we cannot.

"The desirability of increasing the number of Factory and Workshop Inspectors" likewise goes without saying. Factory inspectors are as much needed as school inspectors, and their numbers should be many or few, according to the wants of the workers. If we maintain five times as many generals, major-generals, and colonels as are required to superintend the destruction of life, we may, at least, have the decency not to stint the supply of the protectors of life.

"The right of the relatives of deceased miners to be represented at Coroner's Inquests is one "which nobody can deny." If they are not to be who should? That they should be denied such a right is merely one proof more out of hundreds that the "plundering classes" have hitherto had the exclusive making of the laws.

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"a gentleman who rescues your property out of your adversary's hand in order to keep it to himself." So far as the working class is concerned "Free Justice" is as much needed as "Free Education." The Trades' Congress should invite Mr. Commissioner Kerr address them on the subject. That canny Scot knows where the shoe pinches, and, unlike his professional brethren generally, he does not hesitate to speak his mind. Free Education, Free Medicine, Free Justice, and Free Funerals (Crematoria) ought all to be institutions in a civilised community.

"Public Inquiry into Sudden and Accidental Deaths in Scotland" is a topic in which the mass of the delegates can hardly be expected to take an overwhelming interest. English "Crowners' Quests" may or may not be preferable to investigations by Scottish "Procurators-Fiscal," but the question is clearly one for the Scottish delegates, and for a Scottish Home Rule Parliament. Scotland has of late years suffered much by having her domestic concerns dragged before the Rich Man's Club at St. Stephen's. A resolution in favour of Home Rule would have been greatly more to the purpose.

"Mines Regulation Reform" is sufficiently vague, but that drastic reform is needed no man can doubt. The occupation of a soldier as matters stand, is not more dangerous than that of a miner, and it is certainly much more conducive to longevity. The average life of the latter is twenty eight! Clearly something must be done. Talk of the cheapness of commodities! There is nothing so cheap under our glorious Constitution" as human life.

"The Codification of the Criminal Law," and "the Codification of the Laws summarily administered at Petty Sessions" are but nibblings" at a far greater reform, the compilation of a general Corpus Juris. What Justinian effected for the Roman world and what that Jupiter Scapin, Napoleon I., did for France, ought not to be beyond the capacity of the British Bar, Bench and Parliament to accomplish. The present state of our jurisprudence is simply a scandal. Its sole object is to run up a monstrous bill of costs. No man that is not a fool will ever go to law in this country unless he is absolutely compelled. For the poor litigant it is simply red ruin. A lawyer has been truthfully defined as

"Law of Distraint Amendment Bill" proposes among other things to secure reasonable guarantees of civility from "the man in possession." We should greatly prefer to see the Congress concerning itself with means the of pre venting "the man from coming into possession at all. Prevention is proverbially better than cure, and of the twelve planks in the Labour Parliament's platform, three only hazily savour of prevention.

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Of these the first is "Co-operation and its Relations to Trades Unionism." Voluntary

co-operation is a hobby which has been greatly being nationalised) £4 is the 'fair wage' and

lauded by professors of the "dismal science." For that very reason it ought to be carefully weighed by the delegates. There is (1) cooperation in production and (2) co-operation in consumption. There have been a few, but very few, instances of successful co-operation in production. How are working men with starvation wages to succeed in enterprises that require large capital, long credit, and managerial skill? Mr. Lawrence Gronlund, in his Co-operative Commonwealth, truly observes-"These successful associations are brilliant examples of working men raising themselves out of their class, not raising their class. They compete among themselves just as ordinary concerns do. They hire and fleece labourers after the approved fashion of the age, and experience teaches that they are, indeed, the hardest taskmasters. The interests of the members of these associations become identified with Capital, and if ever circumstances should make it easier for the smarter labourers to start such companies successfully that fact would create a Labour Caste." As for co-operation in consumption that will be a good thing for the co-operators, who require but little capital to start with, up to the point of general adoption and the disappearance of the middleman, or distributing class. "In such case (Gronlund) the average wages requisite for a given standard of living would become less, and consequently would fall to the new level. The workman thus would be no better off than before." What the middleman formerly got the employer would first absorb as profit, while he, in turn, would be waylaid by the landlord, who would carry off the whole saving in the name of rent. The lord of the soil is the universal residuary legatee of all economic improvements. Make the whole people the landlord, and then only will it be possible for them really to enjoy the gifts of God and the fruits of their own industry. Mr. Samuel Brazier, of Birmingham, put the point with great clearness in last week's DEMOCRAT. "If a miner by sending coal to the surface produces wealth to the extent of £6, out of which the capitalist receives £2, the landlord £2, and £2 are paid as wages to the miner, then (land

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nothing less, and not merely just what is sufficient to enable the miner to support himself and his family decently." And, what is more, he will infallibly, as landlord, get the £4. "Reform of the land laws," say the Trades Congressmen. Why not go to the goal at once, and say Land Resumption? Anything less drastic is a delusion and a snare. Once, indeed, the Congress had the courage of their opinions, and affirmed the principle that land is common property, but at the instance of a handful of habitual misleaders, who are the tools of Whig landlords, they were in an evil hour induced to betray their own and the national cause.

"Representation of Labour in Parliament," the last plank in the Labour platform as it stands, is of transcendant importance. Nay, we go further, and say that nothing but labour of brain or hand has any right to be represented in the Legislature. To make this possible we must adopt the "one man one vote" principle, a new Registration Law, making it possible for every adult to be put on the register till within, say, a month of any given election-the thing is as simple as may be— Paid Election (Official) Expenses, Paid Membership, and the Second Ballot. Enact these measures, and Labour Representation will not long remain the miserable, meagre, cringing thing it is at present. It will cease to be the bond-slave of the Patronage Whip with his Secret Service Money, and of the Caucus with its intrigue, meanness, and hypocrisy.

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POSTAL ADMINISTRATION.

Forty years ago a liberal policy triumphed in the British Post Office, and the public are under the impression that it continues to prevail. Such, however, is not the case. Two illustrations may be given in confirmation of the statement that liberality has ceased to actuate the Post Office authorities.

In consequence of complaints received from Friendly Societies that their notices of meetings, accompanied by a statement of account, were not allowed to pass for a halfpenny postage, a conference took place between a

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