FUTURITY OF THE WORKING CLASSES.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 385, 21 July 1849, Page 81

FUTURITY OF THE WORKING CLASSES.

[From " MUl»' Principle, of Politic*! Economy."] Considered in its moral and social aspect, the state of the labouring people has latterly been a subject of much more speculation and discussion than formerly; and the opinion, that it is not now what it ought to be, has become very general. The suggestions which have been promulgated, and the controversies which have been excited, on detached points rather than on the foundations of the subject, have put in evidence the existence of two conflicting theories respecting the social position desirable for manual labourers. The one may be called the theory of dependence and protection, the other that of self-dependence. According to the former theory, the lot of the poor, in all things which affect them collectively, should be regulated for them, not by them. They should not be required or encouraged to think for themselves, or give to their own reflection or fore-cast an influential voice in the determination of their destiny. -It is the duty of the higher classes to think for them, and to take the reponsibility of their lot, as the commander and officers of an army take that of the soldiers composing it. This function the higher clauses should prepare themselves to perform conscientiously, and their whole demeanour should impress the poor with a reliance on it, in order that, while yielding passive active obedience to the rules prescribed for them, they may resign themselves in all other respects to a trustful insouciance, and repose under the shadow of their protectors. The relation between rich and poor should be only partially authoritative ; it should be amiasble, moral, and sentimental ; affectionate tutelage on the one side, respectful and grateful deference on the other. The rich should be tn loco parentis to the poor, guiding and restraining them like children. Of spontaneous action on their part there should be no need. They should be called on.for nothing but to do their day's work, and to be moral and religious. Their morality and religion should be provided for them by their superiors, who should see them properly taught it, and should do all that is neceseary to insure their being, in return for labour and attachment, properly fed, clothed, housed, spirtually edified, and innocently amused. This is the ideal of the future, in the minds of those whose dissatisfaction with the present assumes the form of affection and regrot towards the past. Like other ideals, it exercises an unconscious influence on the opinions and sentiments of numbers who never consciously guide themselves by any ideal. It has also this in common with other ideals, that it has never been historically realized. It makes its appeal to our imaginative sympathies in the character of the restoration of the good times of our forefathers. But no times can be pointed out in which the higher classes of this or any other country performed a part even distantly resembling the one assigned to them in this theory. It is an idealization, grounded on the conduct and character of here and there an individual. All privileged and powerful classes, as such have used their power in the interest of their own selfishness, and have indulged their self-importance in despising, and not in lovingly caring for, those who were, in their estimation, degraded by inferiority. That what has always been must always be, or that human improvement does not tend more and more to correct the intensely selfish feelings engendered by power, I should be sorry to affirm. This, lowever, seems to me undeniable, that long before the superior classes could be sufficiently improved to govern in the tutelary manner supposed, the inferior classes would be too much improved to be so governed. lam quite sensible of all that is seductive in le picture of society which this theory presents. Though the facts of it have no prototype in the * ( past, the feelings have. In them lies all that 8 there is of reality in the conception. As the I 3I 3 idea is essentially repulsive of a society only Vl leld together by bought services, and by the l ! relations and feelings arising out of pecuniary * interests, so there is something naturally at- D tractive in a form of society abounding in t( strong personal attachments and disinterested b self-devotion. Of such feelings it must be ad- a roitted that the relation of protector and pro- 1( tected has hitherto been the richest Bource. * The strongest attachments of hnman beings in n general are towards the things or the persons h that stand between them and some dreaded " evil. Hence, in an age of lawless violence and al insecurity, and general hardness and roughness Ci of manners, in which life is beset with dangers tl and sufferings at every step, to those who have neither a commanding position of their own, o nor a claim on the protection of some one who a has— a generous giving of protection, and a oi gratefully receiving of it, are the strongest ties m which connect huoan beings; feelings arising ai from that relation are their warmest feelings ; ol

all the enthusiasm and tenderness of the most sensitive natures gather round it ; loyalty on the one part and chivalry on the other, are principles exalted into passions. Ido not desire to depreciate these virtues. That the most beautiful developments of feeling and character often grow out of the most painful, and in many other respect the most hardening and corrupting, circumstances of our condition, is now, and probably will long be, one of the chief stumblingblocks both in the theory and in the practice of morals and education. The error in the present case lies in not perceiving that these virtues and sentiments, like the clanship and the hospitality of the wandering Arab, belong emphatically to a rude imperfect state of the social union, and that the feelingg between protector and protected can no longer have this beautiful and endearing character where there are no longer any serious dangers from which to protect. What is there in the present state of society to make it natural that human beings, of ordinary strength and courage, should glow with the warmest gratitude and devotion in return for protection ? The laws protect them ; where lavfs do not reach, manners and opinion shield them. To be under the power of some one, instead of being, as formerly, the sole condition of safety, is now, speaking generally, the only situation which exposes to grievous wrong; and wrong against which laws and opinion are neither able, nor very seriously attempt, to afford, effectual protection. We have entered into a state of civilization in which the bond that attaches human beings to one another must be disinterested admiration and sympathy for personal qualities, or gratitude for unselfish' services, and not the emotions of protectors towards dependents, or of dependents towards protectors. The arrangements of society are such, that no man or woman who either possesses or is able to earn a livehood, requires any other protection than that of the law. This being the case, it argues great ignorance of human nature to continue taking for granted, that relations founded on protection must always subsist, and not to see that the assumption of the part of protector, and of the power which belongs to it, without any of the necessities which justify it, must engender feelings opposite to loyalty. Of the working classes of Western Europe, at least, it may be pronounced certain, that the patriarchal or paternal system of Government is one to which they will not again be subject. That question has been several times decided. It was decided when they were taught to read, and allowed access to newspapers and political tracts. It was decided when dissenting preachers were suffered to go among them, and appeal to their faculties and feelings in opposition to the creeds professed and countenanced by their superiors. It was decided when they were brought together in numbers, to work socially under the same roof. It was decided when railways enabled them to shift from place to place, and change their patrons and employers as easily as their coats. The working classes have taken their interests into their own hands, and are perpetually showing that they think the interest of their employers not identical with their own, but opposite to them. Some among the higher classes flatter themselves that these tendencies may be counteracted by moral ' and religious education ; but they have let the time go by for giving an education which can serve their purpose. The principles of the Reformation have reached as low down in society as reading and writing, and the poor will no longer accept morals and religion of other people's prescribing. I speak more particularly of our own country, especially the town population, and the districts of the most scientific agriculture and highest wages, Scotland and the North of England. Among the more inert and less modernized agricultural population of the southern counties, it might be possible for the gentry to retain for some time longer something of the ancient deference and submission of the poor, by bribing them with high wages and constant employment ; by insuring them support, and never requiring them to do anything which they do not like. But these are two conditions which never hare been combined, and never can be, for long together. A guarantee of subsistence can only be practically kept up when work is enforced, and superfluous multiplication restrained, by at lea3t a moral compulsion. It is then that the would-be revivers of old times, which they do not understand, would feel practically in how hopelesß a task they were engaged. The whole fabric of patriarchal or seignorial influence, attempted to be raised on. the foundation of caressing the poor, would be chattered againtt the necessity of enforcing a stringent Poor-law. There is no reason to believe that prospect other than hopeful. The progress, indeed, must always be slow. But there is a spontaneous education going on in the rainda of the multitude, which may be greatly accelerated and improved by artificial aids. The instruction obtained from newspaper* and political tracts

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is not the best sort of instruction, but it is vastly < superior to none at all. The institutions for ( lectures and ditcussion, the collective deliberations on questions of common interest, the trades unions, the political agitation, all serve , to awaken public spirit, to diffuse variety of ideas among the mass, and to excite real thought and reflection in a few of the more i intelligent, who become the leaders and instruc- ( tors of the rest. Although tbe too early attainment of political franchises by the least educated ' class might retard, instead of promoting their j improvement, there can be little doubt that it id greatly stimulated by the attempt to acquire those franchises. It is of little importance that ' some of them may, at a certain stage of their , progress, adopt mistaken opinions. £ Communists are already numerous, and we likely to increase in number; but nothing tends more i to tbe mental development of the working , classes than that all the questions which Communißm raises should be largely and freely ' discussed by them; nothing could be more I instructive than that some should actually form } communities, and try practically what it is to live without the institution of property. In the < meantime, the working classes are now part of , tbe public; in all discussions on matters of general interest they, or a portion of them, are partakers; all who use the press as an instru- i rnent may, if it so chances, have them for an j audience; the avenues of instruction through which the middle classes acquire most of the < ideas which they have, are accessible to, at i least, the operatives in the towns. "With these y resources, it cannot be doubted that they will increase in intelligence, even by their own unaided ] efforts ; while there is every reason to hope that ] great improvements both in the quality and quantity of school education will be speedily effected by the exertions of Government and ] individuals, and that the progress of the mass of the people in mental cultivation, and in the virtues which are dependent on itf will take > place more rapidly, and with fewer intermit- , tencies and aberrations, than if left to itself. From this increase of intelligence several effects may be confidently anticpated. First; that they will become even less willing than at . present to be led and governed, and directed into the way they should go, by the mere authority and prestige of superiors. If they have i not now, still less will they have hereafter, any deferential awe, or religious principle of obedience, holding them in mental subjection to a class above them. The theory of dependence and protection will be more and more intolerable to them, and they will require that their conduct and condition shall be entirely self-governed. It is, at the same time, quite possible that they may demand, in many cases, intervention of the Legislature in their affairs, and tbe regulation by law of various things which concern them, often under very mistaken ideas of their interest. Still, it is their own will, their own ideas and suggestions, to which they will demand that effect should be given, and not rules laid down for them by other people. It is quite consistent with this, that they should feel real respect for superiority of intellect and knowledge, and defer much to the opinions, on any subject, of those whom they think well acquainted with it. Such deference is deeply „ grounded in human nature; but they will judg for themselves of the persons who are and who , are not entitled to it.

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