Topics of the Month. THE CLAIMS OF LABOUR.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 76, 20 January 1872, Page 11

Topics of the Month. THE CLAIMS OF LABOUR.

" Nelson Examiner," December 30. It has been much the fashion of late among Englishmen to depreciate Great Britain, and talk of her day as altogether past. Words have been too feeble to express the scorn of many of her sons for her " insular policy," in reference to European nations and to her own colonies ; for her worship of money ; for the paltriness of her armaments ; and for her stupid insensibility to danger. The laud which gave to the world the steam-engine, the railway, the iron ship, the screw-propeller, the electric telegraph, ironclads, and heavy ordnance of precision, is even supposed to be falling in arrear in common mechanical contrivance, and the gloomy prophets inverting the cheerful vision of men whose hearts are gladdened by wine, cannot even see half of a navy, which ia however double as effective as that of her most powerful rival. Whilst there is a good deal of exaggeration, there is no doubt much truth in the gloomy view. Compared with Germany and her Bismarck, the politics and the power of Britain and her leaders seem faint things, but it should not be forgotten that one condition of conspicuous energy has been present in Germany — a simple, obvious, urgent cause, in which the whole nation could unite intelligently and cordially. Such a cause some German rulers have acted upon for a century and a-half; and all Germany has perceived it for half a century ; and the merit of Bismarck is to have recognised the ripening of the time, and to have struck without faltering—or remorse. If there is something to depress us in the aspect of British politics besides those of the powerful and successful German nation, the balance is not wholly against us. Britain has loDg been on the way to find a cause nobler even than German unity ; one demanding equal personal sacrifices of large classes, and equal sobriety in all. The cause which is described in the words at the head of this article, is one of which the British nation have the greatest reason to become the conspicuous champion. For no crime on their part, but owing to their surpassing ingenuity aud industry, and to the situation and resources of the land, labour has there been most crowded, and suffered greatest hardship. It would be natural, and no ground of boast therefore, if Britain had been the birthplace of modern movements for social reform, having fop their object to raise labour from out of the dust. This honour she can hardly claim; it is due to that lively race, which but lately was called " the great French people," but which is now spoken of as having dropped for ever from influence on European civilization. Were this true, we should soon begin to appreciate the debt which the duller and wiser races owe to the sympathetic and sensitive qualities of heart and intellect that have so long impressed themselves upon neighbouring nations. "Without diverging into the future hopes of France, it seems however probable from present signs, that to Britain is assigned the task of working out the social problems which have for a hundred years been most clearly stated and most enthusiastically attempted by Frenchmen. French reformers are often betrayed by systematizing tendencies which make them passionate for first principles, and cause them to ignore the friction of habit which prevents the immediate application of first principles ; but in Britain, the active lenders of social reform, with a happy indifference to methodical procedure, aud only a dim consciousness of the distant goal to which they are tending, are doing the things next their hands, and their own generation will therefore enjoy the fruits of their work. The British working man is well described by a French socialist refugee, whose remarks we print in auother column, as proceeding by "evolution," whilst his friends across the channel work by "revolution." He cares little for watchwords, and apparently is not oppressed by envy. He struggles for liberty, but not for equality ; he asks an open career for all, but not a handicap race. The visible progress of the last few years, and of the last few months, is the slow result of long patient effort, during which there have been few excesses to divert sympathy, and frequent evidences ■of a deep spirit of moderation. Thus a strength has been

built up which promises everything that can be desired; and leaders have been educated among the class, whose conduct in recent struggles has earned the praise of critics by no means favourably biassed. Mr. Burnett, on behalf of the Newcastle engineers, has won a battle as important as Woerth and Sedan, over the prestige, education, and wealth of Sir W. Arm Btrong and the masters. His victory has been due to the reasonableness of his cause, and the sturdy moderation of his action. The nine hours' day, which to us in the colonies seems so modest and natural a demand, has been obtained against the will of the capitalists, and in the course of the struggle the workmen have shown the high faculty of compromise and concession, and a knowledge of what capital means. A like success will no doubt have attended the Swansea miners' movement, conducted by Mr. Pickard with equal temper and moderation. And ought we not to look back, and recognize as a hopeful fact the instinctive sense of justice which has for years allowed the trades-union system — that necessary protection of labour — to grow and strengthen itself without grave opposition. Not even the atrocities of Mr. Broadhead, and the Cutlers Union of Sheffield, were made the excuse of any serious reactionary attempt to crush that power of combination among the workmen, which can always be exercised without publicity or form by the employers. The most recent movement has hardly reached us in so authentic and exact a form as to justify close criticism. It would be unfair to Mr. Disraeli, the alleged instigator of the movement, to impute inferior motives to him. All readers of his novels are aware, that the social elevation of the labouring class through an alliance with the aristocracy, is an old vision of his ; nevertheless, the present combination is inauspicious, and it would appear as if jealousy of the growing power of the capitalist, and a smarting sense of the discredit into which the Peers have fallen, and of the indignity they have lately suffered from Mr. Gladstone, had more to do with their recent attachment to the cause of the labourer than any sincere sympathy ■with his wants. It has been well observed, that the hereditary landlords of the country have had, and neglected, abundant opportunity of setting an example of philanthropy without the aid of any legislative action ; and even now if a class is to be selected which more than another needs the intervention of philanthropic legislators, it is rather the helpless farm labourer on the estates of the aristocracy than the self-reliant mechanic. The claims said to have been made and accepted by the noble disciples of Mr. Disraeli are very clear, and several of them quite reasonable. There is a deep and well founded feeling, that the art of making money is not the highest of human arts, and that the tendency of capital to accumulate at a geometrical ratio, is out of all proportion to the merits of those who wield it. There is also a growing feeling, that it is not only competent to, but the duty of a Government — that is to say of a nation — to mitigate the hardness of fortune, by imposing heavier burdens on those who have large wealth for the benefit of those who have none. It is then but a light request from the classes who really furnish the bulk of the revenues of the land, that a portion should be expended in securing health — ■we had almost said life — to them ; and that is what is meant by the demand for " separate homesteads " outside the towns. There is nothing but good sense in the demand for municipal organisation, and especially power to acquire lands for public use. The suggestion as to the acquisition of railways, and their employment on the principles of the post-office, not for profit but for the public use, is sagacious and practicable. The demand for public markets, with retail sales at •wholesale prices, may perhaps be misreported — at any rate it comes in very discordantly with the other practicable claims. It would imply au incredible ignorauce of political economy ; for why should one part of cost of distribution be defrayed by the State, any more than the rest of the cost of production ? Next mail may probably clear up this matter. Meanwhile the movement commands our Bympathy, although it fights against our interests as a colony, inasmuch as its success must make England habitable to a much larger population, and must diminish the motive to emigration. As to the questionable alliance with the aristocracy,

we may remember that one eminent man of our days, Mr. Bright, began as a hater and despiser of rank, a career which he ended as a genuine lover of the people. It may be that the peers who have signed this convention with the mechanics, really appreciate the social justice on which it is based. If so, and if the capitalist class come forward with prompt concessions, a union maybe cemented in Britain of deep importance to civilization, and as much nobler than that of Germany as the common cause of humanity is superior to that of any single nationality.