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Text
I
MEMOIR
OF
JOSEPH MAZZINI.
FROM THE “LONDON REVIEW,”
OF NOVEMBER 17, 186 0.
PRICE ONE PENNY.
LONDON:
FARRAH AND DUNBAR, 47, HOLYWELL STREET,
STRAND; HOLYOAKE & CO., 147, FLEET STREET;
BARKER BROTHERS, M’LEANS BUILDINGS, GREAT
NEW STREET, FLEET STREET.
1861.
�The vital question agitating our age is a question of education. The
point is not to establish a new order of things by violence. An order
established by violence is always tyrannical, even when it is better than
the old. The point is to overthrow by force the brutal force that now
arrays itself against every attempt at improvement; to propose, for the
consent of the nation, set at liberty to express its will, an order which
appears better, and by every possible means to educate men to develope
it, and to act accordingly. Under the theory of rights we can rise in
insurrection and overthrow obstacles, but we cannot strongly and dur
ably found the harmony ot all elements which compose the nation.
Under the theory of happiness, of well-being, set up as the first object of
life, we should make men egotists, worshippers of the material, who
would carry their old passions into the new order of things, and corrupt
it in a few months. We need, therefore, to find a principle of education
superior to such a theory. * * * * This principle is duty. It
behoves us to convince all men that, as all are children of one God, they
have all to be here on earth the executor’s of one Law—that every one
of them ought to live, not for himself, but for others,—that the object of
their life is not to be more or less happy, but to render themselves and
others better,—that to contend against injustice and error, for the benefit
of their brethren, and wherever they may be found, is not only a right,
but a duty—a duty which cannot be neglected without sin—a duty for
the whole of life.
*
*
*
*
Whatever strong faith springs from the ruins of old exhaustion will
transform the existing social order, because every strong faith endeavours
to apply itself to all the branches of human activity; because the earth has
always, in all epochs, endeavoured to conform itself to the Heaven in
which it believed; because the whole history of Humanity repeats under
diverse forms, in stages different with the times, those words registered
in the Sabbath speech of Christendom, “ Thy kingdom come. Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven I”
Be this, Brethren! better understood and applied than hitherto, your
confession of faith, your prayer. Repeat it, and act so that it may be
realised.—Mazzini’s Duties of Man,
�JOSEPH MAZZINI.
“ An organised and powerful Italy is henceforth for the interest of
Europe.”—Constitutionnel, Oct., 1860.
To win recognition from the bitterest and most calumnious ofoppo
nents, to have one’s life-work acknowledged by those most interested
in thwarting it and most careful to deny its worth, to be crowned
with oak and laurel by the most reluctant hands: this is the rare
fate of Giuseppe Mazzini. Ceaselessly and recklessly vilified by
the Times, mobbed and threatened even in newly-liberated Naples,
proscribed by the Piedmontese Statesman, and hated by the French
Emperor, the great Italian yet holds his place; is still lovingly and
reverentially owned by victorious Garibaldi as the Father of Italy;
while the Constitutionnel, speaking with authority, gives an Imperial
adhesion to his “dream” of Italian unity; and the Times (Oct.
26,1860) endorses that adhesion, though with the grudging—“ This
is a truth, let it come from what quarter it may.” Once before, the very
spirit of falsehood compelled by a stronger power, it had slipped out
between its slanders those few notable words which do homage
at once to his power and to his nobility—“ Mazzini’s hiding-place
is in the heart of every Italian, and there his enemies will one day
find him.”
Just thirty years ago, a young man of five-and-twenty, a law
student, and the son of a physician in Genoa, was arrested in Pied
mont, on suspicion of Carbonarism,—such Carbonarism as the King
of Piedmont himselfhad professed only ten years before. In prison
his thoughts were of the passing revolutions in France and Poland;
and he came out, after some few months, to begin his life of exile and
�4
apostleship, by founding the association of “ La G-iovine Italia,”
starting at the same time, and under the same title, at Marseilles, a
monthly journal, treating of the political, moral, and literary con
dition of Italy,—in a word, a revolutionary journal, aiming at
Italian regeneration. Thirty years of martyrdom, of unflagging
zeal, of marvellous activity, of incessant self-sacrifice, and the boy’s
dream becomes an European necessity: something more than
that—“ henceforth for the interest of Europe.”
So much, at least, must be conceded to Mazzini, however widely
we may differ from his views, and whatever strictures we may be
prone to pass upop his conduct in the several circumstances of his
career. His stem republicanism may yet be pronounced chimeri
cal ; his carelessness of political means and parties, and his distrust
of princes and diplomatists, may seem unwise, and for a while brand
him with the stigma of “ The Impracticablewe may doubt his
policy and disapprove his alliances or his enmities; but, after all, we
must allow that the work he set himself to do.— which for
twenty years was almost only his—is done, and that his pro
phecy is fulfilled. His worst enemies bow down their heads to
that.
And his friends may be content with that. To them, however,
he is indeed the prophet in the completest sense of the word: with
all its holiness, and all its dignity, and all its more than royal claim to
allegiance and to worship. No man ever won more ardent love,
more thorough trust and following. From the noble boy-brothers
Bandiera, who, penetrated by his doctrines, could only—even
against his persuasionf—devote their lives as an example to their
countrymen; to old Foresti—Pellico’s fellow-prisoner at Speilberg—
whose first act upon being liberated was to seek the Apostle,
and offer him his service; and yet more recently to Pisacane,
leading that forlorn hope which was the summoning of Sicily and
the first note of Garibaldi’s triumph; men of all ages and all classes
and conditions have gathered to him, like warriors round a beacon,
ready and determined—a brotherhood of most devoted chivalry.
And not alone by his Italians is he loved and honoured. Carlyle
6poke out for him in England, sixteen years ago, such words of
hearty and well-judging praise as, on the score of personal charac
ter, should have shut the mouth of any honest enemy for ever.
The one noblest Frenchman of them all, good old Lamennais, was
his closest friend and comrade. The Poles loved him as only exiles
love, and esteemed him beyond all men. Those who have known
him intimately, speak of him with more than womanly affection.
For he himself loves and trusts; and love and trust ever command
their like.
Thirty years a conspirator, and yet his trustfulness is almost
child-like. That is the secret of his wonderful escapes from
t But misled and trapped by Austrian spies, to whom an English Home Secretary
gave their unsealed letters.
�5
danger; for his fearlessness and daring‘are not doubted, even by
the Times, whatever the Times' writers say. In Marseilles, the police
of the citizen-king could not for a whole twelvemonth track him,
though his Italian propagandism never halted. In Switzerland
and in England the hired assassin, face to face with him, quailed,
confessed, and asked for pardon. In Paris or in Genoa, under
double sentence of death from Charles Albert, and wanted by the
imperial police, he went and came, as his presence was necessary,
and no man stayed hinu Only he was not so incapable a general,
while he confronted peril, to foolishly give himself up to those who
sought his ruin. Royal Saul never called young David cowardly
for hiding in the caverns of Adullam; and none who ever stood
beside Mazzini ever thought of his being charged with cowardice.
That falsehood may fall back unheeded into the hollow heart of him
who was base enough to utter it. How Garibaldi, the generous,
the brave to very recklessness, would laugh to hear his friend
accused of selfish fear; the friend to whom Garibaldi’s own general,
Medici, a hero too, wrote, in 1849:—“ His conduct has been for
us, who were witnesses of it, a proof that to the great qualities of
the citizen Mazzini joinsthe courage and intrepidity of the soldier.”
Medici writes this in telling of Garibaldi’s advance on Monza, just
previous to the capitulation of Milan, in which advance, and after
wards during the retreat to Como, Mazzini served as a private
soldier. “In this march, full of difficulty and danger, in the
midst of continual alarms” (Medici is now speaking of the retreat),
“ the strength of soul, the intrepidity, the decision, which Mazzini
possesses in so remarkable a degree, and of which he afterward
gave so many proofs at Rome, never failed him, and excited the
admiration of the bravest.”
It was during this march that he gave up his cloak to one of the
young volunteers more slightly habited than himself. The same ten
der solicitude for others was evinced at Rome, where he found time
on one occasion to take an English family to the palace-top, and
showed them the city defences, in order to allay their fears. His
firmness and tact in moments of difficulty are equally remarkable.
Once a deputation from some part of Rome demanded of him an
interview, requiring the dismissal of the “ military staff.” “ From
whom did they come?” he asked. “From the people.” “Well,
he was the people’s servant, but not their slave. If the people
trusted him, well and good, he would do his best; if not, they
could withdraw the authority with which they had invested him.
But when they said the people, how many had deputed them ?”
“Some few hundreds only.” “Some few hundreds,” he remarked,
“were not the people; but he would listen even to the few.
Which members of the military staff did they wish dismissed, and
what the complaints against them ?” The complainants did not
even know who constituted the staff; their objections were only
general; they saw their error, and retired. But perhaps the most
striking of all anecdotes concerning him is that of his behaviour
�6
after the French had entered Rome; when, to prove that his power
had not been maintained by terror, and also to observe the bearing
of his Romans, he for several days walked unarmed and unpro
tected through the streets, till his friends told him he was mad. But
no man touched him, or said evil word. Even the French soldiers
were awed by the sublime spectacle of that pale, worn, grey man
(his hair grizzled with the past month’s anxiety and toil) walk
ing amidst them, severe and silent, like the Ghost of the
Republic.
In private life, Mazzini is the perfect gentleman, accomplished,
gracious, and with a ready courtesy and genial warmth of expres
sion that wins regard upon the instant. No orator, as Kossuth is;
but in the midst of a few friends, none is more eloquent, or pours
himself in a conversation more rich and various. At the same
time he is singularly unobtrusive, and averse to anything like show
or notoriety. His mode of life is of the simplest. His lodging
was for many years in London one little room, where he supported
himself by his unpolitical writings. His little patrimony he gave to
the Italian cause. He, to whom thousands have intrusted their
lives and fortunes, whose means only of late were said to be equal
to Garibaldi’s, who was able but recently to fit out two expedi
tions to the Roman States (suppressed by the Piedmontese autho
rities), he knows no luxury or self-indulgence except his
cigar—his one constant companion—his only housemate and con
soler.
In person Mazzini is rather below the middle height, slight, and
spare (in youth, like our own Milton, he is said to have been
exceedingly beautiful), with a small but finely-proportioned head;
eyes like coals of fire; black hair (prematurely grey since the
occupation of Rome by the French) ; a face sad and lofty, not so
stern as Dante’s, but full of heroic gentleness; and a hand that
grasps you with right Saxon heartiness. That is the outward
presentment of the man who has set his stamp upon Europe—a
stamp such as none has set since Loyola; a man whom, if it please
you, you may compare with Loyola, for his will, and for his strength
of character, and for his genius in organizing and commanding
men; but not for the fierce licentiousness of Ignatius’s earlier
years, nor for the perversity of intellect which made the Spaniard
seek his good in that strange raising of the devil so banefully known
to the world as Jesuitism. For Mazzini’s private life has been
always pure—irreproachable in everything; and his public creed,
consistently acted out, has been ever the doing good only by good
means. Our peace friends will except of course his advocacy of
insurrection, and his gallant defence of Orsini, when the admirers
of Brutus and Harmodius (to say nothing of Ehud, who took
God’s message” to King Eglon) fell foul upon that assassin.
On that question of continual, however hopeless, insurrection
which Mazzini inculcated, two opinions may be held, even as a mere
matter of policy. While Cavour and his constitutional admirers
�represent it as impeding the progress of Italian freedom, Mazzini’s
friends on the other hand insist that it has prepared, and been the
best, and indeed the necessary preparation, for all that has been
accomplished. It is, indeed hard, in a long series of unsuccessful
enterprises in Italy—blamed because unsuccessful—to find one
looking more forlornly hopeless at the outset than that which but a
few months since had its poor beginning upon the coast of Sicily.
That, too, let it be said, was in the Mazzini programme. And is not
the blood of the martyrs the seed of the church ? Verily, as it was
in the beginning, and shall be.
Of Mazzini’s public acts and written works we need not give a
detailed account. It is the old history of apostolic endeavour; his
writings a tissue of protests against present wrong and teachings of a
higher future; his deeds a series of—plots, if you will, conspiracies
and insurrections. In 1831-2 he organized his “Young Italy,”
from Marseilles, flooding Italy with pamphlets, through the aid of
Italian merchant seamen touching at that port. In 1834 he planned
the expedition into Savoy. Immediately after that failure, he, in
conjunction with his Polish friends, founded the “ Association of
Young Europe,” as the nucleus of a new holy alliance of the
peoples. In 1837, hunted out of Italy, France, and Switzerland,
he came to England, and remained here, “conspiring,” till the
revolution of ’48. In February, 1849, he was elected member of
the Tuscan Provisional Government; and on the 29 th of March, 1849,
ascended the Capitol, to stand before the world as Roman Trium
vir. The acts of that triumvirate are matters of history. Worthy
of the most heroic days of the Eternal City, they testify at once to
the greatness and capacity of the statesman, and the magnanimity
of the man. That was his success, a successful culmination, how
ever transient. And yet he oversteps success to the one steep
height beyond. Grander even than triumph, so far as he is
personally concerned, is the self-abnegation of his recent letter to
Victor Emmanuel. As, during the Milanese campaign, he, the
republican, and, for his murdered friend Ruffini’s sake, the
personal foe of Charles Albert, kept his republicanism in leash, and
stood, as faithful henchman might, beside the king while fighting
honestly for Italy, so now, let who will declare to the contrary, he
gives up all for Italian unity, ready in his most patriotic self-sacri
fice, and, let it be said also, in his faith in God’s providence, to
renounce that dearer “dream” of Italian republicanism, as the
price of a really united Italy, an’ Italy strong enough to live her
own life, whatever that may be. How great that sacrifice only
those who have shared his dream can in any wise appreciate.
The great outward deeds of the world shadow and eclipse all
else. Art, science, literature, all are dwarfed before the giant strife
of peoples for their liberties, or that of nation pitted against
nation, albeit in the vulgarest of kingly wars. So far we have spoken
only of the politician. But Mazzini would have been notable
under any circumstances. Master of his own Italian, at the same time
�8
thoroughly conversant with European literature, he is not only the
commentator upon Dante, but also, or rather was before 1848, an
esteemed contributor to the highest and most thoughtful periodi
cals of France and England. He could spare time from politics to
Erovide for the relief and education of poor organ-grinding boys in
iondon; and from political polemics, to write in his Apostolato
Popolare, for the benefit of Italian workmen, a sermon “ On the
Duties of Man,” of which Kingsley or Maurice would be proud.
There is no such masterly exposition of the errors and shortcom
ings of the Economic and the Socialist Schools as that contributed
by him to the columns of the People s Journal; nor any so pro
found criticism on Carlyle as his in the Westminster Review. His
Republique et Royaute en Italie is one of the very few good
histories that exist. In all things, indeed, Mazzini is a man of
mark, a man of notable worth, a man deserving of renown, and
whom to study and to know must be of advantage to us all.
LONDON:
BARKER & CO., PRINTERS, M’LEAN’S BUILDINGS, GREAT
NEW STREET, FLEET STREET.
�
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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2018
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Title
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Memoir of Joseph Mazzini
Description
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 8 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: From the 'London Review', November 17 1860. Author not named; possibly Emilie Ashurst Venturi. Printed by Barker & Co.
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Farrah and Dunbar; Holyoake & Co.; Barker Brothers
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1861
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G4945
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Republicanism
Italy
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Giuseppe Mazzini
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Text
G-E1TEKAL
AND
SPECIAL RULES
BOR THE
Conduct and Guidance of the Persons acting in the Management
OF THE
SEATON DELAVAL COAL MINE
OR
COLLIERY*'
i
1
BELONGING TO
MESSRS. LAMB,
BURDON & CO.,
AND OF ALL PERSONS EMPLOYED IN OR ABOUT THE SAME.
/
PRINTED BY M. & M. W. LAMBERT, GREY STRSET.
1861.
��GENERAL RULES.
To be observed in every Colliery or Coal Mine and Iron
stone Mine, by the Owners and Agents thereof, as
required by the 23rd & 24th Vic-, cap-151, sec-10-
1. —An adequate amount of ventilation shall be
constantly produced in all coal mines or collieries and
iron stone mines to dilute and render harmless noxious
gases to such an extent that the working places of the
pits, levels, and workings of every such colliery and
mine, and the travelling roads to and from such work
ing-places, shall, under ordinary circumstances, be in a
fit state for working and passing therein.
2. __ All entrances to any place not in actual course
of working and extension, and suspected to contain
dangerous gas of any kind, shall be properly fenced off
so as to prevent access thereto.
3. —Whenever safety lamps are required to be used,
they shall be first examined and securely locked by a
person or persons duly authorized for this purpose.
4. —Every shaft or pit which is out of use, or used
only as an air-pit, shall be securely fenced.
5. __ Every working and pumping pit or shaft shall
be properly fenced, when operations shall have ceased
or been suspended.
6. __ Every working and pumping pit or shaft where
the natural strata, under ordinary circumstances, are
not safe, shall be securely cased or fined, or otherwise
made secure.
�4
7. —Every working pit or shaft shall be provided
with some proper means of communicating distinct and
definite signals from the bottom of the shaft to the
surface, and from the surface to the bottom of the
shaft.
8.—AU underground self-acting and engine planes on
Which persons travel are to be provided with some
proper means of signalling between the stopping-places
and the ends of the planes, and with sufficient places
of refuge at the sides of such planes at intervals of not
more than twenty yards.
9. —A sufficient cover overhead shall be used when
lowering or raising persons in every working pit or shaft
where required by the inspectors.
10. —No single-linked chain shall be used for lower
ing or raising persons in any working pit or shaft,
except the short coupling chain attached to the cage
or load.
11. —Flanges or horns of sufficient length or diame
ter shall be attached to the drum of every machine
used for lowering or raising persons.
12. — A proper indicator to show the position of
the load in the pit or shaft, and also an adequate break,
shall be attached to every machine, worked by steam
or water power, used for lowering or raising persons.
13. —Every steam boiler shall be provided with a
proper steam guage, water guage, and safety valve.
14. —The fly wheel of every engine shall be securely
fenced.
15. —Sufficient bore holes shall be kept in advance
and, if necessary, on both sides to prevent inundation,
in every working approaching a place likely to contain
a dangerous accumulation of water.
�SPECIAL
RULES.
1, In every part of the said Colliery, where the
pillar working or broken is in operation, Stations will
be fixed upon by the Viewer, where each Workman’s
Safety Lamp will be examined and securely locked.
From those stations no Workman is to take a Safety
Lamp for use in the pillar working or broken, without
its having been examined and securely locked by the
Overman, Inspector, or Deputy.
The Overman and Inspectors to have full power to
direct the Workmen how to use their Safety Lamps
during the time of working; and it is particularly en
joined that every Workman strictly attend to such
directions. No lamp to be used on which there is not
a tin shield. None but the Overman, or similar Officer
in authority, to be allowed to carry a lamp key.
2. Should any accident happen to a Lamp whilst in
use, by which the oil is spilt upon the gauze, or it be
in any other way rendered unsafe, the light to be im
mediately extinguished by drawing the wick down
within the tube with the pricker; such Lamp to be
directly taken out to the station where the Lamps are
examined, and not to be again used until after having
been properly examined by the Overman, or other re
sponsible person, on the in-bye side of which station
towards the broken workings, no candles are to be
taken.
�6
3. Should any Workman using a Safety Lamp,
detect, by the usual indications, the appearance or
presence of fire-damp, he is first to pull down the wick
with the pricker, as before-mentioned, and then to re
treat to the Lamp Station and give information of the
same to the nearest responsible person, it being strictly
forbidden for any Workman to continue to work in a
place where such indication has been observed by him;
and should the flame continue in the interior of the
Lamp after the wick has been drawn down, the Lamp
then to be cautiously removed, and no attempt what
ever to extinguish the flame by any other means to be
adopted by the Workman.
4. Every Hewer, Putter, or other person, to whom
a Safety Lamp is intrusted, is hereby strictly prohibited
from interfering in any way whatever with the Lamp,
beyond the necessary trimming of the wick with the
pricker. The Lamp in no case to be hung upon the
row of props next the goaf or old work, and not to be
nearer the swing of the gear, on any occasion, than two
feet.
5. Should any Hewer, Putter, or any other person
whatever, in charge of a Safety Lamp, in any case lose
his light, he is to take it himself to the station where
the Lamps are examined, to be relighted, examined,
and locked by the Overman, or some other responsible
person, before being again used.
6. It is expressly directed that any person witnessing
any improper treatment of the Safety Lamps by any
one, shall give immediate information to the Overman
in charge of the Pit, so that a recurrence of such con
duct may be prevented, by the offending party being
brought to justice.
7. Any person found smoking tobacco in any part
of the said colliery where the Safety Lamp is used, or
a tobacco pipe found in their possession, will be liable
to be taken before a Magistrate. No matches, under
any pretence whatever, to be taken down the pit.
�8. No Putter, Pony-driver, Helper-up, or other per
son, is, under any pretext, to carry a Lamp during his
work, except in special cases, where the parties have
leave to do so from the Viewer. Lamps will be hung
along the going-roads, to afford sufficient light for the
performance of the work.
9. Every person using a Safety Lamp to receive the
bottom part of the same himself from the hands of the
Lamp Keeper then in the pit. The gauze to be taken
home at the end of each shift, by the person using it,
for the puspose of having it properly cleaned before
being again used,/>[
10. Any person acting contrary to the above in
structions will be liable to be taken before a Magis
trate, in order that the lives of the Workmen employed
therein may be duly protected. And any person in
forming against any offending party or parties will, in
every case, be handsomly rewarded. . No riding on
loaded Cages except under special arrangement. Sig
nals, see Act of Parliament.
11. The Hewer that keeps his Safety Lamp in the
best order for a quarter of a year, will be entitled to a
premium of 5s.; and for the second best 2s. 6d. The
Putter to be entitled to 2s. 6d. for the same length of
time.
�OFFICERS’ DUTIES.
OVERMEN.
The Fore Overman to give all necessary instructions
to the Men and Boys in the pit respecting their work,
and to see daily that due respect is paid by the same to
the Rules and Regulations in force upon the colliery.
To visit every working place at least once a day, com
mencing at the starting of the pit. To examine daily
all the various air currents of the colliery, also all stop
pings and air brattices connected with the same; and
should any deficiency in the main or separate air cur
rents at any time be observed, notice of such deficiency
to be immediately given to the Resident Viewer. Also,
in the event of any sudden discharge, accumulation, or
indication of inflammable gas in any part of the work
ings, the same to be immediately reported to him, such
workings to cease working until the said gas be removed.
The Overman in the meantime, to the best of his
judgment, to adopt such means as will effect the same.
To examine carefiilly each day, with the Safety Lamp,
the edge of all the goaves in the broken workings, and
to see that due attention is paid to the Lamps by the
Men whilst at work, giving them at all times suitable
directions respecting them, according to the situation in
which they are placed.
To see that a sufficient quantity of timber, of all re
quisite sizes, is daily supplied to the workings, such being
the earnest wish of the Owners, so that every possible
�9
protection may be afforded to the lives of their Work
men, it being at the same time their particular desire
that a proper care of all materials should be taken, and
none whatever, on any occasion, wilfully wasted.
To see that all tramways and rolleyways are kept in
a safe and working state throughout the colliery.
The Safety Lamp to be used whilst examining all
workings; also any old or suspended workings.
To examine first thing every morning the state of the
barometer, it being provided for the purpose of shewing
when the presence of inflammable gas may, more or
less, be expected, and particularly at the edge of the
goaves in the broken workings.
To see the Resident Viewer every night after the pit
has ceased work, and report to him the general state of
the workings of the colliery and to receive directions
respecting the same.
BACK OVERMAN.
The Back Overman to have full charge of the pit in
the absence of the Fore Overman, exercising in every
thing the same authority and attention as the Fore
Overman whilst in the pit.
To report to the Fore Overman every night the state
of the pit, and what may have transpired through the
day, whether of a usual or unusual nature. Not to leave
the pit at night till all the day-shift men and Lads have
ridden, and to examine the main air currents and the
barometer last thing every night before leaving th e pit.
DEPUTIES.
The Deputies to go down the pit every morning two
hours before the Men, for the purpose of examining the
state of the workings previous to the Men going in.
To examine the state of the barometer, first thing, at
the bottom of the shaft. The face of every working
�10
place to be carefully examined, and on every occasion
with the Safety Lamp.
To have full charge of the workings; also control
over the Men and Lads in their respective districts, in
the absence of the Overman. At all times to report to
the Overman in the pit any deficiency that may be de
tected in the ventilation, also all appearances of danger
from any other cause. To examine frequently through
the day the condition of the edge of the goaves in the
working juds, and should inflammable gas at any time
be observed, the working of the jud to be immediately
stopped until the gas has been cleared away—giving
notice of such immediately to the Overman in the pit.
To put in, on all occasions, a sufficient quantity of tim
ber in every working place, putting in the same in the
best possible manner, for affording the greatest Safety
to the Workmen therein employed. The Safety Lamps
always to be used whilst drawing props, both in the
whole and in the broken workings. The Fore-shift
Deputies to see the Fore Overman the last thing every
night, and the Back-shift Deputies to see him every
morning in the pit, both for the purpose of receiving
instructions relative to the workings of their various
districts.
MASTER WASTEMEN.
The Master Wasteman to go down the pit every
morning two hours before the Hewers. To examine
first thing the state of the barometer, and next the prin
cipal intake air currents. To examine in the course of
the day all the various return air currents.
To see that all the working returns are kept properly
open and of a sufficient size, none of which is to be
under 60 feet area where the whole pit’s air is in a
single current, 70 feet area for two, and 80 feet where
the current has three distinct air courses. The Safety
Lamps, on all occasions, to be used in the waste, all of
which must be examined by the Master Wasteman
before being used.
�11
All doors separating the fresh and return air current,
to be fit up with proper locks, which must be kept con
stantly locked, and only opened by persons authorised
by the “Resident Viewer. To see that proper attention
is paid to the furnaces or steam jets. To report daily
to the Resident Viewer the general state of the waste,
also to give to the Overmen any information they may
at any time require respecting the same. The Over
men and the Deputies to travel with the Master Wasteman the whole of the air courses, at least once every
three months, in order to make themselves thoroughly
acquainted with the same.
LAMP KEEPERS.
The Lamp Keepers to keep in a clean and orderly
manner the bottom part of each man’s Safety Lamp,
and to supply the same daily with a sufficient quantity
of oil and wick. To keep a correct account of who
receives the Lamps, and to report to the Overman every
man who in any way injures his Lamp; also, those
who return their Lamps by any other person to the
Lamp Cabin after being done with the same. To see
that no oil, wick, or anything connected with the Lamp
is wasted. To allow no Lamp bottom to go out for use
that is the least out of repair. Any man persisting to
take it, to report him immediately to the Overman in
the pit.
ONSETTERS.
The Onsetters to allow no person to ride, during
work hours, without having sent to bank the token, as
a signal for such, on the previous cage. Not to allow
more than 8 men, or 6 men and 4 lads, to ride at one
time, and on every occasion the tubs to be taken out of
the cage. To allow every person sufficient time for
getting safely into the cage, before rapping away. To
have a stated number of raps, which must be three
when Men are going to ride. Two Onsetters to remain
at the bottom of the pit after the pit has done work, to
�12
see that all the Men and Lads are safely sent away. To
woik the rapper themselves, and on no account to allow
any other person to touch it. To assist in repaiiing the
shaft, taking charge of the rapper on every occasion—
to pay the same every possible care and attention.
Having a clear and distinct understanding with the
Men employed in the shaft and the Banksman, in order
that accidents may be avoided.
BANKSMEN.
A Banksman to attend at the top of the pit, every
morning, to see that the men and lads are sent safely
down the pit and that not more than the specified num
ber descend at one time in a cage. To give the
directions to the brakesman when all is right, and to
tell him that men are in the cage, and to tell him also
when men are going to ride.
To request the men,
when going down the pit, in the absence of the on
setters, to rap one after having got safely out of the
cage. To examine the pit ropes frequently through the
day, and last thing every night. To examine also the
cage chains, and cages, and on every occasion when
any apparent deficiency in the ropes, chains, or cages,
is observed by them, to report the same immediately
to the colliery engineer. Never to allow during work
hours, when men are going to ride, any man to take
his picks, drills or any other gear, down the pit in the
cage with him, but to see that such are sent down in
the tubs.
BRAKESMEN.
A brakesman to be constantly in attendance at the
machine, the good and safe working order of which he
must at all times attend to. Not to leave the handles
when men are riding in the shaft, or working in the
shaft.
Not to lift the cage from the bottom when men are
going to ride, without being told to do so by the banks
�13
man, being, at the same time, certain himself that the
regular number of raps for such have been given by
the onsetters.
To report any deficiency of the machine immediately
to The engineer, which, if considered of a serious nature
by him, to stand until repaired.
On all occasions to
let down and draw the workmen with the greatest
possible care.
ENGINEER.
The engineer to inspect first every morning and ocqasionally through the day, with a view to its proper
working state, all the machinery and its appendages in
use.upon the colliery. To examine also, at least twice
a day, the pit ropes and cages; also the chains belong
ing to the same, the renewing and repairs of which at
all times to be according to his directions, and in every
respect to his entire satisfaction, both in the joiners and
smiths’ department. To inspect and direct also, at all
times, the repairs both of the engine and coal shafts;
for which repairs, on all occasions, the best of materials
to be used. The repairs of the coal waggons and coal
tubs to be inspected by him, and done also to his entire
satisfaction. A book to be kept by him. in which
must be noted all particulars relative to the repairs or
improvements suggested by him in the aforesaid machin
ery, its appendages, ropes, cages, chains, &c.; and in
the event of any deficiency in any parts of the said
machinery, ropes, &c., occurring at any time, the same
to be by him immediately reported to the colliery officer,
adopting at the earliest opportunity such means as will,
to the best of his judgment, remedy the said, deficiency.
To see that all chains connected with the pit ropes and
cages are annealed, or put through the fire at least once
a month; and no riding permitted till all is in repair.
MINES INSPECTION ACT.
That the wages of each and every person shall be
paid to him or his authorised representative, in money,
�14
at the Colliery Office at Seaton Delaval, such Office,
not being contiguous to any house where spirits, wine,
beer, or other spirituous liquors are sold.
GENERAL REMARKS.
Any person observing any door standing open that
ought to be shut, or stoppings injured, or brattice
knocked down or broken, or any other thing, whereby
the ventilation of the mine may be deranged or ob
structed, is immediately to inform the Overman or De
puty, or other officer then in charge of the pit, so that
it may, with as little delay as possible, be remedied.
No Hewer to commence working in any place until
it has first been inspected by the Overman or Deputy,
or some other authorised person.
No Workman to commence or continue to w^rk in
any place where he may consider the timber insufficient
to support the roof of the mine, or any other cause that
may render the place unsafe, until it is put right by the
Deputy or other person in charge.
Any person wilfully or negligently injuring any Safety
Lamp, or in any way obstructing or deranging the ven
tilation of the pit, or breaking any of the Regulations
or Rules, shall be immediately discharged from his em
ployment, or, at the option of the owners of the colfiery, be prosecuted according to law.
LASTLY.
It is the particular desire of the owners and principal
agents of the colliery, that the various officers, whose
duties have been enumerated, will, at all times, report
to the proper authorities every individual case of neglect
or wilful disobeying of the rules and cautions herein set
forth, in order that the safe and proper working of the
colliery may be duly maintained.
�PENALTIES UNDER THE ACT.
Any Owner, or principal Agent, or Viewer, neglect
ing, or wilfully violating any of the General or Special
Rules, which ought to be observed by him, such person
shall be liable to a Penalty of not exceeding Twenty
Pounds; and to further Penalties, in case the default or
neglect be not remedied with all reasonable dispatch
after notice in writing thereof given to him by an In
spector of Coal Mines. Penalties are also attached if
the Special and General Rules be not painted on a
board, or printed upoD paper to be pasted thereon, and
hung up or affixed in some conspicuous part of the
principal office or place of business of the Coal Mine,
or Company, and maintained there in a legible state,
and a copy supplied to all persons employed in or about
the colliery who shall apply for such copy.
Penalties are also attached if proper Plans be not
kept up every six months; and if loss of life to any
person employed in or about the colliery, or any seri
ous personal injury. from explosion, be not within
twenty-four hours after loss of life, reported to the Secre
tary of State, and to the Inspector of Coal Mines for
the district in which the colliery is situate, every person
(other than the Owner or principal Manager) em
ployed in or about a coal mine or colliery who neglects
or ■wilfully violates any of the Special Rules, established
for such coal mine or colliery, shaft, for every offence,
be liable to a penalty not exceeding Two Pounds, or to
�16
be imprisoned with or without hard labour in the com
mon Gaol or House of Correction, not exceeding Three
Calendar Months; and every person who pulls down,
injures, or defaces any Notice hung or affixed as re
quired by the Act for the Inspection of Coal Mines (23
and 24 Victoria, Chap. 151) shall, for every such
offence, be liable to a Penalty of not exceeding Forty
Shillings.
Any person wilfully obstructing an Inspector in
carrying out the Act, shall, for every such offence, be
liable to a Penalty not exceeding Ten Pounds.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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General and special rules for the conduct and guidance of the persons acting in the management of the Seaton Delaval coal mine or colliery belonging to Messrs. Lamb, Burdon & Co., and of all persons employed in or about the same
Creator
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Lamb, Burdon & Co. (Firm)
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Collation: 16 p. ; 21 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
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M. & M.W. Lambert, printers
Date
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1861
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G5398
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<p class="western"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (General and special rules for the conduct and guidance of the persons acting in the management of the Seaton Delaval coal mine or colliery belonging to Messrs. Lamb, Burdon & Co., and of all persons employed in or about the same), identified by <a href="www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</p>
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application/pdf
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Text
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English
Subject
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Industry
Health
Coal Mines
Conway Tracts
Health and Safety
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Text
Q33Sb
CONSCIENCE versus THE QUARTERLY.
A PLEA FOR FAIR PLAT
TOWARDS
THE WRITERS OF THE
ESSAYS AND REVIEWS.
BY
THE REV. HARRY JONES,
INCUMBENT OP ST. LUKE’S, BERWICK STREET, ST. JAMES’S, WESTMINSTER.
LONDON:
ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY.
1861.
��CONSCIENCE versus THE QUARTERLY,
<5*C.
“ There is, in truth, in the volume,” says the
Quarterly Reviewer, “ nothing which is really new,
and little which, having been said before, is said
here with any new power, or with any great addi
tion, either by way of amplification, illustration, or
research.”
To what, then, may we attribute the deep interest
with which the “ Essays and Reviews ” are read ?
“ Not certainly, we think,” replies the Quarterly
Reviewer, “ to its subject.”
Surely, however, we may ask how any subject
which has already so occupied the human mind as
to present nothing new, can cease to be interesting?
The Reviewer does not admit this question; he
attributes the notoriety of the book to its author
ship. But though its subject has inherent, unfading
attraction, the Reviewer himself has helped much
to create the notoriety of this particular volume,
and must be held accessory to whatever mischief
it makes. He believes that he has discovered a
�4
deadly spring; and having neither authority to
close it up, nor power secretly to drain it dry, what
does he ?—pass it by in silence, lest the host he
leads should drink and die ? No such thing—he
points it out, and then gives a mouthful to every
follower, crying, “ This is fatal—taste it!”
The result is that crowds are dosed: Messrs. Long
man, who built the well, run to their structure and
multiply its powers of delivery, as the demand for the
mixture increases. “ What is it like ?” exclaim the
fresh comers to those who have got a whole bottle
ful in the scramble. Others, who cannot wait, are
fed with extracts, choice cupfuls, scooped out of
the darkest, most poisonous-looking jets of the
spring, while some save themselves the risk and
trouble of tasting, and condemn it untried.
Perhaps the most curious, though the most appa
rent, inconsistency in this distribution is that many
distributors accompany their sample with the re
quest for an opinion, but add that those thus in
vited to taste are incapable of giving one, the
“ verifying faculty ” being the most deceptive of
any we possess when applied to the subject handled
in this naughty book.
Let me hope the Reviewer will pardon me, if,
in venturing to give utterance to some of the
thoughts aroused by his vehement provocation, I
err in applying the contradictory advice he thrusts
upon me.
In attempting to follow it, I accept, for the sake
of convenience, the article in the “ Quarterly” as
�5
the impression the “ Essays and Reviews” have
made on a large section of the religious world in
England.
In the first place, it is very important to distin
guish between the principle of the book and the
application which is made of that principle by the
several authors who have contributed to the volume
in which it appears.
The principle itself they all evidently hold, and
must be held accountable for, while each must
answer for his individual use of that faculty the
exercise of which they jointly defend.
What is the one idea influencing their several
minds? “ The idea,” replies the Reviewer (p. 255),
“ of a verifying faculty—the power of each man of
settling what is and what is not true in the inspired
record, is the idea of the whole volume—the con
necting link between all its writers.”
It is this which has given the gravest oflence —
this which disqualifies them from the office of
teachers in the Church of England.
What, however, can be the distinction in principle
between the liberty to judge whether all, or a
portion only of the statements in Scripture are to
be regarded as much actual truths as physical facts
are?
If once a man asks reason and conscience whether
he shall obey the Bible at all, he recognizes the
question, “ what is and what is not true in the
inspired record?” He has put it to himself, and
decided it for himself, even when he concludes that
�6
the whole volume is verbally infallible. As far as
the principle of the Essayists is concerned, they
only confess their desire to be always convinced
in their own minds of the truth of their creed when
acting for themselves, or attempting to guide
others.
Such is the common charge against them. It
looks like a farce, but it is made in bitter earnest.
When the present boiling passions have cooled
down a little, when the flushed executioners begin
to try the offenders they have hanged, the judges
will perhaps find that they have not been alto
gether free from the crime they are now punish
ing ; for, do they mean to say, they do not pretend
to any justification of their own opinions about the
truth of Scripture ? They utter them freely enough
—on what pretext ? If they despise the “ verify
ing faculty,” why have they any opinion at all about
anything divine? If they profess the acceptance
of definite theology, what has induced them to ac
cept it? Do they hold what they term orthodoxy
without thought, examination, or proof ? Have they
never tested their decisions ? By the exercise of
what faculty have they arrived at their present
belief? By the support of what convictions do they
retain their positions and professional stipend ?
What makes them so loudly and frequently repeat
that the views they condemn have been refuted
already, unless they have weighed the value of the
refutation, and so exercised the “ verifying faculty,”
as to what is and what is not true in the inspired
�7
record, themselves ? Nay, even if they believe what
they are told to believe, what induces them to obey?
Have they asked whether the commands laid upon
them are right ? Have they not decided that the
authority to which they submit their thoughts is
such as they ought to bow to ?
I cannot credit the supposition that they are
unable to give a reason of the hope which is in
them—that they have arrived at no conscientious
if not rational conclusions.
Even the man who deliberately surrenders his
conscience to the Romanist director, does so because
he thinks the arguments in favour of this arrange
ment are stronger than those against it.
No wonder, then, that the Reviewer finds it easy
to prove his main charge against the Essayists.
They do claim the power of deciding for them
selves what is and what is not true in the inspired
record, and so does he. The “ verifying faculty” is
the “ connecting link” not only between the seven
writers, but between all who read, mark, learn, and
inwardly digest the Scriptures.
If you teach men to read, and give them the
Bible, they are sure to hear some hostile criticism
upon it. They soon find out that many of its
statements are questioned by learned men. Now,
directly you say “ these doubts are needless—these
objections are wrong,” and proceed to lay your
proofs before the public with an appeal to their
good feeling and good sense, you not only admit
�8
the existence of the “ verifying faculty” in every
man, but claim its support.
The only way to prevent the Bible being freely
handled is to prohibit it. Rome is consistent. She
says the people cannot form a right judgment of'its
contents, and therefore she locks it up. We, on
the contrary, offer the Scriptures to any one who
will read them. And now these readers are told
that it is a grievous sin to weigh the value of the
statements they contain.
Why do such as the Reviewer urge more loudly
than most teachers, that a man is as responsible for
his religious opinions, as for his acts, unless they
think that he is at liberty to' form his opinions
himself? The principle of which the Essayists
are accused is so far from being vicious, that
it is the special characteristic of English thought,
and the living safeguard of spiritual liberty. It
is the one essential which marks the difference
between Popery and Protestantism; for though,
as we have noticed, the principle is so neces
sary to sane existence, that the most Ultramon
tane pervert who delivers himself, body and soul,
to the guidance of the Church of Rome, must ex
ercise it once for all, when he decides to join that
Church; though he then spends his liberty of thought,
his whole spiritual fortune, in one terrible payment,
being content to live thenceforward on such an
allowance of freedom as the keeper of his con
science may think fit to trust him with, yet practically
�9
the distinction between the Papist and the Pro
testant is the liberty of the latter to use this same
“ verifying faculty.” The result of the Religious
Census alone, is a convincing proof of the extent to
which it is used, and may lead us to question the
confidence of the Reviewer as to the verdict of the
English people on the value of the principle the
Essayists uphold.
How far they are justified in remaining ministers
of the Church of England must be left for them to
choose, or legal authorities to decide. But it would
indeed be bad for our national Church if regard for
the principles of the Reformation were held to bar
the entrance to her ministry.
It is the extent to which these principles have
been pushed, the use which these seven writers
have-made of the liberty they share with him, which
has shocked the Reviewer.
Of course no one can wonder at him for doing all
he can to prevent the adoption of their views, when
he thinks them wrong, i. e. when they jar with the
result of his “ verifying faculty.” That may lead
him to conclude (p. 284), that “ the position of six
of these writers is both philosophically and reli
giously pitiable;” which is intelligible if not true,
though we might have expected something less
vague from the advocate of definite theology than
his sentence on the other, who, he says, “ seems
contented to sit down with Spinoza on the frozen
mountains of metaphysical atheism.” Perhaps in
assigning this locality to one of the seven, he anB
�10
I
swers his own question put elsewhere (p. 282),
“ How is it possible to stop when once such a prin
ciple (the verifying faculty) has been admitted ?”
Before we go on to notice some of the points
which the Reviewer conceives he has made against
these gentlemen, we must notice the charge (p. 274),
of immorality which he brings against them ; it
sounds rather libellous to be sure : “ As honest men
and as believers in Christianity, we must pronounce
those views to be absolutely inconsistent with its
creed, and must therefore hold that the attempt of
the Essayists to combine their advocacy of such
doctrines with the retention of the status and
emolument of Church of England clergymen, is
simply moral dishonesty.” It is true that in another
place (p. 288), he drops this papal style, and says,
“ With some of them no doubt, the object before
their own eyes....... is the desire to place Christianity
upon a better footing.”
But this is only an example of the wanton,
cruel way in which he picks up anything rough
and handy to throw at them, and then has an
unwitting qualm of human feeling when he thinks
the missile hits.
Let us take his gentler sen
tence (p. 288), “ They have no intention of aban
doning Christianity,...... their desire is to place
it on a better footing.” If this be true, and
I suppose the Quarterly Reviewer believes it,
why should they quit the ministry of the national
Church ? It would be both foolish and wrong for
them to do so. Foolish, because if they yielded to
�11
the morbid feeling sometimes generated by misre
presentation, and for fear of maintaining stumblingblocks in the way of weak brethren, or from a
cowardly desire for material martyrdom, were to
resign their posts, they would yield the influence
and honour they are beginning to find. Wrong,
because they would, as far as they were concerned,
betray the right of private judgment in the Church
of England. Thousands of her clergy without at
all committing themselves to the conclusions of the
Essayists, look to them as the present champions
of the “ verifying faculty,” which, though it cannot
be destroyed in England, may yet be eclipsed in
her national Church, if those who venture to up
hold it suffer themselves to be talked or worried
out of her ministry.
It may be remarked however, by the way, that
there is much nonsense uttered about the sin of
putting stumbling-blocks in other men’s way. There
is no sin in doing so, if the weak brother be going
wrong. The stumbling-block cannot be too heavy
or high, when it bars the road to intolerance and
slavery,
We will now pass on from the main charge the
Reviewer makes against the Essayists, viz. that of
honouring the “ verifying faculty,” when it is applied
to the subject which is of the deepest interest and
importance possible. Let us see how the Reviewer
tries to convict them of abusing it. We have already
noticed his hatred of the principle, but I cannot
understand how he expects to arrive at a conclusion
�12
without its help. We must forgive his blunders as
we should those of an enraged Quaker who failed
in the bayonet exercise, however fiercely he might
clutch and flourish the forbidden weapon, when his
carnal nature got uppermost.
Of course, among those who apply the verifying
faculty, we must expect to see some overshoot their
neighbours, and perhaps startle them by their bold
ness in handling what others will not touch.
I will, however, take a few passages which ex
hibit the spirit of the Reviewer, avoiding as much
as possible, the most irritating phases of the contro
versy in which he engages. In page 254, he falls
foul of the “ canons” provided by the Essayists, and
begins with “ criticism,” which they say will help
us “ to reduce the strangeness of the past into har
mony with the present.” Does he mean that this
is an unfair assumption ? or does he wish to monopo
lize it himself? Again, when he quotes what he calls
their “pregnant words,”—“ We find the evidences
of our canonical books, and of the patristic authors
nearest them, are not adequate to guarantee narratives
inherently incredible,or precepts evidently wrong,”—
does he mean that they are adequate to guarantee
such narratives or precepts ? Again (p. 256), he
starts at such a supposition as “ the conscience de
ciding for every man upon the truth of doctrine, and
the historical value of facts,” laying down as his
canon, that conscience certainly has no direct con
nection whatever with mere intellect: would he have
the conscientious man devoid of intellect ? or the
�13
intellectual theologian unconscientious ? He naively
adds, “ Many good men are infinitely above their
own theorieslet us give him the shelter of this
admission.
In page 158 he is speaking of inspiration, and
exclaims, “ Here is the great principle of the
Essayists,—Holy Scripture is like any other good
book;” then he quotes Mr. Jowett, “Scripture is to
be read like any other book,”—“ not only,” now the
Reviewer goes on, “ because it embodies the same
errors as other books (sic) but also because it is not
to be held to have meanings deeper, at least in
kind, than they possess.” Now this is most unfair
—there may be no difference in kind, but a mighty
one in result, between various workings of the same
influence, just as in electricity, where the little
spark and snap from the machine in the hands of a
boy, are to be referred to the laws which regulate
.the crash of a thunderstorm, when the lightning
shineth from the one part under heaven to another,
and a nation starts.
A little further (p. 259) he asks, “ Why is
Strauss’s resolution an excess? Where, and by
what authority, short of his extreme view, would
Mr. Wilson himself stop?” By the same authority
which decides the Reviewer to accept what he calls
the established scheme, instead of Mr. Wilson’s
views—viz., the authority of his own “verifying
faculty.”
In page 267 he quotes this apparently harmless
�14
sentence in Mr. Jowett’s essay—It is “most pro
bable that the tradition on which the three first
gospels were based was at first preserved orally, and
slowly put together and written in the three forms
which it assumed at a very early period, those
forms being in some places perhaps modified by
experience;” and then says, “From this origin
he argues, to the utter destruction of all notion of
inspiration (sic) that dissimilarities arose between
them.” These read like the words of one who had
never heard of the distinction between plenary and
verbal inspiration, i.e. between the illumination of
the writers by the Holy Ghost, and the supernatural
dictation of the letters which were traced by their
pens.
As an unfair distortion we may cite this (p. 268):
“Mr. Wilson esteems the Apostle (St. John) as
a man of rather contracted habits of thought,”
whereas Mr. Wilson’s words are, “The horizon
which St. John’s view embraced was much nar
rower than St. Paul’s,”
‘ Qui mores hominum multorum vidit et urbes.’ ”
Later in the same page, after another extract from
his essay, he remarks, “ Little can be added to this,
and yet something is added when Mr. Jowett tells
us that ‘ we cannot readily determine how much of
the words of our Lord, or of St. Paul, is to be attri
buted to oriental modes of speech, for that expres-
�15
sions which would be regarded as rhetorical exaggeration in the Western world, are the natural
vehicles of thought to an Eastern people.’ ”
Now, the Reviewer considers every statement in
Scripture as of equal value, or he does not. If he
does not, he employs his own “ verifying faculty” in
deciding what is and what is not to be accepted in
the inspired record, and so commits the grave crime
of which he accuses the Essayists. If he does con
sider every statement in Scripture as of equal value,
he has no right to affect a distinction between the
words of our Lord and any others which the in
spired writers have recorded.
In apparent forgetfulness of Scripture statements,
however, he accuses Mr. Jowett of his “general
notion ” seeming to be, “ that we are under a pro
gressive revelation.” Why not quarrel with St.
Paul, for saying: “We know in part, and we pro
phesy in part.” “ When I was a child I spake as a
child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child,
but when I became a man I put away childish
things; for now we see through a glass darkly, but
then face to face; now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as also I am known.”
In page 271 the Reviewer speaks of the “ remark
able indifference to all doctrine which is every
where apparent in the writings of Mr. Jowett.
‘ The lessons of Scripture,’ he thinks, ‘ may have a
nearer way to the heart of the poor when disen
gaged from theological formulas.’ ‘ The truths of
Scripture,’ again, ‘ would have greater reality if
�■WAjwwtf ■»••:•; :•>
'■WW.JRWW1
16
divested of the scholastic form in which theology
has cast them. The universal and spiritual aspect
of Scripture might be more brought forward, to the
exclusion of . . . exaggerated statements of
doctrines which seem to be at variance with mo
rality.’”
If this is wrong, we ought to have had no
Reformation.
Many might be excused for not being shocked at
this statement of Mr. Wilson’s (p. 272): “And
when the Christian Church, in all its branches, shall
have fulfilled its sublunary office, and its Founder
shall have surrendered His kingdom to the Great
Father—all, both small and great, shall find a
refuge in the bosom of the Universal Parent, to
repose or be quickened into higher life in the ages
to come, according to His will.”
We think this rather a turgid paraphrase of St.
Paul’s words, “ Then cometh the end, when He
shall have delivered up the Kingdom unto God,
even the Father.” “And when all things shall be
subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself
be subject unto Him that put all things under Him,
that God may be all in all.” But the Reviewer
asks (p. 273) with confident emphasis, as one who
has, to use his own words (p. 274), “ forced up the
prophet’s veil, and shown the foul deformity which
it covers:” “Can the knell of all Christian truth
sound more distinctly {sic) or more mournfully than
this?”
It appears that Mr. Wilson did not speak twenty
�17
years ago as he does now. The Reviewer rum
mages up a letter which he, with three others,
signed in 1841 against Tractarianism. The authors
of that letter protested against too great a liberty in
interpreting the formularies of our Church in favour
of Rome. Well, then, Mr. Wilson was one of the,
first to detect and expose the Popish tendencies of
High Churchmen. We do not see how that is in
consistent with his present essay. But the Reviewer
makes a great point of it, and writes very rudely.
When he anticipates the horror with which this same
gentleman (Mr. Wilson twenty years ago) would
then have read his present essay, could it have been
shown to him, does the Reviewer think that any
change of opinion is wrong ? that none are to be
converted ? that no one, from St. Paul downwards,
can be acquitted of immorality if he contradicts any
of his former statements, or even reverses the deli
berate decisions of his early life ?
It is curious to notice how the Reviewer recurs
to his main charge against the Essayist’s belief in
the “ verifying faculty,” even when he professes
to be examining details. “ Why,” he exclaims
(p. 282), “ should not the ‘ verifying faculty’ of
Voltaire, or Thomas Paine, be as good an authority
as the same faculty when exercised by Rowland
Williams?”
The Reviewer misses the point of the question
here. Your verifying faculty is no guide to me:
I am not responsible for such opinions as you have
arrived at yourself. The Reviewer, however, seems
c
�18
to think the verifying faculty to be like a telescope
which may be handed about; whereas it may rather
be illustrated by eyesight, which every one is
expected to use for himself. I may exercise a
privilege, and yet regret its abuse in some cases;
just as a man who takes the liberty of warming
himself at a fire, may be sorry to see his neighbour’s
house burnt down because he overheats his flue.
As a specimen of inconsistency, however, take the
following, and, remember, it comes from a man
who, above all things, protests against the exercise
of the verifying faculty when applied to the sub
jects treated of in the inspired record:
“ If” (p. 286) “ it can be shown to the young be
liever that the system offered to him in the Essays,
full as it is of appeals to the pride of his reason,
which tend to captivate his mind, must by logical
necessity end in atheism, he is bound, as he values
his salvation, not to listen to the syren’s voice.”
In page 288, we have another example of the
Reviewer’s self-contradictory style ; he speaks of
“their new form of Christianity,” and then, lower
down, he says, “ The path on which they have en
tered is no new one.” Which does he mean ? One
cannot help thinking that, since in his opinion
(same page), “ All unbelievers of all classes, and all
believers of all shades, see plainly enough that the
Essayists are simply deceiving themselves,” he might
have spared himself the “ distasteful task ” of ex
posing their mistakes to the public.
Let us notice, however, the way in which he tries
�19
to do this, in treating of the supposed discrepancies
between revelation and the science of astronomy.
He asks (p. 292), “ Is the fulness and reality of re
velation one whit shaken because the standing still
of the light-giving luminary upon Gibeon was ac
complished by the God to whom his servant cried,
by any of the thousand other modes by which His
mighty power could have accomplished it, rather
than by the actual suspension of the unbroken career
of the motion of the heavenly bodies in their ap
pointed courses ? ”
Now, he believes, either that the sun stood still,
in the common acceptation of the phrase, or that
it did not; but how the light-giving luminary (sic)
could have stood still, without the “ career of the
motion of the heavenly bodies” being broken, he
does hot pretend to say.
The Reviewer is withering when he comes to
miracles. While dipping his pen in a pleasant pause
of consciousness at having already blackened the
Essayists, he hastens to transfer this sentence of
triumphant severity to his paper, “There is”
(p. 299) “ but one other argument in favour of their
system with which we need trouble our readers. It
is that which continually re-appears throughout the
volume, the impossibility of believing in a miracle.”
Let us see how he removes it. First, in reply to
theoretical objections, he says, “ Supposing (p. 300)
that, for the purpose of preventing man’s falling
under the power of outward things, occasional or
periodic suspensions of what seems the iron-law of
�20
order, were a part of the plan on which the universe
were governed, who shall dare to say that there is
in such a marvellous arrangement any disparagement
of the wisdom, power, or love of Him who laid the
foundations of the earth, and it abideth?” “It abideth
not'' we should have expected, if the Reviewer’s
notion of a miracle were true. The believer in
miracles might well wish for a better champion.
But how does he reply to objections made on the
ground of experience ? “ Once grant (p. 300) that
there was at any epoch whatever of this series of
causes and effects a Creator and a creation . . . .
fix the beginning of the series where you please, the
existence of that on which we trace the law of order
stamped is itself the greatest of all miracles.”
Very well; but how does he go on ? “ He who
then interfered may interfere at any other point in
the series, and, before we can pronounce that He
has not, and will not do so, we must be able to com
prehend all His ways, and to fathom all the secret
purposes of His all-wise but often most mysterious
will.” Thus he invites the return blow, which is
made by leaving out the “ nots,” “ Before we can
pronounce that He has and will do so, we must be
able to comprehend all His ways, and to fathom all
the secret purposes of His all-wise but often most
mysterious will.” Now, as evidently neither the
Reviewer nor his imaginary antagonist can do that,
they are left, thanks to the Reviewer, just where
they began. However, he jauntily concludes, “We
see, then,-nothing contrary to right reason in ad-
�21
mitting the alleged fact of any actual miracle upon
such evidence as would be sufficient to establish
beyond doubt any other alleged fact.” In short,
that there is no more difficulty in believing that
the ass spoke to Balaam, than that Balaam spoke to
the ass.
Heaven defend us from being guided by the
Reviewer’s verifying faculty, which, in defiance of
his own anathema, he applies with blundering
ignorance of true faith, to the facts and statements
of the Bible. Such as he are the real provokers of
infidelity and atheism.
There are passages in his article (p. 283) in which
he “ handles freely ” the words and character of the
Son of God. I will not follow him there. Let us
hope that those who read his Article will not be
hindered in believing that, after all, love toward
our Lord Jesus Christ, as we see him in the
Gospels, is the essence of Christianity. A growing
number of us will, I trust, as time goes on, feel
that we owe the possession of an open Bible itself
in the Church of England to the Divine im
plantation of our right to the exercise of the
verifying faculty in English hearts; and while
we protest against committing ourselves to the
opinions, however honest, of any individual clergy
man, yet see the greatest danger to our spiritual
liberty in attempts to drive those whom we do
not agree with, but who profess no hostility to the
Church of England, out of that body, which is
��
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Conscience versus The Quarterly: a plea for fair play towards the writers of essays and reviews
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Jones, Harry [Rev.]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 22 p. ; 21 cm.
Notes: Inscription on front flyleaf of bound volume: Presented by Miss Morris. November 1904.
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Robert Hardwicke
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Az
CAPITAL AND LABOUR;
THEIR
RIGHTS AND DUTIES:
A ^RETROSPECT
OF THE
TAILORS’ LABOUR AGENCY
^jonUnir:
WILLIAM FREEMAN, 102, FLEET STREET.
1861.
�T. e* vr? »VP CO., Iirst-XTSK ASB GSSEXKL PSSTSSSj,
�[CAPITAL AND LABOUR;
THEIli
RIGHTS AND DUTIES.
Ten years’ experience, and the signal success of the “Tailors’
Labour Agency,” may j ustify a few words of self-gratulation, and
warrant a simple statement of past achievement and future
expectancy. To look back upon the hindrances which have
obstructed us, the encouragements which have cheered us, and the
accomplishment of many of our purposes, will be a retrospect not
unpleasing to ourselves, and may have something of profit in it
for others. We would like to speak with diffidence on a subject
on which there is not entire unanimity of opinion, and while we
admit that in carrying out our views we may not always have
done the fitting thing at the fittest time, yet we are confident
that our purpose has been a good and a righteous one, and we
still cling to it hopefully and unflinchingly, thankful for the
(measure of success which has attended our efforts, and in no
degree dismayed by thajloubts and scepticism of well-tried friends,
or the ill-disguised hostility of mistaken opponents.
It were well, perhaps, that working men generally were better
acquainted with the science of political economy, a science which
has, in the main, established itself on principles of commercial
and social soundness; though some of its expounders have driven
their dogmas so hard and heartlessly, that many have been justi
fied in their aversion to the investigating those principles upon
which much of their welfare depends. Money, and how to get
it, has become of far greater importance than labour and how to
live by it; and while the working classes deem themselves
excluded from the sentiments and sympathies which make life
�4
cheerful and useful, the opinion is entertained by many that it is
the interest and desire of the high and the wealthy to oppress
the poor and the lowly; that position, power, and influence are
^associated only with the possession of money—that it is the
■destiny of the worker to work on for the enrichment of those
that employ him—and that while capital is increasing in the
hands of a few, and one class advancing in opulence and
living in luxury, there is another and far larger class whose labour
•can barely find them subsistencej who are living continually
•on the verge of pauperism, into which they drift at last,
leaving the like hopeless toil and cheerless prospects as the
“heritage of woe” which the working man bequeaths to his
'children.
This view of the matter is rather gloomy, and is certainly to
some extent erroneous, but any one who has mixed considerably
with our working population, our average working men, neither
those who are leading vicious lives, nor those whose vocation is
dubious and uncertain, must be aware of much in their condition
that is unsatisfactory, and even perilous. With all our national
greatness, our freedom of commerce, our vast achievements in
science, and the growing intelligence among all classes, it surely
■cannot be that the claims of society, the progress of business, or
•even the spirit of competition itself requires that our millions of
workers, who are the right arm of our strength, and our bulwark
-of defence, should be crushed in their struggle for bread; that the
body should be exhausted by daily toil till the mind become
paralysed, and the moral nature be overborne by physical wants
and necessities, rendering the higher aims, enjoyments, and even
duties of life a bitter mockery, and a stern impossibility. If
this be the fate of labour—if there are laws inexorable in their
■demand, and unyielding in their requirements, which assert this
•condition to be inevitable—then is the fate a hard one indeed.
But we do not believe it
There are some men whom much political economy has made
’unreasonable and unfeeling, who would not deny that in many
•trades the workmen may be inadequately remunerated, and in
■some scarcely remunerated at all, but they would leave all that
�5
alone. ’’These things, they think, will ultimately adjust themselves by some laws of their own, and any meddlesome inter
ference with their operation they earnestly deprecate. Such mem
opposed any interference with the employment of children of'
tender years in factories, and of women in coal mines, and they
would rather support the working man from the poor-rates, as a.
pauper, than countenance any effort by which the wages of'
labour might bejkept above starvation point. They cannot deny
the right of the working class to combine to fix the price of their
labour, but according to them this is never done at the right
time, nor in the right way; and if hostilities are provoked between
Lcapital and labour, capital generally contrives, by calling to its
aid some extreme maxims in political economy, to get the best
in the conflict.
This has come to be considered by a large class of operatives
as more owing to the power of the moneyed interest than
to any inherent justness of the cause in the question at issue,,
and antagonisms have thereby been provoked and embittered
to the manifest detriment of both parties in the conflict.
But, after all that can be said, money has a power—will always,
have a power—as the representative of accumulated savings, and
the engine by which commercial enterprise is set in motion, and
labour made productive; and working men would have long er©
now seen their true interests in relation to capital, but for the
selfishness of a certain class of employers who look upon
their workmen only as the means of money-getting for them
selves, who think that to be rich is the best thing, and Ke next,
best thing to appear to be rich; whose political faith is that
“ Poverty is disgraceful, and hard cash covers a multitude of
sins,”—whose regard for the workers is dictated by the same
consideration which makes them oil then machinery—who view
them only physically and socially, and overlook those moral
relations which are the bond of a common humanity, and the only
means by which a people may become happy and virtuous. We
are no unqualified adinirers of Trades’ Unions, on the principles
by which they have hitherto been conducted; and speaking as
working men ourselves—whom, perhaps, fortunate circumstances*
�6
and somewhat of an aptitude for business have raised a shade
above the merest operative—we deplore the errors into which
they have led those connected with them, and the deep suffer
ing which their unwise counsels have often produced; but we do
say that it will be a happy day for this country when the millions
of those who sweat and toil, shall have intelligence and union
enough among themselves, to combine for securing the same con
sideration for their labour, as the capitalist can secure for his
money; and by prudent, well-regulated lives, promote those
measures of social progress, which shall give them a power in the
■commonwealth to which they have never yet attained.
These views are not mere sentimentalities. Some of the
sternest of political economists have put forth opinions to the
same effect. Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, asks :—
“ Is an improvement in the circumstances of the lower ranks of
the people to be regarded as an advantage, or as an inconveniency to society?” “The answer,” he continues, “seems
at first abundantly plain. Servants, labourers, and workmen of
different kinds, make up by far the greater part of every great
political society. But what improves the circumstances of the
greater part can never be regarded as any inconveniency to the
whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy of which
the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It
is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the
whole body of the people, should have such a share of the
produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well
fed, clothed, and lodged.”
Mr. M’Culloch, in his Principles of Political Economy, says:—
“ The best interests of society require that the rate of wages
should be elevated as high as possible; that a taste for the
comforts, luxuries, and enjoyments of human life should be
widely diffused, and, if possible, interwoven with national
habits and prejudices. Very low wages, by rendering it im
possible for any increased exertions to obtain any consider
able increase of comforts and enjoyments, effectually hinders
them from being made, and is, of all others, the most powerful
cause of that idleness and apathy that contents itself with what
�7
•can barely continue animal existence.” Again, in his Principles
of Population he has this remark :—“ I really cannot conceive
•anything much more detestable than the idea of knowingly con
demning the labourers of Great Britain to rags and wretched
ness, for the purpose of selling a few more broadcloths and
■calicos.”
Dr. Wade, too, in Iris History of the Middle and Working
Classes, says:—I am .a great admirer of political economy,
but do not implicitly adopt all its dogmas. National happi
ness is more important than national wTealth very unequally
■apportioned. Repudiating witlheontempt the idea that the rich
are in a conspiracy against the poor, and that they do not ■wish
to improve their condition; still, I think, that in all fiscal and
•domestic measures the maxim should be acted upon, that it is
'better a hundred persons live comfortably than one luxuriantly. High wages are, therefore, more important than high
profits •, it is better—should they ever be at issue—the people
•should be happy than foreign trade prosperous. It is less an
evil that the minority should undergo a privation of the luxuries,
<than the majority of the necessaries of life.”
With respect to the feeling which ought to obtain between
employers and the employed, a writer in a late number of the
Quarterly Review has the following :—il Employers ought not
to stand too strongly upon their rights, nor entrench themselves
too exclusively within the circle of their own. order. Frankness
and cordiality will win working men’s hearts, and a ready
explanation will often remove misgivings and dissatisfaction.
Were there more trust, and greater sympathy between classes,
there would be less disposition to turn out on the part of men,
and a more accommodating spirit on the part of masters.”
And so, in organising and conducting the “ Tailors’ Labour
Agency,” it has not been our aim to propound any new scheme
of a societary or communistic kind, or any involved or abstruse
doctrines; but, believing that practice was more at fault than
principle, we have sought to deal with old facts and sub
sisting relations, and taking the ordinary intercourse and arrange
ments between the employer and the employed, endeavouring
�8
to rear o-ut of that, a scheme of co-operation which should
enhance the interests of the workmen, while it promoted the
success of the business which gave them employment. For it
is certain, that even in tailoring, depreciated and maligned
though it be, there is as much scope for excellence in taste and
skill, as in occupations of a more artistic kind; and were a body
of workmen got together, stimulated and encouraged by an em
ployer, bound to him by some tie more enduring than the precarious one of here to-day and away to-morrow, were they
sufficiently educated in mind and eye, and fully alive to the.
importance of earning and sustaining a reputation for superior
workmanship, why, a business, steady, certain, and amply remu
nerative, would reward their application and industry, realise
for them what the life of a competent honest artisan ought
to be, and surround them with manifold comforts and enjoy-J
ments to which a large number of working men are too often
strangers.
Fair wages for the worker we therefore hold to be of the
first importance, necessary as a matter of policy and justice,
demanded by the rights of labour, and enforced by the duties of
capital. There may be some law of supply and demand which-,
would appear to take it out of the category of ordinary obliga
tions, but justice and fair dealing are amenable to a higher law,,
and will not be set aside by arithmetical figures, or mathematical,
definitions. The supposed existence of a law in our social
economics, by which every relation in life is defined with
mathematical precision, has a tendency to destroy that sympathy
and kindliness of feeling, which should be for the interest of all
classes, and produce a cold and hard exaction on the part of
those, who, making haste to be rich, seek to increase their
profits out of the wages which labour ought to receive. The
man of contracted and ungenerous nature, who is dead to the
sympathies of his kind, and has never been raised above himself'
by one wave of impassioned feeling, seizes with avidity upon an
argument, or seeming argument, by which his selfishness may
be dignified with the name of prudence, shrewdness, or common
sense ; in this mood of self-complacency he is regardless and
�9
Indifferent about the misery, the want, and wretchedness, the
debasement which under-paid labour produces among the
numerous class of workers whose interests and well-being are
vitally important to the community.
It is reported that a member of a tailoring firm in this metro
polis has lately purchased, a landed estate at a cost of nearly
■£30,000. For making a coat, known by the name of “ Oxonian,”
that firm pays its workmen six shillings. The time required for
making such a garment, is about two days, and the price paid for
making it by most other houses in the trade is ten shillings. Now,
would not a portion of that £30,000 distributed among the workmen in increased wages, and expended by them on bread and meat,
On better clothing, better house accommodation, and more suitable
furniture, on the education of their children, and surrounding
them with happier, healthier influences, have been a greater social
benefit than one man rising to speedy affluence, and becoming
the ancestor of a landed proprietary ? It is, no doubt, necessary
that wealth should be accumulated, and very necessary that
there should be security for retaining it when it has been
Btauired; but surely it is more worthy, more noble, more honest
to be content with small gains, that labour may have its
Equivalent, that the working man may stand erect with a sense
of manhood and self-respect about him, than by taking advantage
of a supposed redundancy in the population, and pitting the
labour of one man against another, seek to extract from that
labour the means of sudden wealth, while those who produce
it are compelled to feel that increasing labour and decreasing
pay are a condition of slavery, most real and degrading.
It is a question for politicians how far the franchise may be ex
tended to the working classes ; but it is miserable trifling, and
Something more, for those to whom capital has given a power over
labour, and who use that power solely for tffigir own aggrandisement, to contend that working men cannot be the safe custodians
of power, and ought not to be entrusted with it. The working
classes, no doubt, have their vices, many of them arising from
want of sympathy and encouragement in the numerous
■difficulties that beset them, but we question if they are worse
�10
than the extreme selfishness manifested by many of their
employers, which has separated interests which ought to have
been in harmony with each other, creating and fostering asper
ities which have occasionally threatened to disturb the peace
of society, and have been at all times the source of much angry
feeling. There is nothing in the relation which ought to.
subsist between the employer and the employed that implies a
right on the one side to domineer, or a duty on the other to be
over-obsequious, and it is certain that a kindly consideration and
regard on the part of the one would produce a respectful attach
ment on the part of the other, and make the situation of both
much more agreeable.
At all events, it would appear that some such principles^
sincerely entertained, and honestly avowed, are in unison with
the feelings and sympathies of many thoughtful and reflecting
men, as evinced by the magnitude of our business, (Appendix A,)
and the increasing power and influence, which, in various ways, it
has been able to put forth; and this second report of our proceed
ings is issued in answer to inquiries which reach us from many
quarters, and which we hope will remove some misapprehension,,
and impart some information as to the exact position we have
taken up.
The origin and conduct of “ The Tailors’ Labour Agency ”
does not rest upon the purely benevolent or philanthropic
idea; we might rather describe it as the result of a mind
speculative and theoretical, flitting about somewhat vagrantlyand restlessly in quest of a social system free from the extremes
of affluence and indigence, which make such a wide gulph
in the present aspect of society, and then in utter disappoint
ment settling down upon the old system, and in the sphere
which seemed to open itself up to us, resolved that the men whose
labour we had to purchase, should, by a commingling of interests,
a gentle compulsion, and a genial intercourse, be helped to wipe
away the reproach that their order is more indifferent to the
duties of life, and less capable of discharging them, than those
in other classes of society. “ The Tailors’ Labour Agency,” then,
is simply a proprietary establishment, conducted like any other-
�11
"business for the benefit of its promoter, but recognising in
various ways the duties which capital owes to labour, and com
bining several projects, which, while seeking our own interest,
may conduce also to the interests of those with whom we are
associated. Let us state these a little in detail:—
1st—The system of employment, and its remuneration.
2nd.—Means for the intellectual improvement of the workmen.
• 3rd.—Provision for the education of their children.
THE SYSTEM OF EMPLOYMENT, AND ITS REMUNERATION.
The condition of the working tailor has been for some years
greatly deteriorating. Various reasons have been assigned for
this decadence. Some have traced it to the strike of 1834, which
disorganised the trade societies, and introduced a number of
women into the employment; others have attributed it to the
excessive competition in the show shops, the “sweating” system,
or the employment of middlemen, and the consequent giving out
of the work to be done upon the premises of the workmen.
These have undoubtedly been great evils. With the sweater,
and those who work under him, one cannot associate the idea of
respectability, comfort, decency, or any of the homely virtues
which are the stamina of domestic felicity. This home-working,
in its worst iorm, has got the name of “sweating,” because a
scheming and unscrupulous middleman interposes between the
employer and his workmen, and, by means, more iniquitous than
any truck system, contrives to get the most of their earnings
into his own pocket. He feeds and lodges them, after a sort,
and the miserable abode in which they work, and sleep, and eat,
is redolent of odours neither pleasant nor wholesome ; it is in
truth, a cheerless, hopeless, miserable life, alternating between
excessive working and excessive drinking, a life physically
debilitating, and morally debasing, and folk which, what
ever he may think of it, the employer who perpetuates it is
morally responsible.
Several years ago, the iniquities of the practice were ex
posed in the columns of the Morning Chronicle; and sub
sequently Mr. Kingsley, in his “Alton Locke” drew a fearful
�12
picture of a “sweaters’ den,” somewhat over coloured, per
haps, but in the main, painfully true; and yet the evil will
continue while it saves money to the employers, and while
gentlemen, inconsiderate and unthinking about the matter, are
content to have their garments made up under circumstances
which, could they but sec them in the process of manufacture,
they'would recoil from wearing.
We determined, as far as we were concerned, to lay the axe*
to the root of this great evil, and to restore the workman’s home
to that comfort which the undivided attention of a tidy house
wife seldom fails to give it. We have, therefore, our workshops
on our own premises, built with all the requisites for convenience,
cleanliness and healthfulness, which the most eminent skill could
suggest, and our men come to work and return to their homes
with the same regularity that artisans in other trades do, or that
is done by men holding situations in mercantile or trading houses ;
nor can we refrain from saying that, as a body, -whether as regards
character, conduct, or respectability of appearance, they are a
sample of the honest, intelligent working-class of this country,
of which any employer might feel proud (Appendix B).
Why, then, is the pernicious system of home working continued ?
Well, you see a workshop is rather an expensive affair. Besides the
cost of erection, the implements of trade, and the usual wear and
tear, there is a considerable item for certain sewing trimmings,
which the employer who gives his work out, generally makes
the men find for themselves ; and besides, if a man is at work on
your premises, it is necessary that at the end of the week, when
you put his wages in his hand, they should be in some measure
adequate to the support of himself and family; and hence, in
the case of home working, in its least objectionable form, where
a man takes out only as much work as he can execute himself,
the scanty earnings of the man have to be supplemented by the
aid of wife and children, to the manifest neglect of other duties,
which are not so claimant perhaps as the bread and butter
question, but which are very important nevertheless. In fact,
it does seem socially to be of great importance, that a working
man’s employment should take him out into the world, to undergo
�13
a discipline by conflict and contact with others, which very
discipline makes all the more a man of him, and to find the
home a retreat and relaxation from the turmoil and cares of a
working life, rather than making that home the arena of every
conflicting element, the scene of jarring and discord, a place
rather to be dreaded and escaped from than longed for and
enjoyed. And we find respectable Workmen to hold pretty
' much the same opinion; for, although nearly all the men in our
employ had previously worked at home, we can recollect only
one or two cases where men have left us to return to their former
practice.
But then, of course, the 'wages must be fair honest wages, as
between master and man, fair too as compared with those of
workmen in other trades, and fair in relation to the ordinary
necessities of a working man and his family. We do not enter
upon any crotchets on the wages question; we disclaim any idea
of fixing a standard of wages, or of influencing the labour
market; we simply avow our design to carry on our business
upon certain principles, and that of helping to sustain the value
©f our workmen’s labour is one of them. It is true, that
indirectly we should like to see this influencing' others ; indeed,
it has already done so, for we have maife-it necessary for men
who never dreamt of such a thing before, in seeking the suffrages
of the public, to profess that they pay good wages to their work
men ; we can only say that we hope their workmen will see to
it, that they practice what they profess.
The wages in the tailoring trade has now been for many years
paid by the piece. What is technically called a “log ” is agreed
upon, that is a certain number of hours for every description of
garment, and the wages fixed at so much per hour ; the higher
priced houses pay at the rate of sixpence per hour, we pay fivepence ; the lower priced houses adopt the more convenient plan
of saying, “ Here is a certain garment, the price for making it is
so much, and you find your own trimmings.” According to our
k “log” the calculation is that a man of average ability shall earn
306'. per week, or 5s. per day of 12 hours, which is a journeyman
tailor’s day ; and we have found that calculation a very fair one
�14
for the workmen, clever men will considerably exceed it, and slow
men will hardly get up to it, but it is such that ordinary men arenot overtasked to accomplish. And then, having a large demand’
for made up goods, we are enabled during the periodical depres
sion in the trade, by replacing the stock sold in the busy season,,
to keep up pretty fairly the earnings of our workmen, so that wehave no need to discharge any of our people in the slack season,
but would rather have them attached to our establishment, as
much as the workman of any factory in a provincial town ; indeed
we would wish to displace the migratory habits of the journeyman
tailor, by a desire to fix himself down in a locality, and acquire
those influences and opportunities which are necessary to the
proper up-bringing of a family, and attaining a social position
which may give life a purpose, and enjoyment a reality.
In this matter of wages too, we are anxious that the public
should be satisfied as well as the workmen. There are many per
sons keenly alive to the principle of buying in the cheapest market,
who don’t desire their articles lessened in price at the expenseof the workman who manufactures them. We know that at the
time that public attention was directed to the distressed condition
of the needle women, there were many gentlemen who said, that
they bought their shirts at respectable shops, and gave a fair
price for them, and then were not sure after all that they were
not produced at the cost of the poor suffering sempstress. The
price for making every article that leaves our premises is vouched
by the signature and address of the workman who made it,
(Appendix C,) so that should any doubt exist about our pro
fessions, it is open to an easy solution. We are anxious to say,
too, that in being thus explicit upon this subject, we are taking
no credit for excessive generosity ; we are quite satisfied that the
course we have adopted has been conducive to our own interests,,
and moreover, the several schemes which we have in operation
for the benefit of our workmen, rest for their success on thebasis of fair remuneration to the worker.
�15
Means for
the
Intellectual Improvement of the
Workmen.
f The question of the day is said to be social progress, and a very
perplexing and undefinable sort of question it is. In its general
acceptation it is held to have reference to the respectable work
ing class, and to the indescribable working class, which is not so
respectable. As a theory, it involves a problem which it is difficult
to solve, while it has the merit of instituting agencies, and
enlisting sympathies, which have had a genial influence on a
class which is not “ working.” The well-to-do people, and the
scantily-supplied people, have become better acquainted with
each other, and there is no doubt that the advantages of their
intercourse have been reciprocal. It is avowed on all hands that
the working class has made great progress during the last thirty
years. Their intelligence, thoughtfulness, and provident habits,.
have well nigh extinguished the occupation of the agitator and
the stump orator; they are more disposed and better qualified to
investigate those subjects which have a bearing upon their own
interests, and less inclined to take their opinions on trust from
any man or set of men. The Press has undoubtedly exerted a
great influence to this end. Mr. Charles Knight, the Messrs.
Chambers, of Edinburgh, and John Cassell, have been the
knirveyors of a literature which was not poprdar, but which has
held on its way, and done its work, to the almost extinction of'
the diluted trash which used to be the current literature at the
poor man’s table. Literary institutions, too, have not been all
the failures they are sometimes said to be. In provincial towns
especially they have been the centre of attraction for youthful,
sardent, and inquiring minds, and stimulated now by the Society
of Arts and its annual examinations, they promise to be of’
increasing interest and usefulness.
And yet the subject of adult instruction for working men
is very difficult, if not discouraging. With but few opportunities
for the acquisition of knowledge systematically, with habits
formed, and tastes acquired, which make it necessary to unlearn
much, before much can be learned ; the utmost one can hope to-
�16
do, is to impart something of a relish for intellectual enjoyment,
and, by a little training, accustom, the mind to reflecting and
reasoning, so as to direct the judgment to right conclusions
on those important subjects with which it is necessary to be well
acquainted; an education, too,which can cast an en lightenment
upon the conscience, and quicken the moral as well as the
intellectual faculties ; in fact, such an education for the working
classes as will make them better as working men, rather than
induce a desire to be something better than working men.
When we erected our Hall, eight years ago, it was intended
chiefly as a day school for our workmen’s children, with a kind
of vague design, that it should be sometimes used by the men
for discussing topics in which they took an interest, or for
hearing lectures on both sides of a debatable subject, that they
might form their opinions for themselves. A little after
reflection convinced us that something more than this would be
necessary, and therefore we took means to organise for ourselves
a regular Literary Institute, with its Lectures, Classes, Readingroom, and Library, and such other adjuncts as experience might,
show to be needful. The premises which are occupied by our
Institution havebeenfound to be well adapted for our purpose, and
we are now recognised as the “ Tailors’ Labour Agency Literary
Institute,” in union with the Society of Arts.
Although as yet we can point rather to means than to results,
still, our Institution has in various ways exercised a wholesome
influence, and in some cases has effected a decidedly educational
improvement. Our classes have been Arithmetic and English
Grammar, English History, Literature and Biography, Music and
Erench. The number of persons in our employ is about 110,
who are members of the Institution, and the attendance at the
•classes has fluctuated from 10 to 40, those for English History,
and Literature and Biography, being the most popular. Our
Lectures have necessarily been of a miscellaneous sort, but the
Lecturers have been men of high attainments, who have attracted
large audiences, and done some measure of good. In our Library
and Reading-room we are amply provided with the means of
passing our evenings in an interesting and profitable way;
�17
and experience has deepened our conviction, that could we
get our people more disposed to avail themselves of such
advantages, much good in every way would come out of it.
Working men have many arguments, which cannot easily
be set aside, for seeking enjoyment of a different kind; it is
only, after all, a small per centage of their number who have
the taste or desire for the acquisition of knowledge for its
own sake, or who would make any sacrifice for a course of
mental training, which does not promise them a present good
pow and then a man will start out from among the rest in
pursuit of some subject which has arrested his attention, and if
he has the courage to apply himself to it, and the resolution to
persevere in the application, his intellectual faculties get
quickened, and by intercourse with others who are like-minded,
he gets “ a little knowledge,” which opens up to him a new life
and prospects, affording him sources of pleasure which the
illiterate can neither understand nor enjoy. Such a man be
comes a power among other men : the salt which in a great
measure has preserved the working classes, has been the intelli-gent, self-taught men who have sprung up among themselves—
the “ little leaven ” which may yet help to leaven the whole
mass.
We have often said that we would stand by our Institution
while there were six men interested in it and likely to be pro
fited by it. We have been frequently disappointed of large re
sults, but we know that it has been to some a haven where they
have found solace and shelter, and we would rather go on hoping
ever, than abandon the principles which have sustained us
hitherto, or lose faith in the efficacy of working and waiting for
an outcome of our labours.
PROVISION FOR THE EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILDREN.
It was not because we supposed that there was any deficiency
in the means of education in our neighbourhood that we opened
a day-school in connection with our Institution—we have seve
ral excellent public schools and many private ones; but we
thought that a school, supported by our own people conjointly,
�18
attached to their own Institution, and to some extent under their
own management, would have for them a greater interest than any
school of which they had a knowledge only hy common report.
We thought, too, that from various causes the attendance of the
children would be more regular, and longer continued than at an
ordinary school; and, that as our members were all acquainted
with the schoolmaster, whose interests and sympathies were with
them, who conducts an adult class among themselves, and is
editor of a manuscript journal, to which they are contributors,
he would be more accessible, if they needed to consult him on
matters affecting the education and habits of their children, than
an entire stranger would be. In all these respects we thought
rightly. Whatever difficulties we may have had about adult
instruction, we have had few, if any, with the children—our
school has been the most encouraging feature in our enterprise,
•and we would respectfully ask those interested in the cause of
•education to pay it a visit, assured that half-an-hour would con'
vince them that this experiment, so interesting to ourselves, has
not been altogether fruitless. The number of scholars vary from
70 to 80, boys and girls, some of them being the children of
neighbours who have sought admission to the school, and been
received at a fee of 6<7. per week. The instruction given includes
the ordinary branches, with history, geography, and social eco
nomy. In addition, the girls are taught plain, useful needlework,
with some little fancy affairs included. Some of the lads whom
we have trained have now entered upon the business of life with
every promise of success, and others, ■who have been with us five
or six years, are preparing to follow them. For the especial use
of those we intend to have evening classes twice a week, for the
study of such subjects as may be most useful to them, and to
keep up that pleasant intercourse to which we have looked for
ward as one of the results of the educational efforts w’e have been
making at our Institution.
May we here add, deferentially, a kind of practical solution of
the much vexed question of voluntary education and state
paid education ?
If every trading firm, employing a large
number of workmen, were to build a school-room as a matter of
�19
course, as they build their workshops, and encourage their men
to provide duly for the education of their children, it would do
the “ State some service,” and might save somewhat in the
expense of the machinery by which enthusiastic educationists
seek to establish their theory of voluntary education.
We have now a few words to say respecting the pecuniary
resources by which these various schemes are sustained. Apart
altogether from the business premises, and on the1 other side of
the way, we have two houses, in one of which is the hall and
committee room, library, class and chess rooms, with warm
baths on the basement beneath^ ThA enlargement and altera
tions necessary in this part of thfe j/r'einfises cost'krver £1,000.
In the other house running parallel with the hall, and of the
same extent, is the workshop, large enough for 80 men, and
which with its conveniences, cost £800. The burrent expenses
of the Institution are defrayed by a charge upoit 'Ofc member
of 6tZ. on every twenty shillings of wages he barns. Thus, a
man earning thirty shillings a week, would have to pay 9d.,
and for this he would be entitled to all the benefits of the
Institution, and to school instruction for all his children, what
ever their number may be. Then, again, we 'hive a weekly
penny paid to the library fund, which is expended on books,
and in supplying the reading room with newspapers, magazines,
&c.; these pennies usually amount to about £20 yearly.
We will put this matter in a form which will be readily
understood, and we are the more anxious to do so because it
will appear that while an Institution like ours may need to be
helped a little during its infancy, it is sure to become self
-supporting, and able to walk alone.
Income.
Per Centage on Wages ...
Letting Hall ...
...
...
Extra Scholars
...
...
Library Pennies
...
...
Rooms let at top of House
...£150
45
...
...
35
...
20
...
...
18
...
...
£268
�20
Expenditure.
Bent and Taxes
School Master and Mistress
Books and Newspapers
Lighting and Warming
Lectures, &c.
Cleaning and Attendance
Bepairs and Sundries
...
... £70
102
...
20
25
10
20
...
10
£257
We ought to remark that the sum set down for Lectures is
only the incidental expenses connected therewith, the Lecturers
sympathising with our objects, having given their services gra
tuitously. This was a necessity which cannot continue. The
source of our income is an expansive one, and will grow with the
growth of our business, and the small surplus we have now, will
soon become a fund out of which we can pay for the services of
eminent Lecturers, and enable us to make Lectures a feature of
our Institution, and a boon to the neighbourhood. We feel
bound in this place to record our obligations for very valuable
services, to the Bev. F. D. Maurice, the Bev. Sydney Turner, the
Bev. Paxton Hood, the Bev. G. Bogers, the Bev. D. Thomas,
Messrs. Henry Vincent, Appleby, Liggins, J. C. Plumptre, Gearey,
Edevain, &c., and for wise counsel and generous encouragement
we have been indebted to many whose names and labours have
long been associated with the progress of education and the social,
well-being of the people.
We hope that we have set forth what will sufficiently indicatethe theory and practice of the “ Tailors’ Labour Agency,” and
that the one will not be considered altogether visionary, nor the
other quite unfruitful of results. It has certainly been our aim
to make the worker more satisfied with his condition, by making'
that condition more worthy of his satisfaction. It is true that
our sphere is but limited, but within that sphere, we would like
to become an influence for good to those around us, convinced,
that wherever such an influence has been put forth zealously and
disinterestedly, benefit has never failed to ensue. It is a trite
�21
remark, but we believe it to be true, that the present times are
-auspicious for working men putting forth their strength, and
rising to the true dignity of that position which they are destined
yet to occupy. “ On all hands we see a stir and movement in
the public mind which is becoming more alive to the necessity
of social ameliorations. Evils which forty years ago would never
have been the subject of remark, are now examined with a care
that betokens a wide spread intelligence and philanthropy.
Every well considered measure, brought forward in a right spirit,
not only does good in itself, but makes it easier to do more good.
Difficulties which appear insuperable, doubts which cannot now
be solved, vanish of themselves when we grapple boldly with the
-duty which lies nearest at hand. The evils of society, as of the
individual, are of our own creation, and are already half con-quered when we look them in the face. No society ever yet
perished which had the will to save itself. It is only where
the will is so enervated, that a, community had rather shut its
-eyes to the dangers which menace it, than make the necessary
■•sacrifices to avert them, that its situation is desperate. Let
every one who in his public or private capacity can do anything
to relieve misery, to combat evil, to assert right, to redress wrong,
-do it with his whole heart and soul, and trust to God for the
result.”
Newington Causeway,
May, 1861.
�22
APPENDIX.
(A)
The amount paid in wages, in each of the last
will show the progress of the business :—
1854 ...............
...
... £3952
1855
...
... 4035
...
1856 ...............
...
4086
...
1857
...3494
...
1858 .
...
4171
1859
..
...
...4976
1860 ............... 4 d if’
...
6709
seven years-*
19 2
0 51
2
2 9j
11 3
11 6.
10 a
(B)
The following extract, from the “ Conditions on which theWorkmen are employed at the Agency,” will illustrate the
kind of connection we seek to establish between them and our
selves :—
“ 5. The first three months’ employment on the establishment will he
probationary. After that time, no Workman will be liable to immediate
discharge ; but, in case of negligence, imperfect work, or any impropriety
of conduct, the Foreman may suspend till the charge be investigated by
the Manager, the Foreman, and any one of his fellow-workmen whom the
offending party may nominate : and, if dismissal should be the result of
such investigation, that Workman shall not, under any circumstances, be
again employed on the Establishment.
“ 6. A decided preference will always be given to those who are careful
and industrious in their habits, and clean and orderly in their appearance.
It is, therefore, earnestly desired that the Workmen cultivate habits of per
sonal and domestic cleanliness ; as it is the avowed design of the Agency,
through its entire proceedings, to make connection with it uncomfortableand uncongenial to men of irregular habits and confirmed intemperance.”
�23
We may mention, also, that for several years we have had an
Annual Holiday ; on which occasion our premises are entirely
closed; and the Workmen, with their Wives, are conveyed, by
railway, some twenty or thirty miles in the country, where an,
ample Dinner and abundant rational enjoyments are provided
for them. We have, also, a Christmas Soiree, at our own Hall,
when Tea, Coffee, and a Vocal and Instrumental Concert are the
entertainments for the evening, These re-unions have had the
happiest effects amongst us, and are always anticipated with
pleasure and enjoyed with propriety.
(C)
DUNN’S TAILORS’ LABOUR AGENCY,
12, 13 and 14, NEWINGTON CAUSEWAY.
WORKSHOPS—39 and 40, Bridge House Place, Opposite.
For Mr_______ ____________________________ No________
Price of Garments_____________________________________
Wages-----------------hours, at five pence per hour.
This form of Ticket is intended to verify the amount of Wages paid to
the workman, and will accompany every garment, with the maker’s signa
ture and private address for inquiry.
A®" The Wages are calculated at 5s. a Day of Twelve Hours.
Printed by P. Grant & C'O., Red Lion Square, HoILorn.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Capital and labour; their rights and duties: a retrospect of the Tailors' Labour Agency
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 23 p. ; 20 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by F. Grant & Co., Red Lion Square, Holborn.
Publisher
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William Freeman
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1861
Identifier
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G5212
Subject
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Labour Movement
Working conditions
Creator
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[Unknown]
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Capital and labour; their rights and duties: a retrospect of the Tailors' Labour Agency), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Capitalism
Conway Tracts
Labour Movement
Socialism
Wages
Working Classes