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England at the Beginning of 1852.

AT the beginning of the present year, 1852, England underwent a humiliation, such as is without precedent in her history; and such as one must pray may not happen to her again. It consisted in this, that when, in a neighbouring country, an act took place which, according to the plain judgment of the English mind, was a violation of the most sacred laws, human and divine, eminent English citizens became suddenly afraid to utter those convictions openly in the face of foreign nations, and that when happily others were found more faithful to the old traditions of freedom, their courageous demeanour was denounced as mischievous, and their mouths, if it had been possible, would have been gagged in order to stop at any cost such imprudent frankness. Every one has heard stories of the alarm felt, both before and after the commencement of the present century, at the idea of a French invasion, and in a country where no shot had been fired in earnest for nearly three generations, it was not surprising that a camp at Boulogne,

almost visible from the Kentish cliffs should have given rise to tremors, some of which assumed a rather ludicrous appearance; but that which I believe did not occur in England fifty years ago, nor at any former period, was the utterance of the wish, or suggestion, that the danger might be averted by concealing those feelings of honest indignation which the conduct of her most powerful enemy excited. It is true that there were then great differences of opinion respecting the character of Napoleon, and that some attributed the whole blame of the quarrel with him to the English ministers; but the important matter is, that the opinions which were held, and which in the great majority of cases were vehemently hostile to the French ruler, were not qualified or disguised, and, above all, were not disguised through fear. Even when the danger to the nation was greatest, the right and practice of free speech were not on that account in any danger. It will hardly be denied that our position at the beginning of the present year had some points of painful contrast with the position occupied by that former generation, which has now for the most part gone to its rest. This is a subject to be approached with caution, and even with awe. Nothing of greater moment has occupied, or is likely to occupy, the thoughts of those who now live. To touch upon it is to tread at every step upon ashes, amidst which the embers are still hot and visible. It does indeed demand the gravest circumspection, but also frankness, and no shutting of the eyes to facts. To see and say the thing which actually is, is therefore the desire of the present writer, and in attempting thus much his obscurity is not inconsistent with a keen sense of responsibility.

English Views of the Coup d'Etat in France.

The news of the great and sudden change which took place in France in December last, gave rise to impressions the most opposite amongst different minds in England. In some men, of the highest intelligence and worth, it produced if not re

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stock enterprises have been set on foot by working men, and in the teeth of all legal obstructions have been carried to a successful issue. Many have failed, but some have completely succeeded, and, in such a case, one success outweighs a hundred failures. Every failure is a warning, every success is an example. The failure in each case serves, as it were, to mark some new rock in the chart of the industrial navigation, but the single success is the discovery of a deep and spacious harbour in which whole navies may ride in safety.

The form in which the principle of working-class partnership has been most successful, is that of co-operative stores. In some of the large manufacturing towns, as at Rochdale and Leeds, stores for the distribution of various articles of consumption, and mills for grinding corn, have been set up, and are now in operation. The shareholders sought to obtain two things: first, to secure articles perfectly free from adulteration; and, secondly, to obtain them as nearly as possible at wholesale prices. Their belief is, that in both ways they have succeeded. To me it would seem that the gain in either way can be at best but slight, if the joint-stock plan be compared with that of obtaining the articles from an equally large store of a private capitalist, and whatever the gain may be, of course it involves the risk of mismanagement, and of loss to the capital invested; but if the parties concerned believe that there is a gain, and that the gain is worth the risk, and if they go on steadily with this scheme of co-operative distribution, acquiring from day to day new powers of industrial combination, learning to look at many questions from a point of view at which they never stood before, and constantly growing in habits of mutual trust, then the worth of the whole process, considered merely as one of practical education, is inestimable, and it is quite certain that by means of it they are qualifying themselves for safely undertaking, at a future period, schemes of wider scope and greater difficulty. But the co-operative store is not the only form in which this kind of partnership has been successfully carried

out. The reader of Mr. Mill's work is aware that, both in England and in France, and still more in the United States, enterprises of greater difficulty have been carried on, in joint shares, held either wholly, or partly and in conjunction with employers, by working men. It is not necessary to repeat what he has already placed in so striking a light, but it is well to point out that the path, upon which it is here contended that the working class should be encouraged to advance, is exactly the same path in which the middle class has moved on before them, with as much difficulty, as many stumblings, and in the face of as many prophecies of disaster, as any that can attend the efforts of those who may follow.

Joint-Stock Undertakings by the Middle Classes.

The power of acting upon the principle of joint-stock cooperation is one which has been slowly and gradually acquired by the middle class, and at each new step in the progress, though, as it ascends, the eye is ever sweeping over a wider future, the foot sinks in pitfalls and morasses, and the labouring hand is cut and wounded by those thorns and sharp rocks which beset the paths of all pioneers. Fifty years ago none of the great joint-stock enterprises of the present day would have seemed more than the dream of a projector. As late as 1826, men of much wisdom and foresight were persuaded that the liberty then given for the formation of joint-stock banks of issue would lead to fearful abuses. The experiment was tried, however; the new and extraordinary powers which it involved were entrusted to the middle class, and, whatever mistakes may have been made during the five-and-twenty years of its continuance, it is probable that not one of its original opponents would now hesitate to admit both its pecuniary success and its admirable effect as a discipline upon those concerned in the operation. At a later period the still larger enterprises for the formation of railways were undertaken, upon calculations so vast and complex as to involve hazards beyond all previous

experience. Disastrous errors were indeed committed, and it is not to be denied that the mismanagement of many railway boards was stained by something worse than miscalculation, by reckless and scandalous abuse of trust, which admits of no palliation. But seeing the wholesome and general indignation which that misconduct excited, and seeing too the vigorous and effectual efforts made in so many cases to retrieve that disorder, it must also be acknowledged that here again there has been a discipline, however dearly bought, which will yield valuable results hereafter.

Moral Aids to Co-operation.

The working classes, who now show so much eagerness in all the great towns to make new trials of the same prolific principle which in the hands of the middle class has wrought such wonders, ought to have not only legal facilities, but such friendly encouragement as those who are interested in their improvement may be able to afford them. There is great shallowness of mind in that economical purism which condemns as illegitimate all help or patronage which is not obtained on the hardest terms of the market. If a promising enterprise can be helped through a feeble infancy by generous sympathy, until it acquires strength to stand alone, it is not an evil, but a double good, for the mere economical triumph is then instrumental in creating those moral bonds by which classes are most firmly linked together. All that is important in such cases is, to see that the stamina are sound, and that the nursing need be only temporary; but this is necessary, for unless the elements of strength and future self-support exist, all bolstering by friendly loans and patronage is cruelty under the disguise of charity.

Neither have we any right to exclude the influence of generous motives amongst the members of the working classes themselves. It is true that schemes which depend for success on the daily and hourly operation of a higher range of motives

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