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a bridge, or any other project, then their interests, hopes, and aims, are one and the same; every shareholder feels an interest in proportion to his stake in the general concern; then the stronger their unions are, the sooner will their ultimate designs be accomplished.

But in any question in which labour and capital are involved, there are two parties whose direct interests are at issue. These interests cannot be carried out by union; it is absurd to expect it; but each must try to carry out their own interest by self-reliance.

The rich and educated capitalist knows this, and invariably acts upon it, and, as a rule, succeeds. If a manufacturer is not rich enough to carry on his establishment, he joins with one or more persons whose interests are the same, upon the principle of limited liability.

But alas! the operative classes, as a whole, do not understand this most important truth, that only where the interests of the shareholders are one and the same can the principle of combination be acted upon with advantage.

We must notice the way in which the working man attempts to make the most of his capital, which is his labour only.

Conscious of his own unaided and individual weakness, it is only natural that he should look out for some external help; he has seen the greatest works imaginable achieved by unions, consequently it is his dernier ressort, never suspecting that the principle cannot apply to his case, as one party only, connected with the labour market; he never thinks there is another party, whose direct interests are the opposite of his own. He joins the Union :-and what then? He surrenders his most important trust into the hands of a secondary party, whose own interest has a prior claim upon their attention, which, if a master was to do the same, he would soon become a ruined man. The committee of management, whom he has chosen to transact his business for him, do not understand the position in which they are placed; or they dare not attempt to discharge their heavy responsibility, because they have no legal executive power. They may sit in council, issue their manifestoes, or edicts, and post their proclamations; but where is the requisite power to effect their object? The capitalists, whose direct interests are not one with their workmen, refuse to acknowledge the authority, and then the collision begins:

"When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war."

There is no other alternative for the committees but to recommend a strike, such as has cost the operatives millions of money, or money's worth. We must give these men the credit for doing all they could had they recommended a surrender, they would have been driven into the land of Nod, or elsewhere. We have known several to be burnt in effigy for saying, "I think we had better not turn out; for we are not equal to maintain the expected contest."

The situation of the leaders of these Trades' Unions is the most harassing and degrading that can be imagined. The basest of

motives are attributed to them by a vindictive press, which daily and weekly cries them down. They are all discarded by the employers, so that to attempt to earn their bread at their trades is out of the question. They are marked, and driven from the factory and the workshop, and are hereafter compelled to agitate for bread, or go without it. They are despised by their masters and the public for attempting to do that which is impossible; and abused by their fellow-workmen, whose business they have foolishly undertaken, for not succeeding in their futile attempts. The want of success is always attributed to their mismanagement, and the sins of others are laid at their door. They are often dismissed without a notice, tried without a jury, and condemned without an indictment or a judge. Some noted leaders have committed suicide; many have been exiled; and many others have died in the workhouse; and not an instance can be cited wherein a leader has been benefited in his domestic condition.

But as strikes never occur except by Trades' Unions, we must notice how they serve to promote the welfare of working men. The manufacturer tries, and succeeds, in increasing his capital, which is his commodity, by using it; the operative tries, and fails, to increase the price of his labour, his only commodity, by withholding the only article which he has to make money of; and not only withholds it from the market, but ceases to produce it, and thereby robs his fellow-man of the means of living, by withholding the materials for another to work upon to earn his bread. The same as if the occupiers of land should, through a dispute with their landlord, refuse to cultivate the ground. Every strike has a fearful tendency to diminish the amount of labour to be done in the market, and increases the number of empty hands that crave to do it, which must, in the end, run the price of labour down. So that the operations of Trades' Unions are detrimental and not beneficial to working men.

One of the most encouraging features in this literary debate is to see Mr. George Potter come out as the champion of the unionist, upon the affirmative side of this much disputed but very important question.

The official position of this gentleman entitles him to our most sincere respect, and every argument which he can bring to bear shall have its due weight, and shall receive our unprejudiced consideration.

If Mr. P. can demonstrate the proposition that the "operations of Trades' Unions are beneficial to working men," to the satisfaction of the thoughtful, discriminating, calculating, and discerning readers of the British Controversialist, then a most important point will be gained. Mr. P. is in the " right place," if he is but the "right man," to set this troublesome question for ever at rest; and now is his golden opportunity to do so. The officers and members of the different unions will acknowledge him as a fair exponent of their principles, and they ought to confer all honour upon their

talented leader. But should he fail to satisfy his clients, and the clear-judging public, then, as an honest man, he ought to give up the belt, and say, "I am a wiser man than I was before; for I see a more excellent way' to secure to working men their rights, and to labour its just reward."

I have carefully read Mr. P.'s article, with the hope of finding some valid arguments to prove that the operations of these Unions are really beneficial to their members; but I have read in vain. It would profit no one to follow this writer seriatim, and I must allow his ravings with "L'Ouvrier" to pass for what they are worth; but my "impressions of the nature and character of Trades' Unions are not obtained at second hand;" they are the result of forty years' experience and constant observation.

Mr. P. says that these Unions are “based upon instinct, sanctioned by reason, and vindicated by experience." It would be well if these assertions could be supported by matters of fact. Instead of this, "they are based upon" ignorance of the nature and the application of Unions, in attempting to bring its power to bear upon a principle to which it cannot act or coalesce, there being two separate and distinct parties engaged in the production of articles of commerce, whose direct interests are opposed to each other. Mr. P.'s assertions vanish when brought to the test of "reason," because that which is wrong in its parts must be wrong altogether. They are condemned by experience," as very little but disappointment, vexation, and ignominious defeat, have attended their operations.

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I do not write from hearsay, but state facts, which have taken place to my own knowledge, and can give names, places, and dates, in support of what I affirm, that the operatives of this country have been injured,' morally," by Trades' Unions, and their inseparable concomitants, strikes. Many I have known, in the ten or twelve turnouts in which I have participated, to be morally ruined through them; the men have left their wives and children, and left them chargeable to the parish, and the youth of both sexes have taken their first steps in vice, which have ended in irretrievable ruin. Others have been socially and hopelessly bankrupt; they have lost their goods, chattels, and clothes, and never regained them. They have been injured "financially" by the pecuniary sacrifices they have made to support the Unions. By the loss of labour which a strike in one trade brings upon many others, the demand is stopped, and the rate of wages goes down. All this, and much more, has occurred through trying to apply the power of union where it cannot be made available.

Mr. Potter has indorsed the crude assertions of M. A. X., who says that "mutual sympathy has been educed by the Trades' Unions." Let him do as I have done, go into his workshop, and say to his fellow-workmen, "Well, I begin to think that our union is based upon a wrong principle, we do not clearly understand what we are about," and he will get a specimen of the "mutual sympathy" that has been "educed" by the Unions. Again, " Progress

is indicated in the conduct of the Unionist." Is this the effect of the Unions, or is it attributable to the progress of general education, to the influence of the press, and to the determined vigilance of the powers that be?

Once more: "Self-reliance, man's true interest,' has been evoked." Wonderful! When a working man commits his most important business to be managed by another party, or assumed power, instead of doing it himself, or when he will submit to an infringement upon his wages, and then impeach his master to a committee who cannot legally take it up, is that self-reliance? The proof of the usefulness of Trades' Unions is not in their popularity with the toiling millions; for all history proves that the masses have been led astray by hypocrites, demagogues, and knaves. The people went wholesale to the Holy Land, to fight the Saracens; they pulled down the house of Dr. Priestley, because he sought the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts; they aided and abetted the government in the perpetration of cruel massacres and wars; and a thousand other flagrant acts have been prompted by the popular voice. I can assure Mr. P., and all the Unionists, that I have no grudge against Unions among working men, but my opposition arises entirely from seeing a constant misapplication of their powers.

But let not working men despair. "Knowledge is power;" and the best practical knowledge is beginning to be understood by them. Their remedy is in their own hands; let them not any longer pursue the fatal ignis futuus of applying the principle of combination where it cannot be successful. They may concentrate their energies into one common focus, where their interests are one and the same: they may, if they will, become shareholders in a profitable investment, which cannot fail to succeed; they may unite to buy all their articles of daily consumption in the best market and upon the largest scale; they may unite to manufacture their articles of clothing, to build their own houses-in short, to produce everything they want. If the great mass of workmen in this land would do this, in some twenty or thirty years they might command the labour market themselves. The ability to labour they have, and the capital they would produce.

A. F.

No kind of study or inquiry into fact is a proper object of contempt. It is not unfrequent to possess a passion for particular species of knowledge, but the understanding is scarcely in a proper tone unless information or truth, of every description, be seized with avidity. What Cicero describes as essential to the finished orator, acquaintance with the whole circle of learning, is not less desirable for all who aspire to the distinction of combined or comprehensive thought. Variety of studies and speculations, so far from weakening the faculties, is a powerful means of promoting their activity and growth. You seldom meet with persons of eminent capacity, whose range of reflection has been chiefly restricted to one department.-W. B. Clulow.

The Essayist.

WINTER, OR NO WINTER-WHICH IS BEST? "WAS ever question more ridiculous?" we say now, in winter, when we are in the midst of it; nor shall we even consent to spoil our anticipation of summer by supposing that if we were in summer, we should wish for winter again. The cold and damp, the wind, and storms, and swollen rivers, the rain, the snow, the sleet, and the slippery ice; the dirty town, with its closed doors, and slushy streets; the silent country, with its wiry trees, its storm-staid cottages, and starving birds; and, worst of all, the desolate seacoast, with its naked rocks and wrecks, and its screaming sea-fowl, flying at the storm, merely for something to do, in their idleness and despair; who for a moment would think of comparing winter with summer?

Summer-how delightful the very idea! Its genial sunshine, and long daylight, of which nature, whether on sea or shore, is never weary; its luxuriant cornfields, already full of the promise of harvest; its shady groves, vocal with the sweet music of the woodland warblers, perched beside their prospering nests, on which the attentive dam is sitting all securely; its crystal rivers, rippling clear to the eye of the watchful trout, and meandering through the verdant meadows, more and more slowly, as if reluctant to leave the sunny landscape, or disturb the feet of the well-fed herds which have left their pastures, and for coolness are standing in the ford. Oh, gladsome summer! with its beautiful scenery, and its manifold amenities, who would not wish for a perpetual summer? Or if there can be any other season that may for a moment compete with summer, assuredly that season is spring, or autumn,-not winter, at all events. No;-away with gloomy winter! or if it must be, then leave it to the suicide or the burglar, the gambler or the player, or to whomsoever courts darkness, or needs a false light for his deeds.

Such is the sad place that winter takes in our first thoughts and spontaneous feelings. We would bid it altogether away, if we could. We would call up the sun from below the horizon, and place him high in the celestial fields;-we would bring June into December. And yet, when the merits of the various seasons are looked into with the calm eye of reflection, it turns out to be quite a question which of the two is best, summer or winter. A perpetual summer, not less than a perpetual winter, tends to sink man to the grade of a savage, and to keep him there. Summer and winter are equally necessary for the full development of human nature. It is in the temperate zones that the highest forms of civilization have always been found in the past: and there is no

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