The Evening Star. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3605, 11 September 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1874

Throughout the civilized world there are signs indicating a change in the estimate in which the artizon of the future will be held by society. Changes of this character are necessarily slow. Ideas and feelings of class grow with our growth and are perpetuated by our traditions. To be a scholar was once BUsLcient to secure exemption from punishment for certain criminal offences, Sir Thomas Smith, writing in 1665, tells us that in order to establish this privilege The bishop must send one with authority under his seal to be a judge in that matter at every gaol delivery. If the condemned man demandetb to be admitted to his book, the Judge commonly givefch to him a Psalter, and turnetb to what place he will. The prisoner readeth rtj well as he can (God kuoweth sometime very slenderly); then he (the judge) asketh of the bishop’s oommifnaty“ LCgit id w&kM ?' i be commissi y must nay or "wn tfyii," for tne& wwd» b? fdrnoiL and <dlur tndn of law h* Wry pMt 2a tto* lUkefcy

“legit* the judge preceedeth no further to sentence of death t if he say “non* the judge forthwith proceedeth to sentence. “ Benefit of clergy,” as this claim to exemption was called, was abolished in the time of George the Fourth. Its abolition was the effect of the more general education of the people. The “ clerk ” is now no rara avis, although the prestige connected with his position still remains. But this must give way before the alteration that thorough general education is effecting in the social positions of classes. The Melbourne 1 Argus’ of August 22 contains a very forcible article on this subject, in which several facts are detailed, pointing to the necessity for a revision of our social theories of comparative respectability of employments. The remarks were suggested by the system of education now in operation in Victoria. The following observations extracted from it are equally applicable to New Zealand as to Victoria : It is certain that hundreds and hundreds will ho added to what may be called the serai-edu-cated class, who would otherwise remain ignorant, and consequently entirely dependent on manual labor for the means of livelihood. The compulsory preparatory training they receive will develop a desire for additional knowledge, and thus scores will be added to the number of those who are competent to discharge the duties of clerks with efficiency and credit. There is unfortunately a strong tendency already to look to clerical employment for support; and in view of this threatened addition to ranks already overcrowded, it becomes a serious duty for parents to exercise a little foresight, and not to allow any foolish ideas concerning the comparative “gentility” of quill-driving and manual labor to influence their judgment, when deciding what line of .life they will select for their children. It is a lamentable fact that men who have thriven by handicraft or exertions behind the counter, are always desirous of elevating their offspring to a different social grade, it does not matter to them that by indulging this foolish desire they are pasting a reflection on the career by which they have prospered. They have been accustomed to regard the wearers of broadcloth as so much superior to those clothed in fustian, that they are determined their sons shall assume the former, no matter what the c ist may be. For the majority of the “ young gentlemen” so promoted there is no opening except in the great regiment of scriveners, which is already so much beyond its legitimate strength. Every fresh recruit has a tendency to reduce the remuneration of the entire body, for employers naturally diminish salaries when they find every vacant billet besieged bj a host of applicants. The son of the small shopkeeper or artizan thus exalted has little reason to rejoice at his fortune. Instead of enjoying a prospect of becoming, like his father, a well-to-do and prosperous tradesman, he finds himself one of an under-paid and helpless class, which lias very few prizes to offer its members. As he pursues a nearly hopeless career, he has the melancholy satisfaction of knowing that the soaring ambition of his parents, or perhaps his own, has been the means of aggravating the disadvantages under which it labors by reason of its unnecessary numbers. It may be thought that this is au exaggerated picture, but we are sure it is true to life even at the present time, and for the reasons we have given it will fail to represent the real state of the case within a very few years. What do we see nowadays whenever applications are invited for any clerical office, no matter how small? Countless applicants. One only can succeed, while scores go disappointed away, to repeat the operation on the morrow, with the same unsatisfactory result There must be hundreds of men this very day in Melbourne and suburbs—skilful penmen, fair accountants, possessing business experience and good characters—to whom life is a burden, owing to that heart sickness which springs from hope deferred. These, doubtless, in the bitterness of their spirits, secretly curse the folly which, for the sake of a mere idea, prevented their being trained to some of those manual occupations which insure to those who follow them plenty and independence.

Nor is this changing state of matters confined to these Southern Colonies. In the same article is given a quotation from the ‘ Spectator ’ regarding the position of the clerical class in England and elsewhere : “People are getting educated in a kind of way by tens of thousands a-year, and a result which ought to have .been expected from that, but was not expected, is daily more perceptible. The price of semi-educational labor—that is, of work which, without demanding any specialty of brain, does demand a moderate degree of education, and much industry—is de dining, declining we think positively, but certainly declining in comparison with the price of manual work.”

According to the same authority, the clerk has a smaller income than nearly any artisan, and, relatively to his needs, not half so much. In Germany it is the same. In America, “where almost all but immigrants are educated”—as will be the case with us before long “the case is even worse,” payment tor educated work being lower in comparison with manual labor than anywhere else in the world.

On the authority of the ‘ New York Tribune’ a contrast is drawn between the remuneration of unskilled laborers and those who prefer broadcloth to fustian dresses;—

Unskilled building laborers in the employ of the ‘ New York Tribune,’ who were in receipt of two dollars a-day, demand an additional fifty cents, and went on strike sooner than accept an increase of twenty-five. While these gentlemen could afford to lounge about the city “in fresh paper collars and new«dyed moustaches.” there were others in a very different plight. A lawyer advertised for a clerk, and received in a single day over one hundred replies from gentlemen, “a ll of whom wrote fair hands, some excellent: all were acquainted with the routine business of a Jaw office : some were attorneys already admitted to practice, graduates of colleges and universities, 4,c These men asked salaries of from, eight to fifteen dollars a-week, averaging less than the strikers were demanding for eight hours a-day for the mere labor of their hands, requiring no intelligence whatever.” In face of these facts, we trust to see the prejudice in favor of half-starved “gentility ” die out. The manual trades have all the best of it, and those parents who minister to their own pride by forcing their children into an occupation already overcrowded, commit a cruel act, and assume a very heavy responsibility.

The ‘ Argus ’ is perfectly right in its condemnation of “ parents who minister to their own pride,” by sacrificing their children’s prospects at the shrine of what is termed gentility; but they are not the only blamable parties. We look upon it, the change in our social estimates, lies very much with the women. Bo long as they mistake chow for worth, and prefer badly-paid gentility to wellrto-do hard-working life; so long as the miserably-paid clerk is admitted to drawing rooms, and the highly-skilled, well-paid artizan ex eluded, will this fallacy of position continue. There is no necessity for a youth to be uurefined because he works with his hands. We knew a carcase butcher in Leadenball street who used to have his opera-box in Her Majesty’s Theatre, and in dress and deportment, Vrhea ttterej was undistinguisfyubjp tyvjjj

the surrounding aristocracy. No doubt it requires some courage to break through the ai’tificial barriers genteel society has set up ; but sooner or later it will bo done. Some leader of the ton will have to dare to do it, and the children of parents of.moderate fortune will bless the day, and the woman whose kindly soul and strong good sense achieve the victory.