ENGLISH ITEMS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 79, 2 April 1872, Page 4

ENGLISH ITEMS.

The following is from the letter of the London correspondent of the Mslbourne Age\-+-The agitation among the railway servants for increased wages and reduced hours of labor continues, with almost unvarying success. The claims of the men are generally admitted to be based upon good grounds, the real difficulty being how much shall be conceded ? So far as matters look at present, the points to be gained are three — the abolition of Sunday labor, save where absolutely indispensable ; the reduction of the working hoars of labor ; the curtailment of the amount of overtime. Mr Bass has helped the movement, both with funds and advice, and under his superintendence the thousands of railway employes in this country are being welded into a great and poweful organisation. The cost of the changes insisted upon by the men will add materially to the expenses of railway management, and when shareholders find their profits rapidly diminishing, it is not likely they will be much satisfied. On the other hand, it is possible that many of the disastrous accidents arising from the mistakes of overworked railway signalmen and other employes may be avoided, in which case the gain may balance the loss, and the shareholders find their dividends none the smaller. But under any circumstances the existing movement must necessarily have a powerful influence on future railway management. Until recently a railway superintendent regarded the labor of an employe as an unknown quantity; now he is compelled to treat it as a fixed quantity. The Education Act, instead of solving thjß problem of how to educate the people, has simply rendered it more difficult. Somehow or other it has thrown the whole educational machinery into the hands of the Churchmen and the Roman Catholics, the result being a general uprising of the Nonconformist body, who have joined hands with the Education League, and are now zealous in the demand for Beeular instruction. "Rather this," they say, " than that advocated by the clergy." So intense is the dissatisfaction of the Nonconformists with the policy of the Government on the education question that they have proclaimed themselves in open revolt against Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues. The educational conference of the Nonconformists, now sitting at Manchester, shows how deep is the feeling which has been awakened. . In every speech may be detected the note of fierce resistance. There will be an obstinate struggle, for the Nonconformists are determined to stand aloof from Mr. Gladstone unless he accedes to their demands. Truly, his position is a most uncomfortable one. The tone adopted by the Nonconformists is illustrated by the speech of Mr. Henry Richard, M.P., who said :— " They had done some good service to this country, and England would not now be a place so well worth living in and living for, but for the existence and the sacrifices of the Nonconformists in the pas'. Nonconformists had yet a work to do in connection with the development of the destinies of our country. Well, then, what were we to do ? Nothing but to fall back upon our principles and abide by them. What were those principles ? They ■were simply these — that the hand of the law must not be allowed to enter into the province of religion ; that money extracted from the general taxation of the country, whether by imperial or local authority, could not safely or righteously be applied to tbe teaching of religion, whether in the church or in the school; that so far as the state interfered with the education of the people, it must confine itself to what it could properly do, without trespassing on any man's conscience; that was giving a literary and scientific education where God had left it —*to the care of tbe Christian Church." MM— — __ — •— a— __a_n— ___. ______>_—___ ■_— — — _^a_ _________;