THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1871.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 70, 29 December 1871, Page 2

THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD FRIDA Y, DECEMBER 29, 1871.

Most of one readers will remember the noise which Mr Carlyle’s essay. “(Mooting Niagara, ami After.” created a few rears ago : and liow Isis non-progres-sive opinions were denounced by all shades of Liberals. A glance at the English newspapers to hand by the last mail serves to show that the grand old man was not far astray in his political vaticination. The fabric of English society seems to In* tottering. The British Empire, with its wide reaching influence, looks as if it were about to undergo a remarkable transformation. “Time-hallowed customs and privileges,”. for which our fathers and their progenitors had such profound veneration, do not appear to be appreciated very highly in this utilitarian age. In England (and by England we mean the United Kingdom of (treat Britain and Ireland), society is in an unsettled state. A new political force is called into being; the lower orders of society are gradually compelling the “governing classes ” to recognise their rights, and. bit by bit. tire extorting from their rulers those privileges which, in the cause of civil order, should have been conceded many years ago. lint this is only one ol the forces which is driving British society to the brink of the- t.afnr;mt. Students of political dynamics will recognise eej.yr;)] besides this one. The great territorial houses, whose history forms an inseparable part of . the Constitutional history of England, backed by the mgver families who have been admitted within the charmed circle of the nobility, and the untitled landed gentry are, as a class, 'arrayed

against the. new order, “ the aristocracy of wealth.” The struggle by the first is for power ; by the second for the retention of power. Oft, present, and indeed for some years past, the middle class have had everything their own way. Since the passing of the Reform Bill, in 1882, (he middle class has been steadily encroaching on the landed aristocracy, which led the fortunes of the nation for upwards of eight hundred years. Through the rapid accumulation of wealth, the heads of the manufacturing and commercial houses, were early able to push the minor gentry out of their seats; and within the last half dozen of years, they have become strong enough to dictate to the great landed proprietors. Since Mr Gladstone’s accession to power, the Government of the country has {alien exclusively to the aristocracy of wealth,” the peers who arc in the Cabinet being simply their tools—men who arc content to compromise their own dignity and selfrespect to preserve, for a few years (it may he months) longer, the privileges of their order.

Now, the middle class attained to supreme power through the profession of extreme Liberal views. They excited the working classes by harangues in which the peers and landed gentry were denounced as their enemies, as stop-gaps to political and social reform. By this means they secured supreme power to themselves, but tbe lower orders—tin; working classes—found themselves no better oil under their rule than, under that of the ancient order. The Conservatives, recognising the fact that the professed Liberals feared to extend the franchise to the lower ranks of working men, whilst professing the most ardent desire to enfranchise them, adopted the old design of themselves lowering the franchise to admit almost of every decent man in the country, whatever his rank in life, having a vote. Although the general election which followed was fatal to the Conservative party, so far as the retention of office was concerned, they have since, to a large extent, reaped the reward of their political intrepidity, by conciliating the working classes. Mr Gladstone and his colleagues, to redeem their promises, dealt a fatal blow to Protestant ascendancy, by disestablishing the Irish Church ; and to conciliate the Fenian element, they unsettled the law relating to real estate, hut there they stopped. The cry was raised that what was good for Ireland could not he bad for England. If Irish land-owners could he dispossessed of their estates, and forced to become annuitants, the State virtually administering all the landed property in that kingdom in the interest of the occupiers of the soil, a similar measure must do good in England, whore pauperism exists in a much more aggravated form than in Ireland, and where life is a mere struggle for existence by fully two-thirds of the total population. Mr Gladstone and his followers hesitated to act on this erv. They had fairly got into the rapids; hut were afraid to shoot the falls. But the relentless current of political forces in carrying them along against their will, and the final, and perhaps fatal plunge, is not far off. The working classes will not he satisfied with anything less than the right to acquire small freeholds at reasonable rates ; and they have leaders in such men as Mr Mill and Mr Fawcett, who advocate the resumption by the State of all the land, ami the administering of it with the view of creating a numerous class of peasant proprietors. Mr Fawcett lias propounded a scheme for amending the Constitution, by abolishing the House of Lords, and substituting a second Chamber, composed of men of eminence from all the learned professions, distinguished soldiers and sailors, as well as gentlemen of great scientific, attainments ; hut in theory he prefers one Chamber. Other proposals have been made, all more or less tending in the same direction—the destruction of the House of Deers, and the establishment of a Democratic form of Government.

In the meantime, the battle of Education progresses. There are two sides to this question. The principal party consists of advanced Liberals, and the great Dissenting bodies, who aim at compulsory education, and the establishment of a purely secular system by the State. Mr Forster’s Act of last year has not been accepted by this party as a compromise. The deiiominationalists, having induced Mr Forster to give way, set themselves assiduously to work to multiply schools, and the consequence lias been drafts upon the Education fund which had not been anticipated. Now, one of two conclusions must be come to on this point. Either the denominationalists who, up to the passing of Mr Forster’s Act had had everything their own way, grossly neglected the education of the children for whom they now manifest such laudable activity, or their new-horn zeal is only the outcome of a design to obtain, each for his own communion, as large a share of the public money as possible. But the agitation for the the exclusion of denominational schools from participating in the State bounty for education is stronger than ever, and next session of the Imperial Parliament is almost certain to see the law altered. The great body of the people is in favour of (In* secular system ; a large body of the clergy of all the Reformed denominations, is also in favour of it. The disestablished Church of Ireland, which for so many years maintained an efficient educational machinery, under the Church Education Society, has come to the conclusion that religion is not promoted by attempting to graft it upon the elements of secular instruction taught in primary schools; and should a secular system, be adopted for Ireland, the free Episcopal Church of that kingdom will accept it. Meanwhile, 1 die denominatioiiajists are not idle. But in the midst of all this, the great social and political problem is liastentening to a solution. And that solution will, in all likelihood, prove to be un-

satisfactory, owing ti the* criminal - neglect of the governing classes to educate the children of the labouring classes, who have now placed their feet on the lowest rail of the political ladder. This neglect, criminal as it undoubtedly was, may he sharply punished. An alliance between their leaders and (he landed gentry, may breathe the fall of the latter; hut “the tyranny of capital” will surely he avenged. The utter disregard of the lives and well being of the working classes by the great capitalists of the United Kingdom is rousing the indignation of the working men. Already the glaring neglect of the Government, in regard to the inspection of mines, has led to a Miners’ Conference at Merthyr Tydvil, in which a strong protest was made against the Government, for neglecting to pass a stringent law to protect the lives of the 350,000 men engaged in mining pursuits. Mr Bruce, the Home Secretary, in his speech at Renfrew recently, alluded to this subject, and by his words showed how completely the large capitalists coerced the middle class Government. He admitted that much of the loss of life was occasioned by untrained men being entrusted with the management of mines; hut lie added that the Government were not prepared to deal with that part of the question. It would interfere with the mining proprietors, we suppose, and the Government could not offend such an influential class. We have directed attention to theso subjects of English domestic politics, because they should interest everyone here more or less. Wc are bound up with the Mother Country, and its prosperity or decadence must influence us materially. It is well, therefore, occasionally to look beyond the narrow range of local and colonial questions, and take a glance at the political forces in operation in the great centres of thought and energy, from whence our fellow-colonists have come.