Taere is probably no period in the history of Great Britain which has not been described by some man of the time as a critical period. Events of minor importance seem large to those who dwell in the midst of them, and there is a fascination in the belief that we are tiding over a crisis, or shooting Niagara, or carrying through some piece of heroic legislation—or, in a word, engaged in a process which has been engaged in hundreds of times before, but which it is always pleasant to imagine we are the first to conduct. At present it seems the fashion to believe that England's future is in the bands of ber working men, and that unless they mend their ways and reform themselves altogether, we shall find ourselves in a perilous position and surely and steadily descend from a first class Power to second dess Power,—from glory to effacement. Though there is much exaggeration in the language employed on this subject in certain quarters, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the high character of British workmanship is a thing of the past. The labourer has ceased to have that pride in his work which is the only guarantee of ultimate success; and besides, in spite of the efforts of Temperance Societies, the vice of drunkenness is the bane of the working classes, and is rapidly destroying their industry and energy. A recent letter by Mr. Barns, of the Cunard Steamship Company, which has been published in the Times, bears upon this important question, nnd several sentences in it are worthy of extensive diffusion. He gives an illustration of the decreasing vigor of our operatives which has come under his own observation. He says:—"I would, therefore, venture to address the working men and ask them to take to heart what came to my personal knowledge only on Saturday, when inspecting the work being done on board the new Cunard steamship Gallia. That vessel is being supplied with parquetry made in Belgium, for the cabin floor on the main deck. It is being laid by Belgian workmen, who, on Saturday, were diligently and faithfully doing their work. When at one o'clock, the hour at which our home workmen leave the ship, these Belgians specially asked that they might be allowed to continue at their work until dark." This trait the writer justly thinks sufficiently important to be mentioned, as it con trests most emphatically with the conduct of the British operative, whose sole object appears to be todo his work in the most perfunctory manner, and extort the largest wages from his masters by terrorism. Mr. Burns goes on to say, "I have no hesitation in saying that in my belief the fature prosperity or adversity of this country depends in a great degree upon the action of the working classes. I have not a word to say against increase of wages. Let every man get as much as he can. Labour will always be paid for according to its worth; but if the British working man does not wish to live in a fool's paradise, lot him realise to himself that people of other nations will work when ho is sitting still, and that therefore it behoves him to rouse himself to the contemplation of stern necessity, and hold his own and his country's own before the time comes when he may be forced to emigrate for lack of profitable work in the mother country."
At present the workman seems alike devoid of patriotism and prevision. If his master insists on anything which he dislikes, he has the power, and, as ho is taught by certain political writers, the right to strike. On the whole of this important subject, vast changes of opinion have taken place. It is interesting now to look at the law of trade combinations in Franco as it stood at the beginning of the present century. The French Legislature of 1803 prohibited strikes. To quote M. Rouher's comment on the old Law of the Code Pénal against strikes:—"Eh bien, disait lo législateur clu Code Pénal, il y a la un trouble, uno atteinte & lorre public, tels que, sans examiner La légitimité do la cause, la légitimité de intention, nons punirons cette forme perillense de la preterition qui se présente avec les caracteres dune coalition." In 1848 all was changed, and the masters and workmen were subject to the same law.
The present state of matters in England seems as bad as it can be. The artisans are demoralized, and the national standard of excellence in workmanship is steadily being lowered. The nominal friends of the workman are his real foes. It seems that legis. lation is powerless to touch the wound, for any measure which aimed a blow at the root of the evil would set class in a array against class, and disarrange that equipoise which is not touched without grave danger to the Constitution, Meanwhile the resources of the country are becoming woaker and weaker, and her own children are working her far more injury than Zulu or Afghan,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.