Since five years at least, the working men may be said to enjoy the fullest liberty in respect to establishing newspapers to advocate their griefs and holding congresses to debate measures for ameliorating their condition. The result, and it is sad to have to record the truth, has been nil. The stages of theoretic propositions have been lived through ; the romanticism of universal fraternity, ancl re liance on human love to supersede competition, have been exposed; every nostrum of Socialism, collective and individual, has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Declamation has shared the fate of all wind-bagism ; and the working men may be excused asking at last, “ Where are we now ? ” Neither their public meetings nor their delegates have drafted a single measure fit for .the governing classes to grapple with ; not one of their re presentatives in Parliament, from Louis Blanc downwards, has presented a Bill to be even taken into consideration. All has proved barren from Dan to Beersheba. The fact has been demonstrated that the workmen’s delegates are incapable to precise amelio rations, to co-ordinate grievances, to even methodise their special professional draw backs. The State over and over again an nounces its readiness to welcome measures of relief, to remove every obstacle that may be considered as weighing unfairly on the artizan; to place him, in a legal point of view, on an equality with the employer, but nothing more. Yet no charter is presented. The gods are invoked, and when they manifest willingness to listen, the suppliants disappear. These ob servations fully apply to the Congress now being • held. The proceedings have nothing practical, nothing to enlist public interest or awaken general sympathy. For the first time the cooks have appeared on the scene. They complain of being overworked, sixteen hours out of the twenty-four, and no less than twelve of these iu Sbadrech, Black Holes of Calcutta. They demand a half holiday once a month— not an excessive boon. They protest, and the fact will astonish many, that they are under fed, and badly, in addition. This is a further illustration of the proverb, that the shoemaker has ever the misfortune to wear the worst shoes.
