ART. IV.-MASTER AND MAN.

Master and Man; A Dialogue, in which are discussed, some of the most important questions, affecting the Social Condition of the Industrious Classes; comprising those of Population, Supply and Demand, Competition, the Poor Law, Education, the Franchise, the Ballot. By Henry Booth, Esq. London, Chapman, 1853. 12mo. pp. 144.

THIS title-page, if somewhat unartistic in its length, has the solid advantage of presenting a tolerably complete table of contents. With the addition of Luxury, Emigration, and the relations of Capital and Labour, it includes the heads of all the topics discussed. The little book which in so moderate a compass presents, with a remarkable transparency of style, the clear outlines of so many weighty and difficult questions, is of admirable design. It brings together a Capitalist and a Artizan, a Mastermanufacturer and his Fore-Man, and with mutual respect for each other's position, with mutual trust in each other's honesty, candour, and kindly sympathies, freely examines the vexed matters of political economy that affect the wellbeing of the great labouring class. If that kind of open and friendly communication between employer and employed, which is here conceived, could only take place in fact, and become a matter of habitual occurrence as arising out of the natural relations between the parties, -if such intercourse could only be put on free and easy terms, and become a mutual habit and expectation,—more would be effected for the moral and social prosperity of all classes, than by any other assignable method or means, and therefore, Mr. Booth's little work has a merit far beyond that of its own execution, in thus clearly pointing out the way of safety, and tracing the economic ignorance which work so many evils to a moral and social root in the disruption of classes, which deprives the great mass of the people of their natural guidance, and of all those affectionate, trustful, and reverential feelings towards superiors and benefactors, which are the joy and the nourish

ment of life. By the mere conception of such a Dialogue as a means of mutual good understanding and confidence, Mr. Booth proclaims the great lesson that the "money relations" between Capital and Labour are but a mechanical and inhuman (unhuman would be the proper word) expression of their duties to one another.

And this little work has merits of execution, not inferior to the merit of its design. It has the first great requisite for success, a thorough respect for the class it aims to instruct, not the respectful sympathy merely of a benevolent man in the wants, sufferings, and wanderings of his fellow creatures, but the far higher respect of a man in the presence of his fellow men, addressing them as their intellectual equal, and showing in the whole manner and matter of the argument his appreciation of the vigour of their understandings, of their power to enter into severe and close reasoning. No doubt there is always a difficulty and a danger in a Dialogue on a controverted question, when the same hand pulls both puppits, for the Author, having a strong opinion of his own, of course sees no objection that he is not able to answer,-and here the Author represents the Master,' and only personates the 'Man.' But if the 'Man' is not satisfied with the Master's' statement of his case, it will only be because the 'Man's' conception of his own case is quite different from anything, and we must add, far more untenable than anything, that is comprehended within these pages, and not because the force of the Author's mind and style acts less vigorously through the mask of the Man' than in the real character of the 'Master.' In fact, through this rigorous justice Mr. Booth has deprived his conversations of all dramatic effect,—and we have no doubt through the desire to lend impartially the full power of his intellect and his style to both sides of the question. The Dialogue is not like a living conversation between two persons in the respective positions imagined. It is manifestly the same mind pleading both causes, and giving alternately the best side of each, in one and the same style. The Man' talks as eloquently as the 'Master,' and if he does not argue as logically,-which of course was impracticable, seeing that there is a difference between them, and the Master is right and to be right,-Mr. Booth makes all CHRISTIAN TEACHER.-No. 62.

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possible compensation for this, by giving him as ready an appreciation of sound reasoning as any reasonable Master could require. A portion of the working classes may say that their case, as they conceive it, resting upon certain theories of political, social, and individual man, is not represented in these pages. That may be, and is, but the theories in question, though they are not named or discussed, have in fact judgment passed upon them, inasmuch as they all contravene principles that are here set forth. They are not answered upon their own ground, but they are forewarned of defeat from another ground, upon which they would assuredly suffer it.

Perhaps the strongest impression which this book has left upon us is the conviction of what Dr. Chalmers called "the importance of a right moral towards a right economic state of the community," and that the questions here discussed are chiefly valuable to the working classes, as they might be made to contribute to their moral education. The moral rightness of each individual labourer, in matters of the most obvious duty and good feeling, would bring an economic rightness to himself and all his class, provided only the man acted in matters affecting his own livelihood, as one who had a good heart and was not a fool. Political Economy indeed may explain the evils that arise out of moral brutality and recklessness, but one spark of good sense or of good feeling would have prevented them. Take, for example, the connection that prevails we fear in all the great seats of our manufactures, between high wages and riotous living and half-work. It is not so much political economy, as the sense of an intelligent animal, that is required, in case of the idiotic beastliness that works most when work is the worst paid, and works the least when its remuneration is the highest. The man is idle when he might be coining, and slaving when all his labour can only keep him from starving. We admit that many evils, of gluts and over-populations, are the consequences of such courses which only the eye of a political economist can trace,—but the courses themselves are the blind habits of a brute, cognizant only of the spur of animal necessities.

We heartily recommend the circulation of this little Manual to any one who wishes well to the labouring

class. Though it may not contain many of their own. views of their case, it contains principles which they will neglect at their peril, and inculcates sentiments and habits which could not fail to lead them to prosperity and peace. Its treatment of the subject of Luxury, that stumbling-block of weaklings, we extract as a specimen, and not more than an average specimen, of the vigour of its matter, and the clear force of its style.

"Man. Luxury is the bane of modern times; nor can we wonder at the excess of poverty and its accompanying wretchedness, when we consider how large a portion of the rich man's income is spent in pomp and show and splendid trifles; in toys and trinkets, the merest tinsel of existence; thus absorbing those resources which might give employment to the industrious mechanic or hardy labourer, too often pining in idleness, but ever anxious to be engaged in the wholesome and useful occupations of substantial and productive industry.

"Master. I am afraid you will not meet with five people who agree upon the line of demarcation between useful and useless occupations between productive and unproductive industry.

"Man. I cannot imagine a difficulty in distinguishing between useful and useless products.

"Master. Look at those hardy, sunburnt labourers, who are returning home, after their day's work, each to his cottage and his wholesome meal.

"Man. I accept your illustration. Those men are stonemasons ; substantial, productive labourers.

"Master. They are engaged in building yonder mansion, and at present are altogether employed in ministering to the luxury of which you complain. The product of their skill and industry is very beautiful; the fluted columns, the elegant architraves and mouldings, will add a grace and finish to the mansion which it would not otherwise possess; but a plain and less costly structure would be quite as substantial, and probably as durable. Many hundred pounds are here expended altogether upon outward appearance. The 'product' would be as useful if built of burnt clay. The rest is luxury.

"Man. Strictly considered the result, indeed, may be luxurybut of a sort I would not condemn, seeing that it gives employ ment to the honest labourer, and sends comfort to the poor man's home.

"Master. I will not object to the test and ground of your justification. Have you been in the interior of the mansion which we are discussing?

"Man. I have seen the interior, and expect you will agree with me, that the marble staircase is a luxury which might well have been dispensed with; the splendour of marble assorts not kindly with the reflection that thousands of our brethren possess not the humblest roof wherewith to shelter them from the weather.

"Master. Let us consider the subject. Those marble stairs were dug out of the quarries of Carrara, in Italy. This first operation gives employment to a hardy race of labourers.

"Man. Yes; Italians! I confess I would prefer giving employment to friends at home.

"Master. I believe this marble staircase has given employment to twice as much British labour as would have been afforded by stairs of ordinary stone or timber. After the marble was obtained from the quarry, it was shipped in a British vessel, which, in its construction, had given employment to various trades; and would continue to give occupation to a great variety of the industrious classes, so long as it should navigate the seas. When arrived in this country, British labour would again be employed in discharging the huge blocks from the vessel, and in transporting them to their destination, and the sawing, planing, and polishing of the marble steps would employ as much labour as the process, from beginning to end, of procuring and constructing an ordinary staircase; besides which, the Italian marble must be paid for-most likely with the products of British labour-with Sheffield cutlery or Manchester calicoes.

"Man. I confess I did not take into account the extra measure of British labour brought into activity by the importation of the foreign marble; I am afraid I must give up my objections to the staircase."

In addition to the other and greater merits of the style, there are touches of quiet humour which put the reader on very pleasant terms with the writer. The case of the working clergy, for example, who, like other labourers, are subject to the stern pressure of competition, has been under lamentation, when the Dialogue proceeds thus.

"Man. Certainly their share of the labour fund seems very small! "Master. And will continue so, as long as the dean and rector can hire their working substitutes on such slender wages.

"Man. Surely the kind feeling and conscientious scruples of the higher clergy should remedy so grievous an injustice.

"Master. It has not been found consistent with the principles of political economy to rely on the liberality even of an archdeacon."

There are also chords of deeper feeling struck than any that the hand of political economy can reach; and whilst