for the extent of the power possessed. Can
such an exercise of it be defended, after due
consideration, by any honest man?

We firmly believe that these are honest
men—as honest men as the world can
produce. But, we believe, also, that they have
not well considered what it is that they do.
They are laboriously and constantly employed;
and it is the habit of many men, so engaged,
to allow other men to think for them. These
deputy-thinkers are not always the most
judicious order of intellects. They are
something quick at grievances. They drive
Express Trains to that point, and Parliamentary
to all other points. They are not
always, perhaps, the best workmen, and are
not so satisfied as the best workmen. They
are, sometimes, not workmen at all, but
designing persons, who have, for their own
base purposes, immeshed the workmen in a
system of tyranny and oppression. Through
these, on the one hand, and through an
imperfect or misguided view of the details
of a case on the other, a strike (always
supposing this great power in the strikers)
may be easily set a going. Once begun,
there is aroused a chivalrous spirit—much
to be respected, however mistaken its
manifestation—which forbids all reasoning. "I
will stand by my order, and do as the rest
do. I never flinch from my fellow-workman.
I should not have thought of this myself; but
I wish to be true to the backbone, and here I
put my name among the others." Perhaps
in no class of society, in any country, is this
principle of honour so strong, as among most
great bodies of English artisans.

But, there is a higher principle of honour
yet; and it is that, we suggest to our friends
the Engine Drivers and Firemen on the North
Western Railway, which would lead to these
greater considerations. First, what is my
duty to the public, who are, after all, my chief
employers? Secondly, what is my duty to
my fellow workmen of all denominations:
not only here, upon this Railway, but all
over England?

We will suppose Engine Driver, John Safe,
entering upon these considerations with his
Fireman, Thomas Sparks. Sparks is one of
the best of men, but he has a great belief in
Caleb Coke, of Wolverhampton, and Coke says
(because somebody else has said so, to him)
" Strike!"

"But, Sparks," argues John Safe, sitting on
the side of the tender, waiting for the Down
Express, " to look at it in these two ways,
before we take any measures.—Here we are,
a body of men with a great public charge;
hundreds and thousands of lives every day.
Individuals among us may, of course, and of
course do, every now and again give up their
part of that charge, for one reason or another
—and right too! But I 'm not so sure that
we can all turn our backs upon it at once,
and do right."

Thomas Sparks inquires "Why not?"

"Why, it seems to me, Sparks," says John
Safe, " rather a murdering mode of action."

Sparks, to whom the question has never
presented itself in this light, turns pale.

"You see," John Safe pursues, " when I
first came upon this line, I didn't know—how
could I?— where there was a bridge and
where a tunnel—where we took the turnpike
road—where there was a cutting—where
there was an embankment—where there was
an incline—when full speed, when half,
when slacken, when shut off, when your
whistle going, when not. I got to know
all such, by degrees; first, from them that
was used to it; then, from my own use,
Sparks."

"So you did, John," says Sparks.

"Well, Sparks! When we and all the rest
that are used to it, Engine Drivers and Firemen
all down the line and up again, lay our
heads together, and say to the public, ' if you
don't back us up in what we want, we'll all go
to the right-about, such a-day, so that Nobody
shall know all such '—that's rather a
murdering mode of action, it appears to me."

Thomas Sparks, still uncomfortably pale,
wishes Coke of Wolverhampton were present,
to reply.

"Because, it's saying to the public, ' if you
don't back us up, we'll do our united best
towards your being run away with, and run
into, and smashed, and jammed, and
dislocated, and having your heads took off, and
your bodies gleaned for, in small pieces—and
we hope you may! ' Now, you know, that has
a murdering appearance, Sparks, upon the
whole! " says John Safe.

Sparks, much shocked, suggests that "it
mightn't happen."

"True. But it might," returns John Safe,
"and we know it might—no men better. We
threaten that it might. Now, when we
entered into this employment, Sparks, I doubt
if it was any part of our fair bargain, that we
should have a monopoly of this line, and a
manslaughtering sort of a power over the
public. What do you think?"

Thomas Sparks thinks certainly not. But,
Coke of Wolverhampton said, last Wednesday
(as somebody else had said to him), that every
man worthy of the name of Briton must stick
up for his rights.

"There again! " says John Safe. " To my
mind, Sparks, it's not at all clear that
any person's rights, can be another person's
wrongs. And, that our strike must be a
wrong to the persons we strike against, call
'em Company or Public, seems pretty plain."

"What do they go and unite against us for,
then? " demands Thomas Sparks.

"I don't know that they do," replies John
Safe. " We took service with this company,
as Individuals, ourselves, and not as a body;
and you know very well we no more ever
thought, then, of turning them off, as one
man, than they ever thought of turning us off
as one man. If the Company is a body, now,