it was a body all the same when we came
into its employment with our eyes wide open,
Sparks."

"Why do they make aggravating rules
then, respecting the Locomotives? " demands
Mr. Sparks, " which, Coke of Wolverhampton
says, is Despotism!"

"Well, anyways they 're made for the public
safety, Sparks," returns John Safe; " and
what's for the public safety, is for yours and
mine. The first things to go, in a smash, is,
generally, the Engine and Tender."

"/ don't want to be made more safe,"
growls Thomas Sparks. " / am safe enough,
I am."

"But, it don't signify a cinder whether
you want it or don't want it," returns his
companion. " You must be made safe, Sparks,
whether you like or not,—if not on your own
account, on other people's."

"Coke of Wolverhampton says, Justice!
That's what Coke says! " observes Mr.
Sparks, after a little deliberation.

"And a very good thing it is to say,"
returns John Safe. "A better thing to do.
But, let's be sure we do it. I can't see that
we good workmen do it to ourselves and
families, by letting in bad un's that are out
of employment. That's as to ourselves. I
am sure we don't do it to the Company or
Public, by conspiring together, to turn an
accidental advantage against 'em. Look at
other people! Gentlemen don't strike. Union
doctors are bad enough paid (which we are
not), but they don't strike. Many dispensary
and hospital-doctors are not over well treated,
but they don't strike, and leave the sick a
groaning in their beds. So much for use of
power. Then for taste. The respectable young
men and women that serve in the shops,
they didn't strike, when they wanted early
closing."

"All the world wasn't against them,"
Thomas Sparks puts in.

"No; if it had been, a man might have
begun to doubt their being in the right,"
returns John Safe.

"Why, you don't doubt our being in the
right, I hope? " says Sparks.

"If I do, I an't alone in it. You know
there are scores and scores of us that, of their
own accord, don't want no striking, nor
anything of the kind."

"Suppose we all agreed that we was a prey
to despotism, what then?" asks Sparks,

"Why, even then, I should recommend our
doing our work, true to the public, and
appealing to the public feeling against the
same," replies John Safe. " It would very soon
act on the Company. As to the Company
and the Public siding together against us, I
don't find the Public too apt to go along with
the Company when it can help it."

"Don't we owe nothing to our order?"
inquires Thomas Sparks.

"A good deal. And when we enter on a
strike like this, we don't appear to me to pay
it. We are rather of the upper sort of our
order; and what we owe to other workmen,
is, to set 'em a good example, and to represent
them well. Now, there is, at present, a
deal of general talk (here and there, with a
good deal of truth in it) of combinations of
capital, and one power and another, against
workmen. I leave you to judge how it
serves the workman's case, at such a time,
to show a small body of his order, combined,
in a misuse of power, against the whole
community!

It appears to us, not only that John Safe
might reasonably urge these arguments and
facts; but, that John Safe did actually present
many of them, and not remotely suggest the
rest, to the consideration of an aggregate
meeting of the Engine Drivers and Firemen
engaged on the Southern Division of the line,
which was held at Camden Town on the
day after Christmas Day. The sensible,
moderate, and upright tone of some men
who spoke at that meeting, as we find them
reported in The Times, commands our admiration
and respect, though it by no means
surprises us. We would especially commend
to the attention of our readers, the speech of
an Engine Driver on the Great Western Railway,
and the letter of the Enginemen and
Firemen at the Bedford Station. Writing, in
submission to the necessities of this publication
immediately after that meeting was held,
we are, of course, in ignorance of the issue of
the question, though it will probably have
transpired before the present number appears.
It can, however, in no wise affect the observations
we have made, or those with which we
will conclude.

To the men, we would submit, that if they
fail in adjusting the difference to their
complete satisfaction, the failure will be principally
their own fault, as inseparable, in a great
measure, from the injudicious and unjustifiable
threat into which the more sensible
portion of them have allowed themselves to
be betrayed. What the Directors might have
conceded to temperate remonstrance, it is
easy to understand they may deem it
culpable weakness to yield to so alarming a
combination against the public service and
safety.

To the Public, we would submit, that the
steadiness and patriotism of English workmen
may, in the long run, be safely trusted; and
that this mistake, once remedied, may be
calmly dismissed. It is natural, in the first
hot reception of such a menace, to write
letters to newspapers, urging strong-handed
legislation, or the enforcement of pains and
penalties, past, present, or to come, on such
deserters from their posts. But, it is not
agreeable, on calmer reflection, to contemplate
the English artisan as working under a curb
or yoke, or even as being supposed to require
one. His spirit is of the highest; his nature
is of the best. He comes of a great race,
and his character is famous in the world.