d. Masters, few people
will now deny, owe certain duties to their workmen beyond payment at the
competition price for their labour, and the workmen owe something to
their masters beyond making their own best bargain. Courtesy, on the one
side, and respect on the other, are at least due; and wherever human
beings are brought in contact, a number of reciprocal obligations at
once necessarily arise out of the conditions of their position. It is
this question which at the present moment is convulsing an entire branch
of English trade. It is this question which has shaken the Continent
like an earthquake, and yet it is one which, the more it is thought
about, the more clearly seems to refuse to admit of being dealt with by
legislation. It is a question for the Gospel and not for the law. The
duties are of the kind which it is the business, not of the State, but
of the Church, to look to. Why is the Church silent? There are duties;
let her examine them, sift them, prove them, and then point them out.
Why not--why not? Alas! she cannot, she dare not give offence, and
therefore must find none. It is to be feared that we have a rough trial
to pass through, before we find our way and understand our obligations.
Yet far off we seem to see a time when the lives, the actions of the
really great, great good masters, great good landlords, great good
working men, will be laid out once more before their several orders,
laid out in the name of God, as once the saints' lives were; and the
same sounds shall be heard in factory and in counting-house as once
sounded through abbey, chapel, and cathedral aisle--'Look at these men;
bless God for them, and follow them.'

And let no one fear that, if such happy time were come, it would result
in a tame and weary sameness; that the beautiful variety of individual
form would be lost, drilled away in regimental uniformity. Even if it
were so, it need not be any the worse for us; we are not told to
develope our individualities, we are told to bear fruit. The poor
vagabond, with all his individualities about him, if by luck he falls
into the hands of the recruiting sergeant, finds himself, a year later,
with his red coat and his twelve months' training, not a little the
better for the loss of them. But such schooling as we have been speaking
of will drill out only such individualities as are of the unworthy kind,
and will throw the strength of the nature into the development of the
healthiest features