The following Letters were written to Mr. Thomas Dixon, a working
cork-cutter of Sunderland, during the agitation for Reform in the
spring of the present year. They contain, in the plainest terms I
could use, the substance of what I then desired to say to our English
workmen, which was briefly this:--"The reform you desire may give you
more influence in Parliament; but your influence there will of course
be useless to you,--perhaps worse than useless, until you have wisely
made up your minds what you wish Parliament to do for you; and when
you _have_ made up your minds about that, you will find, not only that
you can do it for yourselves, without the intervention of Parliament;
but that eventually nobody _but_ yourselves can do it. And to help
you, as far as one of your old friends may, in so making up your
minds, such and such things are what it seems to me you should ask
for, and, moreover, strive for with your heart and might."
The letters now published relate only to one division of the laws
which I desired to recommend to the consideration of our
operatives,--those, namely, bearing upon honesty of work, and honesty
of exchange. I hope in the course of next year that I may be able to
complete the second part of the series, [I could not; but 'Fors
Clavigera' is now (1872) answering the same end:] which will relate to
the possible comforts and wholesome laws, of familiar household life,
and the share which a laboring nation may attain in the skill, and the
treasures, of the higher arts.
The letters are republished as they were written, with, here and
there, correction of a phrase, and omission of one or two passages of
merely personal or temporary interest; the headings only are added, in
order to give the reader some clue to the general aim of necessarily
desultory discussion; and the portions of Mr. Dixon's letters in
reply, referred to in the text, are added in the Appendix, and will be
found well deserving of attention.
DENMARK HILL,
_December 14, 1867._