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 THOMAS CARLYLE 
 
 ON TRADES-UNIONS 
 PROMOTFRISM 
 
 AND 
 
 THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES 
 
 WILLIAM PATERSON 
 
 67 PRINCES STREE^, EDINBURGH 
 
 1882 
 
 [All Rights resen>ed.\ 
 
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 THE 
 
 WILLIAM R. PERKINS 
 
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 Rare Books 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
LAST WORDS 
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE 
 
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 ST.ER 
 
Last Words of 
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE 
 
 ON TRADES-UNIONS 
 PROMOTERISM 
 
 AND 
 
 THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES 
 
 WILLIAM PATERSON 
 67 PRINCES STREET, EDINBURGH 
 
 1882 
 
 [All Rights reserved.} 
 
EDINBURGH : 
 
 PRINTED BY M'FARLANE AND ERSKINE, 
 
 ST JAMES SQUARE. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 R6R 
 
 HTHIS " Latter-Day Pamphlet" 
 may be called the great 
 outline or index to The Literary 
 Will and Testimony of Thomas 
 Carlyle. It was written, at 
 Chelsea, in the seriously obstructed 
 handwriting of his 78th year, and 
 bears date the 12th of July 1872, 
 about which time the original MS. 
 was presented to us by the Author. 
 As it in other respects amply 
 explains itself, further Preface does 
 not appear to be necessary. 
 
 J. C. A. 
 
 Edinburgh, October 1882. 
 
 352340 
 
ON TRADES-UNIONS, 
 
 ETC. 
 
 r HE Trades-Unions 
 of our day stand in 
 notable contrast to the 
 old Trades- Unions (called 
 Guilds) of former centuries. 
 Girilds were for quickening 
 the conscience of workmen, 
 teaching every workman 
 
 352340 
 
8 Last Words of 
 
 that it was not permitted 
 him to think of doing his 
 work ill ; that the "honour 
 of a workman" and of all 
 his brethren, consisted in 
 faithful, skilful, and excel- 
 lent delivery of work, and 
 in never by any temptation 
 debasing himself to work 
 like a botcher, much less 
 like a thief and knave. 
 Trades- Unions again are 
 avowedly for increase of 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 wages alone ; of thievery, 
 knavery, botchery meeting 
 in the work done, no 
 account is had, or, if any, 
 rather a preference shown 
 for these sad qualities ! 
 Guilds, therefore, we can 
 define as tending Heaven- 
 war diox all parties (namely 
 towards discharge more 
 and more perfect of the 
 Duties one had under- 
 taken) ; Trades-Unions as 
 
io Last Words of 
 
 tending Hellward (Down- 
 ward let us say ?) for all 
 (that is, Towards getting 
 more and more wages 
 for work however done). 
 Between men and masters, 
 accordingly, never was 
 such scandal of work ill- 
 done, and never such 
 perpetual battle about the 
 ever-increasing wages to 
 be demanded for it ! A 
 truly infernal position for 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 1 1 
 
 both parties (little under- 
 stood or heeded as such, 
 by either of them, — or by 
 anybody almost but my 
 poor self, yet hourly 
 poisoning the soul of every 
 one concerned with it) ; — 
 out of which ineffable, if 
 also for a time inevitable 
 position all men might 
 well pray, " Good Lord, 
 deliver us soon ! " — 
 Two days ago it first 
 
12 Last Words of 
 
 struck me articulately, 
 That, till somebody (among 
 masters or men) re- 
 acquired and got a few 
 others to re-acquire the old 
 human detestation, shame 
 and abhorrence of work 
 ill-done, and began to try 
 it with fixed determination 
 to do their little bit of 
 work well (whatever the 
 " wages" might be), — there 
 was no punctiim saliens of 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 13 
 
 moral life in the affair at 
 all, and no real improve- 
 ment could begin. This 
 is deeply and clearly my 
 opinion ; though I cannot 
 get it explained, or en- 
 forced any more ; and must 
 leave it standing, for some- 
 body that has still a pen 
 and a right haivd. — 
 
 Master- workers as the 
 more " cultivated," etc., 
 might be looked to for 
 
14 Last Words of 
 
 " initiating' 1 in this all - 
 vital matter; but will they? 
 Or will vtoxVrTnen perhaps 
 take the start of them ? 
 Tried with the true fidelity 
 and heroism, either by 
 Associated-Workmen, or 
 by one rich Master trying 
 to " associate ' workmen, 
 I am persuaded that the 
 Public even now would 
 patronise it. Most blessed 
 of all the" Trades-Unions' 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 15 
 
 yet heard of! (12th July 
 1872). 
 
 My hope and prophecy 
 used to be that instead of 
 " Feudalism and Preser- 
 vation of the Game," we 
 shall have " Industrialism 
 and Government by the 
 Wisest : " and so, on the 
 whole, I still firmly believe, 
 no alternative except that, 
 or " The Pit of Darkness 
 for us All," be seeming 
 
1 6 Last Words of 
 
 possible to me : But the 
 way thither has many un- 
 expected loops, lurchings, 
 whirls, and windings ; — 
 very many hitherto ; and 
 who shall guess how many 
 and how miserable in the 
 unseen Generations yet 
 ahead ! This of the new- 
 sprung Sect of people, who 
 are called " Promoters," 
 well known in the City 
 region just now, and spread- 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 17 
 
 ing there like a Tropical 
 Hemlock-Forest, are the 
 most hideous, huge and 
 perilous-looking. 
 
 " Promoters" are gangs 
 of Miscellaneous ill -em- 
 ployed Persons (perhaps 
 in some loose way con- 
 nected for mutual interest, 
 on occasion into one general 
 gang) whose trade is to 
 devise seductive projects 
 of companies for industrial 
 
1 8 Last Words of 
 
 Enterprise. Enterprise, — 
 calculated (infallibly) to 
 yield a sure and rich return. 
 The enterprises otherwise 
 are of most various feature. 
 Enterprise of every con- 
 ceivable sort, in any quarter 
 of the terraqueous globe ; 
 but in this primary feature 
 of rich and sure return 
 to the adventurous share- 
 holder they all agree. 
 Their companies, too, be 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 19 
 
 it well observed, are all 
 " Companies (Limited)," 
 — no risk of serious loss to 
 you, should the very worst 
 come. These beautiful 
 " Companies (Limited)/' 
 so soon as fairly born, and 
 got into some kind of 
 descriptive long-clothes, to 
 hide their nakedness, the 
 "Promoters" launch upon 
 a sinful stupid world : by 
 every effort of human cun- 
 
20 Last Words of 
 
 ning and activity, especially 
 by un - limited, incessant 
 and omnipresent drum- 
 ming and trumpeting (thro' 
 the new Ha'penny Post), 
 strive to blow up to the 
 due bulk of plausibility, and 
 popularity real or seeming, 
 — till if humanly possible 
 shares rise to par, or 
 a premium ; whereupon 
 instantly the Promoters 
 realize their own ;£ 10,000 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 21 
 
 of said shares, and walk 
 silently victorious, out of 
 that adventure, thanking 
 Heaven, or the " Other 
 Place :" all this if humanly 
 possible. If not humanly 
 possible, of course they 
 have to vanish on other 
 terms and the adventure 
 with them. Needful only 
 to recognise in time that 
 your bellows - pow r er is 
 inadequate, that your wind- 
 
22 Last Words of 
 
 bag of an adventure does 
 not fill. 
 
 The " Limited Liability 
 Act ' (rescinding of the 
 ancient human Act on that 
 subject, — which would cost 
 any Ministry its life in a 
 day to attempt re-rescind- 
 ing) this, which after long 
 travail, the respected Womb 
 of Chaos bore us about 
 ten years ago, may be 
 taken as the first visible 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 23 
 
 development of the thing, 
 creative fiat for it, or open 
 permission to exist : short 
 while after which there 
 began to be cheerfully 
 noticed " a sensible increase 
 of briskness in business? of 
 industrial and commercial 
 adventure, and, in short, of 
 " unsxampled prosperity ; " 
 culminating at the due 
 time in Overend Gurney 
 Bankruptcies (of Eleven 
 
24 Last Words of 
 
 Millions odd), Chatham 
 and Dover Railways, gene- 
 ral collapse of mendacity 
 and madness, and such 
 abomination of Desolation 
 as is certain to ensue there- 
 upon in a world not made 
 originally by Beelzebub and 
 Co., but by Another, and 
 where Lying and Cheating 
 are not permitted at all ! — 
 After lying on the rot-heap, 
 for several years, scraping 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 25 
 
 itself with potsherds (worse 
 than ever Job), making 
 woful wail to Heaven and 
 Earth, the Commercial - 
 World struggled to its feet 
 again, declared itself still 
 alive, nay livelier than ever, 
 and again experiencing 
 " unexampled prosperity? 
 as never before ; " not in 
 pulses and gradually, but 
 in gushes and large leaps!" 
 A plainly unexampled 
 
26 Last Words of 
 
 Commercial - World ! It 
 is since this last resurrec- 
 tion into life and glory, 
 of the miraculous Com- 
 mercial - World, that the 
 hitherto dim though long 
 active Genius of Promot- 
 erism has burst forth (new 
 Ha'penny Post so aiding 
 withal) as a Winged 
 Genius, and become uni- 
 versally conspicuous [be- 
 come a thing that knocks 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 27 
 
 at every door, insists on 
 visiting your hearth, your 
 business, and almost your 
 bosom and brain; and 
 forces even so wayworn, 
 weary and silent a creature 
 as myself to ask it — 
 " What in the name of 
 wonder, then, art thou ? " 
 For about a twelvemonth 
 past, there have arrived by 
 post here, as everywhere 
 (if the luckless shareholder 
 
28 Last Words of 
 
 ever invested a few spare 
 pounds in any kind of 
 public stock), on a weekly 
 average, ten or more flam- 
 ing Proposals, to make 
 Aqueducts for Towns in 
 South America, Railways 
 in Patagonia, or /Ethiopia, 
 to work, or " salt," Tin- 
 Mines in Hungary, Gold- 
 Mines, Silver-Mines else- 
 where, almost everywhere, 
 all certain enough to 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 29 
 
 succeed if only you dare 
 venture. And sometimes 
 three or four of them hit- 
 ting you on the same day. 
 Vain that you get to know 
 these impudent post mis- 
 siles by face, impatiently 
 twist them together, and 
 burn unopened; Promoters 
 are aware of that tendency, 
 and show uncommon skill 
 in varying face and outer 
 vesture ; and as one sure 
 
30 Last Words of 
 
 point they keep un- 
 weariedly emitting, thro' 
 the Ha'penny Post, with 
 a profusion that knows no 
 bounds ; hoping always 
 that somebody may read 
 at least the first line before 
 burning. Not long ago 
 an accurate and mournfully 
 authentic official from the 
 Post Office (apologising 
 for some mistake in the 
 deliveries here) informed 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 31 
 
 me that there was one 
 House in the City, which 
 sometimes poured in upon 
 them 28,000 Promoters - 
 Circulars for one Post, and 
 28,000 at one discharge 
 from one single House : 
 figure such a thing! So 
 that Promoterism has now 
 of a verity been born, 
 the most gigantic Sooterkin 
 ever seen. 
 
 With amazement and a 
 
32 Last Words of 
 
 shade of terror, I perceive 
 it is the Avatar or fated 
 coming - in upon us of 
 General Commercial Gam- 
 bling. The sober arith- 
 metical Counting-house of 
 Trade to become a Rouge 
 et Noir Table, presided 
 over, not by Merchant- 
 Princes but by Hungry 
 Scoundrels. Substitution 
 more and more, in all 
 Industrialism and Human 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 33 
 
 Industries, of blind un- 
 limited audacity, reckless 
 dishonesty and covetous- 
 ness greedy as the grave, 
 for rigorous probity, first of 
 all ; for caution, prudence, 
 moderation, and the other 
 human faculties and noble- 
 nesses, by which and by 
 which alone, " success " in 
 trade, or success in any- 
 thing whatever, has hitherto 
 been found attainable, Pro- 
 
34 Last Words of 
 
 moterism tells us : " Yes, 
 yes ; but we have changed 
 all that ! " " nous avons 
 change tout cela ! " Who 
 knows ? If Atheism be 
 the real religion and Last 
 Gospel of Mankind ; if 
 right and wrong be mere 
 association of Ideas; and 
 the true Beginning of us a 
 kind of Blubber, or Proto- 
 plasm (which the Nettles 
 also have in common) ; if 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 35 
 
 we all were at one time 
 Apes and even Oysters, 
 and animalcules, who 
 (chiefly by judicious choice 
 in marriage it appears) rose 
 to this stupendous pitch of 
 humanhood and civiliza- 
 tion, — may not, to a poor 
 necessitous Promoter, this 
 peculiar Life-theory of his, 
 with the like Life-praxis 
 superadded, be truly the 
 natural one ? Whether in 
 
36 Last IVords of 
 
 his meditative moments, if 
 he ever have any, he reflects 
 farther: If our stupendous 
 Progress be not perhaps 
 stopping, turning on its 
 heel again, and gradually 
 carrying us (that is Pro- 
 motive Mankind) back to 
 the state of Apehood, 
 Jackalhood, and pure 
 Blubber once more ? (I 
 have not observed that 
 wisdom of choice in regard 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 37 
 
 to marriage was on the 
 increase of late !) This is 
 a deliberate Theory of 
 Human Enterprise, never 
 heard of before, not even 
 anywhere in Bedlam, I 
 believe ; and it is running 
 the streets as a Practicality 
 at the above rate (of 28,000 
 by one post) in these new 
 days. 
 
 I have often fancied how 
 my friend Friederich Wil- 
 
38 Last Words of 
 
 helm I. would have dealt 
 with one of those flaming 
 circulars, had it fallen into 
 his hand. To send for 
 the Promoter, have him 
 instantly produced in per- 
 son : " Look me straight in 
 the face, Sirrah (Erblicke 
 mich gerade an /) Let me 
 know with exactitude what 
 you know of this Hun- 
 garian Tin -mine, this 
 Aqueduct for ^Ethiopia 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 39 
 
 which are so promising ? 
 Nothing? You own to 
 knowing nothing whatever 
 of them ; beyond their 
 capabilities for gambling- 
 purposes ? You are but 
 a mean Touter for the 
 World's-Gambling- H ouse, 
 then? Disappear (under 
 the Proper Officer) ; take 
 forty stripes save one for 
 this your first feat in that 
 line ; if you ever try a 
 
40 Last Words of 
 
 second, remember that we 
 have a gallows in this 
 country ! — " Lucky 
 country, long may you 
 enjoy that luxury ! " — ejacu- 
 lates with bland satire, the 
 British Promoter, when he 
 reads of such a thing, and 
 jocund of heart gets ready 
 his new issue of Circulars, 
 28,000 peals of the touting- 
 trumpet at a single heat. 
 For there is still an Energy 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 41 
 
 at least of Hunger in the 
 British Soul (or Stomach 
 as the word more properly 
 is) that approaches the 
 stupendous, and in that 
 career will do quasi - 
 miracles. 
 
 It is too clear, from the 
 now prevailing nearly 
 universal temper of man- 
 kind, and in such a British 
 Anarchy, Kinglessness 
 weltering daily deeper down 
 
42 Last Words of 
 
 to the Bottomless, this of 
 Promoterism will spread 
 to great breadths, and 
 heights, will by no means 
 disappear shortly by natural 
 or other death ; but will 
 spread and flourish to 
 immense breadths and 
 heights, more and more 
 covering (and poisoning) 
 the whole field of Com- 
 merce. For it means the 
 conversion of Human 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 43 
 
 Commerce and Enterprise, 
 which is Heaven's Eternal 
 mandate upon man, into 
 ardent Gambling, which 
 is the Devils mandate, and 
 may be called ardent with 
 the mere flames of Hell ! 
 Die out of itself this thing 
 will not. And in a poor, 
 gold - nuggeted, plethoric, 
 and utterly destitute and 
 helpless Britain, with its 
 very Gallows gone to the 
 
44 Last Words of 
 
 dogs, is there any chance 
 of somebody's arising with 
 power and will to foot- 
 shackle it, never to speak 
 of hanging and extinguish- 
 ing it? Not any chance 
 whatever. Let us expect 
 to see noble commerce 
 then become yearly more 
 and more ignoble, black- 
 guard, and accursed Rouge 
 et Noir, played on a scale 
 ever more transcendent 
 
Thomas Carlyle. 45 
 
 and world-wide, — with 
 such effects on Wages of 
 labor, trades-unionism, 
 social mutiny, pointing 
 ultimately to Petroleum 
 itself, as everybody can 
 anticipate ? 
 
 What a frightful bend- 
 sinister (or abysmal gash- 
 sinister) on our poor 
 Prophecy of Industrialism 
 marching irresistibly to- 
 wards government by the 
 
46 Last Words. 
 
 Noblest ! Has come upon 
 us by surprise even ; no 
 such anticipation till in 
 such form the weird Thing 
 (blowing by the 28,000 ? !) 
 is here. [" Put Capital 
 into the hands of Govern- 
 ment — Alas, what is 
 Government ? " — General 
 reformation of ourselves, — 
 which nobody will believe 
 in.] 
 
 3f Farlane c~ Erski?u, Printers, Edinburgh. 
 
Date Due 
 
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