EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYED.


The _Westminster Review_ for January, in an able and temperate
article, entitled _Employers and Employed_, delineates the progress of
the working power from the original condition of _serfdom_, through
that of _vassalage_, which prevailed in the middle ages, to the system
of simple contract in which we now find it in France and America. This
the writer regards as part of a universal progress towards a more and
more equalised condition of the various orders of men--'an equality,
not perhaps of wealth, or of mind, or of inherent power, but of social
condition, and of individual rights and freedom.' In England, however,
we are only in a state of transition from that relation of protection
on the one hand, and respect or loyalty on the other, which
constituted the system of vassalage, to the true democratic relation
which assumes a perfect equality and independence in the contracting
parties. 'The master cannot divest himself of the idea, that in virtue
of his rank he is entitled to deference and submission; and the
workman conceives that, in virtue of his comparative poverty, he is
entitled to assistance in difficulty, and to protection from the
consequences of his own folly and improvidence. Each party expects
from the other something more than is expressed or implied in the
covenant between them. The workman, asserting his equality and
independence, claims from his employer services which only inferiority
can legitimately demand; the master, tacitly and in his heart denying
this equality and independence, repudiates claims which only the
validity of this plea of equality and independence can effectually
nonsuit or liquidate.'

Arguing that 'the reciprocal duties of employers and employed, _as