tal band in the village, and in the summer evenings perambulate the vicinity, with music playing. A choral society also exists, for teaching and practising sacred and secular music. A sick fund has been established by subscription among the workers, and is managed by a committee of their own body. They have a summer excursion annually, and a ball in one of their large rooms, given by the proprietors, whose liberality and care in the interests of their workers serve to unite all the parts of their social fabric into one harmonious whole.

The foregoing are only a few of the numerous cases which, if space permitted, we could bring forward as evidences that the evils have their remedies in most instances, and that it depends greatly upon the artisan himself whether he will adopt, or culpably neglect, the means of prolonging existence, which the plainest principles of science place at his command. In the words of the Census Report for 1851, "As there is no reason why the mean 'lifetime' in England should be forty years, and as it is found to range in extent, under different circumstances, from twenty-five years in Liverpool and Manchester to forty-five years in Surrey, and in other localities to a number of years still higher, there is good ground for believing that it may be gradually raised yet nearer to the complete natural lifetime. The way is not closed to great and immediate ameliorations; but as it has pleased the Author of the Universe to make the food of mankind chiefly the product of labour, their clothing of skill, their intellectual enjoyments of education, their purest emotions of art,— so health and the natural lifetime of the race are, in a certain sense, evidently to be the creation of the intellect and the will; and it is only with the observation, experience, science, foresight, prudence, and decision of generations of men-at command-that the battle of life can be fought out victoriously to the end."

BOARDS OF MANAGEMENT.

BY E. P. ROWSELL.

How are we to govern our railways, our shipping companies, our lifeassurance companies, our joint-stock companies of any character, our charitable institutions? We are losing faith in boards of directors and committees of management. We are doubting the wisdom of a multitude of counsellors, selected, that is, in the way in which directors are ordinarily chosen. The system has worked ill in so many instances that we are beginning to regard it with an angry frown; and though we do not suppose, with all our cogitation, we shall be enabled to devise a better, we see, at least, that certain palpable evils in the present mode must receive immediate attention.

Some undertakings are conducted by large boards of directors, some by small; some are presided over by a chairman who is likewise manager, with a considerable salary, and who is, himself, really the board; some are directed by committees attached to various depart

ments; some pay their directors salaries irrespective of the number of their attendances; others give fees according to attendances; some have yearly general meetings, some half-yearly; the affairs of some companies are open, not only to their shareholders but to all the world; the condition and working of others are known only to the directors; and there are cases, we verily believe, wherein neither directors, nor shareholders, nor the public are acquainted with the actual position of things, whether it be satisfactory or the reverse.

We, a few years ago, knew well a railway company-one of importance, as will be judged when we state that its capital, originally nearly three millions of money, ultimately, we think, reached to more than four millions. Now, the railway was a gigantic undertaking and a critical speculation. It embraced works of enormous magnitude and fearful cost. What a field for care, for great prudence, watchful economy, unsleeping industry! A perilous thing, a terrible responsibility to have been a director of this railway during its construction! The works alluded to, to be executed, were of a perfectly novel description, and the just expense being a matter of doubt, would, therefore, have to be considered, calculated, checked, with sagacity, patience, and prudence rarely to be met with. Oh, brilliantly were these qualifications supplied! The board was a farce. It consisted of twelve members; but of these only about one-half ordinarily attended, and a half of this half might as well have been absent, for only three were active in the management, and two of the three held the destinies of the concern in their hands. The board, then, practically consisted of two men. But the system went a step further. The board consisted of two men, but there was a committee which, far more than the board, managed the undertaking, and this committee consisted of five members-five members! Pshaw !—it consisted of one man, and one of the two, of course, who formed the board. Thus, nominally directed by a board of twelve men, with high-sounding names, this great work was governed, put wrong, plunged into embarrassment, and ultimately spoiled, as a paying speculation, by one solitary individual possessing a strong and resistless will when opposed to the weaker spirits with which its owner was associated. When the mischief had been done, indeed, when very alarming difficulties had arisen, and the company seemed on the brink of rain, the sleeping guardians woke to their duty, a change was introduced and the evil stopped, but the money which had been recklessly spent was gone, and no activity now could undo the mischief which had been suffered.

So it

Now we say, and the reader will say, this was a shameful case. was; and yet it was quite a common case, and we fear there are plenty of instances at this day of a similar kind-and, more, we apprehend there always will be. It is an evil which attends this mode of management, and though we shall try presently to suggest a few checks which may be useful, we do not think it possible to get rid of it entirely.

There is an evil attending either course which may be pursued with reference to boards of management. If you select your men, as they are ordinarily selected, for little else than their respectability, you may be certain that by far the greater number-all, probably, but one or twowill be careless and apathetic in their duty, will regard it as something to be taken up and laid down according to convenience; and being indisposed, and, it may even be, incapable of conducting the undertaking

themselves, will virtually hand over its conduct to the one or two parties alluded to, who can and will and do manage it agreeably to their own views. Yes, this one man or these two men will be possessed of strength and courage quite sufficient for the task. But will they have the requisite honesty also? Ay, there's the rub. They will most likely be able men but scheming men; men not averse to benefiting the company, but amazingly desirous of enriching themselves; men who admire duty, but will make money; ambitious men, grasping, greedy, vain, domineering, proud, who will have their own way, be that way good or bad. Before such a man as this, or such men as these (if there be only one, the course is clearer, but if there be two, they will probably fraternise), how meekly do their weaker companions bow. Not ostensibly, not avowedly-oh no! -to compel them to do this would be very bad policy indeed on the part of Mr. Graspall. It might create dissension and rebellion, and the iron but unfelt rule hitherto maintained might be disturbed and even broken, were Mr. Softly, and Mr. Peaceman, and Mr. Harmony to wake up to the fact that, respectable as they were in the eyes of the world, and much faith as was placed in this very undertaking simply because they were connected with it, they were really only Mr. Graspall's puppets, that he turned and twisted, flattered, persuaded, and bullied them at every meeting of the board which it might suit them to attend; that there never was a resolution of any importance passed which was not traceable to Mr. Graspall; that his spirit, his will, his views permeated everything, shone through everything, and stamped everything "Graspall" in largest characters. No, not openly does Mr. Graspall compel these meek and weak heads to bow no one more polite and more courteous than he in aspect, no one more insolent in heart. He knows the secret of effect. When Mr. Graspall is roused, there is a fine moral tone which he adopts, a majestic air as of an injured but beneficent sovereign, which wins some supporters and cows all adversaries, and the storm is hushed, and Mr. Graspall triumphant is again smiling and serene.

But while the certainty that on a direction so selected there will be a Mr. Graspall, or Messrs. Graspall, forms a strong objection to the having regard only to the respectability of the members of a board of management, so, on the other hand, we must admit that the opposite course, the endeavouring to ensure every director being a man of high energy and ability, is not unfraught with evil. If every man on a board be competent to lead, there will be no one willing to follow. Mr. Jones is quite as opulent, influential, able, industrious, and determined as Mr. Smith. He entertains his view of the proper conduct of the undertaking, every jot, as vehemently as Mr. Smith his; and equally rich, clever, and resolute, and equally bent on carrying his policy as Mr. Smith, is the opponent of both Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones-Mr. Brown. Here are the elements of discord-here is a state of things calculated to kindle war to the knife. And it does kindle war to the knife. There never is a board-meeting but there is a disturbance, there never is a resolution passed but under protest, there never is a course commenced but that the opposing party, if they get an opportunity-as they must sometimes do-maul, and thwart, and spoil it. But we should have said "opposing parties," for each man on this highly-gifted direction refuses to bow to his neighbour; he is a party in himself; he will make no concessions; his own views, and none

but his own views, shall have his advocacy, all others shall receive his bitter antagonism. Now the reader will see the mischief of this position of matters. There cannot be any settled plan of action at a board such as that we are sketching-there can be no fixed, defined policy. A proceeding one day is counteracted by a proceeding the next day; a system now adopted will give way to another system to-morrow; and that again will be ousted in favour of a different one on the third day. No plan is duly tested-no idea is permanently dominant-no line of policy adhered to for the barest period. All is confusion, and the result is mischief to a most grievous extent.

We will, by the way, be bold enough to take our own House of Commons as about as awkward, cumbrous, tardy, and inefficient a piece of machinery as could possibly be devised. Here matters of great importance, but which half a dozen sensible, well-informed men, sitting an hour in a little back parlour, could enter upon, discuss, thoroughly investigate, and most wisely settle, are droned over, bungled over, speechified over, and, finally, after a fearful delay, decided in a fashion so strangely commingling truth and falsehood, wisdom and folly, force and weakness, clearness and mystification, that any one person of ability would be ashamed of having any such decision attributed to him. We are great admirers of oratory. The clear and concise phraseology, the easy but impressive delivery, the vehement outpouring of the whole soul of a gifted man in words which sink into the inmost hearts of his auditors-all this may be listened to with intense admiration; but we almost wish that the power of speaking sentences consecutively were a power only possessed through inspiration, and only imparted to those worthy of the gift. The intolerable nuisance of a man who never can be brought to understand that there should be careful thinking prior to lengthy talking, is a punishment suitable for a heavy crime. It is bad enough in social circles to be bored by a wretched conceited prattler, but in "the great council of the nation," that a man should constantly waste most valuable time, hinder the progress of improvement, and retard the welfare of millions, by the vanity which prompts him upon all matters both great and small to luxuriate in a heavy harangue conveying worthless ideas, or simply echoing those already expressed, is something which makes one's eyes glisten with indignation. But let any one have the patience to wade through the speeches upon any important question, and will he not really pity those whose duty it is to listen to them, and mourn the state of mystification to which the bulk of the members must be reduced at their conclusion. If a question be indeed intricate, the fewer words you employ in discussing it the better. When once the mental view becomes clouded, the great likelihood is that a dense fog will succeed, in the which points first perceived clearly enough will gradually become obscured until they are lost sight of altogether. We commiserate the honest but not particularly clear-headed man who, at the close of a long debate, tries to decide a knotty point by assistance of the arguments urged on both sides therein. If the arguments had never been heard, the honest but not very intellectual member might have had a tolerable idea of the features of the matter presented to him, but he is fairly done for now. Such a number of honourable members have explained their views, and exhibited the bearings of the subject with such remarkable

lucidity, that there is reason to doubt whether the ablest man in the House, until he have mentally shaken himself and thrown off the dust which the debate will have cast upon his intellectual machinery, can distinguish the end from the middle, or the middle from the beginning, of the subject under discussion.

But this is by the way. We are not bold enough to say it would be expedient to abolish the House of Commons, though beyond all question the progress of reform (real reform) would be amazingly expedited if it were dealt with by a few minds of lofty character associated with pure and honest hearts, instead of being, as now, tossed about and played with by hundreds of all sorts.

As

Returning to the question of boards of management, we have seen that there is an evil where the majority of members are dummies; and again, there is an evil where all attempt to be leaders. The question is, whether there is any course which would avoid both these evils. First, we would advise that a board should never consist of more than six directors; and secondly, that such directors should be men of standing certainly, but also of unquestionable ability and experience. These latter points being secured, there would be a tolerable guarantee that no Graspall could exercise sway. Each of the six intellects being really an intellect, and not the shadow of one, would work independently of its neighbour, and would decline to receive anything as a truth until it had weighed it and tested its value. On the other hand, there being but six, there would not be that clashing and disputing and splitting up into sections which is sure to occur where there is a much larger number. With this improvement (if we may venture to hope it would be an improvement) in the constitution of the boards of management, and with the application of various checks through requirement of frequent reports from the directors, and periodical examinations of the most searching character by the shareholders, we believe that our joint-stock undertakings might be carried on in a sound and satisfactory manner. matters have gone hitherto, the investment of money in a joint-stock company has been pretty well synonymous with the losing half of it. "Union is strength," says the proverb. In regard to joint-stock undertakings, union has rather resulted in weakness. Again, although it is asserted that "money makes money," the more money with which boards of direction have been supplied, the more they have squandered. But the remedy must come from the shareholders. They are a little more lively than they were, but they are very inert and careless still. They should not absent themselves, as most of them do, from the public meetings of their companies; and when they do attend, they should not sit gazing in idiotic admiration at Mr. Graspall, while he, staring at them in return, much after the fashion of a wolf at sheep, pompously dwells upon that which the directors have done well, not caring to mention various matters which have been done ill, nor others which have not been done at all. In common phraseology, the shareholders should be "down upon" Graspall and his comrades. They should forthwith be told their days are numbered, that they have run their course, and that, as in the field of this direction prizes henceforth are to be won only by combined honesty and ability, it is fitting they should betake themselves to some other arena, where their peculiar qualifications will be more likely to achieve success.