The Amalgamated Engineers are going to start their Secretary, Mr.
William Allen,—a man of much ability,—for the seat vacated in Southwark by the transfer of Mr. Layard to the post of our Minister in Spain. Mr. Allen would be supported, it is said, inde-
pendently of party, as a representative of labour, and considering how very much a man of ability who understands the actual details of the labourer's life well, is needed in Parliament, we trust he may be supported by men of both sides. Yet we warn the operatives that this attempt to be "independent of party" is one of the most dangerous in the world, and is apt to end in utter loss of influence. To what have not the Irish Parliamentary independents' fallen ? Lower even than the Irish Parliamentary partizans ; and how can one say more ? It would have seemed that any change there, must be for the better. The working-men must take care not to let their representatives become the mere spokesmen of interests, instead of the exponents of principle. If they do, they will never wield, or deserve to wield, a great influence in the State.
