The Press. — London, England, 1853-10-22 00:00:00

OCTOBER 22, 1853. attraetion, because " they are a disorderly. am:m.114.81, and decaying people." Not stt Tping to question the accuracy of this statement, we Shall only remark that, if the morality or it were generally recognised and acted on, France would have a very good title to Spain, and the United States to the greater part of Central Antetica. Mr. Couot:x believes that war has always been caused by the bulldog propensity of the Ettglish people to tly at everything that will tight with them; that Louts XIV. was com pelled to take towns in Flanders in self delowe ; that the French Directory was bullied into war against its will. On this point we may le:tve him to the concise answer of Mr. H. Daummoxo---" Franco had first pro claimed war on every crowned head in Europe." The Convention had sworn etental hatred to kings; nor do we think they were deterred front war with England by any ex ceptional and personal affection for G EouuE 111. Had we, indeed, selfishly relying on our insular security, left Europe to struggle un aided with that wild and helve revolutiontsy spirit which in delirious frenzy " went raging over the Rhine and up through the passes of the Alps," we. too, should have been left alone unaided, and, when without allies, attacked ourselves at the last. Our doubt id, on reviewing Mr. COBDEN'S performances, whether he is greater as a philosopher or a historian. STRI At Preston 30,000 MCII, whose annual wages amount, at a nualerato Computation, to 01.1,0001., have struck to eoerve the maste►s to increase that amount by an additional ten per cent. What may be the aggregate capital invested in that business in which the wages of labour alone are nearly two-thirds of a million it is not easy to say, but illllllollSe it must be. What the value of the annual pro duce of fifty mills—for that is the number closed—May be, we do not know ; but it is clear that, if this unhappy strike be continued, the losses of the masters, and the sufferings of the men, must be alike enormous; and, great as is the wealth of England, even that must be sensibly affected by it. It may be easy and pleasant for a modern Square, with a mind stored with the axioms of political economy, to proceed from those axioms and prove to demonstration that according to " the rule of right and the fitness of things" the evils of the strike will work their own cure ; that when the funds of the operatives are exhausted—when between half of them and starvation only the work house stads—when some, as was the ease lately in London, have escaped by a death self-sought front a condition they found un bearable—and when all the ministers have sus tained enormous losses and some are bank rupts in the. Gra:ette, their misery on the one side, and pecuniary beim on the other, will conquer pride, and either eonstmin mutual concession or ensure the triumph of one over the other, of labour over capital, or of capital over hil tour. But man is not a mere machine to be moved and measured by the principlesof weights and forces applied to matter. Man is not culy an intellectual and a reasoning but a moral and a spiritual being. No must he be dealt with as if he were a bale of cotton or a hogs head of sugar, as a medium of making money alone. The maxim that " property has its duties HA well as its rights" is not to be under stood as only applicable, and therefore to be confined exclusively, to Ireland. What is right on the Shannon is right also on the Irwell. We are not expressing an opinion—we do not say, for we do not know, that the men are right and the masters wrong, or the masters right and the men wrotg—we are only stating certainties, that at Preston the men, in an organised minion, the millowners, in their asso ciation,—labour and capital, confront each other face to face, and straggle for the mastery ; that, whether labour achieves a victory over capital or capital over labour, the contest will be alike diuvitroua to both ; that the zueuluuat THE PRESS. stag. tiitteli misery, the masters st.riolis loss ; and this nutiuilul wealth. great a it is. some diminution. Now. the course to be adopted in this crisis is, it appears to us. seareely to laugh as if this strike was a pleasant and an amusing Speeta• ele ; and then when one attempts to stop the eontest or the—play, to step in and demon strate in the ' Square' style that men and masters have a tight to do as they like, with a parting sneer that in the emi one must prevail over the other, when either famine has done its work on the men or the Court of Hankniptey on the masters. The issue ought not to be which is the stronger of the two— run conquer— labour or eapital? Our own opinion is that capital is far the more powerful of the two, be cause, whilst with the men it will be neces sary when their funds are exhausted for them to seek a new mode of existence, with the masters it will be a question of great or com parative wealth. and it will be only incumbent on them to procure new men, if necessary. from the Continent, where, and also here, the coining war will deprive manly of employment. But the question ought to be, what is fair? what is just? what is right? There is a proportion which wages should bear to profits. is it impossible in the county of Lancaster. in the nineteenth century, to ascertain what ►enema that proportion should be at present? Amongst the masters are men whose humanity is known and velebrateel wherever the English tongue is read, spoken. and understood; and amongst. the meetumnies are many whose candour, intelligence. and freetbon from prejudiee, have deservedly drawn forth a tribute of admiration front Lora IlaorteitAm. When such are the materials, of which it is largely composed, the great Maus trial In:whine should work harmoniously : that it does not do so proves that some foreign body has got into it and disturbed it. How to find tint what it is, is the question. Is it impossible to have a permanent committee of masters and men, whose fiat shall be final on all points in dispute? is it impossible to have a journal specially devoted to the entice tint of facts, and the discussion of questions bearing upon the Male of the labour market and the amount of wages? 1s it impossible to have a few able men appointed by the com mittee permanently engaged in instrneting, by lectures and in other ways, the ineehanies— ay, aid the ministers too —in the laws and the principles of political economy, and in the application of those principles to existing cir cumstances? The amount of loss sustained in one day's strike would more than accomplish the sus; gestions, loosely indicated, which we, have thrown out for consideration. The working men of England are a noble race, and our Ina iifintturers and merchants are, in power and wealth, greater than princes. Between such masters and such men strikes should never occur. To the masters we would say, do not now --even if you have been unfairly treated lq the men—out of mere pride insist, to their Ilina•ly and your own loss, until you have conquered on every minute point ; instruct your me why you cannot comply with their demands—if your reasons are good, they will yield to their fierce ;—anol to the me chanics we say, in no ironical sense, " Strike, but hear !" IRISH PROSPERITY. PRIVATE and public accounts agree as to the decisive return of Irish prosperity. Its symptoms aro seen in increased enterprise, and the resumpt . of the old amusements 44 the people. Itailwas are being laid Ilown in various parts of the island, and meet ings have been held to promote oievenvl other useful projects. Pity that the brilliant measure pmpo%ed hy Lord I iyouGy. llEsrtscw had not been carried out, and that it hoes been left to this late period to achieve w h a t his vig.orons practical intellect had originated! Hut the Irish are beginning to discern their true interests, and to wee how much they have in their own power. The plough and the spade are be coming moire objects of social faith with Paddy than the bingttes of adventurer:, who talk of "the greatest " Imprint:l3 of the greaunt member," but. Collin 579 nothing else but " number one." The nett general eleetion must show that the solid landed interest of Irelatcl will recover its legitimate influence ; and it HA Hot tht , least result of the onkel through which Ireland has passed that the intrinsic as Well as the relative strength of the l'nuestant ilitewst has signally increased. lu the presence of such tarts, Sir J I; it %II 414 Must never again lire • stltile to AlWelthtle as "if we are all united." Wino: has said that "it is a lead habit in politics to " moot eases:" and the social facts to which we here allude are patent enough to make the foreboding fancies of the First Lord apish its rapidly as many others of his sinister eonehtsions. • tsstson t 111H4 HMV lenVio and issue hit boding 'tows through elarendonian protooits! THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT NEAR DUBLIN. Tim coroner's jury have returned a verdict of man. slaughter against two of the ty'r'ants o f th e corn . patty. The subject is full of difficulties. If we Attempt to snake a director responsible for the acts of Lis sulionlinates, as Wlll4 NOY 111111 W in sn o ws. an d he is indicted, the judges tell us be cannot he con %ivied, and such no doubt is the law. The act enabling surviving relatives to sue companies for compensation for the loss they have sustained by the deatlt of husbands and fathers killed 1m railways does not prevent the constant recurrence of aecidents. Like the falling stars, they come in showers and eon • finite for days. Rot it doe's seem hard that men standing on engines which they have to attend to, and which require constant care, should be eitreeted, with the Medal whir.ziug about them. 111111 the air rushing past them with hurricane force and speed, to see signals which may Is' thrust out anywhere in a distance of a hundred miles or snore, in any light 4 w any state of the weather, which signals consist of a flag ab o ut ns large as a p4icket•handkervltief, and which may have, tweording to the wind, its edge towards them ;—and theta, should it escape their notice, an aign them on a criminal charge for not doing that whit+ no merely human organs MI do certainly. The remedy, it. app ear+ to Uff, 11 , 1 ohm e. e. PEF.WEI) ('UINS. SINCE we 144 1i11e.1111 4, 11 to this aubject many instances of the harsh NMI vexatious working 114 the clause against which we protested when the hill was la fore Parliament have Clime under our notice. Ills` count r y the laltotirers tire in the habit of hoard ing up their small savings, and the treasure 14 never resorted to eitectit in greet ettiorgoticios, Ithe poor woman bad a bent sovereign, and several half-erowne stamped with initials. Theo. she °MTN' in vain to thews collector, her landlord, and '' the alai)." mar appear trivial to some. but to the pw►r woman it NAN important, and to !Inuit out Milt tocur reel Mill . ..liee is not. trivial. It is unjust when II great nutillll • makes an alteration in the value of pall 11r itsefilli In the lolls to fall on flow. , who chance- - like this Isla• woman—lto !Hold the essill NllliCII Irian being current money is converted into t.lil metal. The Ins xhould lw borne by the nation at largo it • the I`llllllge was fur the national good. C.INADIAN RAILWAYS. t nit attention has been directed to the railway% already 10,6'4 . 111g I{ll4l to th o y• which are projw • tell in I'mo - fan. The Nlontreal and Portland Railway, PIC - tending a Ili...tank. of nearly :HM►'aides, i% now par belly opened. I►n the tjnebee anti MAMMA Rail way a iliatattee of 1041 miles will he open for the mutineer Irvine of 11451. Anal when the titand Trunk line k finished goods eau be Cloweyed 1,101 mile% without the neceletity 14 breaking bulk. In her fertile ...a Camelot p(I.O4eSION buttilles% re ' et re e s, for the development of which it i% only nereaaary that her inland .tear should 1a• (opened loy coonneetinr, hulk joining them to the roa t. Were that arcomplialted, then not only the Sidings month of the I►aunie., bat all the river% and all the ports of Europe, 'night be cloyed and the snpph•- tnental wants of England coottlol he supplied by the product of her t %median dependency. Tilt: NI I%t t. n o t arrive in Paris on Thurslay owing to a railway collision, which was at with loss of life to an engineer awl a stoker. A con,lnetor war also wouiele4l, as well as several of the passengers. iT is expected that the I tins•tors of the Batik of }'ranee will sliortb advance the eurrent rate of dis count to 5 per seta. Tut subiei•t or the coronation 14 beginning to lbe revived. It is said that on the Emperor's return tA) Paris the date ut• that bolctuuity will be fluidly de cided.