The Press. — London, England, 1853-12-31 00:00:00

818 that this change of position can scarcely have made them dishonest or cruel, which the tutu allege the masters are. " Your leaders talk of " protecting you from capital. Why, capital re " presents knowledge, the moving power which " is to keep you in work. L►►ok at Ireland. which "has been protected— self-protooted from " capital. Here weretyranny and misery without " capital." lie suggests, then, instead of losing as they have 100,0001. by the strike, it would have been fie• better to continue work — save that sum, invest it in a ►will, and aster tuin by experiment what wages they could afford to give. The writer, however, wenns the men that he does not think they can com pete with the toasters. After pointing out the misery the 1111`1I have brought down on them selves, their firesides, and the immense injury they have inflicted on their children. by habituating theta to idleness, anti depriving them of instruction, the !nester concludes an able letter, written in a kindly spirit, with these words There is a demand for the " labour of all of us. Depend upon it we are "not placed here with power to fix even so "simple a thing a■ the rate of wages. Time, "the progress of intellect, invention, and the "accumulation of capital (fir thrift will pros "per) will upset any regulations of lo or 20 "per cent. we may make." Of this address we have given only the salient points, but itis a marked advance in the right direction fora master to step forth and aripte the question at issue with the turn-unts. At Preston, also, another address has been issued by the As sociated Manufaeturers of thuttown, the gist of which is, that " the differences between the " demands of the operatives mid the offers of "their employers were MO eXeeetliligly "that it was found that a more important "question than that of wages was involved, "and that these firms were to be made the "victims of an organised combination. whose "avowed object was to take the masters in " ~cession and eottqwl them hi accept the "terms of.the unionists." It will be observed that hitherto tho Preston matmfaeturers have not been fighting on equal terms with the men, for, whilst the masters llave had only: their own resourees to rely upon, the men have been eneoursged and supported 'by contribu tions, derived from a well-organisod and widely extended system of canvassing and agitation. The men of Preston have been assisted by the men of Lancashire, and even of distant coun ties the masters were alone. Now, however, the masters have derived an immense acces sion of strength, and the men have been weak ened proportionally. The manufacturers of Limeashire on Wed nesday last resolved " to support the Preston " masters ill the present struggle." This re solntion was come to after long. serious, and mature deliberation, on the express ground that the present contest Wax not fOr an in erease of wages—the money questiim they regarded with indifference—but for mastery, for the predominimee of men over masters, of labour over capital. Their resolution, arrived at. slowly. will doubtless be adhered to reso lutely, even unto the end. It may mean pe cuniary aid to the Preston masters ; it may metuk prevention of contributitos front the operatives they employ to those on strike at Preston ; or, these measures failing, it may mean a universal lock-out in that teeming hive of industry, Lancashire. Whatever it be, the conditions of the eontc.4 have greatly altered to the disadvantage of the men. and. though the manufacturers may bind these strong measures neeessaly, we trust that they will not deem it beneath their dignity to imitate the courtesy of Lord PALM E RsToN, or to emu late the kindness and the intelligenee of their brother manufneturer. to whose letter we have alluded. If they. like him. condescend to give good reason for their tuition, then, with the united capital of Lancashire and the universal voice of public (Onion against them,—with the supplies of their fellow-operatives cut off,— with only the workhouse and a severe labour test to fall back on, and the factory bell still ringing to summon them to work at the former rate of wages.—nothing but pride can make them hesitate as to their course. This pride is the germ of great deeds. Those who fought at Waterloo felt it : they were Enylish, THE PRESS. Weft, and u•umlb! mai be beaten. Respect this pride even in the laetory garb, when the bat tle is a strike, and, if you would conquer the operatives, let reason and kindness ac company coercion. To the latter alone they gill not yield. MOTES AND MOTIVES. " \MEN he beginneth to see all things as motes," says a very old inedield work, " then you shall hear that he is near unto his disso lution." If this ancient physican be right, her Majesty's Ministry must be in artieulo, fur the fatal symptom is presented. The Cabinet " begins to see all things as mutes," things which to a healthful eye would appear unmis takable beams. The day for the meeting of Parliament is appointed—why does not the Premier of a moribund Ministry resort to the funeral rites of his nation, and append to the proelamation, " Friends at a distance will please to accept this intimation "? " The temporary suspension of Lord PAL MERSTON'S relations with the Cabinet afforded the means of proving, not only the secondary character of any differences which may have arisen, but the deep anxiety with which all classes of Liberal politicians regarded any cir cumstances which seemed to threaten the sta bility of the present Government." So writes the ablest organ of the Cabinet, and it else where insists that the dissensions must have been small indeed to have been so quickly made up. Mere motes, in tact. We are not surprised, if the truth must be told, at this way of viewing the subject. The eountry has learned, upon the statement of the Ministerial witnesses, whose credibility the Cabinet can hardly assail, however the nation may appraise them, that Viscount PAL MEIorroN left office because he could not; regard the grand measure of Ministers, that " for " which they breathe, orhave no life,"—the pro mised Reform Bill, as anything but an unjus tifiable disturbance of the existing landmarks of the Constitution. This we were told, day by day, in the uncouth Aberdeen dialect by the reckless Times, in seholastie amplitude by the courtlier and more Gladstonian Chronie/e. Let us accept the statement. Lord PALtit:asToN, to adopt the language of the Cabinet advocates, had always been a concealed Tory, and abruptly left the Ministry because it was concocting a seheme which his Toryism taught him to believe hostile to the interests of the nation. While his Lordship was out, this difference was regarded as no mote : the Tomes, indeed, mag nified it into a great fact, in order to base upon it a gratulation to the Earl of ABERDEEN and his colleagues on getting rid of such an ob struction as Lord PALMERsTON. WIIVD Lord PA IA cIiSTON returns to office, the Ministry, relieved from its immediate agony. revives a little ; and this terrific Toryi K in, which was to defeat the grand measure of the most pretentious Cabinet that ever vaunted, is suddenly dwarfed and dwindled into a " seem " dare difference "—a mere mote. We are not surprised, as we have said. Lord PAL MERSTON returns to office on his own terms—the wildest sycophant of Coaliti o n has not dreamed of denying this—and it' it be true (which is pos sible, despite the witnesses) that the Viscount did go out on the Reform Bill, the Reform Bill at this moment lies slashed and hacked into what he deems harmlessness. But this is a mem mote. The Cabinet says (with HAYLEY on Lord CHESTERFIELD) : If lin this Noble Lora we may rely, " Reform" is but a mote in " Russell's" eye. Why not ? Has the Cabinet seen no other things I's motes? Lord ABERDEEN Wits sup posed to be a sort of Conservative for many years. and to believe that Church institutions. among other things, were not so very undesira• SATURDAY, ble ; yet he consents to take the nominal head ship of a Ministry whose very first measure is designed for the destruction of the Church en. dowments in Cunada,—and a measure, by the way, unlike most of the Government acts,lor it has completely succeeded iu its object. Here was Lord ABERDEEN'S mote. Mr. titan nose was known to have considered theo logical Copies longer, if not more deeply, than most other public men, and to have an ideal of Church and State, which, to say the least of it, is not that of the colleagues with whom he agreed to act, and who has not only con sidered theological topics, too, in his way, but has pledged himself to his constituents to give his conclusions a legislative form, if he can. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER has there. fore his mote. Does anything of the kind dance before the earnest gaze of the First Com missioner of Works? He is a pledged Radical, yet, for the sake of office, Sir WILLIAM NOLEN WORTH joins a body most of whose members are equally pledged to oppose his views. while others give them only that half-hearted tole rance, so elastic when it has tube produced ho admiration on the hustings, so shrivelled and flaccid under the Bude lights of the House. Mott:mount's mote is a large one, almost as large as a volume of HOBBEIL And the Duke of NEWCASTLE, and Mr. HERBERT, and the venerable Lord LAssnowsK, have they made no sacrifice in order to have the happi ness of serving between Conservative Mr. GI [Amos R and Radical Sir N'ILLIAM ? One would not dwell on what their modesty would, no doubt, have us forgot. But we are loth to believe that they see much more clearly than their chiefs, for, if they did, two at least out of the three we have named would scarcely recognise such chieftainship. They, too, " see " things as motes." The sign is a bad one. But, if it be bad that any man should discern objects wrongly, what is it when such man is the watchnuni in the tower, the pilot at the helm? The foe at the gate—the keel on the rock—and all because we are in the hands of men whose moral vision is impaired. However, the oculists are ordered to be in attendance on the 31st. We shall hear whether their opinion coincides with that of our ancient physician. " CATALINF," AT THE TREASURY. THE Duke of NEWCANTLE's Lord of the Treasury, Mr. JOHN SADLEIR, has lately been figuring at Dublin in one of the most extra ordinary trials that we ever read. Not the least singular thing about this memorable snit of " Dowling against Lawler" is, that Lord Aberdeen's organ has avoided giving the details of this case, which disclosed such a scene of turpitude, conspiracy, and compromising treachery as is seldom revealed to a court of justice. The case was tried before the Lord Chief Baron of Ireland ; able counsel were employed on both sides ; and from the pub lished records in the Irish journals we find the following facts attested by the oaths of credible witnesses, and affirmed by the un hesitating verdict of a Dublin jury. At the last general election Mr. JOHN SAULEIR was a candidate for the town of C►nlow. He was up to 1847 a practising attorney in Dublin ; but, smitten with ambi tion, he got returned for Carlow in that year. At the election of 1M he was opposed by Mr. CLAYTON BROWNE and the contest was ex pected to be extremely close. DOWLING, the plaintiff in the ease, had in 1847 voted for Mr. SADLEin ; but, being a tenant of Mr. CLAYTON BROWNE, he wished to vote for his landlord. The Sadleirites, however, resolved to bring influences to bear upon him of a kind which is extraordinary and perhaps even unique in Irish electioneering annals. A conspiracy was entered into for the purpose of casting him into gaol and preventing his recording his vote against Mr. SAPI Eln. The way in which this nefarious scheme was carried out dis- 'Soy r .